"What are you spacing out for?"
A pink-haired Guild employee patted her coworker on the shoulder.
She had stepped away from her desk for a bit, and when she returned, she saw Eina lost in thought.
For Eina, who was usually extrely serious while working, that was a rare sight indeed.
"Ah? N-no, it's nothing…"
The half-elf girl snapped back to her senses and hurriedly tucked away a form, looking a little guilty.
Although she had moved quickly, her colleague and friend had still caught a glimpse of so of the contents.
"Oh? A new adventurer registration form."
Misha looked Eina over thoughtfully, her expression teasing.
"Looks like you t a rookie you really took a liking to. Whose kid is he?"
"That's not it at all. What nonsense are you talking about?"
"And you're still trying to deny it—your ears are already red!"
Eina instinctively touched her slightly warm pointed ears and let out a resigned sigh.
"…He's a boy who just beca a mber of the Hephaestus Familia."
"He chose as his adventure advisor without any hesitation."
"Ehhh…"
After hearing the reason from her friend, Misha drew out her response.
"Isn't that a good thing? Watching a rookie you personally guided into the world of adventuring grow step by step into soone who can stand on their own should be pretty rewarding too, right?"
"That may be true, but…"
Eina shook her head with a complicated expression and did not elaborate.
In truth, she had served as the advisor for many rookie adventurers before and had poured a great deal of effort and emotion into the job.
And yet the odds of new adventurers eting with accidents in the Dungeon were still far too high.
In fact, more than half of the rookies Eina had advised had later disappeared without a trace.
Most of them had likely perished forever in the dark depths of the Dungeon.
Since then, Eina had rarely taken the initiative to volunteer as an advisor.
"I wonder… how far he'll go."
As she placed Drake's registration form into the filing cabinet she was responsible for, Eina felt a long-forgotten sense of motivation.
In order to live up to the boy's trust, she had to beco a qualified adventure advisor too!
"When he cos to the Guild next ti, I'll arrange a proper eting and talk things through seriously."
...
At the sa ti, elsewhere—
After reuniting with Lili, who had been waiting outside the entrance, Drake gave the order to begin exploring the Dungeon.
"Since this is my first ti, we'll only wander around the very shallow floors and then co back."
"Let's aim to leave the Dungeon before nightfall."
By then, Drake's death penalty should have expired as well.
He'd be able to move seamlessly from exploring the Dungeon to exploring the world of Terraria.
As for rest… ti flowed faster in Terraria, so he could just rest over there.
"Understood, Captain."
Now that they had ford a party, the way Lili addressed Drake had also changed.
But after responding, she looked at Drake's outfit with so confusion.
"But… Captain, did you really not forget to bring any gear for exploration?"
"Even for a short trip of less than a day, you still need so basic items, like torches."
Considering that Drake had only just registered as an adventurer—a one-hundred-percent fresh rookie—Lili couldn't help feeling a little worried.
Whether she'd be able to skim anything off him was one matter.
Just getting through the first few expeditions safely would already be sothing to thank the heavens for.
"There's no need to worry about that."
Drake glanced at his inventory.
There were still dozens of torches in reserve, along with ropes, shuriken, and other practical items he had found in treasure chests.
"Really…"
Lili muttered quietly, clearly not quite convinced.
After all, Drake had nothing on him besides a light set of leather armor and a shortsword at his waist.
There didn't seem to be anywhere at all for him to carry supplies.
"Forget it. We're only exploring around the first floor of the Dungeon. Nothing should go wrong."
After consoling herself inwardly, Lili hoisted the oversized adventurer's backpack onto her back and quickly followed behind Drake.
The first floor of the Dungeon was practically the "starter village" for Orario's adventurers.
The maze-like space was ford by intricately twisting corridors, branching paths, and intersections, all made of blue walls and ceilings.
And within this labyrinth, one would occasionally encounter monsters appearing out of nowhere- goblins!
"Slis, goblins… just as expected, the most classic low-level monsters in any fantasy world."
Seeing the short monster blocking his path, Drake couldn't help but sigh in admiration.
There were also monsters called goblins in the world of Terraria.
But those goblins were far stronger than the few cannon fodder in front of him that could only attack with fangs and claws.
The goblins in Terraria didn't just overwhelm these weaklings in terms of raw stats—they even had clear class roles, just like adventurers!
Goblin Warriors, Goblin Archers, Goblin Sorcerers…
And once certain conditions were t, the goblins would even gather into an army and launch an invasion event!
Even Drake felt a headache coming on whenever he thought about a sky-darkening goblin horde.
Compared to that, the goblins in front of him still looked almost innocent.
After a few exchanges, Drake cut them down with the shortsword in his hand.
The goblins' corpses slowly sank into the Dungeon floor.
All that remained behind was a pool of blood, along with a few shattered blue-violet crystals.
"Captain, you're amazing! You took those goblins down so easily!"
Lili, who had been hiding outside the battlefield the whole ti, ran over with shining eyes. She didn't even mind the blood still stuck to the crystals, scooping them all up at once and stuffing them into her backpack.
These crystals were one of the most important spoils from exploring the Dungeon: magic stones.
A magic stone was a crystallized form of magical power obtained from Dungeon monsters.
It could be exchanged directly for money at the Guild's exchange counter, or processed into various magic-stone devices, such as magic stone lamps powered by magic stones.
There were also magic-stone lighters, magic-stone refrigerators, and many other uses besides.
As a city built atop the Dungeon, Orario's demand for magic stones was naturally enormous.
That was why magic stones had beco the primary source of inco for adventurers exploring the Dungeon.
"So this is a magic stone. It's kind of small."
Drake picked up a fragnt from the ground and compared it in his hand. It was only about the size of a fingernail.
"That's because this is still the upper floors of the Dungeon."
While organizing her backpack, Lili explained, "Monsters on Floors 1 through 4 only drop magic stones of this size, so they don't sell for much."
"A little piece like that would probably only exchange for about 100 valis."
Drake did a quick ntal conversion and sighed.
"Being a normal rookie adventurer is really rough."
A hundred valis could buy three servings of fried potato balls, but it couldn't buy a decent piece of equipnt.
Even the ordinary iron shortsword Drake was carrying cost at least 2,000 valis.
And then there was equipnt damage, maintenance, and all the other extra expenses.
Fortunately, Drake had an entire Terraria world with him at all tis. He wasn't short on equipnt—in fact, he had the opposite problem.
"The area ahead isn't lit. Take this."
After clearing out the goblins blocking the way, Drake studied the terrain for a mont, then pulled out two torches from his inventory and tossed one to Lili.
"This is… a magic torch?!"
Seeing the steady fla burning atop the torch, Lili couldn't help crying out in surprise.
Even after being tossed through the air, the fla didn't flicker in the slightest. It remained perfectly stable, giving off maximum light the whole ti…
If that wasn't a magic torch, then what was?
In the Babel Tower market, a single magic torch like this would start at at least 10,000 valis!
"A magic torch? Hmm… close enough, I guess."
As a mber of the Hephaestus Familia, Drake naturally knew about that kind of item.
But the Terraria torches he could craft by hand were way better than magic torches.
An infinitely burning, nuclear-powered torch—try telling him that wasn't terrifying.
"But this is only the first floor of the Dungeon. Isn't it a waste to use sothing this valuable?" Lili spoke softly, but her own little thoughts had already begun to stir.
Looks like her first impression had been right—Drake really was a big fish!
And if she hadn't seen wrong just now, he had pulled those torches out of thin air.
In other words… Drake very likely possessed an incredibly precious item!
At that thought, the little palum girl couldn't help licking her lips.
Her amber eyes reflected the torchlight with a sly gleam.
'I absolutely have to get my hands on that item!'
User Comments
0 comments from readers