Live Dungeon!

”Here we go! One, two… three!”

”Hng…!”

Daryl and Leleia worked in tandem, lifting a collapsed portion of the castle walls. Carefully, they lowered the heavy stones into the Magic Bag that Tsutomu and Hannah had opened and spread wide. They repeated the process several times, stockpiling stone from the Ancient Castle for future use. Once they had secured a sufficient amount, they turned their attention to the black iron fences near the castle’s entrance.

”[.”

Diniel let loose an arrow imbued with earth-elemental energy, sending its hardened shaft boring into the stone holding the fence in place. As the top supports gave way and the black fencing clattered to the ground, Daryl and Leleia again took over, hefting the fallen pieces and stowing them neatly into the Magic Bag.

”I’ll leave that part to you two,” Leleia called over to Tsutomu, casting a mildly reproachful look toward him.

”Ah… oh, yeah, we’ve got this,” he replied.

”All right! Time to catch us a whole bunch!” Hannah cheered.

Leleia, her green-scaled arms aching from repetitive lifting, rubbed her biceps with a subtle grimace. Tsutomu, ignoring the look with the ease that came with prolonged exposure to an apathetic lifestyle, simply offered her a small nod and turned toward the castle garden alongside Hannah.

There, while Hannah darted through the grass and weeds, catching bugs with a net, Tsutomu headed to the pond with his fishing rod. Hannah, raised in a humble village where eating insects was common, showed no hesitation whatsoever. She zipped around the garden, swatting and trapping bugs with childlike energy, utterly in her element.

[This is… surprisingly fun,] Tsutomu thought as he continued fishing.

For his part, he had no prior experience with fishing and thus lacked finesse. Still, this untouched land was bountiful. Casting a line into the pond was met almost instantly with a tug. He had been prepared to resort to abusing [ if the fish refused to bite, but that proved unnecessary. One after another, the pond yielded its bounty.

He reeled in each wriggling prize with a pleased expression, slipping them into the Magic Bag once they stilled. The fish and insects found within the God’s Dungeon were often used in Potions and other concoctions. It was a perfectly standard practice now that the most common things among them had been thoroughly researched. Many of the same materials were also found in outer Dungeons, or obtained much more easily from lower-leveled layers like the Grasslands.

However, some resources, such as the Potion Fish or Sawmill Resin, were exclusive to the God’s Dungeon and could not be found anywhere else. As such, they fetched a high price on the market and were subjects of ongoing research.

[This one’s a Springbloom Fish… and that ugly one’s probably a Murkshade Fish. Good God, the real thing looks even WORSE than the pictures…]

He grimaced at the grotesque, bulbous-eyed fish in his hands, its appearance reminiscent of an overgrown telescope goldfish. Still, he mentally cataloged each specimen. While many Dungeon-sourced materials were still shrouded in mystery, any that showed potential could skyrocket in value overnight; Potion Fish was a prime example of this.

Tsutomu, already well-versed in the God’s Dungeon’s offerings thanks to his Live Dungeon experience, knew how to hedge his bets. Promising materials, he stockpiled in bulk. Those that seemed unlikely to become useful, he sold off while they were still sought-after as exotic curios. He had made a considerable fortune already, riding the wave of the Ice Magic Stone bubble.

[Might as well collect as much as we can… for the Forest Apothecary and Dorren Workshop, too.]

The Light and Darkness set of layers had also been rich in rare materials, but their environments, pitch black or stark white, made gathering difficult. In Live Dungeon, too, resource collection points were often blended seamlessly into the background, so Tsutomu had relied primarily on treasure chest drops to amass his materials. By contrast, the Ancient Castle set of layers offered easier harvesting, making it possible to gather materials and farm chests in parallel.

”I caught a whole bunch of caterpillar-looking ones!” Hannah called, bounding over.

”Just stuff them in the bug cage, will you? I don’t want to see them.”

”Aye, aye, sir!”

Tsutomu vaguely remembered handling bugs barehanded as a little boy, but now, with adulthood came aversion. Watching the mass of tiny legs wriggling as Hannah held out a squirming caterpillar-like thing in both hands made his skin crawl. He waved her off, and she dropped it into the dark-lacquered bug cage.

”This one’s probably a butterfly larva, right? There were even a few cocoons, so I grabbed those too, just in case!”

”You… actually know about this stuff?” Tsutomu asked.

”I’m really good at finding caterpillars! Gotta catch ’em before they pupate, though. Once they turn into cocoons, they get all tough and taste bad!”

Hannah puffed out her chest with pride, prompting Tsutomu to scowl in return.

”STOP. I did NOT need to know that. Please keep your commentary to yourself.”

”Huh? But Teach, you eat the same kinda stuff, don’t you? Shrimp, and crabs, and that other thing.. what’s it called, the one with the freaky tentacles? You like weird food too!”

”Seafood is NOT the same as bugs. Don’t lump them together.”

”But aren’t they, like, basically bugs of the sea? I swear, everyone’s so weird. Amy and Leleia always make these gagging faces when they see that stuff, too. I dunno, I kinda like ’em.”

”…Wait. You’re telling me I’m in the same category as YOU!?” Tsutomu looked genuinely shaken. ”That’s… horrifying!”

It was true; Hannah ate anything. Literally anything that was edible. And now Tsutomu found himself grouped alongside her. His stomach turned. Meanwhile, Hannah gave him a curious look, as though wondering how anyone could be so squeamish.