The Dungeon Defense Battle
Arc Four: Cast of Characters
● The Dungeon
It draws human emotion and life as its energy source, though a small amount of energy is also supplied by the World Core. If adventurers over-harvest its monsters and items too heavily, its books no longer balance and it collapses. Conversely, if a great number die, it runs wild and grows enormous, and as a result collapses.
Artificial-type dungeons require human lives for growth and long-term upkeep, but some, like limestone-cave dungeons, grow ever so slowly even when completely uninhabited.
[The Library-City Dungeon]
A tower-type dungeon, a stack of many libraries, standing atop a hill a little over 100 m high in the uninhabited wasteland of "Adachi." It has no official dungeon name. For the cumulative energy it has acquired, its scale is quite large.
The nearby place-names resemble those around Saitama Prefecture, but the distances and positional relations differ.
Type: Library (produces books, newspapers, magazines)
Scale: 482 tier-groups, 3,520 floors; height 15 km; total floor area 6,400,000 m²
※ Depending on how one counts the penthouses, attics, or underground machine rooms, the floor count comes out a little higher.
Number of monsters: 5 (all Named)
Unique laws: no open flame inside the buildings; the Core Room and the like are off-limits to unauthorized persons; can maintain a living environment in which one does not get altitude sickness even on the high floors?
[The Dungeon Master]
Has no name at all. Its first-person pronoun is "I". A Beast. Lately a bit of a faint presence.
[The Librarian] (name not yet given)
The university-library librarian who was supposed to be summoned through otherworld reincarnation during the tutorial. The tutorial reward was the national-university library where she worked (and from which she had also graduated), together with its 10 million volumes. Because the Dungeon Master never read the introductory manual "Dungeon 101," her chance to appear never came.
[Marie]
A Rosemary Asura. Her first-person pronoun is "I".
Her height is slightly on the tall side (163 cm), the same as Stalin. She has black hair with a blue metallic luster (structural color), gathered into a single bunch, and pointed (not long) ears. Her skin is white and her eyes are a deep, bluish black (black eyes deepened with blue). She dresses in the manner of a woman, but strictly speaking has no sex.
She is the lightest of anyone in the dungeon, but her role is the heaviest.
[Mint]
A Mint Asura.
Androgynous, and somewhat short (158 cm). Their short hair is bright green with a bright-green metallic luster (structural color), and their eyes too are a vivid, bright green. Their skin is pale brown.
Pays no mind to clothing. Mainly handles matters of science and technology.
Generates eight duplicates and divides the work among them. The duplicates cannot leave the dungeon's sphere of influence.
[Anne]
A Lavender Asura.
Tall (174 cm) and slender, with black hair of a pale-purple metallic luster (structural color), and eyes of a deep purple close to black.
Her standard attire is a plain dark-green long dress, a white apron, and cap. Her job is looking after the Master, Marie, and Mint "and the rest," who have no aptitude for daily life. Sapien-sensei and Rāja can fend for themselves.
[Sapien-sensei]
A Sage Asura. His first-person pronoun is "I".
Of ordinary height (167 cm). His hair is a gray metallic luster (structural color) with a faint touch of green, the base color gray. His eyes are a greenish gray. His appearance is male and his air is that of a middle-aged guy, but of course he has no sex.
Mainly handles medicine and education. Works almost entirely behind the scenes, with little time in the spotlight, but his work is important.
[Rāja]
A Basil Asura. Her first-person pronoun is "I".
Tall (165 cm), lean and muscular. Vivid deep-green hair of a metallic luster (structural color), nearly waist-length. Her eyes are black (black deepened with green). Her skin is brown.
A warrior-general accomplished in the naginata and in horsemanship, but no Guan Yu. By "setting" she is a law-faculty graduate, though of course only by setting. Mainly handles military affairs and administration.
● Humans and the like
Asura, humans, Beasts (beastfolk), Pretas, and so on. Pretas look just as they do in the pictures one finds at temples.
Humans, with the highest breeding rate, are the most numerous, but there are also regions with many beastfolk or Pretas.
[The Daikan]
Yoshida Nishinoichinojō, equivalent to Junior Seventh Rank, Lower Grade. As a rule he does not use a first-person pronoun.
A pompous middle-aged man. Tall for this region, but only about 1.7 m, by no means a giant of six shaku.
The daikan (a non-hereditary lord) of the "Iruma" region to the west of the dungeon-city; since taking up his post in Iruma he has not eaten rice.
For the record, he does have a proper imina, a personal name, but about the only one who calls him by it is his superior, Musashi-no-kami.
[Echizen-ya] (name not yet given)
A fuel merchant. His first-person pronoun is usually "I" (humble), but in some cases otherwise.
Dreams of dealing in coal. Practically lives at the Library-City Dungeon.
[Okada Tarōzaemon]
The caretaker of the settlers. A half-bald man. His first-person pronoun is usually "I", but with superiors, "I".
Poor at reading and writing, but training hard at it.
[Commander Kishi]
Kishi Harima-no-suke.
The chief of the "Kishi Band," a warrior band that does not have a single horse. He uses "I" and so forth interchangeably, which is common enough among the humans of this world. (For the record, Asura and beastfolk do not switch up their first-person pronouns much.)
[Saburō]
Hiki Komori Niedo Saburō, of no rank and no title.
A survivor of a warrior band living in Hiki, to the northwest, whose two elder brothers were killed by Marie. Since the Tsukuba army was wiped out so easily, he had no chance to appear.
[Umadayū] [Hyōe-Jiro] [Saemon-Taro]
Adventurers. They once crossed paths with Hiki Komori Niedo Saburō.
[Haruna]
A horse-beastfolk (horse-legged) from the Land of Ke. Her first-person pronoun is "I".
Her lower body, eyes, and ears are those of a horse; her head is human. Her coat color is bay. A mare. Her face is not an animal's, but in this world the Beast Realm applies, so she is a beastfolk.
Rāja rides her, that is, sits in a carrier-frame on her back. She is quite fast on her feet (slower than a racehorse, naturally). Apart from being a big eater, she has no fault worth noting, so she is unsuited to bearing a warrior-general who prefers a spirited steed.
[Kasumi] [Tsukuba]
Horse-beastfolk sisters from the eastern country. Their lower bodies, eyes, and ears are those of a horse; their heads are human. Kasumi's coat color is liver-chestnut, an overall dark reddish-brown. Tsukuba's is flaxen-chestnut, her body reddish-brown but her hair and tail blonde. Both are difficult in temperament and suited to bearing a warrior-general, but of differing types.
[Naiyaku-no-jō]
Tsukuba Naiyaku-no-jō. Never uses a first-person pronoun.
The lord of Tsukuba, far to the east in a country still further east than the province of Sō. He scraped together mercenaries and adventurers on top of his own retainers and tried to subdue the Library-City Dungeon, but both his main force and his detachment were massacred.
His is an ancient clan even older than the distinguished houses, such as the Utsunomiya and the Oyama, that bear the style of His Lordship. His greatest grievance is that he is not permitted to bear the style of His Lordship himself.