Day 1
"A-Alright! The summoning was successful! ...Wait, what?! A-A
human?! But why?!"
I didn't know how it worked, but I appeared in a room with a faintly
glowing floor and white walls... is it still a "room" if it's as big as a
gymnasium? Either way, that's where I ended up.
In front of me was a beautiful girl that looked a lot like the kind of
princess knight you could find in all sorts of video games. She had golden
hair that reached all the way down to her waist and a firm, though somewhat
childish gaze. And lastly, long white boots that went all the way up to her
thighs.
Yep, those are some good legs. I've got a foot fetish, though, so would you
mind taking those boots off for a second? I really wanna see what's under
them. And after that, I'd appreciate it if you would put on some knee socks.
Even some black ones would be fine. But I'm getting off-track here.
Apparently that hadn't been a dream, but the real issue was how
extremely sleepy I was.
I love sleeping more than I love eating three meals a day. Seriously.
"But why?! I spent all of my DP, why'd I have to get a small fry like
thiiis..."
"...Mind if I go back to sleep?"
"Eh?!"
"You don't mind, right? Oh, by the way, do you have a bed or
something?"
"I-IT TAAAAALKED?!"
What's with this girl? I just want to sleep, but she's screeching and
ruining the mood.
She's pretty attractive (mainly her feet), but I guess looks are only skin
deep. What a shame. She'd be some really nice eye candy otherwise.
"Grrr, what's going on?! I've never heard of gacha monsters talking!
...Oh, right, it's a human. Makes sense that it can talk, then. I guess."
"Hey, what's with you? Keep it down, you're making my ears hurt."
"Ah, o-okay... Wait, no, what's with you? I'm the one who summoned
you, so you should just listen to everything I say."
"...Is your mom or dad nearby? I kinda wanna go home, so..."
"I'm not a child! Listen up! You're a monster that's been summoned by
me, this dungeon's Core! I'll work you to the bone until you die, got it?!"
Dungeon Core... Monster... Yeah, I have no idea what's going on. If that
god was telling the truth, I've been summoned to another world, and this girl
is the person who summoned me... but it doesn't look like I'm a hero or
anything. Whew. That's a relief. I don't want to get wrapped up in anything
annoying like protecting the world or whatever. That'd get in the way of my
precious sleeping time.
"C'mon, stand up and go outside already! Kill all those bandits! I spent
1000 DP on you, so you're actually really strong, right?!"
Holy crap, girl. You sure started saying some pretty violent things all of a
sudden. I'm a little less sleepy now, seriously.
"Alright, I'll listen to what you've got to say, but first you've gotta help
me out a little here. What's a Dungeon Core? What are monsters? What's
DP? I can tell that, uh... you summoned me here."
"Oh wow, I'm impressed. Makes sense that a talking creature like you is a
little smart too. Maybe you're a wizard-type monster... Well, whatever. This
is my dungeon. And obviously, this is the Master Room within me, the
Dungeon Core."
"Alright. What about the... Dungeon Master?"
"Oh, you know about Dungeon Masters? That's interesting. But my
dungeon doesn't have one. Oh, wait. I guess that would make me the
Dungeon Master, kinda?"
Naturally, I knew nothing about the Dungeon Masters of this world, but I
could guess that they existed thanks to how many fantasy games I've played.
But she also mentioned a Dungeon Core... That must be the "heart" of
this dungeon. And also... this girl?
"Hey, wait a second. You said I'm a small fry since I'm a human, but
aren't you a human too?"
"Nuh-uh. This is just my human form... Hey! Wait a second! You need to
start calling me 'master!'"
"Aaah, that's right, you haven't told me your name yet. What is it?"
"Me? I'm Dungeon Core Number 695."
A number? Really? That's pretty lazy... but wait. If she's number 695, that
must mean there's 694 other dungeons. Okay, I take it back. I would get
pretty lazy naming them too. I don't even know if I could think up that many
names.
"Alright, you're Rokuko now."
"Um? I'm what?"
"I mean, it'd be pretty hard to call you Dungeon Whatever Number
Whatever, so I'll just name you Rokuko. Full name being Rokuko Dungeon
Core. Oh, by the way, my name's Keima Masuda. Go ahead and call me
Keima. Not Masuda, Keima."
Dungeon Core Number 695, henceforth known as Rokuko, looked at me
with complete bafflement in her eyes.
"What? Masuda... Master Keima...? Is that a fake name or something?
...Wait, what did you just make me sa—"
"Keima Masuda has been recognized as Dungeon Master."
"Wha?" "Wha?"
Rokuko and I both said the exact same thing at the same time.
A transparent, green window popped up before my eyes. It looked like the
kind of message window you see in video games all the time. Written on that
window in white letters was a message describing that I had been recognized
as this dungeon's master.
I have no idea what's going on, but I guess I'm a Dungeon Master now.
"Menu! Hold on! I take it back! Cancel! Undo what just happened!"
The blonde girl... Rokuko summoned her own window and shouted at it,
but nothing in particular happened.
Aaah. My ears are really starting to hurt, sheesh.
"Hey, you're being loud as hell right now. Tone it down a little. Actually,
just shut up entirely."
"Wh-What's with you? Don't order... me... aro—!"
She shut up.
Oh, yeah. I'm the Dungeon Master now. And it looks like dungeons have
to obey their master no matter what. Heheheh.
A perfect life without work may have just fallen straight into my lap.
That's right. I won't have to work anymore. I'll make this blonde girl do all
my work for me while I sleep all day every day! It'll be perfect! ...Yeah,
I'd have to be a completely trash person to do something like that. Wow.
"...Not to mention, she's a girl. It just wouldn't work out."
If she were my age or older, I could at least rest easy while making her do
my chores or whatever, but... she looks younger than me.
She's like a middle schooler at best? Considering how well-developed
some elementary schoolers are nowadays, she could probably get discounts
at theme parks without trying too hard.
"Uhhh, menu? Woah! It actually popped up. Let's see... What do we have
here..."
A transparent window appeared before me after I called out for it. It was
basically a video game menu. Everything I could do was listed out for me in
a clear, easy to comprehend way. I had three main options available to me:
-Dungeon
-Minions
-Dungeon Point Catalog
Everything was written in nice and easy Japanese for me.
...Wait. Or is this what that god meant when he said he'd help me
understand the language? Yeah, that must be it. Dungeon Point Catalog...
Looks like I can use that DP Rokuko was talking about earlier to do things
here.
"...Mgggh! Ngggh!"
Oh wow, she's glaring at me pretty hard. Hahaha, you aren't scary at
aaaall. You're actually pretty cute when you can't talk. I'll give her head a
little rub. Oh, that just made her more angry. She's screaming, but no words
are coming out. Fantastic.
"Alright, you can talk again."
"Trash! Idiot! Ah, f-finally, I can talk again! What did you do to me, you
piece of walking garbage?!"
"Uh-huh. I'm afraid to say that the only idiot here is you, Rokuko. It
seems like you accidentally made me your master... or in other words, your
Dungeon Master."
"Undo that!"
"Why?"
"B-Because! I'm! I'm the most important person here! Obey me! OBEY!"
The blonde girl glared at me, cheeks flushed red and eyes brimming with
tears.
It was a complete checkmate.
Why did she let things get this bad...?
"This is why I used all the DP I had to summon a monster that could beat
all those bandits. But what I got instead was you, Keima. This must be some
mistake... I wonder if I can trade you for something stronger..."
"Yeah, that sounds good to me too. Can I go home?"
"No. That's impossible. Well, it's not completely impossible, since it was
possible for you to be summoned here, but there's no way we have enough
DP for that. Anyway, hurry up and get rid of those bandits. Like, do you
actually have an awesome secret skill that could slaughter all those bandits in
seconds... or something?"
"Nope. I'm just some guy, who's as weak as he looks..."
To be honest, I think the smartest move here would be abandoning this
dungeon. And if possible, setting up shop somewhere else.
"By the way... What'll happen to me, the Dungeon Master, if the Dungeon
Core gets destroyed?"
"Well, obviously, you'll die. The Master and the Core are connected, they
live and die together."
Holy crap, I'm gonna die. I'm completely done for. Oh god.
"Don't worry, it's okay. The Core will be fine even if the Master dies."
"What's okay about that?! And weren't you just talking about us living
and dying together?!"
"Aaah, yeah... Really, don't worry. You're not going to die yet."
After hearing that, I realized that I wasn't dead yet despite how it had
been several minutes since I first saw that the Core was surrounded. I glanced
at Rokuko and saw that she was looking at me with an irritated expression
that said, "Hmph, why are you getting so worked up over nothing?".
How about I tickle your feet until you pee yourself, huh? Huh?
"...What's going on?"
"Well, about that. It's been three days since these bandits invaded my
dungeon, but they haven't tried to destroy its core at all."
"...Wha?"
"Look, you can use the Dungeon Menu to look into the dungeon and
monitor it directly."
As advised, I opened a monitor through the Dungeon Menu. A new
window appeared from thin air before me, displaying what looked like videoBut now I know for sure. This girl's an idiot.
"Don't call me an idiot!"
"Oh, did I say that out loud? But seriously. Think about it... Why did you
summon me?"
"Well, to make you a monster in my dungeon."
"In other words, if I obey you, I'll be forced to fight as a dungeon monster
under your command. I'd live or die by the orders you give me. Actually, I'm
pretty confident that any order you'd give me would just lead to me dying.
So, I'm not gonna give up my power over you. No way. I love sleeping, but
I'm a bit young to start sleeping for eternity, if you catch my drift."
"W-Well, that's just how dungeon monsters work... And you look pretty
weak, so..."
Looks like we're finally on the same page. Though she's not too happy
about it.
"I said this earlier, but you can call me Keima."
"Mhm. Okay, Keima... Ngh! I can't resist you...!"
"Anyway. I'm gonna check out the dungeon real fast. I'd like my sleeping
arrangements to be nice and safe, after all." I selected "Dungeon" from the
menu. Just touching it worked fine, but I imagine it would have responded to
voice commands as well.
Okay, let's check out this dungeon map. She was saying something about
bandits, so...
＊ ＊ ＊
"So, it looks to me that the Dungeon Core is right in the middle of the
room filled with invading bandits."
"It looks that way to me too."
"...Why?"
"Eh? Don't you know that the Dungeon Core won't work unless it's
placed inside of the dungeon? That's just common sense." I was starting to
get a headache.
Dungeon Cores don't work unless they're placed inside of a dungeon.
This dungeon only had one room. So, the Dungeon Core was placed inside of
that room. And there were eight bandits inside that very same room.
This dungeon's already completely friggin' screwed.
footage from a security camera placed inside of the dungeon. The bandits
were all sleeping around the Dungeon Core.
Two of them seem to be awake and keeping guard, but... Alright. They
don't seem like they're about to attack the Core.
By the way, the Core was about the size of a basketball and was glowing
much like the walls and floor of the room I was in.
"...See? I don't really know what's going on, but we're safe for now. Plus,
I get more DP when intruders are in the dungeon, so it works out."
How long are we gonna be safe like that, though? Wait. I don't even need
to ask her that. She used all her DP to summon a monster specifically
because she knows this isn't safe or good. But for now, it does indeed look
like we won't be dying anytime soon.
"...Alright. By the way, how do you get more DP?"
"Ummm, so."
To summarize what Rokuko said:
1) Absorb it from the surrounding ground. (This tends to be about 10 DP a
day)
2) Allow time to pass while an intruder is inside of the dungeon. (Varies
depending on the strength of the intruder)
3) Kill an intruder. (Varies depending on the strength of the intruder)
4) Offer up a corpse. (Varies depending on the former strength of whoever
died)
5) Offer up treasure. (Varies depending on the treasure)
Those were the main ways.
By the way, it would cost about 20 DP to summon one goblin. Under
normal circumstances she would be able to summon one goblin every two
days, but the eight bandits sleeping in the dungeon boosted her DP gain by an
additional 80 DP each day (and apparently that number would increase if
they stayed inside the dungeon for longer). So, using the 900 DP she saved
up through ten days of being inhabited by bandits, in addition to 100 DP she
had stashed away for a rainy day, Rokuko had pooled all of her 1000 DP into
rolling a single Monster Gacha.
Yeah. I can understand why she would expect something as strong as fifty
goblins after spending fifty goblins' worth of DP on something. But
sometimes, you gamble and you lose.
And wait a second, I'm what she got out of a gacha roll? Seriously? Well,the automatic translator that god gave me may just be translating something
else into gacha, but still. I'm feeling preeetty conflicted right now. How rare
am I?
As an aside, there were multiple ranks to the Monster Gacha. A 100 DP
rank, a 1,000 DP rank, a 10,000 DP rank... and so on and so on. It goes up a
degree each time, without ever reaching an upper limit. In other words, the
gacha that I came from was second from the bottom. Apparently, there have
been cases where a 100,000 DP gacha pulled a goblin and a 1,000 DP gacha
pulled a dragon. The chances for a rare may go up the more DP you spend,
but it all still relied on luck.
"So, why aren't you a dragon?!"
"I mean, it wouldn't be surprising if you had rolled a goblin. You're being
too greedy."
Rokoku was just way too egotistical. Did she think she was the center of
the universe or something? Bad things happen to everyone, you can't expect
everything to go well for you. You might even end up being summoned to
another world and forced to work against your will even though you just want
to sleep.
"Oh, I forgot to mention. Right now, the 10 DP from the ground doesn't
count."
"Huh? Why not?" Rokuko's explanation about DP hadn't mentioned
anything about intruders getting in the way of drawing DP from the ground.
"Well, it costs some DP for me to maintain this form."
Speaking of which, Rokuko had mentioned that she was the avatar of the
Dungeon Core or something like that. ...Does that mean she could save us
some DP by vanishing?
"Eh? No, you're misunderstanding something. This is just a special form I
use when I want to look fancy. I didn't want the monster I summoned to look
down on me."
"In other words, that's just a temporary form... Oh, can you go back to
your normal form, then? You're wasting DP."
"Eh? It's not 'temporary' or anything, but okay. One second... Nnn!"
Rokuko flashed brightly, and then where she once stood was a blonde loli
that looked just like a younger Rokuko. She was wearing a white dress and
would only reach my waist even if she stood on her tippy-toes. She looked so
small and cute a lolicon would be drooling at the sight of her. Even her
childishly spoiled gaze just made me smile as if I were looking at a rowdy
kid.
"So, what do you think? This is the low-energy form I use to save DP."
"Oh, that's your low-energy form, huh... You look pretty young."
"Hm? Well, I guess I do look like a child from a human's perspective.
What, do you like this body more?"
I'm not a lolicon, so I think she looked hotter before. I still love her toes
even though they're smaller, but I'm not perverted enough to lay my hands
on someone that looks like a little girl.
"So, now we're getting 10 DP again, yeah?"
"Uh-huh. 10 DP a day."
"...And we have 9 DP total right now."
She must have waited until the very moment she had 1,000 DP to roll the
gacha, given how basically no DP was left over. I scrolled through the DP
Catalog, but found that you couldn't even summon a goblin with 9 DP. How
about a dragon? Lady, even the weakest dragon there, a Lesser Dragon,
costs 100,000 DP. Hahah! Whoever thought they could get an expensive
monster like that for 1,000 DP sure is an idiot. I searched the Household
Goods page and discovered that I could buy lots of things even with just 9
DP.
"Alright, I've decided."
"On what, Keima?"
I exchanged 5 DP for a [Buckwheat Pillow].
"I'm going to bed."
"Eh?! Hold on! What about the bandits?!"
"Be quiet while I'm sleeping. Night."
Yep. DP sure is useful. Now just need to save up 50 DP so I can buy a
[Futon]. I've also got my eye on that 10,000 DP [Heavenly Pillow] and that
100,000 DP [First-Rate Futon]. I rolled onto my side and closed my eyes,
listening as Rokuko's noisy cries slowly faded into silence.