Chapter 76: That’s the result of my most recent practice session

I thought that if I used Territory Takeover on the dungeon, I might be able to make it a part of the village. In order to use it though, I first needed to be within a certain distance of the place I wanted to takeover, meaning I myself needed to go to the newly discovered dungeon.

Unfortunately, Selen, who was unaware of my plan, refused to give me permission to come with them on account of it being too dangerous. So, I decided to ask Goate-san to smuggle me in.

And just like I hoped, I was able to make the dungeon a part of the village.

“And that’s why I’m able to build things here as well. This should prove useful to the investigation, I’d say.”

After all, I could build us a safe zone in this danger-filled dungeon.

“But Luke-dono, what was with that golem?”

“That’s the result of my most recent practice session. You see, I made a golem that could be ridden the other day, but I thought there might be a more practical use for it.”

The rideable golem I made didn’t turn out as great as I hoped. It was uncomfortable to ride in, begging the question why I would want to be inside it when I could control it just fine from the outside. Thanks to that and a little practice, I could now control it to the point that I was able to beat that monster.

“What do you think, Selen? I bet even you’d say I’m an asset now!”

I made the golem come closer, and then made it pose for better appeal.

By the way, making it move didn’t cost a point at all. What did cost points was repairing it, but it was mostly an insignificant amount.

“Y-yes, but…”

As expected, even the overprotective Selen had no retort this time.

“And now that the dungeon’s a part of the village, there’s no more problem for me to join the investigation, right?”

“Hmm, I agree. Besides, it’s only natural for a boy his age to be full of curiosity. If you try to suppress that curiosity too much, you’d might end up getting hated.”

Philia-san backed me up.

It didn’t feel great to be treated as a child, but then again, for someone as long-lived as she was, I might as well be a toddler.

“F-fine! It’d be more troublesome if you decide to explore on your own anyway. But you have to stay in the middle of the group, alright!? Noel, guard Luke at all cost!”

“Yes! I’ll guard the village chief with my life!”

Like that, I was allowed to join the investigation team.

I didn’t mention it, but I haven’t incorporated the whole dungeon into the village yet.

The reason for that was the specifics of the Territory Takeover skill:

<<Note, however, that the piece of territory you want to acquire must be within a 50-meter radius around you.>>

This condition applied in this dungeon as well.

In other words, I’ve acquired nothing more than the entrance of the dungeon. And to acquire more, I needed to dive deeper into the dungeon.

At any rate, we resumed the exploration.

We went down the gentle slope until the path split into two.

“A fork, huh.”

“Right now, I don’t sense danger coming from either one, but…”

Those were the words of Marco-san who had the [Danger Perception] Gift.

For some reason though, Kamuru-san who had [Dungeon Exploration] seemed restless.

“What’s wrong?”

“N-nothing, it’s nothing…”

“Please feel free to say whatever’s bothering you, no matter how trivial or wrong it might seem to you.”

“……”

After waiting a while, Kamuru-san nervously spoke.

“I…I don’t know why, but for some reason…the path to the right seems to be the correct one, but it also feels it’s the harder path…on the other hand, the left path seems like the wrong one, but it feels like the easier path…”

“Hmm, I don’t really understand.”

“But if that intuition is because of his Gift, it’s worth checking out what it means.”

This was the first fork in the dungeon, so we should check both paths eventually.

“For now, let’s go check the path on the right.”