Chapter 266

The Branch Manager Popocca spoke of the near-impossible difficulty required to find out the information material.

I knew that, but I continued to explain.

The important thing was not to spend time trying to get them to trust me, but to provide information that was trustworthy.

(If it's trust you want, then trust the Hero.)

There was one thing that I did not have and Helmios overwhelmingly did.

It was trust.

The trust that Helmios had built up over the years through his activities as a Hero was not nothing.

Helmios, who was born a Hero and had devoted his life to being a Hero, had more credibility than most of the Royalty.

There were quite a few Royalty from various countries who did not hear from the Emperor of the Giamut Empire, but would listen to Helmios.

"Hmm? What's this number 1829?"

"It is the number of magical beasts they've defeated. Apparently it is true that an infinite number of magical beasts spring up, and Hero Helmios told me that even after defeating over a thousand of them, some magical beasts still appeared."

(We could have checked by defeating over 10,000, but 1,000 should be enough for one trap.)

To survive, a party only had to reach the hidden cube, after all.

"This is based on the 4th floor, right?"

"Yes, but it does say at the bottom of the parchment that the same thing happened on the 2nd and 3rd floors."

The Branch Manager checked his memory in his head to see if his memory was wrong.

"If I remembered correctly, the 4th level Death Zone only has A-rank magical beasts?"

"Yes, the parchment says so."

"Is Hero Helmios that strong?"

"He might be."

However, the Branch Manager wasn't convinced.

"Hey, did you get that ready?"

"Yes, sir. This way."

The Branch Manager hadn't come empty-handed to receive the report.

The Guild representative handed me a piece of parchment, and I checked its contents.

"When you used to serve Viscount Granvelle, you allegedly defeated Madegarsh at the age of 10. The Guild Branch Manager there didn't confirm it."

"..."

I listened in silence.

"You conquered 5 A-class dungeons while you were enrolled in the Academy. It is the first time I have heard of this."

"It's the first time in history since the Academy system began, and the third time someone so young has done so in the last 1,000 years of history books."

The Guild representative explained further.

"Mm-hmm? He didn't participate in the last war?"

"I am sorry. The Latash Kingdom and Rosenheim refused to cooperate with us."

They didn't seem to have any record of me participating in the war.

"But you definitely participated in the war, no doubt about it. Rosenheim's Chief of Staff? Just how much merit does it require to become a leading military personnel after just one war?"

Having said that much, the Branch Manager looked at me.

"What do you want to say?"

"What is your purpose?"

"Huh?"

"Why are you doing this? I'm sorry, but please tell me that much. I know it's valuable information. I appreciate it. But adventurers don't do this kind of thing."

(That's why I'm doing it.)

Adventurers didn't research or compile records of such things.

It was because the S-class dungeon was the most dangerous dungeon in the world where 50% of the people died every year.

It was possible to get thousands of Gold coins in a short period of time by entering the dungeon.

After earning a certain amount of money, most of the adventurers quit.

Some adventurers dreamt of conquering the dungeon, but soon got frustrated after discovering the difficulty of the dungeon.

As a result, no one compiled information, made money and quit.

Or lost their life in the dungeon.

The information delivered by my friends and me had tremendous value.

The entire Guild was up in arms about the information they received last time, which summarized the movement patterns of Beebe, Scarlet, and Crimson.

I had found out the movement patterns of the S-rank Floor Bosses, which had been thought not to exist, due to E-rank Birds.

No one had known this since the Adventurers' Guild was set up in the S-class dungeon.

No one even tried to find out.

If the price to be paid was the adventurer's own life, no one would investigate.

However, in fact, 80% of the time, it was possible to identify where the S-rank Floor Bosses were located depending on the time of day.

In the past two or three months, the Adventurer's Guild had been receiving more and more information about it.

I was the one bringing the information.

It was about six months ago that Branch Manager Popocca received a report that a dark-haired boy entering the S-class dungeon had the mysterious power to bring out magical beasts.

It was not only the power that was strange.

The Branch Manager had told the Guild representative to ask for the boy's purpose, but he was always evasive. So, the Branch Manager decided to deal with it himself.

"I've heard that 50 percent of adventurers die each year in the S-class dungeon and the biggest reason for it are the S-rank Floor Bosses and the Death Zones."

"Yes."

I talked about the most common cause of death in the S-class dungeon.

Adventurers were basically guaranteed to die if they couldn't escape against the S-rank Floor Bosses.

If the adventurers unlucky enough to get transferred to the Death Zone by the hidden cubes couldn't find the hidden cube in the Death Zone while running from or defeating the endless number of magical beasts that sprang up, they were sure to die.

In particular, the Death Zone caused the Adventurers' Guild to declare a person as dead after a certain period of time has passed since his or her disappearance, since the person most probably would die without being able to escape.

"Hero Helmios said that he wanted to get this number to below 10 percent."

"Less than 10 percent. Huh? Why?"

"I am just talking about the purpose."

"..."

The Branch Manager could see that it was a superficial objective.

He looked into my face, wanting to know the real reason.

"Hero Helmios said he wanted you to wait another two months or so."

(There will be an oracle at the beginning of the year about changing Talents, so please understand.)

I had been doing many things, including asking for help in securing weapons and armor from Rosenheim and other places after hearing that the Demon King's army had stolen the Divine Artifact.

But that was not all.

We desperately needed those who would and could fight against the Demon King's army.

And they would need the finest weapons and armor.

I wanted to encourage those with Talent to change Talents and gain even more power.

If they got strong enough to be able to challenge the S-class dungeon, even better.

However, if the situation didn't improve, it was equivalent to sending adventurers to their deaths.

When I first heard that 50% of the adventurers died in the S-class, I had decided to do some research and provide information to find out if I could improve the situation a little, but I decided to put all my energy into providing information.

It wouldn't matter if weapons and armors couldn't be made if everyone knew where to find Treasure Chests.

Fire Goddess Freya had lost her power which made the blacksmiths unable to forge Orichalcum weapons.

So, I wanted to make sure that as many dungeon-produced weapons and armor as possible were available to adventurers and soldiers.

The price that I wanted for providing information was the survival of the human race.

I was very sleepy after having put together the Death Zone report the day before.

Although my friends helped me, the workload was concentrated on me because it was faster for me to make maps using the Grimoire.

That's also why I changed our dungeon schedule from three and a half days to three days.

I was exhausted, but I still had to do it.

All the adventurers who would survive thanks to the information, would have the power to fight against the Demon King's army.

If the adventurers survive till the year end, they would learn that they could change Talents, and they would gain even more power.

I provided information to the Adventurers' Guild to help them live the present.

"Two months?... What will happen in two months?"

"Yes, Hero Helmios said that if you still aren't convinced two months later, he will answer you."

I looked straight at the Branch Manager, hoping that it was enough to convince him for the moment.

As a matter of course, if I were to leak the contents of the oracle to the Adventurers' Guild, a worldwide organization, prior to the oracle, there was a possibility that they would hinder future activities.

"I understand. Thank you for the information."

He probably knew that it was not Helmios but me, who was providing the information.

However, the Branch Manager who had seen various adventurers throughout the years didn't think it was a bad thing.

He let out a small sigh, thinking that just knowing that there was no evil scheme behind it was a good thing.

"I'll be happy to provide you with more information. Oh, you can use the information as you wish, but please note that the Dungeon Master can change the dungeon as he wishes."

I believed that the reliability of information in the dungeon could be changed by Dungeon Master Digragni as much as he wanted and at any time he wanted.

"Yes, I'll let the person in charge know to be on the lookout for that as well."

"Thank you. Now then."

My friends and I started to leave the room while the Branch Manager was slightly disheartened that he did not get to ask all the questions he had wanted to.

The Branch Manager once again looked at the map in front of him.

It was a map of the Death Zone.

I had even proposed a route for a safer escape.

Just that small thing would save many lives.

The Branch Manager didn't know why we would do it for free.

"What the hell? Who the hell is Allen?"

The Branch Manager spoke to himself, too loud to be heard, as we left.

"Hmm."

Sophie, who had still been silently listening to the conversation between me and the Branch Manager, smiles when she sees the Branch Manager.

The rest of us had already left the private room, but Sophie hadn't left the room yet.

"An?"

I can't help but wonder aloud what's so funny.

"Master Allen is a Pioneer."

"What?"

Sophie said a few words and affirmed what I was.

"What's wrong Sophie? The rest of us are waiting for you."

"Yes, Master Allen."

With that said, Sophie got out of the door, and left the Branch Manager in the room alone.

Sophie was proud of how wonderful the Pioneers she had heard about in Allen's story were.