Hospitality! The Dungeon Village*6
“Asuma-sama! Asuma-sama! The targets have made a move!”
All right. While we were busy making preparations, Mishisia came back. Welcome home!
“The two assassins have withdrawn for now. I couldn’t make out everything they said, but I definitely caught words like ‘tomorrow,’ ‘as planned, in the dungeon,’ and ‘twenty people.’”
“Nice work! Thanks, Mishisia-san! You’ve got great ears!”
“Ehehe, well, they are kinda big, so I pick up sounds pretty easily.”
Mishisia really is an exceptional scout… If I’d tried to monitor things myself through transferred senses, I wouldn’t have been able to react flexibly to little changes. Having her out there was a huge help.
“… So, uh, Asuma-sama, what’s this…?”
Oh, right. Setting her report aside—let’s talk about this. Yeah.
A dimly lit room, illuminated by lightbulbs embedded in crystal.
Crystals covering almost every inch of the walls and ceiling.
And at the center of that mystical, solemn space—!
“Generic World Tree Potion Super-Massive Slime!”
“Generic World Tree Potion Super-Massive Slime!?”
Yep. What I made is this—the Generic World Tree Potion Super-Massive Slime. See, it felt wrong not to have at least one slime in the dungeon that wasn’t one of my own tamed ones, you know?
“What’s ‘generic’!?”
“Oh, that? Uh, it’s not a potion made from the World Tree—it just reproduces the same type of mana found in it. So while it’s not directly extracted from the tree, it should have the same effects as a genuine World Tree potion.”
Mishisia and Lisas were giving me identical “what even is that” faces, so I ended up explaining the whole “what generic means” thing. Probably could’ve skipped that part, huh.
Anyway, leaving the “generic” aside for now—
“So, we’ll use this potion to fully heal the Royal Third Knights Order members. Then they’ll be ready to guard Princess Laperesiana against assassination.”
According to my plan, I want to heal the Third Knights Order members right away.
“If possible, I’d like to limit the dungeon’s involvement strictly to ‘healing injuries.’ Ideally, the Third Knights Order should repel the assassins on their own… because if the dungeon is seen as favoring one faction, that’s just asking for suspicion.”
“… But if none of the assassins make it out alive, won’t that keep things quiet?”
“Wow, Lisas, that’s… kinda scary. But if Princess Laperesiana wants to interrogate them for information, it’s better to keep them alive. Still, I’d hate for word to reach the Second Prince’s camp that ‘the dungeon’s their enemy.’”
“Ah, right… Bringing them alive to the capital would be more advantageous for her. I see…”
I’d really prefer to keep the World Tree’s existence secret. It’s precious to Mishisia, and if the world found out, we’d have shady folks crawling in from everywhere.
But the Third Knights Order members—I do want to heal them.
… Problem is, once they’re healed, it’ll be obvious this dungeon has that kind of power.
And once that’s known, people—good or bad—will come looking for the same treatment. No doubt about it. I can just feel it in my bones.
Still, I want to avoid trouble as much as possible. So I’d like to welcome those who come to be healed, but block those who come to exploit or sell the potions.
… So I thought about it.
The simplest way to make that happen is to make it impossible to take the potion out of the dungeon.
No reselling, no souvenirs. Use it here, get healed here, then leave.
… But if anyone realizes that’s how it works, they’ll just find new ways to exploit it. So I thought, “What if they don’t even realize they’ve used it?”
Which brings me to—my plan to secretly heal the Third Knights Order, without even them realizing it! Same goes for the assassins!
And for that purpose—we’ll use the Generic World Tree Potion Super-Massive Slime!
“Umm, Asuma-sama? What exactly is this slime supposed to do…?”
“It’s gonna swallow each unconscious knight, make them drink the potion inside it, then spit them back out, good as new.”
Basically, this slime was born from a small waterfall and pool I set up in the second layer of the cave, in the Jewel Tree chamber. I had a giant slime there hold onto the Generic World Tree Potion for safekeeping.
… Imagine a daifuku. The slime’s the mochi, the potion’s the sweet bean paste inside. A gigantic healing daifuku. That’s basically it.
The slime itself is happy enough—it’s carrying something tasty and gets to nibble on it as a treat while it works, so it’s in a good mood.
There are two main advantages to using a slime in this way.
First, when it comes to giving a potion, you either need the person to drink it voluntarily or force it somehow.
But slimes are perfect for that—they can act like self-propelled drink dispensers and baby bottles! Their only downside? They’ll sneak little sips from the stored potion now and then.
Second, it’s practically impossible to tell one slime from another.
Meaning, going forward, no one can tell if it’s one of my tamed slimes or a wild dungeon slime. That ambiguity’s incredibly useful.
Plus, slimes don’t talk, so no risk of leaks. Everyone—enemy or ally—knows that. No one’s gonna capture a slime and interrogate it. “Oh, the slime did it? Well, can’t be helped.” That’s where it ends!
Basically, they’re convenient natural disasters. Seriously—thank you, slimes. Keep up the good work.
So, here’s the plan.
“Lisas-san and I will guide the Third Knights Order to the room just before Generic’s chamber. Once they’re all there, we’ll have them fall unconscious, and then Generic will heal them.”
“Asuma-sama, that slime’s name is way too long. Can’t we shorten it?”
“Then let’s just call it ‘Generic-kun.’”
Yeah, fair. Generic World Tree Potion Super-Massive Slime is a mouthful. So from today, you’re just Generic-kun!
“The path to Generic’s room will be the same carbon dioxide trap from before. Once everyone faints, I’ll open a trapdoor and drop them into Generic’s chamber.”
“So the room above Generic-kun’s will serve as the fainting chamber, huh.”
“Exactly. The only real concern is if the assassins attack while the knights are unconscious—that’d be bad on two levels.”
“Two?”
“Yeah. First off, simple danger to life. Attacking people while they’re unconscious is easy.”
And of course, unconscious means completely defenseless. Nothing we can do about that.
“The second problem is that if assassins are nearby, I can’t use the dungeon’s decomposition-absorption-reconstruction ability!”
“Ahh… right, that makes sense.”
Yeah, that’s the issue. If no enemies are awake nearby, I can manage—but if they are, that power won’t activate! That’s the biggest problem!
“So basically, we either need to lose the assassins or knock them out too. Ideally, the Third Knights Order handles that, but… depending on how it goes, we might not have that luxury. We’ll have to see how it plays out.”
“They seem determined to pull off the assassination inside the dungeon, so they’ll probably pursue relentlessly!”
“Well, in the dungeon, any ‘accident’ can easily be written off as non-suspicious. No doubt they’ll make their move here.”
Right. We can count on them attacking in the dungeon—so I’d better add a few more trapdoors.
Now then.
“Princess Laperesiana! Good morning! I hope none of the slimes caused any trouble!”
“Ah, no. Thanks to them, I slept soundly.”
Morning came. Lisas and I went straight to the inn where the Third Knights Order was staying. The adventurers had been partying all night, but thanks to the soundproofing, it didn’t seem to bother anyone.
… Though maybe Princess Laperesiana slept buried under a slime or two? Well, that’s fine either way.
While we greeted her, the other knights gathered as well. They all looked livelier. “I stuffed a slime under my back when I slept—it was so comfortable!” “The skin over my old wound doesn’t ache at all this morning—maybe thanks to last night’s bath?”
I did mix a few potions into the bathwater last night. Glad to hear it’s working.
“Well then, shall we get going? We’ll guide you there!”
“Ah. I leave it to you.”
All right, time to head out. The long-prepared hospitality dungeon… Let’s see how they handle Generic-kun!
… While we were finishing the entry paperwork at the dungeon reception, several groups of four or five adventurer-looking folks followed after us.
They might be genuine adventurers—but some of those groups are definitely assassins.
So be ready, folks. Because today’s dungeon—and the Third Knights Order—are both gonna be something different!
What do you think about this chapter?
