Rankings

  [Now then, it’s probably on everyone’s mind, so let’s announce the DP Rankings.]

  With [Father]’s words, the atmosphere felt strained once again.

  [Alright, attention everyone! I’ll announce the top ten first! Well, the order hasn’t changed the past few years so let’s blaze through it!]

  The first to tenth places were announce in one go.

  There wasn’t a change even when comparing it to the time Rokuko last attended.

  From 1st to 3rd place was respectively Core 1, Core 2, Core 3. 4th was Core 7. 5th was Core 9 and 6th was Core 6. After that was Haku, Core 89, in 7th place, with Core 5 in 8th, Core 10 in 9th, and Core 8 in 10th.

  Roar!

  Letting out a roar in vexation, Core 5 breathed his black flames towards the skies.

  Most of the top ten was held by cores with single digits. Rokuko felt that Haku, who’d made her way into that, was amazing.

  Moreover, although the amount of DP the person possessed was displayed alongside the ranking—since Rokuko didn’t know how to read digits over one trillion, even though she understood that it was awesome and endless, she couldn’t read it.

  [Hmm, after all, 1, 2, and 3 are excellent. I’m glad. Keep on collecting DP like you’ve been.]

  “I am extremely glad to be honored by your praise, father.”


  Taking a knee, Core 1 gave thanks like a knight would. Core 2 and Core 3 followed suit as though taking his lead. Core 2 and Core 3 were each respectively silver and copper colored knights. Among the first to ninety-ninth cores that were called the First Series, there was talk that [Father] made these three in particular deliberately courteous, so it was taken as natural.

  Even so, after accumulating so much DP to the point that it was unreadable and still being told to collect more, Rokuko felt that they were truly in a different realm from her.

  [7 and 9, do your best as well. Try to pass Core 3 if you’re able alright?]

  “Yes, Tou-sama.”


  “I will do my utmost.”


  Core 7 and Core 9 both held female forms and had green and blue hair respectively. They were called [Mountain God] and [Sea God]. Well, Haku was also called [White Goddess], so Rokuko felt they were like her.

  [6, 89, 5, your positions allow you to take watch of those who rank lower. Raising them is important as well, thank you.]

  “Your words are too kind.”


  “Above all, I am happy to please Otou-sama.”


  “Oh father, this immature Core 5 is glad to be of use.”


  Core 6. A grim-faced man wearing an ominous black armor. Generally referred to as the [Great Demon King], he is the lead of the Demon King Faction.

  Core 89. Needless to say, she was Haku. Founder of the Raverio Empire, she was Rokuko’s elder sister. She was called [Betrayer].

  Core 5. As the only one in the top ten to not take the form of a human, he was a black dragon. He did not wish to conceal the appearance he received from [Father] and did not wish to change his form. Many reptile-type cores, Ontentoo included, chose the same. They were known as the Dragon King Faction.

  [10, 8. You two have been giving it your best. You have my regards forever, keep on living alright?]

  “My king, I appreciate for your happiness.”


  “I will answer your expectations with my all, master!”


  Core 10. He imitated [Father]’s outfit, but the vestment that wrapped the old man’s body was ornamented resplendently.

  Core 8. Contrasting Core 10, the elder merely wore simple clothing and leaned on a cane.

  [Well them, next I’ll announce everything up to 699th place. Man, there’s a lot of swapping around in the lower positions so it’s pretty fun to watch right?]

  A huge landscape-oriented table appeared with much smaller writing on it than the placements for the top ten. If Kehma were here, he probably would’ve said that they were similar to test announcement tables.

  It showed all dungeon cores ranking between eleventh and six hundred ninety-nine place.

  It also showed what dungeons had died like Core 379. It recorded how much DP they had at that time, but no further changes.

  And so Rokuko started looking around the low rankings, looking for her name.

  That said, since her earnings increased drastically after Kehma arrived, she was hoping that she might be able to have escaped from the low rankings.

  Then, looking from last place up… she saw cores that died immediately after being produced and cores that had used all of their DP in their final struggles, going all the way to 0 DP… she’d looked all the way through to the four hundreds but still didn’t see [695]. This continued all the way through to the three hundreds.

  There were many 600 Series inside of the three hundreds, practically all of them looked different as they couldn’t take human form yet.

  Seeing Rokuko browsing, Core 629, an orange rabbit, piped up to Rokuko while rubbing its face.

  “Nikyu? What’chu doin’ there 695? Aren’chu at the bottom~?”


  “Eh, ah, no, um… My number, it’s not there. It’s strange.”


  “… You’ere finally forgot by papa?”


  “I-I don’t think so.”


  “Then can’chu look with the DP column? Won’t miss it that way!”


  “Oh, right.”


  Recalling how much DP she had, Rokuko looked through the DP rankings in front of her.

  … Three hundredth place, 629. 351,200 DP in possession.

  Huh? Come to think of it, how much DP did I have right now…? I got a lot of DP as inn fees Haku-anesama, how much was that?

  And so, she looked at the DP display on the menu. After she recently put a limitation on the display for how much she could use, it had only shown around 100000 DP the whole time. It had been a long time since she checked how much total DP she had.

  729,359 DP.

  “… Un?”


  She rubbed her eyes and looked again.

  It hadn’t changed. 729,359 DP……

  No, no no. No way. Our property should definitely be in the form of gold coins. Just a little while ago, Kehma said that if he turned all of the gold coins into DP it’d be more than the DP we have now?

  Eh, wait a sec. Doesn’t that mean we have double this….?

  And I’m higher than the 350,000 DP at 300th place?

  “What’s the matter? Starin’ at the DP I saved up. I get it’s envious, but it’s no good not earnin’ it yourself~?”


  “Ah, no, it’s just… Un.”


  And so Rokuko made her way up through the rankings… 250th place, roughly 500,000 DP.

  —Eh. Eh, how far up is it?

  Rokuko finally found her number.

  “… 210th… 695…?”


  She looked again to make sure, but it definitely said 695. Turning around for a moment before looking back, it still said 695.

  By the way, two hundredth place had 1,000,000 DP, quickly increasing to 10,000,000 DP at one hundred fiftieth place.

  “… Fueh.”


  An odd smile made its way onto her face without her realizing it.