Chapter 2

Day 265

Several days had passed since I started experimenting with Rin. Wozma, owner of the local bar and vice town chief, came calling for me.

“Keima, an adventurer who accepted the extermination quest has arrived. Would you mind greeting her, as town chief?”

“...That sounds like a pain in the neck. I’ll let you handle that, vice chief. Always remember that I’m just the chief for show.” Wozma shook his head sadly.

“I’m afraid that’s not possible this time. The adventurer is the High Priestess of the Holy Kingdom. If we do not welcome her properly, things could get quite bad for us. And she apparently has something she wishes to discuss with you...”

“...I see. I don’t know what the Holy Kingdom is, but messing with them seems like it’d just give me more work. But first. What’s the Holy Kingdom?” After blinking in surprise and confirming that I really didn’t know what the Holy Kingdom was, the vice chief gave me an explanation.

The Holy Kingdom was what you would call a theocracy, and it was one of the countries bordering the Empire. The High Priestess was a symbolic leader figure within the Holy Kingdom, and she wielded immense Holy powers. I glanced at the map and saw that someone in the Guild was earning us 250/DP. Hm... This must be the High Priestess.

Wait, wait. I feel like I did this exact same thing when Wataru the Hero of Debt first came here.

“Now that we’ve established all of that... The High Priestess visiting us is quite an unwelcome shock... She might flip this village upside down.”

“Hm? What’re you talking about?”

“The Holy Kingdom worships the God of Light and backs the Church of Light. Unfortunately for us, the Church of Light vehemently rejects the very existence of dungeons. They claim they are created by demons. If the High Priestess were to conquer the [Cave of Greed], this town would likely cease to exist.” Oh fuck. That’s pretty bad. Can’t let Rokuko meet with her if that’s the case... Guess that just leaves me. Dang. What a pain.

“But this dungeon is managed by the Adventurer’s Guild, and is ultimately property of the Empire. Wouldn’t them destroying it cause an international incident?”

“Yes, but this is the High Priestess. It would not be odd for her to ignore such things in the name of her faith.” Riiight... So she’s a religious nutjob, basically. I see what he’s worried about. Religion can make people do some scary things.

Buuut she’s only worth 250DP. There’s a big gap between her and Rin. She might end up on equal footing with him since she specializes in the element he definitely seems weak to, but still... I just hope they take each other out. Two birds with one stone.

“...Alright. I just need to go greet her, right?”

“Yes. Thank you, chief.”

And so, I needed to go talk to the High Priestess as town chief. Sheesh. What do these guys think a fake town chief is for? Stop making me work and actually do things. Are they trying to say that greeting visitors is the kind of empty work that fake chiefs do?

...Oh, actually, that is what fake chiefs do. The whole point of being chief for show is people looking at you. Outside appearances matter. Aaaaah... I just wanna sleep.

＊ ＊ ＊

“Greetings, High Priestess. I am Keima, chief of this humble little town.”

“Greetings to you as well, honorable town chief. I am Alca Lu Ri Chium Nicke Hydride. Please feel free to call me just Alca.” I was sitting face to face with the excessively long-named High Priestess within the chief residence’s guest parlor. She, Alca, smiled at me with her long and wavy teal-green hair flowing down her sides. At a glance, she looked about like what you’d expect a beautiful nun to look like.

Anyway, I decided to be as smarmy and flattering as possible with her.

“Dear me, I’m afraid I could never address you so rudely, your holiness. You’ve come all this way to fulfill the humble quest we posted, even...”

“Indeed. Forgive my bluntness, but may we discuss the reward for completing the quest?” Oh man, she’s getting straight to the point. Either she’s surprisingly rude or she’s pretty used to adventuring.

“Of course,” I replied, staying on guard.

“Excellent. For completing this quest and exterminating the monster threatening your town, I would like permission to destroy the Dungeon Core. That is all.” Yeah, that’s gonna be a no. It took exactly zero seconds for negotiations to break down. Great.

“I’m afraid that’s not possible. That would be a death sentence for all the villagers here. As town chief, I can’t accept that condition under any circumstances.”

“Would letting that monster run free not be just as much of a death sentence? The only difference is how long it would take for them to die. Though, of course... The noble Holy Kingdom from which I hail will gracefully assist the villagers in abandoning their homes and traveling to safety.” So basically, when it comes to destroying Dungeon Cores, they won’t just work for free, they’ll actually pay money themselves. Well, too bad. It’s not happening this time. I’ll die. As a Dungeon Master, I’ll literally die if the Core of my dungeon gets destroyed. (But the Core won’t die if I do. Just saying.)

“This town does not even have a name yet. Is now not the best time to evacuate?”

“.........” Wow. I can’t believe we haven’t chosen a name yet. What’s Gozou doing? I told him to think of one. Looks like we’re going with my original idea, Gozou and Roppe are Lovey-Dovey Town. GoRoLove Town for short.

The High Priestess must have interpreted my pause as me agonizing over the decision, rather than me internally being a dick to Gozou, so she pressed further.

“And of course, if you decide now, we will even offer monetary rewards. The Holy Kingdom would also be more than willing to accept the townspeople as new residents. As you are the town chief, I would not mind granting you ownership of a small plot of land in the country.”

“A small plot of land, in the country?” Not even a big plot, huh? That’s kinda cheap. Though I wonder if a normal town chief would be pumped to get an offer like that. Maybe she’s being really generous here.

“Indeed. Under typical circumstances, the land would cost you at least three hundred gold coins. It is only because of my authority as High Priestess that this exception is being made for you. I accept all your gratitude.”

“Wow. Awesome.” Yeah, I really don’t care about any of that.

“Now that we have that settled, shall we get this into writing?”

“Ah, no. If you won’t accept the quest’s posted reward, then I’m sorry to say that we have no further business with you.”

“What?! A-Are you mad? Th-This is land within the Holy Kingdom we are talking about! What more could you want?!”

“Sorry, but I’m not interested.”

“N-Not interested?! Y-You have no desire for land in the Holy... The Holy Kingdom?!” The High Priestess’s eyes widened in surprise. It looked like she sincerely, from the bottom of her heart, could not comprehend what I had just said. I mean, not many people would pick land over their life.

“E-Excuse me. Hmm... I see. You are not interested. Hmmm...” The High Priestess took deep breaths to calm herself down. She looked like she was thinking about something.

“Basically, like I said, we are offering the posted reward and nothing else. Under no circumstances will we give you permission to destroy the Dungeon Core.”

“...Understood. If you’ll excuse me, then.” The High Priestess stood up and started to leave the room.

...She walked slowly and kept glancing furtively back at me, but I didn’t say anything. I figured that she was probably waiting for me to say Wait! On second thought, yes please! or something. She may have thought she was being subtle, but she really wasn’t.

“...glance!”

“Is something wrong? Are you looking for something?”

“Not at all...”

In the end, it took the High Priestess three full minutes to leave the room, seven minutes to stop waiting outside the door for me, and then another ten minutes to slowly walk out of the chief residence. Just get the heck outta here already.

＊ ＊ ＊

“A plot of land in the Holy Kingdom? It seems she’s fairly serious about this.” So said Wozma, who had followed me to the meeting in Rokuko’s place. Hey, uh, y’know I’m just the chief for show, right? Would you mind being a little more proactive here? I totally forgot you were even here with me. Sheesh. Guess I should expect a bartender to be good at vanishing into the background while listening in on conversations.

“About that plot of land, though. Do you think land in the Holy Kingdom would be better than this inn?”

“...I’m afraid I have no idea. Personally speaking, however, I prefer the three meals a day your inn provides.” Food and shelter is more important than owning land, huh? Makes sense. People would definitely rather stay here than move to my theoretical plot of land in the Holy Kingdom, then. Not to mention that all they’d be doing is granting me permission to live on the land. I’d have to fund everything after that myself. Hm... If I were to launder the support money they’d give, I wonder how many years I’d be able to relax and do whatever I want.

“So, chief, what do you plan to do?”

“I mean, you saw me turn her down. That’s my decision and it’s not gonna change... Though it is possible that the High Priestess goes into the dungeon like any other adventurer and just conquers it like that.”

“The High Priestess is not free of political restraints, so I would not expect her to do such a thing, but...”

“The permission of a town chief is all it’d take to avoid an international incident?”

“Perhaps she is just looking for an excuse to avoid blame? Or perhaps she feels the need to justify herself, morally.” Someone following a personal code? Makes sense, I do the same thing. Whenever someone wastes food, messes with my property, or interrupts my sleep, I don’t protect them in the dungeon. They can die for all I care.

“Eh. Either way, I’m not gonna give her permission.”

“I agree with that decision. The dungeon will continue to bring us profits for as long as it exists. To trade it for a single moment of profit would be nothing but foolish.” Looks like I’ve got a vice chief that knows how to think. Perfect. I’m sure he’d handle the town just fine if I ever have to disappear somewhere.

“Anyway, the High Priestess is probably gonna be staying in our inn. Let’s try and be good hosts, or whatever.”

Afterwards, the High Priestess rented the Grand Suite and enjoyed her personal bath after eating a B-Rank meal.

Day 266

A new day began. The High Priestess came visiting once again. She was wearing a bright smile, having likely recovered from yesterday’s shock.

“Thank you very much for your warm reception. Ahaha, you truly do know how to treat visitors well.” She was misunderstanding things, tons. Inns are businesses. If you pay money, we’ll show you a good time. A time just as good as how much money you paid. I’m pretty sure we made her pay before staying in the suite. Doesn’t she realize that she just bought the warm reception she got?

“My attendant also said that her room was quite nice.”

“I’m glad to hear that.” I didn’t know she had an attendant. Makes sense, you can’t really have a High Priestess go around adventuring on her own... Oh, wait, I guess the attendant paid for her room? And since they didn’t sleep in the same room, the attendant must have gotten a normal one. Huh. And actually, shouldn’t that attendant be here too?

“Operating this inn is how I make my living, you know. We gave you the service you paid for. There’s nothing more to it than that.”

“I never imagined that I would find such gracious lodgings this deep into the country... Aha, very well. I will offer an additional fifty coins on top of the land in the Holy Kingdom.” C’mon, that’s just two nights in the suite. Now she’s just scamming me... Wait, no. No, no. That’d be about ten million Japanese yen. That’s actually a lot of money. Sheesh, I knew it, our suite room costs way too much. I’m not gonna change the price, though. That’d be insulting to Haku and her judgment.

“So, I imagine you will now grant me permission to destroy the Dungeon Core?”

“That’s not happening. If you insist, please return after getting permission from the Emperor.”

“.........” The High Priestess looked at me like she couldn’t understand me at all. Really, I felt the same way about her. Who knew what was going on in her head. But I was sure that this time I had gotten through to her and made it clear that I would not be letting her destroy the Dungeon Core. Hurry up and kill Rin or get outta here. Try and get the Emperor’s permission if you want, even. Just get out of my hair already. The quest’s reward is only five golds, so I’m sure you’re losing big money every second you spend here.

“...Very well. For now, I will enter the dungeon.”

“Oh, does that mean you’ll do the quest for the posted reward?”

“I will think about that while I’m there.” The High Priestess stood up and left the room, this time without glancing back at me constantly. Oh, thanks for your help, Wozma. You can go home now. But y’know, I really would’ve liked it if you had joined the conversation at least once. What? You didn’t want to talk to the priestess? Fair enough.

After heading back to my room, Rokuko popped in.

“That High Priestess lady... She looks like trouble, definitely.”

“You were watching, Rokuko?”

“Uh-huh. Even I can tell that she’s going to be a real pain in the butt!”

Anyway. After all that was said and done, the High Priestess briefly stopped by the inn before going into the dungeon alone. Wait... What about her attendant? Before I could investigate further, the High Priestess stumbled into a trap on the first floor and died.

Wha?! I hurriedly opened the monitor to check on her, and immediately saw that a trap sword sprouting from a door was skewering her right through the chest. S-Seriously? All that buildup for this?!

I checked our DP, but saw that it hadn’t gone up as much as it should have from her death. That mystery was solved when seconds later the High Priestess’s body dissolved into particles of light and vanished.

“...What? Did you do something, Rokuko?”

“Nope, nothing. Are you sure you didn’t do something, Keima?” Naturally, I hadn’t.

Suddenly, a being worth 225/DP appeared in the town area of the dungeon. It specifically appeared within a room of our very own inn, so I hurriedly checked the monitor. What about the privacy of our customers? Yeah, I don’t care.

Within the room was the teal-haired High Priestess lying on a futon, accompanied by a middle-aged man wearing a priest outfit.

“Lady Alca! Are you well?!”

“...Mmm... Ah?! Is that you, Shento? Where am I...?”

“A room within the inn, my lady. Please forgive me for subjecting you to this squalor.”

“It is quite alright. As it was merely the first floor of a beginner dungeon, I let my guard down and died once on the spot. A little rest would be very welcome now.” There was no mistaking it. She was the real High Priestess in flesh and blood, though she did seem a little weaker than before.

“Wow... What do you think’s going on here, Keima?”

“Seems pretty clear to me. She said herself that she died once, so she has some power that lets her revive after death. We saw it happen.”

“Neat. I guess High Priestesses are like Phenny, huh?” That’d be pretty bad for us. If she can revive infinitely like Phenny, then she can unlock the power of trial and error. Surprise traps will only ever work once. They’re nothing to someone who can revive. From a dungeon’s perspective, that’s about as horrifying an enemy as you can get. She might end up being the perfect prey too, but... I’m gonna have to keep changing the traps up each time she dies to keep her on the edge. Eaaaach time... Haaah...

Day 269

Could she revive because she was the High Priestess, or was she the High Priestess because she could revive? I had no idea, but either way, this High Priestess could revive after death. Three days had passed since that revelation. Once per day, she would challenge the dungeon, return to town after dying, and rest in the suite room. Her DP income shrunk by ten percent right after dying, but returned to 250/DP before long. We got about 1,500 DP whenever she died. I didn’t know how it worked, but she was reviving just like Phenny the Phoenix.

Also, despite being a B-Rank adventurer, she was dying from a ton of super simple traps. She didn’t fall for the same trap twice, but still.

“This world is ruled by the God of Light. Dungeons are horrible things created by demons to interfere with the God of Light’s rule. Therefore, dungeons must be destroyed. What do you think? Will you now graciously give me permission to destroy the Dungeon Core?”

“No.”

The High Priestess had a lot of time to kill while recovering, so she came to harass me again and again. I had to deal with her myself each time, which got extremely annoying extremely quickly. This girl’s definitely my dungeon’s ultimate foe. Definitely.

By the way, I was claiming it was important that my vice chief be present for the meetings so that Wozma would have to suffer with me.

“Haaah... I dedicate my all to convince you, and yet...”

“The Empire owns this dungeon, not me. Oh right. You can try getting permission from the Adventurer’s Guild’s guildmaster too.”

“That will not be necessary. The dungeon is part of the town and thus it belongs to you, the town chief.” That’s not how it works. Come on. I mean, the dungeon does belong to me, but not for that reason. I decided to change the subject before things went in an unwelcome direction.

“By the way, I see that you’re rarely with your attendant. Why is that?”

“It is best for Shento to keep his distance from me when possible. Such is safer for us both, after all.”

“Really? You may be the High Priestess, but is it really safe for a girl like you to be on your own?”

“Indeed, as he holds the Convenience Altar. As you know, the High Priestess can revive infinitely many times as long as the Altar is prepared. Though naturally Shento must regularly pour a fairly large amount of mana into it.” As I know, she says. I guess that’s pretty common knowledge in the Holy Kingdom or something. And now I know that the High Priestess can safely revive wherever they’re holding that altar thing.

“That’s the first I’ve heard of it, actually. Did you know about all that, Wozma?”

“No, it is news to me. Erm... High Priestess, we will pretend we didn’t hear what you just said.”

“...Oh my, forgive me. I had no idea that other countries knew so little of me and the Holy Kingdom.” Never heard of you before. But man, she sure leaked the secret to her immortality fast. I’m guessing she’s testing me or something? Either that’s actually common knowledge in the Holy Kingdom, or she was just super careless... Judging by what I’ve seen from her so far, it’s definitely more likely that it was just a mistake. That said, I can’t ignore the possibility that she’s just acting here. If she’s not just acting here, holy cow, what an absolute idiot.

Could be that she suspects I’m a Dungeon Master since I keep denying her permission to destroy the Core... That’d be scary. It’s scary that I can’t say for sure she hasn’t. But if the High Priestess really is just an exceedingly dense girl, all this caution is just a waste of time... Sheesh. This is one enemy I’m not happy to have.

On top of everything else, she keeps directly and indirectly asking me about the Core in what feels like an incredibly annoying psychological assault. Wozma won’t talk at all unless I practically force him to. Can you understand how agonizing that is for me? I want him to do all the talking, not none of it.

“However, I see that you’ve finally let something slip, town chief.”

“Huh? What are you talking about?”

“Haha. Forget I said anything.” The heck?

After about an hour more of discussion, wherein I paid extra attention to what I was saying, the High Priestess left. In other words, I had lost an hour of sleeping time. Guess I’ll set up a few traps and get to sleep. Who cares, she’ll revive anyway.

＊ ＊ ＊

Putting aside the High Priestess for now, it was time to deal with Rin the black wolf some more. I had fed him several flavored Messenger Golems and today was the day I would try what seemed to be his greatest weakness.

“Heeey, Rin. I’m here to hang out.”

“...Fwaaah. What, Uuma? You came again? What flavor, today? Can I eat?”

“Yeah, go ahead. Try my right arm.” I held out the Golem’s right arm. Rin chomped right on it. He no longer hesitated at all before doing so. I could poison him if I wanted to. And I was poisoning him! Not that it ever worked. Which is why I tried something else today.

Rin chewed on the Golem arm for a bit, but soon scrunched up his face and spat out the crumbled chunks of rock. Rock, and the salt I had packed into the arm as flavoring.

“Mghaaah?! Spth, spth!”

“Oh? What’s wrong, Rin? Did it taste bad?”

“The worst! I never knew, food could even, taste this bad...! That’s enough, you can leave.”

“Hey, don’t be like that. Let’s talk some more. There’s this weirdo that’s really been stressing me out lately.

“O-Oh... Maybe you taste, so bad... because of stress? Mnn...”

Salt. Indeed, Rin’s weakness was salt. Hydrochloric acid worked too, but apparently plain salt tasted worse. Well, it “worked” in that it burned a little. He still liked the flavor overall.

Maybe salt on its own had some kind of holy property or something. Like cleansing salt, or something. Or maybe it was just stealing water from his body, like throwing salt on a slug. Either way, the only thing Rin ever straight up refused to eat was salt. When he ate an entire salt-packed Golem, he threw up while rolling on the ground in agony. I just had him eat a single arm today and it still hurt him a little. Alright, time to prepare a bunch of salt-packed iron armor and weapons to take Rin down.

...They’ll probably rust.

“Hey, Uuma. At this point, you, may as well, be my follower. Don’t you, think so?”

“Huh? I don’t follow.”

“Think. You are, offering up, food to me. So, you’re my, follower.” Okay, now that I think about it, I am pretty much coming here to get eaten every day.

“And, sometimes it’s bad, but you’re, flavoring it, so I don’t, get bored. You’re, a good guy.”

“Hearing that makes all the effort worth it.” No way... Did my original plan to win him over with food actually work?

“So, to make your, food taste good, I’ll get rid, of whatever is, causing you stress.”

“Really?! That’s great.” Though you’re the source of half my stress, bud. Hm... Maybe I should try asking him to leave this room. I’ve already thought of a convenient excuse to get him out of here. Now’s the time for that excuse to shine!

“Ahhh, well, the truth is, you being in this room is pretty stressful for me.”

“Wha?! It’s, my fault?!”

“Yup. I hate to break it to you, but this... this is a bathroom, y’know? I haven’t been able to relieve myself in a long time since you’re always here, Rin.”

“H-Hold on, th-this is a, bathroom? No way... Er, Golems, use the bathroom?” Oh, nice. I was worried Rin might not understand what a bathroom is, since I’ve never seen him peeing or anything.

“Yup. It’ll be embarrassing, but want me to show you?”

“Bwuuuh?! H-Hold on, th-that’s not the, kinda thing, you do in, front of others!”

“Nah, I mean, you won’t believe me unless I show you, right? Wait right there, I’ll do what I gotta do... ngh!” I made the Golem squat down, then dropped the Light magic tool I had hidden within its body. The small, shining ball hit the floor and rolled a little.

“Whew, that’s a relief. And now I just gotta do this.”

“Bwuh?!” I took the Light magic tool, pushed it against the Dummy Core, and withdrew it. From Rin’s perspective, it looked like the Dummy Core had absorbed my Golem poop. Gross, isn’t it? I bet you really don’t want to eat this thing now. Operation: “Make Him Not Want To Eat The Dungeon Core” complete.

Rokuko, who had actually withdrawn the Light magic tool into the Master Room, contacted me.

“You know, Keima... I know that’s just a Dummy Core, but it feels pretty awful seeing you treat a Core like that.”

“What choice do we have? Suck it up.” I know this is a pretty terrible thing to do. But if it wasn’t terrible, it wouldn’t convince Rin to leave it alone.

“...A-Alright. I’ll leave, this room. But, Uuma. Your, er, poop. It shines, and is, warm?”

“Yep, and it’s sticky too. What, do you want some? Pooping in front of others really is nerve-wracking, but I’ve still got some left.”

I made the Golem pat its stomach, and Rin hurriedly shook his head.

“No. No. I don’t want, any. But... Mnn. Do you have, a room as, warm as, this one?”

“Hm? If that’s all you want, I can make any room just as warm as this one. Gimme a second.”

“W-Wait! Y-You’re not, going to, rub your poop, everywhere, are you?!” Dude, that’s just gross. I can understand why you’d be worried about that, though. Too bad it’s a bit late for that. How many Golems have you eaten with poop still inside them? I’m gonna be nice and not bring that up.

“I won’t. Just gonna fiddle with the temperature a bit. Leave it to me.”

“Okay. That’s fine, then.”

...And so, I had successfully gotten Rin right where I wanted him. I reflexively did a victory pose, both as myself and as the Messenger Golem.

# High Priestess’s Perspective

The High Priestess went into the dungeon the same day Keima did. Alca had powers practically specialized for conquering dungeons solo. She was strong enough on her own, sure, but her ultra rare skill {Revival} allowed her to come back to life after dying. All knowledge prior to death was retained, so given enough time, she could conquer almost any dungeon.

Since she could revive after death, she had been entrusted with numerous expensive scrolls a mortal soldier would never even get to touch. It wasn’t a coincidence that many of these skills were very useful for conquering. Her {Storage} skill allowed her to enter the dungeon without worrying about food or water. {Healing}’s practicality was obvious. She even had skills like {Detect Dungeon Traps}, which specifically detected traps created by a dungeon.

For some reason, however, the High Priestess’s {Detect Dungeon Traps} skill didn’t work very often. I had no idea why. Naturally, it wasn’t perfect despite its origins as the God of Light’s protection—the skill couldn’t detect traps that humans had built. That said, it’d normally detect dungeon traps ten out of ten times, but in our dungeon, it only detected about three out of ten.

The High Priestess had relied on that skill while dungeon crawling for some time, so it being useless was a rude awakening. She eventually swapped to just relying on her adventurer instincts for noticing traps. But since it had been so long since she actually looked for traps, she got totally fooled by a lot of them, which made her progress slow going. That said, each one she discovered was recorded with her {Mapping} skill, so she never fell for the same trap twice. Every corridor she walked through was recorded in high detail as well. Add on top of all that the map she got from the Guild, and she was conquering the dungeon far faster than your average adventurer.

Finally, the High Priestess broke through both floors of the labyrinth area. She took a second to reflect on all the deaths it took to get this far.

“...I believe I shall advance further.” There was nothing special beyond the labyrinth area. A puzzle area once existed, but it was apparently no more. However, she had been told not to go any deeper than the labyrinth when exploring. A dangerous monster had taken refuge somewhere beyond this point.

That posed little problem to Alca, so after checking for traps, she advanced further. Very few things could make the High Priestess turn back when dungeon crawling. She would either conquer the dungeon and walk back herself, or reach a dead end and have no choice but to leave. In any other situation, she would leave the dungeon through death. That way was faster and more reliable.

The High Priestess walked forward through the dungeon, as she always did.

Past the fourth floor was a spiral staircase. She couldn’t detect any traps with her skill, but judging from past experience, they certainly existed. Thus, she slowly walked down the steps— Suddenly, a wall thrust out and nearly knocked her into the center hole of the spiral staircase. She switched gears and hurriedly raced down the stairs.

Actually, correction. The stairs suddenly gave way and she fell straight down.

“Nghaaah?! ■■, ■■■■■■ — {Healing}...!” The impact broke several of her bones, but she wasn’t dead yet. She healed her shattered bones with Restoration Magic. If not for {Healing}, she would have had to commit tactical suicide to retreat from the dungeon.

Once her wounds had healed, she resumed her exploration. After climbing down (falling down?) the rest of the stairs, there was a room. An unpleasant air tinged with the scent of an animal wafted out the moment she opened the door. It wasn’t cold, but the palpable murderous intent gave her goosebumps.

She looked ahead and saw a black wolf.

The instant after she saw it lunge forward, she was dead.

“Guha!”

“Have you awoken, Lady Alca?! Are you well...?”

“...I’m fine. I suppose I died again.” The High Priestess awoke within an inn room. She had lost consciousness in the process of being swallowed after the wolf ripped off her upper body. She could still remember the sensation of its teeth crushing her body and ripping it to pieces. It was an experience so agonizing and horrible that a normal person would be traumatized. But the High Priestess seemed unaffected. She had gotten used to death over time.

One could say she was worthy of being a High Priestess because she had little resistance to death, and had the strength of mind to endure countless brutal deaths. Though perhaps her mind already broke long ago... In any case, as long as the High Priestess looked like a normal human and could hold a normal conversation, that was good enough for the Holy Kingdom.

“Our target... The monster we’re hunting did me in.”

“I see... The monster threatening the town, then.”

The High Priestess lifted up her heavy, freshly revived body and spun her arms in a small circle to loosen up her shoulders. Shento let out sigh of relief upon seeing that she was well.

“Have you decided upon accepting the quest?”

“I’m not quite sure yet. I think I will investigate further before making a decision. Though now that the monster’s eaten the poison... The quest might already be done.” The High Priestess kept various poisons on her person at all times. Therefore, the moment a monster with no poison resistance ate her, victory would be secured. The poison was both a method of weaponizing her body and a way to commit suicide if she were to become unable to move for whatever reason. There were poisons hidden within her clothes and within her body.

...She hadn’t done it this time, but in the past she had taken slow-acting poison that would take effect about the time she wanted to return.

“In any case, I will investigate the dungeon tomorrow. Hopefully the problem has already solved itself.”

“I pray that is the case.” Her attendant, Shento, nodded in agreement with a sorrowful smile.

The Convenience Altar did not allow for much excess mana to be saved within it. If it lacked enough when the time came, the High Priestess would end up reviving atop the Great Altar of the Holy Kingdom.

“...It has about forty percent left. I shall fill it back up before tomorrow.”

“Yes, please do, Shento. This is a duty only you can fulfill.” The mana within the altar could only be refilled by those possessing energy of a similar wavelength. Shento was one of the very few individuals who fulfilled those requirements, and was in some ways more precious than the High Priestess herself. After all, unlike her, he couldn’t revive.

“Certainly. It will be done, Lady Alca.”

“I will take a short rest now.” The High Priestess got onto her side and closed her eyes. She must have been exhausted, given how she immediately fell asleep. Shento turned to face the Convenience Altar as the High Priestess slept defenselessly beside him.

“...Resist temptation, resist temptation...” And thus, without turning back around even once, he began an unbroken prayer and offered up his mana for the High Priestess.

# Keima’s Perspective

I watched the High Priestess revive within the inn after getting turned to dust by Rin’s chomp. Okay, that should be enough for today. She’s back down to 225/DP. I figured that’d be a little lower since her whole upper body got ripped off, but I guess that kinda thing has nothing to do with it.

“Wow. You put the wolf right after the staircase area, huh?”

“Yep. Traps don’t work on the High Priestess twice, so the best thing to do is just put a really strong monster in front of her and have it block her path. A monster strong enough to win without the element of surprise is ideal.” Though if I were in her position, I’d be complaining about this game being total shit and poorly balanced. But hey, it took a lot of work to get Rin there. I think that evens things out.

“Hey. Uuma. Is your, stress, gone now?” Rin called my name and barked out a message.

...Good, good. I’ll send him a Messenger Golem packed with sweet syrup. Rin loved the sugar water-filled Golem I sent earlier, so yeah.

Oh? The High Priestess didn’t stay in your stomach, but she had a nice sharp flavor that you really liked? So, basically, she was like a nice little treat for you. Sounds good. Keep on eating her, friend.

Day 270

The next day, Rin ate the High Priestess again.

“I can eat, this one, as much as, I want. Just like, you, Uuma.”

“Yep. Go ahead and eat her as many times as you want.” Speaking of which, I wonder if the High Priestess has some kind of Holy element attached to her or something. I wouldn’t think so, given how she tasted good to him. Maybe she’s actually a mega slut who sins on a daily basis...? Dunno, I get the feeling that “sharp” flavor of hers comes from holiness.

Anyway, I decided to roll the 1,000 DP gacha every time the priestess died. Indeed, the 1,000 DP gacha. The gacha I had never used even though it literally summoned me here.

...I was the fairly realistic type, and I tended to dislike leaving things to chance. Our DP budget had been fairly tight for a while, so tight it wasn’t wise to dump resources into something that might give nothing in return. But thanks to the High Priestess renting the grand suite, we were getting twenty five gold pieces a day. Not to mention how much absolute bank we were making from both the priestess’s own DP income and Rin’s too. We were practically rolling in a sea of DP, which meant we had plenty of leeway for rolling the 1000 DP gacha every day.

Really though, Alca sure is crazy rich... And she still only offered fifty golds when negotiating? That’s just cheap. You’re paying that much every two days you stay here, y’know. You’ve already paid me way more than fifty golds.

“Anyway, here’s the glorious reward I got for today’s 1000 DP gacha.” A toilet scrubber. Seriously. Pretty sure I could buy this for 5 DP. And I didn’t even know you could get anything other than monsters from the gacha.

“...No good, hm? You sure have bad luck with the gacha, Keima. This kind of thing needs more, like, you know... Love and spirit? You gotta do it like, pow! Pow!”

“What the hell are you even saying?” Rokuko had only ever pulled the gacha twice in her life, but she tried teaching me how to use it properly with a smug look on her face. Well... I guess those two times she did get a super rare monster and a person from another world. That is some pretty wild luck. Alright. I’ll have Rokuko pull tomorrow’s gacha.

I heard a knock on my door. It was Ichika.

“Masteeer. The High Priestess, like, totally wants to talk.” She’s not done yet? Come on. Haaah... Do I really have to? This is such a pain. She’s probably here to report that she found the quest monster. Guess she waited until today so she could double check first.

“Sorry, Rokuko, it’s the High Priestess. Go camp out in the Master Room for a bit.”

“What’s that supposed to mean, Keima? Are you saying you care more about spending time with the High Priestess than with me? Geez...” She sounded pouty, but Rokuko was grinning wide. Ever since I gave her that ring, she had started teasing me like that more often. Who taught her to act like this?

“I obviously care more about spending time with you. But if you meet with the High Priestess and she attacks you, I’ll die. Literally. I’ll physically die.”

“...I know that, ahaha ♪” Wait a second. Am I flirting with her? I can already feel Haku’s murderous rage, even though I was just stating a fundamental fact about a Dungeon Master’s relationship with their Dungeon Core.

After watching a pleased Rokuko enter the Master Room, I headed for the guest parlor. Ichika brought the High Priestess Alca before me immediately. As usual, Wozma came with her, intent on disappearing into the background.

“Now, might I ask what business you have with me today?”

“Yes. I have discovered the quest monster.” The High Priestess, sitting on the sofa opposite to mine, smiled.

“Does that mean you will accept the quest?”

“Gladly, but on one condition. Please grant me permission to destroy the Dunge—”

“I’m afraid the answer is still no. You will need to ask for the Emperor’s permission, not mine.” I shut down the High Priestess’s request immediately. But she didn’t back down.

“Such exaggeration. All you must do is nod your head, town chief. A single nod and a plot of land within the Holy Kingdom is yours, in addition to fifty gold coins. Could there be anything more simple than a single nod?”

“I decline.” I shut her down again. It just wasn’t going to happen. I didn’t even need to think about it. A normal town chief with nothing but greed in his head would probably have nodded, but she was basically offering money for permission to kill me. No way was I ever going to say yes, under any circumstances.

...It just hit me that there might be some sort of magic contract involved with this. Maybe she unlocks a Core-killing instant death spell the moment I give her permission. You can never know what to expect in a world with magic. Mmm, yeah, I’ll need to stay on guard here, no talking to her while half-asleep. Can’t let myself make even a single dumb mistake. I really just want to tell her to get the hell out of here already.

“You must know that I am the only one who will be capable of exterminating that monster.”

“Oh? How are you so sure about that?”

“Because it is the truth. That being is an evil monster of pure darkness.” Okay, now she’s starting to sound like an edgy teenager or something. And I mean, she’s trying to act cool, but I’ve seen her get eaten in seconds twice now. She died so fast she didn’t even put up a real fight. Either she’s bluffing or she’s got a trick up her sleeve.

“But it will take some time for me to exterminate it... Please make your final decision then.”

“Give it up. You’re not ever getting permission to destroy that Core. If you’re not just gonna do the quest like normal, feel free to leave town.”

“Um, like I said, I’m the only one capable of defeating that monster.”

“Nah.”

“Yes. Listen well, town chief.” After that, I had a long day of ignoring lectures on the Church of Light and blowing off Dungeon Core related requests. Not like she’s gonna accept the quest anyway. On top of that, she kept going all the way until dinner time, whereupon she started shooting me blatant glances while remarking on how hungry she was. What, we’ve got a High Priestess addicted to our food now, huh? Well, get out of here and eat on your own. Alright, alright. We can eat, but leave afterwards.

“This tea rice as you call it is quite delicious. Mmm, thank you very much for the meal. You truly are an excellent negotiator, Keima. I shall confer with the Kingdom to see if I can offer you better rewards for your cooperation. Oh, and I would like seconds, please.”

“Fear not, all additional charges are added onto your room fee. Also, we don’t serve seconds.”

“Oh my, Keima, you’re quite good at this. Ahaha.” I didn’t know what I was “good at,” but the High Priestess ignored my cold glare and ate her rice with a broad smile on her face. Naturally, as she wasn’t Japanese, she didn’t understand that serving tea rice was basically saying “this crap is all I’m gonna serve you, so get the hell out of my house.” What about my meal? I’m gonna take my time and enjoy it once you get the heck outta here.

The High Priestess left after enjoying her fill of the tea rice. Alright, time to charge her extra.

Day 278

Bad news, friends. The High Priestess has gotten addicted to the rat races. This is one priestess that doesn’t know how to act her role. Up until yesterday, she either stayed in her room after dying or came to interrogate me, but here’s what happened...

“Masteeer, the High Priestess is looking for you, dude.”

“...I’m not really in the mood to see her. Alright, tell her that I’m sleeping right now and can’t meet with her. These instructions are me talking in my sleep. I repeat, I’m talking in my sleep right now.”

“Wooow, that’s some hella realistic sleep talk. Anybody talking like this has gotta be asleep!”

That’s how I got her off my back yesterday. But the High Priestess got upset, and to calm her down, Ichika apparently took her to the recreation building. The result?

“You can watch while sitting, so this is like, totally a good way to rest!” Ichika bullshitted her way to getting the High Priestess gambling, and in no time she was completely addicted to the races. She lined up next to the other gambling addicts (adventurers) and clutched her betting tickets.

“Buzzington! Go forth, Buzzington! This is a direct order from me! Aaaah, no, no! Why are you running backwards?!”

“Give it up, Miss High Priestess. Buzzington’s only ever won a single race in his life. Everyone calls him Loserton now, he’s a joke.”

“Truly?! That would explain why his rates were the highest...” By the way, that single victory happened after a near-bankrupt villager bet all he had on him. Naturally, it’d be a pain if he actually went bankrupt. My goal was to slowly squeeze money out of my villagers, not crush them all at once. I put items in the dungeon → Villagers recover those items in the dungeon and sell them for money → I earn that money back after they gamble → I turn the money into DP and such, which allows me to put more items in the dungeon. It was an infinite loop of profit for me, a good system that worked well. Not to mention that I got DP just from them existing in the town. I love a well-oiled profit machine.

Oh. Right, right. Here’s how the High Priestess acted when she came over today.

“Now then. I will offer you a small plot of land in the Holy Kingdom, five hundred gold coins, and official permission to continue operating these rat races.”

“Nope. Oh, and it looks like a race is about to start. I hear Speed of Sound Sonic is competing today.”

“Oh my, is that true?! Ah... Forgive me, I should not act so shamelessly.” Not only had the High Priestess blatantly multiplied the money she was offering me, she started trembling with excitement the moment I brought up the races.

“Ah. Please, make no mistake. I would not act so shameless in front of just anybody, you know.”

“Is that so...? I’m honored.”

“Ahaha. N-Now, if you’ll excuse me, I must be going.”

“Huh? You’re leaving already? Okay then, have a nice day.” The High Priestess left my chief residence in less than a minute, sparing not even a single glance backwards.

...Wow. My rat allies, you all are truly wonderful servants to have. Give her the taste of victory and then squeeze her dry. Actually, it might be smart for me to try challenging her to a dice match. You can make a lot of money with those. Just like I did with Wataru the Hero.

＊ ＊ ＊

I started lazing around in my room since the priestess was gone, but I soon had another visitor. It was Kantara the blacksmith. I went to the Cafeteria to meet up with him and saw that he was holding an iron short sword.

“Heeey, Keima! Take a look at this!”

“Huh? What, did you finally make a Magic Blade?”

“Heh heh, this is the first step towards that. Only managed it cause of yer advice, but... Behold! The Light Blade!” The sword Kantara was holding had a Light magic tool on its pommel. Yeaaah... This kinda looks like someone stuck a sword blade onto a lantern. Why make the pommel shine?

“Wasn’t my advice about taming monsters and putting them on blades or something? What do magic tools have to do with that?”

“Y’see, I wanted to experiment with tamed monsters... But there ain’t any good ones for that around here. So instead, I tried using this here magic tool.”

“Using a magic tool instead of a monster, huh?”

“That’s it? Didja know? Top researchers are trying to make Magic Blades outta magic tools. But naturally, that makes’m weak and they break in no time. Not to mention that alchemists ain’t so good at smithin’. But this is putting an alchemist’s magic tool on the hilt of a smith’s sword! The tool’s working and the sword’s still strong! This is revolutionary!” Really? This is revolutionary? In Japan, sticking things together and seeing if it works is just common sense.

Suddenly, Neruneh interrupted Kantara’s speech with a cruel remark.

“Wouldn’t it be more convenient tooooo, like, hold the magic tool in one hand, and the sword in the otheeer?”

“...Ah!” Kantara paused.

“Y-Ye’ve got a good point there. Mmm, dang, and I really thought this was gonna change everything.” Uhhh, sorry man. My girls are brutal. But that Light Blade could blind some people if used well, and there are lots of combinations you could make, so I think this has a lot of potential.

“More importantly, how did you get your hands on that magic tool? You mentioned something about alchemists a second ago. I guess you can hand make them?”

“Hm? Yeah, ye can. Alchemists can make simple ones. Tools from dungeons are a lot better as ye’d expect, but the difference isn’t as bad as Magic Blades.” Guess there’s a skill for that. Or maybe you can make them through skill, like a blacksmith making swords?

“Would you mind telling me how they’re made? I wanna try it out.”

“What, ye’re interested? Hmmm... This is really somethin’ I shouldn’t be spreading around, but I owe you one, Keima.”

“Oh, you’ll tell me? Thanks.”

“Let’s make this a little more private. C’mon, let’s go to my smithery. I’ve got me tools there too.” And so, Kantara decided to teach me how to make magic tools. I might be able to use this knowledge to make Golems that can use magic. I’m getting pumped now.

We headed to Kantara’s smithery. Since this had to do with magic, I let Neruneh tag along too. She had been listening in our conversation and Kantara said she could come along after she asked with sparkling eyes. Weren’t you not supposed to spread it around or something? Is Kantara the kinda dwarf that can’t help but say yes to everything...?

After reaching the smithery, Kantara took a pen, iron plate, and some other tools off a shelf and spread them across a table.

“Now, ye both know what magic tools are. Ye pour mana into them and they do somethin’. If you get the core of how to make’m, it really ain’t so hard. And this baby is the core.” Kantara showed us a magic stone.

“...Aren’t magic stones the energy source for magic tools?”

“Yeah. But they’re also the main thing ye use to make’m. Lemme explain. This is a magic stone taken from a water type monster, so it can be used to make a simple magic tool.” Kantara ran the pen along the magic stone. A closer look revealed that the pen’s tip was a needle, and that he was writing something onto it.

“Ye can strengthen the effects by drawing special designs. Be sure to really dig the needle in.” Kantara covered the magic stone with a certain math-esque design that looked like a square and triangle fused together. Then, he drew the magic circle on the square iron plate that was about ten centimeters wide. He drew the design and letters in the tiny space afforded to him. “Ye just gotta draw this like this. It’s a water-type design.” How the hell is he drawing with one hand like that?

“This part’s real important. You gotta write all this stuff in one go.” He pointed at each letter one by one and explained them so I would be able to recreate them perfectly. Ahhh, actually, I can read these letters. They say stuff like “Pour water,” “Convert mana,” “Absorb magic stone,” and so on. Heh, this is nothing to my dear friend the auto translator.

In no time, the magic circle was complete.

“Now that the circle’s done, we melt the stone inside of it. Like this.” Kantara pushed the magic stone against the magic circle, whereupon the stone melted onto the circle. The moment it finished melting, the circle shone with a bright blue light. That apparently meant it was ready. By activating the circle after placing a magic stone on it for energy, water would come out of the location described on the circle.

Also, you just had to put the iron plate into a tool somehow to make it a magic tool. Kantara quickly fashioned a water pitcher with experienced hands. And thus, the [Infinite Water Pitcher] magic tool was born. It took about ten minutes to make, from start to finish. That was real fast.

“Simple, right?” Kantara grinned at me.

...I didn’t understand any of that! For some reason, I seriously didn’t get any of what Kantara had just said to me. Thankfully, however...

“I seeee... So you just need to do this here, and this heeere...”

“Oooh! Those’re some nice lines! Yeah, that’s right, just draw a long one there.”

“Mmmm, I think I want this one to be fire typeee...”

“In that case, you just gotta draw this line from above, really line’m up... Like this, and this.”

“Oooh, okaaay!”

My companion Neruneh understood everything. What’s up with this girl? And you know, thinking about it, a ton of my subordinates are actually pretty talented. Heck yeah. Competent workers make my life a lot easier.

“Teacheeer! Is this how it worksss?!”

“Excellent, my assistant! Remember, magic circles are fluid. You can draw them however you want!” At some point, Neruneh became Kantara’s assistant. Wait, you can draw magic circles however you want? Really?

“Then, then, could I carve one of these into my body?! Wouldn’t that be suuuper cool?!”

“Oooh! That would really hurt! You’re a girl, don’t do that kinda thing!”

Why would you even want a water-squirting magic circle on your body...? Wait, maybe I could carve on a Golem and make it use magic... Hmm. Or maybe just straight up turn a magic tool into a Golem. I’d worry about that interfering with a Golem’s own magic circle, but if anything’s possible, it might work.

“I feel like an amplification magic circle would work really weeell... Don’t you think sooo?”

“Hrm, you know, I’ve never tried engraving a magic circle onto someone’s body. Assistant! Carve it into my body! Do so on my chest, since I don’t use it for smithing! Just gouge the meat out with this knife...!”

“Rogeeer! Like thiiis?”

“Gyaaaaah! That huuurts! But keep gooooing!” The hell are these two doing? From my perspective, it just looks like she’s stabbing a knife into his chest... and honestly, that is what she’s doing. Dang. Not an ounce of hesitation.

“Ah! Sorry, I got super absorbed in thaaat. Sorry, Master.”

“Nah, you’re fine. If you like making magic tools now, go ahead and feel free to make plenty for me.”

“Leave it to meee!” Neruneh smiled with the bloody knife in one hand. Oh geez. This girl’s a natural mad scientist...

“H-Hey, keep going. I hate the pain, but I’d hate it even more if ye stopped before finishing.”

“Ah. Okaaay, teacheeer.” Neruneh spun around with a flutter and resumed stabbing Kantara with the knife. Whew, this is hard to watch. But it looks like they’re having fun, so I’m just gonna go home. I’ll have Neruneh make some magic tools for me later. Really, it’s hard to believe she’s got so much talent for making magic tools. Looks like she’s not a member of the Apprentice Witch species for nothing.

And apparently I’m gonna have to learn this world’s writing system and magic circle designs to make magic tools. Sounds like a pain. Pass. I’m just gonna leave everything to Neruneh, yeah.

Day 279

The High Priestess died like a chump again, so I had Rokuko roll the 1,000 DP gacha. Twice this time, just for fun. The result?

“Oh, a Dummy Core! I can tell because I’m obviously an expert on Dungeon Cores!”

“Why the hell is it purple? Looks like a ball of poison or something. What’s up with that?”

“Dunno. Maybe it’s like, feeling sick or something?”

“...Didn’t you just say you’re an expert on Cores? And wait, Cores get purple when they feel sick?”

“We got the shining purple Dummy Core, and...”

“This is a... a skill scroll, I guess? Looks like a {Chef} scroll... I’ve never heard of that skill before.”

“Seems like the perfect skill to give to Kinue.” A purple Dummy Core and a mysterious skill scroll. Both were worth a lot more than 1,000 DP. The Dummy Core would cost 5,000 DP... putting aside its purple-ness... and the skill scroll wasn’t even in the catalog. The hell is with her insane luck? If I could look at her stats screen, I bet her Luck stat would be ridiculously high.

Though, thinking about how she scraped by before summoning me, she needed that kind of luck just to survive...

“Anyway, I’ll give this {Chef} skill to Kinue, aaand... We can just put this Dummy Core into {Storage} for now. Maybe we’ll put it in the new Core Room we’ll build after we finish the new puzzle area we’re digging out space for. It can stay in the Master Room until then.” The purple Core was kinda giving me a bad feeling, but we were too busy to worry about it right now. I was, admittedly, starting to think we should really avoid using it at all costs. Might be better to just pretend we never saw it and stick it into {Storage}. Time stops inside of it, so yeah.

My thoughts were interrupted by Rokuko poking me in the side. That tickles, what gives?

“Hey, Keima. What’re we going to do with Rin? Aren’t you going to try and put him under your control?”

“Huh? Put him under my control...?”

“I mean, he’s listening to your requests now, isn’t he? You can make him just like monsters you’ve summoned with DP, like, he’ll have to listen to your orders and you can place him wherever you want, that kind of thing.”

“Ahhh... I didn’t know you could do that. Would’ve appreciated hearing that a little earlier.”

Rokuko began to give me a lecture, full of pride. Putting monsters under your control required their assent. Plus, it wouldn’t work if they didn’t fully understand that they were placing themselves under the dungeon’s control—I couldn’t trick them. That said, there were ways to force monsters into servitude. You just had physically dominate them. That was pretty much the only way to get unintelligent, feral monsters under your control. The catch was that you no longer got any DP from monsters under your control. How does that even work?

“And that’s everything Haku told me.”

“Neat, that’s about how I thought it’d work.” Hm... Losing his 950/DP a day would hurt. Things are going well with him right now, so I’m not too worried. We’re saving up a ton of DP thanks to him. Add on top of that the High Priestess’s DP and yeah, it’s DP fever time.

Meh. Either way, he’s gotta agree to serve me before that happens, and I have zero confidence in my ability to dominate him in a fight. Gonna just forget I heard about this too, I think. I doubt anything will come from it, but maybe I’ll try asking Rin and see what happens.

I immediately went and asked Rin if he’d serve me.

“No.” He declined immediately. As expected.

“Alright. It’d be a big help if you joined me, though... I guess you’d just really hate serving me?”

“Yeah. You’re weak. I’d hate, serving you. Plus. Once winter ends, I’m going back, to my journey.” Ohhh, he’s only staying here for the winter. Makes sense. I guess he just broke into our dungeon to hibernate. Hm... I wonder if he’d be unable to leave the dungeon if he joined us. Probably not, since Haku and Chloe leave their dungeon like it’s nothing. And Haku’s the Dungeon Core too, so yeah, I imagine monsters can leave.

“Does your journey have some kinda goal?”

“...Yes. I’m looking, for, my master. They’re not here.” Master? Is Rin actually a female wolf, with a kinky husband?

“...No. I’m talking, about, my leader. Boss. Owner. Also, I have, no gender.” He... I mean, they corrected me, having guessed what I was thinking somehow. Surprised Rin doesn’t have a gender. Guess their body doesn’t have either, uh, male or female parts despite taking the form of a wolf. Then again, Ittetsu did mention the possibility of it being a slime. Probably reproduces asexually.

Wait. More importantly, their owner? I guess that’s referring to whoever tamed them. Guess Rin was a loyal dog looking for its lost master all along. Er, a loyal slime, that is.

“You have an owner, Rin? What kinda person are they?”

“Stronger, than me.” Seriously? They must be crazy strong, considering what a monster Rin is...

“I am, this strong, because my owner, trained me.”

“Guess that means they’re your teacher too, huh?”

“Yes. Uuma, if you find, an owner, you should have, them, train you, too.” I’ll lend my Golems to anyone who can make ’em stronger, if that’s even possible. But anyway. I seriously wonder who Rin’s master is. Being stronger than them is no easy feat.

With that mystery discovered, I decided to end things for the day.

“Alright, well, you can go ahead and eat me now. Open wide.”

“Mmm... No thanks, I’ll pass. You’re in my, pack now, Uuma. Also, I’m not, too hungry.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah. Thanks, to you.” Hm. Guess this is a sign we’re getting closer, maybe.

For the first time, my conversation with Rin ended without my Golem getting eaten.

Day 280

So, let’s change the subject and talk about making magic tools.

Neruneh got a grasp on the essentials in no time and soon learned to make the same Fire, Water, Earth, and Light magic tools that Kantara could. That said, the only thing they could do was produce material related to the element, which made them very much beginner level magic tools. I still think that’s pretty amazing, though.

I decided to immediately put that knowledge to use with Golems. I’d make an Iron Golem and have her carve a magic circle on it. Then, I’d put a magic stone of the same element into it and complete the process.

Once all that was done, we had...

...A Sand Golem which could make sand come out of its stomach. It was coarse, rough, and served no particular purpose.

...A Water Golem that could spray water from its knees. All that led to was wet feet. It served no particular purpose.

...A Fire Golem that could make its face catch on fire. Sorry, uh... It served no particular purpose.

...A Light Golem with a shining right hand. Yeah, you know the drill by now.

We had four Golems that served no particular purpose. The Fire Golem could’ve been useful if it, like, shot fire out of its mouth like a Dragon, but as it was, it just looked like a really embarrassed girl. I mean, I guess these are kinda the non-physical, magical attacks I was looking for...? Kinda? Yeah, no.

“I feel like dungeon traps are just way stronger than any of these. I could just use a [Water Source] for water.”

“A-Awww, but... The kind of magic tools an apprentice like me can make will never ever beat dungeon traaaps. That’s like asking a new adventurer to fight gooood.” That’s true. Either way, being able to build on and improve Golems like this is a big plus. Yeah... I see a glorious future where I’m mass producing a whole line of Magic Tool Golems.

“At least we finally have Golems that can use magic. I think I’ll call them Gargoyles.”

“There’s a monster species called that toooo. They’re statues that use magiiic.”

“Oh, you’re right. Uhhh... guess I’ll stick with Magic Tool Golems, then, with Gargoyle-type as a way of referring to what they are. Neruneh, I want you to keep researching magic tools so we can make more of these magic-using Golems.”

“Okaaay, understooood.”

By the way, Gargoyles cost 10,000 DP each. Even when made out of stone. Looks like Gargoyles made out of copper cost 20,000 DP... That’s really expensive. Yeah, I’d rather just try to make them on my own.

“Anyway, I’ll get you all the tools and magic stones you need for this. Oh yeah, and I’ll make a room for you to research in, too. It’ll be hidden in the dungeon, but I’ll put a Dummy Core inside so you can come and go as you want.”

“Research... room... a laboratooory!” Neruneh fist-pumped with both arms, eyes shining.

“Master, thank you so muuuuch! I’ll do my best! I’ll do my beeest!!!”

“R-Right. Good luck.”

“Also, ummm, do you just want me to research magic tools? Do you mind if I research magic skills too?”

“Huh? Let’s see... Oh. See if you can try to figure out how to make magic skill scrolls while you’re at it. Those have to do with magic circles too, right?”

“Undeeerstooood! The Neruneh Lab will dedicate itself to researching magic and magic circllles! We’ll research so muuuch!”

“Yep. Looking forward to your results.” Neruneh really got pumped whenever magic entered the equation. But still, I didn’t expect her to get that happy over getting a lab room. I guess Apprentice Witches really just love to research magic...

“Ah, um, Masteeer. I’d like some magic skill scrolls as research sampleees. Also, also alsoooo, if you can, ummm, I want an assistant... Can I have ooone?” The scrolls, well, she did need some research samples. Wouldn’t be too hard to buy her a few Low-Rank skill scrolls like {Fireball} and {Light}. But an assistant? Hmmm... I don’t think a Goblin would work here. Not sure what monster I should get her, though. Another Apprentice Witch...? Nah, a different monster should help keep ideas fresh.

“Okay, whichever monster Rokuko pulls from the gacha next will be your assistant.”

“Okaaay! Thank yoooou! It’s Gargoyle making tiiime! Yay, yay, hooray!” cheered Neruneh. Y’know, Neruneh’s so hyped about this lab, I bet a white lab coat would look perfect on her. I searched for one in the catalog and bought it for 30 DP.

“Here, Neruneh, have this. It’s your lab uniform. Feel free to wear it on top of your usual clothes.”

“A white... coaaat? This doesn’t really look like something a witch would weaaar...” Aw man, she’s disappointed. Dammit.

But the lab coat really did look good on Neruneh. So good that I got the urge to massage her feet. Not that I actually acted on that. Hopefully Rokuko would score a good assistant from the gacha.

With that in mind, I went looking for Rokuko. Or so I said, but really, I just looked at the map and saw that she was in the Master Room. She must have just gone in there to pull the gacha. I had told her that she could pull the gacha once every time the High Priestess died, so I guess that Alca had just gotten eaten by Rin again. That High Priestess really never learns.

And conveniently, there was a green dot next to Rokuko, indicating an ally. That meant she pulled a monster. I spoke to Rokuko through the dungeon.

“Heeey, Rokuko, can you hear me?”

“Ah, Keima. I can hear you. I just finished pulling the gacha. We got a monster this time.”

“Yep, that’s perfect. What monster is it?”

“Um, let’s see. It’s a Gargoyle. Kinda looks like a statue.” Seriously...? What the hell is up with her insane luck? And thus, Neruneh’s assistant for researching Gargoyles ended up being a Gargoyle. Though it felt more like a valuable research sample than an assistant.

“Masteeer, I don’t really understand you sometiiimes...” This isn’t my fault. It’s all because of Rokuko’s bad... I mean, great luck.

By the way, the Gargoyle was a statue of a winged demon. This introduced the profound philosophical question of whether or not a stone statue could fly, but the answer was no. Its wings were just for show. Won’t they just get in the way? Just like Golems, the Gargoyle couldn’t talk. It just obeyed orders without a word.

...Its joints were made of stone and looked completely solid, but for some reason, they could bend just fine. Watching them was as baffling as it was unsettling. They felt like hard stone to the touch, so I could only imagine that they were pliable like material under the influence of {Create Golem}.

“Anyway, having the real thing nearby should help your research. I’ll go ahead and build your lab in the dungeon, so yeah, research magic tools to your heart’s content.”

“Thank you so muuuch!” Neruneh, wearing the white lab coat, responded with enthusiasm. Since she ultimately put on the lab coat, I guess she was happy to have it.

Since we had plenty of DP now, I built her lab with a mobile Dummy Core within it. I could’ve economized more, but well, it was just 5,000 DP for the Core and 400 DP for the two rooms: 5,400 DP total. That was about two, three days’ worth of DP with Rin and Alca around. Though, actually, Alca was paying us twenty-five gold coins a day to stay in the grand suite. That alone could be converted into 25,000 DP. And given how she had been here for about half a month, we were making a total killing. Our vault was overflowing with gold coins, metaphorically speaking. Most of it was actually in my {Wallet}, though maybe it was about time to convert it into DP.

...I wonder if the High Priestess is about to go broke from staying in the grand suite, not to mention all the gambling. Hopefully she’ll go back to the, uh... Holy Kingdom or whatever it was if that happens.

I built the laboratory right above the Core Room. Despite being vertically on another level, they were treated as being on the same floor. If someone wanted to enter the lab, they’d need to go absolutely nuts and destroy the ceiling of the Core Room. There was pretty much no chance of anyone doing that without hints.

“I’ll help you with your research too. I’ve got {Create Golem}, after all.”

“Ooooh, Master, I’m sure your {Create Golem} could make Golems with the magic circles already carved into them. All we’d need to do is melt a magic stone into theeem.”

“...I’d really have to break my back if I wanted to mimic those super complex designs.” Also, don’t we have to carve stuff into the magic stone before melting it? That sounds like it’ll take a lot of time and effort... Anyway, she can just practice making Water magic tools for now. Yeah. I’ll prepare a bunch of magic stones for her. I can select which element the magic stones are when buying them from the DP catalog, so that’ll be easy. Should be obvious by now, but man, DP is so convenient.

...Ah, and I need to make a Golem for fighting Rin while we’re at it. Can’t just buy one of those with DP, either. What a pain. I can buy the materials from the catalog, at least.

# High Priestess’s Perspective

Yet again, the High Priestess returned to the inn after being eaten by the black wolf within the dungeon. But she didn’t feel particularly bad about that. Reason being, the inn’s grand suite was so comfortable she at times felt the desire to stay at the inn forever. After all, the inn even had a fantastic recreation room that held the truly splendid rat races. The food was unbelievably tasty as well, and there was a free onsen available at all times. The inn was so high quality in every way it was hard to believe, considering its location.

The High Priestess was in a good mood thanks to winning a little in a few recent rat races. She ended up gambling it all on the next race and losing her winnings, but no matter. To her, she was essentially gambling with spare change. Losing it didn’t impact her much.

“Haaah. Truly, this bedding is spectacular. I would like bedding such as this in my own home, even.” Alca plopped down onto her bed while sipping the orange juice she had ordered from room service. Each glass of juice apparently cost a silver coin. Oranges were a major Pavella export and thus not expensive at all, but the flavor indicated that it had very valuable sugar in spades. With that in mind, the price was more than reasonable. A steal, even.

Also, as an aside, the cost for the juice was taken from the tab that Alca’s attendant had paid ahead of time.

“...Hmm. But truly, Keima certainly is stubborn. Why does he refuse to grant my request when he’s welcoming me so warmly? He’s even performed the acts of Selfless Offering, Beloved Meal, and Charitable Advice for me, and yet...”

Selfless Offering, Beloved Meal, and Charitable Advice were three separate actions defined by the Church of Light.

Selfless Offering, wherein one offered their precious belongings to another. At this very moment, Keima was offering her an immense bounty of rich foods despite the harsh winter. Although she was paying a trifling fund in return, under normal circumstances a small and poor village would never offer up this much valuable food during the winter. It was clear Keima was pushing himself beyond the limits of what she was paying him. Selfless Offering, the act of one giving their valuables to another, originated in a Church of Light historical parable where a woman offered up her clothing to a freezing saint in the winter.

Beloved Meal, wherein one offers their own food to the one they love. Keima had recently treated the High Priestess to a meal of tea rice, and had not prepared any for himself. Beloved Meal, the act of preparing food solely for another, originated in a Church of Light historical fable where a homeless orphan offered his food to a saint suffering from starvation.

Charitable Advice, wherein one speaks the truth to those who want to hear it. Keima had informed her of when the rat races were beginning, and although that made her feel shameless, those were the exact words that the High Priestess had wanted to hear. Charitable Advice, the act of giving another the information they want without knowing for sure that they want it, originated in a Church of Light historical fable where a villager gave a lost and confused saint directions.

Selfless Offering, Beloved Meal, and Charitable Advice were all expressions of passionate love. In other words, judging from the teachings of the Church of Light... It was clear as day that Keima had fallen deeply in love with the High Priestess. She had tried prodding him for confirmation, and the smile he returned her while firmly denying her request made it clear that his feelings were real.

“...This is the first time I have ever witnessed love this heated, this passionate.” Anyone who had studied the Church of Light’s teachings would understand how Keima felt. The High Priestess herself didn’t feel bad about it. Thinking back to his flirting, she even blushed a little. She felt that in order to repay his love, it was absolutely necessary for her to get rid of the black wolf threatening his town somehow.

It may have looked like she was making no progress on that front, but in truth, she was slowly learning how the black wolf fought. On day three, she dodged his opening attack for the first time. Now, she could dodge three attacks in a row. If she could buy a little more time, she’d be able to activate her special High Priestess magical skill. That would be her victory.

The black wolf was likely a Darkness-type monster. That made him the perfect opponent for the High Priestess. However, due to a fundamental difference in raw strength, he was dominating her. She just had to somehow buy a little more time.

A knock resounded and her attendant called out through the door.

“Lady Alca, do you have a moment?”

“Mmm... Please, come in.”

“Excuse me.” Shento opened the door with a click and walked inside. Hm... Speaking of which, I wonder how my attendant has been spending his time. Ah?! Has he been betting on the rat races this whole time...?! Or so the High Priestess thought before discarding the idea. She knew her diligent attendant would never do something like that.

“Now, what might it be, Shento?”

“We do not have much money remaining.”

“I knew it, the rat races...! You mustn’t gamble, Shento!”

“Hrm? What are you talking about?” Shento blinked in confusion. Alca had jumped to conclusions.

“Nothing, nothing. In any case, if we are lacking funds, we need only to request more from the Holy Kingdom. I will write a letter now, they should send what we need immediately.”

“Yes, please do.”

The letter should only take a few days to be delivered if they post a suitable delivery quest to the Guild. That said, it was impossible to tell whether whoever took the quest would actually complete it. Which meant that, realistically speaking, it was necessary to post the quest several different times.

“Now then, what to write... Ah. I shall mention that the honorable town chief is welcoming us warmly, and that we have not yet received permission to destroy the Dungeon Core. Perhaps if those back home speak with the Empire, we can get permission directly from the Emperor.”

“I see. That makes sense, as the town chief has stated that he has only declined to allow us to destroy the Dungeon Core due to the laws of the Empire. That should solve this conundrum.”

“Yes. He is a fine man, but his refusal to negotiate is somewhat of a flaw. Though from another perspective, it shows that he is a diligent individual worthy of trust.”

“He would be an excellent retainer, I believe. It might be wise to officially scout him and bring him back to the Holy Kingdom with you.”

“I shall include that in the letter. Hm... I believe about five should suffice.” Alca wrote the same letter five times and handed them to her attendant. Still, it was surprising that they had run out of money already, given how much they had left the Holy Kingdom with. Where in the world had it all vanished...? Regardless, the letter would take care of everything.

“I suppose we should economize while waiting for the additional funding to arrive. Perhaps I should bring back the Iron Golem corpses I’ve been leaving behind. That should pay for our food, no?”

“It would be much appreciated. Please forgive me for increasing your burden.”

“Fear not. You and I are allies, Shento.”

Truth be told, they still had enough funding to last the entire winter if the High Priestess were to move out of the grand suite and into a normal room, but Shento didn’t even consider that possibility. The High Priestess lived a life of death and suffering. He wished only for her time alive to be the most comfortable possible. He could not, and would not, ever suggest that she sacrifice her peace of mind for money.

After seeing Shento leave with the letters, Alca returned to her bed and laid upon it. As her body sunk gently into the comforting mattress, she whispered to herself, “I truly do want this bed,” and then fell asleep.

# Keima’s Perspective

What the hell did she mean by Selfless Offering, Beloved Meal, and Charitable Advice...? I shook my head in confusion while looking at the monitor, but decided not to think about that for now. I had more serious things to worry about.

The High Priestess had written a letter. Apparently she was requesting additional funds and help getting me to give permission to destroy the Dungeon Core. Economically speaking, the letter was somewhat good for us in that it would lead to her staying longer and continuing to supply us with a wealth of gold and DP. But it’d be really bad if we went too far and the Holy Kingdom got pissed at us. A dungeon with the ire of an entire theocracy built around destroying Dungeon Cores wasn’t long for this world. Literally.

And so, I called Rokuko over to hold an emergency strategy meeting.

“Wait, Keima, were you peeping into a girl’s room? Is that the kind of guy you are?” She glared at me with cold eyes. Hey, I take offense to that. I’m just spying on my enemy here. ’Cause yeah, don’t forget, she’s our enemy. Not like I was looking at the delicious curves of her feet. I definitely didn’t watch as she removed her socks and exposed her defenseless feet to the air. No way. And I especially didn’t use the monitor to look up at her feet from the floor. If I wanted to do something like that, well, Niku and Ichika’s feet are always available. I’m not that desperate.

“So, what are you going to do about this? Make it so the money never arrives?”

“Wow, Rokuko, you guessed it. That’s exactly what my plan is. How’d you figure that out...? No way, are you an imposter?”

“Um, no, that’s just the obvious thing to do. The real problem is how to execute it. Are you going to swap the letters out? Or maybe get in the way of the couriers?”

“Seriously, are you okay?! Do you have a fever or something?!” At some point, Rokuko had become cold and calculated. I hurriedly put a hand on her forehead to check for a fever.

“O-Of course I don’t have a fever! Don’t look down on me too much, okay?”

“Your forehead does feel a little hot...”

“That’s just your imagination!”

“Yeah? Alright then. You just had me worrying since you got so smart all of a sudden.”

“Well, thanks for worrying about me. Ahaha. And feel free to compliment me more, I can take it.” Alright, she’s getting cocky and carried away. There’s the Rokuko I know.

“For real though, what are we going to do? It’ll be hard to do anything with the adventurers that take the quest once they leave the dungeon area. I guess we should try to take the letters once the Guild has them.”

“I want to avoid the Guild having too much responsibility here. Nothing good will come from their involvement. And even if we wanted to swap the letters out, there’s that wax seal, so...” Alca had put the letters into tubes, sealed them with wax, and then pressed her High Priestess seal against it. It’d be obvious if we opened them.

“Couldn’t you just fix the seal with your magic? Like, we could cut open the tube and just fix that without messing with the wax at all. Though if the wax has some special magic properties we might need to handle it differently.”

“...Rokuko.”

“What? Did you fall in love with me all over again?”

“Are you seriously... the real Rokuko...?”

“Yes, I’m the real Rokuko!”

“Prove it by showing me your feet.”

“You can recognize me by my feet?! Well, okay, if it’s just my feet... H-Here.” Rokuko took off her socks and showed me her feet.

...Yep. A thorough look-over confirmed that she was the real thing. The truth is, she had a very distinctive... lack of anything distinctive on either of her feet, but nonetheless, I could tell they were her feet. Also, I checked the map and confirmed that she was real. I mean, it would’ve been pretty bad if she was a fake, so this is fine. I wonder if she rolled an INT-boosting item in the gacha or something.

“Sorry for doubting you, you’re legit.”

“That’s what I was telling you... So, anyway. Do you have a plan?”

“...Yep, you bet. I’m gonna complain.” My strategy was direct and incredibly straightforward. I would write five letters myself and send them to the same address the High Priestess sent hers to. Since the letters would have the same address, adventurers would see an opportunity for profit and take both at the same time. I’d go ahead and tell the Guild to encourage giving both quests at once.

With that done, there was no need to interfere with Alca’s letters. And if none of her letters reached their destination, none of mine would either. Didn’t have to worry about that at all.

“Wow, your plans are always in a league of their own, Keima.”

“There is one hole in it, though, and that’s whether anyone would even bother reading a letter from the chief of a nameless town. That’s where you come in, Rokuko.”

“Me?”

“You’re Haku’s little sister. Or in other words, you’re the little sister of Haku Laverio, founder of the Empire.”

“Oh, I get it! We’ll borrow Haku’s authority!” Haku had grown quite fond of staying at our inn. I was sure she wouldn’t mind us borrowing her name. And all things considered, Rokuko’s word might have more sway than that joke of a High Priestess.

And so, I got to work preparing five letters under Rokuko’s name. They were complaints that read like this: “The High Priestess is wasting all her money to eat our winter provisions. We continue selling to her because we need money as all towns do, but we have our limits. Would you please tell her to restrain herself?” I wrote the letters to be somewhat harsh.

We sealed them with wax, pressed the seal of the Empire against them, and they were ready. Haku had actually given us this seal to use when Rokuko wanted to write letters to her. Normally we only used it when sending letters directly to her, but... I didn’t want to involve Haku herself and owe her a big favor. That’d be terrifying. I was technically putting myself in debt to her just by using the Empire seal, but I felt like I remembered her saying Rokuko could use it whenever she wanted, so it should be fine.

...And Haku will definitely be overjoyed if Rokuko sends her a thank you letter afterwards. Definitely. Yeah. If I show her any weakness, she’ll exploit me as much as she can for as long as she can. A simple thank you is all she’ll get from me.

Rokuko finished writing the letters as I lost myself in thought. Each of the five letters were ready to go.

“And done. It was kinda tiring to write the same thing five times.”

“Good work. Eh, if we can mess with Alca’s letters somehow, I’ll give it a try. Anyway... I’m gonna go hurry to the Guild. Gotta make sure the quests are taken together.”

“Uh-huh, thanks.”

The High Priestess had apparently made her attendant take the letters to the Guild, as he was leaving the branch office right as I reached it. I rushed in with Rokuko’s letters at the ready.

The Guild receptionist accepted my quest and requested a somewhat high reward of one silver for each delivery quest. The extra cost was due to the quests involving leaving the country and taking a second quest at the same time. At this point, though, five silvers were like nothing to me.

The quests were put up on the quest board almost immediately. She put them right beside the High Priestess’s quest, although a little higher to prevent overlap. People would definitely see them together and take both now.

Also, I failed to get my hands on the Guild-secured High Priestess letters. Perhaps due to them being locked in the Guild safe, I couldn’t withdraw them. I wonder if there’s just a rule against withdrawing others’ property without permission or something. That’d make sense. Otherwise, I could pull some nasty tricks like withdrawing a warrior’s armor or weapons in the middle of a fight. Let’s just say that preparing letters of our own was the right idea and leave it at that.

“Ahaha, I knew your plan was the right one, Keima!”

“Y-Yeah.” Despite the fact that her plan didn’t work out, Rokuko seemed happy for some reason.

...Anyway. The High Priestess is going broke, huh? I wonder how much money she has left. Might be smart for me to start wringing her dry for all she’s worth sooner rather than later.

Day 281

I had Kinue, our Silky, learn the {Chef} skill that Rokuko had gotten from the gacha. And the result was...

“You’re better at cooking now?”

“Not only that, but time stops as I cook as well. Literally.” According to Kinue, the skill didn’t just enhance her cooking abilities. Time for everything outside of the food she was making would stop until she was done. From her perspective, she was just cooking normally, but from an outside perspective, she started and finished in an instant. Also, she couldn’t do anything but cook during that time.

“...Not even when waiting for a pot to boil?”

“Unfortunately not. I can’t clean the room or anything while waiting for a pot to boil. Although I can in fact stack and wash dishes.” That’s rough. I guess some kinda special Space-Time magic activates when she’s cooking?

In any case, I prepared some ingredients so I could see the skill for myself. The recipe and ingredients came from the DP catalog. She would be making a strawberry shortcake.

I called over Ichika and Niku to be taste testers. Also, I didn’t call for her, but Rokuko came too.

“It’s a skill I rolled, right? I obviously want to see it in action.”

“I mean, you don’t have to make excuses like that. I’m not opposed to you watching.”

“...Seriously, why didn’t you call for me too? You’re making me feel like I’m being left out.” Rokuko pouted, jealous. Guess I’ll call for her the next time I do something like this.

“I will now begin cooking. First comes preparing the ingredients, and... done. The cake is ready.”

“Holy crap! It hasn’t even been ten seconds yet!” Before me was a neatly sliced strawberry shortcake. It hadn’t appeared from nowhere, either. I could see that the phoenix eggshell oven had been used. Kinue’s shortcake had beautifully formed layers of white cream, yellow sponge, and red strawberries. It looked super tasty.

“That really did happen in an instant. This skill is more amazing than I thought.”

“Totally, dude. You’re plannin’ on giving Kinue to me someday, yeah?”

“To you, Ichika? Hahaha. Not a chance.”

“Tch, bummer.”

By the way, Kinue, Rei, and Neruneh were officially considered to be Rokuko’s helpers on the inn paperwork. They were basically my trainees. Ichika had joined the dungeon before them, but she was my slave. I couldn’t go around assigning employees to slaves. Though I could make an exception if Kinue really insisted.

“...From my perspective, I was cooking for over an hour. I believe that being unable to do anything but cook for such a long time would be mentally strenuous for normal humans. As a housework fairy Silky, however, I am quite fine.”

“Yeah... That’s a pretty rough restriction.” The skill was basically a god-tier skill for those who loved cooking more than anything. It was definitely a skill specifically for passionate chefs. They could cook for as long as they liked without interruption.

...I’m sure glad I didn’t use it on myself. I’d love something similar for sleeping, though.

“Keima, this is sooo good!”

“It’s so sweet, it’s melting in my mouth... Nom, nom...”

Rokuko and Niku were already cramming the cake into their mouths. They were really having at it. I think I’ll have some too... Wait, what? There’s none left?

“Ah, sorry. This is the last of it.” Rokuko had just stuck her fork into the last bit of cake.

“Seriously? You guys eat way too fast. I wanted to try it too...”

“It’s not too late for that. Here.” Rokuko pointed the fork at me, cake resting at the tip.

...All eyes were on us. I know what this is. She wants to feed me, huh?

“Come on, open your mouth.”

“...No, just give me the fork.”

“If you don’t open your mouth, I’ll eat it myself!” What kinda threat is that? But I really do want to eat the cake... Tch, Rokuko really is getting smarter. She must have leveled up or something like that.

“Alright, looks like I’ve got no choice...”

“Uh-huh. Just accept your fate and eat it.”

“...No choice but to fight back! Don’t think you can control me that easily, Rokuko!” I turned my back to Rokuko and spoke to Kinue.

“Kinue, sorry, but would you please make another cake?”

“Yes, as you wish... And done.” She made another cake in an instant. Yeah, no matter how many times I see it, that {Chef} skill is amazing.

“Niku, Ichika, eat that cake too! Help me!”

“Gladly!”

“Sorry, Master, but I’m not about to ignore Rokuko’s orders!” The three of them piled onto the freshly made shortcake.

But I didn’t even flinch. I let them have it. Why? Simple.

“I’ll just eat this other cake instead.”

“Bwuh?!” Rokuko spun to look at me, her mouth full of cake. In front of me were three other shortcakes.

...It was simple. I had secretly held up four fingers when asking Kinue to bake another cake. Our oven was more than big enough to bake four shortcakes at once. I doubted they’d be able to eat all four of them. And I couldn’t eat all four on my own, either, so I put the rest into {Storage} One each for Rei and Neruneh, since they weren’t here, and as for the other one... I speedily cut it up with my fork and stabbed a piece.

It tasted nostalgic, like a cake I would have eaten before coming to this world. The high quality ingredients I had purchased with DP certainly helped, but most of it likely had to do with Kinue’s skills as a chef.

“Yum. This cake’s just as good as the kind they sold back in Japan. Maybe better.”

“I am honored to receive your praise, Master.” Kinue gave me a soft smile.

“Ngh! Y-You’re pretty good, Keima! But don’t forget, I’m the one who rolled the {Chef} skill in the first place! That means this is my victory too!”

“Nom nom nom...”

“Haaaahn, I’m like, soo happy I get to eat this kinda rad dish. Fancy expensive stuff packed with sugar is my jam, dude.” Oh yeah. Cake is sugary and expensive. I’ll try selling some to the High Priestess. I wonder how much I should charge? Maybe ten gold coins per piece.

I looked out the window while mulling that over and see that snow had begun to fall. Sure is winter out there.

...Wait, did we ever decide on a name for the town? Heeey. Gozooou. The town’s gonna be called Gozou and Roppe are Lovey-Dovey Town at this raaate.