Author notes: (I wanted to start out with an apology it seems I somehow screwed up with the last Inari chapter and posted it before it was complete. Hell somehow it looks like it was even mid-sentence… Another thing worth noting is after talking with a friend I decided to change the way Inari’s monsters address her as Mistress instead of Master. I know that is technically the correct usage, but with the over sexualization of the use of Mistress I didn’t think it sounded right, so going forward I plan on using the Mistress term instead.

Anyway as always thanks for reading.

Dragon_knight79347)

With that we are then ready. When I cross the threshold of the dungeon all hell breaks loose. I don’t know the number but it seems like a flood of Oni come charging up the stairs, and at least 1 out of every 10 are the new tougher Oni.

I know we have no way of defeating this many so I step into the dungeon. Luckily as soon as I do they begin to slow their movement until they completely stop, and then they return to the forest on either side of the stairs.

“Well that is something they seem to at least not be able to pass the barrier still. I just don’t know how what to do next. If we can’t leave the temple grounds things will eventually turn pretty grim.”

Yuji: “Mistress, please allow us to go out.”

“Even if it is a small fraction that comes after you all you already said it would take all 5 of you to deal with one of the new type Oni, so you would have no chance against all that.”

Yuji: “But if we can step out and pick off a few at a time we might be able to at least start to dwindle down their numbers.”

“I don’t know by the way they acted it was as if I disappeared when I stepped back on the grounds, so if we push it to much they might be able to find a way in themselves.”

Saki: “Have a little faith Mistress, Inari will protect us.”

“One time…”

Takeshi: “Miss Inari, you can’t actually be considering it?”

“We can hold up in here forever if we need to, stepping out and killing one Oni could last us weeks, but you will eventually need food. If we can’t get back down to the village it will put us in a tight spot.”

Takeshi: “Then at least allow me to accompany them.”

“It will do us no good if you do.”

Yuji seems proud of himself as he puffs out his chest.

“Alright Akane take them out slowly.”

Yuji’s chest then deflates.

When the group first exits the dungeon it doesn’t look good as quite a few Oni leave the tree line and charge, but luckily it is so far only the minor ones. The group quickly starts the battle and gets well over half of them dispatched before more Oni begin to arrive.

They continue to battle for quite a while, but no matter how many they dispatch there seems to be no end of the Oni, so far however none of the Oni are of the new stronger and smarter type.

After Saki appears to be drained I recall them back into the dungeon grounds and the Oni then start to disperse again. The battle results are quite high and everyone in the group has even been able to gain a level.

“Well it still looks pretty bad but if we can just keep it up like that maybe we will eventually be able to decrease their numbers at least until everyone is strong enough to deal with the tougher Oni. I believe to be on the safe side we should set up a watch tonight just in case.”

Yuji: “I will take first watch!”

“I am still fresh so Takeshi and I will take the first watch, you guys get some rest and restore yourselves if they attack while you are all drained of magic it won’t matter if there is a watch or not.”

Yuji: “Yes Mistress…”

After the others go to bed Takeshi and I take watch over the grounds. After a while nothing happens so I decide to ask him what has been bugging me for a while now.

“Takeshi, what are your interests towards Saki?”

Takeshi appears to be a bit flustered, and then says. “I don’t know what you mean…”

“That is exactly what I mean, I thought I might have to worry about Akane, but Saki?”

Takeshi: “She is just charming and dedicated, I admire that, and that’s all there is to it.”

“Well I wonder…”

Takeshi: “You should know me well enough that if I wanted to pursue a romantic relationship with one of your monsters I would come to you to ask for permission first.”

I eye him suspiciously, but he does have a point… Maybe I am just blowing this out of proportion.

“Well even if I were to trust you, there is still the matter of her. If you really are not interested in her you should back off a bit, because she is interested in you.”

Takeshi: “I assure that you are wrong, but if you are really concerned about who Saki is romantically inclined to pursue I would bet it would be Satoshi. She talks about him every chance she gets.”

“That may be troublesome on its own as well.”

Takeshi: “Well that is the risk you run by summoning sentient monsters for your dungeon. It should have been something you were well prepared for after all the drama at your father’s.”

“Well sentient monsters start off weaker than normal monster, but they level indefinitely so they have already made their cost worth it by the strength they have obtained already.”

Takeshi: “And the tradeoff is their independent wills.”

Takeshi and I sit there and talk for the rest of our watch, but mostly becomes about the training of the other monsters and just what the plans are going to be with the new Oni in the area. By the time I get the message about the daily xp consumption I decide it’s time to switch with the others

I send Takeshi to wake the men and I start with Akane. Saki wakes as I try to wake Akane and then helps me get Akane out of bed. After I am convinced they are awake enough I let them know nothing happened but tell them to keep up their guard and then I head to bed myself.

I am awoken by an alarm from [Menu] about intruders, and I quickly jump out of bed to find out what’s going on. It appears the sun has already begun to rise and we don’t look to be under attack, but it appears Yuji and the others are talking with a few people that are a little worse for wear down by the entrance.

I make sure I am presentable and then transfer down to the temple and then make my way outside to the rest of the group.

“What’s going on?”

Yuji: “A group of adventurers, they set out from the village this morning with a new commission about the new tougher Oni, but as they got in trouble they fled and as the temple grounds were closer they decided to come here.”

“How bad is it out there?”

Adventurer: “Well the talk of the town was these new Oni are quite fierce, so we thought we were playing it safe with three groups with a total of 15 people, but only the 6 of us made it this far…”

Adventurer 2: “We are sure lucky the Inari temple was here, because with that many Oni chasing us there was no way the village would have opened the gates.

Saki: “Don’t worry, you are safe now. The Oni seemed to wonder off just after you passed into Inari’s protection.”

“I am glad you are all ok, but this could become problematic, if every adventurer that gets in trouble ducks into the temple grounds we can’t be for sure just how long the barrier will keep them out.”

Yuji: “Mistress, if its ok with you I think me and the other should make another attempt at it, we did alright yesterday, but we are going to need to keep clearing them out if we have any hope of these adventurers getting back to the village.”

“You have all been keeping an eye on things for most of the night, if you want to rest for a while first I understand, but if you are sure you are up to it.”

My group of monsters then make sure their gear is all prepared and then they step out of the temple grounds. It appears the Oni haven’t spotted them yet as they make their way about 20 feet down the stairs.

While keeping an eye on them I turn to the adventurers.

“So how are things in the village?”

Adventurer: “So far they haven’t attempted to pass the gates, but Tatsuo posted the commission for a recon first thing this morning. I fear the numbers are far greater than we thought though.”

The first Oni has seemed to spot the group now and several are now charging at them, it is still only the smaller Oni so they should be fine.

“Yes, are there any ideas as to why this happened?”

Adventurer: “About once a year the Oni always seem to be replenish, but we are still a few months away from that time, and never before have the larger Oni traveled this far before.”

“So the wave of new Oni are not uncommon it is just worse this time as it was in the past?”

Adventurer: “Yes its much worse, and sooner.”

Adventurer 2: “with this many Oni out there, I fear the supply lines might be broken. They usually suspend during the time of the year the Oni travel, but there is no telling what is going to happen now.”

About that time one of the larger Oni finally breaks the tree line engaging with my monsters, so I decide to focus my attention to that instead. My group has gotten pretty good at fighting the Oni but that my in turn be a weakness, because with so much training on one specific type of enemy they might struggle up against a different type.

Saki continues to focus on the smaller Oni with [Bullet of Light] spells while the rest of the group surrounds the larger Oni. Ryota and Akane attempt to hold its attention while Satoshi and Yuji kite around it slashing and punching it.

I might have been worried about nothing, because they seem to be handling themselves quite well. That is until Akane fails to dodge one of the attacks and takes a pretty good sized blow the chest knocking her back and to the ground.

Saki then begins to panic and disengages with the smaller Oni to begin healing Akane. That only makes the smaller Oni begin to target the others of the group and they manage to get up behind Ryota and Satoshi.

The battle then quickly takes a turn for the worse. I guess I have no choice but to risk stepping out myself, but who knows how many of the Oni that will bring in. With these adventurers here as well I would like to avoid them seeing the way the Oni react to my presence.

I decide I have no choice and quickly pull my weapon from [Menu]. The adventurer’s look on pretty amazed when my weapon appears from thin air, but I am sure after everything is over I can store it the same way and convince them I did it with magic.

Before stepping from the grounds I begin to empower a [Bullet of Light] and when I pass the threshold I let it loose at one of the smaller Oni and also release a [Bullet of Light] stored within the orb of my staff. Before the first two spells even connect I start casting another [Bullet of Light] while releasing a few more of the other elemental spells stored in the orbs of the staff.

All the Oni of course quickly shift their target, but I am hoping with all the spells I flung it might appear that I just seemed like the bigger threat… The first two [Bullet of Light] spells connect with two of the smaller Oni finally causing both of them to drop.

And my group quickly realizes what is going on. By the time I release the second [Bullet of Light] they have already begun to start their retreat. Quite a few more Oni have begun to appear from the forest now, and it’s starting to look quite problematic if the group doesn’t hurry up…

I continue to rain the spells down from the top of the stairs while the group slowly retreats towards me. I manage to take out all of the small Oni they were originally engaged with leaving only the one large Oni and all the new ones that have begun to appear.

Once the group reaches my side I order them to hold while we at least try to drop the one large Oni before retreating. I only manage one more [Bullet of Light], and that seems to do far less damage then it does to the normal Oni, before it is bearing down on us.

I quickly dodge to one side avoiding one of its blows while I slash at it with my staff. I then start channeling a spell though my staff while attacking and dodging the large Oni. With only a few more seconds before the new groups of Oni reach us we need to end this quick.

Even though it does less damage I try to gather as much magic as possible to summon 12 elemental balls slamming all 12 into the large Oni. Surprisingly each spell appears to do the same amount of damage, which is a bit worrying because now they seem resistant to all types of magic, but even still resistance and all the 12 direct spell hits are enough to drop to on knee and Akane quickly takes the opportunity to behead the creature.

We then retreat into the temple ground and the rest of the Oni slowly stop then begin to disperse. With a sigh of a relief and the eyes of the shocked adventurers on me I twirl my staff in a showy manner and store it right after tossing it in the air causing it to disappear.

Adventurer: “That was most impressive… Even 15 of us couldn’t handle ourselves that well and you just did it with 6…”

“Well we are lucky that Inari’s protection seems to be holding out or that next group would have put us in quite a state.”

Adventurer: “I heard the rumors of your group, but I don’t see how anyone that isn’t one of them mainland heroes to be able to use magic the way you do.”

“I have a talent for magic, but I am nowhere near one of their strengths. My father did pretty much begin training me since birth though, so I have had quite a bit of practice.”

Yuji: “What are we going to do now?”

“We have quite a bit of food, but with this many extra people we will go though it pretty quickly, so we need to think of something pretty quick. I think we can keep doing like we just did, but I am afraid if we push our luck to many times they will eventually be able to pass the barrier.”

Saki: “The large Oni also seemed to not only be resistant to the other elemental spells, but also the light magic as well.”

“Yea I am a little concerned about that one myself.”

Finally after all the excitement Takeshi finally arrives from bed…

“Nice of you to finally join us…”

Takeshi: “What happened?”

Yuji: “You slept in and there we had quite a bit of difficulty with some of the Oni.”

Takeshi: “Miss Inari… I apologize…”

“It’s fine. You know how over dramatic Yuji gets. These adventurers just arrived in a bit of a predicament and the others went out for a bit of training.”

Takeshi: “But I am your shield, if there was danger I should have been here.”

“The situation was under control, and now we were just discussing what we are going to do next, because with these adventurers here we will run out of food quite quickly.”

Takeshi: “Well how bad is it outside the temple grounds?”

Saki: “We dealt with quite a few of the smaller Oni, but it took our Mistress’s help to be able to bring down one of the larger ones, and we had to retreat back on the temple grounds after that.”

Takeshi: “Miss Inari participated? I should have been here!”

“I barely left the grounds, besides as I was saying we have more pressing matters now.”

Akane: “I may be able to offer a solution on helping the adventurers return to town, but I will have to speak with you privately about it first.”

I am not sure what Akane has thought of, but with no better plan it is at least worth hearing her out so she and I retreat to the temple where we can talk.

“So what is it you have thought of?”

Akane: “We know the Oni flock to your location, what if we lure them to the back of the grounds by having you step out and then the humans can then make their retreat.”

“We don’t know what kind of range of effect it has though. They still might not make it.”

Akane: “We could go down with them to see that they do.”

“Then how will you make it back?”

Akane: “We can keep in contact with [Communication], so tell you how it is going and when to step out, it will also help us determine the range of effect.”

“I don’t know… I think we can hold them here a few days and summon food for them without them getting suspicious, and that will give us time to lower the numbers of Oni by quite a bit.”

Akane: “I don’t feel comfortable with the adventurers in the dungeon…”

“Well my father has an entire town in his, so I think we will be alright with just a few adventurers. After a few days if we still haven’t come up with a better plan yours will still work, so I say we hold off for now.”

Akane: “Yes Mistress…”

Akane looks a little down but we then return to the others.

“Well for now I say once everyone is rested you all try it again, we keep working on their numbers as much as we can. We should have enough supplies for a few days and after that… Well then we will know if we can make it down to the village to resupply.”

Before the adventurers do too much exploring around the temple grounds I summon some items that we might require while the adventurers are here. We then move the girls into the barracks with the guys so the adventurers can use the girl’s room. It isn’t ideal, but I would rather have the adventurers separated from my monsters for the time being.

“It may be a tight fit, but it’s at least a roof.”

Adventurer: “I’m sorry we are putting you out like this…”

“Well this is Inari’s temple and we are just borrowing it after all so I guess we don’t have room to complain.”

My monsters make 5 more attempts though the day on the steps heading down to the village, but without my help they are still unable to bring one of the big Oni down. If there is one thing the attempts have done it is to provide us with quite a bit of xp. Especially with the fact I have to help them when a large Oni gets involved we get the participation bonus for me fighting in the battle.

We are only getting 3 times the amount of xp from 1 large Oni as the smaller Oni, but as far as strength wise they are probably at least 5 to 10 times stronger. Even though the group managed to each gain a level during last night’s battle, at the end of the day they are already a quarter of the way in with this one as well. If they keep up this progress they might even be able to hit level 20 before the adventurers leave.

With the adventurers here we make sure to set up another watch, to watch for Oni and the adventurers just in case. In the end though it seems like the only thing it accomplished was causing us to miss a few hours of extra sleep.

Even during the second day the adventurers are pretty quiet, they seem in shock at our group’s ability especially once the group managed to take down their first large Oni without my help just after noon on the second day.

By the third day though they has started to get a bit more comfortable around everyone and are starting to ask questions. Most of them are common questions you would normally ask of people you are trying to get to know, but some seem more directed towards the rumors that were going around the village about being messengers of Inari.

And by the fourth day my monsters reach level 18 during one of their trips out of the dungeon, and it looks like the adventurers are starting to get restless. I think we are going to have to do something sooner rather than later.

I decide to gather everyone together to tell them of Akane’s plan or at least part of it so we can attempt to get the adventurers back to the village, but once everyone is gathered we can hear was sounds like the clangs of bells off in the distance.

“What is that?”

Adventurer: “It’s the village, that sound is the warning bells. The gate must have been breached!”

“You’re saying the village is being attacked?”

Adventurer: “I don’t know, but that is what the bells are for.”

Adventurer 2: “That is impossible they have never breached the walls before.”

Adventurer 3: “What do we do?”

“We can’t do anything from here.”

Adventurer: “She is right we have to go down and help them!”

Adventurer 2: “But if they have breached the gate what hope can we expect to have against them?”

Smoke begins to rise though the tree line in the direction of town, and the adventurers are now really beginning to panic.

“Calm down everyone, we need to learn what the situation is. I was going to do this to help you get down to the village in the morning, but we might as well do it now. Takeshi and I are going to try to lure as many of the Oni from the stairs to the back side of the temple grounds. While we do that you adventurers and the rest of our group will head down to the village and find out what is going on.”

Adventurer 4: “I can’t… We won’t make it.”

Adventurer: “Without the supply line in the village we will eventually starve anyway, we don’t have any other choice.”

Adventurer 4: “I would rather starve then be slaughtered by the Oni…”

Akane: “I am going to go help the village, any that want to go can. The rest are on their own. Just give us the word Mistress and we will move out.”

The rest of the monsters prepare for battle although Saki seems a bit nervous.

Saki: “What about you Mistress are you going to be alright?”

“Of course I got Takeshi, what could go wrong?”

It doesn’t seem to ease her tension but she at least smiles a bit and nods. Out of the 6 adventurers it appears only the 1 will not be joining the rest he instead went to go hide in the building they have been sleeping in.

“Takeshi you stay just inside the temple grounds and follow me around until I get to the back side then you assist me while the others move down the steps.”

Takeshi: “Understood.”

“I will send up a spell in the air as the signal that I have their attention. When I do the rest of you quickly as you can make your way down the stairs. I don’t know how long I can hold them off before retreating back into the temple grounds.”

Akane: “Leave it to us.”

Takeshi and I then prepare and of course as soon as I step outside the edge of the temple ground quite a few Oni appear from the trees. I target one with a [Bullet of Light] and then begin to run along the outside border of the temple grounds.

It takes me a bit of time to reach the far back but when I do I summon my magic launching one of the fire orbs straight into the air while targeting several Oni with the others. After I send the orb up I get a message from Akane saying they are underway and then Takeshi joins me outside the perimeter to fight the Oni.

I don’t know how long Takeshi and I have been fighting, but I am almost completely out of magic, and have suffered a great deal of damage, but not near as much as he has. We have managed to kill who knows how many of the smaller Oni, and at least 3 of the larger ones, but we are forced to finally retreat back into the temple grounds.

The Oni quickly lose interest when we reenter the grounds, so I send a message to Akane warning her that we did all we can and then collapse on the ground. Lying on the ground I look back towards were the village is and there is a lot more smoke billowing up now then there was before.

I start to worry about the safety of the others, but get a quick message from Akane saying they have met with little resistance and have almost reached the village. Time then seems to slow as we can do nothing but wait while watching the smoke though the treetops.

It is almost 30 more minutes before I hear from Akane again.

Akane: “We have a huge problem, but there isn’t time right now. If you can distract the Oni again even for a few minutes it will help a bunch, we are on our way back.”

“Alright Takeshi, it looks like we are up again. Are you ready?”

Takeshi: “I am your shield and will not fail you.”

“That’s my Takeshi!”

I then step back out of the temple grounds and as soon as I see the first Oni through the trees I start using my 12 orbs to cause as much destruction as possible. I keep the light spells for the Oni that start to get to close and hit the ones further way with the other spells.

Needless to say even switching to using my staff I am quickly out of magic as I didn’t have time for it to fully recover, so Takeshi and I are forced to retreat within the grounds again. I quickly send Akane another message telling her I did all I can.

Akane: “It helped a bunch, we are almost there.”

Takeshi and I then make our way across the temple grounds waiting for the others to return, but when we catch the first glimpse of them I can see what she meant by a huge problem.

With Saki, Yuji, and Akane leading the group a large group of at least 75 to 100 people are making their way up the stairs each carrying as much as they can possibly carry. Several adventurer groups are on the outside edge fighting with Oni as they approach but the group is so large the Oni make it through quite often taking a few of the villagers out at a time before the Oni are pushed back again.

Takeshi: “This isn’t good…”

“Let’s draw them out back again.”

Takeshi: “Miss Inari, you are completely out of magic, there is no way you can do anything else…”

“I may be out of magic, but even if it’s just 30 seconds that is that many more villagers that will make it.”

I then make my way back to the back of the temple grounds stepping out. The Oni quickly begin to pour from the trees and even though I said it 30 seconds is just about all the time we can hold the ground. I hate to risk it so close to another but I step out again, this time only able to buy another 15 seconds, and then again for under 10 seconds.

Takeshi: “No more Miss Inari, they are not retreating like they were before, I fear we may have already risked the protection from the barrier as it is.”

I get a message about monsters returning from battle and then Takeshi and I start to make our way back up front. The battle results are quite low, but that is probably due to most of the fighting being with the other adventurers and villagers.

There is one thing in the battle results that really sticks out.

Monster Ryota has perished.

“Ryota…”

Takeshi: “Miss Inari?”

“They lost Ryota… Come on let’s find out what’s going on.”

By the time we make it around the shrine there are villagers and adventurers everywhere many of which are collapsed on the ground breathing heavily. I see Satoshi comforting Saki as she appears to be crying, and once they see me Yuji and Akane quickly approach.

Akane: “Thank you Mistress, we can tell you made quite a few attempts to draw them off, but I am sorry to say we still lost Ryota.”

Yuji: “I’m sorry Mistress it’s my fault.”

Akane: “I was in charge, if anyone was at fault it was me, but that being said with all that happened only losing one of our Mistress’s monsters compared to what the other adventurers and villagers lost is somewhat of a miracle.”

“Well we can worry about that all later, what exactly happened?”

Akane: “It is as you probably imagine. When we arrived the village was already well under attack, it looks like even at the distance of the village when you left the temple grounds it caused the attack to stop long enough for the villagers to gather.”

Yuji: “The adventurers that were up here the last few days said that the temple grounds were still protected and that’s when the villagers decided to try to flee here. I know there had to be close to 200 people when we left, but only a quarter of them remain now.”

“And Tatsuo?”

Akane: “He is in pretty bad shape but he is still alive.”

“Ok, you guys rest. You earned it.”

Yuji and Akane then collapse together sitting back to back on the ground. I then make my way through the group. I haven’t really met most of the villagers everyone I interacted with were either the vendors or the adventurers at the guild building, so most of the battered and bruised people are unfamiliar.

I do see a few people I recognize like one of the blacksmiths and the leather worker, but the leather worker was married to one of the blacksmiths and I don’t see him or the third blacksmith either. I also see the waitress from the adventurer’s guild but not the receptionist.

I finally find Tatsuo and he is being cared for by one of the young women from the village, he appears to be in bad shape but he isn’t in any apparent danger of dying. As a matter of fact it doesn’t like a single person has gotten away without a scratch. Once I approach Satoshi and Saki, Satoshi quickly stands.

“It’s ok, just rest for now.”

Satoshi nods and then goes back to sitting next to Saki.

Saki: “I am sorry Mistress I was unable to save Ryota, Satoshi and I were in the middle of the group and by the time I heard that he fell it was impossible to get to him…”

“It’s alright Saki we will worry about all that later… Just rest, because it looks like quite a few people are in need of your magic once you are able.”

Once everyone has gotten to rest a bit people begin to wander around most are looking for friends or loved ones that they lost in the climb. As soon as I have the magic I focus on healing Tatsuo, because as the village leader he should be able to get things under control.

I exhaust my magic again, but it’s enough for him to open his eyes and sit up.

Tatsuo: “I guess this is the second time you have saved me. Well third if you count your group showing up in the village at just the right time.”

“It looks like pretty bad, I don’t know if we were able to help much…”

Tatsuo: “If they didn’t show up when they did I don’t think anyone would have made it, and I am sorry about your servant Ryota… Before I blacked out I heard he fell in the battle. He was a hell of a fighter, and it was an honor to fight next to him.”

“I don’t think anyone made it out without losing someone, so I should consider myself extremely lucky only one of my servants fell.”

Tatsuo: “They have a good Mistress that trained them well. I heard you and Takeshi stayed behind to hold off as many as you could so they could make it down to the village?”

“Well so far it looks like Inari’s protection is holding out, so when things got bad I just ducked back inside, so I was in far less danger then everyone else.”

Tatsuo: “But without knowing if the protection would hold it was quite the risk. I just hope it continues to hold or I don’t know what is going to happen.”

“Well I hate to put it on you, but if you can stand we need to start getting things under control. I will try to take some of the burden off you as my magic returns.”

Tatsuo: “You’re right, it is my reasonability.” –He grimaces as he gets up but he manages to pull himself to his feet.-

We spend the next few hours trying to get things squared away. There isn’t much in the way of supplies, so if we don’t do something soon we are going to be in the same mess we were with the adventurers. Saki has begun to use her healing magic on the worst of the wounded villagers but she is quickly out of magic again, with the villagers pawing at her asking for her help.

Tatsuo: “Everyone just calm down, we will make sure to get everyone treated, but like our supplies magic is in short supply, If anyone can use any type of healing magic I ask you get with Saki there and we can get as many people healed as we can as fast as we can.”

“Right now I think are biggest concern is shelter, we have enough supplies to last at least a day or two, but it’s still the middle of winter, and it doesn’t seem to get near as cold here as it does from where I am from, but the temperature does get pretty low at night.”

Tatsuo: “What about the temple we can probably fit at least half in there.”

“Well right now the only thing keeping us alive is the protection from Inari, and I would think it’s best to run any ideas like that past Saki, I would hate to make Inari mad and we lose the protection.”

Tatsuo: “It’s hard to think of it as more than a building after all these years, but as we are here safe for the moment I can’t really refute it… Well then what other buildings are there?”

“There is the bathhouse which I guess if we emptied out we could put quite a few people in, and the men’s barracks could hold a good size more, the female barracks though could only hold about 10 people tops.”

Tatsuo: “What about you and your people, you are the ones that fixed everything up, I would hate to throw you out after being the only ones that actually cared…”

“I think we will take the female barracks, it might be a bit tight, but we would then be out of all of your hair.”

Tatsuo: “I am sorry to impose…”

“After everything you and your people have lost today a little discomfort on our part is hardly comparable. I would just ask no matter what, respect the Inari temple, and respect the little privacy we have left.”

After spending the xp on the bathhouse and the barracks it hurts a little to see the villagers remove the items to make room, but with 50 people inside the dungeon I am sure to be acquiring that xp back and then some. I just have to make sure we are able to keep our secret.

It still takes quite a while to get everyone settled in the best we can, but for now we are going to take shifts on sleeping while keeping an eye on the well and temple to make sure the humans don’t do anything stupid.