Secret Weapon: The Strongest Bunny Alive!? (1)

Hey, Shun here!

I've once been a member of the internet water army so I know how it felt to troll someone so hard that they would be left speechless. With how I arranged my dungeon I'm pretty sure adventurers are going to feel the same.

I only arranged my dungeon as such out of curiosity, okay? Not out of any other thing.

I'm a good and honest guy. M'kay?

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(Haku's POV)

"…Wh-What? Do you have any evidence that it is not, Chloe?"

"Indeed." Chloe nodded her head before explaining.

"First of all, I question the veracity of any puzzle that one with a mind as strong as yours could not solve, my lady. And secondly… I must also question whether Shun would have enough DP to purchase a [Gate of Wisdom], considering how expensive the traps, Illusory Labyrinth, magic blades, and magic equipments before this have been…"

"Ah…!"

Indeed. Haku herself had said "I doubt there will be any significant traps beyond this point" after overcoming the labyrinth. A [Gate of Wisdom] would, at the very least, cost 30,000 DP.

The simpler the riddle the more sturdy it would be, and the harder the riddle the more fragile it would be. It would cost large amounts of DP to keep the door sturdy with such a difficult riddle.

Even if they both have 200,000 DP, given that the equipments that seemingly every monster of this dungeon have is expensive. Thus, it stands to reason that there is no way they would have enough DP to build such a sturdy [Gate of Wisdom] with a really hard question such as this.

Unknown to them, these questions, even if it were made by a normal [Gate of Wisdom], would only cost Shun and Rokuko 30,000 DP, the lowest amount. The questions were all just word play so it wasn't considered as a 'hard' riddle.

"Which means… This is…"

"It is quite possible that it is simply an ordinary door that he expected to be broken. Or perhaps it is a trap where attempting to answer the question in front of it will cause the floor to open."

That would be an absolutely devilish trap. No matter how many times you attempted to answer the riddle, the door would never open—even if your answer was correct. The moment you stopped to think about the riddle, you had already lost.

M-My goodness, this is just frightening…! Wh-What in the world is wrong with Shun's head…?! I-Is he perhaps an ultimate sadist!?

No! I can't let him win if that's the case! My cute little sister Number 695 will be in danger if I let her be with him any longer!

"I-I've never seen a trap as unfair as this one! It's just cowardly!"

"And if you never notice the trick, you'd be stuck here forever…"

"Ngh, but even so, it is our fault for being tricked. Let us accept our loss here with no more shameful griping. Fufu. But truly, I am impressed you saw through it, Chloe. You supported me when my vision grew too narrow, just as I'd expect from my right-hand woman."

"Your praise honors me beyond words."

"Um…" Misha, the pink-haired werecat, hesitantly raised her hand. Among all the five retainers in the Master Room, she was the least suited to solving riddles.

To put it simply, she's an airhead. Haku directed a bright, visibly angry smile towards her.

"What is it, Misha? I've already decided to destroy this door through righteous violence. Are you trying to get in my way?"

"I-I would never dream of that! It's just, um, I was thinking… Maybe the answer to the silver coins riddle is just… 'simple'…? Also, the Mary riddle's answer is just… umm… 'Mary', is it not?"

"Hm? Simple…? Mary? Wh-What are you talking about, Misha? Oh, I see. Are you saying that the traps are really simple!? It merely presents a question without an answer, after all!"

"N-No, that's not what I mean! Um, those riddles says the answers right at the start that, 'the answer is simple,' and 'Mary's mother had 'four' children; Uno, Dos, and Tres were the 'first three',' doesn't it?"

When Misha said those words with a tone of uncertainty, the air froze.

"N-No way… Hahaha, that'd be ridiculous…"

"G-Geez, Misha, what kind of idea… is that…?"

"Ah, hahaha… Seriously, Misha, that's just…"

Their voices were stiff and shaky. By this point, all the retainers were thinking that those might actually be the right answers.

The retainers… and Haku herself, too. Even Chloe.

"…Chloe. I will give the riddles one more try… If the questions weren't one of those two, send the Goblin back down and make another one go up…"

"Ngh…! Understood…"

Haku gave the last answer herself, prepared for her heart to shatter if that was indeed the correct answer.

Luckily or unluckily, they encountered the right answer at the very first try.

"The answer… is 'simple!'" Ding! The door made a sound, signifying that it had been unlocked.

By this time, Haku's heart already shattered to a million pieces.

The [Gate of Wisdom] slowly opened. Haku gathered her shattered heart together as best she could and tried peering through the door.

When they saw what's inside, Haku didn't know whether they should celebrate or be disappointed.

"All those hard work just for us to meet another weirdly dressed rabbit with green, beady eyes?"

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(Shun's POV)

"Nice, she managed to figure out one of the riddles."

"Hey, why'd you put a boss room right after that riddle door? Is Tsuka going to be fine? Her opponent will be Number 89 after all…"

"Ah, well, I was planning on making this some kind of trial ground for beginners, a form of graduation rite if you will…"

"Heeeh… Then, what's gonna be after this?"

"None. I just bought new floors but I never added new rooms yet. There's nothing here but the boss room…" I said while looking at the situation on our other platoons.

"That's really bold of you, Shun."

"What's so bold about it? I guess you could say that it was their fault for just proceeding to try and find the correct path for our labyrinth instead of looking for possible secret passages?"

"Eh… Now that you said it… That's true…"

"Also, I just thought it'd surprise them. If you find that, after defeating a tough boss, you'll find nothing behind the room, what would you feel?"

"Un… well, that will really be pretty surprising. Who would end a massive labyrinth and a hot blooded boss fight with a dead end…? But anyway. Where do they even go from there?"

"I hid one Dummy Core in a pitfall, two inside the labyrinth, and one in the third basement floor.. They walked by three of them and they haven't even reached the third floor yet."

The first one was what I hid during my time digging pitfalls. If they managed to dodge all of the spikes, they'll find a secret tunnel leading to the dungeon core.

The other two were in small rooms pushing out of the square-shaped labyrinth while the last one was in the ceiling of one of the hallways in the third basement floor. Haku didn't notice them since I had hidden them behind our Wall Golems. The dungeon would cease functioning if the real Dungeon Core were hidden behind a wall, so if I needed to use the castling function to swap it with one of the Dummy Cores, I would just make the Wall Golem there move out of the way.

As an aside, the Dungeon Core wouldn't be considered blocked off as long as there was a door to its location. I didn't really know the exact logic behind it, but surrounding it with Wall Golems was a clear no-go.

I guess the logic behind it is that, the challengers of the dungeon must have a fighting chance at clearing the dungeon or something? That's just a wild guess though…

Looking at the Dungeon Monitor, it looks like Haku and her retainers are already in preparation to face Tsuka.

Good luck out there, my spirit familiar! Do your best!

While I was occupied with cheering on my little familiar, I was interrupted by our units finding the Boss Room. I was genuinely stunned that our rodent squad had made it that far into the dungeon.

"GRAAAAAAAAAH!"

"GRUOOOOOOOH!'

Within the dimly lit Boss Room were two Minotaurs. However, unlike every other Minotaurs that we encountered up until now, these two are clearly different.

The Minotaurs that invaded our dungeon all had brown fur like you would expect, but these two had red and blue fur… Does this make them the Red and Blue Minotaur?

Haku should have included a yellow one so that the complete Original Squad of Power Rangers Jungle Fury could be completed. Let's not forget the classic colored smoke effects on the background after a pose…

My idiotic thoughts aside, these two are really quite intimidating to look at.

"Does their colors mean that they super angry and super calm or something? That would be really neat if that is so…"

"That's not what the colors meant, Shun. I think monsters of the Fire element and Ice element usually end up being red and blue respectively. While it's the Fire monster's thing to have high attack power, Ice monsters on the other hand have quite a high defense…"

Now that I looked at them closely, doesn't these two snort fire and icy mist through their nose? Why did I not notice that earlier?

"Uh… I guess this is as far as our monsters could go… You three girls, you go and control the monsters. Think of a way to defeat even one of them" I stood up from my seat as I said so.

"What about you, Shun?"

"Me? I'll go and assist our monsters."

After transforming to my [New World Online] avatar, I teleported out of the dungeon before proceeding to cut down a every monster I come across.

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(Haku's POV)

"...…"

Am I supposed to be frightened or something by this adorable creature who is clearly trying to taunt me into attacking it? Haku thought.

On the other hand, those in the [Ivory Proving Grounds'] Master Room were all stunned by the sight before their eyes. The only thing that differed was what expression they are showing.

First of all, Haku. She was frozen with a smile on her face.

Misha, the only one who figured out the correct answers to the riddles, was green with anxiety and had the "I said something I really shouldn't have haven't I?" written all over her face.

The other four retainers, Chloe included, felt indescribable fear from Haku's smile and found themselves unable to say anything. They are frozen on their spot, unable to move for quite some time.

"…Ah! The enemy has broken through the Boss Room! Th-They've found our Core Room! There's also an unknown figure slaughtering our monsters who's still loitering around the [Ordinary Cave's] entrance!"

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※~To be continued~※

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Author's Remarks:

※ It's time for Tsuka to shine again!

※ Good day to you men of culture. I'd like to inform you guys that this is the end of Volume 2! Afterword will be published later, along with some reminders and such. Btw, the Side Story will be published later tonight. And since I just started this at the end of a volume, we'll see if I could write two of them. There will also be rule changes later on.