From a certain old man's perspective.
I looked over the assembled knights.
I couldn't help but swallow the sigh that wanted to escape.
If I let that sigh out here, my son would lose it.
"So. You knight fellas — do you even know where you're heading from here?"
The exasperation in my voice was plain, and the knights' faces darkened with irritation. My son's expression, standing right beside me, soured a notch as well.
Ah, sorry, sorry.
The honest truth just slipped out.
"A mere guide should know his place. All you need to do is lead the way."
"Oh. Is that so? Then I'll be stepping down from this job."
"Do as you please. We'll simply hire another guide."
"Sure, sure."
I was halfway out of my seat when my son clobbered me.
"I'm terribly sorry about my father. His mouth runs away from him, but his skills as a dungeon guide are the real deal. Besides, the spider-hunting craze on the other side right now means dungeon guides are already in short supply. If you drop us, whether any of the others in the area have open availability is anyone's guess."
You little brat. He actually hit me for real.
Well, I might as well leave the talking to my silver-tongued son.
These guys probably had no idea how much pull I had in this industry. If word got out that I stepped down, every other guide would follow suit.
Did they seriously come here without doing any research?
"Hmph. Very well. We'll continue using you, so be grateful."
"Yes, of course."
What a pain.
"Now then, Sir Knights — when will you be entering the dungeon?"
"Right away."
"I see. Then your food, antidotes, and other supplies are all in order, I take it. As expected of Sir Knights."
"Wait. Food and antidotes?"
"You... haven't prepared them?"
My son wore a look of genuine bewilderment.
You know perfectly well what's going on, you little weasel.
"Why would we need food for what's essentially a survey?"
"The area you'll be surveying is a ten-day journey from the entrance."
"What?"
The knights erupted into murmurs.
These guys were hopeless.
They'd come all the way here without knowing the first thing about the dungeon.
How did a bunch of incompetents like this end up assigned to a dungeon investigation? It wasn't because they were too useless for anything else and got dumped here, was it?
"Sir Knights, is this your first time entering the Great Ello Dungeon?"
"Y-Yes."
"The Great Ello Dungeon is a massive labyrinth connecting two continents. It lies within the Water Dragon's territory, in waters that are virtually unnavigable, and serves as one of the only means of travel between the continents. Are you following so far?"
"Are you treating us like idiots? Any fool knows that much."
"Indeed. However, the dungeon is so vast and its structure so complex, with countless branching paths, that it is said to be impossible to traverse without the guidance of professional dungeon guides. The survival rate for those too cheap to hire us is effectively zero. I don't know if it's true, but apparently even a Hero from ages past ventured into the Great Ello Dungeon alone and never came back."
The knights' faces turned pale.
Hah.
The bit about even a Hero not making it back seemed to finally drive home what it meant to step inside the Great Ello Dungeon.
"The Great Ello Dungeon is not only enormous but has an incredibly complex structure with countless branching paths. Once you're lost, you will not make it out alive. Even we guides don't have knowledge of every path. Sir Knights, do you know what this is?"
"What's that bundle of paper?"
"It's all maps of the Great Ello Dungeon. Well, just a small portion of them."
What my son produced was a set of maps used by guides working the Upper Layer — specifically, the safest and shortest routes for crossing between continents.
That alone was enough to fill what could reasonably be called a bundle.
And that was only the Upper Layer. Even that much hadn't been fully mapped.
That was the kind of place the Great Ello Dungeon was.
"The area your party will be investigating lies roughly ten days' travel from the entrance. Ten days to get there, ten days for the survey, ten days back — you'll need a minimum of thirty days' worth of preserved food, or you'll be forced to turn back midway. Ideally, you'd bring another ten days' worth on top of that as a reserve."
The knights had been dispatched because the number of Monsters in a certain region of the dungeon had recently surged. Their job was to investigate the cause and thin out the Monster population, but at this rate, expectations were not high.
The area experiencing the surge happened to lie along the shortest route through the dungeon.
If they wanted to think long-term, it would be best to identify the cause and eliminate it. But who knew how that would go.
"Also, many of the dungeon's Monsters are poisonous, so antidotes are essential. For light sources, you'll need fuel — preferably fire-based, since you can burn through spider webs to escape if you get caught in them. So, Sir Knights, I'll prepare a supply list here, and please arrange for the materials. I do carry spatial storage items — a guide's basic equipment — so leave the transport to us. Oh, and one more thing — might I suggest writing letters to your families? It will be a long journey."
Hit with this barrage of information, the knights could only nod in a daze.
At this rate, things were looking grim.
I'd just have to support them well enough that the letters they wrote home didn't end up being last wills and testaments.