Chapter 132

The Saintess’ Serious Mode

After asking Rin for the favor, I returned to the master room . On foot .

Rokuko isn’t in the core room right now . She’s still monitoring the saintess in her room in the inn .

Without Rokuko to bring me into it, there’s no choice for me but to walk there . It’s a bit inconvenient… I kind of want a master room retrieval worker .

“Still, I wonder what she means by getting serious?”

It’d take no time at all getting back if I exited the inn’s dummy core via the master room after entering the dungeon core from the core room, but I took a moment to think in the master room .

Using this and that, this room is kept at a good temperature, its comfort isn’t bad at all . Thinking about it, it’s better than the futon in my room .

From the fighting I’ve seen so far, I can’t think that the saintess would ever win against Rin in close combat . She’s only able to avoid three or four attacks at the most . I don’t think it’d be any easier for her even if she used magic .

Rumble .

Just then, there was an earthquake .

… Nnn? Magnitude 2, maybe 3…?

Yep, isn’t that surprising… eh, wait a sec . Wasn’t the master room in a different dimension? Why is it shaking?

Around the time I tilted my head in thought, Rokuko stampeded into the master room .

“Kehma! Hey, it’s bad!”

“What’s wrong? An earthquake around that strong isn’t really worth getting worked up about . ”

“Earthquake? What are you talking about!? The saintess’ attack, her attack!”

… Huh?

What’re you saying, there’s no way her attack on Rin would cause something like an earthquake, right? … is what I thought while checking the map, but it does look like Rin’s still fine . The saintess is still in front of the dungeon in the first place .

Her attendant was also with her, shouldering the simple altar that looked like a rucksack .

The attendant bowed to the saintess before heading back to the hotel . The saintess headed into the dungeon .

“What is it?”

“Look here . ”

Rokuko opened the menu and showed me something . It looks to be of the saintess from a bit ago .

… It’s showing the saintess offering a prayer to the altar .

Muttering something, she was praying so intensely that she was sweating . I tried turning up the audio .

[Death to dungeons, death to dungeons, break the cores, break the cores . Light God’s enemies are here . Oh Light God’s divine protection, place the power of the seal here now . Death to dungeons, death to dungeons…]

What a scary child . And yet the saintess was shining white . The normally invisible magical power was actually illuminating the room, the density was just that high… rather, the heck is this?

“That’s the first time I’ve heard such a long incantation… do you know what kind of magic it is?”

“Ah, so that was an incantation…? What a horrible one, oi . ”

Then, I heard the incantation’s key word spoken .

[Following the gods’ agreement, for three days, seal this dungeon—[Treaty] . ]

The magical power that had been gathering around the saintess blasted out towards the dungeon .

Looks like that’s what caused the earthquake . Still, the village didn’t shake at all . Rokuko and all of the dungeon monsters seem to have felt the quake though .

As humans, neither Meat nor Ichika appear to have felt it though… so I’m also a monster? Huh .

The recording ended there .

“Seal the dungeon? The heck kind of thing is that…”

“Seal…? —, look, Kehma! The DP catalog!”

“Eh?”

When I opened the menu to check out the DP catalog—

—with red seals across the board, they said [Use Disabled: 71 Hours Remaining] .

Sealing DP functions… that’s a thing?

Installing rooms and traps, as well as summoning monsters . They’re all sealed . The only thing we can do is restore traps and damaged walls .

The gacha’s sealed too… can’t sell weapons and armor either . Ah, it looks like we can still get daily necessities, sweet bun kinds of items and treasure items like jewels .

I don’t really understand, but she said something about a [Gods’ Agreement] at the end of the incantation . So there was a thing like that?

“This… really is a dungeon seal, huh . ”

Not being able to set up new traps and rooms meant that the dungeon’s growth and change would halt . It makes things like augmenting passages and similar stuff impossible . Moreover, thinking about the fighting strength side of things, you wouldn’t be able to summon monsters or reinforce them with arms . It means that you’d only be able to watch . That is, normally .

“O-oooh… really!?”

“Though we can still manage since we have [Create Golem], ordinary dungeons probably wouldn’t have any hands or legs to use . ”

“R-right! Good job Kehma! Now, repel that saintess!”

“Yeah . Guess I’ll do my best making golems?”

Still, speaking of dungeon monsters… what about Rin, who’s just a free-loader at our dungeon?

Well, even if it was affected, it’d probably just have felt the quake, so it’s all good .

I headed to Nerune’s laboratory, which was researching magic gole—… err, gargoyles .

*

Nerune was working together with Gar-kun, her gargoyle assistant, engraving magical formations into golem-made clay boards . Taking a look, it seems to be a magic formation that emits fire like a lighter . It’s pretty small, about three centimeters in diameter . There were eight arranged in a circular pattern .

“Ah, master . What do you think? I got the idea from that cake the other day, I tried making it able to heat things efficiently by arranging the eight magic formations into a circle~”

“… Looks like a portable stove . By the way, how’s the magic formation research going?”

“Yeah~, right now I’m using a scale where I can make several magic formations with a single magic stone, so I’m practicing drawing tiny magic formations~ . It’s a lot easier writing on these clay boards I got from Goshujin-sama, so I can make them really small~” [1]

It really is extremely detailed . I seriously want a magnifying glass… Nn?

“You can miniaturize it if you can draw those elaborate grooves… I mean, if you can engrave them?”

“Yes, it’ll be a completed magic formation once a magic stone is melted into the grooves . But my eyes and dexterity isn’t enough going any smaller…”

I took out the DP catalog… Yep, I can’t use any of it after all . Still though, magnifying glasses fall under the category of daily necessities so I was able to exchange for it without any problems .

“This is…!? What is is, eh, everything’s so big~!?”

“There aren’t lens or glasses in this world?”

“Lens? Glasses~? There are~, they come with god’s vanguard when they’re summoned, equipped items that correct vision right~?”

Ah, so that’s how they got here? So there wouldn’t be any convex lens if there was never a farsighted hero, huh .

“Come to think of it, I head that things below crystal balls when you use them look large~”

“Yeah, that’s also a convex lens . Well, it’d be hard to engrave formations using a ball-shape though . ”

Now then, this solves her sight problem . Next is dexterity huh… let’s think about that later .

“That aside, this should work… Nerune, how many magic formations can you make by yourself per day?”

“U-ummm… in one day, ten in my limit, I think… . I’m not confident in accurately engraving any more than that~”

“… The only problem is that you can’t engrave the magic formations?”

“Only problem? That’s the most important part you know~ . After that is occasionally dissolving magic stones~ . If not for engraving, one or two hundred in a day’s no different, as long as there’s magic stones it’s alright you know~?”

That’s the most important part . Magic stones are treasure-type items, so I can buy them with DP .

“Well then, wanna do it? Two hundred a day . ”

When I said that, Nerune just looked at me with wide eyes .

I just came up with a way to mass produce magic formations .

It’d be embarrassing if it failed after going this far though .

… I have to answer the saintess’ seriousness with my own .

Footnotes:

She calls him Goshujin-sama here . Author mistake? Or perhaps a verbal slip? She normally says “Masuta-”