Volume 4 Chapter 2.1

Volume 4 Chapter 2.1

Two weeks after Crest Cave became a dungeon, the investigation was going through difficulties.

「Poison gas region? This is the third place we’ve seen.」

「So now all the paths going in have been crushed.」

Tatsuya made a sour face as he grumbled at Makoto’s report as she marked spots on the dungeon map. This was your typical eruption in the mines, coal mines, etc. Unlike normal mines, the isolated dimension dungeon version had poison that you couldn’t drive out. In other words, you needed a gas mask or something or else you couldn’t go forward.

「What’s our victim report look like？」

「Three dead from the gas trap.」

「Ah……」

Tatsuya glared at the map, frowning at this unpleasant report. Twelve with poison gas, ten with pitfalls, 15 with cave-ins, and adding those up to the total number of people dying practically every day, this dungeon had already taken over fifty lives.

This was a new, or newly discovered dungeon, so death was unavoidable. Still, fifty people in such a short amount of time was no laughing matter. If anyone was to use these mines later on, such a number of casualties could not simply be dismissed as “being sacrificed for a good cause”.

「What did Hiro say？」

「That this amount of poison gas can be stifled with environmental enchantments via spirit cloth.」

「So we may actually be able to go further in.」

「Apparently so.」

Tatsuya felt anxious with this basically expected answer. There wasn’t actually an issue with charging forward into the gas region. They would stand out, but that didn’t faze them.

The real issue was more that Tatsuya felt they were being set up.

「Hey Makoto.」

「What？」

「You think it’s ok？」

「……I really can’t say.」

Makoto frowned, reserving her answer at Tatsuya’s roundabout question. Of course she knew what he was getting at.

「We were able to get through the dungeons in Ortem village and beat that tower golem, so I think it’s mostly fine. But I have the same bad feeling you do.」

「That’s what I thought……」

Now that Makoto’s specialty was an orichalcum-made katana and she had strengthened her body with the highest self-amplification extra skill, only something major would stop her. This was also true for the weaknesses that both Makoto and Mio had back in Ortem’s dungeon were they couldn’t use light-based elemental attacks. Both girls had practically conquered these issues thanks to daily practice and the blessings of Igreos, so now the only problem was how to deal with traps. Normally thinking about it, there wouldn’t be much of a problem delving into proliferating dungeons, but Makoto couldn’t just shake off this bad feeling.

「Let’s discuss what to do after Hiroshi and the others get back.」

「Agreed. Hiro might begin finding a way to help the others break through the poison gas areas.」

It was no use just idly chit-chatting. The two elders reached that conclusion and began talking about strategy and anything feasible while they waited for the other three to return.

「Finished analyzin’ the poison gas, mate.」

「……That was quick.」

「Well, I pretty much knew from the start.」

「I guess we shouldn’t be surprised, mister workshop master.」

The meeting between the Adventurer’s Association and the mining team. Hiroshi conveyed the results of the poison gas analysis, while all the organization leaders from Crest Cave nodded, impressed. Azuma workshop’s reputation had already sprung up in Forre, hence why they had entrusted Hiroshi with the job, so they expressed their relief when he had delivered.

Needless to say, the Crest Cave division leaders of the Forre Adventurers’ Association were humans. Leaving the job to dwarves would certainly not come to anything good. This wasn’t racial discrimination, but came from actual results. The dwarves in question were not simply fine with that; they pushed the job on other races, so this would never become problematic.

「So you have a way to deal with it？」

「That ain’t gonna be a problem. Alchemists can make novice-class expendable amplification items, so once ya learn the trick ya can easily make the tools. But it ain’t without its problems.」

「Such as？」

「The easiest tools to make are throwaway expendables, so ya can’t change the time limit. When ya use it ya create a power field round yer eyes, nose, ‘n mouth, so ya can’t avoid havin’ difficulty seein’, breathin’, which is the second problem.」

The two leaders fell silent at his explanation.

「We can also make gas masks but the equipment solidifies and the vision impairment is way worse than the expendable version.」

「Anything we can use to tolerate poison gas？」

「Unfortunately we can’t make nothin’ with the herbs we got here. Even if we were, it’d only have a temporary effect ‘n won’t block all the poison, so it ain’t really viable.」

「……Is that so……」

So all they could do was rely on making gas masks or using expendables. There wasn’t a problem with that, but they couldn’t just have both methods with holes in them, and gas masks would put a huge restriction on using potions. It would be quite troublesome for the items to have no effect without bringing along antidotes.

Still, there was a possibility that the expendables would lose their value depending on how long you had them out, and also, if the effects wore off in the poison region due to some unforeseen trouble, that would be that. Besides, if there were a bunch of traps that nullified the effects of these items, this was just too risky.

「……There really is no other way？」

「The resistance enchantments o our equipment’s the best, but makin’ anythin’ Class Five’s purty hard y’know？」

「Well, that is true.」

The Adventurers’ Association Division Leader grimaced at how even more impossible that method was. Were they able to do that or had a number of adventurers there with that sort of equipment, they wouldn’t have struggled with poison gas in the first place.

「You cannot give it to us？」

「There ain’t much more catalyst left, only for one or two people.」

「……Then there is no point……」

The two elders made sour faces at Hiroshi’s proposed numbers. Also, there was a clear reason for the catalyst hardly remaining. It was because it had already been used on new clothing/equipment. Not only did multiple resistance enchantments make the effect slightly greater, you could also maintain the minimum amount of resistance even if the equipment were to break, so Hiroshi made sure to always attach this enchantment to new clothing/armor as a lifeline.

「……It seems that we must rely on that expendable thing. How much time per usage?」

「Depends on the quality, but the standard items are about half a day for full effect. Ya won’t know till ya experiment, though.」

「Experiment, eh……」

True, an experiment probably was necessary. But who were they going to use for the experiment? This poison was the kind that makes you comatose within just thirty seconds and then kills you within five minutes tops. Forcing a regular human to undergo this was nothing short of inhumane. On the other hand, they didn’t have too many death row prisoners. While many were sentenced to death by execution, the executions tended to proceed immediately after examination, so it was very rare to find sentenced criminals who were still alive.

「Well, we do not seem to have other options, so I suppose we shall think about this experiment.」

「Agreed.」

With no other conclusions, the two elders accepted Hiroshi’s offer of expendables and began developing a strategy. Once they had come to a consensus on the problem before them, the elders sighed and then began discussing the biggest problem.

「So, Adventurer Association. Will the isolated mine return to normal？」

「We shall have to take down the boss first. Honestly, from the perspective of public order, we cannot allow a dungeon to appear in an area that links to towns……」

「Hm. If a dungeon were not in the middle of the city, we could profit quite a bit off it.」

「I know. No matter how much revenue we gain from the increase in adventurer work, not being able to use Crest Cave as a mine is a very large minus for both Forre and this town.」

Two weeks after the mine Crest Cave became a dungeon. Thanks to the adventurers assembling from every area, the town was very lively. Money they dropped, profit on sales from dungeon items, and the money the merchants dropped in pursuit of the adventurers. All of these elements proved without a doubt that Crest Cave as of now had an unprecedented boom.

But that was only because they had about three months’ worth of iron ore. Once the storage depleted, without being able to use the mine, the current boom might not hold up for long.