Chapter 97 - Optical Communication
"Nhngh, hmm, haaah!"
Captain Touji had been doing squats nonstop while holding a large rock in her arms.
After measuring how many repetitions she could manage and how quickly she could perform them until she became drenched in sweat, dropped the rock from exhaustion, and finally stopped moving her legs, Vice Captain Yunev spoke up.
"It seems you've reached your limit... Neither the amount of weight you can lift nor the number of repetitions you can do is increasing anymore."
"Hoooh... I hate to admit it, but I agree. It seems my muscles and stamina have reached their limits."
They had repeatedly worked out while soaking in the stamina-recovery bath.
Whenever their muscles became so large that they interfered with their movements, they could soak in the deformity-healing bath on the 9th floor and the youthful-skin Bath on the 11th floor, which would restore their physiques to their proper proportions.
When the members of the Second Unit discovered this trick, they had rejoiced, thinking they might be able to power themselves up indefinitely.
But apparently, there really was a limit.
For the past few days, even after training all day long, their records had stopped improving altogether.
"The only thing that has changed recently is that the new towels have gotten ridiculously fluffier..."
"Haaah... If this so-called will of the Hot Spring Dungeon really watches us and modifies the dungeon accordingly, then why is the thing it chooses to improve towels of all things? Honestly.
But we can't keep doing training that has become less effective forever.
We'll stop training each exercise once its record stops improving, starting with the ones that have already reached their limits, and return to transport duty."
Their primary duty in the Hot Spring Dungeon was to take the weapons and armor repaired and enhanced using the lower floors' hot water, soap, and mirrors, as well as the repair baths and enhancement baths, and hand them over to the transport unit living in the mobile dwellings prepared on the 9th floor.
That was the basic work of the Hot Spring Dungeon.
In practice, it wasn't all that different from their training in the lower floors.
As long as they continued working, their hard-earned physiques would not become sluggish.
With that in mind, Captain Touji decided to cut short the training that was no longer showing results and focus on transport duty.
They immediately put their newly trained muscles to use, carrying various supplies up to the 9th floor and returning.
The transport unit members were stunned when they saw them.
It was only natural. They had returned carrying nearly twice their usual load.
The already superhuman achievements of the First Unit had become even more superhuman.
"C-Captain Touji... G-Good work, ma'am.
Um... We have two messages for you today."
"Messages?"
"Yes. First, a new floor has appeared in the No-Hunger Dungeon."
"Hm...? And the second?"
Captain Touji wasn't particularly interested in the first report.
After all, a new floor in the No-Hunger Dungeon was still only the 17th floor. It offered even less of a challenge than the Hot Spring Dungeon.
And all that appeared there were things like delicious food and fine alcohol.
It wasn't that she had absolutely no interest in it, but her curiosity was rather limited.
The fact that she hadn't even asked what kinds of drops had appeared was proof enough.
The other members, however, were practically dying to ask what new food or alcohol had appeared.
"The First Unit led by Captain Hitou, which had been dispatched to the Iron Dungeon, reportedly suffered devastating injuries and is scheduled to temporarily return to the Kingdom of Sepans.
For that reason, we need to secure a large quantity of the healing hot spring water needed to treat them and send it to the No-Hunger Dungeon."
"Hold on! Isn't this an emergency?! Why didn't you send an urgent messenger?! How can you be taking this so calmly?!"
"Captain Hitou's unit is still receiving emergency treatment in a city within the Kingdom of Claps, and it will take them quite a few days to return to the Kingdom of Sepans, so we still have plenty of time..."
"Wait, they're still in the country where the Iron Dungeon is located? Then how did word of their injuries reach us so quickly?"
"...The device developed by that young lady of the Duke House... The one that transmits lighthouse signals over long distances...
They're now using a smaller version of it to exchange light signals from elevated locations in the middle of the night, allowing information from the various countries to be delivered within a single night."
When Captain Touji heard this, a chill ran down her spine.
Ordinarily, even if messengers changed horses and rode without rest to deliver a message as quickly as possible from the Kingdom of Claps to the Kingdom of Sepans, it would take at least a week.
Even a letter sent by carrier pigeon would probably take three days.
Yet that young lady had established a method of transmitting something as simple as:
"Hitou Unit—decimated—returning home."
From the Kingdom of Claps to the Kingdom of Sepans in just a single night.
No country in the world possessed a means of communication this absurdly fast.
All she had needed was the ability to obtain the mirrors that frequently appeared in the dungeon.
She had taken that one simple thing and created something like this.
Captain Touji had always thought that the young lady would one day become an asset to the Kingdom of Sepans.
But the results she was producing were simply beyond anything she could have imagined.
"However, the hot spring water needed for their treatment comes from the 8th and 9th floors, so we can handle that ourselves.
The only thing we need the First Unit to secure is the tooth-healing bath from the 17th floor, and we don't need a particularly large quantity of that, either.
It’s just that the Kingdom of Sepans is currently experiencing rapidly increasing demand for iron... and apparently, it would be a problem if the supply from the Iron Dungeon were to stop...
So, for the members of the First Unit, um..."
"They want us to go to the Iron Dungeon in their place, don't they?!"
"Y-Yes!"
The transport unit girl had been visibly hesitant to make the request that they leave the blissful Hot Spring Dungeon and head to the harsh Iron Dungeon.
But Captain Touji's face lit up with delight.
The women around her wore expressions that seemed to say, Whoa, seriously? while simultaneously looking like, Well, what can you do? Guess we're doing it!
They weren't nearly as enthusiastic as Captain Touji, but everyone shared the desire to test the results of the strength they had honed to the absolute limit in the Hot Spring Dungeon.
"All right! You lot, head back down to the lower floors once more and secure as much of the 17th- and 18th-floor hot spring water as you possibly can!"
"The 18th-floor water, too?"
"If they're coming all the way back to the Kingdom of Sepans anyway, we might as well have the Hitou lot train in that bath after they've recovered. If they use it in the new floor of the No-Hunger Dungeon, there's only a one-floor difference, so it should still retain about ninety percent of its effectiveness.
Besides, it doesn't sit right with me that we're the only ones getting stronger from these ridiculously powerful baths.
They need to keep being the goal we're striving toward.
How the hell did they let themselves get beaten like that...? Honestly."
♨♨♨♨♨
"I can't decide whether I should be celebrating the success of our optical communication network, or mourning the fact that the first major message it delivered was news of Captain Hitou's defeat."
Queen Yuzha held her head in her hands as she muttered those words.
Beside her, Captain Bantu said, "At present, this method of communication is only possible because of those perfect mirrors, but communication through light will become a powerful weapon for the Kingdom of Sepans.
Captain Hitou's unit's defeat is certainly unfortunate, but unless there are a great many dead or people who have lost their limbs, the Hot Spring Dungeon's effects should allow them to make a swift recovery and return to active duty."
"Good grief, what a terrifying dungeon.
It feels like ages ago when we could still innocently rejoice over things like beauty and whatnot... Is there any other news?"
"It seems that the young lady in question has been inviting scholars from various countries... She also appears to have begun another large-scale series of experiments."
"...Isn't that perfectly normal? Between the lighthouse and the optical communication network, she has been producing results. As long as it stays within the budget, let her recruit whatever people she wants and conduct whatever experiments she likes."
"...Well, if that is Your Majesty's decision... I understand."
Captain Bantu had no idea how she was supposed to report the matter to Queen Yuzha.
The people Auf had gathered were, for the most part, indeed ordinary scholars.
But among them were several who were clearly eccentric or outright strange, and Bantu had absolutely no idea where or through what connections she had managed to find them.
There was the man who screamed with bloodshot eyes:
"Why won't anyone fund my research into a device for amplifying power?! That young lady is the only person who has shown any interest in my research and given me a budget! Just you wait! I'll show those countries that abandoned me!"
Then there was a man who reeked as though he hadn't bathed in months. He spent all his time muttering to himself and performing calculations, to the point that it was practically impossible to have a conversation with him.
Another strange man constantly shouted things like:
"It's all about combinations of gears! The conversion of force through combinations of gears is what will change the world! I was born into this world to prove it! Ahhh, gears! My beloved gears!"
And then there was the strange middle-aged man who exclaimed:
"My dream of merging with Dungeon-sama may not have come true, but the fact that my longtime pen pal, who has always been interested in the results of my experiments on merging with Dungeon-sama, turned out to be a young lady of a Duke House in charge of dungeon research... What incredible fortune!"
No matter how generously one looked at them, none of these people could be considered normal.
As far as Captain Bantu was concerned, she could barely understand what most of them were talking about. Just a few minutes of conversation with them was enough to make her feel like she was going insane.
"More importantly, there are other reports, aren't there? Tell me."
"...Apparently, another kind of alcohol has appeared in the No-Hunger Dungeon."
"Let me drink it."
"First, we need to confirm its safety."
"Surely Commander Shield and the others, being the first people to discover it, drank plenty of it on the spot before reporting it to us, didn't they? Let me drink it."
"Under the Marponwear military regulations, consuming food or beverages whose safety has not been established is strictly prohibited. No one, including them, has sampled it yet."
"You're serious about this?!"
"We are."
"Enough! I'll personally confirm its safety! Hurry up and let me drink it!"
"Have you already forgotten what happened the last time you did that?!"
"Then you drink it already!"
The royal palace of Sepans was overflowing with both good and bad news, and it was just as hectic as ever that day.
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