31. Is It Wrong to Try Shoveling in a Dungeon? (3)
31. Is It Wrong to Try Shoveling in a Dungeon? (3)
"Seeing it like this, it really does look peaceful."
Karina said it suddenly after entering the camp and looking out at the scenery through the window. Reni nodded beside her, apparently agreeing.
Or maybe not. Reni was the kind of person who would nod even if Karina suddenly announced that she was changing religions, so perhaps she'd agreed without thinking. That might have sounded prejudiced, but it matched everything I'd seen of her so far.
Well, anyway, it wasn't wrong.
Aside from the zombies that were probably still pounding on the walls of that dungeon over there, trying to get out, nearly all the danger in this forest had been eliminated.
There were no more elephant-sized idiot bears in the forest, nor any scheming snake bastards whose only real weapon was their brains. A few might still have survived somewhere, but they would never run wild as they once had. For all practical purposes, the three of us now ruled the island.
Not that it meant much.
We were all struggling to get off this island ourselves, anyway.
If we ever managed to escape this island, it'd become an island for the rabbits.
That was true. With us gone, there would be no predators left to hunt the rabbits. If we returned in ten years, the deserted island greeting us might have been stripped completely bare.
"Yohan? Weren’t you listening to me?"
"...Ah. I was concentrating on something for a moment."
"Oh, I see... What's the plan now? Are we entering the dungeon right away?"
At Reni’s question, I leaned against the wall and looked through the window. Forest stretched out on one side, filled with birdsong, while the blue sea lay on the other, accompanied by the sound of waves.
I gazed at the scenery for a moment, choosing my words, then opened my mouth.
"We’ll scout it. Today, we’ll explore the entrance and gather whatever information we can about the dungeon."
"What if we don't find any?"
"If time's up, we come out and rest. I doubt we'll be able to rest inside the dungeon."
Since it didn't seem like there'd be a safe zone like in a game, the simple plan was to exit the dungeon and return here once we had a rough estimate.
Cautious and methodical.
That was the motto for this dungeon exploration.
"Simple, I like it."
"A complex plan is just a gamble."
The more complicated a plan became, the lower its chance of success. Keeping it as simple as possible and preparing solid contingencies was far better for survival.
We weren't special forces soldiers who had endured hellish training. We were only three unfortunate castaways who had happened to end up together on an uninhabited island.
...Although calling us unfortunate felt questionable when one of us was so absurdly strong.
"We'll store any baggage we don't need for the investigation here, and then depart for the dungeon immediately."
"Yohan, could we rest for a little while? I’m tired from using magic..."
If our precious healer wanted to rest, then we would rest. I nodded, immediately dropped to the floor, and leaned against my bag.
The two of them stared at my abrupt reversal, but I ignored them. When it was time to rest, you rested properly. Their gazes still made me feel awkward, so I took dried rabbit meat from my bag, divided it into three pieces, put one in my mouth, and held the other two out to them.
With reluctant expressions, the two accepted my nutritious deserted-island snack—dried rabbit meat—and put it in their mouths.
-----------------------
"It's quiet."
Thanks to Karina chanting a purification spell once more in front of the newly made door, the dungeon entrance was not merely deserted but completely empty. The only thing welcoming us was the ash left behind by the undead.
I carefully examined the ash piled thickly across the floor like sand on a beach.
I dabbed a finger into the ash. As for tasting it... obviously not. It didn't seem to have any particular smell.
It was strange that zombies and skeletons capable of producing a mind-numbing stench had been reduced to fine powder with no odor at all. The ash did not irritate my skin, so it didn't appear poisonous either. I took out a small pouch and scooped some up.
About 1.8 liters should have been enough to determine what the ash could be used for.
I tied the pouch to my waist and stood up.
"We're going in now."
"Yes!"
"Karina, stay close to me."
That was an Escort Knight for you. Reni was meticulous when it came to protecting the Saintess.
Then I could leave Karina to her, right?
I held out a lamp that illuminated the area with a faint glow and stepped forward.
The dungeon began with a downward slope, a passage that descended steadily underground as its name suggested. Not a single ray of daylight reached the place, yet it wasn't completely dark. Lights embedded in the ceiling—whether magic or gemstones, I couldn't tell—provided some illumination. Even so, they were not enough to give us a full view of the passage.
It might be worth mass-producing torches and driving them into the dungeon walls.
They could also serve as markers, something like "We've explored this far."
Noted.
"It's too quiet, isn't it?"
"Everything got swept away by the purification magic."
"Feels a bit anticlimactic..."
I looked at Reni. She was staring ahead with a deflated expression, but even then, she kept a meticulous watch around Karina. That was an Escort Knight for you.
We continued deeper inside. The dungeon was much longer than its exterior suggested. After walking downhill for roughly an hour, we finally stopped and looked at one another.
"Isn't this strange?"
Reni had spoken first. Perhaps her animal-like instincts had picked up on something, because she glared suspiciously down the dark corridor.
"What's strange?"
"It's way too long. Judging by the outside of this dungeon, it didn't feel this long."
"I agree."
The absence of undead could be explained by Karina’s purification magic, but the same corridor continuing without end was strange. I knew the island well after roaming it constantly. Walking from one end to the other barely took two hours, and the dungeon stood at the island’s northern edge.
The beach was only a ten-minute walk from the dungeon entrance. Yet we'd followed a passage leading straight north for an entire hour?
Were we exploring a cavern beneath the sea?
...I had no idea. At times like this, it was time to use the Karina chance. I immediately fired a question at her.
"Karina, do you sense anything unusual?"
"Uh... no. I'm not sure..."
Seeing Karina shake her head as she answered, it seemed she truly felt nothing.
This was a problem.
We'd have to try everything we could.
"We’ll retrace our steps."
"Guess that's all we can do."
Reni seemed to have had the same idea. We immediately turned around and retraced our steps. The only sound in the quiet dungeon was the rhythmic footsteps of the three of us.
How long had we walked? We all stopped at the same time and looked at one another.
"...I think we might be trapped."
"Th-then what's going to happen to us?"
"If we can't get out, we'll starve to death."
We could probably last about a week, but this was one hell of an obstacle to encounter right at the start. I hadn't expected anything like it.
We huddled together and put our heads together to prepare for whatever might happen.
Our combined IQs had to be over 300, so surely a good idea would come up?
...Yeah, right.
"What if we split up and walk in opposite directions?"
"If we can't regroup, it's over."
"How about I try a purification spell once more? If this is the work of dark magic—"
"Can you hold out after using it?"
"...I don't think so. I'm sorry..."
"It's fine. Don't blame yourself too much."
Using the spell once had visibly exhausted her. Even for the Saintess, repeatedly casting magic of that scale would be a heavy burden, so it was better to save it as a last resort. We couldn't waste the only person capable of healing us in an emergency on a slim possibility.
With no good solution coming to mind, we sat on the floor and rested for a while.
"An obstacle right from the get-go."
"There'll be a way out."
It was baseless reassurance, but that was still better than nothing. I chewed jerky for a while and stared at the floor, then used my shovel as a staff to stand. The blade sank deep into the ground... My shovel?
Would it work?
Could it work?
It was worth trying once.
I adjusted my grip and drove the shovel blade into the pitch-black wall. Fortunately, it sank in. Unlike an indestructible object in a game, the wall could be damaged. It was tough, but each stroke gouged out a little more.
Once, twice, three times.
The more I dug, the deeper the opening became. Reni quickly took the lamp and shone it on the spot. The unknown wall material gave way beneath my shovel, exposing what lay beyond the black surface.
Black soil. The stench of a rotting corpse drifted from it.
"What the hell is that smell?"
"I don't know what kind of method this is, but this is..."
I was about to voice my guess when the wall suddenly trembled and forced my embedded shovel backward. A human head burst through the soil where the blade had been pushed out—a red-eyed woman with red hair.
The red-eyed woman rolled her eyes around before meeting my gaze.
She looked displeased with me.
Before I could question her expression, the head shouted.
"Hey, that's cheating!"