Part 40:
The Miner Makes a Dungeon
With His Shovel
✦ ✦ ✦
It only took half a day for Kuronono’s Kingdom of Darkness Shovel Squad to take back the capital from the demons. The princess herself led the charge (a champion in her micro bikini, even if she was embarrassed as all get out). Behind her trailed excited men wielding Demon Shovelers that fired powerful beams of light; it took no time at all to demolish the forces of Hell.
Back at the grand dining hall, those very same men were celebrating their victory.
“Thank you so much, everyone! You all looked so valiant out there with your shovels!” Kuronono stood on shage and raised her shovel, a heroic smile on her face as the micro bikini continued to dig into her skin.
The passion in the dining hall was overwhelming.
“LOVE! LOVE! KURONONO LOVE!”
The Kingdom of Darkness was a country built beneath the surface of the earth itself. In total, its territory included twelve mountains. The One True Steel City where Odessa and the others had been held was a six-thousand-foot tall mountain not unlike an ant hill; it sprawled with rooms and passageways.
And yet it took them a mere half day to free it from the tyrannical rule of the demons.
“Oh happy, happy day! All hail Lady Kuronono! All hail Lady Odessa!”
“H-hey, wait a minute!”
The crowd tossed Odessa into the air, but her mind was still in shambles. It seemed Alan had only just brought out his shovel, yet the revolution had begun and now it was ended.
What…what happened?! I don’t understand a single thing that happened today!
“Lady Odessa! Oh, thank you so much! I never thought this day would come…!”
“Aaaahhh!! I love you! I’ve always loved you, Adelle. Let’s get married!”
“Of course, Abel!”
Two of Odessa’s closest friends embraced each other in tears. The woman had been torn away from her lover, and the accursed seedbed symbol had been carved into her stomach. That symbol was removed via shovel, allowing her to reunite with her beloved. The couple was overjoyed, of course. They hugged as they shared a passionate kiss.
They truly looked happy.
“Ah…urgh…” Odessa held her head in her hands. What the heck is a shovel? This is weird. This is completely weird. But everyone’s smiling…
Odessa’s dream of five years was unfolding before her very eyes. How could she dismiss the immense joy she was witnessing?
“Ngh…”
The shovel was amazing. It would save humanity.
Maybe I should just learn to accept this… No, I have to.
As Odessa did combat with her reservations, she turned to speak to Alan, who stood next to her. “Alan, as the leader of the r-resistance, I offer you my deepest gratitude…”
It was at least true that she was grateful to him. Without this man’s power, the revolution would have failed. Regardless of how absurd his power was, it was still power.
“Odessa, it’s way too early to be offering me thanks. Save it for after we’ve freed the remaining eleven mountains.”
“O-of course, you’re right. In that case, we should start planning…”
“But before we go on the attack, let’s strengthen our defenses in the capital. The stream of demons coming from Hell is pretty much endless.”
“Strengthen our defenses? How so?”
“We’ll create a barrier to block their invasion into the underground. In other words, we’re going to make a dungeon.”
Odessa took a moment to think before shaking her head. “We tried that already; it didn’t work…”
The Kingdom of Darkness was originally a country of miners. Building a maze to keep invaders out was a practice with which they were both familiar and adept. In fact, they had created a twenty-eight-floor dungeon surrounding the capital city: the “Unending Maze.” Though filled with traps, it hadn’t been enough to stop the demon invasion. The evil bastards broke through the maze and made quick work of the traps, overwhelming what they couldn’t solve with sheer force of numbers.
Odessa tried to explain as much to Alan, but his confidence didn’t dim in the slightest.
“Odessa, that only happened because you folks didn’t know how to properly build a dungeon.”
“What do you mean?”
“As a citizen of the underground, it’s in your best interest to memorize this. A true dungeon…” Alan pierced the dirt wall with his shovel and a roar filled the air as the wall morphed into a shining green metal. Alan had buried the molecular structure of the dirt wall and turned it into adamantine using atomic arrangement. Shovel atomic conversion. This was an absolutely necessary technique when it came to building advanced dungeons. “…Can keep out anyone, even the gods themselves.”
The wall is made of adamantine now…?
“Urgh!”
Odessa did her best to suppress the urge to dive into a river of magma. Only the profound willpower she’d built up through countless torture sessions allowed her to retain her sanity.
You’re okay. Calm down, me. Your mind’s been corrupted by shovels, but your body hasn’t. Get a hold of yourself and take a good long look at yourself in the mirror. See? You’re still you. You’re still…human…? Huh?
“A bikini…?”
Indeed, she was still human. In fact, she was basically a human in her birthday suit, only worse. Odessa was still wearing a white micro bikini. The impact of the shovel revolution had caused her to completely forget the shameful state of her attire.
I might already be a lost cause.