The week leading up to the trial was a busy time for Kotori she spent much of the time holed up in the adventurer’s guild reading as much as she could on the deeper dives into the dungeons. Although the material was sparse she still managed to learn some things.

For one, the dungeon was fairly non-linear in its structure. One could be walking up or down and still be “progressing” into the dungeon. It also seemed like the power of the monsters in the dungeon did not scale linearly.

For example, sometimes the groups would come across rooms and hallways filled with basic tier monsters, and other times they would come up against monstrously strong monsters. There was a trend though, and that was the fact that the lower one went the strong the monsters became

This led Kotori to hypothesize something.

That although the paths in the dungeon would twist and turn and go upward. It seemed like the true path was being obscured.

Either the dungeon was sentient, or someone was trying to hide something in the dungeon. The fact that the dungeon was constantly changed in size, shape, and layout made this theory even more likely in Kotori’s eyes.

In truth, Kotori had a suspicion that this dungeon had a dungeon boss similar to Nero, but it was difficult to find.

[Perhaps the dungeon boss is a treasure itself?] Kotori thought while reading the accounts.

It was an interesting thought, but the Labyrinthos was simply a dungeon that defied Kotori’s understanding of dungeons. Eventually, after thinking for a while she decided.

[Umu! I’m going to dig.]

Kotori was planning on digging her way to the core of the dungeon. She of course, didn’t have to follow the set paths that were given to her.

Unlike the other groups, Kotori had [Gourmet] and could eat her way through the dungeon. Although, the thought of having to bite on that minerally rock wasn’t a pleasant thought.

It seems the adventurer’s guild was also becoming quite busy. All the candidates had post requests for adventurers to become their party members. Since they no longer had the protection of the Queen’s guard for the trial.

The reward amounts were dizzyingly high and Kotori was surprised the Candidates had that much money to give out.

It seemed like Zacariah had the highest reward followed closely by Mathias and Yenoba. Interestingly, enough Ryla’s posting had a modest amount. As if she wasn’t trying to compete with her siblings.

At the current rate the parties were shaping up it seems like Zacariah was receiving the lion's share of requests while Mathias and Yenoba picked up the scraps. Eventually, though Mathias and Yenoba would likely get the rejected adventurers who tried to join Zacariah.

The ranking of adventurers in the guild went from Platinum, Gold, Silver, Bronze, Copper. For reference, Hectaire was a platinum-ranked adventurer. As it stood now, Zacariah would be getting the cream of the crop in platinum adventurers for his party. Mathias and Yenoba would likely get the overflow from that pool and hire the remaining platinum-ranked adventurers as well as swiping the strongest gold-ranked adventurers for himself. Ryla on the other hand was on the side of quantity over quality and was receiving requests from the silver-tiered adventurers.

Kotori of course had no such luck. Her and Fawks did not have the monetary backing of major merchants and thus didn’t have the fund to put out a request.

Not that she minded. Kotori’s party would already be considered as strong or stronger than the platinum tiered adventurer with her Mana buff from [Gourmet]

All she had to do was research the dungeon and prepare the materials for herself. She would be taking her party but leaving Fawks to his own devices in the city.

Fawks didn’t seem to mind being left behind but Kotori didn’t like his attitude.

“Ah, I need to prepare a runaway ship” He would mutter under his breath.

Kotori would flick him on his forehead

“Do you not trust us? You know we’re strong” She would say indignantly.

“Ah but, you see I need to prepare for eventualities.” Fawks would say.

At the very least he seemed to still be on their side even if a little weak-hearted.

Kotori renewed her efforts to figure out how to eat the dungeon although it was still difficult to understand why the mana within the dungeon was so dense that she was not able to eat it.

It wasn’t even particularly rich. It just felt like low-quality mana that had been condensed in a thick wall like Styrofoam.

Kotori decided that she would have to figure it out as she travels in the dungeon. Hopefully, she would be able to dig down.

Kitsura

posting a bit earlier today.

 

I can't wait for you all to read the next ten or so chapters.