Let's Pay Back What I Borrowed

The number of staff who can manage the dungeon has increased.

In other words, even if the dungeon gets bigger, we can run it without any problems.

For now, let's expand the dungeon toward the foothills—toward Tsuia. The underground is free to use as we please.

Come to think of it, I've been expanding the dungeon's aboveground territory as well, but if I don't divide it into floors regularly, dealing with intruders becomes a huge hassle.

For the [Tsuia Mountain Tunnel], I didn't divide it into floors at first, so if even one person was inside, I couldn't do any renovations. I had to hurry and section it into several blocks.

Even the plaza in front of the dungeon entrance where the inn sits is properly sectioned off as its own floor to secure the dungeon's territory.

… Apparently things can become a floor even without being separated by stairs, so lately I've been wondering what a floor even means.

By the way, it costs 5,000 DP to set up one floor.

We have more income than before now, but… it's still a pretty big expense. I wonder how many days' worth it is.

The adventurers who come here are E to C-Rank. Each person naturally generates around 30 to 80 DP per day. Parties are around two to five people, and we get about two or three parties coming in on rotation.

When they're holed up in the inn's rooms, DP income doubles, plus there's the inn's revenue on top of that… the calculations are getting complicated. Should I keep a ledger? … That sounds like a pain. Let's hope Menu-san gets a feature like that someday.

Also, every time Haku-san comes to stay, she drops DP through payments and tips for Rokuko, so in a way, maybe there's no point in calculating it. That woman really does show up suddenly and pay lavishly.

Cream soda is her favorite, so she orders one right when she arrives, another at dinner, and more after her bath and before bed. She pays a gold coin for each one, and on top of that, she gives Rokuko a 5,000 DP tip every time. That's how it goes. She's way too indulgent with her little sister.

Anyway, I should add more floors and move the boss room deeper in.

The Puzzle Area still hasn't been cleared yet, but once that gets broken through, having only golems to guard after that is pretty nerve-wracking.

Let's say there's an adventurer who specializes in golems. Someone who would win against golems no questions asked.

If this person broke through the Puzzle Area, our dungeon [Cave of Desires] would be completely exposed.

… Golems can only do physical attacks after all. At the very least, I want someone who can use magical attacks.

For that, I'd need to spend DP.

"Let's make some money."

"What's the matter, Kehma? Why so suddenly? We're getting plenty of money from the inn and the cave toll, aren't we?"

Come to think of it, I still haven't paid back the DP I borrowed from Rokuko for the Dungeon Battle against [Flame Cavern].

Actually, when I hurriedly added floors to deal with the problem of not being able to renovate the dungeon, I borrowed even more. I gave her gold coins as collateral, but Rokuko herself has no use for gold coins even if she has them…

"I want to pay back the DP I borrowed from Rokuko."

"You don't have to, you know. Kehma and I are partners, one in body and mind."

"It's precisely because you're my important partner that I need to keep things clear. I don't want things getting weird and complicated."

"… If Kehma says so, then I guess we should keep things clear. Humph, can't be helped—you're my important partner, after all, so I don't want things getting complicated either!"

Rokuko looks rather pleased, grinning happily. After being alone for so many years, she must be happy to have me as a partner.

Then I opened the menu and checked our DP.

"Let's see, the DP I've lent you is 53,000 DP, right? The gold coins I'm holding as collateral are 53 coins… So how much DP does the dungeon have, not counting mine?"

"Since we summoned those three girls the other day… just over 9,000 remaining."

About the gold coins I handed over as collateral—if we convert them as-is, they become 53,000 DP, which would zero out the debt exactly. But the troublesome part is that producing 53 gold coins through DP would cost 530,000 DP.

Because of this exchange rate difference, it's best to handle DP with DP and currency with currency.

If I'm going to earn, it's better to earn DP since I need less of it.

"Since converting the collateral would make it zero, if you just keep running the inn, you could pay it back eventually, right? You're going to sell the sugar too, aren't you?"

"… That's true, but it still bothers me. When I'm bothered, I can't sleep peacefully."

Now then, I have an idea for making money. Remember the sugar beet field I made before?

Those sugar beets were finally harvested the other day. Now we're going to make sugar.

"Sugar is a luxury item… so it should become a ton of DP!"

"Oh, but you got those seeds with DP, right? … Will it be okay?"

"Even gold coins produced with DP can be turned back into DP, so theoretically it's fine… The question is how much DP it'll become."

First, I tried converting a beet as-is into DP… It became 5 DP.

"Ooh, it increased, it increased!"

One seed set (5 DP) produced 50 beets, so just like that it's a 50-fold return.

The question is whether refining it into sugar will increase its value.

…

Huh? How do I even turn this into sugar?

 

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After much trial and error, I somehow managed to make a brownish, clumpy sugar.

After I ruined two batches, Rokuko said, "Come to think of it, can't you get a recipe with DP?" and saved me… I was able to get one for 20 DP.

Who knew you had to cut it into small pieces, soak it in hot water, and then boil down the sugar-infused liquid.

"That was quite a lot of work."

"Yeah, thanks for helping out, Kinue-san."

Since it was cooking work, I had the silky Kinue-san help out. Actually, she did it so skillfully. If Kinue-san hadn't helped, I probably would have burned it a few times.

"Hey, Kehma. Why do you add '-san' to Kinue?"

"… No particular reason? Well, she's kind of become like the dorm mother for the employee dormitory."

Her gentle demeanor and love for cleaning just overflow with a married-woman vibe.

When I gave her a bamboo broom, she started sweeping outside on her own initiative.

"Now then, the sugar is… brown, but how do you make it white?"

Unfortunately, the recipe only covered how to make sugar up to this point.

For now, I converted one beet's worth of sugar into DP.

…10 DP, huh. It doubled.

"We've made back the cost of the recipe. I'll leave the rest to the golems… Kinue-san, please give instructions to the golems."

"Understood, Master."

Now then, with this, 47 sugar beets become 470 DP.

From here on, 5 DP becomes 500 DP… Yeah, isn't that pretty good? If I sell it to a merchant, it might even become DP more efficiently by going through money.

If I do this 100 times, that's 50,000 DP… Should I expand the field? No, couldn't I make a field inside the dungeon?

Kukuku, the agricultural king of dungeons… not bad. Though it does sound like it would become a rather pastoral and peaceful dungeon.

"But how many days did that take? You say 500 DP, but wouldn't locking a human party in the magic sword test room for one day be way faster?"

… Come to think of it, that noble and his entourage who've been locked up since yesterday bring in 500 DP a day.

Since I'm also using a prison door to keep them locked up, with the prison effect (x3) and the confinement effect (x2), we're getting six times the income compared to just leaving them alone.

"Wouldn't it be better to think of another method?"

"No, well, yeah, you're right…"

Damn, and here I thought I'd come up with a perfect strategy…

 

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So I changed direction and decided to make a figurine with a golem and sell it to Ontentoo again.

It sold.

When I summoned Ontentoo and said, "I got my hands on a dragon figurine from Tsuia Mountain. How about giving it to Redra as a present?" and showed him the gold-plated dragon golem figurine, he said, "Heeh, that's nice. Redra would love it," and bought it at my asking price.

Even though I asked for 100,000 DP… "Well, that's about right, ain't it? Hahaha," he laughed heartily and paid the full amount on the spot.

100,000 DP. Considering that a sweet bread assortment costs 5 DP, in Japanese yen that's about 10 million yen.

He paid that so easily. Just how much income does he have?

And so I obtained 100,000 DP and paid off my debt. It ended so anticlimactically that I was caught off guard.

… What was all my worrying for!

"But didn't it take you three days to make that gold-plated figurine?"

"No, but in three days, this income… compared to agriculture where you work daily to finally get 500 DP…"

"You're definitely not suited for agriculture."

That's right, I'm a Dungeon Master after all. Agriculture is just a side thing.

But I can still get fresh vegetables, so let's have the golems continue working the fields. As for the sugar beets, I guess I'll sell the sugar to merchants.

… I-it's not like I'm attached or anything! It's just a side job, okay? Even dust piles up into a mountain, you know?!