The Trap
The day after the dungeon battle, I met with Ontentoo again.
It was to talk about how to deal with the aftereffects of the fight. Looks like he wasn’t able to talk to Redra yesterday until he eventually calmed her down.
“Hahaha, as expected of Kehma, that was a golem? Outwitting us with that crystal golem, it was the first time I’d seen one that small. You completely fooled me.”
He didn’t seem to worry about his loss as he laughed it off.
“Well… don’t you think it was unfair?”
“What, there’s no reason to be upset over something I didn’t notice, right, Kehma?”
“… Well, yeah. I just figured the only hope we had of winning against a dragon, particularly yours, was a surprise attack.”
“Kukuku, you could have killed Redra there, so thanks, Kehma. Even though you’re related to that betrayer No. 89, I’m fine being your ally. No. 695’s too I guess.”
Though it was hard to tell with his lizard face, Ontentoo grinned.
“So then looks like it’s time to teleport… According to the promise, the way for your cave is yours.”
… Hmm?
“Wait, wasn’t the deal half of Tsuia Mountain?”
“Ah? You… that was if your touched the dungeon core on the lowest floor you know?”
“Right, and I touched it with the crystal golem yeah?”
When I said that, Ontentoo responded—
“What’re you saying? Don’t you know that our lowest floor is the fifty-first floor?”
—with that.
I touched the dungeon core on the other side of the boss room. On the fiftieth floor.
And on the lowest floor, the fifty-first floor… there was only the treasure warehouse, no dungeon core.
… In other words, there was no way to win from the beginning.
“… Oi, Ontentoo.”
“Hahaha! No reason to be upset over something you didn’t notice, right, Kehma?”
And now Ontentoo purposely repeated his words from a bit ago.
… Right, so then the trade from yesterday was like that?
Supposing that even if I came up with a way to win after this, the dungeon battle will have already ended with a time out. It’s fine to just end it early, I want go sleep.
“Well now we’re even, kukuku.”
This guy, even though I thought he was just a simple salamander, he’s… pretty capable.
Let’s just chalk this one up as a tie… Yeah, looks like we’ll have good relations in the future.
“… By the way, why would it take 500,000 DP to clear the way in your dungeon? To begin with it’d just be releasing it right? At most, wouldn’t it barely take 1 DP?”
“Ah. That huh, Tsuia Mountain’s center, or should I say it’s core? Doesn’t matter. It wouldn’t be a volcano anymore if it got smashed. So, it’d take 450,000 DP to rebuild it in another location. Remaking the passages and things like that… hah, that’s a lot cheaper.”
“… Can’t it be moved? Left, right, up or down. Anything would work.”
When I said that, Ontentoo’s eyes opened wide.
“… … Oooh!? I didn’t think of that!!”
Oi, capable or stupid, this guy’s definitely Stupimander.
*
Well, because of that stuff, the tunnel that went through Tsuia Mountain was now open.
I call it the Tsuia Mountain Penetrating Tunnel… I mean, that’s what it is. It’s a straight tunnel, but it takes several hours on foot to travel through since it’s so long. Most importantly, that’s incredibly fast since it would take several days if they didn’t use the tunnel, rather than several hours.
In additional, it’d probably be better to set off in the morning after resting for the night at Tsuia Mountain’s inn.
Since it was also done cheaply, I also got a promise for them to help hatch the phoenix egg. It really is good thing to have good relations with your neighbors.
A phoenix hatching from the breath of a red dragon… really is amusing. She barely used her breath at the end of the dungeon battle after all. It wasn’t enough to hatch it. It looks like it should hatch with a bit more though.
So I set that up with them.
When I went through the tunnel that went through Tsuia Mountain and came to the other side, I could see the sea. I could even faintly smell the scent of the tides drifting through the air. The atmosphere was different, I guess.
There was a tall hill nearby, so I looked down from there. I saw that there was a port city down there.
I guess that’s Pavuera if I’m not mistaken? Looks like that’s Ichika’s hometown.
… Fish. I wonder if they have the same kind of experience in this world? Right, let’s make a sashimi special for today’s dinner to celebrate the tunnel’s opening. [1]
Maybe it’d be good for Ichika to also visit her hometown for a bit? I don’t know what would be said since she’s a slave now though.
“Wow… the scenery here’s good~”
Rokuko, who’d appeared next to me at some point, said that as the wind blew through her blonde hair.
“It is… Is this the first time you’ve seen the ocean, Rokuko?”
“Un. I’ve heard people talk about it before, but… the dungeon core meeting doesn’t care about those kind of things.”
I still don’t really know what the dungeon core meeting is that well, but other than that she’s been staying in that small cave this whole time. Alone for such a long time… Well, she has us now though.
Maybe I should expand her world some more after this… When the dungeon is a bit more on track, it might be a good idea to take Rokuko to the human village for a little while.
“You got outwitted this time.”
“Gu—… well, yeah, we did… I never thought Ontentoo would use that kind of a plan.”
“You completely underestimated that guy~. I was surprised too, I thought Kehma would win for sure.”
Even after showing our trump card, we still couldn’t achieve the total victory. Though we were able to win with the fifth floor rule, it still feels like a defeat for me.
“But, even though we didn’t get half of Tsuia Mountain, this much was plenty. Kehma can manage one way or another, right?”
“That’s right. We don’t really need to fuss over the mountain.”
I said it before, but it’s fine if we just extend into the fields and ignore the mountain.
We have the path now.
The path, yeah… let’s think about seriously taking a toll for using the tunnel. Should I take it depending on how much their stuff weighs when they enter the tunnel?
I’ll make a spring with a golem… that’ll be good for now.
“Our dungeon is even more amazing now with this tunnel right?”
“Yeah, no matter what happens, we’ll have easy income from it after all!”
We’re going to open this tunnel to the public. Our dungeon has finally obtained source of easy money.
Easy money. Aaah, that sounds so good. So far, I’ve built a hotel by using the dungeon’s operations one way or another, then worked at it. And I had to work by designing the dungeon and it’s monster and item arrangements and things like that.
Meanwhile, I’ll be able to spend time sleeping without having to do anything by using this tunnel as an income source. I’ll occasionally count the toll fees.
“I don’t really know what ‘ejee monee’ is, but it sounds amazing!”
“Yeah, it’s amazing. Very amazing!”
Viva easy money! Goodbye work, hello life of getting money without working.
Footnotes:
Lazy sashimi wikipedia link.