Dungeon Expansion, Clearing, And POISON!

After breakfast, I entered the dungeon and went to Kou.

There were all kinds of things I needed to do, but first was expanding the grounds.

A sacred beast pegasus had finally come—if the living conditions were bad and it ran off, that would be a problem.

I spoke to Kou, the round orb enthroned in the back hall.

“So, I want a stable, watering place, a pond, even fields around the mansion—there’s no way to build those?”

“Cannot do it, but there is a way, yes?”

Kou made the surface of its white orb glow blue with delight.

At that attitude alone, I already knew what it would require.

“That, huh. If I have dungeon core cores, I can do it, right?”

“Correct, Master. More precisely, if you add a forest or grassland to a field-type dungeon, you can do it, yes.”

“Cores again…”

“Satisfied with now, further—”

“Further comfort depends on Master’s feelings, right? I remember. I’ve learned it.”

When I spoke along with Kou partway through, Kou looked absolutely thrilled.

Blue light ran all over the sphere’s surface.

“Yes—! Dungeon Core hospitality—!”

“Sure. With plenty of ulterior motives.”

“What are you saying! I have bright cheer, but no backstabbing, yes! Bursting lemon fragrance—Cure Dungeon Core, yes!”

“Yeah, yeah, that makes no sense. …Alright, pick an easy dungeon—”

Just then, Sophia’s clerical robe swayed as she passed through the front hall.

Liricia was currently bathing Teti.

I called out a little louder.

“Sophia, do you know where the dungeon maps Liricia checked at the Adventurer Guild are?”

“Ah, those are in the archive.”

Sophia entered the hall, opened the door along the wall, and went into the archive.

She came right back out holding a rolled-up map.

I took it and thanked her.

“Thanks, Sophia.”

“No problem~. Going dungeon-hunting again?”

“Yeah. We need cores for the pegasus.”

I spread the map and compared it with the dungeon display on Kou’s screen.

“I’d prefer undead types, but there aren’t many.”

“We defeated a lot already, yes. Undead types were not very popular to begin with, yes.”

“So that’s how it is… oh, this one’s undead.”

“Ah—there. No, Alec-san.”

“Why? You know it, Sophia?”

Sophia pointed at the map with long, slender fingers.

“This is the catacombs. The church uses it for priest promotion exams, so the Holy Guide Knights and clergy are guarding it.”

“If we challenge it, we make the church our enemy… Hm? Wait. How about this dungeon the Adventurer Guild doesn’t know about?”

When I pointed, Kou answered flatly.

“That looks like a closed-type dungeon, yes.”

“Closed-type?”

“It is a small dungeon that seals its entrance and functions only with its internal ecosystem, yes?”

“Mm… it feels bad to raid a dungeon that’s just quietly scraping by, but we have to.”

Even I couldn’t ignore necessity.

I told Kou,

“Alright. When Liricia gets here, we go.”

“Yes, yes.”

I suddenly looked around.

Sophia tilted her head.

“Is something wrong?”

“Oh right—where’s the Sacred White Dragon’s child?”

“Since you came back, Alec-san, it’s been sleeping the whole time.”

“Still sleeping?”

“More like… it may be backlash from staying awake the entire time you were gone.”

“Seriously!? Two full days? That promise to guard the dungeon while I was away—did it really go that far to keep it?”

“Dragon-chan seems like a hard worker.”

Sophia smiled softly.

I thought about praising the dragon—then realized I didn’t know its name.

“By the way, Sophia. Do you know what the Sacred White Dragon is called?”

“No. No matter what we say, it only goes ‘kyui.’”

“Fair point. Still, having no name is inconvenient. Kyui-chan works, I guess.”

“That’s… a bit…”

Sophia drew her eyebrows together, looking troubled.

So that was no good. I offered another name.

“Then… Kyū-chan.”

“That feels even worse.”

Kou suddenly started singing, “kyu, kyu, kyu. kyui, kyui!” but I ignored it.

I groaned, turning my head.

“Ugh, this is hard. Fine, I’ll think of it when it’s actually there.”

“Yes. Then I’ll go prepare to open the shop.”

“Yeah, please.”

Sophia left the hall, her blue hair swaying.

While waiting for Liricia, I absentmindedly thought about a name.

—Yeah, something connected to me would be better.

Kou became Kou because it’s a core, after all.

Hmm.

That dragon is a Sacred White Dragon, so…

Shorten it and call it… Dodogon?

It sounded cool and strong. It was sure to like it.

As I nodded to myself, Liricia arrived, her white habit swaying.

“Sorry to keep you waiting, Master.”

“Alright—let’s go clear a dungeon.”

“Yes!”

Liricia spread her wings with a rustle and floated up. She held a silver flail.

I turned my face to the orb and said,

“Okay, Kou. That closed dungeon from earlier.”

“Aye aye, yes!”

A passageway formed in the wall of the front plaza.

Liricia and I walked toward it at an easy pace—though Liricia was floating slightly.

As we went down the passage, the enemy dungeon came into view.

Floating beside me, Liricia furrowed her beautiful brows.

“What is this…? There’s a haze.”

Inside the enemy dungeon, green and purple mist hung thick.

At the passage exit, I stopped and held Liricia back with a hand.

Then I tested it by sticking only my hand into the enemy dungeon.

The mist vanished as if wiped away—pushed back by my Holy Wave.

I tilted my head.

“Huh. So it wasn’t a trap. Maybe the air was just stagnant.”

“Seems so.”

“Liricia, stay a little behind me and follow with your monocle.”

“Yes! —Ah! Enemies already! D-rank Poison Rats, and C-rank Venom Vipers!”

“Stronger than I expected—watch the poison as we go!”

“Yes!”

Liricia and I plunged into the enemy dungeon.

A swarm of purple rats came racing down the corridor like a wave.

I stepped forward with my right foot, twisting as I drove in, then thrust my sword out with a rending shout.

“Holy Strike—Hah!”

BOOOOM—!

A massive beam of light blasted out from my sword, filling the corridor’s full width.

“SKREEEE!” “KYAAAH!” “GYAGYA!”

The holy sword technique detonated and shredded the rat swarm into splinters.

It even pulverized a green snake I hadn’t been aiming for.

One blow wiped them all out.

Liricia’s violet eyes widened.

“What power! As expected of you, Master!”

“I haven’t practiced lately, but after using holy sword techniques for thirty years… your body remembers.”

“Holy sword techniques?”

“Yeah. You channel Holy Wave into the blade and move your body according to set patterns to trigger the technique.”

I couldn’t use magic, but I could use holy sword techniques.

Maybe they were like minor spells triggered by specific movements.

Not just anyone could do it—you needed Holy Wave.

Liricia nodded in admiration.

“Then the earlier Justice Slash and Holy Slash were also holy sword techniques?”

“Yeah. There are more too—anyway, focus. We’re clearing.”

“Ah, yes! Sorry, Master! —Second wave incoming! And now there are Poison Treants too!”

“No problem. Let’s go!”

I raised my sword and sprinted.

Behind me, Liricia flew while peering through her monocle.

And we kept cutting them down.

All while thinking there were an awful lot of poison-related monsters.

Any bodies that remained, I absorbed with the handheld device.

After finishing the 19th floor—or maybe it was the 29th—we went down the stairs to the next floor.

We brushed aside stronger rats and snakes and reached the hall where the dungeon core was.

Liricia, hovering as if guarding my back, shouted.

“M-Master! There’s a strong enemy in the hall!”

“Oh? The dungeon master?”

“No—three of them! B-rank King Poison Rat, A-rank Plague Python, and S-rank Ruined Treant—Wha!? S-rank!?”

“That one sounds nasty. That tree… huh?”

The huge tree with leaves as black as darkness rapidly crumbled—starting at the leaf tips—turning to powder and vanishing.

Its trunk trembled, like it could barely move.

—Perfect!

As I ran toward the rat, as big as a tiger, I spoke to Liricia.

“I’ll take the rat! Liricia, pin the snake down!”

“Yes, Master—Feather Machinegun!”

With her clear cry, white feathers assaulted the snake in rapid succession.

Feathers pierced the long, black body one after another.

I rushed the rat, but despite its size, it was fast.

It sprang forward, back, left, right with afterimages.

I focused on elbow and knee motion and triggered a holy sword technique.

“—Multiple Sting!”

I thrust the black sword. The tip glittered into countless stabbing strikes.

Several punctures landed on the rat’s body before it could fully dodge.

“GUGYAGYA—!”

The rat collapsed, spraying dark blood. It convulsed, then went still.

Without even pausing to confirm, I ran to the snake.

The snake writhed, but didn’t move from its spot.

Looking closer, Liricia’s white feathers had pinned its body to the floor like a specimen.

I stepped in, lined up my aim with Justice Slash, and took its head clean off.

Then I looked at the eerie black tree—its leaves were gone.

Slowly, it toppled forward.

When it hit the floor, it shattered into fragments and vanished as if erased.

Still tilting my head, I sprinted deeper—toward the dungeon core in the back hall.

The purple orb was flashing frantically, like it was panicking.

“Stop—listen to me—”

“Sorry. This is for me.”

I stabbed it quickly with my sword.

As the pulsing purple light dimmed, the enemy core muttered,

“I can’t even say what I want to say… poison.”

It stopped moving, leaving behind a voice that sounded oddly satisfied.

I had no idea what it meant.

All that remained was attaching the handheld device to the core and pouring Holy Wave into it.

Dungeon cleared.

Once I saw the dungeon core turn pure white, I pulled the device away.

“It’s done.”

“As expected of you, Master. To clear it so quickly…”

“I wasn’t sure how it would go since it was beast-type, but it was surprisingly easy.”

“Even the S-rank couldn’t do anything at all.”

“Didn’t even leave a single drop part. Why?”

“Perhaps the closer something is to darkness or evil, the more it is blasted away when exposed to your Holy Wave.”

“I see. Still, it’s a waste if no materials remain—oh.”

With a loud CLUNK, a compartment opened beside the core. Large jewels—green, purple, and black—were visible.

I took them and put them into my magic bag.

“Alright. Let’s go back.”

“Yes, Master.”

Liricia and I strolled back the way we came.

—Three cores obtained.

Now we could expand the area around the mansion for the sacred beasts.

With our goal achieved, my steps felt light.