Chapter 41: A Dungeoneer’s Victorious Return

  Dungeoneering (Level One) has triggered an additional bonus effect.

  “Huh.”

  “What?” Grace asked.

  Dungeoneer’s Eye (Effect): Your eyes are attuned to Dungeons’ unique magic type. You can see through the protective aura of their items and monsters, gleaning additional information about them.

  Note: Skill effects are rare, but not unheard of. They improve along with the skill they are granted by and cannot be removed.

  Item: Abble-leather Shirt

  Quality: Fine

  Rarity: Uncommon

  Description: A shirt made of the finest and sturdiest of abble-leather. You’ll always smell as sweet and fresh as an abble orchard wearing this.

  “Actually, you’re right. Or rather, you… became right?” Theo mused, then explained what he saw to her.

  “Well, I wouldn’t mind you walking around smelling fresh and fruity,” Grace teased. Despite the teasing, she was rather pushy about him actually donning the shirt because his old one was filthy as all heck and hadn’t been washed for a while. He promised he’d change right after checking through the rest of the loot.

  He folded the shirt neatly and placed it on the ground, finding a nice patch of mostly undusted moss. He wiped it just to be sure it didn’t dirty his shirt too much.

  “Next!” Grace said, pushing a similar-feeling set of trousers his way. Theo got the feeling the dungeon was criticising his cleanliness. It was a nice pair of abble-leather trousers, though it had a bit of a different description than the shirt had.

  Item: Abble-leather Trousers

  Quality: Fine

  Rarity: Uncommon

  Description: A set of trousers made of the finest and sturdiest of abble-leather. You’ll find that dirt shies away from this piece of clothing.

  Grace laughed wholeheartedly. It was a stomach-wrenching, nearly gut-emptying, boisterous laugh that she’d managed to contain from the shirt’s description moments earlier. Now, she was clearly thinking the same thing Theo had, that the dungeon was providing gentle insights into its feelings about Theo’s state of dress.

  He scoffed, but decided to lean into it more than resist it. He was tired of wearing such dirty clothes, after all. Now Wen could finally wash and scrub them clean, not just run them through the water and dry them. They probably reeked of sweat from hard days helping Willam with his fields and Theo’s own garden. A splash of water couldn’t wash all that away. Also, the set of clothes he had just received seemed more… enduring. They were somewhat magical, coming from a dungeon and all, but it seemed the shirt staved off smell whilst the trousers staved off dirt. Perfect, actually, for a modern man sent to such a different place in a different world. Hygiene wasn’t the same in the boonies of Aera.

  Item: Groundfighter’s Wooden Knee Guard

  Quality: Fine

  Rarity: Uncommon

  Description: Women have to take care that their knees aren’t chafing. People would talk.

  “Uh…” Theo said, then eyed Grace’s skirt. It covered her knees.

  “What? Are those knee protectors?”

  “How are your knees?” he asked. His face grew red, though he was sure there was a more innocent intention behind the description. Then again… What else would people talk about?

  “They chafe a bit after heavy hits. A common occurrence with the way I fight. My skirt reduces the damage a bit, and also cleans and repairs itself. Why?”

  He then awkwardly communicated the item description. Grace blushed, though she couldn’t help but laugh once more. Turned out she wasn’t entirely sure whether the dungeon was truly an adolescent teenager or simply innocent, either.

  She accepted the knee guards, though she said she’d likely sell them at some point. They were a bit too low tier for her usual dungeoneering. They vanished somewhere, surprising Theo despite the anticipation that would happen.

  “And, lastly,” she said, picking up a few wooden cylinders. They sloshed with liquid, barely audible through the wooden cork. “These things are always difficult to deal with. It might be poison, dangerous gases or many other things. To get them inspected, they would need to be handled with care for just those reasons, meaning it can be rather expensive as well as wasteful.”

  Item: Vial of Abble Essence x4

  Quality: Fine

  Rarity: Common

  Description: A vial of pure, distilled abble essence. Will add a delightful taste or a strong aroma of abble.

  “Or,” Theo started, chuckling at the potential ‘danger’. “Or it could be used for baking,” he said.

  As promised, Theo changed his clothes, tearing off the dirty set he’d been wearing with little reluctance in order to finish the deed as quickly as possible. He didn’t much mind Grace watching. It wasn’t really that awkward either, that is, until her skirt disappeared entirely in the moment between Theo putting the new shirt on over his head. A set of bare, pretty legs, with slightly red knees was suddenly there, catching his gaze. She was as unabashedly unbashful as Theo had been, though that, in turn, made Theo slightly… bashful.

  “What?” she asked with a grin. “Something caught your eye?”

  Theo chuckled and finished putting on the shirt before continuing with his trousers. Grace’s shorts appeared in her hands as Theo ignored the woman’s flirty teasing and she did the same. Casting a quick glance at her, he not only met her sultry, brown eyes, but her bare stomach and barely covered chest as her shirt had similarly poofed away. Theo turned away, nearly falling from his barely having pulled his pants up. He stumbled, causing a girly laugh from his side, but otherwise managed to remain standing.

  “Dungeoneering, and even adventuring in a party to some extent, is usually lacking in privacy,” Grace explained as she put on a different shirt. “You’d be surprised how many usually change their gear after the boss is taken down; sometimes to change into new stuff, of course, but most often because the fighting is over and you have more relaxed wear with different bonuses more fitting for outside. Increased regeneration and the like.”

  Theo considered his new clothes, courtesy of the dungeon. They were supposedly made of sturdy abble leather, but the bonuses provided weren’t directly suited for combat. They did fit very well with his farming and gardening, though.

  Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  “You coming?” Grace then asked. She had already made her way towards the cavern wall where they first appeared from.

  “I don’t have blink step, wait up,” Theo chuckled and started a light jog towards her. “Oh, and next time I want a similar set! Shouldn’t just have the one set of clothes, you know.”

  “Are you talking to the dungeon?” the priestess asked.

  “Can’t hurt, right?”

  “I guess not. It kinda fits,” she said.

  “Fits what?”

  “Your otherwise oddball nature,” she beamed and laid her hand on the wall. “Oh, so long as we’re making wishes,” she started before Theo reached to touch the wall in a mimicry of her own actions. “Soap! Hell if a church under my guidance will have its worshippers dirty! Abble soap for everyon-”

  They appeared outside in the clearing above, just beside the hatch they’d climbed down several hours ago.

  “Hey!”

  “It got the picture,” Theo laughed. “Let’s head back!”

  The pair wandered for a few minutes before they were out of the forest and back in Sigil Lake proper. Technically, the border lay further into the forest somewhere, but they hadn’t bothered to measure it. Theo supposed he could eye his mana regeneration and see when it increased by one point, but it wasn’t too important right now.

  “They’re back!” he heard a male voice shout. The young voice belonged to Oakley, the young man currently in the middle of de-barking a wide log.

  Several heads popped into view from behind stuff, including Julie’s and Wen’s. Bella and Hank both waved from the design table they had built. It was crude, like most things at this stage, but okay for right now.

  “Theo!” Wen shouted and started running towards him and Grace. They met her along the way, and she hugged him tightly. “I’m glad you’re safe,” she said, sounding ecstatic.

  “Grace is much more powerful than I thought, there was no way anything bad would happen,” he tried to calm her.

  “When you invited her to town, I figured you both were okay, so I wasn’t too worried… Why are her knees red?”

  Her tone suddenly shifted, her hold on Theo tightening.

  “Oh, I guess people would speak about it. Maybe the knee protectors wouldn’t be such a bad thing to use,” Grace murmured from behind.

  “Knee protectors for what?”

  Theo grew red. Wen’s grip was incredibly powerful, and while Theo was catching up, there was no way he could overpower her right now.

  “She… fights…” Theo tried to say, though if the words were too screeching or breathy to be understood, he couldn’t tell. “Like that!” Wen released the vice somewhat.

  “She doesn’t fight with her knees, does she?”

  “No,” Grace said in an upbeat tone, never minding what Theo was currently going through. “But I fight low to the ground, in the style of the Monks of Her Heel On Our Heads.”

  “Oh! I’ve seen those in the capital. Thought it was a dance.” Wen wasn’t entirely convinced.

  “The dance is a way of training,” Grace explained. “I don’t think he’s conscious,” she added, pointing to Theo. while red in the face, he was, in fact, conscious. The vice released him and his lungs were soon enough filled with sweet, sweet air.

  He heaved for air in a way that Wen would likely call ‘overly dramatic’ for what was basically a hug, so Theo decided not to complain directly.

  “What are these clothes?” Wen asked, pretending she hadn’t just passively attempted to kill him. “They look very nice.” Her hand slid down along his upper arm, feeling the surprisingly unleathery-feeling abble leather.

  “A reward from the dungeon,” Theo explained, smiling at her sudden change of topic. “Oh, and Grace probably has a ton of abbles for us.”

  “Great timing, then. I’m famished.

  After handing out big, juicy fruits to everyone around, everyone delighted over the crunchy and meaty texture of the things, some saying they far surpassed that of most regular abbles. After this rather impromptu lunch, though, Hank and Bella made an announcement.

  “Since the entire council is here, along with all you hard-working guys in the lumberyard, I guess this is as good a time as any,” Hank started. Bella continued:

  “We’re happy to inform you that, even if our focus has been spread rather thinly these past few days, not talking about anyone in particular,” she ended on a rather motherly admonishing note before her husband took over again:

  “We’ve finally finished the construction plans for not just the house we’ll build several copies of, but also the plans for Wen’s inn and the lumberyard!”

  Everyone but Theo cheered at this, there being some kind of deeper meaning behind that that he didn’t quite understand. He’d wait until they were done before asking.

  “With the plans done, we can finally start building for real,” Bella said after the volume had died down some. “There’s enough timber and planks for us to use from, at least for now, meaning the lumberyard can be put on hold for the immediate future.”

  “We’re guessing we’ll be spending faster than you guys can make once the construction starts for real, though, so we can’t put it off for too long,” said Hank. The husband and wife eyed each other for just a moment before he continued: “We can probably build six or seven of the houses or the inn first before the lumberyard will have to be built to increase lumber production. Only then can we continue with other projects, like the farmhouse. More houses or the inn can also be built, though at a more relaxed pace if needed.”

  “The benefits of having the houses is that they can more quickly accommodate us, or some of us, at least. It will be tight quarters until more are built, but all of us and more will have decent enough space in six of them,” Bella then said.

  “The inn is designed to have the entire second floor as livable area, going around in a circle around the effigy in the middle of town. There will be plenty of room, but we will have to live in the barracks for a while more as the rooms will be completed last. The benefits of this building are of course many, especially considering some of us have a town to run, which will provide us all benefits to all of our work,” Hank continued.

  The couple opened some discussion about which direction to go. The consensus, though not all current villagers were around to put in a vote, was to build the inn first. The reasoning echoed from mouth to mouth. They already had a roof over their heads, the bonuses would affect them all and, heck, it might even attract adventurers and travellers. Paying customers to kick-start the town’s economy.

  “Great. You want to see it in action?” Hank then asked pointedly at Theo. He was more than a little curious, though he wasn’t entirely sure what he was about to see in action. When both Hank and Bella laughed, he figured his expression revealed exactly that. They all headed toward the statue of Arcana, finger still raised high, in case that could change. Hank brought a rolled up piece of paper along with him, likely the plans for the inn. He then stopped everyone from going too close, unrolled the paper and held it aloft against Arcana herself.

  “About there?” Hank asked his wife.

  “A bit to the right. It’s always a bit to the right with you,” she teased lovingly.

  “Must be why you married me, then. I know how you like to correct me.”

  “A bit more. No, too much. There! I think you do it on purpose because you secretly enjoy it,” his wife chuckled deeply. Theo felt a bit awkward standing near their flirting.

  “Oh, it isn’t a secret,” Hank laughed, then wiggled his eyes at Theo. Hank then nodded back in the direction of the statue before speaking louder to the masses: “Gaze upon the construction plans of Sigil’s Lake’s ‘The New Barge’!”

  A blue-tinged, semi-transparent copy of the building appeared around the statue of Arcana, the top floor barely reaching over her knees. The blue hologram, there was no other word for it, circled her entirely and Theo could see the future building in such details that he thought it had just appeared. Sadly, it was just that; a hologram.

  “Wow!” he gasped along with the other onlookers. So this was what the builders had spent their time doing, when not helping everyone else, of course. Suddenly, Theo saw what the future of Sigil Lake could look like. He envisioned more buildings, more people, more goods. This was just the beginning.