Chapter 107 - Lovely Savages
Captain Touji and her team traded almost all the water and food they had on hand to the people on the twenty-fourth floor in exchange for iron.
The people on the twenty-fourth floor were also intensely curious about the mysterious luggage case that had newly appeared. But as if to say, If you're interested, go get one yourselves, Touji and her team quickly wrapped things up and raced back to the surface.
When they returned to the surface, the Claps soldiers on watch greeted them with worried questions.
"What happened? You're back early. Did someone get hurt?"
"Couldn't you manage to fill in for Hitou?"
But that wasn't why they'd come back.
They promptly deposited the new drop item at the museum and gave a detailed account of the circumstances under which they'd obtained it.
It took forever.
The people who appeared to be engineers examined the case down to the smallest detail, expressing one astonished exclamation after another. Touji couldn't have cared less.
All Captain Touji could think about was how she wanted to finish this business and be released as soon as possible.
As Captain Touji watched the impromptu exhibition of the case, growing increasingly irritated as she wondered when they'd finally let her go, something happened.
Somehow, word had reached the engineers from the Kingdom of Sepans who were residing in the Kingdom of Claps to study its ironmaking techniques. They came streaming in, took one look at the case, and promptly joined in the astonishment.
"How on earth do these wheels work?"
"There’s far too little resistance when they rotate, considering the weight they’re carrying."
"Is the dungeon’s magical power reducing the friction?"
"No amount of engineering could achieve something like this, could it?"
"I want to take it apart…"
The engineers showed no signs of ever finishing their inspection, so even Captain Touji finally spoke up.
"Look, could you let us go already? We're leaving the case here, so you can examine it to your heart's content."
"Touji-dono, how about the Kingdom of Claps taking custody of this item and purchasing it from you later?"
"Absolutely not! Once the reporting and exhibition requirements have been fulfilled, it must be taken back to the Kingdom of Sepans as a sample!"
A dispute had broken out between the Claps engineers, who didn't want the case taken away, and the Sepans engineers, who insisted that it absolutely had to be brought back with them.
Captain Touji didn't really understand what was going on, but apparently, there was something extraordinary about the wheel mechanism that had the engineers absolutely captivated.
In fact, based on her experience using it in the dungeon on the way back, the wheels did indeed roll smoothly even when the case was heavily loaded. The problem was that the wheels were simply too small.
It might have been convenient on flat, well-paved roads like those in a royal palace, but...
On the dungeon's uneven, rocky paths and in soft, sand-like terrain, it had been completely useless. For that reason, she hadn't considered it nearly as amazing as the engineers seemed to think.
"You can discuss all that with the ambassador from the Kingdom of Sepans, not me. I'm going back into the dungeon as soon as I've stocked up on more food and water."
"Would it be possible for you to bring back more of these?"
"If they appeared on the twenty-fourth floor, maybe. But if they only drop on the twenty-fifth, then no. We don't have enough weapons to establish ourselves on that floor."
With that, she left the museum. Captain Touji and her team bought another massive supply of water and food, then raced back to the twenty-fourth floor.
When they hurried back to the twenty-fourth floor carrying huge loads of food and water, the people there stared at them in utter disbelief.
"Huh? What? You guys... How did you get back here so fast????"
"Doesn't it take more than ten days to get back to the surface from here, even without any luggage??"
Apparently, the fact that they'd raced back in just a few days after covering hundreds of kilometers while carrying nearly a hundred kilograms of food and water struck everyone as utterly abnormal.
And to be fair, when they thought about it rationally, it really was anything but normal. But they'd become capable of doing it, so there wasn't much they could do about that.
To be honest, their strength had increased so much that the load barely felt heavy anymore.
Their stamina had also reached superhuman levels, to the point where running felt no different from simply walking.
The only reason they'd settled for this amount was that they couldn't fit any more food into their backpacks—and if they tried, the packs would break.
They only stopped to rest because after running for half a day, they would eventually get hungry and sleepy.
"Looks like we've gotten even stronger than we imagined."
"Could it be that we're the strongest people in the world now? Hehehe…"
"The strongest people in the world... who can't even explore the twenty-fifth floor...?"
"Don't say something so depressing!"
"Damn it, it's all about the rainbow ore! If we can get our hands on enough of it, we should be able to fight on that floor! Let's collect as much as we can!"
And so, Captain Touji and her team went on a rampage across the twenty-fourth floor.
They went on an absolutely unstoppable rampage.
Their standard textbook tactic—having the front line form a defensive wall while the rear ranks attacked—was abandoned after just one day.
It simply wasn't necessary.
For starters, simply throwing a piece of rainbow ore at an enemy was enough to kill it in almost a single hit.
At that point, formations and battle tactics were already pointless. But then, one time, an enemy managed to dodge a thrown piece of rainbow ore.
Oh, are we finally getting some close-quarters combat for a change? someone thought, readying their weapon.
But before anyone could engage in melee, one of the team members decided to hurl a random steel drop item at the enemy with all her might.
Amazingly, even that random piece of steel did enough damage to pierce the monster when thrown. It actually worked.
Wait... seriously? The other team members tried throwing steel and iron at the monsters, too—and discovered that they could kill them perfectly well that way.
It turned out that if you hurled enough iron at a monster with the force of a cannon, the monster died.
Once they'd made this discovery, taking the time to form elaborate battle formations started to seem downright ridiculous.
In the end, they settled on splitting into groups of five and casually spreading out to patrol the floor.
The arrangement was simple: four members hurled drop items at the monsters, while the fifth stood ready with a melee weapon in case anything managed to break through.
And so, an utterly inexplicable phenomenon came into existence: a group of beautiful female knights who gave off a wonderful fragrance rampaged across the floor, hurling iron with terrifying force and brutally beating their enemies to death.
The knights from other countries who witnessed their battles could only stare in bewilderment.
What the hell is that...? No, seriously, what the hell are they?
The knights from other countries who watched their primitive fighting style eventually came to call them the Lovely Savages.
The Lovely Savages were astonishingly productive. In a single day, they collected as many drop items as other countries' forces would take an entire week to gather.
They also acquired rainbow ore at a rate of roughly one piece per day.
Of course, unless they could have it fashioned into weapons, it wouldn't be of much use for fighting on the twenty-fifth floor or deeper.
Two months passed as the Lovely Savages hunted monsters on the twenty-fourth floor by hurling iron at them.
When Captain Touji returned to the transport and communications personnel near the entrance, carrying a huge haul of drop items, she spotted a familiar group.
It was Hitou and his team.
"Hey, Touji. Looks like you've been making quite a name for yourself down here."
"Hitou, have you finished your training already?"
Captain Touji figured that Hitou's return meant their life in this dungeon was over.
Surprisingly, she wasn't particularly disappointed.
It was simply that, in their current state, the twenty-fourth floor had become far too easy. They no longer found it challenging.
If anything, she wanted to get back to the Kingdom of Sepans as soon as possible so they could have weapons made from the rainbow ore.
What really irritated her was the thought that now that Hitou and his team had finished training, they would be able to charge through the twenty-fifth and twenty-sixth floors to their hearts' content.
She was downright envious.
In any case, it was good to see Hitou return looking even more thoroughly trained than before.
There was also an absolutely incredible aroma wafting through the area.
The knights nearby were just as astonished. They kept sneaking glances in their direction, wondering what on earth smelled so good.
For the record, it wasn't the scent of soap.
"Heh heh heh. We were training on the seventeenth floor of the No-Hunger Dungeon when the eighteenth floor appeared. That dramatically accelerated our training, so we finished much sooner than expected."
"I see... So this is what you got from there?"
"You've done a lot for us, so as thanks, I'll treat you all to the whole lot."
Hitou pointed toward a huge pot that had been giving off that incredible aroma for some time.
Inside was a generous quantity of thick, brown sludge.
It was curry.
"It... looks absolutely disgusting, though."
It smelled wonderful, but its appearance was so reminiscent of a cesspit that she hesitated for a moment.
But the moment she took a bite, all those negative impressions vanished.
It was delicious. Unbelievably delicious.
"You can get this on the eighteenth floor of the No-Hunger Dungeon?"
"That's right. I want you to collect as much as you can. Ideally, enough that you can afford to send some all the way here as supplies. Hahaha!"
"...We can eat as much of this as we want once we return to the Kingdom of Sepans. Let's feed it to those guys instead."
"Those guys?"
"The ones behind us who keep sneaking glances over here."
They had been visibly captivated by that wonderful aroma for a while now.
They were elite knights from various countries who had settled on the twenty-fourth floor and were strong enough to collect drop items there.
"The best way to gather a large quantity is to get a large number of people to collect it for you, right?"
With that, Captain Touji wasted no time. Under the pretext of thanking the knights for their hospitality before heading home and handing things back over to Hitou, she...
...served curry to the knights standing behind them.
For dungeon knights who had spent years surviving on utterly miserable preserved rations, the taste was practically a devastating weapon.
Some were so overwhelmed by how delicious it was that they wept openly, tears streaming down their faces.
"Right, then. Let's head back and get ourselves something to eat, too."
"Yes, ma'am!!"
The team members who had missed out on the curry answered with cheerful enthusiasm.
Perhaps it was because they could eat their fill once they returned to the No-Hunger Dungeon, or perhaps because they would be going back to the Hot Spring Dungeon.
Whatever the reason, their voices made it clear that they were eagerly anticipating a return to comfortable surroundings.
However, despite spending two months in a harsh dungeon, cut off from delicious meals and relaxing hot springs, it wasn't as though their lives had been miserable.
To her surprise, none of them had developed the mental fragility that Captain Touji had initially worried about.
If anything, they seemed to be thinking, Now this is what I'm talking about!
With the relaxed enthusiasm of people who had found what they were looking for, the team members were thoroughly enjoying their harsh daily lives.
These grueling days are what make me feel truly alive!
Their mindset was rather like that of a modern-day mountaineering club that specialized in winter ascents.
Such people willingly abandoned the conveniences of civilization, climbed brutal winter mountains, and pushed themselves toward unforgiving summits.
And all the while, they looked forward to the moment they could descend the mountain and return to the comforts of home.
For those who knew that comfortable surroundings awaited them upon their return, a grueling dungeon was no longer much different from a recreational outing.
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