Dungeon Reform Plan*1
And so, the three of us—me, Mishisia, and Edele—continued the meeting. Nice to be working with you.
“First, we should be prepared for the possibility that people might start coming to this dungeon from now on, right?”
“Yeah. If we hand those thugs over to the guild, that means the information about this place will leak through them.”
That’s something we can’t avoid. …From here on, lots of people are probably going to come to this dungeon. After all… the fact that the World Tree is here has already gotten out. I don’t really like the idea of killing them all just to silence them, so… it can’t be helped. Yeah.
“Their goal will probably be the World Tree. It’s rare for one to be within human reach.”
“Yeah… I mean, if it’s a tree with medicinal properties and usable for weapons, then of course people will be drawn to it… Even if we tried to spread some counter–rumors, at least for a while the talk about the World Tree would still spread…”
So that means there’s a high chance troublesome folks are going to come too. Ugh, what a pain.
“By the way, Asuma-sama. Other dungeons have monsters that protect them, right? Um… you can’t create monsters?”
“Huh? You can create them?”
“What? You don’t know?”
“What? Yeah, I don’t know.”
… Well, no matter how much Mishisia tries to think things through, I myself haven’t even figured out what I can do. That’s why I didn’t realize I was limited to breakdown–absorb–rebuild, and ended up letting intruders in.
“Hmm, right, Asuma-sama, you’re a newborn god… you’re still feeling things out. Um, in other dungeons, there are usually a lot of monsters. Some people even make a living by hunting those monsters.”
“Adventurers, originally, were for that kind of work… Though, they also often target treasures that lie within dungeons.”
Thanks to Mishisia and Edele explaining, I’ve started to get a better picture of other dungeons. I see, so that’s how it is.
So basically, the common image of a dungeon is: “brave adventurers dodging traps, defeating monsters, and earning treasures!” That sort of thing.
But—
“… Still, we’ve never seen any monsters in this dungeon other than slimes.”
“That’s true… In the last month, we’ve seen lots of slimes, but…”
“Slimes are multiplying, but nothing else, I think.”
… This dungeon isn’t exactly shaping up to be a “blood-pumping, thrilling fight against monsters.”
Because the only monster that lives here is—slimes!
“Can slimes even fight?”
“U-umm… I don’t think they’re good at fighting, are they? Besides… umm, wouldn’t it be a bit cruel to make them fight? Maybe it’s not something I should say, but…”
Yeah, slimes can’t fight. They can’t. Obviously.
Because, well, look at Edele—and me too—we’ve been treating the slimes like farm crops for the last month, and the villagers have grown really attached to them!
They’re cute! Their plump, carefree nature is kind of soothing! So cute! There’s no way we could make such adorable slimes fight!
… Even if they weren’t cute, I still wouldn’t want to make them fight. They just kind of “squish, squish…” around. Not much of a fighting force!
“Right…? Yeah, I also think it’d be impossible to have slimes fight…”
So, unanimously, the idea of having slimes fight was rejected. Good for you, slimes. From now on, you’ll keep looking after the fields.
“So, Asuma-sama. You really can’t make other monsters appear?”
“Yeah… I tried a little, but it doesn’t seem possible.”
I sharpened my senses, experimented, tried different things… but nope, doesn’t seem like I can just create monsters.
“Maybe monsters naturally spawn inside dungeons…”
“Ah… that makes sense. Since dungeons have dense mana… monsters could very well emerge. And that’s why dungeon monsters try to protect their source of mana, the dungeon itself…”
Ah, so that is the case. If there’s lots of mana, monsters can spawn. And since monsters need mana, they naturally end up coexisting with the dungeon that produces it…
“… But in this case, all that mana is just turning into slimes, isn’t it?”
“Yeah… right. Or maybe it’s going into crops? I mean, the herbs here are ridiculously effective… and the World Tree grew way more than expected…”
Oh, so that’s also possible? I see, so mana can flow into crops too.
… Hmm.
“… Hey, Asuma-sama, about that… the distribution of where mana flows, like… can you adjust that?”
“Nope.”
Huh? So wait, does that mean? Could it be that the type of monsters that appear depends on who the dungeon master is? Like, because I’m me, only slimes are born?
… That sounds totally plausible. And terrible. But oh well. I’m me. Slimes are slimes. Yeah.
But maybe that’s fine. At least if the mana is going into crops and slimes, that means the people of Panis Village won’t starve.
Alright… I’ll overlook the plummeting defense power for now.
“In that case, I guess we’ll have to rely on traps… Other dungeons have all kinds of them, right?”
“Of course.”
I am a dungeon, after all. I can totally get why other dungeons feel like they have to prepare traps!
“Well, as it happens, the cave interior is already a huge maze. Without a guide, it’d take a full day to get through it.”
“W-wow…”
I really do take pride in that maze, for real.
“And at the deepest part, there’s a trap with a falling cage. At least, that much is in place.”
“Yes, I saw that. So… Asuma-sama, you really are a kind god. You’ve prepared traps that don’t really hurt people.”
W-well… maybe that’s true.
… Yeah. It’s less “kind” and more “soft.” But same with how I handled those thugs—I think “handing them to the guild” is better than “killing them.”
Though, I really can’t let the villagers suffer because of my softness either…
… While I was thinking about that—
“I suppose… since we’ll be living at the dungeon entrance, we could set up something like a checkpoint there, and operate it as a whole village…”
Edele suddenly suggested that.
… Yeah.
“Um, Edele-san, Mishisia. When you say ‘dungeon entrance’… what exactly do you mean?”
I started to suspect I might be making a huge mistake, so I asked.
… And then.
“Huh? Oh, I meant… the open land in front of the cave entrance… was I wrong?”
“Ah—maybe the dungeon starts partway inside the cave?”
Hearing that, I finally realized my misunderstanding. And at the same time, Mishisia and Edele must’ve realized too.
“… Actually, the entire forest surrounding the cave is part of the dungeon.”
That’s right.
It seems the actual range of the dungeon, and what people think is the range of the dungeon—
There’s a huge gap between the two.
… And so.
What do you think about this chapter?
