Seeker 50

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Chapter 50. The Dungeon Fairy

"What? You guys met the Dungeon Fairy!"

It was around noon after we had left the dungeon and eaten lunch on the riverbank.

When I told oyaji-san at the armory about the mysterious girl I met in the dungeon, he responded like that.

"Dungeon Fairy? Is that what they call her, that girl?"

"Yeah. I've only heard rumors about her, but her external characteristics match. Did she exist, Dungeon Fairy?

Even oyaji-san, who was a great seeker in the past, had this reaction.

It seems that she's a very rare character.

But Fairies, huh?

I don't think I had that impression of her.

She was a beautiful girl, if you include her mysterious atmosphere, she may not be too far off the mark.

"So, did the dungeon fairy do anything to you guys?"

"She gave me this pendant and told me to put it on the ground in the northeastern part of the 7th floor map and wait for a while. Do you have any idea what it is?"

"No, I don't, but ...... have you told anyone but me about that yet?"

Oyaji-san said and looked around the armory store.

There didn't seem to be any other customers at this hour.

"Yes. Other than us, oyaji-san was the first person I talked to."

"I see. You'd better keep that story to yourself. That pendant and information could be worth a fortune. If word gets out, you might be in danger."

"Is that it?"

"Oh, yes. Rumor has it that the party that meets and is blessed by the dungeon fairy will have tremendous luck. I've heard another rumor that, on the contrary, all the party members went missing after being cursed."

"What, a curse? That's scary, isn't it!"

Yuzuki, who was shaking, clung to me.

Are you the one who gets scared of that kind of thing?

If anything, I was happier to have Kodachi-san cling to me, but unfortunately, the Kodachi-san in question was unconcerned.

Damn.

But [blessing] and [curse]?

It's not something I can dismiss as mere superstition or a fairy tale.

After all, we have met a girl who seems to be the real thing.

But she said "Thank you," so I don't think we were cursed.

Even if it was a curse, it's like grabbing a cloud, and there's nothing we can do about it.

If I had to say so, I would say that we should be careful when we reach the 7th floor.

That aside.

Let's put the dungeon fairy story aside and get down to business today.

"Hey oyaji-san, I'm having a bit of a hard time on the forest floor. Do you have any good equipment or something?"

I decided to try it and asked oyaji-san at the armory for his opinion.

Oyaji-san grinned as if he loved to talk about such things.

"It depends on what kind of struggle you're going through. What's it like?"

"We can win, but we're draining a lot of resources. My MP, which plays the role of healer, is being drained. Covering it up with consumables may also be cumbersome. That's a profitable business for you, so I guess I'm asking the wrong person."

"No, man, I don't mind. I'm all about win-win business. So, how do you plan to exploit this?"

Oyaji-san pulled a whiteboard from the end of the store and picked up a water-based marker.

"I can't give you much specifics from what you've told me, but I can give you some basic ideas on how to attack monsters. There are two main things. The first is [Attack is the best defense. Destroy the monsters before they attack you.]

"...... That's a bit blunt, isn't it?"

On the whiteboard, there is [1. Attack power!] I couldn't help but blurt out these words to oyaji-san.

But I understand what he's saying.

Looking back, it seems that attack power was the key to success on the cave floor.

Because we didn't have enough attack power, we couldn't kill the monsters properly, and as a result, we got hit by many enemy attacks.

Hence, one valid idea would be minimizing the damage by increasing our attack power.

"Then what is the second?"

"Well, of course [Defense is the best defense. Neutralize the monster's attacks as much as possible."

"That's right."

"In case you're wondering, [defense] includes countermeasures against special abilities. If you are on the forest floor, how you overcome poison and paralysis is an important issue."

On the whiteboard, [2. Defense!] oyaji-san fills in the blanks.

"By the way, the third one is [Both attack and defense are important. Think of both]."

"Ah, yes."

Put aside the tsukkomi that you said two at first.

Either increase your offensive power, your defensive power, or both.

It was very simple and powerful advice.

"Well, that's where my armory comes in. For example, these two types of rings..."

Oyaji-san put the whiteboard to the side and began to guide the customers to his products.

Damn, he's pretty good.

But since we're here, let's take advantage of the sales talk and consider buying the armor.

The total amount of magic stones we got in the morning was 48,600 yen.

Divided by three, that's 16,200 yen per person.

Considering the cost of living, we should be looking at a product lineup of less than 100,000 yen.

Considering our party composition and the monsters on the 5th floor, we picked up products that would be useful under the current circumstances.

Partisan ... 80,000 yen, spear, attack power 15

Kris ... 60,000 yen, dagger, attack power 13, magic power +1

Mage Staff ... 20,000 yen, staff, attack power 4, magic power +1, two-handed equipment required

Rune Staff...70,000 yen, staff, attack power 7, magic power +2, must be equipped with both hands.

Iron Shield ... 50,000 yen, shield, defense 8a

Scale Armor...100,000 yen, equipped part: body, defense 27, agility -2

Rune Robe ... 80,000 yen, equipment part: body, defense 7, magic power +2

Metal Headband ... 30,000 yen, equipped part: head, defense 4

Viking Helm ... 40,000 yen, equipment part: head, defense 12, agility -1

Mage Hat ... 50,000 yen, equipment part: head, defense 3, magic power +1

Gale Boots ... 100,000 yen, equipment part: foot, agility +5

Ring of Poison Protection ... 50,000 yen, equipped part: finger, poison is nullified at 50% chance

Ring of Paralysis Repellent: 50,000 yen, equipped part: finger, 50% chance of paralysis

High-end bows are also lined up in the store, but I don't think there is an option to prioritize Yuzuki's physical attack power and strengthen it, so I excluded it.

Instead, I looked at equipment that would increase magical power (as indicated on the product tag).

All types of equipment are very appealing, and it's hard to say which one I should prioritize buying.

But when I put them together like this, one thing became clear.

That is that I am short on budget.

If we wanted many kinds of stuff. We would need hundreds of thousands of yen for the entire party.

After discussing this with Kodachi-san and Yuzuki, we came to the conclusion

"Let's stop on the 5th floor for a while and make some money." 

"That's right. Level up as well."

"I don't want to keep going on and on, too."

We would only think about moving on when we could conquer the 5th floor with enough time to spare.

With that in mind, we decided to spend a while earning money to buy equipment and level up.