「We finally finished the dungeon.」
「Yes… somehow.」
Nana-san agreed, though she didn’t sound all that pleased.
Well, it made sense. Even if we called it 『complete』, the whole dungeon only had two areas. It was tiny…embarrassingly so.
One area held nothing but Giant Rats and a Rock Golem, and the other just contained the Dungeon Core.
Looking at it now, it really was a pitiful little dungeon.
「Well, this is just the start. We’ll save up Dungeon Points and expand little by little.」
「Yeah, we’ll keep at it.」
We forced ourselves to sound cheerful, trying to turn this into a moment of determination.
Like Nana-san said, this wasn’t the end, it was only the beginning.
Our dungeon life starts now.
「By the way, how do Dungeon Points actually accumulate? You mentioned before they build up when we repel explorers, right?」
「If adventurers and monsters engage in combat, points will naturally accumulate.」
「Hmm… I still don’t get it. Why does that earn us points in the first place? What even ‘are’ Dungeon Points?」
「It’s a little tacky to question that sort of thing in a dungeon story, you know?」
…Tacky, huh. But I can’t help it; I’m the type who gets hung up on tiny details like that.
「Think of Dungeon Points as experience points….in a way.」
「Experience points?」
「Yes. Dungeons are living entities. They gain experience through their activities, and the points they accumulate serve as that experience. Then they spend those points to grow stronger. Is that easier to understand?」
「I see.」
So, Dungeon Points were basically the dungeon’s hard-earned experience.
That means I had just used up all the experience it had worked so hard to gain… like water down the drain.
Wait, but didn’t this Dungeon Core only come into existence three days ago?
…Well, whatever. Asking that would ‘definitely’ be tacky.
「Anyway, Master. Regardless of quality, the dungeon is now complete.」
「‘Regardless of quality’, huh…」
「Which means there’s one thing we still need to do.」
「What is it? Are we throwing rice cakes?」
「We are not. We don’t even ‘have’ rice cakes.」
「Well, no, but still.」
Yeah… no rice, either.
I’m pretty sure they have some in the East, though. Beyond the sea, in that eastern land, they must have rice and soy sauce and all that. It’s just how these fantasy worlds work.
Someday, I’ll go there. And when I finally taste Japanese food again, I just know I’ll cry.
I used to think about things like that a lot, but lately…
「You know, I don’t actually crave rice or soy sauce anymore.」
「…Excuse me?」
「I think it’s because I’m not Japanese anymore. I mean, I’ve got an elf’s body now, and an elf’s sense of taste. So the food I eat here, even without rice or soy sauce, already feels satisfying to me.」
「I… see.」
「Back when I was in Japan, I loved Japanese food. I thought it was delicious, but that’s only because I was Japanese, eating food made for people like me.」
「Uh…」
「So now that I’m no longer Japanese, maybe if I tasted rice or Japanese food again, I wouldn’t find it delicious anymore.」
That thought felt… kind of lonely.
Maybe it would move me to tears, not from nostalgia, but from realizing that even the flavors of my old world no longer belonged to me.
「Master, what exactly are you talking about right now?」
「Ah, sorry. I think I flipped some weird switch in my head.」
「A very weird one, apparently…」
I’d gone off on a ramble before I even realized it.
But seriously, I couldn’t help but wonder. Would I find it nostalgic and delicious? Or just bland and unremarkable? Maybe something in between, 『Eh, it’s fine, I guess.』
It was kind of exciting to imagine… but also a little scary.
And besides, who even knows if that eastern country actually exists? I’d like to believe it does. For all the ways my isekai experience has strayed from the usual tropes, I really hope ‘that’ one isn’t missing.
「Anyway, Master, about the previous topic.」
「Oh, right. What was it again? Something we need to do?」
「Yes. Since the dungeon is complete, we should give it a name.」
「A name, huh?」
A name…
「Come to think of it, it’s currently listed as 『Lukmine Dungeon』, isn’t it?」
「That’s right. That’s how it appears in the system menu.」
Indeed, 『Lukmine Dungeon』 had been written there ever since I first opened the dungeon menu.
「This area seems to lie between Meiyu Village and Lukmine Village, but it’s slightly closer to Lukmine.」
「Ah, so that’s why it’s called that.」
How on earth did it even figure out the village names and distances?
「You can change the name anytime, so let’s decide on an official one now.」
「An official name, huh… I’m terrible at coming up with those quickly.」
I always overthink these things. Even naming a game protagonist takes me ages.
「What about you, Nana-san? Got any ideas?」
「Hmm, let’s see… how about 『Disne◯land』?」
「Absolutely not.」
That really startled me… I didn’t think she’d straight-up steal ‘that’ name so blatantly.
What was the logic there, because it has rats? No, come on, the rats here aren’t beloved worldwide mascots, they’re the kind that would actually ‘attack’ guests for real!
「Then how about ‘World Tree Dungeon’?」
「Not bad, but…」
Well, technically, we ‘are’ already using Yggdrasil-san’s name without permission, but this dungeon has absolutely nothing to do with her in reality…
Also, that name’s basically plagiarism too, isn’t it?
◇
In the end, the dungeon was named 『Alec-Nana Tentative Open Close Parenthesis Dungeon』.
As usual, I couldn’t decide on a name quickly, so I tried to go with ‘Alec Dungeon (Tentative)’.
However, it turned out that the system only lets you change the part ‘before’ 『Dungeon』, and it doesn’t allow symbols.
So, I settled on ‘Alec Tentative Open Close Parenthesis Dungeon’, basically 『Alec Dungeon (Tentative)』.
But then Nana-san insisted I include her name too.
And thus, our dungeon was officially christened 『Alec-Nana Tentative Open Close Parenthesis Dungeon』.
Incidentally, she wanted to use her ‘full’ name, but I had to draw the line there.
「Alright then, let’s head back. That took longer than I expected.」
「Indeed.」
Our dungeon was, technically, complete, and its name was, technically, decided.
With that settled, Nana-san and I left the Alec-Nana Tentative Open Close Parenthesis Dungeon behind.
「Once we’re back in the village, I’ll show you around, well, more like introduce you to everyone.」
「Yes, please do.」
The dungeon setup took longer than planned, but I still intended to introduce her to the villagers today.
「So, how should we go about this? Should we just visit every house one by one?」
「This isn’t door-to-door sales, Master.」
「Then maybe I’ll just walk through the village shouting your name over and over?」
「I’m not a politician riding in an election van, thank you very much.」
Sharp as ever, Nana-san…
「Either way, both of those methods would just make people dislike us. Let’s not.」
「Got it. No shouting your name, then. We’ll just walk around normally and introduce you to whoever we meet.」
「That sounds reasonable.」
Alright then, time to do my best.
I’ll be the bridge that connects Nana-san and the villagers.
Next chapter: Let’s Drop by the Cabaret Club
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