Chapter 49: A New Hunting Ground

The 108th day of living in another world

The next day, we headed to the eastern forest early in the morning to explore a new hunting ground. We proceeded in a line along the road that had already been expanded.

Currently, the site is extended to about 3 km, but the only monsters they have encountered so far are orcs, and no one has seen any other monsters, apparently. According to the information Rad heard in the beastman’s town, there are even more powerful monsters deeper into the area, so we must be careful.

“Chief, are you planning to continue straight east?”

Touya asked when we reached the end of the barrier.

“Hmm, is that okay?”

“It’s easy to understand.”

“We will leave it to the village chief.”

Like everyone else, Touya, who asked about it, didn’t seem to have any particular opinions, so I decided to postpone it. It’s undeveloped land to begin with, and I don’t know which way to go.

“It would be nice if a monster with a high level appeared.”

”If you say that, you might get a strong one that you can’t even touch.”

“That’s not good, we have to be on our toes!”

Sakura said something like that, but there might be a ton of them, no kidding. We proceeded cautiously while extending the barrier.

We encountered two groups of orcs on the way to this point, and the way everyone fought back was nothing short of spectacular.

The first time, I spotted two orcs, but when I saw them, Touya and Haruka had already jumped out of the barrier, and with their momentum, they swung their swords and cut off their heads. There was no hesitation at all, and the two orcs were instantly killed without even being allowed to scream.

The three orcs that appeared a second time were also in a beehive state, as Sakura and Roa unleashed their magic one after another. Then Rad and the other warriors attacked them all at once, and were sure to finish them off. All of them seemed to have accumulated a considerable amount of combat experience, and including their cooperation, they were truly warriors.

“You have all become very strong before I knew it. It was a brilliant battle, with not a trace of carelessness.”

“If we were to do that, we would have died.”

“Carelessness and hesitation are fatal.”

“We will never be overconfident.”

I was relieved to see that none of them seemed to be feeling intoxicated by their own strength. At the same time, I felt like I was the only one left behind,……, and I was a little sad.

◇◇◇◇◇

After about 2km, we found a fairly open place in the forest.

It was about the size of a schoolyard. The ground was bare and there was a large rock pile in the center. There was a hollow in the side of the boulder and a glimpse of what appeared to be a staircase leading down to the basement.

“Village Chief, isn’t that a dungeon? The entrance looks a lot like the one near the town.”

Rad said, but none of the members here had ever seen a dungeon before, so they were unable to make a judgment.

“There is a limit to how long the barrier can extend. First, let’s fix it to that rocky hill.”

“If it’s this wide, it’ll be easier to get a clear view.”

“If it were a dungeon, it would be even more convenient.”

With everyone’s agreement, I was about to extend the barrier to the rocky hill when three orcs appeared out of the forest and entered the cave?

“Hey, maybe it’s not a dungeon, but a place where orcs live?”

Touya said and raised his guard. He asks Rev, the scout, to use his “search” skill, but he says he can’t tell what’s going on inside the cave from the outside. Even with the rabbit man’s enhanced hearing, he could not seem to pick up any sounds inside the cave.

“Whether it’s an orc dwelling or a dungeon, I think it’s better to surround it with a barrier.”

For the sake of safety, I thought Sakura’s suggestion was right, and together with the route to this point, I surrounded the rocky hill with a radius of about 20 meters.

The rocky hill is isolated within the doughnut-shaped boundary, which is probably the easiest way to describe it. The rocky hill is surrounded by the barrier, and the monsters cannot come out of the cave.

“With this, even if monsters appear, we can block them with a barrier, we can use the plaza as a base from which to explore the cave.”

“Hey, hey, you want to go ahead and check inside?”

Touya asked me with an excited face, but no matter how I looked at it, it seemed like he was ready to investigate.

“The team members are all here. Let’s split up into two groups, one to wait here and one to break in, and take a quick peek.”

A sudden encounter with a large group of orcs is quite conceivable. In order to ensure safety, Haruka, who plays the appraisal role, and Akiho, who plays the recovery role, cannot be left out.

As a result of discussing with everyone, it was decided to dive with five people: Touya, Sakura, and Roa for fire power, Haruka for fire power and appraisal, and Akiho for recovery. First, we checked to see if this was an orc dwelling or a dungeon, and told them to return immediately if there was any danger.

I waited inside the barrier with the rest of the members.

◇◇◇

About 40 minutes had passed since the five of them entered the cave. Touya and the others slowly came out of the cave.

“How was it, everyone?”

Everyone in the waiting group was listening with serious faces.

“The orcs were hunting a big boar that was inside. And they were eating the meat they dropped.”

“There were also goblins and hares. Their levels were generally higher than those outside.”

When I listened to the story in detail, it seems that the inside of the cave is a relatively large space, and the rock surface is slightly shining, so it’s not that dark. It seems to be composed of small rooms and passages, and it seems that the first small room had something like a magic circle and a black stone pillar in the center.

It seems that the orcs were hunting big boars in several rooms, eating the meat and magic stones they dropped. My honest impression was that it was really a different world fantasy, and on the contrary, I didn’t feel uncomfortable.

“Village chief, this is definitely a dungeon. Black stone pillars and magic circles, that’s what’s called a teleportation circle.”

“Is that like being able to move through the layers of a dungeon in an instant?”

“Yes, every dungeon has them, and they are released by defeating the lords of each of the five levels.”

Hearing what Rado had to say about dungeons, the excitement of the transferee members was at its peak. They were so excited that they were ignoring Rad’s explanation.

Ever since we moved to this world, we have seen fantasy elements such as magic and monsters. The long-awaited discovery of a dungeon in this world was a good sign.

Dungeons are synonymous with different worlds, and treasures are synonymous with dungeons. Even if you know it’s not a game or story, you can’t help but get excited.

“The purpose of this project is to strengthen our strength by raising our level. This dungeon would be a great hunting ground, and we wouldn’t have to worry about other transferees or other people.”

“It would require some investigation, but a dungeon where the strength of the monsters changes from level to level would be perfect.”

“Ah, it seems like it would be good to distribute the force in a well-balanced manner and capture it.”

“The size of the cave makes it a good idea to have a party of four or five people. If there are more than that, it might be difficult to move around?”

After a while of dungeon discussions, it was decided to divide the rabbit warriors into two groups, with the Japanese members as the strategy group. Since we had no detailed knowledge of the dungeon and no tools for encampment, we made sure that we would try the dungeon in the morning and return to the village before dusk at the earliest.

“What about the village chief? As long as we don’t go too deep into the tunnels, I think we’ll be fine.”

“It’s very tempting, but ……, I think I’ll do some maintenance around the dungeon for a while, and hunt orcs around the area.”

“I see. Well, whenever you want to go, just give me a call, okay?”

“Yeah, I’ll let you know when I’m ready.”

The purpose of the orc hunt is to level up the non-combatants in the village. If the dungeon is a feeding ground for orcs, they are likely to gather on their own, which is convenient. The villagers don’t have to fight, they just have to stay close by, so there is no danger.

“And while you’re at it, do you feel like logging or building a hut?”

“I would like to build a warehouse for transfers, a rest area, toilets, and a simple cooking area.”

“I think it would be good to maintain them while hunting, depending on the jobs of the people we bring with us.”

Since it was still early afternoon, the rest of the group decided to investigate the dungeon. I returned to the village alone and told everyone about the dungeon discovery and the maintenance plan.

After reporting the discovery of the dungeon, we were resting for a while at the meeting place.

“Chief, one of the tenements for immigrants has been completed, so please check it later. If everything is OK, we will build another one.”

“I’ll go take a look right after that.”

It seems that the tenement house that i had asked Rudrug to build has been completed. One house should be able to house 20 people, so one more house should be enough to temporarily accommodate them.

“I’m amazed at how well they’ve been furnished, i’m impressed.”

“The furniture is Natsuki’s handiwork. She’s as handy as ever.”

“If it’s like this, it looks like I can live in it right away. I’ll ask for another one at this rate.”

“The number and distance of latrines on the river is not convenient. I’m going to build another one around here, is that okay?”

“Yes, that’s right. As expected, as the number of people increases, we can’t talk about the location of the latrines. Okay, I’ll leave it to you.”

We decided to have several places built in the residential area, as they are also needed for the tenements outside the site. If we bury them in the ground, they will decompose naturally, so we don’t have to worry so much about sanitation.

Then, please arrange for personnel to come to the eastern forest tomorrow.

“Oh, I take carpentry tools and weapons, right? I never thought the day would come when we would be hunting orcs!”

That evening, all the dungeon crawlers returned to the village.

Today, they went down to the second basement level, and returned when they found the descent stairs to the third level. The rabbits seemed to have verified the respawn of the monsters while hunting on the first level.

I thought they might be tired from their first time exploring the dungeon, but everyone’s faces were satisfied and they were happily sharing their saga.

Although fulfilling, the appearance of this dungeon seemed to be a good stimulus to the repetitive daily work.

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