Mary-chan's Dungeon Short Story

Dungeon.
An architectural structure also called as labyrinth or ruins.
Brutal monsters live there, and there are traps and treasure chests.
There are some with complicated maze-like structures, and there are also with simple structures.

Ordinary dungeons are situated outside the town, sometimes it’s in the middle of a steep mountain range, others are in places like wild arctic blizzards that are difficult to reach.

Many explorers challenge in search of treasures and expensive materials harvested from monsters, a place full of romance where only a handful of fortunate can ama.s.s enormous riches, that is a dungeon.

People chasing such romance set feet into a dungeon today as well.

「h.e.l.lo, Mary-chan」

「h.e.l.lo~」

「Hi, Mary-chan. I will try hard today as well」

「Have a safe tri~p」

「Halloo Mary-chan. I’m going to break through the 40th floor today!」

「Do your best~」

Numerous explorers call out and enter the dungeon.
This is a dungeon among countless dungeons that is an exception among exceptions――it’s Mary-chan’s Dungeon.
Not a single dungeon all over the world can exist in a downtown.

But, this Mary-chan’s Dungeon is the only exception, it’s the only dungeon existing in a downtown.

「Gyaba」

「Guae」

「Agiyu~」

「Welcome ba~ck」

While many explorers enter the dungeon while greeting the little girl with glittering silver hair and healthy brown skin, some of them are spat out like rags to the entrance of Mary-chan’s Dungeon from a hole called Emission Mouth.

They are those who entered Mary-chan’s Dungeon in high spirits and were done in by the monsters inside.
This is not the case in normal dungeons.
Being done in by the monsters means death.
When one dies, his/her corpse will be absorbed by the dungeon as nourishment.

But, one can’t be killed by monsters nor absorbed as nourishment in Mary-chan’s Dungeon.

「Darn~…… to think there would be twelve Minotaurs at a place like that~」

「I was done in~ by Mary-chan’s monkey~」

「Ahh~ even though I thought I could have a luxurious dinner tonight~」

「How unfortunate~ Please do your best tomorrow~」

The explorers that are defeated in the dungeon are not killed, instead, all of the harvest they have acquired and some of the money collected on that they are absorbed by the dungeon while they are spat out from the Emission Mouth.

That’s right, instead of killing, Mary-chan’s dungeon absorbs the items and money acquired by the explorers.

「Yahhoo~ Safely returned!」

「Yosshaa~! We party today~!」

「Mary-chan, we earned big today~!」

「Thank you for your hard work~」

「Right! Here you go. 10% of today’s income~」

「Thank you for your continued patronage~」

「We will come again tomorrow~!」

「Please do your best~」

If there are losers, there are naturally winners. If you don’t miss the time to quit, you can securely bring home the items you acquired within the dungeons.
However, in that case, there’s a rule in Mary-chan’s Dungeon. That is to pay 10% of acquired profits to Mary-chan.
This makes Mary-chan’s daily bread.

Therefore, Mary-chan is happy seeing the winners return like this.

Those who also entered the dungeon today, those who were spat out like rags, those who come out chuckling to themselves, many people repeatedly encounter and part with Mary-chan.

People in great numbers come and go from Mary-chan’s dungeon, but there’s a time where the pedestrian traffic is interrupted.
Mary-chan works at that time.

「A break through the 120th floor of 25th and 89th dungeon, huh~ I guess it’s time to hunt~」

Feeling good, Mary-chan fires instructions while rocking her body left and right.
In the next moment, the light of lives of the veteran explorers in the 25th and 89th dungeons supervised by Mary-chan disappeared.

「As expected of explorers who can reach such floor, they are indeed rich~ With this, I can expand this dungeon~」

Mary-chan is a dungeon master who set up many dungeons in various places, so she could maintain Mary-chan’s Dungeon.
Initially, Mary-chan’s Dungeon was non-lethal dungeon built to raise the power of the explorer who easily died, but she had so much fun interacting with people that this dungeon became the main one.

Nowadays, she secures energy and funds in all dungeon except Mary-chan’s Dungeon and invests it all in Mary-chan’s Dungeon.

「Hi, Mary-chan. I tried making a new bread today, would you like to try?」

「Itadakima~su」

When it’s time for lunch, she gets her lunch from the usual older brother who operates a street wagon and sinks her teeth in.

「Mary-chan, I made a new juice today. Would you taste it please?」

「Yaa~y」

「Mary-chan, today――」

Before long, many food and drink street wagons gather around Mary-chan, and many people gather as a result of that scent.
She got shares and samplings from nearly all stalls, and Mary-chan enjoyed her lunch fully today as well.

The strongest, worst dungeon master Mary-chan who dominates about the half of the atrocious, unrivaled dungeons scattered around the world, also spends today a happy day with the people in front of the kind and friendly Mary-chan’s Dungeon.