Chapter 96: The Bear Makes a Tunnel

Chapter 96:
The Bear Makes a Tunnel

 

A DAY AFTER the big, post-kraken killing celebration, Mileela seaport started its slow return to normalcy. The road that the robbers had blocked opened back up, and the kraken’s death made the sea safer, too. Things would return to normal soon enough, Deigha told me.

Of course, Deigha was getting a talking-to from his daughter Anz for getting roaring drunk during the celebration, but the gloom that hung over them for days vanished. They were downright cheerful, honestly.

“Ms. Yuna, are you fine with having rice for breakfast too?”

“You know it.”

As if I could say no to rice. She grilled up some fish for me and fried some of the eggs I brought, and we were off to the races.

 

With my morning meal out of the way, I was halfway back to my room when I remembered what Anz told me just yesterday: if Crimonia were closer, she’d like to visit.

Fine by me: one way or another, I wanted to get Anz to Crimonia about as much as she did. Then again, even if I took Anz with me on the bears, I wouldn’t have that steady stream of seafood. What would be the point then, you know? No, I’d need to secure a distribution channel for the seafood. The only half-reasonable way to get to Crimonia was via the super scenic coastline, unless you wanted to take the super-deadly mountain route. Either way cost you a lot of time and put you in danger ranging from maybe-not-worth-it to frozen-dead-mountain-inhabitant. Not great for seafood transportation, is what I’m saying.

To take Anz with me and get my scrumptious seafood on the reg, there’d need to be an easy way for people to come and go between Crimonia and Mileela. Only one idea fit the bill: a tunnel in the mountain range between the two towns.

Boom: problem solved. Less time to get to Crimonia, Anz could come with me easily, and we’d guarantee a continuous source of seafood. With a little bear magic, we could be all set…well, maybe.

I mean, you can’t just make a tunnel by digging.

Consider elevation differences. If I start digging horizontally from this side, I might just end up coming out partway through the mountains…or dig too deep and wind up underground forever. No, I couldn’t make the tunnel without an idea of the elevation difference between the two points. I opened up my map so I could check how far away I was, but…

“Hm?”

…the map looked a little different?

The old 2D map was full 3D now. I could even see the elevation changes by fiddling around with it. Maybe it’d gotten a software upgrade from…defeating…the kraken? Okay, great—did I get anything else? I checked my other skills, but nope.

I studied that map skill again.

 

Bear Map Ver. 2.0

Any area seen by the bear痴 eyes can be made into a map.

 

Version 2.0, huh? Not a huge upgrade, but pretty nice to have if you, say, want to use magical bears to carve a tunnel through a mountain.

I turned my eyes to the map again. It really showed just how tall the mountain range was, and how completely wild it was that Yuula tried to scale it. No way I’d even have attempted it without my bears.

I pinpointed Crimonia and Mileela on the map, and then searched for a good spot to make the tunnel. The goods would need to be transported by carriage, so it’d be better if I put it close to a road. And oh, I should keep the elevation difference as even as possible while also keeping it close to both towns, too—lower the burden on the carriages, right? Take that into account, don’t forget this, aaaaand…

I’d just marked my two spots when there was a knock on the door.

“Who is it?”

“It’s Sei. Is now a good time, Ms. Yuna?”

Sei, from the adventurers’ guild? Kind of odd for him to visit the inn. I decided to open the door and hear him out.

“Please excuse me for disturbing your rest. The guild master is calling for you, so would you be kind enough to come with me to see her?”

“What does she want?”

“She would like to consult with you about the seaport. I know little beyond this—you would have to ask her for elaboration.”

About the seaport? Huh. Well now I was curious, so I headed on over to the adventurers’ guild. Once there, the employees guided me into a room in the back where Atola, old man Kuro, and two old guys I didn’t recognize were waiting.

Weird.

“We were waiting for you, Yuna. Thank you for coming. For now, find yourself a seat,” said Atola.

“Umm, what is this about?” I asked while sitting down in the closest chair.

“We just had a little favor to ask you for.”

“A favor?” Just a wee bit ominous, don’t you think?

“We were hoping you could serve as an intermediary between the seaport and Crimonia’s lord.”

“An intermediary?”

“Our mayor ran out on us. Then there was that scandal with the trade guild, and all the while, that kraken splashed around, ruining us day by day. It feels like a streak of bad luck, doesn’t it? Well, I’m tired of it. We’d like to speak with the lord of Crimonia as soon as possible.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“Bluntly put, we’re thinking of affiliating Mileela with Crimonia.”

“You’re talking about merging with another country?”

Atola nodded.

“Seems pretty serious,” I said. “Do the other townspeople know?”

“They do not,” said old man Kuro, “but we can deal with any fallout ourselves.”

“The only ones who know are the people gathered here,” said Atola. “Think of us as a sort of council. Maybe a little small for a council, sure, but two of us just ran away.”

“Leaving just us to make the decision,” continued old man Kuro. “And our decision was to affiliate ourselves with another country. We do not believe we can continue on as we are, not if we are considering the future of our village and its children.”

“After that, we got into talking about which town we should affiliate with and whether your home of Crimonia would work.”

“Okay, but why Crimonia? You’ve got other towns you trade with, right? Surely some of them are closer.”

One of the older men, quiet until now, spoke up in a bitter, dry grumble: “We can’t say much about their countries, but the lords of those towns are a pack of greedy jackals. Before the robbers appeared, we asked those towns to deal with the kraken. They agreed…and demanded fortunes upon fortunes for the kindness.” The other old men nodded along next to him.

“By all rights, we should have put a stop to the trade guild’s corruption earlier, but we were told that the guild was trying to produce the funds for those awful lords, and so we could do nothing. If that lord had not demanded such a vast sum of money, Zallad from the trade guild might not have done what he did.”

“We might be equally to blame for this.” The three old men hung their heads.

Right, that made sense; I wondered why old man Kuro followed the trade guild’s instructions. I guess if Zallad told him they were raising funds to get rid of the kraken and the robbers, it would’ve made perfect sense for him to bow his head.

“Now, then, Yuna,” said Atola, “do you know what kind of person the lord of Crimonia is?”

“The lord?” Weird hearing them call Cliff something as dramatic as “the lord.” “He’s all right. I haven’t heard anyone say he’s a moneygrubber.” That is, as far as I knew, but who could say?

“Hm. For the time being, then, we’d like you to negotiate with Crimonia’s lord. If your audience goes well, we may just try to establish an alliance with him. Can we count on you?”

“I’ll make an effort, but I can’t guarantee anything.”

“We don’t need guarantees. Any effort from the likes of you is more than enough. Can you do this for us?” The elders bowed their heads at her words.

“If it’s just talking,” I said, “I’ll give it a shot. Sorry in advance if I blow it, though.”

“Even giving it a try is more than enough,” said one of the old men. “Please give this to the lord of Crimonia. The details are written down there.”

“All right, I’ll head out tomorrow morning,” I said, and took the letter from the old man. If I was going to be heading out, better to do it first thing. “And oh, don’t forget about the land thing.” In return for defeating the kraken, I was supposed to get a plot of land where I could build a house.

“We’ll make arrangements for that by the time you return.”

“A good location, please.” Ah, I could just picture it now: a bed and breakfast (and bear) house on top of a slight hill. Perfect.

 

I headed back to the inn and let Deigha and Anz know that I was going back to Crimonia.

“You’re going home already?” asked Anz.

“Couldn’t you enjoy yourself here for a little longer, Ms. Yuna? You’ve hardly had time to see what our town is like without that kraken. I’d like you to try some of our good cooking.”

“Yeah,” said Anz with a sharp nod, “I was hoping to whip you up something tasty now that we can go fishing again.”

Anz and Deigha looked disappointed, but their gloom had nothing on me: I was the one who was going to miss all those tasty meals. In a way, that pretty much made me a martyr. “I’ll come back right away, so you’ll have to cook stuff up for me to eat then.”

“Right away?”

“Yeah, Atola asked me for a quick favor. I just have to pop over to Crimonia, but I’ll come back right away.”

“In that case, what should we do with your rice? Should we hold onto it for you?”

“No, I’ll take that with me.” With my bear storage, it was no problem.

They led me to the kitchen storehouse where they kept their barrel filled to the brim with delicious, mouth-watering rice. “Can I, err…can I really have all of it?” So much rice. And sure, the ocean was free for trade again, but the reality was that they were still dealing with a food shortage.

“All of the townspeople brought this for you, miss. It’s all yours. Don’t mind us, just take it.”

I gratefully put the rice—the entire, practically brimming barrel—into my bear storage. I wouldn’t have to worry about running out of rice for a long, long while.

 

The next day, after thanking Deigha once again, I left the inn.

Up until I left the seaport, the townspeople were quick to greet me the moment they saw me. I’d give them a little wave with my bear puppet, but I had business to take care of. Once I was out of town, I summoned Kumayuru, hopped on, and pulled up my map. Let’s see, where was that first spot I marked?

We ran along the seacoast road, and the surroundings turned to forest. I’d deal with the trees around here later. For now, I had a date with a dig site.

One more check to confirm, and yep. Crimonia’s direction was right. It’d be fine if I started digging the tunnel here.

Next, I made an impromptu changing room with earth magic and changed into my white bear outfit. Sure, nobody was around, but what if someone was? No thanks, I’m not that level of gutsy.

Why the white bear clothes? Well, I’d be using oodles of magic. I really wanted to avoid collapsing from mana exhaustion like I had with the kraken. Mana recovery went a whole lot faster in white bear mode, and I wasn’t about to sleep for a few days in a row like after the kraken battle.

 

After my costume change, I stood in front of the spot where the tunnel entrance was soon to be and got right into it. I carved the tunnel big enough that a slightly larger-than-average carriage could clear it like…that. Was that size about right? I eyeballed it. Seemed okay. With that down, all I needed to do was dig. Since it was dark inside, I made a bear light to brighten things up.

I dug as I walked, compressing the walls as I went to harden them and keep them from collapsing. I smoothed out the floor, too, so it wasn’t uneven. Ugh, this was a lot more of a pain than I expected—the digging part was fine, but then there was all that safety standard stuff.

Fortunately, I wasn’t using up too much mana thanks to the white bear clothes. After a few rounds of crunching and carving, it wasn’t as hard. I could practically go on autopilot.

The mundane work still made me a little drowsy, but I kept digging and fortifying, digging and fortifying…and then stopping, every now and then, to recheck my direction and elevation. Messing that up would be such a pain in the butt. I needed to make sure the slope was gentle, too, or it’d be difficult for the carriages to go through the tunnel.

About halfway through, I downed the rice balls Deigha made for me to fill me up, which wasn’t the brightest idea I ever had. Having a full belly made me drowsy, so I started humming to ward off my sleepiness. Digging, digging, digging…until, several hours later, the tunnel finally opened up. When I checked the map, I confirmed I was on the other side of the mountains.

I was finally out…in the dark. Huh? Despite my bear light, it was pitch black and gloomy. Above me, faint starlight peeked through gaps in the trees. I dug steadily from morning to night. No wonder I yawned up a storm. The moment I realized it was night, all the day’s drowsiness rushed right over me.

I took my traveling bear house out in front of the tunnel. Before going inside, I checked to see if I was dirty, but nope: despite my little stint as a burrowing mole-bear, my white bear clothes were pristine. My gear was as OP as ever.

After stepping inside, I powered through the drowsiness to take a bath before slipping into bed. I summoned my bears in their cub forms as guards.

“Kumayuru, Kumakyu, goodnight.”

And I was out like a light.