"Would you say she has a Skill?"
"Hmm... it's close."
"Perhaps it's an attribute of her becoming a dungeon boss. It may not be insignificant that she demonstrated this level of capability in her home dungeon, as well."
"She doesn't have any Skill aside from Beginner, which shouldn't directly affect her capabilities like that."
"Well, it'd let her fight fearlessly... but I see your point."
"Then perhaps she just hasn't unlocked it yet. Some people never do, no matter how good they get."
"That's true as well, but to our understanding, she doesn't have a sword of her own, so it might just be a lack of practice... particularly in a dungeon with better Skill development."
"Should we get her one?"
"I think we should, especially now that Naraka has its eyes on her."
"She'll probably refuse it, though."
"I know someone who'll make one for her for free. We just have to show him some footage."
"No... she'd definitely refuse that..."
"It'll be fine. He's very stubborn as well, you see."
A couple of the seniors groaned, but for some reason, none of them were able to talk him out of that plan.
***
I received another message from Van.
I tried to inform him, but...
I was honest with myself, though.
I didn't want prestige either, so I already didn't like it.
Nevertheless, I met the sword smith at the dungeon's portal the very next day.
"I see. You really are a dungeon boss," he said.
His name was Ran, and apparently, he wasn't from the Empire. He spoke with an accent that even an alien like myself could pick up, and he had graying hair.
"I guess so."
Suon and Van were both there too.
"I'd like to make you a sword. The only catch is that if anyone asks, you must tell them it was I who made it."
"Why?"
"I won't live forever, but my swords might."
I could understand wanting to leave a legacy, but why did he think I'd be able to help with that?
"I don't really want one."
"Why not?"
There were countless reasons.
"I don't like receiving handouts, and I can't really maintain it if you gave me one."
"I see. I'll make it self-repairing then, although you'll have to supply mana. As for not wanting it, I don't mind. The only catch is that you tell people who made it if they ask, you're not required to like me."
What a willful person.
"If you're going to make something regardless, I can't stop you, but I'm not going to promise you anything either."
"I see. Very well then."
I hoped that meant he gave up. I didn't want to help someone leave behind a legacy, because ideally, I'd disappear from civilization and live the rest of my life alone.
With those words exchanged, I continued along my way.
The author's content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
I hadn't stopped to meet him specifically, after all. I was on my way to hunt in the Red Forest again.
***
Experimenting with bricks led me to testing the various minerals in the caves near where I lived.
Surprisingly, there was some limestone to be found.
Although the Red Forest earth was better for clay and pottery, Lost earth turned out to be a bit better for bricks, at least once I got a decent mixture.
It was probably the apparent total lack of organic materials, if my soil experiments were any indication.
This meant my various building projects could go ahead at a fairly rapid pace. Well... rapid for me, anyway.
I was still just a ten year old girl, physically speaking.
But it meant I didn't have to carry Red Forest earth over. If I had to, my progress would be a couple bricks a day at the very best.
I began to mass produce bricks. Well... for a fairly small definition of mass.
First, I pretty carefully made a model brick that would serve as the geometric ancestor for countless cast bricks.
Then I used that model brick to make several clay molds, which were used to in turn shape the actual bricks.
I let the sun dry them out pretty thoroughly before baking them with an actual fire, so it took a few days before I got my first actual bricks.
And yet, with how many I needed, it'd likely take months before I had enough to actually start using them.
Meanwhile, I made a very interesting discovery.
A little bit of mana dust, ground up mana shards, seemed to act as a mild fertilizer for plants.
It wasn't enough to let them grow in the totally barren Lost soil, but it did prolong the Terran soil.
Too much, however, proved poisonous instead, preventing anything from growing.
It was also about time to start trying out the mixed compost as a fertilizer. Even adding it to Lost soil, I got good results within days, but the real question was how long it would last.
Although the results were promising, it was still too early to rule out the possibility that it was solely the Terran components contributing.
***
Aluen Tiribi had once been one of countless wannabe adventurers.
After meeting an outsider girl by pure chance, he was somehow inspired to totally abandon that dream.
That might sound depressing, but instead of trying to become what he'd wanted to be, he tried to accept and appreciate who he actually was.
Somehow, he became a webcomic artist.
His daily workload was soul crushing, and he lived a very hectic and stressful life, but he found that he loved drawing far more than he'd ever loved swinging a sword.
And his fans loved reading about the sort of hero he'd once wished he could become, so while he wasn't insanely successful or rich, he was able to pay rent and buy groceries.
Of course, it helped that his parents were his landlord, but it still felt good.
It hadn't been his meeting with the girl that had inspired him, though.
Rather, it was watching her help map the forest, watching her effectively just disappear afterward, and seeing the impact such a mundane effort had on other peoples' lives, which altogether made him realize that just making things other people rely on was heroic enough for him.
He settled into webcomics because, although a more practical-minded person might think it's silly to rely on stories, he really had relied on fiction to get him through reality.
But also because he really wanted to draw that girl he'd met, which encouraged him to refine his art skills, since he hadn't wanted to do a bad job.
So he was a bit surprised to eventually hear that a girl just like her had suddenly appeared at the dungeon again, years later.
Well, he was mostly surprised to hear that she'd become its boss.
'Am I going to get in trouble for this...'
He stared at the drawings he'd uploaded in the past.
Of course, there was no obvious connection. If someone hadn't seen the girl in person, they'd just think he made the character up, since he never mentioned her true identity.
But if they had, they might not think it was just a coincidence.
He had faithfully recreated her robes and everything. It was only because both his personal drawings and the dungeon's local folklore were niche enough topics that nobody so far connected the dots, and even if they had, it wasn't like a random drawing would bring her unwanted attention since only people who knew who she was could identify her.
Even adventurers and professional photographers took pictures of outsider children, and nobody complained much as long as their privacy was ultimately respected.
But that was based on her just being a random outsider girl.
Now she'd become a dungeon boss, she was basically a local celebrity. It'd only take one person pointing out the connection to cause trouble.
'What should I do?'
***
Although I had no way of making strings or the various oils and wax I used to maintain my crossbow, I nevertheless started on another project one day.
It involved retrieving more lumber from the forest, so the first step was cutting another tree down.
The lack of rot in the Lost was a major problem for farming, but it was very convenient for handling wood.
Once that was done, I carved the wood into, among other various things like more arrow shafts, replacement components for my crossbow.
The one I'd bought was a professional grade, whereas the frame and other components I'd made were just hand-carved duplicates, but as long as it did the job, it was fine.
Until I made a proper brick furnace, melting iron down was too difficult, but I made some casts for the different metal components, and melted down some tin to make them.
I bought a few more tools from the hardware store, so it might have been cheaper and easier to buy a second crossbow, but I had a proof of concept replacement.
However, it relied a bit too much on the metal components to deal with stress, so it had a very limited number of uses, and it couldn't quite handle the same level of energy.
Rather than shelving it until my construction plans were done, since that might take months or even years, I began designing my own crossbow instead, one that relied almost entirely on wood construction.
I also tried to find a replacement for the wax I was using to prolong the strings. I wasn't going to use it on the crossbow I'd bought unless I found something outright better, but it was an exercise in gradually reducing my reliance on Terra.
But there was virtually no oil in the Lost, nor the mountains to its north.
The trees were dry, making for decent and reliable lumber, even if it was a bit overly rigid.
Leaves and grasses barely had anything either. After experimenting a lot, I managed to boil a mixture that seemed a bit oily, but I doubted it'd be quite as good as actual wax.
Though adding just a bit of soil to the mixture made it into a workable varnish for the wood parts, that also wasn't an improvement or even a decent replacement for just buying mineral oil.
Of course, I wasn't discouraged.
Terra had millennia of civilization to refine these products, whereas I'd only been here for a few years.
Besides, perhaps one day, I might be able to explore the rest of the world, and find the things this tiny part of it lacked.