The day after Jin approached me, we left Broad and set out for the town of Puriff. Puriff was home to the Arrivers’ headquarters, as well as the only dungeon in our kingdom—simply known as the Dungeon of Puriff.
Puriff was located in the southwestern region of the kingdom, and it prospered thanks to the flourishing dungeon-diving business and the economy it generated. Really, the thriving town could more accurately be described as a city. And to be honest, this was my first time going anywhere so big. It left me feeling a little nervous. Somewhat restless.
Miya and I were born in the small village of Changs, where we lived until we were fifteen. Needless to say, Changs wasn’t terribly well off. It didn’t even have its own divine slate. We’d had to travel to a bigger town for our presentation ceremonies. Miya and I were the same age, but she was older than me by a month. She’d waited for me to turn fifteen too so we could set out together for Broad, where we obtained our skills and first became adventurers.
“So, what’s Puriff like?”
Jin and I had a few hours to go before we hit Puriff. It wasn’t all that far from Broad, but getting there still took time. And it didn’t feel right to spend the whole carriage ride in silence, so I tried to strike up a conversation.
“It’s a bustling place. I’ve only lived there for a few years myself, but I’m pretty fond of it.”
Bustling, huh? I wasn’t worldly enough to even imagine what that was like. But more importantly, if Jin lived in Puriff, that meant he’d gone pretty out of his way to come find me in Broad. I wondered why...
No sooner than the question popped into my head, Jin politely answered.
“That’s just how badly we want a member with Mapping. When I heard an adventurer from Broad talking about you, I came running to find you.”
I wonder who that adventurer was... I’d shared my sob story with so many people, I didn’t have a clue who Jin was talking about.
“Is that... really okay? With you gone, that must mean the Arrivers have suspended their activities for the time being, right?”
“No worries. Our tank dropped out of the party, so we can’t make any progress right now without someone to hold aggro anyway. So, we’ve been looking for a new tank while trying to track down someone with the Mapping skill.”
Yeah, that didn’t sound like things were okay at all. The Arrivers were down members...
“Why do you need someone with Mapping anyway?” I asked.
That was the question that had been bothering me the most. It’d been on my mind since yesterday morning, but I hadn’t really had a good chance to ask about it in detail until now.
“Dungeons are full of monsters so strong that people call them ‘adventurer reapers,’ but that isn’t the wall our party hit,” Jin explained.
He went on to tell me that dungeon interiors are several times larger and more complex than I could ever imagine. The early floors that had already been mapped by pioneers posed no problem, but the uncharted middle floors were a challenge to navigate. Apparently, constantly having to check their current location made dungeoneering both exhausting and inefficient—and that’s why they were searching for someone with Mapping.
That much made sense to me but begged a new question entirely.
“In that case, wouldn’t it be better to find someone with World Map or Area Map?” I asked.
I thought that much was only obvious.
While fewer people had it because it was an ultra rare skill, World Map was superior in every way to Mapping. Area Map was comparable, but took up fewer slots and therefore allowed for another useful skill in someone’s skillset.
In other words, Mapping was trash. That was the opinion of society at large, and I had to say that I agreed. Jin, however, grinned like he’d been waiting for me to ask why he was interested.
“Do you know the exact descriptors of World Map and Area, Note?”
Of course I didn’t. People received their skills privately so that no one would know about them. Miya had allowed me to stay in the room when she prayed to the divine slate, but that was a standout exception. Normally, people did everything they could to safeguard the details of their skills.
As such, I shook my head in response to Jin’s question.
“This is how the slate describes World Map and Area Map. I got these from cross referencing past records and descriptions from people who have the skills. Which was no small feat, mind you,” he explained as he handed me two pieces of paper.
World Map
Rarity: UR (Ultra Rare)
Slot Cost: 3
Effect: The ability to map every point in this world and store it as knowledge.
Area Map
Rarity: R (Rare)
Slot Cost: 2
Effect: The ability to map a kilometer radius of this world around oneself and understand it as knowledge.
They read almost exactly as I’d expected. They really were superior versions of Mapping...
“Here’s my next question for you, Note. Do you remember the precise description of Mapping?”
I couldn’t say that I did. I’d been so shocked at the time that I hadn’t even thought about writing down the description of such a crappy skill. You could check your skills again anytime you went to pray at a divine slate, so I didn’t think many people bothered to write them down in the first place.
So once again, I shook my head in response to Jin’s question.
At this, he took out another piece of paper and said, “Here’s a transcription of the Mapping skill.”
I scanned it over.
Mapping
Rarity: SR (Super Rare)
Slot Cost: 3
Effect: The ability to automatically map a kilometer radius around a previously traversed point and store it as knowledge.