Four dungeons are scattered around Hydrangea.
The Fire Dungeon.
The Water Dungeon.
The Wind Dungeon.
The Earth Dungeon.
Of all the dungeons, the Earth Dungeon is by far the most popular.
"Is this your first time, Wof?"
"It is."
On our way to the Earth Dungeon.
I answered Mineha, who was sitting on my shoulder in her fairial form.
It felt like it had been quite a while since she'd perched on my shoulder like this.
"Huh, that's surprising."
Mineha seemed to be enjoying the change of pace too, swinging her legs back and forth.
"I heard it was popular, but places like that aren't really my thing, so I'd been putting it off."
In my memories from my past life — theme parks, adventure lands, movie studios, that sort of thing.
I never liked those popular spots because of all the crowds.
"True, there are tons of delvers there..."
"I heard it's because you can mine ore."
"Yep, that's the main reason. There are ore-related quests too, and ore buyback prices stay consistently high. Oh, and delvers who do nothing but mine ore all day get mocked as 'diggers.'"
"Huh, was your commission mineral gathering too, Mineha?"
"That's right. But it's not a tough one. Just hunt ten mineral lizards."
"Mineral lizards?"
"Monsters whose entire bodies are made of ore. The color varies depending on the quality of the ore, but this client specifically wants high-quality blue ones."
"Ten blue mineral lizards, got it."
"A little damage is fine, but better condition means a higher payout. They'll apparently buy more than ten as well."
I didn't know what they were used for, but they must have been in demand.
"Are blue mineral lizards rare?"
"They're high quality, so I suppose you could say that. Also, mineral lizards only appear on floor sixteen and below. We'll have to search as we chase them downward."
"Are they hard to find?"
"Yeah, the high-quality ones are a bit."
Mineha sighed.
"In that case, it should be fine. I can specify them with my Relic."
"Oh, right. You. You do have that convenient thing."
Mineha gave a wry smile.
We arrived at the earthen dungeon while we talked.
It was diagonally southeast of Hydrangea, a little deeper than the water dungeon.
It'd take some time, but it was just within range for a day trip.
"…It's huge…"
I couldn't help but look up and mutter.
The entrance to the Earth Dungeon was a semicircle.
It gaped open like the maw of some giant monster — the biggest dungeon entrance I'd seen so far.
It was solidly reinforced and neatly maintained.
And we'd barely even set foot through the actual entrance yet.
That was the kind of impression it gave, even from this distance.
"Pretty breathtaking, huh?"
Mineha nodded with inexplicable pride.
Moreover, there were more delvers coming and going than I'd ever seen at any dungeon before.
Lining both sides of the street up to the entrance were buildings packed in tight.
Most were inns or taverns. General stores stood out too. Behind the buildings along the street, I could make out even more buildings.
The whole place was enclosed by tall walls. At this point, it wasn't really a village anymore — it was a town.
"This is just… ridiculously… amazing…"
"Right? Come on, let's go."
"Y-yes."
Please stop pulling my ear.
As we got closer to the entrance, the comings and goings of delvers made it noisy as all get-out.
"Ya wanna go, punk?!"
"Take that back, you bastard!"
Whoa — a fistfight had broken out.
Over on the other side of the street, people were arguing too.
Some people were trying to stir things up or enjoying the spectacle, but almost everyone just ignored it and kept walking.
Well, I walked right past it and entered the dungeon.
Since there were a lot of delvers, I moved toward the corner as much as I could.
The entrance was bigger than I'd expected, so no line had formed, and that alone was a relief.
"Oh, so that's why you stayed small, Mineha."
"What do you mean?"
"I thought maybe being small would let you squeeze through gaps and make things easier."
"That too, but the other day when I was still big, someone grabbed my butt."
"...That's sexual harassment."
"Well, I clobbered the guy, but still."
"Ha ha ha..."
That's so Mineha.
"But seriously, I don't really get it, but apparently I stand out, so I've had quite a few dangerous encounters."
"Really?"
"I've almost been dragged into dark alleys, almost kidnapped, that sort of thing."
"...That's a crime."
"I clobbered every last one of them, though. Some of them I even had the dungeon clean up after."
That meant she killed them. Mineha wasn't in the wrong.
When your life is in danger, that's what it comes to.
"Well, I haven't been going solo lately, at least."
"I see..."
I'd been surprised that Mineha, who'd stubbornly insisted on going solo, had so readily teamed up with someone.
I guess that's what happens when you keep at it like that.
Also, Mineha... she really doesn't seem to understand her own appeal.
Part of it was that she was only ten, but Mineha had zero interest in things like appearance or charm.
We descended the stairs to the first underground floor. From there, the scenery changed dramatically.
The neat path gave way to rough, craggy rock surfaces.
"Go through here, and from the second floor we'll use the teleportation circle to reach the sixth floor."
"Got it."
A shortcut, huh. Makes sense.
The first underground floor wasn't much, but from the second floor down, we could hear mining sounds.
A distinctive, dull metallic ringing echoed through the air.
"They're mining from a place like this?"
"Yeah, hired hands."
"Hired hands..."
"Mining is permitted up to the second floor, so they extract ore there."
"Is it worth it?"
"Worth it how?"
"Oh, well—I mean, can they actually make a living from just that?"
"...Hmm. I'm not really sure, honestly. The second floor doesn't yield much, but they are pulling out ore. The buyback price for second-floor-grade ore isn't exactly high, but it's still a price someone's willing to pay... What's with you, Wof? You that curious about it?"
"...I was actually pretty recently a hired hand myself."
Strictly speaking, I wasn't technically a hired hand — I'd just been earning living expenses at the Junkyard.
So I understood the feeling.
"Oh, that's right."
Mineha murmured that and fell silent.
We couldn't see the children mining ore from the route we took through.
But the sound of them digging at ore echoed and echoed, carrying on without end.
When I stepped on the teleportation circle, I was transported to the sixth basement floor.
That was where Mineha grew large, returning to her fairial form.
"..."
"What is it?"
"No, it's just..."
Glittering honey-colored hair and honey-colored eyes.
A bewitchingly charming face, too perfectly sculpted, almost demonic in its allure.
And a special dynamite body absolutely loaded with overwhelming sex appeal that just captivates you.
Not a dynamite body. A *special* dynamite body.
And not slim-hipped-and-buxom.
Wide-hipped-and-very-buxom.
This is the kind of body that gets you groped, gets you dragged off somewhere, and nearly gets you kidnapped.
And the moment she grew large, a sweet fragrance like honey began to waft from Mineha.
Of course, she wasn't wearing any perfume or anything like that.
"What is it?"
"Ah, um, that's not the black suit, is it?"
The current Mineha was in her usual armor. Looking more closely, the details were a bit different, though.
Or rather — she'd been in that form since she was a fairial, and I was only noticing now.
"It tore, so I got rid of it. It's easy to move around in, but the defense isn't all that high."
"I see..."
"If that one had better defense, I would've wanted to wear it under this armor..."
Ah, I see. She was planning to use it as an underlayer.
"How do we get from here?"
"We take the teleportation circle on the 7th floor one level down to the 13th. From there, there's a teleportation circle to the 16th floor. However, in front of the teleportation circles on the 7th and 13th floors — let me see. In your dungeon terms..."
Keepers
"...are waiting."
"So we have to defeat them?"
"That's right. I've been wanting to test this thing out — it just finished being tuned up and it's nice and easy to use now."
Mineha produced a strange spear for me to see — one made of many pitch-black plates layered on top of each other.
Its shape was inorganic, giving the impression of advanced space-age technology — the complete opposite of anything you'd expect in a fantasy world.
If I remembered right, it was the Spiral Dawn — Mineha's father's posthumous work.
A spear crafted exclusively for Mineha.
And looking at the Spiral Dawn, I remembered.
Claw marks that still looked raw and painful, gouged clean through the vast Heizen Forest.
What had left those marks was the Spiral Dawn.
Was it alright?
At the worst, it could bring this earthen dungeon down entirely.
Nothing but anxiety.
On the way to the seventh floor, we ran into monsters.
Wolf-shaped monsters made of mineral ore. Kobolds. They walked upright and carried weapons.
They came shuffling out in a pack, but they were no match for me and Mineha.
Right. Let me show Mineha.
My new ring-shaped Banish... I made it visible, manifesting as a semi-transparent form.
When Mineha saw it, her eyes went wide.
"What is that? A new Relic?"
"No. It's a Relic I already had. I just figured out how to use it a little better."
"Is that so..."
I had grasped its true essence. The essence of my Banish was a ring.
If that was the case, then...
This ring-shaped Banish... if I were to name it, then...
"Banish Chakram."
I'd go with this.