Chapter 3

Day 283

I ended up helping Gozou with his Iron Golem hunting. The dungeon was a scary place, what with the deadly monster lurking inside, but the Guild was compensating by paying more for discovered loot. Though as I knew everything about the dungeon, nothing about it was scary to me. This was easy money. Plus, I had something I wanted to talk to Gozou about. Very convenient.

I spoke to Gozou while advancing through the dungeon and taking down Iron Golems.

“So, did you ever decide on a name for the town, Gozou?”

“Huh...? Ah. My bad. I-I thought up a name, but never told ye it.” Yeah, he just forgot.

“Really? I know I’m just chief for show, but c’mon, that’s harsh.”

“...I remember ye bringing that up before, but I’m not so sure ye really are chief just for show.”

“I see, I see, you’ve decided on Gozou and Roppe are Lovey-Dovey Town. That is a pretty good name.”

“Guh?! N-No, that ain’t it, chief! I thought up a proper name... Goren.” Seriously? You just changed a few letters of Golem. Come on.

Actually, though... Goren Town? Eh, it’s not bad. At this point I’d be fine with basically any name, but honestly, our dungeon and inn are basically themed around Golems, so it works pretty well. Though, uh... I wonder if Golem is actually pronounced Golem in this fantasy world. Probably, since there’s a skill called {Create Golem}.

“Does that mean anything?”

“...Sounds kinda like Golem Town, that’s about all.”

“That’s pretty half-assed, but alright, I’ll take it.”

“Guh?! Sh-Shouldn’t ye think a little harder about this?!”

“Nah, I mean, you spent weeks and weeks thinking up this splendid name, Gozou. There’s not gonna be anything better than it, I’m sure. Hm... I’m gonna hold a gathering in the bar and announce the name to all the villagers. You can take part and tell them what the name means.”

“Sorry! I thought it up on the spot just now, so gimme a break!”

“Haha, knew it.” Gozou and I shared a laugh together.

“But yeah, we’re still going with Goren. I like the sound of it.”

“Yer joking, right...?”

And so, our nameless village became Goren Town. That name was a lot better than Gozou and Roppe are Lovey-Dovey Town.

“Oh yeah, speaking of which, it’s started to snow recently. Have you guys finished stocking up for the winter?”

“Pretty much, we’ve got what I need. And friend, ye letting townsfolk enter the onsen for free was a big help. We needed a lot less firewood and heating magic tools than planned. The flour in the storeroom is kinda old, but there’s plenty of it. We won’t go hungry this winter. And I hear this trade route’s real important for Tsia and Pavella. Merchants are gonna pass through this town all throughout the winter.”

So basically, the town was stocked up for the winter. Even if those stocks ran out, we could replenish supplies from merchants. I wonder if they expanded the roads with those one hundred golds I gave them. I was getting plenty of cash from the admission fee of the tunnel, so yeah. Tons of easy money for me. This is the power of investing, I guess. Wait... Didn’t he say he’d pay me back twice as much as I gave him or something?

“Gozou... Merchants are pretty amazing.”

“Yup. But you’re somethin’ special yourself. I dunno how much you’re making, but you sure dumped a huge load of cash at the drop of a hat.” I mean, the High Priestess has been dumping so much money on us lately I can hardly think of one hundred golds as being that much anymore. If he does double my investment, I’ll give them two hundred golds next.

Day 298

The Holy Kingdom’s reply to the High Priestess finally arrived. Their letter contained... an order for her to return immediately.

“...They want me to return? But I haven’t done anything yet!”

“It says you need to take responsibility for something, whatever that might be. Quite a threatening letter.”

“Responsibility? I truly wonder what they’re talking about.”

Looked like Rokuko’s letter had reached them as well. Made sense, since a letter for Rokuko had also arrived. It read: “Please forgive us, we have no intention of starting a war. The High Priestess is acting on her own accord, not ours. Please send our regards to the Emperor.” Basically, just a bunch of excuses, plus a guarantee that they would demand the High Priestess return home. Geez, I’m sure glad we didn’t start a war here. I wouldn’t be able to make up for that.

“I simply do not understand. They are officially summoning us back immediately... It seems they won’t be sending additional funds.”

“Ngh, I knew I shouldn’t have bought that cake...! But I had no hope of resisting its allure! And they had only eight slices left, too! I have no regrets!” Yep, the cake. I gave her a free slice and told her another would be ten gold pieces, but she just went and bought eight of them for eighty golds. She didn’t hesitate for a second, even though they’re going broke. Sweets sure are something.

Fresh eggs, plenty of refined sugar, rich milk, and high quality flour. It was a cake made with all of those extravagant ingredients, not to mention how its flavor was boosted by the {Chef} skill. Ten golds per piece in a small country town like this was actually a steal. After buying the slices, Alca stored them in her {Storage}, so they would never rot or go bad.

As an aside, although I could buy more ingredients and have another cake made at any time, those were indeed the last eight slices I had at the time, so I didn’t lie to her.

“Since our letter arrived, I suppose we could at best stay here for three more days before they get suspicious...”

“In which case, our only choice is to conquer the dungeon and reap what rewards we can from that. My sympathies to the town chief, but at this point, we must proceed under the philosophy that it is easier to ask for forgiveness than for permission. In order to reward Keima for supplying us with such valuable goods, I will proceed with using the fullest extent of my power.” What the hell do you mean, it’s easier to ask forgiveness? Seriously? That’s how you’re gonna play this? Sheesh... Guess I need to prepare our defenses to get ready for this.

I left monitoring the High Priestess to Rokuko and went to talk to Rin. They were laying on their side in the cozy, warm room I had prepared for them.

“Heeey, Rin. You awake? We’ve got something to talk about.”

“Hm? I’m, awake. What is it? Uuma?”

“Y’see...” I told Rin that the annoying High Priestess would keep attacking for the next three days. If they could hold her off for that long, everything would be fine.

“Good luck, Rin.”

Rin responded while rolling around a little. I couldn’t feel any enthusiasm from them, maybe because they were entering hibernation mode or something. Hibernation... Sounds good. I wanna sleep all winter too. Ideally, I wanna sleep all spring and summer and fall too.

With that done, I returned to the Master Room. On foot. Rokuko wasn’t in the Core Room. She was probably monitoring the High Priestess in her inn room. Without Rokuko to withdraw me, I had to return on foot. It was kinda inconvenient. Sure would like an employee dedicated to withdrawing me back into the Master Room.

“But still, I wonder what she meant by the fullest extent of her powers. What’s she like at full power?” I entered the Core Room and got into the Master Room through the Dungeon Core. I could use the Dummy Core in the inn to immediately get back to my room, but I decided to stay and think first. After all, the Master Room was warm and bright. Not a bad place to think. It was better for thinking than the futon in my room, anyway.

Judging from her past fights, I found it hard to think that Alca could beat Rin in a one on one fight. It took her all just to dodge three or four of their attacks. Even with magic, it would be a hard fight.

Suddenly, there was an earthquake. Huh...? This is like, a two or three on the Richter scale? Yeah, nothing to be worried about... Wait. Wait, wait, wait. Isn’t the Master Room in an alternate dimension or something like that? Why’d it shake? After I blinked in confusion for a second, Rokuko burst into the Master Room.

“Keima! W-We’re in trouble!”

“What’s wrong? That was a weak earthquake, nothing to worry about.”

“Earthquake? What are you talking about? That was the High Priestess attacking us!” Uh... What? No way, did the High Priestess hit Rin with a spell so hard it caused an earthquake? I checked the map, but saw that Rin was safe and the High Priestess was standing in front of the dungeon. Her attendant was standing by her side, the Convenience Altar on his back like a backpack.

He gave her a bow and returned to the inn. Alca went ahead and entered the dungeon.

“What the heck happened?”

“Look at this. I recorded the last few minutes.” Rokuko opened the menu and showed me the recording.

...The video showed the High Priestess offering a prayer to the altar in front of the dungeon. She was murmuring to herself, expression deadly serious and forehead sweaty. I tried raising the volume.

“Fuck dungeons destroy dungeons die die fuck Cores die dungeons fuck destroy die all enemies of the God of Light should die fuck dungeons destroy them may the God of Light’s seal aid me in destroying this dungeon fuck die die Dungeon Core die...” What the absolute hell? This girl is freaking scary. And she’s starting to shine brightly, too. Mana is normally invisible, so that’s probably a sign there’s a ton of it building up around her... What’s she doing, seriously?

“I’ve never heard a spell incantation this long... Do you know what spell it is?”

“Oh, it’s an incantation...? That’s a freaking hardcore chant, holy crap.”

Finally, the incantation reached its ends and she said the final keywords.

“In agreement with the divine pact of the Gods, I seal this dungeon for three days — {Treaty}.” The mana that had built around the High Priestess shot straight towards the dungeon. That’s when the earthquake happened. But the town didn’t shake at all. Only Rokuko and all the dungeon monsters felt the shaking. Niku and Ichika, being human and beastkin as they were, didn’t feel anything. Uh... Does that make me a monster? I guess so, dang. Or maybe it was just because I was in the Master Room?

The video ended there.

“But what did she mean about sealing the dungeon? Did that do anything...?”

“Seal...? W-Wait, look! Keima, look at the DP Catalog!”

“Huh?” I opened the menu, checked the DP Catalog, and... Everything had large red stickers on them that read: “Inaccessible: 71 Hours Remain.” I guess she sealed our primary dungeon functions.

We couldn’t place rooms or traps, and we couldn’t summon any monsters. The only thing we could really do was repair damaged walls and traps. Even the gacha was sealed. We couldn’t buy armors or weapons. Oh, but it looks like we can still buy daily life stuff like food, plus treasure items like gems. I dunno what that “divine pact of the Gods” is about, but this probably has something to do with it.

“Yep... Our dungeon’s definitely sealed now.” Being unable to place new traps or rooms meant that we couldn’t expand or modify our dungeon. We were no longer capable of subtly altering the dungeon while she was in it. Even in offensive terms, we couldn’t summon new monsters, nor could we strengthen existing ones with better equipment. All we could do was sit and watch. Or at least, that’d normally be the case.

“Oh, ooooh...! This is the worst!”

“We can still manage since we have {Create Golem}, but man, a normal dungeon would be totally screwed right now.”

“Y-You’re right! Good thinking, Keima! Now beat that High Priestess down!”

“Yeah. Guess I’ll get to work building Golems.” But speaking of our dungeon monsters... I wonder what happened to Rin? Eh. At worst, they probably just felt a little shaking. Nothing to worry about.

＊ ＊ ＊

The High Priestess requested a meeting with me. It was the same kind of meeting as always, with the vice chief tagging along, but something was different this time. Her eyes had resolve in them. Did she figure out my true identity? That’s terrifying to think about, but I gotta go. Town chiefs don’t have much authority over outsiders... ngh, I never should have become town chief! Though I guess any other person would’ve given her permission to destroy the Dungeon Core, so I guess I can’t complain too much.

After getting Rokuko ready to withdraw me just in case, I sat down in front of the High Priestess. Wozma being present to see me disappear into thin air would be a necessary sacrifice. I could just pass it off as me using some kind of teleportation skill.

“The unfortunate truth is, circumstances have changed such that I will be forced to leave this town within three days. I thought it best to inform you of this.”

“I-I see. That is unfortunate, yes.” Wh-Whew, she hasn’t found me out. That’s a relief.

“...In bright news, I think I would like to accept your proposition.”

“Huh?” Proposition? What is she... Oh, is she taking my advice to get permission to destroy the Core from the Emperor? I wouldn’t think so, given what I learned from spying on her...

“Therefore, please prepare to depart. We will be heading to the Holy Kingdom in a few days.”

“...What are you talking about?”

“Our marriage, of course. I accept you as my husband.”

“Huh...? H-Hold on, wait a second. Where is this all coming from?”

“Ahaha. I never dreamed I would one day receive such a passionate confession of love.” Are we on the same page here? Hello?

“And so, town chief... rather, and so, Keima, I would like you to come with me back to my home. It’s first-rate land in the Holy Kingdom, normally unobtainable for an Empire citizen such as yourself, but an exception will be made once we are wed. Isn’t that an honor?”

“...Er, High Priestess?”

“Please, let’s shed such formalities. Authority has no weight before love. I would like it if you called me Alca.”

“High Priestess. Forgive my rudeness, but I’m the chief of this town... I can’t leave it behind.”

“Goodness, please address me as Alca... ah, my apologizes, you must be feeling very embarrassed right now. Ahaha, how silly of me. Feel free to call me what you like until you calm down.” I’m not embarrassed and never am gonna be embarrassed around you.

“Also, fear not. Once the Dungeon Core is destroyed, the dungeon will fade away and so too will the town. In which case, you will cease to be town chief and be free to come with me.” Yeah, ’cause I’ll die. I’m a Dungeon Master. I die the second my Dungeon Core does.

“...As I’ve said before, I cannot permit you to destroy the Dungeon Core.”

“I understand. Truly, I do.” The High Priestess gave a gentle smile. No you don’t. You seriously don’t.

...A cold sweat ran down my back. The way she refused to understand me felt just like Rin... actually, she was even more dense. A-Anyway, I gotta turn her down.

“Er, the truth is, I already have a partner...”

“A partner other than me, Keima?” You’re not my partner, I thought while nodding.

“And you’re saying you do not wish to leave her.” The High Priestess briefly fell into thought. She then clapped her hands in front of her chest and continued.

“Then she can come with us. Quite a good idea if I do say so myself.”

“...What?”

“The Church of Light teaches that the wealthy ought to increase and spread their wealth, or in other words, recommends that individuals seek multiple wives and multiple husbands. Ah, but I have not had a single husband in my life, so fear not. You will be my first, Keima.” They legalized harems there? I bet the nobles there sure are having the time of their lives.

“Personally, I would not mind having a female partner. As she would be your partner as well, there is surely no issue with this... ah, but if she’s not human, please settle with keeping her as a mistress. Especially beastkin. Those are good as cattle or pets, but under the Church of Light, they are legally not people.” Apparently, she had no issue with marrying women, but did have issues with beastkin. Also, the Church of Light was apparently a human supremacist organization.

“Now then, Keima. Please grant me a kiss to seal our bond.”

“No, as I’ve said...”

“Here is my foot.” Alright, let’s hear what the lady has to say.

“The Church of Light teaches that the one proposing must kiss the feet of the one they’re proposing to in order to seal the vow. This is a vow of marriage, so please kiss the skin of my foot directly. For mistresses you kiss them through the sock, and for slaves you kiss them on the shoe, but I’m sure a man of culture such as yourself knows all of that.” I had no idea.

The High Priestess sat on the sofa and began stripping off her shoes before my eyes. She pulled off her socks as well, dropping them to floor before stretching out her legs and pointing her toes at me. Ngh...! She’s trying to seduce me...!

“Ahaha. Are you feeling embarrassed again? You truly are shy, Keima. But when we return home, you will need to perform this kiss in front of an even greater crowd within a church. I believe it is best for you to get used to this now. So... Please, go ahead.” Alca wiggled her bare toes in front of my eyes. Ngh... Ngggh!

Suddenly, the door to the parlor burst open.

“Stop right there! I’m the only one who gets to play with Keima like that!”

“Rokuko?!”

“Oh my... Oh my oh my, Keima. Could this be her?” The High Priestess smiled and temporarily pulled her foot back. That was a real shame, but... er... never mind. I thought I told Rokuko to stay in the Master Room. Not that I mind her coming here.

“That’s right! I’m Rokuko, Keima’s partner! He has me, so he doesn’t want to marry you! Give it up!”

“Ahaha, so cute. Please feel free to call me Lady Alca.” Oh, she’s sticking with lady there, huh?

“Hmph, I don’t need to call you lady! In fact, you should call me Lady Rokuko!”

“Very well, I will call you Rokuko. After all, you’ll be returning to the Holy Kingdom and joining my family as well.”

“No I won’t be! Keima and I are staying here and living together forever!” Rokuko glared at the High Priestess, growling. I wonder why she looks so cute right now. I mean, she’s literally growling. Maybe this is like, the suspension bridge effect? Oh no. Rokuko’s saving me so heroically I’m falling for her. Kyaaa.

“Oh my, how troubling... You do know that this town will be gone soon, yes?”

“No it won’t! Don’t decide things on your own!”

“Well, have it your way. You may stay here and visit us on occasion.”

“Stop joking around! Listen up! I’m the most important person in the world to Keima! Look, he’s even given me a ring!” She showed her crimson ring to Alca. It was the ruby-enveloped orichalcum ring I had made for her.

“Oh my, what a splendid ring... Would you please make one for me as well, Keima?”

“No.”

“...That is problematic. It’d be unthinkable for a secondary wife to have a more splendid ring than I, your primary wife... Ah! I know. You can give me that ring, Rokuko.” Naturally, that stunned even Rokuko. But after a moment’s pause, she stuck out a trembling finger and shouted.

“Okay, let’s make a bet! You said you would destroy this dungeon within three days, right? If you can do that, I’ll let you have this ring! But if you don’t manage it, then give up on Keima and leave! Okay?!”

“Very well.” The High Priestess smiled. And thus, she left to prepare.

“...Good thinking, Rokuko. Both you and I will die if she destroys the Dungeon Core. No matter what, she’s not getting me or the ring. Time to get to work making whatever defenses we can, I guess.”

“R-Right. I kinda just said that without thinking, but I see what you mean.” Oh. She was smart by accident again.

I’ll just keep in mind the possibility that we could feign the dungeon’s death with a Dummy Core. Maybe going to the Holy Kingdom with the High Priestess wouldn’t be so bad... Uh, no, I’m not thinking about getting to kiss her feet. That’s irrelevant.

＊ ＊ ＊

I headed to Neruneh’s lab, where she was researching Magic Golems... or rather, Gargoyles. Thankfully the use of Dummy Cores saved me a lot of time getting there. She was sitting at a desk and engraving a magic circle into a Slab Golem with her assistant Gargoyle standing by her side. I glanced over her shoulder and saw that it was a fire-spitting magic circle. It was fairly small with a diameter of about three inches. There were seven more like it, and they were all lined up in a circle.

“Ah, Master. What do you think? I got inspired by the cake you gave us the other day and made this! I think using eight magic circles in a circle will heat up cakes more efficieeently.”

“...It’s like the eye of a stove. Looks like your research is going well, huh?”

“Uh-huuuh. Right now, I’m researching how to activate multiple magic circles with one stone, and how to draw smaller magic circleees. The slabs you made for me are really easy to draw on, so I managed to get them really smaaall.” She was right, the circles were super small. I kinda wanted a magnifying glass... wait.

“To make magic circles smaller, do you just need to draw... I mean, engrave the lines smaller?”

“Uh-huh. All you need to do to make a magic circle is engrave the lines and melt the magic stone, so smaller lines make a smaller circle just fine. It’s just, my eyes aren’t good enough to draw anything smaller than these...” I opened up the DP catalog. Yeaaah, tons of stuff is locked down. But magnifying glasses are a daily life item, so I bought one without issue.

“This is...?! What’s going on, everything looks super big now! Wow!”

“Aren’t there glasses and lenses in this world?”

“Lenses? Glasses? There aaare. Those are sight enhancing equipment, right? Sometimes Soldiers of God have them on when summoned, and there are lots of replicas... What about theeem?” Ahhh, makes sense. Assuming none of those heroes were super old, it’s possible there are no convex lenses in this world.

“You know, I’ve heard that you can use water droplets to make things below them look biggeeer...”

“Those are convex lenses too. Though it’d be hard to carve a magic circle using something like that.” Anyway, we’ve solved the sight issue. All that’s left is her being dexterous enough to draw smaller circles... I’ll try to figure something out.

“Okay, enough about that. How many magic circles can you draw in one day by yourself, Neruneh?”

“U-Ummmm... Ten per day, I thiiiiink... I’m not sure I could do any more than that and keep the carvings accuraaate.”

“...The problem’s just carving the lines themselves?”

“Just? That’s the most important part of making a magic circllle. After that there’s only plopping on a magic stone and letting it melt. If I could carve magic circles faster, I could make a hundred, two hundred, infinitely many a day as long as I had the magic stones for theeem.” Now that’s what I like to hear. Why? ’Cause magic stones are treasure items and I can still buy them with DP.

“Alright, then let’s do it. Two hundred a day.” Neruneh looked at me like a deer caught in the headlights.

I had thought of a plan to mass produce magic circles. I kept it secret since it’d be embarrassing if it failed, but if all went well, we could make as many magic circles as we wanted a day, be it two hundred or five hundred or more. If the High Priestess was getting serious, well, I had to get serious too.

First, I had Neruneh draw a magic circle into a slab. Then, I pressed iron softened with {Create Golem} against it and manipulated the iron to fill in the gaps, mimicking the shapes of the lines. With that done, I had a [Mold].

Next, I softened another iron slab with {Create Golem} and pressed the [Mold] against it. When I pulled back the [Mold], the lines of the magic circle remained pressed into the second slab. All I had to do was melt a magic stone into it and the circle was done.

“And there we go.”

“Holy coooow...”

The magic circle activated just fine after I put a magic stone onto it. Neruneh, staring at the completed magic circle, was stunned.

“I had no idea you could do this... Wooow, this is amazing. We can make as many circles as we want with this, riiiight?”

“Right. One hundred, two hundred, however many we want.” Basically, I had made a stamp that could mass produce magic circles.

“You know, this is something only you could do, Master!”

“Huh? I don’t think so. Making a mold is annoying, but once you’ve got one, you can press it into soft clay and stuff no problem. If you want the clay to last longer afterwards, you just have to heat it. Solid clay isn’t the most durable stuff in the world, but eh, there are lots of ways to deal with that. Hm... You know, you could just make a [Mold Making Mold] and then mass produce stone molds. After using the stone molds to make iron magic circles, you just need to break the stone molds and... done?” Neruneh froze. She was probably working it out in her head if that was possible. I mean, seals are basically stamps just like this, so I feel like someone’s probably already thought of something similar. Maybe they kept the techniques secret to ensure the value of magic tools stayed high? It’s possible.

“Master, that’s... that’s possible! This is a scientific revolutioooon!” Neruneh was extremely moved.

“While you’re at it, you could make molds of letters and symbols to mass produce text too.”

“Oh my gooosh! Master, you keep casually saying things that will change the woooorld! Hold on, let me get my memo paaaad!” Neruneh hurriedly got out a memo pad. Relax, I’m not gonna run away or anything.

And so, we now had a way to mass produce Gargoyles. I mean, Rin would probably do a good job of protecting on his own, but I needed to prepare for the worst case scenario. The High Priestess, when serious, might actually be able to beat Rin. Worst case scenarios sure are scary. Thus, I prepare for them. I’ll make a team of Golems that can beat the High Priestess even if she gets past Rin somehow.

# High Priestess’s Perspective

It was day one of getting serious. Despite that, Alca was ready to end things immediately. She speedily advanced through the dungeon, heading straight for the room with the black wolf camped within. She had gotten fairly used to the dungeon by now. Plus, thanks to the effects of {Treaty}, the dungeon was in a weakened state that allowed her to advance even more easily than before.

Weakened dungeons couldn’t build new traps or increase the number of rooms. The seal only lasted for three days, but it was extremely useful for conquering dungeons. The best part about it was that while weakened, the boss monster wouldn’t regenerate or revive. The black wolf in this dungeon was likely no exception. Which meant she only needed one victory. Once she killed the black wolf, the dungeon was finished. All she had to do afterwards was dodge traps and unearth the Dungeon Core.

...There was no mistaking that the black wolf was this dungeon’s boss, judging from its strength. Dungeons that haven’t been conquered sometimes have their boss wandering the bottom floor. Indeed. She had encountered that phenomenon a few times before. The stronger and more violent the Dungeon Boss, the more likely it was. The violent black wolf that attacked intruders on sight without warning was the very embodiment of such a boss.

...Slap! The High Priestess struck her cheeks to build up enthusiasm. She then started gathering mana before entering the wolf’s room. She peered inside while mumbling a chant to herself. The wolf was focused on the doorway... naturally, it had heard her slap herself. Alca clicked her tongue and entered the room before finishing her chant. The wolf leaped forward in response. The way its tail was wagging was kind of adorable, but its gaping mouth with its massive teeth bared was not so cute.

“Graaaaaah!” The wolf roared. But that was no longer enough to make the High Priestess flinch for even a moment. She knew firsthand that a moment’s hesitation would lead to death on the spot.

She pulled herself back to dodge the first blow. Teeth slammed shut right before her eyes. She continued dodging, making sure not to end the chant early. She saw the wolf’s right ankle move, and thus immediately squatted down. Its right claw slashed through the air from the side, passing right over her head. She felt the wind rush over her. Had it been one of those times where it swung vertically, she would have died. Her scalp got scraped and several strands of hair drifted to the ground.

The High Priestess felt a chill run down her spine. Despite her cold sweating, she knew from experience that the fight wasn’t over yet. The wolf used the movement from its swing to charge forward. A massive boulder or rampaging horse carriage would look less threatening than it. The priestess used her momentum from crouching to roll to the left, avoiding it.

And finally, finished the incantation. The wolf’s side was luckily right in front of her. The High Priestess subconsciously smirked, knowing that the power of love had guided her to victory. She thrust out her right arm and yelled.

“...{Judgment Ray}!” Her arm flashed the moment she shouted the skill name. A second later, a pure beam of direct light shot out of her arm and pierced Rin’s body. The beam of light continued on through it and slammed into the ceiling, resulting in a large crater.

...It was her victory. The High Priestess grinned. But, the wolf didn’t collapse. Alca’s vision dimmed and sparked. She was losing consciousness due to having exhausted her mana supply.

Before she knew it, the High Priestess was lying atop a bed in the inn. She could see the Convenience Altar.

“Have you awoken, Lady Alca?”

“...Yes.” What had happened? She shook her foggy head and thought about what had happened prior to her revival.

{Judgment Ray}, the King-Rank Holy magic skill. It was above High-Rank and even Special-Rank. It was attack magic so powerful that a single beam spawned by it could sweep through and destroy an entire army. A holy strike gifted by God to destroy evil. The idea that it wouldn’t work against the clearly evil black wolf was unthinkable... and indeed, it had smashed a large hole into its side.

The hole was the size of a large barrel, big enough for a child to crawl through it. But despite that grievous wound, the wolf had bitten her. First, it ripped off her outthrust arm, then it chomped her head to pieces. Her memories were vague, but that was how she had died this time.

“Did you manage to use {Judgment Ray}?”

“Yes, using all of my mana. King-Rank skills truly bear a heavy cost.” Despite unleashing one of her trump cards, she was still eaten alive. The High Priestess sighed.

“...But I inflicted a wound most grievous upon it. The wolf should be dying as we speak...! I have won. The power of love truly is strong.” Although, regardless, she always won given enough time and deaths. She was nearly whisked away from this dungeon before winning, but just in time... she had won.

In either case, she decided to report her success to the Adventurer’s Guild after confirming from the wolf’s corpse that it was dead. Once that was done, she would have cleared one of her two goals for coming to the dungeon. After that, all she had to do was destroy the Dungeon Core.

“I have won our bet, Rokuko.” The High Priestess let out a sigh of satisfaction.

# Keima’s Perspective

“That was, um, surprising.”

“I thought you died for a second there, that was intense.” Rin was fine. The hole in their side scared me for a second, but apparently they opened that hole on their own. Guess that’s the kind of tactic I should expect from a slime. Though thanks to that, there’s a huge crater in the ceiling.

“I had, a bad feeling, when she grinned, and thrust out, her hand.”

“Good going, Rin. You’re the man, Boss.”

“Heheh. It’s ’cause, I’m strong.” That sure is a lotta confidence. But I’ve gotta say, the High Priestess is stronger than I thought. I didn’t expect her to dodge that many blows and launch a huge spell like that from up close. I certainly couldn’t do that, even if I knew I’d revive from death. Seriously.

“I’m, a little hungry. Uuma, I’m gonna, eat you, alright?”

“Huh? Yeah, sure. Have the whole thing.”

“Omph. Nom nom nom...” The messenger disappeared into Rin’s mouth in seconds. I got the feeling that it had been a while since they ate me. And they said “I’m gonna eat you,” not “can I eat you,” as if they were gonna do it no matter what I said. Not that I mind. Yeah, I don’t mind.

And it looks like the High Priestess really does have no chance of beating Rin! Our dungeon’s defenses are unbreakable! Yeaaah... Saying that feels like tripping some bad flags, so I’m just gonna stop there.

Anyway, the High Priestess didn’t look like she’d be going into the dungeon again today, so I got to work mass producing Gargoyles. I was in the process of making Fire Arm Gargoyles that had thirty fire Magic Circles pressed onto their arms. So far, I had made ten. They were fundamentally just normal Iron Golems, though I replaced their shoulders with clay to prevent them from burning themselves. Their iron arms get super hot, y’know? Don’t touch ’em unless you wanna get burned. Heheheh. Maybe I should make their arms shine, too. Would be even better if they screamed while on fire.

The main problem with them was their enormous magic stone consumption. Each required 10 DP worth of magic stones to burn their arms for one hour. Not to mention that each magic circle needed a magic stone to activate, so each one cost 300 DP to make.

Regardless, magic stones offered us so much potential. Gargoyles are indeed the things of dreams... Wait, does this fire still count as physical damage, not magic damage? Mmm, I might be able to test this by summoning a ghost type monster. I’ll save that for when the High Priestess’s seal goes away.

# High Priestess’s Perspective

It was day two of her getting serious. The High Priestess stealthily peeked into the black wolf’s room to see if it had died... and made direct eye contact with it. She dashed backwards to get distance between her and the room. Or in more direct terms, she ran the heck away without hesitating for a single moment. Again, she knew from personal experience that a second’s hesitation would lead to death.

“Haaah, haaah... Haaah...” After getting decently far away, the High Priestess paused to catch her breath.

...Impossible. Was it an immortal wolf? The hole opened yesterday had already closed. How could this be?

Her only choice was to kill it in a single shot. Would it die if she destroyed its head?

An immortal beast? Regardless, one of {Treaty’s} effects was to slow the regeneration of dungeon monsters. Doubly so for dungeon bosses, which mea—

...The High Priestess suddenly noticed that something was off. She couldn’t find a single thing connecting the black wolf to the other monsters she had found within the dungeon. Generally, dungeons had their own trends and themes. Some were fire-based, some were filled with demihuman monsters and others with beasts. Normally, those monsters lived in the dungeon serving the Dungeon Boss. This dungeon had within it, putting aside the Jellies that appeared in just about every dungeon, Goblins and Golems. They belonged to the Earth element, if anything.

Demihuman Goblins and magical Golems. They shared little connection, but still. Out of nowhere, there was a beast-type black wolf with an aura of Darkness. Thinking from a normal perspective, it was weird that the Boss had nothing to do with Goblins or Golems. It would have made more sense for the wolf to be, for example, human-shaped.

That said, it wasn’t uncommon for some dungeon monsters to differ greatly from the boss monster, but still... She had never heard of a boss monster with absolutely no relation to the other monsters before. Darkness element. Beast-type. Overwhelming physical strength and regeneration powerful enough to make it seemingly immortal. Not a single thing about the wolf matched the dungeon. That was clearly abnormal.

“...Could it be? It’s hard to believe, but... I have encountered cases of this before. It’s possible.” The High Priestess had an idea. Could the black wolf be a wild monster with no relation whatsoever to the dungeon? She had the hunch, and she felt that it was correct. Her research prior to entering the dungeon indicated that it was originally known as the [Ordinary Cave] and produced nothing but Goblins. It underwent a paradigm shift, after which traps and Golems began appearing within it. Not to mention Magic Blades. Wolves didn’t enter that equation at all. It was much more believable that a fearsome wild monster had broke into the dungeon and took up residence within it.

...Speaking of which, the High Priestess had been summoned here after a mysterious monster had decimated adventurers on the second floor. She had heard from the Guild that the Puzzle Area’s [Gates of Wisdom] had been destroyed as well. In other words, there was significant evidence that the monster had entered the dungeon from the outside. To sum things up, it was very likely that the black wolf was feral and had no relation to the dungeon.

In which case, {Treaty} was having no effect on it. That was very troubling, but at the same time, meant that it would not revive if she managed to kill it even a single time. All she had to do was give it her all and win.

The High Priestess strengthened her resolve and prepared herself. She began chanting the incantation for {Judgment Ray}. The spell’s immense power against evil beings was balanced with its incredibly long incantation. It was normal for King-Rank skills to have long incantations, but as a result, {Judgment Ray} tended to not be used in battle and instead found a role in public executions, serving as a symbol of God’s light striking down sinners. Despite that, the High Priestess had no doubt in her mind that it was the best weapon she had against the black wolf. And this time, she would vaporize the wolf’s head with it.

She peeked into the wolf’s room just before finishing the incantation. The black wolf... wasn’t there. That puzzled the High Priestess. But the incantation had started and she couldn’t stop now.

She timidly took a step into the room. At first she thought that it would be hiding in the blind spots, but that wasn’t the case. Had it left the room? That was very possible if it was a monster unrelated to the dungeon. It would be more odd for it to stay in the room knowing that someone nearby was hunting for its life. The only beings that would do something like that are those that can’t move due to outside circumstances, idiots, or those confident in their ability to win.

But what should she do? The incantation was almost finished. She’d collapse from lack of mana after casting it, and that was a death sentence if she missed. A death sentence she couldn’t afford when she had so little time left.

“Grrrr...” She heard the wolf growling. It was behind her.

“...{Judgment Ray}!” The timing was perfect. Better than any time before. She spun around with the beam bursting from her hand, and by chance it passed right through the wolf’s head.

“I did it?!” The wolf’s head exploded. But Alca still felt its brimming wrath. The strength left her body and she allowed gravity to pull her to the ground.

...The headless wolf’s claws slashed right where her upper body used to be.

“Impossible! How can it move without a head?!” As her mind blurred from a lack of mana, the High Priestess saw something impossible to comprehend. Clumps of dark something bubbled around the wolf’s neck, and soon its head regenerated.

“Ha, haha... What in the world are you...?!”

“Graaaah!” Chomp. It tore Alca to pieces with its freshly grown head and teeth.

...She had one day remaining. How she could beat the black wolf in that time, she had no idea whatsoever.

# Keima’s Perspective — Day 299

“...Did you dodge that one too?”

“No, it hit. That was bad. It destroyed, some of my, body.” Apparently, the beam being so ridiculously strong actually helped out. It vaporized everything it touched so fast there wasn’t even time to feel pain. Although the force of the beam dug through them and pushed back the surrounding parts of their body, the wound didn’t spread nor did it really hurt. Once they regenerated their head, they were back to normal. That wouldn’t have worked if Rin was a normal monster... Wait, don’t Slimes have a core somewhere? Rin’s gotta have one too. It must not be in their head, though... I guess you can put it wherever you want? Makes sense, that sounds like something a Slime should be capable of doing.

“So. Keima. I’m eating you.”

“Do you want seconds? I’m guessing you’ll want more food since you had to regenerate some of your body. I can make a ton of Golems for you if want.”

“Sounds perfect. Give.” I used the enormous amounts of clay around to mass produce Golems and send them to the room with Rin in it. Since I could still use Golems to dig out space without using DP, we had plenty of clay and stone lying around. Plus, all the Spawners we placed around the dungeon are going a lot slower now. I need to get to work making lots of Golems.

Rin ate the Golems as they flowed into their room. It was like an all you could eat buffet where all the food was brought to you. Though I guess there aren’t any buffets in this world... Yeah, just forget I said anything.

“Whew. Feeling, better now.”

“Glad to hear it. Just one more day, friend.”

“Mm.” To finish things off, Rin ate the Messenger Golem I was controlling. Now this is a guard I can count on. If we can last one more day, it’s our win. Though I get the feeling that losing today is gonna really demotivate Alca. Maybe she’s just gonna go home tomorrow?

# High Priestess’s Perspective

Alca rubbed her temples. What should she do? Neither piercing its body nor blowing off its head worked. Nor did poison, so... The only option left that she could think of was destroying its entire body in one shot. But she knew that the wolf would never let her do that. The difference in their power was staggering and insurmountable. That she landed the head blow today was pure luck.

...In any case, she decided to relax in the onsen. She didn’t have much time left at the inn. At the very least, she wanted to enjoy it while she could. It hurt deeply that she would be forced to leave without completing the quest or conquering the dungeon, but... Those worries could wait. Her greatest regret was her relationship with Keima. At this rate, she was going to return home without ever rewarding his love. But as High Priestess, she could not bring herself to break a promise by bringing him home with her.

“If Keima were alone, he might have been willing to defy fate to be with me, but...” That girl, Rokuko. Alca had heard rumors of how she and the town chief were close, but nothing about how possessive she was. They might have become friends if they had met under different circumstances.

The High Priestess put on a bathing suit and entered the onsen. Large baths such as it were even better than she had imagined. They were a luxury that enriched her heart.

This time, there was an inn employee in the onsen. Her name was Ichika, a slave with a Pavella dialect.

“Heya, High Priestess. What’s up, girlfriend? You’re looking kinda down.”

“...You can tell?”

“’Course I can. Want me to massage your shoulders or something?”

“No need, there is a massage chair in my room.” Ichika splashed her way to the High Priestess. As fellow enthusiasts of the rat races, they had met and conversed many times in the recreation building.

“I hear Buzzington’s gonna be racing today. Whaddaya think? This could be our chance to earn some big bucks.”

“...Hm, you might be right.” That would require luck, however, and Alca felt that she had expended all her luck hitting the black wolf’s head with {Judgment Ray}. Though if she was going to lose anyway, she might as well bet on Buzzington and hope for a miracle.

“Girl, there’s def something bothering you. Wanna talk about it?”

“Mmm, well, how should I put this... It’s not exactly something I should be sharing with others.”

“Now, now. You’ll feel totes better after getting it off your chest, y’know?”

“...Well, I suppose I wouldn’t mind telling you, Ichika.” And so, after ensuring she wouldn’t tell Keima anything, Alca told Ichika her problems. She had to go back to the Holy Kingdom soon. There was a black wolf in the dungeon so strong she couldn’t beat it. Her bet with Rokuko. And also, she got the feeling that her attendant had recently begun to look at her butt with impure thoughts.

“That just means your attendant’s a healthy dude! And wait, you made that kinda bet with Rokuko...?”

“Shento can be persistent, but I prefer Keima’s passionate approach. His advances and gifts were splendid... Ahaha, love! I could feel his love!” Alca considered being given anything difficult to obtain as being given a splendid present, and whether or not she paid money for that present was a trifling question not worth thinking about.

“Wait? That’s not gonna work. Like, yeah, that’s totally not gonna work. Master’s already got a partner, so like, right?”

“There is no religious problem with this. People should surround themselves with as many partners as necessary, as long as they have the resources to do so. To quote the scriptures: Give birth, increase in numbers, engulf the lands, and dominate all. And as I am the High Priestess, I have the resources.”

“Geez, the Church of Light is hardcore! And wait, are you the one getting a harem here?!”

“Of course. I am the High Priestess, after all.” Alca puffed out her chest with pride.

What even is a High Priestess, thought Ichika, even though the answer was right before her eyes.

“A-Anyway, a black wolf, huh? If you can’t win, why not just forget about him? Quests just aren’t worth dying over, for sure.”

“As I said, I must defeat it in order to obtain Keima.”

“W-Wait, hold on, girl. A-Are you for real? You’re really going after Keima?”

“Hm? Why would I not be? Love is best responded to with love, is it not?”

“Ummmm... But you can’t beat the wolf, right?”

“.........” Alca placed a hand on her forehead, thinking.

“Why sweat so much over beating it? Knowing when to give up is real important.”

“I understand, but still.”

“And I mean, Rokuko was with him waaaay before you. You’re kinda like, crashing her gig here.”

“He is the one who approached me. In other words, regardless of the past, his love currently belongs to me.” Once again, Alca puffed out her chest in pride, expression smug.

“So, think you can beat the wolf?”

“That is my problem. Haaah, and what a problem it is. I will not be able to spread the glory of the Holy Kingdom at this rate.”

“Hey, let’s not sweat that kinda small stuff, y’know? Let’s go watch the rat races and have fun!”

“Ahaha. You truly do love the rat races, Ichika. I would love to have Keima establish similar races in the Holy Kingdom.” Alca cheered up a little thanks to Ichika’s encouragement. As an aside, she bet a small fortune on Buzzington that night and lost it all.

It was the dawn of the final day. Alca’s feet were heavy as she trudged to the dungeon. She had no brilliant plans to defeat the black wolf. But also had no intention of running away. There was a saying in the Holy Kingdom: Throw yourself upon the enemy, such that your corpse weighs them down. The High Priestess intended to live by those words and challenge the dungeon in hopes of causing whatever harm she could. But as she was lacking any enthusiasm whatsoever, she dragged her feet while advancing forward and crushing Golems.

“...Oh? Was there always a wall here?” No, there wasn’t, and something was wrong. Her {Mapping} skill confirmed that there should have been a passage before her. The dungeon should still be unable to build new walls due to the {Treaty} skill. Had its effects worn off early?

...No. A side effect of that skill was that she became greatly weakened around the dungeon after it wore off. As it stood, she could still wield her powers to their fullest effects. Something else was wrong.

Regardless, a wall is a wall, so she took a detour around it. She soon found a passageway elsewhere in a location previously blocked by a wall. {Mapping}, {Detect Dungeon Traps}... For some reason, several of her skills ended up hardly working in this dungeon. What an odd dungeon it was.

Eventually, she reached the room with the black wolf. Whether she liked it or not, she was there. It took a fair amount of time, thanks in part to her lack of enthusiasm.

“Now then... What to do, I wonder.” She paused in front of the room to form a plan. Would it be better to begin chanting right away or to take a thinking break?

“Hey.”

“...Hm?”

“Hey. You.” She heard a voice from somewhere. An adventurer, perhaps. Had someone other than her gotten this deep? She couldn’t see anyone... and the voice felt as if it was creeping out of the shadows themselves.

“Where are you?”

“Above.” She looked up. And there she saw the black wolf, standing on the ceiling with its four legs.

“...What?” It was walking across the ceiling with such confidence she began to question whether she was the one upside-down. But there was something that nagged at her. Who had spoken to her? No, never mind. She had actually figured that out already. There was nobody else around, after all, and most importantly, the wolf’s mouth was moving.

“You sure, come down here, a lot, human.” He didn’t bark or howl. He spoke thickly with frequent pauses.

“Y-You understand human language...?”

“Something, odd about, that? I can speak, lots of, languages. Graaw grrrr... See?”

“Was that wolf language? I don’t know how to speak that one.”

“...I see. You’re, an idiot.” It was true that highly intelligent monsters could understand and produce human speech. Dragons were famous for that. There wasn’t anything particularly shocking about a wolf as strong as this one being capable of speech.

Not to mention, this revelation just strengthened the High Priestess’s suspicions of the wolf having come from outside of the dungeon. If the wolf had been born in the dungeon, it would have been very recently, and it was hard to believe that a newly born dungeon monster would have spent enough time with humans to learn their language. Not to mention that few humans had ever gotten this deep into the dungeon. It made much more sense that it had learned the language elsewhere and subsequently entered the dungeon.

The black wolf suddenly dropped from the ceiling, spun in the air, and landed on its feet. Alca reflexively raised her guard. But it didn’t make any move to attack her.

“Why the ceiling?”

“To kill, time?” Apparently, there wasn’t much significance behind it being on the ceiling. How it had kept itself up there was a mystery, but she knew for certain that had it launched a surprise attack on her from up there, she would have died before having enough time to scream. In other words, it didn’t intend to kill her. Or at least, not yet.

Alca didn’t know what it intended to do. The most likely answer was that it wanted to tease her, given how it could kill her at any time. She was like a ball of yarn rolling before a cat’s feet. The wolf had all the power and authority. But she was fine with that. This was a good opportunity for her to observe it. She had already obtained new information, that being that the wolf could understand language. She was even having a conversation with it. Regardless of how the wolf felt, she was earning valuable time and information. An opportunity to defeat it might even arise given enough time.

After a deep breath, Alca spoke to the wolf.

“So, what business do you have with me?”

“You are, pretty tasty.”

“...I’ll have to take your word for it, as I’ve never eaten myself before.”

“Basically. You are, offering up, food to me, right?” The High Priestess smiled bitterly on the inside. Apparently, the wolf had just been looking at her as free food this entire time. She had pushed herself to literal death, suffering agony beyond the greatest torture, and ultimately, even her greatest attack landing a clean hit was nothing more to the wolf than cute prey fighting back a little before being eaten. Not only that, but prey that went out of its way to come be eaten.

“H-Hmph. So, what are you planning?”

“Heh.” The black wolf let out a hoarse laugh. A shiver ran down Alca’s spine each time she saw his teeth, those that had stolen her life so many times before.

“I’ll let, you, serve me.”

...It took the High Priestess about thirty seconds to understand what he had just said.

# Keima’s Perspective — Day 300

“...What?” Rin suddenly asked the High Priestess to serve them. My head went blank for a second. Wait, seriously? They could speak in a human language this whole time?!

Anyway. What was it that Rin had said when I joined their pack or whatever? They said that I was offering up food to them, which made me their follower. Something like that. Let’s think back to what the High Priestess has been doing every day for a while now. Once per day, she’d enter the dungeon. Aaand get eaten by Rin. What’s the difference between that and Rin eating my Messenger Golems?

“...Absolutely nothing! Dammit! This is real bad!” Taste-wise, the High Priestess was definitely higher rank than me, too. We gotta do something. Someeethiiing... I decided to go ahead and call Rokuko over. Using the Dummy Core there, I went straight into her room from the Master Room.

“Hey, Rokuko! Things got real bad real fast! Emergency meeting!”

“Wha, Keima?! Warn me before you come in here!” For some reason, Rokuko was in the middle of changing. Whoops. Sorry.

“Let’s worry about that later.”

“How about no! Wait, what do you mean, things got bad? What happened?”

“Rin made the High Priestess their follower too.”

“Okay, I understand. Let’s worry about this changing thing later, that sounds really bad.” Yep, Rokuko sure has been smart lately. I’m glad we got on the same page fast. Rokuko hurriedly got on a shirt and we headed to the Master Room. All of that took about thirty seconds total.

“So the High Priestess is their follower now... What happened after that?”

“Dunno, they haven’t moved. For now, just call over everyone who’s free. We’re gonna be going on the defensive.” Suddenly, the High Priestess unfroze. I leaned forward to eavesdrop on her conversation with Rin.

“Your... follower?”

“Yeah. Follower. A good follower, offers up food, to their boss, right?” Waaait, is Rin gonna tell Alca everything about me? I mean, they still think I’m a Golem, so that shouldn’t cause too much issue, but still...

“You’re my follower, so if anything’s, bothering you, go ahead and, tell me.”

“...Ummm, very well. There is one thing I’d like to ask you. Did you come from outside of this dungeon?”

“Call me, boss.”

“Wha?”

“Boss.”

“Y-You want me to call you, boss?”

“Yes.” That was apparently very important to Rin. They wouldn’t budge on the subject.

“...B-Boss, did you come from outside the dungeon?”

“Yeah. ’Cause, I’m strong. This place, is mine.” I had gotten used to it by now, but it really was difficult to have a conversation with Rin. To summarize what they had just said: Yes. I came from outside the dungeon. Basically, I’m super strong, so I conquered this place and took this room for my own. What was my secret to understanding them? Just time and effort.

“...You took over the dungeon? I suppose that’s not unthinkable...”

“Yeah. So, if that’s all, I’m gonna, eat you.”

“P-Please wait just a moment! E-Eat me? Do you eat all your followers?”

“Hm? What’s, the problem? You come back, no matter, how many times, I eat you.”

“...Today is different. More importantly, um... I would like to see the Dungeon Core. Do you know where it is?”

“Dungeon Core? What’s that?” Oh yeah, speaking of which, Rin didn’t recognize our Dungeon Core. When I invited them to our side, I was pretty vague about it and didn’t give any real details. Too bad they turned us down.

“...Is there a shining orb about yea wide around here?”

“Mmm... Yeah, there’s something, like that.”

“Please bring me to it! Where is it?!”

“Aaah, somewhere, over here. Follow me.” They didn’t know what a Dungeon Core was, but they knew about a shining orb. After all, they had started off sleeping in the Core Room. Rin started walking off with the High Priestess following behind them. Alright. Defensive measures, begin. Everyone’s in the Master Room now, ready to fight. Except Kinue. She’s taking care of the inn for us.

“Master, the Haniwa is ready to go at your signal.”

“I’m already moving the Wall Golems around, dude. I went ahead and made them take a huge detour, ’kay?”

Niku and Ichika displayed competence, as usual.

“The Archer Golem is prepared and ready, Master.”

“I’ll command the Gargoyle Platoooon! You gave me so many magic stones, I made a ton of theeem!”

“Oh, a new platoon! Can I use some of them?”

“Suuure, use them as you liiiike!” Rei took command of the multi-legged Archer Golem while Neruneh and Rokuko commanded the Gargoyle Platoon.

“Alright, time to start defending... but first, let’s evacuate the Dungeon Core. The actual real Core’s still in the room where Rin was sleeping before, so yeah.”

“Okay. I should just Castle it into my room, right?”

“Yep. Go ahead.” I had put the Core back into its room after Rin left it, as it was still in the deepest part of our dungeon. The other route was still in development. I got the feeling that I had put too much time and effort into researching Magic Tools lately.

...Once the Dungeon Core was back in town, we could begin defensive measures without needing to worry too much. Even if they got to the Dummy Core and destroyed it, nothing would happen. Rin could take the High Priestess straight to the Core Room and we’d be fine. Man, I sure love being safe.

“Ah...”

“Hm? What’s up?”

“Castling is unavailable... For fifteen more hours. It’s sealed.” Rokuko paled as she spoke. Huh? Wait, does that mean...

“Are we maybe, uh, stuck here?”

“There’s no maybe about it. We have to fight them now.” A cold sweat ran down my back.

“Y’know, it’s been a while since my old friend Death has come to pay a visit...” I let out a murmur and the Master Room fell silent.

“...Keima. Why the heck...?”

“Ah, sorry. I didn’t mean to bring everyone down.”

“That was super cool! I wanna say that next time too, ‘my old friend Death,’ haha!”

“Please, stop. I’m sorry. It’s my fault. Spare me.” I apologized to Rokuko, ignoring her beaming grin, and got to work initiating our defensive battle. Basically, we’d win if we could kill the High Priestess a single time, since she had to leave town by tomorrow.

# High Priestess’s Perspective

Alca, the High Priestess, quietly followed the black wolf as they guided her. She thought back to how this had happened. The wolf... Boss had apparently considered her actions to be a form of submission, a daily offering of food. Fairly good food, at that. Perhaps she had been accidentally performing Selfless Offering and Beloved Meal from their perspective.

“...Without even knowing it, I lived in accordance to the principles of the Church of Light’s teachings, and thereby made the wolf reform through the power of love. I’m quite impressed with myself.” That was the conclusion she came to. Speaking of which, the wolf’s pitch-black tail looked quite cute as it waved in front of her. It was as if she had become a Tamer. The original High Priestess had tamed reformed monsters just like this. Indeed, Alca was quite proud of herself.

Either way, though, it was quite nice to be guided through the dungeon without getting lost.

“Mmm...? Was there, always, a wall here?” Correction: They were lost. But the wolf followed up by saying something unfathomable.

“...I think I’ll, break it. Sniff, sniff... yeah. I can, break it.”

“Eh?! You can break it?”

“I can. ’Cause, I’m strong. I can, break it, if you want.” What an extraordinary monster this wolf was, to be capable of destroying dungeon walls. But the High Priestess knew that, even when under the effects of {Treaty}, the dungeon could somehow repair its walls incredibly fast. Even a completely destroyed wall would be reformed within a tenth of a second. In the past, she had gotten stuck inside a wall and died. It hurt to have lost an entire day like that.

“No, that won’t be necessary. Let us look for another path.”

“Alright.” The black wolf turned around. And a moment later, Alca heard the whistling of wind.

“Ngh!” She reflexively tilted her head to the side. An arrow immediately flew right by where her head had been. Nonetheless, pain ran through her. A second arrow had been hidden in the shadow of the first, and it pierced her shoulder. A direct, well-aimed hit. She glanced at where the arrow had came from and saw a Golem wielding a bow with both hands. No, actually, “both hands” was a poor way to phrase it, as the Golem was a Variant with four arms and legs. The arms stretching from its back wielded a second bow.

However, the wolf immediately ate it. There was no second volley.

“Ngh, a mere Golem could be so strong...? ■■, ■■■■■■■■ — {Healing}.” She forcibly pulled the arrow out. The twisted metal of the arrowhead ripped her flesh, but she paid that no mind. The wound was tingling, which meant poison. She slathered anti-poison medicine on it and cast her own healing magic. Her torn flesh regenerated thanks to the healing powers of mana.

The black wolf returned to her.

“Hey. It, attacked you, so, I ate it. Was that, bad?”

“...No, you saved me.”

“Mmm. Good, then. Let’s go.” The black wolf resumed walking, as if nothing had happened. Alca followed behind it. If they hadn’t helped her, she would have likely been hit with another poison arrow, which would have delayed her self-aid. Suddenly, she realized that the wolf had gone out of their way to protect her.

“Hm.” The wolf’s tail flicked. Four arrows fell to the ground. Alca had also noticed that a new archer had appeared. But she hadn’t noticed that there was a second one too. Indeed, two Variants had attacked her. Both had the extra limbs... It was abnormal for multiple Variants to have the same traits, so perhaps this was just a new species of Golem. If named, they would perhaps end up being called Hecatoncheir Golems.

“What, are you, gonna do?”

“...I will destroy them.” Alca took out a battle hammer from her {Storage}. Nothing was better for taking out Golems, in her opinion, and Variants should be no exception.

This time, the wolf didn’t help her. But they didn’t attack her from behind, either.

She returned to them after easily defeating the Golems.

“Alright. Let’s, go.”

“Yes.” The High Priestess had always explored dungeons alone. She always died alone and conquered alone. Things would be different if she had any allies that could revive after death, but unfortunately she had yet to meet any. Though she might have found such a person if she actively searched for them, but... Either way, she had never been protected by anyone before. Surprisingly enough, she had even been protected by the being she was being paid to eliminate.

...She felt her heart thump. Perhaps some of the poison had gotten into her bloodstream before she purified the wound.

“Hm? There’s, a wall here, too... I’ll break it.”

“No need, I have {Mapping}. Let us search a little longer. Breaking the wall will be our last resort.”

“Alright. That’s fine... Just be sure, to follow, closely. You’re, pretty weak.”

“I suppose I am... Ahaha.” The High Priestess listened to the wolf and followed behind them as they searched for a path. It was also the first time she was the one following another through dangerous territories. In the past, even in the instances where she requested guidance, Alca had always ended up walking in the front. It was the High Priestess’s duty to protect others as long as she was alive. After all, she was stronger than any other.

And yet, she was now being protected by the black wolf, someone stronger than her. Alca walked through the dungeon, feeling quite unlike she had ever felt before. She even thought it might be nice if conquering the dungeon took a bit longer than expected.

They were ambushed by multiple Golems along the way, but either Alca easily dodged their attacks or the black wolf blocked them to protect her. At some point, a spiked turtle-like Golem Variant appeared, but from Alca’s perspective it wasn’t that different from a normal Golem and went down without issue.

To speak just of monsters would be to ignore the many traps. Alca fell down pitfalls, but had the back of her shirt bitten by the black wolf who then pulled her back to safety. Once they opened a door a sword shot out, piercing the black wolf right through the chest. But the sword didn’t leave any scars on their chest and they seemed fine. The High Priestess offered to cast {Healing} on them, but the wolf was just confused, asking why healing was necessary when they weren’t tired or hurt... Regardless of how the sword had apparently stabbed right through it.

Eventually, the majority of the floor was recorded on {Mapping}. They were running out of options. But right as they began to discuss going through with breaking a wall...

They found a Golem sitting defenseless in front of a wall. It looked like a normal Golem at first glance, but it ended up being the most unique Variant yet.

“Yo. Finally here, huh?” It spoke human language.

“Mmm? Uuma. What are you doing?”

“That’s my line. Rin, what are you doing?”

“I’m, guiding, her. Uuuh... What was, your name, again?”

“Um, ah, right. I’m Alca.” The High Priestess answered honestly, albeit stumbling a little.

“I’ll, introduce, you two. This is, your comrade, Uuma. Uuma, this is, my new follower. Play, nice.”

“Eh? Comrade?”

“...I’m Uuma. Another one of Rin’s followers. I’d really appreciate it if you just left the dungeon right now.” It spoke in an odd, gravelly voice, but it had unmistakably introduced itself.

“...Um, you are a Golem, yes?”

“Surprised to hear a Golem talking? I’m not so sure there’s anything weird about me. Rin talks too, y’know.” Alca was more surprised at how fluently it could talk rather than the fact that it could talk itself. More importantly, however...

“Rin?”

“That’s, my name. Call me Boss, Uuma.” The wolf’s name was Rin. Alca carved that name into her heart.

“Hey, Alca. We’re comrades, so do me a favor and leave the dungeon.”

“I cannot do that. Today is the last day I have.”

“Yeah? Well, sorry to hear that. Boss, I’m gonna kill this girl. Don’t get in my way.” The Golem Uuma slowly stood up, back to the wall.

“Wait. Why would you do that?”

“Should be obvious. You’re an adventurer trying to conquer this dungeon, and me? I’m a dungeon monster, unlike Boss. What else am I gonna do but stop you?” Uuma answered with a very human-like shrug despite being a Golem. But regardless, it was indeed natural for a dungeon monster to fight to protect its dungeon.

“Research has shown that intelligent monsters can survive even after the death of their dungeon. Would that not be more convenient for you, Uuma?”

“Nope, not at all. Protecting the Dungeon Core’s my job.” Perhaps he was the dungeon boss. But why would the boss be sitting around outside of its room like that?

“You’ve probably noticed by now, but if you wanna get through this floor, you’ve gotta kill me. I’m gonna fight with all my allies to stop you, though. Rin. Would you mind backing off for me? Normally, all those traps and arrows woulda killed her a long time ago.”

“Mmm. You’re right. And you’re weak, too, Uuma. I’ll, protect, you both. ’Cause I’m, the boss!”

“What?”

“Huh?”

Apparently, Uuma struggled to understand Rin just like she did. They both looked at the wolf in confusion.

“...Alright, I’m gonna fight her now. Don’t interfere.”

“No. I’ll, protect her.”

“...Would you at least turn around and stop going through the dungeon?”

“Mmm? No. I promised, her.” Uuma shook his head, exasperated, and turned back to the High Priestess.

“You might as well give up here. You’re not gonna find what you’re looking for past me. I already took care of it.”

“...That’s a lie, isn’t it,” Alca murmured.

“A lie? Got any proof? I’ve said nothing but the truth.”

“I have the {Eyes of Truth}, a skill that can identify lies. You are quite guilty right now.”

“I see. So, what are you gonna do about that?” Alca silently swung her battle hammer. But a black tail shot out and blocked it.

...Uuma didn’t even flinch. Either he had a lot of confidence, or he knew Rin would protect him.

“...Rin, don’t interfere.”

“Interfere? With what?”

“It’s been a long time since we’ve struggled this hard to understand each other. Hey, Alca. Turn back. You’ve gotta take me down if you wanna go any further.”

“Boss? He is forcing my hand here. Will you allow us to fight?”

“There’s, no helping, you two. Guess I’ve got, no choice. Uuma. I’m gonna, eat you.” A second later, Uuma was inside Rin’s stomach. So much for protecting them.

“Um, Boss. Were you not going to protect us?”

“Don’t worry. Uuma can, revive as much, as he wants, too.” The nearby wall crumbled, likely due to Uuma’s death. It revealed a passageway continuing further on.

# Keima’s Perspective

“...Whew. That’s one job done.”

“Good work, Keima.”

There was a high chance that she recognized my voice, but thanks to the flaws of Golem voice reproduction, I wouldn’t be surprised if she didn’t notice. If she asked me anything, I would just say it was mimicking the voice of the first adventurer to reach that floor. And I mean, that wasn’t a lie, either. It was mimicking my voice and I was the first adventurer to reach that floor.

Anyway, I had been forced to go out there since it was impossible to kill the High Priestess with Rin around. It ended up just being a quick meet and greet before an equally quick death, though. I would have liked to kill the High Priestess then and there if I could’ve. Regardless, she and Rin were going down the passageway behind the wall I had been sitting in front of. In other words, they were heading straight to the magma area with the door connecting to the [Flame Caverns].

I had said “You might as well give up here. You’re not gonna find what you’re looking for past me. I already took care of it” back there, and yeah. The thing she was looking for, a Dungeon Core, was in fact in the [Flame Caverns], and I certainly hadn’t taken care of it. Yep! I hadn’t told the truth! And it looks like the High Priestess does have a skill to detect lies, just like I expected. That could’ve been a bluff, but she said I was ‘quite guilty’ after I did indeed lie. Should be fine to just assume she does have the skill and keep operating under that assumption.

...Though, it must be a pretty amazing skill if it detected lies through the Golem. Maybe it was a bluff? Ah, nah. It’s very likely that the Holy Kingdom prioritized giving her all their rare skills. Her rate of survival is a solid one hundred percent, so there’s no risk of losing their investment.

Anyway, they beat me and the path forward opened. But that path didn’t lead to our Dungeon Core. By the time Alca realized she had been tricked, the day should be already over. We could relax. The Golems, traps, and poison arrows made from leftover toxins I bought for Rin had all ended up ineffectual, forcing me to go out myself, but that was fine. We would be fine once they got to the [Flame Caverns]. That dungeon wasn’t sealed, after all. Uh... They’re not sealed, right? Just because we’re connected? They would have come over and complained if they got sealed, I’m sure.

“We did it, Master. Rokuko.”

“...You’ve gotten a lot better with that Archer Golem, Rei.”

“Yes, I have trained quite extensively with it, as Golems are the only means by which I can inflict damage. I used my DP wages to buy an archery skill scroll... Ahaha. Though I remain unable to beat Niku. What’s that, Niku? You are just a normal beastkin child? Ahhh, you can easily dodge my arrows since you can see them flying through the air? Ahaha, that’s ridiculous, ahahahahhaha.” Rei let out dry laughter with her eyes looking distant and war-torn. I had seen her skills before, but she was really was getting stronger every day. I probably couldn’t beat her in a Golem fight myself anymore.

Rin and Alca reached the entrance to Rokuko’s magma area, which connected to the [Flame Caverns]. Rin had previously avoided going further here, but it didn’t seem like they had any particular weakness to magma. Apparently, they had the very agreeable reasoning that it looked too stuffy and hot for comfortable sleeping.

As an aside, they’d be totally fine drinking magma like water. Which is messed up. Like, what the hell, seriously?

“Boss. The atmosphere of the dungeon changed quite significantly here.”

“...I’ve never, gone through, here. So, I don’t, know where, to go.” Rin and Alca advanced forward, jumping from stepping stone to stepping stone. Is it just me, or is Alca totally fine with calling them “Boss” now?

“...There’s no point in sending normal Golems to fight Rin.”

“I guess the Gargoyles we made won’t get to fight this tiiime.”

“It’ll look suspicious if they don’t find anything, so I’ll send Phenny after them. Go on! Beat’m up, Phenny!” At Rokuko’s orders, Phenny attacked them.

“Ah! That’s... a Phoenix?! And it’s a different color than any I’ve ever seen before! L-L-Let’s catch it!”

“Mmm? That must, be one of, Uuma’s, monsters.”

“Tame! Let me tame you, please!!! The original High Priestess had a Phoenix partner! Please! I-I also want a Phoenix partner!!!”

“Phenny, run!” Alca tried capturing him, so we had Phenny run away. She tried jumping into the sea of lava to chase after him, but Rin stopped her.

“He’s, someone else’s, follower. You have, to stop. If you want, him, ask Uuma.”

“Aww... Wh-When I destroy the Dungeon Core...! Please come to my side, before the cave collapses...!” I wonder if she’ll give up on destroying the Core if we promise to give her Phenny... ah, Rokuko, don’t glare at me like that. Yeah, we couldn’t do that. Ahahaha.

Eventually, they found the door leading to the [Flame Caverns]. Finally, I can go to sleep peacefully... or so I thought, right before the High Priestess spun around and pulled Rin back.

“Boss, it looks like this is the entrance to another dungeon. The [Flame Caverns], if I would have to guess. Let us go back.”

“Mmm? This is, someone else’s, home? Alright. We can visit, later.”

...Wait, how’d she know that? Seriously? What the heck are you, High Priestess...?

“...What do we do now, Keima?”

“We’ve got no choice but to beat them back now. Guide them straight to the Boss Room. I wanted to save them for later, but it’s time to show off my new army. Also, we’ll use the anti-Rin Golems I made.”

“Wha? When’d you make make those, Keima?” C’mon, you know I’m gonna prepare for everything I can. I don’t wanna die here.

# High Priestess’s Perspective

“It seems we ended up going in the opposite direction that you initially intended, Boss.”

“...I see. Good job, noticing that.”

“Indeed. This much is natural for me. To attempt such a trick is impressive, however. I see that Uuma is quite the strategist.”

“You think, so? Uuma’s, weak. Anyway. Let’s, go.” Alca looked quite proud as she retraced her steps across the stepping stones. She was walking right behind Rin as if it was the most natural thing in the world. Unfortunately, the Phoenix was nowhere to be seen. It must have been hiding somewhere.

...Very unfortunate indeed.

They finished crossing the rivers of hot magma and returned to the original dungeon made of stone brick walls and flat stone paving.

“This is the direction you initially intended to go, wasn’t it?” They walked through the dungeon as Alca used her {Mapping} to check her map of the dungeon. In the past there had been a wall in front of where they stood, but it crumbled after they defeated Uuma.

“...I see. Uuma is the key to reaching our destination.”

“Mmm. That’s, annoying.”

They advanced forward, encountering no traps in particular, and soon found another Golem sitting in front of a wall. It was Uuma. Uuma looked similar to other Golems, but his aura was so different they could both recognize him immediately. The very way he sat on the ground felt reminiscent of a human being.

After seeing Alca and Rin, Uuma lifted up a hand in greeting.

“Yo. Kinda hoped you would keep going in that direction, y’know.”

“That was a clever trap. A normal adventurer would have fallen right for it, Uuma. I did not expect you to exploit my [Eyes of Truth] in such a manner. This has proved to be quite a learning experience.”

“Haaaah... I’m gonna ask one more time. Leave this dungeon.”

“I refuse.” The High Priestess rejected his request with a bright smile. Uuma sighed and shrugged.

“What about you, Rin? Any way I can get you to stop her?”

“Mmm? Nah. Don’t think so.”

“Looks like I’ve gotta take you both down, then. Listen up. I’m gonna be waiting in the room up ahead. Come inside when you’re ready to die.”

“Heh heh, heh. Think you, can beat me? Alright! Give it, your best shot!” Rin swallowed Uuma whole. The force of their charge ended up destroying the wall behind him too.

...There was a door behind it. An extravagant door that practically announced itself as leading to the Boss Room. The room Uuma had spoken of was no doubt behind this door.

“Do you think that Uuma will be capable of defeating you, Boss?”

“Heh, heh. Who knows. He’s weak, but... smart. Really, smart.” Uuma appeared to be as smart as a human... no, even smarter than a human. A being that intelligent was this dungeon’s boss, and Alca had to defeat it. She braced herself.

The door opened while creaking heavily. Inside the room were two knight statues made of gleaming iron. They were sitting on horses, fully armored and with lances in hand, but the front guards of their helmets were raised such that their faces were visible.

...Both were completely blank, like unmarked eggshells.

Where was Uuma hiding? They slowly walked forward.

.........

Uuma didn’t show up even after a brief wait.

“...He’s, late.”

“He certainly is taking his time.” Perhaps he was tricking them into letting their guard down. Or perhaps he had been referring to the room past this one.

“Let us proceed. He might be waiting in the nex—” Death. Alca took two fast steps back. A lance stabbed into the ground where she was a moment prior. It shot back up, but Rin jumped between them and blocked the slice.

The knight statue had moved, revealing itself as a Golem. It was the first time she had seen a Golem knight complete with a Golem horse, but anything was possible when it came to the dungeon boss. Its surprise attack had been effective. If not for Rin, she would likely have died then and there.

“Heheh. Uumaaa! This is you, Uuma, isn’t it! You’re looking, real tasty, now! Ha!” Rin laughed in excitement.

“...Alright. Let’s do this.” The Knight Golem spoke while lowering the front guard of its helmet. That was unmistakably Uuma’s voice. He took a few steps back and entered a fighting posture.

“I’ve been waiting for this! Let us duel!”

“Heheheh! Hahaha, hahaha! Here I, come! Uuma!” Rin and Uuma dashed forward at the same time, slamming into one another... Or so Alca expected, but instead, Uuma speedily jumped off his horse mid-dash. The horse alone charged forward toward Rin.

“This strategy, again...?!” Rin opened their mouth impossibly wide to swallow the horse, and a second later, the horse ruptured and launched an avalanche of something white into their mouth.

“Nghaah?! Bwaah! Sppth, sppth! This is, s-salt?!”

“There’s plenty more where that came from. Eat up.” The door behind Uuma opened up and a white horse charged through. After four more horses came through, the door slammed shut.

“W-Wait, Uuma? Are those, all, made of salt?!”

“There’s plenty more where that came from. Eat up.” Uuma spoke the same line as before with a flat, emotionless voice. White horses made of salt... the Salt Horses mercilessly began chasing after Rin.

Alca, watching Rin distance themself from Uuma and the horses, blocked the swing from behind with her battle hammer.

“I’m afraid that even with salt softening your footsteps, you stand out far too much, Uuma.”

“.........”

“Oh my, do you have nothing to say? Don’t hesitate to praise my sharp senses. Or could it be that only one of you can talk?” It was the second Knight Golem. It had tried to launch a surprise attack on her while they were focused on the first Golem. But Alca had expected someone like Uuma to pull such a trick, and to some extent had known what he would do before he did it. In fact, she was actually disappointed that she had outplayed him so easily.

“...Alright. Let’s do this.”

“Indeed. It will all be over soon, my comrade.” Their battle began with Uuma saying the same thing he had to Rin.

Uuma’s swordplay was similar to that of a trained knight. But his execution of the techniques was sloppy, making him seem about as experienced as a C-Rank adventurer. Alca piled on attacks with her battle hammer. She couldn’t expect any help from Rin, given that all their attention was dedicated to avoiding the Salt Horses chasing them. But she knew this was one battle she could win.

“Ahaha. Compared to Boss, you’re nothing!” The sound of metal slamming together echoed through the air. Alca’s battle hammer was made of black steel, a metal far more hard and durable than iron. In contrast, both Uuma’s armor and sword were made of simple iron. Each time he blocked one of her strikes, his sword let out a screech and bent a little.

“Come on, come on! You can’t beat me like this! Hyah! Take this, and that!” Uuma’s technique grew increasingly sloppy, as if reflecting his panic and the damage he was taking. Alca continued her merciless barrage of attacks.

Suddenly, Uuma stumbled and crouched down. He threw his sword aside and spread out his arms, thrusting them forward.

“What’s this? You want me to spare you? Ahaha. I’m afraid that even if you throw away your sword, I still need to defeat you if I want to reach the Dungeon Core. Therefore, I must finish you off.”

“...Eat up.” Uuma’s right hand shot up, finger pointed to the ceiling. Alca, staying on guard for a surprise attack from Uuma, looked up. There was nothing. Actually... No, wait. The ceiling was white.

A second later, the ceiling collapsed. It was actually a massive hoard of salt. That meant nothing to Uuma and his Salt Horses, as they were Golems, but Rin and Alca were forced to shut their eyes as the heavy layer of salt slammed onto them.

“Mghaah! Sphh, sph! Ngggh! Tastes, so bad! So, so bad! Geeeh! Sph!” Alca could hear Rin groaning in pain. Apparently, a Salt Horse had taken advantage of the distraction to jump into their mouth. Was salt Rin’s weakness? Yes, it must have been, and that was no doubt exactly why Uuma had somehow prepared so much of it.

“Ngh!” She opened her eyes, battle hammer at the ready, and saw Uuma in front of her. Perhaps due to the freedom offered by his lack of a weapon, or perhaps due to being unaffected by the rain of salt... Uuma’s left hand was much, much closer to Alca than it used to be. And a second later, a thin something burst with great force from his hand, piercing her right through the heart.

“...Wha?” Alca coughed up blood. It had apparently cut through her lungs, too, or perhaps her wind pipe. The iron breastplate she was wearing had been cut straight through.

“A Golem... casting, magic? When did you, chant the incantation...?” She wanted to chant a healing spell, but Uuma likely wouldn’t give her the time or opportunity to do so. But even if he did, blood was pooling in her lungs and she could hardly even breathe. Her words ended up choppy and broken, much like Rin’s. Alca knew from experience that she was already dead.

“Cough. Ahaha... I let, my guard, down. It seems, this is my, loss...”

“.........” Uuma said nothing of how his magic worked. He couldn’t afford to give parting words of wisdom to a dying adventurer. Reason being, this was one adventurer that would come back to life. She would think up a method for countering his power if he revealed what it was. So, he said nothing. He answered none of her questions.

That said, Alca could extrapolate from the evidence in front of her. Her clothes were wet, which meant it had likely been some kind of Water magic. Since it pierced her iron breastplate in a single instance, it was likely magic of High-Rank or above. Uuma was not a Golem, but rather a Gargoyle. She didn’t know the details, but it’d be safe to say that he could cast that high-level Water magic without a chant. Which meant that next time, she could win. Next time for sure.

...However, that next time would have to wait. Alca wouldn’t be able to enter the dungeon for some time. That was one restriction of {Treaty}.

“Mmn?! H-Hey, you there?! Did he, beat you?!”

“Ngh... Forgive me, Boss... I will, return, someday... I swear it...” Alca slowly shut her eyes, unable to resist her darkening consciousness. Aaah... I think I would have liked for Rin to eat me one last time. Though I don’t think they would, given all the salt. Somewhat odd thoughts flashed through her mind as she died.

# Keima’s Perspective

“Alright! We killed the High Priestess!” I reflexively struck a victory pose. I’m so glad I beat her. If she survived that, I would’ve had to start a war of attrition with the fifty Fire Arm Golems I stocked up on. It’d be super uncool if we had to reveal our Gargoyle army after hiding it for this long. Anyway. Rin doesn’t care about our Dungeon Core themself, so with the High Priestess out of the way, it’s our win.

“...That was crazy strong. Was that the Gargoyle stuff you’ve been researching, Keima?”

“Yup. A weaponized arm, styled after Gargoyles.” Water Cutter. That was the true name of the attack which had pierced Alca’s heart. I had hidden water-creating magic circles in the Golem’s left arm—about a hundred of them. I piled up thin partitions inside its arm to fit all of the circles in one place. The result was a very dangerous weapon that initially made the entire arm explode. Man, I’m sure glad I built a second room just for testing next to the main lab. Ultimately, I started by filling the arm with water, carved the magic circles into plastic made from water bottles, and slid in layers of black steel to complete a triple layered setup.

Each magic circle could make about a cup’s worth of water in a split second. One of those was forced into a single arm—a large arm, since it was a Haniwa Golem—and all of them activated simultaneously. The resulting force was immense, albeit temporary. I also mixed in a single Earth magic circle that produced sand, in order to increase the beam of water’s piercing potential. I started off using crushed ruby powder, but the water’s force was already so great that it didn’t accomplish much more than sand already did. By the way, the beam of water pierced a three centimeter thick slab of black steel during testing. Also, the wire we used as a cork shot out at high speeds after the first shot, increasing its lethality further. Yeaaah... The launched cork is deadly enough on its own even without the Water Cutter beam. The Water Cutter cost 2000 DP to make, with most of that coming from the black steel ingot and the magic stones used to complete the magic circles.

“Only problem with this thing is it drains a high quality magic stone (500 DP) dry in a single second. We can’t fire it too often.”

“Ouch... Um, wouldn’t it have been better to just summon a monster stronger than Rin? Like, before we got sealed, I mean.” Designing this did take a lot of funding... W-Well, I mean, who knows if we could’ve won without it. And really, thinking about it, I worked really hard this time. I had to make two of these Gargoyle-type Iron Haniwa plus a bunch of Salt Horses. It took a lot of effort to shave off the unnecessary armor from the Iron Horse Golems. Salt Horses basically scream “I’m made of salt,” and that’s because I had covered the iron skeleton of a Horse Golem with salt. Also, I made that Ceiling Salt Golem just to be a dick to Rin. Man, I really did work hard. I think I’ve earned my sleep.

“...Seriously though, that was pretty close.”

“Uh-huh.”

“The only lines I recorded for the Golems were ‘Alright. Let’s do this.’ and ‘There’s plenty more where that came from. Eat up.’ so yeah.” I had built the Golems in a hurry, so that was the best I could do. My plan was to have the voice make them think they were fighting Uuma, and then surprise them by moving the second one. Too bad the High Priestess blocked my surprise attack, though I honestly expected as much from her.

“Wait, that’s what you were worried about?”

“Huh? Yeah. Even if they beat the knights, all they’d find was the staircase to our new Puzzle Area. Not that it’s done yet.” Yup. That may be the Boss Room, but I never once said the Core Room’s behind it. I sure am glad I tricked them into going there. Of course, the actual Dungeon Core is in a totally different room. I’ve been expanding the storeroom area while fixing all the stuff Rin broke, so they had no real way of knowing where I had moved it.

“Um, Master... How long should I keep chasing them?” Niku called out to me while chasing Rin with the Salt Horses. Rin couldn’t get away from them no matter how hard they tried. Man, Niku’s a real master at this stuff. I’m impressed.

“Right, right. I’m gonna send out a Messenger Golem to talk to them. Keep up the chase and stop when I send the word. Oh, and Rokuko. Go ahead and withdraw all the salt on the ground. We can reuse it when training Rin.”

“Understood.”

“Okaaay.”

Good answers. I prepared a Messenger Golem and sent it to the room where Rin was fleeing from Salt Horses.

＊ ＊ ＊

“Heeey, Rin. Want me to stop them?”

“Wha, Uuma?! You’re, back to normal?! I... Nghaah!” After I called out to Rin with a normal Messenger Golem, they looked over at me in surprise... and let their guard down just enough for a Salt Horse to slam into their side and give their whole body a taste of salt. Since Rin had the power to eat anything using any part of their body, that must have hurt a lot. I had withdrawn both Haniwa Golems after arriving at the room, so there was only one “Uuma” in the room.

“Nghaah?! S-S-Stop them Uuma! These are your, subordinates, right?!”

“I’ll stop them if you agree to serve me.”

“Ngh! That’s, not happening! Crap! I didn’t want, to do this, but I have, no choice... O hole of darkness which consumes all, hea—”

“Woah, hold up, alright already. I’ll stop them, so quit with that sparking stuff.” Black lightning had started to spark around Rin once they began the chant, so I hurriedly sent Niku the order to stop. Rin saw that and ended the chant. Wait, by “hole of darkness which consumes all,” did they mean a black hole? There’s a spell for that? Jesus. I wanted to take this opportunity to make them serve me, but looks like they’ve still got some cards up their sleeve I don’t know about...

“Hmph. Shoulda, done that, from the start.”

“Haaah... I wanna tell you to leave the dungeon now, but eh. I’ll let you stay in that room I made for you.”

“Mmm? You’re acting, pretty cocky, Uuma.”

“Yeah, cause I won this time.”

“...Meh. Sure. Whatever. I’ll let, you think, that.” Rin nodded, slumping over a little. They looked pretty exhausted.

“Anyway. I’ll feed you five Golems a day if you make sure no invaders get past your room, Boss.”

“Yeah. I’ll protect, this place, while I’m, here. You can, count, on me.”

“Don’t go further in the dungeon just ’cause I’m your follower, alright? I’ll make you eat some more Salt Horses if you do.”

“...Alright. That’s, fair.” Rin obediently nodded, a sign that they really did hate the Salt Golems. Asking for anything more would just be pushing it, so I’ll just leave it at that. Even if I did ask for something more specific, Rin might just forget and act like it never happened. Plus, Rin’s earning us 950/DP a day, plus more when in a shut room. Just having them around is pretty nice. Though it can be pretty risky, like with what happened this time.

Anyway, considering that they beat back the High Priestess for us every day up until today, I’ll let them off easy. A-And it’s not like I’m forgiving them since I couldn’t beat them, okay?!

“By the way, how long are you gonna be staying here?”

“Mmm? At the latest... spring. I’ll leave, when it becomes, spring. Uuma, you coming, too?”

“Nah. I can’t leave this place even if I want to, and I won’t anyway.”

“Darn. With you around, I wouldn’t have, to worry, about food.” He just wants to eat me, huh? I don’t get it. If Golems are fine, why not just eat the ground itself?

Day 301

Alca had said something about returning, so I thought that she might go back into the dungeon right away, but that luckily wasn’t the case. She came asking for a meeting with me, the town chief, after a brief rest. There was about an hour left until the seal expired.

“I am extremely sorry to announce that I was incapable of completing the quest... If not for the Holy Kingdom’s summons, I would be able to stay for longer, but...”

“Well, there’s no helping that. I saw you go into the dungeon every day, so I’m sure you did your best. Thank you.”

“I am quite thankful you feel that way... Unfortunately, I must now leave town. Out of respect for the promise I made with Rokuko, I will give up on marrying you for now, Keima.” I kinda want her to give up on that forever, but considering how much DP she earns us... actually, nah, she’s too dangerous. Don’t come again, please.

“May we meet again soon, Uuma.”

“Uuma? Who’s that?”

“...Forgive me, I misspoke. There was a Golem deep in the dungeon whose voice sounded quite like yours, Keima.” Okay, yeah, she’s definitely using her lie-detecting skill right now. But tough luck. I don’t lie that easily.

“Oh, a talking Golem? I have gone far into the dungeon before. Perhaps it was mimicking my voice.”

“I see... By the way, it called itself Uuma, and I believe it is this dungeon’s boss. It appears to be working with Boss... that is, the dangerous monster threatening your town. Do you know something about this?”

“Unfortunately, I know nothing worth talking about.”

“...Truly?”

“Yes, truly. I can swear it upon the name of the God of Light if you’d like.” It’s all stuff I’m hiding from her, so yeah, nothing would be “worth” talking to her about. I’m telling the truth. If she asked if I was hiding anything, I planned on saying all adventurers had things they wanted to hide, but she didn’t press me any further. Just the way I like it.

“If you say so, Keima, I will believe you. Now then, Keima. Would you mind closing your eyes for me?”

“Closing my eyes? Like this?”

“Don’t peek even a little until I say so, okay? Are your eyes firmly shut?”

“...Yes, they’re shut.” I shut my eyes and didn’t peek, in order to avoid suspicion. If she did anything dangerous, Rokuko would withdraw me immediately, but I was still a little uneasy.

“...May you have God’s blessing, my love.” I heard Alca’s voice right next to me, and then felt something soft and squishy press against my cheek. A warm, gentle breeze flew over me and enveloped my body.

“You may open them now.” I opened my eyes and saw that Alca was smiling brightly, as if nothing had happened. I’ll ask Rokuko what she did later.

“What was that all about?”

“I will give up on you for now, due to my promise with Rokuko... But I never promised to give up forever. Thus, I prepared a little insurance for my return. A-A wise man of culture such as yourself should understand what I mean, yes?” Insurance? Man, I bet she did something pretty weird to me.

“Now then, I must be going.”

“Right. I’m sure you don’t need me worrying about you, but please be safe... ah, would you like some sweets as a parting gift? They’re called cream puffs and I just got my hands on them. You can buy five for just one gold coin.”

And so, the High Priestess Alca began her journey home to the Holy Kingdom with five cream puffs in hand. The fact that I sincerely worried about her having enough money to make it home, despite how much trouble she put us through, can be our little secret.

＊ ＊ ＊

“Oh! Look, Keima! We can summon monsters again!”

“Yep. We can make rooms, walls, and passageways again too.” An hour after the High Priestess left, the effects of {Treaty} wore off without issue. I checked the DP Catalog and confirmed that we could buy everything without issue again, and while I was at it, moved the Dungeon Core back into Rokuko’s room. The deepest part of the dungeon had become the safest place for it while the High Priestess was around, but I really hadn’t expected the castling function to end up sealed. What kind of emergency tool was it if it didn’t work when we needed it most?

“Also, it looks like new functions have been added to the menu! This is just what I found, but we can project our voice anywhere into the dungeon now, and we can set Spawn Points. Now we can both spawn and withdraw things!”

“I wish we had those a little earlier.” Maybe we had unlocked those functions as a reward for surviving {Treaty}, or maybe our dungeon had just leveled up or something like that. Either way, it was probably a sign we should expand our dungeon even further.

...Y’know, if there actually is an achievement system with rewards, maybe we should be experimenting a lot more aggressively. Like building one hundred floors with nothing in them. That’d still cost 500,000 DP, though, thanks to all the staircase rooms we’d need.

“Rin’s still here, but now I can finally prop up my pillows and really sleep.”

“You sure love sleeping, Keima.”

“All humans crave food, sleep, and sex. It’s in our instincts. But anyway, yeah, I’m gonna go sleep. Gonna sleep for a long time. Like, three days straight. I might get up to use the bathroom and eat, but I’m mainly gonna be sleeping. Only wake me up if something really important happens, got it?”

“Yeah, yeah, I know the deal by now. Sleep tight, Keima.” Rokuko waved as I went to my room in the chief residence. And so, after having a Golem prepare my futon, I jumped in and fell right asleep.

Day 304

Three days later. I finally woke up and, as it had been a while, decided to pay Rokuko a visit. Man, I sure slept hard. Was sound asleep for most of it. I’m feeling pretty good now, so maybe I won’t mind doing a little work.

I went to Rokuko’s room and saw Haku smiling broadly while rubbing Rokuko’s head. By the way, Rokuko was sitting on her lap.

“Why, good morning, Keima.” Haku greeted me, her pleased smile not faltering for a moment. Ah. Uh. Right. Good morning, Haku... Er, might I ask when you arrived?

“Yesterday afternoon. I was waiting for you to wake up before leaving today. Very bold of you to keep me waiting like this.” WHAAAAAT?! I told you not to wake me up, Rokuko, but this is a pretty big freaking deal! I was just oversleeping ’cause I worked so hard recently, come on! This is my punishment for only leaving my room to use the bathroom! I could just use the DP catalog to buy toothpaste and stuff! I was panicking a ton in my head.

“Hold on, sister. I told you I was letting Keima rest because he worked super hard, didn’t I? He woke up after three days like he said he would, so what’s the problem?”

“Ah, yes, that’s right. Out of respect for Rokuko, I will pretend you never kept me waiting like this.”

“Th-Thank you very much.”

“Now then. There is quite a lot I would like to talk to you about. It’s been some time since I’ve been able to visit due to my busy schedule. Wars truly are tiresome, profitable though they may be.” Ahhh, right. People high up in the world like Haku just think of war as a means of making more money. I’ve heard rumors about a war, but dang, she’s actually fighting one...

“Losing soldiers means losing their DP, so the Demon Army’s broad goal is no doubt to stifle my income. They know my position isn’t weak enough to falter from such a thing, but as the yearly ranking is approaching, I imagine they want every advantage they can get.” Right, right. I remember her talking about the Demon Kings of this world being Dungeon Cores led by a single Great Demon King.

“Er, what do you mean by yearly ranking?”

“Oh, you don’t know? There’s a meeting of Dungeon Cores once per year. We are then ranked based on how much DP we currently possess. I believe I was seventh place overall last year.” Oh yeah. I think I remember Rokuko mentioning something like that a long time ago. And wait, seventh place? There’s six people stronger than Haku? Well, not people. Dungeon Cores.

“In any case, sixth place was the general of the Demon Army, Dungeon Core Number 6. More commonly known as the Great Demon King, of course. They aren’t attacking me themselves, but factions within the Demon Army are trying to earn some brownie points.”

“That does sound like a pain.”

“Indeed. Would you like to cover my duties for a little while?” Absolutely not. No. Never.

“Ah, we’ve gotten off topic. Regarding what’s happened here lately, I’ve heard most of the major details from my pawns.”

“...Your pawns, Haku?”

“Yes. I didn’t warn you about them, but the owner of the bar, Wozma, and the talented carpenter Kuusan are both my pawns. You’ve met them, yes?” Wozma and Kuusan? Really? Both of them have a lot of authority in this town. Heck, one of’ms the vice town chief.

“I called them my pawns, but both are humans unrelated to dungeon matters, so be aware. Try not to talk to them about DP and Dungeon Masters.”

“Ah. Okay.” Even Kuusan’s her pawn? She sure has a wide reach... Oh, right, she owns the whole Adventurer’s Guild. Obviously she’s not lacking in human resources to exploit.

“So, according to Wozma and Kuusan’s reports, you’ve been doing a fine job as town chief.”

“I’m just pushing the work onto other people.”

“Hmm? Well, you may think that if you like. Wozma was originally an official working in my Imperial Castle. Entrusting him with matters of administration was a very good call. He is quite the talented man.” Now that’s what I like to hear. An official working in the Imperial Castle? He’s like, a top-tier elite. I’m gonna throw all the annoying work at him without hesitating a bit.

“In any case. As I said, a lot seems to have happened while I was busy, and I truly do have quite a lot I would like to talk to you about. Are you ready?”

“Y-Yes. What do you want to know?”

“The black wolf and High Priestess are pressing issues... but first, I would like to know about the ring you gave Rokuko.”

Acting on pure instinct, I fell to the ground and groveled before Haku.