Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?, Vol. 5 (19 page)

With the exception of the south gate, where we came in, the north gate, and the east gate overlooking the lake, the town is surrounded by a thick wall. It isn’t much compared to the wall surrounding Orario outside, but the crystal and rock structure looks plenty sturdy.

Many adventurers use this town as a base camp for repeated trips below the eighteenth floor. Rest up, go dungeon crawling, come back, and rest up again…It’s not uncommon for people to follow that cycle until they physically can’t continue anymore.

“So do the monsters not attack this town?”

“Of course they do. Just last month it was overrun and they completely destroyed everything.”

“That was a close one! We just happened to have front-row seats!”

The Amazonian twins respond awfully casually about something that should be really scary. My mouth twitches just thinking about it.

“But all the adventurers here are really good at running away. They wait for a little bit after an attack, come back, and rebuild.”

“Set up, get smashed, set up again…It happens over and over.”

According to them—despite this being a safe point in the Dungeon—the town of Rivira is under the constant threat of monster attacks. Even though all of the residents are upper-class
adventurers, the town is reduced to rubble as soon as an irregular monster shows up. But as soon as the monsters go away on their own, the adventurers come back to set up shop again.

The current Rivira is the 334
^th
reincarnation.

The town’s namesake comes from a great female adventurer named Rivira Santilini, who helped establish the first one.

“Excuse me, Miss Asfi. There are tons of crystals all around town…”

“Indeed. Any of the crystals that are found on the eighteenth floor can be turned in for money at the Exchange aboveground.”

“—Mr. Bell, let’s collect as many as we can before we leave!”

Lilly’s eyes sparkle as she smiles at me while we walk into the town’s main square.

“We’ll only block the road if we try to stay together like this. Let’s break off into smaller groups and have a look around!”

Lord Hermes gestured all around the square as he spoke, and all of us agree with him.

No one is allowed to travel alone, so we start making our own groups.

“All right, Bell. Let’s go out on the town together! You there, stay away!!”

“Eh, Goddess, what are you…?!”

“…”

The Goddess growls at Aiz, grabs my hand, and pulls me farther into the town.

Due to the nature of the town of Rivira, almost all of the structures in town were shops.

Of course, there were a few cramped hotels and a tavern here and there, but weapon and item shops dominated the streets. Every single establishment was owned and operated by adventurers.

Only adventurers and a few supporters filled its streets. Being upper-class adventurers, their armor and weapons were also top-notch—as well as equipped to be used at a moment’s notice. Two-handed swords, halberds, and full-plated body armor were
everywhere. It was a much more extreme version of “Adventurers Way” on the surface.

Only monsters would stand a chance, trying to assault a town with residents who were as heavily armed as these people.

“You?! Why are you here?!”

“G-Goddess, please calm down…?!”

“Ha-ha, the more the merrier, am I right?”

Bell walked along a twisting path of rocks under a blue sky composed of crystals that look like they could fall at any moment.

Aiz was leading the way, followed closely by an angry Hestia, as well as Hermes and Asfi behind Bell. Everyone was taking in the sights and sounds of the prospering town. However, the landscape was so uneven that large crystals and even trees needed to be used as ladders to get from one section of the town to another.

“Um, these items on display…Aren’t they a bit…expensive?”

“That’s one of Rivira’s features…”

Bell’s eyes had been running over the price tags of weapons and items in the windows of the shops they passed, and he asked Aiz about it. The very same equipment was available on the surface with one or two fewer digits in the price.

Asfi and Hermes explained as the group entered a new street.

“Things like weapons, items, and food are sold at many times their original price here.”

“It’s not easy to get these things in the Dungeon, so most adventurers break down and buy what they need no matter the cost.”

Just as Hermes said, supplies were very difficult to obtain. The business owners of Rivira knew that and took advantage of the adventurers who failed to prepare enough stock.

“Water is expensive in a desert…It’s the same thing.”

No matter where anyone travels around the world, there will be places where they can get specific items much cheaper than others and vice versa.

Spend a large sum of money on an item that could save your life, or save that money for later and risk death.

The adventurers who passed through Rivira were all forced to make that choice.

Everything right down to magic-stone lamps was extremely expensive.

“Lilly can’t believe this! Twenty thousand vals for a backpack…absurd!

“That much for a grindstone? You’ve got to be kidding…”

Lilly flung her new oversize backpack over her shoulders, fuming with rage. Welf had considered buying a grindstone at one of the weapon supply shops in town and came down with a bad case of sticker shock.

There was no one outside the shops trying to attract customers; instead they sat comfortably in a chair in the back of their establishments as they blurred the line between a profitable business and outright stealing.

The town’s beauty could do nothing to hide the greed of its inhabitants.

“This is why we’re camping in the woods rather than staying here overnight.”

“The amount of money required for everyone in our expedition to stay at one of those hotels would be outrageous.”

Tiona grinned as she interlaced her fingers behind her head when she saw the look on Welf’s and Lilly’s faces. Tione let out a long sigh in disgust. The two Level 1 adventurers were trying to replace everything they’d lost on their journey to the eighteenth floor. The Amazonian twins offered to help them find what they needed.

“This is exactly why Lilly hates adventurers! They are so obsessed with money that they’ll jump at any opportunity to take advantage of someone else.”

“There are many things I’d like to say to a certain money-obsessed prum that I know…Li’l E, you should open a shop down here!”

“…”

“Hey, don’t take it seriously.”

All that they had learned was they would leave empty-handed if they tried to purchase something for the established retail price.

“Th-that’s an Exchange…”

“They really can get away with anything down here…”

“…W-wow.”

A sign decorated with drawings of a Minotaur and purple stones stood out from the other shops on the street. Its purpose was to encourage people to sell their magic stones and drop items.

Mikoto, Ouka, and Chigusa stared in amazement at an adventurer who was trying to sell the fang of a giant monster to the Exchange. The man was dissatisfied by the amount the clerk offered for the drop item he’d hauled all the way up here. Despite all the angry yelling, the clerk just shrugged his shoulders and said, “You can take it somewhere else.” In the end, the adventurer agreed on a price, sold the fang, and stomped away with his fists clenched and face boiling with anger.

It was a very simple system. The adventurers who ran this Exchange would buy drop items and magic stones for less than half their value and sell them to the Guild for full price when they returned to the surface. Of course, the adventurers who sold the items would get upset, but they realized that there was a limit to how much they could carry. It was better to sell off their extra items here than throw them away. This also gave them the opportunity to continue crawling the Dungeon for more magic stones and drop items to take to the surface.

From the buyer’s perspective, it was an easy way to get valuable items and profit from them.

“This is a scam…”

“Captain Ouka, you are correct, but please be prudent.”

The compensation was low, but no fights broke out over it.

The owners were quite strong—strong enough to keep the other storeowners quiet—and ran the most profitable business in Rivira.

One such owner noticed Mikoto, Ouka, and Chigusa. He glared at them while tapping a massive club against his shoulder. The three adventurers quickly took their leave.

Buy low, sell high.

It wasn’t just the motto of the adventurers in the town of Rivira, it was their way of life.

“…But Hermes, no adventurers carry large amounts of money down here. How are they supposed to buy anything with prices this high?”

Bell’s group, just like Lilly’s and Mikoto’s, had seen the high prices. It was Hestia who asked the question that was on everyone’s mind. She had found something…a small bottle of perfume. Her eyes were locked on it even as she spoke.

Hermes gestured toward the man sitting at the back of the shop who took out a piece of paper and requested a signature.

“Just like that, they put it in writing. The shop gets the adventurer’s signature and their
Familia
’s emblem to create an IOU. They come to collect the money later.”

There were two payment options in Rivira: trade items for merchandise directly or by signing a payment contract.

It would be cumbersome and even dangerous to carry large amounts of money into the Dungeon. To get around this, a
Familia
’s emblem was used as credit. Then someone representing the shop would return to the outside and show up at that
Familia
’s home, the emblem in hand.

The opposite was true with the Exchange in Rivira. The shop had a representative on the surface where an adventurer could take a receipt issued by the shop to receive their money.

For that reason, suspicious persons who refused to identify themselves could never do business in this town.

“You haven’t made an emblem yet, have you, Hestia? It’d be a good idea to do that; it would help Bell out a lot, too. An emblem works like identity verification; there are places in Orario where they come in handy.”

“Ohhh, an emblem…I see…”

Hestia folded her arms and looked up toward the ceiling.

While her lack of followers was a problem, the thought of Bell having his own emblem made Hestia excited. She stole a glance at the
Familia
emblem sewn into Asfi’s battle cloth, winged traveler’s hat, and sandals, and had fun envisioning the emblem she could create for him.

She was lost in thought when suddenly—
thump
.

“You got a problem?”

“Ah…Sorry!”

Bell was quick to step in front of Hestia and apologize. He bowed a few times before looking up at the adventurer’s face and saw a scar that he remembered from somewhere…“Huh?” He remembered where at the same time that the scarred adventurer did.

“You…No way…!”

“That’s him! Mord, that’s the brat from the bar!”

All three were human men. The one with the scar was named Mord, and his two companions were behind him.

The three of them had been present at The Benevolent Mistress during Bell’s leveling-up party. They’d incurred the wrath of Lyu and the other staff members before being chased out.

Bell watched in horror as Mord took on a much more frightening visage.

“The hell’re
you
doin’ here…!”

Mord’s anger from the bar incident must’ve been directed at Bell because he started to reach for the boy.

However, he caught the glint of golden hair out of the corner of his eye. The Kenki was watching.

His eyes flinched even while his teeth were bared in Bell’s direction. He felt Aiz’s empty golden gaze wash over him. “Tsk!” The man clicked his tongue as he backed away, his allies in tow.

“Hey, hey, Bell. You’re not going out and picking fights with adventurers like that, are you?”

“No, it’s not like that…”

“So, what happened between you and them? Strangers don’t get that mad at each other on sight.”

Trapped between Hestia’s and Hermes’s questions, Bell forced a shaky smile and explained what happened.

“Ohh?” said Hermes, his ears perking up in the middle of Bell’s story.

“So, those children consider Bell an enemy…”

He took a look at the three of them, getting smaller as they walked down the other side of the path.