Earth Dungeon 23

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Chapter 23. Rare D Core

Outside, the rain is pouring down in torrents, and my house is dimly lit with no electricity. Sitting on the couch in the dim light, I put the rare D-core I got from defeating Goblin King in the Equivalent Exchange Store into the gashakon and groaned at the list.

"So this is the status potion."

[Status 200 Up Potion D (limit 1200): 1 Rare D-Core]

"That's 430 right now, our status. So a solo Rare D demon has an overall status number of 1200."

How could he beat the king, Sakimori was painfully aware of why Shizuku had beaten the goblin king with the loss of one arm. Without her hunting rifle, she would have been in trouble. That's how strong the gun is. King's overall status wouldn't be a maxed status. Because it doesn't take solo action. But it would still be around 1,000, right?

[Status increases need to be steady, or you will have a hard time later. So let's get this skill to solve this status as soon as possible].

The ghostly Shizuku pointed with a tiny index finger. A certain skill was listed at the end of it.

[Limited 1: Adversity Growth: Rare D-core 1. Defeating a superior will occasionally increase your status (kept as points)]

[I guess that the skill level is based on the monsters' rank.]

G: 0 skill level, F: 1, E: 2, D: 3.

[I assume that. It's tough to collect a lot of status-up potions. Adversarial growth is a skill that raises status all at once without collecting potions. I think it's possible to defeat higher-ranked enemies with our abilities, and higher-ranked enemies are monsters with a certain amount of stats or higher ranks, so this skill is an absolute must. I wanted this skill].

"Thank you for saying that as if you have all the skills covered. I'll learn it then."

I press the button, hear a crackling sound and black particles are sucked into my body. These are particles that seem to be bad for the body no matter when you look at them. 

I wack my hand, but I have no feeling at all. Well, it's no surprise because it's a skill that raises your status when you defeat monsters, not when you raise your status.

[People who had this would die immediately. It's said to be a cursed skill, but if you target only the higher-ranked, you'll die. That's where the residual skill comes in. It's a great match for this skill].

Shizuku-san puffed out her chest, spinning backward in the air and looking very proud of herself. That's because it's hard to die if you have the remaining life skill. It's a thoughtful skill structure.

"Well, it's a simple but useful skill that I'll be able to use in the future. Does anyone else have this?"

[It's on this list because they're dead. The owner of this skill does not exist].

The girl tells me with a smug look like a bird chirping. There is no particular mysterious tameness.

"Thank you for the quick and mysterious answer. I see. So the limited 1 is not a date."

At Shizuku's mysterious answer, Sakimori exhales, knowing part of the Equivalent Exchange Store's badass ability, but not caring.

"Well, then, let's go downstairs."

I turn my head to release the stiffness and walk downstairs.

Eight days have passed since then. Yesterday, I harvested some potatoes and asked Karin to show me where to process them.

I had removed the barricades downstairs and placed shadow tigers on each floor. The shadow tigers, whose sensing ability has also been greatly improved, and the black cat I created before are hiding in inconspicuous places, so I positioned them to counter any surprise attacks. I wondered which name to use for the black tigers. But I decided against it because it would be weird.

Below the 10th floor, women and children are impatiently making their dwellings. Shadow tigers, who can even defeat hobgoblins, are perfect as guards. So don't let the children there enjoy riding the shadow tigers.

To get a safe place to live, they were diligently cleaning up the dusty, garbage-filled place, laboriously carrying away the rubble, polishing the rusty desk, using it as a bed, and carrying in a quilt on top of it. A cardboard nameplate was taped to the door of the room.

Level 3 familiars are strong, I think. I've also sneaked several shadow snakes in there, so they can defend people against attacks from anything but guns.

It's a bit of a fortress. In my spare time, I was creating messengers endlessly. Some of them hide in the shadows; even if 100 or so people attacked us, we could easily fight them off.

When we arrived at the ground floor, the door that came off had been repaired and is now a room, for a change. The entrance lobby has also been cleaned, and a sign has been placed that says the dining hall is here. People are handing out food at the cafeteria location.

People are coming and going in large numbers, and they're also repairing the exterior at a rapid pace. Shingen seems to be serious about making me his boss. No, the boss.

I rent shadow cats and tigers, slay monsters, trade them for bread, and sell them on the black market with the children, making just enough to feed a thousand people, but no salary. How can they stay under me? Life was better before when he was the boss.

Well, that may end today.

In front of the parlor, Ooki-kun and the others are standing as gatekeepers.

"Boss. That Karin's already here."

"You shouldn't call our guest that, right? Well then, shall we go in?"

I turn the knob with a click. I feel like I haven't turned a knob in a while.

Inside, Karin was already looking bored, sitting on the couch with the fabric torn and cotton popping out, flapping her legs. Her cat ears twitched, and her tail wagged.

"Oh, long time no see-nyannyan, Sakimori. Something's been growing in power for some time now-nyan? Why is Shingen her-nyan?"

Shingen is sitting on the other side of the room, sipping tea in his spare time. 

"Sakimori is now at skill level 3. You know that anyway, don't you? The power of the shadow tiger. This guy finished Stampede all by himself. So when I heard he was starting a company, I joined."

".........I've already heard that story, but it's true-nya. I can't believe it. I've seen the shadow tigers' performance. If you can mass-produce them, it means the whole area is now safe-nya. How many of them can you make? Did you make something like that with only skill level 3-nya?"

"It's as if you know someone else who has skill 3. No, you know more than that, right? I won't ask who you are. They're from the inner town anyway, aren't they?"

I sit down on the couch and look at Karin with narrowed eyes. Karin's body trembles.

"Oh, I see. So that's why."

Shingen reclined on the sofa with a twisted mouth. It must have hit him. I also had an epiphany the other day. He knew the number of stores in the inner town.

I would never sneak into the inner town to find out how many stores are in the inner town. Security is extremely tight there. If they find you, they'll shoot you dead immediately. They won't notice my shadow snakes and crows, and even if they notice and knock them down, it won't hurt or itch.

"Hahaha. I don't know what you're talking about-nya?"

A cat girl shakes her head and turns her tail into a question mark to fool people.

"So, I want to sell these potatoes to the inner town. I was going to sell them to the outer town, but I can sell them for more in the inner town."

Anything for money. It would sell for far more than in the outer town. I'm sure I could sell it for several times as much. I'm not going to get hung up on that. The people in the abandoned city envy the people in the inner town, but they take what they can get.

"Um, I don't want you to keep assuming that I have connections with the people in the inner town-nya. If you do business with the inner town people without going through the outer town people, the outer town people won't shut up, will they-nya?"

"That's true. The people in the outer town probably have a lot of guns, hmm? Do they have that many guns?"

"They use them for fighting, so they must have guns, but when they come to the abandoned town in droves, it will be a good chance to get them."

They won't have them at the troop level enough to line up and fire them all at once. If it's just a few, I'm confident we can put them all away.

"Ah. I'll make sure to spread the word about the dangers of this place to the outer town-nya! So maybe they'll shut up-nya!"

With a loud shout, Karin raised both hands and her tail. Did she pin her tail up?

"Well, a few gun owners would just be ducks. It wouldn't be good if many guns got into the forces here, would it? Karin."

Grinning, Shingen flexes his mouth and looks at Karin. There is a possibility that assassins will come, but they are just assassins hired by the people in the outer city. It's no big deal. It's not like they can just give a gun to a gunman and let him charge at you. A gun nowadays is worth as much as a wad of cash.

"Well, this is the potato... You don't plant just one potato seed."

I lift the crate to the corner of the room and place it on the table. I ignore Karin's troubled expression. The answer is obvious anyway.

"Certainly, I was also mistaken. Potato seeds are cut into small pieces and then planted. I was surprised. I'm glad to have someone who has experience growing potatoes."

Shingen and I nodded at each other, surprised. I guess you don't plant a whole-seed potato, right? It was a huge potato, but they cut it into small pieces around the sprouts.

"Mu...... this one box isn't the only one, right?"

"Of course not. There are 20 boxes of these, each box weighing 30 kg, so 600 kg. I don't know what kind of potatoes they are. But at 500 yen per kilogram, that's 300,000 yen. Thanks."

"You've already decided on the price-nya!"

Karin bangs on the table in protest, but I let her pass.

The large potatoes are packed tightly together. They look fresh and delicious. Store-made, though, and a little dubious.

"Unlike the old days, potatoes are expensive. No, I don't know about the inner town now. You can't buy such fresh potatoes in the outer town, and even if you could, it would be a solid 3,000 yen per kilogram, right? The quantity is more than I expected, so I can't sell them to the outer town."

"Ununu......"

"I want to sell it off 4 times a month, and you can pocket 20%, okay?"

"Noooooo...! Uu...... surely you're going to stand out-nya?"

I give Karin an instant decision, so I put my chin in my hands.

"That's good. I'll use the cash I get to buy a lot of stuff from the outer town and build a market in the abandoned town."

"A market? You're going to build a black market?"

"Yes, we need to create our market and a flow of money in the abandoned town."

To create a booming economy, I need to create an economic zone first.

Isn't that what they do in the game? First, they say, let's build a market.