Dungeon's Final Boss: Banished by My Boss, the Goddess, to Earth—So I'll Continue My Past Life - 14

Chapter 14: Second Convenience Store

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Rinko Samejima’s past gave me a lot to think about.

When I worked as a monster, an Overload was one of the rare chances I had to see the world outside the dungeon. Overload was something that occurred once every few years. More importantly, the dungeons I had been in mostly appeared in places devoid of people.

Well, I guess it couldn’t be helped considering Japan has so few habitable plains. That said, just because there were no people around didn’t mean those places were impossible to discover.  I wasn’t in a position to have a say in dungeon placements, but judging by the rules of where they appeared, it seemed like dungeons couldn’t be placed in locations that the world’s dominant life forms would never discover.

I looked it up on my phone afterward, and there were reports of Overload-related damage all over the world. Even in Japan, though only a handful of cases of Overload had occurred, the level of destruction was comparable to that of a major earthquake.

As a Japanese person, I felt that preventing Overloads was something we should actively strive for. Now then, what kind of dungeons were prone to Overloads? Well, the answer was obvious enough. They occurred when two or more dungeons remained in close proximity to the human’s dwelling for over five years. As for proximity, a rough estimate would be within a five-kilometer radius. 

Speaking of five years, the recent Kichijoji Dungeon incident came to mind. It seemed the dungeon had been left alone due to its unpopularity. There weren’t any other dungeons nearby that had been around for that long.

From what I could find online, the exact conditions for an Overload weren’t officially confirmed, but efforts were being made to space dungeons farther apart. No multiple dungeons should be in close proximity to each other for long. 

Magic stones were the key to powering modern civilization. Perhaps the desire for having a stable supply of magic stones nearby led some dungeons to be preserved for longer than should be. Yet, despite that, Wikipe still said the reason why the dungeon didn’t get conquered was because the dungeon was unpopular.

Come to think of it, I wondered if my neighbor was still in that dungeon.

“Guess I’ll take a peek.”

As long as I stayed invisible, there shouldn’t be any problems. Actually, setting up a second Dungeon Convenience Store there might not be a bad idea. Shinjuku Dungeon was under an exclusive contract with “Shinjuku Birth,” and since they didn’t promote their activities through streaming or other means, I couldn’t use them to advertise the Dungeon Convenience Store.

That said, thanks to them, I knew people would use it once they realized the effect of my Dungeon Convenience Store.  So, why not test it out in Kichijoji Dungeon, where more people visited?

And so, I decided to set up another Dungeon Convenience Store in Kichijoji Dungeon.

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“Alright! First off, I want to apologize for the trouble last time. I’m Mimimi Amanokawa!”

On the first floor of Kichijoji Dungeon, Mimimi greeted the filming drone.

“I am really, truly sorry about last time. Afterward, I contacted both Yune-san and Yinling-san to apologize. I know I shouldn’t get too focused and lose sight of my surroundings. I’ll be more careful.”

: It’s all good.

: I think Mimimi-chan’s ‘zone’ is something like her Awakened ability.

: We love those moments.

: Congrats on coming back!

: Congrats!

: Cheers!

: What about the Dungeon Ojisan after that?

“U-Umm… I haven’t seen Oji-san since then.”

Actually, he was my neighbor, but since he asked me to keep that a secret, I decided to stay quiet about that fact.

“I wanted to thank him as many times as possible, but unfortunately, I haven’t had the chance to do that.”

: I see.

: Dungeon Ojisan is seriously amazing.

: I wanna see him again.

“Well then, today, I’ll be mining magic stones again!”

: But are you sure it’s safe to be in Kichijoji Dungeon again?

: Shouldn’t you have a bodyguard around?

“Oh! You’re right. I’ll be careful.”

Actually, I ran into Hasegawa-san-san just as I was about to head out for filming.  He asked me for a favor. He even tried to give me magic stones in return, but I refused. He was really persistent, but I somehow managed to refuse him. So today, I’m bringing the magic stones I have yet to exchange stored in my Item Box.

When an Awakened gains their abilities, they also obtain the Item Box skill. Item Box was a storage ability that utilized some unidentified space, but only the owner could access it, and its capacity varied from person to person. Mimimi had a relatively large capacity. She could store about three full excavation sessions’ worth of magic stones at a time.

Though Mimimi ranked around the lower-middle tier among D-Tubers in terms of popularity, her magic stone excavation volume was relatively high, allowing her to earn between five to ten million yen per excavation session.

That said, dungeons with abundant magic stone veins weren’t that common, so she couldn’t mine every day. There were many days when she couldn’t find a good spot to mine, ending up just walking around and chatting with viewers. She was heading to the same magic stone vein as last time, but even though Kichijoji Dungeon was an unpopular dungeon, she and her viewers speculated that the vein she used before must have been depleted by now.

: By the way, can Mimimi-chan reach the tenth floor solo?

: She can make it.

: Well, reaching the tenth floor is probably the limit of her combat ability, though.

: Miner-type Awakened are such a mystery.

: There’s no official classification for them, right?

: Nope.

: Officially, Awakened are divided into combat types and production types.

: Yeah. Miner-types don’t exist.

: If we go by that classification, Mimimi-chan technically falls under combat types.

: Doesn’t that mean she’s kinda unlucky then?

: Yeah.

: Anyone can mine magic stone veins, after all.

: Miners can extract more than others, but they can also run into trouble like last time.

: If you want to mine magic stone seriously while keeping the miner safe, forming a party is ideal, but by doing so, you will need to divide the profit between your party members.

: Why doesn’t Mimimi-chan form a party?

: Idiot! Do you think Mimimi-chan has that kind of social skill?!

: She worked so hard just to collaborate last time!

: She’s the shining star of us introverts!

: Wait, there are first-time viewers here.

: Is this the effect of the Dungeon Ojisan?

: Maybe it’s thanks to the last collab stream?

: Don’t assume Mimimi-chan is only about that up-and-down mining motion!

“Huh?”

As she advanced while glancing at the viewer chat, she spotted something just as she was about to enter the second-floor area. There was a bit of an open space area, so it wouldn’t be impossible to see someone setting something up there, but…. 

Is it even possible to set something like that in a place like this…?

“A convenience store?”

: Huh?

: lol

: Convenience stores finally made it into dungeons, huh? lol

: Where is it?

: Never seen that before.

: ‘Dungeon Convenience Store Kichijoji Branch’ LOL

: Wait, the writing is in Dungeon Script.

: What’s that?

: I don’t recognize the letters, but I can read them…

: Yeah. That’s what people call Dungeon Script.

: Technically, it’s the ‘Universal Language.’ Stop making up random terms.

: Oof.

: I can feel the second-hand embarrassment lol

: Huh? Mimimi-chan, are you going inside?

: This is bad lol

: What if it’s a new type of mimic? Don’t do it!

: Go for it! lol

This must be the place Hasegawa-san-san told me about.

She stepped inside cautiously, and after receiving an explanation from a golem-like store clerk, she was convinced. This was a place where magic stones could be exchanged for money to buy goods. In other words, if one didn’t have a certain amount of magic stones from the start, they couldn’t make use of this place.

She didn’t know what connection Hasegawa-san had to this mysterious store, but believing he wanted her to make use of it, she browsed the menu. The magic stones she had brought amounted to ten thousand magic stones. If she was going to spend them, she needed to make sure it also served as an advertisement for the store. Simply buying something wouldn’t be enough.

She had to make sure it was useful. She had to showcase the effectiveness of the item she bought.

With that in mind, buff-related food items didn’t seem necessary for her. Recovery items were useful in emergencies, but there was a chance she wouldn’t even use them.

Resurrection items? No, since she was a solo player, if she died, it was over for her. Not to mention, they were too expensive for her to afford.

That left… Golems?

“Um, I’m here to mine magic stone veins, so can these golems…?”

“Yes, golems. If you need assistance with excavation, we recommend either defense or carrying types. The defense type prevents surprise attacks from monsters and protects you from ambushes while moving. The carrying type, as the name suggests, helps transport excess magic stones and drop items to the dungeon’s first-floor entrance. Both have a maximum operational time of eight hours or will vanish upon exiting the dungeon, so please keep that in mind.”

“Ah, okay!”

She hadn’t expected such a smooth explanation from the golem-store clerk,  so she was taken aback.

: Wait…

: If these abilities are exactly as described, wouldn’t this help Mimimi-chan a lot?

: Yeah, seriously.

: Looks good.

: Just rent one already!

“Well then…”

And so, she decided to rent two defense golems. With two, even if she were attacked by a Spriggan Giant, they might be able to buy her enough time to escape. Since she had a big Item Box capacity, she didn’t think of renting a carrying golem. If she could showcase how useful they were, she would be able to repay Hasegawa-san’s kindness.

Believing that, Mimimi proceeded deeper into the dungeon. The defense golems easily took down the attacking dwarves along the way.

: Whoa.

: No way.

: They’re so strong.

Soon enough, Mimimi arrived at the tenth floor. Sure enough, the magic stone vein used in her previous collab video had been depleted, so she ventured deeper in search of another.

: Mimimi-chan is going deeper and deeper~

: That area isn’t safe for solo players.

: Even other miner-type Awakened avoid going there alone.

: But that also means there’s a higher chance a vein is still untouched.

The defense golems continued defeating monsters even in the tenth-floor area. The gigantic Iron Eater snails, the multi-legged Dungeon Big Centipedes, and the powered-up Dwarf Fighters—none were a match for the golems.

: Huh?

: Monsters don’t drop magic stones when the golems kill them.

: That means having golems fight the monster is a waste of resources.

: Well, it’s not like Mimimi-chan could defeat these monsters herself anyway.

: True.

: For now, she just needs to find a vein and mine like crazy.

: You got this~!

And on the fifteenth floor, she finally found a magic stone vein.

“There it is! Let’s do this!”

Excited, Mimimi grabbed her beloved gold-plated pickaxe and charged at the vein. That day, she broke her personal record for longest mining session, and many viewers were mesmerized by her intense up-and-down motion.

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“Hmm.”

As I watched as one of the viewers, it seemed that the golem’s performance was quite satisfactory. I was surprised that even a non-combat Awakened like Mimimi, t, could casually drop a million yen worth of magic stones, but the effect of the golem proved to be well worth the price. Some viewers also noticed that when the golem defeated monsters, no magic stones were produced.It would be great if people understood that drawback and used it accordingly.

Shinjuku Birth had already grasped that concept and made sure to land the finishing blow themselves whenever possible. I hoped others would follow suit. I didn’t have any plan to set up a place to accept complaints, but watching these streams occasionally and making adjustments should be enough.

In any case, thanks to Mimimi’s stream, miner-type Awakened individuals would likely start using the Dungeon Convenience Store.From the third store onward, I should aim to set them up in dungeons with plenty of magic stone veins.

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