第８５４堀：未知への探求に危険はつきもの (Part1)
Side: Comet
"Seriously, if we could just teleport deeper, you should have told us."
"Right. *pant, pant* When I suddenly realized, it was just Comet and me."
Grumbling like that, we entered the monitor room.
Wow, Agil is in her physical body after all, so she seems pretty exhausted from running down 50 floors worth of stairs.
But it was magnificent; the side facing the Blue Hole was reinforced glass, allowing us to see through to the other side. There, a wondrous ocean world I had never known unfolded before us.
On Earth, it's called the mother sea, the place where life originated. Of course, even in our world, or rather, on the If Continent, the sea is vast and recognized as a completely different place from the land. And the ocean world we actually saw was indeed vast. Its ecosystem was completely different from the surface. Not only fish I'd never seen before, but also shrimp and numerous creatures I couldn't even guess at. As we descended the stairs and proceeded deeper into the ocean, sunlight no longer reached, and a world of darkness spread out. However, even in such a dark world, creatures still existed. Their forms were grotesque, beyond imagination. Transparent, or with certain body parts strangely evolved, the ocean world was teeming with unimaginable life. We need to capture all of these, dissect them, and investigate why they became this way!
As I was thinking such things, Yuki looked at me with a completely exasperated expression...
"It wasn't 'when you realized.' You two suddenly started running off on your own."
"Hm? Was that how it was? Agil, do you remember?"
"...Phew, I'm finally calming down. No, I feel like Yuki and the others just disappeared on their own."
"Let's just ignore how incredibly idiotic you're being for now. There are plenty of research subjects hanging right in front of us."
"Well, we did get to see some good stuff. You understand, Yuki."
Mhm, mhm. It's easy to conduct research when you have an understanding superior like this. Hifi, well, she only allowed research on things that had practical use for the country and its people. No, back then I was fully automated Comet, so it wasn't much of a hardship.
And it seemed Agil felt the same way...
"Right. I'm grateful you understand us so well. So, Yuki and the others who came to the monitor room first, have you found anything?"
She's also a researcher, in addition to that troublesome position of 'General'. I empathize with her in many ways; if Hifi is like a mother, then Agil is like a good colleague. Wow, as I said before, the If Continent isn't so bad if it has talent like this. Anyway, enough about that. Now, for the new information gathered in the monitor room. We should be able to learn more extensive and reliable things than just sticking our faces to the glass and observing.
"No, it's not like we've figured anything out in just about 30 minutes. For now, we're just surprised by the unexpectedly large number of monsters inhabiting this place."
"There are monsters?"
"Even that alone is quite important information. So, the number? Or rather, are they inhabiting it?"
"Ah. Look, check out that monitor."
Looking at the monitor Yuki pointed to, a 3D map of the Blue Hole, the vertical shaft adjacent to this dungeon, was displayed, with red dots scattered everywhere within it. Some were moving, some were stationary, and I figured these were probably the creatures inhabiting the Blue Hole, when...
"This is the number of monsters inside this Blue Hole."
"Huh?"
An unexpected reply came back. Because, at a glance, the number of red dots, big or small, easily exceeded 100. It was surprising that such a large number of monsters were inside this Blue Hole.
"Oh, uh? No, I guess it's not strange, considering there were about 200 of Shera's kind."
Agil seemed convinced by my words and clapped her hands.
"...Well, considering the number that attacked us, 143 monsters isn't that many. The number of attacking monsters was higher."
"Right? So, what's the composition of the monsters here? Do these also seem to have been summoned by Magic Gear?"
"We won't know until we investigate further, but they're probably not monsters summoned by Magic Gear."
"Huh? Why are you so sure?"
"You know that we can grasp the status of creatures under the dungeon's control, right?"
"Oh, of course I know that. I mean, I'm a former Dungeon Master myself."
There's no way I wouldn't know something so obvious. In fact, if you don't even manage something like that, you can't detect enemy strength or movement, so what's the point of being a Dungeon Master?
"Then I think you'll understand if you look at this."
I took the document Yuki offered after hearing my reply and looked through it...
"No, this is impossible."
"Hm? What's impossible, Comet?"
"Oh, sorry, sorry. Here."
I handed the document to Agil. She immediately looked through the document in the same way...
"No, this is strange!? Shera's kind were only around level 30 at most. But the monsters in this Blue Hole start at a minimum of 50, and the highest is... 122? That's legendary monster level!"
Yes, even the lowest-level monsters in this Blue Hole easily surpassed Shera's kind that attacked us back then. Such a thing is impossible, no matter how you look at it. Our previous investigations have shown that Magic Gear can only summon monsters up to around level 30 at most. Well, if you drastically reduce the number, you might be able to summon up to around level 50, but anything beyond that is impossible with those toys. Therefore, there's no way to summon a level 122 monster, even if you stood on your head. Which means...
"These monsters in the Blue Hole are naturally occurring?"
"Ah, so that's what it means. Or, did Yuki secretly summon them?"
...That seems plausible. Yuki is good at these kinds of pranks. As I gave him a suspicious look.
"No, no, would I summon monsters as a prank when we're about to conduct a marine survey? Especially marine-based monsters with limited uses."
"Well, I guess so."
"Then, as Comet said, are they naturally occurring after all?"
"That would be the case. However, we still know absolutely nothing in detail. We're about to start the investigation, so I think we'll gradually learn more."
"It's not necessarily the cause here."
Yuki understands that point well. Well, this is the most likely possibility, though.
"That possibility exists. Still, I hope it ends here as much as possible."
"So, to clarify that possibility, first, were there any shipwrecks or anything? If there was Magic Gear, it seems like we should have found it?"
"There are things that look like them, but we don't know the details yet. After all, there's no light source in the footage. It's pitch black, so we can't confirm anything."
"Ah."