Beginning the Experiments

Even though I had coolly told Niku "Leave the rest to me," I just ended up getting eaten as usual.

As her Goshujin-sama, this doesn't set a good example.

"… What should I do about this～"

I was lost in thought while eating onigiri in the dining hall. It was the lunch Kinue-san had made for me. When I bit into the white rice, the filling inside was tamagoyaki. What are you putting in these? Not that I dislike it though.

Anyway, I've been thinking of several ways to defeat that wolf… to defeat Rin. But I have no idea if any of them would be effective. I want to probe a bit more first. Alright, let's start experimenting next.

Also, with Rin being here, our DP income has shot up dramatically, so right now I'm leaning toward "I'd like to make it a comrade if possible." Though I can't sleep peacefully with it staying here too long, that's that… yeah, I want to hurry up and either defeat it or make it a comrade.

… That thing hasn't actually tried anything against the Dungeon Core (though it's a Dummy) so far. It would be great if I could just get it to promise not to touch it.

It would be scary if Rin went for the real Core in Rokuko's room. Like how dangerous it would be if a burglar broke in—well, I don't think that'll happen though.

Hmm, maybe I should strengthen the security features in Rokuko's room.

While I was idly thinking about such things, Gozoh walked into the dining hall.

"Oh, Kehma."

"Hm? Ah, Gozoh. Long time no see. Haven't seen you around lately."

"I've been hanging out at the bar! … So, there's this investigation request that came up and I was thinking of taking it. Want to do it together?"

"That request was put out by the village, right? I'm the village chief, you know."

Besides, what would you do if something happened to the village chief? Well, the bar's master, the deputy village chief, would just become the official village chief, I guess.

"There's no rule saying you can't accept a request you put out yourself. As long as the Guild recognizes it as a legitimate request and an adventurer accepts it, that's all that matters."

Is that really okay? Couldn't you just keep putting out requests and completing them yourself to rank up super fast without paying anything…? This is probably a method that noble children use to raise their ranks. Apparently you can get a noble title if your rank is high enough.

"At most, you can only get up to C-Rank that way though. The Guild also checks whether the requests are appropriate, so they can't be too easy of quests. You need a recommendation for B-Rank and above, and there's no point if you can't pass the examination."

"Is that how it works… But you can still get to C-Rank, huh."

"For that, you'd need to acquire something like a rare item, so it costs a pretty hefty fee."

But, C-Rank, huh.

Right now I'm treated as C-Rank only for this dungeon specifically, but if I could buy the privilege of being C-Rank anywhere I go… depending on the price, it might be worth doing. Ah, but there's supposedly a written exam for ranks above C. Though apparently exceptionally strong people can get exempted.

"So, what's the request about?"

"Yeah, the investigation request is… to investigate whether there's a threatening monster on the second and third floors of [Cave of Desires]."

There isn't, but I can't exactly say that.

"Investigate whether there's a threatening monster—how do you go about searching for that?"

"Manpower. Honestly, since nothing's been spotted for the past few days, it's believed the threat went back deeper inside. By the way, this also doubles as a transition phase investigation, so if you don't participate in this, you'll be forced to participate in the lookout duty instead."

"Got it, I'll participate. Can Ni… can Black and Ichika come along too?"

Knowing there's nothing there makes standing watch really painful. Plus it's cold this time of year.

Working is really a pain, but…

"Yeah. Roppu and I are participating too, so let's get along. Though we'll be splitting into separate parties inside the labyrinth."

"It would be reassuring if Wataru were here too."

… If I could somehow throw Wataru at Rin, it might work out. That guy's a hero. He wins in terms of DP. I wonder if he can use all sorts of magic freely, like Thunderstorm or something.

"So, what were you worried about?"

Gozoh sat down next to me and took a swig from his flask of alcohol. It was a high-performance dungeon product flask with heat insulation. He said it had warm sake inside.

"Ah, just a bit… jobs, I guess. What do you think about Tamers?"

"Tamers? The ones who tame monsters? They say you need to be able to communicate with monsters first. Thinking of switching?"

"Switching… no, well, that's sort of it, yeah."

"Learning monster languages is hard, you know. To buy the skill, even one weak monster's language costs ten gold coins… ah, right. That much should be easy for you, Kehma. Then it should be fine."

Eh, there's a skill for monster languages? I hadn't checked.

I secretly checked so Gozoh wouldn't notice… hmm, nope, it's not listed. I wonder if there's some unlock condition?

"So, what about slimes?"

"Slimes? Ah, those are pretty strong. Physical attacks don't work on them. But they're weak to magic."

"Is that so. Also, I heard that slimes are normally trained to take the shape of a wolf?"

"Yeah. And some people keep them in tubes. It's convenient for carrying."

"Huh… Wait, if you put a small slime in a cylindrical sword hilt and had it use magic, wouldn't that make it a magic sword?"

"Hahaha, as if that could make a magic—hm? Wait, could it? Huh?! W-wait a sec, I need to talk to Kantra about this!"

With that, Gozoh dashed out of the dining hall, leaving his flask on the table.

Huh, feels like I accidentally triggered some kind of technological breakthrough. Well, it shouldn't be a problem if more magic swords can be made.

For now, let me tell Niku and Ichika about the request too.

… And I should probably talk to the Guild myself about participating in the request just to be safe. Gozoh even forgot his alcohol after all.

And so, there was of course no threatening monster on the second and third floors, and with the map provided by the Guild, the request was completed quickly.

However, to think they'd made such an accurate map… the information about which walls move and which don't had been almost completely figured out. It's good that the request was easy to complete, but I might need to change up the labyrinth area's interior. Maybe I'll rearrange some of the walls and wall golems.

 

＊ ＊ ＊

 

With the village side making some progress, let's get back to the dungeon side.

Since it said "I thought it would taste different" last time, maybe I should try flavoring the golem a bit.

So I made the next haniwa golem with magma inside. Its interior was bubbling. Let's feed this to Rin.

The magma looked like it would turn my hands to charcoal if I touched it directly, so I had the golem pour it into a hollow space I'd made inside its body, then carefully sealed it shut without touching any magma.

"Hey, Rin. It's mealtime."

"Kuaaah! So you, were alive, after all, Kehma!"

Just as Rin was waking up, I approached with the magma-filled messenger golem.

"Now then, eat me."

"… Kehma, are you, okay in, the head? Normally, people don't, want to, be eaten."

Just eat me already. The magma's going to cool down.

"Aren't you getting hungry? You are, right? Besides, you know I won't die even if you eat me."

"Well, yeah, then, I'll eat, you but… Kehma, you taste, bad."

"I figured you'd say that, so I changed the flavor today. Come on, go ahead!"

"F-fine. I'll eat, you then… Time to eat!"

Gulp—I was eaten in one bite. I watched for its reaction through the monitor, but there didn't seem to be any particular damage.

… So magma isn't a weakness? That guess was off. Or maybe there just wasn't enough?

Well, whatever. I still have more options to try.

Next is sulfuric acid, then a strong alkaline solution, then sleeping drugs and so on—I'll search for something this thing can't eat or something that affects it. Whether it becomes a comrade or remains an enemy, knowing its weakness won't be a waste.