Teach Me, Ontentoo-senpai

There's only so much I can investigate on my own.

That said, I can't exactly ask Setsuna "Why is your DP 0?"

So what should I do?

"Haah, so someone like that showed up, huh."

"Yeah. Don't you find it strange, Ontentoo?"

Answer: Ask a senior.

So I decided to ask Ontentoo, the Stupimander (Stupid Salamander). Even if I owed him a favor, it'd be easy to repay. Neighbors should help each other out in times of need. Though up until now, it's been pretty one-sided with me relying on him.

"Nothin' strange about it. Yer 0 DP too, ain'tcha, Kehma?"

"No no, this person's an adventurer, you know?"

"Haaah? Yer a human adventurer too, ain'tcha Kehma?"

"I'm a Dungeon Master, so it's different."

"Then ain't that girl a Dungeon Master too?"

Hmm, that's a valuable perspective.

There's that possibility, but there are other things I want to confirm first.

"Have you ever seen anyone besides a Dungeon Master or Dungeon Core who's worth 0 DP? I figured you might know something since you've been doing this for a long time."

"Aah… sorry, this is actually my first time even seein' this daily DP thing. Between you an' me, most of our stuff comes from Tsuia Mountain's earth vein. I don't pay much attention to intruder DP. I can more or less tell how strong they are though."

Wow. I didn't expect to know more about this than Ontentoo.

"Well, there's a good chance that girl's dungeon-related. That said, there shouldn't be a dog-rabbit beastkin hybrid among the Dungeon Cores, so maybe she's a Master…? Ah."

Ontentoo stopped as if he'd remembered something and scratched his chin with his front leg.

"What? Don't hold back, just tell me."

"Nah, it's just somethin' Number 5-sama mentioned a while back. Do ya know about Core 4?"

"I saw Core 5 and Core 6 the other day, but I've never seen Core 4."

"What've ya been up to? Oh, right. 695 had that whole dispute thing. We even got some family name or whatever… did ya win?"

So the Dungeon Cores who weren't involved in the Dungeon Battle heard about it too, huh… I thought for a moment about how to answer, but since there's no particular need to hide it, I decided to answer honestly.

"Yeah, we won."

"Kukuku, that so? As expected of someone who beat me. Never mind the little brats under Number 5-sama's command, ya even beat Core 6's 666, huh? Nice, nice."

Ontentoo's lizard face twisted into a pleased grin.

So Ontentoo calls that rock-paper-scissors trio 'little brats'?

"By the way, the family name was my idea."

"Ya came up with it? So my full name would be Ontentoo Labyriheart then? Pretty cool, yeah?"

His fire-clad lizard tail happily slapped the floor tap tap.

… Sorry, maybe I should have thought of a more intimidating last name. Combined with Ontentoo's Stupimander nature, it's giving off a pretty 'lovely' vibe.

"More importantly, what about Core 4?"

"Ah, Core 4 is… well, apparently that one's called 'Chaos.'"

"Chaos… why's that?"

"Who knows? But bein' a half-breed means bein' mixed, right? Maybe that one's Core 4."

"Have you seen Core 4, Ontentoo?"

"Nah… never have. That one doesn't come to the Dungeon Core assemblies either… At least not once since I was born? That'd be about four, five hundred years?"

Ontentoo, is your age so vague that you're not sure if it's in the four hundreds or five hundreds? Maybe once you're a Salamander paired with a Dragon, your sense of time gets fuzzy?

"Core 4's ranking is low for a single-digit number, or rather, considerin' the other single digits are all in the single-digit ranks, it's way too low. New brats ask about 'em when they first show up, but nobody really cares anymore, includin' me. I'd forgotten about it."

"I see. Speaking of forgetting, do you happen to know what 'Toy' refers to?"

"Toy? No clue."

No luck there. Well, setting that aside, I beckoned Ontentoo over.

Ontentoo leaned forward, bringing his ear—well, the side of his head—closer over the table.

There were only the two of us in the room, so this wasn't necessary at all, but I appreciate the spirit.

"… Want to help me with a little experiment?"

"Sounds interesting? I'm curious too, so I don't mind. But ya gotta share all the results, yeah?"

"Of course. Thanks, neighbor."

"If yer lyin', I'll make ya—uh, what was that thing for times like this—swallow a thousand needles whole?"

"The punishment passed down from God's Vanguard is 'swallow a thousand needles.' Salamanders and Dragons can eat swords and iron so it might be different for you, but normal humans would just die. In other words, it means staking your life on it."

"Seriously? Humans are hardcore."

"But there's a loophole for this punishment. For example, there's a fish called 'porcupinefish' that—"

After some light God's Vanguard small talk to deepen our relationship, we conducted a simple experiment. I don't want to swallow a thousand needles or bite into a porcupinefish either, and there's no reason to hide the results, so I told him honestly.

As a result of experimenting in the Feni garden area that Rokuko made, which has a door to [Flame Cavern], we found that regular dungeon monsters from another dungeon yield a very small amount of DP.

However, for monsters with menu access authority, it became 0 DP.

So that's probably why Chloe from Haku-san's place was 0 DP too.

"Heeh. So that happens when ya give 'em menu access, huh. That's enough, [Burning Fire]."

When Ontentoo said that, the fire spirit exhaled a puff of hot flames and returned.

By the way, [Burning Fire] apparently means "burning fire" in Draconic. That's how it sounded through Translation Function-san, so Redra probably named it. It does look like a bonfire soaring through the sky… Do Dragons have fires that don't burn?

"That guy's cheap and convenient for our dungeon. If he can take lava baths, he doesn't even need food and stays happy."

"Is that so… It seems like it'd be too hot for our dungeon. Though it might be good to put one in Feni's area."

When I checked the catalog, it said [Fire Spirit: 400,000 DP]. Expensive.

"Haaah? Oh, it's about 200,000 for us. I'm a Salamander, after all."

"Come to think of it, that's right."

… Or maybe it also has to do with them occupying most of Tsuia Mountain?

Either way, the Core Ontentoo is a Salamander and his Master Redra is a Red Dragon. On top of that, their dungeon is located in a volcano, making them extremely specialized in fire. It's only natural that Fire Spirits would be cheaper for them.

"Wanna trade monsters without menu access for DP farming?"

"… Nah, that won't work. Even a fire spirit without menu access would only be about 20 DP a day, right? I'm not one to talk about efficiency, but that's way too restrictive."

"Yeah. I can't think of any monsters to send from our side either."

Well, this settled one thing.

When sending monsters to another dungeon, they're easy to detect. Even more so if they have menu access, since they'll be worth 0 DP.

… So Setsuna's true identity is a monster from some dungeon who has menu access as an executive or something?

Anyway, I now know the conditions for being worth 0 DP without being a Core or Master.

Maybe I should try using a pitfall trap or something to summon them to a place with a Dummy Core?