Dungeon’s entrance, hearing those words, Renya was reminded of something along the lines of there being something like a gate equipped with a grandiose door. An architectural structure really declaring its own existence as an entrance.
But, trying to ask Shion’s group about it, although there seemed to be such unusual dungeon entrances as well, apparently those architectural structure type dungeons with such neat entrances could be listed in the category of being quite rare.
So, what kind of entrance does a living type dungeon have then?
The answer to that was the entrance in front of Renya’s eyes.
“…Here?” (Renya)
Asking the question while pointing at it, Shion’s group nodded while indicating their agreement with an *un un.*
In regards to the vicinity, the place was on a slightly elevated hill.
At the summit of that hill, as if it was normal, there was a wide opening of a dark shaft which somehow allowed a single adult to pass through it.
It was really just a hole.
There wasn’t a door or anything like that either.
The location was right in the midst of a grassland straying a bit from the road.
Except for the sporadically visible growing grove of trees, there was nothing else there.
Renya was disappointed as he had imagined something a lot more exaggerated.
For the time being this dungeon entrance can be classified as being merely a hole, huh? In order to descend deeper into the hole, there were some stairs. (ED: Imagine stairs in a removable floor style entrance to a basement. That kind of disappointing entrance.)
“Living type dungeon… ?” (Renya)
“That’s right” (Shion)
“And why the stairs?” (Renya)
“If there weren’t any stairs, you wouldn’t be able to descend down there, isn’t that right?” (Shion)
Even though the appearance of Shion was as if she wanted to inquire as to why he asked such an obvious thing, Renya cocked his head in puzzlement while feeling not being fully satisfied with something.
Doesn’t this feel like it’s kindly asking us to come down in order to carefully lure us in?
This question was answered by Rona.
“For the sake of it’s own growth, the living type dungeon wants living creatures to visit it. Occasionally it is necessary for the dungeon to absorb the corpse of a living creature, that emits magic power and life force. For this reason it stockpiles things like rare metals within itself and it is said that those will be arranged as treasures.” (Rona)
“Is it fine to somewhat understand it as bait to lure in people?” (Renya)
“It definitely isn’t a mistake to think so.” (Rona)
“Despite spawning monsters, it needs resources from the outside, huh?” (Renya)
“One theory is that after a while has passed since it was spawned, a monster seems to use the resources of the dungeon… but there are only a very few people investigating these circumstances.” (Rona)
“Why?” (Renya)
“A young dungeon will be swiftly captured and its core will be destroyed in order to exterminate it. Leaving a dungeon alone for months and years so that these things can be studied, due to the danger, there is no leeway for such a thing.” (Shion)
Shion explained.
Upon the destruction of the dungeon core, the dungeon would slowly vanish.
Since the dungeon core could be used as a high quality magic gem, it was a business involving a large sum of money.
And so, just as the dungeon was generated, because the amount of monsters was scarce as well as its stratum being shallow, the adventurers ended up quickly exterminating it for money.
A dungeon avoiding the notice of adventurers or luckily cutting down the adventurers, who came to capture it, could transform into a being of grave danger with the passage of months and years causing its stratum to become deep and enabling it to summon something like high ranking monsters.
In that situation even money wouldn’t be worth the risk any more for adventurers. For the researchers, their objective of their study would be compromised before long due to the extreme danger and continuing the research would become very difficult anyway in such a case.
Shion said that this was the kind of thing called a living type dungeon.
“In other words, it remains a mystery, huh?” (Renya)
“Maa… that’s right.” (Rona)
Mystery, such a word was quite convenient, Renya earnestly believed.
“All things considered, this dungeon isn’t very lucky.” (Shion)
Shion said while going around and surveying the vicinity.
Although the elevation wasn’t very high, since the surroundings were completely plain, it was possible to look quite far into the distance while viewing from the top of the hill from its only slight height.
“It’s as if if it was asking to be discovered having sprung forth in such a place.” (Rona)
“Maybe the dungeon itself made this hill?” (Renya)
“Un, that’s probably right. I think the part that is the entrance and stairs was risen above the ground.” (Shion)
If we assume that it is as Shion says, it would be a very stupid story. Renya thought.
Because there was nothing obstructing the view of the vicinity, any kind of change in the terrain would be immediately noticeable.
Also, the place being where it was, you could say it wasn’t located more than a few hundred meters away from the road.
Even though it would likewise be possible to use a terrain with many ups and downs for deception or for it to be deep within a forest, in the current situation even that was an impossible story.
Right after being born, the dungeon would be terminated for the sake of money. Although it wasn’t a living thing in a stricter sense, it somehow ended up inviting pity.
“It’s always a sorrowful story. As there are many things someone would desire scattered about within, this dungeon shares such a lonely story as well.” (Renya)
While looking at the top of the hill from its bottom, Renya said.
“Is it alright to make camp this close to it?” (Renya)
Since the hill itself wasn’t very high, it was naturally a short distance to its bottom, too.
At a place no more than 10 meters away from the dungeon’s entrance, the carriages of the other parties were parked. They had started to prepare the camping ground.
The carriage, which Renya’s group used to get here, was also tied to a stake which had been stuck at a location close by.
“In a place with such a good view it will be alright. I think it will be safe as it will be difficult for animals to approach and monsters won’t appear either.” (Rona)
“And the possibility of monsters coming from the dungeon?” (Renya)
“There is none. Basically, monsters that spawn within the dungeon won’t leave it. Although it has already happened that a dungeon spit out monsters causing a phenomenon called
“More importantly, shouldn’t we start preparing our campsite?” (Rona)
The time having passed through to the evening, little by little it started to become dark as night had crept upon them.
Thinking that it would be better to finish the preparations while there was still some light from the sun remaining, Rona urged them to go down from the hill.
Arriving at the side of the bound carriage, Renya took out the luggage prepared by Rona from his [Inventory].
Without [Inventory], or rather this skill called void storage, it would be quite difficult to survive, Renya judged.
Thanks to this it wasn’t necessary to place the luggage on the clattering carriage load tray.
Because of the other parties putting quite the amount of luggage at their feet, it could be expected that the space on the carriage load tray was quite narrow for the members boarding it with the exception of the coachman’s seat. Since Renya’s party was able to use the space of the carriage load tray, it was possible for them to lie down properly during the journey.
But then again it wasn’t possible to get any decent sleep because of the vibration.
At first he took out a wooden hammer, a sharp triangle tip with a width of around 30 cm, 10 planks of about 1 m length and a shovel.
Digging a hole at a place in the shadows of the carriage seen from the other parties side, he completed a simple toilet by completely enclosing that area with something like a partitioning screen by hammering in the planks.
Then he dug a shallow hole a bit away from the toilet location next.
Enclosing the area with stones, the fire place was finished.
Erecting metal fittings in the shape of the character Y and then placing a pole on top of them, it served as cooking tool to hang the pot there.
Renya picked up the stones in the surroundings of the city before departure.
The stones, even though one cell of the grid was consumed when a separate item was stored away in the [Inventory], after stuffing the stones into a bag, it resulted in taking only one cell of the grid with [Bag filled with Stones] no matter how many he put in there.
As it was a method that disregarded the weight, he understood that something like this was a cheat setting no matter how you looked at it.
Finishing this, next he constructed the tent.
Setting up the fulcrum, he covered it with a cloth and affixed it to a stake that was hammered into the ground.
As long as he was able to properly understand how to make something, it wasn’t hard work at all.
Without spending significant time either, Renya finished constructing the tent.
It was only one tent.
Gazing at the shape and quality of the tent he had constructed, Renya opened his mouth.
“Naa, I should build another one after all…” (Renya)
“Isn’t that pointless?” (Shion)
Was the immediate reply from Shion.
Within the camp it was settled that one person of the party had to stand guard.
In case of constructing two tents here, for male and female use, it would doubtlessly develop into a situation of one of the tents not being used for a period of time.
This being dismissed as pointless by Shion, he gave up on it.
To Renya’s objection of a man and woman in the same tent and so on, Shion tragically shot it down by declaring that there wouldn’t be any problem as they would sleep in sleeping bags anyway and since he would be asleep he didn’t have to mind Rona either.
“Is there some problem?” (Shion)
Although Renya was in the mood of hanging on to his argument, he couldn’t find a valid complaint. As he looked at Rona in order to receive help, she indicated that such a measure wasn’t unacceptable this way and only shrugged her shoulders.
“Aren’t we companions? Or will Renya be in pain by sleeping next to Rona or me?” (Shion)
“In a certain sense you could say that it will cause pain, but it’s not to the extent of weeping either.” (Renya)
While giving up on them understanding that pain, Renya took out ceramic containers which contained a liquid and a pot from his [Inventory].
He had received the liquid from the inn’s master who shared it with him.
It was the soup which had spend time extracting the essence of various types of vegetables and animal bones boiling at a simmer. To Renya’s tongue the flavor was like consomme from his previous world.
This was what Renya had requested from the inn’s master to share with him and what he had preserved in his [Inventory].
Below the pot, he placed firewood and quickly using a flint to ignite the firewood, the fire spread.
Even though it would have been fine to ask Shion to use
Getting the ingredients ready, he prepared the ingredients with the kitchen knife they bought alongside the foodstuff.
Peeling the skin off the vegetables, he cut them into appropriate sizes and tossed them into the pot.
Though they had mainly chosen to purchase root crop-like things, Renya didn’t know their names.
For the time being, when he ate the cooked vegetables at the market, they were quite delicious. All of them were goods selected by the shop owners at the designated stores.
As for the meat, although Renya was truly a bit surprised, besides selling meat from livestock and wild animals, it was also normal to sell monster meat.
In case of stew, the salesperson recommended meat of the horn rabbit to be the best. Even though Renya decided to buy it, without trying it first he wouldn’t be able to understand its kind of taste.
He swiftly cut the lump of meat into mouthsized pieces and tossed them into the pot as well.
Lightly frying the ingredients in the pot, he added the soup he had received to it and also a little bit of water allowing the stew to boil.
Sampling with only a small scoop of the soup, he adjusted the flavor with salt and pepper, which had become common for some reason in this world, and the dish was finished. (T/N: Usually pepper was a luxurious ingredient in medieval ages, that’s why the MC’s comment on it.)
It was really just a simple stew with vegetables and meat.
Although Renya was dissatisfied with it, he garnished the stew with the hard baked bread completing the modest dinner.
Dividing the servings, rather than using something like a shallow soup plate, he chose something with a little more depth.
As we will eat it outdoors, I think it will be easy to spill it if the bottom is too shallow, Renya worried.
While he was at it, he took out several fruits to serve them alongside.
After all it would be a bad situation to not have a dessert following the meal.
The chosen fruit was a peach-colored round fruit called nectar (T/N: >> nekuta <<). The skin was soft enough that it could be peeled off with the fingers. As he tore it off plenty of fruit juice spilled and the pure white flesh of the fruit became visible.
Although its appearance reminded Renya of a peach, the sourness he felt alongside the sweetness while trying to eat it was yet at another potency. Even though it was something totally different from what he had imagined, since this sourness felt refreshing, it became his favorite sweet food.
Adding spoons to the soup bowls, Renya thought it to be wearisome in some way to eat those while sitting on the ground. Thus he took out a table, which cozily had the height of around the waist, from his [Inventory] and lined up the dishes on top of it. Renya noticed that the mood in his vicinity somehow turned strange.
He felt that the gaze, which was directed at him from Shion and Rona, was holding both emotions, being somehow amazed and being astonished.
From the other parties he felt amazement, or anger, or envy, or other somehow not quite comprehensible gazes directed at him.
Looking at the other parties, they were sitting directly on the ground, having ignited an open fire, eating a light brown somethings that could be deemed to be dried meat alongside some crunchy hard bread they had toasted, which seemed to be the same bread that Renya’s party had. Although he didn’t know whether it was water, ale or wine, they were drinking something. That was what they had for dinner.
“What is it?” (Renya)
“Now, how should I say it? Although it is a good thing to have abundant eating habits…” (Shion)
“We just have to get used to Renya-san.” (Rona)
“Since I had to rush the preparations, there are still various rough points to be addressed.” (Renya)
Even though it was good fortune to have received a share of the soup from the inn, it was painful that he couldn’t collect more accurate seasonings, Renya said.
Originally there would be more things like herbs or spices. Though he wanted to wake up early in order to collect and buy more things for testing like sauces and vinegar, there wasn’t any kind of time for that.
“You can deal with this problem next time, this time you will have to endure with this. I wasn’t able to arrange anything but either water or wine for drinking. This is also a task for next time.” (Rona)
“No, I think being able to say something like me having to endure with this is a luxury in its own way.” (Renya)
Because normally adventurers kept the amount of luggage to as little as possible, Renya was also aware that the action of bringing along their kitchen utensils and the likes wasn’t the norm.
However, since the [Inventory] was such a convenient item, such a thing like not using it would be a waste.
On top of that, even for washing the used dishes and utensils with water afterwards, because he had put one barrel completely filled with water into his [Inventory], there was no reason to not use it for their hands either.
“Since we also have chairs, please properly tell me if it is unpleasant to eat while standing. I have chairs for all three of us.” (Renya)
Taking it this far up to here, as you would expect, even the gazes of the other parties facing into this direction, though most of their looks turned into holding envy, he warded it off by not being concerned about this at all. Renya began to taste his own dinner right away.
Albeit slightly delayed, Shion’s group started to also eat the dinner lined up on the table with relish while likewise experiencing the slightly disconcerting gazes the other parties sent their way.