Isekai Dungeon Architect

"Miss Aria?" Kaela called me out for the first time, her tone unusually respectful. "Are you from the south?"

The question came out of the blue as we were preparing to move forward on the 2nd floor. It confused me at first, so I shook my head.

"No? Why do you ask?"

This was the first time she had asked me anything, and of all the things she could have asked, she was asking me where I was from.

'Telling them I was from a different world wouldn't be a good thing, so I didn't talk about it much.'

But then again, I had some idea why that question might be coming from her.

"Ah… it's just… You have a great southern accent. When you talk with Finn, it almost seems like you're from the south like him.

But then again, when you talk with the two of us, I also feel like you're a northerner like us. It's just… fascinating how you can switch your accents and dialects so well."

And I was right.

She was misunderstanding something right now.

"Ah, don't misunderstand, Kaela. I just have an innate skill that helps me understand others' languages. When I speak, you're just hearing it, the best you can understand it."

It was the effect of my otherworlder title. It translated the languages for me, and when I spoke, it made me sound the same as how the others would understand it the best.

"I thought most people could tell it's the effect of a skill. But I guess it's not that obvious."

I mean, accent is one thing, and dialects are a completely different thing. If they see me talk with an elf in perfect elvish tongue, they would call me an elf disguised as a human, while if they see me talk with an orc, they would call me a monster.

"It's because of a skill? Just… what kind of skills do you have?" Kaela was stunned to find out the truth, but the captain seemed to have already figured that out, so he simply nodded in understanding.

Finn was also doing his own thing, so he didn't pay much attention to the ongoing talk between the ladies.

"Come on, it's nothing big. I just have an automatic translator. I'm still learning how to write the local language here."

I told this to Reddy, and I'm telling her the same thing. Even if I had the ability to understand and speak different languages, I couldn't write most of them even if I wanted to.

'I already saw different common languages of this world like the language of elves and southern beast tribes, and I couldn't make head or tail of that text despite understanding it completely.'

That's just how it was for me: knowledge without the skills, the ability to speak without understanding the core of the language itself.

'As a Cloud architect that values different languages, both mechanical and human, this ability is more of a burden than a blessing.'

I like it when I talk with others and they are reminded of their hometowns just because of the way I sound to them, but that's all fake.

I'm not the one doing it; I'm not the one reminding them of the warmth of their home. It's just an ability I've been granted as I came to this world.

"Haaaa… that's why I don't like it." If they were going to give me the ability to understand different languages, they might as well have given me the power to learn everything there was about that language at a glance.

But why would they do that? Especially in a world where language directly connects with different worldly powers and the very essence of the world's energies.

"…"

When I said I didn't like it, Kaela fell silent, thinking she had reminded me of something I did not want to look back on.

She got worked up, thinking she had offended me somehow, but I just shook my head and started walking behind the captain.

"Don't worry about it. It's nothing bad either. It's fun talking with all of you— I wouldn't have it any other way, hehe."

At the end of the day, it was the effect of a title I got because I wasn't from this world. And translation of different languages wasn't the only thing this title did for me.

'It was just as useful as the other title I had for having met the beings who maintain the entirety of this world.'

But then again, why am I thinking about such useless things inside the dungeon? We have to move forward, no?

"The monsters on each floor are stronger than the rest. Some of the bosses are an exception, as we just saw, but if we can deal with that Basilisk, we can easily deal with the threats on this floor." Captain Borin was especially happy right now.

He may have fallen behind in the last fight, but he was a solid foundation of this team. Without him, I don't think we would have come this far either.

-Swiiiiiiiiiiiiiiish!

Once again, the team engaged in a cohesive battle against the new monsters on the second floor.

'They looked pretty ugly for the second-floor monsters, but even though they were practically big bats and insects, the floor was practically an infested bug den.'

As we fought against the opponents, we made our way to the following sections of the labyrinth.

Kaela and Qwy surveyed the different areas. Thanks to the captain, we knew about a few natural resource points and reached there, harvesting a little here and there, and then we reached a place that… didn't seem necessary at the time.

"Hmm?"

-Zaaaaaa…

It was a blue gate, a dungeon exit located on the other side of the second floor.

"This much shall be enough for today, as our first dungeon run with the rookies. You've proven your worth, and since the floor boss here has already been defeated, we should call it a day here."

It wasn't a suggestion. He had led us here, knowing we would have no choice but to agree to go back with him.

It had already been more than 40 hours since we entered the dungeon anyway. And even though the rest at the safe zone earlier was peaceful, the following constant battles had made my joints sore.

"I take it no one has any objections?" He glared at the others, except me, of course, in order to intimidate them a little. And it worked as the other three shook their heads in unison.

"Then we should take our leave now. We have to submit our first boss as a team of five at the association as well now, don't we?"

"Right." That question was directed at me, and it surely reminded me of the standard procedure all the teams follow around here.

Once you come back from the dungeon, you submit the loot and corpses to the association, and they process the materials for you, as well as buy what you do not need at a standard price.

The association wasn't just the hub for quests and requests; it was also the place where the other post-dungeon procedures took place.

"Fine then, let's get out of here."

There are thirty adventurer floors in total just in this tower, each more difficult than the last. The first five are lower floors, then the next fifteen are middle floors, and the remaining ones are called the upper floors.

Not many reach the upper floors, but those who do rarely come down from there. The association looks after them since those people do certain things that only they can do on the higher floors for the association.

But that's not what I want to do just yet…

'I practically have access to all the floors here anyway.'

For the time being, I should just focus on what is in front of me, not as a dungeon architect, but as a simple new resident of this world.