My Room Has Become a Dungeon's Rest Area (LN)

The hood? Or the fact that she’s half-animal? It’s probably the hood.

I got the feeling that I’d seen several people on the first level with their hoods at the bottom of their necks rather than pulled up over their heads.

I also realised that the woman wasn’t just a tomboy, she was a real tough girl type. …But that might not be very important information.

「Thanks for rescuing Nick.」

「Huh? Oh, you mean the boy?」

「Yeah. Although we would’ve been able to get him out of trouble by ourselves.」

No doubt. There were three of us adults trying to rescue one kid – it should have been a walkover.

「But we can’t openly strike someone from the Bodyguard’s Guild, because that would probably end in a fight. We have to do it secretly. Ha ha ha.」

I get it. The Thieves’ Guild seems to have a lot to contend with.

「What’s your name?」

「Er, Thor.」

「Hmm, Thor, is it? Everyone calls me Cat. I make it a rule to pay back what I owe. Is there anything you want?」

「Oh, no, I’m just grateful to you for getting us out of trouble.」

「You were in trouble in the first place because you were rescuing Nick, right? I’d like to bash that idiot’s face in. Ha ha ha.」

If she wants to smash his head in, he must be pretty annoying.

「I-I see. Um, could I ask you a really big favour?」

「Sure, fire away.」

「Could I have this ‘room’, or whatever you call it? Oh, but I’m not asking for any of this stuff that’s inside it.」

「……」

The room, dimly lit by the lantern, was silent for a while.

「That’s a pretty big ask……」

「I thought it might be……」

If this room, so close to the surface, was connected to my apartment, it would be tremendously valuable to me.

「I’m sorry, but I can’t do that. It’s not up to me alone.」

Come to think of it, rooms were surely a lifeline for the underground guilds.

But if this one was connected to my apartment, I wanted to get my hands on it, no matter the cost. Even if I have to earn loads of money to pay them, or load them up with artifacts from Japan.

At any rate, will they even let me check whether or not it’s linked up?

「Then can I look around the inside instead?」

「Why?」

「Oh, um…」

Uh-oh. She’s going to think I’m a spy or something.

「Are you a scholar, Thor? You don’t really seem like an adventurer to me. Plus, you’re using monster language.」

She seemed to think I was a scholar, not a spy. I’d heard from Deet before that there were plenty of adventurers, merchants, and ruffians in the dungeon, as well as travellers who came here as tourists, but there were also a few scholars who came to survey the dungeon.

Well, I guess spies don’t go around getting into ostentatious fights. I decided to make use of the misunderstanding.

「Something like that.」

「If I’m with you, it’s fine.」

Hurray!

The woman who called herself Cat got to her feet, holding the lamp. The lamp, which had been lighting her from behind, illuminated part of her face.

Oh! I thought she was a woman, but it might be more accurate to call her a girl. She was beautiful, about 16 or 17.

Being half-human and half-animal, she had the eyes of a cat. They were gold in colour. She had her hood up, so I couldn’t see them clearly, but her ears were dimly visible poking out of her short black hair.

「Why are you staring at me like that?」

「Oh, um…」

I decided to follow the inner wall of the room to see whether I came to the door of the entryway into my apartment.

From behind me, Cat illuminated the room with the lamp.

「Hmm.」

I guess not. This room doesn’t seem to be linked to the entryway door.

「Could I look around the other rooms owned by the Thieves’ Guild?」

「I don’t mind you looking around the places that people know our guild owns. But hadn’t you better meet up with your comrades first?」

「Yeah, I guess you’re right.」

We sat down again on the wooden boxes near the iron door, facing each other. She seemed to have a tendency to put the lamp down somewhere it would light her from the back.

Maybe she doesn’t want people to see her face.

The dark room, illuminated only by the lamp, fell silent again.

Suddenly, Cat spoke up.

「Hey, Thor. Do you hate cat people?」

「Huh? Why would you think that?」

「……」

I was being asked, all of a sudden, whether I liked or disliked people who were half-animal.

I don’t dislike them at all. In fact, as Japan’s foremost geek, I’m very interested in them.

But I got the feeling that saying I was interested in them would be rude.

「Not at all. In fact, I like them.」

「H-huh? What do you mean?」

She pulled her hood even further down over her eyes.

「Did I say something strange?」

「A l-lot of humans hate cat people, right?」

I see. I didn’t know that.

「In my area of work, we love them.」

Shizuku, in the form of my armour, wobbled in agreement. She’d been studying a lot from my adult doujinshi.

「H-hmm…… I see. That’s what your friends are like.」

「By the way, is Cat your real name?」

「……It’s a nickname.」

A nickname? But why would she choose a name that draws attention to the fact that she’s a catgirl?

I’d just heard that lots of humans hate cat people.

Shall I try using my Person Appraisal skill on Cat? I’ll be able to see her real name then.

All right! Open Cat’s status!

「H-huh?」

I couldn’t see her status. This had never happened to me before.

「Thor! Did you just try to look at my status?」

「Oh, um… I just wanted to know your real name.」

Come to think of it, I’d heard that people in the Thieves’ Guild could sense the skills of others, so if you tried to look at their statuses you might get found out.

「Since you used your skill, Thor, I’m going to use mine, too. For your information, my ‘Person Appraisal’ skill is a higher level than yours.」

「Ack!」

She was going to find out that I had a weird name and a strange status. I wonder what’ll happen next.

「Pfft. Suzuki Tooru? What a weird name. What country are you from?」

Japan! It seemed that my name, at least, wasn’t going to be too much of a problem for her.

「Ooh, what’s this? Unlimited Growth? Not bad. Huh? You even have a latent unique skill? Wh-what the heck?!」

What? A ‘latent unique skill’?

「Skill That Increases a Woman’s Maximum Level by 1, Up to 3 Times a Day, Up to Double the Original Level, When You Kiss Her?!?!?!」

That’s way too long for a skill name! But that’s not the point!

I got as far as saying, 「I didn’t realise my skill had that effec– ahhhh!」

「Let me try! Please?!」

「Hey, wait, don’t wriggle like thaaaaaaaa– 」

Cat pinned me down and covered my mouth with hers.

Are the people of this world really that desperate to increase their maximum level?! It certainly looks like it.

「It went up, it went up! My maximum level went up by 1!」

She must have been at or near her maximum level. She seems over the moon. But she’s the only one who is……

「We didn’t both agree to that!」

「You don’t mind if we do it again, right? Right?」

「Y-yes, I do mind!」

「So you hate cat people after all, Thor.」

「No, I love them, but please don’t wrigg– ahhhhhh!」

She pinned me down with her whole body and French kissed me.

It’s not as if the conditions of the skill change depending on whether it’s a light kiss or a French kiss!

At that moment, I heard voices from the other side of the iron door.

「If Sir Thor has been hurt…… I’m going to…… crush the Thieves’ Guild!」

Damn, that’s Ria’s voice! It had a threatening quality to it that she’d never used in front of me.

「But these people helped us, Ria!」

Ulp. That slow way of speaking… It had to be Deet.

This is bad. I tried to push Cat off me, but she clung to me with her whole body. I couldn’t get away.

「Mmmmmmm…」

「Sir Thor?」

「Thor?」

I could hear the conversation on the other side of the door. They wanted her to open it quickly.

「Cat, it’s Guy. Steal from the fat pig.」

That had to be the man from the Thieves’ Guild out there, saying the password.

Surely now Cat would have to get off me and push the button to open the iron door?

But instead……

「Hahhhh! I’m busy right now! Come back later!」