“If I might ask, how deep have you guys managed to dive?” I asked, trying not to treat her veiled flirting like she was serious.
It wasn’t just five women behind me boring a hole into my back, but also the five men behind her. I was being glared at by all sides. Why would I be even interested in that arrangement? She was pretty, with her long black hair over one eye, wide hips, and a dress and attitude that gave the feel of a sorceress.
The girl pursed her lips thoughtfully at my words, “Harem’s Boys has made it as low as level 15. Can’t get past the boss, but we will soon.
“I’m sorry, Harem’s what?”
“Ah, we forgot to introduce ourselves. We’re the B-ranked Dungeon Divers, Harem’s Boys!” She made a gesture to the guys, who actually seemed a little happy she acknowledged them. “I’m Harem, by the way.”
Her name is actually Harem!
“Is that short for something?” I asked, my lips twitching.
“Yup, it’s short for Harem Queen!”
It was as bad as I thought. To prevent myself from going crazy, I looked over at the next group.
“Rank S, Titan’s Fall.” The leader from the group of women said.
“Rank A, Demon’s Head.” The man snorted after everyone glanced in his direction.
“Still not S?” The large woman put on a mischievous smile.
“Hmph! If I accepted two more members of my ability, we’d be an S ranked team!” he shot back, and then looked at us. “So, what rank is your team? Six people, you have to be a C, right?”
Most Dungeon Divers were Adventurers from the Adventuring Guild, so these ranks were their official Adventuring Guild ranks. For various circumstances, I had been fighting in dungeons rather than going on guild sanctioned missions. The result was that we had only advanced a single rank. As for our group name, I couldn’t even remember it.
“Deek’s Group, um… F…”
“Sorry?”
I coughed. “Rank E.”
“Get out of the Dungeon…”
“Hey now, maybe they have more experience than it looks. They could have been in a higher group and recently broke up and formed around one weak companion. If they haven’t done missions, they might really be at least a C or something.” Harem offered an excuse. “How long have you been Adventurers? Like since you were 10?”
“About three months now?”
“Get out.”
I let out a sigh. “Believe it or not, I have a lot of experience with Dungeons. I actually have the official job.”
“Well, duh, if you didn’t have at least that much, you probably wouldn’t have even made it to this safe room.”
“R-really?”
“You got Pathfinder, right? Even with a map, it’s near impossible to navigate these tunnels without an anchor. You probably been running around the dungeon for the last few days and finally made it here.” Harem hesitated for a second and then sighed. “I’m just too nice. After you rest, I’ll take you back to the entrance so you guys can be on your own.”
“Bu-“
“No buts! If you go any deeper, you’ll definitely die! Don’t think about yourself, but your women. I can see we’re kindred spirits, so you must definitely look after your girls! Don’t you care about them?” Her words resulted in smug looks from all of her male companions, who clearly enjoyed me being put down.
I let out a sigh and agreed with them. I couldn’t imagine their reactions if they knew we had arrived and made it here in under an hour. My Map skill made the typical Pathfinder look like child’s play.
There wasn’t much of a point in going any further right now anyway. I could Portal to this safe room. That was enough for today. I also didn’t want to argue and perhaps become enemies with the very first professional dungeon divers I had met. And worst of all, I didn’t want to be seen as uncaring to my girls, even if they did think it was funny and were hiding their laughter behind wooden looks and conveniently placed hands.
“Don’t waste the trip.” The leader of the five-girl party spoke up. “We’re on our way out anyway. I’ll take them.”
The rest of the girls looked at their leader with unhappy expressions, but they didn’t argue with her. Harem looked slightly disappointed, but she eventually acquiesced.
Before we left, I registered with the kiosk even while earning snide looks from the other parties. I also checked out the mural. It only consisted of a single tree. That was it. I had a feeling the lore for this dungeon was going to be a long and complicated one. However, the day I would come to crack, it would be a long time from now.
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