Chapter 101 - First Meeting
"I discovered many things about the principles behind the Dungeon's absorption of matter through my efforts to get myself absorbed.
Although I ultimately failed to get the Dungeon to absorb me, I was able to make numerous discoveries."
Auf was talking with an older man she had invited to the ducal mansion, a fellow dungeon researcher with whom she had corresponded by letter.
Originally, the man had come to investigate a new business venture said to have originated in the Hot Spring Dungeon: mobile residences that would not be absorbed by the Dungeon.
However, after hearing that the various theories behind the technology had supposedly been developed by Auf, a daughter from a ducal family...
"Don't give me that nonsense! Those theories were developed by my longtime pen pal, young Mushiburo!" he had shouted as he stormed into the ducal mansion.
Mushiburo was the name Auf had used while pretending to be a commoner and corresponding with researchers from various places.
From his perspective, Auf must have seemed like a wicked noblewoman who had stolen the research results of an amateur researcher—a commoner boy—right out from under his nose.
As she watched the man being restrained at the entrance, furiously hurling insults at her...
Their first meeting had ended up with Auf awkwardly admitting, "Um, I'm sorry... I'm actually Mushiburo."
Once the misunderstanding was cleared up, the two settled down to a perfectly ordinary, lively discussion of dungeon theory.
The servants watching Auf cheerfully converse with this dangerous older man—who had stormed into the ducal mansion with a knife just moments earlier, viciously cursing her—were absolutely terrified.
Still, when Auf herself told them, "He was only angry because he wanted to defend my honor," they had little choice but to keep quiet.
"So the theory that an object wouldn't be absorbed as long as it moved a distance of twelve meters and twenty-three centimeters was incorrect?"
"The theory itself isn't wrong, but it's merely the bare minimum requirement.
I lay completely motionless for two days, hoping the Dungeon would absorb me. Yet all that was absorbed were my shoes and a few edges of my clothing.
Simply by being alive, blood continues to circulate through the body.
As for clothing, the areas around the chest and waist are probably meeting the conditions that prevent absorption due to the up-and-down movement of the chest during breathing, as well as the movement of moisture caused by bodily functions."
By the movement of moisture caused by bodily functions, he essentially meant that if he wet himself while lying motionless for two days, the moisture spreading through the fabric of his clothes would be interpreted as movement.
"Hmm? In that case, if we cover an object with cloth and occasionally pour water over it, would that alone be enough to prevent the Dungeon from absorbing it?"
Even after hearing such a story, Auf didn't give a moment's thought to how disgusting it was. Instead, she immediately turned it into an idea for improving the mobile bases.
"The cloth itself might not disappear, but what about whatever is wrapped inside it?
Besides, pouring water that springs up inside the Dungeon over it would probably be pointless. The same goes for the hot spring water.
It would most likely have to be water brought in from the surface.
The Dungeon desires energy supplied by matter from the surface.
When it no longer detects any supply of kinetic energy from foreign objects that have entered from the surface...
In other words, when it determines that an object has no owner or that its owner is dead, it absorbs the object itself and converts it into its own energy."
"So the key isn't the distance traveled, but the amount of kinetic energy involved?"
"For example, even if you simply carry a hammer twelve meters and twenty-three centimeters each day, it won't disappear.
If you slam it into the ground with all your might, it still won't disappear even if you haven't moved it twelve meters.
That is because the Dungeon determines that the object is generating kinetic energy without relying on the Dungeon's own power.
Consequently, objects pulled along by monsters or waterwheels driven by currents inside the Dungeon will disappear, no matter how vigorously they move.
That's because they receive no kinetic energy from matter originating on the surface. The Dungeon therefore judges them to be dead."
What the Dungeon truly sought was energy supplied by matter from the surface.
Seen in that light, everything made sense: tempting powerful adventurers with their own desires to lure them into its depths, inciting monsters to fight them, and finally killing and absorbing them.
Every aspect of the Dungeon's behavior followed the same underlying logic.
Hearing this, Auf became convinced.
"That's why it taught us about the steam engine..."
The Hot Spring Dungeon's true objective must have been to teach us about the future power source it knew of, have us build it, and then get us to use that power inside the Dungeon itself.
It must have been certain that this would provide energy on a scale incomparable to what it could obtain by making countless warriors and monsters fight deep within its depths.
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"And so... we've finally completed a pump powerful enough to drain all the hot spring water from the Dungeon's first floor... If we keep it running, it won't disappear, will it?"
"The heat source and water used to generate the steam that powers the pump both come from the surface.
The entire pump also vibrates slightly while operating, so it should remain intact as long as it's running."
"What about the parts that aren't moving? Will they be all right?"
"I'm not so sure about the pipes carrying the hot spring water outside.
They have absolutely nothing to do with the mechanism generating the energy.
Furthermore, the water flowing through them is the Dungeon's own hot spring water, and the force driving it is the Dungeon's internal gravity.
There's a good chance the Dungeon will judge them to be components that neither generate energy nor contribute to its own needs."
"Hmm... In that case, what if we design it so that the steam's force helps push the water along, even just a little? Would the Dungeon let the pipes remain, too?"
"Who can say? We'll just have to test things little by little to determine the limits of what the Dungeon is willing to tolerate."
"If the amount of energy this mechanism generates is exceeded by the amount of hot spring resources we pump out, the Dungeon might get angry at us...
No, but it'll be fine! The will of the Hot Spring Dungeon has been guiding me all this time, leading me toward building a steam engine!"
Just as a human body doesn't disappear as long as blood keeps circulating through it, we'll build indestructible buildings with steam constantly flowing through them! We'll create an entire city inside the Dungeon that won't disappear!
I believe that's the challenge the will of the Hot Spring Dungeon has entrusted to me!"
As I watched this strange girl get all worked up, viewing her through my manga-style monitoring book, I couldn't help thinking:
"What the hell is she talking about...?"
What did she mean, I'd been guiding her to build a steam engine?
I had absolutely no recollection of doing anything like that???
This was my first time seeing her, but judging by the familiar knights of the Second Unit guarding her, this girl had to be that Auf person.
Her appearance was quite different from Peta-chan's, but she was a petite adult woman with a similar build.
From the letter I'd received earlier, I'd already gotten the impression that she idealized me to a ridiculous degree, almost like some lovestruck fangirl living in a fantasy of her own.
But apparently, she'd overestimated me in a direction about a hundred times more incomprehensible than I'd ever imagined.
How did things even get to this point?
"What in the world is this weird contraption?"
Silk-san was also reproducing the scene on the Hot Spring Dungeon's first floor in embroidery.
"So they're pumping up the hot spring water with this strange iron contraption?
I don't get it. How does something like this even manage to pump water?"
"Oh, this girl's clothes are lovely, too. The decorations and stitching are so intricate..."
"Um, Silk-san, I'm terribly sorry, but would it be possible for you to come back another day?
It seems I'll need some time to examine what's happening here in detail..."
"Huh? But I'd like to take a closer look at this girl's clothes... Ugh, fine, I suppose I have no choice..."
Silk-san seemed to sense that something urgent was going on and obediently backed down.
She embroidered a single sketch of Auf-chan's outfit, then left.
After Silk-san left, I watched on the monitor as they discussed the energy generated by surface-dwelling creatures inside the Dungeon, the criteria for determining whether something would disappear, and other related topics.
They also seemed to understand what Peta-chan had told me: simply moving something using energy from inside the Dungeon would still cause it to be classified as motionless.
There were also plenty of things we'd never heard before, such as how the distance an object needed to travel to avoid disappearing could be reduced depending on the amount of energy involved in a physical collision.
"Huh? What is with these people...? Aren't they more knowledgeable about the Dungeon's internal rules than I am?"
Peta-chan had stopped cooking to listen to their discussion, and she looked a little taken aback.
It was rare for Peta-chan to pay such close attention to a conversation like this, let alone stop cooking to do so.
"Master, do you know what this strange hot spring pumping device is?"
"I don't know exactly how it's constructed, but I can tell it's a pump powered by a steam engine."
"A steam engine?"
"It'll take a while to explain, so I'll give you the details later.
The real question is whether the energy this thing generates is actually being converted into Dungeon Points."
If what these people were saying was true, then the so-called kinetic energy generated by matter from the surface...
...was being converted into Dungeon Points for us.
In other words, any object that generated even a tiny amount of Dungeon Points would be classified as something that wouldn't disappear inside the Dungeon.
Now that I thought about it, that was a very logical system.
"Let's see... If I compare the points consumed by the hot spring water on the first floor with the points generated by this pumping device and the amount of water extracted..."
I entered the points being spent on producing the hot spring water and the points being generated by the operating steam pump into a spreadsheet, then calculated how many points we'd have after several days if things continued as they were.
"Well? How does it look, Master?"
"Hmm... Looks like we're running a slight deficit."
Peta-chan, whose expression had been a mixture of intense anxiety and anticipation just moments earlier, now looked utterly disappointed.
"...Whaaaat!? That's it?! How booooring!"
No way. With just one seemingly inefficient prototype pump powered by firewood and steam, we're only running a slight deficit?
Steam engines are capable of so much more than this.
In the future, large numbers of far more sophisticated machines would be installed throughout the Dungeon, serving as mechanisms for transporting all sorts of things out of its depths.
And the deeper inside the Dungeon these machines were installed, the more dramatically their point-generation efficiency would increase.
And then there was Auf-chan's plan to circulate steam through buildings so they wouldn't disappear inside the Dungeon, eventually creating an entire city that could endure within its depths...
If that happened, an Industrial Revolution would begin inside the Dungeon—and that would mean a revolution for the Dungeon itself.
"Hey, Peta-chan... This is going to cause some seriously huge problems.
If things keep progressing smoothly like this, I have a feeling the entire game balance of Dungeon management will be completely broken within a few decades..."
"Huh? Huge problems...? What do you mean?
What's going to happen? Is this going to turn into a really serious problem? Master, tell me!"
Peta-chan looked at me as I stared blankly at the spreadsheet.
She looked so worried that she was on the verge of tears.
No, that's not it. It's the opposite.
If things kept going like this, the whole system was going to break—in the opposite direction from what she feared.
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