On the Saturday following our dungeon exploration with Mika and the others, we found ourselves heading deep into the mountains in a car driven by Yuta-san. We were bound for a property owned by Kiritani Real Estate. Since we had pivoted our training ground acquisition plan into a lease agreement that involved providing development validation data, we had arranged a meeting with various specialists at the site to conduct a simple trial run and figure out the best way to collect that data.
This led to our current situation: a meeting with three experts arranged by Kiritani Real Estate who had met us at the location.
"I’m Hirose, a student explorer. Thank you all for taking time out of your busy schedules today. This is our first time doing any kind of land-clearing work, so we look forward to your guidance."
"I’m Kokonoe. Good to meet you."
"Hiiragi. A pleasure."
We bowed slightly as we introduced ourselves to the specialists who would be overseeing the data collection and instructing us on the workflow.
"I’m Takarada. I research civil engineering at the university level. I found Kiritani Real Estate's proposal for data collection fascinating, so I'm very much looking forward to today."
"I’m Niimi. I work in forestry, from logging to reforestation. Clearing a mountain requires felling trees, but if you do it recklessly, you’ll cause a natural disaster. Please keep that in mind."
"Sasamori here. I run a construction firm. Kiritani Real Estate asked me to come down and provide some basic pointers on general architecture."
Takarada-san was a calm, elderly man who apparently taught at a university while researching new construction methods. He’d made the trip because Kiritani Real Estate told him that the emergence of explorers—and the massive increase in individual manpower they provided—might make it possible to develop land where it had previously been impossible to bring in heavy machinery. It seemed he had been a consultant for Kiritani Real Estate on land development for some time.
Niimi-san was a man in his late thirties. He had been dispatched from a company that handled the maintenance of the forests managed by Kiritani Real Estate. He seemed like a dedicated craftsman and looked at us youngsters with a touch of skepticism. From a professional's perspective, seeing a group of obvious amateurs claiming they were going to clear a mountain must have been anxiety-inducing. If Kiritani Real Estate hadn't been the intermediary, he likely would have turned down the request for guidance the moment it was brought to him.
Sasamori-san was in his early thirties. He had worked on various job sites and was well-versed in standard residential construction. He also had experience with projects in remote mountain areas like this one. While he couldn't offer highly specialized training, he said he could provide basic architectural guidance. Apparently, he had even built a log cabin with a friend as a hobby and offered to teach us the process if we were interested.
"Everyone, this is just a simple field test, so we're looking at about three to four hours of work," Yuta-san said, wrapping up the introductions. "To create reference material for basic clearing, we’d like you to perform several different tasks. There are a lot of items on the list, so please be careful not to rush and get yourselves hurt."
"Understood."
"Right."
"Got it."
Once the introductions were over, we returned to the car to change while the three experts made their preparations. We quickly threw on the work clothes we’d picked up at a nearby home center, along with safety shoes and helmets. The fact that the clothes and shoes were brand new only made us look more like novices.
Once changed, we approached the experts to confirm the day's agenda. We needed a shared understanding of what we were doing first, otherwise, the whole process would fall apart.
"Again, we’re looking forward to working with you today."
"The feeling is mutual," Takarada-san replied. "It’s not often I get the chance to conduct research with high-level explorers. I’ve worked with my own students before, but they were all low-level, so the results were only modest. I’m quite excited to see how much of a difference the level gap makes in the efficiency of the work."
"Haha, well, we’ll certainly do our best to make it worth your while."
Takarada-san watched us with the intense curiosity of a scientist, his expression practically begging us to start already. Yuji gave a polite, if slightly strained, laugh as he offered an enthusiastic response.
So the professor had already tried gathering data from his own students, then. Mid-level student explorers who could make decent money probably didn't see much point in helping with what was essentially a campus part-time job. Once you had enough strength, diving into a dungeon was far more lucrative than any job the school could offer.
"Well then, let’s get started. Our first check today will be a transport capacity test. How much weight a single person can move at once is one of the core benchmarks of civil engineering."
"It changes everything—how many people you need for a job, how many hours it will take," Niimi-san added.
"Exactly. That’s why our priority is confirming transport capacity per hour. We want to gather data from multiple angles: manual transport with bare hands, using aids like wheelbarrows or pack frames, and even moving things as a team."
"Understood. Let's get to it."
At Takarada-san’s request, we began the transport test. We started with the bare-handed portion, filling the sandbags we’d brought in the car with soil to create our weights.
"...That is incredible speed."
"? Is something wrong?"
"No, nothing. I was just... taken aback by the sheer momentum with which you’re digging. It’s impressive."
"...Oh. This much isn't really a problem for us."
Takarada-san and the others had stopped working to stare at us, their expressions vacant with shock as we mass-produced sandbags. To ordinary people, the sight of us boring through the relatively hard earth as if it were soft sponge cake must have been a bizarre spectacle. We were all using the same iron shovels, yet while the experts were chipping away at the ground, the three of us were creating massive craters as if we were operating mini-excavators.
It was a natural reaction for them to doubt their own eyes, wondering if we were even performing the same task with the same tools.
"Haha... I never imagined the preparation phase would look like this. At this rate, you could easily replace small heavy machinery."
"Well, we’ve been aware for a while that we’ve become quite superhuman," Yuji said. "When our levels were low, it was just a feeling of 'maybe I've gotten a bit stronger?' but once you reach what's called the mid-level, the difference becomes undeniable."
"I see. And once an explorer reaches that mid-level, they spend more time in dungeons, meaning the people who show those undeniable differences rarely appear in the public eye."
"Unless someone has a desperate need for attention, they usually don't go around flaunting their power. Having your physical abilities enhanced by a level up is convenient for daily life, but too much power can be a problem. It’s like a bear or a lion trying to play—even if they think they're being gentle, it's a life-threatening threat to a normal person."
Takarada-san and the others nodded in understanding at Yuji’s analogy, though they also directed a somewhat apprehensive look our way. Hey, we're self-aware, so we aren't going to start any horseplay.
It took about ten minutes to fill all fifty of the sandbags we had prepared. The three of us had handled about eighty percent of the work.
"That's all the bags filled. Roughly how much weight are we looking at here?"
"A standard sandbag is about twenty to thirty kilograms, so this is roughly a ton in total."
"Huh. A whole ton..."
Before us stood a mound of sandbags and a gaping hole in the ground. We’d have to fill that back in later.
"Now that the weights are ready, let's start the measurements."
"Yes, sir."
And so, at the request of an eager Takarada-san, we began the actual measurement process.
Once we finished the full circuit of transport tests, Yuta-san looked impressed, while Takarada-san and his colleagues looked utterly floored.
"You guys are incredible. I never thought we'd run out of weights. I should have brought more."
"No, no, Yuta-san. We couldn't have carried any more than that with our bare hands anyway, and the equipment broke because it couldn't handle the load. Having more sandbags wouldn't have helped."
"Haha, I suppose you're right... Maybe I should rent some iron blocks from a steel mill next time?"
"Don't go that far. It's enough to know that moving things in the mountains won't be an issue for us."
At our current strength, we could probably carry the massive H-beams used at skyscraper construction sites—the kind usually handled by cranes. When you thought about it, explorers could do the work of several men at a construction site.
Eventually, job listings for manual labor might even include "Armed Exploration Permit for Special Underground Structures level X or higher preferred" as a standard requirement. Even if a company paid double the wages, if the worker did three times the work, they’d still save money on labor and overhead.
"The results far exceeded my predictions. High-level explorers possess physical abilities that defy common sense."
"I don't know if it applies to every explorer, but anyone who has raised their level significantly should be able to do something similar," I replied.
"I see... Considering the students who helped me before, it's probably best not to lump all explorers together."
"It’s probably best to set a minimum baseline and not worry about anything beyond that."
The physical gap between levels was just too wide. If someone wanted to maintain a consistent quality of labor, it was safer to calibrate for the bottom tier rather than the average.
Takarada-san pondered this for a moment before nodding in agreement.
"True. As long as the minimum requirements are met, we can build a work estimate."
"That sounds like the best approach."
With the transport capacity finished, we moved on to excavation. That said, since we’d already demonstrated our digging speed during the sandbag preparation, we kept this part brief.
We’d already proven we could dig a massive hole while filling fifty bags in under ten minutes. It was clear we had the digging power of a small excavator.
"I originally wanted to measure excavation speed for different soil types, but seeing you work convinced me you don't need a backhoe," Takarada-san said. "Let’s move a bit and see how you handle a rocky area."
"Excavation in a rocky area? Are we talking about digging a tunnel?"
"In steep mountains, there are sites where you simply can't bring in heavy equipment. I desperately want data on how well explorers can handle manual digging in those situations. In a country like ours, where mountains make up so much of the land, being able to bore straight through a mountain—even for a narrow road—would be a huge advantage. The value of a remote, depopulated area can change drastically with the addition of a single road."
"I see... There really are mountains everywhere you look."
Tunneling, huh? I’d found an Earth Magic skill scroll in a dungeon a while back. If I practiced, I might be able to combine magic with manual digging. If I could soften the rock at the excavation point, the efficiency would skyrocket.
Once I got the hang of it, I kind of wanted to try building a secret base. There was a certain romance to the idea.
"Alright, we're here. This is a limestone wall, so excavation should be relatively easy... I think. Well, as easy as rock gets. Normally you'd use an electric hammer, but for the sake of measuring an explorer's raw ability, I'd like you to dig the old-fashioned way—by hand."
After moving a short distance, we came to a whitish rock wall towering about twenty meters high.
As we looked up at the limestone cliff, Yuta-san went over the safety precautions.
"Excavation kicks up a massive amount of dust, so please make sure your dust masks and safety gear are on tight. Good luck."
Yuta-san handed us the masks and other protective equipment he’d brought along with his words of encouragement.
Right then. Time to dig into this wall with nothing but pickaxes and shovels.