Chapter 144

Rest Day
Yesterday, after taking a break in the lake chamber, we went to peek at what the sixth floor was like.
There wasn't any sun to be seen, but it was an ordinary forest.
It wasn't dense enough to be called overgrown, but the trees were thick enough that you couldn't really see a wide-open sky.
Apparently there were clearings here and there that served as safe zones, but we went back without mapping the area, so we'll actually walk around and check them out tomorrow.

More importantly, getting back yesterday was a bit of a hassle.
The monsters up through the third floor that we'd passed by on the way in had already respawned.
The dungeon in Annar Village the first time had only had a twelve-hour respawn, but all the others had been forty-eight hours, so I figured this one would be the same.

When we got back, we checked at the Guild and found out it was a twenty-four-hour respawn.
Staying overnight in the forest is absolutely going to be necessary, or it'll be way too much trouble.
Well, even though they'd respawned, they were only Goblins, Kobolds, and Small Rats, so we just defeated the ones blocking our path and took the shortest route back.

"Tomorrow we'll head straight down to the fifth floor, spend the night there, and from the sixth floor onward, the floors ain't all that big, so one floor a day oughta do it. Countin' both goin' and comin' back, we'll be in there for about two weeks, so let's stock up on what we need."

"Okay! Ah, but Dad, the fifth floor was kinda chilly, wasn't it? If we're gonna spend the night, wouldn't it be better to go all the way to the sixth floor?"

It was a mystical place, and as long as you didn't get too close to the lake, no monsters came out, so it was peaceful, but I couldn't help noticing how chilly it was.

"Hmm... tomorrow we'll be fightin' our way through every floor up to the fifth, even if we're just movin' through the passages, right? If we keep goin' all the way to the safe zone on the sixth floor, it'll get a mite late.

Yer worried 'bout the cold, but once we're inside the tent, we oughta be fine, don't ya think? Should we bring one extra blanket?"

Oh, right.
Since the respawn time is short, all the monsters will be back on every floor tomorrow.
Even if we don't bother searching for treasure chests, we can't just ignore the monsters along the direct route and walk past them.
That'll take quite a while, so lunch will probably have to be trail rations.
Then we'll set up camp early and have a proper dinner afterward.

"Yeah, you're right. Then let's bring one extra blanket, just in case! What else do we need? The landlady's going to prepare preserved food too, and we've still got some in our bags, right?

We've still got plenty of tea that we've already boiled, and we only just bought vegetables the other day..."

"Kuh... that's true. Weren't there a few requests for things gathered in the forest?

Wouldn't it be better to buy a few more storage bags for 'em?"

Dad told me what else we should buy while his shoulders shook.
Huh? Ah, don't tell me...
Did he think I was such a glutton because I was only talking about food?

"D-Dad, it's not like all I think about is food, okay? It just happened to come up, okay? We bought weapon maintenance supplies in Clavetsia, and other than food, we haven't really used up anything since we left, that's all! It's not because I'm a glutton, okay?"

As a maiden, I have to defend myself, you know? Dad burst out laughing. Geez! How rude.
Well, thanks to the landladies at every village inn always giving us extra food, my Magic Bag has gradually filled up with preserved rations.
We do eat them while traveling from village to village, but on the last day they always pack us plenty of lunches too, and since we hunt monsters along the roads, we're never short on meat.
Thanks to that, we've always got plenty of ingredients other than fresh vegetables.

So anyway, time for shopping that isn't food.
Officially, we're telling people that the Magic Bag Dad wears at his waist, which he borrowed from the Guildmaster, has a time-stop function, so anything we gather will be transferred into Dad's bag on the first floor of the dungeon.
That means we can gather as much as we want.
Medicinal herbs are better carried in baskets, so we'll buy several shallow baskets.
For storage bags, we'll need ones for nuts, fruit, and spices, plus Horned Rabbit horns, Forest Spider silk, Yellow Snake fangs and skins, some for items we'll turn in, some for the things we're taking home ourselves, and a few extra just in case.
We don't need storage bags for Orc, Goblin, or Wolf drop items since we won't be keeping those.

After that, we bought several towels at the same shop where we picked up the blankets, and with that, our preparations for staying overnight in the dungeon starting tomorrow were complete.