Earth Dungeon 32.1

Test

Chapter 32.1. Vegetables

Two weeks after the establishment of the market, the rainy season had passed, and the sun's rays signaled the arrival of summer with its scorching heat. Cicadas performed an outdoor concert, heralding the arrival of summer in Tokyo.

Inside my penthouse, which served as my home, Sakimori sat at the living room table, spreading out paper documents and reviewing the financial statements while checking the number of cores in the store. By the way, he also included the cores earned in the dungeon.

[Stored Cores: G-Core 31,6974, F-Core 11,6742, E-Core 3332, D-Core 1211, Rare G 1, Rare D 1]

"They've accomplished quite a lot in just three weeks... I underestimated the profits in the city center. I also underestimated the profits of chain stores. Now I understand why some companies decided to franchise in the past."

And someone made a mistake or intentionally included a rare core. My apologies for that. It's hard to distinguish rare slime cores. I probably thought they were the same slime cores despite their different appearances and included them.

[Including the abandoned town, how large is the population in the city center?]

The astral Shizuku also looked surprised and closely examined the number of cores in the store. Huh?

"Shizuku-san, even you have things you don't know."

[Hmm? Well, yes. Even I, cough, have things I don't know. It's only natural, isn't it?]

Shizuku coughed to cover up her embarrassment. There's no point dwelling on it, so Sakimori refrained from commenting.

"It was surprising because I thought you knew everything."

[Hehehe, well, I...]

"Yaaah!"

As Shizuku emphasized her chest, crossed her arms, floated in the air, and bent her fingers into what is commonly known as a cat's paw, assuming a seductive pose, she was interrupted by a scream coming from outside.

While pouting with her cheeks puffed up, Shizuku seemed concerned, but the scream she just heard made her happy. Chuckling, she stood up. It seemed she had finally become capable of putting up a fight.

I opened the living window that faced the garden and stepped outside.

"Hey, isn't your shadow tiger sensing ability too high, nyan?"

With her neck caught in Mike's mouth, a catgirl hung there, her expression on the verge of tears.

"I wonder about that. Could it be that your skills have declined?"

I said teasingly, but that wasn't the truth.

Mike's golden eyes held not only mana but the power of [Aura] too. It was the power of [Aura]. By practicing the manipulation of [Aura], I gained the ability to faintly sense the enemies' life force. I had sensed the dormant fighting spirit within the life force.

As he defeated monsters and used [Fighting Spirit Techniques] to become accustomed to them, I found that my skill level had inexplicably reached level 3. Shizuku was exasperated, but it was merely a matter of converting mana into a fighting spirit and constantly circulating it through his body.

With that, I acquired the sensing ability and tested whether I could infuse Aura into my familiar. The result of that experiment is this. I could accurately sense Karin climbing up the building wall, so I was delighted. Now I can counter espionage.

"Nugugugu. Did you gain some new power, Sakimori-nyan?"

"By touching a dungeon core?"

I answered while keeping a smirk on my face. The news must have spread by now. As I suggested, Karin trembled and seemed flustered. She's an honest spy who can't lie. It must be because she's young. Well, it's probably just a diversion, and I don't know where the real spies are, but I'll find them soon enough.

Having given up, Karin sighed and slipped out of the shadow tiger's grasp. She easily escaped, indicating that her skills were superior to Mike's. Tch, I still can't relax.

"That's right, nya. Dungeon cores can give you skill level-up potions and new skills-nyan. You managed to monopolize the dungeon cores by conquering the dungeon alone, didn't you? I'm quite envious-nya."

Her words, devoid of any implications, made it clear that the inner town wasn't aware of the drawbacks. Sakimori saw through it and glanced at Shizuku, but she was busily crawling in the sky and ignored me. Shizuku's source of information is not from the inner town.

And it's clear that the inner town either doesn't know about the drawbacks or hasn't thought deeply about them. If they knew about the drawbacks. They would have told those who could conquer dungeons like Karin. 

It's not necessary to hide the information from those who know that they can receive skills and items from dungeon cores. It would be troublesome if elite adventurers received terrible skills and ended up useless. They probably just overlook the fact that they happened to have terrible skills. I think that possibility is quite high.

"So, I acquired the skill called [Aura]. Do you know the details of this skill?"

I casually asked, trying to appear nonchalant, and received a surprising answer.

"[Aura]? That's a disappointing skill, nyaa. I'm sorry for you, Sakimori-nyaa."

With meowing sounds, she expressed her sympathy for drawing a bad skill. I exhaled lightly, trying not to show my surprise, and crossed my arms with a bored look.

"What do you mean by 'disappointing'? You make it sound so regrettable."

"[Aura] is the power converted from mana. It can greatly enhance martial techniques, increase physical attacks, and boost physical abilities-nya. It's a useful skill for front-line fighters. However, the conversion efficiency from mana to aura is low. After using it about three times, your mana will be depleted, so it's useless for a magic user like you, Sakimori-nyaa. Only those who remember it use it as a trump card-nyaa."

"Oh, I see. That's a shame. It must be hot, so come inside."

Shouldering her disappointment, I returned home, but deep down, I was astonished by the specifications of Aura.

After all, I can use it like a normal skill. Minor techniques consume only single-digit amounts of mana, and even major techniques consume a maximum of 50 mana. [Maximum Conversion Efficiency]. I understood why Shizuku desired this skill.