Dungeon Reform Plan*3
"Asuma-sama."
That still-unfamiliar low voice called out to me.
When I turned, there was Lisas, standing there looking uncomfortable.
"Ah, good morning. Sleep well?"
"Yeah. For the first time in ages, without the pain in my arm... I overslept. My apologies."
Lisas looked kind of deflated. Restless, too, like he didn’t quite know what to do with himself. Well, with everyone else busy on slime-related farm work while he just stood around, I guess it’d feel awkward.
"Is there something I can help with? I’m not one-armed anymore. I’m not the most dexterous, but carrying and hauling—I’m good at that sort of thing."
"Uh, well..."
But most of the slimes had already dispersed. All that was left was for me to give them fertilizer, then we’d be done.
And more importantly... he had his own work that I needed him to focus on.
"Alright then, guess we’ll put you to work right away... Umm, Mishisia! Could you come over for a sec?"
"Ye~s! What is it~!?"
So first, I called for Mishisia. She had just rescued a slime that had fallen into a drainage ditch, and after setting it down nearby, she came running over to us. Always so energetic, that one.
… Well then. With me, Mishisia, and Lisas all together—
"From this moment on, we’re moving forward with the Dungeon Reform Plan!"
I declared it on the spot. These things—sometimes you just gotta declare them and roll with it. Yep.
"In order to secure the dungeon and the village, I’ve got some ideas... but I’d like to hear what you two think about them first."
See, the reason I wanted these two to hear my Dungeon Reform Plan wasn’t just because they were defenders of the dungeon. It was because... they were people of this world.
Mishisia knew a lot about the World Tree and such, but didn’t seem very familiar with the human world.
Lisas, on the other hand, should know quite a bit. After all, he’d spent time with washed-up adventurers and the like.
That’s why hearing from both of them would let me refine the plan down to the details. That’s the idea.
"Alright, so first off... as the base structure of the cave, I’m thinking of dividing it into three layers."
With that, I picked up a burnt stick and began sketching diagrams onto a stone slab.
"The first layer is the exploration zone for adventurers. A maze with treasures scattered around, designed to drain their time, stamina, and supplies. Then, the second layer—I’m planning to make it a ‘false endpoint.’"
"False endpoint? What do you mean?"
Mishisia tilted her head right away, so I whipped up a miniature model using Reconstruction.
"Something like this... I’ll build a giant tree."
"Wow... it’s beautiful!"
What I created was a jewel-crafted tree.
The trunk and branches glowed with a translucent orange-to-brown hue—carnelian.
The leaves were vivid, transparent green gemstones—peridot.
And fruits of quartz crystal sparkled among the branches.
"I’ll set up an obviously unnatural-looking tree like this. That way, folks who come here chasing World Tree rumors will just assume, ‘Ah, someone saw this and mistook it for the real thing.’"
"I see... so by showing them a jewel-crafted tree, you’re hiding the true World Tree!"
"Exactly! … And if I allow people to take a single branch home, then the rumor will spread as, ‘It wasn’t the World Tree, it was a jewel tree.’"
The idea was to make it both beautiful and valuable-looking, so people would want to take it home—and so others would believe it could be mistaken for the World Tree.
By letting the fake World Tree circulate in trade, the rumor of the real one would get drowned out. That’s the strategy.
"Are you sure it’s alright to let people take home something so beautiful?"
Lisas looked worried, but well—thank goodness for dungeon power.
"Yeah, it’s fine. Carnelian and peridot can be made from the rock around here."
Carnelian, after all, is just a form of quartz—the main mineral in granite. The quartz fruits were the same deal. Just tweak the crystal structure.
Peridot, too, is naturally found mixed in granite. It’s basically magnesium olivine, and little grains of it pop up fairly often. By reconstructing them into larger clusters, I could easily make leaf-sized pieces.
So really, I didn’t mind if they were taken. I could always expand the cave to get more.
"... But if folks keep hauling away huge, flawless gems, the market might crash..."
Yeah, peridot doesn’t naturally come in big, flawless crystals. Hm...
Maybe jade then... but sodium’s too scarce for hard jadeite, and there isn’t enough magnesium for soft nephrite either. Mica might have some, especially golden mica, but not nearly enough to keep things sustainable...
Well, granite mica—white, black, or gold—is aluminum-based. Maybe I could make a green sapphire variant? But what makes sapphire green? Iron gives blue, chromium gives red... so maybe titanium? There’s plenty of titanium in the soil, so maybe that’d work...
"Asuma-sama, you’re muttering something that sounds like a weird incantation."
Ah. Right. My bad. Anyway—leaf material still under consideration.
"Anyway, the third layer will be the true deepest part. That’s where the World Tree is—and where my home is."
"And there’s also that mysterious rift that magic flows out of, right?"
Yeah. I’m pretty sure it’s connected to my world... which is why I really don’t want intruders down there.
"So, the deepest part will be inaccessible to outsiders, but still maintainable... I’ll set up a ridiculously complicated path full of traps, hidden doors, the works."
Ideally, I’d just seal it off entirely, but... that rift that seems connected to my world? I get the feeling completely sealing it wouldn’t be good. Just a hunch, but still.
So the plan is: there will be a path, but it’ll be hidden and fortified—defended on multiple layers.
"That’s the part I’ll need you and Mishisia to guard, alright?"
"Sure! Leave it to me!"
"Understood. You mean the two of us will take turns, then?"
"Nah, I’m thinking more like only summoning you if something actually happens. No way we could do a 24/7 two-shift guard rotation."
I can sense what goes on in the dungeon anyway, so we’ll only need to act if someone’s really close to breaching the deepest layer. Besides...
"Basically, we’ll wear them down enough on the first floor that they won’t even have the strength to reach the third. The second floor alone should be impassable. That’s the policy. How’s that sound?"
If we’re going to operate the dungeon as part of the village’s livelihood, just leaving it as an empty maze would be pointless.
The real key is the first floor. That’s where the traffic will be, where people will explore and work. That’s where we’ve got to focus our efforts.
What do you think about this chapter?
