Chapter 81: How can they have made this on their own?

“As you know, each dungeon is managed by a so-called dungeon master. They are the ones in charge of the rewards for dungeon completion.”

Philia-san informed us of that. She was an elf that has lived for many years, so she was quite knowledgeable.

“But those who completed the dungeon have the option of not receiving that reward in exchange for forcing the dungeon master to guide the former to their location.”

Apparently, there were various rules regarding dungeon management imposed on the dungeon masters.

“I don’t know the details, but dungeons are said to be originally made by the gods as a kind of game. And to have a sense of game balance, these rules were put into place.”

“I see. But can the dungeon master even tell that we’re not receiving this reward? Can they see us from somewhere?”

“That should be the case. If we wait for a little while, I’m sure a path to the dungeon master will appear.”

We waited for quite a while, but nothing appeared.

But then, Kamuru-san noticed something again.

“T-this…Look at this…”

“Hmm, what’s that? Is that a staircase? It’s not big enough for us though…”

What we found were a hole in the floor and something like a staircase that led to the bottom of it. However, the hole was barely as wide as my foot, so we obviously can’t pass through it.

“It seems like the dungeon master doesn’t want to meet us, do they?”

“Eh? Is this the path that’s supposed to lead us to the dungeon master?”

“Most likely.”

“Isn’t this against the rules?”

“…the dungeon master probably can fit through here. Maybe that’s enough for the rules.”

Selen said so while looking down at the hole.

“Should we start firing magic down there?”

“W-wait a minute!”

They were really about to do it, so I shouted to stop them.

“You don’t have to do that. Look.”

I explained so and then made an underground tunnel.

Unlike the tiny staircase that was prepared for us, the staircase I built was perfectly passable by us.

“Alright, let’s go meet the dungeon master.”

◇　◇　◇

While Luke and the others were perplexed by the unpassable staircase, a girl was laughing loudly.

“Ahahahahaha! It worked! Now those guys won’t ever make it here! Oh my, I’m a genius, aren’t I!?”

Due to the location of her dungeon, it has never had any visitors.

Because of that, she didn’t have many dungeon points, which then meant that she couldn’t make many improvements to her dungeon. Among many things, her dungeon lacked a proper boss monster, as well as a proper reward for dungeon completion.

One day though, a group entered the dungeon. This group easily overcame the traps, the monsters, and even the complex labyrinthine structure of the dungeon. Of course, the improvised boss monster fell right away.

Worse yet, it seemed like the group didn’t want the also improvised reward, and would rather meet the dungeon master.

It was then that the dungeon master thought of a loophole in the rules.

“It’s against the rules because you can’t pass through it? What do you mean? I can use the stairs just fine though!”

The loophole was a nasty method that took advantage of her size. Nasty or not though, it allowed her avert a crisis. Almost.

All of a sudden, a hole appeared in the wall of the bottommost layer, the place the dungeon master currently was in.

“Eh?”

There seemed to be a staircase going up next to the hole.

“How can they have made this on their ownnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn!?”