Dungeon Review

So… no clue why but there's apparently a Daido prince here now?

After Dolche-san told me about it, both Shikina and Maiodoru brought it up. While thanking them for the information, I remembered that Daido was the country Leona was playing around in.

… If he's abroad, is he escaping from that or has he come to get involved? Either way, let's be cautious.

"But a prince, huh… and he isn't staying in a suite."

I decided to watch the so-called prince and his companions from the Master Room.

The Daido prince, Harks, and his close aides, Krusch and Kenho.

According to Dolche-san, there was another person besides the other three, an exceptionally skilled [Shadow] (she said that she just ignored him since he wasn't an assassin, but that she could also easily beat him).

However, the [Shadow] wasn't hiding his existence and joined the three. The four of them entered the dungeon right away.

I took the chance to look at their DP amount per day, the prince was at 202 with his two aides at about 250 each. His [Shadow] adventurer was at a whopping 532.

532… that's almost hero-class. The others were quite skilled too. They straight up broke through the various goblins and traps, even hunting the dungeon golems without any problem. Prince Harks and Kenho used swords while Krusch provided support with earth magic. As for the [Shadow] guy… he just stayed on alert. No openings at all.

After defeating them, they put the remains of the iron golems into [Storage]… I see, they all have [Storage]. How troublesome.

"… They're quite skilled, aren't they?"

"That's right. It seems like they're just scouting today, so they're turning back."

Rokuko appeared beside me at some point. Her face is close.

"Hey Kehma, what are we going to do about them?"

"What do you mean?"

"Won't they make it all the way through as is?"

"… Well, even if they do, it's enough to show them up to the Dummy Core. Same thing we do with Wataru."

"I guess that's true."

Since it's a good opportunity, let's review the current structure of our dungeon.

First, there's Golen, where adventurers rest at the inn while I rake in a ton of DP. There's also the [Tsuia Mountain Tunnel] that runs through Tsuia Mountain and connects to the Pavera side. Putting that aside…

At the 1F entrance area, there were light jabs from goblins and traps.

The labyrinth area on 2F and 3F. Iron Golems would appear there. There was also the trial room for magic swords.

4F has the [Avarice Lodge] which used to be a puzzle-solving area. It was just a resting place now, indicating that the area beyond was for advanced adventurers.

"This is how far adventurers who come to our dungeon usually make it."

"That's because they make money off the Iron Golems."

5F was the spiral staircase area. The walls protruded to drop you into the central open space, and the stairs with boards stuck in the walls sometimes broke.

6F was the Warehouse Area. Here, there were Magic Sword Golems, Irregular Golems, and the initial model Clay Figure Golems roaming around. It was an unexpectedly dangerous area.

"There are occasionally adventurers who make it this far."

"Yeah, quite a few Magic Sword Golems have been taken too."

From 7F onwards, the path was split.

7F-1, the grassland area. There was now a Succubus Village there. Yet another unexpectedly dangerous place.

"When you enter the Succubus Village, you're stripped of everything and thrown out at the dungeon entrance, right?"

"Yes, that's the agreement… Have there even been any adventurers who've made it this far?"

"It doesn't seem like it so far."

7F-2, Feni's miniature garden and lava area. It led to [Flame Cavern].

"This is where Feni free roams. On the contrary, there have been a few adventurers who came here and passed through the Flame Cavern."

"Wataru also went here first, right?"

7F-3, the new puzzle-solving area. This was the main route, and there's a Japanese sign on the door that says [Under Construction]. It's a countermeasure against Leona, but its effectiveness is unknown since it hasn't been tested yet.

"The puzzles here take a ridiculously long time to solve, don't they?"

"Yeah, at least one day or more. It'll buy us some time."

From 7F-3—the new puzzle-solving area—on, the path continues to the Arena Area and the Boss Room.

In the Arena Area, you'll face Iron Clay Figure Golems, and in the Boss Room, you'll battle a Dragon Golem.

"The Dragon Golem has traps embedded in it and can spew fire, right?"

"It's limited to the Boss Room, but since the boss doesn't leave the room, it shouldn't be a problem."

"Well, it's not as powerful as a real Dragon."

"Compared to [Flame Cavern]'s final boss, Redra, most dragons don't stand a chance, right?"

Once you broke through the Boss Room on 7F-3, you'd finally reach the Core Room.

However, the core placed in that room was just a Dummy Core.

There was still another hidden room further inside. It was a trap that took advantage of the preconception that the Dungeon Core would be found at the deepest part.

Moreover, this dummy Core Room was actually another Boss Room. The boss was a thumb-sized Orichalcum Golem. Rokuko came up with the idea and I adopted it into canon.

What's more, this Orichalcum Golem was hidden behind the ceiling tiles of the room, making it extremely difficult to find. Even if you managed to find it, defeating it was even more difficult. Then even if you did defeat it, the only thing that'd happen was that the hidden door's lock would open. Even finding the door was a separate matter altogether.

"A mini-sized Orichalcum Golem… even for me, it's a wicked idea!"

"Since it's hidden, it's hard to find, and it's unclear whether they can even realize it's a Boss Room, right?"

Let's say you've defeated the Orichalcum Golem and found the hidden door. The core was placed in the room beyond, and it looked like the real Dungeon Core, but was actually another Dummy Core.

It's a trap that'd make you believe it's the real thing due to the sense of accomplishment from finding the hidden room and defeating such a wicked boss.

Such was the complete picture of [Cave of Desires] as it stands now.

… What's that? Where's the real Dungeon Core?

Until recently, it was hidden among the coliseum's lighting, but Rei and Ereka suggested moving it the other day. There was no guarantee that shots like my [Elemental Shot] wouldn't hit it in the coliseum, after all.

… Uh, now it's in a hidden room created halfway through the [Tsuia Mountain Tunnel] A room hidden in a seemingly ordinary ceiling along the tunnel. It's further inside.

Moreover, there are multiple similarly hidden rooms… so even if a hidden room was discovered, it wouldn't be found immediately. We'd use it to buy time and swap the Dummy Core in the deepest part of [Cave of Desires] with the real one using [Castling].

So, the Dungeon Core is protected by such double and triple layers of traps.

Having reviewed everything, Rokuko's face turned into a loving grin.

"Hehe, Kehma, I love you."

"Uh, what's with you all of a sudden?"

"Because the difficulty of conquering this dungeon is a testament to your love, right? There's no core that wouldn't be happy being protected so thoroughly."

Is that how it works…? Eh, she's not wrong.

"With this, we can be at ease even if the prince of the Daido Kingdom and his group are highly skilled, right?"

"Yeah, we should be able to just leave them be."

… Maybe I should at least greet them?

Nah, they're incognito. It's probably better not to call out to them, so let's not do that.