chapter 43

“There are no reporting rewards for layered dungeons because they are so easy to find. On the other hand, underground dungeons are hard to find, and the rewards are pretty good for reporting.”

“That makes me want to hide it even if I knew where it was.”

“Adventurers hide as much information as possible. They report back to the Guild after they are found, and that’s all that matters.

I’m sure Neikra-san only told them that he was going to explore and didn’t say where exactly. You never know who’s listening in, you know.”

“Is that why Miss Mativa’s information was so vague?”

“Simply put.”

Ouka said, “Master is amazing!” then she flapped her ears.

Don’t give me that kind of credit. This is something everyone, but new adventurers really know.

“But that’s not why you went into the West Woods, is it?”

“That’s good.”

I stroke Ouka’s head. Her hair and ears are fluffy, thanks to the bath.

“I’m just guessing from here.”

We’re in the middle of a conversation, but we’ve reached the destination.

“Huh? Here?”

“You saw this place yesterday.”

We arrived at the big hole where Ouka had hunted slimes last night.

“We were told to stay away from this area because it was full of monsters.”

“Yes……”

Ouka’s excitement dropped blatantly.

Well, I wouldn’t want to come back to a place where I got slime trauma. I don’t want to go to the basement of the castle either.

“It was the Queen who made the slimes. So where did the Queen come from then?”

“Where did you get ……? A place where monsters are born–a dungeon?!”

“Great answer. Monsters only come from dungeons. The ones you see out there are the ones that came out of the dungeon.”

Ouka’s head is a mess.

“But master knew there were a lot of slimes out there, didn’t you?”

“’I knew there was more slime around here. And then there’s that….. I’ve been trying to get to the dungeon too.”

“…… Mr Neikra beat me to it!”

“It didn’t occur to me that anyone else might have noticed.”

Anyway, we avoided the big hole and went further back.

The sun had gone down completely, and the area was dark.

This time I’m going to walk in the other direction of the cave where the Queen was. There was nothing in that cave.

“Based on the number of slimes and the strength of the Queen, I’m sure there’s a dungeon around here. So if we focus on this area, we can find Neikra-san–”

“Master.”

Ouka stops her legs and twitches her nose.

“Something smells rotten……”

“Take me to…..”

I took the lantern out of the item box and turned on the light.

Once in the bushes, we found the source of the putrid smell.

–and there it was a headless corpse.