After leaving the exhausted woman in Emily's care, I headed towards the dungeon.
　First of all, I was going to report my arrival and ask her what was going on.

　The entrance to the dungeon is surrounded by many tents that look like a field camp.
　Numerous adventurers come and go all over the place, pushing magic carts filled with dropped items.
　The adventurers pushing the magic carts are gathered in several specific tents, is that the place to make a purchase?

　It's vaguely obvious from looking around, the buildings are just tents, and the same life activities are going on as in the city.

　I grabbed a young adventurer I passed and asked him where the Cyclodungeon Association representative was, and there he was.

　It was a rather large tent that looked like something a nomadic tribe might have used.
　Inside, it was decorated like an office, with several secretaries bustling about, and a man in charge in his 30s sat at the far end.

'Excuse me, I'm Sato Ryota from Ciclo.
Oh, there you are.

　When I said my name, the man stood up with his arms outstretched and came toward me.
　He held out his hand for me to shake, and I gave him a knowing smile.

I'll get back to you. Thank you so much for coming. I'm in charge here, and my name is Duke.
This is Ryota Sato.

　He gave his name again and proceeded to speak quickly.

'I've only heard a cursory description, so could you explain to me what exactly you're going to do?
Of course.

　There was a tent made up like an office, with a couch in it, where I sat across from Duke.

'Have you heard about the idea of investigating rare monster drops?
Yeah.
''That's actually a bit of a different situation as well. That's because this selenium is all the way down to the tenth floor underground, but as of now, the normal monster drops are alternating between vegetables, meat, vegetables, and meat.
I see.
'In these cases, as in other dungeons, the rare monster drops will also be all vegetables, meat, and vegetables.
Then there's no point in investigating it, is there?
But we need to decide whether it will be Cyclo's or Hetero's.

　Duke didn't answer the question directly, but went on with the conversation.
　I nodded at that.

　Since this story is a dispute between Cyclo and Hetero, as well as the city's income and taxes, there is definitely a need to put a black and white on the matter.

''So, in effect, we've agreed that we'll decide on the amount of rare monsters that are found to drop within the deadline. Rare monsters are rare in their appearance and don't always drop, and it was decided that not doing so within the deadline would be considered a 'don't do'. Of course, there's always the possibility that they really don't.

　It's true that there are monsters that don't drop anything.

I see, so that means I should focus on the five floors of rare monsters out of the ten levels.

　Duke nodded clearly.
　The story was simple.
　That kind of thing was easy to understand, the target and goal was clear, so it was easy to act on it.

'All right, let's get on with it, and tomorrow--'
'That's okay, I've made sure to reward the adventurers.
Bounty?
When a rare monster comes up - if it comes up in the vegetable hierarchy, you'll call me and I'll call you and we'll - I mean, you'll go out and beat it.
I see.

　It's not very efficient if I'm the only one going around looking for rares, so the Cyclo Association is going to buy information on rare monsters from adventurers and send me to pinpoint them.
　I thought it was getting easier and easier to do.

　　　　　☆

　Earlier in the day, I received a call.
　The basement floor of Seren, I received a call that there was a rare monster in there.

　I headed over there with Duke and found a number of people there.

　There was one young adventurer, who was catching a slime-like monster.
　The mollusk-like monster is undulating and trying to escape, but the adventurer has a firm hold on it.

　On the other hand, a well-dressed, elderly man and a fearless-looking adventurer stand a short distance away.
　The first-aged man is looking at me with a grin.
　Somehow, I feel like I'm being looked down upon and I feel strangely uncomfortable.

　Curious, I asked Duke.

'Who's that guy?'
Harvard. Harvard, the Heterodungeon Institute, same kind of people I am.
Are you in charge of the other side?

　He certainly looks like a middle manager, in more ways than one.

'You see that one adventurer behind it?　That guy's name is Eugene, he's a competent adventurer, but he's a guy with a lousy F plant drop.

　Plant drop F?
　Why do you even bother to mention it, Duke?
　It makes sense to say it all the way through, I thought about it.

　I thought about it, and then I had a flash of inspiration.

'I'm going to bump the lowest plant-drop adventurer to a rare monster that will drop vegetables.
'Then the vegetables might drop from the rare monster that might drop them, but they won't drop from the rare monster. If you continue to do that until the deadline--
In other words, sabotage.

　Well, now I know why the guy in charge on the other side is smirking.

'That's a nasty move. But there's no doubt that he's a capable adventurer, and no one can stop or blame him for killing a rare monster.
Yeah, of course.

　There's no rule anywhere that says you can't kill it because it's drop F. If you say that, Emily is not allowed to defeat the monster.
　Even if it's Drop F, it's still allowed to defeat a rare monster in an attempt to get a shot off.
　It's practically sabotage to reverse that - a seccool move, as Duke says.

It's just a matter of time before we win. That adventurer has an agreement with us, and as long as he's in custody, Eugene can't intercept him. We can't take down a monster secured by an adventurer without permission.
I'm going to take him down.
Please.

　I took out my gun and loaded it with regular bullets.
　I figured that since I had an adventurer on my side, I could use a conventional round.

Just hold on to it.
I'm on it.

　The young adventurer nodded clearly.
　He readied his gun and, just to be sure, he held both of them up and shot the monster with a fused, powerful penetrating bullet.
　The monster was shot through and chipped like a crescent moon.

　One shot up - or so I thought.
　Almost at the same time as Harvard grinned more and more, the monster regenerated.
　As it regenerated, its volume expanded, and it flicked off the young adventurer's hand and fell to the ground.

'That guy,'

　The man introduced as Eugene, an adventurer on the hetero side, said in a reluctant voice.

'There's a nucleus somewhere in your body, it regenerates with every attack that doesn't crush the nucleus, and with every regeneration it gets stronger. That's how it works.'
The location of the nucleus is different for each individual, and only Eugene here can spot it.

　Harvard said to add.

'Defeating them in the dark would make them stronger, and that would put us all in danger. Let us take care of things here.

　Harvard said, looking more and more scornful, like a declaration of victory.
　Duke's face turned bitter and bittersweet when he heard that.

'Guguugu ...... I thought you were so smug and smug in your yakuza, but that's what I thought.

　He looked at me in frustration, then looked at me with an apologetic look on his face.

"I'm sorry, I didn't do my research. You're going to find out where his weaknesses are right now.

　I loaded another round in my gun and silently pulled the trigger in the direction of the day after tomorrow, while Duke was practically defeated - declaring his withdrawal.
　Half-convinced that I could do it, the bullet takes a boomerang-like trajectory and shoots through the monster as it bounces on the ground.
　The monster that was shot out, the same as before, chipped like a crescent moon - shattered without regeneration.

''Nah--''
Can you spot the core?

　The expressions of the two men on the hetero side changed.
　Harvard was stunned, and Eugene looked like he'd just bitten down on a bitter bug.

　He ignored it, staring at the remains of the crushed monster.
　Eventually, the monster disappeared - a sprout was dropped.
　If you look closely, you'll see that the grains are big and yellow, and they're soybean sprouts.

　It was a crappy drop for a ...... rare monster, but it was a crappy drop.

''As you can see, it's a vegetable.''

　Duke turned to the other side and bellowed a triumphant declaration of victory.
　The two heteros looked frustrated and walked away from the dungeon.
　I guess we've won this one for now," he said.

　After they were gone, Duke took my hand in his and squeezed it.

"Thank you.　Thank you so much for coming.

　He thanked me again and again.

　I was relieved to have been able to fulfill my request so quickly, and I felt a sense of satisfaction.