Chapter 1
Chapter 1
The tea party with Haku ended with her having a request for me. Or really, that was largely why she had called me at all, probably... I knew it. I saw this coming a mile away.
Rokuko was sticking around to hear the request as well. Or to be specific, she had moved onto Haku’s lap. It would be safe... very safe... to say that was why Haku had a huge smile on her face.
...I mean, Rokuko hugging me in front of Haku definitely got her jealous, and Rokuko sitting on her lap was definitely the best way to calm her down, but come on. Did you really have to hug me like that, Rokuko? She may have given us permission to hug, but that’s playing with fire. I want to believe you just didn’t think about it... But anyway, Haku’s got a request for us. I can already tell it’s going to be a pain in the ass.
“So, sister. What’s your request?”
“Oh, yes. It’s quite simple, really. I’d like you to participate in a Dungeon Battle.”
Yep, no surprises there. There’s no pain in the ass bigger than a Dungeon Battle, so of course she tosses one onto me.
“...Er. Are you suggesting that we fight again, Haku?” I asked.
“Wait, sister, you want a rematch? I’m game! Or Keima is, anyway!”
“Ah, not quite. This isn’t a fight between us. And really, there is no need for you to get involved at all this time, Rokuko.” Haku smiled brightly and stroked Rokuko’s head. “What I want from Keima is his support... that is, I want his services as an advisor, or perhaps a producer?”
“A producer?” That wasn’t a word I heard much in this world. The first thing I thought of when I heard “producer” was idols. It was hard to imagine idols having anything to do with this job. At the very least, I doubt it would be as simple as rhythmically tapping a screen to music.
“I recently learned that there is a dungeon built beneath plains located directly between my Empire and the Demon Realm. I thought there was nothing there at all, but in fact a newborn Core from the 600 batch dungeon had taken root there.”
“Oh, the 600 batch, hm? That’s the same as my batch,” remarked Rokuko.
“Okay... So, what about them?”
“They came asking me for help. Someone from the Demon Realm will kill him if we don’t get involved, he said.”
“...What? He came to you for help, Haku?” I asked without thinking. It was just that surprising.
“Is there something wrong with that, hm?”
“Er, I seem to recall the [Flame Caverns] Dungeon Core calling you a traitor.”
“Oh, that. It seems that a ruffian in the Demon Realm concluded wrongly that this innocent core is a part of my faction, and challenged him to a Dungeon Battle. They’re already in the preparation phase.”
The Demon Realm, huh? When it comes to Demon Realm cores, the first Core I think of is Dungeon Core Number 666, Aidy. She’s apparently Rokuko’s archenemy slash true friend slash something something.
“That reminds me, Aidy definitely was always talking about duel after duel,” Rokuko mused. “I wonder if all Demon Realm Cores are so eager to start fights.”
“They certainly are. They’re barbarians that greet each other with challenges to duel. In general, they don’t go so far as murder, but the loser is forced to serve the winner with absolute obedience.”
They greet each other with challenges for duels, and whoever loses is turned into a slave on the spot? That’s actually terrifying.
“So, er... does this Core that’s asking for help not belong to any faction of his own?”
“He was a part of the Beast King faction since he’s an animal-type Core, but it seems he had no means of contacting them. And even if he did, they would be too far away to help in time.”
Ahhh, right, means of communication are pretty limited in this world. Being stuck in between two warring countries on top of that makes it even worse. If the Beast King got involved, this would probably turn into a three-way faction war with some pretty severe consequences.
“In any case, he groveled before me and begged me to save him.”
“What are the chances that he switches sides to the Demon King faction?”
“He might be a spy, too. What are the chances of that?”
Haku responded to my and Rokuko’s suggestions with a shake of her head. “He’s neither. I know that he wasn’t lying, and in any case, the Demon Realm lives by a particular saying: ‘The weak shall die. Or, they shall die.’”
...For a second I thought the use of “or” there was weird, but apparently it was meant to emphasize the difference between dying, dying immediately, and dying after being exploited to some end. They would always die in the end. Not to mention that there was a yearly tournament in the Demon Realm where Cores showed their individual fighting strength. If someone gave a pathetic performance there, well... You could guess what happened to them next.
“And by the way, this is a rabbit-type Core. It’s fair to say he has no fighting prowess whatsoever.”
“...Yeah, not much chance of him turning over to the Demon Realm.” A single rabbit in a bloodthirsty country of war? He would be dead in no time.
“Well, in the end, we of the Empire would hardly care if a Core like him died. It would hardly have been any skin off our backs if he disappeared without us ever knowing he was there.”
“...So why ask us to help him?”
“You could use this opportunity to strike a blow against the Demon Realm, couldn’t you, Keima? You don’t even have to win, a tie will suffice. I’m sure you could put on a good show for everyone.”
Ahhh. I get it. That’s why she called me a producer instead of an advisor. Although... that could still just be the auto-translator messing around, but yeah.
“A rabbit-type Core... Sister, are you talking about Core 629?”
“That’s right. Oh, if he bullied you, Rokuko, we can absolutely leave him to die. We could have Keima eliminate him on the spot.”
“Oh, no, he was generally nice to me.”
“Then we shall save him. You should know what to do, Keima.”
Apparently Rokuko knows this Core. Good thing you’re a nice guy, Core 629. Karma would have chopped your head off otherwise.
“...So, what about my payment?”
“Did I not just give it to you? Your reward is being allowed to hug Rokuko.”
“Riiight.”
“I’m taking it back if you lose.”
“Good luck, Keima! I’m rooting for you.”
Haku gave a bright smile. Crap, I can’t tell if she’s joking or not.
“...By the way, I want to go back to my own dungeon for a second. Is there time for that? It took us a long time to travel all the way here.”
“Of course there is. The [Ivory Beach] is right next door, and you can travel straight to the [Cave of Greed] from there. I can just tell Wataru and the others that I transported you there using my {Teleport}.”
Oh, right, I forgot. We have our own dungeon-exclusive route for traveling back and forth from the capital.
Incidentally, {Teleport} required more mana depending on the distance and number of people teleporting, so even Haku with her enormous stores of mana had to rest for a day or two while jumping from the capital to the [Cave of Greed]. Before we made the inn, she would spend the night in Tsia.
So yeah, going to the [Cave of Greed] through teleportation would be unreasonable due to all the mana, but the [Ivory Beach] had no such problems. We had traveled through it back in the previous Dungeon Battle with no issue at all.
“I think this is a good opportunity for you to learn {Teleport}, Keima. I will trade you one {Teleport} scroll for three massage chairs.”
Oh man, that’s a fantastic deal. I can make massage chairs basically for free, but {Teleport} scrolls cost tens of millions of DP!
“Sounds like a deal to me... But wait. I know you use {Teleport} on your own, but didn’t you say something about how it’s usually something done by groups of mages pooling their mana together?”
“That won’t be a problem for you. You have an absurd capacity for mana, just like most Heroes. I can promise you that you’ll easily be able to teleport from here to the [Ivory Beach] alongside someone else.”
Haku gave me her seal of approval. She’s obviously just doing this so I come visit the imperial city with Rokuko more. Wow, if that’s all she can guarantee with an “absurd capacity for mana,” I really have to wonder just how much mana she has herself.
“Sister, what about me?”
“Well, Rokuko... Mmm... It would still be dangerous for you. Give it a hundred years and you’ll be fine for sure, but given your current rate of growth, it should be ten years at most...? Maybe even just a few years.” Apparently the longer you lived, the more your capacity for mana grew. That was why Haku and all her subordinates could independently use {Teleport} with her (Misha excluded).
“...Okay, Keima! Let’s learn {Teleport} so you can take me on dates to the capital city!”
“Ngh...! Ngh, ngggh...! Rokuko, dear, please go on dates with me instead! Please?”
“Of course, sister. I want to go on dates with you too!”
“Oh, Rokuko...!”
Hmm. Is Rokuko really not aware of what she’s doing here? She must not be. Listen, Rokuko, Haku’s cycling through horrified and joyous expressions here like a one-woman theater group. Go a little easier on her.
＊ ＊ ＊
The Dungeon Battle was set in stone, but we had some time. About a month, to be specific. We would first need to see the Dungeon and Dungeon Core in question before making any hard decisions. For now, we went back to Wataru and the others. According to a maid, they had gone to the estate of Emmymephy’s body double... that is, the Orkluv estate. It was in the Noble’s Quarter, which wasn’t too far from the castle.
So yeah, Rokuko and I got in a wooden carriage heading for the Orkluv estate. Haku prepared it for us since we couldn’t exactly leave the castle on foot. The carriage didn’t shake at all, probably due to some nice suspension, and while the paved roads helped, I was still impressed by the quality of carriages that the imperial family had.
Upon arriving at the Orkluv estate, we were taken to a garden. There, Roppe, Niku, and Ichika were holding a mock battle while Wataru, Gozou, and a middle-aged elf with swept back hair watched. Given his nice clothes, the elf was probably Count Dyne Orkluv. I wonder if his daughter’s here? I kind of want to see what Mephy’s actual body double looks like.
Wataru, seeing us approach, raised a hand. “Good to see you’re still alive, Keima. How was the tea party with Haku?”
“She had a little request for me, and she accepted my relationship with Rokuko. Anyway, Wataru. Who’s this?”
“Right, my bad. Gotta introduce you two. This is D—”
“Dyne Orkluv. It’s good to meet you, Keima. Rokuko.”
“Yeah, I’m Keima... er, Keima Goren. Nice to meet you.”
“I’m Rokuko.”
We all introduced each other. Incidentally, we had a Dyne Company back in Goren. Apparently he was actually named after Dyne. No last name for him since he’s a commoner, though.
In any case, I went ahead and told Wataru that we’d be going our separate ways.
“Right, right, the quest Haku had for us is something happening far away. She’s gonna send us off with {Teleport}. That means it’s goodbye for us.”
“I see, makes sense. Sounds like Haku. I’ll get Gozou and the others home.”
“Sounds good. Take good care of them, Wataru.”
Gozou gave Wataru a thumbs up. “Er, but Keima, are ye serious ’bout this {Teleport} stuff? Pretty sure that takes a huge group of lads ta cast. Lotsa people die in the process, too.”
Whoa, is {Teleport} that dangerous? I could die if it goes bad? Uh, but Haku is going to teach me the spell... I guess I should be careful not to jump too far with it.
“W-Well, Haku can use it all on her own, apparently. She’s the Ivory Goddess and all.”
“Yeah? Now that’s somethin’ else. That’s the Ivory Goddess for ye... Wait, ain’t this like, a real big deal? You’re dealin’ with the Ivory Goddess herself, Keima, hot damn.”
“Think about it like this: She’s just Wataru’s boss.”
“Alright, yea, that’s a bit... Nah, it’s still crazy. Now even Wataru looks more godly, to be honest with ye.”
“I think that’s a sign of brain problems. You should probably get to bed early tonight.” I decided to ignore the fact that Gozou seemed to be on the verge of worshiping Wataru. “Give the Tsia family’s wagon back to them for me, alright?”
“Sure. And now that we have that settled, want to duel?”
“Hell no.”
In any case, Wataru and the others would be staying in the Dyne estate. I’m jealous, Rokuko and I are stuck in Haku’s villa. The pressure is going to shave years off my life.
We got Niku and Ichika back in the party, and then it was time to get to work on Haku’s job. Our first order of business was discussing the Dungeon Battle, and to that end we were called to the capital’s central Adventurer’s Guild. Since Dungeon Battles and so on were top secret, our cover was me being given a personal quest now that I had reached B-Rank. That wasn’t really untrue, so there were no holes in our cover whatsoever. It being a private quest gave us an excuse not to tell anyone about it, too. There was no better way to prepare for the Dungeon Battle than to act like it was a quest.
All the members of our party, the Dancing Dolls (temporary name), passed through the door to the Guild and headed straight to the meeting room.
“Yo, Keima! It’s been a while!” Misha said. The summons to the guild had come from her, as far as the public was concerned anyway.
“Heya, Misha. I see you’re not asleep today.”
“I just got woken up. It was pawful, nyahaha.”
“That’s what I like to hear.”
We high-fived and shook hands, greeting each other like close friends. Oooh, brother of my heart, oooh, comrade in arrrrms.
“Where’s Haku?”
“Aaah, she should be here in a sec, probably. But the quest giver’s already here, so feel free to start your talk!”
“...The quest giver is a rabbit-type Core, right?”
“Yup. What of it?”
“Are they in human form?”
“Not right meow at least.”
“So in short, he’s a rabbit.”
“Whoops, don’t mind this drool!”
“Don’t eat the friggin’ quest giver,” I said as a joke, and Misha laughed in amusement. Seriously, now I really want to know why a rabbit would jump into the den of carnivores that is Haku’s party for help.
“Anyway, I’ll go get ’im.” Misha left the room, then came right back. She was carrying a birdcage with an orange rabbit inside. Yeaaah, that’s a normal-sized rabbit. Yep.
As soon as the rabbit saw Rokuko, it rose up a front paw in a greeting. “Hi Core 695, I mean, Rokuko! It’s been a while!”
“Nice to see you again, Core 629. What are you doing in there?”
“Well, y’see, uh. It felt like this pink cat beastkin would eat me for sure if I didn’t get in here, so... Ngh, I can feel her hunger from here...”
I glanced at Misha and saw that she was drooling. Hunger was something we all felt, but that didn’t mean much to someone about to get eaten. I looked at Niku and saw she had hunter’s eyes too. Even Ichika did. Her eyes said she was already imagining how this new breed of rabbit would taste.
“Seriously, you guys? Don’t eat the quest giver.”
“I know, I know, but my instincts are too strong! My soul hungers...!”
“This is the one thing I can agree with you on...” Niku said.
“I-I can hold back, dude! Just ’cause he’s a new kind of rabbit doesn’t mean he’ll taste good for sure!”
Somehow, I can’t imagine this Dungeon Battle going well. My own party might end up eating him before the Demon Realm ever comes at all.
“Eeeek! Help me, Rokuko! I don’t wanna get eaten!”
“Okay everyone, that’s enough. Come back to your senses.” Rokuko clapped her hands, and all the hunger faded from the room.
“Whew. Thanks a ton, Rokuko. I thought my heart was gonna stop from all the stress.”
“By the way, I heard rabbits can die from loneliness. Is that true?” Rokuko asked.
“I’ve never died, so I dunno, but... Wait, is that your Dungeon Master over there?” The fluffy rabbit turned my way.
“Core 629, right? I’m Keima. Nice to meet you.”
“Aah! Haku... er, the mighty and gracious Haku told me you’d be coming for help. I’m counting on you, friend!”
It seemed like Core 629 wasn’t yet used to referring to Haku respectfully. Makes sense. He joined her faction out of nowhere, and against his will at that.
“By the way, Core numbers are a pain in the ass to say for me. Mind if I think up a nickname for you?”
“Hmm? Go ahead, friend. I would love a fantastic name!”
I glanced at Ichika. “Ichika, any ideas for a name?”
“Huh? You’re gonna let me take care of this one, my man? Alrighty then... how about Mikan?” Huh, looks like auto-translator left the Japanese word for orange there. Maybe because it’s a name? Either way, she must have thought of oranges thanks to his orange fur. I feel like it’s kind of cruel to name a rabbit after food, but... sure. Should be fine.
“Well, you heard her. Sound good to you?”
“Uh-huh. Okay, feel free to call me Mikan!”
“.........”
“Hm? Is something on my face?”
“Nope, nothing. Don’t mind me.” Seems like that didn’t turn Ichika into his Dungeon Master. That’s probably for the best, to be honest. “By the way, Mikan, do you have a Dungeon Master?”
“Nopers.”
And yet she still didn’t become his Master. I’m glad I got the opportunity to experiment, but I still really don’t know what the conditions for becoming a Dungeon Master are. Giving them a name isn’t enough, apparently. Oh well. Not like figuring it out would mean much.
“...Alright, let’s talk business. Mikan, where’s your dungeon?” I asked.
“Oh, right. It’s part of a grassy plain!”
“A grassy plain, huh? What else is there?”
“Not much! Just us rabbits.”
So he was a rabbit-type Dungeon Core with a grassy plain dungeon that only had rabbits... Yeah, nah, I’m gonna need some more details than that.
“Where’s your Dungeon Core?”
“Heheh, this is actually a secret, but it’s in an underground cave. I had to dig a hole and hide it from hawks back in the day.”
“Can you summon monsters other than rabbits? What about traps?”
“Well, it’s like this...”
We discussed the basics while waiting for Haku to arrive.
“...So you really do only have rabbits, huh?”
“Yup! When someone falls inside, we surround him and beat the crap out of him! Each hit may be weak, but with enough of them they’ll eventually die! That beats almost everyone.”
“I get what you’re saying, but that strategy won’t be too useful in a Dungeon Battle.” Yeah, I think I understand why Haku told me to “strike a blow” against the Demon Realm instead of “beat them.” After all, it was a simple dungeon with a grassy plain on top and a single basement floor beneath it. Mikan’s [Rabbit Paradise] was so barebones it reminded me of Rokuko’s old [Ordinary Cave].
“So you can help me, right? I’m counting on you!” Mikan flapped his orange-colored rabbit ears in the bird cage. God, they’re so fluffy.
It was then that Haku suddenly appeared in the room out of nowhere. She was like a ninja appearing from thin air... But she didn’t {Teleport}. That was just the Dungeon Menu’s place function. The whole imperial capital is part of her dungeon territory, so yeah.
“Sorry for the wait. I see you’ve already begun your discussion.”
“Haku!” Rokuko went straight for Haku.
“Haku... Er, Lady Haku. I express my thanks once again for you, er, deciding to help me in my hour of need.”
“You have my sympathy, Core 629. There are few fates less fortunate than being targeted by the Demon King faction.”
“You got that right.” Mikan stomped his back feet against the ground. Oh yeah, foot stomping. I think that’s what rabbits do when they’re stressed. I wonder what he’s stressed about here? The Demon King faction, or Haku being here. Oh, right, I should use this opportunity to ask what I was wondering about.
“Hey, Mikan, how’d you even get here to ask Haku for help? Surely you didn’t just hop into the imperial capital. You would have been eaten alive.”
“Don’t even joke about that! Er, but well, I got captured by Haku... er, Lady Haku’s subordinates on my way to the capital. She probably noticed me the second I entered her territory, but er, I just bowed my head and asked for help.”
I kinda feel like rabbits have their head bowed by default, just physically speaking, but wow. He actually walked this way? I glanced at Haku, and she answered while hugging Rokuko.
“The Demon King faction Core sent me a message saying he was going to destroy one of my underlings. I sent some people to investigate what he was talking about and found Core 629 on the way there.”
“I found ’im, meow! Sheesh, those Demon Realm guys sure like to jump to conclusions and stick to ’em, nyahaha!”
Misha found him, huh? And she didn’t even eat him on the spot. Impressive. That deserves some high praise, I say.
“Uh-huh. They didn’t listen to anything I said! Sniff... They found me while I was just rolling around and having a good time at home...!” Mikan stomped the ground again. I feel you. I’d be pissed if someone got in the way of me rolling around in bed at home too.
“By the way, is Mikan Core 629’s name?”
“Yeah. I just can’t get used to calling Cores by their numbers.”
“I see. So, did you become his Dungeon Master too?”
“Nooo?” Can’t say I’m surprised Haku saw through my experiment. Seems like Mikan didn’t, though. He’s just tilting his head in confusion right now.
“Oh, so! What are we gonna do with my dungeon?”
“Hmmm, well. I believe I will donate some DP to Keima. I would like you two to work together to fight back the Demon King faction.”
“...You’re just dumping all the work onto other people, huh?”
“It will be much more entertaining, ahem, much more effective if you handle all of this, Keima. I believe you would do a better job than I would.”
Yeah, she just said entertaining. I’m sure it’s half for entertainment value and half to see more of my secret techniques, though.
“To this end, I will officially accept you into my faction, Mikan. I expect you to be grateful.”
“Y-Yes ma’am! Thank you so much! I owe you my life!” Mikan bowed his head. I’ll pretend I didn’t see his back leg twitch and almost stomp the ground.
“...By the way, how many Cores are in your faction anyway, Haku? I know Core 219 from Tsia’s dungeon is in it, but that’s about it.”
“Almost all Cores in the Laverio Empire belong to my faction. They just aren’t as assertive about it as the Demon King faction and Dragon King faction tend to be.”
“...That’s why they mistook me for a member of the Traitor faction.”
Oh wow, he just straight-up said Traitor there. But I guess that’s fine, since he’s officially a traitor too, now.
“Sniff. And I used to be part of the Beast King faction, too.”
“Oh yeah, I wanted to ask about that too. Who’s the Beast King?”
“That’s Core 8’s faction,” Haku said, smoothly responding to the question I asked Mikan. “Most beast-type cores belong to his faction, but it is quite a dog-eat-dog world there. They are the type to throw children to the wolves to see if they are strong enough to survive.”
“...So in other words, they probably would have abandoned Mikan?”
“Awww...”
Honestly, I was starting to get pretty sympathetic for the cute little orange rabbit. I’ve gotta do my part in this Dungeon Battle!
“Well, that should be enough for our preliminary discussion. Shall we go to the dungeon itself?” Haku said before beginning to chant {Teleport}. She could use the dungeon’s placing function on herself and Misha, but not all of us.
We were enveloped in the light of teleportation, and when it faded we were on a grassy plain. A quick look around showed nothing but grass and more grass. Don’t tell me this entire massive plain is Mikan’s dungeon. Or maybe this is just one of those rooms that looks super wide, but actually has walls?
“Oh, my dungeon’s about fifty meters wide total. There’s an entrance hole to the underground floor somewhere around here... Oh, here! Here it is!” Mikan fluffily bounced over to a nearby patch of grass, which when moved aside showed a hole dug into the dark brown clay. There was an illusion spell cast over the staircase so enemies wouldn’t find it. I see...
“I would’ve fallen for sure if I didn’t know about this.”
“Eheheh! And that’s when we would beat you to death! I’ve got Horned Rabbits, Armored Rabbits, Wizard Rabbits, and Soldier Rabbits! Everyone, I’m hooome!”
The stairs down led first to a large room. There were rabbits that looked like armadillos there, and ones with horns. It was easy to guess they were the Armored Rabbits and Horned Rabbits. They were blowing air through their noses, which was apparently them saying “Welcome back.” Does the auto-translator not speak rabbit?
“Welcome baaack!”
“Didja bring back anything?”
“I wanna eat graaass.”
Oh, there it goes. I can understand what the three Horned Rabbits are saying. Damn... Now I’m gonna feel weird when eating rabbits from now on. Maybe I shouldn’t have tried using the auto-translator on them. Also, Niku, I see that tail wagging. Don’t hunt them, okay? No hunting.
“Nmm nmm. Ah, Keima. Our strategy here is to have these guys hold off the enemy while Wizard Rabbits and Soldier Rabbits rush over from that other room over there. There hasn’t been an adventurer yet that survived it! The strategy’s unbeatable!”
“Fascinating. But the Demon King faction guy survived, didn’t he?”
“...I stopped them since I noticed he was a Core. Though, erm, they probably would have all died if I hadn’t.” Mikan stomped the ground.
He knows his limits, at least. Though real talk, he probably only ever had to face newbie adventurers. Even D-Rankers in Tsia basically live off rabbit hunting, and not many of them are strong enough to survive a swarm of monsters ambushing them. It’s basically trial and error gameplay, except it’s real life so they die after one error.
Given that zero percent of adventurers survived and this was a dungeon that ate corpses for DP, his strategy actually was pretty effective. Despite its flaws, of course. The one thing I can say for sure is that his dungeon’s a lot better than what Rokuko’s was when I first became her Dungeon Master.
“Did you think of this strategy yourself?”
“One of the older rabbit-type Cores told me about it. He said even though we’re rabbits, we can win if we surround them and beat them up all at once.”
Oh, there are other rabbit-type cores. Neat.
My pointless musing was interrupted by Haku asking me a question while embracing Rokuko from behind in an enveloping hug. “So then, Keima. Do you think you’ll be able to sock it to that Demon King faction Core?”
“...I think I’ll need a little more information to say anything for sure. Like who we’re dealing with here, for example.”
“I see you’re not saying ‘no,’” Haku said with a soft smile. Rokuko lifted her head high and nodded with pride. She complimented me there, y’know. Not you.
So. We were dealing with Core 564. He wasn’t particularly significant in the Demon King faction. He was one batch above Rokuko, but he was small-time enough that he might even be below Rokuko on the Dungeon Core rankings.
Still, it was unlikely he would attack us with too many people at once. The Demon King faction valued individual strength and courage. Mikan was obviously weaker than him, so if he charged in and tried to win through overwhelming numbers he would be doing nothing but shaming himself.
With that in mind, Aidy had been viewing us as equals back when we fought in that triple-threat Dungeon Battle all that time ago. And judging by how she ultimately tried to win with her own strength and courage as a Dungeon Core, she was the shining example of a Demon King faction member.
“Now then. Anything else you would like to know?” Haku asked.
“Yeah. Just how far is this place from the imperial capital?”
“One day by horse, I would say. If you left in the morning you would just barely make it there by nightfall.”
...Hm. That’s surprisingly close. I guess that’s why newbies stumble upon this place.
“Wait, someone from the Demon King faction was that close to the capital?”
“He was surely on an infiltration mission. It’s such a pain, really. They always do whatever they can to annoy me.”
Makes sense. Nooow then... I think I’ve figured out all the game pieces here. I’ve got a pretty good idea of how to proceed, too. I’m not sure if we really have a chance of winning, but we don’t need to win. Feels bad to say this, but I’m not the one who’s dying if we lose. Our victory condition is killing at least one Demon King faction Core, more or less, and Mikan surviving that is just a bonus. Though us winning would definitely be ideal.
...So, in short, this is the perfect opportunity to try out risky strategies I would never do if my life was on the line!
“So our funds are the 100,000 DP I got from Haku, and the 350,000 DP that Mikan has saved up.”
“Uh huh! But that’s my life savings, so... I don’t wanna use it all.”
Any of the 100,000 DP I got from Haku that we didn’t use would go straight into our pocket. One could say it was our reward outside of the hugging rights. That and the fact she would help out where she could.
“Hmm. There’s one thing I want to make sure of first, but could you pull some strings in the Adventurer’s Guild and get word out about this dungeon, Haku? It doesn’t have to be immediately, but the sooner the better.”
“That shouldn’t be a problem. Misha, you know what to do.”
“Roger dodger!”
Alright, now we can lure adventurers here and get more DP. Which reminds me. Rokuko and I don’t count, but Ichika and Niku should be sources of DP for him. If we add that into the budget, then... Perfect. Let’s start with step one.
“Mikan. How about we move locations?”
“Wha?!” Mikan tilted his head in surprise. “What do you mean, move?”
“Make a sub-dungeon and move your Dungeon Core there.”
“Whoa... Now there’s an idea.”
“By the way, that’s the technique I used to beat Haku.”
“Guh?! Really?!” Mikan looked at Haku, who was giving a bemused smile as she remembered our first Dungeon Battle. “Wow...! Wait, hold on a second. You’re saying that Rokuko beat Haku?”
“Eheheh, that’s right. Though we were limited to 100,000 DP each. Isn’t my Keima just amazing?!”
“Holy cow! That’s awesome, Rokuko!”
Indeed. This was the technique I’d used against Haku in my first Dungeon Battle. It wasn’t even a sub-dungeon back then. I’d just put a Dummy Core in a distant cave, and Haku had ignored it entirely. And thus, I won.
If even Haku fell for it, there was no reason not to use it against other opponents too. That was why we would be placing the precious Dungeon Core in a safe, far-off location. Luckily, we were in the middle of some empty grassy plains. Burying the Dummy Core in an unmarked hole a good distance away, then swapping the real Dungeon Core for it on the day of the battle should keep us completely safe.
“So yeah, Haku. I want to make a sub-dungeon, but here’s what I’m not sure about. Could we make the dungeon close to the imperial capital, maybe half a day’s horse ride away from here?”
“So right in between here and the capital? Certainly, if it’s not too big. Do as you like.”
Making a sub-dungeon half a day’s ride away should be within our budget if we made the territory line connecting the two dungeons very thin. She gave her permission, and that pretty much solved our defensive problems.
“Sheesh, Keima. You beat Lady Haku and you’re coming up with ideas like this? You’re really something else.”
“What can I say, the special conditions helped me.”
“...Actually, I’ve heard rumors that Rokuko beat Dungeon Core Number 112 in a fight too. Was that your work too, Keima?”
“Core 112... Oh, Ittetsu? Yeah, I only won thanks to some special conditions there too.”
“Oh! Also, also! She beat Core 666 and the others in that big Dungeon Battle, right? Was that you too?”
“Yet another case of good circumstances.”
“...Is it just me, or did I just get a reaaal hecking strong ally on my side?”
Maybe if you look at my wins out of context, sure. He’d probably go even more nuts if I told him I’ve “beaten” a Dragon too. And anyway, if you want to talk about “real hecking strong allies,” you got a much bigger one than me the second Haku put you under her protection.
“I’d kind of like a special win condition too. Mikan, could you contact them and try to negotiate for one? Like we win if we can protect the dungeon for a full day.”
“Erm, I dunno. Not sure I have any way to contact him! We could wait for him to come back, but I thiiink he said the Dungeon Battle would start when he came back.”
“That’s inconvenient... Wait, Haku. Could you contact them?”
“Let’s see... I could send a letter to Core 6. Shall I suggest that I want to discuss our subordinate Cores fighting a Dungeon Battle?”
Welp, Mikan, I hope you enjoy being in the center of a faction war. You have my sympathy... but wait, I guess I’m getting wrapped up in the same war. With that in mind, the more people I get involved with this, the more I can drag down with me if things get bad.
“...Well, whatever. Let’s just do what we can.”
“Yeah! I’m counting on you, Keima!” Mikan rubbed his fluffy, pudgy cheek against my leg. The three Horned Rabbits came over and did the same while expressing similar sentiments. Each was fluffier than the last. Never before had I felt such fluffiness.
I feel at peace... Ouch, but the horns are pretty dang hard. Kinda hurts to have those rubbed into me. Feels a bit like a love bite gone slightly too far. Oh, the Armored Rabbits are coming too? H-Hold on, you aren’t even fluffy! You’ve got hard scales! Don’t rub me, gaaah!
“Keima, you sure are covered in rabbits.”
“Want some, Rokuko? I’ll share. They’re hard as heck. And they have horns.”
“...Actually, I think I’ll just join you. Get ready, Keima!”
Hold on! Wait, Haku’s watching us! Oh, Niku. You can join, but don’t draw your knife. These are friends, not food.
＊ ＊ ＊
Alright. Haku and Misha left ahead of us. That meant I could start modifying Mikan’s dungeon without holding back. But when I told him that, he gave an unhappy pout.
“Hrmph. My dungeon has a one hundred percent success rate, you know! I’m pretty proud of it!” He rolled his fluffy body on the table.
“There are good sides and bad sides to that, actually.”
“Really?”
His dungeon didn’t let a single beginner leave alive. There were positives to that, but significant negatives as well. No survivors meant that his dungeon never got a reputation. As the saying goes, the dead don’t talk (outside of the undead), and no reputation meant fewer invaders entering the dungeon.
“What’s bad about that?”
“You get less DP.”
“...Oooh, I see!” Mikan replied with a bounce of his tail.
You could certainly survive for a long time if no invaders came to your dungeon. No invaders meant no death. But at the same time, no invaders meant no DP being earned and no growth for your dungeon. I shall name this phenomenon the Dungeon Dilemma. Not that I’ll ever say it again, though. Probably.
“By the way, I told Haku we’re going to make a dungeon to move the core to, but I’m actually gonna make more than two of them.”
“Oh, okay! Do we have enough DP for that, though...?”
“Not right now, but hey, I’ll get you earning some stable DP. Pal... You’re gonna have a dungeon with a one hundred percent rate of survival. That’s why I secured some land closer to the capital.” A half day’s walk from the capital meant the adventurers could get to the dungeon and get home in a single day if they put in the leg work. That would lead to more repeat visits.
“A survival rate of one hundred percent? How’s that gonna earn DP? We get some from the ground, but other than that you have to kill to get it.”
“What, you don’t know? You get DP as long as they’re inside your dungeon, even if you don’t kill them.”
“...Um. Wait, really?”
Wow. He actually didn’t know.
“Ichika and Niku over there should be earning some decent DP just by existing. Take a look.”
“Let’s see here... Wow! You’re right!”
He must have checked the menu. Some of their daily DP should already have entered in stock. Still, I thought for sure that it was common knowledge among Dungeon Cores that invaders staying in the dungeon earned DP. Was I wrong about that...? Don’t tell me there are some other ways to earn DP that Rokuko doesn’t know about... Eh. I’ll investigate that later.
“Neat! I didn’t know you could earn DP this way. I’ve learned a lot.”
“Good to hear that.”
“So, in a one hundred percent survival rate dungeon, do you just, umm... capture humans and imprison them inside?”
Some dungeons did that. They had enormous human farms earning a ton of DP. But we wouldn’t be going that far.
“Nah, we don’t need to lock them up. We can just make a store.”
“...A store?”
“Hold on, Keima. Are you suggesting he sells things to humans like our dungeon? Can Core 629 even morph into human form?” Rokuko interjected, having previously been poking rabbits while listening. Her point was a fair one.
“Aww... I dunno about selling things. I can’t morph into human form. I mean, I could if I tried hard, but it would cost 300,000 DP!”
Human form was a kind of status among Dungeon Cores. Reason being, their Father looked like a human, and to pay their respects to him the veteran Cores all learned to morph into human form. Apparently that led to a lot of them feeling jealous toward human-type Dungeon Cores like Rokuko and Haku that didn’t need to bother with morphing at all. 300,000 DP, huh? That would knock out most of Mikan’s life savings in a second.
“Nah, I don’t think you would stand much to gain from having a human form.”
“I’ve never done it before, either!”
Mikan just didn’t have the leeway to spend 300,000 DP on something like that. That was the long and short of it. Should be safe to just think of it as a tithe for paying respects to Father.
“But a store that sells things to humans will definitely need employees that can pass off for humans. I recommend a Silky.”
“Nmm, hold on a second. I dunno if I’ve seen any of those.” Mikan’s eyes began sliding across the empty air. He was probably using the menu to look at the catalog. “Nope, no Silkies! How about Soldier Rabbits? They can stand, walk, and use weapons too! The only problem is they can’t speak human language.”
“Ichika, your thoughts?”
“My man, if they can’t talk, we won’t even be able to pass ’em off as rabbit beastkin. That’s gonna be a no from me.”
Yeaaah, they might be bipedal with spears and all, but they’re still basically rabbits. That’s pushing a bit too far.
“Could you make the catalog visible for me? I want to see what options we have.”
“Okie dokie!” Mikan waved his hands through the air, and the menu popped up out of nowhere. The catalog was open. Alright, the UI looks like what I’m used to. Let’s see here... Right, right. I see. The rabbits are the cheapest monsters, and pretty much all his choices are rabbits. For some reason the pitfall trap is extremely cheap. Huh, all his items are just basic materials.
Weeell, that makes sense when you think about it. Rokuko and Mikan are just fundamentally different Cores. Of course they’ll have different options. That said, worst case scenario, I can just buy monsters and items myself, then transfer them over to Mikan. This shouldn’t be a big problem for us. Oh, I wonder if he’ll get Silkies and other monsters if he unlocks human form. That would make sense.
“Oh, this War Rabbit looks pretty good. Misha’s a War Cat I think, so War Rabbits should be able to morph into human form.”
“...50,000 DP... That’s kinda intimidating!”
On the other hand, my catalog didn’t have War Rabbits. It was hard to call 50,000 DP especially cheap, and from Mikan’s perspective it was a full seventh of his life savings. A significant price to be sure, but a necessary one.
“Try buying one. I’ll cover the costs if it ends up not working out.”
“Ngggh, alright, I’ll try it. Eeek, this is so nerve-wracking! I’ve never bought anything over 10,000 DP before, much less 50,000 DP...!”
“At times like these, it’s best to just work fast and get it over with. C’mon, c’mon.”
“Ngggh! I’m gonna make sure you pay for it if this doesn’t work, okay?!” Mikan complained before starting to summon the War Rabbit. A magic circle with a diameter of about one meter swooshed out in front of us. Out popped a rabbit-eared girl with red fur. Mikan had floppy ears that fell to the ground, but this girl had pointy ears that shot up like a bunny girl’s. Also, she’s mostly covered in fur, and even though she’s not wearing anything it looks like she’s wearing a one-piece swimsuit. Her hands and feet have what looks like fur gloves and fur boots, starting at her elbows and knees.
“Oooh, she came out just like the other rabbits...! It’s a human-shaped rabbit...!”
“...Erm, um! N-Nice to meet you!”
“SHE TAAAALKED! She talked in human language! Wooow!”
Man, this takes me back. I reacted the same way when I summoned Rei and the others. Aaand I’ll just keep it to myself that a talking rabbit like Mikan is a lot more impressive to me than a talking human-rabbit.
“She’s super cute, isn’t she?” Rokuko said. “I think she passes, Keima.”
“Yeah. Honestly, I could use someone like her as a receptionist at our inn.” She had a cute enough face that even if she couldn’t transform into a human, we could probably trick people just by putting some clothes on her. Honestly, I could imagine there being some beastkin out there that looked more like rabbits than her.
Aaand I was staring at her while thinking, which made her blush and hide her face with embarrassment. Whoops, my bad.
“Mikan, give her a name. Something cute and girly, preferably.”
“Wha? Oh, you want to make her a Named monster! Well, that makes sense for a 50,000 DP monster... Nmmm, maybe Bloodpool... Nah, that’s not cute enough.”
Holy shit, that’s a scary name. What kind of naming sense does this rabbit have?
Mikan lifted his head and looked at Ichika. “Hey, you there. Human that named me. Could you think of a name for her too? I don’t really know what kinda name human girls have, so yeah! All eyes on you!”
“What, are you for real? Alright... How about Ichigo? She’s red and stuff, so yeah.”
“Sweet! Okaaay, your name is now Ichigo! Looking forward to working with you!”
“R-Right! Thank, um, thank you!”
What’s with Ichika’s naming sense? That one means strawberry. She sure loves to name people slash rabbits after food. Not that I mind, since Ichigo is girly and cute.
“So, how far does your human morphing go?”
“Ichigo! Now’s your time to shine! Show them your power!”
“Um... Nmm, fwaaah!” Ichigo stomped her foot with both hands forming fists to hide her mouth as part of her human transformation sequence. Her ears remained the same, but the fur on her extremities and body disappeared, resulting in a completely normal hu— Whoa, whoa, whoa, put on some clothes! Wait, you don’t have any?! I guess rabbits are just used to being naked. I turned away and avoided looking at Ichigo’s nude body.
“R-Rokuko. Get some clothes for her.”
“...Keima, you pervert.”
“Come on! Don’t give me crap for this.”
Incidentally, we ended up buying the clothes for her. What can I say, Mikan’s catalog didn’t have any clothes in it.
“So, what kind of store are you thinking of, Keima? A stand for rabbit meat kebabs?”
“Bwguuuuh?! I-I don’t wanna sell the meat of my friends! We could have an infinite amount of them through Spawners, but I mean...”
“Yeah, don’t worry. It’ll be a rabbit business, but not one that sells meat. Let me explain...” And so I did.
The theme for the dungeon would be a place of healing. A true paradise in the opposite sense of what the current Rabbit Paradise was like.
People would come to dote on rabbits and be comforted. An oasis in the midst of a society built on stress. The appeal would form an addiction that drew regular customers here to empty their pockets, while dragging along their friends through the power of communication and peer pressure. This was something that only a small animal Core could do. Something only Mikan as a rabbit-type Core could do... Okay, maybe not, but it was hard to imagine anyone being more suited for it than him.
“...So yeah, this is gonna be a store that sells the cuteness of rabbits to heal others. It’ll be a rabbit cafe.”
“Cuteness! Okay, I’m confident in cuteness. I’ve never missed a day of grooming!” Mikan said while striking a coquettish pose. We all ignored him and kept talking.
“...So, uh, by cafe you mean like, serving food and stuff, right?” Ichika asked. Her question was reasonable. And honestly, it wasn’t even a bad idea, but well...
“I think that would be asking too much from these rabbits. Worst case scenario, we drop the cafe entirely. The important thing here is our customers self-healing by spending time with cute rabbits. We’ll earn DP the more time they spend cuddling. It’s a win-win. Might even be simpler to just call this a Comfy Zoo or something. What do you think?”
“I dunno, there aren’t any rare animals here... Not much of a zoo. Should I buy some monsters too?”
Oh right, rabbits are pretty common in this world, unlike in Japan. They’d be like sparrows or ravens in Japan. Common wild animals that aren’t worth paying to see. We might need to train them up like turning a stray cat into a professional cat cafe employee...
“Mmm, I’m gonna be honest bros, it might work for rich people who’re used to having pets, but I dunno about adventurers. They’d just think of the rabbits as food, not gonna lie.”
Yeah, I had the same thought. Misha was a special case, but Niku and Ichika both drooled at the sight of Mikan back when we first met.
“But you know, I think it’ll be fine.”
“Oh yeah? Why’s that?”
“Take a look at that, over there.” I pointed, and there was Rokuko and Niku playing with the Horned Rabbits. Cute lolis surrounded by fluffy rabbits. A combination of cute and cute that could not be beaten. Niku had been thinking of rabbits as meat not an hour ago, and there she was, rolling around with them. Even Rokuko with her filthy Goblin fetish was having fun with them.
“...Dude... Now that I’ve seen Niku like this, I feel like there’s no way this won’t succeed.”
“Yep. But the first step to success is getting people to look at rabbits not as meat, but as cute animals. And the impetus for that will be Ichigo.”
“Eep?! Me?” Ichigo the War Rabbit twitched with fear when I shifted the context to her direction.
“Oh, so you want to have Ichigo be a store employee?”
“That’s basically what I mean. We could have her live here, but first things first she’ll want to register as an adventurer. Once that’s done, she’ll come here with teams of adventurers checking out our new rabbit dungeon and guide them into loving rabbits.”
“...Alright, dude, I got it! In fighting terms that’s like baiting them into liking rabbits!”
In more modern terms, it’s like a shill manipulating buyers.
“But I dunno if newbie adventurers are gonna be all about taking investigation quests for new dungeons... Oh, wait. We can totes just get Misha’s help here.”
“Yup, that’s right. We’ll get her a C-Rank in the Adventurer’s Guild or something. Misha already said she’d help and everything, so yeah.” Sure is nice to have friends in powerful places at times like this. Authority makes everything go smoother.
“I-I wonder if I’m ready for such a big job,” Ichigo stammered.
“...I think I’ll go with you. Or rather, it might actually be smart to have one or two outsiders tag along. We can train together, make an excuse to talk to people, and then lead into joining a party.”
“I think I might be able to manage, then,” Ichigo said with a sigh of relief.
“Alright. Let’s get you dressed in an adventurer outfit. Ichika, work with Rokuko to get the clothes and equipment picked out.”
“You got it, man. I’m gonna make her the cutest adventurer to ever live!”
Man, Ichika sure is a lifesaver. I feel like she’s the most normal person in our entire dungeon. Rokuko and I are out of the running for being normal, Niku had too fucked up a childhood to know what normal is, and the monster girls are too biased for the dungeon to think about things normally. I can always count on Ichika to be there when I need some normal folk advice.
...But y’know, what’s it say about our dungeon if a slave that lost her freedom due to a gambling debt has the most common sense? Never mind. No point thinking about that too hard.
“Well, anyway. Let’s get to work on the dungeon, Mikan.”
“Yeah, sounds good! Where do we start?”
“Simple. Follow me.”
And so, we got to work making a new dungeon. But really, we finished in no time since there wasn’t actually that much stuff to make.
＊ ＊ ＊
We had Misha post a quest for exploring a dungeon.
“Exploration Quest For a Newfound Dungeon. Recruiting two party members. C-Rank or above. Reward: Fifty coppers. Notes: Will be accompanied by the one who found the dungeon.”
Ichigo the newbie adventurer War Rabbit had found it, and since I was filling the space of one party member, it was in practice a quest for just one person. We settled on giving Ichigo a D-Rank. I figured that fifty coppers would be a bit cheap for a day’s work, but according to Misha, it was the perfect price to attract some do-gooder nice guys.
So, the guy who ended up coming to help was Tokoi the B-Rank adventurer of all people. Indeed, I had seen him before. We briefly crossed paths back when I last came to the imperial capital. If I remembered correctly, despite his scars and hard expression, he was a nice guy that liked to look after kids. He was helping with this dungeon investigation because, to quote, “Better a veteran like me checks the place before any newbies hurt themselves.” A nice guy inside.
“Heya. I’m Tokoi.”
“N-Nice, um, nice to meet you...! I-I’m Ichigo.”
“Hi. I’m Kegirl.” In order to hide my identity, I was using {Ultra Transformation} to transform into a random woman. I couldn’t transform into something that didn’t exist, so I thought of someone I had seen back in Japan and tried transforming into them as an experiment. It was a success, obviously. And her hair was dyed brown.
By the way, I transformed into a woman exclusively since it would be easier to back Ichigo up that way. I had no other motivations. Especially since my Wearable Golem made most bodies equivalently strong.
...So yeah, this is a perfect disguise that literally nobody in the world will recognize. Nobody knows this person, and while I do feel awkward about borrowing her body without permission, I’m fully willing to accept the consequences if she comes to complain. By which I mean I’ll transform into someone else if she does. Good talk.
Incidentally, I had Misha give this identity a temporary C-Rank pass. Both it and this identity would fade away once I was done using them. Woohoo! Spy stuff.
“Is this your first time investigating a new dungeon?” he said gruffly, his scarred face bent into a resting frown. Ichigo froze in pure terror. That was my signal to respond in her place.
“Yeah, pretty much. What about you, Tokoi?”
“I’ve been through more than I can count. But dungeons are unique. Each is different. Nobody knows what danger might be lurking in this new one—don’t let your guards down, no matter what.” He was saying something incredibly kind and considerate, but due to his scary face it sounded like he was threatening to murder us if we held him back. Maybe that was just my imagination? Probably not, given how Ichigo was pretty terrified. That’s some good acting considering she knows she’s no in danger... Wait, you’re just scared of Tokoi’s face? I can’t blame you.
We discussed dungeons and such on the carriage ride there, and eventually we arrived at the new dungeon known as the [Rabbit Rest Spot]. By which I meant, known by us and nobody else yet.
“For a second I thought it impossible for a dungeon so close to the capital to go undiscovered, but huh. This place is so sparse looking I get it now,” Tokoi said as he looked at the dungeon entrance. It was a plain staircase with a handwoven grass cover on top of it, marked only by a single sign. The sign said “There are cute rabbits here. Please be nice to them.”
“...Whaddaya you two think about that? Some kinda riddle?” Tokoi asked with furrowed brows.
“Let’s ask the discoverer. Ichigo, your thoughts?”
“Bwghiiih?! Um, um... I-I think it means, there are cute rabbits, and we should be nice to them!”
Yeah, she’s still shaking hard in pure terror. Good thing I came along.
“It looks like there’s a staircase beneath the cover. Let’s go inside.”
“Yeah. Be real careful. Might be traps down there.”
“Of course. I’ll take the lead. Could you guard our backs, Tokoi?”
We traveled down the stairs carefully with me in the lead, Ichigo following, and Tokoi trailing at the end. He was being so cautious that he tapped the walls and stairs as we walked.
“Hm. Seems like this is a pretty new dungeon.”
“Whoa, you can tell?”
“It’s a clay staircase, but there’s no chips broken off it at all. Old dungeons or well-traveled ones have kinda rounded staircases from all the walking. Plus, there’s no moss or dust even though it’s damp. All of these are signs of a new dungeon.”
Nice, that’s all good to know. Tokoi’s B-Rank isn’t just for show, unlike mine. He’s got actual experience on a deep level.
“Here, we’re in a room. There... don’t seem to be any traps. It’s actually a grass plains environment room. Oh, and it looks like it’s a Safe Zone.”
“A Safe Zone environment room right on the first floor? It’s like the dungeon’s being kind and telling us to rest here.”
Yeah, that’s the idea. Too bad I can’t confirm it for him. Oh, and environment rooms are rooms that feel like you’ve been taken to another world once you enter them. For example, it’s suddenly a desert, or a jungle, and so on. We have some in our dungeon too, and in Mikan’s words there was a [Grassy Plains] option right at the top. It was pretty cheap, too, especially with the Safe Zone set. Probably since there was nothing but grassy plains all around the dungeon.
“Ah!!! U-Um, loooook, wow! There’s soooo many cute rabbits...!” Ichigo said awkwardly while stiffly walking into the room. She then started to walk toward the normal white rabbits... only for Tokoi to grab her by the back of the neck.
“Nguh?! U-Um, but why?!”
“Be more careful, idiot! There can be traps in Safe Zones too!”
“Eeek! I-I’m sorry! I’m so sorryyy!”
“Er, uh, I didn’t mean to make you cry! Forgive me!”
While Ichigo was busy crying at Tokoi in fear, I stepped further into the room while pretending to be cautious. I then sat on a random rock, or rather, one I had intentionally placed there to use as a seat earlier.
“Seems like it’s safe, Tokoi. Let’s take a rest so Ichigo can recover.”
“R-Right. Sounds good.”
Seems like the nice guy Tokoi is weak to girls’ tears. I’d expect nothing less from Misha’s personal recommendation.
“Ngh, sniff!” Ichigo cried, and up walked white and fluffy rabbits to her. They rubbed their bodies against hers and flared their little nostrils, as if asking her what was wrong and trying to cheer her up. “Aww... Thank you, everyooone...!”
“Those are some friendly rabbits,” I said.
“Yeah, maybe cause nobody’s come here before? They’ve got some nice fur. And they look meaty, too. They’ll fetch a high pr—”
“No! You can’t hunt them! It’s wrooong!” Ichigo stood in front of the rabbits protectively. She had an almost hysterical look on her face. It was clear she would do anything to protect them, and Tokoi picked up on that.
“...Alright, I won’t touch ’em. The sign out there did say to be nice to them, so yeah.”
“That’s right! You have to be friendly with the rabbits here!”
“Yeah. But I’ll leave that to you and Kegirl. Don’t think they’ll like me too much. I’m a tough guy and all,” Tokoi said before sitting kinda sadly on a large rock.
But that’s when a single rabbit hopped his way. It was one that had been hiding behind Ichigo. For a second he stared at Tokoi, but then he somewhat hesitantly began rubbing his body against him.
“...Wha?” Tokoi faltered, but took care not to move at all so as to not startle the rabbit.
“Friendly rabbits, aren’t they?” I said.
“Y-Yeah. They sure are... They sure are.”
From then on, Tokoi said no more about fur and meat. He just reached out and gently stroked the rabbit’s head. The rabbit shut its eyes and sniffed Tokoi’s hand happily. That surprised Tokoi enough that he paused, but the rabbit tilted its head as if disappointed and started rubbing its head against his hand.
Tokoi furrowed his brows a little at the rabbit’s attack, uncertain of what to do. Then Ichigo called out to him, with a bunch of rabbits in her arms.
“U-Um, Tokoi. You should, um, rub his back. Rabbits, ummm, really calm down when you do that.”
“Yeah? You sure know a lot, Ichigo.” Tokoi followed Ichigo’s advice and began gently stroking the rabbit’s back. The rabbit sat obediently down and let itself get rubbed. Eventually, the hard frown faded from Tokoi’s face, replaced with a natural smile.
Ladies and gentlemen, we got him. I felt myself grin a little.
And by the way, the rabbits were of course being controlled by Mikan and the others. They were using the original dungeon’s monster control function to control monsters spawned from a [Monster Spawner: White Rabbits (500 DP)]. They had worked hard under the tutelage of Ichika to learn how to expertly make the rabbits act sweet and comforting.
Adventurers often lived off hunting animals, which gave few opportunities for animals to warm up to them. The strong animals of a tamer partner were one thing, but a weak animal like a rabbit? No. They never had the chance to just sit and relax with each other.
In other words, adventurers had no resistance whatsoever to cute little animals showing them love. It would calm them right now. Especially guys like Tokoi that scare people off with their tough looks.
Honestly, it took a lot more time to get used to controlling the rabbits to be cute than it did to make the dungeon. But looking at Tokoi’s face told me that time was worth it. There was no longer any doubt in my mind. This was a battle we could win.
We had taken down Tokoi. With a B-Ranker famous throughout the imperial capital like him on our side, we could get a flood of customers coming through here. Hell yeah, Misha. You gave us the best person we could ask for.
“But seriously, this is some good fur. They don’t smell at all like wild animals, either... They’re like the pets of nobles or somethin’,” Tokoi said as he rubbed the rabbit’s entire back, impressed.
“Yeah. I feel like normal rabbits are fatter, or smell worse.”
“Right. I get the feelin’ that... yeah, that someone’s looking after them.”
Those are some nice instincts. Truly, a sharp mind befitting a B-Rank adventurer. No point trying to hide what’s obvious. I’ll tell him what’s going on here. Hiding the fact we made the dungeon itself, of course.
I leaned over and muttered into Tokoi’s ears. “The truth is, the person who found this dungeon—that is, Ichigo over here, has actually been coming here for a while. She likes to wash the rabbits, brush them, and so on.”
“...Oh yeah?”
“She feels a connection with the rabbits, maybe ’cause she’s a rabbit beastkin.”
“I have heard beastkin can feel connections to animals close to their kind, but... Huh. Didn’t expect Ichigo to be like that.” Tokoi nodded. “Makes sense. That explains why she was acting so unnatural when we came inside the room.”
“Yup. She told me she’s actually camped in here several times already.”
“...What’s her goal?”
“She wants to save the rabbits from being hunted. What’s your thoughts on that, Tokoi?”
“Hrm...” Tokoi looked sharply at Ichigo and her rabbits. He was observing her, and he had good instincts. I broke out into a cold sweat, worried that a real deal B-Rank adventurer might see through our plot.
...But then, he nodded. “I think we can believe her. Ichigo loves these rabbits from the bottom of her heart... And I know how she feels. I know it well. If she wants to protect them, I’ll do what I can to help.”
Ah, right. Having good instincts doesn’t mean much when your heart’s been stolen by cute rabbits. He was stroking a rabbit on his lap while we talked, after all.
“Still, Kegirl, when’d you hear all that from Ichigo?”
“I met her before you showed up. I’m sure she felt more comfortable talking to me about it since we’re both girls. Also... Maybe she was worried that men wouldn’t show rabbits any love?”
“Yeah... I get that.” Tokoi nodded with a bitter frown. He must have remembered how much he scared Ichigo a second ago. “But there’s gonna be problems. The second this place opens up to the public, there’s gonna be ruffians coming to hunt the rabbits. No doubt about it,” Tokoi said, and the rabbit on his lap perked up. “Whoa there. My bad, didn’t mean to leak out killing intent like that. I just imagined those punks, and yeah.” Tokoi stroked the rabbit again. It nestled back down, calm again.
“I hear they’re cowardly, but I guess they can sense killing intent?”
“Yeah, small animals are sensitive to that kinda thing. Mice can actually sense death in the air and jump outta sinking ships, y’know. But this little guy’s pretty brave...” Tokoi murmured while stroking the rabbit squatting in front of him.
Incidentally, as far as we of the dungeon were concerned, people hunting the rabbits wasn’t really a problem at all. After all, the white rabbits were ultimately just spawned monsters being controlled by Mikan and the others. We were brushing and washing them a little to make them look cleaner, but in the end they were still cheap white rabbits that ran us 5 DP each. They could be replaced an infinite amount of times as long as the people... er, rabbits inside of them were safe. Seriously, thanks to the Spawner, people could hunt them constantly and it would be no skin off our back.
Therefore, as long as there were a couple friendly adventurers that came here often, a little hunting wouldn’t pose any problems. Though just to be safe, I did have pitfalls set up across the entire floor in case any rabbits died. They’d open the second a rabbit died, and it led down to a cold pond filled with icy water. They probably wouldn’t die from the fall, but well. The only exit was to climb back up, so they’d probably freeze to death while wading in the shoulders-deep water. Escaping would be easy if they could fly, but nobody who could do that would be going out of their way to hunt rabbits.
“You couldn’t say something to them?”
“Well, most nobody in the imperial capital will hunt them if I put word out not to, but I know a lot of guys who won’t be able to hold back if they see cute rabbits like these. Not to mention adventurers from outside the capital might just wander in and do who knows what.”
“...Uh huh.” Wow. I didn’t even consider adventurers getting mindbroken by the cute rabbits and stealing them to take home. Stronger adventurers might actually manage to rabbit-nap them.
Okay, if someone starts taking a rabbit away we’ll have the rabbit flail like hell, make a dying noise at the stairs, and worse case scenario cut off the controls and make them play dead for as long as it takes. The rabbits here were free, anyway, and without being directly controlled they could only follow the simplest of orders. I heard that spawned monsters die in no time outside of dungeons anyway. If anyone tried stealing a rabbit here due to finding them so cute, they’d end up traumatized. Ahaha.
“Heeey, Ichigo. Could you come here for a second?”
“U-Um, yes? What is it, Kegirl?”
“Sorry, I told Tokoi that you’ve camped here before.”
“Eep! Ah, um, I... You said you wouldn’t say anythiiing...!” Ichigo started floundering suspiciously. That was supposed to be acting, but it seemed actually sincere to me. Like she was nervous after having the conversation thrown her way.
“Ichigo. Did you ever have any problems camping here?”
“Eeeek! Ah, I, um, n-no! It gets dark at night, and there’s safe sources of water, so... And even without a sleeping bag, it’s warm with all the rabbits snuggling against you, so.”
“Whoa! This place has it all, huh?” Tokoi reflexively tried standing up with excitement after hearing about rabbits snuggling against her at night. He didn’t actually stand up, though. There was a rabbit on his lap.
“Alright then,” he continued. “Let’s camp here for tonight. We should investigate a bit further inside, but either way, we’ll spend the night here as planned. I did say we may spend two nights here depending on the circumstances, so keep that in mind.”
Yeah, we’re gonna be staying here two nights. No doubt about it.
And by the way, there was nothing further inside the dungeon but a bunch of small rooms, one of which was the Core Room. The investigation ended quickly.
“This is, uh, a lot safer of a dungeon than I thought. There might be something more to this than we think. Let’s spend two nights here just to be safe. The pay’s the same, but I think it’s worth it. What about you two?”
“It’s fine with us. Right, Ichigo?”
“Yes! Tokoi, please oh please make friends with the rabbits!”
And yeah, Tokoi sure was trembling with anticipation of spending more time with the cute ol’ rabbits. Things were looking good for us. Though, to be clear, there definitely was more to the dungeon than he thought, and it was dangerous. After all, this was a DP earning spot we made to prepare for a Dungeon Battle.
That night, I successfully split up from Tokoi with the excuse that girls should sleep in different tents from boys. I then canceled my {Ultra Transformation}, went to the back of the dungeon, and {Teleported} to the original dungeon, at which point an orange rabbit jumped into my arms.
“Uwoooh, Keimaaa! You’re heckin amaziiing! The DP is just pouring in!”
“Yeah? Good to hear.”
“Grasshoppers are a total waste of time!”
Basically all the DP we used to make the dungeon came from Mikan. But overall, it wasn’t that much. Probably about 20,000 total if you included the 5,000 DP Dummy Core.
Mikan couldn’t see the exact DP per day invaders earned yet, but Tokoi was unmistakably a powerful warrior. He would no doubt be earning a lot of DP by staying here overnight, not to mention the bonus he was getting from Ichika and Niku.
“Hold it right there, Core 629! Keima’s my Dungeon Master, I get to hug him first!”
“What’s the big deal? You can just join in, Rokuko.”
By the way, the big environment room with all the rabbits bouncing around was actually a massive jail room with exits and entrances. It was a Safe Zone and a jail. Since the exits shut during the night, all the adventurers inside earned six times as much DP as normal—three from being in a jail, and two from being shut inside.
At the moment Tokoi was the only person in the room, but considering Mikan had only ever hunted grasshoppers for DP before, it was quite a lot. Though he actually earned a lot more than we did from the earth. We got 10 DP a day back at the start, but he earned a lot more than that. And really, I’m surprised grasshoppers earn any DP at all. Maybe I should start breeding locusts... or maybe this is just another of Mikan’s special traits, and I should be more careful. Better safe than sorry, I think.
“That guy’s something else!” a rabbit exclaimed.
“He’s good at stroking us!”
“You could learn from him, Keima!”
The three Horned Rabbit brothers were fluffily looking this way while controlling the White Rabbits. They shut their eyes and went limp on the ground before I could reply, probably having returned to controlling the rabbits. They were manipulating the monsters with a kind of possession that left your actual body exposed. The possession let you move the monster’s body like your own, but in exchange, you couldn’t move your own body. You also had to have access to the menu to use it—in other words, Niku and Ichika couldn’t do it since they weren’t technically members of the dungeon.
“Okay! Should we move on to the next step yet?” Mikan asked while nibbling on his ear. The next step he was talking about was something we had prepared for the Dungeon Battle.
“Nah, no point until there’s a few more customers. I think two or three at the very least.”
“Okay, we won’t use it this time. The Soldier Rabbits have to sit this one out!”
“They’re gonna be pretty busy when the time comes, though. The more training they get done now, the better.”
“Yeah, it’s kinda hard to get used to attacking your allies!”
Indeed. My plan for this dungeon battle was to have our customers defend us. I would be using the strategy I cooked up when fighting the triple threat Dungeon Battle with Haku, but ultimately shelved—using adventurers as a defense force. By a twist of fate, Tokoi was my most likely candidate then, and now he’s leading the charge. I shelved the plan for a lot of reasons, but in the end our objective here was to land a blow against the Demon King faction, not necessarily win. I wasn’t sure if this strategy would work, but now I had the perfect opportunity to test it out.
The setup was simple. We would summon monsters to attack the rabbits, with a gimmick that the Safe Zone would shut down temporarily in the process. The adventurers inside would be trained to protect the rabbits whether they realized it or not. There was nothing odd about the rabbits being attacked. It happened all the time in this dungeon, and it followed that fighting to protect them was normal. That logic would still work even when the actual Dungeon Battle happened. They would fight off the invaders to protect the rabbits.
...It would be a bit much to expect them to keep fighting for no reward, so we would probably have the rabbits offer up a gift to the adventurers that fought the hardest.
At the moment all that would just be stirring up problems on purpose, but it would become the real deal on the day of the Dungeon Battle. I would want all the kindly adventurers hanging out in the dungeon on that day to fight on the defensive line for us. As for the offensive line, well... I would have to learn more about our opponent before I could say anything for sure about that.
“That reminds me. We still don’t really know much about who we’re dealing with here, do we?”
“My sister hasn’t said anything yet.”
Days had passed since we asked Haku to contact the Demon Realm, but we had heard nothing from her since. Maybe communication between the opposing factions was abnormally slow. No doubt they performed an enormous number of tests on any letter before opening it, just in case it was trapped.
“Oh. I just remembered! He came to my dungeon in human form, but he was definitely a demon-type Core!”
“What, you could tell?”
“I think so! He was in human form, but he grew wings and goat horns. I think he was just hiding those. And an actual goat would be in the Beast King faction!” Mikan put a proud hand on his chin and sniffed his nose confidently. He was pretty good at giving smug looks for a rabbit.
But partial human transformation, eh? If Mikan’s right about this, he’s probably a demon-type Core. That sounds reasonable to me. Where else would a demon-type Core be but in the Demon King faction?
“Couldn’t you have said something about that earlier?”
“The thought just hit me! I was so nervous in front of Haku it just didn’t come to mind. But now, thanks to you, I’m all relaxed again!”
“Good to hear.” I wonder if holy water does a ton of damage to demon-type monsters and stuff. I get the feeling that Beddhist holy water sure wouldn’t.
My thoughts were interrupted by Rokuko remembering something herself. “Core 629, what about the gathering? I’m going to go, but what about you?”
“Gathering? Hold on, Rokuko, what’re you talking about?” I asked before Mikan could reply.
“Oh? I didn’t mention it to you, Keima? The yearly Dungeon Core gathering is coming up soon.”
“...Riiight. It is that time of year. And no, you didn’t mention it to me.”
“Didn’t I? Last year?”
“Pretty sure that’s long enough ago that it doesn’t count.”
“Then I just did mention it. All good.”
She did mention that there was a gathering of Dungeon Cores every year, and I remembered a lot about it since the last gathering ended up with that triple threat Dungeon Battle. So, what... A whole year’s passed since then? Wow.
“Of course I’m gonna go too! I don’t actually wanna go, but he might reissue the challenge there, and who knows what he’ll do if I don’t go...”
“Interesting. So, when is the date exactly, Rokuko?”
“Pretty soon, I think.”
“No, I mean, the date.”
“Oh, it’s today,” Rokuko said right as her body began to shine. Mikan’s was shining too.
Are you kidding me? Did this seriously happen AGAIN?
“Don’t try to cheat on me, Keima. I told Ichika to watch you for me, okay?”
“Welp, Keima. I’ve gotta go! Look after Ichigo and the dungeon for me!”
“Come on! Tell me about this stuff ahead of time!” I yelled as Rokuko and Mikan vanished in a flash of light before our eyes.