As soon as I entered the usual meeting room, Ayane, who had been watching from a distance during the award ceremony, jumped at me.
"I wanted to jump out too, but I held back."
"You're a good girl, Ayane."
"Yes, I am! Ah, Master. This..."
With that, Ayane took a small box from Aila and handed it to me.
"What's this?"
"It's an apology for yesterday. Even though it was to get your attention, I shouldn't have been so forward, and I'm sorry."
Ah... I remember that.
Indeed, if I had done that to someone else, it might have been reported.
"Don't do that to anyone else, okay?"
I took the small box and patted Ayane's head as she bowed deeply.
The box smelled sweet, so it must be some kind of candy. It seems there are multiple pieces inside, so we can eat them together later.
"It's fine. I don't like anyone other than Master!"
"Hehe, you little thing."
As I patted her head, Ayane seemed to make up her mind and stepped away from me.
"Oh?"
"Master, I'm sorry, but I need to take a few days off."
"Huh? ...Did I do something wrong?"
Did I pat her too much!?
"No, I told Mother about Aila, and I need to visit my family. In the meantime, I'll leave Aila with you, so please use her as you did yesterday."
That's a relief. I was worried she was going to say something like, "I'm going back to my family!"
But losing Ayane will be a blow. I had counted on her as part of my team.
"Ah, I see... I'll miss you, Ayane, but do your best. If you need my help, let me know, okay?"
"Yes, I will!!"
She hugged me one more time, and I patted her head again.
I don't know how many days she'll be gone, but I hope she does well.
āāāāāāāā
After seeing Ayane off, we started discussing what happened yesterday.
"First, I'll tell you what Shota is most concerned about. Yesterday's total sales were about 1 billion yen. 330 'Silk Cocoons' for 11.5 million each, one 'Swift' for 70 million, two 'Adamantine Walls' for 16 million and 17 million, two 'Adamantine Forces' for 120 million and 122 million, and two 'Adamantine Armors' for 420 million and 450 million."
"Total sales were 1.2265 billion yen. After taking 20%, Shota's share is 981.2 million yen. The difference is 245.3 million yen. 75% of this will be split between me and Maki, but this amount will also count towards rank promotion points. Including the previous 'Super Strength,' Shota has earned 250 million yen worth of points, which is why he became an A-rank adventurer!"
"Wow..."
The numbers are so high, I can't even grasp them.
"At least the debt is cleared, right?"
"Your first reaction is about that? You're really something, Shota. Not just cleared, but returned many times over."
"First, I used this money to sign a contract for a house. It's a slightly larger single-family home, customized for adventurers, located between the dungeon and the station. There are cake shops and bakeries nearby that Shota likes, so let's go there sometime!"
Maki showed me a map and a picture of the house. I recognized it. I had seen it a few times on my way to the dungeon. So this will be our base... Not bad at all.
"Next, about Shota's equipment. We have a good idea of what we need. First, as a reward for fulfilling the requests of other branch managers, we can get high-performance equipment at a priority. Some skills can even be traded for items. Ideally, we want to aim for artifact-level weapons, but for now, I've made a list of mid to high-level longswords that we can trade for. Let me know if you find anything good."
Aki handed me a list of items that drop from or are found in treasure chests in various dungeons. But honestly, from the names alone, I can only gauge the strength of items like 'Iron' or 'Steel,' so I don't really understand which ones are good.
"I'm not very familiar with this, so I'll leave it to the branch manager's recommendations and your judgment."
"Okay, got it."
"Leave it to us."
"By the way, there's something I've been curious about... What are treasure chests like? I've never seen one."
I've been hearing about them more often recently, but they tend to appear only in certain layers or when the monster level is high.
That's why, even in the 'Unlucky Hole,' which is said to be the safest dungeon in the world, and the first layer of the 'Beginner's Dungeon,' I haven't been able to find any.
No matter how high my 'Luck' is, I can't find something that doesn't exist.
"I see, you haven't seen one yet, Shota."
"It will be interesting to see what happens when Shota opens a treasure chest."
"Right. So, what are treasure chests like? Hmm, they're literally treasure chests... In the 'Beginner's Dungeon,' from which layer have they been reported?"
"From the third layer, I believe. The frequency is low, but that's a dense forest area with few monster types. Most adventurers don't go there for profit, but occasionally, someone who strays from the main path finds a treasure chest."
So the third layer is a treasure-hunting map. That sounds fun.
"Really? What do they look like?"
"The appearance of treasure chests is the same across all dungeons, and they become more luxurious depending on the rarity of the contents. In this dungeon, there are four types: wooden, iron, silver, and gold. Finding a gold chest here is very rare, so finding a silver one is a big deal."
The way Aki says it, she seems to have seen them a few times.
But treasure chests... Will my 'Luck' affect the 'discovery' or the 'contents'? Or both...
I'm tempted to dive into the third layer before dealing with the rare monsters in the second layer.
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