Chapter 1

Day 100

The seasons moved on and it became summer. I was lazing around in my fairly nice room within the Dancing Doll Inn... an inn I built myself, I might add. I looked up out the window and saw a pleasant blue sky reaching off into the distance.

...It’s super hot. Even fantasy worlds have seasons too, huh? I stuck my feet into a bucket of cool water. Aaah, nice and cold. I love it. It’ll get lukewarm pretty fast, but for now, I’m in heaven.

Months had passed since I was first summoned to this fantasy world. Through hilarious shenanigans I ended up as a Dungeon Master, and I had worked pretty hard since then, if I do say so myself. I had worked... pretty, pretty hard. Even though I had finally drilled a tunnel clean through Tsia Mountain and found a way to get free money by charging people for going through it... that just backfired by making my inn so much busier that the passage fee wasn’t even worth it. Because, of course, now more people were passing by the area. More people nearby, more people using the inn. Ichika’s prediction had been right on the money. Fuck.

I even ended up going out of my way to make a recreation room after enough visitors complained about there being nothing to do around here except visit the onsen. It was more of a recreation building, really, soundproofed and built a short distance away form the main inn. A lot of people spent basically all day in there.

To sum the place up, it was a room where adventurers could play with the [Dice] and [Cards] found in the dungeon. Dice already existed in the world before now, but the playing cards were unique to our dungeon. Well, technically a Hero (Soldier of God) made some decks of playing cards before in the past, but no one managed to recreate them. At best they made some metal cards that were so expensive and heavy they never really caught on.

...I’m in the middle of figuring out what else to put in there other than dice and card tables.

Regarding the dungeon I’m actually supposed to be here for, I made it such that very rarely one of the Golems wandering the labyrinthine first and second basement floors will have a knife. That knife being, of course, a Golem Blade—a special Magic Blade knife that vibrates and sharpens when you pour mana into it. Any adventurer that successfully takes down the Golem gets their Magic Blade knife. There’s only five of them walking around right now, though.

I also added spawners for Iron Golems. They cost 50,000 DP each, but thanks to Haku visiting so often, I could buy enough to make Iron Golems the standard monster past the puzzle area. It really helped that she paid for her room with Dungeon Points. Oh, and I did put one in the labyrinth area so that adventurers would run across an Iron Golem every now and again. They were too strong of a monster for many, but they were easy to run around and avoid. The temptation of hunting an Iron Golem and selling the materials was strong enough that today, three parties were spelunking in my dungeon (though one of those parties was just there to get battle experience through fighting Goblins).

As for the puzzle area on the second aboveground floor... it’s been discovered, but not fully solved. One party got there by chance, although they were so worn down that they ultimately backed off and left the dungeon for fear of traps. They got lost on their return trip and despite getting close, haven’t managed to reach it again. Apparently, nobody had yet noticed that I was changing the correct path to the exit every hour.

I was getting money and DP from both those staying in the inn and those passing through the tunnel. Thanks to that, things were a lot more stable for me. Especially since I could turn the money into DP if need be. Which is why I had the spare time to laze around in my room.

Which is doubly why I decided to be bold and sleep the entire day. I wonder if I can get some air conditioning in my room... No, wait, there’s gotta be some kinda Survival Magic for making summers more bearable. Wait, wait, wait. Now that I think about it, the only Survival Magic I’ve ever used is {Purification}. That’s a real waste... Alright. I’ll try swapping the water in this bucket with some new, cold water fresh from the low-rank magic spell {Water}.

I toss the bucket of water out the window. I then squint my eyes and concentrate, such that the chant implanted in my head when I used the scroll arose in my mind. I see, I see. “Oh water, become a small ball,” eh? Let’s try changing that a little.

“Oh chilled water, become a small ball. {Water}.” I felt a small bit of my mana flow out of me, and immediately after a ball of water appeared before my eyes. As planned, I dropped it into the bucket. Yep, it’s cold. Been a while since I’ve used any spell other than {Create Golem}. But wow, magic really is convenient.

“Keima, do that to mine too pleaaase.” For some reason, my partner, the Dungeon Core Rokuko, was also lazing around in my room. C’mon. You’ve got your own room. I made it super fancy ’cause you’re the owner. Way better than this room. The heck are you doing here? I repeated the chant and replaced the water in Rokuko’s bucket with a fresh cold batch.

“Aaah, your magic really is weird, Keima. Niku and I could never make water this cool. No way.”

“Normally you can’t change spells, huh?”

“Nooope, not at all. Not normally.”

I figured that you could decipher some of the words by comparing patterns, but as far as Rokuko knew, I was the only one who could actually modify spells. Thanks, auto translator! Though Rokuko was a Dungeon Core that didn’t leave her dungeon much, so she didn’t actually know that many people. Wait... Me, Niku, and Ichika. Does she only know three people? Wait, she knows Haku too. Haku, our dungeon’s goddess of good fortune and Dungeon Core Number 89. She’s a big deal in the Imperial Capital.

“H-Hey, thanks to the inn and stuff, I’ve gotten kinda close to the receptionist, too. H-Her name’s Shiriana.” That’s a few letters too many, but eh, close enough. Rokuko probably doesn’t realize that “shiriana” means “asshole” in Japanese, so yeah, she’s not trying to be mean on purpose.

Speaking of which, we were on good terms with the Adventurer’s Guild. Although they had finished building a fairly solid branch office nearby, the receptionist still came over to our place to eat, and once a week she’d buy a room so she could use our baths. And since the Guild office was within our dungeon territory, we got over 80 DP a day from her. Very, very nice. That amount doubled when she locked her room at night, too.

Alright, time to do nothing but sleep all day. I prepared to get in bed and start snoozing, but at the last moment, something happened in the dungeon.

“Keima. One of the Iron Golems wandering the dungeon got beaten.” Iron Golem. As the name implies, they were Golems made entirely out of iron. Most of the adventurers exploring our dungeon were D-Rank, or at best C-Rank. Iron Golems were a bit too strong for them. In return, however, their actual bodies were far more valuable than a mere Clay Golem’s or what have you. After all, they were made from iron. It should be obvious why they were so valuable if you considered their corpses to be a human body’s worth of iron. Heavy as the corpse may be, you could make countless nails and other metal objects with it.

“What kinda group took it down? Let’s see here... Oh, there’s a C-Rank party in the dungeon. Was it them?”

“Uh-huh. They have this guy named... I think it was Gozou? He’s a dwarf that fights with hammers. He beat it by just smacking it with his hammer. They didn’t even go for breaking the magic stone.” Right, you can disperse mana with the impact from physical blows. Whew. I’m glad they didn’t somehow cut the Iron Golem down with swords. If a guy that strong came by, I’d have no way to deal with him.

“Guess we don’t need to worry too much, then. Are they carrying the Iron Golem corpse back out?”

“Uh-huh. They’re carrying it together. Guess they don’t have {Storage}, huh?”

A party of C-Ranks could apparently beat an Iron Golem if they worked together. That’d probably end up being a good cash flow for them. But man, that was kinda fast. I’m gonna have to place some stronger monsters after the puzzle area. Let’s take a peek at the catalog... Oh, look, Gargoyles. I wonder what makes them different from normal Golems.

That afternoon, the guild receptionist came to the inn. Apparently, she had something big to talk about. Didn’t you say you’ve gotten close to her lately, Rokuko? Why did you give me back my Absolute Authority and say “The rest is up to you” the moment you had to talk to her? And so, I ended up in the conference room, talking to the receptionist while Rokuko sat beside me with a frozen smile on her face.

“What? Smithery?”

“Yes. The blacksmiths wish to open a smithery here. It will be built some distance away from the inn and the Guild due to the noise, but they do plan to build a branch office nearby just as the Guild did. I assumed it would be best to tell you about this beforehand.”

“Man, this sure is coming out of nowhere.”

“Earlier today, a party of adventurers returned from the dungeon with the corpse of an Iron Golem. I am sure you know of this already, but it has been confirmed that Iron Golems are residing within the dungeon.” Apparently, a dungeon with Iron Golems was treated as a gold mine. Or in this case, an iron mine. They were actually known as Golem Mines or Quasi-Mines to those in the business. Makes sense. Sources of ore are pretty valuable. And since the entirety of an Iron Golem’s body is ore, no actual mining has to be done. A blacksmith can use the stuff right then and there. Of course they’d want to just go ahead and make a smithery here. Though, apparently, they were planning on making one here anyway to repair the adventurer’s equipment and so on. Nobody told me anything about that. Oh, wait. That’s what she’s doing right now.

“Does all this mean that this place is gonna be put on maps now?”

“Maps? It’s already been on maps. It was added the moment we started building the branch office here.”

“Wait, I thought dungeons weren’t put on maps?”

“Dungeons not managed by the Guild are not placed on maps in order to prevent unready adventurers from visiting them on their own. There is no need or point to hiding a dungeon that has a Guild branch office right next to its entrance. In fact, we are steadily advertising it to draw more people here.” Oh... Crap. I might have made a huge mistake here. Soldiers of God will definitely come here if we’re on a map... ah, wait. Soldiers of Gods are Heroes here and are automatic S-Ranks in the Guild. They can see information on whatever dungeon they want, whether it’s on the maps or not. Though this is still definitely gonna bring us more attention.

“The guildmaster planned on building a settlement here the moment Magic Blades were confirmed to be found within the dungeon.”

“...Seriously?” He mentioned something about building a town here before. He was serious about that...? Wait. I guess this means telling the Guild about my dungeon was a mistake from the start... No helping that now, though.

“I suppose now is as good of a chance as any to ask you a few questions. This inn has a cafeteria, but are you planning on building a bar for alcoholic drinks as well?”

“Not at the moment. We primarily deal in food, so we have no plans on selling alcohol.” I wouldn’t be able to sleep if a bunch of drunkards started stomping around making noises. What a pain in the butt that’d be.

“Then we will set about building a bar ourselves. We might expand in other ways as well. To avoid conflicting with your establishment, I will discuss such plans with you before proceeding with them.”

“That’d be a big help, thanks.” The scale of this operation was getting bigger and bigger, but I was fine with that as long as the Guild did most of the tedious legwork. Anything they build will still be in our dungeon’s territory.

“Excuse me, Keima. There is one thing I would like to ask you about.”

“Huh? What’s that?”

“...When did you construct that recreation room? One day it wasn’t there and the next it was, out of nowhere.”

“A magician friend of Haku’s popped it into existence for me.”

“Aaah, a friend of an A-Rank adventurer... I see, that makes perfect sense.” The receptionist and I nodded together. I was a friend of Haku’s, so I wasn’t lying to her. I just wasn’t telling her the whole truth. The Guild had lie-detecting magical tools, so I tried to refrain from lying to them at all times if possible. It was pretty annoying, to say the least.

I was hoping she’d leave pretty soon after that, but we ended up discussing things for another hour. Having to stay on guard that whole time was exhausting.

Day 129

“Yo, Gozou! Thanks for calling me over. How’s Roppe doing?”

“Kantara! Thanks for coming, my friend! And she’s doing great, you bet!” Two bearded, middle-aged dwarves were giving each other a bear hug in the Guild’s branch office. Gozou was the C-Rank adventurer that had taken down the Iron Golem and retrieved its corpse. And apparently, Kantara was the new blacksmith that’d be working here. A dungeon with Magic Blades and Iron Golems was perfect for a nearby smithery, so Gozou called over a blacksmith friend of his after coming here.

Also, Gozou had hunted two more Iron Golems after the first one. That seemed to have been taken as confirmation that our dungeon was producing Iron Golems regularly. That’s why he called his friend over with utter confidence that it’d be worth it.

“Alrighty, Keima. This is Kantara. Treat’m right, y’hear?”

“Ah, right. Uh... Nice to meet you?”

“Right back at ya, Keima.”

So. Why the heck am I even here? I had decked myself out in equipment and went into the dungeon with Niku to signal that I was indeed an adventurer doing adventurer things, but upon leaving Gozou grabbed me and dragged us to the Guild for whatever reason.

“...So, why’d you bring me here?”

“You’re like the Dancing Doll Inn’s secretary, right? You’re basically number two here.”

“I heard from Gozou that you’ve gotten further into the [Cave of Greed] than anyone else.”

In short, they were saying that I carried a lot of power and influence around here. Well, they’re not wrong. I am actually the Dungeon Master. But I didn’t expect people to realize how much power I have here. I was trying to stay on the down low...

“So, I’m gonna be building a smithery near here. I dunno when it’ll be done, but if you ever need your weapons repaired, you know where to go. Oh, I’ve got an idea. How about you let me fix up that blade on your hip? No charge this time, ’course.”

“No charge, huh? Sounds like a good deal to me.” I handed over my Golem Blade with its scabbard.

“...Hm? This is a Magic Blade, ain’t it?”

“You can tell?”

“I am a blacksmith, sonny. My dream is to make my own Magic Blade one day. I came here ’cause I heard the dungeon had Magic Blades in it. I gotta praise the fates for lettin’ me take a gander at one so soon.”

“Yeah. And this is one I got from the dungeon, too. While you’re at it, would you mind telling me how exactly you should repair Magic Blades?”

“Sure. It ain’t no different from a normal blade. Though it’s another story if the Magic Blade is made from water or fire... Hmmm. This blade seems to be in tiptop shape already. You don’t use it much, do you? It looks like you ain’t really using it at all.” Ngh, he caught me. That’s a pro blacksmith for you. He can basically talk to swords. Though this is a Golem, not really a sword.

“W-Well, I am mainly a wizard. I don’t usually use my sword if I can help it.”

“Really now? That’s a waste. But it ain’t my place to say anythin’ about it. Here, have it back. Hm... Who’s that li’l girl beside you?”

“She’s my bodyguard. Oh, right. Would you mind repairing her weapon instead of mine?”

“Sure, lemme see it.” Niku, who had been staying a little back behind me, stepped forward and handed over her Golem Knife.

“...Well now, this is a Magic Blade, too. Looks like you’re getting a lot of use out of this one. I can tell you’ve repaired it before. Good work, I like a warrior that takes care of their weapons.” Kantara gave Niku a toothy smile. That plus the beard made him seem like a nice old man. Not that I knew his real age. It was possible that in dwarf years he was just a friendly guy in his twenties or something. But wait, when did Niku repair her knife? I wonder if Ichika taught her how to do that.

“Gimme a second, I’ll repair this right up. Won’t be able to do too much without me tools, though.” He took out a whetstone and started sharpening the knife. After a bit, he swung it around, looked at the blade from various angles, and then started sharpening it again. He repeated that several times.

After several minutes, Kantara took a good look at the knife and then nodded in satisfaction.

“Right, it should be plenty sharp now. Just gotta top it off with a good ol’... {Revitalize}, and there. All done.”

“Huh? Did you just use the Survival Magic spell {Revitalize}? Not the Earth Magic spell {Sharpen}?” According to Ichika, {Revitalize} was a spell that energized the ground’s natural state and somewhat helped improve crop growth. {Sharpen}, on the other hand, was a Low-Tier Earth Magic spell that increased a blade’s sharpness. As far as I could tell, finishing a blade off would best be done with {Sharpen}, not {Revitalize}.

“You bet. {Revitalize} energizes the ground... so why wouldn’t it energize swords, too? They’re all made of stuff from the ground, y’know.”

...I hadn’t even thought of that. Ores were indeed located within the ground. Which made it part of the “earth.” I didn’t expect this guy to beat me when it comes to magic... He’s good.

“Just so y’know, only second-rate blacksmiths use {Sharpen}. That magic just hides the flaws in the weapon, it don’t fix’m. I’m a blacksmith so I gotta do it if the customer asks me to, but I never like it. Though it’s not a half bad spell if you’re stuck somewhere and need some extra firepower.”

“Your {Revitalize} is basically just a good luck charm, though. I ain’t ever seen another blacksmith use it before.”

“Hey, fuck you too, Gozou. My family’s been using the spell for generations. And you know from experience my swords are sharper and last longer than any other blacksmith’s, don’t ya?”

“Hahaha! That’s ’cause you’re a great blacksmith. The spell’s barely changing anything. Really though, what would energizing a sword even do? Not like it’s gonna grow legs and run to the enemies or nothin’.”

“Good grief. Swords are alive, y’know? You’re a dwarf too, Gozou. You gotta learn to show s’more respect for weapons.” Speaking of which, the effects of spells could be changed by how you visualized them. Which meant that if you visualized {Revitalize} as actually energizing a sword, that might end up happening in an abstract sort of way. It might even work like Restoration Magic for Golems. I’ll have to experiment some more with this later.

“Oof, we really got off subject there, eh? My bad. Point being, come to my place if you ever need a blacksmith. I’ll mainly be dealing with weapons adventurers bring me, but I can make all sorts of practical things like nails and cutlery, too.” Oh, right. Video games give most people the impression that blacksmiths did nothing but work with weapons and armor, but they actually spent a lot of time making common everyday things as well.

“Alright. I’ll ring you up if I ever need something important.”

“Leave it all to me. Though, er, I’m gonna need a forge and whatnot before I can do anything. I’m gonna be making a simple one for myself, but it’s still gonna take like a week or two. Come back then.” Huh. That’s a long time.

“What do you make forges out of?”

“Eh? Bricks infused with some kinda material resistant to fire. I got a lot of Red Lizard scales for cheap a while back. I was thinking of using them.” Oooh, that’s very fantasy. But yeah, makes sense that you’d make a forge out of fire-resistant bricks. And... speaking of which, I have a lot of phoenix eggshells left over. I bet those would be good for his forge. They resist a Dragon’s fire, after all. I stealthily withdrew a single egg’s worth of shells and handed them over to Kantara.

“Here, consider this an upfront payment. If you want some fire resistant stuff, these should be perfect for you.”

“Eggshells? Let’s see here... Yep, they’re fire resistant. Shells from fire-resistant monsters are pretty good materials. These’ll be great for my forge. I’ll gladly take’m.”

“Sure. Just do a good job when the time comes. And... if you ever figure out how to make Magic Blades, give me one.”

“Hey now, Keima, you really think some broken eggshells are worth a Magic Blade?”

“Hahaha, it’s fine with me. I’m likely gonna be workin’ with Keima for a long time now. If I ever get good enough to make Magic Blades, I’ll gladly give’m a freebie.” Kantara. Now this is a guy who knows what’s up. I dunno how much a single egg’s worth of shells will help, but now I really hope he gets his wish of making his own Magic Blade.

# Gozou’s Perspective

I’m Gozou. Dwarf. C-Rank adventurer. Lately I’ve been exploring the [Ordinary Cave]... now known as the [Cave of Greed]. It used to be a shabby old dungeon that even F-Ranks could clear without a sweat... really, it was more of a cave than a dungeon. Only had one room, after all. Not a single hallway.

And now, that cave is a fantastic dungeon.

As far as I’ve heard, it’s confirmed to have at least four floors, but I’ve only reached the third one. Seems like you’ve gotta climb up stairs to reach the fourth floor. That kinda smart thing is outta my comfort zone. What I do know is that I’ve got a knack for remembering any paths I’ve gone through, and even with that I can’t figure out the labyrinth at all. Places I know should’ve had walls blocking them. I’m starting to doubt my own skills. Though, it’s not an actual Skill that’s a gift from the gods or anything. It’s just a knack. This kinda thing happens with knacks.

In any case, I leave the small stuff to my partner Roppe. All I gotta do is swing my battle hammer around.

“Hyaaaaaah!” The heavy sound of metal slamming together reverberates through the dungeon. I’m fighting an Iron Golem, now confirmed to appear within the [Cave of Greed]. They’ve been noticed here and there for a long while, but only by E-Rank and D-Rank adventurers too weak to take them on. It’d be hard to bring their corpses back without a cart of sorts, too, and enemies might ambush’m on the way back anyhow.

Though their corpses are worth a lotta money, so they’re the perfect foe for me. All I gotta do is smack’m with my hammer, too. Nice and easy. Yup. The perfect foe.

The Iron Golem collapses after I slam my hammer into its head enough times. Oooh... My hands are feelin’ all tingly. I love this feeling. Feels like getting so drunk on beer my hands go numb.

“Alriiight, that’s another one down. Sheesh, it’s a real pain beatin’ these guys when they’ve got their magic stones buried too deep inside of’m to see.”

“Good work, Gozou. Let’s get this corpse onto the cart. Doesn’t seem like any other enemies are near us.” Roppe walks over, pulling the cart behind her. She’s my partner. A human woman. She looks a little frail, but she’s a C-Rank adventurer just like me. And a good drinking partner, too. We actually met after she came to a dwarf village to get a taste of our beer.

Right. But now’s not the time for nostalgia. I put away my hammer for a second and get the Iron Golem onto Roppe’s cart. A human’s worth of iron really is heavy. Oof.

“Okey dokey, let’s get this guy outta here.”

“Ya.” I’d really like to hunt two or three per trip, but Roppe and her cart couldn’t survive that. ’Specially since we gotta take it up and down a bunch of stairs. We’re defenseless each time that happens. Hunting one at a time is the best way to go about it in terms of safety. Really, I’d like Roppe to learn the {Storage} spell. We could carry a lotta Golems per trip with that.

We head home with an eye out for traps. Goblins attack us multiple times but we beat’m back until eventually we’re back outside with plenty of iron. This’ll be worth more than a few days of inn fees.

“Y’know, how ’bout we just settle down by this dungeon and just live as miners?”

“That’ll be a no thanks from me, Gozou. There’s no taverns or bars here. The food tastes super good, but it’s all for nothing if we can’t get any beer.” Aaah, yeah, she’s got a point.

There’s this place called the Dancing Doll Inn right by the dungeon. Really, there’s nothing but the inn and the Guild branch office by the dungeon. It’s in the middle of nowhere. Eh... Guess there being an inn here at all is pretty wild, though. It even has an onsen. That thing is a one way trip to paradise. Makes me feel like a noble or somethin’. I didn’t think they were anything special before, but now I can hardly live without it.

Anyway, point being, the Dancing Doll Inn doesn’t sell any beer. Though some of their meals use alcohol, you can’t buy it. The food’s freakin’ tasty. The beds are some of the best I’ve ever slept in. The onsen, like I said, is amazing. With all that in mind, there’s just one thing I can say.

...This place would be perfect if it just had some damn beer! Though, it’s not banned or nothin’, so we’ve been getting our fix from the traders passing by. Like... What was it called? The [Great Tsia Mountain Tunnel] or somethin’? It’s a dungeon too... A new one, difficulty unknown. Thing is, its difficulty is unknown cause it doesn’t seem dangerous at all.

New dungeons appear next to existing dungeons all the time, but I’ve never seen a completely harmless dungeon like this one before. Even the [Ordinary Cave] spat out a few Goblins. I dunno how it works exactly, but if you go into a small room right next to the entrance and pay some money, you can go through the tunnel to the other side of the mountain. It’s more like a business than a dungeon. The tunnel’s wide enough for two carriages to pass each other by, and there’s even a convenient resting spot midway through it. Seems so perfect it’s kinda fishy, but I haven’t heard of anyone having problems inside of it yet.

So basically, lots of guarded merchants have been going through the tunnel and passing by us. Thanks to that, we can get Tsian and Pavellan beer for cheap. Plus salt. That’s more than enough for me, really. Though the merchants must not be too happy about paying money to some mountain tunnel.

“Aaah, if only they sold the dang beer here and saved us the effort.”

“This place would be paradise if they just sold some beer and let us drink in the onsen...”

“I might just go up to Keima and ask him for a favor. He could get some beer flowing here.”

“Ah, in that case I can totally try seducing him for some extra convincing power. Anything for beer.”

“C’mon, partner. Don’t do that to yourself. And uh... you’re not exactly his type, if you know what I mean.”

“Aaah... He’s got that Niku, right. Guess he’s more into tiny girls, huh...?”

He’d be a pretty good adventurer if he weren’t a dang lolicon... Actually, no. It ain’t my right to go badmouthing people for their fetishes and whatnot. To each their own. And that girl looks real happy. He’s treating her right. Getting in the way of that would just be selfish.

After resting in front of the dungeon for a while and chatting, the Guild receptionist Cilia walks up to us.

“Mister Gozou. May I have a moment of your time? We just received a letter for you from a Mister Kantara.”

“Oooh, Kantara, huh! Hope he’s got a good answer for us.”

“This is about the blacksmithery, is it not? I would like to know his response as well.”

“Sure, gimme a sec. I’m opening it right now.” I take the letter from good ol’ Cilia and get to reading right away after tearing the envelope open.

...Ooh, he’s interested! Apparently he left to come here the second he got my letter.

“He’s on his way! Aren’t ya glad, Cilia?”

“Quite. Hm... I suppose I will need to contact that carpenter again. I will also need to discuss this smithery with the Dancing Doll Inn’s Rokuko...” Yep, Cilia sure seems busy. If ye ask me, she could really stand to spend some more time relaxing.

“How’s Kantara doin’?”

“Huh? Oh, he’s doin’ fine. Gramps, too.”

“I figured that. If Untara were doin’ bad, Kantara would never leave him to come here.” True enough. But really, it’s been a long time since I’ve seen him. Gotta get some beer ready for our reunion.

Several days after that.

“Yo, Gozou! Thanks for calling me over. How’s Roppe doing?”

“Kantara! Thanks for coming, my friend! And she’s doing great, you bet!” I meet my old friend and give him a hug. Oh right, nearly forgot. I gotta introduce him to Keima. Grabbed him as he was walking out of the dungeon earlier. Keima’s the kinda guy that you gotta know if you’re gonna be living near the [Cave of Greed]. After all, he’s the Dancing Doll Inn’s secretary and he’s gotten further into the [Cave of Greed] than anyone else.

Only two parties have ever reached the fourth floor, and one of those is Keima’s party. His party consists of himself, the owner of the Dancing Doll Inn, Rokuko, and his two slaves. Both of his slaves are registered adventurers. And y’know, it’s not uncommon for slaves to be put in their master’s party, but Keima’s slaves are both happy and full of energy. Easy to forget sometimes that they’re actually slaves. Rare to see slaves like that. ’Course, he makes them work in the inn a lot, but even so. It’s obvious he still treats them more than well enough.

“Alrighty, Keima. This is Kantara. Treat’m right, y’hear?”

“Ah, right. Uh... Nice to meet you?” And so, I finished introducing Keima and Kantara.

Wait a second, he’s a wizard? I thought for sure he was a swordsman, since he’s got that Magic Blade hanging from his hip all the time. Guess I shoulda figured. His lean build’s more fit for a rear guard.

Anyway. We started drinking afterwards to celebrate, but Keima left without joining in. The guy’s no fun at all. All he left behind was the shells he gave Kantara. Apparently, they’d be good materials for a forge.

“Hey, y’know those eggshells he gave you? What kinda egg did they come from?”

“Oof, I was so caught up in thankin’ him that I forgot to ask. Hrm... Gonna have to look some stuff up to figure this one out.”

“Heh, but he sure ripped you off, huh? Some eggshells sure are some way to show gratitude.”

“Woah now. Monster eggs are pretty rare, y’know? Keima did me a big solid just givin’ me all these shells for free.”

“Really?” Monsters are all over the place. I figure it wouldn’t be too weird to find the eggs of some fire-resistant monster lying around... “Why haven’t I seen any quests for gettin’ eggshells, then?”

“That’s ’cause they’re so rare that the quest’s gonna end up being a B-Rank quest. You’re a C-Rank, Gozou.”

“Seriously? Damn, I never knew that.” But why are they so hard to find? They’re just eggshells.

“Gozou. Have you ever seen a young monster in a dungeon before?”

“Eh? ’Course I... Wait, I haven’t? Huh.” Now that he mentions it, I only ever see adult monsters in dungeons. I’ve seen a couple monster children in my days... but only outside of dungeons, right.

“Not sure why, but child monsters are pretty rare. Worm-type monsters and shit are a different story, but usually, monster children are so weak in a fight you’ll never see them in a dungeon. Usually that’s not a problem ’cause adults have a lot more materials to harvest... but eggshells are a big exception. And y’see, most monsters born from eggs eat their own eggshells afterwards.”

“Now that’s interesting. Never knew that.”

“Eggshells, y’see, are basically protective barriers that a parent pours their energy into for their child. You could call them a crystallization of their power, even. It’s said that child monsters get their start by eating these... Get it now? These eggshells are a fine gift.”

“I see what you mean... but, huh.” If they’re so rare, how’d he get his hands on those eggshells in the first place? Child monsters eat their shells after birth. You won’t just find them lying around.

“Basically, you gotta randomly find some monster egg lying around. Then you gotta take care of the parent monsters somehow. Parent monsters that go absolutely wild to protect their children from dying.”

“Huh, yeah. That’d be rough.” Parents protecting their children really do get ridiculously strong. Monster parents and human parents. It’d be fair to say they go up a rank or two in danger.

“And Keima’s still got a pretty low rank, yeah? Depends on what monster this egg is from, but even if he found it by luck, it’d still be pretty rare and valuable. Yet all he asked in return was a single Magic Blade. He’s a big shot, no doubt about it.” Kantara chuckled with his gravelly voice.

So. The next day.

“Fuck. Keima is a lot more than a big shot. He’s on an entirely fucking different level from us.”

“Wh-What the hell happened?! Hey, Kantara!” I wake up to Kantara shaking back and forth, face pale.

I fell asleep last night while we drank beer, looked at the stars, and talked about the kind of smithery he’d be building. Oh, and Keima brought us some [Fried Potatoes] for about fifty coppers after I asked for some snacks. They were crunchy and the salt worked perfectly with beer. Couldn’t have asked for a better snack. But now I’m awake and Kantara’s terrified of Keima for some reas— Ah!

“Was there something in the fried potatoes?!”

“What are you even talking about?! I mean, they were pretty good, but still!” Oh, that wasn’t it? I’d say it’s pretty scary that Keima can make crazy good snacks like that despite not drinking beer.

“Then what happened?”

“...I’m talking about the eggshells.”

“Huh? What about’m?”

“These eggshells are from... a phoenix...” A phoenix. I’ve heard those’re B-Rank monsters. Seriously? Damn.

“...So, basically... They’re crazy rare? You’re not mistakin’ them for something they’re not, right?”

“Nah. I checked them using a magic tool that displays item names. I’m just gonna say it. These are so rare they’re practically the stuff of legends... Where in the world did Keima find these...?” Legends, huh? That’s sure somethin’. Apparently, a forge made from these would unlock nigh limitless potential. Any blacksmith would water at the mouth for them, to the point even a price of one hundred gold coins would be a steal for them. That’s... Blood and ashes... That’s enough money to drink as much as I want for the rest of my life, ain’t it?

“So, what’re you gonna do with’m? Gonna give those eggshells back?”

“...I’m gonna use’m. I already took’m, and even made a promise about’m. Only way I can pay back this debt is to make an actual Magic Blade for Keima. He gave me somethin’ this rare to make my forge with... He must really be countin’ on me. I dunno if anyone’s ever shown me this much respect and trust in my life.”

Making a Magic Blade is often considered to be straight up impossible. Even the most advanced researchers in the Imperial Capital can make swords that kinda sorta resemble Magic Blades, at best. Normally, a random blacksmith like Kantara making a Magic Blade on his own would be impossible.

“...That’s the kinda thing a drunkard would say. How’s a single blacksmith gonna make a Magic Blade?”

“Yeah, it ain’t likely. I’m just gonna do what I can. These eggshells might be enough to make some magic happen, yeah?” Kantara straightens up, having calmed down while talking to me.

“Really though, this is a damn good chance to make my dream a reality. You can find Magic Blades in this dungeon, yeah? That means I’ve got some examples to follow. Gozou. Would you mind helping me gather the materials I need?”

“Not a problem, friend. Though the best thing I can do right now is hunt some Iron Golems for ya.” I look Kantara straight in the eyes and internally vow to help him.

...Though, I really can’t follow what Keima was thinkin’ at all. Only thing I know know is that he’s no common adventurer... There’s somethin’ special about him.

# Keima’s Perspective — Day 132

For some reason, after the blacksmith arrived everyone around me was suddenly all about expansion. The Guild was even talking about building a tavern beside their branch office. Why? Why is this happening? But there was no use crying over spilled milk. And people gathering around the dungeon wasn’t all bad. We got more DP from them, after all. But I think we’re getting a little too big. Nowadays, there’s always at least one adventurer rooming in our inn.

“Master, we need you to replenish our food stores.” Niku, who managed distribution of food in the kitchen, came walking into my room. Summoning a bunch of food was a real pain, but we had to provide meals for our visitors. I bought the meals, fruits, and vegetables we were lacking and handed them over to Niku, who then stashed it all away into her {Storage}—an alternate dimension where time didn’t pass.

When she got back to the kitchen, she would withdraw the food and it’d be as fresh as new for the visitors. Japanese restaurant and convenience store food was actually very popular in this fantasy world, to the point that recently some adventurers had started going out of their way to visit our inn specifically to eat our food.

...Rokuko could summon the same food I could, but for some reason, the food I summoned tasted better. It probably had to do with how much we knew about the food itself.

Suddenly, Niku dropped some of the food I handed over to her. Luckily it was just a bread roll wrapped in plastic, so it touching the ground wasn’t really a problem.

“...You’re not looking so good. Are you alright?” That made me finally notice that Niku looked a little pale and sick. It was hard to notice since her dark skin was akin to a deep tan. I’d have noticed sooner if she had much whiter skin like Rokuko.

“Um, ah... I’m fine, I think...” Niku, as a dog beastkin, had a significantly sturdier body than your average human. But she was still a kid who probably wasn’t even ten years old yet. I put my hand on her forehead. It was so sweaty my hand stuck to it, and hot enough that she obviously had a fever.

“...Get in bed and rest! That’s an order!”

“Kyah! Ah, u-um, understood...” I laid the sick Niku into my futon and left my room to take her place in the kitchen.

＊ ＊ ＊

Crap, I ended up working...! I groaned to myself in sorrow as I wiped Niku’s forehead with a wet towel. She had fallen asleep in my futon.

Niku’s fever probably arose from exhaustion made worse by the heat. Basically, overworking in the summer. She needed some good rest. Which was fine, but that introduced another problem.

We’re understaffed! I mean, yeah. I noticed we were light on staff a while ago. We bought Ichika, started an inn, and lately have been getting more and more customers. We had one receptionist. One “cook” in the in the kitchen. Both roles which absolutely had to be filled once our doors opened. But there were only four people managing the dungeon and the inn, myself included. That just wasn’t enough. Especially since two people minimum were absolutely required at all times.

Golems could handle all of the heavy lifting and carrying, so most of what we had to do ourselves involved interacting with visitors. Thanks to the Survival Magic spell {Purification}, cleaning and laundry were so overwhelmingly easy they hardly took any time or effort at all, but interacting with customers drained a lot of mental and physical energy. I only worked in the kitchen for a single day, but despite there being way fewer customers than there would be in a town cafeteria, the fact that Niku usually managed it on her own really impressed me. Like, sincerely.

Plus, people hardly complained about stuff in the cafeteria. Ichika would race out from behind the counter and deal with any issues that popped up, but since Niku was a beastkin, a slave, and a child, you could count on one hand how many times people complained. In fact, you could count that on one finger, since there had only ever been one serious complaint with her in charge. And yet, I had been swarmed with complaints the only day I worked there. The heck’s up with that? Things calmed down after I had Rokuko help out in her DP saving form. Seriously? Are they all a bunch of lolicons?

Not only that, but—and I forgot about this all the time—using magic ate up mana, which was basically like your mental energy in a way. Niku had to cast {Storage} each time she took out food. That must have been a heavy burden on her. I let it slip me by like an idiot since she worked with a calm expression every day, but she must have been pretty tired all the time. And yet... Whenever I used her as a dakimakura at night, she would just smile at me without complaining a single time. I dunno what to say... I’m starting to think she’s too good to just be my slave. What’s up with this super loli?

“...Master?”

“Oh, you’re awake? How do you feel?” I rubbed Niku’s head. Her dog tail wagged beneath the blanket I had covered her with, signaling her happiness.

“I’m okay now.”

“Here, drink this mana potion. And stay in bed. You don’t have to be my dakimakura tonight.”

“...Ngh... B-But, where will you sleep...?”

“I can just sleep in a random room, I’ll be fine. Good thing we live in an inn.” Niku sunk visibly after hearing that. She was sad about not getting to work. What a nice, loyal dog (girl).

But really, thinking about it, I hadn’t really been thinking about giving anyone days off. I could sleep whenever I wanted, and although I had told Ichika and Niku they could do whatever they wanted when there weren’t any visitors, that was pretty rare for us nowadays... Rather, we were in the middle of a long chain of consecutive workdays. Not to mention that Niku had to work as my dakimakura on top of all that. And she didn’t even get any days off...? Plus, I was giving her room and board, but she didn’t have a wage or anything. Basically, she was working every day for no pay with no breaks. That may sound inspiring, but really it was practically criminal and made me feel terrible now that I had realized it.

To sum things up: We were way, way understaffed. I had to do something about this so Niku, Ichika, and even I could get as much sleep as we needed...

Day 133

Niku must have fully recovered after resting a little more, as once I woke up she had stealthily returned to fulfill her duty as my dakimakura. She apparently snuck into my bed while I was sleeping. She sure is dedicated to her work. And she even replaced the blanket with a thinner one so it wouldn’t get too hot. She’s good.

I had talked a lot about us being understaffed, but we couldn’t just hire new people willy-nilly. Our inn was overflowing with secrets about our dungeon. Like how the light in Rokuko’s room is actually the Dungeon Core.

What could we do, then...? Well, I could buy slaves, like I did with Ichika, but I really doubted that I would find any hidden gems like her among the other slaves. Even so, I needed to get some extra employees somehow. With our current numbers, I wouldn’t really be able to take someone with me and leave the inn for any extended period of time. Despite having tunneled through the mountain, I still hadn’t taken Ichika to Pavella, for instance. Though we were getting a few visitors from Pavella traveling through the tunnel.

...They handed us fish and said “make me something with this!” but uh, I didn’t actually know how to cook. We were claiming that our inn had a chef named Kyousha doing all our cooking. He was a straightforward kind of guy that only made what he wanted to. Though we hadn’t actually told anyone about him yet since nobody was weird enough to demand to see the chef. Oh, right. It’d be nice if we could employ someone who actually knows how to cook. If they’re good enough to mimic the food I make with DP, all I’d have to do is give them some ingredients and the inn could operate without me. That’d give me more time to sleep, too.

And so, I decided to summon some new employees in the Master Room with Rokuko. The Master Room, a sort of subspace located within the Dungeon Core, was wide and large enough for us to summon a Dragon within it. But this time, we were summoning human-sized monsters. So we decided to just do the summoning in a corner.

“Alright, this time, I’m gonna summon some employees for our inn.”

“Okaaaay. Basically, you’re going to want monsters that look like humans, right?” Chloe, the butler that Haku traveled with, was in fact a monster known as a Succubus. What I wanted was a girl monster that looked like a normal person, had human intelligence, and preferably could cook. Also, good feet. And just putting it out there, I’m not summoning any male monsters exclusively out of deference to the sponsor of our dungeon (Haku). I’m not trying to make a harem here. I swear.

“But human-type monsters are really expensive. Do we have enough DP?”

“They are? Dang. If I wanted to do this cheaply, slaves would probably be the way to go.” So why was I intentionally buying expensive human-type monsters? Because monsters with human intelligence might have the power to use DP. Rather, they were probably so expensive precisely because they could use DP.

“Oh, I get it. Monsters that can use DP would be able to take care of the entire inn for us, even if we aren’t here.”

“Yep, that’s the idea. Anyway... I looked at the catalog, and yeah, I’m thinking we should go with some Succubi. They’re good fighters, which is nice, and they’re just generally competent around the board.”

“Not to mention that Chloe proves Succubi can be good helpers. That’s really comforting to know. But what about, ummm... Redra, was it? The Red Dragon. I think we could get a Dragon too, since they can turn into humans like that.”

“That’d be ideal in a lot of ways, but we don’t have enough DP to buy a Dragon that can turn into a human. Really, we couldn’t afford any worthwhile Dragon right now. And Redra still had a big tail after transforming. I’d like two or three helpers here, so...”

“Then Succubi won’t be an option either. They’re super expensive.” By the way, they were expensive enough that we’d use up basically all our DP buying them. Though that wouldn’t be a huge problem since we now had a stable DP income.

“Oh, I have an idea. Why don’t we make Phenny learn how to turn into a human? He’s still an egg, but Ittetsu promised to hatch him with Redra’s fire breath, right?”

“...Oh crap, I totally forgot about that.” About the egg—Redra went into a rampage just from seeing it, so I was keeping the egg with us until her trauma faded.

“Now should be a pretty good time for that. I’ll ask about it the next time I see them.”

“Hey, Keima? Once Phenny hatches, won’t he just rush you down and try to tear you apart?”

“...I mean, he’s an egg. I don’t think he’ll remember anything I did. Right?” Shivering a little, I shifted the conversation back on topic.

“Well, even if phoenixes can turn into humans, he’ll be a baby. That won’t be very useful.”

“That’s true. I wouldn’t know how to teach him that kind of thing anyway... Ah. These monster helpers won’t need to be good fighters, right?”

“Right. Managing the inn will be their main job, not fighting.”

“What about this, then?” Rokuko pointed at a [Vampire]... Wait, these things are crazy strong. They cost tons of DP.

“I noticed this while skimming the Catalog a while ago, but for some reason Vampires have a lot of variants. They’ve got like, pages of variants all on their own. And lower-ranked Vampires are super cheap.”

“A Lesser Vampire would probably be feral or something, so... oh wow, even a normal Vampire is pretty cheap. Only 30,000 DP. I could make that work.” It’d hurt my metaphorical wallet, but thinking about it in terms of how much we earned on a consistent basis, it wouldn’t be too bad. We’d recently stabilized to earning about 500 DP a day, so even if we used all our saved up DP at once, we would still be totally fine.

By the way, higher level Vampires cost a little over 10,000,000 DP. They were called True Ancestors.

“...But don’t Vampires turn to ash when they get hit by sunlight?”

“There’s a lot variants, but there’s even more customization options. See? It says ‘Immune to Sunlight’ right there.”

“Woah, woah, but that’s pretty expensive too. Now it’s 200,000 DP.”

“That’s what these options are for. Like, the option for how much attack power they have. They all change how much DP the changes cost, I think.” The attack power option had a maximum of 100% and a minimum of 0%.

“Okay, now watch when I set its attack to 0% as a test.” Rokuko fiddled with the menu to minimize her attack power, which in turn made the Immune to Sunlight option cost only 1DP. Woah, what? This is amazing. Not only that, but all the other weakpoint-canceling options were super cheap as well. Though classic, awesome vampire powers like turning into bats and the ability to use their blood as a weapon remained expensive.

“This is pretty interesting. Let’s test out some more options.”

“Right?”

And so, the result of us customizing the Vampire like crazy:

“...She doesn’t have any special powers, and she can’t fly or grow wings. She does have fangs in spirit, and no weak points, but thanks to that she has zero attack power. Is... Is this even a Vampire anymore?” She didn’t even need need to drink blood anymore. Really, she stopped being a vampire the second we made it such that she only needed to eat meat every once in a while to be fine. This Vampire was basically just a normal human... Wait, actually, even normal humans can do some decent damage. This girl isn’t even a human.

But thanks to all that, her cost had gone down from 30,000 DP to 15,000 DP. She cost about as much as a Lesser Vampire. Only weaker. Well... She wouldn’t be useful at all without human intelligence, so... Whether or not she’s even still a vampire may be up for debate, but I’ll keep her in mind. Might find a better monster, though.

“What about this Silky thing? Apparently it’s some kind of fairy spirit that does house chores and stuff.” Silkies. House spirits with beautiful appearances that helped the owners of their homes with chores. Good looks were a huge plus for inn employees. They had a reasonable price of 10,000 DP, too, since they weren’t very strong. This is a definite contender.

“Oh man, what about this one? A Zashiki-warashi. One costs 50,000 DP, but they look pretty good.” They were a spirit that brought good luck just by existing. One might even be a good poster girl for our inn, or something. Really draw those visitors in.

“That’s a luck spirit. But they’re invisible to everyone but kids and people with pure hearts, so...” Oh, man, that’s a problem. Our customers have got to be able to see our employees. Rejected. Too bad.

“There are Witches, too. How about them?”

“Witches, huh? Should be fine. They are human-type, after all... wait. Aren’t Witches just, like, straight up humans? What makes these Witches monsters?”

“Eh? Ummm, their magic stones, I guess?”

“Oh yeah. In this world, magic stones are what define a monster. I totally forgot.” Witches had a few variants as well. Apprentice Witch, Adult Witch, and Sorceress. Apprentices only cost 15,000 DP. Apparently, they each came with spells memorized from the start. Though Apprentices only got two Low-Tier spells.

“Really though, it might be a bit late for me to be asking about this, but I wonder how summoning these monsters with DP works. Do they get pulled out of some other dimension or whatever like I was? Or does the dungeon actually make the monster somehow?”

“I think it usually just makes the monsters with DP. You’re kind of a special exception Keima. And I mean... usually monsters obey when you give them an order, so.”

“Woah, what? Then why did I get summoned?”

“Maybe the gacha is just special? Really, I think you’re the weird one here, not the dungeon.” Don’t call me weird.

Anyway, I decided on the monsters I wanted to summon. A [Vampire (Customized)], a [Silky], and a [Witch (Apprentice)]. I decided to get one of each kind in order to see which I should summon more of in the future. I’ll just, uh... I’ll just pray that at least one of them is intelligent enough to interact with customers...

“Vampire, Silky, Witch! Summon!” A magic circle swooshed out from the middle of the room and expanded to fill it before shrinking back down to a circle in front of us about one meter wide. Then, three girls appeared above it.

First was a brown-haired girl with a distinctive robe and staff. Yeah, this has gotta be the Witch (Apprentice). She looks like a normal girl. I’m gonna be ticked if she looks this normal but still can’t talk or something.

Next was a girl in a green maid outfit with light green hair. This is probably the Silky. She’s got a maid outfit, so yeah. Silky. I doubt a vampire would come in a maid outfit. And really, I’m just glad she’s not half-transparent or whatever.

Last came a silver-haired girl wearing a black bondage suit. By process of elimination, this must be the Vampire. Though I don’t see any bat wings or fangs right now.

The three of them briefly floated above the magic circle, but soon gently sunk to the ground. The Vampire opened her eyes, silver hair so long it reached all the way down her back swaying behind her. Her sharp eyes, crimson like rubies, shifted to focus on Rokuko and me.

“Greetings, my Master...”

“She talked! She can talk!”

“Yay, Keima! She has human intelligence!”

“Eh? Um?” Oooh, the vampire’s getting confused! That means she’s thinking about what’s happening! She can think!

“What about you two? Can you both talk as well?”

“Huh, aaah... Yeeeep. Nice to meet youuu, Master.”

“Today begins our servitude under your rule. Please take good care of us, Master.” Seems like the Witch and Silky can talk, too. They can all talk...! They all have human intelligence! Plus, they all look like normal girls. This is a complete and total success. Hell yeah!

＊ ＊ ＊

The Vampire was absolutely devastated. She was sobbing and wailing incredibly loudly. Like, she was crying her absolute heart out. Reason being, she had realized how weak she really was and just couldn’t handle it. I’m not gonna pull any punches here. She’s weak enough that a single Goblin could beat her in a fight.

“N-No way...! Ngh, I-I’m weaker than a human...! Weaker than a Goblin! Me, a Vampire...! This is humiliating!” She sat on the ground and started beating her fists against the ground. But her given her attack power of zero, she was really just kinda weakly slapping it. Meanwhile, the Silky tried gently comforting her. She’s got a real motherly spirit. I kinda feel like I should start addressing her as “ma’am” now.

“...And my master is just a human... He definitely made me weak so he could force me into prostitution or something... I’ll never get to fight as a real monster...” Uh, nah, I’m not gonna do that. Though she’s right in that I didn’t summon her to fight as a monster.

Anyway, nothing good would come from leaving her there to be miserable. Having no other choice, I activated my Absolute Authority. Dungeon Masters were much higher on the authority totem pole than summoned monsters.

“Alright, it’s time for you three to listen to what I have to say. That’s an order.”

“Understood.” The three of them answered respectfully in unison. I feel like if I just said “Work at my inn pls, kthnx” they’d get depressed or something... Mmm, alright. I’ll just bring it up later.

“...Uhhh, first of all, I want to check a few things. State your race and names.”

“...I am a Vampire. I have no name.”

“I am a Silky. I don’t have a name.”

“I’m uuuh, an Apprentice Witch. Nooooo name here.”

Neat. Guess this is what happens when you don’t name your monsters. Unlike slaves that just abandoned their names, these monsters never even had one.

“Looks like I’ve gotta name you three, then.” The three monster girls all locked their eyes on me after hearing that. The Vampire in particular was looking at me with a shocked expression.

“Y-You’re going to grace us with the honor of becoming Named?!” Named. I guess that’s a thing. There must be something special about having a name. Time to ask Rokuko.

“Hm? Ummm, yeah, monsters feel special when they’re given a name. It’s a sign that the Dungeon Master really trusts them, and they usually work a lot harder to repay that trust. Remember Gobsuke? He worked hard for us, didn’t he?” Gobsuke was a Named Monster, huh? That’s a surprise. But, well... He sure did save our butts.

“Alright. I’m gonna start off by giving each of you names, but I’ll need some time to get everything ready. Wait here until I’m done. Rokuko, take care of ’em for me.”

“Eh? So, um, what do you want me to do?”

“...It’ll take me about half a day to get things ready. Keep them fed until then.” I left taking care of the monsters to Rokuko and shifted my focus to setting up an extravagant naming ceremony.

Heheh. I’ll give them names in a moment so moving they’ll remember it for the rest of their lives, and while they’re all emotional, I’ll tell them what their real job is! They’ll be so happy about getting names that they’ll jump at the chance to work in our inn!

Anyway, first thing’s first. I really need to spice up the Boss Room a bit. It’s just a blank stone cube right now, pretty much.

I decided to start with the throne. I wouldn’t be sitting on it very much, so looking imposing came before comfort. Thus, I built a heavy and imposing throne made of stone. I put it on top of a two-step staircase such that one could look down upon invaders while sitting. That was a major point. A Demon King could sit in a throne like this and nobody would blink an eye. It helped that it was a simple throne made of stone as well. I myself wouldn’t look bad sitting in it, like I would with a super cartoony and exaggerated throne.

Next was the stone “carpet” leading from the entrance to the throne. Since the room was made out of stone in the first place, I really just had to rearrange the stones to make it look like there was a special path from the door to the throne. Eh... Yeah, even being generous it’s pretty obviously just some stones turned to face the same direction, but that kind of makes this feel like a holy temple? Kind of? Everything’s just gray, though.

I then adjusted the walls and placed pillars throughout the room. They were just for show and not actually necessary, though. I tried making them look like the pillars of the Roman Pantheon... I think, uh... I think I succeeded? Maybe? Kinda?

Finally, I made weapon-wielding Golem statues using stone from the walls. I went ahead and turned their weapons into real, usable Golem Blades.

Whew. I got so inspired that I actually worked kinda hard. I gotta get a grip.

“Keima, how’s it go—woooah! This place looks super cool now!”

“Honestly, you thinking that makes me lose all confidence in it.”

“Eh?! But why?! That should give you confidence, not make you lose it.”

“I mean, you’re a weirdo who loves Goblins, right? For all I know, your standards for what’s cool or not revolve around Goblins...”

“Now that’s just being mean. I think Dragons and stuff are cool too, just like everyone else.” Oooh, Dragons, huh? Dragons are definitely cool. Now that I’ve seen a real Red Dragon at work, maybe I should get around to building a Dragon Golem. Though I’d really want to give it the power to breathe fire.

...Aaah, but it’d definitely be way weaker than the real thing. Especially since the strongest material I have right now is like, iron. That really hurts my enthusiasm. But! I’ll keep it in mind. Maybe I should build some practice Dragon Golems so I can make a real good one in the future when I can afford better materials. Plus, I did finish the Iron Haniwa Golem boss recently, so... guess I can make the next boss be an Iron Dragon Golem.

“Oh, right. I should call them over now. Everyooone! Get in positiooon!”

“I’ll go get Niku and Ichika while you finish getting the Golems ready.”

And so, after lining the Golems up, I started the naming ceremony for the newcomers.

＊ ＊ ＊

I told them their duty at the naming ceremony. Rei, the Vampire, let out a stunned cry. I ignored it.

“M-Master. What do you mean, employees of your inn?” Rei asked for clarification with a shaky voice. Well, I mean. Anyone with a little brainpower could figure out a monster with zero attack power wouldn’t be summoned to do any fighting. But maybe she’s misunderstanding something. I should explain in a little more detail for them.

“My dungeon runs an inn for humans, and I needed employees to deal with customers. Basically, you three are all possible candidates for some newly opened positions of power in my dungeon. Keep that in mind.”

“Are you telling us to grovel before the humans and serve them?”

“Don’t take it in a weird way. Now... Let’s be clear. Are you going to refuse my orders? If you can’t bear to work with the humans, say so.” I’ll need to give her another job if she would really hate working in the inn.

Rei fell silent to ponder my question. Kinue the Silky remained still with the same peaceful smile as her expression, while Neruneh the Apprentice Witch was staring off into space as if she didn’t understand what anyone was saying. Uh... I’m getting kind of worried now.

“No, I won’t refuse. I will accept with honor any order you give me...!” Rei looked at me with determination in her eyes. Hell yeah, just as planned. I knew holding a naming ceremony would be worth it.

I told Ichika to step in front of them.

“...This is Ichika. She’s my slave and has been working in the inn for a while. Listen to what she says as if her words are my own.”

“Sup, I’m Ichika. Let’s work the hell out of that inn, my dudes.”

“O-Okay...? Wha? You’re a human, aren’t you? And a slave...?”

“Understood. We will be in your care, Lady Ichika.”

“Ummm, yeah, sounds gooood. Let’s be friends, Lady Ichiiikaaa.”

Rei seems like kind of a hardass. Kinue’s probably gonna be the best worker out of them. Neruneh, uh... I dunno. I just don’t know.

...Huh. I created all three of them through DP, but they’re all pretty different. Is that a species thing or what?

“And thus ends the naming ceremony!” I spun around, cape fluttering behind me, and disappeared into the Core Room. Rokuko could take care of the rest. I, being sleepy, was gonna go to bed. But before that.

“Ichika. Teach them how to manage the front desk first.”

“You got it, boss man. C’mon, girls! It’s time for you all to learn about money!” Ichika walked off with the three monster girls. Ichika should be able to handle training them on her own, more or less. She knew her multiplication tables and all that good stuff. Once she finished teaching them how to manage the front desk, I could have Ichika work in the kitchen instead. Which meant teaching her {Storage} too, maybe. Right. I’ll think about rewarding her hard work training them by teaching her the spell {Storage}.

“Hey, Keima. Do you have any uniforms for them?” Rokuko brought that up after we went to the Core Room. Oh crap... I forgot about their uniforms. I used DP to buy a few of the [Maid Outfits] that our Dancing Doll Inn was using as its uniform and handed them to Rokuko. I went ahead and got one for Mrs. Kinue too, just in case. She has her own green maid outfit, but... wait, did I just say Mrs. Kinue? Crap.

“Also, are they going to sleep in the inn too? Or in the dungeon?”

“...I, uh, I didn’t think about that either. Good thinking, Rokuko. That’s why you’re my partner. Here. Pat pat.”

“H-Hold up! I’m not Niku, head pats won’t make me happy. Do you think I’m a kid or something?” Judging by the way you’re smiling right now, yes. You’re pretty much a kid.

Anyway, guess I need to make an employee dorm or something. Best thing to do here is just expand on the existing inn. I’ll get to work after a nap. Ngh... I just keep losing more and more sleep time...!

Day 134

I took Rokuko and the three new hires outside of the inn.

“This is where you three are gonna be rooming.” The spot was only about a minute’s walk away from the front entrance, in the direction of the dungeon. By the way, I had them sleep in the inn last night as a means of getting accustomed to where they would be working.

“You’re going to make them sleep outside? They’re monsters, so that won’t kill them or anything, but...”

“Nah, I definitely wouldn’t make my employees sleep outside. I’m gonna be building a little dorm here.”

“Hmmm... So, what’s up with the mask?” I had put on my Narikin mask to hide my true identity while building the dorm. There was the Guild branch office right across from the inn, and I wanted to be safe even if someone in there saw what I was doing. Okay? I have a good reason for using this mask. Don’t look at me with those sad eyes, Rokuko.

“You’re using your precious DP on us? Thank you very much.”

“Huh? No way, that’d be a waste. I’m definitely in major saving mode right now since I spent a ton of DP on you three.”

“Eh?!” Rokuko and I started building in front of the monster girls.

First up was making a hallway to to the inn. I manipulated wood with {Create Golem} to open a hole in the inn’s wall and set it up for the hallway. Fast and easy.

Next was the building itself. I had thought about preparing the walls and ceiling beforehand so I only had to connect them, but then I realized if I just built the entire building and hallway within the dungeon in the first place, all I had to do after that was connect it to the inn. In other words, I was using a modular building system. Just like space stations did.

With Rokuko’s power, we could take the fully constructed building and hallway out of the Master Room and place them wherever we wanted. That’s our Dungeon Core for you. All we had to do after that was put the pieces together.

What’s the inside of the building look like? A bunch of two-tatami mat sized rooms with a bed and dresser in each. Of course, everything inside was made with {Create Golem}. So convenient.

I had Rokuko take out the modules before connecting them with {Create Golem} and some nearby wood. I put a lot of effort into making this expansion seem like it had always been a part of the inn, and... done. Though that effort was mostly wasted since my mask disguise would hide my identity even if someone saw us.

Construction took about three minutes total. That was probably as fast as possible, given our current restraints.

“...Alright, all done.” This module-based building should let me add to the inn without closing it down or anything. Nice.

“Your magic is always so useful, Keima. So... About that mask...”

“Really, it’s just {Create Golem} that’s so useful. I’ve got nothing to do with it. And you too, Rokuko.” Though, technically speaking, I can only modify spells to do what I want thanks to the auto translating skill that god gave me when reincarnating. With that in mind, {Create Golem} is indeed only so useful because I’m the one using it. Normally it can only make Clay Golems, basically.

“So, about that mask...”

“I’m Narikin right now. Whenever I put on this mask, I’m disguising myself as Narikin. Try not to break my cover.”

“...Ah, right, okay. I’ll keep that in mind.” Ah, stop. Don’t look at me like I’m a dumb kid.

Anyway, I hadn’t heard anything from the three monster girls since I started. I turned around and saw the Witch Apprentice Neruneh glancing between me and the building with shining eyes. The other two were staring slack-jawed at the building. I meant that literally, too. Their jaws were loose and their mouths were hanging open. I’d probably look like that too if I saw someone construct a building in three minutes from seemingly nothing.

I looked at them and awaited a response. As expected, Neruneh was the first one to snap out of her shock.

“You’re amazing, Master! I’ll do anything, so please, become my teacher!” Oh? Anything, hm...? Now, now. Neruneh. Girls shouldn’t make promises like that so easily.

“I’ll even give you my body if you want, so please! Aaaah... Wait, I already belong to you, Masteeer...”

“...Uh, how about you start off learning to work the front desk and we take things from there?”

“Thank you very much, Master!”

...Welp, guess I’m her teacher now. I kinda got caught off guard by how serious she was, but it might be smart to rotate between using her and Niku as my daki. It must be hard on Niku doing that every single night with no breaks. Splitting the load should help her out.

Wait, no. I can’t be a magic teacher, I barely know any magic. The only spells I know are one of each beginner and two Mid-Tier spells, and I’m leaving the actual chanting to the auto-translator. I’m pretty confident I won’t be able to teach her a single thing. Telling her to spend every other night as my daki while teaching her jack diddly squat would basically be equivalent to handing someone a bundle of counterfeit bills where only the outer one is real. That’s not how I roll.

I’m not disappointed to lose her as a daki. I’m not feeling like total garbage right now. I didn’t summon her to do that kind of thing. I’m fine like this. I’m fine. Though this will mean Niku’s still all on her own... I’ve gotta be careful and make sure she doesn’t collapse again.

My thoughts were interrupted by the other two monster girls snapping out of their shock.

“I see that you are no mere human, Master... I suppose that you are a monster summoned by an extremely powerful wizard?”

“This certainly seems like a building worth cleaning. More rooms... More...”

Heh, watch it, Rei. I’m just a normal human. Well, I’m a Dungeon Master, but yeah.

Just like you’d expect from a Silky, Kinue basically lived for doing chores. She said the building was “worth cleaning” likely because Silkies tended to clean everything by hand without relying on Survival Magic simply because they loved cleaning so much. The maid outfit they were born with wasn’t just for show.

Anyway, I successful killed two birds with one stone by showing the newbies my power as Dungeon Master while simultaneously expanding the inn. I could leave everything else to Ichika and finally get to sleep. Only wake me up if something really weird is happening, please.

So, working as a receptionist wasn’t actually that hard. The hardest part about it was doing the mental math when calculating prices and such. But none of the math was hard enough that you couldn’t scrape by with basic counting skills. Or to say it in Earth terms, even an elementary schooler could handle it no problem.

...There was a time when I thought that, anyway. A distant, distant time...

There were people in this world that couldn’t read, and there were people that couldn’t do elementary school-tier math. Really, more people couldn’t do math than could.

“Two times two is four... Two times two is four...”

“What is two times two?”

“.........Eight?”

“That’s proooobably it! Now Master will start teaching me magic, yaaay!”

“I’m afraid the answer is six, you two.”

All three of the monster girls were idiots. You were JUST saying it equals four. This Vampire’s just treating multiplication tables like a spell incantation, she’s not understanding them at all.

“Well, that’s that, Master. Whaddya think we should do?” Ichika had turned to me for help after witnessing their complete failure.

“...Uh. I guess multiplication tables might be too much for them.” Makes sense, the numbers they’re saying are technically in Japanese. Must be harder to learn that way. Really, it’s impressive that Niku and Ichika memorized them. They must have really pushed themselves.

“Oh yeah, dude, I already knew a little multiplication, but what really helped is how my collar squeezed harder the longer I took to memorize them. That was hella motivating.”

“Woah, what?! Dang, my bad... You can have as many curry rolls as you want today. Seconds, thirds, fourths, whatever.”

“Oooh! You sure know how to treat a girl right!” I’ve gotta remember to let Niku eat as many hamburgers as she wants.

Anyway, now my job is to make being a receptionist so easy even these three could handle it. Luckily, they can read, so using the menu to check prices and so on is fully within their abilities. The math is the real problem here.

“...Right. I’ll make a calculator.” I just had to make something like an electric calculator, or a cash register. It’d be nice if I could just buy one with DP, but there was no electricity in this world, and machine-like things weren’t shown in the Catalog in the first place. Guess I have to make one on my own!

And so, I made one. It took five hours and ten minutes to build. Just gotta have the three monster girls try it out.

“This is an [Abacus].”

“How does one use it?”

Rather than making it look like the abacuses used in modern Japan, I designed it such that it would be easy for denizens of another world to understand how it works, which meant putting nine balls each on a total of eight rows. It would let them calculate any transaction, as long as it didn’t surpass ten thousand gold coins. Plus, I exploited its nature as a Golem to its maximum extent, basically making it a magic tool.

“What’s the price of five people staying the night and ordering four D-Rank lunches and one C-Rank lunch?”

“Th-The balls are moving on their own...?! Six, five, zero... Six hundred and fifty coppers!”

“This is quite impressive... You can read this as six silvers and fifty coppers as well.”

“You’re amaaazing, Master!”

Basically, the abacus would automatically do the calculations after hearing voice commands. Building the abacus took ten minutes. Teaching it the prices of rooms and meals took five hours.

Ichika nudged my shoulder while the three monster girls became absorbed with the abacus.

“Heeey, Master. Can you make these ball-thingies show the numbers directly?”

“Huh? What are you thinking?”

“Basically, I’m thinkin’...” To summarize Ichika’s idea, she wanted numbers written along a spinning cylinder like a slot machine. All I can say is, of all people to be familiar with slot machines and so on, I’m not surprised it was the girl who gambled so much she ended up a slave. However...

“...Slots? What’re those, dude?”

“Huh? You don’t know what slots are?” Apparently, there were no slots in this world. Whiiich meant... she just thought up plans for a slot machine on the spot. Is she a genius? She must be a genius.

“So, slots are like... you press a button and bet on all the images matching up. If they don’t match up, you get nothing, and if they do match up, you win.”

“Woah! I totally wanna try that...” Ichika smiled a warm smile. If I didn’t know she was thinking about slots, she would probably look like a young girl smiling gently while thinking of her lover. She must really love gambling.

Hm... Should I try building some? They might help attract more visitors, surprisingly enough. I could put them in the recreation building... but first came sleeping. I worked five hours straight getting that Golem thing to calculate numbers on its own, after all.

“Anyway, you three. Get used to using the [Abacus] and work the main desk with it. I’ll make a version with numbers if I ever feel like it.”

“Understood!” All three of them replied in enthusiastic unison. Looks like our employee shortage has been taken care of.

Day 137

We had gotten more employees. And not just any employees, but hard workers that would never betray our dungeon. I would definitely be “hiring” more like them eventually. Which, in turn, meant that we could manage an even larger dungeon. For now, I was just expanding the dungeon around the mountain and towards Tsia City. Basically as much as possible without running into the [Flame Caverns] below.

I was expanding the actual dungeon as well, but if I didn’t separate each floor distinctly, it’d be a lot harder to deal with invaders. The [Great Tsia Mountain Tunnel] initially only had one floor, so the second someone stepped into it I couldn’t modify it at all. I had to hurriedly place a bunch of blocks to separate parts of the dungeon. Apparently verticality wasn’t an issue with defining floors, they just had to be separate. At this point, I don’t even really know what a floor is.

But either way, it cost 5,000 DP to set something as a floor. I was making more money than before, but that was a pretty hefty cost. I wonder how many days’ worth of DP that was. Most of the adventurers that came to our dungeon were E, D, or C-Rank. They naturally gave us 30 to 80 DP a day each. A single party had 2-5 people in it, and 2-3 parties would generally be exploring the dungeon at any given time. Their DP intake doubled when they locked their door, and including how much they paid for their rooms... Yeah, this is too complicated. Should I start making a ledger for all this? Eh... sounds annoying. I’ll just hope that the menu gains some sweet new functions someday.

Though in the end, calculating income at all was basically a waste of time since Haku would drop tons of money and give Rokuko a huge DP tip whenever she visited. She was really loose with her money. She had also taken a strong liking to Cream Sodas, and would order one after she arrived, one with every meal, one after exiting the bath, and one before bed. She paid an entire gold coin for each one, and if I had Rokuko bring her the drink, she gave a 5,000 DP tip as well. Basically... She coddles her little sister way too much.

Anyway, I decided to expand the floor count and get the Boss Room deeper underground. The puzzle area remained undefeated, but if someone did get through, the only defenses I had waiting was a bunch of Golems. That wasn’t safe. Like, there could be adventurers specialized in taking down Golems. There could be some guy who was literally invincible when it came to fighting Golems. He’d win every time he fought a Golem. If a guy like that beat the puzzle area, our little [Cave of Greed] would be completely defenseless.

I was in the middle of worrying about all that when suddenly Rokuko came up and...

“Hey, Keima. I want to play with the dungeon too. Actually, it’s my dungeon. You should let me mess around with it too.” She came up and said all that, so I let her do whatever she wanted with the next area. I mean... The puzzle area still hasn’t been beaten, so I’m sure this will be fine. I’m sure.

So, I decided to do something else with my time instead. That being expanding the inn.

I tried thinking about what our Dancing Doll Inn was lacking. I was pretty confident that our beds and food were top-class even on a global scale. People came to our inn for the dungeon, and the onsen was always there to help them recover from a hard day of spelunking. Everything worked together perfectly.

...But we were still missing something. Entertainment. And not in a sexy way, either. We may need brothels or something in the future, but I wanted to avoid that kind of thing for now. We had way too many lolis running around. Think of the children! Plus, Rokuko was Rokuko. Haku would probably kill me if I exposed Rokuko to the horrors of the sex industry or something.

I had prepared a recreation building, but visitors basically had to bring their own things to do. I think it’d be better if I actually put something in there for them to do.

And so, I settled on making some slot machines. They could just sit on their own without anyone managing them, and they’d earn us some cash. Slot machines were a perfect way to entertain people while taking their money.

Visually, they would look like giant boxes with spinning... drum-like things in the top middle. I made all the parts with {Create Golem} and then added a lever to give it spinning power.

I kinda just winged it for the insides and really just half-assed a way to make the lever spin the drums when pulled down. My main focus was making it spin only once you pulled down the lever pretty far, rather than by pulling it at all. That gave each spin a lot more oomph.

It was the Drum Golem’s job to figure out whether or not the images on the drums matched after they stopped. It was also the Golem’s job to pay money if they did match. As a bonus, I made it such that the drums would stop on their own after slowing down enough. I even included a button that allowed the customer to stop them early. But naturally, I set the drums to intentionally avoid lining up for a big win most of the time. Only rarely would they actually allow the customer to win the biggest prize. It would happen every now and again, but this way, our inn would always earn more money.

...What, you think that’s cheap? You think I’m ripping them off? C’mon, I’m not running a charity here. This is how all casinos work. And anyway, let me give a big shoutout to {Create Golem} for making it easy to build such a complex machine. So convenient. Even if someone took one of the machines apart to figure out how they work, the insides are so half-assed that they’d have to conclude they’re just magic tools. Very nice.

Anyway, after finishing a test model of one, I called Ichika over. This would be a good opportunity for the newbies to get used to manning the front desk, especially since not many visitors usually came around this hour.

“So. This is a slot machine. Give it a test play for me. Here’s five hundred coppers to start with.”

“Oooh! So this is a slot machine, huh! Leave everything to me, I’m gonna double your money!” I mean, we’re the ones paying out here, so it’s all just our money.

“I get it, I get it... Just gotta put the coppers in this hole and pull the lever. Here we go...” Ichika put three clanking coins into the machine and pulled the lever with a thunk. The drums started to spin quickly.

“Oooh, they’re spinning! Wooow, and if I press this button, they stop. Boop!” Thunk, thunk, thunk. The drums stopped after she pressed the button.

“Ooooh. So... Did I win?”

“Nah, the images don’t match up. Try again.”

“Mmm, ’kay.” Ichika put more coppers in and got to spinning. Huh. This feels kinda bland somehow. Maybe I should try and make everything more flashy? Like get music playing or something?

“UWOOOOOH! MATCH, MATCH, MATCH DAMNIIIIT! GAAAH! SO CLOSE!”

One hour later.

She had gotten a few early successes that put her above the initial 500 coppers, but by this point she had lost enough that she only had 50 left. She was playing the slots so hard I was kind of worried that she would break the machine. Guess I don’t need to worry about making it more flashy. I’ll spruce things up if people ever get bored of this model. Aaand... I’ll make the next ones out of metal. Ichika’s squeezing the box so hard I can hear the wood creaking.

“Ichika. That’s enough playtesting for now.”

“N-No way! I-I still have money left, dude! I-I’m just about to turn things around! L-Like, I was a single image off getting the grand thousand copper prize! Doesn’t that make you wanna roll again?! I’ll win next time for sure! For sure!” Aaah, yeah, she’s an addict. She’s the exact kind of person who would take out a loan due to gambling too much, and then try to pay back that loan by gambling. And she didn’t get better even after literally getting enslaved because of it. The addiction runs deep.

“Sorry, but you won’t be winning big. I made the machine such that it actively avoids that. It’ll barely ever let the grand prize images match.”

“You... what...?” Ichika hung her head, crestfallen, face drenched with despair. Yeah, I honestly never thought I’d see someone so devastated from losing four hundred and fifty-six coppers.

“...I probably shouldn’t make the machine be so obviously unfair. I can earn money elsewhere, so it won’t be too big of a deal if people win the slots some more. Thanks, you really helped me out here.”

“Ngh... I was just dancing on your palm the whole time, huh, Master...? Gaaah...!”

“Don’t worry, I’m not gonna make you pay back the money you lost or anything. Though I will be taking back what you have left.”

“Aaaah...! Ngh, f-fine, whatever...!”

Seriously though, she really got into it. I doubt most people will be as much of a gambling addict as she is, but anyway, it should be safe to make about three of these and put them in their own room. Slots, dice, and cards should be entertainment enough for now.

# Rei’s Perspective

“...Nothing’s happening today, either.”

I, the Vampire Rei... am a monster. A monster’s duty is to be summoned by a dungeon and fight off invaders for it. And yet, my current duty is to serve the invaders.

I recently was given the name Rei, and thus became a Named Monster. To monsters, being Named is something very special. Some monsters are turned into bosses on the basis of their name alone. And yet, my duty is to work as a receptionist in an inn. A junior receptionist, even. I really would like to repay the dungeon for blessing me with a name during such a grand ceremony, but I honestly feel very let down by all this. What I really want to do is mow down these invaders. Crush their skulls and offer their corpses to the dungeon, earning it DP.

However. Lord Keima, the Dungeon Master, is a human. In other words, he very likely chose to survive by sucking up to his fellow humans, rather than fighting them as most dungeons do... No. Surely he is just sharpening his fangs until he’s strong enough to resist them in full. He usually acts all sleepy and such, but his destructive aura was truly overwhelming during the naming ceremony. Just thinking about his exquisite yet tasteful silver armor and clear, glittering sword is enough to make me want to swear loyalty to him all over again.

And yet, he ordered me to work as an inn receptionist.

“Haaah...” I open the window in the room given to me and look up to the sky. The weather is poor, with the sun shining brightly.

I think about myself as the sun’s rays pour down on me. I’m a vampire, but sunlight doesn’t affect me at all. Normally, vampires have many weaknesses. But a True Ancestor is invincible. They display overwhelming physical and magical strength, boldly walking the lands whether it be the darkest night or the brightest day. That is a True Ancestor—the origin of all vampires and an unbeatable monster.

Sometimes, normal vampires will be largely immune to one weakness common to their race. Those are known as True Descendants among vampires. And I happen to be one of them. In fact, I am immune to all weaknesses, much like an actual True Ancestor. That would practically make me a True Ancestor myself... if the blessings were not cursed by the lack of any attack power whatsoever.

Rather, I cannot use any of the powers normally afforded to vampires. I am the same as a human. No, I’m even weaker than a human. My attack power is lower than even a Goblin’s, after all.

I sigh to myself again.

At first, I wondered what use our master would have for a monster with no attack power. When he brought up the inn, I assumed he would have me work as a faux Succubus. But in reality, my job is to sit behind the inn’s front desk and occasionally inform customers of the price for a room, take their money, and give them back change. That’s it. This abacus thing even does all the math for me when it comes to the price and the change. All I have to do is make sure I hand over the right number of coins.

It’s a job so easy I have to question whether I’m even important. But in return for doing that job anyone in the world could do, I’m given delicious food and this nice room. The food is apparently the same thing that Master and Lady Rokuko eat. I don’t feel that my work deserves such rewards. It might even be accurate to say that I and the other summoned monsters are being given more favorable treatment than our progenitors, as we were given our own rooms in a special building whereas Ichika and Niku sleep within the inn.

...I do not understand what my master is thinking. Are we mere pets to him? No. Even pets have the duty of comforting their owner. That makes me lower than a pet. This is... not good. As a proud vampire, I cannot let this situation stand. My pride demands that I be useful to my master. Yet here I am, doing nothing despite being blessed with a name.

I hear a knock on my door. Who could it be? Who else could it be but the Silky, Kinue?

Neruneh the Apprentice Witch is learning magic from Niku, in order to grow strong enough to learn from Master himself. That’s what she must be doing now. If Master or Lady Rokuko had business with me, they would just contact me through the dungeon’s communication function. Ichika doesn’t know the meaning of the word “knock” and would already be shouting out my name. And finally, this “Employee Dorm” forbids access to non-employees, which leaves only Kinue.

“Rei, I would like to clean your room, if you don’t mind.”

“...Kinue. You know that {Purification} can clean my room in an instant. Why are you going out of your way to bring cleaning utensils?”

“If all cleaning could be done with {Purification}, cleaning utensils wouldn’t even exist.”

“Well, that is true...” For some reason, Kinue wants to clean without using {Purification}. I’m vaguely aware that Silkies are a race of monsters that like to clean, thanks to the knowledge ingrained in my head when Master created me, but she just cleaned my room not too long ago. Though I don’t mind having a clean room, so I don’t mind too much.

“I will now begin cleaning. Please vacate the premises until I am finished.” And so, I was driven out of my own room.

...I have nothing to do. Mmm.

Now that I think about it, Kinue is both cleaning in the inn and studying how to cook. Neruneh is studying magic... I imagine she will be a big help to the inn somehow once she learns more magic. I’m the only one here who’s just... useless. This isn’t good. At this rate, the only path left to me will soon be servicing him at night...

“Heheheh. You’re a vampire. That makes you a real ‘creature of the night,’ yeah?”

“Aaah, no! Please give my clothes back!”

“Hmph. This is the only way I can get any use out of a waste of food and space like you.”

...Ngh, just thinking about that is making me blush. I couldn’t refuse him either way because he’s my master, but I really do want to help the inn however I can. Nothing will come from standing still in front of my room, so I may as well take a walk around the inn. I dislike being out in sunny weather, but it’s perfect for my gloomy mood right now.

I come across a farm after walking for a little while. It’s one of the farms Master has Golems harvesting. He grows several kinds of crops here, but they’re currently harvesting sugar beets to make sugar with. Hm... Maybe I could help with the harvesting? Let’s see.

“.........”

...There’s nowhere for me to help. It’s all simple work Golems can easily do. And since I don’t have the authority to order the Golems around, I’d just get in their way if I tried to help. Not to mention that helping in the first place would be pointless since Golems don’t get tired.

Grrr. I can’t even help here.

I continue walking.

Eventually, I reach the [Great Tsia Mountain Tunnel]. Mmmm... Coming here was pretty pointless. It costs money to enter the tunnel, and there’s no reason for me to enter it in the first place.

...Ah, a trader just came out. He’s carrying a massive bag and looks like a trader-adventurer. Most traders passing through here are bringing salt from Pavella to sell in Tsia. They then buy wooden goods, dry food, and so on, which they then sell back in Pavella.

Maybe I could make money by doing something like that too... wait, or not. I’m not good enough at math for that. I need the abacus’s help to do anything... Ngggh, I really need to study until I can do “multiplication tables,” or whatever those chants were. Ah, but I need to properly learn addition and subtraction before that.

I’m just not good at math... Maybe there’s something else I can do...

I’ll try asking Master if there’s anything I can help with the next time I see him. Aaah, geez. I really hate being useless like this. I don’t want to repay the honor of receiving a name by being a burden on him.

# Keima’s Perspective — Day 138

It’s a bit late for me to be realizing this, but did I really need to make them swear loyalty to me when I have Absolute Authority? Eh... I guess it was important. They’ll work a lot harder if they’re actually loyal to me and all that. Definitely. For sure. That naming ceremony wasn’t a waste of time at all... for sure, definitely! Maybe! Anyway, time to check on our dungeon.

As of yet, nobody had died in our dungeon... or at least, that’s what I’d like to say, but the world was not so kind. Just like you’d expect from a real dungeon, several E-Rank adventurers had already died inside of it. Being rookies, a lot of them had just let their guard down, walked right into a trap, and bam. Dead, just like that. But it was safe enough that you wouldn’t die if you kept your guard up, so in many ways it was the perfect dungeon for beginners to get their feet wet and prove themselves in. That was our [Cave of Greed] for you. A nice beginner dungeon.

Anyway, there was a big hullabaloo going on in one of the Magic Blade testing rooms. The first one had been so popular that I added three more, and apparently an adventurer that had come to our dungeon after hearing rumors of it containing Magic Blades had gotten stuck in one. Apparently, he hadn’t heard about the trap from the Guild before venturing into the dungeon. I really wouldn’t mind just letting him starve to death in there, but it would probably be better to “save” him like I did the others and reap the rewards. Not that I could expect much in return from the kind of idiot who wouldn’t even do basic research at the Guild before entering a dangerous dungeon. They were telling anyone who would listen about how to get out of the trap room.

Oh, one of them just said “I’m the third son of the Rich family, Dorasan! I am not going to die in a place like this! Do something!” Guess he’s a noble. I could expect a lot of reward money from him, but I get the feeling nothing good would come from getting involved with him. He’d probably be a huge pain in the ass to deal with. Entering a dungeon means being prepared for the consequences. Including death. I’ll just let him starve in there unless the Guild posts a lot of sweet reward money.

Though judging by how his partners are getting pissed off at him, he might just die mysteriously before starving. I mean, this is a dungeon. There’s nothing odd about someone dying in a dungeon. Corpses get absorbed by the dungeon, so there won’t be any evidence. There’s an infinite number of excuses you could come up with. He activated a trap that killed him instantly, there was nothing we could do. I was busy fighting a monster, and by the time I killed it another had already gotten him. It sure helps that there are no witnesses in the trap room. They’ve all got weapons, too. Yeah, I’m looking forward to some sweet DP.

Paying customers are God. But we’re Buddhists here, not Christians. Praise Buddha.

Oh, but it looks like there are some other adventurers in the labyrinth area, not just me. They might hear all this noise, too. Guess I should subtly modify the dungeon so the room’s harder to find. Heheheh. Someone in there just said “Help should be coming soon,” but y’know, I’m not so sure about that. I bet a nobleman’s guards are worth a lot of DP.

Suddenly, my dungeon monitoring got interrupted by Rei walking up to me with a serious look on her face. She had something important to talk about, apparently.

“So, what’s up?”

“Well... I want to help the dungeon more! I’ll do anything, so please, give me a noble duty to fulfill!” Rei looked at me straight in the eyes. Seriously? When did she turn into such a corporate sla— Wait, this is a dungeon. Dungeon slave, not corporate.

When did she turn into such a dungeon slave? This... This must be thanks to the naming ceremony! Though honestly, all I really want her to do is work the front desk. That’s more than enough on its own, really.

“I want to be helpful to the dungeon, just like Kinue and Neruneh are. For the dungeon’s sake, and for yours, Master!”

“...I mean, you manning the front desk is already a big help, y’know?”

“You do not need to lie for my sake, Master. I am undoubtedly a failure of a vampire. So much of a failure that I cannot even count a few copper coins properly...” Hey, don’t worry about that. I’m just glad I found a way to automate the pricing stuff. It’s like a register... Wait, wait. I made the slot machine deposit coins on its own... Maybe I could make an actual, completely automated register...

But anyway. A job for Rei, huh? I gotta admit, there’s not too much a vampire with no special abilities or attack power can do. I know I summoned her that way myself, but I really hadn’t planned on her being anything more than an inn employee. Hm... Maybe I can think of something. I looked down from Rei’s serious gaze and noticed that I had left the map up.

...Wait a second. You can order monsters around without being strong yourself. I ordered Golems around long-distance back during the last Dungeon Battle no problem. I wonder if Rei could do that too? Actually, can Rei even make the menu pop up? It’d be nice if, like, the menu let me give others restricted usage of it or something. She is a dungeon monster, after all. If you can’t let others use the menu too, I have no idea how assigning subordinates to sub-dungeons would work.

“Master, is there truly nothing I can do for you...?”

“Ah. Sorry, sorry. Gimme just a minute. I’m thinking of a good job for you to do.” I searched the menu.

...Oh, there it is! I figured it would be here, but I’m still surprised! Leeet’s see here, restricted usage privileges... I can choose Gobsuke, Phenny, Rei, Kinue, and Neruneh... wait, why Gobsuke?! The others are all white, why is his grey?! Oh craaap. Can I not remove Named Monsters from lists like this? Dang. We better stop giving away names like candy. I don’t want these kinds of things to end up super disorganized.

Since Niku and Ichika aren’t in the list, I guess having some kind of connection to the dungeon is essential. Oh, Testle’s not here either. Maybe ’cause I made him through {Create Golem}?

“Alright. You’re gonna be helping me with a little experiment.”

“U-Understood! I am a vampire, so I should have a stronger body than most humans! You may be as rough with me as you like, I do not mind!”

With her permission, I experimentally gave Rei restricted access to the menu. Seemed like there were a lot of specific options I could use to customize how much access she had. I set the range of her access to the dungeon, plus the inn, and... Wait, “Limit DP Usage?” H-Hold on, this has been here the whole time? This means I don’t have to summon all the food myself, right?! Holy crap! I should have looked into this sooner! Though, maybe all this only showed up because I’ve Named over five monsters.

Gaaah, permission granted, permission granted! No limits on buying any item purchasable with existing DP! Permission granted! I’ll just treat any monster that can use the menu as like, a dungeon administrator or something. I originally summoned these three monster girls intending for them to be higher ups in the dungeon, so... if Rei does well with this, I’ll give Kinue and Neruneh menu access too.

“Alright, let’s see it. Show me what you can do.”

“Huh?! S-See what... m-my boobs?! You want to see my boobs?!”

“What? No. The menu. Show me the menu.” Why the heck did this girl suddenly start blabbering about boobs?

“F-Forgive me. You were staring at my chest while pointing at them and poking the air, so...” Uh... Oh yeah. Other people can’t see the menu. Crap, I just looked like a total pervert.

Wait. Thinking about this another way... Could I get away with staring at a girl’s feet by claiming I was looking at the menu? Ah, nah, ultimately I’d still just look like a guy staring at her feet. Gonna have to give this dream up.

“I brought up the menu! I see, you can make the menu visible or invisible to certain people! You must have been looking at an invisible menu!”

“That’s right.” And so, she gained the ability to bring up the menu. She could now monitor the dungeon and give orders to the monsters within it. Vampires are supposed to be skilled warriors, so I figured she would probably do a good job directing them.

“Okay. I want you to help me out with the dungeon.”

“Yes! As you wish, Master!” C’mon. You’re really starting to sound like a sex slave or something. I didn’t summon you for that! I swear!

Afterwards, I confirmed that I could restrict and expand her access at will. She seemed pretty overjoyed to be helping with the dungeon, so I was pretty glad that the access restrictions didn’t end up becoming permanent. But don’t worry. Even if you ended up completely useless and incapable of using the menu, I wouldn’t have abandoned you.

Day 139

“By the way, Keima. Why haven’t we hatched Phenny’s egg yet?” Rokuko dropped that bomb after visiting my room to hang out. Oh crap. I totally forgot about that.

“N-Now that you mention it... Redra’s probably gotten over her egg trauma at this point, so now’s as good a time as ever. I’ll go pay them a visit.”

“Oh, wow. She really got traumatized by your egg strategy? I guess it makes sense you waited this long, then.”

“Yep, yep. It makes total sense.”

“...Keeeimaaaa?”

“I forgot. Sorry.” Crap, Rokuko’s gotten way better at seeing through me. I used to trick her like it was nothing. I miss those times. What happened?

“...I’m your partner. I’m always watching you, Keima, so I know you a lot better now.”

“What, you’ve been... watching me? Are you a stalker?!”

“I-It’s not like I hide and follow you around. We’re partners, right? One in body and soul, remember? It’s important for partners to pay attention to each other and stuff. I’m not going to attack you in your sleep or anything.” Good, ’cause I’d be ticked if you interrupted my sleep. Unless you had a solid reason for it, of course.

Anyway, I gave a letter to a Golem and sent him to the [Flame Caverns]. I had built a special tunnel... or really, a special room separate from our main dungeon for use in contacting them. It was a room half owned by our [Cave of Greed] and half owned by their [Flame Caverns]. One could only enter it using the dungeon’s “Place” function, so no adventurers would stumble upon it. We had agreed on using this room when we needed to contact each other.

Also, it didn’t have any windows or anything, but we didn’t need to worry about suffocating since it was inside our dungeons.

“Yo, Keima, it’s been a while... actually, nah, it ain’t been too long.”

“Last time we met was when we built this room, which was about one month ago.”

“That so? Guess that might be kinda long for one of you humans?” Ittetsu the Salamander grinned his lizard grin as if happy about something. He was the [Flame Cavern’s] Dungeon Core. Despite appearances, he was a nice and friendly guy. He wasn’t the sharpest tool in the shed, but he could be surprisingly competent at times. But he wasn’t the sharpest tool in the shed. He wasn’t... the sharpest tool in the shed...

“Alriiight, just gotta get Redra to breath fire on the egg, yeah?”

I brought Rokuko to the [Flame Caverns] so we could have Redra unleash her flame breath upon Phenny’s egg. They took us to the boss room on the fiftieth floor. Apparently, this was the only room that could withstand the full extent of Redra’s fire.

Also, apparently she was still a little afraid of eggs. She was pretty pathetic for a Dragon, to be honest. But I could only imagine what a Phoenix born from the fire breath of a Red Dragon would look like.

“Is this really gonna be okay?! It’s not gonna start running around or anything, right?!”

“It might start walking around if you don’t hatch it soon. So hit it with all you’ve got, alright? But uh... don’t break it. I’m talking about your fire breath here.”

“G-Got it!”

I set down a tile I had made from Phoenix eggshells and placed the Phoenix egg on top of it. With everything ready, Rokuko and I took cover in the Dungeon Core room past the Boss Room. Redra’s breath was powerful enough to knock back nearby Stone Golems even if they were just in the vicinity. No way would either of us survive in there with her. But we’d want to imprint the Phoenix on us and all that, so I wanted to stay close. Ittetsu, nice guy that he was, let us use the Core Room.

And so, we were watching the Boss Room through Ittetsu’s dungeon monitor. Seriously, what a good guy Ittetsu is. Total bro.

“Okay, here I gooo...! Haaaah... fhoooo!” Redra unleashed her flame breath upon the egg, heating it up. And I mean she really unleashed it. Blinding light was shooting out of her mouth like a star. The ground directly beneath the egg was fine thanks to tile infused with its eggshells, but the surrounding ground was melting a little. Also, Rokuko looked at the monitor directly and screamed “MY EYES!” or something.

“Fhooo, fhooo...! Haaah, haaaah... Y-Yeah, I’m feelin’ kinda tired...!” After about thirty minutes of breathing fire as hard as she could, Redra finally took a breather. Sheesh. That’s some crazy stamina. Remind me not to mess with a Red Dragon if I don’t have to.

“I’ll give you some ice cream as thanks later.”

“Ice cream? What’s that?”

“It’s a cold and sweet dessert. Kinda like candy. Not sure if you’ll like it, but I love it.”

“Wow, I’m looking forward to that! Guess I’ll really put my all into this! Fhooo, fhoooo!” Redra got back to breathing fire onto the egg.

After about thirty more minutes of Redra breathing fire non-stop...

“Ah? Hey, the egg moved! It’s cracking!”

“Oh wow, it is. It’s about time for us to go in there.”

“Hold up. The room’s real fuckin’ hot right now. You better watch out.”

“...Huh? How hot is it?”

“To say it like you humans would, uh... It’s about as hot as a fuckin’ oven. Your skin would burn right off.” Holy crap. Guess that’s what happens when you breathe super-hot fire in a tightly closed room for like an hour straight.

He opened the door on the other end of the Boss Room and we waited a bit for it to cool. Phenny must have known how to get out, as it was breaking the egg very efficiently. A large crack formed right in the dead center of the egg. Once that crack circled the egg, it’d be out.

Rokuko looked at us, eyes begging to know if we could go in yet.

“...Alright, should be good enough now.” The moment Ittetsu said that, Rokuko dashed into the room now cooled to be about as hot as an active sauna. A wave of hot air flooded into the Core Room from the open door. I slowly followed Rokuko into the boss room, but the air burned my bare skin enough to hurt.

“So hot! Where’s the egg?! So hot!”

“Oh, there you are, Rokuko! Over here! The egg’s about to hatch!” We went to where Redra was pointing and saw that the crack had just about finished circling the egg.

And so, the Phoenix hatched.

It was like a small duckling, but it had radiant white feathers. It just hatched and it already has feathers? I guess that’s just how birds work. Or maybe it’s just how Phoenixes work?

“Oooh... This is a Phoenix, huh? Feathers don’t look red to me... I’ve fuckin’ heard of some Soldier of God adventuring with a blue Phoenix, but I ain’t never heard of a white Phoenix.” Blue, huh? That’s the color of fire when it gets as hot as it can get. Guess blue Phoenixes are a thing. Which means their color probably changes depending on the kind of fire that hatches their eggs.

“Heeey, it’s me, your owner! Phenny, look over heeere!”

“Scree!”

Right, Phenny. That’s what she named the Phoenix egg a while ago. Speaking of which, Phenny was listed as a named monster back then, too. First Gobsuke, now Phenny. Rokuko really does name monsters at the drop of a hat.

The Phoenix responded to Rokuko’s calls by flapping his wings. He couldn’t fly yet, but he had recognized her as his owner.

“Can I touch him? He’s not burning hot or anything, right?”

“Should be alright. Phoenix fire isn’t real, hot fire. It’s like, fuckin’, illusions or somethin’. Same as mine. Pretty sure that Phoenix has some fire shooting skills, but you’ll be fine if he doesn’t use’m on you. Give’m some orders now to stop him from doing anything dangerous.” Huh. I guess that’s how normal dungeons do it. I followed Ittetsu’s advice and ordered the Phoenix to not attack its allies. No friendly fire here.

“That should do it. Alright, let me touch it too.”

“Aw, what? Are you going to try ripping his feathers off this time?”

“Woah, hold up. What kinda guy do you think I am?” Rip off his feathers... The feathers of a Phoenix... That might not be a bad idea. Wait, no. Uhh. Yeah, no. I’ll just stick to touching him this time. I reached my hand out to Phenny.

“Screee!”

“Gah?! H-Hey, stop that, it hurts! Ouch!”

“He sure does hate you, Keima.” He had jabbed me with his beak. Huh? But I ordered him not to attack allies... Does he maybe remember how I broke his shell over and over when he was an egg? Man, I didn’t know Phoenixes hold grudges. He needs to get over himself.

“Tch, alright. Best thing to do here is win his heart through food. Ittetsu, what do Phoenixes eat?”

“Fire n’ shit. Hey, Redra, feed’m a little of your fire breath.”

“You got it! Step back a little!” Rokuko and I got a good distance away from Phenny and watched as Redra breathed fire on him as hard as she could. Oh crap... I can feel the heat over here. Hello? I think I’m gonna catch fire.

“Scree screee♪!” Phenny looked pretty happy getting bathed in fire like that. Heheheh. That’s right, eat up. Eat up and let your hate for me fade away... Wait. Waaait. Isn’t this Redra feeding him, not me? Crap. I’ve gotta learn some Fire magic.

＊ ＊ ＊

And so, we brought Phenny back to the inn.

“Oh? What kind of bird is that?” Rei, sitting at the receptionist desk, looked at Phenny with a curious expression.

“Phenny the Phoenix. Yeah, Rokuko named him. And also Named him, before we even summoned you. Play nice.” I opened the menu and showed her that Phenny’s name was above hers in the Named Monsters column.

“Ah, I see! Forgive my rudeness, Sir Phenny. Let us serve our Master together with honor.”

“By the way, he was just born today.”

“Wh-What?! He was just born and you Named him before me?! How?!” Hey, he was an egg for a while. It happens.