Dungeon Exchange Meeting*2
“First, regarding the question of whether the king and the other knights know about my current situation… only a very small number of people are aware of it.”
And so, we began talking while leisurely enjoying a tea party. Behind us, the Giant-Ass Slime stood by. Because of that, there was this strong sense of pressure, no, more like a dense, squishy presence pressing in on us.
“When you say a very small number… naturally, His Majesty the King knows, I assume…”
“Yes. His Majesty the King, and the commander of the First Knights Order at the time. Only those two.”
“Wha!?”
Right from the start, a bombshell was dropped, and we all shuddered. Fewer people knew than we’d expected!
“… I did consider reporting it to various places. However, His Majesty at the time was facing a rather delicate situation.”
“Ah… that was when it was uncertain whether war would break out, wasn’t it?”
Lisas-san and Aura-sama looked at each other with expressions that clearly said, ‘Right, right, there was a war back then.’ I see. If the war ended about two years ago, then it must have begun three, five, or even ten years before that… and the signs of war starting ten years ago actually makes perfect sense.
“We quickly realized that a dungeon could be repurposed for military use. Precisely because of that, there was fear that strategies centered around dungeons would be proposed, so the decision was made to keep the dungeon’s existence hidden.”
“… With this power, I can’t help but think the war might have ended much sooner.”
“It might also have grown far larger in scale. And if information about the dungeon had leaked to the enemy, the entire country could have been reduced to scorched earth.”
Lisas-san clearly had mixed feelings about it, but… well, I think there’s some truth to that.
Technological advancement tends to go hand in hand with escalation. And when everything escalates… ah, yeah, that quote: ‘I don’t know what weapons will be used in World War III, but World War IV will be fought with stones and sticks.’
Even in my own world, there’s a real possibility of a war that could wipe out all of civilization. Humanity already possesses that capability.
… It’s not that I think technological progress itself is bad. The problem is that human ethics don’t automatically update alongside it, and not everyone possesses the intelligence needed to handle that kind of power responsibly.
So, in a way, a situation where only a very limited few possess technology can be considered one kind of ideal. Only those who can handle it have access to it. Those who can’t simply benefit indirectly, thinking, ‘I don’t really get it, but somehow things got better!’ And that’s fine.
“In that case, wasn’t it bad that we ended up learning about this place?”
“… Well, that’s why I initially tried to kill you.”
“I see… yeah, yeah, makes sense, makes sense.”
Given that, I can completely understand why Aura-sama tried to kill us, so let’s just let bygones be bygones. Or if not, we can let the slime wash it away. Good.
“The purpose of this dungeon is to reduce, even a little, the number of people who turn to crime because they’re struggling to survive… If they have a place to sleep and a job, they won’t need to resort to crime.”
“That’s great!”
“Thank you. Ever since I was in the Knights Order, I’ve wanted to promote initiatives like this.”
Seeing Aura-sama smiling so warmly makes me think, ‘He probably had a lot on his mind even before becoming a dungeon master.’
Right now, the royal capital is quite safe, and the reason is probably because there are people pushing forward efforts like this.
No matter what, there will always be people who turn to crime. When intelligence and income both fall below a certain threshold, crime becomes the outcome. And even if you just punish those people one by one, it turns into a never-ending cycle, and the population shrinks on top of that.
… Poverty relief is seriously hard work. I can see why Lisas-san holds Aura-sama in such high regard.
“… That’s why we can’t afford to lose this dungeon. We’ve taken in a considerable number of people here, and I’ve heard that it has improved security in the royal capital. Ideally, we’d like to spread this kind of effort throughout the country, but… if all we produce is gold, there’s inevitably a limit.”
“Yeah, exactly.”
I understand Aura-sama’s concern… If similar dungeons like this gold mine dungeon started popping up all over the country, it’d be a huge problem.
After all, what it produces is gold. Gold.
To put it bluntly, by itself it’s not useful for anything, it’s just something that turns into money. And if the amount of gold produced increases drastically, the value of gold plummets. And gold that’s lost its value is completely useless.
So if “gold mine dungeons” started appearing everywhere, it would definitely spell disaster. The country’s entire poverty-relief system would be overturned from the ground up!
“On that point, if mass-producing slimes allows crops to be grown using those slimes… then it shouldn’t become a serious problem.”
“Exactly. The slimes themselves are important, but the crops grown from them are the real goal. Not only will there be work capturing slimes, but also jobs planting crops into the captured slimes!”
So from Aura-sama’s perspective, if there was a poverty-relief measure that didn’t require producing massive amounts of gold, he wanted to push that forward as well.
If he kept producing gold endlessly, he’d eventually be strangling himself. That’s probably why turning this place into a gold mine dungeon was something he agonized over before reluctantly deciding it was the only option.
“Should we also create rooms large enough to be used as farmland?”
“Well, that would probably be better outside the dungeon… hmm? No, but if impoverished people could be self-sufficient here, maybe that’s better…?”
“… No, let’s not. If they grow vegetables outside the dungeon, they’ll be able to use that as capital to live after leaving the dungeon.”
“Ahh, when you put it that way, you’re right... But that would reduce the dungeon’s population. Is that okay?”
“Of course. That’s the goal.”
… I have nothing but the deepest respect for Aura-sama, who so readily decided to prioritize the lives of the people living here over the dungeon’s mana.
From the standpoint of dungeon mana, it would be more efficient to keep as many people inside as possible, and making it possible to grow crops inside would help with that.
But if people could live entirely within the dungeon, they’d eventually stop leaving it altogether… and then the dungeon would become a world completely cut off from the outside.
Truly, Aura-sama is a person worthy of the admiration Lisas-san shows him.
Now then. After that, we went into detailed discussions about things like “how to make slimes appear inside the gold mine dungeon,” exchanging ideas such as “this might work” and “the frequency should be about this much.”
Later, we’ll probably need to ask Laperesiana-sama to help fine-tune the details… but for now, we came up with a plan solid enough to try out.
“Then, starting tomorrow, let’s begin producing slimes.”
“Please do!”
I’m looking forward to seeing how the gold mine dungeon changes starting tomorrow. Once slime hunting begins, the dungeon will really come alive, creating opportunities for many people to find work.
… And then.
“And next… you were curious about how gold is produced, correct?”
“Yes! Please tell me!”
I straightened my posture and faced Aura-sama. He smiled and nodded… then explained.
“I used alchemy.”
“Al… alchemy?”
“Yes. Alchemy. It’s a type of ancient magic.”
… I blankly replayed Aura-sama’s words in my head.
Alchemy… I have a rough idea of what it is. And I understand that in this world it’s classified as “a type of ancient magic.”
But… I still don’t know what it actually is! I can only tell that it’s definitely not something like nuclear fission or fusion!
“Um, so this alchemy… specifically, what kind of…”
“It allows for the conversion of substances.”
… I want the method. Not the goal, the method!
“For example, turning iron into silver, or lead into gold. It’s said that if mastered, one can even obtain all knowledge and an immortal life.”
The method! The process! How does it work!? What do you actually do when performing alchemy!?
“However, I apparently lacked much aptitude for magic… Even using the dungeon’s power, I could only manage to produce gold.”
… Huh? You use dungeon power for that?
“You’re also a dungeon master, correct? Are you unable to use alchemy?”
“Wait… is the power a dungeon uses actually alchemy?”
Huh? Huh…? I seriously have no idea what’s going on anymore…
… After asking him a bunch of questions, it turned out that “using dungeon power allows one to use alchemy.” In other words, Aura-sama seems to understand it as “alchemy can be performed very efficiently when using dungeon power.”
I mean, honestly… I think what I call “Reconstruction” is basically what Aura-sama calls “alchemy.”
Of course, if I tried to do what Aura-sama does, it wouldn’t work the same way. I tested that early on, making bread from stone was insanely hard!
… So, in short…
“Being a dungeon master… means each one can do slightly different things, huh…”
“I-is that so…?”
It seems my fantasy aptitude is just a bit on the weak side.
“… Well, I probably can’t do things like turning elements into other elements… so that’ll continue to be Aura-sama’s exclusive specialty.”
“I see. Indeed, if you’d never studied alchemy at all, you wouldn’t be able to do the same thing even with dungeon power…”
In the end, Aura-sama can use “magic.” I can’t. Dungeon power is something separate from magic.
And since Aura-sama could already use magic, he can use this cheat-like thing called alchemy to turn stone into gold. It consumes mana, of course, but apparently the mana generated by people entering and staying overnight is more than enough to cover the day’s production. Which is absurdly efficient. Way too absurd!
… Well, I gave up on it pretty quickly. I can’t do this. Knowing, from a scientific perspective, just how difficult it is for one element to change into another probably makes it impossible for me.
So the Panis Village dungeon will never produce gold… Instead, I’ll just keep pumping out crystals, peridot, and other gemstones!
“However, it seems you possess something that only you can do.”
“That appears to be the case!”
On the other hand, it seems I have my own exclusive specialty too, something not every dungeon master can do.
“Transforming plant seeds and affecting the plants themselves… I never even considered such a thing. And I have no idea what I’d need to do to make it happen.”
… Yeah.
It seems genetic modification is my exclusive domain.
“… Could it be that you are of elven lineage?”
And apparently, I might be a descendant of elves.
… No, I don’t think that’s right. Yeah. That can’t be it… Right? Look, Mishisia-san is looking at me like, ‘Isn’t that wrong?’ … Yeah. Probably wrong.
What do you think about this chapter?
