Ch.266The Flat-Nosed Man with a Receding Hairline

We established our base camp at the dungeon where the carbonated spring water was located and divided into three teams to begin our investigation.

The first team consisted of Jessica and me, riding Ancestor to patrol areas quite far from the cave. Our role wasn’t directly searching for clues about Technopolis, but rather identifying dangerous elements like powerful monsters or dungeons.

There were objections to just the two of us handling such a dangerous role, but everyone eventually agreed that this arrangement was best since we were “identifying threats” rather than “defeating monsters.” With me around, the chance of being ambushed was slim, and most monsters wouldn’t be able to keep up with Ancestor once freed from the carriage.

The second team, responsible for investigating the area around the cave, consisted of Seti, Mina, Phyllis, Iris, and two dwarves. Their main task was to use mounted binoculars and surveying equipment to locate suspicious coordinates within visual range. While the possibility of fighting monsters was low, if they did encounter any, Seti and Phyllis’s offensive capabilities would allow them to quickly eliminate threats.

Recently, Iris has been showing interest in participating in combat using chakrams and automatic pistols… Though it pains me to say it, Iris has absolutely no sense for combat. Her reflexes and movements aren’t bad, but her aiming precision is atrocious. When firing a gun, she has a habit of closing her eyes at the moment of pulling the trigger, startled by the sound and recoil, which she hasn’t been able to correct. Since she’s aware of this and trying to improve, rather than discouraging her with harsh words, I silently cheer her on in my heart.

That’s enough about Iris’s situation. The remaining third team consisted of Morgan and the dwarves inside the cave. Unable to fight monsters, they couldn’t step outside the cave where Jessica had cast her barrier magic, but they participated in the investigation using bird-shaped automatons created by Grendel’s ancestors.

Amazingly, these automatons made hundreds of years ago were equipped with the ability to conduct aerial reconnaissance by synchronizing with paired magical goggles! Although they had limitations in range and operating time, and the image quality wasn’t particularly impressive, having access to what was essentially drone camera functionality dramatically increased our investigation efficiency. By noon on the second day of our investigation, we achieved meaningful results.

“You found a clue about the bald man?”

“To be precise, it’s ‘a flat-nosed man with a receding hairline.'”

The dwarf with a receding hairline and large nose corrected my expression “bald man.”

Hmm… right. A receding hairline and baldness are different.

That was my mistake.

“Right, a flat-nosed man with a receding hairline. Where did you find it?”

“We haven’t completely found it yet… take a look at this.”

When I put on the goggles the dwarf handed me, my vision changed to a view from dozens of meters in the air, looking into the distance. Is this what it feels like to play VR games? Even knowing it’s not real, my knees feel slightly weak. Through the goggles, the automaton’s gaze was directed at a green hill about 90% covered with trees.

“Do you see the hill directly ahead?”

“Yes. You mean the hill with the barren left side. What about it?”

“It’s hard to see now because of the trees, but the ground of that hill consists of two types: areas covered with soil and areas where rock is exposed. Moreover, there’s quite a significant age difference between the trees growing on the hill. That’s according to the elf lady’s opinion.”

“A difference in tree age? What does that mean, Phyllis?”

As I passed the goggles to Jessica, I asked Phyllis, who took a drawing from Mina and explained while showing it to us.

“We’d need to visit the site to know for certain, but I suspect the trees growing on this hill are a mixture of very old ones and ones that appear less than 50 years old. Mina drew this picture distinguishing between them.”

“…This is.”

In Mina’s pencil landscape drawing, the hill was simplified, with ‘old trees’ shaded darkly and ‘young trees’ very faintly. With that distinction, the hill’s appearance somewhat resembled ‘the side profile of a dwarf with a receding hairline and a long beard.’

“If we assume these younger trees didn’t exist when the clues to Technopolis were recorded, I think it’s not unreasonable to describe this hill as ‘a man with a receding hairline.'”

“You’re right. The part that would be the nose might have eroded over time, or it could still be covered by trees. Where is this located?”

“About 10 kilometers northeast from here. If this area were flat, it would be easily visible to the naked eye.”

“So we can consider this one found. Next, we should look for ‘a woman with lightning sprouting from her crown’?”

“Before that, I’d like to investigate the site more thoroughly. If there really is a ‘flat nose’ hidden by the trees, we won’t have to worry later about whether we got the wrong hill.”

“OK, let’s depart right away.”

Six of us decided to investigate the receding hairline flat-nosed man hill, or ‘balding hill’ for short: me, Jessica, Mina, Phyllis, Iris, and the dwarf who had operated the automaton. Seti stayed behind to protect the dwarves in the cave in place of Ancestor. Although the Repellation Field was constantly active at the cave entrance, it couldn’t block worm-type monsters that might burrow through walls or other races like Dark Elves.

After traveling to the balding hill by carriage, Phyllis and Iris worked on determining the age of the trees, while Mina and one of the dwarves conducted the terrain survey. Phyllis and Iris confirmed that some of the trees on the hill, specifically those in the area that should have been the receding hairline, were relatively young. They also discovered that the part corresponding to the ‘flat nose’ had broken off long ago and was scattered at the bottom of the hill, now covered with weeds and vines and becoming part of the ground. It was remarkable they found it at all.

“So this confirms that this hill is indeed ‘a flat-nosed man with a receding hairline.'”

“Finding the remaining location shouldn’t be difficult. It should be within visual distance of the three reference points, in a direction that isn’t too skewed to either side.”

“How can you be so sure?”

“It’s an old dwarven superstition. Building a structure in the center of three natural landmarks forming an equilateral triangle is said to bring good fortune. Hardly anyone believes in such superstitions these days.”

An ancient dwarven superstition…

Whether it actually works or not is beside the point; thanks to it, we can easily pinpoint the location of ‘a woman with lightning sprouting from her crown.’ We just need to use the straight-line distance from the cave to this hill as one side and focus our search on areas where an equilateral triangle might form on either the left or right.

Since there was still plenty of time before sunset, we immediately headed toward one of the two predicted points. The probability was 50%, but just like USB drives never plug in correctly on the first try, our first guess was wrong. Despite thoroughly scouting the relatively flat forest to the south-southeast, we couldn’t find anything resembling lightning or a woman, or even a single notable natural landmark.

“Is this not the right place…?”

“Hmm… even if it doesn’t form a perfect equilateral triangle, looking at the terrain around here, it doesn’t seem like there would be any special place.”

“All we found was a giant bee nest.”

After three hours of searching, all we had to show for it was a large amount of honey and beeswax obtained after defeating a swarm of giant bees. It was already past 5 PM.

“I was hoping to finish investigating the opposite side today as well… but I guess it can’t be helped.”

“Even if we somehow discover the third point, we’ll need to return to West End Seventh before continuing our investigation.”

“Ah, if I’d known this would happen, I should have stashed a replica barrier tower somewhere.”

“You’d risk at least a license downgrade if caught. Let’s forget that idea and just make the trip properly.”

“Tch. I guess there’s no choice.”

Mina pouts in disappointment at having to turn back when the legendary dwarven city is so close. While Seti, Mina, and the dwarf expedition team still had margin before reaching their activity limits, and Iris was free from the influence of dark magic, we couldn’t leave non-combatants or high-priority protection targets outdoors while we visited the city.

After finishing our investigation and returning to the cave before sunset, we filled our stomachs with pancakes drizzled with honey and bacon, then went to bed earlier than usual to start our investigation early the next morning.