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Chapter 128 – Day 20 of the Strategy Life
We drained the water all night, but there was still water at the bottom of the swamp.
Nevertheless, a small island appeared that looked like the remains of a dungeon, so we started digging early in the morning.
“Look at this.”
Chel dug up what looked like a crocodile skull. It seemed to have come from the dungeon’s subspace, and the bones were twisted as if they had been wrung out like a rag.
“It’s amazing it didn’t collapse.”
Other bones were also unearthed, but most of them were broken.
“Is that what happens when a dungeon collapses?”
“No, I don’t know. I’ve heard of accidents but don’t remember any dungeons collapsing in my lifetime.”
Ka-Ryu answered Hel’s question.
Perhaps because of their similar height, Hel and Ka-Ryu are often together.
“Why do they collapse? Is it because they have a lifespan?”
Lipa asked nonchalantly.
“The lifespan of a dungeon… I’ve never thought about that.”
“I don’t think dungeons have a lifespan… After all, even though they were originally monsters, they have taken on a different form.”
Jennifer was skeptical of the dungeon lifespan theory.
“B-b-but so far, the only dungeon found in demonic land was inside the giant magical beast, so maybe the lifespan theory is actually true…”
Sylvia might think that dungeons are similar to monsters.
“Isn’t it just an artificial dungeon made by Yggdrasil?”
Chel was more vague.
“Anyway, shouldn’t we find this dungeon core Ka-Ryu is talking about before we decide?”
I want to postpone the decision until we know more.
According to Ka-Ryu, the dungeon core is like the core of a slime, with a large number of magic circles drawn on its surface and inside. I have no idea what that means, so I gave up.
I’ll understand when I see it.
“Is there anything like this underground?”
Chel told me to look underground.
“I don’t see anything in sight. There are some twisted stone slabs, but we’ll have to dig deeper to find anything.”
The ground was divided into many layers and was distorted.
After that, everyone dug silently. I also continued to dig silently with my shovel.
When the twisted stone slabs came into view, I used the magic cube to pull them out along with the surrounding soil and placed them on the ground. Chel used water magic to chip away the clumps of soil, each as tall as a person.
“Why didn’t you use that magic from the beginning?”
“You’re right.”
In the end, Chel used her magic to clean the soil and dirt from the clumps I had pulled out, and Jennifer and the others sorted them.
The stone slabs that emerged seemed to have the names and ranks of those who had completed their training in the dungeon written on them.
“There are names and numbers on them.”
“These are the ranks of gladiators. Depending on how many monsters you can fight, it determines which tournaments you can enter.”
“Even now, adventurers have ranks, but it’s similar.”
“In Cliff Garuda, even slaves had ranks.”
Lipa was probably the lowest rank among them.
“In East Kenya, they didn’t have slave ranks so much as they were divided by their special skills. There were ranks within those skills, but…”
“Demons are naturally divided by their magic power. I didn’t really care about that, though.”
“Every country and community has internal differences. It’s because the command structure doesn’t work properly. Things stop moving forward.”
“But in the demonic country…?”
Jennifer looked at me.
“I am the Lord here. You ignorant peasants.”
I tried to look down at everyone, but they all started talking about lunch. When I looked at myself, I was the dirtiest one here, and my clothes were shabby.
“There is no inequality in the demonic land. Could that be why it hasn’t been developed and no one comes here?”
I pressed Ka-Ryu for an answer.
“I don’t know…”
I had stumped a knight from a thousand years ago.
“There’s no point in making class distinctions now.”
“True, there’s no privilege to be gained from it.”
Chel and Hel began to eat their luxurious ham and pickles sandwiches.
“You’re right. Let’s just take our time and work our way up.”
I wiped my hands, ate my packed lunch, and examined the items that had been dug up.
There were monster bones, stone tablets, and what appeared to be iron breastplates and swords worn by gladiators. All were bent or twisted.
“What do you think? Is anything missing?”
I asked Ka-Ryu, who was standing alone in front of the unearthed items, while I sent her some magic.
“Something missing… Actually, I can’t really recognize most of the things everyone dug up.”
“Huh? What do you mean?”
“Well, with organic materials like the water plants from yesterday, I can sense a trace of magic, but the artifacts that should be here are just blurry…”
Ka-Ryu has no eyes. She can only sense magic, so it’s difficult for her to recognize inorganic objects.
“Not even a trace of magic?”
“No. I thought I could tell if there were any human remains, but even with all this magic power, I can’t sense anything…”
Is there no magic power in the distorted stone tablets?
“Could the reason the dungeon was destroyed be that the magic power has disappeared?”
We’ve never unearthed any magic stones. If the core of the dungeon was made of magic stones…
“Could that be possible in this forest full of magic power?”
According to Ka-Ryu, the demonic land is full of magic. She says that she can sense faint magic even in wild grass, large stones, and even cut flesh.
“On the other hand, you can’t feel it in wheat. Wheat must be exchanged outside the demonic land, right? It seems that food from the demonic land has a high magic content.”
Hel explained. It seems that she was experimenting with Sylvia at night.
“A-a-and the cup too…”
“Oh, right. We found out that using magic tools with magic circles drawn on them causes Ka-Ryu to be overly affected.”
When they gave Ka-Ryu a cup that cooled when magic power was poured into it, her shoulders froze.
“We’re having fun experimenting with it.”
“If you don’t like it, you can refuse.”
After lunch, Hel and Sylvia returned to the cave to sleep.
I thought about digging again, but since it was such a rare opportunity, I decided to show Ka-Ryu the ruins of Midgard, where the magic had disappeared.
Lipa fought off the monsters and attacked plants as we advanced. It seemed that there were no monsters left that couldn’t be handled with a wooden sword.
On the way, a spider guardian had its leg stuck between rocks and struggled to free itself. I thought it would be best to break the rocks, but there were traces of various magic on them. It seemed that magic was ineffective against them.
With no other option, I broke the rocks with my fists and freed the Spider Guardian’s leg. It quickly ran away.
“There are some clumsy magic machines out there.”
“Makyo really seems to be able to defeat a Spider Guardian with a single blow.”
Ka-Ryu let out a voice of admiration from behind me.
“You didn’t believe it?”
“Sometimes I wonder if Makyo’s strength is normal.”
“Of course, it is not normal.”
“If there were more people like Makyo-san, Cliff Garuda would be destroyed.”
Jennifer and Lipa said confidently.
“That’s enough. I wonder how high your levels are…”
“They’ve probably changed by now…”
If you pay at the Adventurer’s Guild, you can find out your level and stats, but when I was an adventurer before I came to the demonic land, I never did that. It’s a waste of money.
“Don’t you want to know?”
“Not really…”
“I can roughly estimate the magic power. But in the demonic land, survival is more important, and even if your stats are high, you’ll die if you die.”
“Probably the values that can’t be measured in the Adventurer’s Guild are more important here.”
Chel and Jennifer didn’t seem to care much about their levels.
“That’s true. Flexibility to accept change, an eye to observe injustice, and the ability to adapt are things you pick up no matter how you live.”
Lipa kicked away the plants that were attacking him and picked some cam fruit. It was almost snack time.
After passing through the rock formations of the Spider Guardian, we arrived at the ruins of Midgard. The wandering monsters were still swimming in the lake.
“I’m going to get some eggs!”
Chel said, showing her determination to go even though she was told not to. She must really want to use eggs for dinner.
“Go ahead. Bring some back for me, too. Make sure the ones with chicks in them go back to the nest.”
“Got it! Come on, Lipa!”
“Yes…”
The egg thieves headed toward the migrating monsters without a hint of remorse.
“It’s true; there seems to be little magic here.”
“These are the ruins of Midgard. I don’t know why it’s like this.”
“I understand that it’s temporary because the whole area has been transported, but considering the vitality of the plants in the demonic land, it’s strange.”
“By the way, further south in the desert beyond the forest, in Cliff Garuda, Lipa’s hometown, there’s a huge hole with a dense concentration of magic, and a giant stake is stuck in it. It says that the dragon people prevented the continent from breaking apart…”
“Ah! The giant stake that stopped the tectonic shifts is still there? That was long before I was born…”
“But there’s no technology to stop tectonic shifts now, is there?”
“It was legendary even in Yggdrasil. But it’s something that parents teach their children, and it’s written in schoolbooks, even in the most remote villages. The stories of the geologist, the sky magician, the blacksmith who made the stakes, and the magic tool craftsman are famous. Haven’t you heard of them?”
“I haven’t.”
“It’s a simple story about enemies joining hands to save the continent, but after that, occupational discrimination should have faded away.”
“Is that so?”
“Yes. But when the magical power density around the Great Stake increases, someone will have to intervene again.”
“It said that the birdmen would protect it, but wasn’t that said 1,000 years ago?”
“The birdmen are just a type of beastman. They don’t get special treatment, do they?”
Were those words written on the surface of the Great Stake by people from a later generation?
“Anyway, it’s easy to see where the monsters are and where Chel and Lipa are.”
Ka-Ryu sat on a fallen tree trunk and looked at Chel and Lipa.
In this abnormal demonic land, this might be the only place to find peace.
Dinner was boiled egg sandwiches.
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