“My name is Harper. Pleasure to work with you!” The young man greeted us seriously.
So this guy will be acting as our porter for our quest today. Apparently when you don’t have a Pack of Folding like mine, it’s normal for parties to hire porters or have a dedicated porter within said party.
I actually offered them the use of my Pack of Folding but the girls were vehemently against it, saying that it would not be proper for them.
The guys were obviously quite confused by their comrades’ declaration but they shut up instantly when they saw the girls’ faces.
I didn’t get to see what faces they were making since their backs were turned to me.
Jack went ahead to introduce each of us in turn to Harper and we were now on our way to the Dungeon in a wagon owned by the porter himself.
Seems like we would also be using the wagon to carry the ores back as well.
Surprisingly, Jack was focused on preparing his equipment throughout the journey alongside the others and didn’t try to flirt with me.
I guess they’re doing their equipment checks now so that they don’t have to do it when we reach the Dungeon, which meant that Melissa and I had nothing to do since we were occupying the role of the magic casters.
She must have felt a little awkward with just the two of us sitting there silently but it’s clear that she did not want to be the one to speak up first.
“Ahem… Soo… You said you went to Aerialla Academy as well, Melissa?” I asked, thinking that it would be a safe topic of conversation.𝑂𝑽𝔩xt.𝕔𝓞𝑀
“Ah. That’s… That’s right. Miss Aster is now a student there as well, right?”
“Yes! How was your time in the school?”
“Ah… Umm… I wasn’t really that good of a student, Miss Aster… I’m really just average… I wasn’t one of the Special Class students if you wanted to know how you compare to them in my time…”
“Eh? No, no, no… I just wanted to know your experience with the school since I’m still in my first year after all!”
“Oh. I guess… It’s just normal? I just attended the basic classes and graduated normally. I wasn’t good enough to be selected to attend the main Aerialla Academy of course, so I just went on to sign myself up as a Mercenary.”
“Is that how you met these guys?”
Melissa smiled at Viera, “Actually… I met Viera while I was a student and… Ah… I suppose there’s no other way to say this but… I fell in love with her… And she was already a Mercenary back then so I just joined her.”
That’s so cute~
“What about Sabrina?”
“Ah… Well… Ummm…”
I could sense that it wasn’t that comfortable of a topic for her so I waved my hand quickly, “If you don’t want to talk about it, that’s fine!”
“No, no… It’s… Well… Umm… Let’s just say that I was her second…”
Ah, I get it, she’s just embarrassed.
Harper’s voice came from the front of the wagon, “We’re here, everyone.”
I looked up to see a small fortress of sorts had been set up in front of what looked like a cave.
There were other Mercenaries and Dungeoneers gathered in front of the cave and several different wagons and carriages parked at one side of the fortress, which was where ours stopped at for us to disembark as well.
Did they really need to build this fort in front of the Dungeon? It’s even staffed with soldiers guarding it too.
“There’s quite a number of people here,” I noted.
“That’s because this request pays quite well. We’re mining Monster Gold after all,” Jack grinned.
I swivelled to stare at him, “Eh?! We’re mining gold?!”
The man laughed out loud, “Ahahaha! This never gets old! I always love seeing the faces on the newbies!”
Melissa went to kick him in the shins which made him fall off the wagon while he was getting off, face planting himself into the ground.
Viera sighed, “It’s not normal gold, Miss Aster… It’s gold mined from the monsters inside this Dungeon which we all call Monster Gold. They aren’t pure gold and need to be purified through a rather complicated process before they become actual gold.”
“And what’s stopping someone from just going to mine these Monster Gold and purifying it themselves?”
Loyd shook his head at me, “It’s not worth it, Miss Aster. First you will need to report all the gold you have mined at the front counter at the entrance of the Dungeon.”
I looked over at where he was pointing and sure enough, there was a counter with several official looking people set up there recording all the gold that the people returning from the Dungeon had brought.
They were then given some sort of record slip that I assume must be a record of the gold they have brought back.
He continued, “Then you would need to pay a deposit for the amount of gold you have mined which would be returned to you when you turn it in at the Guild. If the received gold is less than what is recorded on that slip or you choose to keep the gold for yourself, you forfeit that deposit.”
Markus nodded, “And not to mention the fact that you would also need to know the process of purifying the gold in the first place… Which is a national secret of the Lehcarouc Kingdom. If you somehow found out about that secret, you would have the entire Kingdom hunting you down to silence you.”
Viera, Sabrina and Melissa all averted their eyes, most likely thinking that even if I were to find out about it, no one would do anything.
In fact… Why do I have a feeling that the purification process might have something to do with Mother? Is that why they treat us so highly? Is Mother the one that’s purifying gold for the kingdom?
That would actually explain a lot…
Well… I wasn’t really planning on taking those gold for myself anyway… I have no interest in crashing an economy for no reason.
“But doesn’t that mean that people might try to rob us on our way back to get our Monster Gold so they could get both the deposit and the quest reward? This quest is not limited to a single party after all,” I pointed out.
Jack picked himself up from the ground, “Beautiful, talented and smart too! Ugh… You really are way out of my league…”
Sabrina rolled his eyes at him, “Ignore him Aster… But you are right, there are incidents of this happening where bandits or even other parties may threaten or steal the gold from other parties. The Kingdom has dispatched several guards to patrol this route but they are not always that thorough to catch every bandit out here.”
“Eh? Why not? Wouldn’t the kingdom pay more attention to this?”
Viera shook her head, “Not really… Because even if you’re bandits that stole the gold, you wouldn’t be able to sell it to anyone outside the Guild or the Kingdom anyway since no one else knows the purification process and they would be worthless. So the Kingdom would still get the gold in the end…”
So that means it’s our problem to bring it back on our own huh?
Harper then spoke up, “Umm… Forgive me for asking this… But is this your first time doing this quest?”
“Err… That’s right. Is something wrong?”
“No, I’m just surprised. Normally most of the Mercenaries and Dungeoneers would know about something like this… I guess you must be a new Guild member huh?”
“Ah, I just haven’t been active since I’m still a student at Aerialla Academy.”
“I see… Apologies for my rudeness.”
I waved to show that it was no big deal.
Our party made our way towards the entrance of the Dungeon with Jack leading the way towards one of the counters.
“How many members?” The person behind the desk asked with a bored tone.
“Eight,” Jack replied easily, waiting for the official to issue him a card of sorts before he stepped towards the Dungeon entrance.
He looked back at us, “Alright, is everyone ready?”
We nodded back at him in turn.
His face then turned serious, which was a big difference from the frivolous look he sported constantly before this.
“Markus and I will lead, Sabrina will be right behind us followed by Melissa and Harper. Miss Aster will be after them and I will leave the rear guard to Loyd and Viera. Any objections?”
The change was so sudden that I was a second late in answering an affirmative to his question. I was not alone since Harper also seemed to be surprised by the change too.
Viera obviously noticed my surprise and leaned over to whisper, “I know how he usually behaves, but when it comes to serious situations like this, he would not fool around especially when our lives are on the line. Otherwise, none of us would have stayed with him. Although I still have to dissuade Miss Aster from looking at him romantically though…”
I suppose that’s a good thing… And it makes sense since the girls definitely would have no reason to stay or even keep him as the leader if he did not at least have any redeeming features.
Alright, new Dungeon! Let’s see what is in store for us! Let’s go mine ourselves some gold!