Chapter 47 – Floor 7. Fools Are Happy Just Seeing Each Other’s Faces

The orcs, completely naked, were collapsed on the ground like pitiful tragic heroines, shedding beaded tears.

If they really were tragic heroines, it might have been a feast for the eyes, but since they were dirty male orcs with bulging muscles, it wasn’t good for eye health.

“Hey, hey- But look at this. What a magnificent sword.”

It was a beautiful greatsword with a blade made of unknown white metal, with strong curved patterns engraved on the surface—clearly of high value both as a weapon and a work of art.

As if it had used up all the iron I’d embezzled so far, it was an enormous zweihander.

Even though I’m not short, this heavy greatsword was slightly taller than me when stood upright.

Though making it required stripping all the equipment I’d gathered during exploration plus all the weapons and armor from the Orc Search Party, none of that combined would equal the value of this sword, so it should be fine, right?

I had broken the law of conservation of entropy and increased the entropy of the world!

The orcs glanced at this splendid sword, then wailed even more sorrowfully.

“Waaaaaahhh!! How are we supposed to return to the village like this!!!”

“I lost the bracelet Grasha gave me, lost my weapon, and lost my armor! I’ll definitely die when I return!”

“HEEEEYYYY!!! It’s too crueeeeeel!”

Watching the orcs crying like babies and even breaking into b-boying on the floor while sobbing, I held my forehead.

At this rate, might this place… get a three-skull rating?

Since their volume was so good that my eardrums felt like they might rupture, I had no choice but to offer some negotiation plan to appease them.

It was certain that all the enemies in the vicinity would gather at this rate.

“First, stop crying like bitchy girls, you disgusting men, and listen to me. This isn’t bad for you either, is it?”

“Our warrior weapons, which are like our souls, have been turned into a puddle of molten iron, what do you mean it’s not bad, human! Unforgivable!”

As one of them swung his fist, unable to control his anger, I folded his elbow, tripped him by hooking his leg, and knocked him unconscious with an elbow to the chin.

“Brotheeeeer!!!”

In society, if someone’s hands move first like that, they get sued and ruined, so I showed self-sacrificing spirit by stopping him with tears in my eyes. He’ll surely appreciate it when he wakes up.

“Next.”

Only then did they seem to understand my heart, as they sat demurely in proper sitting position.

I was so proud of these blockheads’ growth that I could only wipe away the quarter of a quarter of a quarter drop of tears that came out with my finger.

“Now, think about it. I agreed to catch the Thief Goblin, who you were supposed to handle yourselves. So if I’m going to catch him faster and more surely, I need better equipment.”

“No. You said that in exchange for solving it for us, you wanted to be allowed into the village…”

I planted a roundhouse kick in the chin of the one who raised his hand to question this.

Good. It’s quiet again.

“Do you think I’d just take things from you without giving anything back? Of course I’ll return them. Do you know what investment is? You could receive double the equipment you invested!”

“Investment…”

“Equipment…”

“Double?”

At those words, they seemed somewhat enticed, completely stopping their whining and looking at me with sparkling eyes, which I slightly avoided.

“That’s right! How much equipment has that guy stolen from you? If you get it all back, you’ll practically be heroes of the village! Plus, you need to protect yourselves too, so of course I have equipment for you.”

“Ohhh..! Human, amazing!”

“Hero! If you’re a hero, are you popular with females?”

When I gave a thumbs up to the youngest member of the search party, who had stolen the shaman’s loincloth, his mouth corners spread into a wide smile.

He seemed to like that shaman. I’m sorry, so maybe I’ll help him later.

“So where are the clothes and weapons for us to wear? Plants that walk are fine, but it’s tough when facing crazy tribesmen.”

Crazy tribesmen.

This referred to orcs who were set in an antagonistic relationship, not the NPC Orc Search Party and orcs from the Orc village.

Certainly, if a naked search party with similar specs fought against an orc with equipment, the search party would definitely lose. That worry is natural.

“I’ll pick up equipment for you to wear!”

“…”

I twisted the chin of the one who was subtly raising his fist, then persuaded them again.

This is for the greater good.

Your investment will become the path to saving the world!

With the logic that they would get double the equipment between what I picked up and what I stole back, I almost got beaten to death, but fortunately I barely succeeded in persuading them. Now I had to search diligently for equipment dropped on the ground.

Fortunately, I could somewhat clothe them with occasionally dropped leather armor or chain mail.

“The lower part feels empty, human.”

“I’m looking hard too, okay? Then exchange your top for pants.”

But the quantity was absolutely insufficient to clothe all four. One was naked but wore gloves and boots, while the others had either their top or bottom parts exposed.

The largest orc, being the leader, managed to bid first whenever equipment appeared and could wear both top and bottom, but his face wasn’t particularly satisfied.

“Let’s swap, brother.”

“Want to get hit?”

Smack!

“Argh! What’s with asking if I want to get hit and then hitting me!”

“Sorry. I thought I heard you say you wanted to be hit.”

Despite all looking equally ridiculous, their uncivilized and violent temperament of letting fists fly first never changed. From behind, I heard the sound of fists striking faces at least six times per minute.

‘How are these bastards still alive?’

Is this the orc spoon?

Thinking about how a search party like this could possibly function with them fighting like that all day, I cut down a moving vine that appeared in front of me.

***

Two days passed. Dealing with an absurdly large number of predatory plants while advancing was laborious, but not too difficult.

With increased numbers, it felt almost like sightseeing, unlike when I was alone.

Moreover, the search party wasn’t named as such for nothing—a few sniffs with their noses detected traps I had missed, preventing dangerous situations like on Floor 6.

‘They’re actually competent…?’

Although it was torturous to watch them collect and eat insects crawling on the ground every day because they were hungry, they were reasonably good companions.

“Hmm. Where on earth has this guy hidden! If we don’t return to the village soon, our tribesmen will worry.”

“Ugh… I knew it would be difficult, but I didn’t expect him to be this invisible.”

But it seemed we needed to end this, as the search party leader furrowed his brow and spoke to me.

He was saying that since they had originally come out to check what had fallen from the upper layer to cause such a large tremor, they now needed to return.

I couldn’t help but make a troubled face at those words.

There were no time limits in D.D., and originally the Thief Goblin had AI that would flee and then track the player again, so there would never be a situation where we couldn’t meet for this long.

If the Orc Search Party returned to the Orc village now, what would happen to the sub-quest? I hope it wouldn’t fail.

Moreover, after three days, the significance of having made him consume only three consumables in the first encounter had all but disappeared.

“Can’t we look around just a little more? Just a little?”

“Hmm… let me discuss it for a moment.”

So the four orcs huddled together to confer.

I watched for a moment, then sighed once and opened the map. Though we had revealed close to 90% of the map, there wasn’t a hair of the Thief Goblin to be seen.

Could he have gone down to the lower floor?

Since this was an existing world, there was no rule that enemies had to be bound to one level, so that thought occurred to me.

‘Ah… this is annoying.’

===========================================

Name: aaaa

Level: 10

Health: 97/110 ■■■■■■■■■□​

Magic: 51/51 ■■■■■■■■■■

Hunger: 33/110 ■■■□□□□□□□|□​

Thirst: 67/110 ■■■■■■■□□□|□​

Temperature: ◁■■■■■■■□□□▶

Strength 11(+1) | Dexterity 15(+0) | Constitution 09(+1)

Mental 08(+0) | Perception 09(+1) | Charm 15(+2)

《Skills》

『Thief’s Luck』『Demonic Nature』『Battle Command』『』『Hero I』

《Magic》

『Onahole Creation』

===========================================

I opened the hologram to check how hungry I was as my stomach started to feel a bit empty.

And I realized again that I had already reached Level 10.

In terms of floors, there was still a long way to go, but in terms of level, I had already entered the middle stage, about one-third of the way.

This was the result of defeating all the mini-bosses in the underground waterway area and exploring while completing the entire map.

If one didn’t scrape up experience like me and just descended normally according to the situation, they would probably be around level 7-8.

This leveling was a survival strategy I chose to stay alive, different from a player character who could do anything input via keyboard and mouse.

‘Should I just give up on the Thief Goblin? If I plead with those guys, they’ll probably let me enter the village.’

I wasn’t sure if that would work, but at least the orcs didn’t seem to have an atmosphere of hostility toward humans for no reason.

Though Albert had needlessly stabbed an orc and ruined the first impression, that couldn’t be helped.

‘If I just get the map completion experience and go down…’

“Human, let’s agree to return if we don’t find him by the end of today. We won’t be able to catch that guy in a state of fatigue from camping out for so long.”

“…Alright.”

If we moved diligently, we could check all of Floor 7 by today. If that wasn’t enough, I’d decide to reduce sleep.

[You have learned the structure of the current floor.]

“AAAARGH!!! Please just appear! Please!!”

“The human has gone crazy. We should have recognized it when he kept saying ‘just a little more, just a little more’ all day.”

“Be careful. He might hear you.”

In the end, not even a single hair—not from the head or the butt—of the Thief Goblin was seen while checking the entirety of Floor 7.

Where on earth is this guy and what is he doing?

Feeling the boiling of killing intent, I turned my back as promised, giving up on defeating the Thief Goblin and heading down to Floor 8.

Grind – Crunch–

After how much effort I put into finding him, how could he trample on the pure feelings of a sensitive man like me? And a ugly goblin at that!

“Goblin, do you want to see me go crazy?!”

“Waited, human. Me?”

A fragmented speech pattern completely different from the blockhead Orc Search Party. An unpleasant voice with phlegm boiling in the vocal cords and fractured eyes bubbling with viscous madness.

The goblin, showing me a creepy smile revealing sharp teeth.

As if he had been waiting, he revealed himself from among the grass where I had turned my head, carrying a large backpack.

“Haha! Hey, don’t smile. I’m getting attached.”

I may not be a loser, but… isn’t there a saying in my world that “Fools are happy just seeing each other’s faces”?

Right now, at this moment, I’m fucking happy to see that ugly goblin…!