Chapter 17: I Have Guests

Chapter 17: Chapter 17: I Have Guests

This time, however, they had spent almost every coin they could gather on proper equipment.

Their bows had been reinforced, arrows had been replaced, spears had sharper iron tips.

Their knives had been freshly sharpened. Even their shields were sturdier than before.

One of the younger hunters tightened the straps around his new leather armor before looking toward Kyle.

"How does it feel?"

Kyle looked him over.

"It fits properly?"

"Yes."

"Can you move your arms freely?"

The hunter raised both arms, twisted his waist, and performed several practice movements.

"Perfectly."

"Then it’s good enough."

Kyle nodded, he didn’t care about appearance.

Inside a dungeon, equipment had only one purpose, keeping you alive.

The hunters had gathered everything they could afford because everyone understood the same thing.

This expedition couldn’t fail.

An older hunter leaned against the table and looked at Kyle.

"How deep do you think we’ll have to go?"

Kyle’s expression became serious.

"I don’t know."

The excitement in the room immediately quieted.

Kyle continued.

"The dungeon I entered wasn’t large enough for me to determine its actual size. I only explored the first section before the goblins attacked."

"How many were there?"

"At least eleven."

Several hunters exchanged glances.

"Eleven goblins?"

Kyle nodded.

"They fought together."

His voice became heavier.

"Don’t underestimate them because they’re goblins. I nearly died because I assumed they were weak."

The hunters became silent.

Kyle slowly placed both hands on the table.

"We’re not going there to fight everything we see."

"Our first objective is exploration."

"We determine the dungeon’s layout, identify the monsters, and search for treasure."

"If we encounter something we can’t handle, we retreat."

One of the hunters nodded.

"Understood."

Another smiled.

"And if we find something valuable?"

The room immediately became lively again.

A young hunter leaned forward.

"If we find even one magical weapon, we won’t have to worry about food for years."

"Forget years."

Another hunter laughed.

"If it’s valuable enough, we could repair half the village."

Someone else immediately added,

"We could build proper houses."

"And reinforce the village walls."

"We could buy enough grain to last several winters."

"We could even hire someone from the city to teach the children."

The conversation gradually became louder as everyone’s imagination began running wild.

Kyle listened quietly. He understood their excitement, he felt it too.

For people living in a village like theirs, opportunities like this almost never appeared.

They weren’t powerful adventurers, nor they belong to a major noble family.

They had no wealthy merchant backing them.

They were hunters who spent most of their lives fighting wild beasts simply to put food on their tables.

A dungeon was different.

A dungeon could contain wealth far beyond anything they could earn through ordinary hunting.

One treasure could change their lives. And one discovery could change the future of their entire village.

Kyle’s gaze slowly moved toward the window.

Beyond it, the distant forest was barely visible beneath the afternoon sunlight.

Somewhere beyond those trees was the mysterious stone hall.

And beyond that hall was the dungeon. He remembered the darkness inside, and the sound of goblin war cries.

He also remembered the spears flying toward him.

His hand instinctively touched the scar along his side, and his expression became serious.

"This time..."

"We won’t underestimate it."

The hunters gradually stopped talking. Everyone looked toward Kyle.

He slowly stood.

"Tomorrow morning, we’ll leave."

"We’ll reach the dungeon before noon."

"And we enter together."

"No one separates from the group unless I give the order."

"If we find treasure, we take it."

"If we encounter monsters stronger than us, we retreat."

His eyes swept across every hunter in the room.

"Most importantly..."

"Everyone comes back alive."

The hunters nodded one after another.

"Understood."

Kyle gave a small nod.

Then, for the first time that evening, a confident smile appeared on his face.

"Get some rest."

"Tomorrow..."

"We enter the dungeon."

-----

The next morning arrived far sooner than Ragnar expected.

Pale sunlight filtered through the cracks around the dungeon entrance, barely reaching the deeper corridors where darkness still covered the stone walls.

Ragnar had spent the early hours inspecting his dungeon, checking on the goblins and the monsters he had recently purchased.

The three wolves had settled near the outer corridor, while the poisonous bats had claimed the upper sections of the dungeon. The giant spiders had already covered several narrow passages with thick webs, turning what had once been an empty stone corridor into something that finally resembled an actual monster lair.

Ragnar was beginning to feel satisfied with the changes.

Twenty monsters.

It wasn’t an overwhelming number, but compared to the eleven goblins he had possessed only a short while ago, the difference was enormous.

He returned to his throne room and casually sat down.

"Let’s see..."

Ragnar opened the system interface and brought up the dungeon map.

The familiar three-dimensional map appeared before him, displaying every corridor and chamber he had discovered so far. Small markers representing his monsters were scattered throughout the dungeon, each one moving slowly as they went about their natural routines.

Ragnar glanced over the map absentmindedly.

Then he froze.

"...Huh?"

His eyes narrowed.

For a moment, he wondered if he had simply seen something incorrectly.

He leaned forward from his throne and stared at the map.

There were several unfamiliar markers near the entrance.

Red dots.

Not one.

Not two.

There were multiple.

Ragnar’s expression immediately changed.

"...Oh."

His lips slowly curved upward.

"I have guests."

The words left his mouth quietly, but the excitement in his voice was unmistakable.

For several days, Ragnar had been waiting for something like this to happen.

Ragnar’s gaze remained fixed on the red markers.

"Finally."

Ragnar’s expression became thoughtful.

"How many are there?"

He focused on the system map and counted the red markers.

One.

Two.

Three.

Four.

Five.

Six.

Seven.

"...Seven people?"

Ragnar raised an eyebrow.

He had expected more.

"Only seven?"

Ragnar’s eyes remained fixed on the seven red dots moving slowly through the entrance of his dungeon.

"They came back pretty quickly."

A faint smile appeared on his face.

He had been expecting humans to eventually return after Kyle’s first visit, but he hadn’t expected them to arrive with such a small group. Judging by their movements, they weren’t charging forward recklessly either. The seven red dots remained relatively close together, advancing cautiously through the stone corridor.