“More beast-kin are making it out alive.”
“So it seems. With a shop at the entrance, they can stock up on recovery items freely, and they’ve started retreating to regroup when things look dangerous.”
They’re coming in with lighter gear than before, and the shop seems to be even more popular than I’d expected.
The beast-kin have apparently concluded that this dungeon isn’t something they can bull through on the first try, and have shifted toward methodical information-gathering and longer-term runs.
“If they’re surviving and leaving, Rei’s growth slows down. That’s a problem.”
“But if Rei goes all out, we’ll end up with kingdom soldiers and reincarnates like that goblin dungeon situation.”
Right. So maintaining the current balance is probably the correct call for now.
And even with less experience per run, if the beast-kin are spending money here, that money might be useful for something.
The world seems to run on a shared currency across races — game world logic, probably.
“Everyone’s cleared out. They’re staying longer than before, which is kind of annoying in its own way.”
“A lot more of them are retreating and coming back for another attempt.”
“Eventually they’ll start camping nearby…”
“…Should I just wall off the entrance after hours?”
That might actually work.
No beast-kin are hanging around past nightfall, so quietly building a wall and resetting it each time might make them think the dungeon only opens at certain hours.
“Hm? Something up? Some kind of trouble?”
I was heading out for maintenance when Pilukaya said that.
I checked the map. No intruder icons.
So it’s not anyone still inside.
“What kind of trouble?”
“Hmm~ The bunny shopkeeper seems really flustered about something.”
I asked Pilukaya to share his view — sure enough, Serika was visibly panicking about something.
What’s going on? Might as well head over and ask directly, double as a maintenance run.
“I’ll provide escort.”
“No — I’ll go.”
Lady Fiona cut across Primila and declared she was coming herself.
A Demon Lord as personal escort — there really is nothing more secure.
Though against Serika specifically, even one Heavenly King is overkill.
◇
“Hey — something wrong?”
“Eek!! D-Demon Lord…”
When we arrived, Serika was tearing through the shop looking for something.
Had she misplaced one of the inventory items?
Fortunately we’d decided not to stock anything too valuable for now, so even losing something wouldn’t be a catastrophe.
“Um… actually… the sales receipts are just — gone. There’s nothing.”
“Oh.”
That was actually a problem.
“You didn’t pocket it yourself, right?”
“I didn’t!! Please ask Pilukaya-sama — he’s been watching the whole time!”
“Yeah, I figured. Pilukaya’s eyes are on everything — you’d have to be suicidal.”
Someone who’d begged for their life and volunteered for this job wouldn’t make such a stupid mistake.
Which meant the money had genuinely disappeared.
“She’s not lying~ And honestly, I have no idea where the money went either.”
Pilukaya’s voice came from the direction of the torches — he’d probably shifted an instance into one nearby.
“Well. Lost money can’t be helped.”
For an ordinary shop, this would be a serious failure.
But the shop has only ever been an experiment, and the attitude toward money was always just if it accumulates, maybe we’ll find a use for it.
If neither Serika nor Pilukaya can locate it, no amount of searching will turn it up.
“Gone, then. If this keeps happening, we should probably operate on the assumption that sales will always disappear. The shop becomes purely a facility for keeping intruders at a certain survival rate — alive enough to come back, not alive enough to be a threat.”
“In that case, this facility may not serve much purpose.”
“P-please don’t fire me. I’ll work harder, I swear.”
Something is different about Lady Fiona right now. Sharper.
Or maybe this is actually her natural register — and what I know as her usual self is the unusual version.
If I hadn’t known the Lady Fiona I see every day, I’d be as intimidated as Serika.
…Don’t forget the stats. Even everyday Lady Fiona, Rei is an ant by comparison.
“Gone… I wonder if anything changed on the dungeon side.”
I pulled up the menu.
Like unlocking paid content — had anything new been added? Or maybe a percentage of sales was being converted to dungeon mana?
“Hm?”
“What is it, Rei?”
Lady Fiona asked in her current serious tone, and I felt myself stiffen slightly.
The discomfort passed and I answered quickly.
“My stats went up.”
“From repelling intruders?”
“No — it’s too much for that… oh.”
Stats. Menu. Map. Scanning through everything, I noticed something.
The shop had a selectable icon that the other dungeon structures didn’t.
I pressed it. A settings panel appeared.
Sales → Experience Conversion Rate: 100%
There it was. A suspiciously convenient setting.
Adjusting it revealed the percentage was freely configurable.
So that was the cause.
“Um — I’m sorry. The sales… it seems I was taking all of it.”
“…Could you explain?”
A brief pause, then Lady Fiona asked in a carefully flat tone.
From the outside it might look like controlled anger. But I caught the split second of genuine surprise crossing her face — she was holding it back so Serika wouldn’t see it.
“The shop’s revenue can be converted into experience points for me.”
“I see! …Is that right. How wonderful.”
There it was. The real reaction.
Lady Fiona is pleased, which is what matters.
And having grasped that it was a mechanical quirk rather than any fault of Serika’s, Serika had visibly relaxed.
“Sorry for the confusion.”
“N-no, I was fine, really…”
I did feel bad about it.
Having your sales vanish for a completely inexplicable reason isn’t something a person could normally anticipate.
And even I, who built the shop, hadn’t known about this feature.
“Actually — this means I can’t pay Serika. Let me change the setting, and please keep working here for now.”
“Yes!”
Working someone without breaks or pay wasn’t something I intended to do.
Even setting aside the question of when she might turn on us, deliberately raising the probability by treating her badly would just be counterproductive.
As long as she’s working for the Demon Lord’s Army, poor treatment isn’t the answer.
And if she still chose to betray us after fair treatment — then at that point there’d be no hesitation about becoming enemies.
With that thought, Lady Fiona and I headed back to the underground demon realm.
…I’d need to rebuild the wall again. Maybe I should finally just put in a proper hidden passage?
No — too risky. Better to spend the mana and seal it properly each time.
◇
“I’m back. Turned out to be my fault.”
“Yeah, heard. Absorbing money into experience too — greedy, in a good way~”
“If it strengthens Rei-sama, it has more value than any other race’s currency.”
That’s kind of them to say, but it’s not a sustainable position.
Serika is properly employed now, so claiming all the revenue isn’t right.
Which means something like this:
Sales → Experience Conversion Rate: 50%
That should leave half the revenue in Serika’s hands.
If money accumulates beyond what she needs, we can hold it for whatever use we originally had in mind.
Still — having sales convert into experience is a welcome system.
The shop is going to need some serious thought going forward.