Chapter 82: The dungeon master will perish

It didn’t matter if we couldn’t use the staircase because we could just build one.

Thanks to Territory Take over, this kind of thing was nothing.

Selen, shocked, said something.

“Wait, you mean to say we could move between floors at any moment?”

“That’s apparently the case for going down floors. Maybe for going up as well?”

Regardless of whether it would work or not, I felt doing this was a bit underhanded, so I didn’t even give it a try before. Now that the dungeon master was clearly playing dirty though, I figured this was only fair.

And so, we went down the stairs I made and into a small room.

“What’s that?”

Within that room, there was a large object floating.

It was like a crystal ball that emitted a pulsing, faint light. It almost seemed alive.

“It’s the dungeon core.”

Philia-san answered.

“The dungeon core?”

“You can think of it as the heart of not only the dungeon, but of the dungeon master as well. If it gets destroyed, the whole dungeon and the dungeon master will perish.”

After Philia-san explained so, something small appeared in front of us.

“I don’t want to die yet! So, please, please don’t break the dungeon coreeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!”

While teary-eyed and in the air, it skillfully knelt and then bowed its head down.

It was able to do this feat thanks to the wings in its back that left behind a trail of sparkling dust-like particles.

“A fairy…?”

She was a winged, small girl who could fit in the palm of my hands… she looked so much like the fairies I’ve heard of in stories.

“Are you the dungeon master?”

“I am! I’ll die if you break the dungeon core, so please have mercy!”

“Alright. It’s not like we’re here specifically to do that…”

“Really!? Yay! Oh wow, now that I’ve taken a closer look at you, you’re quite the cute boy! I’m Ari, by the way!”

She was in tears just a moment ago, but now, it almost seemed like her eyes were sparkling in joy. Her pupils also looked like they were heart-shaped, but that must have been just my imagination.

Either way though, what an excitable fairy.

“Are you sure, Luke-dono? It’s said that breaking a dungeon core will grant you a special power.”

“A special power?”

“Yes. I don’t know the details, but apparently, it’s almost like a Gift. And because of that, many people would refuse the dungeon completion reward and break the dungeon core instead.”

“H-hey! That’s enough unnecessary details!”

Philia-san’s explanation made the fairy’s face become red in anger.

“I wasn’t able to give you a good reward this time because no one’s visited my dungeon. But just give me time and I’ll give you something amazing, I promise! So, please, please have mercy on me today!”

She was back to watery eyes.

“What does no one visiting your dungeon have to do with not being able to give a good reward?”

“You see, the more people visit, the more dungeon points I get!”

“…dungeon points?”

When I asked for details, Ari said that in order to expand the dungeon, add more monsters, or install more traps, dungeon points had to be spent.

She gradually gains these points, but the more people there were in her dungeon, the more dungeon points she receives. Obviously though, because more people meant a higher risk of her dungeon core being broken, dungeon points were double-edged.

“Ohhh…those dungeon points sound an awful lot like my village points.”

“Village points? I’ve never heard of something like that.”

“Hmm. Let’s see, like your dungeon points, if I earn and then spend enough village points, I can do different kinds of things. Like building facilities.”

“Building facilities…”

Her head inclined to one side, she thought for a while. And then, she seemed to have figured out something.

“Ah! So, the reason why my dungeon’s being eroded and why you guys can build those things, it’s because of youuuuuuuuuuuu!?”