Consultation With Our Neighbor
The black wolf left the boss room, entering our dungeon’s deepest floor, the core room.
As expected, Meat was tired and was sleeping on my knees. Like a puppy.
“… There’s no helping it huh.”
“Ugugu…”
After it took out everything we had, all we could do was just watch what happened.
Even so, right now, the thing in the core room is a dummy core. Just like the real one, it’s a basketball sized jewel that sheds a gentle white light. When touched, it feels around as warm as a water bottle.
Since it’s a dummy core, there’s no problem even it it gets destroyed.
… The black wolf just glanced at the dummy core on the pedestal at the room’s center.
… And proceeded to ignore it, laying down with a plop.
“… Nn?”
“Maybe… it isn’t going to do anything?”
Even though we just watched how things continued for a while, the black wolf just seemed to be sleeping deeply.
… Shouldn’t we do something now? It’s not like we have any fighting potential though.
We haven’t seen the limit to our enemy’s strength, so it’s better to not attack.
“For the time being, it looks like we have no choice but to leave it alone for now.”
“Right…”
Rokuko looked like she had complicated feelings about it, but I don’t remember seeing her like that when I was summoned. [1]
Come to think of it, I haven’t checked our enemy’s strength… rather, I haven’t checked how much DP we’re getting from it.
Although it doesn’t mean I can read it as a numerical value for an enemy’s strength, it’s a good basis to go off of. I completely forgot to check since I didn’t know if it works for things that aren’t human… Let’s see…
… 950 DP… per day… huh?
Oi, isn’t this guy on the same level as a hero? That’s why we couldn’t win.
… No, it’s not that we couldn’t win because it was strong. It’s my bad for relying on golems too much.
If an enemy with physical resistance appears, we won’t be able to do anything with golems alone. Even though I already knew that, I didn’t put up any countermeasures for it at all.
To begin with, there’s a limit to just using golems. Although it’s troublesome to use other monsters, it’s necessary to increase the means we have to fight with.
There wouldn’t be any point in summoning small fries here. But something with a piercing characteristic, or perhaps just all-purpose strength…
“… Most importantly, we need to figure out some way to deal with this monster of an opponent huh.”
“Right.”
It’s not like I couldn’t come up with hints.
This guy didn’t go into the magma area. In that case, he’s probably weak to heat.
… Maybe I should get some help from [Flame Cavern]? Ontentoo might know what this black wolf really is.
*
When I contacted Ontentoo saying that it was an emergency and waited for him at the conference room’s table, he rushed over. I’m thankful that salamanders are so fast.
“C’mon, what’s going on Kehma? It’s the middle of the night.”
“I also want to sleep, but sorry. The only one I could ask was you…”
“Haha! No helping it then eh, what happened?”
In a good mood, Ontentoo laughed with his lizard face sitting opposite of me… He has the form of a reptile, but he really is sitting… Ah, that doesn’t matter right now.
“A strange intruder arrived a short while ago… it broke through our boss room.”
“Huh!? You—, tha—, whaaa—!? Are you alright!? It’s in your core room!?”
“It stayed there and did nothing, but it’s really bad. Our best couldn’t stand up to it…”
“That really sounds bad. What kinda guy appeared?”
While I showed him the actual black wolf that was snoring in the core room, I told him about its features we saw when fighting it.
“… So, we tried guiding it to [Flame Cavern], but it wouldn’t go into the magma area.”
“I see… wait, you wanted to push such a risky guy over onto us?”
“I figured that if it’s Ontentoo, you’d be able to take care of it somehow.”
“Hah, obviously! The 100 Series Lot isn’t just for show.”
His lizard face warped with what was probably delight at being relied on.
Oi, the heck’s a lot? Don’t say something so worrying at a time like this! Wait, dungeon cores are made with lot production?
“Umm, so, do you know what the black wolf really is?”
“Nnn? Right, that guy’s a… judging from his appearance, it’s wolf-type, dark-type, or ghost-type…”
“Fumu, something like a vampire’s transformation?”
“Transformation eh. That too… ah, perhaps… no, why would that sorta thing be there…”
Ontentoo looked like he was stuck thinking about something, mumbling about something for a little while.
Then, he told me his conclusion.
“There’s about a seventy percent chance of it being a variation slime-type. A dark and ghost-type hybrid one.”
“… A slime? So it’s wolf shape’s from mimicry?”
“Yeah. Humans can move around pretty fast by using slimes, so they train ’em to use other animals’ forms. But still, this one’s way too strong. They’d usually just use the limbs of other animals, then there’s that high offensive strength… that’s why, it could be another monster completely, so seventy percent.”
Slimes get trained huh. There are tamers?
“It’s weak points are…”
“Oi Kehma? Ya got the consultation fee?”
“… I have a strong alcohol called vodka. How about one of those for the fee?”
I put a bottle of vodka onto the table after buying it with DP. One bottle is 100 DP. It might not be enough since it’s sized for a human though.
However, using alcohol as gifts is popular in this world, so Ontentoo accepted it with pleasure.
“Ooh! Alcohol, a good one! Does Kehma drink?”
“No, I don’t drink much.”
“That so, then I’ll drink it with Redra. It’s a bit small though.”
“… … You want two more?”
“Ooh! You’ve got me in a vice!”
Ontentoo opened the vodka’s lid and gave it a whiff, laughing joyfully.
“Watch your step. Well, it should be fine with just that much.”
“Don’t be like that. Kehma and I live in attached caves, we’re like brothers right? Ah, I’m the older brother though yeah?”
“Yeah, yeah. I’m happy to have such a reliable aniki. So, your guess at what its weak points are?”
“A-A-Anikiii? You’re gonna make me embarra.s.sed ya’know? … Say it again.”
That’s all good, so please tell me its weak point, aniki.
“Nn, its weak points huh. Strong light in the case of dark-types, pure things in the case of ghost-types. If it’s a vampire… there’re various things. Well, magic in general for a slime… nah, it’d be strong against darkness if it’s a dark-type hybrid. And physical attacks should have some kind of effect? Light attributed things would be good to attack with, but there aren’t really much of those that are offensive. It’d be easy to win with Redra’s breath ya’know? It’d depend on the reward though…”
“… Incidentally, how much would that be?”
“I’d like a thousand more of this alcohol.”
100,000 DP huh… a bit difficult.
“Fortunately, right now it’s calmed down, so I’ll try and deal with it as much as possible by myself. I’ll be relying on you if something happens though.”
“Kukakaka, it’s fine to rely on your aniki at any time ya’know? We’d melt your core room with the breath though.”
… I’d be troubled if you went that far.
At any rate, it’s good to know I can rely on him if push comes to shove.
Saying as much to Ontentoo, I took the chance to give him another five bottles of vodka.
“Hey Kehma? I’m happy about it, but are you sure? This’s more than the consultation fee yeah?”
“Eh? I interrupted your sleep with the consultation, so it’s natural to repay that too.”
“… Well, it’s alright then. If you need anything else, feel free to give me a call.”
“Yeah, I’ll take you up on that.”
Now then, let’s deal with that black wolf somehow.
I can’t sleep at ease if I don’t… Haah, I don’t want to work.
Footnotes:
Recall the bandit situation.
１００番台ロット — This is a term I’m not 100% on. Please note that as soon as I figure out the proper term, I’ll update this and let everyone know in a following chapter release post. １００番台 is literally: 100 (No.) (Counter/Series).