“Does that mean you’re a priest of the God of Appraisal?” I asked.
“Nothing so grand,” Diego said. “I mean, they kicked me out halfway through. You can probably guess how they felt about me appraising cursed objects all the time...”
Come to think of it, the priests I’d met hadn’t been too keen on cursed objects, had they... “Yeah,” I agreed. “Priests of the God of Appraisal are pretty strict in that regard. So you’re saying you studied curses all the time despite that?”
“Essentially. That’s why they chased me out, in the end. I picked up a lot about the art of appraisal, though. And the way I see it, it doesn’t matter if it’s cursed or not—objects aren’t inherently sinful.”
Appraisal was a skill anyone could learn. The Guild had specialists, and many merchants knew how to do it too. The foremost experts in the world, however, were the priests who served the God of Appraisal, and many went to their temples seeking to learn their ways.
From what Diego had said, he had done exactly that. But to learn their methods, you had to become a priest too—they’d refuse to teach you otherwise. In a sense, that was only natural. But if Diego had become a priest, only to study cursed objects so often that he was excommunicated as a result...
Well, an adventurer like me would be extremely grateful to have an appraiser who would identify anything for them, but I had no doubt the priests saw the matter quite differently.
“You don’t regret it?” I asked. He’d gone as far as joining a priesthood to learn the art of appraisal. Could it be that he really had wanted to dedicate his life to it, at one point?
Diego shook his head. “Not really, no. I only learned it in the first place so I could run my store here in Lucaris. I’d always planned on coming back once I’d learned enough. I stayed longer than I’d planned to, actually, since it was more enjoyable than I expected, so getting the boot worked out perfectly.”
“Why Lucaris, then? Is there a particular reason you’re hung up on this city?”
As an appraiser who’d been good enough to become a priest of the God of Appraisal, Diego could’ve set up shop in an even bigger city and been in huge demand—and yet he simply ran a small shop like this as a side gig. Well, it had been passed down to him by his father, so maybe that was why.
“This is the city my father spent his life in,” Diego said, confirming my suspicions. “Besides...”
“Besides?” I asked.
“I...” Diego cut himself off, shaking his head. It seemed he wouldn’t be elaborating any further, because he suddenly changed the topic. “Come to think of it, Rentt, you said you were going to discipline these three?” He looked over to the unconscious men on the sofa. “What are you going to do to them?”
“Ah, right. Well, first I was going to get their side of the story when they woke up.”
“And then?”
“Make them help me out with a job. I’m planning to teach them a few things while we’re working too.”
“A job?”
“Yeah. Do you know about sea spirit herbs?”
It was kind of an abrupt topic change, but like any good general store owner and appraiser, Diego seemed to be well-versed in botany. “They’re a type of herb that grows on the seafloor, right?” he said. “Fishfolk harvest them on occasion, but you only ever see them in Lucaris once a year or so. Oh—though I’ve heard you can sometimes find them in the Dungeon of the Sea God’s Daughters.”
“You know your stuff.”
“Who do you think you’re talking to? I’m a great and mighty appraiser who went through all that training!”
“You’re not wrong. I’m a little amazed you’d call yourself ‘great and mighty’ though.”
“Anyway, about the sea spirit herbs...?”
“Right. An acquaintance of mine needs a number of them, but like you mentioned, they’re not exactly in general circulation. So, the only choice is to go get them myself, right?”
“Ah, so you’re...”
“Technically speaking, another acquaintance of mine is already looking for them, but it seems to be slow going. I figured I’d add another set of hands or four to the search.”
“That’s the job you’ll be using this lot for?” Diego examined the unconscious adventurers skeptically. “Are you sure they’ll be any help?”
I understood how he felt. You couldn’t just order someone to help you search for herbs and expect them to know what they were doing. Since it was only the one kind of plant, however, I could just drill the relevant information into them beforehand. As long as I did the final check of what they picked, we’d be fine.
“I won’t say it’ll be easy going, but they’ll be more of a help than a burden, I think.”
“Fair enough. At least they weren’t poor enough fighters that they’d get in the way. Does that mean you’ll be delving into the Dungeon of the Sea God’s Daughters, then?”
“That’s the plan. It’s underwater, right? I’m looking forward to seeing it, though, uh... I’m not quite sure how I’ll be delving it. Do you know what people usually do?”
I’d heard about this kind of thing even while I was back in Maalt—more detailed strategies for entering and exploring dungeons generally tended to be unavailable until you were in the area. That was less because Maalt was a backwater town and more because the information was worth its weight in coin. It tended not to leak too far unless large sums of money changed hands.
Purchasing it was an option, but back in Maalt I’d never felt inclined to spend my hard-earned coin just to find out something about a specific dungeon in some faraway country. Now that the need was upon me, my plan was to meet up with Capitan and ask him. Only if that turned out not to be enough would I consider purchasing more information.
Until I’d linked up with him, though, it would be a waste to go around buying knowledge that he’d end up telling me anyway. I wouldn’t have minded doing that in an emergency, but as things stood, all I had to do was wait until evening.
Since the ferry only traveled twice a day, the earliest I could explore the Dungeon of the Sea God’s Daughters was tomorrow, so that was no problem.
“In general, you get to the dungeon by boat,” Diego explained. “Then you just dive into the water, swim to the entrance, and you’re in. Simple.”
“Isn’t that a little too simple? What about breathing?”
“Well, you’re underwater, so you can’t.”
Correctly reading my expression as “What, are you telling me to die?” Diego burst into laughter, then added, “Don’t worry, I’m not telling you to stop breathing. There is a way.”