Solo Leveling: Digispirit.

A/N: I wasn’t planning on doing a double release, but I need to publish this. I reread my own Chapter, and I honestly don’t know what I was thinking when I wrote it hahaha.

end of the note.

Pumpkinmon wasn’t there anymore. From the looks of it, he really didn’t like Monzaemon, but there was nothing the two of them could do about it. After all, the Digimon was already here, and he didn’t exactly look friendly. A strange thing to say about a literal teddy bear, but Monzaemon was frowning at the sight of the two Digimon, his gaze lingering especially long on BlackWereGarurumon.

"You didn’t enter through the main door. You can’t be here," the giant bear spoke. He was enormous for a bear, standing around six meters tall, yet somehow still looked strangely huggable.

"Oh, we just wanted to see this place. We aren’t here to harm anyone," Takuya explained, raising both hands. Monzaemon nodded before speaking again.

"I can see that. You’ve been playing with the little ones, and none of them have been harmed. But still, one false step could hurt one of them, or worse," Monzaemon said. He wasn’t wrong. The small Digimon were quite fragile, so Takuya and BlackWereGarurumon looked at each other before nodding.

"In that case," Takuya said, "could you give us a tour? I’m not from here, and I wanted to see more of the island. Well, until now, this place has been one of the most wholesome places on the island."

At those words, Monzaemon nodded, looking quite pleased to hear that. "Yes, indeed. It is an incredible place. It’s good to hear another Digimon understand how important this place is," Monzaemon said as he stood up and gestured for the two of them to follow him.

Seeing the giant teddy bear walk away, Takuya and BlackWereGarurumon looked at each other and shrugged before following the Digimon.

At the same time, they glanced around, keeping an eye out in case Halloween appeared. But nothing. The pumpkin Digimon was nowhere to be seen. Takuya had to admit that Halloween was surprisingly good at this. He could simply disappear, and no one would notice until he was already gone, only to suddenly show up again later. For now, however, since this was a safe place, they weren’t going to worry about Pumpkinmon’s safety.

Or so they thought.

Meanwhile, Pumpkinmon had run away. He had been here before, many times, back when he was still a Woodmon. At first, it had been fun. He could eat whatever he wanted, and everything was delicious. However, at some point, he had been forced to clean the poop of the baby Digimon, as well as the rest of the place, and then there had been even more cleaning.

At this point, Pumpkinmon knew Monzaemon wouldn’t actually force him to stay, but his trauma was still there. There was no way he was going back to clean poop. No, no, absolutely not. He could find Takuya and BlackWereGarurumon later, but for now, he was going to stay faaaar away from that giant bear.

Pumpkinmon moved toward the side of the entire Valley of Beginnings. The farther he went, the fewer baby Digimon he encountered, until suddenly he found himself at the outskirts of the valley. There, there were no Digimon at all, and the place looked considerably less cared for. It was almost as if it had been abandoned, which was strange considering how protective Monzaemon seemed to be of this place.

Pumpkinmon began jumping around as he explored this new section, but during one of his jumps, he suddenly didn’t touch the ground. Instead, he fell straight through a hole. He dropped into some kind of cavern, falling for around fifty meters before finally coming to a stop. For a normal human, that could have been a deadly fall, but for a Digimon, it was little more than an inconvenience.

Pumpkinmon looked around. The place was covered in grass, and the ground was still quite soft, but it was also humid, completely different from the area above. "Oooh? There was something like this here? I have to bring the boys here. It could be our base!" the cheerful little plushy Digimon exclaimed as he stood up, brushed off his "clothes," and moved deeper into the cave.

The place was illuminated by some kind of bioluminescent plant that grew all along the walls. Pumpkinmon looked around, but there was nothing except plants. The cave became larger and larger as he continued, and there was another strange thing: Pumpkinmon kept descending. For some reason, it seemed like there was no end to it. However, he eventually entered something resembling a chamber.

Inside, he found something he hadn’t expected at all: eggs. Digieggs. There were Digieggs beneath the Valley of Beginnings. That was weird. There shouldn’t be any here. Digieggs were formed from data that came into contact with the surface, so there was no reason for eggs to be down here. At least, that was what Pumpkinmon knew.

"Maybe I should ask," Pumpkinmon muttered. "Excuse me," he called as he approached the closest Digimon to ask about the situation. The Digimon in question was a Numemon, and the moment it saw Pumpkinmon, it froze.

"Do you know how the eggs got here?" Halloween asked. The Numemon simply nodded. "Of course I do. We take them here at night," the Numemon explained.

"Oh, so they aren’t born here," Pumpkinmon concluded, putting on a satisfied expression. His conclusion was correct, which Pumpkinmon considered obvious. "Sometimes I’m amazed by my intelligence," he muttered proudly.

"Now that I think about it, who are you? How did you get here?" the Numemon asked, pointing its arm? toward Pumpkinmon. In that moment, through an extreme display of deceptive mastery, Halloween thought of an excuse that might convince the Numemon to provide him with more information.

"I’m your boss. Are you slacking off?" Halloween exclaimed. The Numemon frowned for a moment before looking at Halloween again. "Sorry, boss. I’m kind of new here. Please don’t fire me," the Numemon replied nervously.

"Don’t worry. Keep working and you’ll be fine," Halloween said with a nod. The Numemon immediately hurried back to his duties, while Halloween, the mastermind that he was, observed the Digimon’s work. The Numemon was carrying eggs in some kind of cart, and Pumpkinmon followed him. He was going to discover what was really going on here. Otherwise, how could he possibly call himself Sherlock Pumpkinmon?

He followed the Numemon into another chamber. This one was almost the same size as the previous one, but it was filled with eggs, a lot of them. At least two hundred, each one resting inside some kind of grass nest. They were considerably more rustic than the nests above in the valley. Several Numemon were working throughout the chamber, all of them being commanded by a Nanimon who ordered them around and directed their work.

When he saw the Numemon arrive with Pumpkinmon, he frowned and immediately yelled, "How the fuck are you here?!"

Pumpkinmon simply walked forward and stood face-to-face with Nanimon. Both stared at each other for a moment, and Pumpkinmon, still maintaining his fake identity, spoke with complete confidence. "Don’t disrespect your boss," he said before hitting Nanimon with his belly and sending him flying backward.

The Nanimon eventually stood up on one knee, as though he had just entered a fight with the final boss. "M-My boss? It can’t be! I thought I was the boss!" Nanimon exclaimed.

"You weren’t. I was the hidden big boss all along," Pumpkinmon declared, placing his hands on his hips.

"The hidden boss? You’re the boss in the shadows! It’s an honor to meet you!" Nanimon exclaimed, immediately bowing.

"That’s right. I am the one and only ruler in the shadows." Pumpkinmon dramatically placed a hand over his face and tried to cover his body with his green cape. The Numemon around them gasped, and all of them immediately bowed down. No one moved. "He’s finally here," a couple of them whispered.

"To what do I owe such an honor?" Nanimon asked while still bowing.

"I’m here to see the progress of this place. Give me an update," Pumpkinmon ordered. If Takuya and BlackWereGarurumon had been there, they probably wouldn’t have believed their eyes. This absurd situation was actually working. Everyone genuinely believed Pumpkinmon’s lies and was treating him like their boss.

"Tell me the state of everything," Pumpkinmon commanded. For the looks of it, he was starting to convince even himself that he really was the boss. He began walking around with his hands behind his back, taking long, deliberate steps as though he were inspecting his domain.

"The Great King sukamon is managing everything well according to your orders, sir. He is in the great chamber, commanding the kidnapping operation," Nanimon explained.

"Good. Lead the way. I want to see him," Pumpkinmon ordered with a serious nod.

Nanimon walked ahead into another chamber. This one was almost the same size as the previous one, but it was empty except for a single seat at the far end of the chamber. Sitting there was a golden Digimon.

It was a sukamon, but this one was considerably larger than a normal Sukamon, incredibly so. It was around the same size as the MetalTyrannomon they had fought before. In other words, it was absurdly large for a Sukmon. It also wore something resembling a crown on its head, although it was clearly made from scraps. Metal scraps were wrapped around its fingers like crude rings, and finally, there was a normal-sized Scumon sitting on its shoulder.

When Pumpkinmon entered the chamber, the King Sukamon looked directly at him and asked, "Who the hell are you?"

"Your boss," Pumpkinmon answered without hesitation.

"Eh? Really? But my boss isn’t a Pumpkinmon," the King Sukumon replied. He thought for a moment before shaking his head. "You aren’t my boss."

"He isn’t? Eeeeeh, we’ve been fooled?" Nanimon asked, suddenly realizing the obvious.

"I see. So this is as far as I could go," Pumpkinmon said dramatically. "Yes, I’m not your boss. I’m here to overthrow you." He extended his cape dramatically as he made his declaration.

At his words, the King Sukamon laughed.

"I see. You aren’t just any Digimon. You’ve achieved a wonderful infiltration. I congratulate you for this, but this is where your dreams die. Nanimon, don’t interfere. A rival of this caliber is too much for you."