"Yeah, her methods are pretty brash. Almost suicidal, if you didn't know better."

  "Was giving her a permit a mistake?" Asked one of the seniors who'd never actually seen the girl. As far as he was concerned, she was basically a stray child the guild had an obligation, no, a duty to raise.

  Though he did often wonder why they shouldn't just force the imperial government to put her in an orphanage instead. Often meaning, nearly every time he heard more about her.

  "I don't think so. Ordinarily, we'd have to integrate her into the Terran reality that things die when they're killed... actually, we'll probably have our work cut out for us making her understand the concept anyway, but..."

  "But?"

  "But she earned the protection of her homeland. I think preventing her from taking advantage of that is self-centered. We'd only be thinking what we want. The truth is, she grew up in a world where death is just an inconvenience."

  "That's true," another senior spoke in. "There's no official records, but there were rumors of a girl matching her description a few years ago. People complained that she was dying, sometimes dozens of times a day."

  "Isn't that... basically roundabout child abuse?"

  "I'm not saying we should force her to," Suon clarified. "If she doesn't want to, as the only known living person from her dungeon, that would be her cultural expression too. However, we shouldn't stop her, and if she needs help, I think we have a duty to offer it."

  Naturally, hearing someone basically argue that it was morally right to let a small girl put herself in danger again and again made most of the people there a bit unhappy.

  They'd continue the argument even after dismissing him, almost pointlessly going back and forth on the matter.

  "Hah... Suon sure has grown, hasn't he?" Van commented idly, knowing that the guild would ultimately struggle to force anything on the girl, one way or another, and that the discussion was basically just busywork.

  Seeing one of his precious juniors step up against the seniors of one of the fiercest guilds in the Empire, on the other hand... all to protect the self-autonomy of a girl he'd just met a week or so ago...

  Well, that was a bit more interesting.

  'At least they seem to be getting along.'

  ***

  The soil from the Red Forest turned out to make for surprisingly durable clay.

  Since bottles were abundant in this world, and I had proper cookware, I didn't need ordinary claywork anymore.

  Some big jugs to store water reserves might be nice, but I had another goal in mind.

  I was making plant pots.

  I'd need to steadily gather more red-tinted earth from there to have enough, but my ultimate goal was trying to make a garden.

  I doubted the local soil would work as-is, but since food had rotted here, I realized that it wasn't impossible.

  I mean, I had a primitive compost of sorts, since even if I was extremely efficient about not leaving unnecessary food waste, I was still a living being.

  I produced waste, and there was no sewage system here to receive it.

  But proper farming was a long ways away. In particular, I worried that the dungeon environment simply rejected microbes. Clearly it hadn't outright, but the soil could be utterly toxic.

  Even if it was, and I was basically using toxic materials for food and water when I first lived here, I might never realize. My body handled toxins supremely well.

  Besides, toxicity is a subjective thing.

  I did notice that my initial observation that the world was without insects wasn't completely right. Occasionally, there were a few near the portal itself.

  And I eventually found evidence of dead insects a bit nearby. Of course, such things would inevitably become food for the local wildlife.

  So either they starved to death for lack of food, or gorged themselves on what was ultimately poison to their bodies. Given there was plenty of flora, I figured it was the latter, but it's possible they just didn't recognize the local plant life as edible to begin with.

  The Terran information network gave some clues.

  This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

  While some dungeons were found to have safe consumables, it was common wisdom to avoid eating anything until it was lab tested, which was a fairly slow process that was mainly done to integrate outsiders.

  That meant they might eventually do that here, and also to me, but they might also skip it since I'd proven I could eat Terran food safely.

  Though... hadn't they fed me before doing any kind of checks?

  I decided to ask Van about it, using the same device I'd read all this up on.

  "Why'd you feed me when we first met? It says outsiders sometimes can't eat Terran food."

  "Oh. Yes, that's true. That's why they sent me. I'm the Azure Dragons' Scanner. I have a Skill that tells me things like that."

  'How convenient.'

  ***

  For now, my gardening plans involved bringing in Terran soil, and seeing if I could grow anything at all.

  It wasn't an easy plan.

  The grocery store had some gardening materials, including seeds and soil, and even a few live plants. However, as close as it was to the portal, it was still a fairly long hike from there all the way back home.

  And a single bag of soil was heavy.

  By the time I reached the portal, I dropped it and slumped over, needing a break.

  "Hey, boss. Do you need a hand with that?"

  "We could help carry it for you."

  "Just tell us where you need it to go."

  'Huh... why're they offering to help?'

  Oh... it was because I was a kid.

  "No, I'm okay. This is... exercise. Training."

  "Woah... you go at it hard!"

  "I feel bad taking a break now."

  "Just be sure to eat plenty of meat if you're trying to build muscle."

  I wanted to flee, but... I really needed to catch my breath, so I endured the misunderstandings I'd woven as I recovered, and gradually carried it all the way home.

  A two and a half hour hike took me closer to eight hours that day.

  Since I hiked every day, worked as many as eight to ten hours a day, and did a lot of physical labor in general, I was actually very fit for my size and biological age.

  It's just that my body wasn't designed to be strong in the first place.

  It was a success though. I had enough Terran gardening soil for a dozen small plants. Perhaps two dozen if they were really small.

  I also had a bunch of fresh seeds to go with it.

  What I needed more of at this point was clay, but I got started, filling a couple homemade planters with soil and seeds.

  'Ah... what if the Red Forest earth is toxic?'

  That concern drove me to walk another five hours to the store and back to get some Terran-made pots. At about 1000 each, they weren't cheap, but they were a very practical investment.

  I had three small Red Forest planters, three Terran planters, and three Lost planters.

  But for those last three, I put in some soil from the forest, mulched with broken twigs, bark, and leaves.

  Once my initial garden was all done and set up, I watered everything, and set out the next day, going back to the dungeon once more.

  The Red Forest.

  I wish I could bring my crossbow, but it was just too much of a risk. I just carried my spear for the time being.

  ***

  "Huh? You're going in alone today?"

  I nodded.

  "Well... okay... be careful, little miss."

  The one advantage of the animals here is that they died a lot more easily.

  A single lethal blow killed them.

  Deer in the Lost were way more resilient. They kept going even if they had an arrow through their skull.

  Of course, Lost animals were immortals roughly like me, so it was a given they'd be tougher.

  But dealing with aggressive animals that were effectively larger than me carried all sorts of risks. If I died, I might lose my spear.

  I made sure put everything I collected away safely before moving on to the next hunt, including gathering more red earth in advance.

  There weren't many people compared to the ever-busy Lost.

  After all, if 1000 an hour was considered a low paying job, a measly 500 per mana crystal was really impractical. You could earn more without the constant risk of death. Even if you could manage to kill two beasts an hour, that was probably a sign you should graduate to D rank dungeons.

  Well... since the fights were brutal and quick, in theory, even I could kill two an hour if they all lined up for me, but they were quite sparse, so it was closer to one every hour or two.

  But even then, if you could manage it, it still probably wouldn't be worth it unless you couldn't get a regular job, since hunting equipment wasn't very cheap.

  I was once again using my inability to die in place of proper hunting gear.

  Still, I couldn't get a regular job, and even three crystals a day was 1500.

  Even in the worst case, two days of hunting here ought to pay as much as working myself to the bone in the Lost for a whole week.

  Of course, the averages for a day here and a week at home were both 2000.

  It was a sizable raise.

  Hunting about three days a week would get me a weekly budget of 6000, enough to eat properly and conduct my research, while giving me plenty of free time to do said research.

  ***

  Denci came to the beginner dungeon as a favor to the guild that had helped him get started way back when, even though he'd never actually joined them.

  It was one in a long list of favors, but these favors came with reasonable pay, so it was basically just an odd job that he didn't need but was happy to take regardless.

  He was a Geomancer.

  "A girl is using a cave to camp out. She's permitted to and everything, we just want to make sure it's safe."

  "Shouldn't that have been checked before she was allowed?"

  "Well... you're not wrong, but it's more like we can't tell her not to, unless we have a good reason."

  "I see."

  It was a two hour hike there. He'd been warned of that in advance, but actually walking it, he was impressed by the girl's ruggedness, since he was practically gasping for air by the time he got there.

  Of course, Van was fine. That guy was a pro, after all. A real adventurer.

  Denci, on the other hand, was a contractor. A glorified land surveyor.

  He rarely even went into dungeons. His Skill could be used in combat or self defense, but it was far more valuable in construction, and besides, why risk his life?

  He only had one.

  "This girl's pretty intense. Just a tent and... a small garden? Huh."

  "Oh. That's new. Can you tell if they'll grow?"

  "Well... I can't guarantee it, but... sure, I'll take a look."

  Naturally, everything checked out.

  "No toxins or anything, huh?"

  "Nope. Everything's pretty safe as far as I can tell. The only thing I'd worry about is her twisting an ankle on the walk here. Well, and making sure she doesn't go too deep into the caves, but I'm guessing you can trust her."

  "Well... we can't distrust her, I suppose. Thanks for coming out."

  "No problem."

  "I'll treat you to some lunch for all the calories you've burned. You just have to walk back first."

  The man groaned as he was forced to remember the harsh reality of his situation.

  They continued idly chatting as they walked back.