“I can’t believe we got this many magic stones……incredible!”
“It is a dungeon, after all. Magic stones come out more easily than from monsters outside. And the Lancelot Mark II types were a huge help.”
With that, Alicia glanced back at the golems lined up behind her.
——The Lancelot Mark II, Labyrinth Exploration Model.
A slightly smaller version of the Lancelot-type, designed for combat in confined spaces.
Its armor durability had also been substantially increased to withstand the harsh environment of a labyrinth.
The appraisal magic put its combat power at level thirty equivalent.
Below Alicia and the others, but roughly on par with a seasoned human adventurer — a fine piece of work.
“How strong were the monsters?”
“Mmm — considerably above the Great Forest average. Level thirty or so. Shadow Wolves were the tricky ones in particular.”
“Shadow Wolves?”
A monster name I’d never heard.
Misha said it in a tone meant to unsettle me.
“A wolf subspecies with jet-black fur. They use dark magic to blind you and then attack out of nowhere — genuinely terrifying.”
“That sounds pretty nasty.”
“The golems’ detection got knocked out too, apparently. We nearly had them hitting each other.”
“I see. I’ll add thermal detection functionality then.”
“Could you make a version of that thermal detection thing for us too?”
“I’ll look into whether it can be applied to human equipment.”
Makina took notes smoothly while listening to Ganz.
Going forward, golem-only exploration runs were planned for magic stone collection.
Any obstacles to that needed to be dealt with now.
“Were there any other potential problems?”
“Nothing else significant. Actually — in this run, we reached the deepest level.”
“What?”
Both Makina and I reacted with surprise.
Fully clearing a dungeon was the kind of undertaking nations mobilized for.
Alicia’s party was by no means weak, but reaching the bottom immediately seemed too much even for them.
Alicia and Misha elaborated for Ganz.
“There were only five floors in total. The floor boss was a Fire Lizard — nothing formidable. Level sixty or so.”
“My guess is the dungeon just hasn’t grown yet. It’s a bit too small.”
“Grown?”
“Yes. Dungeons are said to develop over time.”
So it was a newborn dungeon, barely out of the cradle.
The dungeons that had been found up until now had probably spent long years developing before anyone discovered them.
In this case, the Great Serpent had happened to settle near the spot where it formed, which is why its existence was exposed right away.
Whether that was good luck or bad luck was hard to say……
“If you reached the deepest level, did you suppress the core?”
“No — we found something that looked like it, a huge crystal. But none of us had any idea how to handle it.”
“I tried looking into it, but honestly had no clue.”
“I see. Then I’ll go investigate later. Misha, please come with me.”
“Sure!”
Misha answered with enthusiasm despite having just gotten back.
Having volunteered as a researcher herself, she must have had a strong curious streak to begin with.
Getting to investigate an unknown entity with Makina seemed to genuinely delight her.
“In the meantime, I’ll take on Lord Viktor’s escort as before.”
“Please do. That said — we’re running increasingly short-handed.”
Makina made a troubled face.
Even now she had an extremely demanding schedule.
Beyond her duties as my maid, she was handling everything from research to practical operations at the base.
Even for a tireless golem, the workload was starting to exceed what one person could manage.
“For now things are holding together, but it may be worth thinking eventually about adding bodies.”
“Adding bodies?”
A brute-force solution if there ever was one.
We looked at her with mild exasperation, but Makina was completely serious.
“If my processing capability increases substantially further, operating multiple bodies simultaneously is entirely achievable. That would require an even larger magic stone, however.”
“A bigger magic stone than you have now — that’s not going to be easy to come by. Even in a demon frontier, are there monsters like that just lying around?”
“If we can manage to grow the dungeon properly, maybe. The lower floors of Minastil had upper-tier dragons as floor bosses.”
“But to do that we’d first need to research what actually makes a dungeon grow.”
Alicia and the others went back and forth on it.
Either way, obtaining a larger magic stone was going to take considerable effort.
Not something that could be done overnight.
“Come to think of it — the magic stones you had stockpiled here were originally for barter, right?”
I looked toward Mumul, who had been standing back quietly.
He nodded, looking somewhat puzzled.
“Yes, that’s right — is something the matter?”
“In that case, the Elves are probably sitting on magic stones too. If we play it right, they might be willing to part with some.”
“Indeed, it wouldn’t be surprising for the Elven clan — one of the Six Kings — to have large magic stones in their possession. But getting them to agree……”
“We’ll figure that out as we go.”
I cut the conversation off, leaving Mumul to his worries.
We had Makina’s combat strength and the mountain’s resources on our side.
Even if they drove a hard bargain, we’d be able to meet it to some degree.
For now the priority was simply to open trade with the Elves in the first place.
Ideally before that——
“We should probably think of a name for the base before we start trading. A nameless village makes for awkward conversation with outside parties.”
“True. A name would be useful for any interaction with other regions.”
“Oh, in that case we want to help come up with one!”
“Me too!”
Everyone raised their hands with enthusiasm.
And so we kept steadily moving forward, one preparation at a time——.