Chapter 330

Chapter 330: 330

Rabbit Dungeon 2

“I was thinking there’s no way there’d be an undiscovered dungeon this close to the capital, just half a day out—but here it is . Kind of simple . I can see why it hadn’t been found . ”

Tokoi spoke his thoughts as he looked at the dungeon’s entrance .

What we saw was a single sign and a staircase covered by what looked like a grass-woven lid covering it .

The sign read [There are adorable rabbits here . Please get along well with them . ]

“… Hey, what do you think this means? Some kind of riddle?”

“How about we ask the discoverer? So, Strawberry-san?”

“Fukyui!? Oh, umm… I-I think it’s asking us to-to… to get along with some adorable rabbits…!”

Oooh, yeah she’s definitely nervous . Me tagging along was definitely the right choice .

“Looks like there’s a staircase under this lid thing . How about we go in?”

“Yeah… But keep an eye out for traps . ”

“Of course . Tokoi-san, you take the rear . ”

We carefully followed the stairs down with me in the lead, followed by Strawberry, then Tokoi .

Touching the stairs and walls as we went down, Tokoi kept examining them for traps .

“Hmm, this seems to be a fairly new dungeon . ”

“Eh, you can tell?”

“Although this staircase is made from clay, it’s lacking any wear and tear . Old dungeons and dungeons with a lot of traffic going through them tend to have their clay and stone stairs rounded at the corners and generally worn out . Also, the air down here is moist, but there’s no moss down here, let alone any dust anywhere . That and more makes me think this is a new dungeon . ”

I see, that was informative . Unlike me, Tokoi’s not a B-Rank for nothing .

“This room has—no traps, it looks like . Rather, it looks like a meadow inside . It even seems to be a Safety Zone . ”

“It gave us an environment room Safety Zone right away? It’s as if it’s trying to tell us to take a rest here . ”

Oh, environment rooms is meant to be a room that’s like entering another world, like the one our dungeon has . They can be things like jungles, deserts, or whatever .

To be exact, it was listed as a [Meadow] in Orange’s catalog . Probably because there was nothing but grassland all around outside . Together with setting it as a Safety Zone, it was really cheap .

“Ooh!! P-Please let me see you, you adorable little rabbits~!”

Just then, Strawberry had entered the room with an awkwardly mechanical motion and called out . Following that, ordinary white rabbits headed her way and—were gripped by the scruff of their necks by Tokoi .

“Gueh!? Wh-What are you doing…!?”

“Idiot, that’s dangerous! Even Safety Zones can be trapped!”

“Hyii—-! S-Sorry, sorryyyyyy… . !”

“O-Oh, uh, I didn’t mean to make you cry, sorry . ”

While Strawberry was holding onto Tokoi and sobbing, I walked into the room pretending to be vigilant . Then, I sat down on something I’d prepared as a chair beforehand—a suitably large stone .

“Tokoi-san, it’s alright . That’s just how Strawberry is . Let’s take a break . ”

“A-Alright . Let’s . ”

Tokoi seemed to be a man weak to a woman’s tears . As expected of Misha’s recommendation .

“Uugu, gusu—”

Fluffy white rabbits went over to the crying Strawberry .

[What’s wrong?]

[You okay?]

[You can pull through!]

They rubbed up against her and twitched their noses as if to say those things .

“… Uuu… . thank you, everyone…!”

“Those are some friendly rabbits . ”

“Yeah, maybe because there haven’t been any humans here yet? … They have some nice fur . If their meat’s good as well, I bet they could fetch—”

“Nyuu! No hunting them!”

Strawberry shielded the rabbits behind her . Her expression looked brave, even .

I will protect these children—that sort of feeling . It looked like Tokoi understood, too .

“… Alright, I won’t . Even that sign at the entrance asked for us to get along with them . ”

“Yep! We can just play with the rabbits!”

“Yeah, but I’ll leave it to you and Kehko . It’d be impossible for me . . . “

Saying that, Tokoi sat on a large stone, dejected .

But just then, a single rabbit hopped closer to him, one small leap at a time . It was one of the ones that had been hiding back in Strawberry’s shadow .

Then, after a short moment of staring at Tokoi in thought, it rubbed its body against him with only a slight bit of hesitation .

“… Eh?”

“What a friendly rabbit . ”

“Y-yeah . It is… it really is . ”

Tokoi, not thinking about its pelt or meat at all now, timidly reached his hand out… and pet it .

Closing its eyes, the rabbit the gingerly sniffed the scent on Tokoi’s other hand .

Caught by surprise, Tokoi topped petting it . Now, the rabbit tilted its head as thought to ask [Done already?] before in turn rubbing its head against his hand .

Seeing that it was very intently not attacking him, Tokoi knit his brow in embarrassment .

With that, Strawberry spoke up as she embraced a rabbit of her own .

“E-Excuse me, Tokoi-san . Did you know? Petting a rabbit on the back is nice, it calms you down . ”

“Does it? Strawberry is well-informed . ”

Following Strawberry’s advice, Tokoi began to stroke the rabbit down its back .

The rabbit hopped up onto his lap and let itself be pet .

As Tokoi continued, the severity to his face lessened as it was replaced by a natural smile .

… Hook, line and sinker .

I felt the corners of my mouth raise steadily .

Incidentally, these rabbits were all being controlled by Orange and the others . They were using [Monster Operation] from his original dungeon along with a [Monster Spawner: White Rabbits (500 DP)] .

They’d gave it their all training under Ichika’s supervision to make their movements lot look too overkill .

Adventurers were those who lived hunting animals and generally had next to no experience in being liked by them . Only powerful monsters would become tamers’ partners, yet rabbits were weak and pitifully cute creatures .

Naturally, they’d have absolutely no chances to interact with them like this .

In other words, you could say that they also had absolutely zero resistance to being loved on by cuteness .

So they would all fall for them . Particularly big strong men like Tokoi who’d normally be feared .

Honestly, it took longer to train them to move so cutely than it did to make the dungeon .

But just seeing the look on Tokoi’s face—it was all worth it .

I was convinced this strategy would work .