Okay, so we had a boss and we had trash mobs. Now all that was left was the easy part: building an entire labyrinth.
“Something on your mind? You won’t get anywhere puzzling it over alone.”
I was glad I had Suzu looking out for me. She may have looked like a little girl, but she was a real adult on the inside where it counted.
“Hold it. Were you just thinking something dirty?”
“Please, let’s keep this serious. I’m just considering how one builds a labyrinth.”
Actually, that was kind of a dirty thought, but she wouldn’t realize it if I played it cool. I wasn’t at my best when it came to dealing with women, but there were more girls playing online games these days than there used to be, so it wasn’t like you didn’t interact with them. If you were part of an active guild or clan and didn’t know how to at least talk to women, you were in for a rough time.
“I mean, you just kinda do it.”
“They aren’t exactly selling handy dandy instant labyrinth kits on Tundra.”
“So, you probably don’t have anybody with construction experience on your team, but like, that just means you need to hire some contractors, y’know?”
Outside help? But the only other person who came here was Deneb, and all she did was bring food from the village every once in a while.
“...”
I glanced over at Karumi, who was looking the other way with her hands over her ears, blushing. That was cute and all, but I was still annoyed.
“So far, I’ve built everything here myself. Are you saying it’d be okay for me to hire someone else to work on it, like the people in the village?”
“I don’t know what to say. This is so pathetic it’s depressing to even watch.”
Suzu looked pretty upset about my situation, but it was just another day in the life, as far as I was concerned. I didn’t know what kind of privileged environment the other labyrinths had, because I’d never even had a labyrinth at all.
“Look, just hire people, okay? We’ve got a deadline, and we’re not going to make it if you’re the only one building.”
“True. I’ll hire as many villagers as I can.”
In retrospect, it had taken Ann and I two months of backbreaking labor just to make those stairs.
“Hey Suzu, so I was thinking we should do something relatively simple. Do you know of any way to build an underground structure without breaking the bank?”
“So that’s how you wanna do it. One thing to keep in mind is, the deeper you build it, the more it’s gonna cost, and it’ll take longer to boot. For starters, maybe only aim for a single-story labyrinth.”
“Got it, stick close to the surface. Oh, actually, wait a minute.”
I raised my hand and summoned the labyrinth manager UI window, opening the <Dungeon Management Tool> skill and selecting <Terrain Improvement Tool: Soil>. I felt a slight sense of fatigue as an iron shovel emanating particles of light appeared in front of me.
“That shovel just appeared out of thin air!”
“Yeah, he can make tools like that. I don’t really know much about it, but apparently it’s some magic he got from the Great Dark Lord.”
“Ohhh, I see. Magic. That makes sense.”
...People around here were way too accepting of that explanation.
I stuck my shovel into the ground, and a cross-shaped rift opened up around the spot where it sunk in. I applied a little force, pushing the shovel deeper into the ground.
“And... there we go.”
A cubical chunk of ground, maybe ten centimeters in all dimensions, popped out of the ground with a satisfying plop. Seeing my tools producing perfectly shaped materials never got old. I brushed aside the moss and grass that had tumbled into the hole and watched it carefully.
“Figured as much. There’s water seeping in already.”
Muddy water gradually filled the now-empty cube of land. There was water everywhere in this ravine, so I’d kind of expected this.
“Whatcha doin’ over there, Aoi?”
“Confirming the terrain. At least in this area, if we try to build underground, the construction is either going to give out because of the soft soil or flood with water.”
“Lousy starting conditions, eh? Looks about the same everywhere that I can see. You think your whole ravine is gonna be like that?”
“Yeah. If we need to build an underground labyrinth, we’re going to have to do something about the land first.”
It’d have to be drastic, too, like building a dam to hold back the flow of water, or even reversing the flow. Doing that in a world without heavy construction machinery would be a nightmarishly complex project that could easily take decades.
“You can see the water seeping out of the sides of the ravine easily enough, but there’s groundwater too. Digging isn’t going to get us anywhere.”
“Looks like you’re caught between a rock and a wet place.”
“What’s more, we can’t just go destroying the ecosystem here. This ravine is a treasure trove of medicinal herbs.”
The vegetation here was too valuable. In game terms, the mosses and herbs were SR-class materials. More importantly, the magic potions I concocted with them were my main source of income. If we wiped that out, I’d have to find a new way to make money, or I’d end up broke, fast. Maybe I could start cultivating them, but I was certain that damaging the environment here would be tying the rope around my neck.
“Oh yeah, I keep forgetting how you’re the one making those top-class potions that pop up on Tundra.”
“Yep, and I need all these herbs to make them. If we build the labyrinth here, I bet we’ll disrupt the ecosystem. Talk about a kick in the teeth.”
“This isn’t something to joke about!”
So the bottom of the ravine was out, and obviously we weren’t going to carve into the stone sides. Maybe we could use the area up above?
“Karumi, would the labyrinth still be officially recognized if we built it up there?”
I was worried about going outside the ravine, even if it was just on the edge of the cliff. If we did all that work up on the surface and then didn’t get any credit for it, that’d be the worst.
“Just a moment, let me double-check the terms. Let’s see, Labyrinth #228...”
She navigated the UI thoughtfully. I was frankly terrified of trusting Karumi with anything at this point, so I was glad to see she was being careful.
“Ahh, here we go. These are the formal requirements regarding location. As long as the structure is within half a kilometer of the Great Saredo Rift, it will be recognized as Labyrinth #228.”
Pretty sloppy specifications, but at least that gave us the freedom to build where we wanted to.
“Then that settles it. We will build the labyrinth up there, outside the ravine, on good solid ground.”
But starting would have to wait until tomorrow.