It had already been eleven days since I officially became the witch's apprentice.
Mineha's illegal occupation of the tower was going on as usual.
Well, Axe had said she'd head back to her homeland once the timing lined up to meet her mother.
From the reply letter, it seemed Axe's mother was currently away from home on a commission.
The reply had come from a servant at Axe's family estate.
A servant… meaning her family home was a mansion, of course. As expected of a famous Second-Class Delver.
Axe. She'd apparently lived a wealthy life despite being a commoner.
But being wealthy doesn't necessarily mean you're happy, right?
Speaking of delvers — Mineha. She was working as a solo delver.
Money was left out for meal expenses.
Apparently she occasionally paired up with Torquetam.
I'd heard from Pakira that she and Lupinus were always arguing.
And then there was the party Bid had been a member of. Zan Brave had disbanded.
What had happened? Apparently party breakups weren't that uncommon, though.
That was when Pakira had relayed the news.
Lupinus would have something to talk about soon. I already knew what it was about.
More like work, I'd been making trips to the witch's house too.
I was seriously studying under her as an apprentice.
I was learning how to brew potions, how to read ancient script, and self-defense techniques.
I was quite surprised by something.
Some Legendaries can actually be repaired.
The witch was also famous as a supremely skilled repair specialist.
Even difficult and complex repairs were possible for the witch. According to her, that was thanks to her Relic.
When I asked what kind of Relic it was...
[God Does Not Roll the Dice Thrice: You will succeed at the highest-difficulty technique at least three times a day.]
It was a cheat. As expected of a First-Class Explorer. No, a witch.
I did get to see her perform a repair, though, and it looked like home electronics repair.
You can actually buy Legendaries in the royal capital.
But even the cheapest one costs about fifty royal coins. That's five million, mind you.
Most of them really did look like household appliances, and the clients bringing them in were mostly nobles and merchants.
So the repair fees were high. Most of the witch's income came from this repair work. The rest was from potions.
Then there was self-defense. This was incredible.
The witch could throw an opponent off-balance while her arm was being grabbed, or grab the opponent's arm with one hand and throw them.
She could even throw someone without touching them. It was like aikido.
She'd said it was because Relics and OOPArts were too powerful to hold back, so she'd perfected it.
She made it sound simple, but there existed gem-level mid-tier dungeon monsters that could nullify Relics.
This was also a countermeasure against those. Or rather, do such things actually exist?
She also said there was a giant monster called a Cyclops that could shoot lasers from its eyes.
What was up with that? Could a Cyclops really do that?
Well, since I'll definitely never fight monsters like those, I should be fine.
That's not a flag or anything.
Anyway, self-defense techniques are genuinely useful. They don't take much physical strength, so even a kid like me can pull them off.
By the way, the Witch was a full-on drill sergeant. I'd been thrown over a hundred times already.
Come to think of it, the incredible strength in her arm when I grabbed it the day I became her apprentice—
Was she actually about to throw me? I just started trembling.
Also, the whole "grab the Witch's tail and you win" thing doesn't feel right to me.
Not that I've been able to touch it even once so far.
But constantly aiming for her tail means constantly staring at her rear, doesn't it? Is that really okay?
She invited me to live together since I'm her apprentice, but I politely declined.
A scaled-down inhuman hellscape plus the Witch—there's no way I'd ever get any rest.
Besides, I'm fond of my current home.
Commuting from town to the forest is good training, too.
The investigation of that forest still hasn't started. I got a letter saying the Witch would be beginning it soon.
I sent that along to Grand Master Abramirin.
I'm waiting for her reply. Until it comes, I can't start the investigation.
Speaking of apprenticeships, Axe and the rest of Thunder Fang have been getting trained by Agaro.
It's only for the period until Agaro receives her next commissioned quest and has to leave town, though.
Thunder Fang's next goal is Grade III.
They said they'd already accumulated quite a few rank-up points from this dungeon exploration and anomaly subjugation.
As Mineha had mentioned, the Grade III test is straightforwardly about combat power.
You either subdue a designated silver-tier lower-level monster within the time limit.
Or you annihilate the nest of a silver-tier lower-level monster. That's the general idea.
Mineha's test was about subduing a specific monster.
A Wind Big Boar, a silver-tier lower-level monster. It's a giant boar that possesses a wind-attribute Relic.
And, since two days ago, Thunder Fang has been out hunting a monster in Mazan, based on a subjugation quest Agaro accepted.
The Mazan mountain range. It's a realm of demons sprawling to the north of Hydrangea.
It lies along the border with a neighboring nation, but the Mazan mountains are a neutral zone.
The target is a Great Demon Rhino lurking in Mazan's fog-shrouded valleys—a gold-tier mid-level monster.
It's a large rhinoceros whose horn has become a giant blade.
Furthermore, that blade is an OOPArt. Of course, it's adaptive.
It's a foe I wouldn't want to fight.
They said they'd be back in a week at the earliest, ten days or so at the latest.
I hope they return safely. Agaro is with them, so it should be fine, I'll try to think optimistically.
As usual, I pass in front of the dungeon entrance.
The day after I gave him the ring, Gauro scolded me, but he did properly accept it.
I've already sent it to Arifa for Appraisal.
But that ring. It was apparently a difficult one, and she said she needed more time.
Was it really that amazing a ring? The color was super rare, though.
Hmm. Hmm? What's this? There's a crowd gathering in front of the entrance.
Delvers and kids. Others watched from a distance. Something going on?
"Back! Back up!"
"Starting tomorrow! Not today!"
The guards shoved back the delvers and kids pressing in.
"Besides, the lifting of the special restriction only applies to the Junkyard."
"The others are still under investigation. Now come on, back up! Delvers, clear out!"
Special restriction lift? The Junkyard?
I was trying to figure out what this was all about when one of the guards came my way.
It was Gauro.
"Yo. Wof."
"Gauro. What's this about lifting the special restriction?"
"Yeah, they decided to lift the special restriction on the Junkyard only. The survey team already investigated and cleared it. And also... I shouldn't say this too loud, but it's Kuun Hunt."
"Kuun Hunt?"
"Those guys. They round up kids and use them like slaves. Call them hired hands."
"That's been going on for a while."
"Yeah, I know, but... this is between us. Some of the kids died."
"Wha..."
"They called it an unforeseen accident, apparently."
".........."
"Hate to say it, but that's the way it is. The town officials just let the kids run loose. So to keep them from getting hired by Kuun Hunt... they decided to open up the Junkyard. Desperate measures."
"Can't you openly issue warnings or advisories against Kuun Hunt?"
"That would mean going against the top brass at Kuun Hunt, so it's not possible."
"A first-class delver..."
Gauro falls silent.
Like me, not every child who works is an orphan.
Plenty of kids work even though they have parents — one or both.
With delvers, there are always "waiting children."
That's when one or both parents are delvers who've gone out on a job and don't come back for days on end.
During that time, the kids waiting around survive on advance payments from their parents' commissions.
Even so, if they still don't come back and the money runs out, they end up at the Junkyard.
Small children and first-timers — pretty much every gatekeeper, not just Gauro, lets them in for free.
That comes out of their own pockets. And apparently their superiors and the guild turn a blind eye to it.
Children who work in the Junkyard — or who can't work at all. Kuun Hunt targets those kids.
They call them "hirelings" and work them like slaves for meager wages.
This dungeon closure must be a godsend for those guys.
Kuun Hunt. A completely black clan, no question.
Are first-class delvers really running this thing?
Well, being first-class doesn't necessarily make someone a good person.
It just happened that Alexander and the Witch were decent ones.
But the boss of Kuun Hunt, huh... Now I'm getting curious.
Maybe I should ask the Witch, just in case something comes up. Information is power.
I'm glad the Junkyard is reopening, but the circumstances are... hard to call it good news.
I hope it gets resolved somehow, but this one's probably going to be tough.
The administration has its limits too. And this is a problem I can't do anything about.
By the way, the payment still hadn't come through.
They explained when I was called to the guild.
They said they couldn't pay until the closure was fully lifted. That's what they told me.
Even so, it was taking way too long. The guild knew that too.
So they paid an interest portion that wouldn't normally be part of the commission fee.
One thousand oro a day for one month. I received 30,000 oro.
It was a huge sum for me. I saved half of it.
"So starting tomorrow, you can use it. 300 oro."
"Got it. Starting tomorrow, I'll be in your care again."
Starting tomorrow, huh. Looking forward to it.
And today, too, I trained at the Witch's place.
How to put this. It's weird to say, but right now I'm living a shōnen manga.
A steady, slightly-plus slow life — that's still my goal, of course.
But lately, I've started to feel like I'm not all alone anymore.
Maybe it was because I'd confessed all my secrets. I felt quite light, body and soul.
And then it hit me. Just how heavy a burden I'd been carrying.
Well, I'd confessed my secrets, but the secrets themselves still resided within me—and in my pouch, too.
Still, the sense of relief from not having to carry it all alone was something else.
"Well then, guess I'll buy some cheap meat and head home today."
I'd need vegetables, too. Restock the bread-bean, grab a few packs of tea leaves.
Yeah. Life was fulfilling.
The next day.
The dungeon entrance in town.
I paid Gauro three hundred oro.
"Alright. I know I say this every time, but you're only cleared for the second floor. Not that it matters now, since it's locked off."
It was physically locked off, wasn't it.
Some Legacy—[Barrier Stone], I think.
I could probably break it with [Banish], but I wasn't going to.
"Understood. I'm heading in."
"Don't be late. The deadline is evening. You can hear the bell, right?"
"Yeah."
This exchange felt nostalgic, too.
I passed through the entrance—a cavern of rock that looked like the belly of some enormous monster.
It abruptly gave way to an artificially constructed stone passage. Clearly man-made, but not the same.
A dungeon was a wonder beyond human comprehension.
I walked past the stairs leading down to the second floor.
The stairs were covered with a shimmering membrane like a lid, and a rope had been carefully strung across them.
That glowing membrane was the barrier. The stones installed at its four corners were barrier stones.
The barrier's effect lasted roughly a day, so the gatekeeper stood guard to replace it before the start of each day disappeared.
I'd heard that once it faded, the gatekeeper would install a new barrier stone. Thanks for your hard work.
If I went straight ahead from there and then turned right at the dead end, I'd arrive at a place that suddenly opened up.
Piles upon piles of junk were heaped everywhere.
This was junk expelled from the dungeon.
The contents varied, but most of it was equipment belonging to delvers who had died in the dungeon.
The rest was lost items, misplaced items, and forgotten items.
Organic waste was absorbed by the dungeon.
It was said that those materials became the base components for the dungeon's monsters.
What a nasty form of recycling.
This was my workplace.
The dungeon's junkyard.
Several kids were already sifting through the piles.
This sight — somehow it felt nostalgic.
I was starting to get a little sentimental.
I looked around and noticed something slightly off.
Some of the junk piles had collapsed. That was probably the aftermath of Gauro's fight.
It wasn't a big deal, but it caught my attention. Still better than that massacre, I suppose.
"Alright. Let's do this."
I psych myself up a little. Take a deep breath.
There was a strange tension in my heart. I was excited — it had been a while.
I use the Relic, Wheel of Fortune.
This is a Relic that shows valuable things as colored light.
Green is rare.
Yellow is super rare.
Blue is super ultra rare.
The sacred egg of elixir I had was blue.
With the Relic active, I scan the surroundings.
"Green. Yellow. Green. Green. Green. Yellow."
No blue, as expected.
"Green. Green. Yellow. Green. Purple. Green. Green. Yellow, huh."
Is that it? Yeah, that's about right.
I gave a wry smile at the same old Junkyard — then stopped. Wait.
Just now, did I... not see something stran... huh.
I freeze. My breath stops.
I feel a single drop of sweat sliding down my cheek.
Everything in front of me went white. I could see nothing but that light.
Thin, but undeniably there — that light was somewhere in the junk.
It's a purple light.