Lost Atlantean,Chapter 37 - Hi,phenomen a bookDirectory of Asian Translated Novels

  After Lilac quietly lived alone with Kid for weeks, another person had moved in.

  She felt bad because Kid had explained it was for her sake.

  After all, a slave inconveniencing people was unthinkable. Ordinarily, the very notion itself would be terrifying, but Kid was somehow comforting.

  "(Her name is Savi. She'll be taking care of you.)"

  The fact that this strange new woman didn't know how to speak her language just felt typical...

  So when she saw Kid teaching the woman, it felt anything but normal.

  It was startling, even.

  Her anxiety bubbled up until she could contain it no further.

  "(Pl-please don't waste so much time on me...)" She begged Kid.

  'Oh no, what have I done?'

  Kid looked surprised at first.

  She flinched as one of the other girl's hands moved toward her face, expecting the worst. Kid had never punished her so far, but it was just obvious to her that she'd deserved to be punished for questioning her master's wishes.

  But instead, that hand rubbed at the top of her head, mussing her hair up.

  And fear gave way to an odd warmth. For some reason, her cheeks started to burn.

  'What do I do...?' She fretted to herself about this strange feeling.

  "(It's good you can finally speak up about things. Good child. It's not a waste of time though.)"

  'It's good...?'

  She would have to puzzle over this mystery.

  It's true that goblins had always expected her to figure things out for them in the past, but they'd never wanted her input. She was just a tool, a solution to blindly throw at problems.

  But Kid was way too smart to be an ordinary goblin.

  Fortunately, Lilac had never met an ogre, but she heard they were smart too, and that they employed advisors to help them run things.

  Being an advisor was the highest position a slave could ever dream of having. It was even more important than a courtesan.

  'I-I got another promotion, so quickly?!'

  The fact she still had to clean as an advisor, notwithstanding the fact Kid had never actually asked her to do so in the first place, was just natural to her.

  No matter how important a slave was, they were still just a slave.

  But she still felt in giddy awe toward how good her life had gotten since moving in with Kid.

  ***



  That's all Beil's message to Van said.

  When he got there, he got sent right in to see Dr. Kilm.

  "What'd you find, doc?"

  "Since you mentioned they were both from the Lost dungeon, I went to retrieve a sample to compare against them."

  "Do medical doctors do that sort of thing?"

  "Normal ones don't, but it's pretty standard when you mainly deal with outsiders and adventurers. Other dungeons can have extremely different biological systems, and we can't really assume anything until we know for sure."

  "I guess that's why you make the big bucks, huh?"

  Van would never tell Kid or Lilac just how much Kilm could charge for her services. There's a reason she got by despite hardly ever seeing any patients.

  "You got it. Anyway, Lilac and the sample both match. They're functionally similar to lifeforms as we know it, but they've both been altered. They're both closer to undead than life."

  "Undead?"

  "Yes. Her body can't reproduce cells, but the cells she does have are remarkably resilient. Aside from stem cells, human cells generally have built-in expiration. She doesn't. She could live forever."

  "Wouldn't... she just break down over time? Even if her body doesn't age, wouldn't damage accumulate?"

  "That's why common zombies tend to look rotten despite being fully functional, yes. However, advanced undead naturally use energy to restore their bodies, including damaged or lost cells. Lilac has something similar. From an adventurer's perspective, she's basically an advanced undead that happens to have the same dietary needs as an ordinary human."

  This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

  "So... she's immortal?"

  "Yup."

  "Do... you know how long she's been that way?"

  "Unfortunately, I don't. I can guess that it's been a while, but I don't have an accurate way to tell. I have some colleagues though."

  "What about Kid? I know you said they were different species, but what makes her different?"

  "Ah. At a glance, they're both behaviorally similar, but in Kid's case, it's not clear how the mechanisms work. I'm not certain about anything."

  "You're not certain?"

  "That's exactly it. Certain parts of her biological structure just don't add up. She's an impossibility. For instance, she's a mirrored lifeform. Her proteins should be toxic to all life as we know it. It should be mutual too, but... it's not."

  "Is that even possible?"

  "It's possible. Actually, scientists have been worried a portal to such a world will inevitably open up. It'd be treated as a biohazard dungeon, no matter how simple it might seem. Since it hasn't happened yet, we can't even be sure if Skills like Scan would recognize the inherent threat."

  "Is she... dangerous?"

  "She could be, but whatever's letting her safely eat Terran food seems to also be mitigating the harm her body can do. She'll probably be immune to any of our diseases though, and if any monsters ever manage to bite her, they could get sick. It doesn't make any biological sense whatsoever, though."

  "And she's really never going to grow up? Actually, it sounds like neither of them will?"

  "Lilac won't in her current state, but it seems like a transformation, so it's possible that might be reversed. As for Kid... anything I say about her is speculative at best, but I'd presume she won't."

  "I see... this may be beyond what you can gather from samples, but... are they still children, or are they adults trapped in children's bodies?"

  Van was understandably a bit worried he might have treated the two girls incorrectly. If they were actually adults, acting as if they needed caretakers could be seen as particularly patronizing.

  "You're right. That's a complicated neurological question that requires more study, but... as far as I can tell, they seem to be children. Of course, their bodies aren't capable of growing up, so really, that's a given. I'm not sure what effect that has on their psychological development."

  "I see... do you know anyone who can conduct that study?"

  Van idly wondered how difficult it might be to convince Kid to go.

  ***

  Lilac seemed to slowly be recovering. Of course, it was going to be a slow process, but the fact there were already some signs of results was very promising.

  "You're growing all of these?" Savi asked as I worked on expanding my garden.

  "Yeah."

  "And things actually grow in this dungeon?"

  "So far."

  For some reason, she started helping me.

  "What're you doing?" I asked.

  "I want to see the results. It'll be faster if I help."

  It was hard to deny that kind of logic, so I just accepted her help.

  Lilac also pitched in.

  Of course, Savi learned just by watching, whereas I needed to explain things to Lilac, but we got things done a lot faster with three people.

  We had to make more planters out of clay, tend to the composting including adding materials like twigs and ash, gather soil and plant seeds, and water everything by hand.

  So that everyone could know what was what, we wrote the labels in Lost. Of course, Savi was still learning to read, and Lilac struggled a bit too, but it was good practice for them anyway.

  Since I was getting paid to teach, I was able to devote a lot of time to all my projects.

  "You're making bricks too?"

  "Yeah."

  "What're these for?"

  "I want an oven, and someday a house."

  "I see..."

  She was less interested in the bricks, but she still learned the process and helped make a few.

  Then, one day not long after Savi had moved in, I got some interesting information from Van.



  I had to look up the word he used for neurological. I'd learned how to speak conversational imperial, but scientific terms were still challenging for me.

  Naturally, I didn't really want my brain scanned, but it'd help to know more about Lilac, so I agreed for her to have one.

  ***

  Tiribi8: Uh... I didn't get sued... they said it was fine...

  Popcorn5: Really?

  Hero194: Why would you be, though?

  OutsiderFan71: You usually need permission to draw outsiders.

  OutsiderFan71: So I guess Kid approved of the picture.

  OutsiderFan71: That's excellent news.

  RedOwl: Picture?

  OutsiderFan71: You didn't see? I'll send it to you.

  Popcorn5: Wait, you downloaded it?

  Popcorn5: Aren't you scared of getting arrested or something?

  OutsiderFan71: It's fine.

  Hero194: You can get arrested for that?!

  Aluen wasn't sure why his drawing had been allowed, but it was a tremendous relief that he hadn't gotten taken to court over it.

  Of course, if they just wanted it taken down, he'd have gladly complied.

  It was just a drawing.

  But since it had been around for two years, getting downloaded and possibly passed around by any number of strangers, they could argue that there were damages no matter how compliant he was.

  He wasn't sure how much pull a dungeon boss had, it was still the second lowest ranked beginner dungeon in the country despite the Azure Dragons taking over maintenance...

  But since it involved a little girl, he doubted it would have looked good for his career.

  How could someone who drew wholesome stories of heroics get away with bullying a small girl? He would never live it up, even if he hadn't actually intended to.

  "That's a relief... I wonder how she's been doing, though..."

  ***

  I also started receiving messages through my phone from Zaitenmodi, the Boss of Naraka.

  The first was pretty informative, although it wasn't anything new. These sort of things were to be expected in technologically enlightened societies.



  I'd done some research into him since meeting him that day.

  He was a Demon King from the dungeon Naraka, a hellish world that I was very lucky to not reincarnate into.

  The law of the land was that might makes right, and its wilderness was inhospitable by any standard... though further details apparently eluded Terra.

  It was basically an exotic, distant land to most Terrans, but there was plenty of trade between the two worlds.

  Though tyranny supposedly ruled over there, obviously it was still quite orderly if it was capable of trade. Perhaps it had Zaitenmodi to thank for that, but it was also possible he did nothing but enjoy the fruits of others' labor while sitting at the very top.

  Either way, apparently he was a big shot.

  It was a bit odd that he wanted to talk to me. Odd and extremely worrying.

  But since it'd be rude to ignore him, especially since these messages were my idea, I did respond.

Chapter 37 - Hi

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