30 - Like a Horse With a Carrot Dangling in Front Its Nose

Treasure chests can be found in the dungeons of The Conquest.

The contents of treasure chests can contain equipment, materials, magic items, dungeon currency, and rare items that can only be found in treasure chests, though the chances of finding them are low, so players compete to find them.

The treasure chests have a few rules.

Once a treasure chest is opened, it disappears after a certain period of time and then pops up again in a different location.

Treasure chests have a rarity¹, and the deeper the level, the higher the rarity.

The deeper the level, the rarer the treasure chest.

There may be locks and traps.

The wooden treasure chests on this floor are unlocked, so you don't need to use the corresponding keys or skills. However, the treasure chests on the middle and later levels have explosive traps or are disguised as mimics that are stronger than a bad floor boss, so just opening them is quite a thrill.

In the deeper levels, it's not uncommon for traps to kill you instantly. Some are so bad that they can cause a huge explosion that blows up the entire area. Disarming them was difficult, and only a few players were able to open the chests because they required the corresponding keys and skills.

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--The story goes back to before the passage.

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Originally, treasure chests were not popping up on the seventh level, but I know that they are now placed in the additional area due to DLC. And in front of me, there is a skeleton sitting on a treasure chest with his head down. But—

'That's odd...'

The treasure chests that pop up in this area are supposed to be «Wooden Treasure Chests», but the one there is a shiny metal box, no matter how you look at it. And it even has a relief pattern on it. And that skeleton is strange.

The skeletons I've fought in the past have worn no armor, only weapons and shields, but this one is wearing a finely decorated chainmail and helmet, and its bones are kind of black, and it even has horns. At a glance, you can tell it's not just another skeleton. It's probably a named monster². Aside from the horns, it looks similar to the Chaos Soldier that I saw on a dungeon attack broadcast some time ago.

It may be in a dormant state, or it may not be moving at all, so I can't say for sure how strong it is. I wanted to see his name alone, but if I used the |Simple Appraisal| he would have noticed me and we would have had to fight.

There is a possibility that she will use her weapon skills, and it would be dangerous if my sister, who has no knowledge of the game, used them.

"...he's likely to be a monster level 9 or higher, so it's better to back off and use the golem to level him up first..."

"...but the treasure chest might disappear!.."

"...I would rather let the treasure dissapear than our lives, you greedy gold lover! Now stop whining about the treasure chest and retreat..."

I managed to convince my sister, who was like a horse with a carrot dangling in front its nose, that the treasure chest would not disappear unless she opened it. The problem is, if someone comes here, who would go to the trouble of descending into a pit to check out the side holes? No, even if they came here, the treasure chest would repop. There's no need to push yourself when your life is on the line.

If you are fighting an unknown monster that you don't know anything about, you have to be as careful as possible. This is especially true for named monsters, which can be "floor bosses" at worst.

"...ugh, can I come back and get it?.."

"...when you level up. So be patient for now..."

I reluctantly agreed to retreat, so I decided to go and kill the golem in the courtyard. My sister looks back and forth as if she's regretting her decision to leave, but I want her to give up for now because life is the only thing that matters.

On the way, I peeked into the courtyard through a small window on the side of the passage and found .... It was a wood golem.

The courtyard is beautiful, although the grass is growing in places. It's not that someone is mowing the grass, but that's the way the terrain is. There was a golem standing in the middle of it, dragging its feet. It was probably about 2.5 meters tall. But its arms and legs were thick, and it must have weighed nearly a ton.

I observed the golem through the binoculars I had brought with me.

"There's a stone stuck in its back... That's the core, right?"

I almost underestimated its strength because it was only moving very slowly, but the scary thing about it was its power.

"That's right. His attacks are heavy, so don't take them. Just duck."

"I'll be fine!" She insisted. "You worry too much. Let's get this over with and level up!"

The golem is an omnidirectional life-sensing type³, so if you get close enough to it, it will sense you even if you are behind it. Surprise attacks were off the table.

"I'll go in and distract it, then you get the core." I said.

"I just have to pluck the core from its back, right?"

"No, we'll extract a core later when we're stronger," I reminded Sophia. "Keep an eye on its movements and destroy the core when you have an opening."

Her responses didn't fill me with confidence, but it was time to implement our plan.

I readied my weapon and advanced until there were thirty meters between me and the golem. It spun around, and I heard the low rumbling of a motor running. From the sound, I half-expected it to sprout a set of wheels.

"Come at me, big guy!"

The Wood Golem has a monster level of 9, but because of its slow initial speed, the skeleton seems to move much faster than it does. But that's only until you get close. Its punches have a longer reach and are faster than I expected.

"Whoa! That's a fast punch!"

My stomach churned with each punch the golem threw at me because there was a thunderous crack in the air. This attack pattern was why it was vital that I not let my guard down for even a second. Seriously.

"I'll be taking this!" declared Sophia. "Ughhhh, come out!"

She had climbed onto the golem, planted her feet on its back, and was unsuccessfully trying to pry the core free and getting swung around by the golem. Yet, the core stayed in place.

"Smack it with your weapon!" I yelled before ducking again avoiding another attack. "And– Whoa! That was close! Damn it Sophie! Hit it where it attaches to the golem! Wait, no, just break the damn thing!"

"But!" protested Sophia. "That's such a waste!"

"Goddamn it! Your brother trying to survive here!"

My heart shrank every time I dodged one of the golem's thunderous punches. I was drenched in cold sweat and wished Sophia would hurry. For the next minute, I continued dodging the punches and sweating profusely.

Sophia struck the golem's core with the back of her knife over and over, until it finally snapped. The golem crumpled to the ground and turned into a magic gem.

Golems here had short respawn timers, so we needed to get away quickly to take a break. Otherwise, we'd have to face it again

"I almost died!" I said, panting. "You took too long trying to extract the core!"

"But look!" Said Sophia cheerfully, staring down at the golem core she was cradling in her hands. "How much do you think we'll get for it?"

Despite my orders, the promise of treasure had been too alluring for my sister. I told her I would allow her thirty seconds to extract the core in our next fight. If that didn't work, she had to destroy it.

"Boo!" she complained.

"Don't "boo" me!" I spat. "Tell you what, once you turn level 8, you can be the decoy."

"If you say so, ha ha."

Her frivolous attitude made me want to smack her on the head, but upsetting her would slow down the raid.

While we were talking, a black cloud formed on the ground. Golems were quest monsters, so the black clouds they spawned from emerged differently to other monsters.

We took a ten-minute break since dodging the first golem's rapid punches had worn me out. Sophia had figured out how to remove the core, so she managed to extract the second golem's core and defeated it in thirty seconds. And we could run away quickly if we needed to do so.

"We should've brought a hatchet with us," said Sophia. "Knives are great for cutting, but it's hard using the right amount of force to break things."

Her knives hadn't worked well against the skeletons either. Sophia was quite strong now, and it might be a good idea to give her a heavier weapon to try |Dual Wielding|.

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We slew five more Wood Golems between our long breaks, and Sophia reached level 8. These golems were worth more experience points than usual because they were quest monsters. She had received bonus experience points since they were at a higher level than her, meaning leveling up didn't take long.

"Yay!" Sophia cheered. "Should we take it in turns now?"

"Sophie," I said, panting even more. "Your...brother's...tired. Let's go...home."

"Ugh!" fussed Sophia. "Okay. But we're coming back tomorrow!"

"Geez, young people these days..."

"Stop talking like an old greezer! And you just one year older than me!"

Golems were a great choice of enemy to hunt as there was a surefire way to kill them when you had a friend to help. It was common knowledge in The Conquest that golems were an easy way to level up, which also applied to this world.

Still, it surprised me how quickly Sophia was adapting to the dungeon. At this pace, we could reach level fifteen in two months. I could accomplish my diet by leveling up in the dungeon like this and keeping my meals small, making me keen to keep up the good work.

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After regular lessons had ended for the day, Osuke conducted homeroom and blandly recited school updates. He likely knew there were problems in Class E but walked out of the classroom door without mentioning them, pretending not to have noticed.

At the end of homeroom, some Class D students entered the room to pick up a few of my classmates to do work for their club activities. They didn't bother with me, ever since they realize I was the heir of PEARL'S and and they even seemed a little polite to me or pretended to be friendly.

What a sycophant.

I wasn't sure whether to laugh at them or just play along about that. After all, I planned to hunt more golems with my sister and appreciated that they wouldn't put me to work.

"Hey, Daisuke!" called out a Class D student. "Don't just sit there. You're gonna come and do some work for us!"

"S-Sure," replied Daisuke as the student grabbed his collar and dragged him out of the room.

This treatment was clearly bullying, but the teachers didn't care. More than a few Class E students recoiled at the sight of these Class D students, fearing making eye contact as their will to resist had broken. Kazami had trounced Daisuke, the supposedly strongest student in Class E, in a one-sided fight. All this had cast a dark shadow on Class E now that they understood how much of an advantage three extra years of experience in the dungeon was.

I could not say anything to fix that mood. The only course of action available to me would be to find and beat down the student pulling Kariya's strings, because Kariya himself was no more than a puppet. Class B's ringleader was the one who called the shots.

Regardless, Daisuke's eyes still burned with passion as they dragged him away. He probably wanted to keep raiding the dungeon until he was strong enough to get payback. But he'd be all right since he had Mitsuki, Akari, and Makoto by his side.

A couple of Class D students stayed behind in the classroom after Daisuke had left, acting like they owned the place.

"Oh, did I tell you my brother got an invite from one of Focus' subsidiary clans?" one of them said.

The others just showered him with praise.

"From Focus?! No way!"

"Your brother's in Colors, right, Tanaka?"

"That's so cool!"

'Oh, so his name's Tanaka?' He was the one who had punched Shunichi by the school gate. I was glad I knew his name, as I'd been planning to learn it.

Tanaka continued to boast loudly about his brother, so I listened attentively. It appeared his brother had joined a party that belonged to a clan under the Focus' umbrella, and several big names in the adventuring scene were joining.

Focus was an Assault Clan whose popularity had risen after their televised victory against the lich. Colors was a subsidiary clan of another clan of Focus, making it two steps removed from the main clan. Anyway, Colors had many graduates of Adventurers' High and other accomplished adventurers among their ranks. They were more distinguished than the average run-of-the-mill clan... Or so Tanaka explained, gesturing animatedly.

Adventurers had to join a subsidiary clan and get stronger since they couldn't join frontline Assault Clans directly. They could then rise to a higher-ranked clan if they made a name for themselves. You had to pass through multiple levels of subsidiary clans on the way. In exceptional cases, you could transfer from one top-ranked clan to another. But this only happened rarely because Assault Clans liked to keep their raiding strategies a secret.

"Daiki and the others in Focus were awesome to watch in that raid," another Class D student commented.

"I probably watched the recording a hundred times," added a third. "You gotta love Samurai. They have the most powerful job."

"I heard the government only lets people become Samurai if they create a clan that does well enough to get national recognition."

Focus certainly displayed plenty of spirit in their lich fight. I still shivered when I remembered watching them charge in, putting everything on the line. But I understood the allure of idolizing top adventurers.

Most students at Adventurers' Academy aspired to graduate from Adventurers' University and land a job in the government or could fall back on a regular university. If a student who had flunked the entrance exam to Adventurers' University received offers from a famous clan, they would take it. Even being part of a subsidiary clan would be enough to excite people based on the parent clan's name. As proof, the Class E students listened intently to the Class D kids' conversation.

As for me, I'd already attended university in my world and wasn't interested in going to Adventurers' University. I'd probably stop further education and go straight to adventuring because I liked thinking about finding trustworthy friends to form a clan once I got stronger. Seeing this wasn't the game, I didn't know how far down the dungeon I could make it but imagined I'd have a trick or two for taking down floor bosses.

Or, I have to (forced) inherited my father's company...

That will be another nightmare with the paperworks... I want to be free! No! I don't want to work as white collar anymore! No!

I'll keep that in mind. He started chatting loudly, so I listened closely and found out that I could join a clan party under the Focus. She said that we could join a clan party under the Focus, and that some big adventurers would be there.

I walked out from the classroom thinking about some plans on how to form my clan while I headed to the factories. I wanted to rent a few new weapons to make the golem fights easier.

They made most weapons of regular steel while others were resistant, stainless steel. Other weapons were softer titanium and hard to manufacture, which led to few in stock and little variety. Dungeon materials were equally difficult to use in manufacturing, but they resulted in sharper and more durable weapons. These qualities made factories not see the point in making stainless steel or titanium weapons.

But weapons created from dungeon materials like magic metals or the claws or fangs of strong monsters sold for millions of yen. This price hike applied even at cheaper venues like online shopping, auctions, and the Adventurers' Guild shops. They were too expensive to rent out, so the factory almost exclusively stocked steel weapons.

Steel weapons would work fine for the monsters on the first ten floors of the dungeon, but Sophia and I would reach the tenth floor soon. I'd need to either buy a better weapon or collect the materials to make one. I knew I couldn't skimp on weapons and armor when my life depended on them. As a broke high schooler, I needed a way to raise funds.

I had a few ideas, yet I had to lay the groundwork to reach that point.

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Treasure Chest Rarity¹

Treasure chests have different rarities depending on the material they are made of: wood, copper, silver, gold, mithril, orichalcone, and adamantite, in that order. Usually, treasure chests up to the 20th floor are made of wood.

Named Monsters²

These are special monsters that can only be found in one game world. These monsters are often as strong as a boss and have a unique name.

Life sensing type³

A type that senses life force. It is not affected by sight, but it cannot detect monsters with no life force, such as undead. A normal monster is a sight-sensing type that senses what it can see.