The Third Dungeon Battle: Battle (11)

"Rather, there's a high chance Core 666 has the Dummy Core."

"… You mean a mobile strategy?"

I don't know how they're transporting the Dummy Core. But judging from the state of Team Demon King's dungeon, it's almost certainly the case.

No new traps appear, no monsters appear either, and the broken doors and walls aren't being repaired.

It's almost completely dead as a dungeon. At this rate, wouldn't it collapse? I'm worried.

"Yeah. For example, say Core 666 is inside that Black Armor and is about Niku's height. Then they could place it somewhere like the head, right?"

"I see."

A Dummy Core is the same size as a Dungeon Core—basketball-sized. By the way, Haku-san's is apparently bigger, so there's individual variation.

That armor's head is a bit too small for that. If we assume Core 666's body isn't small, she might be storing it in the torso.

Perhaps Core 666's body is mist or liquid, filling the inside of the armor. My prediction is that Core 666's body is armor, and she's wearing the one-size-larger Black Armor Living Armor as an outer layer. Like a certain superhero's over body.

But is it really okay for the Dummy Core to not be inside the dungeon?

Well, since the referee and rule enforcer [Father] isn't saying anything, there's no point in us objecting.

The concept itself isn't bad. If Core 666 were a peerless warrior who could overcome any adversity, this would be an unbeatable strategy.

If she could spam absurd techniques like [Crimson Road] with no risk and no cost, she'd be invincible. It would become a one-sided game.

But in reality, she's in a slugfest with a monster group. She's rampaging with considerable momentum, cutting and slashing. She doesn't seem fatigued, but she doesn't appear to have the ability to be called truly unbeatable either.

"Even so, I didn't know you could take a core outside the dungeon… Haku-neesama, there must be disadvantages to this, right? What kind of disadvantages are there?"

"Good question, as expected of Rokuko-chan! Yes, first of all, depending on the situation, the dungeon might collapse. Team Demon King's dungeon is structured so it won't collapse even without a core. It has many walls and small rooms, with thick spacing between floors. This type of dungeon tends to retain its shape even if the core is destroyed. However, even if it keeps its shape, once the core is gone, it's no longer a dungeon. Even if you bring the core back, you'd have to start from scratch."

In other words, the dungeon collapses because there's no core, and even if it doesn't collapse, the dungeon domain resets and has to be rebuilt. Since designating a single floor costs 5,000 DP, that's a considerable disadvantage.

Haku-san continued.

"Since it's no longer a dungeon, first you can't deploy new traps or monsters. Most existing traps also won't activate… Monsters won't disappear immediately, but as an exception, monsters from [Monster Spawners] will die off quickly. Those monsters can't survive outside a dungeon."

One food source for monsters is the magic power filling a dungeon. It's natural they'd starve without food. Conversely, if an ecosystem has been established, they can apparently survive on their own.

Knowing examples like this—as expected of Haku-san, who has destroyed multiple Dungeon Cores.

"What about monsters summoned through summoning magic?"

"Those run on the summoner's magic power, so they're unrelated to the dungeon. Unless the one who summoned them was a dungeon monster."

Summon-types disappear when the summoner disappears, while create-types remain with their given orders.

Considering what happens after a Dungeon Core is destroyed, create-types might be excellent, but thinking about what happens after one dies is outside Haku-san's evaluation criteria.

To give an example, the inn would remain after I die, but I wouldn't be there. It could only be used as an inheritance for descendants.

"Heh, so that's how it works. Good job, 89. I didn't know."

"Oh my. I thought Otou-sama would know something like this."

"I'm not watching over everything, you know? Especially what happens to dungeons after their cores are gone."

"Well! I'm extremely honored to have been of use, Otou-sama."

—Umm, I ended up listening to Haku-san's talk for quite a while, but that doesn't matter right now.

The top priority right now is destroying Core 666… no, accidentally destroying her… no, defeating her. Appearances matter. This would purely be an unfortunate accident resulting from seriously engaging in the Dungeon Battle.

Let me check the situation.

Looking at the monitor and map, there's only one enemy Living Armor remaining in the Monster House room I prepared.

The surrounding Skeletons were already annihilated. Tentacle Slime-san turned them all into bone meal. No matter how well one of them moved, a Skeleton is still just a Skeleton. It can do nothing against the physical nullification trait.

However, Core 666 has that fire magic sword. While dealing with the Skeletons, Ten-san had taken considerable damage from Core 666—many tentacles were severed and it was badly wounded.

"Alright, Tentacle Slime-san… that's long, let's just go with Ten-san. Ten-san, fall back for now since the Black Armor has a fire magic sword. Go recover."

Ah, crap. Does that count as naming? When I checked, it was registered as "Ten" on the Named Monsters list. Oops. Well, adding one more at this point doesn't matter. It's been the most active, after all.

Ten-san withdrew to repair the viscous mass damaged by Core 666. The stockpiled Ten-san juice is effective for recovery. Absorbing it directly into the slime body works better than potions.

Gargoyles filled the gap left by Ten-san's withdrawal and continued their magic assault.

The Gargoyles' [Stone Bolt] carpet bombing left no gaps. The stone arrowheads clanged against the Black Armor… But it's barely effective! She's too tough!

This is bad. The gap left by Ten-san is too big.

I gave orders to the Sahagin squad. What they brought out were iron chains with weights attached. And not just a few—dozens of them. I just exchanged DP for these.

If we can't defeat her, let's restrain her first. That's what this is about. Their quality is overwhelmingly superior, but we have overwhelming numbers. I won't pass up the chance to use that.

They might be able to cut through iron, but only at the level of "the fire magic sword can manage to cut them."

And so, the Sahagin squad threw the weighted chains all at once.

Several were deflected, but unable to handle the countless chains, the Black Armor became entangled and couldn't move… Good, we've sealed its movements!

All that's left is to finish it off—or so I thought.

"Kehma! Not yet!"

The immobilized Black Armor collapsed.

—Beside it, out of place in this scene, appeared a lovely girl with red hair.