The Dungeon Beneath the Lake
I poured mana into the marker, but it still showed no reaction.
If my guess was correct, it would respond once it drew near the waterway connected to the sea.
“I’ll be back in a bit.”
“Where are you going?”
Instead of answering, I stepped onto the water’s surface. I didn’t sink; I floated as lightly as a leaf. Chad looked the most shocked.
“You can do that too?!”
“Jeanie! Let’s go together.”
Take me with you too, Master!
“No. It’ll be faster if I go alone. There’s something that’s been bothering me, so I’ll just see what’s there and come right back.”
Walking on water wasn’t any high-level technique, but dragging the whole group along would be far too draining. It wouldn’t exactly be pleasant, either.
I trudged across the water by myself.
“Jeanie!”
“The marker!”
Master!
They must have seen me spinning the marker around from behind.
After walking a short distance, I realized it was farther than it looked and called out Undain.
The dolphin made of water slipped smoothly out of the lake and rose up, wrapping around me like a living saddle.
Like a friendly stray cat on the roadside, he rubbed against my ankle, then climbed higher, slid behind my waist, and rested his pointed snout on my shoulder in a clear show of affection.
Master.
“Undain.”
I gave him a light stroke, settled onto his back, and before I could say another word he was already swimming toward our destination.
It really was true that water spirits were obedient, gentle, and clever. “Easy to handle” described them perfectly.
In contrast, spirits like Rai, Adore, or Pain… yeah, I’d better not go there.
They’d have to meet spirits like themselves before they could understand how I felt.
I left the traveling to Undain and comfortably looked around.
The lake was a squashed circle that leaned toward a square. It was enormous, ringed by sharp, steep rocky peaks, so riding horses anywhere near the waterway seemed impossible.
Walking didn’t look much better. No matter how I considered it, the fastest route was to cut straight across the lake.
If the dungeon entrance really was near that waterway, I’d have to figure out how to get all five of us there.
Without a boat that seemed impossible, and there were no boats here.
It felt like a deliberate trap designed to torment any explorer who managed to reach this point.
“That is, if I weren’t a water spirit master.”
This annoying terrain became meaningless the moment you remembered I was Jeanie Crowell—the genius spirit master everyone in the field knew. Ways to cross the lake? I had more than I could count.
My only real concern was deciding which method would be the least bothersome. Deep, serious contemplation about how to preserve my laziness.
Someone once said humans invent their most brilliant creations when they’re trying to avoid effort…
“Ah.”
The marker in my hand reacted for the first time. We had just drawn close to the narrow channel linking the sea and the lake.
The tiny piece of metal dangling from it tilted toward that direction as if pulled by a magnet, and that was exactly the way I was heading.
A small smile tugged at my lips. My hunch had been right.
“Just as I thought.”
I slid off Undain’s back and stood on the water.
Following the marker’s guidance, I trudged forward with Undine and Undain in tow. The moment I stood directly facing the channel between sea and lake, the marker yanked downward with clear force.
Right between my legs. Directly beneath my feet.
In other words, at the bottom of this seemingly endless lake.
I was standing atop fiercely racing currents.
If I hadn’t been a water spirit master, this would have been a merciless death sentence.
Even for someone as quick-witted as me, I’d already suspected it. After reading the letter about treasure hidden in the lake, the odds of it being underwater had felt high.
The reason I’d hoped otherwise was simple: my gut told me it was going to be an enormous hassle.
“Looks like it’s right he—gah!”
When I stepped forward it pointed behind me; when I moved sideways it pointed back to where I’d been standing, stubbornly clarifying its intended direction. Then, with a sharp crack, the marker shattered into pieces.
One-time use, huh!
The instant it expended its life without warning, Lox’s face flashed through my mind.
“Mm. Lox is going to cry.”
I vaguely recalled him asking me to handle it with care.
Well, even if it was Lox, what could he possibly do to me? I shoved the now-ordinary string—its metal piece gone—into my pocket and looked at Undine.
“Undine? Let’s head down.”
The moment I spoke, I began to sink slowly into the water feet-first.
Past my knees, my waist, my neck, until my entire body—including every strand of hair—was submerged. Cold water pressed in thickly around me and rippled.
While I’d floated near the surface, the surroundings had been breathtakingly beautiful. But as we descended, light stopped reaching us and everything turned pitch black.
There was an alien sensation like drifting into another world. Yet I wasn’t afraid at all.
Because underwater, everything would move exactly as I wanted.
The lakebed where I finally arrived after sinking endlessly was so dark that anyone with a fear of the deep sea would have died of terror on the spot.
It was so pitch-black that the faint glow from Undine and Undain felt almost blindingly bright.
The bottom was damp mud, and something kept brushing past me without pause.
It was too dark to tell whether it was a living thing or just the current.
“Undine, widen the space around us.”
I needed proper light.
While I listened to the unidentified sounds coming from every direction, the breathing space around me expanded dramatically. A hemispherical bubble of air formed. I summoned one more spirit.
“Adore.”
Oh, Master!
“Stop right there!”
Huh?
Adore had the annoying habit of flying all over the place the instant he was summoned, so I needed him to stay still. Sure enough, he tried to shoot outside the bubble but stopped at the last second.
Where are we!
“Underwater. So can you behave for a bit?”
If Adore slipped out even a little, I had no idea how many fish around us would get roasted.
Behave? That’s an awfully difficult order!
“Yeah, only for you.”
He was basically a living torch; as long as he existed, that was enough.
I pulled the grumbling Adore closer to secure my field of vision, then carefully began to walk. The air bubble followed obediently along.
The dungeon entrance had to be nearby, yet all I saw were gloomy walls.
I wandered the area for a while. Both sides were blocked by walls, and continuing onward led to the sea.
With the marker destroyed, I had to rely purely on instinct. I kept sensing something, but locking onto the exact spot wasn’t easy.
It was like catching a faint pleasant scent on the wind—easy to smell, hard to pinpoint the source.
I paced back and forth between the two walls in that half-certain state. After focusing every ounce of attention on it, I finally muttered in frustration.
“Undine, Undain. Can you feel this too? It feels similar to your energy… It’s definitely somewhere around here…”
Over there.
There.
Damn it. I should have asked them from the start.
These guys found it immediately!
The water spirits guided me once again, and with their help I finally located it.
The traces of ancient magic that modern techniques could never replicate.
“If it’s hidden in a place like this… of course no one would find it.”
I couldn’t help but admire the craftsmanship.
At this level, it might as well have been designed to never be discovered. As I stepped through the entrance I kept marveling—and swearing under my breath.
“Crazy—what the—ack! Ow… My waist… No way, this… Oh my god. Is this for real?”
I suddenly wanted to show this to the guys. They’d all drop their jaws. Just like I was doing right now.
When I returned to the surface, they were busy preparing camp. The men were lighting a fire, spearing fish with sticks, and getting along just fine without me.
“I’m back.”
“Oh, you’re back.”
None of them seemed particularly interested. They had clearly assumed I wouldn’t find anything underwater.
I thought I’d only been gone a short while, but the sun was already setting.
“Ash, Lox.”
“You’ve returned. I was worried.”
“Welcome back.”
“Sorry.”
The moment I apologized, Rai—who had been rushing over from afar to greet me—shouted at the top of his lungs.
That’s too much!
His voice was full of resentment. He never received apologies from me, so this seemed to upset him greatly.
Ash and Lox looked equally stunned.
Just one apology and both of them wore dazed expressions.
“…Did you just apologize?”
“Yeah.”
“Why are you apologizing? It feels ominous.”
Lox frowned immediately while Ash offered comfort with a worried look.
“It looks like you didn’t get any results. It’s all right.”
“No. There were results. It’s just… this.”
I pulled the string from my pocket.
The very object that had once been the marker. Recognizing it, both Lox and even Ash paled instantly.
“I’m sorry. It wasn’t on purpose.”
I do apologize sometimes. Twice in one day, even!
“Kyaaaak!”
I knew it wouldn’t pass quietly. I had imagined about twelve possible reactions from Lox; screaming was my second prediction, foaming at the mouth was the ninth.
“Don’t misunderstand. It wasn’t me. It just suddenly broke.”
“You crazy woman!”
“I’m not exactly normal, I’ll give you that. And though it sounds like an excuse, it’s the truth.”
“This is… this is a national treasure! If you broke it… are you telling me to get executed?! Do you actually want me dead that badly?!”
“Oh my? I’m the wronged party here. It really did break on its own.”
“How is that even possible?!”
The agitated Lox tried to grab my collar, but I dodged easily.
“The person who made this probably didn’t want a lot of people knowing about that place. He definitely only wanted to tell one person. It was designed as a one-time use from the beginning.”
My reasoning is always perfect. After all, I’m quick-witted and smart.
“You sure talk smoothly! Why do you cause an accident the second I take my eyes off you?! And why does it always have to be a catastrophe like this?!”
“I keep telling you it wasn’t my fault. Besides, in Dmitry we have a saying: a dead body doesn’t cause accidents.”
“Ha!”
“The fact that I cause problems is proof that I’m alive.”
While I was showing off a little, Chad—who happened to be walking by—chimed in.
“I’m from Dmitry too, but I’ve never heard that saying.”
“Uh, I just made it up.”
I got caught trying to bluff, but it wasn’t important so I moved on. Besides, I had a tremendous achievement that could more than make up for this disaster.
Lox was now displaying the twelfth and final reaction I had predicted.
“Don’t cry, Lox. There’s good news too! We don’t need the marker anymore.”
“Huuuung! What do you mean?! Unless you found the dungeon, I’m going to d—”
“I found it.”
“……?”
I smiled brightly as I spoke. From one side Enk dropped the firewood he was carrying with a loud thud; from the other, Gail let the fish he had just caught slip from his hands. Lox’s tears stopped instantly.
I clapped once, neatly wrapping up the entire situation.
“Isn’t it great?”