After several test runs and completing the adjustments on Porter, I headed to the blacksmith's to pick up my weapons.
Aramsass was a cluttered city—the city itself was practically a labyrinth.
But since I'd been living here, I'd learned to navigate to wherever I needed to go without getting lost.
I owed thanks to Clara for drawing me a map and Miranda for guiding me around.
As I walked, I spotted a signboard down a slightly narrow alley.
This was the blacksmith I used in Aramsass. They handled not only weapons but armor as well. Since iron was easy to come by, blacksmiths were plentiful here.
But when it came to adventuring equipment, they inevitably didn't have storefronts on the main streets.
Though it spoke volumes about a city like Aramsass, the shopkeeper was a dwarf.
He had bushy hair and a red nose as his trademark features.
When I greeted him, he returned the smile.
"So? How's the order?"
"It's done. But are you sure about these? They're certainly sturdy, but as a saber goes, they're a bit on the heavy side."
The specially made sabers had been thickened at my request—weight was fine by me. With my current abilities, I could handle something a bit heavier.
More importantly, mass-produced ones chip easily.
Since many monsters were armored in iron, quality sabers were hard to find in Aramsass. Even when they were available, they were usually too expensive for me to buy.
I received five sabers and then looked over the other items.
Explosive arrows—arrows with magic stones attached to their tips that detonated on impact.
These were used by students for pocket-money side jobs too.
But this time I hadn't been able to get a large enough batch, so I'd asked a blacksmith acquaintance to make them for me.
"...The quantities are sufficient."
"I've got to do proper work for what I'm paid. If customers start leaving, running a shop in a place like this means I'll have to close up in no time. Still, though..."
"Still, though"—the shopkeeper said this as he looked at the arrows I'd purchased.
"What's wrong?"
"Well, it's not like a large-scale party is tackling the dungeon, and there's no war nearby either. Yet somehow there's a shortage of this kind of weapon in these quantities."
Explosive arrows with detonation mechanisms built into them cost a pretty penny.
One or two didn't amount to much, but when bought in bulk, they cost more than twice as much as regular arrows.
And on top of that, many were defective—they wouldn't explode, or their power was weak.
They were a pain to manage too.
They weren't suited for long-term storage, so the normal practice was to determine how many you needed and place an order for just that amount.
They could also detonate when struck by an attack, making them tricky to handle.
Without a porter, you'd be too afraid to even use them. But in a dungeon, they were dependable... That was the kind of weapon they were.
"Someone must have bought up a huge stock. Thanks to that, I couldn't buy any from my usual supplier."
I said this with a wry smile, and the shopkeeper handed over the goods while telling me to handle them carefully.
Then he added:
"Say, what happened to that girl with the side ponytail?"
He was asking about Novem, so I told him she wasn't with me this time.
The shopkeeper looked a bit disappointed.
Despite the difference between dwarven and human aesthetic sensibilities, he seemed to have taken a liking to Novem.
"What a shame—I would've given you a discount if she were here."
"That's too bad. I'll bring her along next time."
At that, the shopkeeper burst out laughing.
"That girl—my wife took a liking to her too. Do bring her back again."
I paid for the goods and left the blacksmith's.
——Aria was inspecting her equipment before the dungeon assault.
The ones checking the contents loaded into Porter were Lyle and Poyopoyo.
Everyone else was checking their own gear.
They gathered in the courtyard of the House Cerclie estate, having woken early in the morning to eat breakfast.
In the still-dim light, Clara cast a illumination spell with magic while checking her belongings.
Those around her used that light to check their own gear as well.
(She's pretty thoughtful, isn't she?)
Aria looked at Clara and thought as much.
She confirmed her own gear and checked her equipment. Porter also had spare weapons loaded in, and she had already finished inspecting those.
"Alright, this looks good!"
For major expeditions—like when you'd be spending multiple days in the dungeon—if preparations weren't in order, it could really come back to haunt you.
Forget one piece of gear and die, and you'd be left with nothing but regret.
That was why she'd been doing various checks since the day before.
Recalling Lyle's lessons and confirming her preparations were complete, she looked around.
Miranda, despite being newer to adventuring than she was, was calmly going through her checks.
"Hey, you forgot your water canteen!"
"Huh? But I loaded water into Porter already... Eek! Sorry!"
"Go get it right away. And check what's inside."
Miranda was even checking Shannon's gear.
Since the estate was already locked up, Shannon borrowed a key and headed for the front door.
Clara was going through each item on her list one by one, checking them off.
Pointing at each item and verifying it, marking it off with a check.
"Good, this is good too... The second check is good too."
She'd apparently done the checks twice. Now she was packing them while doing a third round.
(I can't pull that off.)
She didn't exactly look the meticulous type, but she had a professional's sense of duty as support and was carefully verifying every item.
Then Aria shifted her gaze to Novem.
Novem must have already finished, since she was heading toward Lyle and the others to load her belongings into Porter.
Then she stopped and suddenly stared at the wall.
Aria looked in that direction too, but the dimness made her worry it might be some kind of specter.
(It's not something weird, is it...? But then again, it's Novem.)
For Aria, Novem was an enigma.
She knew Miranda was wary of her. For some reason, the two of them often created a tense atmosphere between them.
As she looked toward the wall, she suddenly sensed something.
"Huh, what is—"
There was a small bird perched on top of the wall.
It took flight the moment it saw Novem.
(Is Novem nervous too?)
With no sign of concern, Novem carried her belongings over to Lyle.
Shannon emerged from the estate, locked the door, and returned to Miranda.
"There's water in there, right?"
"Of course I put water in."
Then Miranda snatched the canteen from Shannon, opened the lid, and took a sip.
"...This isn't water, is it?"
"Hehe!"
Miranda smiled and pressed her fist against the top of Shannon's head, grinding it around as Shannon struck herself with a tiny, cute hand.
"If you want to keep carrying it like that, go fill up a different canteen with water. And carry your own gear."
At Miranda's words, Shannon pointed at Porter.
"Just load it into Porter!"
"Porter is going to be carrying even more gear from here on! Now go, one more time!"
Watching the sisters bicker, Aria thought.
(Why does Porter get treated like a full party member...?)
Aria wasn't quite satisfied with that.
Then she looked at Lyle and the others.
"There's still plenty of room."
Looking at the gear loaded into Porter, he wore a satisfied expression.
Lyle, who had been so thrilled he could have boasted about the completed Porter, seemed almost childlike to Aria.
"We'll be loading the magic stones and materials we collect next—will this be enough? I wanted to make Porter bigger so we could sleep inside it. It's just cruel to leave a scrawny chicken sleeping outdoors..."
Being called scrawny, Lyle retorted:
"Hey, who are you calling scrawny? We're inside a dungeon, so it's not exactly sleeping outdoors. There's no rain or wind."
——Aria.
(Lyle really is a bit off too, isn't he...? Or rather, am I the only normal one in this party...?)
Aria had gotten tougher herself and had certainly become more competent as an adventurer.
But as a girl? She'd become more boyish than before.
(Sigh, I need to keep it together.)
That was what she thought——
Once I entered the Aramsass dungeon with both personnel and equipment ready, I finally took on my ancestors' challenge.
After spending months completing Porter, it felt like I'd just been doing pocket-money side jobs all this time.
But I should have grown a bit too.
For the vanguard, I placed Aria and Miranda, with myself right behind them.
In the center were Novem and Clara, and Porter trailed in the rear.
Shannon sat atop Porter as it advanced through the relatively spacious corridors of the Aramsass dungeon.
Poyopoyo walked beside Porter. Having told Shannon multiple times to get down from the ceiling and ride in the cargo bed, it had given up.
Clara said to me:
"Since we've been diving frequently lately, we should be able to move quickly down to the fifth basement floor."
We'd repeatedly tackled the dungeon, walking through it, and carrying cargo and people.
Thanks to that, I had the routes memorized all the way to the fifth basement floor.
Even if the dungeon shifted and the paths changed, the differences from our last attempt shouldn't be too dramatic.
"Well, that's part of why we tackled it so many times."
When I said that to Clara, Novem looked at me and spoke:
"Lord Lyle, please don't push yourself too hard."
She sounded worried.
"I'm not pushing myself. I'm just moving people and cargo around on Porter. The 'Carry-Lyle' Porter has become pretty popular among adventurers these days."
I said this with a bit of pride to ease the tense atmosphere.
Novem cautioned me:
"You mustn't, Lord Lyle. The leader can't afford to let his guard down."
"Exactly," Clara agreed, and Shannon, watching from atop Porter, laughed.
"Bad leader."
She pointed and laughed at me, so I started to retort—when:
"Here they come! Two up ahead. Goblins."
Aria's voice rang out, and I drew my saber and issued orders.
"Aria and Miranda, handle them. Everyone else, stay on alert."
Miranda and Aria took on the approaching goblins. In the shallow levels of the dungeon—down to the fifth basement floor—they could advance just by swapping out the vanguard.
Both women in the front line were lightly equipped, but the goblins were defeated in no time.
One was run through by Aria. Miranda slashed the first dagger into one's eye, slowing its movements, then delivered the killing thrust to its vitals with the second dagger——
(What was that...? That was instantaneous.)
I'd expected it to take a bit longer, but both of them had become sharper than before.
As Aria took up a watchful stance, Clara moved into action.
Since we were going deep, the plan this time was to collect only magic stones. If we stockpiled too many materials here, our cargo would be full before we reached the thirtieth basement floor.
As I helped collect the magic stones, a voice came from the Jewel.
*'Isn't it strange?'*
The Third Generation's voice joined in.
*'What is?'*
The Second Generation said:
*'People. They never stood out before, but the moment you give them responsibility, they suddenly become capable, don't they?'*
The Fourth Generation agreed.
*'That does happen. They think, "I don't really need to do anything." But once they're entrusted with something, they shift into "I have to do this!" mode.'*
The Fifth Generation added:
*'Out of ten people, two or three will turn out to be useless. But in exchange, two or three of the remaining ones will step up and work hard.'*
The Sixth Generation said to me:
*'If that's the case, then up until now, Lyle has been the one making everyone else useless.'*
That stung a little.
Since there was some truth to it, I couldn't exactly argue back.
The Seventh Generation covered for me:
*'His Skills' performance is exceptional after all. But it's not entirely Lyle's fault. Aria becoming more aware has been a big change too.'*
The Seventh Generation also defended Aria.
She'd become more tomboyish lately, but her movements had grown more adventurer-like.
She wasn't just doing what she was told anymore—she was taking initiative and doing what needed to be done before being asked.
Just that alone was a huge help, freeing me up to focus on other things instead of issuing instructions.
But—the Second Generation said:
*'Still, it feels like everyone's on edge for a different reason.'*
The Fourth Generation asked:
*'What do you mean? Like that "hunch" thing the First Generation has?'*
Curious, I listened in on the conversation from the Jewel while helping Clara.
*'Well, Miranda-chan is overly on guard around her surroundings, and Novem-chan's atmosphere is kind of off today too... I hope I'm just imagining it.'*
I looked over the party.
They did seem more tense than usual.
(Is it because we're aiming for the thirtieth floor without any Skills? Or is it more than that?)
But talking about it here wouldn't get us anywhere, so I announced it was time to move.
"Collection complete. All right, let's move. We need to push as far as we can today."
As I started walking, everyone fell into their earlier formation and began moving.
We headed for our planned rest point.
There was a good spot on the fifth basement floor, but when we arrived, the room was lit up inside.
I scratched my head.
"Bad luck. Someone's here first."
Another party was resting there.
It might only be for a short time, but we couldn't exactly wait around for them.
Clara said:
"Priority goes to the adventurers already resting here. Shall I try negotiating? They might leave soon."
I checked the time elapsed.
(Up to now, things went pretty smoothly. I knew the route too... Should we push ahead and secure a good spot further in?)
Thanks to the Fifth and Sixth Generation's Skills, we'd barely run into other adventurers.
But there were always these small, unexpected setbacks.
"No, let's push ahead. We'll take a longer rest at the next stop. Miranda, swap with me. Aria, can you keep going?"
Aria nodded.
"Obviously."
Miranda hesitated for a moment, but decided to follow my instructions.
"...Well, it is the leader's call. I'll step back."
I swapped with Miranda and resumed moving.
The Second Generation said:
*'Having fewer people is still a disadvantage. And to run into someone at a rest stop here...'*
The fifth basement floor was a popular resting spot, whether you were heading deeper or retreating.
Some parties, like us, even camped overnight in the corridors.
(That's exactly why I wanted to rest here.)
Many parties cleared out the surrounding monsters for safety, which meant fewer surprise attacks during rest periods—making it ideal for a break.
(A sudden change of plans really hurts.)
Thinking that, I stepped into the sixth basement floor.
The Second Generation said:
*'I've got a bad feeling about this. It's like we got outmaneuvered.'*
Running into other parties at a spot you'd planned to use for rest was frustrating, and many parties would complain about it.
But those complaints were essentially just being difficult.
I felt like grumbling too, but I had no intention of actually doing so.
But——
(That bad feeling really won't go away.)