000-020 · 001-ch1
Chapter 1: A Human After So Long
I found a human in the dungeon while I was going up to collect resources for the first time in a while. And not just any dungeon resident you might occasionally run into, but an explorer who came from the surface to explore.
(That's a nasty injury, though. Looks like she got chased by a monster, ran into a trap, and triggered it?)
It's been nearly ten years since I was on the surface, but back then, detailed information about that small room wasn't circulating. But nowadays, with all the various information available, I can't imagine someone would intentionally trigger it while injured.
I climbed the stairs from the dungeon's depths and arrived at my base, which was right near the exit to the dungeon world. I stopped Robo, princess-carried the girl, and jumped down to the ground. Of course, I didn't forget to cushion the impact.
"Thanks, Robo. Do whatever you want."
『Baw, grrrr』
"Wait a bit on the food."
『Graw!』
"Roger that. Got it. I'll cook something up if I hunt anything.
I was told 'I'll increase the meat portions to make up for making you wait!' but I couldn't help it. Thanks to raising him since he was a pup, Robo was attached to me and wouldn't just hunt and eat on his own. He'd naturally developed the habit of eating with me. Something about cooked food being better than raw meat, and all that.
"Now then, now then, will a potion heal you up?"
I went into the hut I'd built as a base and laid the girl on the bed. Normally, I'd have to wash the wound or wipe it with a clean damp cloth, but this is the dungeon, where you have all sorts of items. Items that help treat wounds exist too.
(Sorry about this.)
I took off the armor of the girl lying on the bed and removed her upper garment. But since it was hard to remove while she was asleep, I had to use a knife to cut her innerwear to expose her upper body. Sorry about that.
(No injuries on the front. She was attacked from the back while running.)
I turned the girl's body sideways so the injured shoulder was facing up, supporting her in a side-sleeping position. As expected, there was a deep gash on her back.
(Ointment instead of potion for this one.)
I placed supports under her uninjured neck and her rear to keep her body fixed in the sideways position, then got some ointment from the box where I stored medicines. This was a medicine obtainable in the dungeon, an item that provided recovery effects for external wounds. While it was inferior to potions in terms of immediacy, ease of use, and stamina recovery, it was quite useful for treating locally deep wounds.
Just as I was about to apply the ointment to the girl's wound, something started acting up inside the pouch I still had at my waist.
(That machine from earlier... I'll ignore it for now. Treatment comes first.)
It's probably some device that supports the girl in some way, but right now it's in the way, so I want it to be quiet. I took off the pouch, threw it into a nearby ore box, and closed the lid.
"Excuse me, but I'm gonna have to touch you a little bit~"
There was a slight sense of apology about touching a woman's body I didn't know, but since this was for treatment, I didn't mind and started applying ointment to the wound.
(The poison hasn't spread through her whole body, and this disinfects well enough, so this should do.)
What's amazing about this ointment is that if it's high quality, it eliminates poisons or pathogens present in the wound at the same time as treating it. In other words, it brings the effects of both a recovery potion and an antidote potion, but limited to the wound. Plus, it's excellent at reducing pain too. Furthermore, the medicine supplements the stamina consumed during wound healing, so you won't be weakened by stamina loss as a result of healing.
(I guess I'll need to gather or make some recovery items soon.)
While pulling my thoughts back to the inventory of consumables, I squeezed some ointment onto my palm.
Then, eliminating idle thoughts about how soft the girl's skin felt when I touched her, I gently applied the ointment to the wound, spreading it across the wide wound on her back where she'd likely been attacked from above, including the shoulder.
After finishing treating the girl's wound, wiping the other parts with a damp cloth to clean them, and wrapping bandages from what little I had, I laid the girl on her back and covered her with the fur I used as a blanket.
"That should do it. Now to wash her clothes... The shirt's hopeless, I guess.
I sensed Robo returning outside just then, so I put all the girl's clothes I'd taken off into a deep basket, and channeled mana into the magic circles written on the bottom and sides of the basket.
In response to the mana, the magic circles began to take effect, water overflowed into the basket, and it started spinning violently.
When the dungeon appeared, various materials, tools, and technologies that didn't exist on the surface before began to appear.
One of those was the magic I just used.
『Baw-baw!!』
Robo was urging me from outside, saying 'Hurry up!!' He was claiming he'd brought food, so cook it.
"Roger, roger. We have a guest, so try to be a bit more quiet, seriously."
Grumbling to myself, I went outside too.
『Whiiiine, whiiiine』
"Don't think just because you won't get fat you can overeat.
I stopped Robo from trying to eat a whole Clydia he'd hunted and set aside the parts that could be preserved with magical tools and the parts that could be made into jerky. Even for Robo with his good physique, eating a whole Clydia with its good physique was just too much.
"Besides, that thing's still rattling, isn't it?"
『Baw?』
"Nothing.
I quickly threw the remaining meat into the preservation magical tool and went back inside. Robo seemed to have settled into a nap in the shade of a tree.
"Rambunctious little thing, aren't you.
The source of the slight rattling sound echoing inside was the box I'd thrown the pouch into earlier. When I opened it, the pouch inside, which had been thrashing around, flew out toward me.
"Now, what exactly are you?"
I caught the pouch that was floating inside and trying to fly around, and took out what looked like a drone from inside. Of course, I didn't let go of my hand because it would be troublesome if it acted up on its own.
"...This has a small camera on it. So it's a drone or something like that, huh.
Looking closely at the machine trying to move around in my hand, I could see several tiny camera-like things.
That reminded me of the time when I was on the surface. Drones were used for dungeon exploration back then. But I recall they quickly became unusable because machines couldn't withstand the density of mana. Yet this one in front of me seemed to be connected to the girl's flow of mana.
"A magical device or something?"
I remembered the light novels I'd read on the surface. I'm pretty sure that in fantasy worlds, technology wasn't pure science but a combination of science and magic. It might be similar to the magic circles I use.
It was thrashing around so much in my hand I thought about doing something with it, but if it could move independently from the girl - and not just move in one direction and get stuck, but actively thrash around - I wondered if it had some high-performance AI or something, so I spoke to it.
"You, um, Drone-kun? If you understand words, could you stop thrashing around a bit?
Then, after about twenty seconds, the drone stopped moving.
"Eh, seriously...? I'm letting go, but don't thrash around, okay? If you thrash, I'll catch you again.
I spread the fingers I was holding it with and placed it on my palm. The drone slowly floated up. The body was spinning around, seemingly concerned about the girl, but maybe my threat worked because it didn't start moving.
"Good. And you can clearly understand what I say? If you can, go up and down.
The drone went up and down, following the trajectory of a person's face when nodding. It understood language. I remember a major IT company created an AI that responded to words and could do various things.
"I see. Voice output? Or intention communication?"
I asked, but no sound came from the drone. It just started moving slowly in a different direction from the girl.
Wondering what it intended to do, I kept watch, and it seemed to have business with the girl's pouch. It descended onto the pouch that had been left sitting on the table and stopped in contact with it.
"So? ...Is there a speaker for communication or something inside?"
Seeing the drone nod vigorously at my question, I opened the pouch while feeling bad inwardly toward the girl. Inside were some potions, a knife, and other exploration tools. I took them out one by one onto the table, and in the middle of doing that, the drone approached one tool.
"This, is it a smartphone?"
At first glance, I thought it was a case with some decoration or something, but when I picked it up, there was an LCD screen on the back.
Thinking I'd use it, I turned on the power, and the screen started up, showing me operating the smartphone.
It showed me.
"Huh!? What does this mean?"
Looking back and forth between the camera and the smartphone, I could see text strings flowing across the screen. When I followed them with my eyes as they disappeared at high speed, I could see each sentence one by one.
>>They noticed! >>Kana-chan, are you okay!?? >>Who is this old guy!?? >>Don't flood with comments! Important stuff will get lost!!
The text strings flowing at high speed were cheers to the fact that I'd looked at the smartphone, and words worrying about a person named 'Kana' or 'Kanata.'
That's when I finally realized. When I was on the surface, I'd seen something similar too.
"Ah, is this being live streamed? Some streaming site like WeTube?"
>>Yeah! >>Live streaming! You're on! >>You noticed late! >>More importantly, is Kana-chan okay!?? >>I am Hiraka, manager of Dungeon Stars. Thank you for rescuing Amamiya Kanata, an idol belonging to our group. How is her condition? If it is difficult to transport her to the surface, we will send a rescue team, so please let us know your location. <<Dungeon Stars Official>> >>Even the manager is watching properly >>Or rather, where is that? >>Show Kanata-san!
After seeing the series of comments flowing at high speed, sensing the obvious trouble coming, I threw the smartphone onto the table and looked up at the ceiling.