Book 2: Chapter 2: (3)

From then on, for 2 days straight I hadn’t gone into the dungeon, and instead seriously focused on my part-time job. Since the electric drill I ordered off Amason had arrived, I went ahead and opened up some holes in the dungeon’s stone walls so that I could mount the cameras snugly in place, and I also painted the coax and power cables a nice gray color. However, the iron gate had remained firmly shut the entire time, so not even a single monster had made it inside.

And with that, until the other stuff I ordered off Amason arrived, we kept away from opening the iron gate. Ria, Shizuku, and I had spent our daily lives inside my apartment and doing nothing spectacular.

「Mr. Suzuki! Amason delivery here! 」

It finally came. I rushed to the front door and was about to open it until I realized. If I just open it like this, it’ll open into the dungeon.

「Sorry, I’ve kind of got my hands tied up at the moment. Could you open the front door for me? It isn’t locked. 」

The Amason delivery guy opened the door for me. My hands were not currently tied up, and I could tell by the look on his face he was slightly confused. I signed the usual spot on the form, and he handed the package over to me.

「Thank you Mr. Suzuki. 」

「Thank you so much!」

After the delivery guy had left, I excitedly opened up the box. Ria also peeked over into the box with great interest.

「What is that? 」

「This is a very special artifact. 」

In this world, rather than an artifact, this is often called a robot arm. It might look like just a simple toy, but when connected by a USB cable to your computer, it can be controlled. I also bought a long USB cable. It was the type of cable to strengthen the signal, so I spent around $100 on it alone. To be honest it was around the same price as the robot arm.

「Let’s go install this inside the dungeon immediately! 」

「Huh? Where are you going to set it up? 」

「The place near the button to open up the iron gate. 」

If we install it properly, the robotic arm will definitely be able to push the button to open up the iron gate.

「We finally did it!! 」

After spending a few hours installing and mounting the robot arm, I spent a few hours running trial and error tests on my computer to get it to work. At last, from the inside of my apartment, just with the click of a button I created a system that can open and close the iron gate at will. The time was 3 in the morning. Ria had been having fun watching me get it configured and had finally fallen asleep. But I was too excited to sleep. The arm was a 100% success, I could open and close the gate whenever I wanted to! I had attained perfect security.

「I’ve finally devised a system where I can reliably open and close the iron gate from a distance! 」

But actually, I think it’s also alright to say that I’ve come up with a simplified monster-hunting system. I remembered the time I first met Deet.

「That time, in order to make sure that the giant centipede that was attacking Deet couldn’t come inside I lowered the iron gate. The gate trapped the centipede between it, but it was also crushed and severed in two. 」

If it crushed its head, that giant centipede would have died for sure. Or, if it was a weaker monster like a slime or weird monster mushroom, it would probably be instant death. However, sure the gate was wide and powerful enough to get the job done, but the real question was if I’d be able to identify a monster on the monitor and press the button in time to crush it.

「Might as well give it a try. 」

For the time being, I went to the kitchen and grabbed a cold cola to wind down. I came back and lounged in my computer chair.

「Okay! It’s time to check how the door works! I can finally grind levels with just one click! 」

When I clicked the computer mouse with my right hand’s index finger, I observed the iron gate rise up through the computer monitor on my desk. And then all I had to do was wait patiently for a monster to wander inside. I sipped on my cola through a straw as I watched the monitor. In order for this trap to work, I had set up a camera so I could use the iron gate, but try as I might, I couldn’t see anything but the one side with the stone wall.

「Hmm… I guess just by waiting like this, monsters aren’t just going to come inside…」

About 5 minutes had passed. And then it happened. Without a sound, a gelatinous mass appeared.

「It came! A slime! 」

With a swift movement, I pressed the button to close the gate. The gate was closing too slow. But the slime was also slow. I saw the slime get crushed beneath the gate and severed in two. I quickly put on my headlamp and went into the dungeon. I quickly rushed to the front of the iron gate.

It was a success!

All around the iron gate was the blue remains of the slime.

「I did it! Things are starting to heat up! 」

I ran back to my computer. I couldn’t even get one sip of my cola before another monster appeared on the screen. But after that, things didn’t go so well. A monster mushroom, a centipede, and a giant rat all came by the gate, but as soon as I tried closing it, they would just run away. The slime was slow, so it was unable to escape my trap. It wasn’t able to read the situation as well as the other monsters, that’s probably the only reason it fell for it.

「I got one out of a couple of monsters, so it was a semi-success but… the success rate is too low. 」

I wondered if using the iron gate to defeat monsters was a bad idea after all. But for the time being, the number of blue slimes coming through the gate wasn’t that low, so I could keep hunting them. I should also try laying some bait down to attract more slimes.

「Wait a second…if I use bait…」

I went to my refrigerator and grabbed some cabbage, green onion, ham, and ground meat and put them into a bag. I took the bag and went into the dungeon.

「Welp, that’s all of my decent food. I seriously gotta go to the store. 」

On top of that, monster corpses were starting to pile up inside the dungeon. As I had expected, near the iron gate was a large collection of slimes. I attacked a blue slime with my ice axe. I grabbed that slime and some of the other slime residue and put it inside the bag. Then I faced the gate and lined up the food and monster residue I had picked up.

「Okay little monsters, I put a nice snack down for you! 」

This way, I can probably close the gate on the monsters who will try and eat the bait. I returned from the dungeon and went into my room, then clicked the button to open the gate. As soon as I did, a blue slime grabbed a hold of the cabbage I laid out.

「And now to close it and…Got him!」

I placed the cabbage barely on the edge of the entrance, so only the slime was impaled by the gate. The slime was so distracted by the bait that it didn’t even have an opportunity to run away.

Okay next. I wanted to try again.

When I opened up the gate, a monster immediately appeared again.

「It’s a monster mushroom! He’s heading towards the green onion! 」

I immediately tried closing the door and…so close! Just by looking at the footage, I wasn’t too sure, but he probably managed to escape. I had to keep it up.

This time, it was a slime! Success!

Another slime, another success!

Then a monster mushroom. I got it that time!

Is that a goblin? Does he want to eat my ham? I tried to close the door and…he got away. That was a failure.

Slime! Success!

Another slime! Got it!

The slimes look like they’re really after that cabbage, it made them really easy to defeat. I didn’t have a lot of free samples put out, but the monster mushroom capture rate was pretty high. I was going to try a bit more. I opened the door again and stared at the monitor looking for monsters.

One came! A giant centipede! If I can defeat this guy, my chances of leveling up are high! When I was a low level, defeating one of these things gave me two level-ups.

「I see, I see. So, Mr. Centipede likes the ground meat huh? 」

The giant centipede focused solely on eating the ground meat. It’s possible that the monsters of this dungeon have a special affinity towards Japanese food.

「Here it goes! Don’t notice this…I’m gonna press the button! 」

The iron gate started to steadily close. I thought I was actually going to get it. But suddenly the giant centipede jumped in surprise and turned away. Just by looking at the monitor I couldn’t tell but it was probably a failure.

「Aww, I was so close! Maybe I should go check the front of the gate. 」

As I thought, it looked like I wasn’t able to catch the giant centipede. I didn’t even level up and my ground meat was almost all gone.

「So Japanese food really is an effective way to lure them…」

Maybe I should go buy some more stuff from Tonskihote. Maybe there’s some food that would work even better as bait! For some reason I only end up going to Tonskihote in the middle of the night. It’s way more convenient than other stores, they even sell groceries 24/7.

「I, too, would like to be helpful to you. 」

Shizuku had appeared on my clothes out of nowhere.

「You should teach me some of the food that you like, Shizuku. 」

「The eating habits of monsters are all very different, but the Japanese food you had cooked for me was exceptionally delicious.」

「Hmm okay. Well I’ll be back. 」

「Okay! 」

Shizuku’s voice got lively. It seemed like she was happy that the two of us got to go outside together. I took her to my part-time job before, but we’ve never been to Tonskihote together. Maybe I’ll buy something for her. But I had no idea what exactly a white slime would want to buy. After making it to Tonskihote, I looked at the outside of the building with Shizuku.

「T-This is Tonskihote? It’s so big! And sparkly! 」

「That’s right. And no dungeons! 」

「It’s different from the shops where you ask for allies and converse with people. 」

「Probably. It’s different from your world’s shops too, it’s massive. Deet was totally surprised too. 」

It would be really fun if I was able to go to their world’s shops with Ria, Shizuka, and Deet too. So, I need to work hard and clear the dangerous dungeon. Speaking of Deet, I need to set up the camera that watches the other side of the stone wall. And it wouldn’t hurt to keep leveling up and getting stronger too. I better look for some more tasty bait that monsters would like as well.

「Alrighty. Well first off, we better go somewhere they sell food. 」

「Okay!」

The grocery store was a big building with cash registers lined up in front and in the very back is where the snacks were sold.

「Hmm how about potato chips. But I feel like there’s something I’m forgetting… 」

I felt like I was forgetting something about these potato chips. As I was trying to remember what I had forgotten, Shizuku chimed in.

「This chip does not look very tasty. It also smells bad. And it is tough. 」

There is no way potato chips can taste bad right?

「Oh, actually you open up this and eat the foot inside of it. The things inside are definitely tasty! 」

「I see. I had thought that this was not what food smells like. 」

「Exactly. I’ll buy a bag for you. And it’ll increase your agility by 50%. 」

「Yes, our companions often spoke of how they care for these “statuses”. I’m sure they will be delighted. 」

That’s right. Japanese food can cause various of your stats to raise.

「And that’s why—-AHHHHH I FORGOT! 」

「W-What is the issue?」

「Is it really okay for me to give Japanese food to monsters?! Won’t they become stronger? 」

I’ve already had some monsters eat my food and run away. I hope I haven’t caused any serious issues to people exploring the dungeons.

「Well yes. I-I wonder. At least, as a white slime, I am different than humans and don’t often check my own status. 」

I guess asking Shizuku won’t get me anywhere. She doesn’t really have any interest in the changing of her stats. But some of the information she said was actually pretty beneficial to me.

「However, my companions did hear from humans about something. Even if they are the same type of monsters, the stronger ones provide more experience points and make it easier for you to level up. 」

「Wait, really? 」

「Yes. Or so I’ve heard. 」

So maybe, if I feed dungeon monsters some Japanese food to up their stats and then defeat them, I can level up really easily.

「Well, I’ll think about that later. What I need to consider now is some food that will distract the monsters long enough for the gate to latch onto them. 」

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