Let's Expand the Fields

[Tier-Group 3 Rooftop Observation Deck]

"The dungeon's sphere of influence is currently being extended outward in stages to roughly ten kilometers all around, and it already takes in the whole hill plus the surrounding plateaus and lowlands. By rights the plateaus should be fields and orchards and the lowlands paddies, but this is desert country, so there's no guarantee a sudden rain won't send a flash flood through the lowlands. In particular, if this dungeon grows from here on and comes to hold vast farmland and forest, it may even affect the climate and increase the rainfall."

"In other words, the paddies should be developed on the plateaus too?"

"Just so. For the time being, the slopes of the hill should be orchards and forest, and the plateaus fields and pasture. If we make the paddies into dungeon structures, we can hold water even atop a well-draining plateau."

"Pasture?"

"In time we'll keep horses, and not only beastfolk like Haruna but actual animal horses. We can hardly count on an automobile-factory dungeon, so producing automobiles is a long way off. Even so, it's a shame we couldn't capture the horses the Hiki clan brought along earlier."

"So we raise Sledgehammer and Kobe Tomcat and the like, and race them."

"Master, you're at it again. We've no leisure to be racing some 'Vietnam Cat' or whatever. A truck would be another matter, but with nothing but book-knowledge we can't manufacture complex machinery, and as things stand, even if we somehow got hold of one, it would be beyond Mint's hands and we couldn't even maintain it."

There is no industrial base. There is also the problem that, should one try to spread it through society, society itself rejects it.

"If we had a truck, we could summon someone reincarnated from another world, you said."

"A truck is the means by which one is reincarnated into another world. And this dungeon can only summon Shiso (Asura), and since plants have no brains, anyone reincarnated from another world would have their memories scattered at the seedling stage, which makes it no different from ordinary reincarnation. In any case, I've already asked the Daikan, the merchants, and the adventurers to look for horses, so there's nothing for it but to wait."

"What about summoning a Shiso (Asura) to send out searching?"

"The climate is harsh and there are bandits. On top of which, outside the dungeon's sphere of influence we can't use the power of the Dungeon Core. True, a Named monster can be revived even if it dies, but dying is unpleasant all the same, so if we demand a dangerous mission of one, it might just rebel on us."

A nameless ordinary monster has no ego and won't rebel, but it can't understand orders of any complexity, and to begin with it can't leave the dungeon at all.

"A rebellion would be a problem."

"Asura in particular are prone to overrating themselves, and what's more, they're fiercely envious… I'm quite aware of that in myself."

"Since all the water is supplied by the dungeon, on the plateau at the foot of the hill we'll make the fields starting from the side nearest the dungeon, and plant crops as each is finished. It's already on the late side for rice transplanting, but rice is ideal for both stipends and bribes, so it's worth growing even if we have to push things a bit."

"With a good two thousand people, it looks like we could make a fair amount of field."

"There are children and NEETs as well, and plenty of work besides farming, so in practical terms it's about eight hundred people across three hundred households, I'd say. For now, there's no need to open land all that far from the dungeon. That said, it really is pitiful to make people walk a kilometer of uphill road home from the fields come evening. So once the dungeon energy has built up, I'll summon a few small public libraries from other worlds and make them into villages."

"So it's libraries after all?"

"Master, in this dungeon the only buildings we can summon are libraries. Of course we could put up ordinary buildings with construction materials, but a dungeon disposes of refuse automatically and is sanitary, and it's sturdy besides, so if pirates come we can hole up inside. Those are its advantages. Mind you, since the energy we gain from the World Core is determined by the dungeon's own height differential, building separate little dungeons is, energy-wise, a complete waste."

"Dungeons couldn't be destroyed easily, as I recall."

"But it's a problem if the fields get trampled, so we urgently need to reinforce the knight order. We've no industrial base capable of maintaining automobiles, so dragoons will surely be our strongest fighting force after all."

"Ah, those were the 'cavalry armed with firearms,' weren't they. Not soldiers who ride dragons."

"You remembered well, Master. Of course, dragons would be a powerful force if we had them, but outside a dungeon that can summon dragons the unique law won't function, so far from flying, they'd be crushed under their own weight."

"Speaking of unique laws, with this dungeon there's the problem that open flame is strictly forbidden, so the settlers can't cook. The fields are outdoors, so campfires are possible there, but."

"It's all electric at the core of things, after all. How the World Core supplies 6,600-volt, 50-hertz power without so much as a nuclear reactor is a mystery, but there it is. The trouble is, Tier-Group 3 and others, quite a few of them are 60-hertz spec."

"America runs on 60 hertz, as I recall, so in a world where, say, Japan became Spanish territory during the Age of Discovery and then American territory after the Spanish-American War, the frequency would be 60 hertz."

"Master, in such a world the official language is English or Spanish, so the summoning cost runs high and it normally wouldn't get summoned, so we're fine there. But even in worlds where Japanese works, each world has all sorts of complicated circumstances of its own, which is a nuisance. You summon something and the frequency turns out different from what you expected, or the voltage does. Fortunately, there don't seem to be any buildings whose specs are so wildly different that even Mint can't handle them, at least."