As Long as You Have the [Shop] Skill, the Dungeonized World Is a Breeze ~The Bullied Youth’s Payback Lifestyle~ - Chapter 232

Chapter 232 – About the Future

“S-Rank… Shiki, could you win?” (Torimoto)
“Of course… or so I would like to say, but it would definitely be an unfavorable fight. There exists a world of difference between an A-Rank and a S-Rank.” (Shiki)
“…What about you, Kaza?” (Torimoto)
“I would fare the same as Shiki-dono. An S-Rank is on a different level altogether. Even if I, Sol-dono, and Shiki-dono were to challenge it together, we might only be able to hold it off for about 10 minutes.” (Kaza)
That’s ridiculous…! Two freakishly powerful A-Rank monsters and a B-Rank monster on top of that, and they’d still only be able to hold out for 10 minutes? I guess that’s just how much of a difference one rank makes.

But if I left things as they were, it would eventually affect my island.

In a few years, Japan would completely turn into a jungle and the beings living in Japan would all die out. If that happened, all of my businesses would be doomed, and the Japan that I knew and loved would be gone forever. I wanted to avoid these things from happening if possible.

The Tree of Gluttony, Belzedor wouldn’t attack unless we brought harm to it first. But once it became angered, we would probably be found wherever we were in the city and annihilated in an instant.

According to Kaza, it could also control grass and flowers. There was greenery all over the city. It could share its senses with those plants to immediately find and capture its target.

In other words, if it wanted to, it could make the plants giant and control them to destroy the surrounding area. The attack range for this was apparently the entirety of Tokyo.

It’s kind of like an advanced version of Ior’s ability. Damn it, what a seriously overpowered ability.

I looked around. Naturally, there were grass and weeds everywhere. They could suddenly become massive and charge at us at any time. It was terrifying. There would be nowhere to run to.

“…Otaka-san, Kuzuhara-san, Sayuri-san. Please tell your subordinates that it’s best if they leave that tree alone.” (Torimoto)
“…? What do you mean, Torimoto?” (Kuzuhara)
Kuzuhara naturally sounded confused.

“I somehow have a bad feeling about it. It’s… not something that humans should mess with.” (Torimoto)
“But it’s just a tree, isn’t it?” (Kuzuhara)

“How could such a strange thing be ‘just a tree’?” (Torimoto)
“Ah, I guess so. Well, you’re probably right.” (Kuzuhara)
Kuzuhara didn’t seem to be able to find any fault with what I said. After all, there was no way a tree this giant could ordinarily exist on Earth. Besides, it had suddenly appeared in the middle of a monster-infested jungle, so it was quite easy to realize that there was no way it was ordinary.

“But we need to investigate. It’s just one troublesome problem after another.” (Otaka)
Otaka slumped his shoulders in exasperation. His reaction was quite understandable. Just when he had thought the yakuza problem was resolved, something like this happened.

Sure enough, in a situation like this, there was no time for the communities to be fighting amongst themselves. For the time being, the matter of the man-hunting seemed to have been put off. But it was still an issue that would have to be confronted at some point.

And thus, in the face of the appearance of this giant tree, the three forces began to move in the direction of conducting a detailed investigation of the jungle.

—

“―I see, so something like that existed.” (Bouchi)

I left the church and returned to Joysprout Island. After explaining the situation to Izu, I asked her if she knew anything about the Tree of Gluttony.

“But I never thought that the Tree of Gluttony would appear. Now there’s another S-Rank monster. It’s really starting to become a tough environment for the people of Earth, isn’t it?” (Izu)
“I guess so. So if we leave it alone, there’s a high risk that the island will be damaged someday, right? I’ve been thinking that we need to do something about it.” (Bouchi)
“I suppose so… But this is an S-Rank we’re talking about. And certainly, even if Shiki-dono and Kaza-dono were to work together, there would be no way for them to emerge victorious.” (Izu)
Izu’s opinion was the same.

“Then we could buy a S-Rank, or perhaps we could evolve Shiki or Kaza to S-Rank?” (Bouchi)
“Putting the former aside, I do have doubts about the latter. Even if they were promoted to S-Rank, they would still be inferior to monsters that were originally S-Rank.” (Izu)
Right. Those at the same rank would still have different quirks and strengths, just like humans. Even though a monster that had ranked up through using an item would certainly become stronger, its status would be slightly inferior to that of a monster that was originally that rank.

In other words, it was like how Shiki, who had ranked up to A-Rank, was weaker than Kaza, who was originally A-Rank.

“Well, I do think that we could find a chance to win somehow depending on our weapons and strategy, but…” (Izu)
“If possible, I want to be sure of our victory. I don’t want to lose Shiki or Kaza.” (Bouchi)
I wouldn’t go through with a strategy that required sacrificing my companions. I always wanted to go with the option where everyone survived.

“It’s a tree, so maybe burning it would be the most effective option in the end.” (Bouchi)
“Of course, the fire element would undoubtedly be its weakness. But as I said before, it’s an S-Rank monster. It wouldn’t be scared of any half-baked fire power. Most likely, even Sol’s fire would be…” (Izu)
Sol’s ability to spit fire was powerful. In the past, she could wipe out entire hordes of zombies or melt large boulders.

But even with Sol’s flames, there was a good chance that it wouldn’t be even able to lay a scratch on an S-Rank monster. Thinking about it like that, it really seemed like they were monstrous, cheat-level existences.

“It would be nice if there were some other S-Rank territories conveniently placed nearby, like in the other world.” (Bouchi)
“Unfortunately, nothing of the sort has been discovered in the vicinity of the Tree of Gluttony, huh…?” (Izu)
We had once seen that Cloud Whale flying around in the sky. We might be able to manage somehow if it were to help us out, but I wasn’t acquainted with it. In the first place, a monster that wasn’t my Familiar probably wouldn’t do as I requested anyway.