Raid Dungeon Battle (8)

There were fifteen Dungeon Battle requests submitted—not including the one from Core Number 10.

That's a one-versus-fifteen. A staggering difference in power. And the prep time is the shortest possible: just one hour.

"Y'know, isn't it kinda a bug that you can't refuse a Dungeon Battle request? Shouldn't that be patched or something?"

"More importantly—fifteen dungeons at once, Kehma!? What do we do!?"

Even Rokuko was panicking, understandably. I was starting to get a headache myself just trying to figure out what to do.

"… We might have no choice but to use our trump card."

"Then hurry up and use it already! Let's take down Core Number 10! That old geezer called Haku-anesama a white sow, you know!? Unforgivable! This is war—WAR!"

"We're already at war. That's what this Dungeon Battle with Number 10 is."

Rokuko was fuming. She must've been seriously pissed about Haku-san getting insulted.

Or rather… does Rokuko really believe that if I just use the trump card, we can definitely win? Even though it's fifteen to one?

"But Kehma, didn't you say we might have to use the trump card?"

"I did."

"Which means we could win without it, but if we do use it, we're guaranteed to win, right?"

"That's… not quite what I meant… but yeah, I guess we would win."

She's not wrong. If we use the trump card, we'll definitely win—regardless of the fact that we're up against fifteen cores. It's that powerful.

Which is exactly why I don't want to use it unless I absolutely have to. Especially not in front of Haku-san.

"Then just tell Haku-anesama not to look."

"Will that work…? Well, first things first—we should report to her, including the fact that we got hit with a Dungeon Battle."

So, I contacted Haku-san via her avatar.

"Hello, Haku-san, reporting in."

[Something happen on the front lines?]

"Ane-sama! We've been attacked by Core Number 10! Fifteen cores in total, counting his subordinates!"

Rokuko interrupted and spoke for me.

[What!? Wait, I'll send reinforcements! Do you know the enemy's numbers? We'll launch a counterattack with our own Dungeon Battle!]

"Oh, that's an option…"

Come to think of it, in the battle against Core Number 10, Haku-san had apparently made some arrangements with her Otou-sama to hide the core numbers of the traitor faction. That's why we didn't have that info earlier.

But now, Core Number 10 had filed his battle request without any such precautions, and we had full visibility on his allies' numbers.

"It's fine, Ane-sama. We'll handle things on our end. You focus on taking care of Core Number 10's dungeon."

[You don't need reinforcements?]

"We'll use our trump card—so please don't look."

[… Are you sure?]

"Absolutely!"

Rokuko declared with sharp determination.

… Well, if she says it like that, then yeah. Time to use the trump card.

"Just to report, here are the numbers of the cores who declared battle: Number 26, Number 66, Number 233, Number 427…"

[! … Wait, that's not right. All of those cores are dead.]

"They are?"

[Yes, there's no doubt about it.]

So that means Core Number 10, being an undead-type, killed other Dungeon Cores and turned them into undead underlings.

Makes sense. That officially makes Core Number 10 a traitor, and the other cores are just his puppets. And apparently, the undead style of warfare is effective even at the Dungeon Core level.

"Well, there's no issue if I use my trump card! Core Number 10 insulted Haku-anesama, so he'll start off this battle by regretting ever choosing us as a target!"

[… You're really sure about this?]

This time, Haku-san directed her question to me, not Rokuko.

I responded in her place.

"As long as I can use the trump card, it doesn't matter how many enemies there are."

[Alright. I'll leave it to you. I'll cover any costs or damages—name your price.]

And with that, the matter was entrusted to me.

We wrapped up the report and began preparing for the Dungeon Battle.

In other words, it was time to prep the trump card.

"So? What kind of trump card is it?"

"Well… first, I'll need to get some socks ready… think I can pay later? Actually, maybe it'd be better to have Haku-san prepare them—she'd probably enjoy it more."

"… Socks?"

Rokuko tilted her head in confusion.

"It's payment for Soto. The trump card is Soto."

"Soto? … She's the trump card that can beat fifteen cores?"

"That's right."

Just think about it.

Soto's dungeon, the "[Storage] Dungeon", has multiple abilities no other dungeon possesses. She was born with special conditions, and her abilities are absurdly overpowered.

The most ridiculous of them all? She can create entrances anywhere by connecting through the [Storage] of someone with a soul-bond to her.

"… Like sending the enemy monsters to the Holy Kingdom or something?"

"Ooh, that's a good one."

After all, Narikin is over there. He could receive monsters, exchange them for DP, and teach them [Storage]—boom, you've got your "exit".

Then you just toss enemy monsters into the "entrance" side.

"But we're talking about fifteen cores here."

"So just make fifteen entrances."

It's not like a dungeon only gets one entrance. Against fifteen cores, fifteen entrances is totally doable.

"But will the enemy really just walk into the entrances so conveniently?"

"No problem. Just cover the Dungeon Battle gate with it—they have to go through the gate anyway."

"… Wait. Cover the gate??"

Exactly. Every Dungeon Battle has a designated gate that monsters must pass through. So what if we opened our "entrance" right on top of that?

"That's… kinda cheating, isn't it?"

"Totally cheating."

And on top of that, Soto's dungeon is a [Storage] space where time is frozen.

Unless the enemy has resistance to time stop, they'll be neutralized instantly just by entering.

"As long as we've got Soto, we won't lose a defensive battle."

"… Hey Kehma?"

"I did say it was super unfair. Soto really is a ridiculous trump card."

Might as well spend a ton of DP expanding Soto's dungeon while we're at it.

We can even charge Haku-san for the cost of the [Storage] scrolls used for the entrances—no loss on our end.

The only potential problem is if the Dungeon Battle gate appears somewhere inconvenient in the village.

"Oh—should we pay Otou-sama in GP to fix the enemy's gate location? If it ends up above ground, that'll be a pain. Somewhere low-traffic like the storage area would be better… or maybe just link it to [White Beach]."

"Yeah, that other dungeon wouldn't be a big deal even if we lost. And didn't Haku-anesama say she had our gate positions adjusted closer together before? Maybe we can do something similar."

Man, this fight's gonna be a breeze.

Like Rokuko said—Core Number 10 really should curse his bad luck for picking us as his first target.

… Next episode: Core Number 10 dies!! Just kidding. He's undead, after all.