Earth Dungeon 10.2

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Chapter 10.2 The Wooden Stick

...Except for about 1 person.

"Karin, why are you here?"

I'll take a look at it with straight eyes. The one standing in front of me is the cat girl Karin, her cat's tail fluttering and ears wiggling mischievously.

"What are you talking about-nya. If you're going to have an interesting event, you'll have to invite Karin-nya. Besides, it's a little dangerous for this girls-nya. If you're dealing with slime, you'll get hurt if you don't wear thick gloves and clothes-nya."

As expected of an informant. She had heard what I had to say. How could she have known that even though I had given these instructions only two days before?

But still, even against slime, it's dangerous. If these kids got injured, this old man would have been depressed.

"So, what is this? A trap?"

I nod back as she looks at the cage with an aloof look. The old man thought about it, based on his previous experiences.

[Ignition]

"Burn nyaa?!"

I create a flame at my fingertips and burn the wooden cage. The dry wood starts to burn. Magic flames burn things, don't they?

The cage is on fire, and the fire transfers to the slime that's already smoking. It's a bit smoky.

Since the place is well-ventilated, the smoke diffuses. The children look at the drifting smoke with a curious expressions, but Karin rubs her face with her meow against the smoke. She doesn't like the smell.

We can smell burning wood and the pungent odor of slime. The mixture of these two smells makes her feel a little uncomfortable. The old man is also a little creepy. Not that the old man himself is disgusting, just to be sure.

"Catching monsters-nya?"

I nodded as Karin asked me what I was talking about. Well, it's easy to imagine.

"But burning slime won't attract monsters, nya. That's my experience-nya."

"Ah, it seems you have burned slime once. But have you ever burned it with trees?"

"Because a forest is a dungeon-nya. Unlike the dungeon-obsessed warrior, I've never been near a forest-nya, they said."

With a smile and a gentle smile, I pull on Karin's cat ears. Sorry for being dungeon crazy. Mmmm, her cat ears are so fluffy.

The land around the dungeon is fertile. Trees quickly grow and transform their surroundings into forests.

I snorted and explained to Karin who was jumping away with a whimper.

"When many trees and slime burned together, it becomes a special kind of smoke. It attracts low-grade monsters. I did it a long time ago."

When there were not so many monsters yet, I thought that if I burned the whole forest, I could absorb all the magic power, and increase my power, right? So I decided to burn the forest. As a result, the slime burned, and many low-grade monsters gathered, and I thought I would die. And the drops weren't even there yet.

It was futile. I couldn't even power up. Humans seem to have a limit to what they can absorb. Perhaps, in the game, you can only gain 100 experiences per hour. I guess if you power up, you can absorb more. Once you're full, that's the end of it. It's a specification that's not kind to humans. The only way is to increase your power steadily. The specifications are worse than those of a net game.

I wondered why so many monsters gathered there, and when I verified it, I found out that I need to burn trees and slime together to gather monsters. Useless knowledge, I thought at the time. I thought it was probably a trap to prevent the destruction of nature. Nature is recovering thanks to the dungeon. Someone must have thought, I have to protect this earth.

"Well, it's not close to the dungeon. So it won't gather much."

Chu Chu Chu and the big rats show up. One, two, many. Hmmm? That's a little much.

"Well, we're going to evacuate now, so take care of the rest-nya."

Karin takes the children and waves bye-bye as she evacuates. She seems to have noticed what's going on. He's got good instincts.

"Funny. Isn't this the part where I lecture on how to hunt monsters in moderation with a smug look on my face? Isn't this the part where the old man giggles?"

[Sakimori, slime has been hunted in large numbers over the past few days. I'm sure there are a lot of hungry giant rats out there.]

Shizuku-san, I wish you had said that earlier. It is true. Rats always have to eat something, or they die, right?

It was rats the size of puppies that appeared with dirty fur and peeling sharp front teeth. They are coming from somewhere like a tidal wave, their eyes glaring at us like they are starving. Their numbers are increasing. They're coming from between buildings, from the gutters, running down the street.

"Did I do something?"

[They're biting.]

As you can see, I didn't expect this number. It can't be helped.

"I screwed up a little bit, didn't I? ... But just fine. Let's make some savings."

The jet-black old man laughed ferociously, flipping his black coat with a snap. If people see him as a failure. He'll have no problem getting many monster cores.

Let's go with rat savings, shall we? Chu-chu. Cores are money. And gold is power.

It's not what we planned, but it's what we have to do. We need to be a little more careful.