Major Renovations

"By the way, consider this a freebie."

Saying that, Haku-san handed me an [Introduction to Dungeonology].

Looking at the author, it said "Haku Raverio." I see. A Dungeon Core writing about dungeons. There couldn't be a better primer than this.

"There are many things that humans believe to be true, so do be careful. I wrote it, after all… This part in particular has been popular among other Dungeon Cores."

Haku-san's pale finger pointed to an entry labeled [Safety Zone].

Skimming through it, it read: [There may exist places where monsters do not enter, allowing safe rest].

"This is what we call [Production] on the dungeon side. You prepare something that looks like a magic tool and order your monsters not to enter that area. When you do that, humans will conveniently assume they've found a safety zone and let their guard down."

I see, that's a clever trick. You'd get DP from adventurers resting in the safety zone, and above all, that place isn't actually a [Safety Zone] at all. With no witnesses and adventurers who have completely let their guard down… you could dispose of them without leaving any evidence. Of course, since there's no evidence they ever entered a safety zone, it would just look like they died normally in the dungeon.

… In this world where information media is scarce, a "book written by an important person from the Imperial Capital" carries a high level of credibility. Like mass media, I suppose.

"Sooometimes, when I prepare a monster that can enter the [Safety Zone], they make a huge fuss, saying 'A variant appeared!' It's quite amusing if you dye its fur a different color or something, you know? When I pretend to be a fortune teller and tell them about its characteristics, they're overjoyed and even thank me. Isn't that hilarious?"

Wow, I know what that's called. It's called creating a problem just to solve it yourself.

But certainly, having things work 'that way' is convenient. For us, that kind of perception has plenty of uses. I gratefully accepted the book.

By the way, content beyond the introductory level apparently comes in separate books for each dungeon. Like strategy guides for famous dungeons… though not many have been published.

"You'll need time to study and prepare, so let's start in three days. Do your best, alright?"

"Will you make it back to the Imperial Capital in time?"

"As an adventurer, I've been pretending to only have [Storage] at most to blend in with normal humans, which is why I came all this way, but… I know [Teleport]. Oh, a teleportation scroll costs around 50,000,000 DP. However, even using it requires quite a bit of magical power that you can't use casually. Normally, it's used cooperatively by a mage division, not by someone alone."

"… But you mentioned using space-time magic to connect dungeons for the Dungeon Battle."

"That's a dungeon function available through the [Menu]. When I had my scholars investigate it, all they could determine was that it's some kind of space-time magic… Even though anyone can tell just by looking that it connects spaces, that's all they could figure out. Strange, isn't it?"

From my perspective, calling space-time magic strange is a bit late at this point.

"Well then, I look forward to three days from now… Trace back memories, connect the path to distant reaches. Race through the sky, race through time. There is here, here is there. Intersect, overlap, connect—[Teleport]."

As Haku-san chanted like she was singing, she and Chloe floated upward… and in an instant, disappeared in a brilliant flash of light.

 

＊ ＊ ＊

 

Rokuko had been dazed for a while after Haku-san left, but eventually returned to normal. Once she came to her senses, she immediately checked the DP and nearly passed out again when she saw the 110,000 DP.

"So, do we have a chance of winning?"

"We do. Those are the rules, after all… Though it's considerably advantageous for them."

When I said that, she looked puzzled.

"Really? Don't we get to use 10,000 more DP as a bonus?"

"… There were no conditions about resources we already have… To give an extreme example, even dragging a dragon in and placing it in the dungeon wouldn't violate the rules 'as long as you don't use DP.' They probably won't go that far, but it wouldn't be surprising if they equipped their monsters with magic weapons."

Rokuko sighed as she realized that possibility existed.

"Haah. Kehma, how do you come up with loopholes like that so easily… What should I call it, crafty?"

"… Your beloved Onee-sama proposed those rules knowing full well. She's something else."

"As expected of Number 89 Ane-sama!"

"Exactly. She's quite devious, in a good way."

She probably wouldn't exploit rule loopholes if her opponent were just Rokuko, but she'd surely show no mercy to anyone else. Since this time it's essentially me she's up against… yeah, I'll have to go all out too… Ahh, I want to sleep. I want to just drop everything and sleep already. But if we lose because of that, my sleep time afterward will be in serious trouble. I never want to be without even a [Futon] again.

"With that said, Rokuko, Niku. Time to work."

The first thing I produced from the 110,000 DP.

… Was a shovel and a pickaxe.

 

＊ ＊ ＊

 

First things first, expansion. Dig holes. Dig like crazy. If we dig first and then convert it to dungeon space, we save DP and can recover golem materials.

I kept turning the recovered materials into golems and adding them to the workforce. I had Rokuko and Niku give detailed instructions on-site while I focused on making golems nonstop… Natural recovery couldn't keep up, so I was also drinking [Mana Potion (150 DP)]. Ugh, bitter. The upside is it gets absorbed into my body immediately, so my stomach doesn't get bloated and I can drink as much as I want. At this point, I just want it by the barrel. Mana Potion. Barrel.

… Ah, mana potion has been added to the drink (barrel) options. Seriously? It's 1,000 DP, but that's clearly a bargain. Maybe the containers are what's expensive? They are crystal glass-like containers, after all.

Then I used [Additional Floor (5,000 DP)]. I added two floors above and below for now.

Since it's a mountain cave, being able to extend both up and down is an advantage. Let's make it a dungeon where you can't reach the depths without going up and down. I gave the two of them instructions along those lines.

Dig more and more! Stone, dirt, anything works! Gather golem materials!

"So, first basement floor… Hey, do we reaaally have to dig this? It's pretty tedious… Can't we just do it all at once with DP?"

"No can do. I want even a little more golem material."

I'm planning to make basement floors 1 and 2 into a labyrinth. I decided to make fairly intricate passages.

By the way, doing it with DP would cost over 10,000 DP, but if we dig the passages ourselves and just lock them in as dungeon space, it's roughly 5,000 DP. Plus we get lots of golem materials.

"This needs someone who can use the map like me to give detailed instructions while digging… Rokuko, I'm counting on you."

"Ugh… A-alright."

Ah, come to think of it, I'd completely forgotten, but did that count as using the absolute command authority?

"Rokuko… About the command authority, it's only valid when I say 'this is an order.' Otherwise, do whatever you want with your own judgment… And I'm planning to revoke the absolute command authority after this Dungeon Battle is over."

This time, I'm using the command authority to make sure there are no mistakes with detailed instructions. I'll revoke it after the Dungeon Battle.

"Huh? … Oh, okay… Is that really alright?"

"We're partners who share one body and mind. Being as equal as possible would be better, right?"

"Partners… Y-yeah, that's right! A Dungeon Core and their Master share one body and mind, after all!"

"Yeah, I'll leave this to you then… That's not an order, okay?"

"Leave it to me, I'll do my best!"

Rokuko smiled brightly and headed off to give the golems excavation instructions again.

… As for Niku… she was digging several pitfalls near the entrance.

Furthermore, I'm planning to install a [Dummy Core (5,000 DP)] in one of them, connected by a side passage.

Secret passages from pitfalls, that's a classic, right? Well, all I'm placing is a dummy core though.

The dummy core has a castling function that can instantly swap the dummy core and the real Dungeon Core's positions. In other words, the more dummy cores you place, the more escape routes the real Dungeon Core has.

Haku-san can't effectively use castling since touching a dummy core means losing under her rules, but we can use it. Let's hide what we can.

… The number of undiscovered dummy cores is basically our dungeon's remaining HP.

"Pitfalls… dug lots. Floorboards, placed tightly."

"Good, nice depth. When you're done, put spikes in… Be careful not to fall in yourself, okay? I'll put covers over the pitfalls."

"Yes."

By the way, the pitfall covers are suuuper thin floorboard golems.

Golems are excellent not just as a workforce but as building materials too. Though I'm probably the only one who'd bother making floorboards into golems. Saving DP is important.

Ah, I should also set up wall golems in the labyrinth and have them secretly move around so the correct route changes before anyone notices. That would be amusing. It'll become a mysterious labyrinth. I'll contact Rokuko about that.

Now then, I'll make the area past the labyrinth into a puzzle zone.

Here I placed a [Switch-Activated Sturdy Door (1,000 DP)]. I decorated it with a golem to hide the switch, so the door opens when the puzzle is solved.

By the way, making it completely impossible to open isn't a breach of etiquette… Rather, if it can't be opened at all, its durability drops to that of an ordinary door and it becomes a destructible object. Apparently, the dungeon's power stops working on it for some incomprehensible reason. Conversely, as long as the dungeon's power is working on it, it becomes an extremely sturdy door.

The key is making it "easy to open." The puzzle just needs to be something that "anyone can universally solve."

That said, this is only about the door itself.

By hiding it with a golem, the door itself is "opened by pressing a switch"—an extremely simple puzzle that achieves very high durability compared to its DP cost.

The weakness is that if the golem is destroyed, it's all over, but… if you make the puzzle elements obviously visible, they'll think 'it won't open unless I solve it,' right? At least I hope so.

… Making it look easy to solve at first glance but actually impossible could work too… Having the golem floor spread wide open when they fail, turning the whole room into a pitfall, would be pretty amusing.

Well well, I still have lots of traps to set up.

I'll mix plenty of handmade traps with the premade DP traps. If possible, I want to set up traps with a twist that premade ones don't have. If I can think of any, that is.

… Ahh, my sleep time is getting eaten away.

When this battle is over, I'm going to sleep like a log…