Chapter 50: Rumors (Part 1)

The next morning, Zion woke to more instance notifications than usual.

At first, he assumed the early traffic would slow once the first few parties entered, but instead more adventurers continued arriving throughout the morning. By midday, there were enough active Floor 1 instances that Zion stopped trying to keep track of every group individually.

Even into the afternoon, people were still coming.

Zion sat back against the throne and watched the entrance with growing curiosity.

He had expected Floor 3 to create another rush eventually, especially once someone discovered the Glittering Treasure Chest and carried something valuable back to town. But no one had even reached the new floor yet.

Whatever was bringing these people here had started somewhere else.

A newly opened instance caught his attention.

Three adventurers entered together wearing matching black hooded coats that reached almost to their knees. The clothes were practical rather than decorative, covered with hidden straps and small pouches.

They looked more like members of a thieves’ guild than an ordinary adventuring party. The man in front pulled his hood back and looked across the pasture.

"Is this the place?"

The second man turned slowly, taking in the fences and grazing sheep around them. "It’s gotta be. I heard the first floor was sheep."

The only woman in the group crossed her arms beneath her cloak and gave the first man a hard look.

"You better not be wasting my time here. I declined a hefty contract to come."

Zion leaned forward slightly. That was interesting.

The first man shook his head. "I heard it with my own ears. She said she got it on the second floor."

Zion’s curiosity sharpened.

Got what?

He waited for one of them to say more, but the group had already started toward the nearest sheep. The conversation ended the moment the first monster noticed them.

Zion lingered on their instance for another few seconds before reluctantly turning his attention elsewhere.

Another party had just entered. This one was impossible not to notice.

The group consisted entirely of women dressed in layers of colorful silk that moved loosely around their arms and legs. Curved half-moon blades rested in their hands, polished enough to catch the sunlight whenever they turned.

For a moment, Zion simply watched them. They were all beautiful. Before Lilith, he probably would have been much more distracted by that.

Now, however, his attention quickly shifted toward the way they fought.

The women moved around the sheep in coordinated steps, their blades flashing in wide arcs as they turned around one another. It looked almost like a dance.

One distracted a sheep from the front while another cut across its side, and a third stepped in before the creature had time to recover. A few minutes later, the last sheep disappeared into pale smoke.

The woman wearing light blue silk covered her mouth as she laughed. "Who knew dungeon monsters could be so adorable? I almost don’t want to hurt them."

The woman beside her, dressed in pink, smiled as she wiped the edge of her blade with a cloth.

"I agree. They’re just too cute."

The youngest-looking member of the group did not join them immediately.

She had already started scanning the grass where the sheep disappeared, her attention moving carefully over the ground.

The woman in blue noticed and walked over, wrapping both arms around her from behind.

"Not as cute as our little Rose over here."

The others laughed.

Rose’s cheeks immediately turned pink beneath the attention, but she continued searching the grass anyway.

"Sister Iris," she complained, trying to pull one arm free. "I was looking for that bracelet. I think it would look good on you."

Iris squeezed her harder. "Gah! You’re just the cutest!"

Rose made a face, and Iris finally loosened her grip, though she kept one arm draped around the younger girl’s shoulders.

"According to the rumors, the bracelet drops on the second floor anyway," Iris said.

Zion went still.

The bracelet?

His attention shifted back toward Rose, then Iris. Suddenly, the conversation from the black-cloaked group made much more sense.

She said she got it on the second floor.

Lilith.

Word had gotten around about the bracelet. He had not expected that.

He had given it to her because the rough leather gloves inside the cache had felt insulting after everything he had just watched her go through. At no point had he considered what might happen if someone outside the dungeon saw it and asked where it came from.

Apparently, someone had.

Zion started paying closer attention to the conversations happening near the entrance. It didn’t take long before he heard another version of the story.

"I heard there’s enchanted jewelry hidden all over Floor 2," one adventurer said as his party crossed the pasture.

Zion’s skull turned slightly. That was certainly not true.

The man beside him adjusted the strap of his pack. "My cousin said the hidden chests guarantee accessory drops."

That was even less true.

Zion stared after them for a moment.

A different party entered several minutes later, and one of them mentioned hearing that the second floor contained a secret treasure room.

By then, he understood what had happened. The rumor had somehow gone from one bracelet found inside one hidden cache to enchanted jewelry scattered throughout Floor 2.

He slowly leaned back into the throne. So this was how rumors worked outside.

Interesting.

He had already seen how quickly rare loot could attract people after the Pendant of Lesser Sanctuary, but that had been obvious.

Someone walked away with an expensive item from a boss chest, word spread, and adventurers came looking for the same thing.

This was different. Lilith had not even been trying to advertise the dungeon. From the fragments Zion overheard, someone must have simply seen the bracelet, asked where she got it, and the story grew from there.

The thought made him unexpectedly pleased. He had spent 225 essence on that bracelet without even checking the price first.

Now Zion looked over the number of active instances. Maybe that purchase really was going to pay for itself.