I woke up in the morning and came downstairs from the third floor bedroom to the upstairs living room.
　Emily, who was in the kitchen, turned around and smiled at me.

'Good morning,'
Good morning ......, where's Celeste?
I went out with Eve. She said that from today, there will be fewer adventurers going to the dungeon because of the harvest festival, so Celeste said she would ask her to bring out all the carrots.
I see.

　We sat down at the table and sipped the tea Emily had brought for us.

　Today is the start of a three-day harvest festival.

As I recall, it's a big event held once a year in Cyclo.
Yes, people from other cities seem to come to see it. Since people come from all over the world, they come from many different cities and put on a show to get adventurers.
"Acquisition of adventurers?
It's like they bring in drops from other dungeons and sell them, or make them into haggles and promote them as an easy to earn dungeon or city.
I see.

　There's quite a lot going on. I mean, that's what the appeal for adventurer acquisition is done, right?
　Well, in this world, everything is dropped from monsters in dungeons, so the adventurers who hunt the monsters are the producers of the primary industry.
　The number and quality of adventurers is directly related to the tax revenue of the city.

In a sense, it's like attracting businesses.
Yes?
'No, this one. ...... Speaking of which, that's Emily's from earlier, it's all hearsay (it seems).

　Emily gave him a troubled look.

'Miss Celeste told me about it.
From Celeste?　I know she's getting a lot of information, but why would Emily ask her?

　You've lived in this town all your life.

I've spent a lot of time in dungeons, and festivals are expensive.
......

　So that's it.
　Emily was an unfortunate adventurer in Drop E until I forced her to rent a cheap apartment for 20,000 piro and dragged her there.
　She lived a survivalist lifestyle living in a dungeon.

'Alright, so let's go to the festival together.
Together?
'Yeah, there's a lot of interesting stuff out there, right?　Let's have some fun together.
Yes, sir!

　　　　　★

　I left the house and Emily and I walked around the city.
　It's only mid-morning, but the streets are already quite crowded.

　There are people dressed in unusual outfits, and stalls selling non-cyclo goods are everywhere.
　It's similar to the peddlers who gathered around the Seren Dungeon, but there are far more of them, and their wares are far more diverse.

''It's amazing, there's so much to choose from.''
Let me know if there's anything you need.
'What?　But ......

　Emily looked around the stalls and said with an apologetic look on her face.

'It's a festival thing, so it's at a premium: ......
Don't worry about the money. It's a festival, so let's just spend it all.
But .......
If Emily doesn't pick it, I'll just buy it myself.　Well, it's like a stuffed animal that looks like this thing...
"Please don't, please don't do that, please don't do that, I'll do anything!

　I was talking up very fast.
　It's a stuffed animal that looks like an anthropomorphic black creature, which is cute in my eyes, but not in Emily's eyes.

　You can't even get a fast-moving cocrosstalking, crunching, fast-moving cocrosstalking lime.

Let's get something.
Okay, okay.

　Emily was oddly enthusiastic and started rummaging through this and that merchandise.
　Suddenly, she stopped in front of one of the stalls.

'What's up Emily ...... collection box?'

　Side by side, I look at the items in that store.
　It was all a collection box.

　An item that automatically sucks in drops from defeated monsters and packs them in a box.
　It's the one I often use to boost my special ammunition.

What's this?
'Listen to me, sir, this is the experience of the Alkir product.

　The owner of the stall, a young man with thread-thin eyes and a friendly smile on his face, answered the question.

'Experience?　What does that mean?
This was dropped by a monster called a plated mouse. Do you know it? Platemouth. It's a great monster that gives you ten times more experience than other monsters of the same strength.
Yeah.
We'll put her in a public place and be gone for three minutes.
Oh, great.
'Yes!　With a plated mouse that's turned into a haggler, you get ten times the experience of a normal mouse.
I see.

　I hadn't thought of that idea.
　In this world where drops are important, levels and experience exist, but few adventurers care about them.
　All adventurers go through dungeons and kill monsters continuously, so most of the time their level is at their upper limit before they realize it.

''You mean you don't drop haggle-heads, but you get a decent amount of experience?
Mr. Yoda, I've raised the bar.
'What?　Oh!　Feminine under the cliff!

　Emily nodded.
　It wasn't long after I met her - just about right after I got the frozen bullets.

　There was an incident where she fell down a cliff and turned a package away from people's hands into a haglemono, and she defeated it all at once and leveled it up.
　'I see, even haggler things can level up properly.

''I see, so you're selling experience ...... What's inside this, by the way?
Wait, sir.

　The owner of the store stopped me, but I took a box and opened the lid.
　The moment I open it...

"Whoa!
Haha!
d*mn it!

　He hurriedly closed the lid and put the box down.
　The moment I opened the box, a ridiculous smell came flying out of the box.

　It was like rotten meat and fish that had been dumped into the sewage system and further fermented and then boiled down.
　It's such a strong odor.

Ugh, ...... it stings my eyes. ......
Holy shit.
'That's the poisonous mushrooms in the plated mouse drop. The thing itself has absolutely no value at all, so this is how we sell it as an experience in a box.
I see. I'm sorry for barging in.

　The stench pervaded the area, and people who were enjoying the festival stared at me.
　Unable to stand it, I bought a box as an apology and hurriedly ran away with Emily.

　　　　　☆

　Outside of Cyclo, in the open air where it is not popular.
　I put down the box of experience (poisonous mushrooms) and keep my distance.
　It's good to have them, but it's not good to get rid of them, so I paused my tour of the festival and tried to make them into hagremonos - experiences.

　While waiting to become a haglemono, Emily and I look at the pamphlet I got from the owner of the Itome shop.

'Is it a guide to Alkil?'
'Oh ...... this pamphlet makes it sound like you specialize in tourism, Alkil.
Sightseeing?
'They say that 70% of the Alkil drops are poisonous or stink like that thing and 30% don't drop anything. So they say the city's tax revenue is hard to come by when you have four dungeons.
Is that so?
''The drops are rotten, but in return, all the monsters have high experience, so they're specializing the town for tourism and adventurer support, and they're trying to get adventurers to drop money from them. See, here, there's a haggle arena, complete with a haggle arena for those who don't like stink drops.
There are cities like that.
'It's funny. Emily and Celeste aren't maxed out on levels, are they?　Let's go back to that place.
'Yes!　We're all going together!

　Emily nodded with a big smile on her face as she remembered her promise to level up and learn magic.

　At that moment, the box swelled up from within. Hagremonos would hatch.

''Yoda-san!''
Yeah.

　We nodded at each other. I stood by with my support ammunition - restraining and recovery rounds.
　Emily took the hammer, ready to leap at any moment.

　A large rat about six inches long hatched from a poisonous mushroom.
　Its body was metallic in color, but in some places it had peeled off, revealing a dull color from within.

　It somehow reminded me of a zombie, just like the flesh that rots and falls off.
　I felt the same way when I saw the metal zombie, the plated mouse.
　It's a bit creepy, to say the least.
　Moreover, it moved like a mouse, moving a little bit and stopping and moving a little and stopping.

Are you sure about that, Emily?
What?
...... No, no, it's okay.

　A lot of kids who don't like G don't like rats, but Emily seems to be okay with it.

I do!
Yeah.

　Almost at the same time I fired the restraining round, Emily jumped out of the way.
　The rope of light easily restrained the plating mouse, and Emily's hammer hit it.

　Gakkien!

Yeah, it's hard.
I can help you.
I'm fine!

　Emily took a deep breath and readjusted her hammer.
　Emily gathered her strength, as if she could hear a giggling ...... sound.

　An amazing one is coming, or so she pretended to think.

'Hah!'
"--reservation.

　Quickly, I remembered and cast a spell.
　The magic hit first before Emily's blow hit.
　Immediately after that, the hammer was knocked down.

　Thud!　The ground shook so much that I felt like I was going to fall over from a distance.
　The hammer struck the ground, and there was a crater about three meters in diameter.

You did it, Yoda!
What are the levels?
It's up to you!
Okay.

　You're up with that one.
　This is getting more and more like we're all going to have to go to Alkil together.

'Yoda, I'll take a look at this.'
Yeah?　Whoa, new bullets?

　As Emily called me closer, I saw a new bullet in the center of the crater that I hadn't seen before.