An Old Man Restaurant Owner Is Unparalleled by Relying on His Old Tricks. It Turns Out, He’s the Legendary Dungeon Conqueror. - 71

Chapter 71: I Can Vouch for That

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This exploration party, Mercys, consisted of members who met in the dungeon club of a certain famous private university. 

“I’m the sub-leader, Anna Ninomiya. It’s truly a pleasure to be able to explore with Nishida-san!”

“I’m Kazuki Miyoshi! I will do my best so I won’t become a burden to the S-rank explorers!”

“He-Hello… I’m Kosuke Yotsuya. I’m… I’m a bit shy…”

“I’m Satsuki Gojou! Nice to meet you all!”

Following their leader’s introduction, the four members of Mercys also introduced themselves briefly. The search and rescue team was made of 10 people in total and the last member was a woman who seemed to be around the same age as Nana Tendou. 

“Everyone, it’s a pleasure to meet you all. I’m Kaori Iijima, an explorer associated with the Dungeon Management Agency. Although I usually work in rescue operations like this, but to be honest, I don’t have any experience with Class 9 dungeons. I hope for everyone’s understanding.”

Generally speaking, dungeon exploring came at your own risk and the chances of someone rescuing you if you were to go missing or injured with no chance of escaping from the dungeon were low to none. Explorers entered the dungeon with that kind of understanding. That being said, the Dungeon Management Agency could form a rescue group like this one. What you needed was… A large amount of money. 

Aoi Kadoyama was one of the top explorers in Japan and he had his own explorer agency too. It seemed the money for this operation came from his agency. Of course, there were companies specializing in rescue operations for dungeons, but it was practically impossible for a private company to mobilize multiple S-rank explorers.

And then, Kaori Iijima started explaining the current situation to us.

“The explorer team led by S-rank explorer, Aoi Kadoyama, consists of a total of 8 members. Besides Kadoyama-san, all seven other members are A-rank explorers. This team is a very powerful team. In fact, they’ve cleared Kabukicho Dungeon twice beforehand.”

It seemed Kadoyama’s team had conquered several highly difficult dungeons both domestically and internationally. 

“Kadoyama-san is very cautious and he always made sure his team kept in contact with the control team on the surface.”

It seemed his team were using drones to capture the exploration’s progress. The ground team could send instructions in real-time while monitoring the situation.

“That’s amazing… So that kind of meticulous operation can be done in this day and age, huh?”

It was something that I couldn’t possibly think about when I was a university student. 

“Yes. Thanks to that, we have their footage right before they went missing. According to that footage, it seemed they were suddenly attacked by an unthinkable number of monsters. They might have triggered a trap that summoned those monsters, or perhaps…”

True to her explanation, the footage was cut off right after that. It seemed the camera drone got destroyed by a monster. Furthermore, it was said they had several means of communication, but all of their communication channels couldn’t be contacted. 

“This incident happened on the 44th floor. Just one floor before the deepest floor of Kabukicho Dungeon.”

In other words, they were planning to explore the deepest floor of Kabukicho Dungeon. 

“44th floor, huh… If we use the teleport trap, we should be able to reach it in about four to five hours… But still, searching for people in a big space like that will take a considerable amount of time… We need to be really lucky to finish everything in just one day…”

“With all due respect, I believe it is impossible to rescue them in one day……….”

I was muttering to myself, but then Iijima-san said that to me. She seemed a bit exasperated for some reason. 

“Anyway, time is of the essence. Let’s hurry… I’m worried about the missing explorers.”

“Ye-Yes. Let’s talk about the other things as we proceed. Ah, please don’t worry about supplies. The Dungeon Management Agency has prepared the necessary supplies. I have a storage skill, so I have enough supplies stored to last this group for an entire year.”

A year’s worth of supplies, huh? As expected of an explorer working for the Dungeon Management Agency and specializing in rescue operations.

“But, just to be safe, I will leave this subspace bag with Nishida-san. After all, we need to prepare for everything just in case something happens to me.”

“Is it really okay for me to heave it?”

“We, from the Dungeon Management Agency, recognize Nishida-san as the explorer with the highest survival chance among us.”

“Indeed. As the director, I can vouch for that.”

With that, we set off into the depths of Kabukicho Dungeon in Shinjuku ward with Nagao-san, the director of the Dungeon Management Agency, seeing us off. It had been almost 20 years since I went to this dungeon. The moment we entered the dungeon , Iijima-san released several drones into the air. This was to ensure the ground team from the Dungeon Management Agency could monitor the situation of the rescue team since some irregularities might have occurred within the dungeon. 

“This latest model of camera drones come with a speaker. We can communicate with the ground team through the drones… Hello? Can you hear me?”

“Yes. We can hear you. Everyone, good luck! We hope everyone can rescue the explorers from our office. They’re not someone who can be taken down so easily, especially Director Kadoyama. We are confident they are still alive. They must be trying to survive somewhere within the dungeon.”

“Ohh, someone from Kadoyama-san’s office.”

“Yes. We are cooperating with the Dungeon Management Agency for this rescue operation.”

Since Aoi Kadoyama’s party had conquered Kabukicho Dungeon multiple times, the people from his office were familiar with the characteristics of each floor and the monsters in this dungeon. It was truly a relief to know they had our back. 

“It’s been years since I last explored the dungeon. I don’t remember anything much…”

Of course, I might recall something once I was inside the dungeon.

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