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The Core Problem
053: Terrible Revelations

053: Terrible Revelations

Within about ten seconds of summoning the Amazon, they realized that their gacha roll had given them someone… with a personality. A lot of personality. Perhaps a tiny bit too much of it.

The woman that appeared out of nowhere on one of the lower levels of the Dungeon, had the same hard to pinpoint, otherworldly quality, as the spirits seemed to have.

She was wearing a leather tunic with pauldrons made of rough fur, was armed with what looked like a bundle of javelins, a one-handed axe with a jagged edge attached to her belt, a small square wooden shield, and had surprisingly pretty auburn hair worthy of a model.

Face was rather pretty too.

She proved immediately that she’s no material for a model by looking around the room before Uraraka could say a single word and then looking straight at Uraraka with a bloodthirsty grin.

“Is this one of the physical worlds?” The amazon says in oddly accented Itavian. Uraraka raises an eyebrow before nodding. “ Nice . What am I supposed to kill though? I see no enemies here.”

That’s an introduction worthy of Muscular

Yes

“Hold your horses there.” Uraraka replies for them. “I get that you’re excited, and I share your excitement for a good fight, but we’re not quite there.”

“Eeeeh.” The amazon groans. “Sounds boring. I get that you have to be patient for a good hunt to succeed, but… won’t I get back to my world without doing anything? From what I heard from others, unless I immediately get a body to inhabit, I’m going to be back home soon.”

Oh. Well, they eventually had to find a daemon that wasn’t immediately knowledgeable about near-everything. And a daemon of Saevius felt like a good place for this to start.

“That won’t be a problem, as you’ve become a part of the Dungeon.” Uraraka replies. “You’ll be here for a while. And you should get the fights you want to have.”

“Dungeon?” The amazon blinks at her. “What’s that?”

I have no words

I don’t think that they have those in Spiritual Worlds (it would be pretty redundant), and she actually feels young.

So it makes sense. The others were just familiar with this world.

It takes Uraraka a while to explain Dungeons as a concept to the amazon. As expected, the daemon absolutely loves it.

“So I just sit on my ass around, and strong opponents come to me instead?” She eventually summarizes the introduction, Uraraka nodding. “I love it! I’m going to defeat and kill so many strong opponents and then come back to my tribe with all the tales and spoils of my victory! My sisters will be green with envy! Hahahaha!”

Looks like summoning daemons of the Nine Hordes should be really, errr, easy

Yes, I just can’t even imagine any of them saying no to a good fight.

If they’re like this one, at least.

Speaking of, what’s her name, Ochako?

“Ay’zira!” The amazon grins widely when Uraraka relays the question to her. “I’m Ay’zira! No nickname or title yet, I’m barely of age and have no big achievements. Yet .” It’s clear that she expects to get some out of this adventure. “Speaking of, are you up for a duel? You look decently strong.”

“Well, you don’t have to tell me twice !” Uraraka grins back at her. Immediately proving to Izuku that she and Ay’zira were definitely operating on the same wavelength.

Uh-oh.

***

The fight lasted for about two minutes, and ended with Ay’zira’s defeat. A narrow one. She was lacking the space to use her javelins, but Uraraka really felt the lack of a backup weapon.

It was rather clear at this point that Ay’zira was a skirmisher, supposed to bloody the enemy before the melee with her javelins. This naturally made her get in trouble when she was made to fight Uraraka at melee range, as while the latter could throw javelins, she was a better melee fighter.

They had an impromptu javelin throwing contest next and Ay’zira proved to be better at it than Uraraka, confirming those suspicions and making their little ‘duel’ into a tie in the end, while making both of them develop a certain degree of respect towards each other.

Daemons of the Nine Hordes seemed really straightforward. They just seemed to like a good fight, a simple meal and then an even better fight. And the fact that Uraraka seemed to have a similar mindset to them was vaguely concerning.

Then again, she was happy, and that’s what mattered for Izuku.

For as long as she didn’t cross any moral lines. Because if she even tried to, Izuku would call her out on that. For her own good.

***

They end up adding a completely new level to the Dungeon. For the lampades, the gravehounds and the undead.

It’s, to be honest, not a very… great level. More of a placeholder for one, although practical enough that it should actually delay a regular attack on them. Once or twice, before the potential invaders figure out the outline.

It’s a small maze of randomly put corridors, with a lot of skeletons wandering around. They’ve given them either bows or the spear & shield combo, creating a reasonably dangerous environment.

image [https://images.squidge.org/images/2024/10/05/image.png]

1. Entrance. 2. Skeletons. 3. Exit.

They’ve also experimented a bit with a two-level Level design, with the lampades’ joint boss room being one ‘level’ lower than the rest of it, with the tunnel connecting it to two larger rooms filled with skeletons and requiring one to climb some stairs there.

It’s not pretty, but it was decent enough. They’ve also given the lampades some chairs, tables and a large couch by the wall of their room. It was all pretty primitive, as was most of their decor, but it worked well enough.

This brought the total number of levels in the Dungeon up to eight.

First Level: Guest Area/Entrance, [Limestone Cave] biome, pretty much finished but it was going to be expanded in the future. And yes, they also added the shrine of Mors, as it got unlocked when they connected the lampades into the System.

Second Level: Elementals. Just… elementals. [Limestone Cave] biome. It was massively expanded into its ‘final form’, and could as well be left as-is. Open for business, too.

Third Level: Mining & Spiders. [Limestone Cave] biome. Here they were going to do a large expansion akin to Second Level, making it many times larger for more concurrent visits. Other than that, nothing significant.

Fourth Level: The undead & lampades with their gravehound companions. [Limestone Cave] biome. A bit of a filler level, frankly, and they were considering replacing it eventually with the [Blood Hornets], but for now, it worked.

Fifth Level: Plant growing area & [Hamadryad Grove]. They intended to eventually expand it, but they needed more than just a lot of [Lesser Lignomorphs]. Especially as they planned to keep it the Fifth Level, as [Limestone Cave] biome just…fit the growing area a bit more.

Sixth Level: Mining & Smelting zone with all the Cynocephali and Gore Munchers that they gathered up thus far. They have now officially converted it into the [Elven Mine] biome too.

Seventh Level: Boulder Trap of Death. Not much more to say. They did change it into the [Elven Mine] too.

Eighth Level: The living area for their servants.

And all of that while still having ideas for two more levels: one for the blood hornets (unless they’d reshuffle it around with the undead one) and one that would be their ‘official’ army barracks, hosting their Rose Guard.

They had great hopes of capturing more. And the Rose Guard had enough discipline to act as an organized fighting force on the battlefield, even if the source of said discipline was yucky to say the least.

Of course, the problem was that the Rose Guard had a bit too high of a level for the barracks level right now, they’d still need to grow a bit. Which makes sense, considering how good their equipment alone was.

So we’re officially open for business until Third Level now.

Ye.

Although we’re kinda cheating there, since one of those open levels is just the entrance

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The beastkin can now mine tin and copper on the Third Level, they shouldn’t complain.

Yes, especially as we’re still developing

It’s still a big progress and that’s what matters

If anything, it’s all growing annoying because without the [Laws] thing to give us some means of fast travel, it’s taking longer and longer for the servants to leave the Dungeon

Soon, soon.

For now, we should update said servants, as Eighth Level has a baseline AML of 2.4, and that gives us new options .

They’ve decided that they have enough mana to give everyone the ability to read, at least in Itavian. They only had books in Itavian, and giving them a new thing to do in free time felt like a good idea.

The fact that the lampades and the amazon were reasonably fluent in Itavian together with the access to books written in this language has ended up changing the ‘common’ language of the Dungeon almost overnight. Although they still had Japanese to talk in if they wanted the locals to not understand them.

They made everyone keep the beastkin language, of course. The beastkin seemed common in the area, so it just felt like a logical thing to do.

Ochako also got an [Iron Sword], [Sword Proficiency I] and [Lesser Slash I], which leveled her up to a [Barbarian Warrior, lvl 24]. Setsuna Tokage also got an [Iron Spear], [Spear Proficiency II] and [Lesser Thrust I], which leveled her up to a [Barbarian Warrior, lvl 21].

They’ve also elected to give Tetsutetsu and Kirishima the [Tribal Skirmisher Armor], as while it doesn’t exactly suit their looks, it’s still an improvement. They didn’t get the thigh highs, and no skirt-like segment, and instead got hard leather pants.

The others had only minor changes.

It seemed that with their current equipment and available skills and abilities, most of them had topped at anywhere between level 18 and 21. This meant some supernatural combat capabilities and some equipment and very basic weapons. Which was enough to fight a simple creature, but would likely make you lose to anything even remotely strong.

Shigaraki was looking forward to the battle to break through the bottleneck. Izuku had some mixed feelings about it.

“So, I know that this is a bit of an unexpected announcement…” Tokage says during the common meal this evening. “... but I think that I’m starting to dig that war god thing of yours, Uraraka-san.”

“Eh, really?” Uraraka blinks at her in shock over the table in their common dining room. “I mean, it’s great that you’ve found something for yourself, though I’m not really big on proselytizing, so I’m not really all that emotionally invested in it, if you get what I mean.”

The two parties were sitting together. Uraraka and Tokage were on the edges of their respective parties, which just happened to make them almost face each other.

“I don’t think that you can proselytize me into anything.” Tokage agrees with her. “Just, you know, decided that I like fighting too. Where’s that new friend of yours, by the way?”

“Ay’zira?” Uraraka asks for confirmation, Tokage nodding. “She is touring the Dungeon, trying to learn every nook and cranny. We’ve had a fun training brawl earlier, want in on the next one?”

“You know what, yeah.” Tokage nods. “I think I want to. It kind of sucks that we don’t seem to improve in any notable way, but the more we’re used to fighting, the better.”

“So, finally found something for yourself, huh.” Monoma glances at her from the side, he was sitting right next to. “I guess fighting is better than coming back to that time.”

“We don’t talk about that time.” Tokage cuts back. But it’s already too late.

“What’s that time?” Ashido suddenly shows interest in the subject. “I smell something embarrassing! C’mon, let it out, we’ll all laugh at it once and then we’ll officially know each other better.”

“Alright, alright.” Tokage sighs. “I had a gyaru phase in the past, alright? But I don’t like talking about it.”

That earns her a few chuckles from the crowd, but nothing really significant.

“Eehhh, I expected something more embarrassing.” Ashido sighs, sounding genuinely disappointed. “Like whatever Yui Kodai is into, seeing your reaction to her being mentioned. Oh, yes, that reaction exactly.”

Everyone from the 1-B present in the room shivers when Yui Kodai is mentioned. Again. Izuku is growing more and more concerned with those reactions.

“We do not talk about Yui Kodai.” Monoma announces. “Just… don’t.”

I’m so curious at this point

Yes.

Speaking of, Monoma-kun. I forgot to mention it earlier, but Luna's recent message implied something interesting for Shiozaki-san. And I wanted to know your opinion about the subject.

“Oh?” Monoma raises his eyes from his food. “Do tell.”

Izuku quickly elaborates on what Luna said about Shiozaki, and his own thoughts on the subject. Monoma listens to him attentively the whole time.

“This… might work.” Monoma admits. “Unless she ends up deciding that this is insulting to angels. She’s… very Christian.”

“How did that even happen, if I may ask?” Uraraka ends up cutting in. “I think that she’s the only Christian among the hero students, at least in our year. It’s… well, she does stand out with that a little bit.”

“Teenage rebellion.” Monoma replies dryly, Tokage and Tetsutetsu nodding together

“Wait, what?” Yaoyorozu suddenly shows interest in the talk. “What do you mean by a ‘teenage rebellion’?”

“Her parents are pretty famous designers in the field of support engineering.” Tokage replies for Monoma. “The thing is, they made Midnight’s hero uniform, and that’s something of a brand aesthetic for them, if you get what I mean.”

“So she converted to a foreign religion because she has a problem with that ?” Yaoyorozu appears genuinely confused by it.

“She has it all planned out in detail.” Monoma replies dryly. “Her goal is to become the Number One Hero while wearing a modest hero uniform, hopefully permanently changing the dominant trends among the female Top Hero outfits into ones less sexual, and force her parents to reform their wicked ways, while also making Japan’s future a bit brighter. And more religious. You can call her many things, but ‘not ambitious’ isn’t one of them.”

“I…” Yaoyorozu stares at Monoma for maybe two seconds, before shaking her head. “I have no idea what to think about it.”

“Both you and that invisible girl are the last person who should complain about any of that.” Monoma decides to push a needle where it hurts. “I’m genuinely surprised that Shiozaki didn’t call the pope and ask him to organize a crusade the moment she saw your hero costumes.”

Yaoyorozu opens her mouth to counter that, but Uraraka does it faster.

“She’s taking it too far, but she has a point.” She admits, Yaoyorozu glancing at her in confusion. “They made my hero uniform way more skin tight than I actually wanted it to be and I think I know exactly why that change happened. I get it that physical attractiveness sells, but c’mon! I was fifteen!”

If it makes it better, I absolutely loved that outfit.

“Uhm, what about your current outfit?” Yaoyorozu then asks. Why was she so invested in the subject?

“It’s temporary until I get proper armor.” Uraraka replies. The smirk on her face that Izuku’s words brought has vanished already. “And, besides, the goal is to show the enemy how much I don’t fear them and be attractive to certain people.”

“And it works!” Himiko announces from Ochako’s side.

Yaoyorozu just stares at Uraraka for a few seconds, before sighing and clearly deciding to stop the talk. Or, to be more exact, change the subject.

“So, Monoma-kun.” She then says while turning her head towards the 1-B part. “I think that I’m tired of being in the dark. What’s the deal with Kodai-san? Why are you acting like this each time she’s mentioned?”

Silence. Monoma and the others exchange glances… and, eventually, arrive at the conclusion.

“She’s the most perverted, depraved and thirsty person that any of us has ever known.” Monoma eventually admits, making Kaminari almost choke on the food in the background. “Trust me when I’m saying that she makes Mineta look like a saint. It’s what caused the petition.”

“The petition?” Yaoyorozu asks. The tone of her voice and the look on her face makes it clear that she still suspects that it’s some sort of a joke. “What petition?”

“O-oh, I remember it!” Kaminari replies for them. “Some folks from the 1-B wanted to exchange Mineta for Kodai, but he said no, because he looks up to some of his classmates, especially Midoriya-kun, and he also thinks that letting her into it would be disruptive and make people uncomfortable. And because he thinks that the 1-A girls are super hot too, not gonna lie there.”

Yaoyorozu - and the rest of 1-A people present at the table - look back at Monoma, having clearly realized that no, he wasn’t making fun of them.

“Seriously?” Uraraka asks, staring at him wide-eyed. “She’s that bad?”

“She has been writing and occasionally drawing extremely perverted smut stories about the teachers and other pro-heroes, with some really fucked up pairings and tags.” Monoma shakes his head. “And one of the goals for her heroic career is to obtain herself a reverse harem. No words can appropriately describe the sheer amount of pure horror that Yui Kodai learning of Procacitas will bring upon this world.”

ayfkm

I… I think that I now understand why they reacted like this to the idea of her being unleashed upon a world without any laws or even the society to restrain her.

Same.

And I hate it

“And then she began to switch over to writing about people from our year.” Monoma shakes his head, his words somehow making it even worse. “It was so bad that Shiozaki-san seemed to genuinely consider exorcisms. And just in case, she has repeatedly ambushed Kodai and sprayed her with holy water. Before pouring an entire bucket of it on her when she was leaving the dorm room. Didn’t seem to work thus far, regretfully. And we were spirited away here before she could obtain a whole bucket of holy water blessed by the pope in person, to bring the big guns in.”

“She was writing filthy smut fics about us?” Yaoyorozu says, sounding completely and understandably outraged. And clearly omitting the part about holy water. For some reason.

“Yes.” Monoma replies dryly. “Almost every imaginable pairing. And with some guest characters like the League of Villains members, or adult pro-heroes or our teachers and so on. Absolutely disgusting .”

Wait

League members

WHICH ONES?!

Do you really want to know?

Do you really think that finding out that there was a lewd drawing of, say, All For One x All Might or Tomura Shigaraki x Dabi (or even worse, me) in our old world will make anything better?

FUCK

Now I don’t even want to go back to Japan, as I don’t want to be in the same universe as this filth

“But well written.” Yanagi says calmly, drawing the attention to herself. “She made people read them, and thus I know. She is extremely good at writing that filth. And almost as good at drawing it.” She sighs. “Do you remember the Hospital Bed Incident?”

“I… I tried to forget.” Tokage wails, her hands covering her face. “I tried so hard to forget!”

Monoma gives her a reassuring pat on the back.

“What was the Hospital Bed Incident?” Oddly enough, it’s Mr. Compress who asks. The man has definitely felt a bit out of place most of the time, by age and his past villain status alone, but he seems to have decided to join the talk.

Mostly out of sheer shock at what he was just learning.

“She had a month where for some reason she was very into writing about Midoriya-kun.” Monoma replies as he openly hugs Tokage, letting her wail into him. He also ignores Uraraka’s shocked ‘eep?!’. “Various pairings, most of them highly questionable at best, almost criminal at worst. There was a special one, though. Izuku Midoriya x Hospital Bed.”

Wait, she shipped me with a hospital bed?!

“You bet.” Monoma shakes his head. “And it was… errr, well, it was apparently disturbingly hot, and I quote Tokage-san here. The scene of you just lying down on the bed was apparently more erotic than all the Midnight-sensei’s merch combined. And then she…”

“And then I got injured!” Tokage wails, pulling her head back from the hug for a moment. “Right after that! And I landed in a hospital bed! For hours! And it all came back to me! She made me sexually confused over a piece of furniture!”

“There there.” Monoma says in a soothing tone, patting her back as he hugs her again. “There, there. It's an old story now, there are no hospital beds in this world. They can’t hurt you.”

You think that Procacitas has her own school of magic?

Yes.

You think that Kodai will seek to master it?

Probably.

***

Ay'zira. Old gen by me (I think).

Don't worry, they all get more muscular and scarred the higher you go in their hierarchy lol.

image [https://images.squidge.org/images/2024/10/05/imageabc46d7ad68a0141.png]