..Even I didn't know half of those consoles..and I owned the other half. Next chapter in 4-8 hours.
Year 7446, Month 6, Day 4
"Is it really something that frightening?"
While Miduchi was controlling the horse Angela asked her as she sat behind her.
"Yeah. Normally it's a powerful pain stopper, I guess? There's different strengths in the effects based on how it's purified but even if you just normally gather the sap, boil it down, and then dry it .."
"Stop already. It's not decided if that's the case yet. Everyone, I only intend to discuss this with Toris and Bel. Do not speak about it to anyone else. This is an order."
I cut off Miduchi's words while strongly ordering everyone.
Just before we left Viscount Yoraizu's territory, when we were attacked by a group of orks we easily repelled that and wiped them out. After that, in order to gather the magic stones from them we cut the band of the smelly leather armor they were wearing with a knife.
It's only obvious for unintelligent sub-human monsters to be carrying some kind of low quality pain relieving drug, no one has any interest in that sort of low quality drug which can't do anything more than just stop the pain. On Orth there's a lot better medicines that make use of magic stones in circulation. If you're going to end up using the space either way it's far more effective to carry those kinds instead. However, when Gwine was digging through the belongings one of the orks was carrying she found something unusual.
It was a pipe with a considerable length.
At first I thought it was a thick {blowgun} and just threw it on the ground nearby. However, after she stepped on it Miduchi showed a bit of interest and checked the status, before yelling "Ah!!?" as if she remembered. Soon after Miduchi said an appropriate excuse to cover up surprising everyone with her voice smoothing over the situation. However, soon after, she forcefully pulled me a bit of distance away and asked me to use Identify on the nokkusu.
"Just a minute, I want you to try using identify on this nokkusu but..If it's just as I'm thinking then.."
Nokkusu is the name of the pain relieving drug that the ork was holding. It's a brown colored powder. If you touch them and say status you can see the name of most goods after all. According to my Identify it's a pain reliever made from crushing the flower of a plant called Karesso, then boiling the liquid that comes out down. The effects aren't very high. Obviously I told her just as I saw it.
And then,
"Nn..But I feel something is a bit off right..I thought it was opium but.."
And she said while putting her hand to her jaw while thinking. But, on the identify window not even the "na" in "narcotics" appeared. Rather~ why suddenly something like opium...when I tried asking Miduchi in the middle of the night when we changed lookout shifts after that and,
"I mean, it says it was made from the flower of a plant and it even says it's a pain reliever, an ork that wouldn't easily be able to get it's hands on tobacco was carrying a pipe right? If you mix them together isn't that already "opium" right?"
And that sort of reply came back. There's no way that's the case right, I honestly find your brain to be a menace for arriving at opium based on just that amount of information. When I said that sort of sarcasm,
"Eh? You've never tried looking up how to manufacture narcotics?"
And replied with a serious face. No. In the first place, I never had any interest in narcotics at all.
"I think there's a lot of people interested in those sorts of things during middle and high school. I didn't read those sorts of books in the classroom either but I read it at home."
That's the reason why you didn't have any friends right...That's dark after all. Other than studying brats should be playing outside. In the first place middle and high school students should be busy with club activities.
"Umm..I think I mentioned in the past~ but..I was the bookworm-type so.."
Was that the case? But you at least had friends to play with right? Like shopping with other girls or things.
"..That's why I said, I didn't have many friends...Rather than playing outside with anyone I would read books, games..like SuFami, 32X Mega Drive with added Mega CD, SuperGrafx, Neo Geo, Towns Marty, LaserActive, PiPPiN, PCFX, Playstation, Saturn, ah, though it was the High Saturn that shows MPEGs but, 3D0, 64, DD, Gamecube, Dreamcast, X-box, 360, PS3, Wii, things around that area particularly after finding a job huh..In any case the only ones I didn't have when I was a student was the Virtual Boy and Playdia and we had the net, I got into the computer when I was in elementary school after all..even after entering college no one talked to me so I couldn't say I wanted to enter a circle..It's fine since I had friends on the other side of the screen! I was the indoor-type! All of the indoor-type kids were interested in these types of things at that age! Someone who was in the swimming club and went to self-defense university, or let alone mar..marri... married wouldn't know understand!! I hadn't even played with my PS4 for two years since I bought it!! Even though it was expensive!!"
Partway through she snapped and started going on about things that I couldn't understand almost like some kind of incantation. No, I have no clue what you're saying. I can somehow figure out that it's the name of games but..Eh? It's not games? Game consoles? Ah, is that so. Were you playing just games that much? Did you have that much free time?
"Ha~? There's no way I could buy all of the games right!? For each console at best about 2-4 games, at most 7-8 games!! Since there's no time to be playing shitty games!!"
I have no clue...
"Hmph. Even though you didn't even know about orks..I..I..I knew about all of the monsters we've encountered up until now! I know a bunch more other than that! That's why it's useful!"
..Yeah, I guess so. Rather~ it's only obvious both Gwine and Angela would wake up with how much noise she's making late at night.
In any case, according to Miduchi this pain reliever called nokkusu is a type of narcotic that's additive like opium or close to that. Furthermore, while keeping an eye on things during combat I used Identify on the living orks but their Condition was Normal. There was no suspicious sort of display like Addict. "It didn't look like it was addicted though" and when I pointed that out,
"Ha..This is why amateurs are.."
And I was looked down on,
"Even if it's opium if they don't absorb a reasonable amount of a reasonable period they won't turn into something like an addiction. There's pretty much no narcotic that would result in addiction in just a single try and in the first place we're not discussing humans from Earth, on Orth who knows..furthermore they're monsters after all. Also, mixing up addiction to drugs and the symptoms shown from withdrawal of an addiction is typical of an amateur."
And I was told that, I guess that is true. I mean, I am an amateur after all. After that we talked about ti when Angela and Gwine really weren't listening but my Identify might not be able to determine chronic addiction, is the conclusion we came to. Certainly even if I use Identify on a person with an illness if the symptoms haven't appeared it doesn't show up.
In any case, since we were saying a number of dangerous terms like "narcotics" and "opium" Gwine was persis~tently trying to ask about it, we decided to talk about it with these two. Well as expected if I heard Gwine talking about those words I wouldn't just ignore it either.
That's the end of this discussion for now.
.........................
Our horses ascended the outer crater's of Baldukk and climbed to a place where we can look down at the town. It's a time that's still before lunch.
"I wonder if we can eat Baldoggie for lunch?"
"If they're in the dungeon then I'm sure we can."
I replied to Gwine who was controlling the reins in the front while we started the descent to the town of Baldukk. In regards to the holiday over Golden Week I left it to Zenom and Toris so how long of a period they decided to take off or explore I don't know, whether today is a holiday or if they're in the dungeon is unknown.
It's something we could tell form above but nothing at all had changed with the town of Baldukk since before and after we departed, it's still the same town with a population exceeding 30,000 people.
Along the way, we let down Angela at Shuni and just as we arrived at Boil Manor we were able to catch Cathy as she was climbing the stairs with some Baldoggie that were finished being stuffed and boiled. It was as she was making round trips between their room and the rooftop to smoke them.
"Ah, Greed-san. Welcome back!!"
While Cathy was energetically greeting us I asked her, "Is everyone in the dungeon?" and her reply was that everyone would probably return tomorrow.
"Eh? They aren't coming back every day?"
And Gwine asked. I thought the same thing.
"Yeah, it seems that everyone is going down to the 4th floor now. It sure is amazing right~"
And Cathy smiled while replying.
"So everyone was able to pass through the 3rd floor in a single day? Even the {Exterminators}?"
Miduchi and Gwine were surprised as they talked but if they're going to the 4th floor then that should be the case. Putting that aside, while going up the stairs to the second floor I asked Cathy about something different. This is something I need to confirm.
"Was there any changing of members between groups?"
"There was not. I heard that they had a test at the end of April but.."
He~
"Hn, I see, thanks. After changing we're going to get some lunch but how about it? You still haven't had any right?"
After asking Cathy and she said she still hadn't so we quickly got changed and during that time she, John, and Terry filled up the smoker with sausages. We waited for Angela to come after changing and then went to ear lunch with everyone.
It should be fine to put off the Baldoggies until dinner.
That evening, I don't know where they heard about it but the members of {Gehenna.Flare} came to the Boil Manor to invite Gwine out to drink. She was saying, "We just returned so together with everyone.." but her expression didn't seem discontent as she was getting shy in front of the dwarf named Garun or whatever from {Gehenna.Flare}. Yes-Yes~ I'm so jealous of your popularity among the bearded. Annoying~
"Don't mind us and go enjoy yourself."
We'll enjoy ourselves on our end as well. Cathy, John, and Terry are here and there's also the sausages just made today.
.....................
Year 7446, Month 6, Day 5
In the morning I went to my company in the capital and was worked to death going over various fine details and meetings. It started to get troublesome for me having to go to every one of them so I narrowed the candidates down to two places and threw all of the details in regards to the sausage factory contract on to Miduchi and Luke.
In the evening when we returned to Baldukk no one from the {Slaughterers} had returned to the surface. We returned to the inn once thinking "It's still bright out so I guess it'll take a bit more time huh?", then when we returned to the entrance plaza it was just as the {Butchers} came out together with Zulu and were all biting into some Baldoggie sold at the stall. After looking closely Gwine and Angela was with them as well.
After being congratulated by Zulu and the other combat slaves for my safe return, I said "We returned with combat shoes for everyone so come and get them later" before biting into a Baldoggie as well. While we were doing that the {Exterminators} and then {Slaughterers} returned to the surface as well.
We all exchanged greetings and listening to their stories, after all both teams were able to make it to the 4th floor now so they haven't been returning daily anymore. It seems that the {Butchers} have been since March and the {Exterminators} since May.
Hmm, with this I won't be in the red anymore. That's great.
Also, while it seems they underwent the test to change out members, there still wasn't anyone who passed the stamina test and gained the qualification to challenge someone. Well I'm sure it's impossible in just a few months, as expected.
After that, excluding Zulu who was with the {Butchers} and Toris who was with the {Exterminators}, they reported everything that happened while I was gone to me.
First off the {Exterminators}. It's fine that they've started to go to the 4th floor but after all they're having a hard time clearing through the 4th floor in time, so it seems that it will still a while longer before they can safely go to the 5th floor.
Next up is the {Butchers}. While they managed to clear through to the 4th floor in March, clearing through to the 5th floor in one day is expected to time some time after all.
This is also because of the problem of magic users. After undergoing combat, it's fine when there's not many injuries but if there's quite a few or there's some with serious injuries then they end up using a considerable amount of time recovering mana and depending on the case they may even have to take a break until the pain recedes. Well in some ways you could say it's something that can't be helped.
Finally the {Slaughterers}. While I wasn't around they properly held back on descending into the dungeon down to the 5th floor. I was a bit surprised at this. I could have sworn someone like the gold zombie Ralpha would propose going to the 7th floor.
"I mean..Neither Miduchi nor Al are around..Isn't that impossible if you calmly think about it. After all while you're not around, I have to properly worry about everyone. We can't do anything unreasonable."
And Ralpha said that. Why are you worrying about everyone. I left those sorts of things to Zenom and Toris so it would have been fine if you just lazed around. I thought that for a moment, but come to think of it, I said something random like that to hold back Ralpha who wanted to come along. So she thought I was being serious this entire time..Someone tell her. When I made eye contact with Zenom and Bel who were grinning, I said "Yeah, good work. It seems you've done a good job thinking about everyone." and her face turned to smiles.
After all she's easy. It's really a big help.
After that, Ralpha made a displeased face hearing that Gwine had some armor similar to Angela's made and that I was going to give my old armor to Jesu but after hearing the price she was peeking at Zenom's face. Zenom nodded with a bitter smile but after crossing her arms and thinking, after a short while she didn't say anything more as if she gave up on it.
"Next I'll check to see how much the {Butchers} and {Exterminators} have grown. After that, depending on the situation I might return the {Slaughterers} to our full members and start clearing the 8th floor this month. Everyone, be ready for that to be the case."
I concluded things that night by saying that.
Everyone was probably remembering back to that room on the 8th floor that gave off an eerie atmosphere, and gulp..
Ah, so they were eager. Most of them made expressions like a glare while lifting the sides of their lips. So I was the only one feeling frightened?
..Even I didn't know half of those consoles..and I owned the other half. Next chapter in 4-8 hours.
Year 7446, Month 6, Day 4
"Is it really something that frightening?"
While Miduchi was controlling the horse Angela asked her as she sat behind her.
"Yeah. Normally it's a powerful pain stopper, I guess? There's different strengths in the effects based on how it's purified but even if you just normally gather the sap, boil it down, and then dry it .."
"Stop already. It's not decided if that's the case yet. Everyone, I only intend to discuss this with Toris and Bel. Do not speak about it to anyone else. This is an order."
I cut off Miduchi's words while strongly ordering everyone.
Just before we left Viscount Yoraizu's territory, when we were attacked by a group of orks we easily repelled that and wiped them out. After that, in order to gather the magic stones from them we cut the band of the smelly leather armor they were wearing with a knife.
It's only obvious for unintelligent sub-human monsters to be carrying some kind of low quality pain relieving drug, no one has any interest in that sort of low quality drug which can't do anything more than just stop the pain. On Orth there's a lot better medicines that make use of magic stones in circulation. If you're going to end up using the space either way it's far more effective to carry those kinds instead. However, when Gwine was digging through the belongings one of the orks was carrying she found something unusual.
It was a pipe with a considerable length.
At first I thought it was a thick {blowgun} and just threw it on the ground nearby. However, after she stepped on it Miduchi showed a bit of interest and checked the status, before yelling "Ah!!?" as if she remembered. Soon after Miduchi said an appropriate excuse to cover up surprising everyone with her voice smoothing over the situation. However, soon after, she forcefully pulled me a bit of distance away and asked me to use Identify on the nokkusu.
"Just a minute, I want you to try using identify on this nokkusu but..If it's just as I'm thinking then.."
Nokkusu is the name of the pain relieving drug that the ork was holding. It's a brown colored powder. If you touch them and say status you can see the name of most goods after all. According to my Identify it's a pain reliever made from crushing the flower of a plant called Karesso, then boiling the liquid that comes out down. The effects aren't very high. Obviously I told her just as I saw it.
And then,
"Nn..But I feel something is a bit off right..I thought it was opium but.."
And she said while putting her hand to her jaw while thinking. But, on the identify window not even the "na" in "narcotics" appeared. Rather~ why suddenly something like opium...when I tried asking Miduchi in the middle of the night when we changed lookout shifts after that and,
"I mean, it says it was made from the flower of a plant and it even says it's a pain reliever, an ork that wouldn't easily be able to get it's hands on tobacco was carrying a pipe right? If you mix them together isn't that already "opium" right?"
And that sort of reply came back. There's no way that's the case right, I honestly find your brain to be a menace for arriving at opium based on just that amount of information. When I said that sort of sarcasm,
"Eh? You've never tried looking up how to manufacture narcotics?"
And replied with a serious face. No. In the first place, I never had any interest in narcotics at all.
"I think there's a lot of people interested in those sorts of things during middle and high school. I didn't read those sorts of books in the classroom either but I read it at home."
That's the reason why you didn't have any friends right...That's dark after all. Other than studying brats should be playing outside. In the first place middle and high school students should be busy with club activities.
"Umm..I think I mentioned in the past~ but..I was the bookworm-type so.."
Was that the case? But you at least had friends to play with right? Like shopping with other girls or things.
"..That's why I said, I didn't have many friends...Rather than playing outside with anyone I would read books, games..like SuFami, 32X Mega Drive with added Mega CD, SuperGrafx, Neo Geo, Towns Marty, LaserActive, PiPPiN, PCFX, Playstation, Saturn, ah, though it was the High Saturn that shows MPEGs but, 3D0, 64, DD, Gamecube, Dreamcast, X-box, 360, PS3, Wii, things around that area particularly after finding a job huh..In any case the only ones I didn't have when I was a student was the Virtual Boy and Playdia and we had the net, I got into the computer when I was in elementary school after all..even after entering college no one talked to me so I couldn't say I wanted to enter a circle..It's fine since I had friends on the other side of the screen! I was the indoor-type! All of the indoor-type kids were interested in these types of things at that age! Someone who was in the swimming club and went to self-defense university, or let alone mar..marri... married wouldn't know understand!! I hadn't even played with my PS4 for two years since I bought it!! Even though it was expensive!!"
Partway through she snapped and started going on about things that I couldn't understand almost like some kind of incantation. No, I have no clue what you're saying. I can somehow figure out that it's the name of games but..Eh? It's not games? Game consoles? Ah, is that so. Were you playing just games that much? Did you have that much free time?
"Ha~? There's no way I could buy all of the games right!? For each console at best about 2-4 games, at most 7-8 games!! Since there's no time to be playing shitty games!!"
I have no clue...
"Hmph. Even though you didn't even know about orks..I..I..I knew about all of the monsters we've encountered up until now! I know a bunch more other than that! That's why it's useful!"
..Yeah, I guess so. Rather~ it's only obvious both Gwine and Angela would wake up with how much noise she's making late at night.
In any case, according to Miduchi this pain reliever called nokkusu is a type of narcotic that's additive like opium or close to that. Furthermore, while keeping an eye on things during combat I used Identify on the living orks but their Condition was Normal. There was no suspicious sort of display like Addict. "It didn't look like it was addicted though" and when I pointed that out,
"Ha..This is why amateurs are.."
And I was looked down on,
"Even if it's opium if they don't absorb a reasonable amount of a reasonable period they won't turn into something like an addiction. There's pretty much no narcotic that would result in addiction in just a single try and in the first place we're not discussing humans from Earth, on Orth who knows..furthermore they're monsters after all. Also, mixing up addiction to drugs and the symptoms shown from withdrawal of an addiction is typical of an amateur."
And I was told that, I guess that is true. I mean, I am an amateur after all. After that we talked about ti when Angela and Gwine really weren't listening but my Identify might not be able to determine chronic addiction, is the conclusion we came to. Certainly even if I use Identify on a person with an illness if the symptoms haven't appeared it doesn't show up.
In any case, since we were saying a number of dangerous terms like "narcotics" and "opium" Gwine was persis~tently trying to ask about it, we decided to talk about it with these two. Well as expected if I heard Gwine talking about those words I wouldn't just ignore it either.
That's the end of this discussion for now.
.........................
Our horses ascended the outer crater's of Baldukk and climbed to a place where we can look down at the town. It's a time that's still before lunch.
"I wonder if we can eat Baldoggie for lunch?"
"If they're in the dungeon then I'm sure we can."
I replied to Gwine who was controlling the reins in the front while we started the descent to the town of Baldukk. In regards to the holiday over Golden Week I left it to Zenom and Toris so how long of a period they decided to take off or explore I don't know, whether today is a holiday or if they're in the dungeon is unknown.
It's something we could tell form above but nothing at all had changed with the town of Baldukk since before and after we departed, it's still the same town with a population exceeding 30,000 people.
Along the way, we let down Angela at Shuni and just as we arrived at Boil Manor we were able to catch Cathy as she was climbing the stairs with some Baldoggie that were finished being stuffed and boiled. It was as she was making round trips between their room and the rooftop to smoke them.
"Ah, Greed-san. Welcome back!!"
While Cathy was energetically greeting us I asked her, "Is everyone in the dungeon?" and her reply was that everyone would probably return tomorrow.
"Eh? They aren't coming back every day?"
And Gwine asked. I thought the same thing.
"Yeah, it seems that everyone is going down to the 4th floor now. It sure is amazing right~"
And Cathy smiled while replying.
"So everyone was able to pass through the 3rd floor in a single day? Even the {Exterminators}?"
Miduchi and Gwine were surprised as they talked but if they're going to the 4th floor then that should be the case. Putting that aside, while going up the stairs to the second floor I asked Cathy about something different. This is something I need to confirm.
"Was there any changing of members between groups?"
"There was not. I heard that they had a test at the end of April but.."
He~
"Hn, I see, thanks. After changing we're going to get some lunch but how about it? You still haven't had any right?"
After asking Cathy and she said she still hadn't so we quickly got changed and during that time she, John, and Terry filled up the smoker with sausages. We waited for Angela to come after changing and then went to ear lunch with everyone.
It should be fine to put off the Baldoggies until dinner.
That evening, I don't know where they heard about it but the members of {Gehenna.Flare} came to the Boil Manor to invite Gwine out to drink. She was saying, "We just returned so together with everyone.." but her expression didn't seem discontent as she was getting shy in front of the dwarf named Garun or whatever from {Gehenna.Flare}. Yes-Yes~ I'm so jealous of your popularity among the bearded. Annoying~
"Don't mind us and go enjoy yourself."
We'll enjoy ourselves on our end as well. Cathy, John, and Terry are here and there's also the sausages just made today.
.....................
Year 7446, Month 6, Day 5
In the morning I went to my company in the capital and was worked to death going over various fine details and meetings. It started to get troublesome for me having to go to every one of them so I narrowed the candidates down to two places and threw all of the details in regards to the sausage factory contract on to Miduchi and Luke.
In the evening when we returned to Baldukk no one from the {Slaughterers} had returned to the surface. We returned to the inn once thinking "It's still bright out so I guess it'll take a bit more time huh?", then when we returned to the entrance plaza it was just as the {Butchers} came out together with Zulu and were all biting into some Baldoggie sold at the stall. After looking closely Gwine and Angela was with them as well.
After being congratulated by Zulu and the other combat slaves for my safe return, I said "We returned with combat shoes for everyone so come and get them later" before biting into a Baldoggie as well. While we were doing that the {Exterminators} and then {Slaughterers} returned to the surface as well.
We all exchanged greetings and listening to their stories, after all both teams were able to make it to the 4th floor now so they haven't been returning daily anymore. It seems that the {Butchers} have been since March and the {Exterminators} since May.
Hmm, with this I won't be in the red anymore. That's great.
Also, while it seems they underwent the test to change out members, there still wasn't anyone who passed the stamina test and gained the qualification to challenge someone. Well I'm sure it's impossible in just a few months, as expected.
After that, excluding Zulu who was with the {Butchers} and Toris who was with the {Exterminators}, they reported everything that happened while I was gone to me.
First off the {Exterminators}. It's fine that they've started to go to the 4th floor but after all they're having a hard time clearing through the 4th floor in time, so it seems that it will still a while longer before they can safely go to the 5th floor.
Next up is the {Butchers}. While they managed to clear through to the 4th floor in March, clearing through to the 5th floor in one day is expected to time some time after all.
This is also because of the problem of magic users. After undergoing combat, it's fine when there's not many injuries but if there's quite a few or there's some with serious injuries then they end up using a considerable amount of time recovering mana and depending on the case they may even have to take a break until the pain recedes. Well in some ways you could say it's something that can't be helped.
Finally the {Slaughterers}. While I wasn't around they properly held back on descending into the dungeon down to the 5th floor. I was a bit surprised at this. I could have sworn someone like the gold zombie Ralpha would propose going to the 7th floor.
"I mean..Neither Miduchi nor Al are around..Isn't that impossible if you calmly think about it. After all while you're not around, I have to properly worry about everyone. We can't do anything unreasonable."
And Ralpha said that. Why are you worrying about everyone. I left those sorts of things to Zenom and Toris so it would have been fine if you just lazed around. I thought that for a moment, but come to think of it, I said something random like that to hold back Ralpha who wanted to come along. So she thought I was being serious this entire time..Someone tell her. When I made eye contact with Zenom and Bel who were grinning, I said "Yeah, good work. It seems you've done a good job thinking about everyone." and her face turned to smiles.
After all she's easy. It's really a big help.
After that, Ralpha made a displeased face hearing that Gwine had some armor similar to Angela's made and that I was going to give my old armor to Jesu but after hearing the price she was peeking at Zenom's face. Zenom nodded with a bitter smile but after crossing her arms and thinking, after a short while she didn't say anything more as if she gave up on it.
"Next I'll check to see how much the {Butchers} and {Exterminators} have grown. After that, depending on the situation I might return the {Slaughterers} to our full members and start clearing the 8th floor this month. Everyone, be ready for that to be the case."
I concluded things that night by saying that.
Everyone was probably remembering back to that room on the 8th floor that gave off an eerie atmosphere, and gulp..
Ah, so they were eager. Most of them made expressions like a glare while lifting the sides of their lips. So I was the only one feeling frightened?
