The publication of Volume 2 of "Adventurer Reincarnated in Another World" has been decided.
It's currently in production, and the release date hasn't been set yet, but I received the cover rough and character design, so I'm posting them on Minna no Shiranai Monogatari.
If you're interested, take a look.
"Amy, you can come out now."
When I opened the Dimension Bag and called out to her, Amy emerged from inside. After her, I-chan and Shii-chan came out one after another. By putting Amy in the Dimension Bag, transporting her to the destination, and returning the same way, I'd made sure she couldn't memorize the route. This way, Amy wouldn't be able to reach the twentieth floor on her own.
However, while we made it to the goblin nest at our destination just fine, the entrance that had been sealed when we'd arrived was torn open. So everyone except Amy went inside to investigate, which threw my schedule off a bit. That said, it did ensure thorough safety. There were no Monsters, but we found a few venomous insects that even "Explore" had trouble detecting, so we exterminated all of them, securing a space that was definitely insect-free before calling Amy out. As for things that weren't Monsters or insects, we did find one unexpected creature in the nest. However, as long as we didn't make the first move, it was basically harmless, so we left it alone for now.
"So this is it? It really doesn't look like it was a goblin nest."
"Not really. There are spots here and there that still reek of goblins. Especially—don't go into the back of that hole. It's probably the goblins'..."
"...excrement pit..."
"...is why."
The one who answered Amy's question was a creature that had been hiding in this place, named Amur. When I'd heard that Amur had run away, I'd used "Explore" to search all of Seigen, but there had been no response, so I'd figured it must be lurking in a dungeon somewhere. Still, I never expected to find it here.
When I asked Amur how it knew about this place, it said it had learned from the craftsman's workshop that the nest was on the twentieth floor, so it had followed my scent (or Shiromaru's or Frau's) until it found a point where the trail suddenly cut off. Well, it was probably a stretch to say it had tracked the scent. More likely, it had been looking for an unnatural dead end that stood out from its perspective.
Be that as it may, just as Amur had pointed out, the faint smell of goblin excrement was drifting from one of the holes despite the considerable distance from the nest. So I decided to sterilize—purge it by fire, in this case—before proceeding with the Familiar bonding. I used "Explore" on the hole that reeked of excrement to confirm there were no people or objects inside, then used "Firestorm" to burn it all the way to the back. The biggest thing to watch out for was carbon monoxide poisoning, so I had everyone evacuate to the farthest point from the hole and conjured a mist with water magic around the perimeter, which should have made it safe enough. Furthermore, thanks to the mist, even if burning fragments of excrement flew up into the air and came out of the hole, the mist would block them from spreading outside. Finally, I sealed up the hole that had served as the latrine with soil from around the misty area, and that took care of it.
Dealing with the hole took a bit of time, but now I could proceed with bonding the spiders as Familiars without worry.
"All right, come here."
When I opened the Dimension Bag the spiders had been using as their nest and called out to them, the two that had grown attached to me approached. When I went to connect our Paths, the spiders accepted it, so I was able to successfully make them my Familiars. The Guild Master had been really eager to see it, but this was basically what it looked like in practice. Even I, the one doing it, felt it was anticlimactic. Agri, on the other hand, was so moved he was on the verge of tears. It was tempting to rib him, but if I said anything offhand, Agri might latch onto me in his weirdly hyped-up state, so everyone pretended not to notice.
"Sensei, aren't you going to make the last one a Familiar too?"
Amy said that as she picked up the silver spider remaining in the bag
and held it in her arms.
She approached. The spider still seemed wary of me, but it showed no concern for Amy, who was holding it. EE-chan and Shee-chan, following behind Amy, looked at the spider with great interest, occasionally leaning in close as if greeting it. So,
"Amy, how about making that spider one of your Familiars? Luckily, it doesn't seem to be on guard against you, and the compatibility with EE-chan and Shee-chan doesn't look bad either."
"Huh?!"
My sudden proposal elicited overlapping, vacant reactions. One was from Amy, the person in question, and the other was the hyperactive Agri. She was probably thinking that, if by some chance, she could be the one...
"It's not that strange. Since it won't warm up to me, the only options for this spider were to release it into the dungeon or dismantle it for materials. In that case, it would be better for you to make it a Familiar, Amy."
Hearing my words, Amy fell into thought. Agri, inwardly hoping Amy would refuse, had been striking a prayer-like pose for a while now.
"Alright. I'll take care of this child!"
Since that was the case, we decided to make the spider into a Familiar before Amy changed her mind. And just as I expected, Amy turned the spider into a Familiar without any trouble.
"His name is Kū-chan!"
It was an incredibly simple naming style, but everyone at the Tamer's Guild, except for Agri, was cheering and applauding. Looking closely, Agri was also applauding, albeit with a complicated expression.
Once the applause died down, everyone turned to look at me all at once. It was probably my turn to announce the names. But, I hadn't thought of names at all. So,
"Well then, Kin-san and Gin-san. They look like they'll live long."
"I don't understand the meaning..."
The grandpa's words made everyone nod in agreement. It was certainly a reference only I might get, but based on their colors, I thought they were perfect names for the two... However, Slarin, right in front of me, was slowly swaying its body side to side in disagreement. It seemed even Slarin thought Kin-san and Gin-san were no good. By the way, the spiders who were about to be given these names didn't seem to understand, and had been greeting Shiromaru and Solomon for a while now.
"Umm, then how about Goru and Jiru?"
I tried coming up with names based on the association with gold and silver, taking Gold and Silver. I said it half out of frustration, but this time Slarin seemed to consider the names safe, bouncing its body vertically. So, the spiders' names were decided: the gold one was "Goru" and the silver one was "Jiru".
Grandpa and the others looked like they wanted to say something about this choice too, but since Slarin, the leader of the Familiars, had given the okay, all other opinions were ignored.
Since they became Familiars, I checked what Goru and Jiru's abilities were like, but they really didn't seem suited for combat.
Name... Goru
Age... 8
Race... Golden Silk Spider
Title... Tenma's Familiar
HP... 1,000
MP... 800
Strength... D-
Defense... C+
Speed... B
Magic Power... D-
Mental Power... C
Growth... D
Luck... C
Skills... Thread 8, Poison 5, Concealment 4, Magic Power Manipulation 3
Jiru had the same Status as Goru, and it seemed like this was close to the limit for both of them. However, Skills had the potential to grow depending on future training, so I wanted to raise them gradually. Even so, they didn't seem like they'd become much of a fighting force, but we already had plenty of combat power, so that wasn't a problem.
"Ii-chan and Shii-chan are welcoming Ku-chan too!"
Amy seemed delighted that Ii-chan and Shii-chan, the senior Familiars, had accepted the new Familiar Ku-chan, and she'd been in high spirits since a little while ago. The members of the Tamer's Guild were watching Amy and Ku-chan with great interest.
"Agri, come here a moment."
Of all of them, Agri had been watching the most intently, so I called him over, and although he made a slightly annoyed face, he still came in response to my summons.
"What is it, Tenma? I was in the middle of observing Ku-chan."
"Keep it to a level where Amy won't be bothered. I won't say anything beyond that... Well, put that aside for now. I ended up making Ku-chan Amy's Familiar by chance, but with a Monster that rare, there are bound to be people who try to take it by force, right?"
"Well, that's true enough. What you're getting at is that we should keep an eye on Amy too, right? I fully intend to be careful, but I can't watch her around the clock."
Agri immediately understood what I was trying to say, and we agreed to help as much as we could. Since I'd suggested this without thinking it through, I felt bad about putting Amy in this situation, and I couldn't help wondering whether it would have been better to hand her over to Agri sooner.
"I could leave a few Golems with her for protection... If she had around five decent ones, they should hold out until help arrives..."
Of course, I couldn't hand over the high-performance Golems meant for royal use, so I was thinking of giving her the best ones from my regular stock.
"If that's the case, you'd be best off getting Alex to back her. Normally there'd be pushback, but Seigen is under the direct jurisdiction of the royal family, so asking the regional lord Alex for help is perfectly proper. Besides, if a letter mentions there's a young girl who's made a legendary Monster—one that barely appears even in the historical records—her Familiar, and asks for assistance, Alex will definitely be interested. Write that you'd like to consult first, and someone close to Alex is bound to show up."
So that's what we settled on—I'd write the letter for now. If it worked out, it would serve as a pretty powerful deterrent. But apparently Alex would expect something in return, so the plan was to start with a consultation and gradually work our way toward more favorable terms.
"Well, if someone does come"
"that idiot"
"or the third son, negotiations should be pretty straightforward. Oh, and don't forget to include Tenma's full name and family crest on the letter. Whether or not it's there makes a huge difference in how seriously they take it."
As I listened to Grandpa's advice, I wrote the letter. Since it was supposed to be just a consultation, I deliberately kept it vague.
"How's this? Ted, sorry to ask, but I need this delivered to the Royal Capital ASAP. Take it to Grandpa's estate or the knights' station—it should reach the royal family from there. Just in case, there's a second letter included that explains what the first one is about, so if anything happens, have them read that. Worst case, if you hang around Grandpa's estate, one of the Royal Guard should show up, so ask them."
"I won't get caught by the Royal Guard, right?"
"If that happens, just drop Aina's name. She should be able to vouch for you as someone I know. Your fee is three gold coins, and here's an extra one in case anything goes wrong—use it for food and lodging."
I waved off Ted's question, and with a cheerful grin, Ted left the goblin nest. He planned to be back in four days, and even if something came up, it shouldn't take more than a week.
Until then, I had Amy keep Ku-chan a secret and set about adjusting five Golems for her exclusive use.
At first, Amy was bewildered by the sudden gift of Golems, but once I explained in detail just how rare Ku-chan was, she accepted them despite her hesitation. Well, the Golem cores were repurposed from old ones, so by my standards, they weren't all that expensive.
Amy seemed satisfied with that explanation, but Grandpa and Agri looked at me like I was an idiot child, and I couldn't help noticing. Still, I'd built all the Golems myself, so I decided the value was mine to determine and ignored all their looks.
"There's nothing left to do here—should we head back?"
When I said that to the group, everyone nodded—except the Sakarat Brothers. Despite having gone through a terrifying ordeal here, they wanted to continue mining for minerals. I understood their feelings since they'd originally come here for that very purpose, but their Magic Bags and Dimension Bags were just about at capacity.
I wasn't about to carry their overflow for them, so when I suggested leaving them behind and heading back with everyone else, the brothers quickly abandoned their mining and hurried after us. They clearly didn't want to stay here alone.
Once we exited the dungeon, I asked Agri to look after Amy, and then Grandpa, Amour, and I rushed off to the master craftsman's workshop. Since I'd left Tanikaze entirely in the craftsman's care, the moment we stepped out of the dungeon I was suddenly struck with worry that strange modifications might have been made in my absence—and in my haste, I completely forgot about the other two and took off at full speed.
I wasn't about to use Flight in the middle of town (it's not against the rules, but it wouldn't be looked upon favorably), but I was apparently moving at about the speed of a galloping horse. Everyone I passed wore matching looks of surprise before I vanished far behind them in an instant.
I kept sprinting from the dungeon and arrived at the master craftsman's workshop in roughly ten minutes, but I'd run so hard that I could barely breathe. When I stumbled into the workshop in that state, the master was sound asleep with a wine barrel clutched in his arms, wearing a look of absolute contentment.
A bad feeling washed over me. I looked at Tanikaze, which was nearly fully assembled, and while I couldn't spot any visible changes from the outside, there were scraps of material scattered around it—remnants of some kind of crafting work.
"They got me... What did he modify?"
From the outside alone, I couldn't find anything different, but knowing the master, there was a very real chance he'd made modifications to parts you couldn't see with the naked eye. So I kicked the barrel he'd been holding to wake him up.
As for the master's apprentices—all of them had been tied up in straw mats, gagged with bamboo muzzles, and stuffed into the storeroom. When we freed them, they stared at the master with eyes brimming with rage and resentment, and it was all I could do to stop them from lunging at him.
"What's going on?! Enemy attack?!"
Even as he shouted that, the master groped around blindly, searching for the missing barrel. He was clearly still half-asleep.
The apprentices and I stared down at the master in silence. But the master didn't notice us—he instead crawled at high speed to his personal desk, knocked the chair aside with brute force. Thinking something entertaining was about to happen, we decided not to approach and quietly watched from a distance.
After moving the chair, the master immediately started fiddling with the floor beneath it without so much as glancing to the side. There was a clunk, and a section of the floor came loose.
The master thrust his upper body into the opening and began counting something inside. He seemed completely absorbed in the count, so judging it the perfect moment, we quietly crept up behind him and called out.
"What are you hiding?"
"GYAAAAAAH—WHO IS IT?!"
The scream was so piercing that we—the ones trying to scare him—ended up startled ourselves. The master tried to scramble out from under the floor and smacked his head hard against the edge.
He writhed in agony for a while, but eventually managed to assess his surroundings, fixing us with a teary-eyed glare.
"Don't you dare scare me like that! What would you do if my head split open and I died?!"
"You were the one who got scared for no reason. Besides, all we did was call out to you normally—why would that make you jump like that unless you were hiding something?"
We kept insisting that we'd done nothing wrong by simply calling out to him, and the master couldn't exactly press the issue further. After all, he'd been half-asleep and had no proof we'd done it on purpose. And honestly, we hadn't expected him to react that dramatically from a simple greeting either—it was completely unforeseeable. In other words, an accident.
"Tch... Fine. Let's go to the next room and talk this over properly."
"We're fine right here. I want to know what you did to Tanikaze, and I'm also curious about whatever's under that floor."
The master was trying to naturally lead us away from the workshop, but I firmly refused and pushed to continue our discussion right there. After all, what I really wanted to get to the bottom of wasn't what was under the floor—it was the tampering that had been done to Tanikaze. So it made much more sense to press the issue here and now.
"Tch."
Clicking his tongue, the master positioned himself in front of us, angling his body to block the hole from view. We continued to glare at each other like that when, without warning, the workshop door was violently thrown open.
"Hmph~!"
Standing there was Amour, cheeks puffed out and radiating unmistakable displeasure.
"Now! Get him!"
While everyone was distracted by Amour's arrival, it was the apprentices who moved first. Normally, even if they all ganged up on him at once, the master would have dealt with them handily. But this time they caught him completely off guard. Pushed back by the apprentices, the master was forced away from his spot in front of the hole.
"Hey, hold on a second—"
The master tried to shove the apprentices back, but he couldn't stop their momentum. In the struggle, he ended up giving one of them just enough time to peer into the hole.
"Whoa..."
The apprentice who peered into the hole let out a stunned voice and swapped out with another apprentice. That one made the same sound. The master had already given up and gone quiet, but since no one was sure what he might try, the apprentices took turns standing guard on either side of him.
"What's in there... whoa..."
After the apprentices had finished looking, it was my turn to peer in, and sure enough, all I could manage was the same bewildered exclamation.
"Liquor, liquor, liquor, liquor, liquor, liquor, and money... And this money—if it's all meant for buying more liquor, does that mean the entire contents are just booze? But beyond that, these walls are incredible... jaw-droppingly so."
Well, they were dwarves, so it wasn't exactly surprising that the vault was filled entirely with alcohol. But what truly shocked me was that the walls were made entirely of Orichalcum, presumably to protect the liquor. On top of that, they'd even carved magic circles into it to prevent magical detection. I made sure to commit those magic circles to memory—I wanted to try using them sometime.
Still, the fact that they'd gone so far as to build a two-meter-by-two-meter-by-one-meter vault made entirely of Orichalcum just to protect their liquor... the dwarven obsession—or rather, the master's obsession with booze—was nothing short of terrifying.
"Master... you told us you couldn't afford to pay for materials, remember? We even got into a fight over it?"
"And we scraped together every last gold coin to pay off your bar tab, too."
"There's at least a million gold sitting right here... what the hell was all that suffering we went through back then for?"
Unlike me, who was busy marveling at all the wrong things, the apprentices were seething with anger. Honestly, hearing all of this, I couldn't blame them. If my own grandpa had pulled something like that, I'd be furious too.
After that, a no-holds-barred battle broke out between the master and his apprentices, but I wasn't all that interested, so I'll skip it here. For the record, it ended in a brutal fistfight that was ruled a no-contest after the guards barged in.
"At this point, the Tanikaze seems to be pretty much done, so I guess I'll take it home... I don't even want to think about what'll happen if it gets tinkered with any further..."
Even after handling it myself, I couldn't really tell whether the inside had been messed with or not, so I'd need to examine it thoroughly.
As for Amour, who had been in a terrible mood earlier, the chaos of the brawl seemed to have drained his energy entirely, and a single baked snack was enough to bring him right back to normal.
"Let's head back."
"Yeah."
Amour and I left the master and his apprentices to the scolding of the guards and made our way back to the apartment, but at this point, Amour had forgotten something important. Namely, that he was still on the run from Branca.
Upon returning to the apartment, Amour was immediately captured by Branca, who had been lying in wait, and ended up confined there in a bound state.
"Tenma, you saved me!"
"Mmph! Mmmghghgh!"
"No, it's not like I was helping Branca or anything..."
Branca thanked me for bringing Amour back, while Amour was convinced I had set him up and kept shouting through his gag. I did try to tell him that wasn't the case, but in the end, I had effectively delivered Amour straight into her hands, which stung a little... Of course, I had also forgotten about my grandpa, locked up the carriage, and promptly gone to sleep, so the next day I ended up groveling in apology to him...