By evening, we arrived at the town of Silvia without encountering any bandits or monsters along the way.

The town of Silvia—rather than a town, it was small enough to be considered a village. Unlike Luxeria or Egarton, it had no large walls or gatekeepers, and there were only about 40 to 50 houses.

First, we needed to greet the village chief, so we asked a local at the entrance for directions. It seemed that word of our dungeon conquest had already spread, and they willingly provided us with information about the dungeon.

By the way, the carriage driver, after delivering various letters and packages in Silvia, quickly departed for another town. On our way back, it seemed we would be taking a carriage from this town to Egarton.

"Well then, we'll begin the actual conquest tomorrow morning. But for now, let's go check out the dungeon entrance. It should be close by."

Following the orders of our leader, Lilith, we set out for the dungeon entrance.

It only took 15 minutes on foot from Silvia to reach our destination. I hadn't expected it to be so close to the town.

"Are you perhaps the adventurers hired to conquer the dungeon?"

At the dungeon entrance, a large stone staircase led underground. Standing before it were three men.

Come to think of it, Lilith had mentioned that monsters had started overflowing from the dungeon. Judging by their well-equipped gear, these men were likely preventing monsters from reaching the town.

"Yeah, we’re Verdant Cats, sent here by the Adventurers’ Guild. Nice to meet you!"

"Oh, so you’re the famous A-rank adventurer party, Verdant Cats!"

"Wow, I never expected A-rank adventurers to come here!"

Just like in Bradley, it seemed that A-rank adventurers like Lilith and Drain were well-known wherever they went.

"We’ll start the full-scale conquest tomorrow, but could you share any information you have?"

"Yes, sir! This dungeon was discovered a few months ago. We immediately requested an investigation from the Adventurers’ Guild, and it was classified as a small-scale dungeon.

However, the monsters that appeared here were mostly rats and bats—neither useful as food nor valuable for materials—so hardly anyone ventured inside.

As a result, monsters finally began overflowing from the dungeon last week. We and the townspeople managed to cull some, but if left unchecked, they will keep emerging.

The town of Silvia decided to clear and seal the dungeon, but since there was no one strong enough to do so, we requested help from high-rank adventurers."

I see, so dungeons can vary in quality. This one was an unlucky case, but larger dungeons that spawn valuable food or material-providing monsters could become tourist attractions.

"Thanks for the info. We’re going to take a quick look inside. Since we’ll start the real conquest tomorrow, we’ll be back in about 30 minutes."

"Understood! By the way... may I ask who that gentleman is? If I recall correctly, Verdant Cats was an all-beastkin female party."

"Oh, he’s just temporarily with us. Don’t worry, he’s way stronger than we are."

"M-my deepest apologies! I didn’t recognize you!"

"I’m not an adventurer, so don’t worry about it. In fact, feel free to forget about me entirely."

There's no need to be so formal with me. Besides, I'd rather not have rumors spreading that Verdant Cats has a new member.

"So this is what the inside of a dungeon looks like."

Since the sun would set soon, we were only doing a brief reconnaissance. Despite being underground, the dungeon was surprisingly well-lit, and there seemed to be plenty of oxygen.

Trying to explain this scientifically would probably be pointless.

"Another one, nya!"

"Tch, what a hassle!"

As expected from an overflowing dungeon, we encountered monsters every time we descended a floor. So far, just as the men outside had said, the only creatures present were large rats and bats.

I had heard that both were technically edible as exotic cuisine, but I had no desire to try them. They also seemed like they’d carry diseases.

Lilith and the others didn’t bother collecting materials from the defeated monsters and simply left them behind. Apparently, the dungeon would absorb the corpses on its own.

"Lilith, should we wrap it up? The real conquest starts tomorrow morning."

"Yeah, let’s head back to town for now. Judging from the monsters and the dungeon’s structure, I’d say it has around 10 to 20 floors. We should be able to defeat the boss within two or three days."

"I agree. Given this dungeon’s size, it should take us only a few days, just like our previous quests."

It seemed this wasn’t their first dungeon conquest. The monsters here were numerous, but individually, they weren’t strong—an ordinary person could probably defeat one in a one-on-one fight.

"Alright, let’s head back to the entrance."

"…Um, Master Masayoshi, would you mind trying to use teleportation magic once?"

"Sure, I don’t mind."

We were only on the third floor, so walking back to the entrance wouldn’t take long. But maybe Rurune had something in mind. Following her request, I activated teleportation magic for all five of us, aiming for the staircase at the dungeon’s entrance.

"…Huh? My teleportation magic isn’t working."