Evil Avalon - Volume 2 - Chapter 6

Chapter 6: Humans All Look the Same

Another human had visited this store recently? Granny’s Goods was in a difficult-to-access hidden area, and we had passed no other adventurers. I’d assumed nobody else had ever found it.

“What were they like?” I asked.

“Hmm,” said Furufuru, tilting her head. “My apologies, but I can’t remember. Humans all look the same.”

That was a funny statement. Fiends looked like humans, other than their horns, so I didn’t know how we could all look the same. Anyway...

I wonder whether the other customer was a player, I thought.

A bit over a month had passed since I arrived in this world. If I assumed the other players had also started in Class E, they would have faced challenges reaching Granny’s Goods in that period. But it’d be possible if they’d invested more time and taken a riskier strategy than mine. I also couldn’t exclude the possibility they knew techniques and methods I wasn’t aware of.

Is it possible that the customer was an ordinary adventurer? I considered.

I couldn’t find any reference to this store during my investigations in the library. Many decades had passed since the dungeon’s discovery, so it wouldn’t be outrageous that someone had slotted a dungeon coin into the hole in the wall and stumbled upon this area. It made sense they’d kept that a secret to hoard the benefits of the shop.

Whether the customer was a player or an ordinary adventurer, they would have cleared the shop of some items. That’s what I would’ve done, but the shelves looked full... So, I asked Furufuru directly. A player would buy potions and ores like me, and an adventurer would likely buy magic items instead. The answer might help me narrow the options down.

“Oh, they didn’t buy anything,” replied Furufuru. “They just asked if anyone else had visited.”

They didn’t buy anything? I thought.

Everything the store offered was incredibly desirable compared to the goods on sale elsewhere. Perhaps they had brought no dungeon coins with them? If that were the case, wouldn’t they save up and return after Furufuru had explained the currencies she accepted? And couldn’t they use magic gems anyway?

Therefore, their true aim was in what they’d asked, wanting to know who else had come here. The nature and timing of the question made the customer seem more like a player.

Which of my classmates looks like they spend the most time in the dungeon? I wondered.

I didn’t know how long any had spent here since I had little time getting to know them. Or rather, none of them wanted to know me after my reputation got tarnished for losing to a slime. I had joined no clubs and left when lessons ended to head straight for exercise or dungeon raids.

Plus, I’ve even thought of dropping out of school. Maybe I should start building relationships with my classmates to gather more information.

Getting to know my classmates would come at the cost of time, and the advantages were gathering information and rewarding game events. Most of DEC’s events and key event characters revolved around students and faculty at the school. Some plots initiated by the events were dangerous. Still, I could figure out how far Akagi and the heroines had progressed through the events while getting friendly with my classmates.

“I see,” I told Furufuru. “If they come back, please don’t tell them we were here. It could cause trouble for us.”

We’d made it here so soon due to the unforeseeable encounter with Volgemurt, and the other player had beaten me here because they were strong. I wanted to keep as much information about myself secret in case they were hostile. But I was sure I was at a higher level than them and intended to continue getting stronger.

“Of course,” accepted Furufuru. “You needn’t worry about that... I’ll probably forget you once you’ve gone anyway.”

“Thank you very much,” I said. “We’ll see you when we come back.”

Kano waved her hand. “See you later, miss!”

Furufuru waved back, smiling.

I wondered how she coped with running a dead shop in an area no one visited. It would surely mess with her perception of time, which was convenient for us.

Kano and I went out to the empty square and took a break. It was peaceful, making it easy to forget we were inside the dungeon. There were no chirping birds or rustling breezes, and the ceiling was high and emitted a bright blue light. These qualities made the space feel comfortably large. It felt nice knowing my sister and I had this spot for ourselves.

We got out the yakisoba we’d bought at the tenth floor’s rest area and began to eat. As I’d dreaded, the extra money we had paid didn’t translate into better taste. The flavor was so indistinct I couldn’t even tell what meat they’d used.

“Let’s head back home,” I said.

“Yep!” chirped Kano.

There was a gate in the square we were sitting in that we could use to get home. I would register my magic at the gate so that we could visit Granny’s Goods from outside the dungeon whenever we wanted.

Thanks to my high level, the four chunks of ore I carried, each weighing over ten kilograms, didn’t slow me down. Their awkward size was more of a problem than their weight, which made me long for a magic bag. I’d have to save up more dungeon coins and return to get one.

I considered whether we’d hunt the minotaur in our next raid or venture deeper into the dungeon. Yet I chose to leave the question for now and think about it properly after we were home. I had a long day and felt tired, yawning nonstop.

When I found the symbols on the wall that marked the presence of a gate, I channeled my magic through the magic circle and opened it. We went through and were instantly in the empty classroom of the school’s basement. The humidity was lower here, and the air cooled my skin.

“You head on home,” I said to Kano. “I’m gonna drop the ore off at the factory. Are you okay getting home by yourself?”

“I’ll be fine!” responded Kano. “Thanks for dropping mine off too!”

She skipped as she left, clearly in a good mood. I almost yelled for her to be more careful because she’d be easy to spot as an outsider if someone caught her doing that. It would probably be safer if I gave her a fake uniform so she didn’t stand out dressed in her armor.

People might notice I was at a high level if I carried the ore around, so I got a cart from the factory and loaded it. The cart clattered as I pushed it outside the building, where I could hear students training at the Arena. The noise made me nostalgic for my high school days. Although, I was living through them in a certain way.

While I headed to the factories, I wondered how Akagi was settling with his club activities. Had he joined the Class E exclusive club? He might have fallen into depression. If that were the case, an annoying event was on the horizon, and I’d need to avoid getting caught in the fallout.

I approached the white, rectangular factory building and marveled at the brand-new outer walls and spotless storage area. From inside, I could hear machinery and hammers striking metal. One of the school’s clubs allowed students to learn blacksmithing by crafting metal carvings and other decorations private corporations ordered. Most activities took place in the factory area on school grounds. Metals mined from the dungeon, such as mithril, required a person to channel magic through them during the refining process. Adventurers’ High students possessed large mana reserves because of their high levels. This advantage made them suitable to become engravers and blacksmiths, so many students pursued those career paths.

Hopefully a second- or third-year student is around, I thought, looking through the large open door leading to the factory. A stocky student spotted me and walked over.

“What do you want?” he asked, glaring at me with suspicion until he noticed the ore in my cart. “Oh, you want an order made?”

“Yes,” I replied. “I’d like a quote for refining this ore and using it to make weapons if that’s all right.”

The student, probably a second-year, leaned forward and scanned me. Next he turned to my ore and looked surprised when he realized it was mithril.

“Oh, this is fortunate!” he said, suddenly more friendly. “Me and the guys are studying mithril alloy and can knock the price down for you.”

“Really?” I asked. “How much will it be?”

His change in attitude was a bit off-putting, but the allure of a bargain was too much to resist. I’d set my finances to drastically improve once I could sell my HP potion, even though my wallet was nearly empty.

“Refining the mithril and silver will cost you...this much,” he explained, showing me the calculation on his terminal. “The price for making a weapon will depend on how much mithril we extract, so you’re better off waiting until the process is over before making a choice.”

The price he showed me was lower than I’d expected. Visiting the Adventurers’ Guild and seeing their prices would be worth it. If they were cheaper, I could do the refining process here while I got my weapons crafted there.

“We have a deal,” I said. “I’m Narumi, a first-year Class E student.”

“First-year Class E student?” he repeated with doubt. “And you’re gonna use a mithril-alloy weapon...? Either way, come back for your metal later.”

“Aren’t you going to write me a receipt or anything?”

“Hang on a second,” he said, then disappeared into a back room and returned with a refinery request contract, which I signed. The refining process wouldn’t take long, and he told me to come back in a few days.

With that out of the way, I headed home.

“I’m back,” I said, and my mother ran out to greet me the moment I stepped through the door. “Oh, err, hi?”

“Souta!” she exclaimed. “Is Kano telling the truth? She said... Wait a second, have you lost weight?”

She seemed curious to know whether Kano had really become a Caster but got distracted by the change in my appearance. I couldn’t blame her; as it would baffle any mother to see their son lose so much weight in one day.

The weight that I’d lost in the Volgemurt fight had mostly rebounded after I devoured some snacks. Overall, I was lighter than I had been and guessed it was around ten kilograms less than usual.

Perhaps the shock of my weight loss and Kano’s story were too much for her mind to handle at once. She stood there opening and closing her mouth with no words, wildly swinging her arms around.

“Why don’t we talk over dinner?” I suggested. “I’m starving.”

After a pause, my mother agreed, “The dinner’s ready. I just need to set the table.”

I went to my room and exhaled, recognizing today had been exhausting. As I removed my tattered demon wolf armor, I noted I’d need to replace it even though I had just bought it. Then, I worried about how much I would need to spend on new armor suitable for a level 19 adventurer.

Once I changed into some casual loungewear, I went to the living room. My father was there, sitting in a chair and sporting a wooden smile.

Good, we’re all here. “Okay,” I started, “where should I begin?”

My mother slid into the chair beside me and excitedly said, “With Kano becoming a Caster!”

Many from this world widely knew that successfully attaining a basic job proved you could make a career as an adventurer. My father had always clung to the dream of becoming one but never cleared level 4 of the dungeon. He was reading a newspaper and pretending not to pay attention, yet he was listening since he was eager to learn how we’d leveled up so much.

“You can’t let anyone else know what I’m about to tell you,” I warned.

“Could it put us in danger?” asked my mother.

“Some of it could.”

New information about the dungeon could be valuable, sometimes to the point you could go on with the rest of your life and not worry about money. If word got out that you knew something, shady characters might try to force the information out of you.

As such, my parents gulped when the severity dawned on them as they waited for me to continue.

“So anyway,” interrupted Kano. “I became a Caster, and bro became a Thief.”

“Yep. Also, we’re both level 19,” I added.

“N-N-Nineteen?!” my parents screamed in unison. While my father’s mouth gaped, my mother practically grappled me. Famous clans scouted adventurers level 19 and higher. They cheered, clasping hands with each other, and continued, “Our kids are geniuses!”

Genius was a bit much, still...

I considered how detailed I should be with my explanation, knowing I could trust them and turn them into the best party members. Thus, I decided to be as open and honest with my family as possible. I would need to warn them about the danger this could bring while telling them everything I knew about the dungeon.

However, I wouldn’t tell them their world originated from a game or anything about my previous world. They would think I’d gone insane, and the information wouldn’t benefit them.

And so, I explained to them everything that had happened over the last few days.