第１５９３堀：期待の海は？ (Part1)
Chapter 1593: The Sea of Expectations?
Side: Riel
*Swish, crash. Swish, crash.*
The sound reached my ears, and the briny, pungent scent of the shore pricked at my nose.
Yeah, this is what you call the sea.
"The oooceaaan!"
"Hey, Riel, pull yourself together."
"Sorry."
I apologized to Tori for her scolding and looked around again.
Tori, Kaya, and I had arrived at the coast where Dressa and her group had landed.
As planned, it took us two days to get here, and since early this morning, we’ve been surveying the coastline and checking if it’s feasible to launch ships.
"From what we’ve checked so far, there aren’t any major monsters on the land, right?"
"Yeah. At most, just some Orcs. They say there are usually more monsters near the sea, but I don’t know if the land here is different, or if this specific spot is just an anomaly."
"……Next is that beach over there, the river mouth, and then the sea itself. But since Dressa’s group is heading out to sea, we’ll investigate the river mouth."
I nodded at Kaya’s words, and we began to move.
The reason we were mobilized for this is simple: we’re short on hands.
And we don’t yet know the true extent of the threats we’re facing.
If we recklessly sent in regular soldiers and someone got hurt, it would be a massive loss for us.
Honestly, I had hoped we could just expand the dungeon to survey the area, but we don’t know where the remnants of the Dark Guild are hiding. Plus, if this happens to be the lurking spot of another Dungeon Master, expanding the dungeon could be seen as a declaration of war.
If we’re going to do that, we need to prepare our forces and be ready to intercept, so it’s not something we can just do on a whim.
That’s why we, a small group with high combat capability, were sent here.
Security at the school has calmed down, so it’s not a problem for us to be here.
Thinking about that, we walked through the grasslands from the cliffs, aiming for the area near the river mouth.
"Hmm, my presence detection isn't picking up anything particularly powerful. How about you two, Tori and Kaya?"
"I’m not picking up anything special either. Well, I do sense monsters near the river mouth and the beach that would be terrifying for an average person."
"……I agree with Tori. They’re likely level 30 or higher. On the Rogari Continent, those would be squad-leader class. At worst, there are monsters of general class."
Oh, that’s definitely powerful.
And since we don’t have an affinity for water, monsters that specialize in it feel incredibly strong when we’re near their element.
Fighting in the water feels like suicide.
Well, to us, they’re enemies we can handle, but still...
"Aren't the enemies stronger than we thought? If we build a port here, I feel like regular people would just get killed easily."
Even I can understand that it’s impossible for ordinary people to live here.
The enemies are just too strong.
It’s easy to see why there aren’t any countries near the sea.
After all, having squad-leader or general-class monsters constantly emerging from the ocean is a massive threat.
Is it easier to think of them as being like regular soldiers?
Well, they aren't exactly swarming, but they are moderately scattered around the beach, lurking like wild monsters.
In other words, they inhabit the area just like Goblins or Slimes.
So, it’s far too dangerous for civilians to walk around, and even a well-equipped army would surely struggle.
It’s no wonder there are no countries here.
The situation is simply beyond what they could resist.
It makes me wonder how the countries that do exist on the coast survive, and it’s no surprise that they’re so small in scale.
As for the other two after hearing my thoughts...
"You’re right... I can’t say for sure until we see the rest, but a port here might be difficult, don't you think?"
"……Difficult. When we say 'port,' we’re also thinking about human activity. That implies a premise that civilians will live there. If that’s the case, the surrounding monsters are too strong; they couldn't survive. The military could step in and exterminate them, but... our budget and personnel aren't infinite. Sis-a and Sona would die. They’re already too busy."
That’s true.
The two who came from Quar’s department would end up collapsing.
If it were the two from the Royal Guard, they could manage it if they really had to.
...With the premise that those two would be doing all the hunting and escorting in this area, of course.
Well, that’s impossible, though.
As I was thinking that, Tori tilted her head.
"But when we build a port, we’ll control the area by turning it into a dungeon, right? Wouldn't that make it safe to some extent?"
"Ah."
"……That’s possible, but the scale would inevitably be small. After all, monsters will still flow in from the outside."
"That’s true. If it were entirely inside a dungeon, we could block out external monsters, but for the sea, and even the river mouth, that’s impossible, right?"
Yeah, managing it with a dungeon is one way, but that comes with the restriction that it only works if you’re entirely inside the dungeon.
In this case, we’re including environmental surveys of the sea, so we need to manage the area outside the dungeon as well.
Since that’s a natural environment, wild monsters will naturally keep wandering in.
Dealing with that is going to be a real headache.
"In the end, it comes down to how many people we can mobilize."
"……At the current level of Weed, only the military could exterminate the monsters around here. And as for stationing them here permanently... that’s not so simple. Even to make this a base, we need to survey it first. I think that’s why Yuki-san mentioned all these things."
"You’re right. We only thought about it for a moment and already found this many problems; there’s no way Yuki-san hasn't considered all of this."
Exactly. As Kaya said, since Yuki-san asked us to investigate, he clearly wants to look into all these factors.
I assume the plan is to eventually build a port somewhere.
If he wanted it done quickly, he wouldn't have sent us out here.
While talking about this, we walked from the river mouth toward the beach.
In the meantime, a giant crab and something like an octopus appeared, so we took them down.
"Whoa, a huge crab. Let’s see, according to Appraisal, it’s a 'Sea-River Giant Green Crab' and a 'Sea-River Giant Octopus'."
"……That’s literal. For now, why are both 'sea' and 'river' in the name?"
Indeed, as I tilted my head at Kaya’s words...
"Isn't it because it’s a river mouth? Yuki-san said that a river mouth is a point where seawater and freshwater mix, so there are creatures that can live in both."
"I see. ...In other words, it’s exactly as the name says."
"Exactly."
So their ecology really was just as the name implied.
By the way...
"They’re level 27 and 25. Hmm, mid-tier adventurers could take them down if they don't let their guard down."
"For beginner adventurers, it’s a guaranteed death sentence."