Chapter 80 - The Fruits of Training
The First Unit of the Kingdom of Sepans’ Order of Knights—
It was, without question, the strongest knight corps in the entire kingdom.
There was also a First Unit made up of male knights, and truth be told, they enjoyed slightly better treatment than the female First Unit led by Captain Touji.
The reason for that was simple: the men could venture deeper into the dungeons.
The main factor behind this was that, while Captain Touji herself was easily on par with the male unit in terms of raw strength, it was unrealistic to expect her subordinates to all reach the same level.
That very First Unit had just returned to the Kingdom of Sepans for the first time in years, after a long mission in the Iron Dungeon.
“We didn’t just bring back iron this time. I hear the kingdom even spent an outrageous budget buying up more from other sources.
...Has something suspicious been stirring around these parts?”
That question came from Hitou, captain of the male First Unit, addressed directly to Her Majesty Queen Yuzha.
“Ah, no, nothing that smells of war.
While you lot were off delving in the Iron Dungeon, our own dungeons began growing rapidly. We’re now planning to build fortifications around it and turn it into a defensive stronghold.
Honestly, throwing a mountain of money at defending a dungeon that rakes in resources—every country does it. The neighbors won’t have much to complain about.
...Depending on how things develop, we might even relocate the royal castle—either near the No-Hunger Dungeon or the Hot Spring Dungeon.
Keep that to yourself for now, will you? No telling how the nobles who own land in the current castle town would react.”
“You truly expect the dungeon to grow that much?”
“Oh yes, the No-Hunger Dungeon we have now is a completely different beast from the unimpressive one it used to be.
Who could possibly conquer a castle that houses a dungeon where endless supplies of delicious food can be pulled out on demand?”
Her Majesty chuckled to herself, clearly pleased.
Indeed, when laying siege to a fortress, cutting off supplies had always been the standard strategy. Starvation broke even the strongest of defenses.
Take the Kingdom of Claps, for example. Their Iron Dungeon defense was on a whole different level.
Back when the ambitious Kingdom of Marponware posed a threat, Claps took the insane step of surrounding their unassailable royal palace with even more unassailable forts. It was borderline paranoia.
Still, no matter how powerful a defensive network, once the supply lines for food and water were severed, collapse from within was inevitable.
But now—imagine a fortress immune to starvation tactics.
Just picturing it made it seem like a dream. Moving the royal castle for something like that? Entirely worth it.
“Well, as long as we make it look strong enough to kill any appetite for invasion, that's good enough. If we can avoid conflict, all the better.
But the real reason I summoned you back is for the treatment of your injured bodies. You’ve made preparations, I hope?”
“It’s been years since we’ve set foot in our homeland. If possible, I’d like to give my subordinates a bit of time to unwind.”
“I’ll allow you to enjoy yourselves for tonight. We’ve already made arrangements. But you depart the next day. Reminiscing about home can wait until after your recovery.”
“Understood.”
♨♨♨♨♨
The next day, the First Unit headed into the No-Hunger Dungeon.
Their last memory of the place dated back to the time before the Hot Spring Dungeon had even existed.
They remembered the first eight floors quite clearly. But the lower levels had expanded drastically since then, and the food and plants now found there were unlike anything they’d seen.
And every single food item they encountered was insanely delicious.
It wasn’t just the contrast with the tasteless meals they had suffered through in the depths of the Iron Dungeon.
No, the ingredients harvested here were genuinely exceptional.
They descended through the dungeon, eventually reaching the designated ninth floor.
There, they found a bizarre building mounted on wheels—along with a group of unfamiliar female knights gathered around it.
“Well, well! Captain Hitou! Long time no see.”
A muscular and strikingly handsome woman knight called out to him casually.
Who...?
Judging by her armor and equipment, she appeared to be a captain as well... but Hitou had no memory of any female knight captain like her.
“Forgive me, but who are you? I don’t exactly keep up with the latest personnel changes.”
“Ah... right. Of course, you wouldn’t recognize me like this...
I’m Touji. And see behind me? That’s Vice Captain Yunev.”
The moment she said that, every member of the male First Unit collectively wore the same dumbfounded expression—
"What the hell is she talking about???"
“So this is what the hot springs in that dungeon can do...
It’s not just about beauty treatments anymore. That stuff’s practically magic.
If you want, you lot could all turn into fresh-faced heartthrobs too, you know?”
“...Yeah... I think I’ll pass.”
He recalled just how unnaturally beautiful Queen Yuzha had looked.
He’d already suspected that the hot springs in the dungeon held some kind of extreme beautifying effect.
But the queen had always been beautiful.
The way her skin now radiated youth and her features seemed impossibly refined had certainly surprised him—but it was still within the realm of what one might grudgingly call “natural.”
What wasn’t natural, however, was seeing Captain Touji and her crew of gorilla-like muscle women transformed into dazzling, graceful beauties. That defied every law of common sense.
“Ohhh... so all the women in the kingdom suddenly looking drop-dead gorgeous wasn’t just some hallucination...”
“When we first came back above ground, I thought I was just losing my mind from being cooped up too long down there.”
“Last night’s welcoming party... I thought the queen had splurged and summoned a lineup of goddesses just to welcome us back. Turns out everyone had just become stunningly beautiful, huh...?”
“Man, it was the best. What an incredible dungeon we’ve got now. Last night, I got so worked up I ended up with ten of them in my bed at once—”
The First Unit had started reminiscing about the "welcome" they’d received the night before, their stories growing increasingly crude—until Captain Touji loudly cut them off.
“Hey! If you’re going to wallow in filth, do it with your fellow beasts, not in front of me.
Now hurry up and get in the baths. They’re all ready inside that building.”
“Yeah, yeah, we’ll get in—but seriously, why’d you go through the trouble of hauling the water all the way here?
Wouldn’t it be easier to just bring us to the Hot Spring Dungeon itself?”
“Because that place is already packed with female foreign knights, nobles—even royalty—coming in droves to soak whenever they please.
No way we’re letting a bunch of beasts like you in there. That’d blow up into an international incident.”
“Oh... so they’ve already opened it to other countries’ nobles. Yeah, forget it then.”
Captain Hitou let out a long sigh. He’d just been insulted pretty badly—but he couldn’t even argue. She wasn’t wrong.
Even now, after last night’s "humanizing" welcome, a few of the First Unit still barely qualified as civilized. Normally, these men were in such an extreme state from being confined in the dungeon that "beast" was not far from the truth.
At their worst, some had even captured monkey-like monsters with plump behinds, shaved their fur, tied them up, slapped wigs on their heads... and used them.
“This time, we’ve brought three types of baths. One restores your youth, another corrects physical distortions and misalignments. And the last one? It fixes your teeth.
You just need to gargle the last one, but the other two—you can’t all fit in at once. Take turns.”
Without needing any orders, the First Unit began rotating in perfect synchronization.
They had spent years functioning as a combat unit in the depths of a dungeon. Something as simple as taking turns? Not a single hitch.
“So, Hitou...
How far did you manage to get in the Iron Dungeon?”
“We made it to the 26th floor—the very bottom. Though honestly, just reaching it doesn’t mean much.
The furthest we could reliably explore while still collecting drops was the 24th floor. That was our real limit.
The 25th floor? We couldn’t sustain long-term expeditions there. Supplies wouldn’t last. But more than that, our weapons couldn’t keep up.
If you want to go deeper than that, you’d need two things: a dedicated supply unit that can transport provisions all the way to the 25th floor...
...and a stockpile of absurdly powerful weapons—like those ‘Red Swords’ found in the Weapon Dungeon.”
“I see, I see. Good. While you’re waiting for your turn in the baths, keep talking about that kind of thing.”
“Hmm?”
She hadn’t said it outright, but Captain Touji was speaking under the assumption that the dungeon itself was listening.
After all, this was Captain Hitou—the strongest knight in the Sepans Kingdom. Surely, to the will of the dungeon, a conversation like this was worth tuning in for.
It was highly likely it was watching.
And if that will was listening in, and understood that it was impossible to advance below the 24th floor without powerful weapons...
Then maybe the Hot Spring Dungeon would prepare a solution on its own.
“One more thing.
Once your bodies are all patched up, how about a sparring match?
We’ve kept up our training, sure, but since Her Majesty put us in charge of the kingdom’s defense, we haven’t been able to dive into other dungeons anymore.
It’s hard to get a real sense of how much stronger we’ve become.”
Her face practically lit up with anticipation—clearly itching for a fight.
And she wasn’t the only one. For some reason, the rest of the female First Unit around her were also brimming with barely restrained energy, like wolves eager to pounce.
Captain Hitou frowned slightly. Something felt… off.
Captain Touji had always been a bit of a battle maniac. That much was expected.
But her subordinates? They hadn’t been the type to gleefully throw themselves against the male First Unit—a group they knew they couldn’t possibly beat.
“Whoooaaah!!! This bath is amazing, Captain Hitou!” One of the male knights came bursting out of the hot spring, shouting in joy. “All the kinks and twists in my body—it’s like they’ve all been reset! This thing really works?!”
“Well, I’m glad to hear it.
In that case, how about you use those freshly restored bodies to give some of my girls a little training? I’m sure they’d appreciate it.”
“Oh-ho? You sure about that, Captain Touji?” One of the men grinned, his face twisting into something sleazy. “What if your girls end up getting hurt? Heh heh...”
Most of the male First Unit might have been called knights in name, but in reality, many had clawed their way up from the lower levels of the No-Hunger Dungeon. They had no formal education, no refinement—just raw power. They rose through violence alone.
Even now, their lives were spent fighting in the depths of a dungeon.
They were more akin to barbarian raiders or pirates—held in check only because they respected Captain Hitou as their undisputed leader.
Normally, none of them would’ve bothered wasting energy sparring with so-called “gorilla women.”
But now... the female knights were still muscular—but they were beautiful. A training match or two? That sounded like a golden opportunity.
The man grinned, imagining “accidental” wardrobe malfunctions and “harmless” grapples.
He accepted a wooden sword and stepped up to face one of Captain Touji’s subordinates.
The match began. And the grin was immediately wiped from his face.
‘What the hell—? Is she my equal? No.. I am losing?’
He tried to refocus and regain the upper hand, but the damage was done. That brief hesitation had tilted the fight. And just like that, she overpowered him and sent him crashing to the ground.
The fallen knight lay there in stunned disbelief.
But the female knight who had beaten him... didn’t look pleased at all. She seemed disappointed that the match had been so close.
And Captain Touji—her expression was just as unsatisfied.
“Hmmm… I guess if he hadn’t let his guard down at the start, it would’ve been an even match, huh?
We trained that hard... and still only managed to come up even with you lot?
Men’s bodies really are naturally suited for combat. Sheesh.
Wouldn’t it be great if the Hot Spring Dungeon gave us some kind of gender-swapping bath?”
“Please don’t say that, Captain! If that actually happens, we’ll be in trouble!”
“Yeah, and if you go dipping into that, we’ll all get banned from the dungeon!”
“Not to mention, Captain, you already get mistaken for a guy and scare people into screaming—”
"Ah, I see... yeah, that would be a problem... Wait—! That last part was totally uncalled for, damn it!!"
The male knights watched the exchange in dumbfounded silence.
From the way Captain Touji and her unit reacted, they clearly didn’t see this match as any kind of monumental achievement.
In fact, they looked mildly annoyed that they hadn’t dominated the fight.
What the hell had happened to them in such a short time?
Up until now, the hot springs had been considered little more than a luxurious bath with some beauty and healing effects.
But after this single encounter, Captain Hitou and his men had no choice but to reevaluate everything they thought they knew.
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