Chapter 116: Too Bad

"Nope, no special effects. It's completely normal," Amy reported her appraisal result and placed the Magic Bag on the counter.

Feeling the excitement of opening the copper treasure chest, the team had immediately requested for the Magic Bag's appraisal upon their return to the Guild.

As it turned out, however, the Magic Bag was nothing special — no item-duplicating effect or anything of the sort.

"N-no way... This came from layer fifty-nine, you know?"

"Well, bad luck happens. Don't worry about it," Amy replied half-heartedly, seeing that Daryl was in low spirits with his black-furred ears folding down. This cold-ish attitude of hers toward Daryl was due to her knowing that he was Garm's apprentice.

Amy proceeded to issue an Appraisal Certificate, stamp the seal, and hand it over to Tsutomu. Tsutomu accepted it and turned to pat Daryl's head.

"Let's see if we get something better next time," he said to Daryl while taking back the Magic Bag.

"Tsutomu~~" Amy suddenly call out with a tone as if she was scolding a child.

"Huh? What is it?"

Tsutomu tilted his head.

"I haven't been seeing you on the single-digit Monitors~~ What gives, man~~?"

Amy had been checking the Monitors inside the Guild whenever Absolute Helix was exploring the Dungeon. Over the past month, however, the Clan had almost never shown up on the single-digit Monitors, and was instead, often shown on Monitors of higher numbers than twenty.

"Of, I must've forgotten to mention... We're working on getting our team synergy going, so we're training on the upper layers for now."

"C'mon, you got Dini with you — the Fire Dragon should be a piece of cake! I swear, her lazy habits are rubbing off on you!"

"Is that true, Tsutomu?" Diniel asked, wondering if she had just found a fellow slacker.

"Hell no." Tsutomu replied bluntly before steering things back to the main topic, "Besides, there's really nothing for us to gain from rushing ahead. Ealdred Crow can make all the discoveries, and we'll take it easy behind them."

"Sounds to me like y'all are slacking off, though~~?"

"As I said, we're training — especially our newer members, an evasion-based Tank and a super powerful Attacker."

"Hmm..."

Amy took a glance at Amira and Hannah, apparently evaluating them in her mind. Being looked at like that, Hannah bowed her head, and Amira firmly stared back. Seeing fault in Amira's manners, Hannah pushed the latter's head down to have her bow as well.

"That redhead girl looks... as rough as ever. You sure she's cool?"

Tsutomu answered Amy's doubtful look with confidence,

"She's started behaving a bit. And we just saw some improvement to her <<Dragon Form>> control today, so I'd say things are going well."

"Oh yeah?"

Seemingly convinced by the explanation, Amy looked away from the two and pointed at Tsutomu from behind the counter.

"Well, I'll be joining your Clan as soon as my successor's training is done, so you better get everyone past the Fire Dragon before then!"

"Yeah, yeah. And I'll train our Attackers to be stronger than you, too."

"W-WHAT!? Nah, I'm still gonna be stronger!"

Amy vaulted over the counter, and Tsutomu moved away, holding the Magic Bag, and turning his back from her.

"Good to see that you're motivated. Well, good luck with your job — and don't overwork yourself."

"...Mm-hm."

Tsutomu proceeded to open the door and leave, with the rest of his party following him. Amy looked on, feeling somewhat envious.

Since the Magic Bag from the copper treasure chest had been appraised by Amy as an item of no special value, Tsutomu immediately sold it off at the Guild before returning to the Clan House.

"Welcome back, everyone."

At the front door, Ollie, the house manager with short dark brown hair, bowed and greeted the five of them. She then proceeded to assist Daryl with unequipping his heavy armor.

Although Daryl's armor was far too heavy for average person to lift, Ollie could carry the whole thing effortlessly while leading everyone inside. The living room was squeaky clean, and a tasty smell drifted in from the kitchen, where preparations were being made for various dishes.

"The water has already been heated, too, so do feel free to take a bathe."

The house had two bathrooms, one on the first floor for the women, and the other on the second for the men. Tsutomu was the first to bathe... because the one time he had gone in together with Daryl, he had witnessed a hellishly messy sight. After all, Daryl was in his heavy armor all day, resulting in his body being quite musty and his Cynokin fur being absolutely soaked in sweat.

"Mm-hm-hm, mm-hm-hmm~~"

As for the women, Hannah was always the first to go in, being the only one who liked taking baths. Diniel was the least motivated to take a bath, and would always be the last of the women to go in... after much pestering from Ollie.

The baths themselves ran on Fire and Water Magic Stones, and a hair dryer-like magic tool had been prepared as well. After Tsutomu was done bathing and was drying his hair, the soaking sweaty Daryl went in after him. Heading to the living room, he saw that Ollie was preparing dinner in the kitchen. As soon as the latter noticed Tsutomu walking in, she reached for a cup to pour him some cold milk, but he stopped her.

"It's all right. I can do it myself."

"Thank you for your consideration."

After the same exchange of words that had happened so many times before, Tsutomu took out the milk pot from the refrigerator, so as to not interrupt Ollie's cooking.

Tsutomu observed Ollie's cooking as she grilled a hearty piece of steak meant for Daryl, and meanwhile, Hannah walked into the living room, having just finished bathing. Hannah then asked Ollie to bring her the pot of banana-flavored milk from the refrigerator, and once she got it, she proceeded to chug the contents down right from the pot.

"Pwah! 'Tis the best!"

Seeing some of the milk sticking around Hannah's lips, Tsutomu chuckled before turning his attention to the Dungeon newspapers, which Ollie bought new issues of every morning. Tsutomu started reading through all the three major publishers' issues, while Hannah reached her hands behind her to straighten some of the feathers on her wings.

She had already groomed them earlier today, but still felt the urge to fix them up, perhaps because she had just gotten out of the bath — and not to mention, she still needed to apply some Birdkin feather-care cream on them.

Eventually, Daryl and Amira joined them in the living room, the former refreshed after his bath, and the latter still combing her long red hair as she walked. Diniel came and took her seat as well, showing no desire to bathe at all. With everyone here, Ollie proceeded to bring their food to the table.

Ollie had cooked dishes customized for each of the Clan members, and sides that anyone could eat. Most of the time, and including this time, Daryl and Amira's main dishes were especially high in volume. Once Ollie was done setting the table, the four members immediately started chowing down, while Tsutomu said a few words of prayer before partaking.

It was apparent that Ollie's cooking was delicious and had good attention to personal detail. Diniel's food was not as hot due to her heat-sensitive tongue, and Tsutomu's fried eggs were done over well, just as he preferred. Hannah's meal was relatively light, while Daryl and Amira's stood out due to the sheer amount.

While the meal went on, Ollie collected the emptied plates and washed them. She was also responsible for all the housework, including cleaning and laundry, for the five members. Tsutomu had bought some magic tools to make things easier for her, but without modern Earth cleaning tools and supplies, there was still a lot more work to do here than there would be in Japan.

After the meal, Diniel was captured by Ollie and forced to take a bath.

"Now, please go in and clean yourself up."

"Stahp..."

As for the three others, Tsutomu called them for a short meeting despite being free time. He handed each of them a piece of paper on which the Clan's expenses and earnings over the past month were detailed.

"Here's this month's salary slip. The money will be transferred to your account by the end of today."

"Ah, thank you."

Hannah accepted her slip, seeming as if she was used to getting them, while Daryl and Amira looked confused as they took theirs.

Amounts deducted from the Absolute Helix's monthly earnings included official expenses such as Potions, gear, furniture, and Ollie's salary. The remaining amount was then divided among the five Clan members as their pay.

"Huh? Am I supposed to get this much? I mean, my gear is quite..."

"Consider that a gift from me. They're not going on record."

If Daryl and Diniel's gear orders were included in the total, it would look like the Clan was in the red, so Tsutomu had paid for those out of his own pocket. Due to the nobility consuming a great quantity of Magic Stones during the Stampede, their market prices were still quite high, but that still was not enough to fund all their custom-ordered gear.

To earn more money going forward, Absolute Helix could try hunting Wyverns in the Canyons, or defeating the Fire Dragon and heading down to the Volcano layers to gather Inferno Magic Stones. There was no particular need for that now, however, with Tsutomu's pockets still being quite fat.

Daryl stared at the paper, his eyes blinking with shock. In contrast, Amira folded it and put it away, then stepped forward.

"Hey, Tsutomu, I need your help. I wanna test some stuff out."

Amira seemed restless and gave Tsutomu quite a strong look, obviously wanting to test out her <<Dragon Form>> this instant.

"Oh, all right. Let's go," Tsutomu said, somewhat amazed by how eager she was. As he left to prepare, Daryl looked on, still shocked by the paper in his hands.