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[Somewhere in the middle of the open field dungeon]

The four of them sit down, forming a small circle so that they can talk what they would like to do in the future. It's obvious that each one of them wanted to save their love one at Kiserre, not wanting them to meet the horrible fate that they barely managed to escape, but as of now, they're powerless.

"Isn't there anything we can do?" [Teenage girl]

"As of now, our own safety should be our top priority" [Young dwarf]

"Agree. We might be safe now here, but that doesn't mean that they will stop chasing us down. Right now, we are in the position to tell the world what had transpired in Kiserre. We can't possibly go back only to be captured, and we can't allow ourselves to be captured by them before telling others about what happened, so right now, there's one thing that we can do" [Adult man]

"And that is?" [Teenage girl]

"We become a traveler and stay here" [Adult man]

"Huh?" [Dwarf man]

"Traveler?" [Young deer girl]

"What, what do you mean!" [Teenage girl]

"I'll explain. Right now, as he said, our own safety comes first, so how about we live here near that mysterious lady as a traveler. She might not be our ally, not to mention her behaviour is suspicious. I mean, she literally stands there doing nothing!" [Adult man]

"But she's a good person!" [Young deer girl]

"I know... she did protect us back then and should the same happen again, I'll say there's a good chance she will do the same again" [Adult man]

"I see, that way, there's no guarantee but that's better than nothing" [Young dwarf]

"Then, how about telling others about what happened?" [Teenage girl]

"Obviously, we can't go to Estel as there's risk we ran into them once more, so, what we should do is..." [Adult man]

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~Humming~

~Follow along~

Right now, we just cross the middle half of the rock and sea dungeon, making this the Estel's side of the dungeon. With nothing else to do, and with me having zero confidence singing in front of Ram, Qis, Diana and others, I just hum something, and the younger group as usual, begin to imitate my action

~Sing~

~Eyes widen~

"That's nice" [Elise]

"It sure is!" [Mara]

"I wonder if I can sing as good as the princess" [Kara]

"Her voice is as good as an elf!" [Farhah]

"Huh?" [Charlotte]

"Elf are said to be natural born singer" [Rean]

"The more you know" [Zerolith]

"You just know that didn't you Zerolith" [Ash]

~Gulp~

"Looks whose talking" [Qis]

~Gulp~

"Is it true..." [Karon]

"No way! Brother Ash is smart!" [Singa]

"Yeah, there's no way he wouldn't know that!" [Savel]

~Louder gulp~

"What a warm environment" [Ram]

"Yeah, glad I insist on not taking the rude captain back along with us" [Ash]

"Agree" [Qis]

"That's rare" [Ash]

"I simply agree to it. Plus, you also knew how he behaved towards The Princess" [Qis]

"Well, it can't be helped. Plus, the situation dictate that he should be there at Malsia" [Diana]

"Kids, don't be like that rude captain when you grow up, promise?" [Ash]

"Promise!" [Kids]

Let just stopped discussing about it right now. It will only sullen the mood, plus, we can't let the kids be involved in political matter (and for them, they might not want to involve a traveler with their internal issues). Well, I might live there, but I still haven't given up my status as a traveler, I'm sure there's a reason as to why Goddess Achalasia started me as a traveler.

"Huh?" [Ash]

"What is master doing there?" [Rean]

"With Sis Alice nonetheless" [Zerolith]

"Could it be!" [Elise]

""They have started dating!!"" [Kara, Mara]

"Want to congratulate them Qis, Ram?" [Diana]

"For what..." [Qis]

"Hmm, maybe it's because of that. But, let just stop first and ask them" [Ram]

"Right" [Ash]

With the camper van golem parked, we went off and greet them. Surely they knew the owner of this golem, so they are expecting us to come down, nonetheless, we greeted each other. And

"I see, it is hidden now" [Samurai Jacks]

"It is" [Ash]

As I expected, Jacks knew about it as well. Alice and Ram there have a confused face, but they just slide it off.

"Well, can I know why both of you guys choose to date here, out of all the places available in Estel?" [Ash]

"It doesn't make sense, but maybe that's because I'm a princess and you guys are adventure and receptionist, so maybe your idea of dates are different from mine" [Diana]

"WE ARE NOT DATING!" [Alice]

~Sad~

(Hey Singa, why is Mr Jacks sad?) [Savel]

(I don't know) [Singa]

((((Poor Mr Jacks)))) [Kara, Mara, Karon, Farhah)

(One sided love...) [Zerolith]

(That is rude!) [Elise]

(Stop it, all of you!) [Rean]

"Rean is right, you guys shouldn't talk behind people back like that!" [Ash]

"WE ARE SORRY!" [Kids]

"Honestly, they're becoming more and more like you Diana..." [Ash]

"Oh, don't you dare say that is my fault!" [Diana]

"Ohh, if it is me, I will just say it straight to his face" [Ash]

"That is even worse!" [Diana]

"We are getting side tracked here..." [Jacks]

"Sigh... Is it because of the sudden change in the monster ecosystem?" [Ram]

"Yes, vice guild master ask the two of us to conduct some research here for that reason" [Jacks]

"Care to explain?" [Ash]

Ram explain it to me. Basically, some of the adventures have noticed a decline in monster activities, like less and less of monster coming into the surface for example. At first, they thought of some strong monster shows up slaughtering other monsters, but that doesn't seems to be the case here, and Jacks also thought of the portal stone might be involved, but he can't sense any of it. I try to confirm it as well, and I couldn't find one, when...

"No wonder the mermaids aren't there" [Charlotte]

"Huh?" [Others]

"Can you repeat it Charlotte?" [Ash]

"Well, there's no mermaids playing around back then, and now as well" [Charlotte]

"Hmm..., could it be the mermaid kingdom?" [Ash]

"Do such thing exist?" [Alice]

"My master did tell me it exist" [Ash]

There are some info about it from Goddess Achalasia, but no that much. I guess she would rather have me find it by myself. Typical of her

"Can you locate it?" [Jacks]

"..." [Ash]

"You can't?" [Ram]

"Well, I can try, but, I'm not that strong enough" [Ash]

"What do you mean?" [Qis]

"Well, first, I simply don't know where is it. If it's at the bottom floor of the sea, then I would have to fight an S rank monster by myself, maybe even an SS rank monster, and I don't want that" [Ash]

"I see. Well, if that the case, it couldn't be helped. Jacks, Alice, I'll help you a little bit more, then we will go back together" [Ram]

"I'll help as well. As for all of you, please be a good kids and don't cause any problems to Princess, got it!" [Ash]

"Yes!" [Kids]

The four of us scan the floor once more, and even proposed a theory here and there, but to no avail, we can't get to a definite conclusion. With that, we invited Jacks and Alice to ride back home with us