Epilogue

I met with Ittetsu the day after the Dungeon Battle to discuss the terms of his defeat and reap my rewards. We would have done so yesterday, but he needed a lot of time to calm Redra down.

“Hahaha, you’re a real piece of work, Keima. That statue was a fuckin’ Golem too, wasn’t it? You got me. I’ve never seen a crystal Golem that small before. I didn’t suspect a fuckin’ thing.” Ittetsu laughed, seemingly not worried that much about his loss.

“Haha. Yep. You, uh... You don’t think that was cowardly or anything?”

“C’mon, what do you take me for? It’s my bad for not noticing the trap. Don’t ya think so, Keima?”

“...Well, yeah, basically. Though I only pulled a nasty trick like that cause I couldn’t figure out how to beat your lovely Dragon wife head on.”

“Heheheh. I’m pretty sure you figured out a way to kill Redra. Thanks for holding back. You may be a friend of the traitor Number 89, but I’ve got your back if you ever need it, Keima. Number 695 too.” Ittetsu grinned, though it was kind of hard to tell on account of his lizard face.

“A’ight, time to give you what I owe. You can have the space for your tunnel.” Uh... huh?

“Wait. Wasn’t our deal that I got half of Tsia Mountain?”

“Huh? That was only if you touched the Dungeon Core on the bottom floor of my dungeon.”

“Yeah, and I did, with the crystal Golem.”

“The hell are you talking about? The bottom floor of my dungeon is the fifty-first floor.” Ah...! Holy crap. He got me. I had touched the Dungeon Core behind the boss room on the fiftieth floor. The actual bottom floor, the fifty-first floor, only had a treasure room and a bedroom. No Dungeon Core. In other words, I never even had the chance to beat him completely. I was doomed to a minor victory from the start.

“...You’ve gotta be kidding me.”

“Hahaha! It’s your bad for not noticing the trap, am I right, Keima?” Ittetsu intentionally repeated the phrase I had just agreed with myself. I get it now. He made us wait to have this meeting until today so I couldn’t recover from this trap. Even if I could think of some way to get the Dungeon Core to the bottom-most floor and touch it again, it’s too late. The Dungeon Battle is already over. It ended while I was sleeping, relieved that we had won so quickly.

“You trick me and I trick you, yeah? Heheh. Now we’re equal.” I thought this guy was just a gullible salamander, but I guess not. He’s good. I’ll accept a tie this time. And... yeah. We’re definitely gonna have a long and fruitful friendship.

“...By the way, why would it cost 500,000 DP to make room for the tunnel? Shouldn’t it cost you nothing to remove territory from your dungeon?”

“Y’see, there’s this... Core-kinda thing in the middle of Tsia Mountain. Destroy that and this place’ll stop being a volcano. Building another one somewhere else will cost about 450,000 DP. Then we gotta rebuild some tunnels, so... Gah. Wish it could be a little cheaper.”

“...Can’t you just move it? The tunnel’s not that big, you could just move it down a little or something.” Ittetsu opened his eyes wide in surprise.

“...Oooh?! I didn’t even think about moving it!” Seriously? C’mon, gullimander, are you dumb or not? I can’t tell anymore. Ittetsu’s roaring laughter echoed throughout the tunnel.

Day 90

And so, we completed our tunnel through Tsia Mountain. We named the Tsia tunnel... just that. Tsia Tunnel. It was straight from start to finish, but it was long enough to take a few hours of walking to get through. Though it would take several days to loop around the mountain, so a few hours was a pretty big time saver nonetheless. Plus, it would encourage people to stay in our inn before making the trek through the tunnel or after getting through it.

Since Ittetsu ultimately got to move the mountain core for cheap, he offered to help me hatch Rokuko’s phoenix egg. Being on good terms with your neighbor is a really nice thing. I can’t wait to see what a phoenix hatched from Red Dragon fire looks like. The egg got a little fire breathed on it in the Dungeon Battle, but it didn’t hatch. It feels like it should soon, though.

But putting that aside. I went through the tunnel to reach the other side of Tsia Mountain, and there I saw the ocean. There was a faint scent of salt drifting in the wind. The air around here was definitely a lot different. There was a tall hill nearby that I climbed to take a look around. I could see a port town in the distance. I believe it was named Pavella. Apparently, Ichika was born there.

...I wonder if fish are the same in this world. You know, I think I’ll celebrate the tunnel’s opening with some seafood tonight. It might be a good idea to let Ichika visit home for a little while too. Though her family probably won’t be too happy about her being a slave now.

“Aaah... This is a great view, isn’t it?” Rokuko, long blonde hair fluttering in the wind, had at some point stood beside me.

“Yup. Is this the first time you’re seeing the ocean?”

“Uh-huh. I’ve heard about the ocean before, but the gathering of Dungeon Cores I go to never really bothered with it.” I didn’t really know much about that gathering of Cores or whatever, but I did know that Rokuko had never left her small cave aside from going to that gathering. She was always by herself. Well... She’s got me and the others now. She’ll learn more about the world as time goes on.

“Hey, Keima. We really got tricked this time, didn’t we?”

“Ngh... Well, I mean... yeah. I didn’t expect Ittetsu of all people to pull a trick like that.”

“I was surprised too. I thought you were going to win for sure.” We didn’t score a complete victory, and they figured out our trump card. We technically won by getting past the fifth floor, but from my perspective, we lost hard.

“But, you know... We may have missed out on getting half of Tsia Mountain, but we did actually beat Dungeon Core Number 112. I think that’s more than good enough. Plus, I’m sure you’ll figure something out with the space we do have. Right, Keima?” Rokuko smiled.

“Yeah. We don’t need to worry about the mountain too much.” I said it before, but if we couldn’t get the mountain we could just expand outward inside. There were plenty of roads we could take. Hm... Yeah. Roads. I should really think about what kind of entrance fee I should set up for the tunnel. Maybe I could charge more based on weight? Like, make some Golem scales and... eh, I can think about this more later.

“This tunnel is going to make our dungeon even more amazing, right?”

“Yep. ’Cause now we can earn money without doing literally anything!” The tunnel was already built. All we had to do was charge people for using it. Our dungeon had finally gotten a way to earn free money. Free money. Aaah, that sounds so nice. I’ve been really busy managing the dungeon, building an inn, working in that inn, and buying a bunch of monsters and items while adventurers invade. On the other hand, I can just sleep while people pass through our tunnel. At worst, I’ll have to count their entrance fee.

“I don’t really know what you mean by free money, but it sounds amazing!”

“Oh, it is. It sure is!” Long live free money! Goodbye work, hello passive income. From this day forth, I will spend all day every day sleeping. I love it!

Ah. Right, right. I need to ask Ichika how much to charge for the entrance fee. Teach me, oh wise and mighty Ichika!

“Mmm? I’m gonna say that, like, fifty coppers is the absolute max. People are gonna have to walk here since there aren’t any good roads in the mountain, so yeah. And like, that means they’re only gonna have as much stuff as they can carry. Can’t really charge’m much for that. We’re totes gonna earn way more from the inn. Specially ’cause of all the people who’ll come for our dungeon... What? You’re gonna sleep through it? Hahaha, what’re you talking about Master? This is a new dungeon, for beginners, with an inn right beside here. Things are def gonna get busier from now on, for sure. You’re gonna have a lot to do, Master. There’s just sooo much only you can do, y’know?”

...Wh-What...?