At 4 a.m., before the sun had risen, many members of the Loki Familia were already up. Today was Expedition Day—an important moment for everyone in the Familia.
Knock, knock, knock!
Hearing the rapping at his door, still lying in bed, Tsunayoshi opened his eyes. In pajamas, he went to answer it.
"Finn?"
Finn was already fully suited in adventurer gear, clearly awake even earlier than this.
"Do you always get up this early on Expedition Day?"
"No. On past Expedition Days, only members assigned to transport work needed to rise this early. They have to inventory the expedition supplies and cargo in the morning. It's tougher for them, so they start earlier."
Finn explained.
"It's just that this time something extra has come up. The ones in charge of the inventory are me, Riveria, and Gareth. So today the three of us are the ones up at this hour."
"You three—the top brass—are doing the inventory?"
Am I hearing things? Tsunayoshi wondered if his ears were playing tricks on him. Why would Finn say the trio of leaders were handling inventory? Was that really a job for the number one, two, and three?
"We've detected 'abnormalities' in the Dungeon, remember? We're doing the inventory this time because of that. Our Familia didn't go on any expedition last year at all. The big incident in the Labyrinth City three years ago put everyone on alert. Especially last year—early on, the Guild published a notice that remnants of the Dark Faction had been sighted in the Dungeon. So we used the Guild's notice as grounds to decline last year's expedition."
"Honestly, we weren't that worried about the Dark Faction targeting us in general. But Ais reached Lv.5 last year, and we worried they might move against her. That's why we called off the expedition."
So that's why you restricted Ais from the Dungeon, Tsunayoshi realized. Given the circumstances, being wary of a Dark Faction ambush made sense.
"But what does that have to do with the three of you personally doing the inventory?"
Tsunayoshi didn't quite follow.
"Since there's a high chance we'll encounter an 'abnormal situation' on this expedition, our Familia can request compensation from the Guild. This expedition is mandatory; if an anomaly occurs and the Guild failed to warn us, they bear some responsibility."
Finn didn't mince words and laid it out for Tsunayoshi. Hearing the word "compensation," Tsunayoshi immediately understood their angle:
"In that case, should we count some first-grade weapons toward the manifest? If they're 'lost' en route due to Dungeon anomalies, could we have the Guild compensate for those as well?"
"Get dressed. I'll have Riveria and Gareth add a large number of magic swords from our reserves to the expedition supplies."
Prompted by Tsunayoshi, Finn suddenly saw it. Losing first-grade weapons would be a stretch—but 'misplacing' a bulk purchase of magic swords was far more plausible. And the cost of high-use magic swords can rival first-grade weapons.
The Familia's storerooms held a considerable stock of magic swords. If they added them all to the expedition manifest, they could demand a hefty payout from the Guild afterward. Finn had no intention of wasting such compensation.
With that thought, he could hardly keep still. Good thing the three of them were in charge of inventory today; otherwise, making last-minute changes would be difficult.
Watching Finn's retreating back, Tsunayoshi yawned, closed the door, and returned to his room. He still needed a bit to fully wake from that half-asleep haze. He turned off the magic stone lamp and lay back down, eyes half-shut.
Knock, knock, knock!
The knocking came again. Tsunayoshi opened his eyes. A sliver of light bled through the gap in the curtains, hinting at how much time had passed since he'd first woken. He got up once more and opened the door.
Tiona and Tione stood outside, both wearing the special Holy Shroud outfits from yesterday.
"Tsunayoshi, are you still not awake?"
"No. I'm awake."
He drew a deep breath, far more alert than the first time he'd opened the door.
"Tiona, Tione—do you normally get up this early on Expedition Day?"
"Mm. It's already 5:30. Time for us to get up and begin our own preparations. Departure from the home is at 8:30. From now we have three hours. That's enough to get up, have breakfast, finish final checks, and tune our condition. Today we're going straight to the 18th floor in one go and we also have to take down Goliath."
"Goliath? The 17th-floor boss? Has it reached its spawn window already?"
"I think that's another reason the Guild mandated our participation. Normally, besides issuing requests to Orario's Familias, they'd also have the adventurers based in Rivira on Floor 18 form parties to clean it up. But Rivira was recently overrun by Dungeon monsters. They're still rebuilding, so they can't spare the effort to face Goliath. That's why they commissioned the Guild."
I see. Tsunayoshi knew Rivira had its own internal ecosystem. Adventurers doing business there generally had some strength—Lv.2s and Lv.3s were common. If they could organize internally, they wouldn't need to bother the Guild about Goliath.
"By the way, when you and Tione take down a floor boss like Goliath, can you still accrue 'deeds' toward promotion?"
"We can. But it takes a long time to accumulate enough to rank up if you aren't challenging above your level. Without over-level challenges, getting sufficient 'deeds' takes time. If we hadn't skipped expeditions these last two years, Tione and I would've had enough already."
Yet Tiona wasn't disappointed by the delayed promotion; if anything, she was cheerful.
"Honestly, it's lucky we didn't have enough yet, or we wouldn't have been able to push all our ability scores to the cap."
"Exactly. Sometimes being late isn't really falling behind."
(End of Chapter)
[Check Out My P@treon For +20 Extra Chapters On All My Fanfics!!][[email protected]/euridome]
[Thank You For Your Support!]