Chapter 3
Chapter 3
I made Isam swear to no longer interrupt my sleep. Heh, you might think that was me going easy on him, but I could claim anything was interrupting my sleep. Even when it came to Ichika, all I had to say was, “Hey, go any further and you’ll be getting in the way of my sleep.” He’d have no choice but to stop.
Finally, I can sleep in peace, I thought right as Rokuko came to my room. Weird, I was pretty sure she was supposed to be participating in some party that was being thrown over my duel with Isam ending.
“Keima, it looks like that weird merchant left while I was focused on the party.”
“Huh?” That weird merchant being... Oh, the suspicious one with 300/DP. “What was with him, anyway?”
“Who knows? I never figured him out. He was buying and selling a bunch of things, but that’s normal for a merchant, so...”
“Was he selling anything weird? Or was he maybe only buying things unique to our dungeon?”
“I didn’t see everything he sold, but most traveling merchants only buy stuff unique to our dungeon. There’s nothing else here except the cushions and doll things the Succubi make.”
Oh yeah, that’s true.
“What did you see him sell?”
“Hmmm, well, he was selling a lot of things to a lot of people. I think he mainly dealt in potions, though.”
Why would someone buy potions here? We’re the ones making them in the dungeon, I thought, but then remembered someone might want a potion to bring with them into the dungeon. After all, if nobody wanted to buy the potions, he wouldn’t have been able to sell them.
“But anyway, I guess we don’t have to worry about him now that he’s gone.”
“Ehhh, there’s a chance he left something behind. Keep your eyes open for now. If anything happens tell me right away.”
“Okaaay.”
In retrospect, I should have been more cautious there. If only I was more on guard.
It happened in the morning.
“Master! Master, shit’s getting real! Wake up!”
I woke up to someone pounding on my door. Everyone knew not to wake me up over minor issues, so Ichika coming to wake me up anyway meant things really were bad. And well, if they aren’t, I’m not the one who’s gonna be sorry about this.
“What’s up?” I got out of bed and spoke to the door. Ichika replied with a panicked tone.
“Rokuko’s knocked out!”
Uh... What?
“Hold on, can you repeat that?”
“Dude, I’m telling you Rokuko’s knocked out! She didn’t get out of her room today! I thought that was weird and found her stuck in bed with a nasty fever!”
I shook my tired head awake and left my room.
“Guuuh, guuuh, I hate forcing myself awake...”
“What’re we gonna do?! How can Dungeon Cores even get sick?!”
“I dunno. I’m gonna go check her out.” I headed to Rokuko’s room with the thoroughly hysterical Ichika in tow.
“Rokuko! You okay?!”
“Nnn...?” I entered Rokuko’s room and saw her lying in bed in her pajamas. Her cover was off, maybe because she got too hot under it. Her cheeks were red and her eyes were wavering, unfocused.
“...So cold...”
“That’s ’cause you took the cover off. Keep it on next time.” I picked up the cover and laid it on Rokuko. This sure does look like a cold.
“Rokuko, can Dungeon Cores catch colds?”
“...What’s a cooold?”
Oh, huh. I guess she doesn’t even know what colds are...?
“Colds make your head hurt, your thoughts get fuzzy, and your nose gets runny. There’s a lot of symptoms that all get called colds, though the main one is actually getting a fever.”
“Aaah... Guess I have a cold, then...” She seemed like she was in a daze, and she definitely did have a fever.
Hmm. Yeah, I should talk to Haku about this.
“Ichika, I’m gonna go talk to Haku. Take care of Rokuko in the meantime for me.”
“Got it! I should just treat this like a normal cold, I guess?”
“Yeah. Oh, but swap out her blanket for the Divine Comforter. That’ll be better for her.”
“Roger!” Rokuko’s Divine Comforter was around her room somewhere. I could count on it for its healing powers.
I turned around to leave Rokuko to Ichika and go see Haku, when suddenly my jersey caught on something. I glanced back and saw that rather than being caught on something, Rokuko had grabbed its sleeve.
“...Keimaaa, don’t goooo...” Her cheeks were flushed and her eyes were wet.
I hate to say it, but my partner’s really cute when she’s sick. Is this a charm? The day’s finally come where something other than feet is getting my heart going.
“...Ngh, I have to leave! This is for your sake...!”
“.........”
Come on, don’t stare at me. You’ll make me want to stay with you.
“Well... If you really need to go to help me, I get it... Bye byeee...”
“Yeah. I’ll be back. Oh, and before I go, I’ll leave a purin for you to eat. Sound good? You’ll get better faster with something in your stomach, probably.” I had no idea if food would actually help Dungeon Cores since they usually didn’t get sick at all, but well. No harm in trying. I took out some purins from {Storage} and left them beside the bed. Don’t eat Rokuko’s too, Ichika.
But then, I noticed something when trying to head to the [Ivory Secret Spot] to contact Haku.
“Oh man...” The dungeon’s “place” function wasn’t working. I normally just opened the menu and placed myself where I wanted to go, but several of the buttons on the menu were crossed out and locked off.
...I mean, that’s better than the buttons just not working when I hit them, but is this really happening because Rokuko’s sick? It’s gotta be. This would be too much of a coincidence otherwise. But with the dungeon functions locked off, I had no way of contacting Haku. Maybe the Guild’s information network would help? No, it was very likely I didn’t have the time for that. My best move would be to consult my other more experienced dungeon associate, Ittetsu.
...Buuut, wait. I can’t go into our meeting room without placing myself there. Having no other choice, I headed straight to the [Flame Caverns] myself. The peak of the mountain was a bit far away, so I just went through the corridor Rokuko made.
Luckily, the map function still worked. I went into our dungeon while doing my best to avoid other adventurers. I passed through the entrance area, got through the Labyrinth area, skated by the puzzle area, went down the spiral staircase while resting a bit, and... haaah, haaah... finally reached the storage area.
“Man... I made this dungeon myself, but walking through it sure takes a lot out of me.” It felt like traveling up a tall apartment building without functional elevators due to a power outage. Wait, I could have had a Golem carry me the rest of the way once I reached the halfway point. I’ll do that on the way back.
I passed through the oppressive magma area and finally passed through the door to the [Flame Caverns].
“Ittetsuuu. I’ve got something to talk about, could you come over heeere? Ittetsuuu.” I repeated myself for about three minutes until Ittetsu appeared. The sight of a huge Salamander filling up the entire corridor would have sent me running if we weren’t on friendly terms.
“Heya, Keima. Fuck’s goin’ on? Why ya here instead of the usual room?”
“Whew, I’m glad you’re here. Something happened.” I explained to him that Rokuko was bedridden with sickness.
“So that’s why I’m here. Do Dungeon Cores get fevers too?”
“Colds, huh... Never heard of that before. Maybe Cores morphed into human form, but Cores in my faction don’t do that much. And y’know, I don’t even get what you mean by a fever anyway. I get colder when I’m sick, y’know.” Oh, right. Salamanders are literally made of fire. But still, it looked like he couldn’t say for sure whether Cores taking on human form would allow them to get sick or not.
“Either way, that’s fuckin’ rare for sure. Did Haku say anythin’?”
“That’s the thing. Seems like I can’t use a lot of dungeon functions right now, which means I can’t contact her.”
“Huh? That’s fuckin’ weird for sure. I’ve never heard of dungeon functions going down. Ah, wait, there was that one thing.”
“Yeah?”
Ittetsu scratched his head.
“Aaah... Thing is, you’re the one who told me about it. That High Priestess or whoever pulled some shit and sealed your functions, yeah? That’s all I got.”
Oh, right. I forgot about that happening.
“So someone’s attacking us...?”
“Could be. You’re gonna be better off askin’ Haku than me, though. Remember that dungeon near Tsia? We were just fuckin’ talkin’ about her being part of your faction. Can’t ya talk to her?”
Oh, right, the Tsia dungeon. I probably should have gone there first since we’re part of the same faction. Though they’re kind of trying to revolt against Haku, so I dunno.
“Damn, I forgot all about them. This sickness must be really throwing me off. Thanks, Ittetsu. I’ll go try them out.”
“Don’t sweat it. We’re tight, yeah? Just come and give me advice if my li’l Redra gets sick too.” I gave Ittetsu a thumbs up as he waved me off, and while I was at it left some wine bottles for him before returning to my dungeon. It was time to race to the Tsia dungeon.
＊ ＊ ＊
I headed for the [Flower Garden of Light], also known as the Tsia dungeon. Niku carried me most of the way, with me transformed into a mouse with {Ultra Transformation} to lighten the load. Niku was the fastest person in our dungeon, so yeah. She was even faster than horses.
Anyway, since we (i.e. she) passed by Tsia and ran straight to its dungeon all the way from Goren, she naturally got tired out—and really, it was kinda odd that running that far just tired her out, but that was the power of youth, maybe. I had Niku rest while I called for Core 219 just like I had called for Ittetsu. Despite the fact I was rushing, she appeared while playing useless music and growing flowers beneath her dancing feet. As always, she was dressed up in a masculine outfit.
“Well well well, if it isn’t Keima Goreeen! What brings you here?”
“Core 219, I’ve got three questions. One, do Dungeon Cores get colds? Two, what do you do if they get colds? Three, is there a way for you to contact Haku immediately?” I immediately asked Core 219 what I wanted to know.
“Hm. You seem to be in quite the hurry, Keima. And luckily for you, I am prepared to provide answers! We are allies after all, you and I!” declared Core 219 with a smile. And a pose. For no reason.
“First answer. Dungeon Cores do get sick sometimes. To morph into a human is to make one’s body act like a human’s. In other words, one can choose to become sick if they so wish.”
“...Wait. So it’s like acting sick?”
Core 219 turned around and dramatically held both her hands high in the air. For no reason.
“Not quite. If a Core wishes to be human, their wish will be granted. That is what it means to morph into human form. And that wish includes getting sick like humans do.” So in short, they’ll catch colds if put in situations where a normal human would catch a cold.
“Okay, what can I do about it?”
Core 219 turned around on one heel and took a pose. For no reason.
“Second answer. Undoing the morph will cure the sickness. But... Core 695 is a human-type to begin with. If she’s not morphing, then she would never get sick in the first place... Ah, I see. She learned to morph for the sake of breeding? Ahaha, you may look cute, but you’re a man where it counts.”
Uh? Hold on, there’s a point for human-type cores to morph into human form...? And uh, breeding? I feel like I just learned a fact that Haku will kill me over. I want to go back in time several seconds before I heard that, but I can’t. I just can’t. God help me.
“Stop, stop. She’s not morphing into a human. Know anything else?”
“What? She is sick despite not morphing into a human? That is strange. Something I’ve never heard of, even.”
“It’s strange? Really?”
Core 219 lifted both hands while giving an over exaggerated reaction.
“Of course. We Dungeon Cores would never get sick without lessening ourselves by morphing into humans. We were made by Father, remember?”
Father. In other words, the God of Darkness. I guess it would be weird for a Dungeon Core hand-made by a god to get sick... I guess? Ittetsu sure didn’t seem that surprised by Rokuko getting sick, but...
“...What about getting sick and then dungeon functions getting locked off?”
“Now you are truly venturing into the realm of the impossible. For dungeon functions to cease working, one must interfere with the power of the gods themselves. A simple sickness could never do that. It would take even the worst of the worst curses to come close to it.” According to Core 219, Rokuko’s situation could not possibly be caused by a simple sickness.
“Well, it’s happening.”
“I see. Hence you arriving immediately to report this to her. Truly, your situation is unusual.”
I swallowed hard. Rokuko was suffering from symptoms both Ittetsu and Core 219 had never heard of. It was possible something far worse than I had imagined was happening.
“Now, third answer. I will tell you how to contact her. It might not be as ‘immediately’ as you hope, but there are methods.”
“...Are you going to contact her for me or not?”
“Hmm. I wonder.” Core 219 looked at me with a grin.
“...Pretty sure we have a contract making us allies.”
“The contract merely said I won’t betray her for a hundred years. Oh, but make no mistake, I’m not saying I won’t contact her. It’s just not something I do lightly, and thus not something I will do for free.” She changed poses again. But I expected her to say all that.
“I did bring some plant fertilizer to give you. Not sure how well it will work here, though, since it’s from another world.”
“My my, thank you. I’m sure I can count on something made in the same world as that weed killer stuff.”
Eh... I think the weed killer worked more due to the plants here than the weed killer itself being good, but alright.
Vines sprouted from the ground and formed a chair. Core 219 sat on it and crossed her legs.
“I accept. But it will take three days to reach the capital. It is too far for my {Teleportation} to reach in one go. I will need to use the spell three times even with my mana, which means—”
“Which means spending two separate days resting to recover mana and getting there on the third day.” That definitely wasn’t something she could do lightly. Maybe I should buy some more fertilizer for her.
“Oh, and do not get the wrong idea. Even the Ivory Goddess Haku herself needs to rest one day to make the complete trip. I do not have a comparatively small amount of mana or anything of the sort,” said Core 219 with a joking smile.
Still, she could make a trip that usually lasted one month in three days. That would be a big help. Contacting Haku through the guild would both cause a huge fuss and take who knows how long. The wise move here would be to go for the guaranteed three days. It wasn’t instant, but it was better than hesitating and getting help for Rokuko too late.
“I’ve already written a letter explaining the circumstances. I want you to deliver it to her.”
“Certainly. And while you’re here, there is something I would like you to do for me,” said Core 219 while switching her crossed legs.
“Yeah?”
“It’s something that only you can do. Fear not, it won’t take any time at all.”
“I wouldn’t expect too much from me if I were you.”
“It’s nothing too difficult.” Core 219 suddenly leaned forward, bringing her face close to mine. Her cheeks were kind of red.
“Say ‘Please, big brother’ in that beautiful form of yours. As cute as possible, if you will.”
...My head hurts. Have I caught Rokuko’s cold?
# Ichika’s Perspective
Rokuko was sick. Seeing that hella shocked me. Almost like I saw myself getting sick, you dig? ’Cause for some reason, idiots don’t get s— I mean, ’cause Rokuko’s a Dungeon Core, and Cores shouldn’t get sick. They looked like humans but they weren’t. How could they get a human cold?
So basically, I figured shit had gotten real and went to wake Master up immediately. He normally got like unreal mad when someone woke him up, but he thought Rokuko getting sick was just as weird as I did. He left some purins and ran off to gather info.
“Rokuko. You okay, girl?”
“...Ngggh, my head feels fuzzyyy...”
“Guess I’ll swap your blanket out for that Divine Comforter like Master said. Rokuko, you have it on you, right? Sorry to make you do this, but couldja take it out?”
“.........Okay.” A heavenly comforter popped out of Rokuko’s {Storage} and fell to the ground with a thump. I picked it up and started swapping out Rokuko’s covers with it.
“Nooo, don’t...” But Rokuko wouldn’t let go of the covers.
“How am I gonna swap’m like this, dude?”
“...You don’t have to.”
“I sure do. Master ordered me to, and uh, this thing has some healing properties or something, right?”
“Mmm... But I want this cover.” Maybe due to being sick, Rokuko was being stubborn and childish in a way she usually wasn’t.
“I dunno, you’re pretty sweaty. I think you’d feel a lot better with a quick wipe over and the comforter.” Regardless, Rokuko shook her head repeatedly. The legends said getting kids outta bed was tough. Never thought they’d be so true. But still, Rokuko was still Rokuko even when sick in bed. Surely she had some reason for it.
“What’s hanging you up on those covers?” I asked, and Rokuko hesitantly opened her mouth.
“Well, it’s... it’s Keima’s, so...” Aaah. Okay, okay. I get it. Master used to sleep with those covers. Okaaaaay. She wants to sleep under his covers.
“Alright, I feel ya. I’ll just put these covers on top of yours. Should still work even without direct contact, I guess. Something divine’s gotta be at least that powerful, yeah?”
“Mm, Keima wants me under the Divine Comforter too, so... That’s good.” Rokuko snuggled deeper beneath her covers as she spoke.
She’s still sweaty as heck, but I guess that’s fine...?
“...Keima likes it more when we’re usually clean, but sometimes sweaty...”
“True. Guess this is okay, then.” Rokuko sure knew Keima’s fetishes well. And if she didn’t mind being sweaty, sure, alright. I put the Divine Comforter (which was basically a big blanket) on top of Rokuko’s blanket.
“Pretty sure it only takes an hour under this to get better?”
“Mhm...” Rokuko nodded beneath her comforter.
“Want your purin?”
“Nmm... Yes, please... I can’t really move much, though... Feed meee...”
“Yeah, yeah. Open wide.”
“Aaaahn.” I scooped up some of the purin with a spoon and guided it into Rokuko’s mouth. Her nomming on it with the spoon in her mouth... was hella cute. But anyway, if she was just sick for no reason, the Divine Comforter should fix her right up. Didn’t seem like it was that time of the month for her, after all.
But even when Master got back over an hour later, Rokuko still wasn’t cured. She felt a bit better, but she still had a fever. Maybe the Divine Comforter didn’t work on diseases... Though she had recovered enough that she was thinking straight again.
This time, Master left with Niku to go talk to the Dungeon Core of the Tsia dungeon.
“Ngggh, my body feels so heavy...”
“Well, girl, nothing you can do but rest. You’ve totes been overworking yourself at the church and managing shifts and stuff. You can just sit back and let Master take care of this one for you.”
“...You’re right,” said Rokuko before falling asleep and breathing peacefully despite being covered in sweat from her fever. Even while away from home, Master kept Rokuko’s heart at ease. Kinda made me jealous, to be real.
# Keima’s Perspective
“Okay, perfect, I’ve had my fill. That was a dream come true, Keima. You have talent!”
“I don’t want talent like this... Ngh, where did my pure heart go...” Doing that kind of thing was mentally exhausting. B-But it was all for Rokuko’s sake... Ngh.
“Why so dramatic? You were quite into it a moment ago.”
Wrong! Succubus transformations make you feel pleasure, like, twinges in the crotch every time you satisfy someone’s lust! That’s not my fault! It’s not! I undid my Succubus transformation. Sheesh, doesn’t she know I’m in a hurry? Pervert!
“Well then, I believe it is time for me to depart.”
“Yeah. Might not help much, but want me to toss over some mana potions?”
“No need. They really would not help me at all. Your little favor was much more, ahem, useful. I lowered my resistance and allowed your Succubus request to hit me to the core, and now I am filled with enthusiasm to push my mana to its limit all for the sake of my cute little sister.”
Aaah... That favor was actually for a practical purpose. Sorry for calling you a pervert.
“I will see to it that Haku receives this letter. You may trust me on this, no matter what happens.”
“Thanks. This might end up being nothing, and it might all blow over tomorrow, but if not...”
“...Aha. Love shows itself once again! You fear for the one you love, yes? Then fear not! If it is nothing, then we need merely laugh in relief! Just be a dear and tell me what happens. Every little detail,” said Core 219 with a wink before {Teleporting} away. And just so you know, she sung the chant to the tune of some song or another.
Niku had recovered by the time I finished talking with Core 219, so I transformed into a mouse again and off we went back to town.
“Haaah, haaah... We’re here.” Niku ran at full speed for an extended period of time on the way back too, but once again, that just made her a little tired. What a monster! She’s made of stamina! No, wait, it’s gotta be the Golem assistance. Yeah, it’s all the Golem. Right. Yeah.
I went to my room and canceled my {Ultra Transformation}.
“Thanks, Niku. Get some rest.”
“I will.”
I passed my futon to Niku and went to check up on Rokuko.
“Oh, Keima.”
“Hello there, Keima. Forgive my intrusion.” Inside Rokuko’s room was Maiodore, the blue-haired drill loli. She must have gotten worried about Rokuko. Who, by the way, was sitting up in bed to talk. She must have gotten a lot better. She had two covers on, which was kind of weird? Oh, the top one was the Divine Comforter all spread out. She was probably doubling up on covers to maximize comfort.
“Did you drop by to check up on Rokuko?”
“Yes, I heard she was sick. I am... shall I say, glad to see that she seems healthier than I expected?” said Maiodore, glancing at the covers.
Oh yeah, Maiodore owns the Divine Pillow. Maybe she can identify the Divine Comforter on sight. It definitely does look more heavenly than your average comforter. Not to mention that it’s put on display in the Beddhist church all the time.
“I still feel a little dizzy, but I am feeling a lot better.”
“Yes, which is why you must stay in bed, Rokuko.” Maiodore probably knew Rokuko was feeling better thanks to the Divine Comforter.
“Your maid didn’t stop you from dropping by? I would think she’d be afraid of you getting sick.”
“Yes, well. As this is the family of my beloved fiancée we are talking about, I overruled her objections. Especially since I had something to lend her.”
“Oh, right, Keima. Look at what Maiodore lent me.” Rokuko pointed at the pillow on her bed. It looked like a normal reflex pillow at first glance, but it radiated a divine aura that was impossible to miss. There was no mistaking it. That was the Divine Pillow.
“So? I bet you’re jealous.”
“Ngh, I’m so jealous! I mean... uh. Are you sure about this, Mai?”
“I do not mind Rokuko borrowing it. The Divine Pillow has restorative properties just as the Divine Comforter does, after all. Oh, but do not let anyone else use it, Rokuko. Please return it as soon as you’re well again.”
“Of course, I’m just borrowing it.”
“...I can only wonder if anything I’ve lent to Keima has been returned.”
Huh? Did I ever borrow something from her? That’s not ringing any bells.
Anyway, I wonder what powers the Divine Pillow has. Consider me curious. And on that note, I wonder if Mai knows what powers the Divine Comforter has.
“Thanks, Maiodore. You can eat as many purins as you want today.”
“My! Thank you very much, Rokuko.” Maiodore stood up from her chair with a giggle.
“With my gift delivered, I believe it is time for me to depart. I would not want to stop you from getting the rest you need.” Maiodore gave a small bow and left the room.
“...Let me touch the pillow for a second.”
“Not a chance. You heard Maiodore say not to let anyone else use it.”
Ngh, what a nightmare. She did say that, but come on! At least let me touch it!
“Why did Maiodore bring it herself instead of having her maid deliver it for her? Think about it.”
“Ngh!” Because divine punishment might fall on anyone who touches it...? Crap, I shoulda tried touching it while Maiodore was here. I could have learned something from how she reacted to that.
“...Guess I’ll ask if I can touch it when you’re giving it back.”
“Good luck. Mnn... Well, I’m going to try and sleep a bit...” Rokuko buried her face into the pillow. Whoa, whoa, isn’t it hard to breathe like that? I mean, you don’t have to breathe, but still...
“.........”
“Uh, Rokuko?”
“Not only does it feel unbelievably nice and soft like Kinue’s boobs, I can breathe right through it like it’s not even there... It smells super nice, too...”
Seriously? Guess it’s not the Divine Pillow for nothing.
“Before you fall asleep, is there anything you want me to do?”
“...Wait, you don’t mind?” Rokuko rolled over and poked her head out from beneath the covers to look at me.
“Sure, if it’s not too much.”
“...Okay, I want you to get in bed with me as Succubus Keima.”
Whew lad.
“Sorry, I’ve gotta figure out what’s getting you sick right now. Not to mention that those two parts of the Divine Bedding might hit me with divine punishment.”
“...Then I want you to stay with me here as much as you can,” said Rokuko while looking at me apologetically.
Alright then, guess I’ll stay in this room when I’m using the menu monitor to search through the dungeon and stuff. I know how scary it can be when you’re sick.
＊ ＊ ＊
Anyway, I left Rokuko in bed, knowing that I could count on the Divine Pillow’s restorative properties. Rei and the others were working to fill the gap left by Rokuko’s absence. I hadn’t given them any instructions, but they were even taking shifts to watch over her. As always, I was blessed with only the most skilled of subordinates. It would have been nice to summon another set of Silkies to help out, but that option was in the middle of being sealed off. Indeed, the monster summoning function was blocked off. It looked like I could still place traps, but...
Anyway. I had sent word to Haku, but there was no guarantee she would know what to do in this situation. Ittetsu and Core 219 were both pretty old but had no idea what was going on. Which meant I needed to investigate what was going on myself to be sure.
That traveling merchant was naturally the first thing I thought of. I opened the menu and set about learning what I could about him. I would want to pay special attention to what he did right before leaving. Rokuko said he left while she was briefly distracted from watching him.
...Alright, the monitor function is still working. I can view past footage, but the question is whether there’s any footage to view. Any time you looked through the dungeon monitor, that footage was stored in perpetuity. For example, if you used the monitor to peek on a girl taking a bath, you could rewatch that footage for the rest of time. It was like a more functional version of trying to replay videos in your head. But on the other hand, you couldn’t watch anything that had happened without being seen on the monitor.
The monitor wasn’t just functioning on its own twenty-four seven like a security camera, so the question was whether Rokuko kept the monitor on him while looking away, or if he was coincidentally in footage shot elsewhere. Also, no deleted footage could be seen again.
I opened a folder of past recordings. Man, using this menu really does feel like tapping a tablet’s touch screen... but anyway. I guess the time frame for the merchant leaving was way back here?
“Gah, it’s all buggy. How?” Some of the file names were composed of buggy, unreadable text. I thought at first it might just be a visual thing, but the files didn’t react when I tapped them. This must have something to do with Rokuko being sick too. Let’s see, and as for the merchant... Alright. Some of the files are buggy, but I can see most of them. There’s a lot of footage here, probably since I told Rokuko to keep an eye on him.
“.........” I opened multiple files at once and watched them simultaneously. I sped up the footage where he was alone, put it back to normal speed when he talked to someone, enhanced to spot details... That would be a lot of wasted time if he wasn’t responsible, but as I couldn’t think of anyone else suspicious, this was the best I could do.
I went ahead and checked all the videos I could.
.........
..................
...........................
“...Crap, all that for nothing.” I cradled my head. I more or less expected that since Rokuko hadn’t noticed him leave or anything, but still. A solid day had passed since Rokuko got sick. Maybe I needed a break.
“Wazzup Rokuko, I’m coming in. Oh, watcha doing here, Master?”
“Investigating. How’s work, Ichika? Sorry for not helping you at all.”
“Don’t sweat it, the Succubi are really pulling their weight. I mean, Rokuko getting sick is some serious business, so yeah.”
Oh, huh, the Succubi are helping.
“Hm? Woah, Master. Checking out this... traveling merchant?” Ichika peered at my opened menu.
“Yeah, I was seeing if he had anything to do with Rokuko getting sick. I was just about to give up, though.”
“Yeah, I don’t blame you for suspecting him. He’s hella suspicious.”
Huh?
“Wait, Ichika. Why do you think he’s suspicious?”
“I mean, look at the dude. He’s acting like a traveling merchant but he’s totally walking like a trained assassin.”
Uh.
“Wait wait wait. Seriously, wait. An assassin? Where are you getting that from?”
“He’s got the kinda awkward strut of someone used to walking silently but forcing themselves to make noise. The sound of each footstep is way too concentrated. And notice how he’s standing up straight? That alone makes you wonder what the heck he does for a living, but traveling merchants are always walking around with heavy stuff on their back. A traveling merchant standing straight after that? No way. Plus, it’s suspicious that he’s not trying to make a name for himself to spread his business. Proof he’s doing something he doesn’t want people noticing. Oh, and there are definitely assassin tools hidden in his clothes. See that spot of his pants leg? How it’s a little stiff? Yeah, that’s a throwing knife.”
Uhhhh, huh. Today I learned that Ichika has the eyes of a hawk. Or maybe this is just normal for a C-Rank adventurer? Nah, that’d be crazy. If people like this are walking all over the place then I’m basically a saint.
“That’s pretty impressive, Ichika. I’m surprised you could figure all that out.”
“Aaah, well, it’s half just ’cause I got to see him up close on a video. Truth is, I barely even noticed him until you pointed him out. Basically impossible to notice assassin tools if you’re not looking for them ahead of time, confirmation bias is actually important here. He might have a subterfuge skill, too.”
...I would have missed him too if not for his abnormal amount of DP per day. Probably.
“So, what about him?”
“Uh, actually, do you know anyone who talked to him?”
“Mmm, not really, but I can go hunt for info. If I say he might’ve gotten Rokuko sick, I’m sure reports will come rolling in.”
Is it just me or is Ichika a little too reliable? Or maybe this is just normal for C-Rank adven— (I’m repeating myself.)
Anyway, Ichika went ahead and started gathering info for us. For safety’s sake I had her not mention Rokuko’s poor health, but even so she came back before two hours were up.
“Here’s a list of everyone he talked to! But to be real, Wozma pretty much made this himself.” Wozma was the vice town chief and owner of the local bar. In secret he was a former government official who worked in Haku’s castle. Paperwork like a list of names was his specialty.
“Thanks. Guess I’ll check the videos to see what he bought and who he sold things to whi—”
“Oh, the list has most of that too. Dude, everyone was all jumping to help the second I dropped your name. Pretty much every town citizen that talked to him said everything they know. Sure is nice being a town chief, huh?” Ichika cackled.
...Yeah, it is nice. I looked over the list.
“...No problem with this guy, nor this guy. There sure are a lot of these... Wait.” The last name on the list was, “Isam: Bought black somethings. Bugs?”
“Oh, that. People nearby remembered it. Apparently Isam went and bought some black bug-looking things, though nobody could hear what they were saying to figure out why. Thing is, Isam doesn’t remember that and the bugs aren’t with his stuff, which is suspicious as heck.”
“Yeah, those bugs seem pretty suspicious to me.”
“Some people saw Isam going to the dungeon that night. It was pretty late and most people weren’t going to the dungeon themselves, but there was that party going on and the bar’s near the dungeon. Wasn’t too hard for people spot him. But again, Isam don’t remember squat about it.”
In other words, it’s possible he was being controlled.
“...Isn’t it kinda weird how many people were watching all this?”
“It’s a small town, dude, people remember things. And merchants usually stick to places with a lot of people. All I had to say was ‘that weird traveling merchant that’s kinda easy to forget about’ and everyone instantly knew who I was talking about. Haha! He probably got lazy and leaned too hard on his subterfuge skills.”
Man, now I’m scared. I should probably be more careful when I’m doing Dungeon Master things.
Anyway, the intel Ichika gathered had given me a valuable lead. Isam had probably got to the dungeon and planted those black bugs or whatever inside. Which left only one thing to do.
“Time to check the dungeon for anything strange.” First was the map. Despite how he seemed, Isam was actually a fairly skilled adventurer. He managed to get all the way to the storage room area during our duel to get gifts for Ichika.
Which meant I needed to search from the entrance to the storage room area... Yeah, that’s a lot of space. I’m gonna need to split this workload up. I opened my menu and contacted the three monster girl administrators of our dungeon.
“Rei, Kinue, Neruneh. I’m checking over the dungeon. Anyone who’s free, lend a hand.”
“I am free right now. I will leave the rest to the Succubi and begin at once.”
“The Silkies can cover me. Meals will be limited to what’s on the menu, but that should be fine.”
“I can’t go to my lab like this so I’m free tooooo!”
All three of them replied to me at once. They were working in the church, cafeteria, and inn respectively, but this took priority. The source of all our lives and income was in a pinch. Now wasn’t the time to be worrying about side jobs.
Oh, and right. Neruneh can’t enter her lab without using the place function of the menu. Heh.
The three of them came to me immediately after replying. Stealthily, so as to not wake Rokuko.
“Good to see you all. No time for pleasantries, though. Rei, you search from the entrance to the storage area. Kinue, you do the reverse and start in the storage area. Neruneh, you search the other areas. I’ll look everywhere I can.”
“Sir yes sir!” saluted Rei.
“Understood,” bowed Kinue.
“I’ll do my beeeest,” drawled Neruneh.
I opened my map. Despite the state Rokuko was in, the dungeon looked the same as ever.
Three hours passed since we started searching through the dungeon.
“Found it!” yelled Kinue and Rei at once, having found it at the same time somehow. They were both pointing at the same point on the map. It was a corner of the labyrinth area. There was something there that didn’t register as a foe, ally, or an item.
“There’s something here. I’ve marked it as an enemy! And given it a tag!”
“I will open a video stream.” Rei dotted it with the red of an enemy. Kinue then opened it on the monitor. There we saw a large, pitch-black snake as thick as an arm. It had no face, but on one end there was a hole with jagged saw-like teeth circling it.
Wasn’t this thing supposed to be in like a bottle or something...? Did it grow this much in a single day? Not to mention, there was something odd about what we were seeing.
“What...? Something’s not right...” I looked closer at the video and saw that it appeared to be burrowing into the wall.
“Ummm, the dungeon walls, are filled with hooooles?” said Neruneh, knocking me back to my senses. The dungeon function to repair walls... unusable. And the snake thing was doing the unthinkable.
“It’s eating... the dungeon?” The snake, clouded in black mist on top of its already pitch-black skin, bit a chunk out of the dungeon wall and absorbed it with its mist. It then grew even bigger.
“Ngghaaah!” Rokuko jerked on the bed behind me. The monitor shut off at the same time.
“Rokuko!”
“The monitor is blocked off now! Rei, what about yours?”
“Mine won’t open either! Master! How is Rokuko?!”
“...Hard to say she’s okay. Fuck, that snake thing’s definitely causing all this! It eats dungeons, so I’m gonna call it a Dungeon Eater! Let’s go take it out!” I stood up... and immediately collapsed.
＊ ＊ ＊
“Ngh... W-Wait, where am I...?” When I woke up, I saw what seemed to be bulging clouds of linen blocking my view of the ceiling.
“Finally woke up, my dude?” said somebody very nearby as whatever my head was resting on shifted.
Oh, this is a lap pillow. Which means these clouds are Ichika’s tits. Why are they so massive? I can’t even see her face.
With nothing else, I sat up (“Bro, my legs! Pins and needles!”) while taking care not to hit her boobs (“Gyahaa it tickles!”) with my head. Sorry Ichika, the faster I sit up the faster I’ll get better. Thanks for putting a blanket on me, though.
“How long was I out?”
“Like three hours... Ngggh, my leeeegs. Now I get why you gotta love someone to give ’em lap pillows...” Ichika trembled as pins and needles shot through her legs.
“...How’s the Dungeon Eater?”
“Niku and I killed the shit out of it as soon as we could. Wasn’t too bad. Though it kinda turned into a black mist and just disappeared once we killed it.” The monitor was functioning again. The holes eaten in the dungeon walls were filling back up too.
“How’s Rokuko?”
“Still seems kinda sick, but it looks like she’s getting better.”
I glanced over and saw Rokuko sleeping. Her cheeks were red and sweat was beading on her forehead. Yeah, she doesn’t look better yet to me. Might be smart to put the Divine Comforter straight onto her Core body.
“Anyway, good job. You should go get some rest.”
“Same to you, Master.”
...So she said, but not all of the dungeon functions were back. We still couldn’t summon monsters, use the place function, and so on.
“How long did it take for the monitor function to come back?”
“Hm? Dunno, I just noticed it was back outta nowhere. Guess we just gotta wait a little longer?”
“Nggghaaah...” Rokuko let out a pained groan. That gave me a bad feeling, so I opened the menu and saw that buying things from the DP catalog was now blocked off.
“...There’s another one.”
“Say what?!”
I started to summon the three monster girls, but then noticed an oddly placed enemy marker on the map I had left open.
“It’s in the walls...!” Indeed, it was in the walls. Perhaps the Dungeon Eaters were marked on the map now that we had identified them as enemies.
“Turn the map to 3D, and... It’s right here.” I pointed to where it was, using the length and width as a reference to find it. It was inside the walls where normally nothing should go. I set the monitor on it so we could see. Onscreen was a large black creature curled into a ball within a rock cavern it had presumably eaten out itself. It’s hard to tell without any frame of reference, but it looks bigger than the first one? It had eaten through a wall in the labyrinth area and was now in the floor beneath it.
“...Dude, how’re we supposed to fight this thing?”
“How about we send a small Golem into the hole after it?”
“Not gonna work. It gave Niku a little trouble, so like, a regular old Golem would be toast.”
“We can just possess the monster wi— Tch, nope, that function’s blocked.” To make matters worse, the function for controlling monsters was sealed. Our limit was just giving general instructions to them. Golems we couldn’t control had fairly limited combat potential.
As for repairing the walls—no good. The function was blocked. But even if it wasn’t, this thing was a pro at eating dungeons, unlike Suzuki. It would eat its way out of any walled prison we tried making.
Suddenly, the Dungeon Eater lifted its head. Though, it was less a head and just a sudden gap, a mouth with pointed teeth surrounding it. The red within the mouth was facing the monitor.
“...Don’t tell me it’s looking at us.”
“I dunno, but what the heckaroo?!”
It opened its mouth wide at the monitor and surged forward in a massive bite. The monitor stopped working again. He ate it. He ate the dungeon function. Sounds weird, but that has to be it.
“Tch... I can’t believe he was actually looking at us.”
“Master! The Dungeon Eater’s doing something!”
I checked the map and saw that the red dot representing the Dungeon Eater was heading straight down, ignoring all of our dungeon puzzles. I set the map to display the whole dungeon to see where the Eater was headed. The silver lining was that since it was going straight and ignoring all walls, it was easy to predict where it was going.
“Yeah... Figures. What else could it be?” He was heading to our deepest Core Room. The one with the real Dungeon Core.
...On top of that, the castling function with Dummy Cores was sealed. Is it just me, or has castling consistently been the least useful function of them all?
Given how fast it was moving, we didn’t have much leeway. I smacked the sleepiness out of my body and headed to the dungeon with Niku and Ichika in tow. Rei and the other girls weren’t with us for two reasons: one, I wanted to enter with my adventurer party so that those seeing us wouldn’t grow suspicious of anything, and two, it was possible that they would suddenly grow sick due to the problems with the dungeon.
...We wouldn’t be able to meet up in the dungeon either without the placement function. So instead, I asked Rei and the others to take care of Rokuko while keeping an eye out for any other Dungeon Eaters. There didn’t seem to be any at a glance, but better safe than sorry.
“Let’s go.”
Niku and Ichika both nodded, fully equipped for battle. We went inside the dungeon, and at first glance nothing seemed unusual. Other adventurers were coming and going like it was nothing. But as we spoke, the dungeon... Rokuko was suffering.
I checked the map to see where the Dungeon Eater was. We didn’t have much time left. I thought about directing the Haniwa Golem to the Core Room, but it would be too cramped for him to do much. Not to mention that the path there was so complex and filled with narrow passageways that just reaching it would be hard for him. We had to get there as fast as possible.
“Let’s hurry. We’re taking the fastest way there.”
We blasted through the entrance area and went to the labyrinth area. Along the way we passed by several adventurers whom we ran past while giving brief greetings. I thought we would get through the whole labyrinth area the same way, but...
“Wait... Sori— Ichika!”
“Puhleeze, Isam, get it right already.” We bumped into Isam while he was exploring the dungeon with his little sister Mimiko. “But anyway, we’re busy. Laters.”
“Wait! Keima, duel me! Fight me for Ichika!” He actually stood in front of the hall and blocked our path.
“Isam! Now’s not the time for games, get the heck outta our faces!”
“Not a chance. If you want me to leave, Keima, fight me! An honorable one-on-one duel!”
Honestly, at this point, nobody could blame me if I accidentally killed him in a fight.
“You caught me at a bad time. Alright, I’ll take your duel.”
“Alright! Let’s ge—”
“But can you really call it an honorable duel when I’m a back row support and you’re a fighter?” I asked, making Isam fall silent. “Whatever, I’ve got things to do. I’m gonna get this over with quick.”
“Alright, gimme your best s—”
“O Fire, O Water, O Earth, O Wind, O Light, O Darkness—Defeat mine enemy. {Fireball}, {Water}, {Earth Bind}, {Air Voice}, {Light}, {Blind}.” I decided to just blast Isam with magic to knock him out of the way. He was in the middle of saying something, but I didn’t care. I was mad and just cast all the low-rank spells I knew at once. I didn’t need to make the chant, but I did just for appearances sake. My mental image of the spell was binding the enemy and blowing them away.
The six low-rank spells drained my mana, a small enough amount for me to naturally recover over a few seconds, and then... mixed together. Crap, I should’ve had a clearer mental image. Or maybe my frustration is just getting in the way.
The combined mana exploded in the direction I was pointing. I hurriedly moved my hand to the side, but part of the spell still managed to hit Isam.
...The nearby Clay Golem that got hit head-on evaporated, but Isam survived with only some burns and being knocked unconscious. Whew, that was close. I almost did kill him by accident. Oh, looks like Ichika pulled Mimiko to safety. Guess everything’s fine now.
“...Dude, what was that?”
“...Think of it as my ultimate move.” I had never seen it before either, but it actually seemed pretty strong. Maybe I should name it Element Burst or something cool like that. Yeah, I’ll have to remember to chant that next time.
“Anyway, the small fry’s out of the way. Let’s get going.”
“R-Right. That sure ended fast. Later, Mimiko. Isam’s all yours.”
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, my brother is always so awful...” Mimiko bowed repeatedly as she moved aside for us.
Yeah, it’s all Isam’s fault. You’re fine. I gave her a wave and hurried on without turning around.
After that we managed to reach the hidden area—the room with the real Dungeon Core placed in it—without encountering any real obstacles. The Dungeon Eater wasn’t there yet. We made it. But only by a couple of minutes at best.
“Th-That was pretty close...” I said, gasping for air.
“We might not’ve made it if that idiot was a little stronger.”
It would’ve been faster to have Niku carry me again, but I could only use {Ultra Transformation} three times in one day. It was a possible trump card and I needed to save it.
I collected myself. Breath in, breath out... Okay. I was ready. I checked the map for the Dungeon Eater.
“...It’s here! Above us!” The ceiling above us crumbled as the massive Dungeon Eater, about eighty centimeters wide, burst out of the ceiling while chomping rock along the way. It then fell to the ground, carried by its own weight. At a glance it was easily over three meters long. There was still more of it coming out of the ceiling.
“PIKYURAAAAAAAA!” It let out a bizarre sounding scream and turned to face us.
“Holy shit, it’s so big! How did it get this big?! Was the one Niku beat this big?!”
“I’m pretty sure it was hella smaller! It didn’t scream like that, either!”
“That doesn’t matter. We just have to kill it.”
Oh, Niku’s got a point. Doesn’t matter how big it is, we’ve still gotta kill it. And it should be safe to say it got bigger since it hid in the walls and absorbed a lot more of the dungeon’s power.
“Right, let’s get to work. Ichika, hold it down! I’ll blast it with an Element Burst... With that thing I just did, try not to get hit!”
“Gaaaah! You got it, Master!”
“Master, what should I do?”
“Protect the Core! Don’t let that thing touch it!”
Ichika stomped on the Dungeon Eater to hold it down. It was as thick as a log and attacked Ichika while floundering on the floor like a fish out of water.
“Gaaah, don’t look at me! I’m gonna puke! Master, kill it already!”
The Dungeon Eater continued to slither out of the crumbling ceiling while bouncing around. Wait, isn’t it longer than it looked on the monitor a second ago? Sheesh, whatever, here goes!
“Power’s important here. I’ll use a chant to boost its strength. Alright! O Fire, O Water, O Earth, O Wind, O Light, O Darkness! Defeat mine enemy! {Element Burst}!” A massive amount of mana swirled in front of me like a whirlpool. It was reacting to my sincere desire to kill my enemy as soon as possible.
I concentrated the mana so that it wouldn’t hit Ichika by accident. Then, a stream of light shot out of the whirlpool and headed straight for the Dungeon Eater. Ichika narrowly dodged it.
“Ohmigosh ohmigosh! Friggin’ geez, dude! I woulda died for reals if that hit me!”
A second later, the Dungeon Eater’s head exploded in a storm of guts. However... The rest of its body pushed out meat that grew into another head. It then turned its mouth towards us hatefully.
“PURYURAAAA! PIRIRIRIRIIII!” Its blood red mouth mixing with the black mist made it look extremely vicious.
“Tch. That’s some crazy regeneration. Did the one Niku killed do that?”
“No, the one I fought went down easily.” Which meant that this one had powered up quite a lot.
“Ichika, I’m gonna give it another shot. Hold him down again.”
“Oh man, I hate this, but you got it. Hyah!” Ichika dashed forward to stomp again—only for a wall to appear out of nowhere in front of her.
“Bwuh, wha, bpfff?!” Ichika slammed hard into the wall.
“Are you okay?!”
“Guh, guuuuh, my friggin’ nose... But, I-I’m okay! Hyah!” She dashed around the wall to give it another shot. But another wall popped up to get in the way of her feet. She ended up kicking the wall.
“Gaaah! Come on! I’ll get you this time!”
“Ichika, don’t worry about it! The walls are gonna box you in.”
“Really?! Oh man, you’re right! This is messed up!”
I cast {Element Burst} again. This time, I focused it into a tighter beam while keeping its strength the same.
“Charge—{Element Burst}!” A thinner beam of light than before burst out and pierced the Dungeon Eater, swinging vertically. I saw the light slicing the Dungeon Eater to bits, popping out on the other end with the burnt meat steaming, but...
“Oh man oh man, he regenerated again! Dang it!” Meat bubbled out from within to regenerate all the parts that had been sliced off.
“That’s some fast recovery. Ichika, what do you think we should do?”
“Kill it until it stops regenerating or drag it outside and make it somebody else’s problem, I guess? Dunno what else we could do.”
“...Yeah, me neither. We can’t let something that eats dungeons live. Let’s keep on killing it.” But the moment I said that, the Dungeon Eater began twisting its body—it even pulled its tail out of the ceiling and coiled around itself, changing shape. If it was an eighty centimeters thick and eight meters wide massive earthworm before, now it was a hundred and fifty centimeters thick and three meters long snake. But since its head was the same size, it was more like a giant leech?
“Oh no, Master! I can’t hold this thing down!”
“Tch, but now it’s a bigger target! I can hit it! {Element Burst}!” Light shot toward the Dungeon Eater. But it hid behind a wall.
Moments later, I heard the sound of two objects colliding, hard. I turned around and saw that the Dungeon Eater had tried to tackle the Dungeon Core, only to be blocked by Niku with her Golem Knife. It must have used the wall as footing to leap toward the Core. Good job stopping it, Niku!
“I won’t let you!” She then pushed it back through sheer force. Just what I would expect from our dungeon’s ultimate weapon, the strongest dog loli to ever live. With one blow she flawlessly protected our Dungeon Core. The Dungeon Eater was sent flying back, slamming into a wall like a tossed ball.
“Good job, Niku! Time to finish it o—” Just as I started to cast {Element Burst} again, the Dungeon Eater arched its back and shot its head down, taking a bite from the floor with the ease of one scooping up ice cream with a spoon. That’s gonna be the last bite of dungeon you ever take.
“{Element Burst}!” But the Dungeon Eater made a wall between us to buy time. By the time the light smashed through it, the Dungeon Eater had vanished inside a massive hole.
“...Crap! He ran away!” Still, he would have to come back here sooner or later. His ultimate goal was no doubt to eat the dungeon, which meant he would be back for the Co—
“Master! The Dungeon Eater is heading for the quarantine zone!” Rei contacted me. It seemed she had been watching the Dungeon Eater here despite instructions to search the map.
“The quarantine zone... Suzuki Wall?!”
“Yes, he is heading straight for it!”
“Let’s go, Ichika! We’re following it!”
“Wha, me?!”
“Master?”
“Only you can protect the Core on your own, Niku! That’s Rokuko’s body, take care of it!” I jumped into the Dungeon Eater’s hole without waiting for Niku’s reply. It was smooth and I slid down it like a slide into the quarantine zone—the room where we had secured Suzuki’s wall, located diagonally down from the Core Room. Reaching it normally was fairly elaborate, but none of it meant anything to the Dungeon Eater’s feeding.
“Wait, oh crap! {Ultra Transformation}!” I came out of the ceiling and flew straight for the floor at max speed, so I hurriedly transformed into a mat. A mat wearing my clothes (i.e. me) slammed onto the ground.
“Gyaaaaah! Umph!” Ichika, following behind me, landed on top of the mat (me). She seemed to be fine. I immediately undid the transformation.
“Kyah! Sorry Master I’ll get off!” shouted Ichika, talking extremely fast.
“Where’s the Dungeon Eater?!”
“In front of you!” answered Rei.
I got up and saw the Dungeon Eater headed toward Suzuki’s wall while swaying its head side to side, almost as if it was sniffing the air. You know, that thing might be blind. Kind of like a mole.
“{Element Burst}...!” I shot the ray of light a bit diagonally so it wouldn’t hit Suzuki’s wall, but the Dungeon Eater flung itself sideways to dodge it. Crap, it’s so fast! I’ve gotta find a way to stop it from moving...
“Master, look! Over there!”
“Huh? Oh!” I looked where Ichika was pointing and saw the Daiframe, the orichalcum Construction Golem I had made to move Suzuki’s wall. We had just left it here and forgotten about it entirely.
“Ichika, think you can use it?”
“Yeah! Just buy some time for me to get in!”
“No problem!” After Ichika started running for the Daiframe, I cast {Element Burst}... not. I cast {Summon Gargoyle}. Numbers were important when it came to buying time. Luckily, this was a fairly large room since I wanted Ichika to have a decent amount of space when carrying Suzuki’s wall.
Several magic circles appeared around me as I cast the spell repeatedly without chanting. Gargoyles appeared all over the room.
“Go, stop him!” The Gargoyles flapped their stone wings and flew at the Dungeon Eater.
“PUGIRIRIRIRI!” The Dungeon Eater easily destroyed them with tackles. But each tackle took a second, and those seconds added up. That said, if it ignored the Gargoyles, they would swarm and drag him back. It couldn’t get closer to Suzuki’s wall no matter what it did.
“I get it. You use that nose of yours to sniff out the smell of power, yeah? Maybe not literally, but you sense power and then eat it to make it yours.” The Dungeon Eater flailed its body angrily as it destroyed the Gargoyles, perhaps angry that there was tasty power just ahead of him and he couldn’t reach it. I tried tossing in some {Element Bursts} to the mix, but it avoided them by using Gargoyles as shields. The Gargoyles could slow him down, but not hold him down.
Suddenly, a flash of orichalcum shone.
“Hoooraaaah!” Ichika charged forward in the Daiframe. She knocked aside the Gargoyles and sent them flying back with the Dungeon Eater. There was now a huge gap between it and the Suzuki Wall.
She chased after it and held it down firmly with her orichalcum Golem arms. The Dungeon Eater flailed, but her arms were on another level. She didn’t let it go. It couldn’t get away!
“Nooow!”
“{Element Burst}! {Element Burst}!” I shot out my ultimate move so many times I lost count. I constrained the beams so they didn’t hit Ichika while tearing the Dungeon Eater apart.
“PIGYOOOOOO!” But the second I thought we got him, multiple magic circles formed in the air around the Dungeon Eater. What?!
“Ichika, get back!”
“Bruh, monsters?! He can summon monsters?!” The Dungeon Eater summoned giant beetle-esque bugs surrounded in the same black fog as him. Was it a magic spell? No. I only managed to read a bit of the magic circle, but I caught a few words: Summon monster, bug, Dungeon Points, 50... To repeat, Dungeon Points. That could only mean one thing.
“It’s using the dungeon’s monster summoning function?! Is there anything it can’t do?!” The bugs were about fifty centimeters wide, big in comparison to other bugs and small in comparison to the Eater. Collectively they would make short work of Ichika in her Daiframe. “I’ll provide some support! Autotracking {Fireball} times thirty!” Balls of fire appeared in the air and chased after the bugs, burning each one they hit. The charred corpses vanished with a puff of black mist before they hit the ground. They don’t leave corpses even though they’re monsters summoned with the dungeon function? Maybe that’s just the kind of monster they are.
“Right on, Master! Hyaaaah!”
“Pugyuuuuu! Ryaaaaaah!” The Dungeon Eater screamed as it fell to the floor after being slammed against the ceiling. It made walls to separate it from Ichika, but they couldn’t stand against Daiframe’s orichalcum might. She smashed, smashed, smashed through stone walls to chase after it. The Dungeon Eater used that opportunity to lunge toward me, but...
“Never turn your back in a fiiiight!”
“PURYU!” She grabbed onto it with the Daiframe.
“Now, Master!”
“Right! {Element Burst}!” I, having turned into a mobile cannon, tore the Dungeon Eater apart with beams. By this point I knew how to manage the flow of mana to not hit Ichika as well. Y’know, this is kinda making me feel like I’m actually pretty strong...
“Gah! Rokuko’s in trouble, now’s not the time to be having fun!” I swung my arm to slice the Eater with an {Element Burst} beam. Every part of its body that the beam touched turned to black mist and disappeared.
“GYUPUAAA...” The Dungeon Eater let out cries of pain. But I showed no mercy.
More magic circles appeared in the air. Seeing the words Dungeon Point spelled out for the second time confirmed my suspicions. I had no hard evidence, but my intuition was loud and clear. It was using our own dungeon’s monster summoning functions.
“Give them back! Those functions you’re using belong to Rokuko’s dungeon! Our dungeon!” I sliced off its head with {Element Burst}, which I was using as a laser cutter. The spell had a low mana cost but inflicted a ton of damage—perfect for just letting loose on something. Which meant honing the beam and slicing it to bits was more effective than trying to do area of effect damage.
Ichika caught the sliced off Eater head and threw it in the air, where I used {Element Burst} in laser form to slice it to bits. The chunks turned to mist and disappeared. The magic circles in the air vanished before completing their purpose. I checked the menu.
...Yep, they’re back. As expected. We could use the monster summoning function again. It was simple: defeating the Eater gave us the functions back. That black mist wasn’t there just to give a cool miasma effect, it had the dungeon’s power mixed in with it. I couldn’t hold back a grin.
“If you’re gonna steal from people... You’ve gotta be ready for them to take it all back and more! Now, spit it all out! Give! Back! My! Dungeon! This dungeon... Rokuko belongs to me!”
...Huh? The black mist’s clinging to me. Or wait, is this me stealing it back? From the Dungeon Eater? Feels like that’s what’s happening. I can feel the power flowing through me. I could cast magic forever like this.
“PUGYUUU...” As the Eater sprouted another head, I made myself clear. It would give everything back. It would put my property back where it belonged.
I sliced in cross shapes and grid shapes, slicing it to tiny bits. The Dungeon Eater’s black body shrunk with each slice until eventually only a tiny bug the size of a pointer finger remained. That was its real body. I could tell. That huge body had all just been a shell for it.
“Piriii...”
“Don’t try acting all weak now. You’re not cute at all. Die and never come back.” With one last {Element Burst}—a real blast this time, not a laser—I burnt the Dungeon Eater into oblivion. There was a sizzling like water being poured onto hot iron, and then it was gone. Not a trace of the bug in sight.
“...Whew.” I finally let out a sigh.
“Master? Uh, you okay?” asked Ichika hesitantly, still in the Daiframe.
“Huh? Yeah, I’m fine. The threat’s been eliminated. And y’know, I actually feel pretty great. Feels like I could do anything right now. Bit hungry, though.”
“Master. You going off your rocker or something?”
“What? I don’t follow. Am I acting weird?”
“I mean, you normally act pretty weird, but uh... You’re looking pretty out of wack right now. It’s kinda scary.”
Really? It’s that bad? Lemme just buy a mirror with DP. Yep, I can buy items with DP again. Just gotta take a look, aaand...
“...Why am I black?” My skin had turned pitch black, so black it seemed to reflect no light at all. What the hell? Niku has pure white skin compared to this.
“Dude, I dunno how to say this, but you might’ve gotten cursed.”
Nah nah nah nah. No way. Me? Cursed? Hahaha... Ha...?
“...Anyway, I should get to fixing the dungeon walls.” I opened the menu to use the dungeon wall repairing function, and... it was blocked. I looked up and after a second of thought lifted up my hand towards the hole in the ceiling, then clenched it. The dungeon walls started repairing themselves. Oh man. Ohhhh man.
“.........”
“Ummm, Master. What’s going on?”
There’s only one answer here. Looks like I’ve stolen the Dungeon Eater’s functions. Or to be more wordy, I stole Rokuko’s functions from the Dungeon Eater who stole them from her. Yeah, I don’t know how this is supposed to work. If my status as a Hero let me absorb the Dungeon Core power through the Dungeon Eater, there’s probably a lot of minor problems bubbling beneath the surface right now. Which means... Well, I don’t know what let this happen, but I get the feeling that me having this power is very, very bad. How can I give it back...?
“...Hmmm.” Focusing my mind on giving it back didn’t do anything. It was possible that Rokuko’s dungeon functions would turn into a Hero power if I stayed like this.
Let’s see. We got the powers back from the Dungeon Eaters by killing them, so... Wait. Am I gonna have to kill myself to get Rokuko her powers back? Aaah, I mean, I guess that’s not too hard.
“Alright, time to die for a bit. You’ll know what to do, Ichika.”
“Wha? I’m not following, dude.”
“This is probably gonna be gruesome, so I would close my eyes if I were you. And... {Ultra Transformation}, Leona!” I exploded with a pop.
“M-Masteeeeer?!”
...After coming back to life, I was told Rokuko successfully got her powers back.