I knew I was probably overlooking something, but for now, I was at a loss. My curiosity about the outside world also nagged at me, so I decided to leave for the day. Exiting the dungeon-like chamber, I returned to the Turtle and said, "I managed to enter the dungeon, but what I found was just a ten-meter square empty stone room. It's hard to believe that the soldiers were guarding just this single chamber, so I think I must be missing something."
"It's strange, isn't it?"
"Absolutely.
It's a bit early, but let's wrap things up and head back to the mansion. Lisa must be feeling drained, so let's go to that nice restaurant she showed me once for dinner."
"Master, there's more than enough time to prepare dinner now."
"Lisa works from morning till night every day, so once in a while, she should take it easy."
"Thank you, Master."
With that, Lisa bowed her head. Just like always, the children started showering me with praise.
"Right? Master is so kind!"
"We're lucky to have such a great master to buy us things!"
"Iona even got her feet fixed by him!"
"Yeah, I'm really grateful to Master. I'll never forget this kindness!"
Then they whispered,
"But ice cream might be number one!"
"Totally!"
I guess that's what kids are like. However, the oldest among them, Olivia, is already fourteen. In just a few short years, she'll be spreading her wings and leaving me. Once life here settles a bit, I should think about helping them develop skills for their future.
"We can't drive into the city, so let's transfer back to the mansion from here. Everyone, please get out of the car."
Once everyone was out, I stored the Turtle vehicle in my item box. Its hood was smeared with some strange fluids and was quite dirty, so it went into the material box. Since that will serve as raw material, the next time I create the Turtle vehicle II in the alchemy workshop, it should be much easier than making the first one.
"Everyone, hold my hand," I said.
Six of them took hold of me. Lily and Lisa hesitated, grasping my wrist instead, but the children each clasped a few of my fingers.
"Alright, let's transfer to the living room!"
"Since everyone must be a bit dirty, it's best to wash our limbs. What should we do about the bath? There's still plenty of time before evening, so let's take a bath."
I prepared the bath and stepped in first. The four children followed, and lastly, Lily and Lisa joined. I kept preparing the water for each of them, feeling like the bathhouse attendant.
Once everyone was out and relaxing in the living room, Lily, with a towel wrapped around her head, said, "I wish I had a hairdryer, but it's just blowing warm air, so it should be easier than a wind cutter. Can't we do something with magic?"
"Lily, they always say magic is about imagination in light novels. I'm not sure if that idea from author Sky really applies, but I'm curious to see if it works."
"I'll give it a try."
"Just make sure you don't point a wind cutter at your own head."
"I'm not confident, so I'll test it outside the window first."
With that, Lily raised the previously closed window and extended her right palm outward.
"I'll call it a hair dryer!" I declared.
While naming a spell "hair dryer" doesn't sound very impressive, it's important to convey the image of drying hair. Given this reasoning, a name that reflects the function makes sense.
From my perspective, nothing seemed to be happening. However, the movements of Sky magic are inherently invisible, and the sound of the hair dryer's fan likely wouldn't be recreated through the spell. Therefore, simply watching from the back, I couldn't tell if the magic was actually working.
"It's producing a slight warm breeze. Will it get stronger?"
"Oh! It's getting stronger. Just like Rockwell said, it seems magic can be created through imagery!"
"That's great to hear!"
I had just said that on a whim, surprised to find it actually had an effect. Lily's magic level was presumably four, so perhaps that was a factor.
"Does this mean you could use magic that you couldn't perform before due to lack of a model?"
"Maybe we should give it a try?"
"No, most of the magic I know is offensive, so it wouldn't be appropriate here."
"By the way, what about healing magic? Lily, you were a sage, right? In the games I know, sages could use healing magic."
"No one was injured, and I couldn't form a clear image, so I couldn't use any healing spells."
"It's best if we don't have any incidents, but if someone does get hurt, Lily, you'll have to step up. We have healing potions, so it's okay if you mess up."
"Okay."
"Now, once you dry your own hair with that hair-drying spell, help everyone else by drying their hair in order of length."
"I think I'm nearly dry. If everyone lines up, I can blow warm air at once and dry them all together."
"Sounds good. Everyone, take off your towels and line up from tallest to shortest."
As the children lined up with Lisa in front, Lily began to direct warm air towards them. All five busily tousled their hair. My own short hair was already dry, so I had stepped aside, but even from a distance, I could feel the warm gusts blowing toward me. At this rate, I'd dry off quickly too.
"Everyone, turn around," Lily instructed.
The five spun around and started tousling their hair again.
In just about three minutes, it seemed everyone's hair was dry.
"Everyone, get changed and meet in the living room. It's time to eat!"
""Okay!"" ""Yes!""
I finished changing in under three minutes, and as I waited in the living room, everyone else arrived a couple of minutes later.
"Like usual, hold my hand."
Once they all grabbed hold of my hand, I called out, "Transfer!"
The other day, we transferred near the restaurant Lisa recommended, where we were guided to our private room again, just like last time. After paying a significant bill, we returned to the mansion.
Gathered in the warmly lit living room, we settled onto the sofa for a post-meal smoke. I asked Lily, "So, how was the meal at the temple?"
She replied, "The food served at the temple was probably fancy, but it was mostly cold. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't great either. The only thing that was truly delicious was the fruit. Honestly, I think the meals we share here in the mansion are much better."
Lisa would surely be pleased to hear that, even if it was just flattery. "That's good to hear. It's getting late, and it looks like everyone is getting tired. You should all head to bed."
"Okay!" the others chimed in.
Although it was just after 8 PM, I was starting to feel sleepy too, so I decided to head up to my room on the second floor. Once I got into bed and completed my evening routine, I fell into a deep sleep, as usual.
The next day, after finishing my morning tasks and meals, and sending the children off to the Alchemist Guild and Adventurers Guild, I decided to take Lily back to the dungeon we had visited the day before. I suspected the number of soldiers outside the dungeon would have increased, so I chose to head directly into the dungeon.
"Lily, please hold my hand like usual."
Lily grasped my hand. Whenever it was just the two of us transferring, she would take my palm, but when there were others around, she hesitated to do so. It might just be the nature of high school girls, and mentioning it to her would likely make things awkward, so I feigned ignorance and said, "Transfer!"
We arrived at a ten-meter-square stone chamber, oddly devoid of light despite being able to see inside.
"This is the dungeon," I said.
One of the four walls featured the black mirror in its center.
"That black mirror seems to be the exit. If we go out now, we might run into the temple guards, so we shouldn't step out."
"Understood. But how can we see in this room without any light source?"
"I've wondered about that too, but since there are no clear shadows, it might be that the stone itself is glowing."
"That must be it. But with this level of brightness, isn't it still a bit dark?"
"Now that you mention it, you're right. It'd be easier to see with more light. Should we make a torch? A lamp would work too, but a torch would fit the dungeon vibe better."
"No, I know a good spell for this. Let's go with that. Light!"
When Lily called out "Light," a bright, bluish orb floated above her head.
"It's a bit blinding, but incredible!"
"I heard that those with a magic level of 3 or higher can see hidden things with this Light. But since I haven't encountered anything hidden so far, I'm not sure if it truly reveals anything."
"Huh? The wall on the other side of the mirror looks like it's shimmering. What do you think, Lily?"
"I see it too! Oh! A door just appeared!"
As Lily pointed out, a wooden door materialized on the wall in front of them.
"When I touched the wall yesterday, I didn't feel any door, so it seems more like the Light caused the door to manifest rather than just reveal it."
"So, the Light is an exploration spell, then."
"Lily, do you know any other spells for exploring?"
"Um, there's 'Identify Trap' to determine the type of traps found in dungeons, and 'Disarm Trap' to disable identified traps. What else was there? Oh right, there's also 'Knock' for opening locked doors and boxes."
"Isn't there a spell for finding traps?"
"I didn't learn it because there was someone named Tahara with exploration skills. Sorry about that."
"You don't need to apologize, Lily. But without a way to find traps, we can't use those spells, and exploring a dungeon could be dangerous."
"Like Rockwell said, I'll do my best to focus on the imagery of magic and make it work for me."
"Search trap! Uh, Rockwell?"
"What is it?"
"With the search trap just now, I think I can visualize a 'pitfall,' but I couldn't imagine any other traps, so that's all I can identify."
"Well, that can't be helped. One trap I can think of is where, as you approach a corner, there's a stone embedded in the floor that's slightly raised. Step on it, and a poisoned arrow shoots at you. Instead of looking for specific traps, it might be better to generalize and search for those 'different' things, in other words, the anomalies."
"I see! That's easier to imagine, so it seems doable. I'll give it another shot. Detect Anomaly!"
For a high schooler, Lily sure knows some complicated words like 'anomaly.' I know the term too, thanks to a certain Western game.
As Lily cast Detect Anomaly, a 50-centimeter square area in the middle of the wall to the right of the door began to pulse faintly red.
"Lily, the wall is starting to blink red."
"Um, what does that mean?"
"It definitely indicates something is there, so why don't you try casting Identify Trap?"
"Identify Trap!"
"It doesn't seem to be a trap."
"If it's not a trap, then the disarm trap is pointless too."
"It's not a door, but something might be hidden in the wall. How about we try 'Knock'?"
"Let's give it a shot. Knock!"
As Lily uttered the spell, a section of the wall, measuring fifty centimeters square and flashing red, collapsed to the floor, revealing a square opening—a Sky Hole. At the bottom of the Sky Hole lay a single necklace.