The Road to Carriage*3
“Uwooooooah! There’s no shaking at all!”
“Waaaaaah! This is amazing, this is really amazing, Asuma-sama, this is incredible!”
“Calm down! Both of you! Don’t jump around! Don’t get all excited! Sit still!”
… And so, we were all fired up again on our way to the royal capital.
Well, except for Lisas-san, who was yelling “Aaaaaah!” up on the driver’s seat. Sorry, my bad.
The finished carriage, to put it simply, consisted of two main parts: the wheel section pulled by the horse and the floating carriage body connected on top of it.
Now, the carriage body itself could only float — it couldn’t control its altitude freely.
So if it floated just a little, it might catch on bumps in the road, but if it floated too high, it’d get unstable and become a total mess to handle.
… So, what we did was this: by attaching wheels and having the floating body hover just above them, we made it stable and easy to control, while greatly reducing shaking.
Think of it like a helium balloon tied to the back of a bicycle.
That balloon is the carriage body. It’s fairly heavy, and it’s not connected by a single string, so it’s quite stable.
Well, if we loaded it down with tons of books, maybe the fantasy float power would lose out, so we figured we’d test that this time too. Alright, let’s go!
The royal capital was as lively as ever. I love that. Just imagining Panis Village becoming like this someday makes my heart swell.
“Hmmm, we came pretty fast this time. Arrived earlier than usual. This thing’s great.”
“I bet if we improve the wheels, it could go even faster. Oh man, I’m excited already.”
I was in a great mood. Because, you know, the ride was so smooth!
Next, I’ll work on the wheels. Then the seats.
If I can make the seats more comfortable, we’ll have the ultimate fantasy carriage!
This’ll make life so much easier!
Anyway, good mood aside, I had to move quickly.
“Alright, let’s go to the bookstore. Hurry, hurry.”
“Hurry? We’ve got plenty of time, don’t we?”
“Yeah, but there are other places I wanna stop by too.”
I urged Lisas-san and Mishisia-san along, and we headed straight for the bookstore.
See, the bookstore wasn’t the only reason I came to the capital this time.
After buying up books like before, I loaded them all into the carriage to check how much weight it could handle.
“… Looks like it’s holding up fine.”
My worries were completely unfounded! Even with piles of books, plus me, Mishisia-san, and Lisas-san all riding inside, the carriage still floated just fine! Nice!
“This is great! It’s easier on the horse, too! A horse-friendly carriage!”
“Ah, yeah, you’re right. Since it’s floating, the weight doesn’t really affect the horse. Makes sense—it really is a horse-friendly carriage!”
Now that I thought about it, the horse’s steps had been lighter today.
At first I thought maybe it was just because I was in a good mood, but no—it was real. The load was lighter, so of course the horse moved easier.
“I see… so beyond comfort and speed, the biggest benefit of this design might be how much more it can carry…”
“Yeah! With this, even if there were ten of Lisas-san, it could still carry them all!”
“Ten of me…?”
Well, we’d never actually load ten Lisas-sans onto it, but… if a single horse could easily pull a carriage carrying a fully armed knight, then—this might actually be revolutionary.
See, unlike carriages, horses can’t just be mass-produced.
So if we could rapidly improve and mass-produce this kind of carriage, transportation efficiency would skyrocket!
And the bottleneck wouldn’t be the horses anymore.
If we can save horses like this, then yeah, I should keep developing these fantasy carriages going forward. That’ll bring Panis Village’s infrastructure one step closer to the future.
“By the way, Asuma-sama, what kind of books did you buy this time?”
“Academic ones…? Well, mostly books on magic theory. I’ve gotta read through a bunch of them—there’s no time to waste.”
Yep, this time I bought tons of academic books—specifically, books about magic.
I’d been thinking of mana in terms of mana elements and mana molecules, but I was starting to worry whether I could really keep managing magic just on that alone.
So I figured I should at least learn the basics of magical theory in this world.
Honestly, I’d rather take my time reading those kinds of books for the fun of it—but after the whole Mewmya carriage project, I realized I really do need solid knowledge about magic.
So today, I’m planning to disassemble and absorb all the books for speed-reading. Hopefully that’ll deepen my understanding of fantasy power.
Alright then.
Now, as for what we were going to do after that—
“I was thinking we could try entering the royal capital’s dungeon.”
“Enemy recon, huh!”
“No, no, not enemies… well, kinda, but no.”
… Yeah, one of the reasons I came to the capital—besides testing the carriage and buying books—was to check out a dungeon other than my own.
“The capital’s dungeon, huh… It’s basically a mine, you know?”
“Ah, yeah. Still, I wanted to take a look.”
Right. I’d heard about the capital’s dungeon before.
Apparently, it’s not a place where monsters appear—it’s more like a mine where people live and work full-time.
I’ve always figured that dungeon probably gathers information by housing a ton of people inside it.
“In that sense, it’s kinda similar to the Panis Village dungeon. Just… taken a lot further.”
“Yeah, a dungeon made for trapping residents inside…”
Well, learning from our predecessors isn’t a bad thing.
Whether I copy them or not is another matter, but having the knowledge can’t hurt.
Same with magic theory, same with other dungeons.
“I’d like to show you some monsters too, Asuma-sama…”
“But we only have slimes at our place, huh…”
Ah, right. That’s another thing I really need to study.
Our dungeon only has three types of slimes: normal slimes, giant slimes, and giant glowing slimes.
Well, sometimes there’s also a “drunk slime” at the tavern, so maybe four types.
Oh, and there’s also that one that dances to samba rhythms, so… dancing slime, I guess?
“Ah! But Asuma-sama, you can summon Mewmyas now, right!?”
“Hmm?”
Wait, wait, wait. Hold up.
“Mewmyas might not count as monsters, but at this rate, maybe you’ll be able to summon other creatures too!”
“… Huh?”
Okay, maybe I shouldn’t be spacing out thinking about slimes right now.
… Yeah, sure, I did manage to produce a Mewmya.
I got an egg, genetically modified it, and made a ‘super-flying Mewmya.’ Then I mass-produced them.
Even now, the ex-adventurers are out there going, “Uwooooh! Catch that Mewmya with the net!” “Feeding time!” “So much fur came out when brushing it!”
They’re having a blast.
“Mewmyas… aren’t monsters. But still… if Asuma-sama can create living creatures, perhaps one day he’ll make other monsters too…”
“No, no, no, no. The only reason I can make Mewmyas is because I disassembled and absorbed the egg first, and then reconstructed it with minor gene tweaks…”
But both Mishisia-san and Lisas-san started thinking about it seriously, so I hurried to correct them.
I can create Mewmyas only because I analyzed them through disassembly and absorption—
… Wait.
“… Hold on. Does that mean dungeons create monsters by reconstructing them!?”
“Eh? I dunno…”
Yeah, of course she doesn’t!
But still—that possibility never crossed my mind before!
Right! Dungeons do have dungeon power, so technically, yeah, they could use that to create monsters!
It’s possible! Totally possible! I mean, I made Mewmyas, didn’t I!?
But wait—if other dungeons are creating monsters that way, there’s a big problem.
“Which means—they’d have to disassemble and absorb monsters first, right!?”
Exactly! You’d need the original monster as a base for learning!
So where did that first monster come from!?
Don’t tell me the other dungeon masters are all monster hunters!?
Like, they go outside, catch monsters, bring them back home, disassemble them, and then reconstruct them in their dungeons!?
“Can’t they make them purely from imagination, though?”
“Eh…? No way. Monsters are living beings, you know? Even a single cell is insanely complex. How could you possibly make something like that just by imagination, Mishisia-san?”
“Eeeh…? But I’m alive, and monsters are alive, so… hmm…”
Mishisia-san tilted her head in confusion.
Maybe, in this world, people just think of living things as “somehow alive through mysterious means,” so they can recreate them easily through reconstruction without understanding the complexity behind it?
“… Maybe it’s possible, if you don’t think too hard about it. Just using mana and imagination to shape life…”
Could that be it? I mean, I can’t create monsters other than the slimes that naturally appear in my dungeon…
So maybe I am just overthinking it?
No way… seriously?
“Well… as long as Asuma-sama brings one back to his dungeon, he’d be able to produce it again, wouldn’t he?”
“Yeah. That’s probably true.”
Once I’ve disassembled and absorbed something, I can reproduce it however I want.
The hard part is just getting that first sample.
Mewmyas are basically monsters for me too, and I could reconstruct them just fine—well, starting from eggs, anyway.
“So that means… it’s possible to mass-produce rare monsters…?”
“… Yeah. And on top of that, I could even improve the breed to make them easier to raise…”
… Oh no.
I might’ve just realized something huge.
Something that could flip this world’s entire economy upside down…
What do you think about this chapter?
