A couple more months had passed and HeroMon was becoming popular all over the kingdom. He was already getting requests from other nations. Samuel had actually closed down his smithy and become a full-time printer. He'd bought two additional printing presses and hired two assistants to help him produce cards. Incredibly, Wiz's shop was now PROFITABLE! Her shop was the exclusive retail location for HeroMon cards in Axel and about 70% of her shelf space was taken up with starter decks, booster packs, and related merchandise. Including shirts, hats, backpacks, and little models in the image of some of the cards. Merchandising was also a new concept to this world, and he was making almost as much from it as he was from the cards themselves. Wiz still sold other goods, but that part of her business was now a minor concern.

Kazuma now had a lot of money coming in, and demand for HeroMon was only growing. He was effectively rich and was even thinking about buying himself a mansion. He'd seriously considered retiring, running Satou Industries LLC only took a few hours out of his week. He could literally just lie around and do nothing the rest of his time. He'd gone ahead and given that a try and decided to return to his NEET nature.

But he soon discovered there was a problem with that, it was too damn boring! This world was amazing in a whole lot of ways. It had magic, monsters, adventure guilds, bunny girls, succubi, goddesses who listened to requests, good ale, and bunny girls. The problem was what a pre-industrial and pre-technological world lacked. There was no TV, internet, RPG games, on-line porn, hentai, or even manga! Just being a NEET alone in his room was too boring to stand. He LITERALLY had nothing to do. That had been relaxing for a few days… but pretty soon he was bored out of his mind. There was also the fact he was lonely. Even as a shut in who almost never went outside, he'd still at least been part of the online community. It might have been through a keyboard and screen, but he'd interacted with people and had friends.

The only people who came knocking on his door were Samuel and Wiz when they needed to talk to him about business, and Megumin and Darkness who were pleading with him to go adventuring. Eventually he 'gave in' to their pleas and agreed to go back to his work as an Adventurer. He reminded them both that they owed him, and he was only doing it because they were so damn annoying. They were of course, especially the explosion loli, but they were also his friends. Plus, despite all the aggravations, adventuring was fun! It was more exciting than any online game he'd ever tried, even YGGDRASIL. And he liked belonging to his party. Not that he would ever admit to that. So, despite having plenty of money Kazuma decided to continue adventuring.

That was how he found himself in front of the job board trying to decide what they should do next. Ever since taking out the Sand Wyrm he and his teammates had focused on tasks that were challenging, but not insanely dangerous. Jobs that included fighting a dragon or attacking one of the lairs of the Devil King or one of his generals was a big no go (much to Darkness' disappointment.) The easier tasks involving giant toads and goblins were left for weaker parties to deal with. Unfortunately, they'd cleared most of the jobs that fell into that sweet spot. So Kazuma was stuck trying to find something that would give him a decent reward without being a suicide mission.

He noticed a posting that had been on the board for a while. It had a drawing that looked kind of like a spider mecha. The heading on it was, 'Mobile Fortress Destroyer.' He'd glanced at it a few times before, it looked to be some kind of scouting mission. As soon as he'd seen what a low reward it paid, he'd moved on. Now there didn't seem to be anything better and was looking more closely at the job. It might be-

"Kazuma! Kazuma!"

He looked back over his shoulder to see an excited Darkness hurrying up to him, a grinning Megumin at her heel.

"Yes, I'm Kazuma. What's up?"

"We've just found out about a wonderful opportunity that would be perfect for us!" Darkness told him immediately.

"If it involves a dragon, I'm slapping you again."

She gasped and her face immediately reddened. "S… So cruel."

"It doesn't involve a dragon," Megumin said excitedly. "But it's a chance to make a huge score in gold and in xp!"

"I'm listening."

She had a broad smile and was bouncing on her toes. "Someone's discovered a brand-new dungeon and we can have first crack at it!"

The second he heard the word 'dungeon' his heart thudded, and he felt a chill slither down his chest.

"No," he answered immediately.

Both girls looked surprised. Then started to argue with him.

XXX

The three of them sat down at a table to talk. Kazuma and Darkness were drinking ale while Megumin was stuck with some freshly squeezed avocado juice.

"Are you an idiot?" Megumin demanded.

Kazuma narrowed his eyes. "I don't want to hear you calling me an idiot."

"This is an amazing chance for us! This is a brand-new dungeon that's just been discovered! And they're just handing us the chance to be the first ones to explore it! How can you say no to that?"

"It's easy. No. See? I'll even do it again for you. No. No. No. Not hard at all."

Megumin crossed her arms and began to simmer like a tea pot. "Do you realize how rare it is to get to explore a brand-new dungeon?"

"It's not as rare as you might think," Kazuma said in a low voice.

Megumin pressed on. "Hey, I know you had a bad experience, but that was months ago. Get over it! Don't be such a pu-" She suddenly cut off when Kazuma glared at her.

"I dare you to finish that sentence."

Megumin gulped and pursed her lips tight.

Darkness coughed into her hand and drew the attention of her two teammates. "Megumin, you need to be more considerate of Kazuma's feelings. He suffered something truly horrible, please don't make light of it."

Megumin turned the other way and gave an uncomfortable nod. "Yeah, I guess you're right. Sorry, Kazuma."

Kazuma sighed and softened his expression. "It's okay."

"Kazuma," Darkness continued. "I know what happened to you the last time you were in a dungeon. If you refuse to accept this mission Megumin and I will respect your decision." Megumin did not look happy but nodded. "However, please at least consider it, it really is an incredible opportunity for us as a party."

Damn it, he thought. Why does she have to sound so reasonable when she forgets to act like a raging masochist? Ever since his experience Kazuma hadn't visited a dungeon again. He'd never even visited Keele's Dungeon, which had long since been emptied out and was seen as safe even for newbies. It wasn't because he felt trauma or was scared! No way! It was just… dungeons were dangerous, and very bad things could happen in them. So, it only made sense to be cautious.

The problem was that he could see that Megumin and Darkness had a point. He'd just been looking at the board thinking how there weren't any good missions for them. Everything right now looked to either be too dangerous or too easy with too little reward. They both looked excited, so didn't he owe them at least listening to what they had to say?

"Fine, so what's so great about this dungeon?"

Megumin jumped in before Darkness could get a word out. "It's a brand-new discovery! It hasn't been touched yet! So that means it's going to be chock full of treasure!"

"That also means it's chock full of monsters and traps too."

She tossed her head back and laughed. "So? Why would that scare us?" She made a dramatic pose, planting her staff and making her cape swirl. "We're the strongest party in this city! There's no enemy we can't defeat! And if worse comes to worse I'll save us with the greatest power of all! Explosion!"

"Which will collapse the dungeon and kill us all."

"…" Megumin remained locked in her dramatic pose as her mouth opened and closed silently.

Darkness rode to the rescue. "I'm sure Megumin won't need to use explosion, her other spells will be plenty."

"He, he, yeah I was just joking."

"Sure, you were," Kazuma said in a flat voice.

"Kazuma," Darkness continued. "We are the strongest party still based in Axel. Our levels are all in the 40's. All the higher ranked parties operate out of other cities. It only makes sense for us to be the first ones to explore this new dungeon. Plus, you are the only one who is qualified to act as a scout."

"That's not true, what about Pip the halfling? He's a pretty good thief who's in the mid 20's."

"He and his party are in Wallachia right now. They won't be back for weeks at least."

"Well about Garret nine fingers?"

Darkness grimaced. "He made a mistake with an exploding chest. People are calling him Garret one hand now. He's probably going to have to retire from being a thief."

"Oh. Right. I forgot about that. What about Lupin? He's really good at stealing."

"He's gone into hiding. Some inspector is after him."

Kazuma frowned, those were all the experienced thieves who operated out of Axel. He didn't bother to ask about Chris as he knew for a fact she hadn't been in town for awhile now. All the other rogues were too low level to handle an assignment like this.

"It's because you're the only one qualified to lead a mission like this that Luna came to us," Darkness said. "Depending on what we find the guild will decide what rating to give the dungeon."

Technically, guilds couldn't prevent anyone from going into a dungeon once it was discovered. It wasn't like accepting a quest, if you knew where a dungeon's entrance was you could visit it any time you liked, technically. In practice, the guild would give a dungeon a rating from E to S and a recommendation for the minimum levels a party should have before encountering it. For example, Keele's dungeon was rated E-4. It was considered appropriate for a party with a total of just 4 levels. Kasmir's Sorrow got a rating of A-90. Some parties would ignore the ratings, especially if the dungeon was a rich one. But most parties paid attention to them and at least tried to stick to places that seemed appropriate to their strength. The reports from the first few parties to explore were always the basis of the original rating. It might go up or down over time, but that first rating would set the baseline. That meant if he and his party went not only could they potentially make out like bandits, they could safeguard other future parties who would be too weak to face its dangers.

Seeing Kazuma pause Darkness continued. "Who knows what sort of wicked and cruel monsters we might find? It's our duty as an adventuring party to face these foul beasts and endure whatever cruel and terrible tortures they may want to inflict on us! No matter how degrading or painful or humiliating it may be we will endure it!" As she spoke her face got redder and breathing noticeably heavier.

"Okay, you know that argument for not going, right?"

"Oh, come on!" Megumin pleaded. "Think about the treasure and xp! There's a whole fortune just waiting there for us! And the best part? If we can clear the whole dungeon, we'll get the ULTIMATE TREASURE!"

"Huh? What are you talking about?"

"Well, the word is this dungeon holds an amazing and unbelievable treasure in its final floor! A treasure so amazing that only the best of the nest could possibly acquire it!"

"Well that lets us out," Kazuma said

Megumin didn't appear to hear him and continued. "The dungeon is even called the Ultimate Treasure Dungeon!"

"Wait a second," Kazuma held a hand up. "I thought this dungeon was just recently discovered."

"That's right."

"Then how would anyone know what kind of treasure it has?"

Megumin opened her mouth to answer, then closed it. She looked over at Darkness.

"Apparently the person who discovered it reported it."

"And how would he know?"

Darkness shrugged.

"The important thing," Megumin said. "Is that whoever it is said there was an amazing one of a kind treasure and so he named the dungeon The Ultimate Treasure Dungeon! So, it has to be true!"

Kazuma blinked. "This dungeon has to have an amazing treasure because then guy who reported it said so?"

"Exactly!"

Kazuma could feel a headache coming on.

XXX

In the end, despite some serious doubts, he agreed to explore this new dungeon with his teammates.