Gun Girl from Another World

Grotto

The route to the dungeon takes us into the hills beyond Giri Village, even past the location of the upcoming mine. In fact, we get a good look at the collapsed cliff face that revealed the contentious minerals in the first place.

It's still a bit more than half a day's rough hiking before we reach our destination after that. It would have been much faster in our carriage, but there really was no way it would have been able to handle the terrain. Even utility vehicles from back home would have been bouncing all over the place. Horses maybe would have been an option, but there would have been a huge risk of injuring one, and there was a skill issue involved with that option, anyway. In the end, it's just easier to walk.

We can tell at a glance the moment we enter the dungeon's domain. The stubborn grasses and shrubs fade away, quickly giving way to a barren, rocky landscape at the same time as the terrain starts to level out and widen. It's not long before we four are the only living things to be seen in the valley.

I pause just long enough to nudge a very skull-shaped rock on the ground with the toe of my boot. "Well, this isn't ominous at all."

Ayre already has his compound bow in his hands and an arrow at the ready even though we're not actually in the dungeon, itself, yet, and he nods in agreement with me. "This is certainly not the friendliest domain we've passed into."

I scoff at the understatement. "Yeah, that would have to go to Desert Cove."

"What was that like?" The question comes from Leuke.

I throw my hands expansively wide. "Glorious beachfront! White sand, crystal waters and exotic fish!"

Ayre nods again, this time smiling serenely at the memory. "We went swimming after we cleared the dungeon. It was a lot of fun. I want to go there again sometime, just to relax and enjoy it."

"We could see our new friends there again, too!" Rather than elaborate, though, I frown. "Everything's on the expensive side there, though. We'd have to really be making a lot as adventurers to afford it with any regularity."

"Once a year?" Ayre pleads.

I assent to that easily enough. "Yeah, once a year is doable."

Korrigan actually speaks up. "Have you all been to a lot of places?"

"Yeah, I'd say so," I confirm. "Ayre and I have been doing a proper tour of the border with the Western Demesne, and Leuke says he's been sent all over, too."

The swordsman rubs the back of his head at that and gives an awkward laugh. "Honestly, most of it was spent on the road. And there were always orders and arrangements for wherever I was sent, so I didn't get to do a lot of exploring when I got there, either."

Ayre turned to glance toward him. "What kind of things did they have you doing?"

He shrugs a little uncomfortably at that. "Well, I'm not like Rem or Benny, I'm really only good at just the one thing, so that's what they sent me around doing. Breaking up a monster nest outside Gaizun, taking out a bandit camp near Haidou. That sort of thing."

The elf looks disappointed, and maybe a little disbelieving. "That's all the Empire's using the Heroes for? Just beating down their mundane problems that the military could have handled?"

"Well, I was getting points for it," he defends, "and they were problems I was happy to take care of so that others didn't need to risk their lives dealing with it. So it made me stronger and kept everyone else safer. I'd consider that a positive."

"Well, sure," Ayre objects back, "but there's a literal apocalypse on the literal horizon. I mean, that's the entire reason the Heroes were summoned, right? Why aren't they putting you all right to work on that? Is Remmi the only Hero actively working against the Corruption?"

That line of questioning in particular seems to make Leuke extremely uncomfortable as he glances back and forth between Ayre and Korrigan. "Uh, we've been … discouraged from talking about that around … civilians. I know I did it in the carriage, but it was Rem that brought it up, and you've been working with her, but …"

Korrigan picks up quickly that she's the weak link, and her gaze goes flat. "Everyone knows there's something wrong with the Demesne," she informs Leuke with a frown. "We don't know what it's called, but we know Heroes are supposed to fight it, and Hero Remmi has been pretty clear she's visiting dungeons in order to do something that prevents it from spreading."

Leuke turns to me at that, his gaze lost and confused.

"I've received no orders of any kind to hold my tongue," I clarify, crossing my arms, "which is a positive, considering I'm not terribly good at doing that, anyway. In fact, the only standing orders I have about the Corruption is to shoot it when I see it."

He puts on a rare thoughtful expression. "Maybe it was because we got separated. After the test against the wood golems, the generals and nobles took charge of us, but you didn't come with us."

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I nod in confirmation of what he's saying. "That's right. Sacred Yorin took me to meet with the Empress, who returned my gun and had me run the exam again out of sight of everyone, then sent me to Dabun. Until Lord Mayor Oshu and Lady Regent Noya, I hadn't had any interactions with nobles at all since then."

That surprises even Ayre, if only for a moment. Then the elf's face contracts into one of realization. "Come to think of it, Serazin Province's regent never paid you a visit in all of the time I was with you in Dabun, not even after we retrieved his niece and nephew."

I repeat my head gesture to the archer. "I'm pretty sure the Empress never made my second test results known. To all of the nobles involved, I'm still the defective extra, which has kept me neatly out of their machinations."

That last word clearly confuses Leuke again. "Machinations?"

"Schemes, plots, intrigues, shenanigans," I explain, but shake my head when I see him inhaling to defend them again. "Don't get me wrong, I can absolutely see the benefit of all of that running around in beefing us up. I went through a good amount of that, myself. Still am, really, though I obviously had a lot further to go even to catch up to where the rest of you started at."

I raise my finger in contradiction. "But if I were inclined to be less charitable, I'd say it sounds a lot more like busywork to keep potentially powerful people occupied."

Now, Leuke frowns. "Tash called it something similar before we all split ways, but I just thought she was being a pessimist. What's happening to the Demesne is terrifying. Why would they summon us if they didn't want us to oppose it?"

I shrug. "Any number of reasons. Maybe it's distant enough that they don't see it as much of a threat as we are. We're a challenge to their authority, while the Corruption is a slow, distant thing. And besides, Sacred Yorin said the summoning was carried out by the High Temple on the order of the Throne. It's entirely possible that the nobles weren't involved and are just trying to get the most leverage out of a new situation."

"Now, you're starting to sound like Benny." Leuke rubbed at his chin a bit, though. "Do you really think they're trying to hamper us?"

"I don't know," I answer honestly. "I've had so little to do with any of that stuff that I can't speak from anything but impressions. But if I had five Heroes of limitless potential at my command, I know what I'd do with them."

"What?"

"I'd keep them together, make sure they learn to work together and make the most of their strengths," I reply. "I'd power level them by running them through back to back dungeons. Even if I didn't know about purifying them to protect against the Corruption, I'd still focus the Heroes on the border region so that, if anything does go wrong, they can be quick to respond."

I cross my arms in conclusion, however. "What I absolutely would not do, though, is split them all up and scatter them to the winds in every direction except the source of the problem. Whether they're doing that intentionally or out of incompetence, though, I don't know enough to say. Heck, I hate to admit it, but it's possible they know more than we do, and they're actually making really good decisions on how to utilize us. But the bigger picture would have to be really messed up for that to make any kind of sense."

Leuke's frown is making a comeback. "I'd rather not think they'd be trying to tie us up on purpose."

"I hate to burst your bubble, Leuke, but not everyone is as honest or well-meaning as you are," I try to let him down gently.

"Back to Tash again," he notes.

I let out a sigh. "Look, I get it. We even have a saying back home, don't attribute to malice what can be explained by ignorance. I don't want to give you the impression that everyone's out to get you. That kind of absolute opposition isn't even particularly likely. I'm just saying, if they're sending a Hero capable of cleaving fortress walls on bandit clean-up duty, there's some sort of reason behind it, even if that reason is human short-sightedness and greed."

The boy has the self-consciousness to be bashful, and turns nearly as red as his hair as he rubs at his neck again. "Ah, I don't know if I'm quite to the level of fortress walls yet …"

"You'll get there," I assure him with a pat on his arm.

Korrigan is staring at the entire exchange in something akin to morbid wonder. "Heroes have it rough …"

"They're built for it, though," Ayre reassures the girl. "If my time with Remmi has taught me anything, it's that Heroes don't so much conform to common sense as they batter it into submission …"

"That was one time!" I definitely don't pout at the sassy elf.

But the archer just rolls his eyes with a full-body sigh and adds to the little oni, "They can't count, either." The barb earns a giggle from the pale child.

The banter helps lift the mood in the wake of the more depressing exchange with Leuke, and we come to a cave opening in good spirits. As the only distinct thing in the area, it's pretty obvious that it's the entrance to the dungeon proper.

Sure enough, the screen pops up just as we pass the threshold.

You are entering "Ogre's Grotto Dungeon"

Arcana Level: High

Point Multiplier: 175%

I look down at Korrigan with her little, red, flip-top backpack to see her reaction to the pop-up. Her eyes light up as they focus on the nothingness in the air immediately before her. Her first dungeon is about to start, and it's going to be the biggest bonus to points she's ever received. Even more than that multiplier implies, too. I hope two Heroes being with her on her first time through doesn't skew her expectations too much.

I turn my attention back to the cavern, itself, and step forward to enter the gungeon. I chuckle to myself at the pun, promptly earning a glance from Ayre, but the elf says nothing. Instead, I just get a look aimed at me that says he's done with my own shenanigans.

My musings are quickly cut short, however. We're hardly through the cave entrance before we all unanimously come to a halt again. It's not because it's too dark to see. After all, there are torches right in front of us.

Torches mounted to either side of a floor-to-ceiling carved mural of a three-eyed, horned monstrosity grinning at us with a mouthful of fanged teeth.

"... Well," I speak up into the silence that overtakes our party, "that's not the first thing I expected to see …"