There was an eerie silence that echoed throughout the practically empty lounge of the hall - at least, if that made any sense. It was in the middle of the night's darkest hours, a time where not many would still be awake. Among the extremely few that remained in Radha Hall, the subaltern Quinn was the only one who had not been able to retreat back to his home.
As the one who was given the responsibility of entrusting the secret mission from the irresponsible nobles onto the newly formed guild Modem, naturally, he'd never let himself go if he were to pull out for the day and leave the young adventurers to figure things out themselves...
...if they even lived.
And to his surprise, four familiar figures eventually returned to the entrance of the hall.
His eyes widened slightly upon recognition of the various luggage they had been dragging back to the town - a severed, blood red, scythe-like appendage among them.
"I... see you girls have returned safely," he greeted them, readjusting his glasses out of habit. "And as I can observe... it seems the mission was a success, wasn't it?"
Valeria grinned, dropping one of the bright red pincers onto the ground. "Hells yeah! We did it, alright - that thing went down like a bitch!"
"V-Valeria!" Scarlet hissed, appalled by her friend's lack of language control, before bowing to Quinn. "Y-yes, we managed to defeat the weakened Reaping Shade. It was... quite difficult," she said, her expression serving as enough emphasis on the ridiculousness of their guild being entrusted with such a mission this early.
Quinn chuckled. "I see. Once again, I apologize for having to put you girls in such danger of this level... but I'm glad you four were able to come out of this unharmed."
"Unharmed..." Rin whispered, before all three girls turned to look at Remilia, a very faint scar trailing across the bridge of her nose up to her forehead. According to Rin, she did her best to heal the tissues within so as to ensure the scar wouldn't remain visible, but she couldn't quite do it properly, so the hexer would be stuck with a faint scar that anyone would be able to see if they looked hard and close enough.
Regardless, Remilia herself didn't particularly care much for that downside, if at all. Noticing her party's stares, she paid them no mind and nodded to Quinn. "...success."
He smiled. "Congratulations are in order, I suppose. It's a shame that we're required to take in these materials as proof of the monster's defeat," the subaltern began. "The noble family specifically requested all of it be brought to them - had they not, you'd certainly be able to sell these materials for a huge profit."
"Wait, really!?" Valeria asked. "So... we're rich!?"
Scarlet smacked the brunette across the head. "He just said we had to submit these as proof of victory, stupid."
"Do not worry, though," Quinn said. "We will ensure that Modem will be rewarded appropriately, not only for clearing the mission, but as compensation for the nobles' mistakes as well."
"T-that's encouraging to hear," Rin replied. After all, if all that stuff they just went through were basically for nothing, even the medic would be pretty mad.
"Yes, we wouldn't be able to stand aside if they decided to cover up the incident without compensation, after all," the man said. "If it piques your interests, the Sheldon family has also expressed the desire to grant reward of some form as well."
Scarlet almost choked. "T-the Sheldon family's also involved!?"
Quinn nodded. "A lot of soldiers involved were borrowed directly from the Sheldon family's employment," he explained. "Thus, in regards to avenging those that had fallen to the Reaping Shade, they're determined to pitch in on the rewards as well."
"I... I see. That's... really shocking to hear," the redhead mused.
"So we'll find out later, what we're getting?" Valeria asked, to which the man nodded. "Poppycock, that's great."
Scarlet blinked. "...you know that means... y'know what, never mind." She turned back to Quinn and bowed again. "Thank you for letting us know. We'll be waiting for the news." Then, turning back to her party, she smiled. "We should get going now, shouldn't we?"
Rin nodded. "That'd be good. After a fight like that, I think everyone here should get some rest." The medic then glared at Remilia. "Especially you, Ms. Remilia. We need to be sure your wound doesn't risk anything, so..."
"Bah, forget that!" Valeria yelled and wrapped an arm around the hexer, to her surprise. "Let's go to the pub! We gotta tell everyone all about how we totally killed that giant bug, yeah? What say we go wild and have fun, boss Remrem? You with me?"
Said pale girl simply looked at the brunette, unsure of what to say. "..."
The other two waved to Quinn as they began to walk out the hall, Scarlet sighing. "Valeria, let go of her. Rin's right - after what happened, I'm still amazed Remilia's alive at all. It's probably best we all go our ways and get some sleep."
"Aww, c'mon! After something that crazy, you must be insane to not brag about it everywhere!" the brown haired landsknecht said. "Just, just a little bit! If anything bad happens, then we'll immediately go back! But, but, just a bit, yeah? Pleeeeeease?" she begged, sending Rin a funny set of puppy eyes and wavering lips.
Rin groaned. Valeria is stupid, that's for sure, but she honestly also did want to brag about it a bit - this was a huge feat, after all! They were a group of four girls who had just begun as an official guild, an official party, and they already managed to defeat one of those infamous Reaping Shade monsters, an F.O.E. from the third floor! ...well, it was weakened, but still!
As much as she wanted to stand her ground on the group dispersing to rest right here, her friend honestly had a good point, totally. Besides, what's the worst that could happen? It's not like Remilia's wound would reopen - her healing made sure of that, even if a very hard to notice scar remained on the hexer's face.
Then again, it didn't feel like Remilia herself was the type of person to care about her looks, if anything at all, so...
She sighed. "F-fine... but, but just a bit, okay?" the orange haired medic said. "We shouldn't bother Ms. Valerie too much at this time, too."
"Eh, the pub's open all night, she's totally up for it!" Valeria said.
Scarlet shook her head. "Only until, like, super early before dawn," she corrected.
"Same thing, same thing, tinkerbaskets and all," the brunette replied.
Tinkerbaskets? her teammates wondered, sans Remilia, who followed them quietly.
"...Ms. Remilia, what do you think?" Rin eventually asked. "Do you want to go along with Valeria, or do you want to rest for the day?"
The hexer stared at her, then at Valeria, who seemed to have high hopes on her expression. She shrugged. "...okay."
"...uh." Was that a yes or a no? Scarlet had no idea, but Valeria decided for the hexer anyways, jumping with joy.
"Sounds like a yes! Let's go!" Running off towards the town's local pub, the others ran after her.
Once they got through the swinging doors of the Golden Deer Pub, they settled in front of the counter, returning the various waves and greetings from a number of customers who were seated around and at proper tables.
The tall brunette behind the counter smiled. "Hey, hey, welcome to the pub. Good to see you girls again," she said to the three Etrian residents, before the woman noticed Remilia and visibly recognized her. "Oh, you're..."
"Hey, Ms. Val!" Valeria greeted. "That over there's Remilia, our new guild's leader! Can you believe we became an official guild? Crazy!"
"Do you two already know each other?" Scarlet asked, having noticed the small shift of recognition from both parties.
"...direction," Remilia said.
Chuckling, Valerie, the pub owner, nodded to the redhead. "She seemed to be lost yesterday, so I gave her directions to the Explorer's Guild. I guess Ganryu too kcare of everything, huh?"
"Ganryu? Whozzat?" Valeria asked.
Scarlet rolled her eyes. "The Guildmaster. That's his name, stupid."
Rin blinked. "...I didn't know he had a name," she said. "I always thought of him as just... Guildmaster."
The bartender chuckled again. "Well, that guy always did prefer to be the mysterious cool guy. I always hear people call him Guildmaster rather than by name, so I'm not surprised. But anyways, seems like you girls are fine, yeah?" She smiled at Remilia. "Keep in mind what I told you though. Being an explorer is dangerous, so you make sure you stay safe and keep the others safe now, alright?"
With a nod, the hexer then looked around to take in the interior of the building, while Valerie handed out the menu to her teammates. When she looked back to the counter, there was one in front of her as well, so she briefly went through the sheet.
"Give us some beer!" Valeria said. "One for all of us, yeah!"
Valerie rolled her eyes. "Still not old enough, can't do that, buster."
The brunette booed the bartender. "Aw, don't be a stickler for rules," she whined. "Adults are boring..."
"We're adults too!" Scarlet hissed.
Rin chuckled as her two childhood friends started bickering away. When they have moments like these, where things are relaxed and fun, sometimes it was as if what had happened had never happened at all. The medic turned to her guild's leader, noticing Remilia was still looking over it.
"Have you decided what you want yet, Ms. Remilia?" the orange haired girl asked.
Said hexer lifted her head to look at her team's medic, then shook her head. "...recommend," she eventually said.
Rin blinked once, twice, before smiling. "Well, okay then! I'm sure you'll like this one..."
All in all, asides from the battle she just survived, it hadn't been that bad of a night, the hexer thought.
Over the course of the next two days, the guild Modem had been venturing further into the labyrinth. Compared to the first floor, there were a number of new enemies they hadn't fought before here that were proving to be more dangerous than that of prior. Most were still nothing too much for the group of four to handle, however, so long as they stayed focused.
There were some new F.O.E.s that lurked around the floor as well. Scarlet and Rin had read up on them - the first notable F.O.E. was a pale blue skinned deer reeking of powerful aura, something the town's scholars refer to as a Ragelope.
"The Ragelope... herbivorous but powerful deers," Scarlet had recalled. "When threatened, they can use their powerful hooves to inflict panic and confusion onto explorers. A lot of beginning guilds that get too eager fall victim to their attacks and internal strife... it's probably best we avoid them. Even other regions find them a menace, although they call them Furyhorn instead..." (12)
Then, the other F.O.E. lying all around the later parts of the second floor - a slumbering set of giant rocks that, of which some may, by chance, turn out to be wild boars with the body of boulders, waiting to ambush on prey - known as a Boulder Boar.
Apparently, the Boulder Boar didn't even exist in the early days of Etria. It just mysteriously started appearing within the forests at some point, and eventually, adventurers started facing ambushes from these stone-disguised creatures. (13)
Rin had been quite shaken up the first time they encountered one and had to quickly escape to the side, avoiding its powerful rush. "T-there's no way we can even take their headbutts safely and stay standing, even if by a little," she had said. "Broken bones would be the first of our worries..." As the team's medic, nobody doubted her words.
And the more they explored the second floor, the more of these F.O.E.s they found, forcing them to progress slowly and observe their movements, so as to plan out how to avoid them.
On a few occasions, the four had attempted to defeat a Ragelope, and by the time they reached the stairs to the third floor, the number of Ragelope they had defeated was a puny two.
They did harvest some fancy materials out of their bodies, of course, but having taken a huge toll on their energy, it was also a huge risk simply spending time cutting up its body, before having to make their escape to avoid any enemy ambush.
It was the beginning of their realization that exploring the labyrinth was going to be much harder, much tougher, than they had previously expected, even with the whole Bloody One-Arm incident a few days ago.
"Wow, I still can't believe we took down two of those deer," Valeria remarked. "I mean, just one of them was already terrifying enough, but another one? That's amazing."
"Yeah, well, you're the one who said 'let's kill one!' and see where that got us," Scarlet grumbled. "But you're right... that was incredibly tough."
With a nod, Rin put a finger to her chin. "I wonder what that lady was doing on the second floor though... it's, it's a wonder the monsters on the floor hadn't gotten her before she got to that deer's territory." (14)
The brown haired landsknecht shrugged. "Eh, we got her flower basket or whatever, good enough. Maybe she hired explorers that time."
"I mean, the same could probably be said for that merchant asking about places to harvest materials," Scarlet brought up. (15)
Rin chuckled. "Yeah, I guess you're right. Although that mister seems more like the 'rush alone into danger' type of person..."
"That's what I was thinking," Valeria laughed. Then she perked up. "Speaking of which, you think we'll be getting some new crazy explorers? Remember that maid we saw this morning? I bet she's going to become a rival for us!"
Scarlet blinked. "I... don't see how that was related, but I'll bite. Why do you think that?"
"I mean, she was looking for Radha Hall. What else could it be other than a new adventurer about to take that mapping test?" (16)
"I don't think... maids would be a good fighting class," Rin said. "What class would she even be? A Troubadour?"
Valeria shrugged again. "Beats me. What do you think, Remrem?"
The hexer, who had been walking alongside them the entire time, just stared at the brunette before shrugging as well.
"Good ol' Remrem. Still not a talker."
"Well, anyways, we should go check in on Radha Hall again," Scarlet noted. "Maybe afterwards we can go to Shilleka's, sell our materials and find some new stuff."
"Sure, I'm on board with that. Rin? Remrem?"
The medic and hexer both nodded. "I'm fine with that too," the orange haired girl said.
Scarlet smiled, heading towards the town's governing building. "Sweet. Let's hope there's an update on that mantis quest's reward, then!"
As the four entered Radha Hall once more, the bespectacled subaltern Quinn took note of them and waved them over.
"It is good to see you again today, Modem," he said. "You came just in time, too."
"That sounds like good news!" Valeria said.
He nodded. "Your reward for the previous mission has been finalized. This comes directly from the Sheldon family, too."
Scarlet blinked. "Wow, they really are involved. I'm still amazed at that."
The man chuckled. "That's understandable. Anyways, the involved noble's family are quite well known for supporting young explorers," Quinn explained. "However, with the losses of the Sheldon family's many soldiers borrowed, they currently owe a debt to the latter, and thus, the nobles themselves are unable to offer any monetary reward."
"Aw, that's a bummer," Valeria groaned.
"Because of that, they've negotiated with each other, and eventually the Sheldon family came up with a solution related to the former's purposes." He pushed his glasses up slightly. "You girls know of the unoccupied mansion near the corners of the town, right?"
"Oh, that huge mansion," Rin said. "I always just thought the people living there simply never went out the same time we were around."
"Wait, is that... is that our reward!?" valeria exclaimed. "Are we getting that whole mansion to ourselves!?"
Quinn laughed. "Not quite," he replied, to the brunette's disappointment. "See, the other day, they've granted ownership of the mansion to a new explorer who came to Etria not long ago... I belive you four have met her." Another glasses push. "She's from the Highlander tribe near High Lagaard."
"Oh, that's... Ms. Freya, right?" Rin said, to which he nodded.
"Yes. Ms. Freya has been invited here for a... classified duty, and during part of her own mission, she became acquainted with one of the Sheldon family's daughters."
Scarlet was once again quite shocked. "T-there's a Sheldon family member in Etria!?"
Another nod. "Yes, this one's also part of Midgard Library's investigation team, and her group seems to be pursuing the mysteries of Etria's labyrinth," he said. "Since those two groups have joined together, the mansion has just been rightfully granted to Ms. Freya and their daughter, Ms. Raquna." Quinn then scratched his head, glancing upwards, before looking back at them. "However, seeing as it is quite a large place, the Sheldon family have decided to grant your guild joint ownership of the mansion as well, if you wouldn't mind." (17)
"Are you kidding me? Of course we'd love that!" Valeria said. "No more staying at the inn, free house, hell yeah! ...no offense to the inn guy though."
"Mr. Arei? I'm sure he's fine with that," Rin said. (18)
"I see that you four are content with the reward, then," Quinn noted. "Then, here's a certificate of ownership for the mansion - you may discuss its official name with Ms. Freya. I shall report the acceptance to the Sheldon family." He peered out the side window. "Ms. Freya's group should have already occupied the building, and there should also already be a staff member there, a maid working under the Sheldon family themselves."
Scarlet accepted the certificate and nodded. "Thank you very much! We'll make sure not to abuse our ownership of the mansion."
"As if we'd do that," Valeria laughed.
"It's called common courtesy, something you can learn more of!"
The four made their way out of the hall once more, and began to head towards the town's now occupied mansion. They stopped on the way in front of Shilleka's store, prepared to sell their materials and shop for new equipment, but...
"C'mon, let's do that later!" Valeria exclaimed, basically hopping up and down in excitement. "I wanna go check out the mansion right now! Can't we go there first?"
Scarlet sighed. "We could, but I still think it's better we get this cleared first before we forget about it entirely! Not to mention we have to report on the quests we took, at the pub, too..."
"But, but, but come on! It's not like we'd go to sleep right away after getting inside!"
With a groan, Scarlet glanced at the mansion. "...maybe you can go there yourself and wait for us," she muttered.
The brunette didn't seem content with that, however. "Boo! I say, boo! You girls will be missing out on a lot..."
Chuckling, Rin walked over to the landsknecht. "I, I can go with her, if you want," she told the redhead. "You and Ms. Remilia can go ahead with the shop. I'll... I'll make sure Valeria doesn't do anything stupid."
"Yeah, Rin, you're the best! ...wait, what's that supposed to mean?" Valeria went ignored by all, to her chagrin.
"Thanks, Rin. You're a relief to have around," the crimson haired landsknecht said, before turning to Remilia. "Come on, Remilia. Let's get on with our business - after this, the pub, yeah?"
The pale hexer nodded. "Mn."
As they parted with the first landsknecht and the medic, the two headed inside the store and gave their greetings to the store owner.
"Welcome again to Shilleka's Goods - always op'n to people, like ev'ry other day!" the dark skinned girl chimed. "Back here with materials t'sell?"
"Yeah, we got a bunch from the second floor!" Scarlet told her, putting the material collection pouch on the counter and pulling it open.
"Golly, that's good t'hear, Scarl!" the girl replied. "T'at's the floor with the scary deer and stone boars, ain't it?" she asked, to which the redhead nodded. "Girl, that's amazing! Really thankful for that too - explorers nowadays seem to forget to sell materials here... and in turn I can't offer an' upgraded weapons fer all," Shilleka said solemnly. (19)
Scarlet nodded, understanding what the problem was. "That's... troubling, isn't it?" she said. "Without proper weapons to adapt to later floors, it gets harder to survive all the monsters down there... I guess all explorers start to lose sight of things they should do to help out everyone, huh?"
"Nah... well, maybe. I s'pose so, although I wouldn't know a lick of what they're thinkin'," the blacksmith replied. She rummaged through the bag and pulled out a couple of blue plates and strangely hard strips of yellow, patterned purple wings, small tooth, zebra-striped pelts, and chunks of large bones. "Hmm. These are pretty good, I got'a say... Claw Beetles, Venomflies, and Forest Hares, eh? What's the other one?" she asked, glancing over to the striped pelts and chunky bones.
"Oh, those are also from enemies on the second floor," Scarlet said. "They're, uh... giant gorilla things... long name..."
"...Zebratherium," Remilia said.
The redhead blinked, before nodding to that. "Yeah, that! Zebratherum...therium!"
Shilleka nodded slowly. "Ahh... those new 'nes from nowhere, hm?" (20)
"Yeah, they have really powerful blows," Scarlet said. "Fighting them was really... hard."
Shilleka laughed. "Yeah, I'd imagin' so. Any harvests?" she asked.
Remilia nodded and placed another pouch on the counter, to which the owner opened and dug through.
"Hmm... Tiny Petals, Crabapples, Amber Lumps. Pretty good haul, 'f I gotta say so myself," she noted. "These will be great, girls. I can make better potions, I can make some Bravant, I can make some Nectar... golly, you girls really gather enough to make a girl happy, y'know that?"
The landsknecht smiled sheepishly. "Yeaaaah, we're not sure how much to gather sometimes so we just... take what we can," she said. "Oh, that reminds me." The girl then unwrapped a large, wrapped parcel from her back, along with Remilia who did the same, and they both placed it on the counter. "These, too, are materials... they're just, you know, a bit too large to cram in with everything else."
Shilleka blinked. "Wow, must be huge stuff if you got two of them," she remarked as she began to unpeel the parcels. The girl's eyes widened upon seeing the insides of both packages - huge, neatly cut deer antlers. "What the... are these...!?"
Again, Scarlet felt a bit embarrassed. "Y-yeah... we only managed to get two of them, sorry... it took almost all our energy to even defeat one of them..."
"You kiddin' me? This is beyond amazin'!" Shilleka exclaimed - with no doubt in her mind, these were clearly the Deer Atlers harvested from those F.O.E.s that even veteran explorers recommend staying clear from. "Them antlers are beyond frickin' crazy! And y'got me not just one, but two of them!? What the hell, girls!"
"...mn," Remilia simply voiced with a shrug.
"Didn't y'just became a team a couple o'days ago? This is scarily fast, f'real!" the dark skinned girl said. "You girls must be crazy strong, I swear... an' don't be modest, seriously! It may have been difficult as hell, but that doesn't change t'fact you took down two of them!" she quickly said to Scarlet before the redhead could downplay their feats again.
"Eheh... it's... really not that amazing..." the girl muttered, her cheeks flushed red slightly. In her mind though, she was uncontrollably happy at the praises they were getting. Wow, I didn't think... m-maybe Valeria was right to keep pushing us to try battling them at least... "W-we also wanted to try fighting at least a single Boulder Boar, but... y'know..."
"Ah, don't sweat it," Shilleka replied. "I've heard terrible stuff about those. Better you four stay safe than try your hands at something so risky, y'know." She smiled at the two. "Besides, bringing in this much for me already makes me happy. Yer about the few guilds who still remembers to sell me materials, you and that highlander lass."
"O-oh, Ms. Freya too? That's great to hear," Scarlet replied. "It'd be bad if everyone forgot completely about helping you stock up and... yeah."
Grinning, the blacksmith leaped over the counter and patted the two. "Y'know what? What say we go grab some drinks at t'pub after this? All the stuff you brought here, I could make almost a killin' out of it! So, celebration?"
Scarlet stared at Remilia. "Mmm, well... we were going to go to the pub anyways, just to report some quests and get some more info..." she said.
Remilia shrugged, clearly not really thinking much of how long they spent there.
The redhead sighed, before smiling. "Oh, well. I'm sure the others can wait a bit longer."
Shilleka smiled. "That's t'spirit! Juuuust let me get the money to pay y'all..."
As the two waited, Remilia was thinking something within her mind.
Defeating strong monsters... it got a huge amount of attention from just one person, already.
Perhaps... strong F.O.E.s were a quicker way to reach success... she mused.
(12) The name 'Ragelope' is only used in the original Etrian Odyssey and both Untold remakes. Every other game calls it Furyhorn.
(13) Boulder Boar are not enemies in the original games, only Untold 1.
(14) Quest "Looking for memories: An adventurer dropped something of value in the stomping grounds of a fierce deer on B2F. Please recover it for her."
(15) Quest "Get rich quick I: A local merchant would like to know where he may find a place to gather materials through chopping."
(16) The guildkeeper, Rosa, shows up asking for directions to Radha Hall, in Classic Mode.
(17) Access to the mansion is the reward for the Bloody One-Arm mission adapted in the previous chapters.
(18) Etrian Innkeeper's name, according to artbook of Untold.
(19) It's strange that the player is the one progressing all investigations of future floors in the game. The second stratum is a 'new stratum' by the time it is unlocked. Yet, the moment you warp home, people have already investigated the second stratum's monsters, fighting strategies, etc. Stranger for this story since we've made it so that there are already known information on future floors and stratums. Hence we decided it'd make sense if the reason Shilleka's selections are poor and only progresses along the main characters' efforts, is that adventurers that go far tend to neglect selling materials to her, causing a lack of proportionate upgrades.
(20) Zebratherium are not enemies in the original games, only Untold 1.
