CH 83

C83: HARD-MODE DUNGEON

“Should I increase the dungeon’s difficulty?”

Veil blurted this question out of nowhere during mealtime, so we have no idea what she’s talking about.

“Huh, what? Difficulty? What for?”

“It’s about the dungeon I control. It’s boring just having square boar meat all the time. If I change the difficulty, there’s a possibility we might find other monsters that are also tasty when cooked.”

I still have no idea what she’s talking about.

“Dear, Veil is the mountain dungeon’s guardian, remember?”

Platy followed up Veil’s statement.

Our farm is adjacent to Sensei’s cave dungeon and Veil’s mountain dungeon.

We hunt whatever monster that dwells in these dungeons for their meat or pelt, and sometimes bring the useful ones to rear them here.

In short, the dungeons are indispensable to our farm life.

“Dungeons are made of stagnated mana flow that once circulated the world. This stagnant mana transforms, and the mana condensed inside turns into a monster.”

I know that because I heard about it before.

“The shape of the dungeon varies depending on its surroundings. Cave dungeons, mountain dungeons, ruin dungeons and the like arise because of its immediate environment. Their difficulty also varies depending on the size of their mana pool.”

I see.

“Naturally, the more mana there is, the more powerful the monsters and its difficulty will be. I heard that the human race who organizes adventures can rank their difficulty up to the finest detail.”

“I also heard that the dungeon jargon they use spreads to other races and is often used in everyday life.”

Ah, yeah, such a thing exists.

It’s kind of like the pseudo-English words in Japanese.

“A dungeon’s difficulty is controlled by the amount of mana it has, so it never fluctuates unless there’s an abrupt change in its surroundings. There are exceptions, however.”

Like when the dungeon has a guardian.

“Only the Dragon and the Lifeless King can become dungeon guardians, and both are formidable Disasters. To them, manipulating large amounts of mana is child’s play.”

In other words, they can control the mana density and change the monsters that appear in it as they see fit.

“That’s not all. A dungeon’s structure is also very flexible.”

A dungeon is basically a spatio-temporal distortion caused by concentrated mana, so it has nothing to do with the space of the present world. So, if mana accumulates up to a certain amount, it can be used to create a dungeon accordingly.

Dungeon guardians can then artificially modify it to their desired size and structure.

“Dungeon guardians are such omnipotent beings…”

“Well, both the Lifeless King and the Dragon are omnipotent beings to begin with. Didn’t you also tweak your mountain dungeon’s settings, Veil?”

When Platy asked her this, Veil didn’t even take a moment to stop gobbling her rice and just gave a quick nod.

“Yeah. Managing it is a pain, so I kept its difficulty pretty low.”

It seems dungeon guardians keep the difficulty low so as to make it a comfortable place for them to live in. The more impregnable a dungeon is, the lesser comfort it brings to them.

Because of this, it’s common for adventurers to easily reach the deepest part of the dungeon and come across its guardian, only to be killed by them.

“And if we increase the dungeon’s difficulty, there’s a chance we’ll be able to find rare monsters that we’ve never seen before, expanding our range of prey. They might even taste good if we cook them!”

I see.

We may have all sorts of things at our farm now, but there are still some that we lack. For example, cows. I really want some milk.

I’ve always depended on the dungeon monsters for animal husbandry, so if any cow-type monsters show up after increasing its difficulty, that would be of great help.

“Hmm… It won’t hurt if we try a higher-level dungeon, I guess.”

“Now we’re talking! I’ll fiddle with the dungeon’s settings right away!”

Right after licking her plate clean, Veil immediately ran outside, turned into a dragon and flew away.

Must be nice being as free as her…

A few days later, a notification came from Veil.

“I finished remodeling my dungeon! Come if anyone dares!!!”

She makes it sound remarkably challenging.

I don’t really know what she’s on about, but I have a thing for the unknown, so I decided to challenge this dungeon with a select people sharing the same interest as me.

Veil’s Dungeon Conquerors comprises of me as the leader, Platy as my assistant, Belena, and Lampeye. She used to be an Imperial guard for the Mermaid Kingdom, so it’s only natural to include her since she’s good at fighting. We also have one team of orcs and goblins led by Orkubo and Gobukichi, respectively.

Puffer and Garra Rufa are occupied with their brewery work, so they couldn’t participate. The same goes for Batemy with her tailoring.

“Hah-ha-ha! Come, you slugs! Do you think you have what it takes to clear Grinzel Dragon Veil’s dungeon?!”

Veil is taking this too far.

Is she treating this as some special event where we conquer the dungeon she worked so hard to remodel?

“Don’t mind her. We can see what the new mountain dungeon looks like while we break our way through it.” said Platy, which I naturally agreed to.

We’ll just treat it as if we’re going to see a new attraction.

All right, just you wait, Veil! We’ll definitely conquer this dungeon you’re so proud of!

Actually, I still haven’t introduced one other member with us. He’ll be taking the lead.

“We’re counting on you, Sensei!”

“Understood.”

He happened to pay us a visit just when we were about to leave, so I asked him if we would like to join us, which he happily and readily agreed to.