Live Dungeon!

At this time, all the major Clans had stopped exploring God’s Dungeon, redirecting their efforts to culling the other Dungeons’ monster populations. This initiative, in collaboration with the Labyrinth Conquerors and the military force, was to serve as an example for the populace and the other Explorers. In the meantime, beginner and intermediate Explorers went into God’s Dungeon like usual — but what was not usual was how the Monitors now regularly showed the Grasslands layers, providing the spectators with a nice change of pace in their entertainment.

Over the next six weeks, Tsutomu transferred the excessive G he had received back to the nobility, and was given a Clan House. While inspecting it and waiting for it to be prepped up, he went over to Ealdred Crow to give his promised training to the Buffer, who had returned from Uga’ol during this time.

Some time along the way, Tsutomu found himself included in the Guild’s monster hunting teams, and was half-forced to accompany them. Still, he knew that the populace would get judgmental if he did not go at least once or twice, therefore, he was rather grateful for the Guild’s consideration.

While both helping the Guild with the Dungeon in town and going with the Labyrinth Conquerors to the Dungeons outside, he took those opportunities to instruct people on the three-role composition again. At one point, he also had a personal conversation with the Clan Leader of Labyrinth Conquerors, the silver-haired Elf lady. Since Tsutomu was known as one of the biggest contributors during the Stampede, he was, to no one’s surprise, invited to join the Labyrinth Conquerors.

Tsutomu wanted above all else to clear God’s Dungeon, so he ultimately turned down the invitation. The lady did not seem to be giving up anytime soon, however, which annoyed Tsutomu a fair bit.

And now, six weeks after the Stampede, the Monitors still showed only beginner and intermediate Explorers going through God’s Dungeon. The major Clans, under the Labyrinth Conquerors’ guidance, were still going around to various Dungeons. Still, the cullings were just about done now, and it would be only two more weeks until the major Clans resumed their usual exploration.

Until then, it was a period of major and mid-tier Clans looking at the Monitors in search of promising newcomers to recruit. Tsutomu was also planning to recruit some Clan members based on the lists he had received from Ealdred Crow during the past two weeks.

Currently, the only people who would definitely join him were Garm’s apprentice Daryl, as a Tank, and Amy’s close friend Diniel, as an Attacker. In the latter’s case, it was mainly because Tsutomu had bailed her out of danger during the Stampede, and Amy’s recommendation, that she had decided to join.

Tsutomu could establish a Clan now, because he had the minimum number of members required — and so he did so immediately, having received a Clan House as a reward from the nobility.

Tsutomu took Daryl and Diniel to the Guild, where he then got an application form to register his Clan. After filling out most of it, he stopped at one particular field.

“Clan name, huh… I’d never thought of that…”

Realizing just now that he had forgotten the single most important thing, Tsutomu let go of the pen in his hand. Daryl, the young Cynokin, peeked over Tsutomu’s shoulder at the form, his eyes sparkling. Diniel, the blonde Elf, only yawned, showing no interest whatsoever.

“How about Three Beast Knights!? Doesn’t that sound cool!?” Daryl excitedly recommended, his black dog ears bobbing cheerfully.

“But wouldn’t that count just you, Amy, and Garm? Diniel and I aren’t Beastkins, you know,” Tsutomu replied, sounding somewhat reluctant.

“Then… Three Beast Knights and, uh… the Golden Conductor!”

“Now you’re trying to cram in too much…”

All the while, the receptionist lady grinned, seeing Daryl as a little puppy.

“What about Amy and the Merry Comrades?” Diniel suggested.

“Still too long… and besides, she isn’t in the Clan yet! You do remember that she’s joining later, right?”

“Just hurry up and decide. You’re the Clan’s leader, Tsutomu.”

Tsutomu crossed his arms and pondered it over.

“The Triforce… no, that doesn’t sound right. Hmm…”

“Please come up with a cool-sounding one!”

“Don’t make this harder for me…”

Tsutomu recoiled at Daryl’s sparkly, overly enthusiastic gaze, but still proceeded to cross his arms and think it over. He wanted a name referencing the three-role composition and its stable combat loop, but could not come up with a good one.

“…Combat flow, repetition, Möbius Band… no, that doesn’t roll off the tongue… All right, I got it.”

Letting go of all his doubts, he wrote the Clan name down. Daryl peeked at the form from behind him.

“Absolute… Helix?” Daryl read out the name and fell silent.

Tsutomu, unsure of what to follow that with, simply cast his eyes down. Daryl, after shaking for a moment, exclaimed,

“That sounds nice! Let’s go with this! Sir Garm is sure to like it, too!”

“Not bad.”

Daryl seemed to think quite highly of the name, and Diniel did not seem to care either way. Tsutomu, actually somewhat relieved by how Diniel had reacted, handed the form over to the receptionist, finishing the Clan application process. Half a year since his arrival in his world, Tsutomu was finally able to establish a Clan of his own — the Absolute Helix.

Tsutomu wanted to go Dungeon crawling immediately, but ever since he had been officially rewarded by the nobility after the Stampede, his face had become well-known to the people who had attended the ceremony. Since the major Clans would not be exploring God’s Dungeon for another two weeks, he also could not publicly and realistically show up in the Dungeon during this time.

Additionally, despite transferring his reward Gold back to the nobility, he still was absolutely loaded as far as his personal assets were concerned, so he was working hard to spend it well. With that said, the Forest Apothecary’s Potions were limited in quantity, and all his equipment was more than sufficient. Even though he had paid the fees to sit out some of the mandatory Dungeon trips, it still was not enough to bring his funds down to a manageable level. He needed to find something else to splurge on.

“All right, now that that’s done, why don’t we go do some shopping?”

“Yes! What do you have in mind?”

Tsutomu, while thinking how out of proportion Daryl’s high-pitched, Husky-like voice was to the size of his body, opened the door out of the Guild and said,

“Let’s get some new gear — for both of you!”

――▽▽――

“I can pick anything? You sure?”

“Sure. Money isn’t an issue at all,” Tsutomu reassured as he and Diniel stepped into the latter’s favorite archery-specializing store.

“Then I’ll take this and this…”

Diniel proceeded to pick out various types of arrows, her eyes sparkling, albeit still as sleepy-looking as ever. Daryl seemed to never have been in an archery store before, as apparent from how he curiously browsed around, comparing arrows of various colors.

Archer, similarly to Summoner, was a Job that could easily empty one’s wallet. The arrows they let loose were obviously finite and had to be paid for, unlike in the game where they were just a part of attack animations and therefore infinite. Arrows were consumed when shot, and if they ran out, one could be left without a way to attack at all.

As such, the first thing an Archer must learn was how not to break arrows and exhaust their supply. The main things to keep in mind were to avoid hitting monsters on their hard parts, which could damage arrows beyond salvaging, and to re-collect as many fallen arrows as possible after a battle. Neglecting to do these things would force them to be in the red.

Diniel had originally lived in a forest and made a living as a hunter, so she knew her techniques well, being good at economizing and handling generic arrows.

There were various special kinds of arrows, however, such as ones that popped into multiple smaller arrows, and whistle-like arrows that were used for sending signals. And they were expensive.

The most useful type of them would be the elemental arrows. Each of them had different attributes, determined by the type of Magic Stones fitted in them, making them highly effective against different kinds of monsters. Due to their high production costs, they were generally highly priced to match.

Since Tsutomu had told her to get as much as she wanted, however, Diniel picked out more and more, of one type after another. The owner of the store, an Elf, had his face scrunched up as one bundle of arrows after another was piled up on the counter.

“This should be enough.”

“That’s quite a lot. So… yeah, we’ll take these, please.”

“S-sure,” the shopkeeper replied, stunned to see Tsutomu actually preparing to pay the bill in full. He proceeded to count the arrows and tally up the price. A few moments later, Tsutomu was told the amount, and sure enough, he immediately paid the whole number in cash.

Diniel whistled as she put away one bundle of arrows after another into her quiver-like Magic Bag, while the shopkeeper prepared to close up for the day, having ran out of stock.

“Whoa, I can’t fit in any more. Now this is a first.”

Diniel lifted up her Magic Bag, quite happy to see it absolutely stacked with arrows. The remainder of the arrows were kept in Tsutomu’s Magic Bag.

In addition to those, Tsutomu gave Diniel a Magic Bag with 20 million G in it, so that she could request a custom-made bow, armor, and boots. Tsutomu was doing this out of consideration that Diniel would like to handle the process herself, what with her having to take measurements, but Diniel only looked at him as if he had gone crazy. Still, she did take the money, and went on her own way to do what was necessary.

“All right, now it’s your turn to get equipped, Daryl. Shall we?”

“Y-yes!”

Daryl was weirded out by Tsutomu’s spending behavior, but still went along with him, heading to the district in which the workshops were located.

Tsutomu was unfamiliar with this district, having only visited it just for his custom-made Potion vials. Explorers with close combat Jobs, however, would visit this place as often as they went to the Guild.

Armor and weapons naturally would wear out as they were used to fight monsters. Moreover, now that the Tank role had become more widespread, the demand for armor maintenance had begun to rise, making the workshops even busier. The streets were filled with workers and carriages transporting goods, and the high-pitched ringing of hammers banging metal echoed through the air.

Explorers and merchants came and went, buying and selling and filling the town with voices of business negotiations. Tsutomu followed Daryl, who stood out a fair bit due to the height difference between them. At one point, the latter bent down to get through a doorway into a certain workshop. Once inside, Tsutomu’s face was hit with the heat of the furnace’s flame.

This workshop, actually a favorite of Garm’s, was run by several bushy-bearded Dwarves, dwarves swinging hammers and throwing iron and steel into the furnace. Their skin was red from the flames. The oldest of the Dwarves, one who was taller and larger than Daryl, walked out to the counter while brushing his ashen beard, and called out to the new arrivals,

“Oh, hey there, Garm’s apprentice boy. How’s it going?”

“I have a name! It’s DARYL! Please remember it already!”

“And you are… Tsutomu, right?”

The Dwarf man, paying no attention to Daryl’s barking-like retort, wiped the sweat off his own face and nodded to Tsutomu.

“I am, yes. Nice to meet you.”

“I heard about you from Garm. You pretty much saved Dungeon City, yeah? Really, thanks a ton — this workshop’s like home to me, you know. I would’ve been sad as hell if it got wrecked.”

“Please, I’m getting too much credit for that. Anyway, I’d like to request some brand new equipment for Daryl here…”

“Oh? What’s your budget, eh?”

“Money isn’t an issue at all, so please just make it as good as you can.”

“Hahaha! I like your attitude! Looks like you’ve found yourself a good master, eh, boy? Thanks for bringing him here to me!”

“Hey, I’m not a pet dog!”

The old Dwarf let out a hearty laugh and then patted Daryl on the head. Daryl swatted the former’s hand away, as if lashing out at him.

“Anyway, we can go over the detaily-details over here.”

The Dwarf stepped out of the counter toward Tsutomu and Daryl, and walked off to the road to his right. Tsutomu, suddenly recalling something, turned to ask Daryl,

“Wait, Daryl. Would you mind me going along as well?”

“Not at all… actually, you better not leave me with a giant wallet like you did to Diniel! I can’t bring myself to walk around with that much gold!”

“Oh, okay.”

Tsutomu had received an impossibly large amount of Gold almost immediately upon arriving in this world, so he had never had to deal with any financial issue, and since he equated this world’s money with in-game currency the game, his attitude toward it would naturally come off as strange. Tsutomu, fully understanding how Daryl could be so weirded out, followed the Dwarf to get on with their business.