Chapter 3

“Huh. So this is the [Ordinary Cave], huh?” A male adventurer stepped into the mostly empty cave. The rest of his party followed after him a few steps later. In total, there were three of them, all F-Rank adventurers who had come after taking this investigation quest together.

“Hey now, be careful. This is a dungeon. Who knows what kind of traps are in here.”

“Don’t worry so much. Even the guild said there’s nothing here, remember? The only thing we’ll find is the Dungeon Core.”

“You have a point, but...” The leader ignored his passive friend’s warning and kept walking into the dungeon.

There were hallways to the left and right of them. But otherwise, they couldn’t see anything important. The only thing out of the ordinary was how the wooden doors looked a little burnt.

“Looks like there aren’t any bandits left.”

“Obviously. Knights wouldn’t slip up like that. But I did hear that there were like twenty bandits here. Yeah. Twenty.”

“Damn... Whoever came here before us sure was unlucky.”

“Yep. I’m pretty sure they all died. Oh... Looks like this is a dead end. Wanna try the other hallway?”

“Yeah, seems like there’s still some more rooms. Let’s try it.” The adventurers advanced deeper into the dungeon without any issues. That was to be expected. There were no traps or monsters in this dungeon. Excluding the five or so Goblins that would come out of the Dungeon Core, that is.

The quest the adventurers were on was an easy job where they got a whole silver coin for just reporting how many Goblins came out of the Core. It was, more or less, a Goblin extermination quest. But even an F-Rank adventurer could easily take down five Goblins on their own. A party of three could handle ten Goblins no sweat.

And so, they finally reached the deepest room in the dungeon. Five Goblins immediately sprang out of Core, but they posed no thread to the adventurers who knew that they would be coming. Two, three swings of a sword and they were gone. How were there fewer swings than Goblins? Simple. They killed multiple Goblins per swing.

“One, two, three... and five. Alright.”

“Quest complete. Hm? What’s up?”

One of the adventurers was staring at the Dungeon Core.

“Hey. I’ve got an idea.”

“Yeah?”

“Let’s try breaking this Dungeon Core.”

“What?! The hell are you talking about, man? The guild ordered us not to do that!”

“But think about it. I’ve heard destroying a Dungeon Core nets you enough power that a knight could become a Holy Paladin just like that. If we destroy it, we’d probably become strong enough to end up as A-Rank adventurers.”

“A-Rank...” The adventurer swallowed hard. A-Rank. Those adventurers who reached A-Rank were considered to be the best of the best, living examples of success for others to strive towards. Many people became adventurers in search of wealth, but most ended up as F-Rank or E-Rank adventurers at best. It was fairly common for adventurers to take up second jobs.

Only once an adventurer reached D-Rank would he be able to live off adventuring on its own. C-Rank adventurers were veterans. B-Rank adventurers were strong enough to earn the respect of all those veterans, and it became common to earn a whole gold piece minimum per quest. An A-Rank adventurer would be so successful as to be famous around the world. And on top of all those ranks was the inhuman S-Rank. It was said that a single S-Rank adventurer could change the fate of the world, but naturally, that wasn’t relevant to these three adventurers.

“But think about it. If we lie and say the dungeon’s fine, then the next people who take the quest will end up reporting that the Core is gone. We’ll be caught and executed.”

“Then all we have to do is say we couldn’t find the Core. That way, whoever came here before us will look suspicious instead. Which is perfect, because ‘whoever came before us’ is actually the bandits and the knights. The guild won’t be able to do anything since the bandits are all gone and the knights aren’t adventurers.”

“...Man, you’re a genius!” In reality, their lie would be found out immediately with a lie-detecting tool, but unfortunately none of the three adventurers knew such things existed.

With that argument settled, all that awaited was action. The adventurers drew their swords and started whaling on the Dungeon Core. Their blades bounced off a few times, but they were causing real damage. The Core itself did nothing entirely, as if it had been given an order to “not do anything,” and soon enough... a heavy blow made it shatter like a crystal ball.

Day 30

“What?!”

I jumped awake, drenched in a cold sweat.

That... That was a bad dream.

A nightmare where the Dungeon Core got destroyed.

Thanks to the dumb ideas of a stupid adventurer, the Core to my dungeon got destroyed.

Whew. Setting up camp early wasn’t worth it if it meant having nightmares like that.

Niku and I hadn’t brought much with us, so after eating the last of our food and water, we had slept on the cold hard ground (with our Wearable Golems ordered to attack anyone who tried to ambush us in our sleep).

Ideally we would have reached the [Ordinary Cave] before needing to sleep, but not even running at full speed got us there before the sun set.

Our Wearable Golems could have kept going on track even in pitch darkness, but branches we couldn’t see would have kept slapping our faces nonstop, so we just gave up.

Speaking of which, how do our Wearable Golems even see anything? Can they even see in the first place? Putting that aside, I had a lot of thoughts about that nightmare. It was very plausible that people who became adventurers out of greed would try to destroy our dungeon’s Core out of that same greed. Thinking about it now, the investigation quest didn’t even matter. At any point, someone could visit the [Ordinary Cave] on their own time and destroy the Core before vanishing to another town. It would be nigh impossible to catch them.

...Yep. In other words, Rokuko has just been lucky up until now. There was no guarantee whatsoever that a random passerby wouldn’t sneak into the [Ordinary Cave] and destroy its Core at any moment. The nightmare I had could become reality at any point, as long as the [Ordinary Cave] existed. And actually, since someone took the investigation quest before me, it might actually be happening right now.

“Nnn... Papa... squeeze me... more...” I glanced to my side and saw that Niku was hugging me tightly despite being asleep. I didn’t want to wake her up from whatever nice dream she was having, but I had no choice. It may have been early in the morning, but we could see again. That was enough. I cast {Purification} on my sweaty body, woke up Niku, and resumed our dash to the [Ordinary Cave]. Ngh...! My muscles hurt so friggin’ much!

It was already close to noon when we reached the [Ordinary Cave]. It took longer than expected, but we had finally gotten home. Though... the first thing we saw after exiting the forest and looking towards the cave was something neither of us ever expected.

There was Rokuko, sitting on a white chair next to a white table, gracefully drinking tea. She was even in the form I first saw her in, rather than her DP-saving form. And in front of her was a lady I’ve never seen before, looking gently at Rokuko with her long white hair trailing behind her back. She radiated a classy aura that likely reflected some kind of noble status. Beside her stood a blonde... guy? Uh, wait, no. Beside her stood a cross-dressing blonde girl wearing the black clothes of a butler while holding an umbrella over the first girl.

“And then, and then...”

“Fufu. What happened after that?”

Rokuko gracefully tilted her cup to drink the tea. The refined lady used that opportunity to talk to her, smiling gently.

Basically, the entrance to our cave had turned into the royal garden of a palace. What the heck is Rokuko doing? Who is that girl? Why are they drinking tea like nothing’s wrong at all? I froze in place, and soon enough made eye contact with the broadly smiling Rokuko.

“Oh, Keima! Welcome back! That didn’t take long at all!”

“...What’re you doing?”

“Eh? Can’t you tell? I’m having a tea party like the refined lady I am.” Rokuko (not in her loli form) puffed out her sizable chest with pride. That’s not what I meant. I want to know why you’re doing that.

“Number 89 came over to spend time with me!”

“Oh wow, Number 89, huh? Wait... Number 89? She’s a Dungeon Core?!” I looked more closely at the white-haired girl sitting next to her. She looked like much more of a refined lady than Rokuko.

“Well, hello there... May I call you Keima?” The lady elegantly waved her hand. To be honest, she was exactly my type. Like, exactly, holy shit. But for some reason, a chill ran down my spine.

“I was just talking to Number 89 about what happened recently. I told her about you too, Keima.”

“Alright, Rokuko. C’mere for a second. Ma’am, please excuse us.” I pulled Rokuko away and started whispering to her.

“...How much have you told her?”

“Ummm, I just got to the part where the bandits were all about to die. Oh, and I gave her a [Melon Roll] too! She really loved it!” Rokuko let out a girlish squeal of happiness, clearly pleased that her older sister enjoyed her gift. So I thumped her on the side of the head.

“Ow! Why’d you do that?!” Rokuko barked at me like an angry dog. Heh, scratch that. Big tits or not, she’s still more like an angry puppy.

“Listen up. Stop telling her things she doesn’t need to know. She might be our enemy. And no matter what, don’t tell her anything about my Golems.”

“Ngh, okay... But Number 89 definitely isn’t our enemy.”

“...Who taught you the absolutely incredible battle strategy of summoning nothing but Goblins?”

“...Number 89.”

“Who told you to use DP only to summon monsters without ever expanding your dungeon past one room?”

“.........Number 89.”

“So? Are you really sure she definitely isn’t our enemy?”

“B-But... ngh...” Alright. So, basically, here’s how it is. Dungeon Core Number 89 wasn’t letting Rokuko grow as a dungeon. While, simultaneously, her own dungeon was shooting up through the rankings. There was some connection there, and it was very possible that she’d be getting in our way from now on. Rather, she would probably eliminate us the second she could if we ever get in her way.

“Mmm, Number 695. Will your secret discussion be over soon? I would like to join you two.”

“O-OKAY! W-We’re coming right over, Number 89!” And yet, Rokuko still looked happy after Dungeon Core Number 89 called out to her. Yeah... If I hadn’t used my Absolute Authority over her as Dungeon Master, she would’ve spilled the beans instantly. Though it was still possible that she let some secrets leak. Whether or not I have Absolute Authority over her, my order wouldn’t mean much if she was letting things slip unconsciously.

“So, what happened to the bandits after that?”

“U-Um...” Rokuko glanced at me. She must not have known whether or not it was okay for her to talk. So, I answered for her.

“...As you can tell, they were massacred.”

“The band of knights took care of them, then? Yes, that’s perfect. But I must wonder how much DP they were worth. Judging from the reports, you two must have earned at least ten thousand.”

“The reports...? What do you mean by that? Sorry, I don’t know too much about you.”

“Ah, I imagine not. You were summoned here from another world, after all.” Guess Rokuko already told her about my summoning and all that. Makes sense. That happened pretty early.

“...Allow me to introduce myself.” Dungeon Core Number 89 straightened her back and, with a hand on her chest, introduced herself with a clear voice.

“I am Dungeon Core Number 89. A... prior master of mine called me Haku. I know that humans prefer such names over numerical designations, so please feel free to call me Haku as well. I manage the [Ivory Labyrinth] located within the Laverio Empire’s capital city. Dungeon Core Number 695 is my little sister, as you know. It is a pleasure to meet you.” Dungeon Core Number 89 smiled gracefully at me. Haku’s a lot shorter than Dungeon Core whatever whatever, so I’ll roll with that. I responded to Haku’s greeting in turn, taking care to speak with enough gravity and weight that she wouldn’t look down on me.

“...Indeed, it is nice to meet you as well. My name is Keima Masuda. Please call me Keima. I have been working as the Dungeon Master of your little sister’s dungeon, the [Ordinary Cave]. I pray that we can work well together.”

“Oh my, you are quite the polite one. I am impressed.” Hearing Haku say that made Rokuko panic a little.

“Sh-Should I introduce myself too?! I-I’m Dungeon Core Number 695, and...!” Uh, we both know who you are, so...

“Oh, right. We gotta get ready. Some adventurers are coming.”

“My, my. Are you perhaps worried about that because of this?” Haku took the [Ordinary Cave] investigation quest slip out from her cleavage.

“That’s...” Why was she keeping it there...? I mean, uh, why does she have that? Haku quickly answered my question.

“Despite my true identity, I am also an A-Rank adventurer, a position I exploited to get my hands on this. The knights from my country gave their report on the [Ordinary Cave] and I couldn’t help but come see things for myself.”

“...I thought you needed at least two people to take that quest.”

“In what world would two F-Ranks be superior to a single A-Rank? But either way... Chloe, my Succubus friend here, is also an A-Rank adventurer. We took the quest together as a pair.” Chloe bowed after being introduced. That butler outfit wasn’t just for show. So she is a cross-dressing beauty, huh? I guess not all monsters are mindless beasts. But isn’t that chest a little... sad, for a Succubus? I’d be way more convinced if someone told me Haku was a Succubus. But either way, a pure-hearted and chaste Succubus feels a lot more realistic than a pure-hearted and chaste porn star. In this fantasy world, at least.

“So do not worry, Keima. You’ll be fine for at least half a month now.” Haku smiled, as if saying the situation was entirely under her control. She was right. No invaders would be coming for our dungeon anytime soon. Excluding the two in front of me.

“By the way, Keima. May I ask you a question?”

“Sure. What’s up?” The smile vanished from Haku’s face.

“...Are you a Soldier of God?” I felt a chill run down my spine. A Soldier of God... No idea what that means. Some god talked to me while I was being summoned here, but I didn’t become his soldier or anything.

“I did meet someone who claimed to be a god, but I don’t remember him talking about anything like that.”

“I see.” As if satisfied by my answer, Haku resumed smiling. I could almost feel the atmosphere warming back up.

“Forgive me, but I used magic to determine whether or not you were lying. You seem to be telling the truth, thankfully. I was worried about you ever since Number 695 told me that she had summoned you from another world.” When did she cast that magic? And that kind of magic even exists? Makes sense I guess, since there’s a magic tool that does the same thing. But either way, I have something more important to ask about. “...Sorry, but what exactly is a Soldier of God?”

“They are people who, after being summoned here from another word, destroy dungeons at the behest of God—or a god, in any case. I defeated one of them before, and they told me that dungeons must be destroyed as they interfere with the flow of mana. They are known as ‘Heroes’ in this world.” Oh, whoops. I might be a Soldier of God. Not really planning on doing anything like that, though.

“Now then. I would like to have a conversation alone with you, Keima. Do you mind? Ah, you can wait here with Chloe, Number 695.”

“O-Okay!”

“Understood, my lady. Come with me, Princess.” I followed Haku as she distanced herself from Rokuko and Chloe. Of course, Niku stayed behind too. Yeah... This is pretty dangerous. I didn’t notice until she stood up, but Haku has absolutely incredible feet. Crap. I can’t stop staring at her feet, even though I know I’m in danger here! Her Vietnamese style áo dài dress hugged her body perfectly, showing off all her curves. I could see the outline of her feet through the thin cloth of her skirt each time she took a step. I want to look under her skirt. I want to take off her shoes and get a good look at her bare feet.

“Now then...” Haku turned to look at me after we had walked a fair distance. The fact that she looked beautiful just turning around really helped me understand why Rokuko looked up to her so much. And then, without a missing a beat, she said... “Would you please relinquish your position as Dungeon Master?”

“I’m afraid I can’t do that!” The beds in this world suck way too much. They’re like, unforgivably bad. I couldn’t live with them. I’m not gonna quit being a Dungeon Master, it’s the only way for me to get [Futons] and even better beds.

“Sincerely though, what have you been doing to my cute little Number 695? How dare you defile her as you have. If you won’t quit being a Dungeon Master, then please at least relinquish your Absolute Authority over her and then kill yourself immediately.” Isn’t that basically just me quitting being a Dungeon Master?

“...I’m not really sure what you’re talking about. I mean, I wouldn’t mind giving up my Absolute Authority, but suicide is a bit much.”

“Oh my. I like your cooperative attitude. But will you truly give up your authority?” I mean, yeah. I think the Absolute Authority system is pretty messed up in the first place, so I was thinking about getting rid of it somehow. Like, in my dream, I told Rokuko to “Just send out five Goblins. Don’t do anything else,” and that ended up killing her. She couldn’t do anything to protect herself even in the face of death. I’d like to help Rokuko become independent enough to at least be able to defend herself.

“I imagine you’ve already ordered Number 695 to do lewd things with you, yes? And then you ordered her to forget all those inconvenient memories... Ngh! You’re just doing whatever you want with her! You humans are all the same!”

“Hold on a second! I didn’t do anything like that!”

“Hmph, I wonder about that. Your species treat us Dungeon Cores like toys, giving us orders like ‘Slowly fall in love with me over time’ and ‘Marry me’! I didn’t even realize what was going on until he died... I can’t trust you humans at all. I thought I taught that to Number 695, but she still...!” Oh, huh. I guess that’s what happened to her. She... She might not have meant to actually say that out loud.

“...I don’t have any interest in non-consensual stuff, so yeah, I’ll give it up no problem.”

“Very well. I will have you remove it while I watch... Wait. Wait just a moment. In other words, you are interested in her as long as it doesn’t involve your Absolute Authority? Just what do you intend to do to Number 695?!”

“You’ve got a pretty strong imagination, huh?!” She was just making up false accusations as she went along. “Well, whatever. There’s just one thing I want to make sure of here. Haku. Are you Rokuko’s enemy?”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about. In what world would I ever be Number 695’s enemy?” So we’re gonna be playing that game, huh?

“...Why did you teach those battle strategies to Rokuko?”

“Those battle strategies? I’m afraid that I taught her so many things, I don’t know precisely what you’re referring to.”

I decided to take things step by step and ask one specific question at a time to ensure I knew what was going on.

“Okay, first of all. Why did you teach her to summon Goblins specifically?”

“Goblins are the most efficient monster for a dungeon as small as hers to summon. Even if she were to summon a strong monster, she wouldn’t be able to maintain it for long. Smaller monsters don’t require much food, either.” Makes sense. Goblins are pretty efficient.

“Why did you teach her to summon monsters all at once using as much DP as possible?”

“There is undeniable strength in numbers. A strong foe can be beaten by many weak allies. Additionally, there is not a single Dungeon Core alive who would prioritize DP over survival in a dangerous situation.” That’s true. There’s no point in saving your resources for later if there won’t be a later.

“Why did you teach her that building rooms was a waste of DP and that monsters should be prioritized?”

“Rooms can’t defeat invaders, can they? Victory can only be obtained by summoning monsters to defeat invaders.” She’s right. No matter how many rooms you have, you need some kind of offensive strategy to ultimately win.

“In that case, why didn’t you teach her about using traps?”

“Most of them can only be used a single time, which isn’t very cost effective... And to make matters worse, you can place very few traps in a small dungeon. Traps that can be used many times are quite expensive.” Makes sense... Alright. I think that’s enough questions. All her advice makes perfect sense from the perspective of this specific dungeon. But remove one condition and all the advice would be completely worthless.

“Okay. I understand where you’re coming from. Now what I want to know is... How did you make people view her as a safe, harmless dungeon?” Yep. The condition was that Rokuko had to be a dungeon managed by humans. In any other situation, invaders would destroy the Dungeon Core as soon as they defeated the Goblins. After all, the [Ordinary Cave] had in fact been just an ordinary cave with a core lying defenseless in its only room.

“Oh my, you’ve figured it out, have you? Well, the answer is simple enough. I personally created both the Laverio Empire and the Adventurer’s Guild. Rokuko was established as a safe dungeon because I willed it.” I had more or less noticed that already. It didn’t take me long to realize that she was a big fish in this sea. Ah, and by that I mean both among humans and among other Dungeon Cores. “Oh my, you don’t seem very surprised.”

“I mean, you mentioned receiving a report from the knights earlier. You had no intention of hiding your true identity, did you?”

“Well, no. I didn’t.” Haku smiled and laughed a little, visibly pleased.

“So, why did you try to ensure that the [Ordinary Cave] would stay weak and small forever?”

“Because Number 695 is cuter that way... and I want to protect her. That’s why I panicked quite a bit when I heard that she had been occupied by bandits.”

“...You want to protect her? Why?”

“Well, she is my cute little sister, you know. I yearn for her safety so much that at first I thought about placing a guard by her entrance to prevent anyone from invading her in the first place. But that would just attract unwanted attention from the Soldiers of God, who would proceed to hunt her. That’s why I instead focused on making her as invisible and forgettable as possible. So? Is that satisfactory enough of an explanation for you?” Am I satisfied, huh? More or less, but there’s still a few things I want to know.

“...Why are you hunting other Dungeon Cores?” One of the knights had said that one needed to destroy a Dungeon Core to become a Holy Paladin. Which, of course, had to be a system that Haku set in place herself. She was protecting Rokuko while actively attacking other Dungeon Cores, and I wanted to know why. Wait... I wonder if she knows that her little system there nearly got Rokuko killed when the knights were here.

“That has nothing to do with Number 695. If I didn’t hunt other cores... the Soldiers of God would hunt me in turn.” She was doing it for her own sake. That was very easy to understand.

“Makes sense to me.”

“Very well. Is there anything else you want to know? I’ll answer any questions you have, while we’re here.”

“...That’s pretty nice of you. Any particular reason behind this streak of kindness?”

“Yes, well... Consider it a reward from me. I heard from Number 695 that you made certain every single one of the dirty bandits that stepped on her died. You made sure not a single one of them survived. This is my thanks for that. If even a single one had gotten away, I would have needed to waste my time hunting them down.” Alright. May as well use this opportunity to ask about Holy Paladins.

“By the way, did you know that one of the knights that came here tried to destroy Rokuko’s Core?”

“I heard! I gave special treatment to the Seventeenth Knight Platoon, and yet their report mentioned one of them trying to swing their sword at Number 695! Can you believe it?! My goodness, I will never understand how you humans can be so simple-minded as to not understand how lovely and cute and perfect Number 695’s Core is! Naturally, I’m having them all executed. All of them! Of course, I can’t mention Number 695 in the official charges, so I’m planning to forge evidence indicting them all of treason against the state. The true treason would be punishing them with just a pay drop despite how grave the crime of attempting to destroy Number 695 is! That makes their executions lawful and just. Ah, I suppose that they are currently returning to the capital with no idea of what awaits them.” Ah. This woman’s messed up in the head. And she’s so stupidly powerful she can easily destroy people’s lives if she wants to. What kinda politics involves executing an entire platoon of knights?! That’s just scary!

“Oh my, do you think I went too far?”

“Not at all. Oh, by the way, the knights left early out of laziness. They said adventurers would take care of any stragglers for them. Was that in the report too?”

“Hmm, it seems I have another crime to charge them with.” I kept my cool and played along with her. I’d be in danger myself if I disagreed with her too much. But either way, I felt like I knew her a little better after all that. I was pretty confident she wouldn’t end up becoming Rokuko’s enemy. Everything she did was for Rokuko’s sake, after all. We should be safe as long as Rokuko doesn’t try to hurt Haku for whatever reason.

“By the way, I heard them mention something about becoming a Holy Paladin.”

“Holy Paladin? Aaah, that’s just some title I made up. There’s no real point to destroying Dungeon Cores unless you’re a Soldier of God. They earn God’s favor by contributing to the restoration of the mana flow.” Ah, yeah, that sounds like what he asked me to do. I’ll uh... I’ll keep quiet about that. Don’t kill me please. I’m not planning on destroying any Dungeon Cores.

“Okay. You don’t seem to be a useless man who just sleeps all day, so it might be wise for me to recognize you as Number 695’s Dungeon Master for now. Mmm... I’ll spare your life at the very least, as thanks for doing so well in saving her from the bandits.” Sweet, I’m gonna survive this. I feel like she’s looking down on me pretty hard, but... Whatever. As long as she’s not my enemy. I mean, her feet are super pretty. There’s not a single bad person in the world with pretty feet... Actually, sorry, that’s not true at all. There’s a lot of villains that like to step on people with their sexy feet. Right.

“Very well. Let us have a Dungeon Battle. I’ll recognize you as her Master if you can defeat me.” Hahaha! There’s another word I don’t know! And my ‘tedious’ radar is beeping like crazy. Please no. I took a deep breath. Calm down. Calm down.

“What is a Dungeon Battle?”

“It’s... a competition. Yes, a competition where dungeons attempt to invade each other. There are many rules, but let’s start with the basics. The most fundamental rules are that the dungeons connect their entrances with Space-Time Magic and proceed to send an army of monsters into each other. Whoever reaches the other’s Core first wins. Simple, isn’t it?”

Putting aside the Space-Time Magic stuff, the rules certainly were simple. Though accepting her challenge was completely out of the question. How could our “The [Ordinary Cave]: A safe and beginner-friendly dungeon perfect for up and coming adventurers! (Field trips to see the Dungeon Core are available)” ever hope to beat her “The [Ivory Labyrinth]: A legendary dungeon located deep within the ancient Laverio Empire’s capital city!”...? Haku was on a completely different level than us. At best, we had less than half of a percent chance of winning.

“Ah, and of course, I will go easy on you. My dungeon is extremely difficult and hasn’t been conquered once over the centuries that it has existed, to say nothing of the several large Branch Dungeons I have split off from it. How could I not give myself a handicap?” Of course, Haku had noticed how imbalanced her suggestion was, and so she added some additional rules.

“First of all, I will loan you one hundred thousand DP to use. I will then make a new Branch Dungeon the same size as your [Ordinary Cave], and then develop it using one hundred thousand DP as well. You will win if you can touch the Dummy Core within it. What do you think?”

“...You’ll loan me DP? You can do that?”

“Of course. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that Dungeon Battles were created for the sake of dueling for DP... Ah, and by the way, you can keep the DP if you win. I’ll even reward your victory with an extra hundred thousand.” Huh. These conditions seem pretty biased in our favor... “I couldn’t give Number 695 this much DP under most other circumstances, could I? She would go crazy with it.”

That reasoning made sense to me. But there was more to her than met the eye. She was definitely planning something. If I couldn’t figure out what that was, I’d be done for... and I still hadn’t heard what would happen if I lost.

“...And if you win, Haku?”

“Fufufu. I’ll have you repay the DP I lent you... with your body. Aah, and I don’t mean that in a sexual way. You’ll just have to work in my dungeon as an adventurer. I’ll set you free once you’ve earned one hundred thousand DP and offered it up to me. You have my word that I will take care of Number 695 myself until you’ve repaid your debt. These conditions are unreasonably favorable to you, so I’m sure you’ll accept my challenge. You will, won’t you?”

She was right. The conditions were in our favor. We’d get a hundred thousand DP right off the bat and we could use it to grow our dungeon in any way that we pleased. But think about it from my perspective. A single Goblin was worth 20 DP, but actually defeating them in the dungeon would only earn back 2 DP. Assuming that logic held true for all monsters, I would need to beat fifty thousand Goblins to earn a hundred thousand DP. At best, I would need to beat ten low-ranked dragons. Just how long would that even take...? Wait, hold on! Would killing monsters even count as “offering up” DP? Monsters cost DP to summon, wouldn’t killing them just make my debt even worse? Holy crap. Thinking about it now, even just aiming for items wouldn’t do me any good. Any item I could find in the dungeon would be one Haku used DP to place herself. I’d be finished if she just didn’t accept that. After all, Dungeon Masters and Dungeon Cores are the only things that can actually earn DP.

“...Earning a hundred thousand DP as an adventurer sounds pretty difficult.”

“Oh my, that wasn’t my intention. In that case, I’ll be satisfied with DP earned from battles as well.”

“Are you suggesting that I work as a monster and as a player killer? In the legendary [Ivory Labyrinth], where veteran adventurers from all over the world gather?”

“Fufu. I do have some Branch Dungeons made to be suitable for beginners, you know.” Haku giggled in blatant amusement. Yeah, I can’t let my guard down around this person... I mean, uh, around this Dungeon Core.

“Very well. I will accept any DP you expend in any of my dungeons to be part of your repayment. How do you feel about that?”

“I think that’s much more fair... But what do you get from it?” Under those rules, if I (for example) found and used a [{Healing} Scroll (100,000 DP)] on myself, I would immediately have paid back my debt in full.”

“DP does return to the mana stream after adventurers expend it, but that’s merely a side benefit. The main benefit of you working my dungeons is that I get an excuse to take Rokuko to the capital and take care of her there personally while leaving guards to protect her dungeon. Under normal circumstances, she would never accept such a thing.” Makes sense. She has a lot to gain if it comes to keeping Rokuko safe.

“...You will accept this challenge. I do need to see whether you’re a skilled enough Dungeon Master to truly protect Number 695, after all.” I guess turning her down was never in the cards for me.

＊ ＊ ＊

“And that’s what we discussed, Number 695. We’ll be having a Dungeon Battle.”

“Eh?! What’s a Dungeon Battle, Number 89?” Wait, what?! Seriously?! You don’t know that either?! Haku and I explained the term to Rokuko.

“Wow, that sounds like fun.”

“Though, it is a competition, so we’ll be fighting with DP on the line. I’ll lend you your share of DP this time.”

“Eh?! You can share DP with me?!” How do you know so little about anything, Rokuko?! I mean, I also didn’t know about these things before, but that’s totally different. And I wonder how DP is shared, anyway...

“It’s, um, it’s only natural that you didn’t know that, Number 695. You never had the opportunity to learn. The truth is, u-um... DP is exchanged by... kissing! It’s true! We have to give each other a nice, long kiss! Mwah!”

“Really? Is that true, Chloe?”

“No. If my memories are correct, a simple handshake would do well enough.” I consulted the butler for confirmation and got a quick, firm answer.

“...This is the first time Number 695 has ever exchanged DP before, and I’m giving her an entire hundred thousand. It’s important that we kiss so that none leaks out and is wasted by mistake. It’s easy to make mistakes when you’re doing something for the first time. Is it not wise for us to use the safest method here...?” That excuse is so obviously fake it hurts...

“A-A hundred thousand?! I can’t take that much!”

“I’m just lending it to you. And you’ll need around that much to prepare for our battle. After all, this is a competition where we fight with DP as our everything. It would be boring for us both if you didn’t have any DP, wouldn’t it? This is just a simple handicap for me.”

“N-Ngh...”

“We’ll have to give it all back to her if we lose, so it really is just a loan. Go ahead and take it. And be sure to do exactly as Haku says when it comes to taking the DP from her.”

“...Mmm, okay. Thank you very much, Number 89. I’ll gladly accept your DP.”

I realized halfway through saying “Go ahead and take it” that my statements would probably be interpreted as orders that Rokuko had to obey due to my Absolute Authority. So, I added on that last bit about the DP exchanging to earn some brownie points. Ah, Haku’s stealthily giving me a thumbs up. I guess a thumbs up means the same thing in this world too?

“What should I do to take the DP from you, Number 89?”

“Close your eyes, open your mouth juuust a little, and stick out your tongue. Mmm, yes, just like that. Leave the rest to me. I’ll eat you u—I’ll give you the DP now.” ...She was just about to say “I’ll eat you up,” right?

Haku locked her mouth against Rokuko’s, making sure that their tongues touched as much as possible. She embraced Rokuko’s trembling body and pulled her closer with her left hand while using her right hand to lock her head in place. Rokuko looked nervous due to never having done something like that before, but she kept her eyes shut and entrusted her body to Haku. She was blushing bright red and would occasionally twitch as if some sensitive spot on her body was being touched.

Haku had been going really slowly and taking her time, but apparently that was all just the beginning. She embraced Rokuko’s head with both hands and moved her mouth, causing something (likely DP) to flow into her little sister’s mouth. Rokuko pulled her head back in surprise, allowing me to briefly see a shining light between their tongues, but Haku soon pulled her head back.

And so, that continued for about ten more minutes. When their mouths finally separated, a string of saliva bridged the gap between their tongues before breaking apart.

“Phaah...! Gaaah, haaah...”

“Nfuu...”

Their expressions were entirely different. Rokuko was breathing heavily with her eyes shut, whereas Haku was smiling in satisfaction while licking her lips. The only thing they shared was their flushed cheeks and dreamy floatiness.

“...A small amount leaked out, but I gave more than that as a bonus.”

“Haah, haah... Th-Thank you, sho mush... Number 89.... Hauuu...”

“Ufufu. Was your first DP exchange too much for you? That’s fine. I’ll keep holding on to you for as long as necessary, so rest well.” Haku once again stealthily gave me a thumbs up behind her back. Yeah. That definitely means “Good job” in this world too.

I checked our DP while Rokuko rested her body against Haku’s. ...114,032 DP. The exchange certainly seemed to have gone well. I think we had 3,500 DP before this, so... Dang. The DP I worked my ass off to get with blood, sweat, and tears is equivalent to just a minor “bonus” in Haku’s eyes. Just how much DP does she earn a day? Seriously.

“Aaah, by the way, Keima. Do not even think about losing intentionally by not preparing for the battle. I won’t accept the DP I just loaned you as a way to repay your debt. It has to be new DP.” Oh snap, there goes that plan. Darn. I coulda earned ten thousand DP for nothing, too.

“By the way, this is a gift from me.”

Haku gave me a copy of [Intro to Dungeonology]. I took a look at the author and saw that it had been written by Haku Laverio. Ah. Makes sense that a Dungeon Core would write a book about dungeons. This is probably the best source of information I could ask for.

“Humans believe many things that aren’t quite true, so you should read this and be careful. Most of these are things I’ve thought up myself... One thing that’s particularly popular amongst we Cores is this section.” Haku pointed her pale, white finger to a section in the book named “Safe Zones.” I glanced over it and saw that Safe Zones were described as, reasonably enough, “safe places where monsters cannot enter.”

“This is just an act on our part. We set up magic tools that appear to serve some kind of function and then order our monsters to never go into the area. That causes humans to let their guard down, thinking the area is completely safe.” I get it. That’s pretty smart. You could earn DP from the adventurers resting within your dungeon, but the best thing of all was that Safe Zones weren’t safe at all. The adventurers would all have their guard completely down without any eye witnesses... You could easily kill them all without leaving any evidence behind. Of course, since nobody would know that the adventurers had gone into the Safe Zone, everyone would just think they died normally in the dungeon. In a world as lacking in sources of information as this one, a book written by someone famous from the imperial capital would be about as reliable as you could get. Haku’s basically manipulating them like the mass media manipulated people back on Earth.

“If you sooometimes order a monster to enter the Safe Zone, the adventurers all start panicking about a ‘new species’ of monster. Isn’t it funny that all it takes for humans to be tricked is a change in fur color? Sometimes I dress up as a fortune teller and tell them which ‘species’ can go into the Safe Zones. They always practically cry in happiness while thanking me. Isn’t that just comical?” Wow. Making a problem and then selling the solution to that problem. Haku sure is something.

But tricking people into thinking Safe Zones existed was convenient for me. Humans being ignorant of how dungeons worked was nothing but a positive for me. I gladly accepted the book. By the way, dungeonology books above the intro level apparently focused on more specific information. For example, books about how to conquer certain famous dungeons... Though those weren’t as common.

“You have a lot to learn and much to prepare, so we can begin the battle in three days. Do your best, okay?”

“Do you have enough time to go back to the capital?”

“I walked here since my adventurer identity is weakened to match what humans would expect from me, but I do know {Teleport}. Oh, and by the way, {Teleport} scrolls cost 50,000,000 DP. The only problem is that actually using the spell takes up so much mana there normally needs to be a team of magicians working together to make it work. It’s not really something humans can use on their own.”

“...I thought we were going to connect our dungeons using Space-Time Magic.”

“That is actually a natural ability of dungeons, much like the menu. I dedicated several of my scientists to research it, but all they could figure out was that it was done through some form of Space-Time Magic. All their research only resulted in us learning something that was obvious from the start. Isn’t that odd?” In my opinion, Space-Time Magic is “odd” enough on its own, but okay.

“Well then, see you in three days. I’m looking forward to our battle. Mmm... In the depth of my mind are memories of distant lands once traveled, forming a mental path from here to there. Fly through space, fly through time. There becomes here and here becomes there. Fuse, conjoin, connect... {Teleport}!” Haku chanted in a sing-song voice, causing both her and Chloe to float up... before a bright flash of intense light exploded around them. When the light faded, they had left nothing behind but a soft wind that brushed against our cheeks.

＊ ＊ ＊

Rokuko remained in a daze for some time after Haku left, but she came back to normal eventually. She checked out the DP almost immediately and, after seeing the 110,000 DP, passed out with her eyes rolling in the back of her head. I went ahead and woke her up. She didn’t have to know that I glanced at her bare feet a few times before doing so. Hm... I wonder if she’s gonna abandon her loli form now that we have tons of DP.

“So, do you think we can win?”

“For sure. The rules were designed to give us a chance... Though she has a pretty huge advantage over us.” Rokuko looked surprised after hearing me say that. She seemingly didn’t understand how Haku had an advantage.

“Really? I know that Number 89 is really amazing, but she gave us a whole extra 10,000 DP to use, didn’t she?”

“...She didn’t mention resources she already had in the conditions at all. It’d be totally legal for her to bring out a dragon she had already placed in one of her dungeons, since that technically wouldn’t be her using DP. She probably won’t go that far, but I wouldn’t be surprised at all if her monsters come swinging with magically enchanted weapons or something like that.” Rokuko sighed and shook her head.

“Haaah... Keima, I don’t know how you always find crazy loopholes like that. It’s like... impressive, but maybe not in a good way.”

“Hey, that older sister you love so much made those rules with that loophole in mind. She intends to exploit it. That’s what’s really impressive here.”

“I wouldn’t expect anything less from Number 89!”

“Yep. She’s basically a monster, and I do mean that in a good way.” She probably wouldn’t take advantage of the loophole too much against Rokuko, but I doubted she’d show mercy to anyone else. And since I was her main opponent this time... Yeah, I guess I’m gonna have to go all out here. Aaah... I just want to sleep... I’m tired of all this. I want to abandon everything and just sleep. But if I lose this fight, my sleeping time is gonna get cut down hardcore. I won’t even get a [Futon] to sleep on. No thanks.

“Alright then. Rokuko, Niku. It’s time to work.” What were the first things I bought with my newfound 110,000 DP? Shovels and pickaxes, of course.

Day 31

The first thing to do was expand the dungeon. Dig holes. Lots of big, deep holes. Digging holes both made it cheaper to expand the dungeon and got me materials to make Golems with. So naturally, my main role in the operation was making more Golems as the dungeon got mined out. I let Rokuko and Niku give the mining Golems more detailed instructions while I focused entirely on making new Golems.

The only problem was that my natural mana regeneration couldn’t keep up with how fast I was making Golems, so I was drinking [Mana Potions (150 DP)] pretty much constantly. Ngh, so bitter... My body must have been absorbing the potions as soon as I drank them, as the liquid didn’t build up in my stomach. I could drink as much of them as I wanted, no problem. I should just buy a barrel of this stuff. A barrel... of mana potions. Oh, looks like “mana potion” was added as an option under the “barrel of liquid” item path. Seriously? It only costs 1000 DP, too. That’s an absolute steal. Maybe the glass on the normal mana potions is expensive? It does look like it’s made of crystal glass.

Soon, I selected the [Add A Floor (5000 DP)] option from the menu. I added one basement floor and one upper floor. It was convenient that I could add both upper and lower floors from the cave. I wanted to make a dungeon that forced you to go up and down floors to reach the true bottom, so I told Rokuko and Niku what instructions to give to the Golems to make that happen. Dig, dig even deeper! Bring me clay, stone, whatever! I want anything I can make Golems with!

“So, um, are we really going to dig out the basement floor? That seems like a lot of work... Why don’t we just get rid of all the clay and stuff with DP?”

“’Cause that’d be a waste. I want that clay for Golem-making.”

I intended to make the basement floor and second floor (in other words, the “second” and “third” floors) of our dungeon labyrinthine in nature. Which meant adding a bunch of complex, interweaving hallways. By the way, it’d take 10,000 DP to make a new floor on its own, but digging out the hallways beforehand made it only 5,000 DP. Plus, manual digging would net me tons of materials to make Golems with.

“Rokuko, you’re the only one other than me who can use the map to give detailed instructions to the Golems. I’m counting on you.”

“Ngh... O-Okay, sure.” Oh wait, did I use my Absolute Authority just now by accident?

“Rokuko. Only consider my orders to have Absolute Authority if I end them with ‘And that’s an order’ or something to that effect. You can use your own judgment for anything else. And just so you know, I’m planning on giving up my Absolute Authority after this Dungeon Battle is over.”

I had decided to get rid of my Absolute Authority after the battle was over since I needed it now to make sure she didn’t mess up my more detailed instructions.

“Eh? Oh, okay. Are... Are you fine with that?”

“Hey, we’re partners in body and soul. I’d like us to treat each other as equals.”

“Partners... Y-Yeah, that’s right! Dungeon Cores and Masters are spiritually connected and stuff!”

“Yep. And that’s why I’m counting on you right now... But not ordering you around.”

“Leave it to me! I’ll do my best!” Rokuko smiled brightly and resumed giving the Golems digging instructions.

I had Niku working as well. She was digging a ton of pitfalls near the entrance to the dungeon. The real trick was that one of those pitfalls actually led to a tunnel which would end with a single [Dummy Core (5,000 DP)]. It’s pretty standard stuff for a pitfall to end with a hidden tunnel. Though the only thing at the end will be a Dummy Core. Thanks to the castling function, I could instantly swap the real Dungeon Core with any Dummy Core. In other words, the more Dummy Cores I placed, the more opportunities I had to keep the real Core safe. Haku couldn’t use the castling function since our win condition was touching her Dummy Core, but we sure could. I could just hide them right before she got to them. The number of Dummy Cores she hadn’t almost found would basically be how much HP our dungeon had left.

“I will dig out a lot of pitfalls. I’ll put flooring on the bottom too.”

“That’s the spirit. I want you to put spikes on that flooring after you’re done, so be careful not to fall in yourself. I’ll be putting covers over the pitfalls once they’re all dug out.”

“Roger!”

By the way, the covers would be reaaally thin and flat Golems. Golems were great even outside of doing physical labor. Though I was probably the only one who’s ever gone out of their way to make flat plate Golems. Just goes to show how much I cared about saving DP. Oh, it might be fun to put wall-shaped Golems in the labyrinth and have them move around so the correct path shifts around. That would make things pretty tricky. I’ll talk to Rokuko about this later.

In any case, I decided to make the area after the labyrinth a puzzle area. Thus, I bought a [Durable Switch-Activated Door (1,000 DP)]. I hid the switch within a Golem and made it such that the door would open only after you solved a puzzle. By the way, it’d be super rude to make the switch impossible to reach, so... Hah, just kidding. The door would weaken and turn into a destructible object if the switch was unreachable or anything like that. That had something to do with the powers of the dungeon not working... or something. On the flip side, if the switch was reachable, the door became incredibly durable thanks to the dungeon’s power.

The main thing was that it had to be “simple” to open the door. The puzzle, in turn, had to be one that anyone could solve using some common sense. But those rules were exclusive to the door. Although I was hiding the switch within a Golem, the puzzle itself was extremely simple: flip the switch, open the door. Thanks to that, I was getting an extremely durable door for cheap. The main flaw with that plan was that it’d all fall apart if the Golem with the switch got destroyed, but I decided to hope that any invaders would see the door and assume there was an actual puzzle they had to solve.

...Though, it might be smart to do the opposite and make a puzzle that looks easy, but is actually super tough. If they get the puzzle wrong, I could use a floor-styled Golem as a makeshift trapdoor to drop them to a lower floor. Alrighty. I’ve got lots of traps to set. I’ll mix up plenty of premade DP Catalog traps and my own handmade traps. I really want to make a bunch of weird traps nobody else has seen before. Let’s just hope I can think up of some good ones. Aaaah... I’m not gonna be getting much sleep at this rate. The second this battle’s over, I’m gonna jump in bed and sleep for days...

Day 33

And so, three days had passed since the Dungeon Battle had been declared. It was time for war.

“...Wh-Whew, we finished just in time...”

“Um, there are actually a few things we didn’t do in time. This is why I said we should’ve just used DP to take care of everything...”

“We needed that DP to summon monsters, though. You know that.” My preparations had been very inclusive. We were ready both defensively and offensively. The focus of our strategy would just be racing straight towards the enemy’s Dungeon Core... Whew. We had used a ton of DP. Despite all my efforts to cut down on costs, we had still ended up using close to 80,000 DP. But not a single one of those points had been wasted. I’m getting nostalgic for when I cared a lot about saving up like 200 DP...

“Wait a second, Keima. What’s with that pillow?”

“Huh? This one? It’s a [Heavenly Pillow (10,000 DP)]. What about it?” Yep. 1/8th of the DP we had spent was on this baby. Hey, it wasn’t a waste of DP or anything. This pillow is absolutely vital for helping me work efficiently and sleep effectively. This [Heavenly Pillow] was a necessary expense.

“More importantly. Nice look, Rokuko. You really put your all into dressing up today, huh?”

“Heheh, of course! Honestly, I’m surprised you noticed!” How could I not? I mean, she’s in her Princess Knight mode. And, er... Just so you know, Rokuko, you’re not gonna be fighting. I really hope that sword on your hip is just for show.

“But really, that’s no fair! I want something too, Keima. We still have a lot of DP left, don’t we?”

“I mean, I left that DP as an emergency stock in case something happens. What, do you want me to summon 10,000 DP worth of Goblins for you?”

“Why Goblins?! I don’t like them that much!”

“Alright, alright. If we win this, I’ll let you have 10,000 DP to do whatever you want with. You can use it on gacha, Goblins, a dragon, Goblins, or even Goblins!”

“Seriously, why Goblins?!”

Either way, our dungeon had been completely revamped. No longer was it just an [Ordinary Cave] with nothing but rocks and dirt inside of it; our little cave had turned into a real, admirable dungeon. I can’t think of a new name for it, though... Eh, whatever. Someone will name it something eventually.

“Hey, Niku. You did some good work too.”

“...Thank you...” I rubbed Niku’s head as she leaned heavily against me. Despite her exhaustion, I saw her dog tail wagging energetically. In some ways, I felt that we had all worked a bit too hard for this. I myself had worked so hard that I couldn’t even remember how many Golems I had made over the past three days. It was at least two hundred.

...I even made standard old Clay Golems. Yep. Rokuko, that rude little girl, even said “Eh?! You can make normal ones too?” after seeing what I was doing. I mean, c’mon. The more mobile Golems I made were basically just normal Golems too. I just mixed in stone with the clay and all that. Mainly because it was annoying to separate them. They look like normal Clay Golems on the outside, so it all works out, right?

# Haku’s Perspective

“How are the preparations proceeding, Chloe?”

“Without issue, my lady.”

The [Ivory Proving Grounds] was a Branch Dungeon of the capital’s [Ivory Labyrinth]. It had suddenly appeared a short distance away from the capital itself. Of course, it was in truth a dungeon that Dungeon Core Number 89... that Haku had prepared for her Dungeon Battle with Rokuko. It had been named by Haku herself. She planned to register the dungeon under that name to the Adventurer’s Guild.

It was a dungeon with five floors in total, dug out using 50,000 DP. Minotaurs wandered its halls and traps were placed everywhere, with loaded crossbows hidden and spears prepared to fly out of holes in the floors and walls. There were even Lizardmen placed about. And among those monsters, many of them held Enchanted Weapons which would cost 10,000 DP each. ...That’s right. Multiple monsters.

“By the way, Chloe. I feel as if many weapons are missing from my armory. Do you know anything about this?”

“I would guess that the Seventeenth Knight Platoon stole from it before leaving. Yet another crime they have committed against us.”

“I see. There’s no helping that, then. I feel as if I’ve seen the axe that Minotaur over there is holding before, but it must be something else entirely.”

“Indeed, that axe is actually quite common.”

“...Oh my, it seems that Lizardmen have gotten into our dungeon.”

“There was a Lizardman nest around this area to begin with.”

“But that has nothing to do with us, does it?”

“Indeed it does not. We are not responsible for native creatures inhabiting our dungeon on their own.”

...Their dungeon had been prepared using more than 100,000 DP, and their conversation revealed how that was done. Of course, they hadn’t broken the rule about not using more than the set amount of DP. What they were doing was completely legal. As for the Seventh Knight Platoon, whose members now faced even more false charges... Let us pray for them.

The [Ivory Proving Grounds], despite being a freshly made dungeon, was already difficult enough to pose immense danger for beginning adventurers. Even a party of C-Rank adventurers would struggle to conquer it. If you included the army of monsters waiting by the entrance for war to begin, the dungeon’s difficulty would increase even further, all the way to B-Rank. The attacking force alone was fifteen Minotaurs (3000 DP), fifty Lizardmen (150 DP), and one hundred Goblins (20 DP). All of those monsters were favored by Haku for how balanced their strength was with their DP cost. Perhaps out of the goodness of her heart, or perhaps to avoid suspicion, none of the monsters in the attacking force wielded Enchanted Weapons.

“Now then, shall we begin? I’m going to contact them, Chloe.”

“Understood, my lady.” Haku opened up the Menu and sent a transmission to the [Ordinary Cave]. Yet again, such a thing would normally require extensive preparation and resources.

“Can you hear me, Number 695?”

“Sister! Yes, I can hear you! I’m so happy I get to see you again!” An adorable voice came out from the menu, causing Haku to smile. This time, Rokuko was wearing a cute set of dress armor. She looked so cute in it that Haku wanted to seek her out on the battlefield to capture her. Haku found herself lovingly absorbed in Rokuko’s angelic, cute smile that was dripping with clear enthusiasm for her first Dungeon Battle. This little cutie would surely start to cry with tears and snot dirtying her beautiful face if Haku were to mercilessly attack her as planned. ...Hot. Very hot. But I must take care to not go too far and make her hate me, thought Haku.

“Fufu. I hope I’m not rushing you, but are you ready to begin?”

“Uh-huh!”

“Very well. Dungeon Battle, start!” Haku’s words marked the beginning of battle. The moment she finished speaking, a gate appeared near the entrance to her dungeon. It was large enough for a platoon of knights to pass through easily, and on the other side awaited the [Ordinary Cave’s] Golems. “I see, I see... Golems certainly are a good choice for an army’s vanguard. Clay Golems in particular are cheap and therefore easy to gather in large groups.” Not only that, but since Golems could move for essentially no cost thanks to free mana from the dungeon, they had the least upkeep necessary out of any monster. However, despite being offensively and defensively powerful, they were slow.

“Please attack with the Lizardmen.”

“Lizardmen, attack!”

Both armies charged towards the gate. Haku, determining that the Golems would simply crush her Goblins, prioritized attacking them with her Lizardmen. The Goblins would mainly work as scouts to help with conquering the dungeon itself. Losing them early on the battlefield would be a tactical failure.

The Lizardmen leaped through the gate and swung their blades at the Golems. Many of them were hit directly and collapsed onto the ground, bodies broken, but the majority of them won with speed and damaged the Golems effectively... but nonetheless, many Golems slipped past them and invaded the [Ivory Proving Grounds].

“The enemy has invaded our dungeon!” A Lamia was looking at the map and reporting the movements of the enemy army. She was one of Haku’s most trusted retainers. Haku had brought her five retainers, including Chloe, into her Master Room to assist with the Dungeon Battle. The one who had just ordered the Lizardmen to charge was a Living Armor who was in charge of offensively maneuvering her armies.

It’s a bit late to be doing this now, but the [Ivory Proving Grounds’] military leadership was as follows: Amelia, a Lamia in charge of defense. Dolce, a Wraith in charge of managing intelligence such as troop casualty statistics. Sally, a Living Armor in charge of combat and battles. Misha, a Werecat in charge of offensive reconnaissance. And finally, Chloe the Succubus, who supported Haku in any way necessary. Haku herself served as a unified leader that gave orders to each retainer and took care of the general decision-making.

“There are... around two hundred invaders?!” The retainers all shook in fear after hearing Dolce’s report.

“No way! We didn’t let that many get through! I can’t even see that many monsters...!”

“No, look closer! The invaders aren’t Golems... They’re gray rats!”

“What?! Gray rats?! Those aren’t even monsters!” Even Haku’s voice rose in confusion and fear. It seemed that the Golems had all been carrying large boxes on their backs filled to the brim with ordinary rats. Of course, since each rat was being displayed on the map as an enemy, they had all been summoned and placed under the Dungeon Core’s control. Rats or not, they were the enemy, and if even a single one touched the [Ivory Proving Grounds’] Dummy Core... Haku would lose. Even the Golems who hadn’t passed through the gate had boxes, and soon their tops burst open as a throng of rats raced out. They charged like a pulsating wave of gray water, weaving through the Lizardmen’s legs and into the [Ivory Proving Grounds].

“Exterminate them at once!”

“I can’t! They’re too small, the Minotaurs can’t handle them!”

“Order half of the Goblins to focus on exterminating the rats! We’re in danger here!”

“They’ve conquered the first floor! The enemy is now invading the second floor! I-I count... around five hundred invaders!”

“What about the traps?!”

“They aren’t working, the rats are just too small! Even if an arrow lands, it’s like throwing a fireball into a lake!”

“Contact all Lizardmen in the dungeon! Tell them to exterminate the rats! EXTERMINATE THE RATS!” The retainers had immediately fallen into a loud panic. Haku, on the other hand, soon regained her calm.

“He certainly has a good head on his shoulders, doesn’t he? I had no idea gray rats were so suitable for an advance force...”

“Indeed... It may only be a matter of time until our dungeon is completely conquered. Forgive me, the first floor of our dungeon was conquered in a matter of moments.”

“I don’t blame you, Chloe. None of us expected a strategy like this. I might have to take some notes and use rats in another battle myself. When caught off guard like this, they are exceptionally difficult to counter... But I have an idea. Amelia, place several flamethrower traps along the hallways of the third floor. That should buy us some time.”

“Th-Thank you very much!” Traps could still be placed on any floors without invaders on them. Flamethrowers were fairly expensive, but they were the best thing for killing rats. Either way, though, Haku wasn’t worried. The rats certainly were effective as scouts for conquering the dungeon, but they couldn’t succeed on their own. Reason being, she had placed a Boss Room before the Core Room. The rats needed to beat the boss of her dungeon, a Red Minotaur, in order to reach the Core, and that wasn’t likely to happen.

“It seems we’ve finished off the Golems. Proceeding to invade their dungeon.”

“By all means. We must find Number 695 before they reach our Core, after all.”

# Keima’s Perspective

“Oh wow, look at them go.” I murmured to myself in awe as I watched the map steadily getting filled out before my eyes.

“Um, the map’s filling out like, super fast... That means our armies are conquering the dungeon like crazy, right? We’re beating Haku?”

“You bet. But just ’cause we’re winning now doesn’t mean the battle’s over.”

Naturally, you don’t just get a map of the enemy’s dungeon at the start of a Dungeon Battle. That makes total sense. It’s a little hard to get lost in a labyrinth you have a comprehensive map for. And the Dungeon Core would be on it, too. A finished map would make a Dungeon Battle ridiculously boring. That said, those being invaded can still look at their map and see where all the enemies are.

“Master, the Golem... vanguard, has been completely destroyed. All fifty of them are gone.”

“Alright. Just as planned.”

By the way, that Golem vanguard had been composed almost entirely of Clay Golems I made with {Create Golem}. Only a few of them at the front had actually been summoned, which saved us a lot of DP. I had made the others out of the clay we got from expanding the dungeon. Talk about recycling. Aren’t I eco-friendly?

But the most important thing was how much DP it saved, for sure. I put magic stones into them just in case Haku got suspicious, but even so, those only cost a tenth of what Golems did. I could even reuse the destroyed Golems’ bodies by absorbing them back into the dungeon, assuming they died within it. Same went for the magic stones.

“The rat surprise attack, a ton of traps including the pitfalls Niku dug out, and finally, the complex second and third floor labyrinths that Rokuko built... I wonder how Haku’s gonna hold up?” I observed the battlefield while rubbing Niku’s head.

# Haku’s Perspective

“There are pitfalls right at the start?!”

“Order the Goblins to go first! We’ll find the pitfalls by seeing where they fall!”

Back at the [Ivory Proving Grounds’] camp, the retainer handling offensive reconnaissance was hurriedly dealing with the traps before her. Right from the start, she had to deal with pitfalls. Several of their troops were swallowed up by them in an instant. Normally, she would just launch bodies at the pitfalls until they were filled up with corpses, but they were invading an enemy dungeon. The monsters just got absorbed the moment they died. That wasn’t a major problem, though. She could just avoid the pitfalls after determining where they were located.

“Okay, I’ve marked all the pitfalls down! Invasion start!”

“Ah! Wait, a Minotaur just fell! Ngh, the spears at the bottom killed him instantly!”

“But why?! I just saw a Goblin walk right there and he was fine!” Unfortunately, the [Ordinary Cave] even had pitfalls that ignored Goblins and only activated for Minotaurs and Lizardmen.

“Pitfalls that choose specific targets?! I’m certain those cost a lot of DP... He must be trying to finish the battle right at the beginning.”

“Aaah! Another Minotaur, gone! We only have eleven left! And we’re down to thirty Lizardmen, too! Come on, Misha! Do your job right!”

“I’m telling you, the Goblins walked all over those places!” Another Minotaur fell. Their numbers were dwindling. Somewhere, a pitfall’s covering collapsed after a Lizardman and two Goblins all stepped on it at once. Haku didn’t let that slip her by.

“...I see now. I believe the pitfall covers are collapsing based on weight. That’s why the Goblins haven’t been falling.”

“Ah, yes. That explains what’s happening, and such a covering could be mass-produced for little DP. That man... certainly is clever.”

“There should be empty air beneath the pitfall covers. It will take some time, but please advance slowly while hitting the floor and listening for any changes.”

“Understood! Goblins, do it!” My goodness. Clever indeed. I can’t think of a better way to buy time than this. But now that we know how it works, we have nothing to fear. The Goblins advanced through the dungeon, hitting the floor and sometimes breaking the pitfall covers.

“We’ve conquered the enemy dungeon’s first floor! We have... an unfortunate amount of wounded due to surprise attacks on the way here. Many of our Goblins died on the way.”

“I was quite impressed with the trap that launches a sword through a door after you try to open it.”

“I’ll have to think about using that trap myself. Now... how are things on our dungeon’s side?”

“The enemy troops have reached the third floor and... our flamethrowers are holding many of the rats back!” The flamethrower traps were indeed just flamethrowers that spat out fire. This time, Haku had chosen flamethrowers that turned on and off in a set pattern. If she set them to fire constantly, they would soon jam up and become completely useless. Having them pause temporarily on a regular basis was necessary.

“...The Lizardmen we went out of our way to get aren’t proving to be very helpful against rats. How are we doing offensively?”

“The second floor of the enemy dungeon... is a labyrinth!”

“Truly? He would use a labyrinth to challenge me, the [Ivory Labyrinth]? I am impressed, to say the least. Split our troops and begin exploring.” Impressed or not, Haku wasn’t worried. Labyrinths were effective against adventurers, but not dungeons. Mazes were meaningless in the face of a map, and once the exit was discovered, troops could be directed along the correct path with ease.

“Oh, it looks like Golems are wandering around. They’re moving in groups of five... a-and they have bows?! Golems with swords are guarding archers in the back! They’re crushing our Goblins!”

“What?! Golems, acting like adventurers? That’s quite a sight. We have no choice but to use Lizardmen against them. Move the Goblins as sentries while attacking with Lizardmen, then Minotaurs.”

“W-What in the world?! Those Golems have really powerful weapons! They’re cutting right through our Lizardmen’s blades?! I-I can’t believe it... The three swordsmen in this Golem squad all have magic equipment!”

“What did you just say? These Golems... have Magic Blades?!” No matter how economical it was to summon Golems, they weren’t strong enough to bother equipping them with Magic Blades. After all, even a low-tier Magic Blade would cost a ton of DP and stronger monsters would make much better use of them.

“And really now, we’ve been seeing nothing but Golems for a while now. He must truly love Golems.”

“...Is he using them out of favoritism or something of the sort? If so, that lack of seriousness will prove to be his undoing. Gather our troops and crush the Golems between our Minotaurs!”

“Understood! W-Wait... what?! H-Hold on, the map is acting weird! Why is there a wall right there?!”

“...What?!” The map showed a passageway, but looking through the monsters’ perspectives, no such passageway could be found. And as they tried to figure out what was going on, their gathering troops were being steadily cut down.

“No way! Is this an [Illusory Labyrinth]...?! No way, one of this size would cost way more than 100,000 DP!”

“Perhaps he isolated only a few, crucial areas to be mobile. If so, he could buy one with only fifty... no, forty thousand DP. Hopefully that is the case, and that would make this his last line of defense.”

Haku genuinely admired Keima’s strategical skill. He had used his small pool of DP quite efficiently. Very good. This Dungeon Battle had been founded on the idea that they would duel with the same amount of DP. The winner, then, would be decided solely by the quality of their strategies and tactics. Who could use less DP to do more? That was the true core of this battle. Would Keima have won had Haku fought fair and truly used the same amount of DP...? She didn’t even need to question it. She knew, deep inside, that he was her definite superior.

“Fufu. I suppose my one regret here is that we are dueling with a mere 100,000 DP.” If the battle had been one with 1,000,000 DP instead, their duel would have become a genuine war. But instead, they were fighting with only 100,000 DP. From Haku’s perspective, that wasn’t nearly enough for Keima to prevent her from winning in quick fashion.

# Keima’s Perspective

I had equipped the sword-wielding Golems with mass-produced Golem Blades. They were made of stone with only the blade being iron, which helped save a lot of DP since I could make several Golem Blades from a single iron ingot. The stone was free, as it could be mined from the dungeon walls.

I had made the bows without putting much effort into them. The arrows, too, I had made from whatever stuff I found lying around. I would have been that lazy with the bows, too, but since the arrows flew better with wooden bows, I cut down some trees and made the bows out of them. The only other thing I used, really, was determination and mana potions (in barrel form). Since their weapons were Golems too, this party of Golems would normally be displayed on the map as an actual army of Golems, but thankfully I could designate them as “Golems + equipment,” which saved me some map space. Very convenient.

And of course, I was watching the map and moving the Wall Golems around as soon as they were completely out of the enemy’s sight.

“Hell yeah, the Wall Golems are moving around undetected!”

“Those are the things you had Niku punch earlier, right? They can move? I don’t see feet on them or anything.”

“They’re a new model. I put tires under them so they can drive around.” Thanks to that, believe it or not, these mobile Wall Golems cost exactly 0 DP. They were free. I made them from leftover parts and I did everything myself. Plus, since they’re only moving around inside the dungeon, I didn’t even have to buy magic stones for them. My motto? Reduce, reuse, recycle.

# Haku’s Perspective

By the time Haku conquered the labyrinth, invaders had already surpassed the third floor of her own [Ivory Proving Grounds]. There were still over one hundred and fifty rats still alive. They were cleverly and effectively avoiding the flamethrowers, as if someone was giving them detailed instructions. But even so, thanks to all the Lizardmen she had gathered in the staircase room, many of the rats had perished.

“I can’t believe that we have to climb back up a floor now. I thought perhaps the third floor would return to more standard practices, but instead, the labyrinth continues up to the second floor.”

“It might be wise to employ this man not as an adventurer, but as a dungeon adviser...”

At the end of the labyrinth was an upwards staircase. The second floor ended with an exit that took them up two whole floors. If the initial entrance was called “Floor 1”... would they now be on Floor 0? Or perhaps Floor Negative 1? In human terms, they were technically on the second floor, but...

“...I have no idea what to name where we are.”

“He has no intention of making anything easy for us, does he? I declare that this floor will be known as the Second Above-Ground Floor!”

“Yes, understood! And... I see a door right away on the Second Above-Ground Floor!” The staircase led them right to a room with a large door in it. By borrowing the vision of their monsters, they saw just how firm and durable the door looked. That, and a brightly colored sign right beside it.

“...What is written on it?”

“Umm... It appears to be a riddle. I’ll read it out loud. ‘The answer is simple. You mustn’t think too hard about this. Please tell me how to split one silver coin between three people.’ And... that’s it.”

“How to split one silver coin between three people...? Um, one silver coin is worth one hundred copper coins, so...” Haku smiled as she watched Dolce start to count on her fingers.

“I know the answer to this. First, you convert the silver coin into one hundred copper coins. Then, you hand the copper coins one by one to each individual, and give the final copper coin to whoever handed out the coins as payment for their labor. In other words, two of them get thirty-three copper coins, and the third one gets thirty-four.” A question as simple as that was nothing to Haku, an experienced Dungeon Core with a long history of dealing with riddles and puzzles.

“Fantastic, my lady!”

“That answer certainly satisfies the question.”

“I could not imagine a more perfect answer.”

“And there you have it! Open up, door! A riddle of this level would never be able to stop our lady, Dungeon Core Number 89!” The floor beneath their monsters collapsed.

“Eh?!”

“What?!”

“But how?!”

An uncomfortable atmosphere filled the [Ivory Proving Grounds’] Core Room. The entire floor of the puzzle room was a pitfall... and it led to the entrance floor.

“But why?! My answer should have been perfect...!”

“L-Let’s just calm down! I-I mean, look, our entire army wasn’t in the room, so we’re still safe! We can solve this really soon! U-Um, how many were wounded in the fall?!”

“Ah! E-Er, one of the Minotaurs broke his ankle. He won’t be able to fight anymore. Two of the Minotaurs died from the fall, and... all three Lizardmen survived. But every Goblin that fell died! To list off the survivors, we have six Minotaurs, twelve Lizardmen... minus the three that fell... and eight Goblins left!”

Haku squeezed her fists tightly and choked out her next order.

“Use the three surviving Lizardmen to carry away the wounded Minotaur. Ngh...! I cannot believe I failed after being so confident in my answer! This is humiliating! I’ll rip apart the wounded Minotaur and mount his corpse on my wall so I never forget this shame!”

“M-My lady, let’s try answering the riddle again, using only a single Goblin! We can move our entire army again if we answer it correctly!”

“...B-But that would be shameful in its cowardice! You do realize that Number 695 is watching us, don’t you?!”

“I think we should prioritize winning here...”

“Th-They’ve conquered the fourth floor! The rats are moving like trained soldiers, we can’t stop them!”

“My lady!” Chloe was silently begging Haku to realize that there was simply no time. And Haku, experienced as she was, made her decision.

“Very well... We will boldly, BOLDLY, use Goblins here!”

# Keima’s Perspective

“Whoever found the silver coin gets the extra copper coin!”

Poof, wooosh... crash!

“The extra copper coin becomes the party’s shared property, while the other ninety-nine coins are split equally!”

Poof, wooosh... crash!

“...You cut the silver coin into thirds and split those!”

Poof, wooosh... crash!

“Two of the party members are slaves, and their owner gets to keep all the money to himself!”

Poof, wooosh... crash!

“The money is given to an impartial third party who chooses how to split the money himself!”

Poof, wooosh... crash!

Heh. She’s completely fallen for it. Though, as expected, she started sending out only a single Goblin after getting the riddle wrong once. Hm... It might be fun to block off the door if there’s not enough weight on the room’s floor.

“Hey, Keima... Isn’t this riddle the one that I...?”

“Yep. This is the one you solved in three seconds, Rokuko. You’re incredible. I’m sincerely impressed. You didn’t even read the entire riddle before answering.”

“W-Well, that’s because it told me the answer at the start! I can’t believe Number 89 is struggling so much with it...”

“This kind of riddle is harder the smarter you are. Once you get stuck, it’s really hard to realize what’s going on. And I mean, wow, your older sister really is smart. I’m actually really impressed with all the wild answers she’s thinking up on the spot.” I watched Haku’s troops out of the corner of my eye while guiding the rats through her dungeon. They were a lot easier to control now that so many of them had died. I might even be able to win this without using my secret weapon, huh?

# Haku’s Perspective

Poof, wooosh... crash! Due to a wrong answer, another Goblin fell down the pitfall.

“GAAAH!”

“My ladyyy!” Haku had completely fallen into the puzzle’s trap. No matter how hard or long she thought, every answer was wrong! Wrong, wrong, wrong...!

“Ngh, how fearsome...! I didn’t expect such a psychological attack during a Dungeon Battle like this...”

“Um, my lady... Is this truly a [Gate of Wisdom]...?” A [Gate of Wisdom] is a special dungeon trap that tests the wisdom of invading adventurers. It was an incredibly sturdy door, but anyone could pass through it if they solved its riddle. Haku had challenged the riddle on the plaque assuming that the door before her was in fact a [Gate of Wisdom].

“...Wh-What? Do you have any evidence that it is not, Chloe?”

“Indeed. First of all, I question the veracity of any puzzle that one with a mind as strong as yours could not solve, my lady. And secondly... I must also question whether Keima would have enough DP to purchase a [Gate of Wisdom], considering how expensive the traps before this one have been.”

“Ah...!”

Indeed. Haku herself had said “I doubt there will be any significant traps beyond this point” after overcoming the labyrinth. A [Gate of Wisdom] would, at the very least, cost 30,000 DP. The simpler the riddle the more sturdy it would be, and the harder the riddle the more fragile it would be. It would cost large amounts of DP to keep the door sturdy with such a difficult riddle. This was quite an expensive trap for a battle of only 100,000 DP.

“Which means... This is...”

“It is quite possible that it is simply an ordinary door that he expected to be broken. Or perhaps it is a trap where attempting to answer the question in front of it will cause the floor to open.” That would be an absolutely devilish trap. No matter how many times you attempted to answer the riddle, the door would never open—even if your answer was correct. The moment you stopped to think about the riddle, you had already lost. M-My goodness, this is just frightening...! Wh-What in the world is wrong with Keima’s head...?!

“I-I’ve never seen a trap as unfair as this one! It’s just cowardly!”

“And if you never notice the trick, you’d be stuck here forever...”

“Ngh, but even so, it is our fault for being tricked. Let us accept our loss here with no more shameful griping. Fufu. But truly, I am impressed you saw through it, Chloe. You supported me when my vision grew too narrow, just as I’d expect from my right-hand woman.”

“Your praise honors me beyond words.”

“Um...” Misha, the pink-haired Werecat, hesitantly raised her hand. Among all the five retainers in the Master Room, she was the least suited to solving riddles. To put it simply, she was an airhead. Haku directed a bright, visibly angry smile towards her.

“What is it, Misha? I’ve already decided to destroy this door through righteous violence. Are you trying to get in my way?”

“I-I would never dream of that! It’s just, um, I was thinking... Maybe the answer to the riddle is just... ‘simple’...?”

“Hm? Simple...? Wh-What are you talking about, Misha? Oh, I see. It is true that this is quite a simple trap at heart! It merely presents a question without an answer!”

“N-No, that’s not what I mean! Um, it says right there at the start that ‘The answer is simple,’ doesn’t it?”

The air froze.

“N-No way... Hahaha, that’d be ridiculous...”

“G-Geez, Misha, what kind of idea... is that...?”

“Ah, hahaha... Seriously, Misha, that’s just...”

Their voices were stiff and shaky. By this point, all the retainers were thinking that might actually be the right answer. The retainers... and Haku herself, too. Even Chloe.

“...Chloe. I will give the riddle one more try...”

“Ngh...! Understood...”

Haku gave the last answer herself, prepared for her heart to shatter if that was indeed the correct answer.

“The answer... is ‘simple’!” Ding! The door made a sound, signifying that it had been unlocked. Haku’s heart shattered.

The [Gate of Wisdom] slowly opened. Haku gathered her shattered heart together as best she could and tried peering through the door... but couldn’t. Reason being, there was a solid wall on the other side of the door. And on that solid wall was a sign with “Under Construction” written on it.

Haku’s shattered heart exploded.

# Keima’s Perspective

“...Oh nice, she figured it out.”

“Hey, why’d you end the dungeon there, anyway? Weren’t you going to make a whole floor there?”

“Yeah, but I actually ran out of time before I could finish it... a-and not because I was sleeping, okay? Seriously.” Rokuko shook her head, clearly thinking “Ah, he totally slept instead of making it.” Rokuko checked the map to confirm that there was nothing on the top floor before looking at me. Unable to bear her narrowed eyes, I changed the subject.

“To tell the truth, I gave up on the riddle after you solved it instantly. I figured it would be best to just be bold and not make the floor at all.”

“How is that bold?”

“I just thought it’d surprise them, basically.”

“Well, it is pretty surprising. Who would end a massive labyrinth with a dead end...? But anyway. Where do they even go from there?”

“I hid one Dummy Core in a pitfall and three in the labyrinth. They walked by every single one.” Two of them were in small rooms pushing out of the square-shaped labyrinth and one was in the ceiling. Haku didn’t notice them since I had hidden them behind Wall Golems. The dungeon would cease functioning if the real Dungeon Core were hidden behind a wall, so if I needed to use the castling function to swap it with one of the Dummy Cores, I would just make the Wall Golem there move out of the way. As an aside, the Dungeon Core wouldn’t be considered blocked off as long as there was a door to its location. I didn’t really know the exact logic behind it, but surrounding it with Wall Golems was a clear no-go. No idea why, though.

But my thoughts were interrupted by our units finding the Boss Room. I was genuinely stunned that our rats had made it that far into the dungeon.

“GRAAAAAAAAAH!”

Within the Boss Room was a Minotaur. But not just any Minotaur. The Minotaurs that invaded our dungeon all had brown fur like you would expect, but this Minotaur had red fur... making it a Red Minotaur.

“This guy sure is red. But why red? Is he super shy or something?”

“Yep, he’s red. I think monsters of the Fire element usually end up being red. And you can count on fire monsters having high attack power. That’s their thing.” Indeed, the Red Minotaur was snorting fire out of his nose.

“We can’t just ignore him and slip into the next room, can we?”

“No way. The door out won’t open until you beat the boss.”

Our gray rats were facing a Red Minotaur as their final opponent. Er... There’s an idiom that goes like “a cornered mouse will bite a cat.” Hopefully being cornered gives our rat pals here enough courage to beat this red, muscular cow.

“GRAAAAAAAH!” The Red Minotaur swung his metal club sideways, scraping it against the floor. Our rats were blown back in all directions, as if they had been packed tight into a water balloon that just burst. Several of them managed to escape by jumping away, but nonetheless, over fifty rats had died in a single swipe.

...Oh shit. That was almost half of them.

“Keima, are you going to use your secret weapon now?”

“Nah, it’s not an actual weapon or anything. It won’t help us here... C’mon! Go bite him, rats!” The rats responded to my order by biting the Minotaur’s feet. But they were flung aside after he shook his feet, and to make matters worse, he crushed several rats after bringing his feet back down. We were getting destroyed. At best, our rats could scratch the Minotaur’s skin a little.

“...Yeah, I guess I shouldn’t expect rats to beat the Dungeon Boss too. Niku. Prepare our second wave, the Golem Platoon.”

I hadn’t expected the rats to reach the Core alone, so I had prepared a platoon of Golems equipped for dungeon invasion. But could they even beat the Red Minotaur themselves? Golems weren’t fast. They’d be crushed beneath his club just like the rats were. They were ultimately just dolls made of clay and stone, after all.

Welp. I was starting to question whether I could win this. The more time we spent here, the more time Haku had to conquer our dungeon. She would find one of the Cores eventually, no matter how hard I tried to hide them. She was actually very intelligent. I had led her into a trap by exploiting her intelligence, but once she calmed down, it wouldn’t be long before she found the secret path in the pitfalls or noticed the Golem walls hiding the Dummy Cores.

The Red Minotaur spat out fire, burning ten more rats alive. There were thirty-eight rats still alive, not even ten percent of the original invasion force. I ordered them to circle the Red Minotaur to at least avoid the survivors being wiped out with a single swing of his club. The only thing I can do here is watch as they all die, huh? Welp. Guess I should use the last of our DP to buy some nice tools that’ll be useful while I’m working in Haku’s dungeon. Oh, this Magic Blade looks pretty nice. I guess the story of Keima the Adventurer begins here...

“Wait, Keima. I have an idea on how to win this. Can we try it out?” Rokuko smirked confidently, her tone dripping with pride.

“Huh? Tell me what the idea is first.”

“Okay. Listen up, because I’m about to tell you something amazing. Believe it or not, Minotaurs die if their heads come off!” Uh... I think that’s true for basically every living thing, not just Minotaurs.

“So basically, we should just focus on attacking its head. Even gray rats should be able to do some damage then.”

“I dunno about that. Won’t the fire from his nose just burn them all to death?”

“Not if they clog his nose and stop him from breathing.”

“That’s not what... I... Wait, hold on. Stop him from breathing, huh? Alright... Let’s give it a shot.” I watched the roaring Minotaur closely while giving orders to the rats.

“...All units, attack the specified point!” The rats surrounding the Minotaur all charged forward. Experienced as gray rats were with climbing even steep cliff faces, the Minotaur’s legs proved to be no more than ladders assisting their ascent. The Red Minotaur swung his body around to try and knock them off, but he couldn’t shake them all off. Five rats managed to reach his head.

“Ngggh... Graaah...?!” The Red Minotaur tried to spit out fire. But him preparing to spit out fire was exactly the opening I was waiting for. I sent two rats towards his large nose, and soon both of his nostrils were clogged. The Minotaur immediately opened his mouth to suck in air... and as he did so, I sent the other three rats straight into his mouth.

“Wait, what?! Keima, he ate them!”

“Nope. This is what I was banking on, Rokuko. Now that they’re in his throat, I’m gonna order them to keep still and block it up!”

The rats obeyed my orders and kept still, clogging the Red Minotaur’s air duct. Unable to breathe, the red monster could do nothing but flail his body around in a rampage. He crushed the rats in his nose with his hands, but it was too late. He couldn’t even roar with his throat blocked up. Helpless, he fell to his knees and gripped his throat. His club fell from his hand and noisily hit the floor. He then tried to pull the rats out of his throat... but his hands were too big and his fingers couldn’t reach deep enough inside. He tried throwing up, but his air duct was so solidly blocked that he couldn’t even manage that. Saliva flew out of his mouth as he writhed helplessly.

And then, after a few minutes passed, his arms weakly fell to the floor and his body started to twitch. One more minute was all it took before the door to the next room opened up. The rats that had been in his throat climbed out of his mouth, covered in Minotaur saliva but still alive.

“Well... We won.”

“Yep. We won.”

“...Minotaurs die if you clog their throats, I guess?”

“Uh... I think basically any living thing will die if you clog their throat.”

“Really? That’s good to know.” Rokuko doesn’t even need to breathe, huh? I mean, she is a Dungeon Core, so I shouldn’t be surprised about that. But anyway.... Uh. Yeah. Enemy or not, holy crap! I feel bad about suffocating that thing to death with rats! Geez! I ordered the rats to advance while praying for the Red Minotaur to have a peaceful afterlife.

We still had twenty-seven rats remaining. All we had to do was find the Dungeon Core, and it had to be in the room right after the Boss Room. The map showed that we had explored everywhere else in the Dungeon. Haku’s Dungeon had ended up being incredibly normal, what with a boss being the final obstacle and all that.

The rats raced through the dungeon hall. As expected, the next room was the Core Room. In the middle of it rested a familiar looking, basketball-sized orb... There was Haku’s Dummy Core, with nothing standing between its pedestal and my rats. We can win this!

I ordered the rats to jump at it, but someone appeared out of the Dummy Core at the last moment. It was... Chloe, wielding a spear. You can teleport out of Dummy Cores too, huh? I didn’t know that. I could’ve made a lot more Golems if I had known. I can already see the endless flow of Golems appearing from seemingly nowhere in the labyrinth... Wait, hold up. Are you telling me they have a second last line of defense? That’s breaking some kind of rule, isn’t it?! Wait, it doesn’t matter! She’s full of openings, we can sneak a rat past her! Or so I thought, the exact moment before Chloe...

“Protect me, {Flame Wall}!” Crackling fire roared up around the Core in a circular fashion, turning the five rats I had sent charging to ash.

“...Oh man.” This is too much. I guess the Red Minotaur was just for show and this is the real last boss, huh? C’mon.

# Haku’s Perspective

“...............”

Those in the [Ivory Proving Grounds’] Master Room were all stunned by the “Under Construction” poster. The only thing that differed was in which exact way they were suffering. First of all, Haku. She was frozen with a smile on her face. Misha, the only one who figured out the correct answer to the riddle, was green with anxiety and had “I said something I really shouldn’t have...” written all over her face. The other four retainers, Chloe included, felt indescribable fear from Haku’s smile and found themselves unable to say anything.

“...Ah! The enemy has broken through the Boss Room! Th-They’ve found our Core Room!” The silence was only broken after Amelia, head of defense, gave a panicked report. Dolce, head of information, immediately replied.

“Wait, what?! Hold on! What happened to the boss, our Red Minotaur?! They had to beat the Boss to reach the Core Room, didn’t they?!”

“Th-The... The Red Minotaur suffocated to death after they stuffed rats into his throat!” The air froze. Not just because of how terrifying a mental image that gave everyone, but because it was unbelievable that their boss monster had been defeated by mere rats.

“A-Ahaha! Th-That doesn’t even make sense! Gray rats aren’t supposed to be this powerful! That’s monstrous!”

“Please calm down, Dolce. Ah... My lady.”

“We haven’t lost yet. Order the attacking force to continue their search. There’s surely something we overlooked. Chloe, please go defend the Core using my spear.”

“...Understood! I will protect it even if it costs me my life!” No one suggested that she was exaggerating how serious a battle with the rats would be. They had just witnessed Keima sacrificing his rats to clog a Red Minotaur’s throat and choke him to death. Chloe was much smaller than a Minotaur; it would only take one rat to choke her to death.

“There are still... thirty foes remaining. I pray for your victory.”

“My life belongs to you, my lady. I will not let it end here... To battle!” Chloe grabbed the spear and jumped out of the Core the exact moment that the horde of rats charged at it.

“Just in time, I see...! Protect me, {Flame Wall}!”

That one short chant was all it took for a wall of fire to sprout out from the floor and surround the Core. The rats all backed off after witnessing those at the front burn to death. Such was the power of Haku’s Magic Spear, the [Flame Wall Spear]. It used the wielder’s mana to cast the High-Rank Fire spell {Flame Wall} after a keyword was said. Indeed, it was literally a magical spear. And a rare one, too. If one were to offer up even a single [Flame Wall Spear] to a dungeon, one would easily earn 100,000,000 DP. It was a treasure among treasures. It was one of Haku’s favored weapons, an impressive feat considering the massive size of her collection.

“Haaah... I should be able to save some time with this.” How will they move now, I wonder? Chloe began thinking to herself. At most, she expected the rats to bundle together and try charging through the wall of flames. She took a good look at the enemy and saw that the rats were indeed bundling together. Very well. I shall counter their charge. If I ready myself, there’s nothing I can’t handle—

“Chloe! No, look behind you! The enemy is behind you! There’s five of them!”

“What?!” She turned around, but didn’t see anything. She looked for the enemy but could find nothing. There was nothing behind her. But she said there were five of them! The flames swayed in the air, as if reflecting Chloe’s panic.

“What in the world?!”

“...Ah! Chloe... They touched the Core...!”

“What?! But how?!” She didn’t understand anything. The strength drained from her body and the {Flame Wall} dissipated. Chloe had failed to fulfill her promise with her lord. That reality hit her with a harsh sense of loss and emptiness, but she kept the spear gripped firmly within her hand. She didn’t know what had happened, and she felt a need to figure it out. The flames faded slowly... and she noticed that something was resting on top of the dimly glowing Dummy Core.

“What... is that?” There she saw something that looked like a transparent, square bug. It was unlike anything she had seen before.

# Keima’s Perspective

I’m so glad I prepared that secret weapon...

The wall of flame that {Flame Wall} produced was impressive, but not perfect. It sprouted from the floor and went up a good distance, but it didn’t reach the ceiling.

“Oh, so that’s what those weird things were for!”

“I knew you could do it, Master.”

Hey, don’t call them weird. They’re called “drones” in my world, and they’re like tiny helicopters... Okay, yeah. They look weird in this world.

I had originally intended for the drones to help the rats reach locations they couldn’t on their own while exploring the dungeon. Making them transparent was just a side thing. I just happened to have a bunch of empty mana potions lying around, so I tried making the drone out of the clear glass bottles and things went surprisingly well. The result? My ultimate secret weapon, the [Stealth Drone Capsule].

I had made them with only a single material, and thanks to them being Golems, they didn’t even need a power source. Even skeleton frame drones in modern Japan still needed to have visible power sources and communication devices on them. Magic sure is amazing. And miraculously enough, I made them just small enough to fit inside the rats, though it was such a tight squeeze they had to rip through the rats’ stomachs to get out. I felt kind of bad about that, but we won thanks to it. Hopefully the rats forgave me.

Long story short, we didn’t have to actually beat Chloe like we did the Red Minotaur. And thanks to the drones being clear, they were very hard to see, especially in the middle of a bunch of roaring flames! It was a bit difficult to pilot the drones while they were buffeted by hot wind, but I managed to land one of them on the Core. Things woulda gotten real bad real fast if I had missed it...

Either way, I successfully made the touchdown. We had won.