Interlude [Bones, Apps, and a Sketchy Company]
Kawashima General Trading. I had known for some time that there was a company like that. Though, what I knew about wasn’t Kawashima as a company dealing with adventurers, but rather Kawashima as a furikake (rice seasoning) maker.
It was this past summer when they expanded into buying monster materials. Though it was limited to buying from Tokyo’s Fourth Dungeon at first. The drone rescue request service they started after that also had a lot of people from the Fourth Dungeon joining.
It was this winter when that Kawashima company made a smartphone app and suddenly started expanding beyond just the Fourth Dungeon. I guess they were doing trials limited to the Fourth Dungeon from summer to fall, and since that went well, they started really ramping up their business.
Well, I don’t really care either way. The important thing for us adventurers is whether it benefits us or not.
“But hey Toshiki, isn’t this super insulated lunch box great? We can eat warm curry in the dungeon!”
“………”
While I was thinking that, my partner and wife Yuko seemed totally fired up while looking at Kawashima’s app. On the futon in our cramped but lively home near the dungeon with high rent and incredibly picky neighbors…she was rolling around checking out the listed exchange items on the app.
“This personal air conditioner looks good too. There are those fans you clip onto your clothes sold online, but I’ve never seen one that can both heat and cool like this.”
While I felt like something like that would probably break during work…if I said that, my wife would just call me someone without dreams again. After placing the washed dishes in the drying rack and wiping my hands with a towel, I headed over to my wife.
“Hey, hey, wouldn’t it be nice? If we try it out and it’s good, we can send some to your dad in Kamakura too. It must be tough doing odd jobs out there with the heat and cold.”
“That’s true, but…”
She’s probably already decided on it in her mind, continuing to input information into the app. Well, I don’t have any particular objections either. Our tense lifestyle of constantly delving into dungeons – it’s fine if we have days where we try completely new things like this.
“Then let’s head to the D Base tomorrow and try out this drone material buyback thing.”
“Yeah. Let’s go to bed then.”
“Yeah, bedtime.”
The nights for dungeon explorers come early. In the room where the distant sounds of the town could be heard, we huddled together for a brief dream.
The next day, we drove our light vehicle through the cold morning air to Tokyo’s First Dungeon. Getting dressed in overly hot gear inside the car, we each shouldered our crossbows and spears, and immediately began our dive.
“Alright, we’re heading straight for the B Base.”
“Roger.”
While the Tokyo First Dungeon is considered relatively easy to delve into…it’s still about ten kilometers to the large open area called the B Base where we usually hunt. Whether those ten kilometers feel close or far probably differs for everyone…but I’ll be honest, even if it were just three kilometers, I’d still think it’s far.
At the A Base four kilometers from the entrance, as my wife started a long conversation with an acquaintance she happened to run into, I felt that sentiment even stronger.
“Eh? So Umeda-san’s funeral is already over?”
“Yeah, this party coming from Shinjuku found his helmet, you see. His wife had already given up.”
“I guess we just need to bring the condolence money when we get out. Union funeral?”
“Yup, the usual. The condolence money can just go through the union too.”
You can say dungeons are dangerous all you want, but people will probably just go “well, duh.” Dungeons are just places where people die easily.
Those ten kilometers heading underground are completely different in quality from walking ten kilometers above ground. No ambulances come underground, and sometimes not even rescue teams. There are times you get injuries that would be fatal if moved, but still have to make your way back to the surface over hours.
After parting with the acquaintance and leaving A Base…carrying that newly heavy atmosphere, we steadily advanced towards a place where an injury would mean we definitely couldn’t return by ourselves.
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“You know how there’s that service that’ll call for a rescue, maybe we should get something like that too?”
“You just have to avoid going to places where you’d need a rescue. Let the top parties handle exploring beyond where the power lines reach.”
“Well, I guess. But there are times even in the shallower areas where no one comes for a while, you know?”
When you’re doing work like this, there’s always that underlying worry, you know?
“Alright, let’s look into it again when we get back.”
“Yeah, let’s do that.”
Well, if it puts my wife’s mind at ease even a little…and we just got the car inspected too, so spending a bit more is fine. Losing lives is common for adventurers, but being prepared for anything is also common. The more lifelines, the better.
As I was thinking that, I spotted something on the ground ahead of us. With its bluish-purple feathers, large coxcomb and wattle, this creature simply called a “bird” in this dungeon. It’s not much of a moneymaker if you hunt it, and doesn’t really have any combat abilities – that kind of monster.
“Ah, spotted a bird. Want to hunt it just in case?”
“Weren’t we aiming for the knotted deer at the D Base today? It’ll just be baggage.”
“But I heard the drone buyers will come to the D Base and…”
“Who knows if that’s really true. We have to be prepared to carry everything back ourselves.”
“Ugh…alright, let’s give up on it.”
Far more profitable than the bird that anyone could hunt and posed little danger, the knotted deer was the better target. Considering we’d have to carry it all back ourselves, it was better to stay light on our way to the hunting grounds.
“Come to think of it, did that Kawashima buyback mention any range? It’s about eighteen kilometers to the D Base, so their drone signals and batteries probably can’t reach that far, can they?”
“Hmm, I don’t think it mentioned anything like that.”
With that vague information causing some unease, we continued on towards the B Base. A path we’ve traveled countless times – we thought we knew all the monster hangouts and safer routes. And yet, having that uncertain information made me a little scared this time.
In the end, we made it to the B Base without any particular troubles. After exchanging greetings with familiar parties, we ate the rice balls we brought from home. Even for us veterans, it was a two and a half hour journey – the clock was already pointing to the time between breakfast and lunch. Despite it being winter, a third of the two-liter pet bottles of water in our bags had already been drained from walking that distance.
The hardest part of dungeon exploring isn’t the travel or combat, but managing your water. Not eating for a bit isn’t a huge issue, but getting dehydrated can lead straight to death. Even on day trips, we carry ten liters of water between the two of us, giving us each an extra five kilograms of weight to lug around.
For the top parties that do multi-day jobs camping out, that’s the biggest issue. In those cases, they hire other parties to porter water and food supplies for them. The amount of money companies pay those top parties is astronomical because of that.
The dungeon management union apparently tried putting vending machines at the bases before. But most dungeons have these absurdly tough-toothed rat monsters…the rats have these “magiglandes” that prevent them from leaving the dungeon, but if they could come out, human civilization would be done for.
“Toshiki, the containers.”
“Yeah.”
I stacked the two containers that had our rice balls, put them in a vinyl bag, and tossed it into my backpack.
“Let’s go then.”
“I really want one of those insulated lunch boxes…”
“If you do get one, let’s avoid curry though – bad for the others around us.”
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