Chapter 50: Could You Accompany Me?
Kaede was tired. She had checked all the material deliveries twice, and she always asked the team for confirmation. Some insisted that the drops had been counted incorrectly, so she always remained calm and asked them to count them together with the team members. Only then would they accept the count.
Others were more relaxed and accepted the first count without any problems.
"Everyone could be like this," Kaede said while looking at Masaru.
"But then there wouldn’t be any fun."
"There’s one more group left," she said dejectedly.
"Don’t worry, I’ll give you two days off for your work."
Haru used the skill for the tenth time, and the monsters were still appearing.
"How many more times will we need to stay here?" Hina asked.
"This should be the last time the skill will be necessary. Considering that the duration is approximately five hours and that each use lasted only a few seconds, when the duration of this use ends, no more monsters should appear. At least, that’s what I hope will happen."
"And what if the monsters still appear?"
"We’ll stay here until they stop."
In the guild hall, Masaru began giving another speech that no one paid attention to. Neither Ren nor Aino felt like listening.
"Masamoto’s team was the winner, with four hundred and twenty-three gold coins, thirty-nine silver coins, and fifty-seven copper coins. The money will be sent to the team later today along with the prize. I ask that you follow Amanda and go choose your weapons. The other teams will receive their amounts within two hours."
Amanda guided the team to a room filled with weapons and other magical items.
"How did he manage to pay that amount?" Ren asked.
"As far as I know, Masaru doesn’t have any money. We need to inform Mr. Kanzaki."
Ren sent a text message to Hayato.
Aino was anxious. She wanted to enter the dungeon immediately, but the entrance was still locked.
"What’s going on?" Aino asked.
"Do you think they only found out afterward?"
"What do you mean?"
"They may have only discovered after the event ended that the dungeon was having problems. They’re prohibiting entry now to prevent any problems."
"But how is that possible?"
"Very simple, they held the event on a slightly deeper floor, so no problems were caused."
"That makes sense... it must be that."
"But if they investigate and discover the crystals?"
"Let’s use the ring already. Do you think it works from this distance?"
Hayato took the ring and activated it. A strong light emanated from it, which caught Kaede’s attention, but she quickly disguised her reaction.
They covered the item with a handkerchief.
Masaru finished another speech and then opened the dungeon to anyone who wanted to explore it.
’So I was wrong?’
The adventurers gradually dispersed, and some entered the dungeon.
Ren and Aino waited for a few more minutes. They wanted to make sure they wouldn’t attract anyone’s attention. At least, no more than they already had.
They watched all the entrances to the dungeon. When they considered it the right time, the two stood up.
"Could you accompany me?" Kaede asked.
"Yes, of course," Ren replied. He didn’t know how to react.
Aino agreed.
’Did they discover us?’ Aino couldn’t stop thinking about it.
Ren wanted to run, but he wouldn’t be able to escape.
"There is a problem with your records. We identified that there is some problem with your registration data," Kaede said carefully, paying attention to every movement they made.
"It must be some mistake, we’ve never committed any fraud," Aino said.
"But I didn’t say you committed any fraud. I only said that there are some problems with your registration."
"What are these problems?" Ren asked while trying to remain calm.
Kaede began talking about various things because she only wanted to buy time so that Mio and the others could get out of the dungeon. She had noticed that the two of them kept looking toward the entrance, and if they saw the three of them leaving the dungeon, it would be a big problem.
A few minutes passed. Ren was a little angry, but he was relieved. Aino was still a little nervous, but she managed to contain herself for long enough.
"I never imagined that filling out a quick form would cause me so many problems," Aino grumbled as she paid the dungeon entrance fee.
"Now let’s focus on what we need. I wrote down all the positions where we threw the crystals. We just need to go to the floors and everything will be resolved."
Aino quickly used the guild card, and they went to the second floor. Ren was afraid that the ring hadn’t worked, but considering that there were some people inside the dungeon, the ring should have done its job.
The floor was incredibly organized, with the brick walls in perfect condition.
"Did nothing really happen?"
"The dungeon regenerates, so it’s perfectly possible that the dungeon started repairing itself during the time we spent waiting."
"No, I don’t think so. It was too fast. The regeneration time is slower, especially considering all the damage that could have occurred from the stampedes." Ren was very suspicious. He knew something was wrong, he just didn’t know exactly what it was.
"What will we do if our plan failed?"
"There’s not much we can do. We need to inform Mr. Kanzaki and endure his insults."
Aino was already trembling just imagining Kazuma angry. He was a very difficult person to deal with, and practically impossible to deal with when he was angry.
They walked to the marked location, looked around, and there wasn’t a single crystal. A wolf appeared and tried to attack them, but Aino quickly killed it with a single punch.
"Could some monster have swallowed the crystal?"
"No, monsters don’t do that."
"Did someone take it?"
"That’s possible. It’s difficult to hide the crystals on this floor, but even so, I don’t think so. The crystal is easily concealed. I remember activating it, so I don’t know."
"He’s going to kill us."
On the third floor, the same thing happened. With each new floor, they became even more nervous. All the crystals had disappeared, and there wasn’t any trace of energy or the crystals left in the environment.
"Was the ring activated?"
"Yes. That intense glow indicated that there was no problem with the activation."
"If the crystals weren’t activated, would this item warn us?"
"I don’t know. I think the item would respond in the same way. I’ve never used these items before."
"What do we do now?"