Livelihood Dungeon! (English Version)

It can also be noticed that he recently named someone whose name sounds remarkably similar to Noriko.

Moriko!

Noriko!

Rhyming words.

The only difference between them is the first letter of their names.

Here comes an interesting fact.

The two names may sound similar, but their meanings are worlds apart.

Moriko means "forest" in Japanese, while Noriko means "authority" or "law."

This is how the two names are written in Kanji:

森 — Forest

権威 — Authority

The meanings of these two are vastly different from each other. The same can also be said for how they are written when converted from the Japanese writing system into the universal language of English.

Fascinating, isn't it?

Words.

Languages.

Writing systems.

Such small differences can create entirely different worlds of meaning.

...

Speaking of Moriko, based on what Peter heard from Peach, the Man-Ki had already been showing satisfactory progress in the lessons taught by the dungeon guide-cum-head administrator.

Because of this, he took the opportunity to ask the female Man-Ki if she wanted to serve as their guide in the Eternal Forest. She readily agreed.

...

The next day arrived.

"Please be careful, Master!" Peach said worriedly.

"Protect Master well, Ichiro and Iyashi," it added as a reminder to Peter's two very first companions.

"Kyū!"

"Grā!"

The spirit beast companions responded energetically.

"Thank you, Ichiro, Iyashi. My mind is finally at ease because of your promises," the dungeon guide added tearfully.

"Moriko," the head administrator called seriously to its fellow administrator student.

"Yiee... ha?" the latter responded while turning toward its tiny administrator teacher.

"Help Master and the others as much as you can. You're more familiar with that place. As much as possible, keep the three of them away from dangerous areas." Peach stared intensely into the female Man-Ki's eyes as it pleaded.

"Ooh... aaah!" the Man-Ki replied seriously while returning Peach's gaze.

"Thank you," the guide said sincerely.

"Well then, we'll be leaving for now, Peach. Take good care of our Livelihood Dungeon," Peter said, causing the young guide's heart to warm.

"You can count on me, Master. Please stay safe. I'll be waiting for your return," it said while waving continuously and carefully watching its companions depart.

Of course, every sentence Peach spoke ended with its cute little laugh.

...

"Ooh? Ahh?" the Man-Ki uttered in utter shock the moment they stepped out of the dungeon passage.

"What's wrong, Moriko?" Peter asked.

"Ooh... ahhh?! Ooh... aah!!"

Its shock was suddenly replaced by anger.

"What?!" Even Peter was startled by the female Man-Ki's reaction.

Then Moriko said something that shocked Peter even further.

"Why are you heading in this direction?! You would've been doomed if I hadn't come with you today!!" the Man-Ki said to Peter's group, clearly stressed out.

"Grā!"

"Kyū!"

The Regeneration Slime and the Terrestrial Wolf reacted protectively to the Man-Ki scolding their fellow master.

Ichiro and Iyashi hurled all sorts of accusatory words at the female Man-Ki.

"What do you mean?" Peter asked in a raised voice. Even he was clearly beginning to grow anxious because of their new companion's reaction.

"Death awaits you if you continue down this path. Let's leave this place first. I'll explain everything while we walk," Moriko said.

Peter glanced at his companions before following the already walking Moriko.

Ichiro and Iyashi immediately fell silent when Peter's gaze passed over them.

The two stopped growling at their fellow Man-Ki companion.

Afterward, the wolf and the slime quietly followed behind Moriko and Peter.

Before long, a rhythm of silence settled over the journey of the four.

"Can you finally share with me what you know?" Peter's shortening thread of patience had already snapped completely.

He decided to break the thickening silence between them.

"At the end of that direction lies a terrifying creature," the Man-Ki casually revealed.

"Huh? What do you mean? Can you explain it more clearly, Moriko?" Peter felt his chest tighten after hearing the casually dropped information from Moriko.

The Man-Ki brushed aside the tall, slanted wild grass blocking her view. After that, she turned back to look at Peter.

"I saw it once before. I was still young back then and had neither a mate nor a child," the Man-Ki began her story.

"During those times, a group of people like you intruded upon our forest.

As creatures of the forest, we admire and respect the strength of any individual.

And those people were truly powerful.

We would have willingly befriended them if that had been what they wanted.

But we later discovered that friendship was far from their true intention.

There is one thing we forest dwellers despise—and that is the excessive creation of chaos.

And that was exactly what they wanted to do: create chaos whose purpose we still do not fully understand even to this day.

They began acting like tyrants the moment they made their presence known.

The bravest warriors of every race affected by those domineering humans tried to fight back against them.

But every challenger—whether Man-Ki, kobold, goblin, Wild Boar, Moon Bear, or any other creature—ultimately failed.

Because of this, the leaders of every race issued their own decrees. Challenging those humans was forbidden, and we were ordered to simply avoid them whenever our paths crossed.

According to the leaders, we would merely wait for those humans to finish whatever objective they had. The only thing we could supposedly do was repeatedly plead for them to leave our forest.

Of course, as creatures of the forest, many of us opposed that decision—including me."

"For us forest dwellers, turning our backs on a fight is a great contradiction and an act of cowardice.

I could still understand a temporary retreat to devise a strategy and return to face the enemy at a more appropriate time.

Treacherous attacks, using overwhelming numbers, or any kind of unfair tactic—things that your race might find unacceptable—are perfectly acceptable to us as long as they lead to victory.

But that was not what the leaders wanted. They wanted us to surrender completely. That was unacceptable for the Man-Ki—especially for confident and younger members like the one I was back then.

To me, it was utter madness.

Because of that, I was forced to consider disobeying our leader's order. I secretly spoke with my young Man-Ki friends to learn their thoughts on the matter.

I was surprised to discover that they shared the same intentions as me. Because of this, carrying out my plan became much easier.

In secret, we formed a group that would track and monitor the whereabouts of those scoundrels. Before long, our hidden organization was established, and we immediately put our plan into motion.

While searching for the humans, we encountered several surprising situations.

The younger members of other races had also formed groups for the very same purpose.

For the first time, we saw one another united by a single goal. Because of this, a temporary alliance was formed between our groups.

Together, we spread the alliance's members throughout the vast forest to conduct our search. It did not take long before, through the combined efforts of many united races, we finally discovered the whereabouts of our mutual enemies.

However, we were shocked by what our scouts reported about the place where those humans were located—or rather, the place they were heading toward.

They were traveling toward the southwesternmost region of the forest.

All of us turned pale.

My companions and I exchanged glances. One of them stood out in particular. When our eyes met, it silently parted its lips. Even now, I can still clearly remember the unspoken words it mouthed.

Surely they're not planning to challenge those monsters... right?

I understood the fear my fellow Man-Ki felt. It would truly become dangerous if those beings were disturbed.

But even though fear gripped us, we still chose to continue the mission we had begun.

Silently, we prayed that they would not provoke those monsters.

Before long, they finally reached the place we suspected to be their destination.

We were right.

We stared tensely at that towering place—the territory of monsters that should never be disturbed. We carefully observed the next move of those reckless humans.

Wait!" Moriko suddenly interrupted her long story.

Peter immediately followed the Man-Ki's gaze toward the place she was intently observing.

Before long, he heard the ground rumbling throughout the Eternal Forest. A few moments later, Moriko was the first to spot the source of the noise. Soon after, Peter, Ichiro, and Iyashi saw it as well.

"Their numbers are going to be a problem," Peter clicked his tongue in complaint, his brows furrowed.

"Do not worry, my Master. The goblins' numbers may be troublesome for other groups, but not for us. Based on the overall strength I witnessed from all of you yesterday—and adding my own strength to the equation—I am confident we can easily deal with this problem," Moriko said confidently.

"In that case, what strategy would you suggest?" Peter asked.

"Simple. We need to exterminate the goblins in the shortest time possible. I probably don't need to explain to you how we should do that, right?" said the stretching Man-Ki.

Peter subtly acknowledged Moriko's message.

He telepathically relayed his orders to the Terrestrial Wolf and the Regeneration Slime.

The four of them prepared themselves for the impending bloody battle.

Peter pulled out a new farming sickle. During his last battle against the Moon Bear, his previous sickle had been effortlessly destroyed. Because of that, he bought a replacement using his Dungeon Points.

"Charge!" Peter signaled.

At the same time as his shout, the goblins responded to his challenge with furious snarls.

The ground trembled from the simultaneous march of dozens of bloodthirsty goblins. Their sharp weapons sliced through the air as they surged forward.

Moriko was the first to move.

The female Man-Ki took advantage of the fact that she possessed the widest attack range on the battlefield.

The Man-Ki leaped four consecutive times. That part of the forest shook violently.

Upon landing, she stood on all fours.

Moriko silently observed her surroundings.

The goblins' advance was forcefully halted by the unexpected tremor.

Moriko took advantage of the intense confusion spreading through the goblins' ranks. She charged forward like a blur while the goblin leaders desperately tried to calm their disorderly subordinates.

Several dozen goblins were sent flying from the sheer impact of Moriko crashing into them.

The goblins' attention was immediately redirected toward the sudden enemy assault within the middle of their formation. They violently attacked the opportunistic Man-Ki.

Those who had lost their weapons attempted to bite and claw at her instead.

Meanwhile, the remaining goblins swung their weapons at the intruder's body after realizing that she was merely a Man-Ki.

Moriko nimbly and skillfully dodged the surrounding goblins. Before long, using her superior physical abilities, she managed to break free from their tight encirclement.

The goblins were about to pursue the forcibly escaping Man-Ki when their tightly packed formation suddenly collapsed because of an attack from a direction they had failed to notice.

Sharp chunks of stone raining down from the sky crashed onto the small heads of most of the goblins.

Dozens of goblins were nearly annihilated by Ichiro's Meteoric Drops.

Peter grinned.

He could clearly see the tremendous improvement in Meteoric Drops. It had truly become a fitting skill for a Rank C spirit beast. Its destructive power had increased tremendously, but what Peter noticed the most was the sheer number of stone fragments the skill could now rain down.

Peter moved while the situation was still chaotic. He charged at several panicking and scattered enemies. He winked at the Man-Ki on the opposite side of the broken encirclement. It seemed they had come up with the same idea.

Moriko mercilessly punched and kicked the confused and disorganized goblins while the new master rapidly swung his farming sickle.

The goblins fell one after another like flies being swatted down.

A few moments later, the battle finally came to an end, and one side emerged completely victorious.

Peter wasted no time. He immediately collected their spoils. They transported piles upon piles of goblin weapons into the Livelihood Dungeon. This time, they did not even spare the goblins' corpses.

After that, they continued their journey.

Every step through the forest was far from peaceful.

They encountered many enemies, most of them groups of goblins.

With every battle, they also made sure not to miss any opportunity to collect all obtainable spoils.

As they continued advancing, the master of the three Rank C spirit beasts gradually realized something.

From the area where they exited the Livelihood Dungeon to the shoreline they were currently traversing, he noticed that their direction of travel was gradually heading northeast. Because of this, a speculation formed in his mind.

Perhaps Moriko was leading them to her home.

Peter recalled the days when they used to play with the young Man-Ki while she was still alive. Whenever she left after playing with them, she would always head north.

"Moriko, just what—or who—did that group of humans provoke?" Peter finally could no longer hold himself back.

He had wanted to know the continuation of Moriko's interrupted story for quite some time now. He had merely been waiting for the relentless encounters to calm down enough for him to squeeze in his question.

"Those, Master? The beings I mentioned earlier are creatures called Terrestrial Lizards. They live at the rocky foot of the hill in the southwesternmost part of the Eternal Forest," Moriko explained.

"Terrestrial Lizards? Are they strong?" Peter asked curiously.

"Strong? Based on the stories our leader told about his youth, he once witnessed a single Terrestrial Lizard take down a fully matured Man-Ki in just one strike. If creatures like that still can't be considered strong, then I honestly don't know who you would consider strong," Moriko replied to Peter's simple question in a slightly passive-aggressive tone.