Chapter 157: Did I finally awaken? When I realized it, I was mass-producing without paying attention to it
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Translator: “Pink Tea” Editor: ”Ryunakama”
Day 51 – Morning, White Weirdo Inn.
Today, we are supposed to continue dungeon exploration from where we left off yesterday? But the girls seem to be having a girls-only meeting during breakfast? There is an awful lot of whispering, giggling, and screaming, I wonder what’s that all about? But Armored Pres-san, surrounded by the girls on all sides, is earnestly trying to tell a story, constantly gesturing in the process. The girls like talking, after all, so she must be enjoying being able to chat like this. In the long time she spent down in the dark depths of the earth, she probably gave up on even dreaming about such a day coming, so I’m glad she is having fun now. I’m glad that she is smiling now.
Slime-san also ate its breakfast of bread and stew while jiggling in delight. Being fed one loaf after another by Poster Girl and Stalker Girl it’s bouncing cheerfully. Looks like it is having fun too. That surely must be better than staying all alone underground. But it’s eating like crazy, so I will have to earn to cover those food expenses. It finally has a chance to eat to its hearts content, and I want to keep it that way.
It’s about time I get to planning the shopping tour to another fief, so I’d like to accumulate some money for that.
The region can’t remain isolated. Stagnation in goods circulation will mean economic death for the frontier.
At the moment, I made it possible for Stalker Girl’s clansmen to pass the fake dungeon with the escort of adventurers, so stock refreshment, and sales of magic stones and mushrooms still more or less continue although at the bare minimum level. This puts heavy limitations on both quantity and volume of goods.
I can order the great dungeon to allow merchants to pass, but the monopoly of such merchants might also become a problem.
What do we do with the circulation of goods and money?
It’s going to depend on negotiations with the kingdom, but we can’t afford to simply wait, doing nothing.
After all, we are going to run out of rice! And soy sauce too!
However, I’m going to bring everything else to self-sufficiency. After all, the economy is a weapon.
If one needs iron, if one needs fabric, that will become a weakness to exploit. This will be an economic war.
That’s why the region has to achieve at least minimum self-sufficiency. Mass production should be possible with spinning and weaving machines, but there are not enough animals to provide enough wool for that.
As for iron ore, I already found a few veins, so if tunnels were made, the problem could be solved.
And while the food lacks variety, the volume is well on the self-sufficiency level.
With the frontier having the monopoly on magic stones and mushrooms, the one to be pressured will be the kingdom. The only instrument they will have left is military power.
However, regular troops have no chance of breaking through the fake dungeon, hence, the kingdom will have no other choice but to negotiate. Until that happens, I want to restock on deficit goods and improve self-sufficiency.
In the end, abundance is power? One needs abundance to avoid being taken advantage of. The inability to suddenly increase the number of livestock and worker populations is a bottleneck.
「Heeeeeeeeeeeey. Haruuuka-kuun! We are about to leave? Why are you making buckets while mumbling under your nose? Please keep handicrafts for nighttime, okay?」
Oh no! Did I awaken as a bucket maker? I’m making buckets in large quantities without even noticing. Well, I can just sell them, and if I have extra, I can give them to the inn, since they are treating me so well. It’s a good inn, the name aside, after all, even though I keep bringing monsters in here they are yet to make a single complaint? Although they are charging me for them.
On the contrary, they should have an Advertising campaign based on the dungeon emperor and the dungeon master staying at the inn. No, this will attract more monsters. It might actually become popular with them.
「Well, shall we go? Slime-san, you are going too, you know? No, you can’t bring Poster Girl with you? Drop that.」
(Jiggle Jiggle…)
Okay, we are ready it seems. Poster Girl is on the verge of tears after being tossed aside. Well, with her at the inn, it might be fine to leave Slime-san home. But I need some solace here.
「Going past the 50th floor we will have to eventually deal with a dungeon master, and if the dungeon has more than 60 floors, there also will be another floor master, plus, leaving middle floors, we will start finding more hidden rooms, so I think the whole thing will eat up a lot of time… What do we do? Continue where we left yesterday or first beat another dungeon?」
「Yeah. About that, I thought we’d deal with another dungeon today, and I will continue in the dungeon from the other day with just Armored Pres-san and Slime-san? I mean, it seems other dungeons need more people too? That dungeon doesn’t seem that deep, so it will be faster to break through with a small group?」
Because the board members and athletes are in the anti-boss squad, the other teams are short of hands. As a result, their progression speed dropped as they reached the middle floors.
If it’s us alone, we can blitz through the enemies. Yes, we can’t take a hit so we aren’t fit for proper head-on brawls, but if it’s about blasting through the ranks of loosely packed enemies then acting on our own will be faster. From the 50th floor onwards the number of enemies will increase since those are still untraversed floors, so being able to blitz or ambush enemies will be a big advantage. Well, that’s actually the only thing we can do? But I want to get it over with as fast as I can and get my rest, you know?
「Are you going to do something risky again? Why are you always trying to do something dangerous? Why do you never listen no matter how many times we repeat it’s dangerous? And why do you still have no trouble every time anyway? Why are you doing it by yourself with only level 19? It’s really dangerous. Especially when it comes to dungeon masters. It’s a huge risk. Why are you doing dangerous things while dealing with dangerous matters, making everything even more dangerous?」
Hmm, I took a glance yesterday, but my level is still yet to go up. It took especially long with level 10 too. I don’t think I will get level 20 any time soon? Probably.
「Fighting is dangerous and takes time, you know? So I’m not going to fight and will simply farm them? Like, ambushing? Even if the enemy is stronger, in most cases they tend to die if the attack is swift and unexpected, so it should be alright, okay? In most cases, if you kill the enemy, things work out somehow? Speaking from experience? Kind of?」
Anyhow, let’s make plans as we head to the third dungeon. For starters, we must make preparations to leave the town. As the President and others went to report on the dead dungeon I go to the notice board. This is a part of my morning routine, you know? Apparently, I came here yesterday as well, but I was half-asleep, so I don’t remember that? My morning dose of Flat Gaze?
「I knew even before I looked, but the requests on this notice board are still the same! The same? They are so unchanging that I’m beginning to wonder if this is some kind of permanent edition? The paper of those requests might start degrading with age soon? Why does nothing change despite me checking on it every day?」
「What a great pleasure to see you again… Why are you coming to the guild more often than actual adventurers despite not being one? Or rather, didn’t you show up sleeping yesterday? You muttered 『The requests are the same~』, but your eyes were closed, you know? What are you coming here for? Only adventurers can take requests! And lately, you are not only not trying to keep a low-profile, but seem to be going out of your way to make your presence as grand as possible? Do you know that some are calling you the Boss Of the Notice Board?」
I wait for the President and the others while basking in an angry Flat Gaze. An exhilarating morning Flat Gaze. However, the boss of the notice board, huh. What’s next, promotion to the Master Of the Notice Board? The way to the Emperor of the Notice Boards seems long. But I think the bigger problem is that requests are probably going to stay the same until that day. What’s the point of that notice board then?
「We are back. We are done with the report so we can leave now. Are you complaining about the quests again? Even if there were good requests, you wouldn’t be able to take them anyway since we are heading to the dungeon? Why do you like the notice board so much? Do you want it? You can’t take it home, okay? You will get scolded? Although you seem to be already getting scolded.」
If the notice board comes with the Flat Gaze Receptionist President, then I want it, otherwise, I couldn’t care less? I mean, by now, I already memorized the contents of never-changing requests posted on it? Of course, I did, I’ve been looking at the same notice board every day for almost a month after all. Seriously.
Dropping by the general store I delivered the goods and gave the shopkeeper a good slap with a paper fan, scolding her. Considering that I find new orders every time I come back, this doesn’t seem to have any effect. Moreover, even while being slapped with a paper fan, she is fully focused on consuming the mushroom lunch? She probably was suffering from withdrawal.
And after setting up a new sales counter, I leave. She really sold it. She sold the sales counter. And so she spent the whole day yesterday with a bunch of stacked-up wooden boxes. Why would a general store even be dealing in sales counters?
Slime-san seems to be in a good mood, getting to see the town. For some reason it was looking with desire at dried meat, so I bought some for it, and Slime-san ate it while bouncing in joy. Looks like Slime-san took a great liking to it. Let’s stock up later.
Greeting the gatekeepers we leave the town. However, those guards are casually letting a dungeon emperor and a dungeon master into the town, what exactly are they trying to gatekeep then?
And we finally head for the dungeon.
All of the girls look drowsy. Are they training at night or something? Even with their eyes almost closed, they seem to be able to navigate through Improved Detect Presence alone?
As I heard in the morning, today, 『Detect Presence』of all of the girls finally evolved into『Improved Detect Presence』, Vibration Magic is also hitting MaX level on one girl after another. And yet『Search』is somehow not improving? I wonder why? What are they trying to Detect and Vibrate? Stiff shoulders?
「Hey? The stuff the boys were wearing today, is that some kind of uniform? Did you make it the same on purpose?」
「Ah? That. I asked the boys if they have any requests too, but the only demand they had was 『Sturdy, dirt doesn’t stand out, easy to move, and with lots of pockets』. So it ended up looking somewhat militaristic.」
Everyone got a camo M65 imitation for the top and dark cargo pants for the bottom, and since they are even wearing boots, they totally look like army men? What kind of mercenary squad is that? This is a fantasy world of sword and magic, read the atmosphere for goodness sake.
Well, the girls also were enjoying themselves in the morning, each wearing whatever clothes they wanted, so it made for a gorgeous display. Well, eating in full armor is probably inconvenient. The boys can do whatever, who cares about them. Seriously.
However, they immediately changed into battle gear, so it’s short-timed fun. Meanwhile, I’m in the Villager A set since the morning. It’s just normal clothes after all? I did fix them a bit, but otherwise, they are still the same.
「Here we are~. The third dungeon-sa~n. It mainly has beast-type monsters and there are lo~ts of them~? The original party warned to be careful with mana management?」
With beast-types it might be faster to scatter poisoned food, but since Slime-san might eat it, I’d rather not. Moreover, keeping the incoming boss fight in mind, exp grind, and training for the girls is also important. If at the times when they are with Armored Pres-san they fight under her guidance they should learn more nuances of fighting or pacing. It is precisely because they have cheat abilities that they have to use such chances to get the experience they undoubtedly lack.
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