000-020 · 003-ch3
Chapter 3: Hello to People on the Surface
After showing the outside and leaving the comment section that had grown noisy, I processed the remaining meat from lunch. Most of the meat was made into ham and bacon, and the parts around the remaining bones were divided into smoked meat and broth for tonight's soup. Robo came close looking like he wanted to eat, but I made him wait.
Actually, vegetables are difficult to obtain in this world beyond the dungeon depths. Fruits, meat, and spices can be obtained fairly often, but wild vegetables are hard to find. Or rather, what you can eat in modern times is basically cultivated after breed improvement and management.
That said, today there's an injured person, so I plan to go collect the special vegetables I kept in reserve without harvesting them.
"It's fine to film, but don't get in the way."
I warned the drone, which had gone back toward Ms. Amamiya inside once. They probably had questions because of my earlier statement, but since I'd said don't get in my way or force anything, they were probably holding back.
Actually, Ms. Amamiya's life currently depends on me, so that's probably why they couldn't push hard either. Or rather, it would be troublesome if they could.
After that, for a while I worked on processing the meat while being filmed. I suppose they couldn't keep filming the sleeping Ms. Amamiya forever.
When the sky began to be dyed in sunset colors, I sensed someone moving from the hut direction.
"She seems to have woken up."
I gestured that way, and the drone that had been filming me rushed back toward the hut. Or rather, how's the battery on that thing doing?
I also took the almost completed soup off the fire and followed.
"Ah, um... who... ?"
"Get the details from the broadcast comment section. That'll be faster, probably.
I tossed the smartphone I'd left on the table onto the bed where she was sleeping.
"Ah, um, er?"
"Your clothes are over there. I only cut the innerwear during treatment. Sorry.
Ms. Amamiya still didn't seem to understand well, so once I went outside. Rather than explaining everything one by one, it would be easier if she asked the comment section about what happened, and then asked questions from there.
"Robo! I'm cooking!"
『Baw-baw!』
The meat wrapped in leaves and steaming by the soup was coming along nicely, so I called out to Robo too. I cut my portion and the portion she might eat, and transferred the rest to a ridiculously large bowl for Robo and placed it on the ground.
"Don't scatter it.
My voice didn't seem to reach Robo, who had started eating with single-minded devotion.
Thinking the inside situation was probably resolved too, I added more soup for my portion and the girl's portion, and went inside with the plate with meat on it.
"I'm coming in."
"Ah, um, that..."
"Can you eat?"
Asking while setting dinner on the table, Ms. Amamiya stood up in a panic from the bed, so I held her down with my hand.
"Um, I want to help, but..."
"Mm, well, later. First, if you can eat, let's talk while eating.
I placed a chair beside her, and she sat on it hesitantly. I also placed a wooden box and sat opposite her.
"Itadakimasu."
"Ah, um, itadakimasu."
"I don't think it tastes as good as surface food, but the ingredients are pretty good, so."
First, before the soup, I took a piece of meat and bit into it for myself. I'd given Ms. Amamiya a knife for cutting into small pieces, just in case.
"Ah, it's delicious."
"That's good.
The meat was Clydia meat seasoned with salt and spices and grilled. Something like tandoori chicken flavor, I guess. I thought pretty hard about the spice combination.
The soup was vegetables cooked in broth taken from around Clydia's bones. The vegetables were ones I'd previously preserved, taken from a layer about 15 floors up where vegetable-type monsters appear frequently. It's too far to go get every day....
Both of them, I think, taste like the ingredients themselves could be called high-quality, but unfortunately seasonings - and Japanese ones at that - are completely unavailable.
Silence continued for a while, and the drone filmed that from above. Something was probably being said in the comment section again.
"Does the injury hurt?"
"Ah, um, no. It doesn't hurt at all. Thank you very much."
"Then that's good. It'll close completely in one night."
"Ah, thank you very much.
Looking at how well she was eating, Ms. Amamiya didn't seem to have any lasting effects from the injury. Well, that ointment is a rare item that easily heals even wounds that reach internal organs. If I told her, it might get noisy again, so I won't.
"As soon as your injury heals, I'll send you to the surface. Any questions?"
"Ah, yes, um..."
Her glance kept darting to the smartphone, so perhaps she's not good at thinking for herself, or someone told her to ask.
"I don't think looking at the smartphone is rude or anything."
"Ah, sorry... um, I have a few questions I want to ask, is that okay?"
"It depends on the content.
The comment section she checked might have people with troublesome intentions like I mentioned earlier.
"Yes, then the first question is, did you talk earlier? You said you want me to explain again where the current location is."
"...Well, fine. This place is beyond the very bottom of the dungeon."
"Beyond the deep layer, is it?"
"When you go all the way to the very back of the deep layer, the path to the lower layers opens up. Repeating that many times, you keep going deeper and deeper. And as far as I know, the dungeon connected to Shinjuku ends at this floor."
"This place isn't a dungeon?"
"This place has a sky, and you can see stars beyond it. It's just my imagination, but it might be a different world from the dungeon... or should I say upper layer, middle layer, lower layer, deep layer, and then this deepest layer? Either way, I think of it as something completely different from the deep layer. Or maybe it's a dungeon layer where space is reproduced. I don't know beyond that.
This is the only place without a ceiling.
As she said "I see," this time I felt curious and asked her.
"So where's the current front line on the surface?"
"Huh? Ah, um, in Japan, Shinjuku is the deepest and I think they've reached the 11th district of the deep layer. But item investigation has only progressed up to around the 3rd district... I don't remember overseas in detail, but I think they're more advanced than Japan. But I haven't heard of anyone fully traversing the deep layer..."
"I see. Is that how it is?"
When I was on the surface, exploration was slow too, but it seems that hasn't changed. Or rather, I might just be the exception in this case.
"Then the next question. Um, how are you going to take me to the surface from here?"
"Ah, you'd be curious about that. There's a monster I'm raising. He's fast, so I'll have you ride on his back and he'll carry you. I'll at least handle clearing the path along the way."
"...Can you win against deep layer monsters?"
"If I couldn't win, I wouldn't have come this far. I'm not reckless enough to make it through things I can't beat and come to a place like this.
She nodded saying "I see," but the anxiety didn't disappear from Ms. Amamiya's expression. Maybe I should just transport her while she's sleeping. I'm sure there was sleep or anesthetic-type medicine or magic circles.
"Um, from here on is my question or rather--"
"It's questions from people watching the video, right. Well, that's fine. As long as I answer with my own will, I have no complaints."
"Thank you! Um then----
And so, as the sun was setting, a Q&A session began between me, touching the surface for the first time in a long time, and them, learning of the depths beyond for the first time.