Overall Severin was looking forward to this whole employee thing. But it was true that the cost was very prohibitive.

“Even with the recent windfall, my personal wealth doesn’t even amount to 400 gold. It should take me at least double that amount to meet the bare minimum requirements set by the System.” Severin did a rough estimation based on some of the prices he had seen in the System Store before. He couldn’t even be bothered to look up the actual prices, fearing the real number to be much higher.

“Let’s be real, even after meeting these minimum requirements, who would be stupid enough to take this job?” Even if the person, unlike Severin himself, was still able to leave the store’s property, which was something Severin wasn’t quite clear on either, the new [Employee] would still be stuck on a mountaintop with no real entertainment whatsoever. The only reason Severin lived like this was that he had no choice in the matter. Sure, things started to take shape, but it was still far from the dreams he had when he first landed in this world. Therefore, he didn’t believe anyone would willingly join him. Maybe later on, if everything developed like he hoped it would, but not right now.

“Well let’s wait and see, I guess. Once I complete that quest and can adjust my income a bit it might be enough for me to fix some of the problems. The real question is if I should ask one of the guys to help me find someone suitable. The only issue with that would be how to explain why I can’t hire any class-bearers.

‘Don’t look for people with a class. No, no [Alchemist] either. No, really! I’ll have them bound to my System, which I was granted after transmigrating. I’ll just have them acquire a custom class instead.’

Yeah. That’s not a conversation I’m too keen on having right now.”

Of course, not too many people who had a class on their own would choose to accept such a job offer anyway.

Feeling a bit helpless about the whole situation, Severin went outside to catch some fresh air.

‘Maybe I should tell him…’ Having such thoughts, he played through all kinds of possible scenarios in his head.

Like this, time passed by quickly.

Until suddenly his thoughts were interrupted.

“Look over there!”

“Seems like they’re here.”

Neither Tim nor Miriam had actually met any one of the expected guests in person so far.

On both occasions, they were too busy trying to beat each other’s heads in. But that didn’t stop them from looking toward meeting them now.

It would be a great occasion for them to show off the expanded store. And the magic box.

Basically, being the first customers of this store, aside from Samuel – but he didn’t really count in their eyes, made them feel a strange sense of pride.

‘Ha. Look at them. You would think it was their shop instead of mine.’

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“It’s only one ship,” Samuel commented. He didn’t care too much about this whole occasion, but the fact that a single ship was flying in their direction caught his attention.

“That’s not how Andreas made it sound. I expected more people to come. Something doesn’t seem right to me.

Unless it’s not them.”

Severin could only agree. He speculated about the number of people this kind of flying artifact could accommodate, but it surely couldn’t be more than 5 or 6.

‘Maybe more if they squeeze together. But certainly not the raid group I expected.’ He almost wanted to breathe a sigh of relief. This would be far more manageable than the alternative.

…

As expected, the spotted flying ship was headed in the shop’s direction.

Soon the ship landed near the small campfire, just outside of the fenced-off area.

Five unfamiliar-looking people left the vehicle, which soon disappeared into nothingness.

The new arrivals looked disheveled and tired, even from a distance.

As the person at the front of the group spotted Severin, he led the four others onto the shop’s property.

The small emblems on some pieces of their gear dispelled the last doubts regarding the identity of the new arrivals.

“Hey, guys.”

Severin was a bit taken aback by the disheveled and tired-looking man as he greeted everyone with a nod.

‘Why does he talk like I know him? Don’t tell me…’

After the distance was closed, even more, Severin had to make a double-take. The lack of energy the man displayed almost made Severin fail to recognize him.

“Xander!?”

“Do you know anyone else looking this handsome?” Xander tried to put on his trademark smug grin. Tried. Instead, he looked like he might pass out from a mixture of pain and exhaustion. He very obviously hadn’t slept much for the past couple of days. And despite those words, the usual cocky tone was absent from his voice.

All of the four other people seemed to be in similar conditions, but if anything, they seemed to have even less energy to waste. Luckily no one seemed to be wounded.

The greetings were kept to a minimum; Only nods and grunts were exchanged before they all but collapsed onto the ground.

The signs of combat were so obvious that even Severin could discern them.

So, it was only natural that the other three could do so as well.

“So, what happened to you guys?”

Xander who already sat on the ground let himself fall onto his back, into a lying position.

Like this, he was staring into the blue above him as he started to recount the events.

Be it because of his exhaustion or the severity of the matter, he unexpectedly didn’t brag about his own deeds and achievements and instead gave a relatively concise summarization.

Sigh

“We were on our way over here when we spotted an already half-destroyed Rhenian trade caravan fighting against a group of monsters coming out of a cave.

Thought a few greedy merchants skimped on the guards. Thought with almost a whole raid group we’d save their asses no problem.”

Miriam frowned when she heard this. She knew how many of the merchants operated and hated the bad name those people gave their parents’ trade. Everything to maximize profits. They wouldn’t lead the caravans themselves, so a lot of them didn’t care too much about their security. The bare minimum to chase away some opportunistic bandits would need to make do.

One might think they’d at least care about their cargo. They did not. It was already included in their considerations. A calculated risk.

Losing one caravan out of ten tours would oftentimes still be less expensive than hiring a competent team of adventurers to escort them on those ten trips. Therefore, Miriam sadly had to concur that the image painted by Xander’s narration did indeed sound like one of these familiar occurrences.

“Well, obviously things didn’t turn out to be that easy.” The regret in his voice was apparent.

“We quickly dispatched the monsters and decided for one half of us to secure the cave while the others would stay outside to take care of the injured.”

Xander paused for a moment.

“Only then did we find out they hadn’t actually skimped on the guards.”

The narration took a strange turn and didn’t make much sense to Severin, and neither to Tim nor Miriam, judging by the confused looks on their faces. If the monsters were so easily taken care of, then the hired adventurers should’ve been able to do the same. Xander made it sound like everything was resolved quite easily. At this point what could’ve gone so wrong?

Samuel on the other hand had quickly caught on.

“Dungeon Break?”

“Dungeon Break,” Xander confirmed the suspicion.

“What? What’s that?”

Some of Xander’s companions showed a pained expression. Prior to this, they hadn’t known either. And those who did never expected to land right in the middle of one.