Chapter 96: I’m super duper happy!

“Ooh, I’m earning so many dungeon points! I’m super duper happy!”

Ari the dungeon master said so.

Her dungeon now had 10 floors, and it seemed she would add more soon enough.

As for the adventurers, after Alec-san’s group, a great number of adventurers have come to our village.

Their main goal in coming here was obviously the dungeon. As such, they really liked that they could easily access the dungeon right from their inns.

A notable downside to their focus on the dungeon, however, was that the monster-infested areas were left pretty much ignored. We still had the hunting party to provide us with orc meat though, so it wasn’t really an issue.

I regularly used my villager appraisal 2 on the adventurers, and whenever someone had the potential to receive a Gift, I would strongly recommend that they get blessed.

As to be expected, it was rare for a whole party to get Gifts—as was the case for Alec-san’s party—but the likelihood of getting a Gift seemed to be higher for adventurers.

The adventurers were also greatly delighted by the weapons and armors being sold in the village.

After all, those weapons and armors were made by dwarves, many of whom had the [Blacksmith] Gift, so outstanding quality was guaranteed even in the mass-produced ones.

Moreover, they were cheap. The materials used to make them were all obtained from the dungeon.

…a side benefit of all this was that I no longer had to make the weapons through facility customization.

In addition to the adventurers, the number of immigrants has also increased.

It wasn’t that long ago when we reached a total population of 3,000, but we were now already double that.

We might actually be comparable to a small city now. Our size would naturally result into us being talked more and then result in our population growing further, hopefully starting the cycle anew.

On other news, Dant-san, the governor of the North, has come to our village today.

It has been about half a year since his previous visit.

His guards, including Bazara-san, came this time as well.

Huh? The sword that Bazara-san’s carrying looks an awful lot like the ones we sell, doesn’t it…?

“It’s been a while, Luke-sama.”

“Yeah, it has.”

“Although not long enough to make the insane growth of your village be considered normal. I’ve lost count of how many times I was surprised since I got here.”

Dant-san excitedly talked about the changes in the village that he noticed. Among them were the growth of our commerce, the migration of the elves and dwarves, as well as the existence of the dungeon.

“And most importantly, these weapons! They’re of this quality, yet they’re so cheap! I knew I had to have it, even if it meant having to borrow some money from Dant-sama!”

Bazara-san spoke with even more excitement than Dant-san.

Oh, so he did buy it in the village. 

The swords here were definitely cheap, but maybe not pocket-money-cheap.

“Luke-sama, I actually have something important I have to report to you…”

Dant-san was smiling wryly when Bazara-san told me about the sword, but in a complete reversal, he was serious now.

“The Albert house has won against the Schneger house.”

Huh? …so soon?

“But didn’t the fighting began only a short while ago?”

“Yes. The fighting started and concluded in the span of about a month. The Albert forces captured the Schneger territory’s major cities one after another, and in no time at all, they marched toward its capital. There, the biggest fight of the war happened, but the Albert side overpowered the other side this time as well. Right when the castle was about to be captured, the Schneger house declared their surrender.”

A war starting and ending within a month was exceptionally fast.

Now that the Albert house has absorbed the assets of the Schneger house, they now held a power that was comparable to a kingdom.

“Despite this being Raul-sama’s first campaign, he played a large role in its success. To reward him for this, he was made in charge of the now-former Albert territory.”

Father would probably focus on managing the still unstable area that, until recently, used to be known as the Schneger territory. As for what used to be the Albert Territory, there should be no major problems even if an inexperienced Raul was to manage it.

“In his new position, it’s probably only a matter of time for Raul-sama to know of this village. This might be impertinent of me, but I still want to advise you to come up with countermeasures for when he eventually does find out.”