Dungeons & Dragons

"Come forth, Fire! Exploding Barrage: [Flare Burst]!" Linze spoke the words,

and immediately five locations in the distance burst into flames. Everything

there was annihilated.

This new spell was an enhanced version of [Explosion] or perhaps it would be

more appropriate to say it was the original version of the spell. It was definitely

something else... I was pleased we'd decided to head out to test it in the plains

instead of the training field.

"You did it! Hmm... I wonder if Fire suits you better than Water after all,

Linze."

"W-Well... I didn't do this all on my own, you know...? Leen is the one I have

to thank for getting me this far."

"I'll have you know that fire is my worst element. It's not exclusive to myself,

either. All members of the fairy clan share the same weakness. Only a small

number of our people can actually make use of it. It might have something to

do with us historically being a species that dwelled in the forest." Hmm... That

reminds me, doesn't Leen have six elemental affinities? If I remember right, the

only one she can't use is dark. She said something about making Paula to make

up for being unable to use summoning magic.

Paula stood triumphant with her hands on her hips as the explosions sounded

off once more... She definitely didn't seem like much of a substitute for

someone like Kohaku, though.

"Leen, have you memorized any ancient spell variants?"

"That I have. Though mine's from the water pool." Leen stood in front of

Linze, extended both arms in front of her body, and focused as hard as she

could.

"Come forth, Water! Raging Whirlpool: [Maelstrom]!" An enormous whirling

tornado of water appeared, rending the ground and eating up the soil. It didn't

have any specific target, but it seemed to be some kind of large-scale

destructive spell anyway. It was insanely strong, just like the fire one...

"The downside is how rapidly it drains my magic reserves. Still, given what it

does, that's only fair." It made sense that stronger spells sapped magic quickly.

That was why a good mage knew how to adapt and use the necessary spells for

the necessary situation. They had to also take into account just how much

magical energy they possessed.

It wasn't just Leen and Linze who had improved their skills thanks to some

light reading... Monica and Rosetta had taken in a lot of information on magitechnology, so they were trying some new experiments as well. Some of the

books in there were even by Doctor Babylon herself.

Recently, Leen had actually been teaching Sue a bit of magic. Sue only had the

affinity for light spells, but her magical power was apparently quite high. Leen

had decided to teach her restoration magic primarily, and Sue had been

practicing it on the knights after they came back from training.

But she was still doing her maid training with Lapis and the others... I really

had no idea what kind of career that girl was hoping to pursue.

Fam had come down to the surface and quickly hidden herself away in the

castle Library. She was definitely a bookworm and a half... Even book-crazy

people I'd heard of back home couldn't hold a candle to her. She'd been

indulging for about five-thousand years, too, so it was a condition that had

spread across her entire body. Simply put, her book-oriented affliction was

incurable.

In the afternoon, I headed off to the guild. I decided to pop in at least once a

week.

I even accepted a few quests now and then to keep myself busy, but my main

order of business was acquiring information from Guildmaster Relisha.

I wore a cowl in the guild, trying to conceal my identity. Honestly, I was sure

people knew who I was even with the hood on my head... Still, it was better not

to stand out.

"Bastard! You wanna fight?!"

"Bring it on, punk!" Two men had grabbed each other by the collar, and

quickly sidestepped outside.

Again...? Seems like there's a fight every time I come out here. Well, I guess

that's just part of guild life...

Adventurers always wanted to prove their worth, so this was only natural. As

long as they sorted it out themselves and didn't trouble the townspeople, I let

them take care of it.

"Good day."

"Ah! Your H— I mean, er, Touya... Good day." I was talking to the cat-eared

receptionist. If I recalled correctly, her name was Misha. Her cat ears were

twitching to and fro, which was pretty cute.

"How's the guild been lately?"

"Let me think... Well, there are a lot of general quests going around. We get

the occasional escort mission as well. Still, making a large profit isn't really

possible considering the small scale of the quests we have. Some people have

been irritated by it, and mostly leave after doing a few missions. Nobody hangs

around, so it's mostly an influx of new faces every day." As she spoke, her eyes

shifted toward the two men fighting outside. I see how it is...

For whatever reason, a lot of newbies tended to think they had to act all

macho. They probably didn't want to be underestimated or looked down on,

but naturally this was a major cause of conflict, since there were too many

people measuring their egos.

It would've been fine if those people were just beginners, but there were a lot

of people who couldn't advance to the higher ranks thanks to the lack of quest

diversity, so you mostly just had a bunch of tense people hitting each other

before moving on.

It'd be a lot better if we had veteran adventurers hanging around to keep

things in check... But I couldn't expect people to hang around to get that far if

we didn't have anything to offer them.

Misha took me up to the second floor, and I entered Relisha's quarters. The

elven guildmaster was clearing up some papers as I entered the room.

However, the moment she noticed me, she immediately motioned toward a

nearby couch.

"Good to see you. You arrived at just the right time, actually."

"Oh?" She set the papers down on her desk, grabbed one document, and

then sat down next to me on the couch.

"I have two pieces of news, and one proposition. Firstly, Dragons have been

sighted."

"Dragons?"

"One has appeared south of the Sea of Trees, in the Burning Kingdom of

Sandora. From what I've been told it caused chaos in a small sand village, and

then flew off to parts unknown. That was fairly standard, but then we heard

reports out of Yulong and Roadmare that Dragons were attacking villages in the

area. Three Dragons, to be precise." That's odd... Dragons tend to live up in the

mountains away from society, and they rarely attack human territories. Even

amongst Dragons, there are elders and juniors. From what I understand, it's the

younger Dragons that behave more like wild animals and attack things

recklessly.

Back in Mismede there was that Black Dragon, and it was a younger one. The

Red Dragon I met afterward was older, and it seemed like a much more

reasonable guy.

"It may be coincidental, but it's hard to say. There's a lot we do not know

about dragonkind. It could be mating season for them, or some other

migrational event. We're going to proceed with an investigation regardless.

Now, on to the second matter... Well, that comes alongside a proposition."

Relisha spread out the document on the table, revealing it to be a map. It

looked mostly like the ocean, but there were islands dotted here and there.

"This is a recently discovered archipelago south of Sandora. We've found

several ancient ruins on these islands, but there's an issue... It's a far-off

location, so excavation and exploration are extremely difficult."

"Have you been using ships?"

"Yes, but the islands aren't suited for extended stays. The environment

fluctuates to the extreme, burning temperatures quickly become glacial in a

matter of minutes. The wildlife there is also beyond dangerous. I wondered why

each island had little ruins on it, but it's possible that it was all one large island

during the ancient era."

Hm... A sunken island? That's certainly not impossible. It might even be why

they're no longer inhabited. Then the monsters settled in and the rest is

history... I guess.

"The other issue is that the ruins are dungeons of considerable size. We're

speculating that they're man-made constructions, likely created by ancient

mages or individuals of considerable influence. If that's the case, it's safe to

assume that there's treasure within the dungeons. Naturally the guild can't miss

an opportunity to plunder the ruins of old."

That's definitely true. There could be a whole mountain of treasure down

there. I've never personally gone dungeon diving, but as I understand it, there

are a lot of ruins scattered across the world.

"Usually we put out quest notices for cases like this, since it's pretty much the

norm for dungeon exploration. However, the location of the ruins poses

somewhat of an issue... And that's where my proposition comes in." Relisha

leaned in a little closer toward me.

Wh-What the... P-Personal space, lady...? Though I guess having a woman like

this press up against me isn't the worst thing in the world.

"I was wondering if it would be possible for you to connect those dungeons to

Brunhild using one of those [Gate] spells of yours, Your Highness."

"Huh?" What? Why would I connect Brunhild to a series of dangerous

dungeons?

"What I'm trying to say is that I'd like a way for our adventurers to easily

access and challenge the dungeons. If adventurers gather here to explore

previously uncharted territory, then the town will develop as well. The guild's

understanding of the dungeon will also develop as we send more adventurers

there, and we'll all profit from whatever ends up being brought back. What do

you think?"

Oh... That's definitely a good idea. If I did something like that, we'd have a ton

of adventurers coming through looking for a way to earn a quick buck, which

would increase business at our inns and shops in turn. Plus, more people being

here would end up attracting even more people. I couldn't think of a downside.

I could easily make it so any of the creatures on the other side wouldn't be

able to come through the portal, either. In other words, we'd use the dungeon

access as a way to promote Brunhild.

"I have a couple of questions, okay? First of all, are the islands owned by any

nation?"

"They're currently under the guild's provisional watch, and aren't affiliated

with any nation, no. However, if you accept this proposal... I think it wouldn't be

unreasonable to have the land granted to the Duchy of Brunhild. Well, that is if

you can promise that the guild will have exclusive rights to excavated treasures

and any information of worth uncovered."

"Alright, then. Another question. Did you not consider that I might go and

explore these dungeons personally? I'd easily be able to monopolize treasure

and noteworthy information that way."

"Heheh... I don't believe that a man who gathered the leaders of the world to

oppose the Phrase threat would ever do such an awful thing. I didn't get this job

just for my pretty looks, you know? I have an eye for judging character."

Huh. Guess she thinks pretty highly of me. Well, better not let her down...

It was certainly an interesting prospect. It wasn't going to be me who'd

explore the whole place, but the adventurers, merchants, and guild affiliates

who had a stake in checking the place out instead.

Even exploring it casually and mapping it out would be profitable. I wouldn't

be surprised to find cartographers joining the expeditions, too.

The deeper the dungeon, the stronger the monsters, as well. From what I

understood, the density of magic in the air was thicker the deeper down you

traveled, which was why the stronger magical beasts preferred to hide

underground.

Still, any adventurer worth his salt would be aware of the risks, so I decided

not to fret too much about people hurting themselves.

"Very well, then. I'll co-operate."

"Thank you so much! We'd like you to put the [Gate] to the dungeons near

the guild, on the outskirts of town."

And so, we'd acquired a new attraction, which was a series of dungeons. With

any luck, the town would prosper further as a result. I decided I'd do a little bit

of preemptive exploration.

◇ ◇ ◇

After I had Relisha tell me the location of the islands, I opened up a [Gate] to

the Rabbi Desert, which was just outside Sandora. Then, I activated [Fly] and

headed off south.

After flying for a while, I finally came across the islands. They were as remote

as she made them out to be. Even a ship directly from Sandora would take a

long time to arrive.

"Hm... There should be three, right?" Each island had a different dungeon,

and there were three in total. I was asked to name them, but I put it off. I was

hoping for a flash of inspiration.

"Oho?" I looked down at the islands and saw a ship off the coast. Looking

closer, I saw a group camping on the beach of one of the islands. I assumed they

were the guild officials who were keeping an eye on the islands. I landed in the

camp, and the surprised men drew their weapons.

"Wh-Who are you!?"

"I'm following up on a request from Guildmaster Relisha. Right now I guess

I'm an adventurer, so... here's my card."

"Wha— Gold?! Then you must be Brunhild's... Forgive us, sir!" The guild

officials immediately sheathed their weapons. The power of the Guild Card sure

was something. It seemed like it couldn't be forged, so the credibility of a Guild

Card was absolute. Still, I wondered if it'd be possible to fool a guild official with

a convincing enough fake...

"Relisha asked me to connect these islands with Brunhild... Hm, maybe I

should just bring her here." I opened up a [Gate] and pulled Relisha through.

"...That's certainly what I proposed, yes, but I can't believe you got here so

quickly..." I left the talking to Relisha, and she told the guild officials that their

jobs were formally over.

These islands were now the extended territory of Brunhild... They were pretty

barren, though. It was simply rocky mountains, sandy beaches, blue skies, and

restless jungle.

"So then, where's the dungeon?"

"Go straight through the jungle and you'll come to a mountainside. Scale it a

little and you'll come to a cave. There, you'll find rocky stairs leading downward.

That's the dungeon entrance. This island has a lot of sandy beach around it, so a

lot of it's submerged, but it's also very narrow. The dungeon likely goes beneath

sea level and connects to the dungeons on the other islands." If it was true that

this place used to be one big island, it would make sense that the dungeons

connected somehow. There was only one way to find out for sure, though.

"I'll try going in for now, but what about the others?"

"I'll take care of the proceedings back in Brunhild, if you could send me back.

Ah, sorry, but would you mind also sending the other guild staff back to

Sandora?" That wasn't an issue at all. I quickly sent Relisha back to Brunhild.

After that, the others took down their camp and boarded their ship. They all

seemed pretty happy to be leaving. I could imagine that sitting around waiting

for orders was probably dull. I could empathize with that.

Once everyone was aboard, I transferred the ship to Sandora's main harbor.

That was that.

Now came the fun part, checking out the dungeon.

I decided to head there on foot. It'd be easier to fly, but I took advantage of

the walk to chop down trees and create a paved road using Earth magic.

I was attacked by a six-legged wolf and a two-headed snake, but they were

small fry and didn't take much effort to kill.

Eventually, I came out of the jungle and made a smooth path up the rocky

mountain. Then, I carved stairs into the cliff face to complete the route to the

dungeon.

Once there, I entered the cave and looked down the steps into the abyss.

"...Man, that's dark. Not too surprising, though." I cast [Light Orb] and

generated a little sphere of light. The dungeon felt dank and claustrophobic as I

went further down inside. Still, I was probably below the sea, so humidity was

natural.

After wandering for a while, I found myself in a broad room. The place was

definitely man-made. I could tell from how unnaturally carved the walls and

ceiling were.

I looked around and found three different paths. Left, right, and straight

ahead. Come on now... A three-way split in the first room? If this was a game, it

wouldn't be nearly this complicated... But I guess it isn't a game, so I should just

stop worrying about it.

I didn't want to get lost, so I went straight ahead. Obviously it was impossible

for me to get lost since I had access to [Gate] and all.

I traveled on ahead until I reached another fork in the road. This time it was a

case of right or left.

Hm... Guess it's my own fault for thinking the path ahead would just be

straight. Wait a second...

"This might not work, but... display map. Display the first basement floor of

this dungeon, and my current location."

"Displaying." My smartphone replied, and it projected a map of the current

floor alongside my current position. It worked... Wow, it seriously worked! Wait,

crap... I didn't want that to work.

It showed the stairs that led to the second floor, too. There appeared to be

four floors in total.

Ugh... I kinda spoiled it for myself, didn't I? I can probably profit by selling this

map, but... I won't. It'd be better for adventurers to uncover the secrets of this

place by themselves without me spoiling all the fun. Plus, it'd be way cooler to

watch them explore this place, like an amusement park. Well, whatever... Guess

I can still explore the first floor, at least.

"Whoa!" I turned toward the passageway leading to the second floor's

stairway, and found myself face to face with some monsters. They were short,

dog-headed creatures known as Kobolds, and there were two of them in total.

Kobolds were instinctive monsters that didn't understand my words. Other

creatures like Werewolves or Vampires did, however.

The Kobolds were expecting me, apparently. At least it seemed that way from

their expert timing as they brought their stone axes down toward my head. I

quickly pulled out Brunhild and took them both out. Luckily for them, I'd had

paralysis bullets loaded. They'd very narrowly escaped a painful end.

I realized that my orb of light was probably an easy way to tell I was coming. It

was practically a beacon saying "ambush me" or something along those lines. I

should've considered that, really.

I passed the collapsed Kobolds and began heading toward the stairs. I stopped

myself for a moment when I discovered a small side passage with a set of

double doors at the far end. I made the decision to check it out. Nothing wrong

with a detour, after all.

I headed down the passage and opened up both of the doors at the end.

There, I found a small room with a treasure chest in the corner. That kind of

thing was pretty standard in video games, but it felt a little bit weird to see in

reality.

I kind of wanted to ask why there was a treasure chest in a place like this, but

I just decided to open it instead.

My heart beat faster as I approached the container, and... I paused for a

moment, briefly fearing a trap. I didn't want to blow up or something. I decided

to just lift the lid a little bit, so as to not tempt fate. It wasn't locked, at any rate.

Anyway, I flung the lid open, wincing slightly, but no trap was set! Upon peering

into the open chest, I saw...

"What the..." A rusted knife, a filthy satchel, some wonky looking polearm,

and a hand-crafted stone axe. The axe looked like the same kind that the

Kobolds from before were wielding. It seemed that I'd stumbled upon their

secret stash of junk. Well, it was trash to me, but probably treasure to them.

Still, there was no way the guild would want to buy this kind of crap. I took a

closer look and saw something gleaming in the corner of the chest. What I saw

was a small band of gold. It didn't have any jewels embedded in it, but it was a

golden ring for sure. If it was real, it'd definitely be worth something.

...Come to think of it, where'd they even get the treasure chest? It was

possible that the chest had contained treasure at one point, but the monsters

might've taken things from it one by one... Before long, it was simply another

storage container for the Kobolds to make use of.

The treasure chest might have even been from another floor. It was possible

that someone, or... something, had dragged it all the way up from a lower floor.

The actual treasure might've been looted by the denizens of the dungeon and

hidden away in different hiding places... It was entirely possible that the real

treasures were in the possession of monsters now.

I took the ring, but left the rest of the stuff behind. Good luck, little Kobolds...

Plenty of people are gonna come through your home and try to kill you.

Once I made it down to the second floor, I used [Gate] to return to Relisha's

office.

"It's an ordinary ring without any particular enchantments... Though, it's

definitely gold." Wow, so it's genuine... Guess that means the dungeons do have

treasures in there.

The goal of any adventurer was to find treasure within ancient ruins and

dungeons, and also harvest rare materials from monsters as well. It seemed

that there were a lot of dungeon-dwelling creatures that evolved differently, so

rare materials were commonplace in the lower levels.

"Might I purchase the ring from you, then?"

"Sure, go ahead. How much is it worth?"

"Let's see here... Given the poor handiwork and the scratched surface...

About two silver should do."

Hm... Two silver coins for one golden ring... That's about a week at an inn.

Given that I didn't spend that much time exploring, that seems pretty fair. Then

again, I might've just gotten lucky finding this...

That reminded me, if we had more adventurers coming in, I'd probably need

to upgrade our lodgings. The Silver Moon probably didn't have enough rooms

available.

"There's another matter, Your Highness. The gates that connect Brunhild and

the islands... What are we going to do about the toll?"

"Uh, the toll?"

"Yes, the toll an adventurer has to pay. I think you should at least charge an

entry fee... Were you planning on making it free?"

"Hm... I guess one copper is probably enough, right?" She told me that was

pretty cheap, but there was always a chance that the adventurer wouldn't

make it back. I wanted as many people as possible to make it back safely and

use the services available in Brunhild.

Making it free would've been troublesome, since we wouldn't be able to keep

track of who was coming and going. I didn't want us to lose track of who went

through and never came back, so a fee was best for book-keeping. The Guild

Card was the easiest way to monitor that. In the end, the toll wouldn't generate

much revenue, but that wasn't really the point anyway.

We'd probably need potions, medicine, weapons, and armor as well... I didn't

want to get ahead of myself, but I decided to talk to the town merchants about

stocking up for the future. It was possible I might end up needing a master

smith to repair weaponry and armor, too.

I was a little excited to see just where this project would take us.

◇ ◇ ◇

Adventurers by the dozen had begun gathering in Brunhild. Why? Because

word had quickly begun to spread about the dungeons.

After all, this was uncharted territory. Uncharted and untouched, due to their

isolated location. The allure of treasure was far too much to give up on, so

many people had come seeking their fortunes.

Basically, it was a first come first served situation. All the adventurers wanted

to be the first to explore the dungeons. I'd named them, by the way,

Amaterasu, Tsukuyomi, and Susanoo.

In the past I had deliberately limited the knowledge of my [Gate] spell

because I didn't want to be looked at with scrutiny or suspicion. But it seemed

that it was pretty well-known as my 'signature' magic at this point. I suppose it

was unavoidable, I had ended up using it a lot during the Yulong invasion.

I was already in a position of vast power, regardless. I didn't expect anyone to

turn on me at this point, so there was no real harm in revealing my wonders.

Even if they tried, I'd just put them in their place.

All that considered, the portals that connected Brunhild to the dungeons

were just accepted as another matter-of-fact thing related to my power.

The dungeons weren't only vast, they were dangerous. Due to the lack of

civilization in the area for so long, the place had become a prime breeding

ground for magical beasts. Though the exploration hadn't been going on for too

long, it seemed that some parties had already made it as far as the third floor

down.

The guild was satisfied, since they were seeing a boost in rare items, valuable

raw materials, and treasures.

Initially I was worried about the number of adventurers in town causing a

disruption of public order, but it hadn't been as bad as I'd thought. There were

still some rough types and troublemakers alongside the fortune-seekers,

though.

So even though it wasn't large scale, there was a slow but steady increase in

dumbasses who thought they could bother my citizens and harass the shop

workers.

I wasn't sure what the standard was in other countries, but I certainly

wouldn't be letting them do as they pleased. Anyone caught causing trouble

would be dragged off to the Whisper Prison (an enclosed space filled with the

constant sound of nails on chalkboard), or the Hellish Aroma Pen (another

enclosed space filled with a fraction of a sludge slime's scent). That would give

them ample time to reflect on their attitudes.

I'd also built a hospital in town, not just for the sake of the adventurers, mind

you. I had several Light magic specialists and doctors stationed there, to take

care of injury and disease alike. I also had Flora create several medicines to be

used by the people there.

We were charging them at a fair rate, but children with parents who were

Brunhild citizens would be treated for free. If you were under thirteen in this

world, then you were still a child. I didn't want to exclude them from healthcare

just because they or their families couldn't afford it.

Well, I said free, but that just meant it wouldn't cost them any money. Their

parents would still have to work for a day or two on national projects to make

up for it. Though, if they could afford the cash, they could always just bypass

that and pay for the medicine like everyone else.

There were a few stalls lined up alongside the portals, stocked with lamp oil,

rope, rations, medicines, bandages, and other adventurer necessities. It seemed

each stall had a different specialty. One was selling knives, one compasses, one

canteens, and so on.

I walked over to one of the stalls and called out to the merchant. He turned to

me.

"Hey there. How're the sales?"

"Ah, not bad at all... I might end up switching careers at this rate!" This man

was one of Brunhild's ninjas. In other words, he was an ex-Takeda agent, and a

subordinate to Tsubaki.

I had him assigned here to disguise himself as a vendor and keep an eye on

the people that came through. I didn't want to seem suspicious by talking to

him for too long, so I started picking up items on his stall as I spoke.

"Any issues?"

"Nothing major, no. Though there have been various arguments between

parties here and there. Minor things." Treasure-related fights weren't exactly

new issues. Individual conflicts were fine, so long as they didn't involve

unrelated bystanders.

"When I went to the dungeon, there were only Kobolds on the first level.

What's the situation on the deeper floors?"

"Common monsters on the first level include Kobolds, Goblins, Giant Rats,

Giant Bats, and Lone-Horned Rabbits. Common monsters on the second level

include Hobgoblins, Goblin Archers, Skeletons, and Orcs. As for the third floor...

I've heard there are Killer Mantises and Dullahans down there." Huh,

Dullahans? I remember fighting one of those forever ago. It was pretty tough at

the time. It might be hard to fight without a dedicated Light magic user, or at

least anti-undead weaponry.

"The monsters in each dungeon seem to be quite varied. Amaterasu seems to

have an abundance of magical beasts, while Tsukuyomi has an influx of undead.

Susanoo, on the other hand, seems to have more generic types of monsters."

Apparently the difference between a regular monster and a magical beast was

simply down to the bestial features they had. I don't really know why they

bothered making such a distinction. But still, I wondered why the different

dungeons seemed to favor different types of monster. It may simply be a case

of predatory instinct. Magical beasts even ate each other, so perhaps the other

classifications of monsters gravitated away from their main grounds.

I thanked the ninja and headed towards the portal. There were three gates in

total now, each leading to the entrance of a different dungeon.

Still, the actual location of the islands was the same in the end. There was

nothing stopping someone from swimming over to another beach or building a

boat to get to the other places. Most adventurers found it more convenient to

just come back through to Brunhild and walk through another [Gate], though.

Even if they had to present their guild card and pay a copper coin, it was still

easier than moving from island to island the old-fashioned way.

A single copper coin was enough for a meal in this world, so I figured it was

approximately a thousand yen. But if that was the case, then I felt like charging

two copper coins per night at the Silver Moon was probably a little cheap.

Especially since it included three meals. Still, that meant it was around sixtythousand yen for a full month. Looking at it that way, it was probably fairly

priced. Hmph...

Regardless, comparing the currency between this world and my old world was

a bit of a fruitless exercise. I decided not to think about it too much.

"Touya-dono!"

"Touya...!"

"Hm? Yae and Hilde? What's up?" I turned around to find a swordswoman

combo running toward me. They certainly seemed closer lately, probably

because they always sparred together.

"We have agreed to set out and investigate the ruins while training at the

same time, we have. Hilde-dono has not had as much experience in combat

against the magical beasts as I, she has not."

"Yes! Look, I even got a guild card! Though it's still black... It can't quite

compare to yours, Yae." Hilde bashfully held up her guild card. She seemed

happy.

Her card was black, the newbie's color. The lowest tier possible... It was a bit

funny having the Knight Princess of Lestia regarded as the lowest. Felt like a

pretty bad joke. I decided we'd work to fix that. Yae's was red. That was

because she'd been adventuring with me for a while.

That being said, rising to red in such a short amount of time was practically

unthinkable. Still, I couldn't be that surprised about it. Yae was remarkably

powerful, she had been even before she met me.

"What brings you here, Touya-dono?"

"Oh, me? I'm just doing a little security sweep."

"Ah, if you're done would you like to come with us?"

"Oh, sure. Let's go." We went through the gate to Amaterasu, and came out

on the pearly white sands.

Don't worry, I paid the fee like everyone else. I didn't want anyone making a

fuss about me and my fiancees getting special treatment. It'd make us stand out

too much, too. Normally I'd have just used my own [Gate], but I decided to use

the opportunity to check that these ones were working alright.

The archipelago was composed of seven islands. Some large, some small.

There was no dungeon on the biggest island, though. It was basically just

wilderness, ruled by monsters and magical beasts.

There were a lot of plant-themed monsters on that island, so people had to

take extra care when looking around the place. It seemed there were still some

people who ventured on to the main island regardless, and they sometimes

ended up getting hurt. But in the end, that wasn't my concern.

It seemed that the island had unusual herbs, nuts, and berries on it, so there

was the occasional guild quest to go and obtain them.

I invoked [Light Orb] as we neared the dungeon's entrance. Amaterasu was

the dungeon I'd entered originally, and it seemed there were roughly forty

adventurers in there right now. If I assumed a party was made up of four

people, that meant there were about ten parties down there.

"There is bound to be conflict with so many groups down there, is there not?"

"Well, it's pretty big down there. Even if they do come across one another,

they might just say hi and split off again. They might even trade for supplies. I'm

sure they won't get territorial about treasure and stuff just yet." Three LoneHorned Wolves jumped out and attacked us as we entered the dungeon. Before

Yae or I had a chance to react, Hilde leaped to the front of the line and took

them all down. She was definitely getting tougher.

"What should I do with these? Aren't these horns valuable?"

"Yeah, but just the horns. Their meat's too tough to eat, and their pelts are

too wiry."

"So we can just take the horn and leave the rest?"

"Yeah, just push them up against the sides of the walls so nobody trips on

them. I imagine they'll become meals for other magical beasts. If not that, then

they'll attract slimes when they start decomposing." Slimes lived in every kind

of dungeon, apparently. They attacked people every now and then, but for the

most part they were harmless scavengers. They ate and dissolved dungeon

garbage, basically.

Corpses and waste products were no exception to this rule, either. As a result,

most dungeons stayed fairly clean. Slimes be praised.

Even though slimes operated like living vacuum cleaners, it seemed they

avoided the contents of treasure chests. But they also tended to avoid metal in

general. If I recalled correctly, sludge slimes actually purified bodies of water

that they entered. So it was probably a case of different slimes having different

cleaning specialties.

There was a theory going around that slimes were actually man-made

creations from the ancient era. It was certainly possible. I had no idea about

where slimes originated from, after all. Probably a stupid magician, though. I

decided to look it up in the Library later on.

Hilde dragged the Lone-Horned Wolves off to the side and sliced their horns

off. The horns wouldn't be worth a lot, but the guild would be more than willing

to take them off our hands.

Afterward, Hilde deftly took down Giant Bats, Giant Rats, and plenty of Lone-

Horned Rabbits. There were certainly a lot of magical beasts in here, that was

for sure. Though we did see the occasional Goblin or Kobold peek its head out.

I decided not to display the map, or even reveal that I had one to the girls. We

weren't here to chart the dungeon, after all. Plus it was more fun doing a blind

run of the place... Though the girls ended up discovering the stairs to the

second floor much faster than I expected.

We descended the stairs and made it to another wide room again. There was

a left-hand path and a right-hand path. We decided to proceed towards the

right. We made it to another crossroads, and then another.

"That reminds me... We should invest in both a map and a compass. If you get

lost, you mightn't be able to get back out." Hilde had a point, most adventurers

certainly did do that. I, on the other hand, could afford to be lazy about matters

like this. I didn't have to worry about getting lost at all thanks to my [Gate]

spell.

We casually continued on, until we came to a big pair of double doors. We

entered through and found ourselves in a small-ish room. There was a treasure

chest in the corner, too. I wondered if this was a monster's secret stash or

something.

I was picturing the stereotypical game character invading someone's home

and opening all their furniture in search of treasure.

Hilde looked extremely excited. This was, after all, her first ever treasure

chest. I, on the other hand, just felt awkward.

The chest contained daggers. Lots and lots of daggers. Some rusted, some just

dagger handles. All trash. Just as I'd thought. Nothing valuable at all.

But I had no idea why it was exclusively daggers... Maybe the person or

creature that stashed them there was just a fanatic. Then again, certain animals

like crows and dogs did like to collect weird stuff.

"How disappointing..."

"There there, Hilde. Real treasures aren't so easily found."

"Hold that thought a moment, Touya-dono. Is this not a silver dagger?" I

looked where Yae was pointing and, sure enough, though it was dusty and at

the bottom of the chest... There was a dagger of pure silver. It was a simple

dagger, not very ornate, but it'd definitely be good enough to sell. Treasure was

treasure, after all.

"I don't think it'll sell for a lot, but how about it?"

"No... I'll keep this as a memento. A memory of the day I began adventuring

properly." Hilde slipped the blade into a pouch at her waist. Well, if she didn't

want to sell it, I wasn't going to stop her.

As Hilde smiled, so too did I.

◇ ◇ ◇

"There, that oughta do it."

"Wow... You're crazy... But I guess that's the norm by now, huh..." I'd just

finished renovating the Silver Moon, so I jumped down from the roof.

There were too many adventurers and too few rooms, so I expanded the first

building and constructed a second for good measure.

On top of that, the new building was officially recognized as a guild-affiliated

adventurer's inn. In other words, the second branch was partnered with the

guild, and built close to the portals so adventurers could easily stay there

between dungeon runs.

I'd made some tweaks to the main branch and increased the price of stay a

little bit, so it could be the main place for traders and general travelers. I hadn't

increased the price by too much, didn't want people calling us a rip-off. Given

what the place provided in terms of amenities, we were more than fairly priced.

"You only came to ask if a few renovations would be okay... I didn't expect

you to do all of this in just a few hours. I'm amazed..."

"Yeah... It's really something..." Micah, the proprietor, and Fleur, one of her

employees, were staring at the new and improved Silver Moon with wide,

awestruck eyes.

"Yep, easy does it. All that's left is deciding how many people to hire."

"Ah, in that case... I actually have a few application letters here. There are a

few people from back home in Reflet who expressed a desire to move here."

Friends from back in Reflet, huh... Sounds good to me. I opened up a [Gate] and

took Micah through to the sleepy town of Reflet.

We started speaking with the people Micah had mentioned, and it seemed

they were all more than happy to come and work in Brunhild.

Some of them even said they wanted to start working right away, so we sent

them off to pack their luggage and come back with us on the return trip. It felt a

little like stealing citizens, but hey, they wanted to work.

We had some free time after that, so Micah went to go speak to Dolan, her

father. I decided to take a little stroll, since I didn't want to interfere in fatherdaughter affairs.

I hadn't visited Reflet in a long time, so it was a little nostalgic. As I walked, I

thought a bit about Brunhild's future.

"I guess we need to restock on weapons, armor, and adventuring goods...

Olba's Brunhild store is probably selling out, too... But still, transporting stuff to

and from Brunhild takes a while... Carriages can only go so fast." Olba had an

artifact that allowed him to transport smaller goods faster than the other

merchants, but it still had its limits.

I'd given up on the idea originally... But maybe I should make a car after all?

No, if I'm gonna make anything it should be a train...

But then again... horse-drawn carriages are pretty fast, maybe if I could just

increase how much they can carry... Wait. Can't I just apply [Gravity] to make

the carriages lighter? Yeah, that's a great idea. I can make a multipurpose,

lightweight horse carriage. Olba would totally buy that, even if it was pricey.

Plus, if I enchanted it with [Storage] it'd be able to carry a lot more, too!

I wondered about possible vehicle variations I could make. It might be

possible to make a carriage with defensive enchantments for royals or nobles.

Mulling over the idea reminded me that my royal stables had no horses in

them. That was because we just used [Gate] to get around, so there was no

need.

All that aside, things in Brunhild were looking up. The dungeons were highly

successful. Nobody had died yet, but there were a number of injured people

coming through daily. Apparently after the first floor, the power of the

monsters and magical beasts spiked up considerably. If the adventurers

couldn't make the proper call, they'd end up getting pretty badly maimed.

From what I'd heard, Amaterasu had been explored up until the fourth floor.

Several parties had acquired some valuable treasures from secluded hoards on

that level, too. The rumors were getting around, so the number of fortuneseekers would surely increase again soon.

As I thought to myself, I looked to the left and found myself in front of Zanac's

store. That was nostalgic. It was the first store I'd seen upon finding myself in

the new world.

It looked a bit different now, though. For starters, it was almost twice its

original size. They were selling stuff like school uniforms and bathing suits now,

though, so they were probably making a lot of profit from their unusual and

exotic designs. I decided to take a look inside.

"Welcome! Welcome to Fashion King Zanac!" I entered the shop and was

greeted by a slightly older, smiling girl. ... I guess it's in her job description to

greet people like that...

This store also had a branch in Brunhild, so I knew full well how gaudy and

over-the-top a place it was.

I asked the counter clerk to call Zanac over, and before long the man himself

was there before me.

"Ohoho. Well, if it isn't His Highness himself. What brings you to Reflet on this

lovely day? A matter of urgency, perhaps?"

"We were just looking for more employees to work at the Silver Moon in

Brunhild. I ended up coming over with Micah to talk to some people about it.

Now I'm here, since I had some time to kill."

"Oho, I see... Does that mean you might like to place an order for employee

uniforms?" Oh, good point. That totally slipped my mind. Zanac sure is sharp,

though. He has the trader's opportunistic eye.

I couldn't decide at the time since I didn't know the sizes of the new workers,

so I told Zanac I'd put the order in with the Brunhild branch of his store later on.

"Oh, right. I had a small matter I thought I might ask you about, Your

Highness. A noble in Roadmare has put in an order for a dress with an unusual,

unique design. If it's no bother to you, I was wondering if you might have any...

creative input on dresses that look like no other."

"A unique dress design, huh... Hmm. Can I have some blank paper?" As the

clerk ran off to get me some paper, I whipped out my smartphone and started

browsing for fancy-looking dresses. I picked out about twenty interestinglooking designs. Then I used [Drawing] to print off the designs and handed

them over to Zanac.

"Goodness... I've never seen anything quite like this. I'm sure the customer

will be satisfied with one of these, thank you!"

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure none of the royal families have any dresses like these.

So if it's unique they're after, then they won't get much better." If the noble

wanted something one-of-a-kind, they were lucky their order came in at just

the right time for me to help.

As I printed out a few designs for matching gloves and shoes, a man suddenly

burst through the front door with an excessive amount of presence and

strength.

It was Barral, the owner of the Eight Bears weapon shop. That was a surprise.

But, before I could even react to the bear of a man's dramatic entrance...

"Z-Zanac! There's a Dragon! A Dragon is attacking Reflet, you need to get out

of here!"

"What?!" A Dragon?! I stormed out the door and looked up, only to see a

green-scaled creature circling overhead.

It had deep red eyes, rugged and rough skin, and spines protruding from its

tail. It was about the same size as the Black Dragon I faced back in Mismede.

The only difference was that this Green Dragon had two back legs, and wings

fused to the two limbs at the front. Unlike the Black Dragon that I'd fought

before, which had four legs and a separate set of wings, this one was visually

distinct. It was a Wyvern!

"Groaaargh!" The town descended into panic as the beast let out a terrible

roar. It craned its neck and began hurling globs of flame from its mouth.

"Gh...!" I used [Fly] to get airborne and, deftly weaving between the flaming

projectiles, moved up towards the creature. Then, I held my right arm out.

"[Absorb]." The balls of flame dissipated into nothing, flowing into my body

as raw magical energy. [Absorb] was another of my recent Null magic

acquisitions. It turned magical effects into magical energy, and granted it to

whoever cast the absorption spell. A Dragon's breath was simply the conversion

of magical energy to flames, so naturally it was affected too.

But that was still extremely close. Had any of those blasts hit the town, it

would've been a complete catastrophe.

"GRAUUUUUURGH!!" The Wyvern's eyes locked on to me, regarding me with

eyes that said "Keep out of my way, pest." Hey, don't you look at me like that!

You're the troublemaker here!

I accelerated towards the Wyvern and gave it a stern kick in the gut. I also

applied a certain magical effect alongside the contact.

"[Gravity]." The creature suddenly jerked downwards due to the shift in its

own weight, crashing down into the main street. Luckily for me, the place was

completely evacuated, and now the beast had no way to escape.

I looked down on the Wyvern with a sneer. It was desperately struggling to fly

away, but its body was far too heavy. I invoked [Gravity] on myself to massively

increase my own weight and, from a height of several dozen feet, plummeted

right down on the pathetic creature. I heard a distinct crunching sound as the

creature's backbone splintered and snapped. It was dead.

"Man... What a pain in the ass." Cheers erupted from all sides as I surveyed

the twitching draconic corpse. Gradually, once all sense of danger had passed,

the townsfolk came and gathered around me.

"Goodness gracious me... Incredible... You killed a Dragon just like that, an

airborne one at that... Thank goodness you were visiting today, Your

Highness..." Zanac quietly muttered as he eyed the dead Wyvern up and down.

Barral just stared in my direction, lost for words. Micah and Dolan ran over from

out of the crowd.

"This... Good lord, you've gone and done something insane again. I'm glad the

town's okay, but... What are you even gonna do with this?"

"I don't really need it. You can have the meat, Dolan. From what I've heard,

Dragon flesh is supposed to be really tasty. Zanac, you can have its hide. If you

tan it you should be able to make good jackets and so on. Barral, you can have

the bones. They'll make good weapon crafting materials." Everyone nearby

gasped in shock at my words, but it was Micah who actually spoke up.

"W-W-Wait a second! You know Dragon materials are top-tier, right?! Are you

sure you're fine just giving it away like that?"

"Yeah, like I said, I don't need them. It should help everyone out a bit. I'd be

happy if you all took it. You guys were kind to me when I first showed up, after

all." I'd only spent a little bit in Reflet, but they were good people. I definitely

owed them a debt of gratitude. So if they accepted something like this, it'd help

me feel like I was giving back a little.

"Ah, be mindful when you strip the tail, alright? Those barbs look poisonous."

"Oh? Got it. Thanks." After my warning, Dolan began carefully stripping the

beast's tail of barbs.

Still... Why was there a Wyvern here? If it was hungry, there's a bunch of LoneHorned Wolves in the southern forest... It kinda feels like it was directly

targeting this town.

I'd heard from Relisha that there were eyewitness reports of more Dragon

attacks in recent weeks.

Weak Dragons had appeared in Yulong, Sandora, and Roadmare. Wyverns

were a Dragon subspecies, but still classed as weak Dragons. I wondered why

they were attacking people, though. There surely had to be more to this than

met the eye.

"Hm. What's this..." Dolan raised a brow as he peeled back some scales. He

had removed the head, but stopped when he noticed something unusual

beneath the skin.

I looked over at what Dolan was fussing about, and found something driven

deep into the Dragon's skull.

I pulled it out. It was some kind of pointed object, thirty centimeters in length.

It vaguely resembled a skewer, it was fairly thick. From the looks of things, it

had dug through the Dragon's skull and penetrated its brain. I could feel a very

faint, but very real pulse of magical power running through the strange device.

"...Don't tell me the Dragon was being controlled with this thing." I looked at

the strange stake, frowning a little. The idea occurred to me that this might've

been another item that fell out of the Storehouse. The thought troubled me for

a while, but I put the object in [Storage]. I decided I'd ask Cesca and the others

if they recognized it later on. If it was from the Storehouse, they'd surely know

about it.

But still, the presence of that thing was troubling in itself. If the Dragon was

being manipulated by that artifact, then there was some kind of perpetrator out

there. A puppet master potentially pulling the strings of a whole species.

I was worried. Mostly because I felt it in my bones. A dark feeling. A feeling

that something, somewhere, was about to endanger a lot of people. Much to

my regret, I knew then and there that my feelings weren't wrong. Something

terrible was going to happen. I'd have bet my life on it.