My Dungeon Life – Chapter 1767-1769

Chapter 1767

Once the alchemist had the bottle, I was led back to the main room. As I exited the room, my eyes went to the windowsill for a moment but I quickly diverted them and instead made idle chitchat with Lord Vandeer.

As we returned to the main room, I noticed Lady Seeired was looking our way. However, as soon as our eyes met, she looked away as if nothing had happened. She was likely wondering what the other side was doing with me, and ultimately whether I was tempted to throw away her offer and follow them. In truth, Lord Vandeer hadn’t offered me anything other than what he had already provided.

He wanted a vial of waters of life for a sick fairy queen. Such a thing was quite valuable, but that value didn’t come close to the value of a day of shopping with my girls. As far as trades went, it was exceedingly fair on my side. That vial cost me almost nothing, but it saved one of their hives. I didn’t necessarily like the idea of them using fairies like that but did I have the right to say anything.

Fairies were good at collecting and concentrating mana, and that was extremely useful for growing a dungeon. Most of my success could be laid at the feet of the combination of the fairies and my dungeon. It was the only reason I had a god dungeon, and it was the only reason that dungeon had become Eliza. If the choice came between using fairies or allowing my daughter to starve, I wouldn’t hesitate to continue to use the fairies.

In other parts of Aberis, fairies were taken and used as servants. They called them house fairies, and although their capacity to do chores was as limited as their intelligence, they existed as a novelty and a good luck charge among nobles there. It was said that house fairies could bring health and prosperity to any household they inhabited. This likely had to do with their natural mana gathering ability. Any household that had a fairy would likely have just a tinge more mana in the air than one that didn’t. Compared to Aberis which captured fairies and treated them as pets or worse, slaves, Jespain’s treatment could be considered downright respectful. It wasn’t like I was looking to overthrow Aberis and fix the fairy situation there, so how could I even say a thing in Jespain?

“To my understanding, one of your subordinates found a weapon in a dungeon known as a gun, and is looking for more information on them, correct?” I snapped out of my retrospection as Lord Vandeer asked me a question just as we returned to the VIP section and he sat back down in his chair.

I looked to the side and took a seat on the couch. “Yes, I wasn’t aware that this world… I mean, I have never seen guns before Bernice got them.”

That was technically true. Even in my world, how often did someone lay their eyes on a gun? I had seen them on television and stuff, but I was far too introverted to have ever seen one in real life. Getting a gun for Bernice had been the first thing I had ever done. As for how I had managed to get the gun in such a short time, my Merchant skills seemed to come into play, and I was able to purchase them from an enthusiast who was wowed by the pretty women I was with.

He nodded in acceptance. “We also came across our first guns from dungeons. There is a dungeon in southwest Jespain that has shaped a great deal of our culture. Guns, horseless carriages, airships, and even our food all came from this dungeon. Even the word Jespain was a play on the name of the dungeon of Japan!”

Chapter 1768

When I heard that word, I nearly coughed. “J-japan, you say?”

It seemed like all of my questions had been answered. The ancestors of Jespain had stumbled across a dungeon that resembled Japan. From there, a lot of their culture started to develop, as well as their technology. They likely couldn’t replicate the technology they found in the dungeon, so they used mana to replace it instead. This led to them having a technological boom, leaving them where they were at this point.

“I’d be very interested in seeing such a dungeon,” I responded earnestly.

“Unfortunately, this dungeon no longer exists. Back in the day, we attempted to use it for farming, and it was eventually overused. Unlike the great labyrinths in Aberis, where the local populace only play at farming, we had developed methods to extract what we needed from the dungeon. However, back then, we didn’t understand the relationship between fairies and dungeons, and the result was that the dungeon dried up and died from overuse.

“Back then, a lot of our technology didn’t need mana to use. However, with the dungeon gone, we could only develop our mana-based technology copying the dungeon samples. Nowadays, those remaining samples are kept in museums. If you’re interested in seeing one, I’d be happy to have someone take you.”

“No…” I immediately spoke up. “No, that will be fine.”

I didn’t need to see parts of my world. There was no guarantee it was even a connection to my world. There could be other worlds out there, other Japans. There might have been a point where I didn’t think that, but as I came to realize just how often lore repeated and copied itself, I thought it’d probably be stranger if there wasn’t another copy of my world out there.

“Very well…” He responded, seeming to not care one way or another. “In that case, I suppose it’s time to introduce you and the other guests and welcome you properly.”

After that, the remainder of the party went rather unremarkable. Lord Vandeer acted as the host of the party, so he stood up and got everyone’s attention. He introduced and welcomed me publicly, but he also introduced Dignitary Pait and the church girls. At that point, he retreated to his VIP section, and by the placement of the servants, I had the feeling I wasn’t going to be let back in again.

At that point, I was approached by several more people. Since the two major powers had already approached me, it was their subordinates who now wanted a chance to get in my good grace. Some of them brought their daughters with them, seemingly implying that if we got along well, their daughter could come home with me that night. The girls often blushed furiously or grew flustered, but thankfully only a few of the men were so brazen as that.

I answered as politely as I could, using Cici’s notes and the observations my girls made whenever I could. I didn’t immediately start investigating anything, but I was definitely in an information-gathering stage with the mission Lady Seeired spoke of floating in the back of my mind. After a few hours, the celebration came to an end, and the people started to disperse.

We were taken back to our hotel and led back to our rooms as night fell on Jespain. At one point, I poked my head out the door, only to see people dressed in casual clothing conveniently standing on either end of the hallway. Marina appeared a few moments later.

“Did you need anything, my lord?” She asked politely.

“No, just stretching my neck,” I responded awkwardly, reentering my room and closing the door.

I wasn’t going to start tonight. There were still things I needed to accomplish, and I didn’t want to stir up trouble until I had done what I came for. After that, there was no telling what would happen.

Chapter 1769

“Master?” I looked up to see Celeste in my room.

As for how she made it in my room, such a thing wasn’t difficult for an air deity who could change her size at will.

“Yes, Celeste?” I lifted my head. “Is there something on your mind?”

I was lying in my bed. I was just about to go to sleep, waiting for tomorrow to find out more about Jespain. I had felt Celeste’s unease though, and so I stayed up. I usually liked to check on the girl’s situation before I went to bed. It was easy to lose track of them if I didn’t focus. I had an awareness of where they were and what was going on, but unless I thought about it, it was very easy for the many bonds I shared to be a jumbled knot.

Thus, I checked on their location, health, and emotional states. If they went to bed angry or frightened, how could I allow something like that? Ever since Celeste had sensed that Fairy queen, I had felt like something was off with her. Thus, I had waited patiently for her to arrive.

“Ah! R-right… it’s just… I was curious, so while Master was in the room, I had spied.”

“I know.” I smiled, remembering that she had been at the windowsill. “Is there anything you figured out?”

“That fairy queen…” Celeste’s usually complacent expression was unusually ruffled. “She wasn’t doing very well.”

“Yes.” I nodded. “He said that a dungeon had a backlash and that it cursed her.”

Celeste bit her lip, looking less certain. “She seemed… sad.”

“You were able to tell that?” To me, she had just seemed unconscious.

“I don’t think it was the curse.” Celeste was speaking far more carefully than I would have normally expected her to. “Or rather, a fairy queen should have been too powerful to be cursed so easily. I feel like she had already been in a very weakened state for the curse to have taken hold so aggressively.”

“I see… should I have directly healed her then?”

If I had to, I could go in and likely fix the damage. My control of mana and miasma was pretty great, and so these kinds of issues were easy for a White Mage like me.

She shook her head. “As soon as the alchemist finished her treatment, the fairy queen was starting to look better. However-”

She paused again.

“However?”

“I didn’t see her use the waters of life at all.”

I gave a slight nod. “They seem to want to be able to replicate the waters of life. They think it comes from a fairy queen. They don’t know how we were able to do it. They might put the vial into a dungeon so that it can absorb the lore.”

“Is that okay?” Celeste asked.

“Dungeons can replicate all kinds of lore, but there are things they can do and things they can’t do. Complex magical items, like airships, for example, cannot be replicated by a dungeon. If a dungeon could replicate anything, then we would have just had it remake Terra’s body. Malacrum and Silvthril weapons also can’t seem to be made properly in a dungeon. I used to think it was a lack of proper lore, but now I think it’s just a limitation of dungeons. I believe Waters of Life to be such an item. Unless someone brought some in with them before perishing, a dungeon shouldn’t have such an item, and if it tried to produce it, it’d only be a pale comparison.”

Those were ultimately my conclusions on the subject to date.

“I see…” Celeste’s thoughtful expression quickly faded to her more chipper one. “Then maybe I’m just thinking too much! Thank you, Master! I will continue to trust in you.”

“Mm!” I smiled and bid her farewell with a kiss, but as soon as she was gone, my smile turned into a frown. “If it were only so easy.”