Thinking about it, Jayce remembered seeing many information consoles before. It was in that hazy blue room where Mize and Erilin had discussed strategy. One of the things Jayce was lacking most was general knowledge, so a computer, especially one with internet access, would be a godsend for him. Though, he had no idea how similar ICs and PCs were or whether they had internet.

“Is there a place in the village where I can access an IC?”

“If it’s something quick, I can let you borrow this one for a moment. If not, I’ll give you directions to the later.”

“I’d like directions. Thanks, Marin.”

“Even if I didn’t tell you, anyone you asked on the street would.”

With those dismissive words, the large screen in front of them transformed into something like a post-it board. There were several messages written on it along with the names of the writers and the date each post was written on.

“People in the village post here when they need help with something. I rarely look at it, but maybe there will be something good for you.”

“Not very neighborly, are you?”

Marin, who was usually unruffled by his words, suddenly bristled at his light jab. She opened her mouth to say something but ultimately bit the words back, shaking her head. Instead of apologizing, Jayce decided to pretend like he didn’t notice her reaction and moved on quickly.

“Wait, this guy is looking for someone to marry his daughter?”

“Ah, that’s from old Verne. If you agree marry her, he’ll definitely let you stay in his house.”

“And the catch?”

If Marin told him that this daughter was a perfectly normal person, he wouldn’t believe it. Why else would her father have to make a post like that? From the listed date, Jayce could tell that no one had responded for at least a year.

“Your races don’t match up, but you probably won’t find any of your kind on Caelum anyway. If you don’t want to sell yourself, maybe you’d prefer to become a devoted husband?”

“I’ll pass for now. Do you see anything else? Most of these posts are very old and I get the feeling the poster forgot about them at some point.”

Marin scanned the wall before pointing to something posted last week.

“Hmm, it seems like you're in luck. Some adults from the village will be clearing out part of the Frozen Expanse later today. They’re recruiting porters to carry supplies and their spoils, but that's not really what you're there for. This is a way for the younger generation to gain some experience by tagging along on the hunting trip. If I ask dad to introduce you, it won’t be difficult to fit you in. Plus, the elder leading this trip has a lot of sway in the village. If he gets to know you, you’ll have an easy time finding work here.”

Reading between the lines, Jayce was startled.

“There’s a dungeon near the village? A real one?”

“Well, it’s not just this village. The Frozen Expanse is a wild dungeon centered around the jotun capital in the west. It’s an enormous series of caves and tunnels that spans thousands of kilometers. Wild dungeons, especially large ones, are very dangerous, so the villagers usually don’t visit it. Some of us go down every month or so to check things out and clean up the area near the village. If we let it get too crowded, monsters might find their way outside and cause problems.”

“Why are larger dungeons more dangerous?”

“Because, like I just mentioned, the monsters wander around. Mana is still thin near the surface, so nothing that spawns around here will be beyond the limit of the first gate—level 40. Still, monsters from other areas can move and cause unexpected problems. The strongest monsters that can spawn in the Frozen Expanse are at the limit of the third gate, although I heard they’re very rare even deep underground.”

“So, without anyone to manage the dungeon, a high-level mob could suddenly appear in a low-level zone? That’s pretty scary.”

The corners of Marin’s eyes twitched as the system forced her to find equivalents for Jayce’s gamer lingo.

“It sounds like you get it. There will definitely be danger, but the elders know what they’re doing. The fact that they’re asking for porters means they’ve scouted things out ahead of time and feel that this month will be particularly safe. Are you interested?”

“I’ll go!”

From the moment he heard there was a dungeon nearby, Jayce knew he needed to check it out. If he wanted to get stronger quickly, the stimulation from fighting dungeon monsters was his best bet. The fact that he’d get to investigate this dungeon while being protected by veterans and even be paid for it made him feel incredibly fortunate.

Marin sent a message to her father through the IC, which further proved to Jayce that some form of internet existed here, and then turned to him.

“The expedition will start this morning around 9. Don’t go there too early or else my dad won’t have time to explain things to the leaders. While I’m at it, I’ll also give you directions to the library.”

Jayce looked at the current time displayed on the post-it board. Translated into Earth time, it was 7:30am, which meant he had some time to kill. Without any money, buying supplies was only a dream. Meanwhile, Jayce had just spent a lot of time inside a dungeon and didn’t feel the need for any last-minute practice. He figured the best way to wait for the expedition would be to visit the so-called library.

“Jayce, do you know what you should do first?”

When Jayce saw that Marin was once again showing him a bright service smile, he felt a bit uneasy. With her naturally sharp features, it somehow felt wrong for her to smile in such a friendly way. Plus, Jayce had a feeling that Marin only used this face when she was preparing to say something unpleasant.

“…What should I do first?”

---

“Marin, thank you for all your help. I won’t forget it.” As they parted, Jayce thanked Marin as sincerely as he could.

“Don’t worry about it.” Marin waved off his gratitude like it was a nuisance.

Jayce’s lips bent in a slight frown. Looking at it objectively, Marin was just as kind and generous as the rest of her family. She had offered him a place to stay, gave him food and patiently answered his questions—all without asking for anything in return. Yet, Jayce had always felt there was a key difference between Marin’s attitude and that of her parents. It was only now that he realized what that difference was.

“Hey, um…I don’t really know how to say this but…”

Halfway through closing the door, Marin paused before opening it again.

“I don’t hate you or anything. I really am grateful for your help.”

When she heard those words, Marin stiffened and blinked slowly. This daze only lasted for half a second before she recovered and waved off his words again.

“That’s good to know. Bye.”

Marin strode back into her shop and the door somehow slammed shut a few seconds later.

‘She didn’t believe me?’ Jayce thought, puzzled.

Generally, altruistic people happily gave and received kindness. Stout and Lyra frequently said that helping him was no trouble, but they still looked happy to be thanked. Marin, on the other hand, brushed his gratitude away as if by instinct. It gave Jayce the impression that she was expecting to be hated.

Shrugging his shoulders, Jayce put the incident out of his mind. He wasn’t a mind reader, so his analysis might have been completely off the mark. Jayce stared at the door for a short time and then turned to leave.

A little while later, Jayce found himself repeating this action. Shoes dragging against the snow, Jayce forced himself to slow down and turn back around. In front of him was a public bathhouse with a large and inviting sign resting atop its entrance. Jayce wasn’t so shy that he’d neglect his hygiene because he didn’t want to bathe with others. The problem was that above the signboard, there was a large wooden carving of a shrimp-like creature. Why would such a creature be prominently featured at the entrance to a bathhouse? Jayce didn’t know, but he had a premonition that he’d regret entering this building.

Still, he did want to take a bath. Plus, he needed to make a good impression on the person leading the dungeon expedition.

“It’s not like I brought my resume. If I can’t even bathe properly, how am I supposed to find work in this village?”

After speaking some nonsense to himself, Jayce resolutely entered the bathhouse. Inside, he learned several interesting things about daily life in the Upper Bound. One of those things was that dungeons could be used for more than just training or agriculture. Similar to how Marin’s family managed a dungeon to produce meat, other people used dungeons to produce lifeforms that were useful to society. One quirk of this system was that managing even a small dungeon was a full-time job that required multiple workers, and so monsters that couldn’t easily be sold had to be utilized in a public facility. That was why residents in Snowdrift rarely owned their own baths and instead built public bathhouses.

Sitting stiff as a board, Jayce was submerged up to his elbows in pleasantly warm water. Several villagers were talking about this and that, and sometimes they would glance at him oddly because of his hair color. However, Jayce couldn’t register any of that noise. The only sounds he heard was the clicking and clacking of tiny ghost-white crustaceans as they climbed all over him. He was also aware that, in a different section of the bathhouse, his clothes were being molested in a similar fashion. These cleaner shrimps were a low-class equivalent of the cleaner worms that Mize had once shown him.

Out of all the things their cultures could have had in common, Jayce hadn’t expected this to be one of them.