158. The Mysterious Dungeon Master

（Sorry?）

『What for?』

（Accepted request without asking.）

『Oh, that? I’ll admit I’m a bit worried about it, but I’m game so long as you are.』

（Nn.）

『Seems like you took a liking to that old man, eh?』

（That old man. Evolved.）

『Seriously?』

（Evolved White Dogkin. White Wolfkin.）

『Didn’t he call himself a White Dogkin though?』

I could swear he introduced himself as “Wijaht Aurel, a White Dogkin.”

（White Dogkin still White Dogkin after evolution. Just White Wolfkin variant.）

『Oh, so that’s how that works? So you’ll still technically be a Black Catkin even after you evolve?』

（Nn. Still some sort of Black Catkin.）

『Man, I’m honestly surprised you noticed though.』

（Can tell because also beastkin.）

『Is that how that works?』

（Nn. That’s how that works.）

Is it cause their instincts, or maybe some sort of racial trait?

（Need to ask about evolution. That’s why accepted request.）

『Ah, I get it. So that’s why.』

「Nn.」

「Hmmm? Did you say something?」

「Nothing.」

「Really?」

We’d left Aurel’s mansion and headed in the Adventurer’s Guild’s direction. We were still with Erza, and hence, naturally taking one of his shortcuts.

We hopped from roof to roof like a group of bunnies and surprised the crap out of anyone that happened to be in the middle of hanging their laundry.

Our purpose was simple. We were heading over to the Guild in order to formally file Aurel’s request. If we didn’t, it’d kind of end up as something along the lines of a personal favour as opposed to something that went through the guild and got processed.

Apparently, anything that involved delivering something to a Dungeon Master would automatically be qualified as a request of rank D or higher, hence, Erza had recommend that we record it so we could add it to our list of completed requests.

Moreover was the fact that anything that involved meeting a Dungeon Master was actually kind of a big deal. Hence, reporting in and notifying the Guildmaster ahead of time would be in our best interests.

「I’ve never actually been given the chance to meet the Dungeon Masters myself you know?」

「Really?」

「Mhmm. The Dungeon Masters shut themselves in, so you might not find them even in the dungeon’s deepest depths. The Guild Master is more or less the only person capable of meeting them 100% of the time.」

Well then, it looks like this request of ours is an even bigger deal than I thought.

『Oh well. We kinda accepted it, so let’s put our heads together in order to figure out some way to actually see it through.』

I’ve also gotta think about Aurel’s true intentions as well. Why’d he go out of his way to ask this of Fran in particular?

I guess we should start by looking up some info about the Dungeon Master. The fact that it’s capable of negotiation means that we know for a fact that it’s a member of a race capable of speech, but honestly, that’s about the extent of our knowledge.

***

We managed to immediately get ourselves a moment of Dias’ time. Meeting the Guildmaster just like that wasn’t something that’d normally happen. Things only went as smoothly as they did because we happened to be in Erza’s company.

Apparently, Erza wanting to talk to the Guildmaster basically out prioritized everything else.

「Wow~ I’m surprised you’re here.」

「Well, I’m not always out and about. Did you need something?」

「Not exactly. Fran was the one that needed something.」

「Oh?」

「Nn.」

Fran quickly told Dias about the request Aurel had given her.

Rather, she started from the fact that the old dogkin had wanted to see her, and accounted everything between that and her receiving the request with particular emphasis on the refreshments she was treated with.

「Ah, so you met Aurel.」

「Acquainted?」

「Well, the city isn’t exactly what you’d call large, so yes, I have. Though, I’m rather surprised to see that he’s given you a request.」

「I can’t figure out Grandpa Aurel’s intentions myself. You got any clues, Guildmaster?」

「Hmm… So Aurel too, huh…?」

「Nn?」

「Nothing, don’t worry about it. I’ll acknowledge his request, but with it, I’ll also give you a few warnings. First and foremost is the fact that you are absolutely forbidden from harming the Dungeon Master. Harming the Dungeon Master is a crime that’s deserving of something much worse than just capital punishment.」

「I know.」

He gave us one helluva harsh warning. It was possible for the Dungeon Master to destroy Ulmutt altogether if we pissed it off. That said though, we weren’t planning to attack it in the first place, so that at least shouldn’t be an issue.

「You should also keep in mind the fact that you may not actually be able to meet the Dungeon Master.」

「Know that too.」

「Good. 」

「Nn.」

「Another thing is that she’s a bit hard to please. Try not to piss her off if you actually get to meet her.」

「She?」

The Dungeon Master’s a chick?

「Whoops, that’s something you should be looking into yourself, not something I’m supposed to be carelessly telling you.」

「Got it.」

We tried looking up a few things about the Eastern Dungeon Master a bit later on, but didn’t come up with anything at all.

Everything about the Dungeon Master seemed to have been classified or something. The only pieces of knowledge we ended up having were the fact that she was female and the fact that she was capable of speech.

I figured that we might be able to find ourselves some hints if we looked up stuff about the Western Dungeon Master instead, but that didn’t really end up producing any results either. Again, all we found out was that the Western Dungeon Master was also female.

A part of the lack of knowledge stemmed from the fact that very few had actually made it all the way through to the dungeon’s depths. Even fewer had actually managed to encounter the Dungeon Masters.

『Well, I guess going in blind is basically the only option we’ve got.』

I mean, we were planning to dive into the Eastern Dungeon’s depths anyways, so whatever, I guess.