Chapter 7: Reception

Akira Ito—or Karen Akira Ito—is a 25-year-old receptionist working at the Kyogoku branch of the Explorers Guild.

Despite her name, she’s a pure-blooded Japanese woman, born and raised in Japan.

Her ancestry is of foreign origin, but her self-identity is completely Japanese.

Perhaps because of this, she had a strong desire to become a civil servant from a young age.

That’s precisely why she took the employment exam for the Explorers Guild.

For her, this workplace was heaven.

She’s been working here since she was 18, fresh out of high school, making this her seventh year, but she’s a bit scatterbrained and occasionally makes blunders.

Yet, she’s not disliked, whether it’s due to her good nature or her endearingly clumsy character.

Ito was carrying out her usual routine work that day.

The old-timer Ichinose, and the bald Section Chief Sakura, always say how much harder things were in the past, especially during drinking parties.

–They’re so annoying.

They say that the various procedures that can now be completed over the internet used to be done on paper, and only in person.

She thinks that must have been tough.

There’s a system where explorers must submit a plan detailing their intentions, even if they’re just hunting the weakest monsters in the first layer and collecting magic stones.

Before an explorer enters the dungeon, they must state their objective, planned exploration area, duration, companions, equipment, and so on, and the guild reviews the submitted plan. Explorers aren’t allowed to enter the dungeon until it’s approved.

Certain self-proclaimed civic groups, supporters of the leftist political party responsible for this system that benefits neither the explorers nor the guild staff—a system everyone loathes—apparently tout it as some kind of achievement.

Originally, the Explorers Guild is an organization of the country that advocates the management of explorers.

Naturally, entry and exit to the dungeon are done through the guild.

Therefore, even though everything in exploration is at your own risk, legally and publicly, if something happens to an explorer as a result, voices will inevitably question the responsibility of the country.

Even if it’s an illogical claim, it’s something that will come up.

Their claim is that they have responded firmly to such voices.

She doesn’t understand such political matters, but Ito could vaguely understand the structure of the higher-ups doing something troublesome.

Furthermore, back then, explorer cards were just simple plastic cards, not linked to the explorer’s basic information—highest floor reached, equipment used (optional), secured insurance contracts (optional), latest results of health checkups and psychological evaluations including blood type, party information, etc.

How could they possibly assess the suitability of a plan with that?

Could they possibly expect to judge that this person’s plan is no good because it is reckless after understanding all the information of each explorer?

–That’s impossible, isn’t it?

–If you’re working normally, you’d wonder how such a thing could be realized. Maybe the people who thought this up have never worked a day in their lives?

When she asked Ichinose and Sakura about that, they chuckled and said, ‘We wouldn’t go that far,’ but she wondered what that meant.

However, in that situation, a certain Diet member, who was also a former explorer, appeared and reformed various inconvenient aspects of the Explorer’s Guild.

Current explorer cards have digitized basic information linked to them, various applications can be submitted online, and by incorporating an initial AI-based screening, staff only handles cases where there are discrepancies between the information and the application.

Apparently, there were also various inconveniences not only during entry but also during exit.

Nowadays, explorers set their spoils in the ‘automatic loot scanner’ installed at the dungeon exit, and the AI instantly analyzes the type, size, weight, and quality of the materials, compares them with registered data, displays the purchase price on the spot based on the scan results, and explorers can choose immediate transfer to their guild-registered account, and only in the case of cash requests, they need to go through procedures at the counter.

Previously, they say that people with appraisal skills or those who could appraise on their own were stationed, and all the spoils were visually checked to calculate the purchase price.

As mentioned earlier, since skills can be used in a very narrow area near the gate, those with skills would sometimes appraise there—or in guilds with extremely limited ranges, inside the dungeon.

–I don’t think there are that many people who can appraise as a skill, but I guess they managed somehow since it worked.

–It’s a real mystery.

By the way, currently, those who can appraise as a skill are assigned to prefectural headquarters or general management bureaus, and are dispatched only when there are items that cannot be scanned by AI or newly discovered materials.

However, when it became impossible to handle the increasing number of explorers each year—most of whom are first-layer explorers—the aforementioned Diet member improved various things, leading to the current system.

They teach her such things at every drinking party.

Even though she calls them old-timer and baldy, Ito likes them.

Her recent interest, like everyone else’s, was Sehei Moritsuki, a returnee from another world and a dungeon conqueror.

Moreover, he returned and conquered this very Kyogoku Dungeon.

It would be a lie to say she wasn’t interested.

Since his appearance, she’s been doing public searches on the internet every day.

Every time she searches, Tier Ryugasaki’s videos pop up, and Ito, who is the same age and has some interaction with her as a guild employee and explorer, has started watching her videos for the first time.

By the way, she usually calls her Manami-chan.

Because only the real name is on the explorer card.

And just to add, the plan submitted by the explorer also has a column to indicate whether or not they will be streaming, which, according to Ichinose and Sakura, is very modern.

She thinks it’s natural since the IT infrastructure in the dungeon and the development of filming drones were carried out semi-publicly and semi-privately for dungeon development, and that information is, in principle, accumulated in international organizations, but apparently, that’s how it is.

So, while following Sehei, it was inevitable that Ito, who was working as usual, found Sehei’s name among today’s scheduled explorers.

She found a plan with Manami Sato as the party leader, mainly focused on exploring the shallow layers.

Normally, Manami—who has experience exploring the shallow layers (or rather, only has experience exploring the shallow layers)—should be able to pass through the AI screening and enter the exploration without any problems.

However, she determined that there was a need for an in-person examination and arranged for them to be guided to the reception desk upon entry.

–It’s amazing that I can meet Moritsuki-kun.

It was a complete mix of personal and professional matters.

“Akira-chan. Why is there a ‘need for an in-person examination’?”

“Ah, Manami-chan, hello.”

And so, Manami, accompanied by the aforementioned Moritsuki, arrived.

Ito continued to speak, completely ignoring the old-timer’s gaze from afar, in a very relaxed atmosphere.