My Dungeon Life – Chapter 1734-1736

Chapter 1734

“If you touch the tablet here, you can see the list of activities we’ve made available for you. All of these workshops are available in New Yan, so don’t worry. You all won’t be able to visit all of them, so please select the activities you’re interested in participating in order the week, and we’ll put together an itinerary for each of you. Please be aware that tonight you are all invited to a welcome party at the house of the lords. There will also be a farewell banquet at the end of the week.”

Most of the girls seemed to be overwhelmed by the information that Marina was handing them, but my feelings were a bit more complicated. This actually all felt far too familiar. It felt like going to an anime conference or some kind of welcome week at a school. We were filling them out on artifacts that closely resembled tablets from my world.

“How are these things powered?” I asked as I clicked through it with a bit of familiarity.

“You may find the answer to that on the Mana 101 workshop.” The woman gestured to a selection on my screen.

There were all kinds of different workshops. Someone had seriously thought this all out a bit to the extreme. There were culture workshops, business workshops, and even mathematics workshops. They seemed to have a workshop for every aspect of Jespain. The ones I was most interested in were the magical artifact workshops. However, there were like ten of them. There was also a golem building workshop and an artificial lifeform building workshop.

“Oh! There it is!” Faeyna spoke excitedly. “It’s a Cooking workshop.”

Faeyna had come along because she had heard the Jespain had the largest number of high-level cooks on the continent. She had been hoping to meet up with one and learn a few things, but they had already made a workshop for that.

“Don’t forget that there is also Top Chef, Culinary Arts, Local Ingredients, and Mixology.” Marina pointed out calmly. “All great lectures to help you improve your cooking craft.”

“Ah! I see…” Faeyna was so excited that she quickly typed away, but to me, Marina had a bit of a mocking expression on her face.

I had noticed it on the crew and a few of the other people from Jespain we had walked by. It felt clear to me that they looked down on us, seeing our ways as barbaric. Marina didn’t just stand straight and proper, but she had a full dress that covered her from neck to feet. Her hair was done up properly in a bun, and even her glasses gave off a feeling of elegance. Comparatively, the girls looking around with awe while wearing animal furs and scraps of armor looked like yokels.

“They have gun craft too!”  Bernice cried out excitedly.

“Yes, I’ve noticed those weapons you have at your side.” Marina nodded to the guns at her holsters.

“Will that be a problem?” I asked quickly.

She turned to me and smiled. “Not at all, you’re not forbidden from having weapons in the city. Just make sure not to use them on anyone.”

After stating that, she turned back to Bernice and started to explain which classes she should take to learn about gun crafting. As I watched them, a small frown was on my face.

“What’s wrong, Master?” Alysia asked. “I was worried my presence would cause trouble, but it doesn’t seem to be an issue.”

“That’s the problem,” I responded to her directly between our connected souls. “This is, for all intent and purposes, and a foreign nation. They’re not only allowing our weapons, but they are willing to teach us all of their country’s secrets.”

“Maybe they just don’t see us as a threat. They do seem to look down on us. As for teaching us, maybe they don’t find those particular things as valuable.”

“Yeah… maybe…” I responded, but I was worried.

A hand that was open and gave freely was a hand that was difficult to trust.

Chapter 1735

“What should we do first, Master?” Lydia threw herself against me, allowing a soft feeling to press against my arm.

We were currently sitting in one of the horseless carriages. We were in one that was much roomier than a car and was able to fit fourteen people in it. That still meant we needed three of them to fit everyone. Other than First, most of the lionesses, and maid staff had been relegated to the second vehicle. The Esmere and the church representatives were each given their carriages, even though the Esmere group was extremely small. Ahem… I meant that there were only three of them.

“According to the catalog, there are no workshops today other than the Welcome party, so we’re free to just explore.” Miki was still carefully looking through the tablet while Terra looked over her shoulder.

Terra’s hands turned out to be too large for the tablet and her rocky fingers weren’t capable of triggering the magic, so she could only have Miki use it for her. This wasn’t an issue with most magical artifacts, because she could just use mana to control them. Most magical artifacts I was used to worked one of two ways. Either they were powered by inserting mana into them, or they held mana, thus making them a single-use item. There was a third way, absorbing mana directly from the environment, but that was complicated and usually needed a soul, like my sword Alysium. Most things, including magic swords, had to eventually replace their magic stones. Magic stones like light stones, heat stones, and water stones were used to power lighting and water faucets.

One of the reasons housing in cities was so expensive was because of the maintenance cost of those stones. They could only be gathered in dungeons or mined in areas of high mana concentration. This turned out not to be an issue with Chalm, as the wilderness contained several of these mines. Unfortunately, they hadn’t been accessible to the residents, as the monsters of the wilderness were too difficult. One of the goals of the Osterians as they cleared out wilderness was to reclaim these mines. I didn’t personally care about them much at all, as my dungeon could produce the stones needed to support Chalm and the nearby cities, but the surplus would be another revenue source for Chalm, and that was something valuable to us.

That’s why I was a bit surprised by Jespain. Although I hadn’t attended this Mana 101 course yet, I had enough skill with mana that I had reasoned out their power supply. Jespain had seemingly created magic batteries, which held a charge just like the lithium batteries of my world. These tablets were being powered by these batteries rather than a direct feed of magic. Yet, looking around, it seemed like a lot of their technology was being powered by similar batteries, including the carriage we were in.

That left me with one major question. Where were they getting all of the stones? The power demand when compared to the likes of the capital city of Aberis would be insane. I was planning on taking that Mana 101 course, as condescending as the title sounded, as I was really curious about that.

Celeste’s stomach suddenly growled. “Ah… I’m hungry. Can we go eat?”

“That can be arranged. Simply let me know where you would like to visit, and we can go.”

“How are you even hungry?” Miki asked irritation. “Can’t you subsist on wind or something?”

“Or do you need food to grow a certain thing,” Terra added, her eyes narrowing down at Celeste’s chest, causing Miki to join her.

“J-just because I’m a fairy doesn’t mean I can’t eat!” Celeste responded with a huff. “It just doesn’t affect my size.”

This caused most of the girls in the carriage to let out groans of envy as they shot Celeste a glare. Celeste’s mana body existed on a different level from theirs. Whether it was cleanliness, looks, or weight, she required almost no maintenance. She could even be pocket-sized when the occasion called for it.

“Wait…you’re a fairy?” For the first time, Marina’s placid expression had broken and she put on a look of shock.

Chapter 1736

Marina’s interruption had broken up the flow of our conversation, causing a few moments of silence. I cleared my throat.

“Is that a problem?”

Marina immediately shook her head. “N-not at all. I’ve just never seen one fr… ahem, is she a Fairy Queen?”

“For a little while.” Celeste puffed up proudly. “Although, I’m half-human… my human half died. Then I evolved… and evolved again… what am I now Master?”

“You still don’t even remember what you are?” I sighed, then remembered I forgot the name after her last evolution too and did a quick God and Devil Eye. “An Aeolus?”

“An Aeolus! Isn’t that a wind deity?” Marina cried out.

“I don’t know.” Celeste shrugged. “Anyway, I don’t know what the big deal of eating is. Terra doesn’t change size when she eats.”

“I can’t even eat in this form!” Terra complained.

“Yeah, but Terra’s figure isn’t that enviable either.” Shao sniffed.

“Geh!” If Terra could show an expression on her golem face, it would surely have been wounded.

“I think Terra is beautiful just the way she is!” Lydia cut in, shooting Shao a look.

Shao shrugged, while Terra gave Lydia a thankful look. Terra had been suffering since she lost her body. I had mostly taken it for granted, but Terra was a human soul. Even though she had lived years in a golem body, it at least had been a body designed off of her original. It was extremely advanced and allowed her to act like a normal human. She had all of the functional parts of a human, and could even be considered quite cute. Yet, she had been little more than a monolithic monster for nearly a month. She had sacrificed her body to help us escape, and her soul had barely made it out of there.

I also struggled to show her affection. I did love her, but there was only so much affection I could show a giant rock. Even on her side, the feedback didn’t allow her to feel my touch like she should. She could feel the pressure, but it didn’t translate to anything more than that. A golem didn’t typically need to feel arousal or sexual excitement. I had once connected the sensations between my girls, allowing one girl to feel what another girl felt. We had tried that once, but without even a sexual organ to react to said arousal, she said it felt more like a tease. Rather than satisfy Terra, it had only made her further depressed at what she had lost. She didn’t want a proxy to feel for her.

“We did have a major reason to want to come to Jespain, other than opening trade routes,” I spoke up, causing Marina to jump.

She had been staring at Celeste, her mouth slightly ajar. She must have been taking Celeste’s identity a bit seriously. I didn’t worry much about the lore of species names, as they rarely matched this world perfectly.

“Wh- yes?” She finally looked at me, regaining her composure.

“I’m looking to speak to whomever your golem experts are. I know you have workshops, but we can call this a personal request. I’d like to collaborate on the creation of something. We have many rare metals which I’m sure they would be interested in.”

My words had gotten to the chatting girls, and Terra looked at me with expectation and hope. Marina’s eyes flickered to Celeste one last time, but then she nodded.

“Of course, I’ll pass on a message for you.”