527 Doing Some Dungeon Surveying

It's been a few days and we're now in the last day of our break.

During this period of time, it seems like Riklan and his party were still not done surveying the Dungeon yet.

Apparently that meant that the Dungeon was most likely bigger than they thought… Or that they're dead…

Well maybe not dead but just in trouble in general.

I was told that a survey like this could last more than a month at times with multiple parties involved and repeated entries into and out of them. But so far, no one has seen them come out from the Dungeon yet.

Now I'm wondering if it is wise to just go in and take a look around before they're done? We could just restrict ourselves to the first floor and get out if we think it's too dangerous.

When I suggested the idea to the others, they were quick to jump on the idea to go with me quite eagerly.

But when we were about to set off, we met unexpected resistance in the form of Sebastian.

"Where do you think you're going, Aster?" He asked, his tone clear that he already knew the answer.

I tilted my head, "The… Dungeon near that Rejmar trade outpost?"

"Do you mean the one that has yet to be surveyed completely and no one even knows how dangerous the Dungeon itself is?"

"... Yes?"

Sebastian turned to the other maids, "And you were going to let Aster do something like that without stopping her? Are none of you even remotely concerned about the possibility that you might meet something that you cannot defeat in there? It's one thing to survey it on your own, it's another thing to involve the Young Mistress in it as well."

Err… Correct me if I'm wrong… But did he pretty much tell everyone that it's ok for them to die but not me? He did, didn't he?

I don't think the others would be happy to hear something like… Eh?

When I turned to see the reactions of the other girls, I found all of them looking down at their feet in shame.

Really? No, no, no… I definitely do not want any of you doing the sacrifice play, ok? And if we have to, let's just let those three Adventurers survey the Dungeon first so no one needs to risk anything.

Sebastian crossed his arms, "For the nine of you, your break time ends here and training resumes effective immediately. Since you're all in your combat gear now, give me ten laps around the village then meet me in the village centre for combat training. MOVE!"

I also started to run with them but Sebastian grabbed my shoulder before I could take more than two steps away.

"Not you, Aster. It's a punishment for them, not you."

"But… It's my idea?"

"And it's also a maid's duty to not allow their charge to endanger themselves needlessly if they are able to stop it. In this case, they are all in a position to prevent you from making this decision but they chose not to, Aster, purely because it is you. I'm sure Katsuki would get her own scolding from Mary later."

"Then… I still think I'm at fault though, since I've become accustomed to doing whatever I wanted because of Mother…"

He shook his head, "Incorrect Aster. Right now you are not the Young Mistress of the Nilm Family, but just another trainee maid here. What's more, they were planning to leave with you just by themselves and prepared no backup plans like contacting either Mary or myself. That's their punishment."

Ugh… I see his point… It would be bad for me if all I had around me were Yes-men who wouldn't stop me from jumping off a cliff and would, instead, follow me in jumping off said cliff.

Yes, I can fly so jumping off a cliff isn't a bad idea in the first place but you get my point.

"Well… What am I supposed to do now?" I asked.

"Anything you want, Aster. It is still your break after all."

"Ugh… There's nothing stopping me from going to visit the village by myself, is there?"

"As long as you do not go and dive into the Dungeon on your own, Aster. And if you do intend to go there, at least take Mary with you."

"I won't, I'm just going to go and get some sweets."

"In that case, please be careful on your way there, Aster."

Wishing my companions good luck silently, I spread my wings and took to the air, not needing to walk there since I don't need to worry about leaving someone behind due to them not being able to fly this time.

Instead of a three hour hike, I was already in sight of the village within an hour of flying.

I angled myself and descended on the outskirts of the village, my feet sinking into the soft snow just as I felt the presence of three figures nearby.

I looked in the direction and, sure enough, three Mahuns pushed themselves out from behind a small hill of snow, revealing themselves to be Riklan and his party.

The three of them seemed to be just as surprised to see me as I was to see them.

"Arth… No… Err… Aster, right?" He finally greeted me.

I curtsied, playing my role of a maid, "Hello Sir Riklan, Sir Kaelin, Lady Eita."

Kaelin visibly shivered, "Ah… Please don't call me sir, Aster… I'm not a noble, so just Kaelin is fine."

"The… The same goes for me as well. Just call me Eita."

"Ah, I suppose I should follow suit? Just Riklan is fine for me too."

I nodded, "In that case, well met. Was your survey of the Dungeon successful?"

When they heard my question, all three of them sighed almost at the same time.

"We barely got to the second floor before we needed to escape," Kaelin groaned, massaging his shoulder. "This Dungeon is much more dangerous than we thought."

Eita nodded, "The monsters aren't that much of an issue… But the traps and the status effects… Ugh."

I tilted my head, "What's wrong with the Dungeon?"

Riklan shook his head, "No, it's more of our party's fault, really. We don't have any healers as you can see… That Dungeon is full of traps that inflict status effects like poison, paralysis, freezing, blindness and everything else. It slowed down our progress by a lot and we used up all our potions… So in the end it was still a wasted trip."

"And what is your plan now?" I asked.

"We can't go back to the Dungeon unless we get ourselves a healer to join our party at least, so we're going back to the outpost to look for one. Potions are not enough for us to survive there. If the outpost has no one proficient in Iatromancy… I'm afraid we'll have to return back and report that we are unable to complete this quest and leave it to another party to do it instead."

Hmmm… Is this… An opportunity perhaps?

"What would you do if I were to tell you that I am proficient in Iatromancy?"

All three of their eyes lit up.

"Truly?! Are you really an Iatromancer, Aster?" Riklan gasped.

"I'm a Medic Tier, in fact. So would I qualify as your fourth member to survey the Dungeon?"

Kaelin immediately raised his hand, "Really? That would be great! We'll pay you twice the standard rate for this survey, two hundred Creas per day. How about it?"

"Eh?"

First, I wasn't doing this for the money. Second, the standard rate for a healer in a party is a hundred Creas per day? That's three thousand Creas a month which converted to our old World's money, that's three hundred thousand dollars.

They're making six figure salaries a year?!

Oh wait… No… I remember they don't, so I'm assuming that they're paying this much because of the risk involved in surveying a new Dungeon. So you would only see this amount of money when you're involved with such a high risk quest most likely.

They must have took my surprise the wrong way because Eita started fiddling with her fingers, "Erm… I apologise but… We can't really afford more than that though… I know it's definitely below the market price that a Nilm Family maid would charge but…"

I shook my head, "No, no… I'm fine with that reward, I'm still a trainee maid you see, so there's no need to treat me like a full fledged one. I don't mind accompanying you for just the base price as long as I get first dibs on the monster drops."

I thought they might bargain about this since monster materials could be quite valuable but they seemed to accept it quite easily.

Riklan nodded, "Oh, that would be even better. We don't have a porter though and our team emphasises more on stealth and speed so I'm afraid you'll have to carry the materials yourself. You might need to abandon them if we need to run though."

Ah, that makes more sense. They aren't here to hunt for materials but to survey the Dungeon, so the materials would just be a hindrance to them. In that case, I'll gladly take them off their hands~

But there's another thing I'm more concerned about though…

"But you want to go there right away? Shouldn't you like… Take some time to rest first?"

"No, we're already behind time as it is. And the monsters aren't that difficult, it's just the traps. If we have a healer, then there's nothing else we need to be afraid of. Do you need any more preparation?"

I shook my head, "Nope, I'm ready to go right now."

I had already been prepared to go before Sebastian stopped us anyway so there were no issues about my state of preparation so let's go!

Hey, Sebastian said that I wasn't allowed to go into the Dungeon alone, so if I were to join Riklan's party, I wouldn't be going alone!