After reaching the village square I decide to head into the adventurer’s guild, and find it like most small town and village adventurer’s guilds it also serves as a tavern, but the building however is surprising full giving the fact the village is so small.

Adventurer: “What do we have here? That isn’t something you see every day.”

Adventurer 2: “Not many beastkin around here. Look at her trying to fit in with that Kimono.”

Adventurer 3: “She is pretty cute though. Did the village just get a caravan in?”

Adventurer 4: “They shouldn’t be here for two more days.”

I ignore the adventurers and head to the commission board. I don’t know how the currency differs here in Shima, but if it is the same as it is back in Gowen I see why the men threw such a fuss over the Oni. Though several commissions one Oni would be worth about 10 gold. In Gowen it would take a dozen kobolds to reach that value.

It looks like every single commission pertains to either general labor or Oni extermination. There is also a note on the board saying commissions will be paid in gold, goods, or services at the guild’s discretion.

I can no longer ignore the adventurer’s chatter now that one grabs my arm pulling me from looking at the board. He is actually pretty strong and I am unable to pull myself free after jerking back a few times.

Adventurer: “I said don’t ignore me!”

“I will say this once, and once only. Take your hand off of me please.”

Adventurer: “Oh now you are so polite after ignoring me while I tried talking to you. I say you should apologize with your body.”

“What exactly did you have in mind?”

I say wile stepping closer to him rubbing my free hand down his stomach and across his crotch. After finding his sadly pitiful little member with my hand I grab ahold of it and say. “I think maybe you should cool off.” I then cast [Freeze] on his crotch.

Needless to say he quickly lets go of me dropping to his knees clasping his crotch that has begun to ice over. I am not quite sure what to expect next, so I start to prepare for a fight but between the jeers and laugher of the other adventurers it doesn’t seem like a fight is coming.

Adventurer: “What’s the matter Goro, did the little doggie give you blue balls?”

The whole room busts out laughing. I don’t know what would be more painful the ice forming over the man’s junk or the fact he is attempting to punch the ice from his own crotch as he rolls around on the floor squealing.

The well-built man that was at the front gate earlier now enters the guild and the adventurers quickly quite down once they see him. He walks up to me and says. “Good, after the front gate I thought you might be ok, but after the receptionist came running up saying that Goro was stirring up trouble I wanted to make sure.”

He then squats down next to Goro as calm as can be while Goro thrashes about. “Goro, did you learn your lesson?”

Goro: “Please! Tatsuo help me!” –He says begging the well-built man.-

Tatsuo the well-built man then begins casting a spell and the ice quickly disappears from Goro’s crotch, as it does Goro grunts seeming feeling some relief.

Tatsuo turns back to me. “I am sorry, about earlier and just now. I promise they will behave themselves from now on. Where are my manners I haven’t had the chance to introduce myself. I am Village Chief Tatsuo Ito.”

“It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

Tatsuo: “May I ask your name?”

I knew he was going to get hung up on that… I could do like Daddy and use my number. Wait I got an idea.

“On account of my ears and tail, my parents named me Inari.”

Tatsuo: “I see, so you have been in Shima for quite a while then?”

“Actually no, but my mom was the one that gave me the name saying I reminded her of the stories she heard.”

Tatsuo: “We used to have quite a nice temple dedicated to Inari… Of course that was before the Oni. The Oni never could step foot on the holy ground, but we just couldn’t be sure the villagers would be safe so we had to abandon it.”

“That is unfortunate.”

Tatsuo: “I heard reports that the Oni may have begun to move in on the site now, so perhaps that is proof enough Inari has finally abandoned us like the rest of the old gods.”

“Who knows, Inari might surprise you.”

Tatsuo seems to cheer up a bit. “Thanks for that… I guess the village chief shouldn’t be all gloom and doom.”

Tatsuo then shakes his head and smiles: “Anyway, so do you plan to stick around very long? I promise Kabemura is the safest village in all of Shima.”

“For a while, I would like to hear more about that Inari temple up on the hill.”

Tatsuo: “Well I have only heard the stories as I was too young at the time the Oni arrived, but there are a few older villagers left.”

“It has been abandoned that long? By the stories my mom told me I had a bit higher expectations.”

Tatsuo: “I am sure you have seen, but Shima has practically belonged to the Oni since they began to appear 30 years ago… If it wasn’t for the adventurers we would have all starved or died outright by now.”

Mommy and Takeshi never said anything about the Oni… I am started to wonder if it was the right choice to choose a dungeon in Shima.

“Where do the Oni come from? I haven’t heard anything about a dungeon sending that many monsters out before.”

Tatsuo: “Nobody knows, but when they first began to arrive I heard they took out the dungeons before they began to take the land from the humans.”

Something like this should be wide known… I can understand if Daddy didn’t know, but how come I wasn’t born with knowledge about this…? Even if for some reason I didn’t Takeshi was summoned with Shima knowledge so he should have known, but he didn’t ever say anything.

“I guess I knew less about Shima then I thought… What else can you tell me about the Oni?”

Tatsuo: “Well I am not sure there is much I can tell you more then you already know. I mean you had to have killed dozens passing through the forest, so you probably know more than we do for that matter.”

“You said they wiped out all the dungeons, what about the ones that formed after that?”

Tatsuo: “the only one I have heard that has formed since the Oni arrived appeared within the gates of the capital… That is the first and only time the Oni ever tried to breach our walls just to eliminate the dungeon.”

“…”

He continues to tell me about the situation with the Oni and it sounds like they stick to the forests only attacking when humans wander outside the walls, but what is more troubling is it sounds like they actively seek out dungeons…

Yuji is the only defense I got up at the dungeon. I didn’t think I would have to worry about dungeon seeking monsters, so I thought we would be fine for now. Maybe I should get back and put up some more defenses.

“Thanks for the information, maybe I will talk to the other villagers next time I stop by, but I should take a few of the commissions and get to it.”

Tatsuo: “You’re not going to stay here?”

“Well I will be in the area, but my group has a camp out there, I came to see what the commission situation was here and get a bit more information on the area. I don’t want to leave them alone for too long.”

Tatsuo: “… Well you are more than welcome to bring them here to rest where it is safe.”

“Well I appreciate it.”

I then leave Tatsuo taking a few of the commissions for the Oni and then prepare to head up to the temple. I find the gate the old men arrived from earlier that leads up to the temple. The guards were so worried about me leaving the wall by myself they almost didn’t allow me to leave, but I eventually managed to talk them into letting me out.

I head up the path up the hill to the temple. When I arrive I find Yuji is working away on the temple without a care, and I receive a message

Monsters have returned from battle.

Battle Results:

Acquired: None

Losses: None

100xp gained from external source. 10xp bonus for Inari (Dungeon Core) participation

110xp total rewarded

I set up Yuji’s equipment that I summoned for him where he has access to it and then tell him. “I set [Menu] so that you can equip the gear I summoned for you. There are some pretty dangerous monsters in the forest. Don’t let you guard down.”

Yuji: “Mistress! I am so glad to see you made it back!”

“Did you hear me? Have you seen anything suspicious?”

Yuji: “No… It has been pretty quiet all day.”

“Well just to be safe put on your equipment.”

Yuji taps on his [Menu] equipping a set of black clothing that covers his entire body including his face, the clothing is re-enforced with leather. It looks kind of strange to me, but when I summoned it I searched for equipment relevant to his class and that’s what it showed so it should be normal.

He also has two steel swords that have the basic construction the same as Takeshi’s sword but one is 2/3 the size and the other is even smaller. After looking over the equipment he seems satisfied and pulls a piece of cloth covering his mouth down below his chin then returns to work on the temple.

“Well I am going to the core room for a bit to see about coming up with a bit of defenses, because from what I heard we seem to be lucky the monsters haven’t attacked us yet.”

I transfer to the core room and then begin looking through [Menu] I thought about surrounding the temple with a wall, but by what Tatsuo said they will go through a wall to get to a dungeon. The elemental creatures would be the strongest to form a defense, but they seemed to shrug off most attacks except the light spells.

Unfortunately light monsters are all really high level, so I won’t have any of them for a while. I made sure to tell Tatsuo I had a group so maybe I should just summon a few more beastkin. They don’t reach a max level but their power level compared to normal monsters are a lot lower for their cost at the beginning.

If Takeshi was here we could train them and it would make it quite a bit easier. For now I think that would be the best bet so I put in 4 beastkin (fox) with random traits.

After the light fades I am left with 2 female and 2 males. The first being a male has quite impressive build, but still isn’t no Takeshi… he has brown colored hair and fur. The next two are the two females, even though they both have long red hair, fur, and could easily pass as twins in facial features their bodies appear almost completely opposite.

Even though they both appear to be around 20 years of age, one is short petite with almost no breasts, while the other ones body is almost a fox version of Auntie Bell. The last is the other male has white hair and fur although where mine is snow white his is far closer to a grey color.

As they start to look around their surrounding the white haired one seems instantly interested in the big breasted one next to him, the petite girl quickly begins to blush as red as her fur covering herself with her hands and tail, and backing up from the group.

The first male seems to be blushing as well covering his crotch with his hands and looking up and to the side away from the rest of the group.

While the big breasted one appears to have a body of Auntie Bell, her personality seems closer to Auntie Zoey because her first movement is to wrap her arm around the white fox male pressing her breasts against his shoulder.

He seemed to be interested before but now even he begins to blush as he tries to hide his crotch as he begins to have an erection. For future reference I will have to remember to only summon one at a time…

After summoning clothes on each of them they fall back into the line, they all then take a knee and bow their heads.

From left to right I point to each one giving them names and confirming it with [Menu] the brown haired male I name Satoshi, the petite redhead is Saki, the Auntie Bell like one is Akane, and the white haired male is Ryota.

Group: “Yes Mistress.”

“Alright Satoshi, let’s see what classes you have available…”

The classes available are Shima related… I don’t know what half of them mean, but a monk I think is about the same as a martial artist, and it looks like it would be the best fit for him so I choose it. I then bring up his status page and search for relevant equipment.

It looks like I was right, it doesn’t appear there is much in the way for weapons or armor for the monk class. Next I move on to the petite redhead, even though I still have a younger appearance she is still slightly shorter than me.

“Saki, let’s see what would be good for you.”

Again the classes mean nothing to me, but I spot one that appears to be magic related, and magic classes are the hardest to learn so I quickly select that one. After searching equipment for by class it appears I was right because it looks like the Miko class uses a staff of sorts and even though it doesn’t appear to be a robe it is classified under that section of equipment.

Using [Menu] it should be the correct size but the outfit looks to just add a few layers to her kimono including a weird bulky layer that looks almost like pants…

“Well Akane you remind me of my Auntie Bell, but I already gave Satoshi a monk class so let’s see what we can find for you.”

Her list of available classes is the best so far, however none appear to be magic based, so one of the classes is in the advanced category I select it. The armor for the Sohei class is leather, but the weapons cover a wide verity, but I choose the first on the list that turns out to be a spear looking thing called a naginata.

“We ended up with a lot of attacking classes it looks like, hopefully we can get another defensive class or a magic class for you Ryota.”

Ryota: “…”

Nothing seems to jump out at me in Ryota’s options, Takeshi has pretty good defense so when I see his class available I select it, but when I check equipment available I am quite surprised, Takeshi told Daddy medium armor and a big sword, but by what is available to the class it seems like it is everything from swords and shields, to spears, and even bows. I spend the most xp of any of them so far to give him a heavy armor, sword, and a shield.

“Well I don’t know when will be able to start your training but for now, we got some work to do.”

I transfer the 5 of us back to the temple, and call Yuji over. I then introduce him to everyone and then begin to have them help with the repairs. I then head back to the core room to see what else I can do.

The building Yuji slept in last night isn’t big enough for everyone, one of the other buildings on the grounds looks like a large storage building, after spending about 300xp for beds, and another 200xp for other miscellaneous items, and I manage to turn it into a barracks with half a dozen beds.

The smaller building has enough room to squeeze in one more bed for 50xp, and the other one was in pretty poor shape so I break it down then summon another bed for 50xp. Now the girls can use that building as their room.

I am the only one that can cast magic except Saki and she had a favored element of light, but she doesn’t know the [Clean] spell. I am not going to cast [Clean] on everyone all day so I spend another 250xp to convert another small building into a bathhouse.

I then spend 1200xp on adding some traps down in the well to protect the crystal. After that is done I look at the time, it looks like I have hit the 48 hour mark since I started my dungeon. What is taking Takeshi so long…I thought an elder would have been able to teleport him relatively easy.

I transfer back to the others. I first grab Akane and Saki and show them where they will be staying, I then show them to the bath and tell them to go ahead and clean up. While the girls are busy there I gather the guys and show them the barracks.

“The girls are in that building over there, I turned it into a bathhouse. After they are done you guys can get washed up. I guess if Takeshi isn’t here by morning we will start training you guys.”

After leaving them I check out the work they managed to accomplish on the temple. It is coming around quite nice, and even once of them seems to have found some incense in which they have burning at the shrine.

I walk over to the shrine and put a hand on it.

“I don’t know if you were a dungeon core, something humans made up, or an actual god, but I will take this name of ours and I will do my best to make that name mean something again to the people of Shima.”

I then make my way from the temple patting one of the fox statues on the head as I go. I then head to the edge of my boundary looking down the hill to where Kabemura is located. Even after knowing it was there I couldn’t really make it out though the trees, but now that the sun has begun to set I can see a few lights in the distance that must be coming up from there.

As I start to turn around walking back towards the temple I think I see some of the trees rustle but, after preparing for battle and then waiting for a few more minutes nothing else happens. Just in case something really is there hiding in the trees I make sure I step out of view of the tree line before transferring to the core room.

I continue to watch though the screens for over an hour. The only thing I manage to see is two of the guys trying to sneak a peek while the girls bathe. Ryota I wasn’t actually surprised about, but the one with him was Yuji, which I was quite surprised about.

Saki however notices them almost instantly and screams. They ran off with their tail’s between their legs after that, but apparently it was too soon because Akane seems to spend the next few minutes seemingly inviting their gazes before peeking out and noticing they are long gone.

I am going to have to tell her she needs to show more restraint… At least until I decide if I want any of them first... I got a feeling if I keep waiting on Takeshi, I will be waiting a long time…

Well I guess I was just seeing things in the forest… After the girls let the guys know the bath is free they go to bed, and so do I. I wake up the next morning without an alarm so seems the old men aren’t coming back today.

Yuji and Satoshi already seem to be hard at work, but the girls and Ryota are still sleeping. This Kimono I got from Mommy is the best, but I have already been wearing it for three days now so I decide to summon another one.

After having to put them on by hand for the first two weeks, using [Menu] is so much easier. After casting [Clean] on myself I equip the new kimono, then clean the other and leave it lying on the bed for now while I transfer to the courtyard near Yuji and Satoshi.

Being a monk I didn’t summon anything else for Satoshi, but even Yuji is just wearing his normal clothes again and not his armor.

“Yuji! What did I tell you about your equipment...? Well I guess it is alright, but make sure you can use [Menu] to equip it quickly just in case.”

I walk up to Satoshi, he seems to be cutting some lumber down to size, but when I get close he stops. I straighten out his kimono a bit. I then loosen it up a bit to expose a bit more of his muscular chest. He blushes a bit but doesn’t say anything as I walk away he returns to work.

“Yuji you haven’t seen the old men this morning have you?”

Yuji: “No Mistress, but if it is as dangerous as you said, they might not want to risk it 3 days in a row.”

“Well it was only the one guy the first day, but maybe you are right. Why don’t you go get Ryota up?”

Yuji: “Yes Mistress…” –He scampers off towards the barracks.-

I go check on the girls and when I enter Saki appears to have already awaken and was preparing to leave the building wearing her entire outfit including the bulky layers, Akane on the other hand is spread across her bed in a very undignified manor.

Saki: “Good Morning Mistress.”

“I thought you were both still asleep, do you mind waking Akane before you get started?”

Saki: “I… Yes Mistress.” –Her ears droop as she turns back around.-

Though her appearance is that of someone older than me she is still a bit shorter so I can’t help patting her on the head and scratching her behind the ears. She doesn’t object, as a matter of fact it causes her ears to perk up a bit and she is smiling even though her head is bowed and she is blushing.

When I quit one of her ears twitch and she then turns to wake up Akane, I then head out of the building back to where Satoshi was working. Yuji has seemed to have returned and Ryota has joined them, but he is just standing there sleepily.

“Well I guess once Saki manages to get Akane up we will then go try to do a bit of training.”

Ryota yawns as he says. “What about adventurer IDs won’t we need them if we are hunting monsters for a commission.”

“I told them in town I had a group, but nothing else. Even the basic adventurers in town appear to be at least level 10, so I think we should get you guys at least to that before we risk getting you guys IDs.”

Yuji: “Won’t that be suspicious in itself?”

“Maybe a little, but not as much as being level 1 wandering the forest I think.”

It takes about 5 minutes before Saki and Akane arrive, and even though Saki’s attire was flawless a bit ago it looks just as ruffled as Akane’s. Once they reach the group Saki attempts to fix it, but there is a sudden loud noise that causes everyone to jump.

Voice: “HELP!!”

“That was down the path down the hill!”

After a quick fumbling of [Menu]s everyone is equipped in their gear. I wish I had my staff Daddy made for me, I checked inventory after I first arrived but the only thing I had was the clothes on my back… Oh well nothing I can do about that now.

I rush to the edge of the hill looking down the pathway. There seems to be 5 figures a ways down the stairs, 2 on the ground and three towering over them. I think the three are Oni. I rush down the stairs as quick as I can, but as soon as I hit the first step all three Oni instantly stop their attack on the other two and turn in my direction.

They seem completely oblivious of the two they were attacking just seconds before and now all three are charging up the stairs towards me. Other than my magic abilities my endurance and agility are my second best stats so I quickly leave the others behind.

Most of the elemental attacks seemed not to do a lot of damage, but I they might at least distract them. As soon as the Oni come into range I summon 12 of the balls, I use the strongest light spells, but use smaller spells in the other elements to try to conserve magic.

The two brightest balls target one Oni, while the other 10 split hitting the other two. The Oni hit by the two light spells instantly stops moving crumbling to the ground sliding down a few of the stairs. The other two just appear angry.

A small little [Piercing Light] spell passes by me and I notice that the others have begun to catch up. Saki is standing there with a troubled expression after casting the spell. The small spell hits the Oni, and for being a spell from a level 1 spell it actually seems to do a fair amount of damage.

These Oni appear really weak against light attack spells. Everyone is only level 1 so I am afraid they will die after a single swipe from these things so I quickly summon another 12 balls in the same configuration as last time.

This time however 10 balls hit 1 Oni, and the 2 brighter light balls hit the other killing it as well. Even with all 10 hitting the other he barely seems fazed, I don’t know if it is due to the lower power spells or just they are strong against other types of magic.

“You are not ready yet, don’t try to block! Let it focus its attacks on me while you just try to damage it.”

I was a little worried about them catching a stray blow, but after a few seconds I come to realize this Oni thing has a singular unyielding focus right on me… At the moment it is proving beneficial as I just side step and hop back dodging its blows as the others slowly build up damage against it.

“Saki, you go check on the humans and see if they are still alive or need healing!”

Saki nods and continues down the stairs while I decide to save my spells unless it decides to change targets, but after a couple more swings it still doesn’t lose its focus on me and it starts to get on my nerves to the point I begin casting a light spell taking it out.

“Alright gather their tusks, heart, liver, and their right ears. I am going to go make sure Saki has things under control.”

They look a little confused at first but nod and begin to work on the Oni while I continue down the stairs. Once I reach Saki she is healing wound on Tatsuo’s chest, while a familiar looking old man looks beyond the point of being able to heal.

Tatsuo wincing in pain chokes out the words. “Damn old man, I told him that old temple wasn’t worth it…”

I begin casting a healing spell as well speeding up the process a great deal. After his wound is finally healed he pulls himself to his feet.

Tatsuo: “It’s you… Sorry I was just a little surprised, I should be grateful anyone was around.”

“That’s alright, what were you two doing?”

Tatsuo: “The old man had some crazy idea about the old Inari shrine, saying Inari was back, and something about the shrine starting to heal or something. I was just trying to humor the old man, but it looks like we ran out of luck.”

“I am sorry…”

Tatsuo: “I should of known better, but he was just so insistent…Wait is this your group? Are they all foxes?”

“Well what kind of Inari would I be if I wasn’t surrounded in foxes?”

Tatsuo chuckles a bit. “The old man would have gotten a kick out of you… So is this all of your group then?”

“Well at least for now, I am still missing one for sure, but I don’t know.”

Tatsuo: “Are they your siblings?”

Royta comes walking up covered in Oni blood holding the Oni body parts in his stretched out Kimono. “I got them all Mistress!”

I sigh. “No, more like servants, but they are all still pretty green…”

Tatsuo: “I see… Not to sound ungrateful or anything, but what were you guys doing out here?”

“Well I told you because of my name I was interested in Inari, so we were up checking out the shrine when we heard the racket.”

Tatsuo: “Well I better get the old man back to the village.”

“You need any help?”

Tatsuo: “After everything you have done already, I would hate to put you out anymore.”

“Satoshi! Come give Tatsuo here a hand.”

Satoshi: “Yes Mistress!”

Tatsuo: “Satoshi?”

“Yes, this is Satoshi. The one that helped with your wound here is Saki. The one covered in blood there is Ryota. That black thing over there is Yuji, and the voluptuous one there is Akane.”

Tatsuo: “…Not only their equipment, but their names are from Shima as well?”

“Yea…”

Satoshi helps Tatsuo carry the old man heading back to the village, we get attacked once more on the way but this time it is only one Oni. Once at the village I grab a sack having Ryota put the Oni parts in then cast clean on him.

Several of the guards help Tatsuo, and he bids us farewell taking the old man. I have the new monsters wait at the wall having Yuji bring the sack of Oni parts and we head to the adventurer’s guild. Instead of gold when turning in the parts I receive 4 slips of parchment that are each good for 10 gold worth of gold or services in Kabemura.

We then head to the smithy, and we trade the 4 clubs from the Oni for another one of the slips of parchment. The smithy looked better than the one in Daddy’s town, and on the inside it is leaps and bounds ahead of Daddy’s.

Where Daddy’s smithy had a single smith dealing with the adventurer’s repairs along with the townsfolks repairs, this smithy has 2 smiths just to handle adventurer’s gear and 1 for miscellaneous tasks. One of the smith’s wives even takes care of leatherworking.

For now I take my 5 slips of parchment and Yuji and I return to the others. We head back out of town heading back up the hill towards the shrine, but we end up having to deal with 2 more Oni along the way.

I was starting to wonder if they were exaggerating about the Oni presence but now that we have hit 5 already this morning maybe I was wrong, I debate a bit about taking the remains back to the village but decide once I store them in the dungeon inventory they will keep as long as need be without rot so it should be ok.

Once we cross the threshold of the dungeon I receive a message.

Monsters have returned from battle

Battle Results:

Monster Yuji (Boss) has gained 4 levels Monster Satoshi has gained 4 levels Monster Saki has gained 4 levels Monster Akane has gained 4 levels Monster Ryota has gained 4 levels

Acquired: 2 Oni Hearts, 2 Oni Livers, 2 Oni Right Ears, 4 Oni Tusks, 2 Kanabo

Losses: None

300xp gained from external source. 30xp bonus for Inari (Dungeon Core) participation, 30xp bonus for Yuji (Boss) participation,

360 XP total rewarded

“Well I wanted to give you guys some training this morning, but that wasn’t quite what I had in mind.”

The next few days continue that way, training the monsters in the morning, and working on the temple during the afternoon. We have been pretty lucky as the monsters enter the forest to gather lumber they haven’t encountered any Oni.

However any time I step one foot off of the top of the hill there is always a rush of Oni to attack me. It makes me wonder about few points what I heard down in the village. They said the Oni never have entered the temple grounds before, so maybe we are safe here.

It also seems true they hate dungeon cores more than normal people or monsters as they always will bypass everyone just to come after me. It has proved to be beneficial though as it means using me as a shield the monsters have gained quite a few levels already.

Nobody from the village has made any more attempts to visit the temple, but I have heard talk when I go down to the village about more and more Yurei sightings at the temple however…

I still haven’t messaged Daddy or Mommy, I want to wait at least a month to prove that I can do this, but I still haven’t heard from Takeshi so I am getting worried, and wondering if I shouldn’t break the silence.

Late on the evening that marks my 14th day however I receive a message.

Intruders have entered dungeon.

It is awfully late. I quickly scan the screens and am filled with joy. I quickly transfer from the core room appearing not a few feet away startling him. He is carrying several large sacks that he lightly sets down while I wrap my arms around him burying my face into his broad chest.

“I am so glad you are here Takeshi!”