Chapter 102 - 101 - They Are Taking Too Long.
"Are they back yet?" I was in the guild master\'s room again. Every time I get called in to report on how the supposed dungeon exploration was going, but I had nothing to say.
The adventurers who went to the dungeon have been there for almost two days. This was a little exploration that would quickly end, but they disappeared completely.
"They haven\'t come back yet. I also didn\'t get any messages from anyone, normally if they were going to continue exploring they would have to send someone to let us know, but even that wasn\'t done."
"I see, maybe something happened? Or maybe they found something and you don\'t want the guild to find out?"
"I think that\'s not it. The group "Dragon Slayers" is very respectable and responsible, they would never do something like that, most likely something bad has happened to them."
"Alright, let\'s wait until tomorrow, if they don\'t come back I want you to send other adventurers over there. Even if you have to force them to abandon some mission, they will have to go to that dungeon."
"I understood."
"Now go and calm everyone down, there seems to be a commotion down there."
"Yes, because a lot of the adventurers who went on the exploration left their groups behind, and it hurt a lot of them, they\'re worried."
"Yes, I had already imagined something like that, so go there and calm everyone down."
"Right." Then I left the guild master\'s room and went to the main guild hall. There were many adventurers questioning exploration.
Most of them were from groups that the C-RANK and D-RANK adventurers who went were part of, so since they haven\'t come back until now they want some explanation.
And I honestly didn\'t know what to do in this situation.
"Listen, please be silent!" I went behind the counter and called everyone\'s attention.
"Okay guys, be quiet, let\'s see what she has to say." One of the adventurers said, most of them had stopped talking and started to wait for my pronouncement.
"I just talked to the guild master. He said to wait until tomorrow, if the group doesn\'t come back we\'ll send our best adventurers after them."
"What? We need money, since Bursu left we can\'t go out on a mission anymore, do you want us to starve?" One of the adventurers screamed.
Then a large wave of adventurers started saying the same thing.
But in addition to the adventurers who were without their group members, there were also the adventurers who were just their friends and wanted to know about their safety. I can only assume they are good friends.
"Don\'t worry, you will be rewarded later," I said this without thinking, I need to talk to the guild master about this later, I hope he doesn\'t get angry.
"I don\'t want money, I want my partner back."
"Okay, I get it, please calm down." I was already starting to get impatient, so I let Rieli talk to the adventurers and went to another room where normally adventurers\' licenses were made.
I wanted to calm down a bit.
"Looks like it\'s a little hectic out there."
"Oh, Ria. I didn\'t know you were here, I even forgot about it."
"What do you mean, I\'ve been here practically all day, fufu." Ria was a girl who worked here before I even got this job. She had become a very close friend and she was the one who took care of the manufacture of licenses.
"I\'m sorry about that, it\'s just that since yesterday I\'ve been under pressure about that damn exploration, what happened to them?"
"I don\'t know either. But if you want to stay here with me to rest I wouldn\'t complain. Here, take it." Ria grabbed a cup of tea and handed it to me, then we both sat on chairs.
"I will not get in your way?"
"No, I\'m not having much work today."
"Okay, thank goodness. Can you pamper a little?"
"Of course, come here." Ria was older than me and worked here before I even got here, so she liked to treat me like a little sister. And I didn\'t dislike it, I just don\'t like anyone seeing me that way.
I had my head on her shoulder as she caressed me, I was looking like a child.
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It\'s been a while since I found that supposed dungeon. On the same day, I went back to the guild at night to find out if the adventurers had returned, but the guild didn\'t seem to have any news of them.
An exploration that was supposed to be quick was taking much longer than usual.
But I thought maybe they had decided to explore the dungeon and would come back the next day, but when I went there the next day the adventurers still hadn\'t returned and they were still missing.
Today was the third day, and as classes were back, I could only go to the guild after school, and that\'s what I did.
As soon as I finished school, I told Lisandra that I was going out to buy us something, and she allowed me to leave.
So I went to the adventurers guild.
"There\'s a commotion going on here." When I arrived at the guild door, I noticed many sad adventurers, and also angry ones as they yelled at all the receptionists.
Even Rose was there trying to calm them down.
I slipped into the middle of the adventurers and got close to the counter.
"Rose, what\'s going on here?" I spoke loudly as I stood on tiptoes so she could get a good look at my face. She didn\'t seem to have noticed me the first time, so I called her again.
"Oh Noah, I\'m a little busy right now."
"I can see that, but what happened? Does it have to do with the adventurers who disappeared?"
"That\'s right, we sent another group to see what had happened, it was a group just formed by our strongest adventurers."
"And what happened?"
"As soon as they arrived at the scene, everything was gone."
"What?"
"The cave had disappeared, there was only one stone in the middle of the forest, it had no entrance. There was also no sign of adventurers around the place. The adventurers searched within a radius of five kilometers but found nothing."
"It can\'t be, I\'m sure there was a cave there."
"I\'m sure you\'re not lying, but it sure as hell wasn\'t an ordinary cave, you understand, don\'t you?"
"Yes..." So the cave swallowed all the adventurers and disappeared soon after? Dude this is extremely scary. I\'ve never heard anything about it before, and from the way Rose was saying it, she also seems to have never seen anything like it.
"Now if you\'ll excuse me, I have to talk to the guild master, he also doesn\'t know what to do at the moment."
"Doesn\'t he know what happened?"
"No... He\'s contacting other guild masters to see if anyone has ever heard of a dungeon-like this."
"I see, good luck with that."
"Thanks, we\'ll need it." Rose looked quite dejected and nervous. I can understand, they haven\'t dealt with something like this before, it must be scary to have something like this suddenly, even I can\'t believe it at the moment.
All adventurers were swallowed by a dungeon, is there a way for them to stay alive inside this place? And why did a dungeon-like this suddenly appear? Everyone had a lot of questions.
The adventurers around wanted answers so they were screaming and pressing all the receptionists, I was a little sorry for them.
\'But it shouldn\'t take long for everything to get back to normal.\' I hope they find out where that dungeon has gone and I also hope the adventurers inside there are still alive, but I find it very difficult for that to happen.
If a dungeon is strong enough to move around and swallow adventurers like that, it\'s certainly at a level never seen before in any part of the world.
Seeing the level this had reached, I decided not to get involved at the moment. I asked Rose to keep me posted on the entire dungeon investigation, and she said she would come to the inn to talk to me.
This prevents me from having to come to the guild, but it might also make Lisandra suspect that I\'ve turned into an adventurer since the receptionist was coming to visit me.
But if we take into account that that inn belongs to Rose\'s mother, I think that\'s okay, Lisandra won\'t be suspicious.
Leaving the guild behind, I headed towards the inn, but on the way, I passed some stalls and bought some food for Lisandra.