In Another World With My Smartphone: Volume 8 Read online

  I didn’t want to get lost, so I went straight ahead. Obviously it was impossible for me to get lost since I had access to [Gate] and all.

  I traveled on ahead until I reached another fork in the road. This time it was a case of right or left.

  Hm... Guess it’s my own fault for thinking the path ahead would just be straight. Wait a second...

  “This might not work, but... display map. Display the first basement floor of this dungeon, and my current location.”

  “Displaying.” My smartphone replied, and it projected a map of the current floor alongside my current position. It worked... Wow, it seriously worked! Wait, crap... I didn’t want that to work.

  It showed the stairs that led to the second floor, too. There appeared to be four floors in total.

  Ugh... I kinda spoiled it for myself, didn’t I? I can probably profit by selling this map, but... I won’t. It’d be better for adventurers to uncover the secrets of this place by themselves without me spoiling all the fun. Plus, it’d be way cooler to watch them explore this place, like an amusement park. Well, whatever... Guess I can still explore the first floor, at least.

  “Whoa!” I turned toward the passageway leading to the second floor’s stairway, and found myself face to face with some monsters. They were short, dog-headed creatures known as Kobolds, and there were two of them in total.

  Kobolds were instinctive monsters that didn’t understand my words. Other creatures like Werewolves or Vampires did, however.

  The Kobolds were expecting me, apparently. At least it seemed that way from their expert timing as they brought their stone axes down toward my head. I quickly pulled out Brunhild and took them both out. Luckily for them, I’d had paralysis bullets loaded. They’d very narrowly escaped a painful end.

  I realized that my orb of light was probably an easy way to tell I was coming. It was practically a beacon saying “ambush me” or something along those lines. I should’ve considered that, really.

  I passed the collapsed Kobolds and began heading toward the stairs. I stopped myself for a moment when I discovered a small side passage with a set of double doors at the far end. I made the decision to check it out. Nothing wrong with a detour, after all.

  I headed down the passage and opened up both of the doors at the end. There, I found a small room with a treasure chest in the corner. That kind of thing was pretty standard in video games, but it felt a little bit weird to see in reality.

  I kind of wanted to ask why there was a treasure chest in a place like this, but I just decided to open it instead.

  My heart beat faster as I approached the container, and... I paused for a moment, briefly fearing a trap. I didn’t want to blow up or something. I decided to just lift the lid a little bit, so as to not tempt fate. It wasn’t locked, at any rate. Anyway, I flung the lid open, wincing slightly, but no trap was set! Upon peering into the open chest, I saw...

  “What the...” A rusted knife, a filthy satchel, some wonky looking polearm, and a hand-crafted stone axe. The axe looked like the same kind that the Kobolds from before were wielding. It seemed that I’d stumbled upon their secret stash of junk. Well, it was trash to me, but probably treasure to them. Still, there was no way the guild would want to buy this kind of crap. I took a closer look and saw something gleaming in the corner of the chest. What I saw was a small band of gold. It didn’t have any jewels embedded in it, but it was a golden ring for sure. If it was real, it’d definitely be worth something.

  ...Come to think of it, where’d they even get the treasure chest? It was possible that the chest had contained treasure at one point, but the monsters might’ve taken things from it one by one... Before long, it was simply another storage container for the Kobolds to make use of.

  The treasure chest might have even been from another floor. It was possible that someone, or... something, had dragged it all the way up from a lower floor.

  The actual treasure might’ve been looted by the denizens of the dungeon and hidden away in different hiding places... It was entirely possible that the real treasures were in the possession of monsters now.

  I took the ring, but left the rest of the stuff behind. Good luck, little Kobolds... Plenty of people are gonna come through your home and try to kill you.

  Once I made it down to the second floor, I used [Gate] to return to Relisha’s office.

  “It’s an ordinary ring without any particular enchantments... Though, it’s definitely gold.” Wow, so it’s genuine... Guess that means the dungeons do have treasures in there.

  The goal of any adventurer was to find treasure within ancient ruins and dungeons, and also harvest rare materials from monsters as well. It seemed that there were a lot of dungeon-dwelling creatures that evolved differently, so rare materials were commonplace in the lower levels.

  “Might I purchase the ring from you, then?”

  “Sure, go ahead. How much is it worth?”

  “Let’s see here... Given the poor handiwork and the scratched surface... About two silver should do.”

  Hm... Two silver coins for one golden ring... That’s about a week at an inn. Given that I didn’t spend that much time exploring, that seems pretty fair. Then again, I might’ve just gotten lucky finding this...

  That reminded me, if we had more adventurers coming in, I’d probably need to upgrade our lodgings. The Silver Moon probably didn’t have enough rooms available.

  “There’s another matter, Your Highness. The gates that connect Brunhild and the islands... What are we going to do about the toll?”

  “Uh, the toll?”

  “Yes, the toll an adventurer has to pay. I think you should at least charge an entry fee... Were you planning on making it free?”

  “Hm... I guess one copper is probably enough, right?” She told me that was pretty cheap, but there was always a chance that the adventurer wouldn’t make it back. I wanted as many people as possible to make it back safely and use the services available in Brunhild.

  Making it free would’ve been troublesome, since we wouldn’t be able to keep track of who was coming and going. I didn’t want us to lose track of who went through and never came back, so a fee was best for book-keeping. The Guild Card was the easiest way to monitor that. In the end, the toll wouldn’t generate much revenue, but that wasn’t really the point anyway.

  We’d probably need potions, medicine, weapons, and armor as well... I didn’t want to get ahead of myself, but I decided to talk to the town merchants about stocking up for the future. It was possible I might end up needing a master smith to repair weaponry and armor, too.

  I was a little excited to see just where this project would take us.

  ◇　◇　◇

  Adventurers by the dozen had begun gathering in Brunhild. Why? Because word had quickly begun to spread about the dungeons.

  After all, this was uncharted territory. Uncharted and untouched, due to their isolated location. The allure of treasure was far too much to give up on, so many people had come seeking their fortunes.

  Basically, it was a first come first served situation. All the adventurers wanted to be the first to explore the dungeons. I’d named them, by the way, Amaterasu, Tsukuyomi, and Susanoo.

  In the past I had deliberately limited the knowledge of my [Gate] spell because I didn’t want to be looked at with scrutiny or suspicion. But it seemed that it was pretty well-known as my ‘signature’ magic at this point. I suppose it was unavoidable, I had ended up using it a lot during the Yulong invasion.

  I was already in a position of vast power, regardless. I didn’t expect anyone to turn on me at this point, so there was no real harm in revealing my wonders. Even if they tried, I’d just put them in their place.

  All that considered, the portals that connected Brunhild to the dungeons were just accepted as another matter-of-fact thing related to my power.

  The dungeons weren’t only vast, they were dangerous. Due to the lack of civilization in the area for so long, the place had become a prime br
eeding ground for magical beasts. Though the exploration hadn’t been going on for too long, it seemed that some parties had already made it as far as the third floor down.

  The guild was satisfied, since they were seeing a boost in rare items, valuable raw materials, and treasures.

  Initially I was worried about the number of adventurers in town causing a disruption of public order, but it hadn’t been as bad as I’d thought. There were still some rough types and troublemakers alongside the fortune-seekers, though.

  So even though it wasn’t large scale, there was a slow but steady increase in dumbasses who thought they could bother my citizens and harass the shop workers.

  I wasn’t sure what the standard was in other countries, but I certainly wouldn’t be letting them do as they pleased. Anyone caught causing trouble would be dragged off to the Whisper Prison (an enclosed space filled with the constant sound of nails on chalkboard), or the Hellish Aroma Pen (another enclosed space filled with a fraction of a sludge slime’s scent). That would give them ample time to reflect on their attitudes.

  I’d also built a hospital in town, not just for the sake of the adventurers, mind you. I had several Light magic specialists and doctors stationed there, to take care of injury and disease alike. I also had Flora create several medicines to be used by the people there.

  We were charging them at a fair rate, but children with parents who were Brunhild citizens would be treated for free. If you were under thirteen in this world, then you were still a child. I didn’t want to exclude them from healthcare just because they or their families couldn’t afford it.

  Well, I said free, but that just meant it wouldn’t cost them any money. Their parents would still have to work for a day or two on national projects to make up for it. Though, if they could afford the cash, they could always just bypass that and pay for the medicine like everyone else.

  There were a few stalls lined up alongside the portals, stocked with lamp oil, rope, rations, medicines, bandages, and other adventurer necessities. It seemed each stall had a different specialty. One was selling knives, one compasses, one canteens, and so on.

  I walked over to one of the stalls and called out to the merchant. He turned to me.

  “Hey there. How’re the sales?”

  “Ah, not bad at all... I might end up switching careers at this rate!” This man was one of Brunhild’s ninjas. In other words, he was an ex-Takeda agent, and a subordinate to Tsubaki.

  I had him assigned here to disguise himself as a vendor and keep an eye on the people that came through. I didn’t want to seem suspicious by talking to him for too long, so I started picking up items on his stall as I spoke.

  “Any issues?”

  “Nothing major, no. Though there have been various arguments between parties here and there. Minor things.” Treasure-related fights weren’t exactly new issues. Individual conflicts were fine, so long as they didn’t involve unrelated bystanders.

  “When I went to the dungeon, there were only Kobolds on the first level. What’s the situation on the deeper floors?”

  “Common monsters on the first level include Kobolds, Goblins, Giant Rats, Giant Bats, and Lone-Horned Rabbits. Common monsters on the second level include Hobgoblins, Goblin Archers, Skeletons, and Orcs. As for the third floor... I’ve heard there are Killer Mantises and Dullahans down there.” Huh, Dullahans? I remember fighting one of those forever ago. It was pretty tough at the time. It might be hard to fight without a dedicated Light magic user, or at least anti-undead weaponry.

  “The monsters in each dungeon seem to be quite varied. Amaterasu seems to have an abundance of magical beasts, while Tsukuyomi has an influx of undead. Susanoo, on the other hand, seems to have more generic types of monsters.” Apparently the difference between a regular monster and a magical beast was simply down to the bestial features they had. I don’t really know why they bothered making such a distinction. But still, I wondered why the different dungeons seemed to favor different types of monster. It may simply be a case of predatory instinct. Magical beasts even ate each other, so perhaps the other classifications of monsters gravitated away from their main grounds.

  I thanked the ninja and headed towards the portal. There were three gates in total now, each leading to the entrance of a different dungeon.

  Still, the actual location of the islands was the same in the end. There was nothing stopping someone from swimming over to another beach or building a boat to get to the other places. Most adventurers found it more convenient to just come back through to Brunhild and walk through another [Gate], though.

  Even if they had to present their guild card and pay a copper coin, it was still easier than moving from island to island the old-fashioned way.

  A single copper coin was enough for a meal in this world, so I figured it was approximately a thousand yen. But if that was the case, then I felt like charging two copper coins per night at the Silver Moon was probably a little cheap. Especially since it included three meals. Still, that meant it was around sixty-thousand yen for a full month. Looking at it that way, it was probably fairly priced. Hmph...

  Regardless, comparing the currency between this world and my old world was a bit of a fruitless exercise. I decided not to think about it too much.

  “Touya-dono!”

  “Touya...!”

  “Hm? Yae and Hilde? What’s up?” I turned around to find a swordswoman combo running toward me. They certainly seemed closer lately, probably because they always sparred together.

  “We have agreed to set out and investigate the ruins while training at the same time, we have. Hilde-dono has not had as much experience in combat against the magical beasts as I, she has not.”

  “Yes! Look, I even got a guild card! Though it’s still black... It can’t quite compare to yours, Yae.” Hilde bashfully held up her guild card. She seemed happy.

  Her card was black, the newbie’s color. The lowest tier possible... It was a bit funny having the Knight Princess of Lestia regarded as the lowest. Felt like a pretty bad joke. I decided we’d work to fix that. Yae’s was red. That was because she’d been adventuring with me for a while.

  That being said, rising to red in such a short amount of time was practically unthinkable. Still, I couldn’t be that surprised about it. Yae was remarkably powerful, she had been even before she met me.

  “What brings you here, Touya-dono?”

  “Oh, me? I’m just doing a little security sweep.”

  “Ah, if you’re done would you like to come with us?”

  “Oh, sure. Let’s go.” We went through the gate to Amaterasu, and came out on the pearly white sands.

  Don’t worry, I paid the fee like everyone else. I didn’t want anyone making a fuss about me and my fiancees getting special treatment. It’d make us stand out too much, too. Normally I’d have just used my own [Gate], but I decided to use the opportunity to check that these ones were working alright.

  The archipelago was composed of seven islands. Some large, some small. There was no dungeon on the biggest island, though. It was basically just wilderness, ruled by monsters and magical beasts.

  There were a lot of plant-themed monsters on that island, so people had to take extra care when looking around the place. It seemed there were still some people who ventured on to the main island regardless, and they sometimes ended up getting hurt. But in the end, that wasn’t my concern.

  It seemed that the island had unusual herbs, nuts, and berries on it, so there was the occasional guild quest to go and obtain them.

  I invoked [Light Orb] as we neared the dungeon’s entrance. Amaterasu was the dungeon I’d entered originally, and it seemed there were roughly forty adventurers in there right now. If I assumed a party was made up of four people, that meant there were about ten parties down there.

  “There is bound to be conflict with so many groups down there, is there not?”

  “Well, it’s pretty big down there. Even if they do come across one another, they might just say hi a
nd split off again. They might even trade for supplies. I’m sure they won’t get territorial about treasure and stuff just yet.” Three Lone-Horned Wolves jumped out and attacked us as we entered the dungeon. Before Yae or I had a chance to react, Hilde leaped to the front of the line and took them all down. She was definitely getting tougher.

  “What should I do with these? Aren’t these horns valuable?”

  “Yeah, but just the horns. Their meat’s too tough to eat, and their pelts are too wiry.”

  “So we can just take the horn and leave the rest?”

  “Yeah, just push them up against the sides of the walls so nobody trips on them. I imagine they’ll become meals for other magical beasts. If not that, then they’ll attract slimes when they start decomposing.” Slimes lived in every kind of dungeon, apparently. They attacked people every now and then, but for the most part they were harmless scavengers. They ate and dissolved dungeon garbage, basically.

  Corpses and waste products were no exception to this rule, either. As a result, most dungeons stayed fairly clean. Slimes be praised.

  Even though slimes operated like living vacuum cleaners, it seemed they avoided the contents of treasure chests. But they also tended to avoid metal in general. If I recalled correctly, sludge slimes actually purified bodies of water that they entered. So it was probably a case of different slimes having different cleaning specialties.

  There was a theory going around that slimes were actually man-made creations from the ancient era. It was certainly possible. I had no idea about where slimes originated from, after all. Probably a stupid magician, though. I decided to look it up in the Library later on.

  Hilde dragged the Lone-Horned Wolves off to the side and sliced their horns off. The horns wouldn’t be worth a lot, but the guild would be more than willing to take them off our hands.

  Afterward, Hilde deftly took down Giant Bats, Giant Rats, and plenty of Lone-Horned Rabbits. There were certainly a lot of magical beasts in here, that was for sure. Though we did see the occasional Goblin or Kobold peek its head out.