Ch.147Late Entrant Competition

Following the sound of gunfire, we descended underground and discovered a bloodied man slumped beside the entrance to the wine cellar.

A few steps away from him in the corridor lay a shattered doll in a maid outfit, but its form was vastly different from what we knew.

Six arms wielding various blades, a snake-like lower body, and a vicious face with a mouth split to the ears.

It looked as if its entire body expressed the will to tear enemies to shreds.

“Eeeek!?”

“Wait! We’re adventurers!”

The bloodied man panicked when he saw us rushing toward him and pointed his shotgun at us, but he regained his composure after hearing Jessica’s words.

He must have had quite a struggle with that maid doll (monster type).

“Heal Touch!”

While the man, who had suffered sharp stab wounds on both thighs, received treatment from Jessica, Mina and I stayed alert for approaching enemies.

Fortunately, no enemies appeared until the man’s treatment was complete.

“…Thanks. You saved my life. I’m Shaun from the adventurer party ‘Star Seeker.'”

“William J. Kim. An adventurer who’s been the subject of various rumors lately.”

“I know. I heard you discovered this dungeon and figured out the opening conditions, but it seems you haven’t made much progress.”

“Well, we’ve had our own circumstances.”

While exchanging words with the man who introduced himself as Shaun, the monster maid doll dispersed like smoke, leaving two gold coins on the floor.

“So taking down a servant drops two at once…”

“Was it different for you?”

“We’ve been earning them by doing household chores the servants assign. If things go well, we earn about one per hour.”

“I didn’t know that was an option… but that’s terribly inefficient. We might defeat the boss before you at this rate.”

After saying that, Shaun quickly picked up the gold coins from the floor and ran toward the room with statues.

“Let’s hurry too. It would be frustrating to get overtaken after we came in first.”

“Wait, Mina. We haven’t tested whether the mansion’s servants are hostile to us yet.”

“Huh? Aren’t we switching to earning through combat now? They drop two coins at once.”

“That’s true, but… Ah, perfect timing, here comes one.”

Hearing light footsteps, we turned around to see a maid doll walking down the stairs we had just descended from, carrying a mop and a water bucket.

We remained tense, ready to respond without drawing our weapons, but the maid doll passed right by us without paying any attention and entered the storage room.

“It seems they don’t become hostile unless directly attacked.”

“So are we going to keep working to earn money?”

“Yeah. As Jessica mentioned, I’m curious about the method of obtaining gold coins without fighting. It seems too unnatural to be just for people unfamiliar with combat.”

The mansion’s mistress supposedly doesn’t forgive those who steal gold coins, but coins earned through labor aren’t considered ‘stolen.’

This suggests that when confronting the ‘mansion’s mistress,’ who is presumably this dungeon’s boss, the outcome might differ depending on how we obtained the gold coins.

The notable point is that acquiring gold coins through labor is much less efficient compared to defeating servants.

Between those who gather coins through hostile, easy methods and those who choose friendly, difficult methods—

If this dungeon is designed to test people, I suspect the latter approach will lead to better results.

“So I plan to maintain our strategy of earning gold coins through labor.”

“Hmm… that makes sense when you put it that way. Alright, let’s keep at it.”

After our conversation, we approached the room with the statues, just as Shaun and another man with a mustache, presumably his companion, were leaving.

Shaun gave us a slight wave, but the fierce-looking mustached man hurried him along, making Shaun follow with an awkward expression.

After all, we’re competitors. There’s no time for socializing.

The number of statues left in the room had increased to seven.

Two of them were Seti and Phyllis, while the other five were Shaun’s party members.

“So they have a seven-member party… that’s a total of 63 gold coins needed.”

“Whoa~ It’s only two more people but that much more?”

“Even if they earn two coins per fight, it won’t end quickly. We should hurry too.”

“OK.”

I freed Seti with four gold coins and quickly left the room.

The more Shaun’s party fights, the fewer servants will remain in the mansion, and consequently, the jobs available to us will gradually disappear.

If we don’t somehow earn the remaining seven gold coins before they eliminate all the servants, we might never be able to rescue Phyllis.

‘Bang! Bang!’

“Looks like they’re starting from the basement.”

“How about we go upstairs first and block the stairs with something?”

“If they start eliminating the servants who give us work, that would be troublesome. Let’s keep direct interference as a last resort.”

After going upstairs, we split into three teams and searched for tasks that matched our individual skills.

I chose making 100 sandwiches and squeezing 10 liters of orange juice from the kitchen.

Both were labor-intensive tasks, but I could handle them instantly with my crafting tablet.

After finishing the kitchen work, I saw Mina and Seti replacing the magical lanterns inside the mansion, so I joined them to help.

Just as we finished replacing the lanterns, Shaun’s party came up to the first floor and began fighting with the servants.

Their number had increased to four, but they seemed to struggle somewhat against the maids and worker dolls. The dolls’ high defense, which ignored revolvers and mediocre low-level attack magic, appeared to be the cause.

They gave us peculiar looks as we walked freely among the servants, but we decided to focus on our work without interfering or meddling.

As the first floor began to turn into chaos, Seti, Mina, and I moved to the second floor.

Jessica had just finished cleaning the corridor windows and bathroom using magic, Mina started repairing spring-powered clocks in the workshop, and the rest of us began organizing the dressing room.

It was an indescribable feeling to work quietly inside a mansion filled with gunfire.

“Thank you for your hard work.”

A butler-type doll left a gold coin with a brief greeting and disappeared, and our formal attire returned to our original clothes.

“That’s the seventh one… once Mina finishes, this tedious housework will finally end.”

“I was hoping to see Will working in a maid outfit though.”

“Please spare me. You guys might look good in men’s clothing, but me wearing a skirt is enough just for king’s games.”

Exchanging such jokes, we went to the workshop and found Mina had just finished her work.

With this, we had collected 8 gold coins—enough to free Phyllis.

“After freeing Phyllis, we don’t need to collect more gold coins, right?”

“Probably. Unless there’s some reward for collecting more.”

“It’s gotten quiet downstairs. I wonder if they’ve collected enough to free another person?”

“…I just realized something.”

As we moved toward the stairs leading to the first floor, Mina tilted her head and spoke up.

“They need over 60 gold coins, right? Even if they get two coins per fight, were there really 30 servants in the mansion?”

“I’m not sure. Some servants disappeared after giving us work.”

“So that’s part of the competition too… This dungeon seems peaceful but is actually quite brutal.”

If the gold coins needed to free each petrified person doubles each time, the seventh person would require 64 coins, and the eighth would need 128.

If the servants in the mansion don’t respawn infinitely, there’s a practical limit to how many people can be rescued. This might force parties to either tearfully abandon someone or attack competing parties to steal their coins.

It’s no exaggeration to say that we could leisurely earn coins through housework only because we entered the dungeon several hours earlier than others.

‘Star Seeker, was it? We need to keep an eye on Shaun’s party.’

Speak of the devil.

As we passed through the corridor in front of the entrance on the first floor, we encountered Shaun’s party, now increased to five members.

Except for the newly joined member, everyone looked tired, with torn clothes and bloodstains.

“Hey, you people.”

The fierce-looking mustached man, whom Shaun had first freed, approached us.

Seeing how the other adventurers stepped aside, he appeared to be the leader of their party.

“What is it?”

“I see you’re heading down, so you must have collected enough coins to free your last companion.”

“That’s right. How are things going for you?”

“Those dolls are tougher than expected. So I was wondering… would you sell us the gold coins you’ve collected?”

“I refuse. I’m not generous enough to help others while leaving my own companion trapped.”

“You can earn coins without being attacked by those damned dolls. We’re all exhausted and injured, and we still need 36 more.”

The mustached man pointed with his chin toward a particularly injured staff wizard as he spoke.

While Shaun and the other adventurers sent hopeful glances our way, I firmly shook my head.

“Your situation is unfortunate, but we have our own circumstances. No matter the price, I can’t give up the coins meant for my companion.”

“Then could we at least ask for healing for our injured? I heard you have a healer.”

“That much I can do… but freeing my companion comes first. Wait here until we come back up.”

“…Alright. We’ve cleared the enemies around here, so we’ll wait.”

Leaving Shaun’s party behind as they reluctantly made way, we descended the stairs to the basement.

After confirming we weren’t being followed, Seti asked in a small voice:

“Will, are you suspicious of those people?”

“Not suspicious, just cautious. There’s no need to take unnecessary risks at the final stretch.”

“Unnecessary risks?”

“As we discussed earlier, there’s a limit to how many gold coins can be obtained in the mansion. If we give away Phyllis’s share and can’t collect another eight, we’d be in trouble.”

“Ah…”

“So postponing the treatment of their injured was also…?”

“Yes, I thought they’d be less likely to get any ideas if we used our coins as quickly as possible.”

It might be overthinking, but if they intended to take our coins by force, the optimal timing would be right after Jessica treated their injured—when her magic power is depleted and she’s close enough for physical contact.

But we announced we’d rescue our companion first and then treat their injured, by which time killing us all wouldn’t yield them a single coin.

The fact that they didn’t attack us anyway means either they were more decent than I thought, or they lacked confidence in defeating us at full condition while they were injured and fatigued.

‘Once we free Phyllis, dungeon completion is within reach. The competition is practically our victory. The question is whether they realize this too…’

What will they do once they recognize their defeat, the impossibility of rescuing all their companions?

With that lingering anxiety in my mind, I headed toward the initial room where Phyllis was waiting.