Yokai Brides And Crab Dungeon 2nd Floor
""Take care of us.""
That's what the yokai girls said to me.
Apparently, these two were once notorious evil yokai in the neighborhood. Well, according to them, anyway.
They used to fiercely compete over territory every day. But one day, they tried to settle it once and for all, resulting in a spectacular double knockout. And it just so happened that they were both sealed by a passing traveling monk.
Well, that's the gist of it. Geez, what a mess.
"So, why did you end up here with me?"
"Aka Daikon! So full of spirit!"
"Gah, because this wolf cub ate it up...!"
(Huh? Oh! Could it be that shrine!?)
I got a clue from the yokai girls' conversation.
Come to think of it, on the way back from my first visit to the plant dungeon, we stopped by a park for a restroom break. At that time, I had been playing with high-spirit ginseng out of curiosity. But perhaps I played with it a bit too much, as some strange liquid oozed out of the ginseng, making me uncomfortable, so I left it as an offering at the nearby shrine.
And that shrine apparently turned out to be where these yokai girls were sealed.
(Hmm, I see.)
Well, dungeons exist with monsters, so finding yokai here is not surprising. But it's unexpected for the ball to come from such a direction.
"So, Aka Daikon, huh? You contacted me after the offered high spirit ginseng connection, right?"
As I asked, the yokai girls nodded in agreement.
Furthermore, using the channel of fate, the oni girl tried to attack me. Hmm, it's like a cyber attack that's trending nowadays. Apparently, it was a dream I had when I was staying at the inn.
But the result was a defeat, losing most of their yokai power and being taken advantage of.
However, according to yokai rules, since they made a pact, we're now in a husband-wife relationship, so they traveled all the way from the Boso Peninsula here on foot to be taken care of.
"Huh, what? So, both of you are my wives!?"
As I asked, the yokai girls nodded again. Come to think of it, things got quite intimate at the end. I got too carried away thinking it was a dream.
Hmm, a new piece of information. I unknowingly became a yokai husband.
"It's okay. So, to take care of you, should I just give you some high-spirited ginseng and some fake smoked meat?"
I accepted the yokai brides.
Yeah, I still carry the complex of not being popular back then.
If I can be popular, I welcome even non-humans. Besides, yokai brides can't be seen by ordinary people. Ruka might be surprised if she finds out, but since the yokai brides don't want a family register or property, it shouldn't be a problem.
I'm aware that I'm increasingly diverging from human common sense and feelings, but valuing such things didn't make me happy. So, it doesn't matter.
"Alright, now that it's settled, cute wives, come on in. Oh yes, let's simmer the remaining high-spirit ginseng too."
Yeah, there are plenty of folktales about marrying transformation creatures.
And in those cases, even an ordinary guy can live happily at first. Like snow women, two-mouth women, snake women, etc. Well, the latter two would cost a lot in terms of support, though.
And there's one important point. To live happily with yokai brides, promises are crucial. Yeah, I need to make sure to confirm that properly.
"So, do you two have any yokai rules or promises? Like, 'if your true identity gets revealed, you have to return to the mountains~'?"
As I asked, while munching on some fake smoked meat and crab, the japanese wolf girl and oni girl shook their heads as if to say there wasn't anything special. They seem more focused on the feast in front of them now. Being taken care of is what they desire.
Hmm, I see. Well, if that's the case, it's easy. If I don't have to worry about stepping on a landmine accidentally, then I'm relieved.
.....
And so, after letting them eat until they were satisfied, I suddenly woke up. Huh? It seems like everything up until now was just a dream.
As I got up, relieved that I hadn't been stuck in a swamp or forced to eat mud dumplings, I checked the entrance.
There, in front of the door, was a moss-covered stone.
(Is this perhaps a part of that shrine?)
I picked it up and looked around, but of course, there was no sign of the japanese wolf girl or the oni girl.
(But the fact that this thing is here, could it be evidence that the dream was real? Hmm, what do they call this a dream paradox??)
Later, when I checked the food, I found that the portion I had fed to the yokai brides had decreased significantly. So, indeed, I understood that they had come to see me.
....
I unintentionally became a husband to a yokai girl.
However, it seems that they don't have the power to exist like dungeon monsters, and they can only appear in dreams through the channel of fate.
I placed the fragment of the mossy shrine where they might be staying in the dungeon's antechamber and offered water. Here, there should be magical elements, so maybe their recovery will be faster. I really want to meet them not just in dreams, but in reality.
Setting that aside, I stepped into the Crab Dungeon's second basement floor.
The overwhelming number of giant mussels that grew densely on the 1st floor was ignored by closing them with Acid Smell and passing through. Yes, the same method that worked on the giant mussels as it did on the disease rats.
The second basement floor of the Crab Dungeon we descended to was a vast marshland.
The cavern, with its dome-like vastness, was filled with fish monsters like mudskippers. As usual, they were large, like baby seals, with sharp teeth like sharks or piranhas lining their mouths.
"I see, maybe these guys didn't come out of the dungeon because they didn't want to leave their comfortable habitat."
The attack method of such giant mudskippers was a jumping bite utilizing their instantaneous power. However, I'm quite accustomed to such attacks from giant earwigs, so I easily repelled them with my added arm.
After defeating several of them here and confirming their drops, I restrained some of them with slime and took them home. I plan to confirm if they can be used as food.
"Oh, the monsters in the Crab Dungeon are strong after all. Even on the second basement floor, they might be as strong as the giant slugs on the fourth basement floor of the refrigerated dungeon."
Even the giant mussels on the first basement floor would probably be comparable to the disease rats on the third basement floor of the refrigerated dungeon.
If there's a dungeon rank or something similar, then the Crab Dungeon might be more challenging than the refrigerated dungeon.
(Huh, I thought a sword dropped, but it's just bones.)
The giant mudskippers I slaughtered with a gold lever turned into smoke and disappeared, leaving behind magic stones and "fish bones." Fish bones. I can only think of using them to make broth.
(So the crabs crawl out from the 3rd floor or lower. That must be quite difficult.)
In between the giant mudskippers, I saw the familiar sight of giant crabs walking.
It feels like the third basement floor is the giant crab's territory, but to get there, one has to advance through this marshland, so I'll pass on that.
Yeah, now that I've acquired the skill "Mucus", I feel the horror of being stuck in the mud and unable to move. After all, I'm constantly slaughtering monsters like this. I don't want to die like I'm just being killed without being able to resist.
.....
After dealing with the giant mudskippers I captured and brought out of the Crab Dungeon, I gave them to the monkey, frog, and slug as a reward for their work. The three of them happily started eating it.
"White fish, it looks delicious boiled or fried."
While watching the three monsters gobble up the giant mudskippers, I thought so. I've become quite accustomed to eating dungeon monsters.
And, I'm glad I picked up the Crab Dungeon. Thanks to it, there's a variety of fresh seafood available to eat as much as I want.
.....
"What's this... invitation for cooperation in physical fitness measurement test for dungeon ability holders?"
As I sorted through the mail piled up in the mailbox after leaving the dungeon, I found such a postcard. The sender was the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare.
Reading the contents, it seemed that this postcard was sent to those who had dived into open dungeons under test operation, asking them to undergo physical fitness tests and cooperate in information gathering.
"Hmm... instead of that, they should just open the dungeons to the public again."
I don't want to go out of my way to do something like this, exposing my hand like that. Thinking that, I threw the postcard into the trash.
Well, personally, that's fine, but as a country, it might not be so easy.
The reason why legislation related to dungeons is lagging behind is because of disputes over ownership rights. If dungeons were just disasters, everyone would want to get rid of the land where dungeons appeared.
But if you survive after diving into a dungeon, you become superhuman.
Even just that alone, the benefits of dungeons are immeasurable. Furthermore, now there's the added value of being a resource mine. The magic circles that India succeeded in developing, which can extract circular motion of fortune, use magic stones obtained in dungeons.
So, the merits of monsters overflowing and those demerits are conflicting, and there's strong opposition within the government on how to manage dungeons.
Even if the country were to manage all dungeons collectively, there are now so many dungeons that it's practically impossible to manage them all within the country. And the landowners who have dungeons appearing on their land stubbornly refuse to sell, counting on the profits they would get in the future. But if there's any problem, they'll just blame the country for everything, so it's also a bad situation.
Well, I can't say much about others since I'm keeping my dungeon hidden and privatized.
If my Refrigerator Dungeon were to cause a monster stampede and kill people, then the responsibility would lie with me.
Therefore, I must properly thin them out and manage them appropriately.
Fortunately, it's possible to have the cardified monsters fight the dungeon monsters, so I don't need to deal with everything alone. Today, monkeys, frogs, and slugs are energetically hunting slimes.
Come to think of it, those monkeys, frogs, and slugs.
They're unexpectedly working hard, and I'm grateful for that. Sometimes they eat crabs without permission, but I'll let that slide.
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