DanMachi: How did my dungeon turn into a Soulslike game?

Isagi really had no cards left to play, you know?

All he could do was strike a deal with Lady Empress: once he got stronger, the two of them would have a fight, and she could enjoy it "to her heart's content."

Of course.

Winning or losing would both come with a price.

Watching that undisguised, unblinking stare of hers, Isagi understood that if he lost, something fairly "terrifying" was going to happen to him.

In theory, he supposed he wouldn't exactly be getting the short end of it. The Empress possessed beauty that lost nothing to a goddess, after all.

But it still sat badly with him.

There was a rather large gap between doing and being done to, and Isagi much preferred doing —

When he returned to the present, he found the city under rain.

Autumn was drawing near.

The faintly warm rain fell in an endless drizzle, as if it had no intention of ever stopping.

Since he'd left the girls a note before crossing over, none of them had worried about him. They'd even timed it right and set aside lunch for him at noon today.

Much like when he'd left, the Garden of Stars was empty. Not a soul around. The goddesses had all gone out too.

In the courtyard, the Golden Tree had grown tall and broad as a canopy, to the point where it looked ready to shade out every other plant and shrub around it. The gentle golden light it gave off, that gilded edge, could be seen from streets far away. It had even become one of the city's more famous night sights.

And from it.

Isagi could now sense a certain kind of "rule" more clearly than before.

As if all things sprouted, died, and were born anew, the gears of it meshing without the slightest gap, turning and turning and never stopping.

He could even faintly feel that he might be able to alter some of those "rules." But it was only a feeling. He couldn't do it yet. He probably needed to level up more first.

After lunch he showered, changed, and went back to his room to sleep.

When he drifted awake again, it was already night. Isagi opened his eyes to find Cecil's plump little round face staring straight down at him.

Her chubby little hand had already found his nose, and looked about ready to start pinching.

He'd woken up at exactly the right moment, apparently.

"Have you eaten yet?"

"Mm!"

Cecil nodded, then added, "Big sister Riveria and the others came over too. Something about the adventure."

"Ah."

There was still a bit of mud smudged on the blue-haired girl's face. Goddess Demeter had probably dragged her off to do farm work today.

Come to think of it.

A few days back she'd mentioned that another new weapon had been forged for her, which was why she'd been resting these past days.

He hadn't gone to look at it, though. They'd only just come back from an expedition, so he'd figured they should rest a few days and deal with it when it was time to go into the Dungeon again.

"Let's go, then!"

He rolled out of bed.

After a quick wash, Isagi headed downstairs to the living room with Cecil.

The long table was loud and lively. Dinner had already started, and it was unusually lavish, no doubt Goddess Demeter's handiwork. Isagi spotted plenty of seafood and ocean fish as well, likely sent over by Lord Njord in Melen.

At the table.

Isagi saw Miss Riveria and Heith, and it clicked at once. They'd come to talk about the next expedition.

So after the meal, the group moved into the reception room and opened what could only be called a "war council."

The subject was simple enough.

It was the question of how to divide up the "BOSS" subjugations on the lower levels during the next expedition.

For the members of Loki Familia and Freya Familia, [Stats] growth was more or less finished. All they needed was enough [Excelia], and some of them could rank up to Lv.8 again before long.

However.

The BOSSes on these lower levels were only around Lv.6 to Lv.7, so the [Excelia] they yielded wasn't much either.

Over this stretch of time everyone had subjugated no small number of BOSSes, and the current focus was on the two figures waiting at the end of the "Hunter" and "Prey" storylines.

They were projected to have at least Lv.8 strength, making them the most powerful things around aside from the "[Empress]" who sat beneath the Golden Kingdom in the desert as the final BOSS.

Unsurprisingly, Loki Familia and Freya Familia decided to take on those two BOSSes separately.

At the same time, they invited Isagi and the girls of his Familia to take part.

Everyone going together wasn't impossible, but then the [Excelia] would be split thin, and after Riveria and Ottar talked it over they'd concluded there was no need.

Isagi felt the same way.

Perhaps.

They could all go together for the subjugation of the "[Empress]." But for the final BOSSes of two branch storylines like "Hunter" and "Prey," there was no point.

The subjugation was set for the next expedition.

After the usual exchange of intelligence and settling on tactics for the fights, the war council came to a satisfying close.

All that was left was for the expedition to begin a few days later —

As always, they set out from Daedalus Street, rode the [Elevator], and went straight down to Rivira, the adventurers' town on the 18th floor.

Isagi and his companions restocked their supplies there.

Now that the [Elevator] was open, all the goods in this adventurers' town, once absurdly overpriced, cost basically the same as they did up in the city.

The merchant caravans no longer had to cross the Dungeon to haul their wares back and forth, after all.

However.

Word was that the Guild, working together with Ganesha Familia and the Xenos, was preparing to build another adventurers' town on the safe level, floor 28.

And apparently excavation of the Artificial Labyrinth had already extended to floor 21. Someday it might really run straight to floor 28, or even deeper.

Expeditions were only going to get more convenient from here on out.

They chatted the whole way.

It took the better part of a day before Isagi and the others arrived at the deeply familiar [Ancient Hunting Grounds], spanning floors 29 through 32 — that dense jungle region of colossal trees and tangled vines.

Here, the group would split.

He, Ryuu-senpai, Miss Heith, and the members of Freya Familia formed one team.

On the other side were Ais, Lefiya, Tiona, and Haruhime, together with the members of Loki Familia.

Each team would go subjugate the final BOSS of one of the two storylines, "Hunter" and "Prey."

The interesting part was this.

What Freya Familia was going after was the final Administrator of the "Hunters," the "Ace Hunter (SSS)" appointed by that "Emperor" down in the deep levels, holder of the highest authority in this place.

Loki Familia's target, meanwhile, was the current leader of the "Prey" — the "Miracle" on floor 27, the BOSS formed from the Monster Rex twin-headed dragon Amphisbaena, an "SSS"-rank piece of prey.

At first Isagi had found it strange.

Because Freya Familia's storyline had clearly been about helping the Hunters, while Loki Familia's was the reverse, helping the Prey.

So how had it flipped around again?

They'd all explained the specifics before the expedition started, though.

And now, all that was left was to reach where the BOSS waited.

"Let's move."

Loki Familia would of course be heading back to floor 27.

As for his side.

He and Ryuu-senpai followed Ottar and Hedin, threading through the dense jungle toward the "very center" of this place.

It took a long while.

It felt like walking through an impossibly intricate maze.

At last they came to a huge hollow in a tree. They passed through it, and the faint mist-door reappeared. Ottar and Hedin stepped in without hesitation.

Inside.

Everything opened up at once.

The giant trees around them formed towering walls, and at the very center, on an uneven platform woven from countless tangled vines, a figure stood.

An SSS-rank Hunter…

…

Isagi had thought the storyline of the lower levels wasn't complicated.

Broadly speaking.

It amounted to "Hunters" from the deep levels treating the Monsters native to these floors as "Prey," the two sides locked in conflict.

Meanwhile.

A "Golden Kingdom" had suddenly appeared in the once-barren desert region. The Hunters had explored it, something had gone wrong, and in the end they'd chosen to ignore it.

That was more or less the gist of it, and nothing about it seemed off.

So the two storylines that branched off from it came down to either helping the Hunters hunt the Prey, or helping the Prey drive out the Hunters.

At the end of both lines, you had to face the strongest "SSS"-rank existence on each side.

But both storylines had a twist waiting at the end.

Take the "Hunter" line that Freya Familia had picked up. At the start, their job was to accept subjugation requests against Prey at the [Hunter's Black Market] on floor 28.

Then, once Loki Familia's side triggered their own storyline.

The requests changed into orders to subjugate Riveria and the other adventurers — but in reality, they still got ambushed along the way by Hunters, a whole pack of "SS"-rank ones.

And after they were beaten.

The [Hunter's Black Market] shut down, and Ottar's group found themselves hunted by things called Hunting Grounds Administrators.

After killing one of them, a creature covered all over in mouths, they obtained a quest item, and at last could understand the words of the little elves that circled the "Sacred Tree" in the [Elf Garden] on floor 28.

And then.

The first thing those things said was:

"Go kill every last Hunter, adventurers, kekeke!"

And also:

"And kill every last piece of Prey too, so the garden can keep spreading, and everyone can live together happy and joyful!"

"…"

Combined with all the intelligence and quest items Loki Familia had collected on their side.

Everyone finally understood.

The so-called war between "Hunters" and "Prey" had never existed at all.

The two sides had even been hiding from each other, avoiding killing too many of the other, and the strongest of each — the SSS-rank Hunter and the SSS-rank Prey — had both chosen of their own will to hide themselves away and seal themselves, so they wouldn't all be wiped out. All so those little elves could spread the garden to the other floors.

Once all that had played out.

Isagi had taken it upon himself to burn down the Sacred Tree of that [Elf Garden]. The little elves circling it had gone berserk one after another and attacked him — but they were far too weak, weaker than a Goblin even, with no offensive capability whatsoever.

And the result was that, with the "Sacred Tree" burned away, he not only obtained some genuinely rare materials.

The old [Elf Garden] changed too. Beyond the hillsides of flowers, trees rose up sturdy and thriving, streams appeared, along with all manner of animals and fish —

The whole place was blanketed in rare and precious materials, enough to keep everyone gathering for quite a while.

However.

After burning the "Sacred Tree," Isagi had felt a twinge of regret.

Because he couldn't shake the feeling that if he'd killed the SSS Hunter and the SSS Prey first, that Sacred Tree might have turned into a seriously powerful BOSS.

Well, it was burned. Nothing to do about it now.

So much for the recollection.

Isagi pulled his attention back to what stood before him, watching the still-motionless "BOSS (strongest Hunter)" in the distance without letting his guard slip an inch.

The interlaced vines were a deep green, and the algae coating the surfaces of the giant trees all around gave off a glowing emerald light. Dim, but with a dreamlike quality to it.

Especially.

At the center of the woven vines, where a single small flower grew, pure white and beautiful. Sprouting up among the vines the way it did, it drew the eye more than anything else there.

And that strongest Hunter stood guard beside the flower, a long sword driven into the ground before it.

Ancient, worn, caked with dried blood.

The robe it wore was stained through with dark red gore, and as Ottar and Hedin drew closer, the strongest Hunter slowly rose to its feet.

From beneath that pitch-black, hollow hood, deep crimson blood began to trickle out.

Thick and rank, it dripped down onto the vines, and onto that pure white little flower, as though watering it, feeding its growth, staining the blossom blood-red.

All Isagi could see beneath the tattered robe.

Was a pair of charred black bone hands, threads of red blood running through them.

It was a "skeleton."

But not a human one. It stood upright, yet its hands were sharp-tipped and broad, like beast claws, and the skull under the hood was beyond description — as if a great many bones had been shattered and then glued back together, ending up in the twisted shape before him.

And once he got closer, Isagi realized the thing was quite large. Three meters at least.

Its two charred leg bones were thick beyond belief, and it even had a long, grotesquely swollen tail.

It pulled the sword free.

A weapon that, in his own hands, would count as a greatsword at minimum, sat in its grip no differently than a one-handed blade.

"Rrraaagh!!"

The Monster threw back its head and howled, a hoarse, grating roar.

Standard procedure before a fight, apparently.

"We're used to fighting on our own here. Do as you please."

Hedin tossed the line over his shoulder.

For Isagi and Ryuu, that was no problem at all. Miss Heith had told them about Freya Familia's "habits" long ago.

Rather than tactics.

They were more accustomed to learning each other in the middle of combat, and coordinating on experience alone.

It didn't matter.

Isagi glanced at Ryuu-senpai and Miss Heith beside him, and in an instant the three of them had a basic "plan of coordination," no words needed.

"Let's begin, then."

Isagi shifted into a pitch-black giant wolf and, as always, drew the Moonlight Greatsword from his mouth.

Then he looked at the thing waiting not far away.

[SSS-Rank Hunter - "The Unreachable Eternity," Nelmos].

____

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