The words that came from Marina's mouth.
Hearing Marina state that the dungeon core Rei had produced was undoubtedly from the dungeon born near Golts, Vanilas eventually let out a small sigh.
If it had been Rei making that declaration, Vanilas would not have been so quick to believe him.
This was not because Rei was untrustworthy, but simply because the credibility of the former Guild Master Marina was exceptionally high.
"So this is the dungeon core. I've seen it in illustrations before, but this is the first time I've seen one with my own eyes. ...But why is it broken?"
"Because I cut it."
"...Was cutting it necessary?"
"I think it probably was. Besides, since I brought the dungeon core here, we need to be careful — there's no telling what will happen to that dungeon. The biggest concern is that the space felt strangely distorted, so there's a chance the cliff could collapse."
At the words "the cliff could collapse," Vanilas's expression stiffened.
It was only natural. If such a massive cliff were to collapse, the damage to the surrounding area would be considerable.
Beyond that, depending on the circumstances, it could even affect the ecosystem around the cliff.
"I see. In that case... no, before that, could you tell me what it was like inside the dungeon? I heard there were rock plants and an area that had become a forest."
Vanilas had been considering the impact on the surroundings when the dungeon vanished, but she apparently decided that hearing about the dungeon itself took priority.
Facing Vanilas's serious gaze, Rei recounted everything he had experienced inside.
The monsters they encountered in the forest, the space filled with countless rock plants, the hidden door and the passageway beyond it lined with numerous traps. And then, the massive underground lake and the Garangiga — a monster that was originally a C-Rank creature yet possessed power on the level of an A-Rank monster.
Even against that Garangiga, however, the party's combined combat strength was formidable. They managed to defeat it with only minor injuries and no deaths or seriously wounded among them.
During the battle with Garangiga, they discovered the dungeon core at the bottom of the underground lake. After defeating Garangiga, Marina used her Spirit Magic to clear the water, and they successfully destroyed it.
After that, given that the dungeon's space was distorted, they had no idea what would happen once the dungeon core was destroyed, so they had rushed to escape... and now, here they were in Golts.
Though it had been a rather hasty summary, having finished explaining what happened in the dungeon, Rei brought the tea the receptionist had brought during the conversation to his lips.
"Well, that's about the gist of it."
"I see. ...I thought this when I heard about it before too, but from what you're saying, that dungeon is in no way something that could be considered newly formed."
"It had that much space, and there was a forest and all. ...I've conquered a genuinely brand-new dungeon before, but compared to that one, conquering it was far easier."
"Oh, I've heard about that. Last year... wait, was it the year before? A dungeon appeared near Gilm, and for a time the guards and others were reassigned there. So you're the one who conquered that dungeon."
Reliu, who had been silently listening to Rei's account, spoke up as if suddenly remembering.
"Yeah. Thanks to that, I managed to take down a massive number of Gamelion that were in the dungeon. Come to think of it, it was a delicious dungeon."
"...So that Gamelion commotion was your doing too."
Reliu showed a dumbfounded expression, but Vanilas lightly clapped her hands to draw Rei and the others' attention back to herself and spoke.
"The information about the dungeon was very helpful. And so... you brought back the Garangiga corpse, of course?"
"Yeah. We went through the trouble of defeating it, after all. It seems like it'd be useful for various things."
Two Kelpies and one Garangiga.
Considering that he needed to acquire skills through Beast Magic, Rei honestly wished he could have obtained many more monster magic stones.
However, he couldn't deny that spending too much time recklessly would have led to all sorts of complications, so even though he was dissatisfied, he accepted it couldn't be helped.
"Oh, Kelpies too? ...Given what you said about there being a forest, that's not strange at all. So, what do you plan to do about stripping and dissecting the monsters?"
"What do you mean? For now, I was thinking of submitting a request to the Guild... the Gilm Guild, as winter work."
Naturally, he would extract the magic stones first before submitting the request.
Not just Garangiga, but the Kelpies were also quite large.
For Rei and his party to handle the dissection and stripping by themselves... it wouldn't be impossible, but it would definitely take a considerable amount of time.
If so, the decision to have them dissected in Gilm along with the various other accumulated monster corpses was certainly not wrong.
Since the Guild was covering the cost of dissecting the monsters in the first place, Rei expected that Worker would accept it even if the Kelpies and Garangiga were included.
After all, this dungeon was a request... no, they had come here at Worker's request, so it was only reasonable that he'd allow that much flexibility.
That was what Rei was thinking, and if that didn't work, he planned to leave the negotiation to Marina or someone similar and extract various concessions.
(We managed to stock up on a fair number of Orcs, too.)
The Orc settlement in the dungeon forest amounted to a decent number when all was said and done.
For ordinary adventurers... especially those active in Golts, an Orc settlement was nothing but a threat.
But for Rei and his party, an Orc settlement was perceived as nothing more than a meat resupply station.
Of course, if there had been High-ranking Species or Rare Species like an Orc King in the settlement, it would have been a different story... but fortunately, only normal Orcs inhabited the settlement in the forest.
If anything, Rei would have preferred an Orc King to be there.
The only Orc King Rei had defeated so far was a single one, and its magic stone had been absorbed by Set.
So he wanted a magic stone for Death Scythe to absorb as well... and above all, Orc King meat was extremely delicious.
Even normal Orc meat was quite tasty, so for the meat of a higher-ranking monster like the Orc King, just how delicious would it be...
It was such supremely exquisite meat that it wouldn't be strange for someone to want to wander around searching for Orc Kings alone.
The phrase "carnal desire" existed, but in this case, it wasn't the general meaning — it was a creature that aroused carnal desire in the gastronomic sense.
"Could you leave the dissection of the monsters defeated in the dungeon to us?"
"...To the Golts adventurers? Why?"
Rei didn't particularly mind leaving the monster dissection to the Golts adventurers.
But since there was no need to do such a thing in Golts, he had been thinking he would handle it after returning to Gilm... which was why Vanilas's proposal was quite unexpected.
It wasn't a thought only Rei had; the others also directed questioning gazes at Vanilas, wondering what she was thinking to say such a thing.
"Why, you ask... We had Rei and your party conquer a dungeon that we alone could do nothing about, didn't we? In that case, I think it's only natural to show our gratitude. Oh, of course, since this is an action stemming from feelings of gratitude, the request fee and the like will be waived."
"...What do you think?"
When Rei turned to look at her and asked, Marina thought for a moment before speaking.
"I don't think there's any problem with that. However, returning to Gilm will be delayed by that much, though..."
"Eh."
The one who raised his voice as if cutting into Marina's words was Reliu.
It was only natural. For the return to Gilm to be delayed meant that his reunion with his wife Schmine would be delayed by just as much.
Being able to conquer the target dungeon far faster than expected had been extremely fortunate for Reliu.
Although he had been conquering the dungeon alongside Rei and his party at Daskar's request, it had still been painful to live apart from his beloved wife Schmine.
But as a result, the dungeon conquest ended far faster than Reliu had initially anticipated.
Reliu had hoped to return to Gilm before winter... before the snow piled up, and thanks to completing the conquest so swiftly, he had thought he would be able to return to Gilm not when the snow fell, but around mid-autumn.
Yet now, if they were to dissect the Kelpies and Garangiga here... it would delay their return to Gilm by a day or two... or possibly even more.
For Reliu, that was a situation he wanted to avoid as much as possible.
...However, that was solely Reliu's circumstance, and for the others, there were many merits to accepting Vanilas's offer.
For Rei in particular, being able to secure the Kelpie and Garangiga meat right away was huge.
Rei had eaten Kelpie meat several times before, and its unique, fluffy texture was an addictive flavor.
If they were to dissect it after returning to Gilm, he would have to wait until winter when adventurer work dried up.
If he absolutely had to eat it, Rei could always dissect the Kelpies himself... but once back in Gilm, Rei would be correspondingly busy and would need to help with the Expansion Construction.
If so, it was better to leave the dissection to them here — that was Rei's conclusion.
(However, if we take too long, Reliu might explode with frustration, so having the dissection done in Golts will be just for the Kelpies and Garangiga. The Orcs will be for Gilm. Ah, but since they're going to the trouble of dissecting them for us, I suppose I wouldn't mind giving them one or two Orcs.)
There were Orc corpses that had fallen from the dungeon, but even so, there was no doubt that Orc meat was in excessive demand.
If so, giving away one or two Orcs when they had plenty of corpses wouldn't be much of a problem.
Rather, if one or two Orcs would make them work harder on the dissection, that was exactly what Rei would wish for.
"Sorry, Reliu. I intend to accept this proposal."
"Ah... jeez, can't be helped. But hurry it up as much as you can, alright?"
The reason he didn't say he'd go back alone, even if just himself, was simply because traveling using the Set Basket would be overwhelmingly faster than running to Gilm by himself.
Even if Reliu went back alone here, the ones who would arrive in Gilm first would be Rei and his party after finishing the dissection of the Kelpies and Garangiga.
Knowing that, Reliu quietly backed down.
...Finishing the dungeon conquest unexpectedly quickly had also resulted in giving Reliu at least a small measure of composure.
"Yeah. Also, wasn't it Schmine? Your wife — why don't you buy some souvenirs for her? You're away from Gilm, after all."
"Oh? Oh, you're right. Souvenirs, huh. Hmm, what do you think would make her happy?"
At Rei's suggestion that buying souvenirs might be a good idea, Reliu immediately began pondering.
It wasn't that Reliu had never bought souvenirs or anything of the sort when he went outside Gilm before.
But as a devoted husband, buying a souvenir that his wife Schmine would be happy with was probably a major event for him.
"I don't know, why ask me? I don't even know this person called Schmine, so there's no way I'd know what kind of souvenir would make her happy. Why don't you just buy some local specialty of this town? Even if it's food, it won't spoil since we have the Misty Ring."
"That's it!"
At Rei's words, Reliu laughed from the bottom of his heart.
If he bought some kind of souvenir in Golts, Schmine would probably be happy — or so he thought.
(He's easy to manage, but... with Reliu, if you misjudge the balance even slightly, there's a chance he'll explode.)
For example, if someone were to take Schmine hostage, Reliu would undoubtedly go berserk and kill whoever did it... or depending on the situation, do something even worse than killing them.
Even short of that, it was impossible to predict how he would react if someone carelessly came into contact with this person called Schmine.
Thinking that, Rei nevertheless got Reliu to agree that they would stay in Golts to dissect the Kelpies and Garangiga rather than returning immediately.