Going Deeper 2
A rustling presence stirred overhead.
"Hear that? Hanna must be coming down."
"Yeah. I was fretting about the ceiling caving in and us ending up eating dirt."
"Heh, what's that supposed to mean…? Didn't you just say you trusted her?"
"I trust Hanna's magic. I do not trust the dirt ceiling sitting on our heads right now. When the cavern collapsed, I pulverized it a little too thoroughly."
"No wonder the soil felt so fine."
The presence was so blatant that even Katie, still only Intermediate-grade, picked up on it immediately. Of course it was — this wasn't a stealth approach. It was a rescue. Glancing at the hologram, I could see Han Se-ah, having widened the shaft a bit, descending in a slow spiral.
She must have figured a straight vertical dig would leave no way out. Instead she was carving something like a spire's spiral staircase — hollow down the center, with a slanted ramp along the wall to walk on as she came down.
For an underground cavern it wasn't that deep, but we were still buried under a good hundred meters of earth. Her method made sense. The soil had crumbled so finely that without packing footholds as she went, the walls would slide in like an antlion's pit and bury us all over again.
"I wasn't the only one who smashed things. Manash tore through the ceiling with his trident trying to punch his way out."
"Two Upper-grade adventurers deliberately pouring out mana and grinding dirt to powder… saying it like that, it actually sounds impressive."
Even so, there was nothing we could do from our end. Unlike Han Se-ah, who was packing footholds with Earth Control as she descended, we were just barely breathing through the gaps the tree roots had left us. If I tried to dig upward just to feel useful, I might seal off the air holes entirely.
So all that remained was to feel the magic drawing steadily closer and keep talking with Katie, nestled in my arms.
She seemed to like having her head stroked — every time my hand stopped, she'd give a little sway to urge me on. Catlike, in a way. And yet when she showed her affection so openly, she was more like a puppy. A beautiful young woman sending goodwill my way was hardly something to complain about, so for now I simply enjoyed it while we waited.
"By the way, every single burrow we crawl into isn't going to collapse like this, right?"
"We'll need the Magic Tower's help. Mages ought to be able to craft a magic tool that can survey underground."
"Somehow every conversation ends up on magic tools with you…."
Katie giggled, calling me amazing, and her breath tickled my neck just as fine soil crumbs pattered down onto my forehead. Well, in this world nearly every research institute and academic body was concentrated in the Magic Tower, so of course.
In the modern world, if a mountain acted strange you called a geologist; if the trees caught a blight you called an ecologist; if a building had problems you called a structural engineer. That was only natural.
But in Heroes Chronicle, every technical field short of medicine had magic hammered into it. Even if a carpenters' guild existed, a mage got attached the moment a building went up. Even if a stonemasons' guild existed, a mage got attached the moment a wall was raised.
"Magic tools are omnipotent. The more you use them, the more convenient life gets."
"Seriously, why do you like them that much?"
"I spent about three months in the jungle's humid air, filthy and unwashed, until a magic tool built me a makeshift shower."
"……Okay, that I understand."
Overloading a small wagon with gear was possible thanks to magic tools. Living comfortably in musty caves and steamy jungles was also thanks to magic tools. Hell, even eating modern, delicious food instead of medieval dog food required magic tools, didn't it?
To escape a life of sharing dirt floors with livestock and stepping barefoot in pig shit — to enjoy hot and cold running water, air conditioning, and a proper meal — you needed magic tools.
How nightmarish a life without modern conveniences must be for a modern person. Katie, having endured my magic-tool evangelism, cut me off with a look that said she'd had enough. Even so, she kept nudging her crown into my palm, urging me to keep stroking — which was rather adorable.
"Okay, okay, I get it. Magic tools would definitely be convenient for Tower climbing. Take Hanna's inventory right now… was that magic, or an artifact?"
"Magic, I think?"
Or not. Whatever.
We passed the time with that kind of meaningless chatter, and the ceiling that had been shedding dirt began to brighten, just a little. Light was filtering through the loosely packed soil and the tree roots that had been holding the cavern up — enough air reaching this deep underground for daylight to follow.
"Roland! Katie!"
"Are you two okay?!"
The tree roots that had so reliably kept our air holes open overhead shuddered, then were yanked clean out. The dirt that should have come cascading down from the recoil instead slid sideways as if drawn by a magnet, vanishing rather than falling — and through the clear opening, our party's faces came into sharp view.
It was a gloomy poison swamp, but to people who'd been buried alive the sunlight felt bright as a halo. Grace, Irene, and Han Se-ah were clustered at the rim of the hole, heads pressed together. Had they come down together just in case I was hurt and needed support?
For people pulled out of a collapsed underground cavern, we were remarkably unscathed. A little dirt in our hair, not a single scratch — but we still couldn't continue the exploration. As Katie and I had discussed while stuck together, another collapse was entirely possible.
We weren't some beast-party that charged in on pure instinct. There was no reason to dive bare-bodied into every cavern and judge things by gut feel.
"Katie, are you all right? Roland, you're not hurt either?"
"Neither of you looks injured. Still, just to be safe, a bit of Holy Power…."
"I-I willll, seeek out, another placee."
The moment he was free of the dirt pit, Manash left without a second's hesitation. The instant I suggested getting the Magic Tower's help to determine whether the underground caverns were traps, he spun on his coils and was gone. Given his circumstances, maybe he trusted no power other than the Temple.
Whether Manash left the collapsed cavern or not, Grace and Irene immediately latched onto Katie and me.
Grace's sharp archer's eyes scanned us for even the tiniest scratch, and Irene went straight to pouring Holy Power into us. Unlike Han Se-ah, who'd been watching through the camera, they'd spent a full day fretting — so their reaction was a little over the top… or was it?
We had, after all, been buried sixty to eighty meters underground. Not quite a hundred, but close enough.
"Let's head back to the 35th floor for now. The samples are safe, right, Hanna?"
"Well, they're in my inventory, so yeah… it's a little weird hearing someone who was trapped underground worry about that."
"I am an Upper-grade adventurer, you know. Thousands of times tougher than tree roots and hunks of flesh."
Trading banter, we climbed the spiral path — packed so firm it felt more like stone than dirt — up out of the pit. Manash had already vanished.
We sat for a while by the tent and campfire set up beside the hole, taking stock, then decided to head for the 35th floor. I'd played up being Upper-grade, but Katie — Intermediate-grade and the youngest by age — couldn't withstand the older girls' fussing.
I was brushing the dirt from my hair and checking the hunk of flesh and tree roots pulled from Han Se-ah's inventory when voices drifted out of the tent.
"Nooo, I don't have a single scratch, I told you!"
"We still have to check. Roland can use Holy Power, but you can't."
"Miss Katie, the monsters that appear in swamp zones have poison and infection abilities. Yes — I'll help you out of your armor."
Unable to resist her two seniors' nagging, Katie clanked as she stripped off her dirt-caked armor. While she and I had been building rapport with idle chatter and cuddling, the ones aboveground had apparently been fretting about contamination and infection from the hunk of flesh, the black Naga, doppelgangers, and the rest.
Fair enough. As a natural-born 4★ Sword Princess, Katie's swordsmanship alone put her beyond any Intermediate-grade adventurer who might challenge her with a weapon. But excellent swordsmanship didn't mean her body was immune to poison and infection.
"See? Look! Not a single wound!"
"You're right. Just soft and pale. ……I'm so relieved. Really."
"Still, just in case — just in case — I'll rinse you with Holy Power."
"Kyah—! Th-that tickles!"
An undead-spawning swamp thick with miasma. An open ground where hunks of flesh had been gestating and replicating black Naga. Being buried in a dirt pile in a place like that, of course infection was a concern.
That said, the conversation coming from inside the tent was drifting in a slightly strange direction. Grace fretting that even a tiny scratch could be an infection vector, and Irene determined to prevent it by pouring on Holy Power — a spectacular collaboration.
It was all too easy to picture Katie, armor off and pale skin bare, being stroked by Irene's Holy Power–laden hands. Maybe Irene's healing output had dropped, but she was still confident in her purification?
"…W-well, Katie seems fine too, so everyone come on out, pack up the tent, and let's head down."
Did the three of them have any idea how they sounded? Or did they figure it didn't matter since only Han Se-ah and I were out here? After a single moan and a few lines of dialogue had summoned the baser instincts of a thousand degenerates, the party finished their Holy Power bath, and we headed for the 35th floor.
……The chat window I peeked at through the hologram looked like hellfire had spilled into reality.
Hang in there, management. Hang in there, Han Se-ah's manager. That was beyond anything an A.I. filter could cover.
