Chapter 118 - The Mysterious Young Man of the Investigation Team

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Auf and her party had finally returned to the surface.

It had taken them a very, very long time—far longer than the roughly ten days they had originally planned to be away.

The reason, of course, was their sightseeing and observation of the Hot Spring Dungeon.

"You told me to do as much sightseeing as I liked once I'd recovered, didn't you, Vihita?"

She had. She had most certainly said that.

Of course, now that her lady had recovered, the knights around her felt that indulging her in a little selfishness was only fair.

After all, Auf was also responsible for information management at the Dungeon Archive, so there was nothing wrong with examining the dungeon in detail.

However, Vihita and a few of the knights who had spent practically every waking moment with Auf in the Stamina-Recovery Spring understood the danger of indulging her whims.

After all, while exercising in the Stamina-Recovery Spring, Auf had constantly recorded and calculated its effects using her own body as a test subject.

She was also the sort of person who could stare unblinkingly at the towel shelf in the Stamina-Recovery Spring for nearly ten hours, just to witness the exact moment the towels reappeared.

Given that kind of personality, it was only natural that she would insist on witnessing the mirrors in the Mirror Room regenerate, no matter how many extra days their stay might take.

The Hot Spring Dungeon's plentiful supplies of food, water, and places to rest along the way only made matters worse. It was difficult to insist that they hurry back when everything they needed was readily available inside.

"W-WOOOOOW! This is amaaaaaazing!! The mirrors are spreading out as though someone were filling a water tank… This really is a phenomenon created by the dungeon's magic! Ahhh, I'm so glad I got to see this!"

Auf was overwhelmed with emotion, much like an eccentric tourist who had endured days in the harsh Antarctic environment just to catch a glimpse of the magnificent aurora at last.

The knights around her wore expressions that seemed to say, …Well, how wonderful for you. Still, they were a little impressed themselves by discovering that this was how the mirrors regenerated.

"Even when I look at the mirrors, my heart doesn't waver in the slightest anymore…"

"That must be because the baths have restored your beauty, my lady."

"It's not that simple, Vihita. It's as though something like an indelible trauma etched into my mind has disappeared… This is probably another effect of the Medicinal Spring.

I believe that spring could also heal soldiers and knights whose minds have been shattered, leaving them unable to function, even when their bodies themselves are unharmed."

Reports about the Medicinal Spring on the nineteenth floor had already reached the surface, and Captain Touji's unit was already transporting the bathwater to the No-Hunger Dungeon.

While Auf waited in the Mirror Room, she had also watched members of the First Unit carry in patients on stretchers. Among them were a countess who had been bedridden for years due to illness and a marquis's daughter suffering from an incurable disease that caused constant, unbearable pain, though it posed no immediate threat to her life.

When those women returned, overjoyed that their illnesses had been cured, they found Auf still in the same room, intently observing an empty wall as she continued to study the mirrors' regeneration. The sight had left them utterly bewildered.

Since those women returned to the surface before Auf, they ended up being questioned in exhaustive detail about the Medicinal Spring's effects.

At the entrance to the nineteenth floor of the Hot Spring Dungeon, simple barrel-shaped bathtubs had been set up. They could be moved around, preventing the dungeon from absorbing them.

This eliminated the need to go all the way to the hot spring room covered in densely written medical knowledge.

This arrangement was intended partly to minimize the distance sick patients had to travel, but also to keep people from seeing the writing on those walls just yet.

The only information anyone could get from those women was that their illnesses had been completely cured. They revealed nothing more.

At this rate, with Auf leisurely observing the dungeon floor by floor as she ascended, it had taken them a full month or so to make their way back.

A major reason they had finally returned, however, was that her interest in the steam engine development underway on the surface had gradually overtaken her fascination with the Hot Spring Dungeon's supernatural phenomena.

"Now then, I need to put up a report at the dungeon archive explaining that the bath on the nineteenth floor appeared after I offered a new medical paper…"

After returning to the ducal estate, Auf worked on preparing her documents while listening to the maids and elderly retainers tell her what was happening in the outside world.

Apparently, the publication of that medical knowledge had sent shock waves throughout society far greater than she had anticipated.

As expected, merchants dealing in medicinal products and churches making money from exorcism goods had been thrown into an uproar.

Some churches had even rushed to brand those who spread the paper as heretics and had begun taking steps to subject certain researchers to inquisitorial proceedings.

But they later discovered that the information had already spread to countries all over the world. With the source of the knowledge completely unknown, even the churches no longer knew how to respond.

To make matters worse, while recuperating in the innermost hot spring, Auf had announced that after she offered the new medical paper, a medicinal bath had appeared in the Hot Spring Dungeon and saved lives. This sent the churches into an even greater panic.

In the first place, the churches in this world held far less authority than their counterparts on Earth.

That was because actual dungeons capable of performing miracles existed in this world.

Countless people had entered dungeons and never returned. The churches therefore taught that dungeons were the work of devils, whose purpose was to deceive, lure in, and devour people. Their teachings had gained a fair amount of support, and they had managed to win over families whose lives had been ruined by dungeons.

However, the greater the rewards dungeons offered, the more people turned their backs on those teachings.

After all, every major power possessed a massive dungeon and relied on its benefits to maintain its national strength, making it difficult for the churches to secure government backing.

In fact, it might be more accurate to say that the world's largest religion was the Dungeon Faith, or Dungeon Church, whose followers believed that dungeons were gifts bestowed by God—or that the dungeons themselves were gods.

Unbeknownst to Auf, the country that possessed the Crystal Dungeon—the nation responsible for developing the telescope—was in an uproar, fearing that all its top-secret research had somehow leaked.

That country had created telescopes by combining lenses that the Crystal Dungeon produced by chance. It had also been secretly developing microscopes and quietly advancing its medical knowledge.

However, the contents of that paper far surpassed even the level of their own research. In the end, the origin of the knowledge remained a mystery.

"WOOOOOOOAAAHHHH! O Great Dungeon! The Dungeon truly does hear our prayers after all!"

Men like the old man, who wanted to be absorbed by a dungeon, were fanatics of the Dungeon Faith.

Auf's report that offering medical knowledge had led to the creation of a medicinal bath only fueled the fervor of dungeon worshippers like that old man.

Festivals dedicated to worshipping dungeons had existed in various places for a long time.

People would pray near dungeon entrances or offer boards inscribed with their wishes, believing that having the dungeon absorb them would make those wishes come true.

They had been little more than lighthearted festive customs, much like hanging ema prayer plaques at shrines or writing wishes on strips of paper for the Tanabata decorations.

However, following Auf's announcement, speculation began spreading throughout the world that offering a wish to a dungeon's deepest level might actually persuade it to grant that wish.

Most people still had the same shallow notion as before: if they simply asked for whatever they desired, the dungeon might grant their wishes.

However, the rulers and scholars of the great powers, who possessed a certain degree of knowledge about dungeons, took a more levelheaded view.

"There's no point unless we offer knowledge that is useful to the dungeon itself."

At the Hot Spring Dungeon archive in the Kingdom of Sepans, a new display had been installed detailing the effects of the Medicinal Spring and the medical information written on the walls of its chamber.

Alongside the information hung a remarkably lifelike and accurate portrait of Peta-chan.

"Oh, this demon? It appeared right after Lady Auf entered the Medicinal Spring."

"For some reason, it was angry with Lady Auf."

"We couldn't understand what it was saying."

"Perhaps it didn't like having requests made of it."

"The previous portrait didn't look anything like it."

When scholars and nobles questioned the female knights who had been present at the time, these were more or less the answers they received.

The claim that offering medical knowledge had resulted in the creation of the Medicinal Spring was an outright lie that they absolutely could not reveal. Nevertheless, they genuinely believed that the dungeon had created the hot spring in response to Vice-Captain Vihita's request.

Consequently, even when their superiors—other than Her Majesty Yuzha—questioned them about what had actually happened, their answers contained no major discrepancies or contradictions.

Taken together, the accounts suggested that if someone sent a request to a dungeon, its capricious will might, on a whim, choose to grant it.

At the same time, speculation arose that bombarding a dungeon with useless knowledge or requests could just as easily offend it.

Before long, various countries began issuing decrees imposing severe penalties on anyone who sent books containing selfish requests into a dungeon without government authorization.

The rulers of each country began preparing their own offerings for their respective dungeons.

The Kingdom of Claps, which possessed the Iron Dungeon, began making copies of books documenting the ironmaking techniques it had developed on the surface.

It ordered a group led by Captain Press, the kingdom's strongest knight, to present these books at the dungeon's deepest level after taking measures to ensure the dungeon would notice them.

The Kingdom of Dolpins, which possessed the Thread Dungeon, began preparing to offer its accumulated silk-production techniques, the various thread and fabric products made throughout the kingdom, and books of designs to the dungeon's deepest level.

The Kingdom of Marponwear, which possessed the Weapon Dungeon, began compiling martial arts manuals, histories of warfare, and records of how weapons and armor produced by its dungeon had been used and evaluated on the surface.

It also began preparing documents detailing what kinds of weapons and armor people on the surface wanted, intending to offer all this information to the depths of the dungeon.

Following Auf's announcement about the Medicinal Spring, efforts to make requests of dungeons began accelerating across the world.

♨♨♨♨♨

The fifth floor of the No-Hunger Dungeon.

"Fresh bread! Anyone want some bread?"

"Hey, you there, young man from the investigation team! Wanna buy something?"

"Heeey, handsome! We've got some lovely girls here! Ten chocolate bars or one bottle of booze gets you an hour, unlimited rounds…"

"I don't recognize your face. You new around here?"

Merchants on the fifth floor called out their sales pitches to a young man wearing the uniform of the Dungeon Investigation Guild, but he merely waved at them with an awkward smile and continued on his way.

There was something decidedly odd about the young man. Despite wearing the uniform of the guild's investigation team and being on the dungeon's fifth floor, he carried absolutely no luggage.

That alone might not have been suspicious; he could have left his belongings in one of the mobile residential areas inside the dungeon. But he wasn't carrying so much as a weapon.

The young man simply walked off toward the depths of the dungeon and disappeared from view.

The merchants briefly wondered who on earth he was, but when the next adventurer—a swordsman—appeared, their attention quickly shifted to the newcomer, and they resumed their sales pitches.

♨♨♨♨♨

"繝代Φ　繝代Φ""隱ソ譟サ蝗」　菴輔°　雋キ""螽シ蟀ヲ　繝√Ι繧ウ　縺輔￠""譁ー莠コ"

Yep, I really can't understand a single word they're saying…

For now, all I can do is give them an awkward smile, wave, and get out of there.

When Peta-chan was complaining to Auf-chan, the female knights around them hadn't seemed to understand what Peta-chan was saying.

When I asked Peta-chan about it, she replied:

"Obviously. There's no way human language can be translated without going through the Master Room," she told me.

As usual, I had no idea what was supposed to be so obvious about that, but apparently, that was how it worked.

So I tried giving my own illusion a physical form and took a little walk through the area on the fifth floor where merchants tried to sell all sorts of things.

The fifth floor was the lowest level at which the dungeon's ice remained unmelted, making it an ideal place for serving chilled food and drinks. That was why merchants tended to gather there.

It makes me a little sad that I genuinely can't understand what any of them are saying.

If I remember correctly, that shop was one of those sleazy places, damn it.

Well, even if I could negotiate with them, there'd be no point since I don't have a physical body in the dungeon and can't touch anything anyway.

"Ahh, now I get it. So that's why dungeon demons have never negotiated directly with humans before."

There was nothing to be done about it when neither side could understand a word the other was saying.

Carving words unrelated to the dungeon's concept into its walls to communicate would also cost an enormous number of points.

Corresponding through writing on dungeon walls would be about as practical as being told to replace all the wallpaper in your house every time you wanted to send a letter. It was utterly absurd.

But we were different!

"Okay then, Peta-chan, could you start the experiment?"

"Sure!"

Peta-chan displayed the merchants from earlier on a monitor in the Master Room.

Then, I placed a materialized smartphone nearby to pick up their voices and listened to the audio through my earphones.

It was a trick only we could pull off, thanks to our ability to use the concepts of monitors and telephones.

"How is it, Master?"

"…I can understand them. I can hear what they're saying."

It seemed they were pitching their wares to the adventurer who had arrived after me, calling out things like, "How about buying some bread?" and "We've got some lovely girls here! Lovely girls!"

The adventurer replied, "On my way back! I'll buy something on my way back!" before heading in my direction.

"Hm? What's up, buddy from the investigation team? Why are you just standing around here with no weapon?"

I was dressed to imitate the adventurer who had first come to investigate the Hot Spring Dungeon. Apparently, wearing this outfit made people assume I was a member of the dungeon investigation team.

I'd been observing dungeon adventurers for a long time, so I knew quite a bit about the kind of people who belonged to the investigation team.

In a sense, they were almost indistinguishable from independent adventurers in their everyday lives, but they were officially recognized by the guild and could take on temporary public duties whenever a formal request came in.

They weren't particularly high-ranking, but they were trusted enough that nobody would get suspicious if they wandered around the dungeon without any particular purpose. It was the perfect middle ground.

"I do have a weapon. Look."

I pulled a butterfly knife out of my pocket and briefly showed it to him.

"Whoa! Is that one of the new knives from the Weapon Dungeon?! You've got some seriously nice gear there… Wait, didn't your voice just come from somewhere weird…?"

"Y-You're imagining things. Anyway, see ya."

Since I was forcing a translation by picking up my voice as it played through the monitor in the Master Room and then broadcasting it through a speaker, the result was inevitably a little unnatural.

…Whatever. As long as I know we can communicate, that's good enough.

Experiment over. Time to get out of here before I give myself away. Let's go, let's go.

"Hey, wait! Let me get a closer look at that knife! I've always wanted equipment from the Weapon Dungeon…"

Yeah, yeah. Since he can't touch either my illusion or the knife, I'd better get out of here before he figures that out.

I waved at him with a smile and hurriedly ran away.

I might've panicked a little and run off at a speed no ordinary human could possibly manage.

When I returned to the Master Room and checked on the man from earlier, I saw that…

He was staring in the direction I'd fled, his eyes wide open and his jaw practically hanging to the floor.

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