Chapter 17 : Party recruitment

“Lis. An iron-grade explorer, and the highest floor reached is the 8th floor. As you can see, she’s a backline archer. She mainly uses a crossbow.”

“That’s Garond. Also iron-grade, and he’s been up to the 10th floor. Just to avoid misunderstandings, he’s not some great person who survived facing the 10th floor boss. He came up without even seeing the boss. He’s in charge of frontline tanking.”

“This is Isolde. She has a keen hearing skill and mainly plays the role of a ranger, but she’s not incapable in battle. She’s been to the 10th floor and has experience participating in boss hunts. Though she was in the scouting team.”

“I am Yueon. Iron grade as well. I’ve been to the 5th floor. I mainly fight in close combat.”

One frontline tank, one backline dealer, one ranger in charge of scouting.

And me… what kind of guy am I?

As the brief introductions ended, all eyes turned to me.

“5th floor… that might be a bit tough.”

“We’re aiming for the 8th floor, so I’m worried. If 5th is the max, then what’s up with being iron-grade?”

“I went to the 5th floor and single-handedly defeated the direwolf pack leader. They suddenly upgraded me to iron grade.”

“Single-handedly? Really?”

“Yes.”

Garond, carrying a massive tower shield and mace the size of my body, stroked his beard and made an intrigued sound.

“Must have a good skill, huh?”

“I’m not sure yet. It wasn’t great when I first got it.”

“Well, that doesn’t matter. First of all… let’s confess if we have any cursed skills that could harm the party exploration.”

The hardest part for many explorers is this moment.

Forming a party and sharing their bad skills.

Originally, this isn’t even a real party, more like a meeting.

If a cursed skill is too much of a hindrance, that person is mercilessly kicked out.

“I don’t have much. I have a sleep-talking skill, but I only mumble softly, so it shouldn’t be a big problem.”

Lis, the female archer, said she has a sleep-talking skill.

Is that even a skill?

Isn’t it just a habit?

But since she called it a skill herself…

“I don’t have cursed skills. But since my equipment is heavy and mostly metal, stealth is tough for me. Also, my movement speed is a bit slow.”

Well, that’s the fate of guys covered in iron chunks.

I guess it can’t be helped.

Still, judging by his size, he looks like a reliable frontline, so I can accept that.

“I, I…”

Isolde hesitated for a moment, then moved her chair slightly to the right and whispered quietly into Lis’s ear.

Hearing the whisper, Lis suddenly blushed and pushed Isolde’s face away.

“W-what?!”

“What conversation did you have to make you like that?”

“No, she’s just…”

“N-no!”

Stopped by Isolde, Lis fell silent and stared blankly at me and Garond one after another.

Then Lis sighed deeply, tugging at her hair, and said:

“Sigh, alright. I can handle Isolde’s cursed skill. She doesn’t really want to tell, so don’t ask any more.”

“Are you sure? Checking for cursed skills is one of the most important steps for party cooperation.”

“I said I will. Don’t ask too deeply.”

“I-I’m sorry! But it’s really not a problematic cursed skill!”

“Alright then, let’s do it that way. We’re not going too deep anyway.”

Overall, this is a great party with no serious cursed skills.

Except for me, everyone has been to the target 8th floor, and the role distribution is decent.

“Your name is… Yueon? Well, probably a pseudonym. No cursed skills?”

“Yes. None. I only have one skill anyway.”

“Really? What’s your experience?”

“This is my 8th run. The first two times were in parties, but since then I’ve mostly been solo.”

“Solo to the 5th floor. That makes sense.”

I don’t really have cursed skills.

Ah, but should I say that?

“If you hunt stronger monsters, how do you split the corpses?”

“Splitting corpses…? If we kill something like a wild boar on the 8th floor, we just drag it and sell it, then split the money. It depends on contribution.”

Lis looked at me like I was saying something stupid.

“Then can I have some corpses before splitting the money?”

“Corpses… why?”

“Because I eat them.”

“….”

“Don’t misunderstand. It’s because of my skill. I have to eat raw meat, not because I like it.”

“Well… isn’t that a cursed skill? Having to eat raw meat?”

Damn, maybe it is.

Eating raw meat is a bit gross, but the return is definite.

“Alright. Depending on the situation, you can take a part of the corpse.”

So the party was formed without problems.

Departure time was decided to meet at the guild around 10 a.m. tomorrow.

It’s only about 8:30 now, so I’ll go to the market first to prepare.

Originally planned to buy equipment tomorrow morning, but since we decided to leave earlier, I need to stock up and visit the appraisal shop.

“Don’t get too cocky. You’re aiming for the 8th floor, right? Your gauntlets won’t block a wild boar’s charge.”

“Yes. I’m not expecting such amazing performance.”

“Oh come on. Look at how this guy talks. My gauntlets can easily block a wild boar!”

“What are you trying to do?”

I bought metal gauntlets from a crazy dwarf with a split personality.

I also threw away my worn-out boots, bought sturdy leather boots at a decent price from a merchant named Mudujang, and bought metal greaves for my toes and shins.

This greatly increased the protection of my limbs.

I might have hesitated before because of the weight, but wearing the gauntlets and greaves with the muscles of the direwolf pack leader, I could walk and run without problems.

Because my strength increased beyond normal levels, even wearing heavy gear, I could still manage a 3-meter sergeant’s jump.

And the sword…

“Even if your strength improves, putting on gauntlets you’re not used to and switching to a longsword all at once, you might die from confusion.”

“I’ll try it first. Give me a good longsword.”

“Why the longsword when you’ve only used one-handed swords? Trying to die stylishly?”

“Huh? Isn’t a longsword a one-handed sword?”

Contrary to what I knew, the longsword was a two-handed sword.

The one-handed sword I usually used was classified as an arming sword, and the longsword seemed to be a type of two-handed sword.

“Strong guys handle one-handed swords well, but here. Try holding this.”

“Oh.”

At a glance, it’s clearly much longer than the one I used before.

Just the blade alone seems to be over a meter.

Unlike the previous sword, where the tip wouldn’t reach the ground when holding the handle, this one touches the ground even when I’m holding it.

“Try swinging it.”

“Yes, sure.”

It’s a weight I can swing without much trouble even without replacing my whole forearm.

Of course, if I swing it for too long I might get fatigued, but during combat I’ll be replacing my entire forearm with a direwolf’s muscle anyway.

“Ssshh.”

Yeah.

I focused my mind and replaced the entire forearm holding the sword with the muscle of an alpha direwolf.

The power in my grip was on a whole different level.

Swiiishh!

“This is pretty light too, you know?”

“You’ll be swinging it a hundred times nonstop in the dungeon. If you don’t take that into account, everything feels light.”

The dwarf has a point.

Even if you’re doing 100 sets of 100 reps with a pink dumbbell, the weight of your arm alone would make it feel heavy.

Still, my current strength is on a whole other level.

“Even taking that into account, it feels light.”

“You little… Are you saying you got some kind of super strength skill?”

“Something like that. This thing’s great.”

“Tsk…”

I spent 70 silver from the money I had.

20 for the gauntlets, 10 for the greaves, and 40 for the longsword.

Not a single coin of it feels wasted.

This much equipment would look like it belongs to someone of iron rank.

“Oh, sir. Could you take a look at this?”

“What is it?”

I took the ring off my left hand and showed it to the dwarf.

“Hm, a magical item? It’s an artifact. To get a proper appraisal, you’ll have to go to a magic item shop. I can’t help you with that.”

“Then, please look at this instead.”

I put the ring back on and infused it with mana to summon a shield.

“A shield, huh. It’s decently made, nothing wrong with it.”

“I see. Thanks. I’ll be back another time.”

“Sure, just don’t go dying. Anyone who dies holding that fine sword isn’t worth keeping alive!”

If someone’s dead, they can’t live, value or not.

Dwarves really believe in their weapons.

Well, even just looking at it, it’s clearly a high-quality sword.

I didn’t sell the sword I used before—just in case.

Now that I’ve got two swords hanging on the left side, the pouch belt on that side keeps slipping down.

I should do something about it.

Maybe I should go back to the blacksmith.

“I’ll set you up with a harness.”

“Let’s give it a try.”

When the pouch belt gets heavy, it sags downward and sometimes even breaks.

To prevent that, he removed the leather loop from the belt and attached a metal hook instead.

Leather loops are consumables anyway.

If you use them for a long time, the surface cracks and crumbles away.

If you think of it as an investment for the future, it doesn’t feel like a waste.

Then, he added a second belt to secure it across my shoulders so it wouldn’t sag below my waist.

“That’ll be five silver.”

“Sir, I’ve checked other places, and your prices feel pretty cheap now.”

“You’re only just realizing that? What a clueless guy.”

That was the best satisfaction I could buy with five silver.

It fits perfectly on my shoulders.

Feels almost like a chest rig.

The real problem is the gambeson…

“Let it go.”

“Sir, is that all you’ve got?”

“Kid, if there’s someone who can turn this rag into a usable gambeson, he’s not a weaver, he’s a wizard.”

Without asking a thing, the blacksmith shoved my former gambeson—now just a tattered rag—onto a board covered with needles and tore it to pieces.

“Haah. Fine. Give me a new one.”

“You brought money, right?”

“Of course.”

“I’ll give you a discount on the fabric.”

“What do you even do with stuff like that?”

The torn-up gambeson, now like low-grade cotton, is apparently cleaned in boiling water and used to make low-end gambesons or bedding.

“This one’s thirty-two layers. Much tougher than last time.”

“Won’t it get hot in summer?”

“Clearly you’ve only been to the upper ten floors.

From floor eleven on down, there’s no sunlight and it stays cool all year.”

“Oh, yeah. I heard about that.”

From the eleventh floor, the dungeon supposedly turns into something like an underground ruin, a real labyrinth-like structure worthy of the name.

“Sigh. My hard-earned 30 silver… I’m broke again.”

Even so, I feel well-protected.

This should keep me safe even on the eighth floor.

I thought about going to the appraisal center, but there’s no real need to go just to confirm that my skill use succeeded.

I’ll just rest well today and get ready for the dungeon tomorrow.