“Boss, I’m out.” I called out lazily. Once I heard their reply, I slowly got out of the computer shop.
As I walked home, my mind was filled with anxiety. Uh~ Is my writing good enough? Are there things I have to improve on? What should I do?
Isao, that’s my name. 23 years old. A Filipino light novel otaku. Loves to listen to Kessoku band songs and Hololive songs.
I work in a computer shop and I write novels on the web while I man the shop. Pay’s minimum wage, not that I’m expecting much.
Ever since I watched anime, I have had this urge to create one as well. I first tried to create a manga, but had no talent for it. When I reached senior high, I met a fellow otaku and he introduced me to light novels and web novels. Which brought me to write my daydreams on the web.
I always got reprimanded at the shop since I blundered too many times due to daydreaming. Not an issue anymore since I finally found the courage to post it. Having fun and anxieties because of it though.
As I neared home, I was once again face to face with this place on the verge of collapse. It seriously lives up to that Filipino song about houses raining inside.
It's a structure made of bricks(?) - I don’t remember what those bricks with holes are called. Two stories with the tenant occupying most of it. It’s somewhere around 40 m^2 - 60 m^2. The former storeroom, kitchen and restroom and a bit of the garage, that’s what was left of me. With the restroom raining whenever there’s rain and the garage bit leaking water in the ceiling due to faulty water line.
I know it's stupid, I should find a decent job since the money I earn at the shop is never enough. But I just can’t give up my dream. I also wanted to be like those authors whose works received an anime adaptation. Even though I know I don’t have the talent for it.
Looking at the ceiling at the garage, I find myself wanting to die again. Too afraid for suicide, though.
By the way, this suicidal thoughts lead me to the idea that a game user interface appearing out of thin air and asking for the MC to die. Its supposed to happen to a suicidal maniac but I decided to compile all my daydreams into that novel about a goblin with the《Acting》skill. Although, that one is experimental? practice? Uh, let's just say that the novel is a side story.
And this novel that I am currently writing is a side story as well. This one is supposed to be about a man who came face to face with a U.I like those in anime prompting him to become a dragon. But I changed it to become about a Filipino when the Philippines got isekaied.
Using my fake Realme to write my web novel, I noticed that the sky had turned weird. Is there supposed to be an aurora happening right now? And then an earthquake struck.
Oh my God! I prayed to God that the ceiling in the garage would hold. And thanks be to god, it did. My heart pounding, I opened my browser app to search for things to calm myself. I also played Nakiri Ayame’s song since her voice always soothes my heart.
While I searched the net with my very slow internet connection, f*ck smart by the way, I read the news about 10% of the world’s population missing. I couldn’t care less about it though. Probably have something to do with something they tryna hide.
Not feeling eager to continue writing, I touched my epub reader app and started to read a “shared” light novel about a guy who got summoned in another world to become a tool for war.
When I felt hungry, I ate Tofu Adobo whilst still reading at the bench I used as a table. That’s what I always eat since it’s the only thing I can afford. I fell asleep after I ate dinner.
***
Waking up due to the noise caused by the old hag, I checked my phone. For god’s sake, it's 12 midnight!
“Could ya keep ya mouth shut!?”
After shouting at the old hag, which happened to be my adoptive mother - who receives the payment for the rent, I once again got lost in my thoughts.
Murkhata Cult. That’s the cult founded by the old hag. I’m the one to name it though.
Their teachings are so full of bullshit that I searched for a word meaning ‘fool’ so it would fit them. Old hag, in one of their gatherings, said that their God appeared in her dreams and told her to “smoke cigarettes to show her devotion”. I couldn't contain my laughter when I heard that. But when I realize “Isn’t she spending the house’s rent to buy smoke?” I stopped laughing.
People in the village treat her like she was genuinely mad. However, just like what Betelgeuse Romanee Conti said to Subaru in the cave, I think the old hag acts like a madwoman to garner sympathy. To be frank with you, I could only pity those people instead who were fooled by her act. I heard the old hag direct so many derogatory remarks to those who helped her. One day they’re friends, but in the event that someone disagrees with her, she’ll treat them as sinners.
Sighing, I got up and went to the CR. Obeying nature’s call, I made my way there. And yet, I forgot about it as something caught my eye. Picking up the small white pearl(?), I brought it to eye level to inspect it.
You know, if this thing’s larger I might entertain the notion that this is a dungeon core is what I thought as an unbearable pain started assaulting my brain and body. Remembering that I have gotten up to go to the CR, I hoped I wouldn’t stain my pants in piss.
***
Ugh. My whole body hurts. As the pain finally subsided, I checked my pants in a hurry. Luckily, I didn’t wet my pants like a kid. I mean, it hurts so much I wouldn’t be surprised if I did.
Where’s the pearl(?) by the way? I looked around and checked my pants but it appears to be missing. Although, a beat later a game interface showed itself to me. Thank god, it’s not the one asking if I wanna die, but a different one.
ＳＴＡＴＵＳ
Name: Isao
Designation: Village Facility Administrator(PC)
Race: Dragonoid
Class: Dungeon Master
Title: First Filipino Dungeon Master
Rank: H
ＨＰ: 100/100
ＭＰ: 100/100
STR: H
DEF: H
STA: H
AGI: H
DEX: H
ACC: I
SNS: H
INT: I
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
RES: H
Unique Skills: Dragonification
Skills: ＮＯＮＥ
ＤＵＮＧＥＯＮ
This appears to be my status and there’s also an interface for controlling a dungeon.
Deep breaths, Isao. Once. Twice. Thrice. Okay, cool. I’m calm. It ain’t the time to lose my marbles. Let’s analyze the situation with a clear head.
First, there’s a status. I stopped being human and became a dragonoid, it seems. For now I appear to be a normal human being. But when I used dragonification, I turned into a western dragon in human shape.
Using the foggy mirror in the CR, I saw myself. I didn’t turn handsome but my overweight and sickly appearance changed to a healthy one. Pondering why my face wasn’t covered in scales, in an instant, scales formed into a western-dragon like helmet to protect it.
Deactivating dragonification, I looked at my MP stat and saw that it didn’t consume MP. Kinda nice.
Curious about H in my stats, I went to the garage. Taking a stance like a boxer, as thought by a former classmate, I unleashed a jab. And boy did it feel and sound satisfying. The speed and power contained in that one is comparable to a pro boxer, even though I didn’t have any training. I knew since my classmate brought me to a gym before. Couldn’t lift anything there, however. But maybe I could do it now.
And then the dungeon one. Perusing the dungeon interface I found out pretty much everything to be the same as those dungeon novels. Dungeon Map, Dungeon Management, and Dungeon Store. D-Maps is self-explanatory.
Meanwhile, D-Management includes: Territorial Management, Interior Management, and Subordinate Management. Territorial Management lets me manage the area where the dungeon could exert its influence. Right now, this whole house is its territory. But I currently have 61 Dungeon Points, 5 per human, and 3 per animal since the renters have pets: a cat and 2 bunnies. And I spent DP to include the whole block. I also temporarily set it to automatically expand its territory with 50% of the DP it would earn per expansion. My current goal is to put the whole village as its territory.
Interior Management. This one gives me the ability to create a floor; set its theme: cave, forest, desert, what have you; install monster spawn points, treasure spawn points, and traps; and many other functions. I’ll talk about the others once the time comes for me to create the labyrinth itself.
And Subordinate Management. This one allows me to summon and manage servants to help me manage the dungeon. The servants I could summon where divided into: Administrative Summon, the servants to govern the other servants; Dungeon Managerial Summon, servants delegated with monitoring the dungeon, handling the spawn points of treasures, monsters, and traps and other matters involving inside and outside the dungeon; and Protectorate Summon, were summons who protect the dungeon’s denizens from outside harm.
Lastly, the dungeon store. It consists of the Store itself and the Gacha. Using DP I could buy pretty much anything I wanted. Daily necessities, Home appliances, gadgets, vehicles, weapons, toys for the adults, anything you want the D-Store have it. And Gacha, oh how I despise this one. Thanks to my greed sensor and obvious lack of LUC stat, I’m sure as heck I won’t be dealing with this.
After hours of studying the features of the dungeon, I finally took notice of the commotion outside.
The sky… has seven moons visible even though the sun’s rising. I checked the surroundings, and I’m still at the village. Checking my status interface, if I could glean something out of it, I found out that I have a mail.
Congratulations!
You have been chosen by the Gods of this World through lottery as the First Filipino Dungeon Master and Village Facility Administrator! Of the million Filipinos in the Philippines, you are the luckiest individual to be granted the power to create and manage your own dungeon. Please try to create the best dungeon there is in the Philippines in this whole new world of Minlea.
Once you finish reading this message, you will receive 100,000 DP. This will be useful once the grace period is over at 6:00 am June 30, 2023 as hordes of monsters would start appearing in the Philippines.
The Philippines, the whole country, have been isekaied? You gotta be kidding me… The largest thing I knew that had been isekaied was a school campus. And now you’re saying, from Batanes up to Jolo - they have to make whatever shoal’s included in it - got transferred into another world. Is this because of that map in a movie where the Philippines vanished?
Shit. What’s the time now? Good, still less than an hour before the monster shows up. Better than nothing. Let’s open up a Dungeon Store and— know what? Let’s just summon a servant to fight for me. I’m a dungeon master and all, I think it's smarter too. Better not get cocky just because I got a little stronger. Pretty sure my new body didn’t come with fighting knowledge and all that jazz as shown by my Status. Uh~ Even though I wanna buy a katana, and be like “Mizu no kata” or “HinoKami Kagura ''. (┯_┯)
Pulling up the dungeon interface, I selected Subordinate Management then Protectorate Summon. I looked at the various summons that I could choose from. From the cheapest there’s common mobs in games such as goblins, slimes, and skeletons which cost somewhere around 1-100 DP. And the strongest DP could buy were in the Trillions Range, including Gods, Demigods, Dragons, Heroes, and Demon Lords.
I only have 100, 000 DP and I plan to use some of it to create a safe zone for myself. Selfish of me? Not really. I plan to use the chaos and plant a fake dead body of myself. In the near future, once the dungeon rakes in the dough, I’m bettin’ DP on it: Greedy assholes would use the people in the village as hostages to have me under their thumb. Better to make it seem that the dungeon’s at fault for the monster attack.
Spending 10,000 DP I created a dungeon in a pocket dimension. It has a forbidding door, daring anyone foolish enough to enter. For now, the dungeon only has a single labyrinthine floor as large as two basketball courts. In a magically hidden and locked room lay the entrance to my hideout, its size comparable to an average apartment. I have a bedroom, bathroom with a tub, washroom, living room, dining room, and kitchen. Setting up the Command Center in the living room for the meantime, I decided to finally summon the one to protect the village.
While I was arranging my living quarters, I deliberated as to whom to summon. First, requirements must be female, human looking and beautiful. Filipinos are pretty much unaware of the non-human races in anime and similar media. If this is Japan, folks there would assume he/she must be a cosplayer. But here in the PH, they might jump to conclusions, and mistakenly assault their own savior, thinking “Demon!”. And beautiful since who’d think of a pretty lady as villainous? Only those with an inferiority complex, that’s who.
And the others were, ability to command and summon their own minions. Since I only have a limited amount of DP I won’t be able to summon someone or something capable of protecting the village in his/her lonesome. But if they have the ability to summon their own minions and command others, the village, the neighboring village and squatter’s area by the river could be saved in the best case scenario.
Finding someone who fit the bill, I eagerly pressed the summon button. Appearing after some sort of fanfare, a tall black-haired beauty clad in armor with blood red and jet black color.
ＳＴＡＴＵＳ
Name: Asvarani
Designation: Combat Unit(NPC)
Race: Dark Huma
Class: Dark Princess Knight
Rank: G
ＨＰ: 100/100
ＭＰ: 1000/1000
STR: G
DEF: I
STA: H
AGI: G
DEX: G
ACC: H
SNS: G
INT: F
RES: H
Unique Skills: Summon Order of Darkness, Princess Knight’s Charisma
Skills: Mana Rifle Mastery Rank H, Dual Swords Mastery Rank G, Dagger Mastery Rank G, Command Rank F
Summon Order of Darkness
The Dark Princess Knight’s Unique Skill. Summons the Order of Darkness. A 200-man order with 4 platoons each consisting of a 10-man Cavalry, 3 Mana Rifle Squad, and a 10-man Infantry.
Princess Knight’s Charisma
Increases up to 50% Morale of friendly units and 75% to the Order of Darkness. Bestows “Brave Heart” buff to friendly units.
Using the dungeon interface, I looked at the status of my first ever summon. Just for reference, since there’s no convenient Help Guide or something, from the strongest of ranks to the weakest: S, A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, and I. I found out about it while perusing the Protectorate Summon.
With the status ranking now known to everyone, folks could now see that my new summon could at least be relied on for a head-on confrontation. However, it isn’t in the front-line where my summon shows her expertise. With her INT stat at F as well as Command, plus her unique skills: Summon Order of Darkness and Princess Knight’s Charisma, Asvarani could pretty much rule any battlefield. I’m pretty sure her presence in the upcoming village would be much appreciated than mine.
“My Liege. Your orders”
Uwa~ Th-this is… kinda awkward. I don’t know what to say to her. Uh… I thought I’m used to beautiful girls since grade school because I always end up in the top-most class with a high percentage of drop dead beauties. And yet…
“A-a-ano! M-m-m-m-mm-ight I kindly request that you rise momentarily?!?”
“By your will.”
Here I am stuttering like a junior high student face to face with his crush. It’s not her appearance causing me to act like this, though. I’m overwhelmed by this royalty treatment given to me by this lady. I’m just an average guy who never in his whole life stepped foot in those restaurants where you need freaking manners and dining etiquette!
“Uh… Miss Asvarani, would you be so kind as to speak informally with me?”
“I could never, My Liege!”
Perhaps she saw the desperation in my eyes, but she finally consented in the end after a grueling exchange of words.
“Got it. If this is what you want, My Liege.”
That’s a load off my shoulders. Although, no matter how I ask she won’t drop the ‘My Liege’ crap. This is the only thing this princess knight wouldn’t budge on.
Following this, I explained to her the reason why I summoned her. From my awakening as a Dungeon Master, the discovery of the fact that the entire Philippines got transferred to another world, to the upcoming appearance and attack of a monster horde. Since she’s much smarter than me - with her INT at F - I pushed everything on her capable shoulders.
What would a highschool graduate like me know about leading a territorial defense? It’s kinda unrealistic and conceited of me to assume I’d know anything just because I played military sim games or watched anime with those genres. Human lives are on the line here, this isn’t a novel wherein the MC leads the people just because he has experience in game.
Speaking of novels, I’m in another world and all, what would happen now to my novels? Forget about it, I say. I’ll focus on making sure the villagers survive then after that do my best to create the best dungeon in the Philippines here in this other world.
“Ava, I’ll leave the village in your hands, ‘kay?”
“Mm-hmm. I’ll do my best, My Liege.”
It’s calming to hear her talk to me like a friend.
“I’ll do my best as well as the Dungeon Master. For the Dungeon.”
“For the Dungeon.”
As those words as our parting words, I teleported her to the village above ground. May victory be with you, I whispered while I watched my first summon teleport for battle.