Livelihood Dungeon! (English Version)

The bear swung its arm from a distance toward the charging new breed of wolf.

Ichiro's eyes widened the moment he saw the familiar motion. His suspicion had been correct.

From there, wind blades shaped like razor-sharp claws shot forth.

Ichiro's first instinct was to dodge, but he quickly came to his senses when he remembered who—rather, who all—were behind him.

His beloved master, as well as the mother of the little monkey who had become his friend.

He could not dodge.

"Grō!" the Terrestrial Wolf communicated to the companion behind him.

The meaning behind Ichiro's growl was clear:

"Make sure I survive, kid!"

"Kyū!" the Regeneration Slime answered enthusiastically.

Its response was equally straightforward.

"Leave it to me, Big Brother Ichiro!"

After that, Iyashi intensified its concentration as it transferred its ability to its battle partner.

Ichiro firmly braced his jaws, along with his entire body in wolf form.

The wind blades slammed into the resilient wolf.

"Grā!" Ichiro cried out in pain, his voice loud but gradually weakening.

Drip!

Drip!

Drip!

A triangular pool of blood formed in front of the wolf.

Every moment, blood dripped down in steady, rhythmic drops.

"Kyū?!" Iyashi asked worriedly to his big brother wolf.

This was the first time the wolf had suffered such severe injuries since evolving into a Terrestrial Wolf.

From atop the Terrestrial Wolf's nape, the Regeneration Slime could feel its trembling. The slime desperately forced itself to heal its friend.

The wolf trembled. It had lost too much blood.

It struggled to maintain its standing posture. Massive amounts of blood continuously gushed from both of its shoulders and nose. The curved traces left behind by the bear's wind blades were clearly visible there—especially across its nose.

Its appearance had become deformed because of it.

A steadfast Terrestrial Wolf, strong in both body and mind, was now desperately clinging to its fading life.

Peter was jolted awake by his companion's cry of pain and finally came to his senses. Alarmed, he stared at the miserable state of his companion.

"No!"

Peter desperately ran toward his companion when he saw the charging bear rushing toward it.

From what he could tell, the bear was determined to finish his companion off.

At the same time Peter regained awareness, someone else also came to her senses.

The female monkey.

Her gaze slowly lowered from the sky and swept across the surroundings.

Then her gaze landed on the desperately running human.

Her eyes shifted toward the slightly weakening giant wolf.

Afterward, her gaze moved to the small green slime perched on the back of the brown-and-grass-colored wolf.

Finally, her eyes arrived at their true target.

The mother monkey's expression changed after seeing the one responsible for killing her child.

Her teeth trembled as blood flowed from between them. Soon, bloody tears began streaming down her face as well.

She did not care about the wolf or even its master, but she refused to let the creature that took her child's life succeed.

She moved.

The female monkey quickly leaped forward.

The moment she landed, she violently stomped the ground three times in rapid succession.

"Just a little more..." the wolf muttered to itself regarding its recovery.

Suddenly, its eyes widened.

It never took its eyes off the bear's incoming attack, which was already nearly in front of its face.

And then it began.

The ground shook.

The wolf rolled away.

"Grā!" Ichiro expressed his gratitude to the monkey without turning around after realizing the bear's attack had missed.

Not far from where he had been moments ago, the ground was violently excavated.

It reached nearly six feet deep—more than enough to bury anyone.

From the corner of his eye, Peter caught sight of a blur.

Before he could even reach his target, it had already attacked first.

The female monkey arrived in front of the bear while running on all four limbs.

Then, with a leap, she punched the bear with all her strength.

Bam!

The monkey's punch connected.

Blood splattered from the bear's nose.

The monkey was about to follow up with another punch when the bear swatted her away.

Because of that, the female monkey was sent flying and rolled across the ground several times.

The bear snorted.

It had already heard of that monkey's reputation.

The other creatures of the forest often compared the monkey to it. According to them, the two of them were the strongest monsters in that part of the forest.

The bear disagreed.

To the bear, the monkey was nothing more than a coward who relied on fighting from atop her tree home.

Before the bear could even pull back the arm it used to swat the monkey away, two more attacks were already incoming.

And not just one.

Peter arrived first.

Peter tightened his grip on the farming sickle before swinging it with all his strength toward the bear's head.

The bear merely gave him a sideways glance.

It looked bored.

Nevertheless, the bear still faced the attack head-on.

It effortlessly caught the sickle. At the same time, the bear also ended up grabbing Peter's hand.

Peter hissed in pain.

He felt as though the bones in his hand were shattering apart.

The bear swung the human who was clinging to the sickle.

Because of that, Peter lost his grip on his weapon as he was flung into the air.

Afterward, the bear crushed the stolen sickle as though it were not made of steel.

It was about to chase after the foolish human when it was suddenly sent flying by an unexpected tackle.

In its excessive delight at the human's suffering, the bear had forgotten about the approaching wolf.

The two gigantic monsters wrestled across the ground.

Meanwhile, Peter, who had slammed into the ground, painfully endured the agony wracking his body.

He had to pour everything he had into maintaining consciousness.

His eyes immediately searched for Ichiro, who was at a disadvantage.

He saw the bear lifting the wolf after subduing it.

Peter desperately forced himself to crawl forward.

He knew his companion needed him.

By chance, he spotted the shattered bottles of his potions not far away.

Peter hissed in pain with every drag of his body.

His swollen dominant hand—now practically useless—kept scraping against the ground.

It had been crushed when the cruel bear grabbed his weapon.

His arm was also bent at the wrong angle. His elbow twisted unnaturally to the side.

Even so, he endured everything.

He would not allow what happened to the young monkey to happen again.

He did not want to lose another friend.

Like a starving and desperate stray dog, Peter licked the still-wet Regeneration Potion from the ground.

Normally, Peter would never lower himself like this, but the situation was far from normal.

Whether he could help his companions and stop them from dying depended on it.

He was willing to cast aside—or even completely abandon—his pride if it meant saving the companions precious to him.

And it seemed as though Peter's prayers had been answered.

Little by little, his strength returned.

Before long, the intense pain in his dominant hand also faded away.

He immediately stood up and hurried toward the bear.

He glanced at his healing hand and instantly wished he had not done so.

Disappointment filled him at what he saw.

Although his hand had healed, it remained bent at a strange angle.

He looked forward once more and focused on his current objective.

A ruined hand was worthless compared to the matter of life and death.

The bear threw Peter's Terrestrial Wolf in front of it.

The wolf coughed up blood repeatedly before the bear kicked it once again.

Fortunately, the wolf ended up closer to Peter's direction.

The bear was about to finish the wolf off once more when Peter blocked its attack with his twisted hand.

Peter hissed in pain as the bear broke the hand he used to shield himself again.

By that time, the female monkey had also recovered.

She stood up and steadied herself.

After that, the monkey adjusted herself into a strange stance.

One foot was positioned in front, its toes pointed forward.

Meanwhile, its dominant foot stayed at the back, angled outward.

Its knees were slightly bent.

The monkey crossed its arms in front of its chest before slowly lowering them.

Some kind of white energy began manifesting around its entire body.

After that, the posture of its hands changed.

Its dominant shoulder and arm bent slightly.

Its elbow pointed sharply backward while its hand formed a claw. The dominant palm faced forward.

Meanwhile, the other shoulder angled slightly toward the front. Its elbow pointed downward while the hand also remained in a clawing position, though its palm faced upward.

Its entire focus was locked onto the bear.

Little by little, an incredibly small concentration of white energy began appearing between the hands of the vengeful mother monkey.

It expanded at an alarming speed until it became clearly visible.

The energy was so powerful that even the three beings struggling in front of her could feel its terrifying presence.

The bear, which had just finished breaking Peter's arm, suddenly stopped moving after sensing something.

It tried to break free, but Peter and Ichiro seemed to share the same thought at that moment.

The bloodied and limping wolf bit into the arm of the staggering bear.

Meanwhile, Peter picked up his severed hand and, like a madman, smacked the bear's back with it.

The bear desperately tried to shake off the two pests bothering it, but the pair only became even more persistent.

Ichiro slowed the bear's movements by increasing the weight of his body.

At the same time, he desperately dragged the enemy down with his deeply embedded fangs.

He did not care even if the bear repeatedly lifted him up and slammed him against the ground.

Peter, meanwhile, learned a trick from his companion.

He also bit one of the bear's arms, though only his teeth ended up hurting.

Because of that, he received a disdainful look from the bear.

So instead, he shifted targets and settled for biting the bear's fingers.

"Bwā!"

The female monkey unleashed a massive sphere of energy with an iconic motion from that classic anime.

It shot swiftly toward the black bear's direction.

The two desperate beings immediately took their cue.

At the same time, they let go and quickly slipped away from the enemy bear.

The bear also wanted to dodge, but Peter and Ichiro's timing had been far too perfect.

The bear's eyes widened like saucers.

Its jaw dropped as well.

Its rear arched sharply upward when the monkey's massive white energy struck its stomach directly.

Its feet were forcibly lifted off the ground before it was blasted away.

Even after successfully landing such a devastating attack, the female monkey was still not satisfied.

She slammed both hands downward before immediately chasing after the flying bear.

At the monkey's incredible speed, it would not take long before she caught up to the enemy bear.

The flying bear traveled several meters before finally crashing down and coming to a stop.

The enraged female monkey did not fall behind.

She immediately mounted the vastly larger bear and sat on its chest.

After that, she rained down a barrage of punches onto the face of the unconscious killer of her child.

The bear's head was repeatedly thrown left and right from the relentless beating.

Despite that, the bear still woke up.

It was a testament to the toughness of its body.

Silent yet filled with fury, the bear glared at the creature mercilessly beating it.

A few more seconds passed before the bear suddenly caught one of the monkey's hands.

The female monkey immediately struggled to break free.

The rapidly recovering bear would have succeeded if Peter and Ichiro had not arrived.

Ichiro swiftly bit into the bear's arm before forcefully pinning it against the ground.

Meanwhile, Peter used his full weight to pin down the bear's other arm.

Even though the bear was already recovering quickly, the damage caused by the energy burst was still overwhelming.

It was still beyond its current capability to shake the two off while the female monkey remained on top of it.

The monkey pointed both of her hands toward the bear's face.

A concentration of white energy slowly began gathering there.

Before the female monkey could even unleash her killing move, Peter and Ichiro had already quickly retreated several meters away from her.

The ground around the two creatures sank dozens of meters deep and spread across several hundred meters wide.

The female monkey delivered one final punch with all her strength to the already lifeless bear before finally climbing back out.

After that, without even looking back, she walked toward the place where everything had begun.

Peter let out a deep sigh after the battle to the death they had gone through.

It felt to him as though a thousand years had passed before everything ended, yet the truth was the exact opposite.

Not even a full minute had passed since the cruel bear carried out its ambush.

That was simply how battles to the death often were.

Every second felt unbearably slow because of the relentless fear of death.

Peter and the others peered into the crater to make sure the cruel and cunning spirit beast was truly dead.

They observed it for several moments before finally feeling satisfied with the bear's death.

Peter was suddenly startled when Iyashi approached him with intense excitement.

The slime eagerly asked for permission to eat the bear.

Peter simply allowed it.

He did not see anything wrong with it.

Without fear, Iyashi jumped down into the incredibly deep crater.

Peter instructed Ichiro to follow the mother of their slain little monkey friend.

The wolf obediently followed the order.

Peter stayed behind to watch over and protect his slime companion.

His eyes widened after seeing what Iyashi displayed.

The slime slowly enveloped the giant bear completely.

After that, Iyashi suddenly shrank back, and the bear's corpse was nowhere to be seen.

Peter could only mutter to himself that his companion truly was a spirit beast.

That was when he suddenly remembered something.

When his companion matured and reached Rank D, it had learned a skill.

Swallow.

The slime jumped onto his shoulder.

Silently, Peter reviewed their performance during the battle.

There was only one thing he could say.

They had been unbelievably lucky.

If they had encountered the bear without the female monkey...

...they would have died without a doubt.

He was already fortunate that he had only nearly lost one arm.

It seemed he would need to revisit and revise their battle plans.

In his opinion, the most important adjustments would have to come from himself.

Iyashi had been born as a natural-born support spirit beast.

Meanwhile, Ichiro had become a defense specialist ever since walking the path of a Terrestrial Wolf.

Peter, on the other hand, was comfortable with a build focused on his own survival.

There was nothing wrong with that.

However, among the three of them, he was the only one capable of changing flexibly.

As the leader, he needed to compensate for the shortcomings of their party.

Their team was incredibly durable and difficult to kill because they possessed both a first-class tank and support.

And that was where their greatest weakness began to reveal itself.

If they encountered an even stronger enemy again, the battle would only turn into a war of attrition until one of two scenarios occurred.

Either their defenses would be overwhelmed and bypassed until they were completely wiped out...

...or they would win a battle that was nearly fifty-fifty.

Yet in both situations, their deficiency remained painfully obvious.

Killing power.

In the future, he would need to focus on properly distributing his stats while taking firepower into consideration.

That was what the situation demanded.

He returned to where the battle had begun while Iyashi rode on his shoulder.

...

Peter was greeted by a heartbreaking scene upon his arrival. The mother was crying over her child, who had died before her.

Peter approached.

He could not stop himself from offering help.

Peter placed Iyashi onto the young monkey's corpse.

The female monkey was about to strike Iyashi, but Peter quickly stopped her.

Only then did the mother monkey calm down slightly.

She noticed Peter's severed arm slowly regenerating.

The monkey's eyes widened.

With the slime removed, the young monkey's wounds also disappeared.

Its appearance returned to how it had been before everything turned into chaos and its body had been torn apart.

The female monkey pushed Peter aside and tearfully embraced her child's motionless body.

Peter froze in place, as though the remaining hope in his chest had been doused with cold water.

Even though the body's appearance had returned, it remained nothing more than a cold corpse.

The monkey looked at Peter with pleading eyes.

Peter called for his companion and placed the young monkey's cold corpse onto the back of the wolf.

Peter opened the passage, and they entered one after another.

The female monkey, her heart filled with questions, silently followed the human with hesitation.

She had never imagined that the day would come when she would place her hopes in a human.

...

Peter pried open the young monkey's mouth and forcibly poured water from the Magical Fountain of Life into it.

He looked toward Peach.

The dungeon guide sadly shook her head.

"That water can heal and strengthen the body, but only for the living," Peach said.

"Don't you have any other way?" Peter asked, desperation mixed in his voice.

Yet even Peter himself was slowly beginning to lose hope.

He had already used the two most miraculous things he possessed.

The water from the fountain that could restore health and preserve the body's condition.

And Iyashi's legendary-class potion, capable of regenerating even the most severe injuries as long as certain conditions were met.

Just like his severed hand—which now looked even healthier than before.

Yet none of it had worked.

Peter closed his eyes, finally accepting the obvious answer.

"Brr!"

Suddenly, an angry snort came from the monkey.

Peach frowned at the monkey's reaction.

"Wait a moment, Master. Let me talk to her first. Tehehe~" Peach said as she asked Peter for permission.

They began going back and forth—sometimes angrily, other times calmly.

After a while, Peach turned toward Peter.

"She says she wants to become a member of our family," she said.

Everyone fell silent for a moment before Peter suddenly exploded with a reaction.

"Wait... WHAT?!"