Cleaning Up the Aftermath

※There are some cruel depictions. Reader discretion is advised.

[Ōnaruchō] Northwest City Gate

One by one, Marie went along smashing in the heads of the Pretas pinned to the ground that had been turned into dungeon structure, splitting each skull open with a shovel.

"That, I really can't bring myself to imitate."

The adventurers watched from a safe distance, half their faces gone slack with dismay.

"True enough, to an Asura a Preta is vermin… no, more like one of those bothersome stones lying about in a field, just in the way."

[Core Room]

"Group-gymnastics Pretas and flying beastfolk, was it. There really are some troublesome races out there in the world."

"Had every last Preta devoted itself to forming a foothold, and built a wider, more stable scaffold, a simple pit trap could not have brought it down. And if, instead of the sluggish Pretas, the nimble beastfolk had climbed the Pretas to scale the wall, the fields would have been eaten bare. Likewise, had the enemy put their bird-beastfolk to scouting or to attack, the outcome would have been different. That they were at odds among themselves was our good fortune."

Rāja gave her report on the situation.

"Would it be better to cover the whole place over with a transparent dome?"

"A simple rampart is one thing, but a transparent dome is out of the question. Cost aside, at present we cannot even build one. And even if we could, every time the dungeon's sphere of influence expands hereafter, it would have to be rebuilt. The current rampart at least serves a purpose, being earth-retaining work at the foot of the hill the dungeon rests upon."

As Marie said, dungeon structure other than the library and its furnishings can only be made in simple compositions and shapes.

"The pit trap won't work twice, a dome city is impractical, and even the knight order is powerless against an airborne enemy. Hmm… what was it, 'Stalin's Organ'? That's no cure-all either."

"In all likelihood, judging by this world's level of technology, the supreme fighting force would be dragoons. The Tsukuba army brought along a few matchlocks, but they all burned up, so the quickest course would be to obtain firearms from Iruma… though since we have Mint's duplicate on hand, we may as well simply manufacture our own."

"Matchlocks?"

"No, more advanced guns. The very latest is military secret, naturally, but something a fair bit older, the sort of Meiji-era rifles that saw service in the World War, a Type Thirteen or a Type Thirty-Eight, those we likely have reference material for in the library and could produce. The trouble is, it would run afoul of the Firearm and Sword Control Law."

"Can't very well summon the Saitama Prefectural Police, and it counts as emergency self-defense, so, good enough!"

"Master, there are five roads leading out from this dungeon. To the west lies Iruma, and the enemies came from the east and the northwest. The southeast, meanwhile, where Sō sits, never made its move. To the northeast the population grows sparse for a great distance, so it would be no wonder if nothing came from there. I'm told that beyond several run-down towns lies a barren plain of salt flats called Nasu-Shiobara."

"So it wasn't quite an encirclement after all."

"Perhaps they were waiting to see how things played out. Or perhaps Sō is embroiled with Awa, still further beyond."

"Speak of Awa, and the tanuki are famous."

That is not the Awa it is thinking of.

"Let us hurry and expand the dungeon to widen our line of sight. If we reach a height of something like Taipei 101, then factoring in the hill we could survey ninety kilometers around, and respond a full day sooner than we do now."