A renewed push to conquer the dungeon.

Karina-chan here.

Right now, I'm copying my homemade Karina-chan Potion (yep, the ingredient is listed as-is on the label).

Copying something with mana in it consumes more mana than the original contains, so it's a net loss mana-wise. But I'm turning my surplus mana into a storable form, you see. Think of this loss as a storage fee!

Originally it was about five small bottles worth, but after copying repeatedly, it's grown to around thirty bottles worth. I'm keeping it all together with Spatial Magic, but I really need to buy bottles…

Ahh, I'm so dizzy. Time to sleep for today…

 

I left the inn room to Dea-kun and decided to sleep soundly at the base. Aishia is still staying in Sati-tan's room today.

Ahh, my own bed is so relaxing. Yeah.

… As I wrapped myself in my blanket, I suddenly remembered the socks Sati-tan had given me.

Right, I don't need to deliver these to the Goddess… sniff sniff… Whoa, stinky! It's like having cheese stuffed up my nose… Wait, why am I unconsciously sniffing Sati-tan's socks!?

And I unconsciously preserved the original and made a copy!!

Scary, the fetish the Goddess instilled in me is scary!

And my body's so worked up it won't listen to me…! This is… the power of socks…! No, no, no, I refuse to lose to socks!

Guh, I won't give in to mere socks… inhale… exhale… hah, so stinky…

 

*

 

I couldn't beat the socks… Damn you, Goddess. Ahh, the sun is so bright.

By the way, my whole body reeked, so I took a bath before leaving the base to meet up with Dea-kun.

Hmm, I'm a bit sleep-deprived but my mana is fully charged. Wonder why…

"Good morning, Onee-san."

"Mornin'."

Today's Dea-kun is in boy mode. Yep yep, cute.

"Oh, did you take a bath this morning?"

"Yeah, morning baths are nice too. Want to take one, Dea-kun?"

"… No, we're supposed to go to the dungeon with Sati-san today, right? Won't that give it away?"

Oh right, this inn doesn't have a bath.

Well, there's a bathhouse in town, so I'll just say I went there.

"But she's my Sati-tan, and Aishia's sister, so she's basically family. If we get found out, we'll deal with it then."

"If you're okay with it, Onee-san."

There's no punishment for being found out anyway. If I ask, Sati-tan would probably keep quiet.

And so it time to tackle the dungeon again.

Today's a four-person party including Sati-tan. We paid the admission fee and entered the dungeon.

"So, Karikari. How far are we going?"

"Hmm. How far should we go, Dea-kun?"

"Then let's clear all the way to the boss. Aishia-san, please handle scouting."

"Understood!"

We descended into the dungeon. Crawlers, Grasshoppers, and Yellow Hornets attacked us, but they're nothing special if you're careful.

"Wow, Ai-nee's super useful for scouting."

"You too, Sati. It's my first time seeing you fight by swinging sake bottles around. So that's how you do it."

Sati-tan had iron sake bottles tied together with string like nunchucks. She swung them around with a whoosh-whoosh, smashing enemies just like nunchucks would, and she'd even take swigs from the sake inside.

Is that really okay? Doesn't the mass decrease and lower your attack power? Oh, the buff outweighs it, so it's no problem. She brought extra sake for refills too. Huh.

"I'll store this hornet then—there we go."

I ripped off the head that Sati-tan had crushed from the corpse and stuffed it in the bag.

"Having a porter means you can bring back so much more… But Ai-nee's bag seems to hold way more than it should…?"

"Sati, you're drunk. It's just your imagination. This is just an ordinary bag I borrowed from Master."

"Oh, I guess so."

Sati-tan laughed it off. Mmm, drunk girls are cute. Love it. Want to take her home.

"Hah—Air Cutter."

"Karikari, so that's the kind of magic you use. Splitting a Crawler's head in two? You're pretty strong, aren't you?"

"Hmph. I'm the strongest despite how I look, you know? Oh, but when it comes to cuteness, I lose to you, Sati-tan!"

"Ahaha. I won't lose in a drinking contest either, you know? Not unless you cheat, anyway. Let's have one when we get back today."

"Yeah, let's!"

Whoa, I just agreed to a drinking contest. And no cheating allowed. There's no way I can win this. I'm gonna lose—how exciting.

And so, as we casually explored the dungeon, after descending several flights of stairs, we arrived at a room containing something that clearly stood out. There an artificial object with an out-of-place atmosphere: a large door with reliefs carved into it.