The Second Assault... Jiro Attacks

(R-18G depictions are omitted, but please be advised that bandits are executed.)

[Core Room]

"Master, enemy raid. Distance twenty-five thousand, number roughly twenty."

Mint read off the footage from the surveillance cameras. With the third tier-group added on, the building had grown taller, so our surveillance reach had improved dramatically over last time, and we could now monitor a range of nearly 20km. Our fighting strength was zero as ever, though.

"So they'll arrive tomorrow. And what do we do, Marie-san?"

"The problem is that there's a real danger our hard-won leafy greens get eaten. That's the thing. If they'd be so good as to come trudging meekly up the highway, I'd have ways to handle them."

"How about we just wall the whole field in with a fortress rampart? Dungeon structures can't be broken, if I remember right."

"Intruders coming from anywhere but the road can be dealt with one at a time by the electric fence, but if they come as a group we're in trouble. Dungeon structures aren't indestructible, exactly, but they won't break from anything minor. As for our spare dungeon energy… we have considerably more to spare than expected. Could the supply from the World Core have been that large, I wonder."

"Good enough. The Great Wall of China it is."

"Master, ten thousand ri is a bit much, surely. It'd run past the edge of the dungeon's sphere of influence."

"How far does the sphere of influence reach right now?"

"Around a 500m radius. This hill is roughly 1km across, so call it half of it, or a quarter going by area."

"So it's outside the range of the fields."

"Naturally. If we made fields outside the sphere of influence, the fertilizer would all be drained off into the ground. To put it the other way around, the fields max out at a 500m radius, about 40 chōbu in actual area, so in terms of productivity our current limit is two or three hundred people."

[Outskirts of the Library Dungeon]

"Old man, they've noticed us, sure enough."

"Lord Jiro, that tower is visible from several ri off. Of course the other side has noticed."

"Advance carefully, to just shy of arrow range."

"At once."

"Quite the tall tower, though. Three hundred shaku or so, I'd wager."

"Lord Jiro, we'll soon be within the bounds of the village. Let us leave the road."

"No. The ground on both sides of the road is still all rocks, poor footing. I doubt their arrows would reach, and there don't seem to be any ambushers lying in wait either. Once we reach the fields we'll harvest some vegetables, take a short rest, and fill our bellies."

[Core Room]

"Master, bandits have reached the target point. No sign of them leaving the road."

Mint reported.

"The ground on both sides of the road was deliberately put in bad shape so it'd be hard to go around. When I give the signal, Master, please remove the road from the dungeon structures… Now!"

[Halfway up the Hill]

The road suddenly caved in, and Jiro and his men tumbled into the pit. At the bottom of the pit a great heap of newspaper had been stacked, and fire was set to it. A single nimble man alone escaped harm; all the rest, Jiro included, were reduced to charred cinders and absorbed into the dungeon.

[Core Room]

"After them!"

"Master, we have no fighting strength."

"So we let him get away. Looks like he'll be back for revenge."

"While keeping an eye on the enemy's movements… we may have to start considering building a one-ri wall in place of the ten-thousand-ri one. Though since the dungeon's growth will render it useless before long anyway, I can't muster much enthusiasm for it."

"He won't fall for the same trap twice, naturally."

"Even so… 'he who burns books will come to burn people too,' is it. I don't know who they are or where they're from, but if survivors keep coming back for revenge, over and over like this, we could eventually exceed even Asuka, the Temple of Stone, in number of sacrifices."

"Well, that's the dungeon getting stronger, so, good enough!"