I spent a few hours poring over the books and gathered quite a bit. Tomes touching on history told me the basics, and through some specialized treatises and more modern texts, I was able to get a general handle on people’s occupations and everyday livelihoods. Best of all, this was a library not far from the Dungeon, and the wealth of information it possessed on explorers and adventurers, and even the Dungeon itself, was massively helpful.
Around sundown, I stopped reading and listened to the various things the staff were saying. While I’d been reading, people had asked the staff for directions from time to time, so I mimicked them and succeeded in accruing more info without arousing suspicion.
Upon exiting the library, I followed the directions I was given and found my way to an establishment called a money changer’s store. I surreptitiously took my leather bag out of my inventory, only entering the store after slinging it around my waist. I couldn’t find any information on menu-sight or inventories at the library, so chances were high that only I had those abilities, which is why I thought it best to keep my powers hidden.
The inside of the money changer’s store resembled what in my world was called an antique shop. Old items and junk littered the interior.
I called out to a plump man who could only be the proprietor. “Excuse me. I don’t have much, but could you please give me some money for it?” I asked, starting our negotiations politely. At first, I thought I ought to haggle aggressively so I wouldn’t be taken for a ride, but I changed my mind. After all, while getting money was one of my objectives, I wanted more information too, if at all possible. So I took the less risky course of action.
“Yep, sure thing. Show me what you’ve got,” he said, eager to do business.
“Okay, sir.”
【ITEMS】
Jerky, Water Pack, Styptic, Oil, Stun Needle, Rasp, Blade of Oria, Leather Gloves, Leather Shoes, Cloth Garb, Wooden Bow, Steel Knife, Unbranded Arrow, Lighter, Smartphone, Pebble, Twig, 10th-Grade Magic Gem, 9th-Grade Magic Gem
I pretended to pull the items out from my leather bag as opposed to midair, placing all of my 10th-Grade magic gems on the counter.
“Ah, magic gems from the upper floors, eh? That’ll be a flat rate of a copper coin per.”
“Got it. I’ll take them; thank you,” I replied immediately, partly because I didn’t really feel like haggling to begin with and because a flat rate didn’t sound so bad.
“There ya go. Twelve pieces o’ copper. Got a certificate?”
A pause. “No, sir.”
“Then put your finger on that and print your print.”
He caught me off guard with the certificate comment, but it seemed it wasn’t mandatory. When in the history of Earth did they start using fingerprints?
“Hit the Dungeon without a certificate, huh? You a foreigner?” he asked with an air of suspicion. He perhaps regarded my awkward manner as questionable.
I responded as confidently as I could. “I am. I heard the rumors about the Dungeon and traveled here from a faraway nation.”
“And you got this much on your first run? Not bad, kid. Where ya from?”
Apparently, I’d done pretty well for myself on my “first run.” Not that I felt very proud—the vast majority of my loot was taken from dead bodies. But seeing as this conversation was going well, I decided to continue going with the flow. I picked a safe option from among the countries I had learned about in the library. My story would be that I hailed from a distant land, and an obscure, unimportant one at that. If I recalled correctly, there was just such a country by the name of Fania.
“It’s very far away. Have you heard of a country named Fania?”
“Fania, huh? Dunno much about Fania, but I know where it is on the map. Ya made quite the trek, didn’t ya? What’s it like over there?”
I figured he must have had time on his hands because he wasn’t letting the matter drop. “There’s not really much of anything there. By the way, sir, do you have any recommendations for a place to stay the night?”
“Hmm, a place to stay? Whoseyards has public inns, but they’ll cost ya. In fact, there ain’t no place in Whoseyards that’s cheap!”
“Is that so?” Evidently, Whoseyards was fairly expensive as countries go. I’d gotten an inkling of that from what those armed guards by the entrance of the Dungeon were saying.
“From the looks of it, you picked one of the countries more or less at random,” he commented. “Whoseyards is the nicest-looking outta the lot, so folks who don’t know much about Alliance countries tend to come here first. It’s a safe and prosperous nation, but everything’s pricey as a result. They call it a knightly aristocracy for a reason, ya know.”
“I see...”
It was pure chance that I’d happened to find myself in Whoseyards. Looks like the country’s got glaringly obvious pros and cons. Guess it’s a country for the rich, by the rich.
“I’ll be blunt: if ya ain’t got deep pockets, exploring the Dungeon with Whoseyards as your base’ll be rough going. Those pieces o’ copper ya earned yourself ain’t gonna buy ya enough to fill your stomach either. If ya ain’t a high-level, high-income Dungeon diver, ya can’t even really find room or board here.”
“It’s that pricey, huh? So, around what percent more does a room cost here than in other countries?”
“What percent more? You’re thinking small. How many times more expensive, more like. No matter where ya go in Whoseyards, it’ll cost ya a few hundred copper coins, easy.”
“A... A few hundred?!”
“We got people just strolling around with gold coins on ’em. Sorry to say it, but if ya got no money, you’d best camp outdoors someplace without a ley line. Ya can head east for Vart as early as tomorrow if you like. That country’s a mite on the unsafe side, but it’s great for Dungeon exploration. I’m pretty sure they’ve got places ya can stay for a few pieces o’ copper.”