Chapter 91 - Thread Dungeon Core and Its Master
For a month, I had been idly playing games while watching the dungeon expeditions unfold.
It was the same as always. Nothing ever really changed.
In the No-Hunger Dungeon, adventurers were constantly running wild in drunken excitement, all chasing after the alcohol.
Meanwhile, the Hot Spring Dungeon had become crowded with high-ranking people from various countries and their escorting attendants, all seeking the benefits of its waters.
In that same Hot Spring Dungeon, the female knights of Sepans were always bustling about—hauling water, carrying soap, and even soaking some mysterious parts in the Enhancement Spring, all while being made to train their bodies.
By now, either the second unit had grown considerably stronger, or they had simply gotten used to the enemies on the 18th floor, because they no longer struggled against the red bear at all.
It wasn’t just knights either, female adventurers were diligently carrying water from the lower levels of the Hot Spring Dungeon and selling it to merchants at the entrance.
If hot spring water could be sold at high prices, then it was practically the same as having treasure constantly springing forth.
Apparently, the purchase price wasn’t that low either.
Though, there had been a time when the stable supply of hot spring water caused prices to plummet.
But then adventurers started turning their backs on it, saying they’d rather go collect the alcohol from the No-Hunger Dungeon instead.
As a result, the amount of water being transported dropped sharply, the supply dwindled, and things became problematic.
In the end, the price of hot spring water rose back to its original level, settling into a steady and reliable source of income.
I had pieced together those circumstances from information I could glean by observing the people who kept going into the trap spring on the fifth floor.
“Hey, Peta-chan, when do you think the 17th floor of the No-Hunger Dungeon will be ready?”
I asked while lying down, playing a game, and munching on the sandwich Peta-chan had made for me.
“It should be ready by tomorrow.
Ufufufufu... It’s amazing how quickly we’ve been able to expand, all thanks to the number of people coming in...
At this rate, reaching twenty floors—my dream of twenty floors—will take no time at all.”
“Tomorrow, huh... Then I guess I’ll wait and see how things go after that.”
“For what?”
“Well, nothing’s really changing, so I was thinking of cutting off my consciousness for a while.”
Honestly, I was getting bored of games.
As a dungeon master, my body didn’t get sleepy or physically tired, which meant I could keep playing endlessly without fatigue.
But there were no new games to pull out.
So what happens when you keep playing the same familiar games nonstop, day after day without sleep?
That’s right, you get bored.
And I was bored.
“Man, I’m bored... Maybe Bugu-kun will drop by. Or Tanya-san would be fine too. She’s probably learned how to eat by now.”
“Dungeon core visits aren’t exactly something you do just to kill time, you know... Huh? ̸̔̄͝...”
“Oh, is that Bugu-kun?”
Whenever Peta-chan started speaking in incomprehensible sounds, it usually meant she was communicating telepathically with another dungeon core.
“No, it’s the Thread Dungeon Core. Its master says they have business with you.”
“Thread? Why me? I don’t recall—oh. The towel, maybe...”
I had nothing but a hunch.
“So, what will you do, Master?”
“Sure, let them in.
Perfect timing. Something to kill the boredom. I’ll welcome them.”
“Weapon, iron, and now thread...
It’s like all the top-tier massive dungeons are gathering here.
Ufufu, I’ll be joining the ranks of these supermassive dungeons soon enough myself.”
Grinning mischievously, Peta-chan muttered what sounded like a summoning spell, and the space around us warped as two human figures appeared.
...Huh? Human...figures?
“To imitate my master summoning ritual and build a dungeon of this scale so quickly...
The Food Core of Sepans must have drawn an exceptionally skilled master, nya.”
...Standing before me was a completely naked creature adorned with Egyptian-style jewelry, a necklace and bracelets on its limbs.
The problem was that this “naked” figure was a jet-black, human-sized cat.
If I had to describe it in one line, it looked like Bastet, but not anthropomorphized.
What the hell?
I thought dungeon cores only took human forms.
Beside it stood another figure. A woman dressed like a merchant, with a turban-like cloth wrapped around her head.
She had the kind of appearance that made you feel like, if you bought something from her, she’d grin and say, “Heh, much obliged!”
She was probably the master of the Thread Dungeon.
From what I had heard before, she seemed like the type who would ride camels across deserts during the Silk Road era, trading fabrics.
“Beg pardon fer poppin' in outta the blue. I just couldn't keep me seat. Had to come see ya 'bout a right proper bargain. Now then, this 'ere cloth... it come from yer dungeon, didn't it??”
With that, the woman spread out a bath towel—the kind you’d expect to find in a hotel’s public bath—and spoke in an absurdly shady dialect.
...Was this translation quirk because my first impression of her was “a merchant who’d say ‘Much obliged!’ with a grin”?
There was no way people in ancient times actually talked like this.
And the towel she unfolded was, without a doubt, one of the towels placed on the 18th floor of the Hot Spring Dungeon.
Has something like that already made its way to the Thread Dungeon? Wasn’t that way too fast?
I couldn’t imagine enough towels had been taken out and spread around for adventurers diving into the Thread Dungeon to even get their hands on them.
And even if they had, for the Thread Dungeon to absorb one, the adventurer carrying it would have had to die inside the dungeon.
Unless they had willingly offered the towel to the dungeon themselves.
Huhhh?
...As I thought that far, I arrived at a certain conclusion.
“...Could it be that a knight from the Kingdom of Sepans deliberately came to your dungeon to offer up a towel?”
“...You weren’t the one who sent them, nya? A group of knights from Sepans came, blatantly showing off this unfamiliar cloth, and in the end, they left it deep within the dungeon.”
That was what the fully naked—yet somehow furry-safe—black cat woman core told me.
Knights of Sepans, flaunting the cloth for all to see, then deliberately leaving it behind to be absorbed by the Thread Dungeon.
There was no doubt about it. This had to be Auf’s doing.
From the imitation gemstones produced by the Gem Dungeon and the No-Hunger Dungeon, that girl had already figured out that we were trading between dungeons.
She had even mentioned it in a letter she sent.
If it was her, she had probably also picked up on the signs of trade from the changes in drops from the Weapon and Iron Dungeons.
In other words, by pushing me into trading with the Thread Dungeon as well, she was aiming to further improve the quality of dungeon drops.
As a form of advertisement, she had provided towels—something related to cloth—to the Thread Dungeon to spark their interest.
“So, this 'ere cloth's called a 'towel,' is it, eh?
Incredible... this absorbency, this feel. Ordinary cotton thread gettin' this lush just from how it's woven together, eh?
Kid, I reckon you musta come from a country with some right fancy techniques, eh?”
The Thread Dungeon’s master spoke while examining the towel with great interest.
At a glance, she seemed calm and composed, but her eyes were filled with that unmistakable merchant’s greed, practically shouting, ‘This will sell, this will definitely sell!’
It was a look I had seen many times back in Japan, on people who had just found a product they knew would be a hit.
“Is your goal to obtain my permission so that this towel can be dropped in your Thread Dungeon? If so, what are you offering in return?”
“Oh! You’re quick on the uptake. That do make things a sight easier. From our side, we'll be givin' ya this 'ere towel, remade with thread from the Thread Dungeon.
If you, bein' the master, uses it fer a bit, yer dungeon should eventually be able ter churn out towels woven with Thread Dungeon-quality thread an' all?”
With that, the Thread Dungeon master handed me a towel with a strange, lustrous sheen.
The texture was incredible; unbelievably light, yet wrapping around like a fluffy down comforter with a rich softness, and smooth like high-end silk... or the cover of a premium body pillow.
Even in modern Japan, not even the finest Imabari towel factories could produce something like this.
“This ‘ere ‘towel’ cloth's meant fer wipin' yerself dry after a bath, innit? So it’s got great absorbency. Go on, give it a try.”
I summoned a basin and some hot spring water from the dungeon, washed my hands, and dried them with the towel.
In an instant, the moisture was gone, and the towel itself dried just as quickly, regaining its soft texture almost immediately.
So this was what a towel made with Thread Dungeon thread was like... It truly was a magical level of quality that even modern science could never reproduce.
This was bad. I wanted to wrap myself in this towel after a bath and dry off completely.
I wanted it. I really wanted it!
It felt so good I might actually lose myself in it.
“Alright! Let’s make the deal!”
“Oh! Much obliged! I fancy a young lad who can make snap business decisions.”
“As you know, I’m the master of a Hot Spring Dungeon. That means I can offer many other cloth-related products tied to hot springs as well.”
“That so? I'm countin' on ya then.”
The Thread Dungeon master broke into an open, delighted smile, her face brimming with curiosity and anticipation.
“For example, this here is a nylon towel. It’s a product designed specifically for scrubbing the body with soap to remove dirt and grime.
And this one is a bathrobe. A robe made entirely out of towel fabric. Wearing it after a bath is incredibly comfortable.”
“Oh? I get the towel clothing, but... what's wi' th' thread on this 'un, eh?”
The material of the nylon towel must have been completely unfamiliar to her.
With a deeply intrigued expression, the Thread Dungeon master carefully examined its texture.
Meanwhile, the black cat core sat off in a corner in a loafed position, watching with a bored look as it let out a yawn.
Peta-chan, equally bored, was casually chatting with the black cat core about nothing in particular.
It seemed that none of the cores were particularly interested in the trade their masters were conducting.
“This is the soap produced in my dungeon. You rub this onto the towel, like so.”
As she inspected the soap and nylon towel, the Thread Dungeon master’s expression shifted into one of admiration for their quality. And she began to look like she wanted to try them out herself.
That was my cue.
“And this here is the hot spring our dungeon prides itself on. I’ve prepared water from our most popular source—the bath from the 11th floor.
Now then... please, by all means, give it a try.”
Keeping my expression as gentlemanly as possible—careful not to let any ulterior motives show—I naturally created a hot spring within the master room and guided things toward a demonstration.
In the first place, unless she actually used it and experienced it firsthand, she wouldn’t be able to reproduce the nylon towel in her own master room.
That made this suggestion perfectly reasonable.
There was absolutely nothing indecent about it.
Right?
Thinking that, I flashed a polite smile and glanced at the Thread Dungeon master’s face.
She was looking at me like I was absolute garbage.
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