Ihoujin, Dungeon ni Moguru

【3rd day】

The mornings of the alternate world were early. From afar, I heard the sound of a large bell signaling the start of the day.

After waking up at 6 o’clock, I bathed and got ready. I got Makina to help me with the dirty laundry. While hanging it out to dry, a guest came by with ingredients for breakfast.

「It’s shrimp and shellfish」

「Thank you very much」

「Do you need a hand with anything?」

「No, please just have a seat」

「I see, I see」

Geto-san sat in his exclusive chair and challenged the puzzle ring that I had given him.

I removed the heads and shell of the small shrimp and de-veined them. Even though they were small, it’s still luxurious if there were twenty of them. The shellfish, which resembled clams, were lightly rinsed with salt water. I removed the core of an Elf garlic, an odorless garlic from this side, and cut it into smaller rings. Next was a species similar to cayenne pepper, let’s call it alternate world pepper. No, that’s troublesome, so I’ll just call it pepper. I removed the pepper’s seeds. Taking some wild vegetables that I had found on the plain, I rubbed them with salt and left them for later.

I poured a generous amount of olive oil into a clay pot that I had bought on the way back yesterday.

First, I put in the garlic and peppers. Then, an appropriate amount of salt.

I moved the pot further from the fire so that the garlic won’t get burnt and waited for the smell to come out. Once it felt right, I put in the rest of the ingredients then let it cook.

I sliced some hard bread that I had also bought yesterday and toasted their surfaces. The toasted slices of bread were then arranged on a plate and put on top of the simple table in my camp.

Once the pot was simmering nicely, I put out the fire.

Alternate world Ajillo completed.

Everything was from the alternate world, but it looked almost the same as the food in the food stores back in my world that I had peeked at.

I left it out in the plain for a while to let the wind cool it down.

I figured that green tea should probably be fine for drinks so I made cold-brew tea as best as I could.

Five minutes later.

「Geto-san, let’s dig in」

「Ohhh」

I passed him a spoon.

「You put the ingredients on top of the bread and eat them together」

「Is that so?」

Perhaps they were his favorite, but Geto-san piled only the shellfish onto his slice of bread and put it all in his mouth.

「Umm. Once again, it tastes wonderful」

Loud crunching sounds. Geto-san was eating even the shells. Well, if he found them delicious then I had no complaints.

「Itadakimasu」

I put my palms together then piled an extravagant amount of shrimps on my slice of bread and took a bite.

「De, delicious」

I was in pure bliss.

The appetite-inducing garlic flavor and the tenderness of the shrimp danced on my tongue. The bread went well with the olive oil that had soaked in the deliciousness of the ingredients, especially with its toasted texture. It didn’t end there. The subtle bitterness of the wild vegetables added an accent to the taste. I thought that there wasn’t enough salt but it was bearable. We finished all the shellfish.

Bread.

It’s bread.

There’s not enough bread. Bring me more bread!

So both of us even ate the bread that I had bought to keep as preserved rations.

When the ingredients were all gone, we were simply scooping up the remaining oil in the clay pot with the bread and eating it just like that. I hadn’t expected this hard and tasteless bread to go over so well.

「Urgh, this is the first time I ate so much land food. I’m going to go lie down」

The fish-man lying there looked just like a beached whale. I did think that it was a bit rude of me to have that impression though. While it wasn’t as good as my sister’s, it was a delicious breakfast. It must be because the ingredients were good.

「Well, but, that is, I feel bad」

I stuttered an apology while I was washing up the dishes.

「Hmm, was there something bad about the food?」

Geto-san replied, still lying down on the ground.

「No no, it’s about receiving such delicious food for free」

「What a weirdly humble race. For us, who can’t use fire, we may only get the chance to eat food like that once or twice in our lifetime. That alone is well worth it. It was not quite a gold coin anyways. If you didn’t take it, I would have just thrown it away」

「What did you mean when you said that it was not quite a gold coin?」

It was a phrase that I didn’t quite understand.

「I meant that it’s value isn’t enough to be exchanged for one gold coin」

「Won’t exchanging it for silver or copper coins be fine?」

「Ohh, I forgot」

Eh, about the value of coins? Was what I thought, but that was wrong.

「Do you have any silver coins?」

I took one out from my pocket.

「To non-human races like us, that’s a deadly poison that burns our flesh」

「What?!」

I reflexively let go of it.

「You’re getting alarmed for nothing. Let’s see, while waiting for the food to be digested, I’ll tell you a story」

The fish-man priest recounted the blood-soaked history of the silver coins.

Let’s start at the beginning.

※

In ancient times,

Right after the era of gods descending on this world was over, and human history had just begun,

There was a king who ruled over the beast-men.

His name was Ra Guzuri Duin Oruosuouru, the King of Beasts.

No matter the times, humans and beast-men had always been at odds with one another, the difference was only in where they stood.

At that time, it was the humans who were on the verge of extinction.

Losing their influence and power throughout the continent, the only territory they had left was a hidden dwarven silver mine at the northernmost part of the left continent.

It was there that the last king prayed to the gods.

「Please give us the power to destroy those with vile and abominable blood」

After a thousand days of prayer and the sacrifice of a hundred elves, the gods finally responded.

『Then, King of Man, drink that abominable blood and become a beast yourself, then we will lend you our power』

At the height of his resentment, the king obeyed.

In return, the gods performed a miracle.

Malignant spirits now resided within silver.

The king implored,

「Oh silver, hate, burn, kill, and massacre all races other than humans like us! Rain death and extermination upon all those with an ugly body like mine! 」

The blessed silver became the king’s hope.

Dwarves created numerous weapons using silver.

The ugly king, in front of the lines of new spears, swords and arrows, said his last words,

「Now, my children. Let it “begin”」

On that day, many beast-hunting kings were born.

And so, humans hunted the beast-men down to the point of extinction, but stopped due to both exhaustion and mercy, and coexisted together with them from then on.

As the proof of peace, the beast-hunting weapons were made into currency and were spread throughout the world. But should the beast-men ever turn their fangs on humans again, they would yet again become swords, spears and arrows, and completely exterminate the beast-men at that time.

No one knew the names of the gods that had responded to the humans.

「………………」

I had several thoughts about that story, but it wasn’t right for outsiders to casually voice opinions like that.

I picked up the silver coin and looked at the beast engraved on its face. I wondered, was that the former human king, or was it the king of the beast-men?

「Although fish-men did not kill humans directly, we did help the beast-men cross the sea. So we were also caught up in the curse」

「I’m sorry」

「It’s pointless for you to apologize as you are someone who is not from this world」

「You’re right」

「As for the copper coins, they simply won’t do. They become rusty easily and dirty the water」

For a time, the myth that copper was poisonous had been widespread in Japan.

「Actually, if it’s okay with you, Geto-san, there’s something I need to ask you」

「What is it now?」

While I didn’t think that I would be able to help, since it was a sort of fate that we had met, I wanted to know if there was perhaps something going on.

「Why do you need money?」

It was something Geto-san had said yesterday, but fish-men should be able to live solely on the blessings from the sea. There was little to no need to meddle with affairs on land.

As long as they maintained their practice of staying in the depths of the oceans, humans would not be able to rule over them.

「I have five granddaughters. The youngest one saved a man from a merchant boat that had sunk due to a storm. After sending him ashore, she was almost in a frenzy and kept on talking about that man. One day, she suddenly disappeared after stealing one of our greatest treasures. The name of that treasure is Gu Barri, and by paying the price of what is most precious to the user, it can transform the user into their desired form. So, it was pretty obvious that my grandchild had gone after that man」

That sounded just like The Little Mermaid.

「We were denounced by the other fish-men clans, but I thought that it was fine as long as she was happy. But, one day, I heard from the others that there were people from the Eruomea West Phoenix company who wanted to talk business with me. The item they wanted to sell was a fish-woman. The price was 4,000 gold coins」

So, the little mermaid had not dissolved into foam but had become merchandise for a merchant company.

This was a world where a loaf of bread costs one copper coin. I couldn’t imagine what it would take to earn 4,000 gold coins.

「Forget about it. I didn’t talk about this because I wanted your sympathy. I merely answered your question」

「Yeah, okay」

And just when this was happening,

「What’s this, something smells delicious」

A gray creature came out of the tent. The freeloader stretched, then opened its mouth wide in a yawn.

「Good morning, Misuranika, -sama」

I didn’t want to accept it, but if I didn’t call it with such an honorific, it would throw a noisy tantrum so I had no choice.

「Souya, prepare my breakfast」

「Yes, yes」

I took the pieces of the alternate world fish that I had dried overnight and sprinkled water over them to reduce their salt content. Shaking off the water, I piled them loosely onto a plate.

「What’s this?」

「It’s fish」

「This can’t be right! From the smell, you probably ate something better! I’m right, aren’t I?! Are you saying that this fish is worthy for someone of my status?! What disrespect! Bring me the sword!」

It was kicking and rolling around on the ground like a child.

「It’s okay then, don’t eat it」

I’ll just give it to the winged rabbit that flew by earlier instead. It was unusual and I wanted to let it become accustomed to being fed by people.

「Wait」

The cat put its front paw on the hand that I had stretched out to take the plate.

「I didn’t particularly say that I won’t eat it」

「Is that so?」

Despite all the complaints, it started eating the fish. Geto-san was looking at the cat with an indescribable expression.

「Souya, what’s that?」

「It’s a cat. Do you call it something else on this side?」

「No, it’s indeed a cat. But the fact that it speaks, is somewhat…… no, surely not. I’ve spoken and eaten too much today. I’m leaving」

As he left, Geto-san muttered,

「Misuranika? Hmm… um, I’ve heard that before somewhere, but I’m too full so I’m feeling a bit muddle-headed」

He jumped into the river and disappeared somewhat slowly.

「It’s a bit beneath me but I’m satisfied」

「Oh, I see」

Misuranika-sama, who was satisfied despite all of its complaints, licked around its mouth using its tongue.

「I’m going to sleep. Wake me up when lunch is ready. Next time, prepare some other meat that isn’t fish」

It went back into the tent again.

Was this creature really going to only eat and sleep?

Cats were creatures like that, but I can’t accept this. It’s better when they could only meow helplessly. In difficult situations, it feels comforting to show love towards lesser creatures. But this creature spoke normally, was so cheeky, and had none of the cuteness of a cat.

『Souya-san, cats are so cute! Makina loves cats!』

「………Is that so?」

Makina made a happy expression as it spoke. In the first place, I had given it orders to not speak in front of the residents from this side. Did this piece of scrap love incompetence? Was it feeling sympathetic towards the cat? It was probably sympathy.

※

Today’s god search, morning edition.

In short, it was a complete failure.

「That went about as expected」

Evetta said, with a refreshed expression. I beg of you, at least turn that smile upside down.

「But I have a good idea」

「Really?」

「But that’s for after the meal」

We were going to eat at the bar where I was rejected yesterday. As I had offered to treat her yesterday, this meal was on me again.

「Oh, the dreamless wannabe adventurer and the former adventurer. What can I do for you today?」

「Master. Salt-grilled dungeon pig, a full helping of sauteed wild vegetables, rock-eating turtle soup and honey-filled high-class fluffy bread. Portions for three for everything. I can’t drink alcohol because I’m at work, so milk please」

「Okay!」

That was a very large order. I wondered if I could take the remainder home if we couldn’t finish it all.

「Evetta-san. I ate a lot in the morning」

「Then what does Souya want to eat?」

That entire order was all for you?! And on someone else’s dime!

I ordered a light chef’s choice for myself. Two thick pieces of bacon and pickled beans came in a bowl. Not bad, but the seasoning was pretty simple. Salt, pork gravy and sour beans only.

Beside me, Evetta-san was finishing off her Han imperial feast-like meal starting from one end. She looked like she was enjoying herself, eating with great gusto. Did the women in this world all eat this much?

Both of us concentrated on our meals for a while.

I was getting sick and tired of the taste of beans though, but I didn’t want to waste them so I put some more into my mouth and got bored of them again in an endless cycle. It was getting sad, so I opened my mouth instead.

「Speaking of which, I picked up that cat yesterday」

「Are you insane?」

Evetta-san said with a surprised expression while holding a plate of wild vegetables.

「Cat, you mean those cats with narrow eyes, rough tongues, and tails that stand straight up? Cats that abduct away all things without a soul?」

She had stopped eating.

「Do you hate cats?」

「Huh?! Even though I look like this, I was a decent adventurer in the past! So, something like a cat is nothing! Something like that!」

She looked extremely distraught to me though. Her stress eating was making her food disappear rapidly.

Ah, I forgot about Misuranika-sama’s food.

I was about to ask Makina to open a bag of dried sardines or something when a notification of an emergency communication popped up on the transparent display of my glasses-type device. It was from Izora, not Makina.

I hid my face with my body and hands, so that others couldn’t hear, and gave a soft reply.

「What’s wrong?」

『Return to the camp immediately. It’s been attacked』

※

The distance between the town and the camp was 5 km.

After that communication, the system went down. Neither Makina nor Izora could be contacted. The situation was uncertain. I thought of taking advantage of the fact that Evetta-san was with me, but after imagining the worst case scenario and what might happen if I got her involved, I left the bar alone after leaving the money to pay for the meal.

Just like how I was feeling, the sky was dark and cloudy.

Considering that there might be a battle after I arrived at the camp, I ran as fast as I could while still conserving some stamina.

Once I spotted the camp in the distance, I laid down and looked through my binoculars. The camp had been ravaged. My tent had blown away, the simple kitchen had been smashed to pieces and the supplies had been scattered wildly on the ground.

The tent that sheltered all of the containers had been torn apart and its interior was exposed. I couldn’t confirm if there was an ambush. I crept closer.

Holding up the AK, I did not shift my eyes from the sights as I moved closer. I kept my upper body as still as possible. Clearing each blind spot within the camp one at a time, I kept an eye out for traps. While there probably won’t be any explosive traps, if I got poisoned by toxins from this side, I would definitely die as I didn’t have Makina’s support at the moment.

I ground my teeth and suppressed the urge to breath faster due to the panic I was feeling. I found the Makina unit under a tarp. Slowly, and praying the entire time, I rolled it till it faced upwards.

「………………」

There was no noticeable damage on its exterior, just shoe prints and soil. That was a load off my chest.

「AIJ006 Makina?Oddeye, start up」

『………………Registered user’s voice print confirmed. Releasing self-lock mode and starting system recovery. Starting up, starting up, unknown device confirmed. Device not supported by the system. When using the newest toolsー』

「Forcibly start up Izora」

I rushed the start up procedure.

『Understood, starting up. System functionality at 30%』

After a moment of static and flickering on the display, the glasses-type device was back online. In order to not burden Izora, I issued brief, clear-cut commands.

「Order. Start pulse scan. Display the living organisms as red dots」

『Pulse activated, scanning………… No response』

The range of the pulse was 100m. This confirmed that there were no ambushers.

For the time being, I calmed my nerves.

「Order. Put the aerial image on the display. A range of 2km. Zoom in if anyone approaches」

『Understood. Drone automatic sequencing released, starting display』

I lowered the AK and moved the Makina unit back into an upright position. I was only an amateur, but as far as I could tell, there were no abnormalities in the aqueous brain or its capabilities. But this unit was broken from the start so I had no idea what kind of stimuli would trigger its demise.

「Question. How long until full functionality is restored?」

『Unknown. System functionality at 18% and dropping』

That wasn’t good.

「Question. If you restarted, how long until full functionality is restored?」

『Unknown』

「Question. What happened?」

『The camp was attacked by a group of three men. Tracer was attached to one of them』

「Display its location」

『Understood』

A red dot appeared on the map of the city that was being displayed on the glasses. Unrelated to that, I noticed something out of the corner of my eye and when I turned back to look, I trembled all over.

「What was stolen?」

『The armament and medical containers』

As could be expected, that left me at a loss for words. Of all things, the two types of containers stolen were both my lifelines.

The stolen containers were locked. Did they realize that they were valuable because they were locked? 𝐟𝙧ee𝔀e𝐛𝓃𝐨𝚟𝑒𝗹.c𝗼𝚖

「Display the current location of the containers. You are tracking them, right?」

『Impossible. Functionality is down to 5%. Rainy weather incoming, will send return signal to all drones. Souya, please hide. Without support, do not do anything unreasonableー』

It was out of power.

The screen changed and the restart meter seemed to be stuck at 1%. The rain was starting to fall. I had completely stopped thinking. A human’s brain breaks down when there were too many things for it to think about.

「…………」

Based on my body clock, it took my brain about 5 minutes to start up again.

It was dangerous here, should I move? Should I stay in town? No, it’s more dangerous that way. Should I go to the Adventurers’ Guild and ask Evetta-san for help? What if she wasn’t there? No, could she really be trusted? Was the town too dangerous after all? I couldn’t decide on what I should do.

I gave up.

This was the end of the road for a human who had been relying too heavily on the tools of civilization. I couldn’t even think of a single plan to protect myself.

In order to clear my confused mind, I began tidying up the camp. Doing simple tasks might help me come up with a good idea. Or it might just have been a form of escape.

And,

「The scan had showed no response after all」

I found the corpse of a cat.

A spear or sword had been stabbed in its belly and it had died vomiting blood.

It would have been fine if it had just escaped. It must have died fighting bravely. Well, that was what I chose to believe. No matter who it was, anyone who had died deserved a little bit of embellishment.

I dug a hole away from the camp and buried it.

Finding a piece of wood that looked suitable, I wrote『Misuranika’s Grave』on it using a marker and used it as a gravestone.

I put my palms together.

The warm drizzle wet my back.

For the longest time, I never knew what I should think at times like this.

It would probably be something like this.

I had observed the proper decorum.

Next was to lift my gloom.

I removed the glasses which didn’t suit me and checked my remaining ammo. It was more than enough for three people and I doubted that there were more of them. I had crammed the geography of the city into my head when I was running all over the city during my search for a god that was willing to be contracted with me. I had already grasped the location shown earlier on the map.

「I’m sorry. Makina, Izora, I’m going to do something unreasonable」

※

The brighter the vibrant and life-filled areas were, the darker the quiet and squalid areas became in contrast.

Those three were hiding in such a place.

A section of the city where the losers, who had their dreams of the dungeon shattered, had gathered. It was also a place where the fools, who couldn’t even have aspirations like that in the first place, could flock together. It wasn’t as terrible as a slum, but it was impossible to know what you would find behind the doors in such a place.

The part I said about hiding was wrong.

They didn’t seem to have the sense to be so subtle.

It was a building with a semi-basement. There was one set of stairs that descended to the basement, and the upper part of the building was like a warehouse. From the light and sounds coming from the horizontal ventilation windows of the basement, they were probably drinking after raking in the gold. Horrible singing and vulgar laughter could be heard. From what I could tell from the voices, there were only three of them.

The anger that I had suppressed unconsciously was about to explode.

To cool myself down, I knocked on the doors of the neighboring houses on both sides. The house on the right belonged to a beast-man with children. He relaxed his bewildered expression once I gave him a gold coin.

「I’m sorry. It’s going to get a little noisy」

「Do as you like」

Was his reply.

An old woman lived in the house on the left. When I told her that it was going to get noisy, she answered that she didn’t mind because she was going deaf. I gave her a gold coin for the inconvenience anyways.

Well, I was feeling calm. Without a doubt, I was definitely being cool-headed.

One more gold coin was thrown in through the ventilation window.

Once I heard the clink of the coin bouncing off the floor, I ran down the stairs, and tackled and broke the door down with my momentum.

There was one person on the right and two on the left, so I sprayed the AK at the two on the left as I dove into the room. The walls and floor were splattered with the spray of their blood. My ears were ringing from the loud gunshots in a closed room.

Pulling out the Government, I shot the knee of the person on the right. He fell flat but still tried to pull his sword. I shot him in his elbow and palm. He screamed like a beast.

I stood up while still holding the gun at the ready. Holding up the lantern that was in the room, I saw that the room was quite cramped. Liquor bottles had fallen over on the shabby table, there were some chairs and metal chains and ropes were hanging down from the low ceiling beams. There were no other enemies.

「I have something to ask you」

「Pfft, hahahahaha!」

The man started laughing heartily. Did I shoot him in a bad spot? Let’s fire two or three more into his skull.

「You!」

As I approached the man, the light from the lantern illuminated his face.

I recognized that face. I had broken his jaw with the butt of my rifle two days ago. If I wasn’t mistaken, then he shouldn’t be able to laugh like this. Magic? Was that injury something that could be cured so easily?

「Foreign weapons sure are amazing, but you know something? You’re underestimating adventurers too much」

「Huh?」

I felt a presence behind me, then an impact. I was blown sideways and smashed my shoulder against the wall. My breath had been knocked out of me.

You’re kidding me.

A man who should have been shot was holding a broken chair in one hand. Did he hit me with that? No wait, how could he move right after being shot with an assault rifle? What was going on?

While I was confused, f𝑟𝑒ewe𝚋𝚗૦𝐯e𝘭.c𝗼𝓂

「Look, it’s something like this」

The hole in that man’s palm was regenerating as if time was being rewinded. He drew his long sword and looked at its blade. At the sight of that, I understood without needing any explanation.

「Well, time to die」

Don’t mess with me.