Bonus Short Stories

Chaos Drugs — For You, for Those Who Want to Change Their Lives

The Kingdom of Daide. One of the places that Wataru had been subconsciously avoiding was a store that sold magic potions. I followed Ichika to take a peek inside.

The interior felt entirely like a Japanese-style candy store, or maybe a general store. There were shelves, boxes filled with potion bottles lined up next to each other, and pouches with tablets. The handbaskets at the entrance for putting goods into were pretty convenient.

“Guess it makes sense this kind of store would have nothing but medicine, huh?” I mused.

“Yuppers. Oh, the [Nopetokids]’s pretty cheap here. Sweet, I was gonna run out soon,” Ichika said, plopping a pouch of tablets into her basket.

“Huh? What’re those for?”

“Yikes. It’s a contraceptive.”

“...Er, what? Are you going to... use them?”

“Uh-huh, but don’t get any dirty ideas, ’kay? This stuff’s essential for all girl adventurers. Without it, you’ll end up unable to work a few days every month.”

It was apparently used to stop that time of the month. It cost ten coppers, which was around one thousand yen in Japanese terms, and since it didn’t have any side effects, it was pretty highly valued all over.

“Huh, sounds convenient... But wait, that naming sense... Is this a Chaos Drug?”

“Yup?”

Chaos Drugs. Such was the name of all sorts of magical drugs that Leona had spread throughout the world as the God of Chaos. There was the “Futanaruu” potion, for example. Drink it and strangely enough, you would end up a hermaphrodite. It was a Chaos Drug that introduced chaos to one’s sex. (If you just wanted to change your gender, there was the Tee S potion, and if you wanted to change your sex but not your outward appearance, there were potions for that too — Tree Grower and Weed Cutter, for instance.)

The thing about Chaos Drugs was that their names were, like, blatant puns? They probably didn’t even work in this world’s language.

“Seriously? Leona was even making this kind of thing...? And mass-producing it, too?”

“Ahaha, I dunno about the recipe, but Leona didn’t make these pills herself. Some Chaos Drugs have public formulas.”

“Oh, huh.”

“’Cause I mean, alchemy is the God of Chaos’ field to begin with.”

Drugs powerful enough to change one’s gender were one thing, but ones in day-to-day use had their recipes available for sale at the Alchemy Guild, apparently.

“...Chaos Drugs sure help society out, huh? Dang.”

“Yuppers. Thanks to Chaos Drugs, nobles don’t need to sweat the gender of their successor, and thus a society that prioritized merit above all else was born, or somethin’.”

Hmm. Gender freedom in fantasy worlds sure was something else.

“There’s this one drug called Highlander Z that boosts fertility, y’know? It’s filed under aphrodisiacs, and couples that need a successor use it all the time. Sounds like a good gift for Rokuko, huh?”

“Nah, I’m good. We just had a kid.”

Incidentally, aphrodisiacs had a stupid number of categories, and one would apparently just use whichever they felt like at the time. Leona didn’t have a legion of Succubi serving her for nothing, it seemed.

“Chaos Drugs sure are a normal part of life, huh... Wait. What’s this? It’s pretty expensive.”

“That’s Vwoom. It makes your boobs bigger. This one’s Shoom, it makes your boobs smaller. Mommy Milkers gives you breast milk. There sure are a lot of boob-related ones here, huh? Boingboing gives you massive boobs.”

“There’s that many... Wet Sheets? Okay, I can guess what this one does.”

“There’s Furrification, too. Turns you into a beastkin.”

One’s beast-ratio rose the more of it you drank, apparently. At max, you could become a talking animal.

Oh, this wide-lipped bottle’s got some, like, blue jelly inside it. Let’s see here...

“Super Balding... Yeah, okay. Are there any hair growth ones?”

“That one’s good for getting rid of extra hair. As for Super Hairy, well, it’s out of stock, and the recipe’s private. What, you’re sweating about that too?”

Apparently the price of Chaos hair-growth drugs went through the roof. As expected, perhaps.

“Oh, look, this one’s just called Scoop. Hm? Oh, it’s a truth serum? I get it, like a detective finding a scoop. This is getting kinda funny.”

“Not really making much sense to me, not gonna lie. Master, what about this Ginger Ale and Night Aniki? What kinda jokes are they?”

“Let’s see what they do... This makes one feel as if they are supported by the gods, and this one increases your Chaos power, at the cost of talking funny. Well... All I can say is that they’re less puns and more references. Also, what’s Chaos power?”

“One of my old gal pals said it just made alchemy easier... Oh, lookie, Mage-i Restoration. This boosts mana growth, so it’d be the perfect gift for Neruneh.”

“And these Fist-roids... They boost muscle mass. Figures, though the name is kind of violent.”

I’m surprised Leona made this many of them, seriously. Though she was probably just trying to smoke out whoever would understand the jokes.

“...Still, I’m glad we didn’t come with Wataru. I wouldn’t have been able to play dumb the whole time.”

“Ahaha, lucky, lucky. Want some Ginger Ale?”

Incidentally, the Ginger Ale was a watery potion that almost tasted like ginger ale but not quite, which made it kind of yucky.

Rokuko’s Pets

Set the stage at Phenny’s playground, which was in the [Cave of Greed], right before the entrance to the [Flame Caverns].

“Chirp.”

Phenny, the white Phoenix, chirped to itself, flapping its wings to stay immobile in the air.

“...”

Jewely, the Jewel Turtle, lifted its head slowly.

“Nom nom...”

Puck, the Panda Mimic, chewed on its bamboo.

“...Why am I even here?”

And finally, Igni the Flame Dragon. The four of them had finally been united.

Incidentally, the above exchange could be translated as follows:

Phenny: “Today, too, has been a day of peace.”

Jewely: “Indeed. I pray that this peace continues.”

Pucky: “Yo, I literally do not care as long as the food’s good. Ain’t that right, Karen!”

Igni: “...Why am I even here?”

And so it was.

...For convenience’s sake, the easy-to-understand translation will henceforth be provided first.

“Oh, we merely wished to strengthen our bonds, dear Karen.” Phenny flapped down and landed on Igni’s head.

“Indeed. We are all Lady Rokuko’s pets, Karen.” Jewely steadily climbed into Igni’s lap as she was sitting cross-legged.

“It’s a drag being around these two grandpas all the time. It’s nice to have another kid around, y’know, Karen?”

Puck patted Igni’s back casually.

What unified the four of them? They were all creatures Rokuko had rolled in the gacha. She had then declared she would keep them as pets and named them. Though Igni had been immediately returned to the [Flame Caverns].

“...My name’s Igni, though.”

“Lady Rokuko named you Karen, so you are Karen,” the three others all replied instantly. Igni raised her hands in defeat, not invested in pushing the point.

“We are Lady Rokuko’s legion of pets! She has our everlasting loyalty!”

“Wait, are you including me in that?”

It seemed they were indeed including Igni in that.

“But of course. What say we change our name to the Four Heavenly Kings?”

“Not bad, not bad! I love that kinda shit! Oh, how about the Four Divine Beasts instead?”

“G-Gr... Th-That’s pretty cool, actually!” Igni said, unable to resist. Jewely chuckled.

“Are you familiar with them, Jewely?”

“But of course. It is a concept known within Lord Keima’s world, no? They are four beasts, at times called gods, that protect the four corners of the world. I seem to recall them being the Blue Dragon, the Red Sparrow, the White Tiger, and the Black Tortoise... Hm, and by some twist of fate, we are a Dragon, a Phoenix, a white and black Beast, and a Turtle. This must be Lady Rokuko’s karma at work... In short, I am none other than Jewely the Black Tortoise.”

Everything depended on how you chose to look at it. Incidentally, the word “panda” could also be written as “large bear cat” in Japanese, and one could say that tigers and large cats were technically family. Though only distantly, like cats and dogs being family.

“So I would be Phenny the Red Sparrow.”

“I’m Puck the White Tiger!”

“Um, I’m Ig... Karen the Blue Dragon? But I’m not blue...”

“Hm. I suppose I should be red as well, then? One moment, I will make adjustments,” Phenny said, then turned from white to blue, and then from blue to red.

“Wow, Phenny! How’d you do that?” Igni asked.

“I lowered my temperature. I cannot change my maximum temperature, but I need only to relax my power to lower it.”

“Not bad, Phenny-bro! Hm? So wait, Karen could get blue, too, by heatin’ up a bit, no?”

“Oh, huh, maybe I could!”

“There is logic to Puck’s words. If even her mother, the Red Dragon, can spit white fire, then surely a Flame Dragon such as yourself could cloak yourself in blue flames.”

“When you put it like that...”

No doubt that would be like a huge power up if she could do it. Igni decided to practice.

Incidentally, there were also the Qilin and Yellow Dragon that were considered the center of the Four Divine Beasts. Opinions were split on whether they should be Rokuko and Keima, if the Elf Ghost and Fairy girls could fit the part, or if it should be put off until new pets were summoned. In the end, the decision was put off.

“...Also, Puck called you grandpas, but just how old are you two, exactly?”

“I am yet young in this incarnation, but I am collectively over a thousand years old by now, I suppose,” the Phoenix replied.

“As for myself... three thousand, I imagine? It is not yet five thousand, that I believe,” replied the Turtle with a jeweled shell.

“I’m a baby. I’m just a young twenty years old,” the Panda replied, who was a lot younger, but still twenty whole years old.

“Everyone but the panda is older than me?!”

“Indeed, young chick.”

“Indeed, young hatchling.”

Igni never thought that at two hundred years old, she would be at the bottom of an age ranking like this.

“Should I start calling you big sis, Karen? I did join this group after you,” Puck said.

“Naaah, pass. I don’t really want to start treating Phenny and Jewely as grandpas, so...”

“Right on! I think of you as a little sister anyway, Karen!”

“That kinda annoys me, too, just saying.”

And so, Igni decided not to think about age at all.

Daide’s School Uniforms

One thing led to another, and somehow, Rokuko and Soto ended up enrolling into Daide’s royal academy as students. However, to attend school, one needed to wear a uniform. Rokuko and Soto didn’t technically need uniforms since their transfer was so abrupt, but... This was a rare opportunity to attend school. They wanted to wear uniforms.

“I say, regarding the uniforms, I can provide you with one of my spares, Rokuko. Though they would be too large for Soto.”

“Oh, you don’t mind? Thanks, Mephy.”

“Think nothing of it! I am just glad to attend school with you, Rokuko!”

“Grrr, but I wanted to eat some of y— Nguh! I wanted to wear some of your clothes, too! In fact, I will anyway!”

“I say, did you just say you wanted to eat them?”

And so, they borrowed some of Emmymephy the imperial princess’s spare uniforms.

However, they had been tailored specifically for her. The results were obvious.

“...Sorry, Mephy. This is kinda tight. And by kinda, I mean extremely.”

“Aaah, my apologies. I say, I thought it would be fine since we are the same height, but I see I made a mistake.”

Clothes made to fit Emmymephy perfectly would not fit someone else. However, Emmymephy took out a sewing set.

“The school uniforms are made so you can adjust them to be larger as you grow older. It stinks of cheapness, I say, but it is convenient. And since I can sew, I can fix them up right now.”

“Oh, you can?”

The royal family of the Laverio Empire was taught every possible skill they could need in any situation. A bit of sewing was included in that; besides, embroidery was a hobby high-class women were expected to enjoy. Thus, Emmymephy could easily make some alterations to clothing. In truth, she had brought some maids with her specifically for this kind of work, but they had already “disappeared,” so there was no helping that.

“I’ll alter it, so just tell me where it’s tight.”

“The chest. Everywhere else is fine.”

Emmymephy fell silent. She quietly rested a hand on her own flat chest. Well, there were tiny bumps. Just tiny ones. Tiny bits of soft squishiness. Indeed, the problem was that Rokuko’s chest was unusually large. After all, she was the sister of Haku Laverio, also known as the Goddess of the Bountiful Breasts! (Emmymephy was supposed to be her descendent, too, but oh well...)

“Mama! It fits perfect on me!”

“Oh, really? You already put it on? Wait... The sleeves are completely hanging off you.”

“But the chest part fits me just fine!”

Emmymephy narrowed her eyes. The chest area fit Soto perfectly. In other words, Emmymephy’s chest was as small as a child’s, and... No. I will say no more. I will not speak as if it's the truth.

And so, despite using all the extra cloth in the outfit, there still wasn’t enough for Rokuko. To make matters worse, Emmymephy had been padding her chest a bit. Just a bit! Just to feel a little better! And when she gave her outfit to Rokuko, she had stealthily removed the padding...!

“...I say, oh well. They won’t be as high quality as my order-made outfits, but clothing stores will have uniforms of all sizes. The seamstresses there will also alter them a bit for you.”

“Ah, that makes sense. They can premake them since they all have the same design.”

“Indeed. I say, the lack of individuality is boring, but at least they are efficient!”

That said, Emmymephy’s premade outfits were all the same design, too, outside of the chest area. In fact, she only had to get them custom-made to change the chest... B-But the size of one’s chest can be considered individuality!

“I say, we should have done this from the start. We need to buy one for Soto, anyway.”

“Let’s get going.”

They went to the clothing store with Wataru as a guard and bought their clothes.

“No alterations necessary, I see. Same goes for the young lady.”

They had an employee fit them, but the uniforms fit both Rokuko and Soto perfectly. The child-sized uniform fit like a glove on Soto. Emmymephy got depressed all over again. Her chest was so unnaturally small, her uniforms needed to be tailor-made to compensate...

Soto patted Emmymephy’s back. “Mephy, I love your boobs!”

“Soto... Y-You’re willing to call this flat board of a chest ‘boobs’...?”

“Yes!”

“Soto!”

Emmymephy hugged Soto. The bones of her chest kind of hurt a bit. However, that was fun for Soto, too. The Sototemporarily way was to enjoy others’ individuality.

“Also, Papa cares more about feet. He wouldn’t care at all about boobs as long as he gets to see feet.”

“Hey! D-Don’t get any ideas, Mephy. Keima is my husband, okay?!”

Theoretically speaking, Keima would indeed care more about feet than boobs. She had a point.

“I say, I know. I won’t lay a hand on Keima.”

However, Emmymephy did think it would be nice to marry someone who wasn’t concerned about the size of someone’s chest.

Goren’s Artificial Mana Blades

Goren. It was a town that developed around the [Cave of Greed], and at the moment Daide’s first prince was visiting it. He was wearing a makeshift adventurer’s outfit, but the regality (i.e., uncanniness) radiating off him was impossible to hide. Of the party of four, only one was a proper adventurer. The adventurers who passed by nodded to themselves, deduced it was some noble being protected like a baby, and moved on while keeping to themselves.

“Oho. This town seems nice indeed.”

“Agreed, Prince. There are farm fields over there.”

“Hey, hey, any weapon shops? There’s gotta be some since there’s a dungeon nearby.”

Despite everything, they spoke so frankly at the edge of town. They apparently had no intention of hiding their identities.

“Oh! Look, Harkes. There’re some shops,” said Kenho Cthugha, the next knight commander (self-proclaimed), while pointing excitedly at the Daide Company.

“A store in a dungeon town, hm? They may have rare goods indeed,” said Crusch Nyarlathotep, the next royal minister (self-proclaimed), with a curious nod.

“I see. That is indeed a possibility. Let’s go,” said Harkes Daide, the next king (self-proclaimed), as he took a step forward. But the moment he did, their babysitter... or rather, the adventurer they hired as a guard, Djungarian Hastur, spoke out.

“Everyone, what say we rent a room at an inn first? Surely we have all grown hungry on this trip. We can eat while there.”

There was only one inn in this town. If there wasn’t a free room, they’d need to camp outside the town, or pass through Tsia mountain’s long tunnel to stay in the neighboring town. With that in mind, well, the party agreed to go to the inn without much fuss.

＊ ＊ ＊

“Still, to think they would use food tickets here, too. This place is fancier than I thought,” Harkes said.

“Not to mention, even a child was eating here. Judging by her clothes, she was either an apprentice nun, or perhaps the town chief’s daughter. Either way, she was well dressed,” Crusch observed.

“That nun felt a lot like Summer somehow, y’know?”

The prince’s retinue filled their stomachs at the inn’s dining hall, then headed to the store they had seen earlier. Incidentally, their bodyguard Djungarian had been reverse-catcalled by a passing girl, who then dragged him off somewhere. What a playboy. Though he had looked somewhat nauseous about it.

The Daide Company primarily did business with travelers, merchants, and adventurers. They dealt with goods brought out of the dungeon, which meant they could have high hopes for rare or unique goods.

“Neat, they even have plates,” Crusch said.

“Not bad plates, either. They can be found in the dungeon then, I presume?” Prince Harkes mused, looking at the everyday wares corner with Crusch. Dungeon goods were particularly common and well-liked souvenirs.

“These cushions are one thing, but what about these wooden sculptures?” Harkes asked.

“They seem to be some kind of artistic statement. Oh, they have iron rings, too.”

“Hrmm, I do recall that one can farm iron from Iron Golems. Using these rings to market their iron does make sense.”

Their browsing, however, was interrupted by Kenho suddenly shouting.

“Hey, hey, you two! Forget that boring stuff, they’re selling swords! Let’s look at those!”

“I am curious about that, too. Alright, let’s go, Crusch.”

“It is a store for adventurers, after all. I wonder if they handle weapon maintenance as well?”

They headed to the weapon corner, where several swords were lined up.

“Iron swords, I see. They do seem stronger than bronze blades,” Harkes observed.

“They seem both destructive and sharp.”

“Heeey, Harkes, Crusch! Check it out, they’ve got Magic Blades!”

Kenho was correct. There were Magic Blades at two gold pieces a pop nearby.

“Hrm! Magic Blades with a sharpening effect... Worth the price, it seems.”

“But we can find these in the dungeon, yeah? Let’s just go down there already,” Kenho replied.

“We will need to wait for Djungarian to return before we can do that, though.”

Kenho was satisfied just from looking over the weapons for a bit, but suddenly something caught the corner of his eye.

“Hold on a second, is this sword a Magic Blade, too...?” he muttered. It was no normal blade. It was priced at one gold, and had several magic tools attached to it. And its name was...

“Whoa, Nelly! You’ve got some sharp eyes, my dude! That sword’s what we here call an Artificial Magic Blade!” came a voice. It belonged to an orange-haired girl wearing a maid outfit with a fairly short skirt. She spoke in the thick dudebro accent of Pavella and seemed to work here as a staff member.

“An Artificial Magic Blade?”

“Yuppers! Our guy Kanatara the local dwarf smith put his all into making this baby!”

“...So it’s a fake Magic Blade, made by humans.”

“Nah, it’s an Artificial Magic Blade! The Demon Realm’s got all sorts of research on this kinda stuff, y’know. Why not grab one to take home? It’s an iron blade, too, so you won’t be wasting your money. The other blades are all made by Kantara, too, so yeah.”

Now that she mentioned it, the Artificial Magic Blade did seem to be like a normal iron blade, just with magic tools stuck on it.

“Not to mention, you can even swap the magic tools around! You’ve got magic tools that blast water, which is totes good for washing off blood, and there’s fire magic tools for cool-as-heck flamethrower strats,” the employee said while lining up various magic tools.

“Well, I suppose buying them together would be cheaper than buying them separately...?”

“Yup, yup! You won’t find crazy swords like this even among real-deal Magic Blades! Heck, it’ll be good small talk for your girlfriend, so buying one for the road can only pay off, I’m tellin’ ya.”

“We don’t have much money to waste, but, hm... Small talk, you say? Alright, I’ll buy it!”

“Thankie thankie!”

The employee shoved the sword into his hands and hastily took the payment, as if hurrying before he changed his mind.

“That was a good sale!” Harkes declared.

“Yeah, let’s go show off to Djungarian!”

“I see that even Kenho can find diamonds in the rough sometimes,” Crusch said.

The three of them left the store with beaming expressions. However, later on, Djungarian told them they could just use {Purification} to clean off the blood and {Ignite} to set it on fire, which in turn meant they had basically just bought an extra-expensive iron sword. The prince’s retinue all wore flat expressions.

“...Wait, yer tellin’ me that thing actually sold? I thought it’d be rottin’ there ferever.”

“Oh, Kantara! Yeah man, some suckers came in, and I got them real good!”

“Yer somethin’ else, Ichika.”

Dungeon Core Assembly

It was a bright spring day, four years from the day Keima first came to the world. Once again, the yearly Dungeon Core assembly was being held. Today’s gathering spot was a garden with warm sunlight raining down upon it. There was an ivory fountain spraying water in the center where reptilian Dungeon Cores were playing. On the other side of a square hedge was a massive black Dragon chugging from alcohol barrels—Dungeon Core 5, the Dragon King. Ittetsu (Core 112) was there as a fellow member of the Dragon King faction, and he was drinking from a barrel in place of a cup as well.

“Hard to mingle with that kind of group,” Rokuko said to herself. She had thought about greeting Ittetsu, but since Keima had told her not to drink, she stuck to just looking from afar. Ittetsu himself had turned himself into something of an alcohol diffuser, since his body heat transformed the alcohol he drank into a vapor in the air. She would get drunk just by walking up to him. In fact, many people had gotten drunk already.

That said, even if she did try to mingle, she’d be shooed off as a member of the traitor faction. Oh, well.

In any case, Rokuko went to the buffet-style tables of food to at least grab something to eat.

“Wait, could it be?!”

Amid all the food was a plate of melon rolls, hidden like treasure amid the mountains. She grabbed one without any hesitation.

“Hm, these taste a bit on the expensive side.”

Rokuko chewed her way through them, not questioning why melon rolls were here. The stack of melon rolls on the sizable plate didn’t shrink no matter how many she ate. The same was true for the other kinds of food as well.

“Strange, we can eat forever and there’s still more. I guess that’s perfect, since I’m a Dungeon Core and can actually eat forever!”

This was basically melon roll heaven. It would be perfect if there were just a few more varieties of them... Oh, how about cutting open a melon roll and fitting in some nearby fruit? No, maybe it would be best to be bold and add some sour-flavored pasta to it. The possibilities were endless!”

“Oh what fun you seem to be having, Rokuko,” came a familiar voice. Rokuko turned and saw Aidy standing there.

“Aidy! It’s been a while. Oh, do you want some?”

“Ahaha, how clever to insert fried bird meat into melon rolls. Have you been doing well, I wonder?”

“Uh-huh, of course. I’ve been texting you and stuff, too.”

“And yet meeting in the flesh makes all the difference. We cannot duel over texts, can we?”

“...We won’t duel in person, either, to be clear. Though I’m willing to challenge you to see who can make the tastiest roll combination.”

“Challenge accepted. If I win, we shall duel.”

“No bets, or I’ll take it back.”

“...If you insist. Oh, how does inserting human entrails between hot slabs of ore sound? I call it the cave-in sandwich.”

There were many different types of Dungeon Cores, and thus many different kinds of food. How the food was prepared is a mystery, but there were even shapeless food without ‘life’ for Ghost-type cores, so naturally, Aidy’s suggestion was more than possible to recreate then and there.

“Mm, eating that in a dungeon is one thing, but I don’t know about eating it with my mouth.”

“A mere joke. Let us limit ourselves to things that can be eaten in human form.”

“Agreed.”

Rokuko deftly avoided rejecting it outright. She and Aidy proceeded to experiment with all new forms of melon rolls, and as they did so one corner of the assembly seemed to be getting louder. And then...

“Rokukooo! Aidyyy! I’m here, toooo!” came a cry.

“G-Gah, Mikan! Don’t shout! Aaah, look, everyone’s eyes are on me now!”

At the center of the fuss was Mikan, a Rabbit-type Dungeon Core (Number 629), and Core 564, a Baphomet-type Core. Mikan was riding Core 564’s head. In other words, a cute orange rabbit was casually resting between two massive goat horns. It was very surreal.

“Why’s a 600 Core on top of Core 564’s head... Oh, wait, he lost? Core 564 lost to him?”

“Bwahaha, he’s an embarrassment to the 500 Cores. He even got booted out of the Demon King faction.”

“That Rabbit Core’s not bad. Core 629... Mikan, was it?”

Rokuko recalled that the other Cores hadn’t seen them since Core 564 challenged Mikan. Apparently quite a few Cores had been waiting to see how that turned out. The fact that Mikan and Aidy’s names were publicized and approved by Father, though, so the victor was more than obvious.

“There is no greater humiliation than having a lower-ranked Core kicking its feet atop my true form in front of the masses! Get down, Mikan!”

“Ehhh, don’t wanna. This is comfy,” Mikan said, continuing his lounging. Core 564 was being treated entirely like a vehicle, to the point of having his horns smacked to change direction. And so they met up with Rokuko and Aidy.

“Ngh, how could this happen to me...?” Core 564 groaned.

“Oh my, is it not obvious? This is all because you lost a duel you initiated,” Aidy said, merciless.

“I-I would not have lost had it not been three against one! O-Or really, if it had only not been for Core 695’s Master...!”

“It certainly is true that her Master is quite special. He even defeated me,” Aidy mused.

“Oh, you lost to a mere human? How shameful! Bwahaha!”

“Oh my, but you would have no hope of winning, either, Core 564. We speak of the man who landed three blows on Core 50, remember.”

“B-But, one of those blows was me...”

“Accomplished only through the tactics of Rokuko’s Master,” Aidy scoffed.

“Mm-hmm! My dungeon’s going great thanks to Keima!” Mikan exclaimed. Meanwhile, Rokuko held her head high with pride as all three of them praised Keima highly.

Incidentally, not much had changed in the DP rankings from last year. At most, one could say that Mikan’s ranking had shot up thanks to beating Core 564, while Core 564’s ranking plummeted in term. Rokuko and Aidy’s rankings went up a bit, but not by too much. There was the giant Snake, Frog, and Slug glaring at Rokuko’s happy group, but they had been looked after by the Dragon King faction ever since the triple threat Dungeon Battle, and they were so busy running around with barrels of alcohol they didn’t have the time to interfere. Not that they had any right to interfere when they had lost so soundly.

...Also, some Cores that had absolutely nothing to do with Rokuko’s gang never showed up, having probably died, but that was normal for Dungeon Cores, so nobody paid their absence any mind.