Chapter 105

Dungeon of Medicinal Herbs and Fruits
The next day, we arrived at the dungeon, but all we saw were buildings—nothing that looked like a dungeon.
There was, however, one spot where a group of adventurers had gathered. That appeared to be the dungeon entrance.
This dungeon wasn’t in a mountain or cave, but rather a type where you descend underground.

The surrounding buildings catered to adventurers.
The medicinal herbs are supplied to the Apothecary Guild, and the fruits go to the Merchants' Guild. The Adventurers Guild only handles items for which requests have been filed.
Because there are so many adventurers and goods, responsibilities are divided and organized accordingly.

Even though there's a large volume of goods, it doesn't lead to an oversupply since they're also consumed outside the royal capital area.
Thanks to magic bags, demand remains high.

When our turn came, we entered the dungeon.
On the first floor, you can collect herbs used for treating cuts and oils for hand creams and ointments.
Occasionally, there are pitfalls made by Topes (mole-like monsters), but as long as you stay alert, there’s little risk of falling.
We took the shortest path and proceeded to the second floor.
Surprisingly, this dungeon doesn’t have a boss room until the fourth floor.

On the second floor, trees bore fruit like Linngo, Micaan, and Lemone.
This area is inhabited by monsters: pitch-black birds called Kureee and brown birds called Pipito.
If you try to harvest fruit, they attack in flocks—but if you leave the fruit alone, they won’t attack.
I see. A little ahead, I could see a flock of birds—probably because adventurers were currently harvesting fruit.
We took the shortest route through the second floor without picking any fruit.

The third floor was a forest.
You can harvest five kinds of medicinal herbs here, mainly ones used for headaches and painkillers.
Goblins tend to appear suddenly while you're collecting herbs.
The basic strategy is to split into gatherers and lookouts.
We didn’t gather anything, and if goblins showed up, I, Atre, Bianca, and Ciel handled them.
Ciel wanted to join the subjugation effort too, so I brought him along.

Raphael said that the goblins were already defeated before he could react.
But it wasn’t just him—Atre and the others were faster to respond and beat them before I could.
So I asked them to occasionally let me have a turn, and since then, they’ve been aiming for the ones I miss.
If I hadn’t asked, I’d be in the same situation as Raphael.

The fourth floor felt like a summer forest—still a forest, but hot.
Here you can harvest Bananaa , Momo, and Napple.
Monkey-like monsters called Mankey and Mono inhabit this floor.
Just like before, if you don’t start collecting, they won’t attack. But if you do, they’ll come at you in groups.

From this floor onward, there’s a boss room.
The boss is a gorilla-like monster called Gorii. There are usually around 8 to 10 of them.
Their body hair is tough, and cheap iron swords can break against them.

We decided to defeat them with magic—Raphael and I, along with Atre, Bianca, and Ciel.
The knights assigned to protect Raphael saw how strong Atre and the others were, so they didn’t say anything.

The loot was two wooden boxes filled with Mango.
They’re apparently high-grade mangoes collected from the sixth floor.
After leaving the fourth floor, we returned to the third floor’s exit.
There’s a plaza in the safety zone, so we set up tents to camp there tonight.

During dinner, I asked Raphael why we only made it to the fifth floor.
This dungeon seemed easier than the Eminira Dungeon I went to, so I thought we could go to even higher floors.

Apparently, the escort knights have low adventurer ranks.
The dukedom’s knights mainly handle protection and security, and rarely participate in monster subjugations.
They’re registered as adventurers in case something happens, but their ranks are only E or F.
This dungeon’s top floor requires a D-rank, and the other dungeon’s top floor requires C-rank, so knights don’t really take on dungeon subjugation tasks.

Since there are plenty of D- and C-rank adventurers, they aren’t needed.
And without doing subjugation work, their rank won’t increase either.
In Westland, they do handle escort duties, but their main role is subjugation—so I guess that’s the difference.

What do you think about this chapter?