Party name: Fornacis.
Named after the first boss monster confirmed to be discovered in the deepest part of this dungeon, they are people who have lived in this dungeon as their hunting ground for hundreds of years while their members changed many times.
So they might be better described as dungeon conquerors rather than adventurers.
The current members consist of eight men and five women.
The current leader, a woman named Beverly Cougan, is an elf of the One Ace race with the same appearance as her race but was born in a rare case where only the blood sleeping within her is a case of alternate inheritance.
Therefore, Beverly's aging was slow due to her nature, and even at over 90 years old, her glamorous figure showed no decline and her appearance maintained its beauty.
Additionally, her basic magic ability values were also significantly superior to pure races, and due to this power and experience, she was promoted from being a member of Fornacis to the position of leader twenty years ago when her predecessor retired.
However, for Beverly.
Even for her who had been active here for decades, this was her first time encountering such a layer.
Even in the records left by past Fornacis party members over generations, she had never seen anything like it.So while it took some time to understand the situation, she is now in the middle of discussing the current state with other members.
"First about the rules, what do you think we should propose?"
"F-f-f-first of all, absolutely no killing!"
The first voice in the discussion came from the small man who had ambushed Tatsuro and the others before entering the dungeon and almost had his throat crushed by Athena.
It was Mickey, a half-breed between a human and a small animal beastman.
He was sweating on his forehead as the fear of being glared at up close by Athena came back to him.
"That's right. From what I can see, they don't seem to be extremists like the dungeon mentioned earlier, and I think they'll be quite agreeable to this."
"Hmm. If that passes, we could also make unnecessary violence prohibited. I prefer it that way, and wouldn't that be better for people like Deina?"
"Yes indeed!"
Beren, a bird beast woman with light brown hair and a single white streak in her short cut, stated her impression just as she saw Tatsuro and the others, while Mirowsz, a giant race man with black hair mixed with white and standing two and a half meters tall, answered while Deina, a woman with thick brown wavy long hair, nodded vigorously.
By the way, Deina is this party's healer and can only use life magic and light magic. So, she's not suited for combat.
Therefore, if she had to engage in matches, if she encountered a terrible person, she wouldn't be able to resist even if she was tormented.
This was definitely a rule she wanted to get passed.
"While they don't seem like the type to do such things, we should have such rules just in case."
"Yeah. I'd feel more at ease that way too."
"We don't want to waste energy unnecessarily here and have it affect us in the next layer."
Aurelie, an elf in his prime years with refined features, agreed, and Hablul, a fish-man with a tough look standing nearly two meters tall, and Nutau, a snake reptilian man, along with the others also showed their agreement.
After Fornacis's side finished compiling the broad rules they wanted to request, the discussion moved on to who wanted to fight whom.
"I want to fight that boy. With magic, I should be the most compatible to take him on."
"Oh, you mean Ohanze? He doesn't seem to be as straightforward as he looks, are you sure you'll be okay?"
When Nutau's brother Ohanze raised his hand first, Beverly had nothing but bad feelings about Tatsuro, so she checked if he could really handle it.
"But when they first appeared, it was definitely him who used the fire magic barrier. If that's the case, as a dispel magic user, I'm the only one who can use anti-magic attributes. Looking at it, the boy might be the only one I have a chance of beating."
"Beverly-san, I don't want to fight against men~ If that's the case, I'd prefer that cute girl with big breasts wearing a bow at her waist. A cute face with big breasts is totally my type. In the confusion of the match—I mean, I might accidentally touch her chest in an accident—"
"Nicolas-san. Please die."
"'Die! Enemy of women!'"
"Guhah"
"You're such an idiot, really..."
Nicolas, a muscular youth of pure human race with short blonde hair who uses physical techniques, was looked at with eyes as if viewing filth by the usually gentle Deina and was being beaten up by Dija and Ida, two fish-women with blue hair, and Beren, the bird beastwoman.
Beverly understood Nicolas's true feelings and held her head in exasperation.
Meanwhile, at that time, Tatsuro and the others.
"Hm? For some reason, I just felt really irritated."
"I got chills down my spine."
"Do you have a cold, desu no?"
"No. I don't think it's that. Still, they're taking their time over there—"
"Totally-ssu. Hm? Are they having internal conflicts?"
"It seems so. For some reason, the blonde man is being beaten up by the women."
"He looks like a playboy, maybe he made some sexual harassment?"
While Tatsuro was talking with an exasperated look, he was reaching out his hand to touch Ai's bottom who was standing beside him.
"Speaking of perverts, why are you touching my bottom?"
"Ah, my hand moved on its own! I'm jealous of you, my right hand!"
"Geez, what nonsense are you saying? But you know, seriously speaking, you never even show any signs of doing this to anyone but me, right?"
"Huh? Why would I touch anyone but Ai?"
With an expression that showed he genuinely didn't understand, when he said this, Ai reconfirmed that in Tatsuro's eyes, she was the only one he saw as a woman, and she couldn't help but smile.
At the same time, she became overwhelmed with love for him standing before her.
So following that impulse, she hugged him tightly and kissed him.
Meanwhile, the Fornacis members had perfectly witnessed that scene.
"That bastard! What's he doing with my big-breasted cutie! Could it be that he overheard our conversation and is showing off to me—"
"Since when did she become yours? Are you an idiot?"
"Nicolas-san. Please die."
"Um, Deina-chan? Could you please stop looking at me like I'm filth?"
His plea was in vain as he was coldly treated by Deina, whom he secretly had feelings for as the only other pure human, and Nicolas's heart was about to break.
To tell the truth, this Deina was also a cute baby-faced girl with large breasts, and he had mentioned Ai's characteristics to secretly convey his preferences and make her conscious of him, while also trying to make her jealous since he didn't have the courage to be direct.
However, it seems that both strategies backfired spectacularly.
Yes, this man.
He was The Chicken Clown who couldn't express his true feelings to his real love interest and ended up just fooling around.
"Well, regardless of the eavesdropping thing, that party might actually be that boy's harem. Look, besides him, they're all perfectly women."
"Oh, you're right. A little girl and young women. And although her eyes are a bit scary, even the one who tried to crush Mickey's throat looks good. Hoho, how enviable."
"'Haaah?'"
When Aurelie, the middle-aged elf, made a comment and Mirowsz, the giant, jokingly played along, the other six men who took it seriously directed their angry glares at Tatsuro's back.
Meanwhile, the women looked at these men with exasperation while directing a different kind of gaze at Tatsuro.
"Ah~ but he's quite handsome. I'd like to throw out all the men except Aurelie and Mirowsz, and recruit that boy instead."
"That might be good, Dija. Then those girls who are his harem members would come along as a bonus too."
"Ida has a point, honestly speaking, it's abnormal that they're keeping up with our pace from the first meeting. Plus if combined with the information we Fornacis have, the efficiency of dungeon farming would become incomparable to what it is now."
"Well, I don't think they'll join though. Since that guard was so adamant about not revealing their identity, I thought he might be some nobleman's son... He might actually be a high-ranked adventurer."
Actually, Fornacis had been paying the guards to immediately notify them when new dungeon challengers arrived.
They were trying to assess whether they would become business rivals, but the usually loose-lipped guards were unusually tight-lipped this time, and they couldn't get any information about Tatsuro and the others.
That's why they had been lying in wait as if they had coincidentally been there.
"Ahh, to think someone so young is a high-ranked adventurer~ His face is kind of my type too, how wonderful..."
"D-D-Deina-chan? W-what did you just say?"
"Eh? What is it, Nicolas-san? I didn't say anything~"
Understanding that those words were her true feelings as she blushed and fanned herself with her hands as if embarrassed that her monologue had been overheard, Nicolas froze with his mouth wide open in shock.
But that quickly turned into jealousy controlling his heart, and while his eyes burned with rage, his mouth smiled as he said to Beverly:
"Beverly-san... Now I'm willing to fight that man... no, I must be the one to fight him!"
"Yes yes, that would be nice. Well then, shall we go talk with them? We've kept them waiting quite a while."
Completely unaware of such conversation happening over there, as Tatsuro and the others were talking, the glass panel began to glow.
[It seems they've finished their discussion too~ so I can make it possible to talk, is that okay?]
"Yeah. It's fine."
[Then, please have the person who will speak stand in front of this glass panel~]
After saying that and the glass panel's light faded, Tatsuro stood in front of the glass panel as the representative.
After about two seconds. Noise began to run across the surface of the glass panel, and eventually, the image appearing there became clear.
Then on the glass panel in front of Tatsuro, the bewitching figure of Beverly, the leader of Fornacis, appeared.
"It's been a while. I never thought we'd meet inside the dungeon."
"Neither did we."
Tatsuro's figure was also displayed on Beverly and others' side, and the conversation proceeded like a giant video phone call.
"Since we're here, shall we introduce ourselves? My name is Beverly Cougan. I serve as the leader of this party called Fornacis."
"I'm Tatsuro Hasami. Although we don't have a party name or decided leader on our side, I'll be speaking as the representative."
"Tatsuro-kun, is it? Understood. Well, introducing the members isn't necessary for our discussion, so we can skip that, right?"
"Yes. That's fine."
"Then, shall we decide on the rules?"
And so after both sides discussed, the following common rules for all events were decided:
- Killing is strictly prohibited.
If someone is killed, the entire party is considered to have lost at that point.
Also, by the dungeon's enforced power, the person who killed must be handed over to the opposing party.
- Excessive violence is prohibited. However, attacks for the purpose of hindering the opponent are allowed.
- Event selection will be randomly chosen by the dungeon.
- Matches will be divided between competing in martial arts or magic.
Also in such cases, when pretending to be a martial artist against a magic user opponent, the use of martial arts skills is prohibited. The same applies vice versa.
- Selection method will be randomly chosen by the dungeon to ensure proper booking between martial artists vs martial artists and magic users vs magic users.
- Due to the number of people, only Tatsuro's side is allowed up to two participations per person.
- If the same person ends up in consecutive battles, an interval will be set until that person says it's okay.
- The first to win seven matches is considered the winner.
[Are these rules acceptable to you~? Rule additions will not be allowed even if both sides desire them~?]
"Yeah"
"That's fine"
[Then, I will set the rules accordingly. ───── Settings complete~. From now on, I will not overlook any rule violations~ so please be careful~]
"Understood"
"Got it"
[Now, I will cut off communication between both sides while I adjust the selection~]
And with that, Beverly's figure disappeared from the glass panel.
[Now then, please declare whether you can participate in martial arts matches or magic matches~]
"I'm a magic user"
"I'm martial arts~"
"I'm... martial arts, I guess?"
[Since blacksmithing uses hammers~, I think it can be considered martial arts~]
"Then, that's what I'll go with"
[What about the rest of you~?]
The dungeon urged Cardina and the others who hadn't declared yet.
"Hmm. To be honest, Cardina and the others can do both, right?"
"Peewee!"
"Neigh!"
"Either is fine, desu no!"
"Whatever works~"
"That's how it is, but since we'll follow the rules, is it possible for these kids to enter both?"
[Since it's not prohibited by the rules, it's OK of course~. However, please be careful as using magic skills against martial arts opponents, or vice versa, will result in one loss at that point~]
"We understand that. Then, please go with that."
[Yes yes~. ──── Registration complete. The other side's registration should be finishing soon too, so please wait a moment~. Once that's done, I will announce the events and players~]
And so, the match between the Tatsuro Team VS Fornacis was set.