As Long as You Have the [Shop] Skill, the Dungeonized World Is a Breeze ~The Bullied Youth’s Payback

Chapter 101 – Going After Ior

“Manipulating plants, huh?” (Bouchi)
“Is that really so dangerous?” Sol asked in response to my muttering, tilting her head inquisitively. But the one who responded was Izu.

“Of course it is. Plants are a gift of nature. That means he can manipulate nature itself. If he really wanted to, he could break the ground, no, he could even destroy civilization itself if that was what he wished to do.” (Izu)
Sol let out a ‘wow’, as if she was impressed. I was in agreement with Izu here.

It might not be immediately obvious if it was simply manipulating plants, but there were many, many different types of plants, a great number of which were harmful to humans.

If such plants could be created at will, as Izu had mentioned, it would be a simple matter for human civilization as we knew it to collapse at his hands.

“And since he’s just a seven-year-old boy, it probably means that he won’t be able to control his powers. If his power were to go out of control for some reason, it could cause so much damage that the map might have to be rewritten.” (Izu)
“That’s exactly right, Izu… You’re really quite clever, aren’t you?” Yofel said, seeming to marvel at Izu’s wisdom.

“Naturally. I’m not just a Wise Crow for show.” (Izu)
“W-Wise Crow?! That’s what you are?! …It’s my first time seeing one.” (Yofel)
“Is it rare for even elves to meet Wise Crows?” (Izu)
“Of course, Bouchi. Wise Crows are so rare that they’re now considered an endangered species. There used to be many of them, but their knowledge and beautiful appearance caused them to be overhunted, and their numbers saw a massive decrease. That’s why I’ve never seen a live one before.” (Yofel)
Izu puffed out her chest proudly, as if she was trying to say that it was a shame she was so popular.

“Anyway, as she said, Ior has an ability that becomes dangerous when it goes out of control. Or rather, it’s just because he hasn’t learned how to control it yet. It’s only natural. He’s only seven years old after all.” (Yofel)
“I see. So it would be best if we find him sooner rather than later.” (Bouchi)
Of course, I was worried about the child himself, but I also wanted to prevent any enormous damage to the surroundings that might occur if his ability were to run rampant.

“We’d better hurry then.” (Bouchi)
Using my <Shop> skill, I began to search for some suitable items for the occasion.

“….There we go.” (Bouchi)
“Really, Bouchi?!” (Yofel)
“Yeah. I’m buying it right now, hold on a second.” (Bouchi)
I bought the item I picked out and took it out of the <Box>.

“…Paper?” (Yofel)
Yofel looked at the paper I took out with a furrowed brow.

Certainly, it looked just like a piece of A4-sized paper.

“Well, it’s not just any paper. It’s called [Search Paper]. After you fill out the profile of the person you want to search for, it will guide you to that person.” (Bouchi)
“A p-piece of paper like this? By guiding us, how would…?” (Yofel)
“If you think you’re being tricked, then for now just write down information about your little brother here.” (Bouchi)
I handed the paper and a pen to the skeptical Yofel and had her write down his information.

The more detailed the information, the better the result. Well, just writing down a seven-year-old elf on Earth was more than enough to narrow it down—as long as there were no other elves on this planet, at least.

“Ooh, I see you’ve written everything quite thoroughly. With this, it won’t be a problem.” (Bouchi)
A list of his name, sex, hometown, age, hobbies, appearance, and so on were written in such a way that even a detective would have no problem finding him before long.

“What in the world are you going to do with this?” (Yofel)
“Well, just watch and you’ll see.” (Bouchi)
I released my hand from the paper. Normally, it would flutter down to the ground, but it floated up into the air and transformed.

The shape it took was that of a paper airplane.

The paper airplane slowly rose up into the sky, and when it reached a considerable height, it came to a stop. And then, it suddenly vanished.

“I-It’s gone?!” (Yofel)
“No, it just flew away at a high speed.” (Bouchi)
“F-Flew away?” (Yofel)
“Yeah. The paper airplane will fly at a supersonic speed towards the target designated by the information written on it. Wherever it is on the planet, it will find it right away.” (Bouchi)
“The speed of sound… so that’s why it looked like it disappeared…! No, wait. Don’t we have to go after it?” (Yofel)
“Yeah, but there’s no problem with that.” (Bouchi)
I took another sheet of paper out of the <Box>.

“The [Search Paper] originally comes in sets of two. The one I sent out was for searching and sending information, and the other one is for receiving information.” (Bouchi)
“Receiving… information?” (Yofel)
“In other words, when the paper airplane finds what it’s looking for, the information about the person’s location is imprinted on this receiving paper.” (Bouchi)
“O-Ohh, so that’s what it does…! No artifact that I have ever known of was capable of doing something like this. It’s like a lost ancient artifact.” (Yofel)
“Ancient artifact?” (Bouchi)
“Master, if I may be so presumptuous, please allow me to explain. Ancient artifacts are a kind of alchemical tool that were said to be created in a kingdom that flourished in our world a long, long time ago,” Izu came forward and explained.

“It’s a long-lost, ancient skill—alchemy. In the past, there were many alchemists in that kingdom, and they created many useful tools like that [Search Paper], making the country truly prosperous. But that kingdom was destroyed and alchemy became a buried relic of the past. However, the artifacts still remain, and they are now referred to as ancient artifacts, which are kept as national treasures and pieces of world heritage.” (Izu)
Hoh, so there was such a story in the world where Izu and the others lived. So that means the fantasy items that I can buy with my skill might actually be these ancient artifacts she spoke about.

“Then what do you think? Is this [Search Paper] an ancient artifact?” (Bouchi)
“I apologize, Master. I know of some ancient artifacts, but I have no knowledge of this [Search Paper]. Please forgive me for my inadequacy.” (Izu)
“No, no, it’s fine if you don’t know anything about it. There’s no need to humble yourself so much. Your knowledge always helps me out a lot, Izu.” (Bouchi)
“…?! W-What gracious words…! My heart is filled with joy to hear Master say that!” (Izu)
As over-the-top as usual, this one. Izu really likes me, doesn’t she?

Anyway, even Izu didn’t know everything. Still, I was interested in her explanation about the ancient artifacts. I wanted to ask her more about it later.

“But why did such a great kingdom fall?” (Bouchi)
“One theory was that it suffered a great catastrophe, but no details are known.” (Izu)
If even Izu didn’t know, then nothing could be done about it. Well, it was in the past, so it was none of my business.

But I couldn’t help but feel like they should have been able to overcome such a catastrophe if they could produce many artifacts like the [Search Paper].

“…Oh, looks like it found him already.” (Bouchi)
“Really?! Please show me! ………I can’t read it.” (Yofel)
“Oh, it’s in Japanese.” (Bouchi)
Yofel clung onto the paper and tried to read it, but she naturally couldn’t read it since it was in a different language.

I had no choice but to read it to her, but…

“….Huh?” (Bouchi)
“W-What’s the matter, Bouchi? C-Could something have happened to him?” (Yofel)
“N-No, but… It was just closer than I thought.” (Bouchi)
“It’s close?! Is he near this island?! Where?! Where is Ior?!” (Yofel)
“Calm down. By ‘close’, I meant that it was close to the place where you and I first met.” (Bouchi)
“Where we… met?” (Yofel)
“Right. In other words, Japan… The city where I used to live.” (Bouchi)
We used a [Teleportation Crystal] to return to Japan and began to head towards the location inscribed on the [Search Paper].

Apparently, Ior was currently with three humans. Yofel was worried when she heard that they were humans, but according to the [Search Paper], they were taking good care of Yor, which was a relief to hear.

All three of those humans were women, and guessing by the flow of the conversation, they were probably sisters.

The [Search Paper] would always keep an eye on the target until the seekers recovered the paper, and it would continue to send information about the target’s surroundings. It could pick up even the smallest voices, as if it had a high-performance microphone equipped. As a result, it could send information about the target and the conversations surrounding them, even when we, the seekers, were far away.

At the moment, the four of them, including Ior, were traveling by car.

I still couldn’t tell where they were headed from the flow of their conversation. I guess they hadn’t talked about it yet.

We were riding in the [Jet Book], following the car from the skies, high up above.

“Hmm~ This direction… Are they going to Akama Cemetery?” (Bouchi)
“A-ka-ma rei-en? What kind of place is that, Bouchi?” (Yofel)
“It’s a cemetery. A place with a lot of tombs.” (Bouchi)
And it wasn’t a place completely unrelated to me either. It was the place where my mother and father were buried.

(TL: ‘Akama reien’ is the Japanese pronunciation of ‘Akama Cemetery’. Yofel doesn’t know what this word means, so she just repeats the words phonetically to him.)

Maybe the sisters were on their way to visit someone’s grave. The cemetery was located at the end of a mountain road, and they were already starting to climb the mountain leading to the cemetery. By this point, there was a 80-90% chance that their destination was the cemetery.

But then, I saw the words that showed up on the paper, and my face grew tense.

“….Not good.” (Bouchi)
“Huh? What’s wrong, Bouchi?” (Yofel)
“Let’s hurry.” (Bouchi)
“Bouchi…?” (Yofel)
I looked toward the mountain where the Akama Cemetery was located with a serious expression and spoke.

“The car Ior is in is being attacked by monsters.” (Bouchi)