After playing catch with Roze-san for a while, we sat down in a corner of the meadow to catch our breath. We hadn't been moving all that much, but we’d been at it for some time, and the exertion was starting to catch up with me.
I pulled a sports drink out of my Magic Box and glanced over at her. "Would you like something to drink too, Roze-san?"
"Do you have any water?"
"I do. Here you go."
"Yay!"
I pulled out a bottle and handed it to her. It was some of that expensive water I’d originally bought as a gift for Lilliwood-san. I’d picked up a few extra bottles for myself afterward, curious to see what kind of flavor commanded such a high price.
When I’d tried it, however, it tasted like nothing more than ordinary water to me. Perhaps a connoisseur could have told the difference, but unfortunately, my palate wasn't refined enough to distinguish the nuances.
"Do you like water, Roze-san?"
"Yeah. I love delicious water. I can drink all sorts of things, but water is definitely the best."
"Come to think of it, I remember hearing that slimes basically only drink water..."
"Well, we can eat just about anything if we have to. Roze is a special slime, so I’m different, but normal slimes take a long time to digest solid food and it really wears them out. Instead of giving them energy, it just leaves them exhausted, so they stick to water. But Roze is an amazing slime, so I'm different. Heh!"
"Ahaha, I see. You really are incredible, Roze-san."
She hopped onto my lap and arched her round body proudly. It was the slime equivalent of a smug Doyaaa Face, and coming from her, it was incredibly cute.
Her boast wasn't an exaggeration, either. Roze-san wasn't just "amazing"—she was an incredible slime. While ordinary slimes had low intelligence and were classified as monsters, Roze-san had been officially recognized as a Peerage-class High-ranking Demon.
That alone was proof of her high intelligence and overwhelming power. In fact, she was at the highest-ranking Count-class level, making her one of the strongest beings in the world, easily ranking near the very top of any global list.
"Since you've been entrusted with managing such a massive dungeon, you really must be something special, Roze-san."
"Ehehe, I like Kaito-kun because you give me so many praises~. Yeah, Roze is doing a great job managing the Six Kings Dungeon... but you know, but you know. The thing is, we don't really get many challengers."
"Ah, I suppose it's because the difficulty is just too high?"
"Yeah. Even people in the highest-ranking Count-class haven't been able to clear the first floor. Once powerhouses of that level try it once, they won't come back until they've grown enough to actually have a chance of winning. Well, there are a few exceptions, like Agni and Flare-san, who show up like clockwork every single time the entrance restrictions are lifted."
Those two certainly seemed like the types to keep hammering away no matter how many times they lost, but even if the Five War Generals and Flare-san were guaranteed to return, the total number of challengers was still small. I also had the feeling that Ozma-san wasn't particularly interested in the challenge.
Ozma-san certainly had a battle-hungry streak befitting one of the Five War Generals, but from what I’d gathered when we drank together, while he loved interpersonal combat, he wasn't fond of fighting automated opponents like golems. Because of that, he didn't seem likely to put much heart into the Six Kings Dungeon.
"It might actually be a good idea to create some additional dungeons with lower difficulty levels. You’ve made so many things like those Maid Golems, Roze-san, so you clearly have the power to build them."
"That sounds like fun!"
"It might be interesting to keep the Six Kings Dungeon as the 'Ultimate' tier, and then add Novice, Intermediate, and Advanced levels. I’m just an amateur, though, so I don't know if that’s technically possible..."
"It’s no problem at all! Roze has been entrusted with this whole area of the Forbidden Land, so I can remodel it however I want. I can definitely build new dungeons~."
"Then it might be fun to try building them whenever you're bored."
"Yeah! Roze is going to try making new dungeons~. I wonder what they should be like. Think about it with me, Kaito-kun~."
"Let's see. For the concept, maybe they should follow the same format as the Six Kings Dungeon, where you defeat the bosses in order? That way, you wouldn't need to make as many golems, and it would be easier to adjust the difficulty."
I felt that creating dungeons categorized by difficulty in a style similar to the Six Kings Dungeon was a pretty solid plan. Though, if we were to adjust an 'Advanced' tier for those in the Peerage-class, we would probably need help from Kuro or Alice...
Well, for now, it was just a casual "it would be nice if this existed" type of conversation. I decided to set aside the technical hurdles for the moment and enjoy brainstorming ideas with Roze-san.
"I suppose I have no choice. For Kaito-san's sake, I'll have to make a special-made dungeon boss..."
Were you even listening to the conversation?! We’re supposed to be making something with a lower level than the Six Kings Dungeon! I wasn't talking about creating a hellscape even more ridiculous than the one that’s already there!
Machina: "Oh, I have plenty of spare Almighty Iron Balls, so maybe I should give them to My Beloved Child?"
Serious-senpai & ???: "Absolutely do not do that!"