Chapter Three Hundred and Thirty-Three: Laying Groundwork for the Future
“Hold on. Some of these are made from materials I don’t even recognize…!?”
Karen stepped into the alchemy workshop building and stood there, stunned. Even Karen, a regular window-shopper at the finest alchemy supply stores in the capital, couldn’t identify many of the materials used here. In other words, this workshop had been built from materials that simply didn’t appear in ordinary shops.
At first glance, the table appeared to be made from high-quality Treant Seven wood, harvested from the Forest of Abundance on the seventh floor of the Royal Capital Dungeon, where the trees absorbed immense nourishment.
The table, at first glance, resembled high-quality trent wood—the kind nourished by the abundant flora of the fertile forest on the seventh floor of the capital dungeon, a Trent Seven wood. But Karen knew of something far more valuable that looked remarkably similar.
“Could this possibly be… Elder Trent wood…!?”
“From the Elder Trent that crossed its boundary and climbed to the upper floors of the capital dungeon—the one I defeated when you came with us.”
“And this is a single slab cut from the heartwood, isn’t it!? I can actually feel the pathways of magical power running through it…!”
The table was a single plank of deep, reddish wood, polished to a smooth finish. Beyond its appearance, it also possessed magical functions that an ordinary non-magical material table simply couldn’t replicate. Julius watched Karen run her hands all over it with a quiet smile.
“All of the materials that are difficult even for me to obtain were used to make movable equipment. When you eventually relocate to the Himmel territory, please take it all with you.”
Just as Thor had been stockpiling rare materials from his battles to craft gear and potions for his party, Julius had apparently been storing things away for the right moment. And he had used them for Karen’s alchemy workshop.
“I’ve been assured that it’s more than worthy of a B-rank alchemist, but I’m not entirely confident that it’s worthy of someone of your caliber, Karen.”
Julius said that with a troubled smile, the corners of his eyebrows drooping slightly.
“—You will become an S-rank alchemist one day. I would like you to use this for a long time, but please—if it ever falls short of what your alchemy demands, don’t force yourself to make do with it.”
He said it the way one might speak of something just around the corner, as though it were a foregone conclusion. Karen threw her arms around him and held tight.
The fortieth floor of the capital dungeon—Thor’s destination. The real challenge on the way there lay in the thirty-first through thirty-ninth floors, where, by all accounts, a harsh and relentless winter cold prevailed like a trial unto itself.
Thor had explained that he had pushed through the twenty-first to thirtieth floors of the Ehlertt capital dungeon in order to gather materials for cold-resistant gear suited to those conditions. The twenty-first to thirtieth floors of the Ehlertt capital dungeon, apparently, were a world of ice.
One approach was to gather materials floor by floor, leave the dungeon, craft equipment, and then dive back in. However, the materials obtained from defeating the boss of the thirtieth floor of the Ehlertt capital dungeon were rarer and better suited for equipment than the materials found on the thirty-first floor of the royal capital dungeon.
Taking down a boss every ten floors always yielded better materials than grinding through the odd floors in between.
So most capable adventurers refreshed their equipment every ten floors. To push into the next ten floors, they would gather materials in a shallower stretch of a different dungeon with a similar environment and equip themselves for the next descent.
Of course, very few adventurers could even surpass the tenth floor, so the more common approach was to gather materials gradually by defeating monsters one floor at a time.
As a side note, the eleventh through twentieth floors of the Ehlertt capital dungeon—the stretch Julius had tackled—had apparently been a scorching desert. Karen was fairly sure she would have died from the temperature swings alone. Truly, goldfish-brained Karen.
“Is there any kind of potion you’d personally want, Julius?”
Karen turned to look at a corner of the workshop. A comfortable-looking sofa had been placed there. Julius had quietly had a little rest area for Karen—doubling as a waiting room for himself—built right into the corner of the workshop.
Positioned at a distance not to disturb Karen’s work, while still able to keep an eye on her.
“How about making the same potion you made when you went into the Forest Edge Dungeon with Licht?”
“Hmm. I was still cold even with that one… If it was only barely enough for ten floors, it’s not going to hold up from the thirty-first to the fortieth, is it?”
“Indeed. The deeper a dungeon goes, the harsher and less survivable its conditions become for people.”
Julius nodded at Karen’s words. In a dungeon with a cold climate, the twentieth floor was colder than the tenth, and the thirtieth colder still. That was simply how it worked. Coming from someone who had descended to the twentieth floor, it was lived experience, not speculation.
“Even so, it would undoubtedly reduce the strain along the way. The final decision on what to carry would be Thor’s, but I’d recommend it as an option.”
“If you say so, I’ll make it.”
“Also, rather than preparing only for floors thirty-one through forty, it might be wise to make potions for the journey up to the thirtieth floor as well. There is only so much one can do about unknown dangers, but known dangers can be addressed directly.”
“That’s true! For a deep-dungeon route, the path down to the thirtieth floor is relatively well documented.”
The internal climate varied from dungeon to dungeon, but certain floors shared similar environments across different dungeons. The Ehlertt capital dungeon had its desert zone from the eleventh to the twentieth floor, but in the capital dungeon, the desert zone apparently ran from the twenty-first to the thirtieth.
On the twenty-sixth floor within that desert zone, there was an oasis where monster spawns could reportedly be controlled—and a merchant had set up lodgings there. As a result, there was a wealth of information available about the path up to the thirtieth floor of the capital dungeon.
The only inn where adventurers pushing into the deeper floors could rest their bodies. Maintaining this inn was one of the most important functions of the capital’s commercial guild and the merchants affiliated with it.
—Had the Gubert Trading Company continued to grow as it had, it would likely have become one of the pillars supporting that dungeon inn in time. The burden of dismantling it had come full circle, and some of that weight now fell on Thor. But because Karen had brought the Gubert Trading Company down and reclaimed the rights to her soap, she could make the soap Thor would need.
“…I should make soap too. Everyday goods become so much more useful if they’re all some form of potion, don’t they? Compared to ordinary soap.”
“Without a doubt.”
“If one of the children eventually learns how to make my potions using non-magical materials, I’d like to sell potion soap.”
“I’m sure that day will come.”
If only Karen had recognized the value of what she made sooner. If she had realized sooner that her soap could be a potion, gotten others to make it too, built up the capacity to produce it in volume—perhaps her potions would have already been stocked in that twenty-sixth-floor inn.
“…It’s not too late. I have to do everything within my power.”
“Thor is lucky to have a sister like you.”
Karen nearly lost her footing in what-ifs, but she raised her head and clenched her fist. Julius watched her with a look of admiration, as though she were dazzling.
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