The Third Dungeon Battle: Battle (11)

"Actually, there's a high chance Core 666 is carrying the Dummy Core."

"… You mean it's mobile?"

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 was almost completely dead as a dungeon. At this rate, wouldn't it collapse? The thought was worrying.

"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 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 best guess is that Core 666's body is itself armor, and she's wearing the one-size-larger Black Armor Living Armor over it as an outer layer. Like a certain wrestler's over body.

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

Well, since Father, who served as both referee and rule enforcer, wasn't saying anything, there was no point in us objecting.

The concept itself wasn'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. She'd be playing a completely different game from everyone else.

But in reality, she was in a slugfest with a monster horde. She was rampaging with considerable momentum, cutting and slashing. She didn't seem fatigued, but she didn't appear skilled enough to be called truly peerless 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 circumstances, the dungeon might collapse. Team Demon King's dungeon this time is structured so it won't collapse even without a core. It has many walls and small rooms, and the floors are dug with thick layers between them. This type of dungeon tends to retain its shape even if the core is destroyed. However, even if the shape remains, once the core is gone, it's no longer a dungeon. Even if you bring the core back in, you'd have to start over 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 of all you can't deploy new traps or monsters. Most existing traps will also stop activating… Monsters won't disappear immediately, but as an exception, monsters spawned by [Monster Spawners] will die off quickly. Those monsters can't survive outside a dungeon."

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

Knowing examples like this… as expected of Haku-san, who has experience destroying 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. The only exception would be if the summoner itself 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 superior, but planning around your own death was outside Haku-san's evaluation criteria.

To give an example, the inn would remain after I died, but I wouldn't be there. That sort of thing. It could only really serve as an inheritance to pass on to 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 don't go peeking into everything, you know? Especially not what happens to dungeons after their cores are gone."

"My! 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 none of that mattered right now.

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

Let me check the situation.

Looking at the monitor and map, there was one enemy Living Armor remaining in the monster house room I had prepared.

The surrounding Skeletons were already annihilated. Tentacle Slime-san had turned every last one into bone meal. No matter how well one of them moved, a Skeleton was still just a Skeleton. They could do nothing against the physical nullification trait.

However, Core 666 had that fire magic sword. While dealing with the Skeletons, Tentacle Slime-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. The Black Armor has a fire magic sword. Go recover."

Ah, crap. Does that count as naming? When I glanced at the list, "Ten" was registered on the Named Monsters list clear as day. Tehe. Well, adding one more at this point didn't matter. It had been the most active fighter, after all.

Ten-san withdrew to repair the viscous mass damaged by Core 666. The stockpiled Ten-san juice was effective for recovery. Absorbing it directly into the slime body produced effects surpassing 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. Stone arrowheads clanged against the Black Armor… but it was barely effective! She was too tough!

This was bad. The gap left by Ten-san was 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'd just exchanged DP for these.

If we couldn't defeat her, we'd restrain her first. That was the plan. Their quality was overwhelmingly superior, but we had overwhelming numbers. No reason not to use that advantage.

She 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 immobilized… Good, movement sealed!

All that was left was to finish it off. Or so I thought.

"Kehma! Not yet!"

The immobilized Black Armor collapsed.

And beside it, utterly out of place in this scene, appeared a lovely girl with red hair.