Chapter 123. Dispatch #1
65th day in the labyrinth.
Melody Fox, who had been dispatched to Earth, had returned.
“Melody! I missed you so much! Kyuu kyuu!”
[Kyuwoo!]
The first one to greet Melody was Merino Ula.
As soon as Melody returned, Merino ran up and tightly hugged her.
“Why have you gotten so chubby! Did you eat a lot of tasty things?”
[Kyuah!]
While Merino was rubbing her cheeks against Melody’s face, the rest of us, myself included, approached her to congratulate her on her safe return.
From what I’d heard from the assistants.
Melody hadn’t slept and spent the entire time gorging on delivery food.
In other words, she had basically gone on a gourmet vacation.
Still, since she had been on a dispatch, I gave her a customary “Good job.”
“Melody, well done.”
[Kyu kyu!]
【Pururu】─That girl didn’t do any work.
【Mir-Stin】─That’s right. Melody just laid around and stuffed herself with food.
【Mysticism】─😠 We were the ones who worked hard!
【Yumi】─But Mysti, didn’t you also lay around and stuff yourself with food?
【Luna-chan】─The one who worked the hardest was Mir-chan! She did almost all the cleaning and took out the trash. ><
【Mir-Stin】─I did work quite a bit, yes.
【Bubble Bubble】─Sage, why are you regressing like this? You were shameless before, but not this disgustingly so. What’s going on…
【Rizenova】─She seems off.
【Bubble Bubble】─Didn’t you say you hit your head during dimensional travel? Looks like the aftereffects are still serious.
【Luna-chan】─Huh? I’m totally fine though!
【Pururu】─Shut up.
【Mysticism】─Sage is blinking super fast with a blank face! 🤭
The chat filled my field of vision.
Only two new people had joined, but it felt like the activity had doubled.
‘Annoying. I should push the chat to the side.’
I reduced the opacity of the chat a little and moved it to the edge of my vision.
With the chat covering my sight, it would limit my actions, so this was a necessary measure.
Of course.
With a slight shift of my eyes, I could still check the chat easily.
Though, it wouldn’t be as easy to react in real-time as usual.
“Now that Melody has returned…”
【Mir-Stin】─Oh! What’s next? Are we going to do something fun?!
【Luna-chan】─Luna-chan is excited! ><
【Luna-chan】─Phew.
【Yumi】─?
【Pururu】─Seems like she’s having a reality check.
【Mysticism】─😠 If you’re going to feel down, don’t stick to the persona.
【Luna-chan】─Sigh.
“Let’s all gather and eat together.”
[Kyuah!]
“I’ll prepare the food, so wait just a bit!”
【Mir-Stin】─Oh. So it’s just eating? That’s a letdown.
【Pururu】─Melody ate all that and is still ready to gorge again.
【Yumi】─She’s huge. She probably needs to eat a lot to maintain her size.
In celebration of Melody Fox’s return, we all moved to the desert under construction, gathered all the monsters, and enjoyed a meal together. At the same time, I introduced some of the monsters to Hwang Mir and Sage.
“Solorb, do you want some too? If I send food into the world you hold, you can eat it, right?”
[No need.]
“Bastet, get some food from Merino and deliver it to Solorb.”
[Understood, meow! I’ll deliver it swiftly and accurately, meow!]
[…….]
【Mir-Stin】─Who is she talking to? I don’t see a monster!
【Bubble Bubble】─You see that sun-like orb in the sky? She’s talking to that. It’s a monster called Solorb, and she’s got some ties with Gauntlet. By the way, her danger level is SSS-rank.
【Luna-chan】─What?!?!
Through Bastet, we delivered food to Solorb as well.
I also wanted to offer food to the inhabitants of the world Solorb held, but unfortunately, it wasn’t feasible to prepare enough for them too.
Time passed, and not long after Bastet returned, a faint voice echoed from the sky.
[It was delicious… Thank you, I enjoyed it.]
“Huh?”
[I said nothing.]
“…Alright.”
She definitely said thank you…
I heard it, but I pretended I hadn’t.
Solorb seemed to be the type to get embarrassed easily.
***
66th day in the labyrinth.
Today, we would finally conduct the first general dispatch.
Originally, we had planned to do it yesterday.
But we ended up having so much fun at the meal festival that time flew by, and it got too late, so we postponed it by a day.
‘Now, I need to select the monsters to send on the dispatch…’
Early in the morning.
I gathered all the monsters and briefly pondered.
Unlike designated dispatches, general dispatches could be dangerous.
You never knew what world you might end up in.
Although there might not be any place as dangerous as the Ancient Labyrinth, it’s still possible that a world more dangerous than Elemencia, or one filled with S-rank or higher creatures, existed.
That’s why I needed to choose the monsters for the dispatch carefully.
‘Iris definitely has to go.’
Iris, for sure.
And I’d need to send at least one SS-rank monster.
While S-rank monsters are strong enough, as I mentioned, they could be dispatched to a dangerous world.
Like, for example, Celestial Worlds.
‘As long as it’s not some absurdly dangerous world, SS-rank should be fine.’
Even though I was concerned.
I didn’t plan on sending multiple SS-ranks.
Since we didn’t have enough information about the dispatch yet.
Even if I used multiple dispatch tickets, they could still end up in different worlds.
As I carefully considered the monsters one by one, I soon made my decision.
“Black Magma, you’re up.”
[Ssng!]
Black Magma Slime.
This monster is immune to most physical attacks, with lethal force and combat prowess ranking in the upper tier of SS-rank monsters.
With this one, I could worry a bit less.
Its survival skills were top-notch as well.
Oh, by the way.
Black Magma had put everything into combat prowess, so even though it was SS-rank, its intelligence was lower than other monsters.
Thus, I gave Iris the authority to use the dimensional altar installation rights on its behalf.
Iris was quite intelligent.
If we couldn’t see the other world through Iris, I planned to leave the judgment on the altar installation entirely up to her.
“Alright, I’ll use the dispatch tickets now. Are both of you ready?”
[Ssng!]
[Ready.]
【Pururu】─Ooh. Are they finally going? I can’t wait to see the other world!!
【Mysticism】─Excited! 😃
【Rizenova】─I’m looking forward to it.
【Bubble Bubble】─It’s fun to see other worlds.
【Mir-Stin】─Is this the first general dispatch? I’m getting nervous!
【Luna-chan】─Luna-chan is excited too! Exploring other worlds is always fun! ><
【Luna-chan】─Sigh. Maybe I shouldn’t do this.
【Pururu】─ㅇㅇ Don’t do it. Seriously makes me want to kill you.
【Mysticism】─😠 Drop that persona and get a new one!
【Mir-Stin】─I’d like you to continue. I find that persona quite enjoyable.
【Yumi】─Don’t get too excited, everyone. Even if Iris is dispatched, we won’t be able to see the other world unless she’s linked to Mr. Geon or the other Iris. If that link doesn’t work, we won’t get to see anything.
【Pururu】─Shut it. It’ll work, no doubt. ㅡㅡ
【Mysticism】─Why so negative? 😠
【Mir-Stin】─By the way, do you all watch the broadcast all day long? Attendance rates are no joke since this morning.
【Pururu】─I quit my part-time job, so I’ve got plenty of time. ㅋ
“Be careful out there, you two.”
[Ssng!]
[Confirmed. Careful.]
Black Magma Slime.
Iris.
I used the dispatch tickets on the two of them.
***
To get straight to the point.
Black Magma Slime and Iris were dispatched to the same world.
This couldn’t have been mere coincidence.
The probability of being dispatched to the same dimension out of countless possibilities was incredibly low.
In other words.
If you used general dispatch tickets simultaneously, you could send multiple monsters to the same world.
And,
“Good. It seems Iris’s abilities work in the other world too.”
The connection with Iris hadn’t been severed.
The Iris in front of me was transmitting exactly what the dispatched Iris was seeing in the other world.
“Can you hear me?”
─[Receiving clearly.]
─[Ssng!]
Their sizes hadn’t changed.
It seemed the size they had in the Ancient Labyrinth was their natural form.
Well, that was obvious for the Magma Slime.
After all, it could freely adjust its size. In simple terms,
it didn’t have a fixed form.
“Alright. Iris, can you fly up high and show me the landscape of that world?”
─[Understood.]
Iris looked up and soared into the sky.
The sky wasn’t blue but filled with a purple mist.
Just from that, I could tell this wasn’t an ordinary world.
─[Ascended.]
I could see the ground.
The plants covering the land weren’t green, but a strange mix of silver and purple, and the asphalt roads were coated in a translucent, jelly-like substance.
Iris shifted the camera.
Then, bizarre buildings came into view.
Zooming in to take a closer look, the buildings wriggled as if alive, constantly changing shape.
─[Analysis complete. Identified as buildings overtaken by living organisms.]
Iris, analyzing and explaining what she saw in her vision.
Not all Iris have analysis capabilities, by the way.
It’s a unique ability of this individual.
Iris zoomed in on the city again, where the strange buildings stood.
In the center of the city was a massive crystal tower, with complex patterns constantly flowing across its surface.
─[It’s presumed to be the central nervous system processing the information of the entire city.]
─[Measuring the danger level based on Gauntlet’s standards.]
─[Estimated danger level: C-rank.]
─[The creatures that have overtaken the city’s buildings are estimated to be D-rank.]
─[The majority of creatures inside the buildings are estimated to be E-rank.]
─[Some creatures inside the buildings are estimated to be D-rank.]
─[Analyzing the world.]
─[It appears to be a planet that was invaded and destroyed about 35 years ago.]
─[Analyzing the species that invaded the planet.]
─[…….]
Iris’s voice paused.
After a moment of silence, she continued.
─[There’s a 95% chance that the species invading the planet shares our roots.]
─[There’s a 99% chance that part of the species flowed into the Ancient Labyrinth, met their end there, and the labyrinth absorbed their corpses to create our species.]