"...In my opinion, this sword is pretty good, so what's the problem?" Hime asked.
After we arrived at the inn room, I showed them the sword I had just bought. Then, I returned the remaining money to Hime.
Because I gave it back, they assumed something was wrong with the sword and wanted to check it.
I understood why Hime asked that.
"There's no problem, it's just that I feel a sword like this won't last very long," I said.
Even though it's good, it's still an iron sword, so it will definitely break easily.
"It might only be usable for one or two battles against a group of Abbys soldiers..." Hime said.
Yuu-chan shifted her gaze away from the sword and looked at me.
"Yukito-sama, you want to find a sword made of better material, right?" Yuu-chan asked.
Hime looked at Yuu-chan with a slightly confused expression.
But Hime, this time Yuu-chan is right.
I nodded, meaning what Yuu-chan said was true.
"The shopkeeper said there's a dungeon outside the city that can produce Mithril ore," I said.
"Because of that, I want to ask for your help to go there," I continued.
I don't know when this party will move to another city, but I hope not anytime soon.
Because if so, my wish to go to the dungeon won't come true.
"I don't mind, how about you?" Hime asked Yuu-chan.
"Me? Of course I'll go with you, besides, I have no work to do until we're summoned," Yuu-chan replied.
Summoned? What does she mean by that? Ah, whatever, the important thing is I managed to ask for their help.
We will go there after this, and I also want to test my new sword.
If this sword is very comfortable to use, maybe when I find Mithril later, I'll coat this sword with it.
If there's a lot of Mithril, maybe one sword can be made entirely of it.
But if I only find a little, then it can't be made into a full sword.
Because of that, it's better to coat this sword so I don't have to adapt to a new one.
——
The three of us immediately moved toward the dungeon.
To make sure, we asked the guard at the city gate about the dungeon we were heading to.
Sometimes information like this could just be a rumor or a lie, right?
So this was just to confirm and also to ask which direction we should go.
"The dungeon that produces Mithril... Ah! Just go straight from this road, then turn right when you reach the forest," he answered.
I forgot to mention this: outside Necvalion, there is also a large forest just like near Ulvur.
And forests like these usually have places such as dungeons that produce extremely rare items.
The dungeon we are going to is also often visited by adventurers to defeat monsters and take the rewards.
The dungeon system in this world is the same: there are various floors from the top to the bottom.
On each floor, there will be a boss monster guarding it, and to reach the next floor, we have to defeat that boss.
When the boss is defeated, it will disappear like dust and drop a small box containing a reward.
The reward depends on which floor you are on. The deeper it is, the rarer the item.
"Ah, right... can't we just go there by hitching a ride?" I asked the two of them.
It seems that if we ride someone's horse carriage, we could get there faster.
Ugh, why didn't I think of that earlier? If it's like this, our stamina might be drained before we can defeat the monsters.
"Yukito-san, how much money did you spend to buy that sword?" Hime asked.
"30 silver coins..." I answered.
"That's a pretty large amount, and if we're too wasteful, we'll run out of money to survive," Hime said.
Yeah, that's true, we haven't taken another quest to earn money.
Plus, this party also has to travel around the world because Hime and Yuu-chan are chosen ones.
They choose to protect the world's peace, so we won't often take quests from the guild anymore.
If we keep moving from place to place, the money used won't be small, so it has to be saved.
If we run out of money while in another city, we could end up as beggars on the street.
"But, if we get rare items from the dungeon and sell them at the guild, we should get money too, right?" Yuu-chan said.
That's true, I didn't think about that.
For example, items dropped by the floor boss, such as armor, swords, shields, and various physical items.
Those might be very expensive when sold because they're hard to obtain.
"Items like that can be found on the deeper floors. Like floor 30 and above," Hime answered.
"From what I heard, this dungeon has 80 floors discovered. And the adventurer who reached the deepest floor ended up on floor 54, and that was a very long time ago," she continued.
80 floors... I thought it would be 100 or more, but still, that's a lot.
People in the past only reached floor 54—can our party go deeper than that?
Judging by Hime and Yuu-chan's strength, they are very strong, but because I'm here…
The battles on each floor will likely be complicated.
——
We arrived in front of a building connected to a cave.
There was a guard standing at the gate of the building. I think he's a royal soldier assigned to guard this place.
"I'm sorry if I'm disturbing you, but what business do you have here?" the guard asked.
"We just want to look for Mithril ore here," I answered.
"I just want to remind you, when the floor boss is defeated, you will gain exp that can increase your status," he said.
"How much exp you get depends on how many effective attacks someone landed."
"Recently, many parties ignored that, causing uneven exp distribution and small conflicts," he said while bowing his head slightly.
I think he's already fed up, because members of a party often feel they get too little exp compared to their teammates.
Because of that, they come to this guard and make a fuss in front of him.
They think this is the guard's fault, claiming the dungeon is broken because the exp is uneven.
"Don't worry, our party is very united, you know," I said to him with a smile.
At least, this is all I can do to make him feel better.
Even though the three of us haven't worked together to defeat a single enemy in a long time, I think we're still united.
In the battle against Abbys yesterday, we were in different locations, so I couldn't help them.
I placed my hand on the guard's shoulder and patted him a few times until he looked at me.
Then, the three of us walked into the dungeon and left him outside.