There could be no such thing as a loss when it came to robbing Raiders.
Especially in our situation.
"It's jerky. Judging by the smell, I think it's beef and horse meat."
"This bag has nuts and dried fruit in it."
"Blegh! It tastes awful! What is this?!"
"Those are field rations. Saw them last time and they were pretty pricey; looks like they carry stuff like this around too."
First off, our food problem was solved, and we even had menu options now.
Better yet, weren't jerky and field rations fairly pricey food?
I never imagined the meals we ate inside the labyrinth would end up richer than what we ate outside.
"Their gear is barely damaged, so we should be able to get a fair price for it."
"These are the ones we've been collecting, right?"
Gear, byproducts from nearby monsters, and so on.
We managed to secure a hefty amount of spoils that would fetch good money, too.
"Oil, huh. Were they planning to use it for firebombs?"
"There's rope, too. Seems like it'll come in handy to have around, so I'll pack it."
"Oooh! Potions!"
Among the haul, a few somewhat unusual items caught our eyes as well—
"What could this be?"
"Could it be an item...?"
For instance, a green skull-shaped badge pinned to each backpack.
It wasn't an item; it just looked like an emblem indicating their affiliation.
'I'll have to look into this after we get out later.'
Besides that, useful supplies kept pouring out of the bags one after another.
So much that we couldn't even pack it all.
'Just how many people did these bastards rob?'
Judging by the sheer volume alone, this wasn't the size of a haul from swallowing just one or two teams.
At this scale, they must have robbed at least three or four teams...
'How did they pull that off with skills like theirs?'
Did they only bump into people who were already half-dead?
Thinking that, I pulled out the final item.
It was a leather pouch, and when I felt it, there were a few small things inside.
"What is it?"
"Who knows. We'll have to open it to find out."
"Looks like just snacks to me."
Just as the Dwarf said, I didn't really expect much either.
When I actually emptied out the pouch, however—
'...Hm?'
I froze for a moment.
"Huh?"
"These are..."
"The paper and stones that make you stronger!"
Records and Runes tumbled out.
***
In truth, getting records or Runes from robbing Raiders wasn't all that rare.
When the targets were beginners, however, it was a slightly different story.
Because beginners were busy using them the moment they got them.
'Doesn't seem likely that they robbed a 2-Star Explorer, though.'
Higher up, the completeness of your build mattered more than your grade, but among low-grade Explorers, grade was fairly absolute.
Almost impossible to overturn under normal circumstances.
Frankly, even if I dragged my whole team in to jump one, taking down a single 2-Star Explorer would be tough, so there was no way those guys could have pulled it off with their skills.
'Just how did they get these?'
If it were one or two, I could understand.
Reasons came in all shapes and sizes, and it wasn't as if beginners never held onto records and Runes without using them.
Even in my own bag right now, wasn't there an unused Mud Doll record sitting inside?
Still—
'Four is way too many.'
Two Record Sheets and two Runestones.
That number was far too high to brush off as a mere coincidence.
Made me genuinely curious about how this had happened.
With everyone involved dead now, however, there was no way to dig up the secret behind it.
Makes me wonder if I should have kept one alive for a bit if it was going to turn out like this.
'...Well, doesn't really matter either way.'
I'm just curious, that's all; it isn't something I strictly need to know.
I'll just figure those bastards got lucky.
Ah, actually, maybe not even that.
Since things went sideways for them in the end and they all wound up dead.
In any case, the only important thing was that thanks to those bastards, two Record Sheets and two Runes were now in my hands.
Appraising them one by one, I decided what to do with them.
The front of a Record Sheet was covered in unreadable runes, but the back had an illustration of the corresponding monster, letting you tell which record it was.
On the backs of the white Record Sheets, a Goblin and a Mud Doll were each drawn in gray, like black-and-white photographs.
"Since everyone already got the Mud Doll record, we'll sell this one in the city. And as for the Goblin record... Brooks, you take it."
It was a distribution I decided unilaterally, but there were no objections.
The 1 point of Muscle went to the Dwarf.
Next were the skill Runes.
Both were Body Runes engraved with red runes.
"Red! That is a stone I can use!"
The Orc shouted excitedly, and one of them actually went to him.
"It's [Charge]."
A skill that boosted physical abilities in proportion to your speed while in a 'rapid movement' state.
Considering the Orc's fighting style of sprinting straight in and slamming his axe down, it suited him quite well.
"Even I think it is good!"
The Orc seemed pleased with the very first skill he had gotten for himself, too.
"Tille, you use this one."
The next person to receive a skill was the Elf, and she was given [Counterattack].
A skill that amplified the damage of an attack launched right after blocking with a 'shield.'
For the Elf, who used a shield and sword together, it would be very useful.
"I'll put it to good use."
Even as she accepted the Rune, however, the Elf wore an uncertain look and tilted her head.
"Wait, if we do it like this, doesn't that leave nothing for your share, Yuta...?"
It seemed she felt a bit guilty deep down that only the three of them had gotten rewards while leaving me out.
"You did all the fighting by yourself, so that really doesn't sit quite right."
Hearing her, the Dwarf chimed in to agree.
Swear to god, they really don't act like Explorers.
Have they forgotten that the only reason we ended up with a schedule lasting over a month in the first place is for a single record of mine?
"No need to worry about it. I'll take care of my own share."
Brushing aside my party members' concern, I picked up our noticeably heavier baggage.
It was time to resume the expedition.
***
Only Day 1 had been a whirlwind of incidents in all sorts of ways.
After the incident with the Beastfolk team and the Raiders, the expedition proceeded very smoothly.
And so, we were currently halfway through Day 7.
After wiping out another group of Mud Dolls, we blocked off both entrances to take a break and sat down in a circle together.
"Somehow, we haven't had much of a haul since the first day."
Despite hunting nearly 500 Mud Dolls in the meantime, not a single record had dropped.
The drop rate that had shocked me on the first day had roughly averaged back out to normal.
Naturally, it wasn't a good thing, yet I couldn't help feeling relieved instead.
What was slightly baffling, though—
"Do Runes normally not drop very often, either?"
—was that not a single Runestone had dropped at all.
How Runestones were obtained was determined in a somewhat complicated way, sure, but for starters, every Level 1 monster on the 1st floor was a creature that dropped skill Runes.
And at a rate similar to records, too.
So by now, an average of five—or at the very least, one—should have dropped...
'Seriously can't figure this place out.'
One day they drop so much it makes me uneasy, and now they won't drop at all, which is infuriating all over again.
I knew it was like this back when I played [Dungeon Log], too, but experiencing the labyrinth's whims in the flesh felt on another level entirely.
Son of a bitch.
At least we can earn money at a guaranteed rate, which is a relief.
To be exact, they're byproducts we have to sell to turn into cash, but either way.
'...Ah. Come to think of it, it's about that time.'
When my thoughts reached that point, I suddenly remembered a certain fact and called over the Dwarf.
"Brooks, how much further is it to the Water Source?"
"Looks like we can easily make it before turning in for the night... Why do you ask?"
"I think we need to change our route a little."
I pointed to a spot marked with a shop symbol on the map.
"We'll stop by here."
Quickly working on revising the route, the Dwarf asked a question.
"A shop inside the labyrinth, huh. Doesn't seem like we're short on anything yet... Are you planning to stop by already?"
Originally, it hadn't been in the plan.
Or rather, I had planned to visit a shop, just not this one.
I had intended to press on with the expedition for a few more days and visit one further along.
"We need to lighten our load."
However, after acquiring a hefty amount of supplies from the Raiders on the first day, things had shifted slightly.
In the labyrinth, having too little was the biggest problem, sure, but having too much became a problem in its own right.
Up until now, since we had been eating through our rations and getting practically weightless Mud Glands as byproducts, a rough balance had been maintained and the issue hadn't stood out, but once we passed the Water Source and the habitat changed, it would be a different story.
'We'd end up having to throw everything away.'
Unlike Mud Dolls, whose byproducts were thumbnail-sized Mud Glands, the other monsters on the 1st floor yielded bones, pelts, and the like as byproducts.
Meaning they were bulky and weighed a fair bit.
If we kept going in our current state, our bags would inevitably overflow before long.
And from that point on, we would have to give up on almost all of our byproducts.
'The losses would be way too big then.'
Since this expedition had a long schedule, we needed to walk away with plenty of profit.
Only then could I advance my build without wasting time and challenge the upper floors quickly, too.
Normally, growth speed wasn't all that critical when raising a character, but—
'Because I have to reach the 4th floor by the end of the year.'
With my current build, the situation was a bit different.
There were Runes and skills you could obtain on the 4th floor, and the chance to get them only came around right at the 'end of the year.'
If this year passed, I would have to wait another full year to get that record and Rune, so if at all possible, I needed to reach at least 3-Star... or 4-Star, if I could, before the year ended.
"Going this way looks like it'll add about five days."
"Doesn't matter."
The others didn't seem particularly opposed to it, either.
Then again, these guys hadn't batted an eye when I told them we'd be staying in the labyrinth for over thirty days in the first place.
***
Just as in [Dungeon Log], so too in this place.
Inside the labyrinth, there were 'shops' run by NPCs—that is, local residents.
You might ask what kind of absurd setup that was, but considering the massive premium attached to commerce inside the labyrinth, it wasn't all that strange.
When the place was overflowing with people risking their lives as Explorers just to make money, why wouldn't people run a business in here?
Ah, even so, due to various issues, they only operated on the lower floors—the 3rd floor and below.
As a side note, these shops could only operate with a permit from the Cladis government, and any shop not marked on an 'Expanded Map' was said to be illegal.
Which was why buying a map notarized by the government was also said to be very important... Well, enough about that; what mattered was that the shop was now right in front of us.
"It's the next cave."
Thankfully, since our Expanded Map was a genuine copy stamped with the Cladis government's notarization mark, no monsters popped out at us on the other side of the passage.
A cave packed with all sorts of goods and set up like a warehouse came into view, along with the people who appeared to be its proprietors.
There were four of them; three looked like they had been brought along as guards, while only one seemed to be a merchant.
"Welcome! Welcome to the Explorers visiting the Kifra Merchant Guild's labyrinth shop! I am Hassan Slav, manager of this 1st-floor branch!"
A tone dripping with friendliness.
It was hard to believe he was someone we had met inside the labyrinth.
Naturally, running into other people in the labyrinth was usually anything but welcome.
Still, aside from that, I was feeling a strange sense of irritation from this manager's tone.
Maybe because I had been worn ragged haggling in the market, this friendliness felt like poison, so to speak.
Well, nothing I need to care about right now; time to get down to business.
"We'd like to sell some things. Can we?"
"Of course! Our Kifra Merchant Guild buys not only monster byproducts, but also destroyed gear and..."
The shop manager was quite a chatterbox.
Tuning out his pointless sales pitch, I untied my backpack, pulled out the items to sell, and set them atop the counter.
Mud Doll Mud Glands, the Raiders' gear, and various other miscellaneous items we had packed up on the spot that weren't really worth using ourselves.
Once we emptied all of those out, our load became considerably lighter.
"Quite a lot you have here! Please wait just a moment while I appraise them!"
With a completely changed, serious glint in his eyes, the enthusiastic manager examined the items I had laid out.
After a brief wait, the manager finished his appraisal and named his price.
"Two gold apiece for the Mud Glands, and 3,000 gold for the gear and other items bundled together... We will purchase the lot for a total of 4,250 gold! Will that be acceptable?"
Hearing that, the Elf whispered quietly from behind me.
"...Isn't that way too cheap? If we sold them in the city, we could get over 6,000 gold."
She had a point.
However, that only applied to the city market, where countless shops had to compete with one another; down here, market prices were a bit different.
Market prices always varied depending on the circumstances, after all.
Inside the labyrinth, buying far below the standard rate and selling for much higher was common sense.
'Still, that's fairer than I expected.'
Every shop in the labyrinth applied its own completely different rates.
In some cases, lunatics who slashed prices by over 80% showed up, so seeing that they only took off about a third, you could call the Kifra Merchant Guild a pretty conscientious outfit.
"Deal."
"Yes, understood!"
After organizing the goods, the manager pulled out a check and wrote down the payment.
Because carrying gold coins around one by one was impractical, checks were the standard way to do business in Cladis and the labyrinth.
That was right when we finished the transaction and were about to leave.
"Hold on."
Suddenly, one of the guards stepped forward and blocked our way.
And at that moment—
A sharp jolt ran through me—!
[Danger Sense] went off.
What the fuck is it this time?