Another dungeon is draining its energy?
What does that even mean?
Dungeon Overseers are linked to their dungeons.
If a dungeon collapses, its Overseer—whether Danpon or Danpol—dies with it.
I’ve seen it happen firsthand in both the Treasure Dungeon and the Ikomasanjo Amusement Park Dungeon.
So, if Dungeon Academy’s dungeon is losing energy, it makes sense that Danpol would be affected.
But—
「When the Ikomasanjo Amusement Park Dungeon was created, there was talk about setting up a nearby dungeon to siphon its energy, right? So are you saying that other dungeons near Dungeon Academy, like Umeda Dungeon or Tenshiba Dungeon, are stealing its energy and weakening it?」
「We would never do that! Danpol is our enemy, yes, but Dungeon Academy’s dungeon was a well-thought-out, safe idea for once, so we agreed to stay out of it. Besides, under normal circumstances, it’s impossible to suppress Danpol this severely just by draining energy.」
「So, it’s not you, Danpon. That means it has to be Danpol, right? But as far as I know, Danpol only has two dungeons in Japan—Mt. Fuji and the Tokyo Dungeon Academy, right?」
「That’s why I’m still investigating where the energy is going. But even if someone is stealing energy, it shouldn’t be enough to completely shut down Danpol’s consciousness.」
That’s true.
If draining energy alone was enough to completely immobilize Danpol, I wouldn’t have struggled so much in the Ikomasanjo Amusement Park Dungeon.
Back then, what felt like less than a day in real-time actually took months inside PD.
If I could’ve solved it that easily, I wouldn’t have had to dive so deep into PD, and I definitely wouldn’t have ended up marrying all three of my party members—
…Actually, that makes it sound like marrying them was a hardship, which is absolutely not what I mean. I should probably rephrase that.
Anyway.
If normal energy theft can’t seal Danpol’s movements, then the odds of Danpon’s side being behind this drop significantly.
But what about Danpol’s side?
Danpon had explained it clearly.
To drain energy from another dungeon, a dungeon had to be set up nearby.
But nearby…?
Mt. Fuji was far from Osaka. Tokyo was even farther.
Even by helicopter, it would take over an hour.
If anything, Tokyo and Mt. Fuji were much closer to each other.
You couldn’t see Mt. Fuji from Abeno Harukas, but on some days, you could see it from the Tokyo Skytree.
So if the Mt. Fuji dungeon was draining energy and putting a Danpol into hibernation, then logically, it would be affecting the Danpol in Tokyo’s Dungeon Academy.
However, before coming here—no, even before Danpol went missing—I had already checked in on the Tokyo Dungeon Academy’s Danpol.
The result?
It had been spotted.
That thing was taking photos with students at Tokyo Dungeon Academy, being treated like a mascot.
I mean, sure, it looked like a mascot… but wasn’t this thing originally introduced as an enemy of the world?
How the hell did it end up living the best school life out of all of us?
Anyway.
That meant we still had no clue which dungeon was draining energy.
Looks like we’d have to leave it to Danpon for now.
「Ichino-san, since we’re here, why don’t we test out our new skills?」
「I agree. I want to see if my bunshins can share an Item Box.」
「Then I’d like to practice Telekinesis too!」
Ah.
Skill testing, huh?
Yeah, that was important.
-0-
After running various tests, we made some interesting discoveries.
Hime was able to share maps through Auto-Mapping with her bunshins.
On top of that, she could even share her Item Box across them.
That meant her bunshins could gather items and pass them between each other instantly, which was incredibly useful.
Ayame’s Time Magic was currently limited to Sense Speed Up.
When activated, it made the flow of everything around her seem slower.
However, it didn’t actually increase her movement speed.
In fact, at first, it felt like she was the one moving slower.
This would take some getting used to.
But once mastered, it would make dodging attacks easier and give her more time to think before making her next move.
Her Minor Magic was exactly as it sounded—weak but versatile. She could generate mist, create small static shocks, and cast a variety of spells that weren’t strong but had their uses.
One particularly useful discovery was the spells Warm Wear and Cool Wear.
With these, Ayame could surround herself with warm or cool air, allowing her to handle extreme temperatures with ease.
If we had these spells, we wouldn’t need Spice Drinks anymore when exploring the snowfields beyond Dungeon Academy’s 21st floor.
Milk’s Parallel Thinking was incredible.
Her firing speed had increased dramatically.
On top of that, Shoot Stone Drink Feather had also boosted the power of her shots.
But what really surprised me was how she was using Telekinesis to automatically load status-inflicting bullets from her Item Bag into her gun.
How was she already this good at it?
Now, it was my turn.
I activated Shadow Beastification and tested out Basic Martial Arts.
「Straight punch! Roundhouse kick!」
I struck and kicked.
It was a simple, almost primitive fighting style, but the power behind each attack was leagues above what it used to be.
At my current proficiency, these were the only moves I could execute smoothly, but with practice, I’d be able to perform even more advanced techniques.
Deactivating Shadow Beastification, I switched to dual wielding.
Handling two swords and dual wielding were completely different things.
It was like playing the piano with one hand versus using both—controlling two blades simultaneously required a completely different kind of intuition.
I had tried dual wielding before I had the skill, but it never worked out. Now, with Dual Wielding unlocked, I could finally move the way I wanted.
This wasn’t just a skill that doubled attack power.
It significantly expanded my range of attack options—even more than Martial Arts did.
The skill testing session was a success.
-0-
Afterward, Hime suddenly had to take care of some work, so Ayame, Milk, and I headed home.
Since it was already late, we postponed our karaoke plans and agreed to go together another time.
After dropping Ayame off, Milk and I stopped by Th〇rty-One for some ice cream, then took a completely wholesome nighttime stroll through the park before heading home.
When I dropped Milk off at her place, she leaned in for a goodbye kiss with a 「See you later」— but then Gyuuzou-san appeared, so we exchanged greetings, and I went home without accomplishing anything.
Leave a Reply