Chapter 121.2

121 Part 2

Haruki pulled his chin to the front so as to urge Akane to continue her story.

“It looks like a unique species has appeared in the Mt. Hakodate Dungeon.”

“Isn’t Mt. Hakodate Dungeon only 5 floors deep?”

“That’s right.”

Displeased, Haruki pursed his lips after hearing Akane’s affirmation.

The dungeon at Mt. Hakodate was one of Japan’s shallowest dungeons, with a total of a mere 5 floors.

It had a unique design that was different from regular dungeons, but it wasn’t a particularly difficult dungeon.

The request was to defeat a unique species monster that had appeared in that dungeon.

Haruki wondered if the local adventurers or the Self-Defense Force couldn’t do it themselves, without having to resort to an intermediate adventurer.

However, Haruki’s doubts were shattered by Akane’s words.

“The monster is a rare species of the Dungeon Lord.”

“Wha-!?”

“Eh-!?”

Both Haruki and Karen became speechless.

There were many rare species similar to the monster they were based on, like the Werewolf, which was the Silver Wolf’s rare species.

Unique species, on the other hand, were monsters that had nothing to do with other monsters in the same dungeon.

It was likely that the deer that had appeared on the 15th floor of the garage dungeon was a unique species. This could be established if it could be confirmed that there were no deer-like monsters in the garage dungeon.

What both rare and unique species had in common was that they were overwhelmingly stronger than the monsters on that floor.

If a Dungeon Lord was troublesome enough as a regular species, it would be easy to imagine that defeating a Dungeon Lord that had turned into a unique species would be extremely difficult.

“I guess that there are times where a unique species version of the Dungeon Lord can appear, huh.”

“It’s a very rare thing. You seem to be fighting against both rare and unique species left and right, but rare and unique species are actually quite rare, you know? Regular adventurers usually consider themselves lucky to find even one of them once a year.”

Akane smiled excitedly, almost as if she was saying “Maybe that mask is calling for all those rare monsters, don’t you think?“

Haruki couldn’t help but feel it was some kind of joke.

He shook his head as if asking for her to bear with him.

“So they’re looking for an adventurer that can deal with that unique monster, is that it?”

“Well, yeah.”

“If they leave it be, it might even disappear on its own… Could it be that it’s not disappearing?”

Usually, rare and unique species disappear after a while.

However, there are some among them that don’t disappear.

Those are the kind of rare monsters that cause Stampedes.

Haruki knew that too well.

“I don’t know that. I only know that Hakodate City has decided to subjugate that unique species monster.”

“Even though it might eventually disappear on its own?”

“I don’t know how long they should wait before it disappears, and that’s if it does actually disappear.”

“But subjugating that monster could cause some injuries…”

Wouldn’t it be better to not try to push things forward?

Haruki wondered such a thing, but Akane shook his head.

“The regular Dungeon Lord is an important food source for the people of Hakodate City.”

“Ah… I see.”

Farmers who could not use agricultural equipment due to soaring costs of fuel had no choice but to reduce their planted areas.

These planted areas of the farmers that were currently engaged in agriculture were only large enough to be harvested by hand. Compared to when it was done by machine, the land used by farmers had been reduced to less than half.

The only thing that saved Japan’s food situation, where the rate of self-sufficiency had dropped significantly, was the dungeons.

The food obtained from dungeon exploration had saved the Japanese from famine.

Nowadays, there were many local governments sustaining themselves with food obtained from dungeons.

Hakodate was one of such local governments.

The appearance of an unique species monster would certainly disrupt the chain of supply for Hakodate City.

For that reason, they had no choice but to try to defeat it.

“By the way, what kind of monster is Mt. Hakodate’s Dungeon Lord?”

“A squid.”

“Oh, that’s terrible!”

Haruki’s face went pale as he had finally realized the seriousness of the matter.

Squid was used for sashimi, dried seafood, pickles, and even shiokara, which was a paste made from salted fermented seafood. It was one of Japan’s most representative ingredients, which have supported Japanese food for generations.

Not being able to get a steady supply of squid would surely have a great impact on various Japanese foods.

Furthermore, the lack of squid will damage the companies that process them upon arrival.

If we don’t act quickly and defeat the rare species and replenish the market with squid, the industry in Hakodate, which has begun to get on track after surviving the first Stampede, may be completely destroyed !!

“Got it. I accept this request!!”

“Alright. But why do you look so excited about it?”

“It’s obvious, isn’t it? I’m going to take a stand and save the citizens of Hakodate!”

Haruki said so with pride.

It was natural for an adventurer to want to save people.

However, the only thing on Haruki’s head was the image of shiokara on top of freshly cooked rice…

Akane turned her gaze toward Haruki.

“I’m sorry you’re so eager to get going, but I’m afraid you may not be able to just dash forward as you please.”

“Hmm? What do you mean by that?”

“Weeeell…”

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The members of Aerial who visited Hakodate immediately went to the Hakodate Headquarters of the Self-Defense Force, which was the meeting place for the operation.

The Hakodate Headquarters of the Self-Defense Force was located at the foot of Mt. Hakodate.

It was made by remodeling a former high school facility that could be found after climbing Hachimanzaka.