「Takumi sure is cold. Even though we’ve done quests together.」 「No, there’s no way we had forgotten. Wasn’t that a given?」
Hahahー I laughed to fool him, but Lyle-san kept staring at me. He didn’t fall for it.
「I waited on Takumi hand and foot, even teaching him all about adventuring, ya know?」 「You’re exaggerating, Lyle. Didn’t Takumi already overtake us, becoming Volton’s top party?」 「Tsk, don’t say that, Heath.」
The neat, short-haired nice guy, Heath-san pacified Lyle-san.
The silent Bogah-san’s bald head was shining as always. Sophia and I sent Maria and the girls power leveling while we came to the Volton Adventurer Guild. Luckily, we were able to meet Heath-san’s 『Lion’s Fang』 party who were conveniently at the bar.
「And so, you’re saying that a dungeon appeared smack dab in the middle of Sydnia’s imperial capital?」 「Yes, we grasped that it was otherworldifying after the recent war, but we don’t know the exact date.」
Then I immediately talked to Lyle-san about needing the skills of a Scout to beat the dungeon. I’ve been so busy lately that I hadn’t been able to meet up with Heath-san’s party recently, so Lyle-san was talking a bit prickly, but Heath-san listened with great interest.
「Hey, Takumi. That dungeon, couldn’t you take us along too? The skills of a Scout isn’t something you can learn in a day. That being the case, it’d be fine to just leave it to Lyle from the start.」 「He’s right, Takumi. You’re probably already better at searching for monster presences, but experience speaks volumes when it comes to traps.」
「…………」
The proposal from Heath-san and Lyle-san was attractive. It was a waste of time for me to learn to find and disarm traps until now. Sydnia’s dungeon was something we want to deal with as soon as possible, after all. Bogah-san was also silently nodding his head in agreement.
「That’s very welcoming for me as well, but it will be dangerous, are you sure?」 「We’re adventurers so we go hand in hand with danger, right? If we’re naming issues, then it’s that your party’s and our abilities are backwards. Right now, we’d be holding you back.」 「Maria-chan and the girls went to the Forest of Death to level up right? It’s embarrassing for us veterans to be asking this, but can we ask you to take us under your wing and level us up?」 「Lyle-san, we’ll be in your debt with the dungeon capture, so I’ll do anything I can to help.」
The 『Lion’s Fang』 and our members had a large gap in level. Even Lulu-chan had surpassed them in level. Sophia, Maria, and I were already over Lv100. To this day, we still hadn’t seen any adventurer or knight over 100 besides us, so this was probably abnormal. Even though I’m an artisan, just what have I been doing?
As a result of our conversation, Heath-san’s party will power level alongside Maria and the girls at the Forest of Death. During that time, I plan on improving the Lion’s Fang’s equipment. They ended up being dragged into our dungeon capture, so I had planned on making their equipment free of charge, but they refused.
「Takumi, even if we’re like this, we’re called first class adventurers, you know? We’ll work for that our own way. There’s no way we can accept equipment for free.」 「Damn right, Heath’s piled up loads of dough.」 「Lyle, I’ll tell you a way to manage a bit of your money. You can’t save since you’re always chasing some Oneechan’s tail.」
Lyle-san’s face contorted in discontent at Heath-san’s lecturing. He’s much older than me, but oh so childish. Well, when I add on the years I had in my old world, I’d be next to Sophia in age though. Perhaps being regressed by my body’s age, my mental age ended up completely appropriate for it.
「Well, it’ll suffice if you pay a bit of the cost of the materials. The materials and metals are kind of free because I procured them myself.」 「I see, if you’re saying that much, then we’ll accept your offer.」 「Yes.」
Heath-san has a metal armor and a battleaxe. Lyle-san uses a bow and a dagger for close combat. He wears light leather armor because he’s a Scout. Bogan-san surely has a heavy metal armor, a large shield, and a long mace.
To make the equipment of the Lion’s Fang as soon as possible, I bid Heath-san’s party farewell and headed to the workshop in the Volton mansion.
◇
Now then, since there’s too much of a difference in the Lion’s Fang and our equipment, I’d like to prepare equipment one or two ranks higher than their current. They said word for word that they earn quite a bit, and they use good equipment like mithril alloy armor and leather armor made of Wyvern skin.
「Alright, Heath-san and Bogah-san’s armor look like they’re already mithril alloy, so I’ll just have to reinforce it with enchantments. Lyle-san’s Wyvern leather armor has lots of Lesser Dragon scales, I’ll strengthen those scales.」
I decided that rather than a major overhaul, I’ll enhance their current armor. I’ll use adamantite alloy on Heath-san’s battle axe while putting emphasis on its destructive power, while also doing the same for Bogah-san’s mace. It’ll probably be alright even if the weapons get a bit heavier since it’s those two. For Lyle-san’s mithril alloy dagger, I’ll embed a paralyzing magic formula and set a magic stone on the pommel so he can activate the magic blade even without using his own magic power.
We thoroughly prepared for our departure towards Sydnia.