As Long as You Have the [Shop] Skill, the Dungeonized World Is a Breeze ~The Bullied Youth’s Payback

Chapter 14 – Reward for Saving People

“Appeared? What did?” (Bouchi)
“A monster! A disgusting monster that was green all over!” (Man)
It was probably goblins or something similar. In other words, their house had been turned into a dungeon. This was good. It was an opportunity to get a [Core Fragment] and some profitable monster materials.

“Is it okay to just leave our house alone like that?” (Woman)
“H-Huh? But there’s nothing we can do! Those monsters appeared!” (Man)
“Y-Yeah… ah, damn it. It was just built not long ago, too!” (Woman)
The woman’s lips were trembling in frustration. Recently built, huh? That’s convenient. Then they would want me to reclaim it even more.

“….In that case, should I defeat those monsters for you?” (Bouchi)
“….Hah? You? No… there’s no way you’d be able to do that, though?” (Man)
“It’s fine. I’ve beaten them before.” (Bouchi)
“Is that so!?” (Man)
“Yes. And there’s also a rumor that once you kill all the monsters, the house will become safe, you know?” (Bouchi)
““Is that true?!””
…Looks like they’ve taken the bait.

“Well, in the end it’s just a rumor. What do you think? I could help you get your house back.” (Bouchi)
“Please! By all means! That was the house of our dreams, and it was just built recently!” (Woman)
“Yeah, just when we were planning to have a child and live a comfortable life, too…” (Man)
The woman’s belly seemed to be protruding out a bit. As it turned out, she was pregnant. Since this was the case, they would want a safe location even more.

“But I’d be risking my life as well. I’d like a fitting reward in return.” (Bouchi)
“A r-reward? …Like food?” (Man)
The fact that they didn’t say ‘money’ here was proof that times had changed in this world.

“No, no. What I want is―money. Ah, or precious metals or other expensive things would also work.” (Bouchi)
“Eh? …Money? Even though most stores aren’t in business anymore, and money has almost no value now?” (Man)
“That is certainly the current situation. But maybe I will need it in the future, who knows.” (Bouchi)
“I think food and clothes are more valuable, though…” (Man)
“It’s fine. If it goes to waste, it goes to waste. It’s just something like a whim. So, what will you do?” (Bouchi)
Well, for me it didn’t matter either way. If it worked out, I would get money, and if it didn’t, it was all the same.

“……Fine. If it’s money, I’ll give you as much as you want! As long as you help us reclaim the house, that is!” (Man)
“…Then we have a deal. Please wait ten minutes for me.” (Bouchi)
“T-Ten minutes?” (Man)
I ignored the man as his eyes turned round in astonishment, then walked towards their house at a brisk pace. The scale of the house wasn’t that different from the one I had broken into before. Most likely, the monsters weren’t that powerful.

If they were powerful, they would have easily destroyed such a small building at the start. The door was conveniently left open, so I boldly entered. Immediately to my left, there was a paper sliding door, and I could sense a presence in the room behind it. I cut a small hole into the paper sliding door and peeked inside.

―A goblin, huh? Two of them… Well, this should be easy enough.

No matter what happened, Sol was here. But I felt like it would be good for me to personally build up combat experience from time to time, so I gave Sol directions to go upstairs and take out the monsters up there. Then, I quickly opened the paper sliding door and cut off the head of the nearest goblin with my [Killer Knife].

Alright, that’s the first one down!

But then, something on top of a nearby shelf hurled itself at me.

“Crap!?”
I quickly threw my arms up in a guard as I grasped the identity of that something.

There was a slime, too?!

It had been on top of the shelf, so I didn’t notice it until now. But it wasn’t a problem. I immediately stabbed it with my knife and killed it, then avoided the attack of the goblin which was yelling as it charged at me from behind.

I promptly thrusted my knife into the goblin’s belly. In the next moment, the goblin instantly burst into light and disappeared.

“…What was that just now?”
It was a different way of disappearing compared to how it had been with the ones I defeated so far. After cutting off a goblin’s head, it would remain there as a corpse for several seconds, but this one had disappeared right after I stabbed it with my knife.

“…Ah, right. That was the [Instant Death] effect, I suppose.”
It was a trait of the [Killer Knife]. It had the chance to kill an opponent instantly, so it was probably that.

“I see. Once the [Instant Death] procs, it looks like this, huh? That’s good to know.”
I continued to search the rooms one after the other, defeating monsters as I went along. Just as I had thought, this time there was something up with the second floor as well. When Sol came back, she reported to me that there had been a creepy goblin made out of bones on the second floor.

She defeated it properly, but when Sol led me to the room that it had been in, I found what appeared to be the Dungeon Core embedded in the wall. After destroying it with my [Acid Knife], my job here was done.

“―Ooohh! Thank you! Seriously, thank you so much!” (Man)
When I returned to the couple and explained the situation to them and then led them back to their house, the man grabbed my hand and thanked me profusely. The wife looked around the interior in disbelief.

“But how could you defeat such monsters? You’re amazing!” (Woman)
“Haha, I may not look the part, but I used to dabble in some martial arts.” (Bouchi)
That was a barefaced lie, though. I had completely relied on my items.

Well, my skill was part of my strength, so it wasn’t like making use of it was a bad thing. That was why I could proudly puff out my chest and say it was my own strength.

“Anyway, regarding the reward we mentioned earlier…” (Bouchi)
“…Oh, right! Then again, this is my first time experiencing something like this, so… what would be the price for something like this?” (Man)
Come to think of it, I hadn’t decided on a price for this yet. It was an undeniable fact that I had protected their house, so technically it wouldn’t be strange for me to ask for a high price, but… I wasn’t so sure about abruptly overcharging them willy-nilly like that.

“Let’s see. I haven’t been doing this job for very long, so I’ll make a special exception for today.”
As I said that, I held up my index finger.

“Hm? ¥100,000? Is that enough for you?” (Man)
…Huh? Uh… It was my first time doing this, so I was planning to ask for ¥10,000.

“Or did you mean ¥1,000,000? Ah, wait a minute. It’s not cash, but I have a Rolex watch that I’d recently bought for myself as a reward.” (Man)
After the husband said this, he rushed upstairs and returned shortly after. He was carrying a small suitcase in his hands.

“I actually collect watches as a hobby. Here it is―” (Man)
“Ooh, this is amazing.” (Bouchi)
Since he was storing it in a separate suitcase, it must have been considerably expensive. I didn’t have any understanding of the hobby, but if he had taken it out in this situation, it had to be expensive.

“Geez, even though I told him that it would be better to buy a car or something instead of that thing.” (Woman)
The wife scowled at her husband as she sighed in exasperation.

“What are you talking about? This is the only hobby I have! No matter what anyone says, I won’t stop this hobby!” (Man)
“Yeah, yeah. I’ve already given up on that.” (Woman)
After that, I heard that the husband was a president of a company, albeit a small one, so he was fairly well-off. This house was also bought under a lump sum payment.

“If I recall correctly, you said that anything expensive would be fine, right? Is this alright? I think this watch is about ¥1,000,000.” (Man)
With that, he handed the wristwatch over to me. That said, I had no idea what the watch was worth.

I took it into my hands and pretended to examine it closely, and then I proceeded to put it in the <Box> so neither of them could see it and check the selling price. To my surprise, I found that I could sell it for ¥1,230,000. Then, I immediately took it back out of the <Box>.