“It’s a dungeon.”
“Should we notify the villagers?”
“Don’t be stupid. We just found it. I’m not letting anyone mess with us now.”
“You’re right. That foolish demon lord gave us a place to train. We’ll keep it to ourselves for a while.”
The bull beastman and the crocodile beastman, both having large bodies that clearly display their strength and endurance, are proud of their abilities. Even though they had discovered a dungeon, they didn’t see it as a threat.
A foolish demon had given them a place to train. Not just them, most beastmen would likely think the same way.
“A fork in the road. What should we do? Split up?”
“Yeah, no point in going down the same path.”
Though they were together, it seemed they had no intention of fighting side by side. They immediately decided to split up, each taking a different path.
“Ugh… what is this path? It’s slippery with oil. This is going to be hard to walk.”
The bull beastman immediately noticed the strange footing and muttered to himself. He briefly thought about turning back, but then dismissed the idea. It would be pointless to try to catch up with his companion now. His partner had probably already gone further ahead and was likely already defeating monsters.
He decided to continue down the path, determined to take on whatever monsters lay ahead.
He didn’t consider that the slippery footing could work against him.
“This sound… is that a bat?”
Though not as skilled as other beastmen, he still had better hearing than humans. He heard the faint fluttering sound of wings approaching. A sound so weak that a human might miss it, but he did not.
“A bat? Doesn’t matter, they’re no match for me.”
True to his words, he easily struck down the Poison Bat that came into range with his massive axe-spear. Even though the ground was slippery, it didn’t matter against such weak opponents.
“I hope something more interesting shows up soon.”
He pressed forward with that expectation. And again, his ears picked up a sound.
Something was coming, but it wasn’t alive. It sounded like fire burning.
Turning around quickly, he narrowly avoided a fireball that came from behind.
“Dammit! What kind of trap is this?”
He didn’t mind fighting weak monsters, but traps were a different matter. He didn’t like simple tricks like that. He didn’t even consider what might happen after he dodged the fireball.
“Huh?”
He had avoided the trap. Despite the ambush from behind, which seemed typical of the deceitful demon races. But this… wasn’t right.
“Tch, this is ridiculous!”
The fireball didn’t continue on a straight path. Gradually, it was pulled by gravity and began to fall in an arc, landing on the oil-covered path.
The beastman didn’t understand what was happening at first. Suddenly, flames began to spread in front of him, quickly coming toward him. He realized the oil had caught fire and started to spread.
Before he could react, he sprinted full speed in the opposite direction.
Luckily, the flames spread slower than he could run, but that was only because he could run normally. On the slippery path, things were different.
“Shit…!”
Despite his efforts, the flames caught up with him and soon consumed him. His sturdy body would soon be burned away to nothing, reduced to charred remains.
Afterwards:
A growling sound came from next to him.
“Huh? No way…”
“Lady Fiona… are you hungry?”
“No, I’m not! I don’t have a cannibalistic tendency, and I’m not that kind of demon!”
Still, the timing was odd. Hearing her stomach growl after watching the bull beastman burn to a crisp, it almost seemed like she wanted to eat that.
“Listen to me. Beastmen don’t eat other beastmen, but bulls are a different story. And that one was a bull beastman.”
“So, what are you saying?”
“I think it’s only natural to want to eat beef in this case.”
“…So, you’re interested in cannibalism after all?”
“No! I told you, I don’t want to eat anyone! If Rey stops supporting me, then I’ll really lock myself away!”
That was a troubling thought, so the matter was dropped.
Princess Primilla sighed in exasperation, while Pilkaya tried to hold back laughter. He knew that if he pointed it out, Fiona might really end up becoming a recluse.
It had turned out differently than expected. When the fireball dropped and spread across the oily path, he thought it would quickly engulf everything in flames. But it didn’t spread that fast, and the beastman managed to run away.
Fortunately, the bull beastman couldn’t run well on the slippery path, so he was easily defeated. However, against opponents who could fly or move on solid ground, they could easily escape.
It seemed like a better strategy was needed. Wait, what was this? The menu had changed.
While his stats had increased as usual after defeating the bull beastman, the dungeon traps had been updated at this moment.
“Flame Wave: 15 MP consumption.”
“Based on the name, is this some kind of fire wave trap?”
“The timing and the type suggest that the fireball trap I used to defeat the bull beastman might have something to do with it.”
“It might be that new traps are added based on how many times a trap is triggered or how many enemies are defeated.”
“I’ll try to set it up as a replacement for the fireball later.”
“Now, onto the crocodile beastman. It’s just the two of us this time, so if I defeat him, there will be no more intruders.”
◇
The crocodile beastman, unaware that his companion had been burnt to a crisp, was walking down a proper path, not covered in oil.
However, no matter how far he went, he couldn’t reach the next room.
He didn’t know how many times he had encountered the same corner. The man sighed in frustration.
“Damn it… Maybe I should’ve turned back right away.”
After parting ways with the bull beastman, the crocodile beastman had immediately found a room.
Inside, there were many kobolds. They attacked him as a group, led by their boss.
Despite being kobolds, their group made for a surprisingly enjoyable battle, but the crocodile beastman wiped them all out by himself.
Up until that point, things had gone well. He had enjoyed the fight, and with the expectation that even stronger monsters would appear, he felt optimistic about the dungeon.
As he passed through the room, he came across three branching paths.
The paths on the left and right were narrow and unpaved, while the middle path was wide and well-paved.
It was obvious the middle path was the main route, and the left and right were likely dead ends.
Making this judgment, the man proceeded down the central path into the next room.
Unlike the previous room, this one was clearly large.
It was large but also cramped because the room was divided by many walls, creating a maze-like structure.
“Should I just keep going?” He thought. As he turned various corners, he soon became disoriented and lost track of his position.
“Ugh! This is so annoying! Just break already!”
Eventually, in a fit of anger, he slammed his weapon against the walls.
Fortunately for him, his weapon was a great hammer. In terms of destructive power, it was probably greater than his partner’s bull beastman.
He thought he’d smash through all the walls and get out of this room quickly.
But, no matter how hard he hit the walls with his hammer, they didn’t budge.
Naturally, even the strongest warriors of the beastmen had taken time to break through the walls.
The crocodile beastman, being weaker than them, found that no matter how hard he struck, the walls wouldn’t break.
“Ha… Damn demons. I’ll make sure to kill them.”
With that grudge against the demons, he gave up on breaking the walls.
“Huh? Did something move just now?”
Regaining his composure, he continued moving forward, spotting something moving in the distance.
At the next corner, something was there. He quickly chased after it before it could escape.
Then… as if lying in wait, a black lizard breathed a poisonous mist on him.
“What!? This lizard!”
He instinctively covered his face with his arm, but he had already been hit by the basilisk’s venomous breath.
His action only blocked his view, and he quickly realized it didn’t help as he looked ahead.
He thought the basilisk would attack immediately, but to his surprise, the basilisk had disappeared from in front of him.
“Damn it, don’t run away!”
In the distance, he barely caught a glimpse of the basilisk running around a corner.
He ran after the annoying lizard, this time being careful not to be caught off guard at the next turn.
“I’ll kill you!”
He turned the corner carefully, but instead of the poisonous breath ambushing him again, he saw the basilisk desperately running away.
The crocodile beastman chased after the fleeing basilisk, determined not to lose sight of it.
He turned corner after corner, grinding his teeth in frustration at the basilisk’s evasion.
Losing his composure, he continued down another corner, and suddenly, a venomous breath was sprayed at him from behind.
“What… how did it get behind me?”
The basilisk that had been running ahead of him had ambushed him from behind.
He thought as much, but when he looked ahead, the basilisk was still running ahead.
Then who attacked him from behind? He turned to look, horrified.
Somehow, over ten basilisks had appeared behind him.
“A decoy…”
The one basilisk running away was just a decoy.
In his frantic pursuit of the decoy, he had been followed by many other basilisks.
In other words, he had been the one being hunted.
“Don’t underestimate me!”
However, he wasn’t going down without a fight.
He swung his great hammer and knocked a few basilisks back, but the rest of the ones behind him were fended off.
“Ha… Ha…”
But that was all he could do.
His limbs stopped moving, his body feeling cold and stiff, like a statue.
The basilisk’s poison had begun to take effect, paralyzing him.
It was the basilisk’s method of battle—turning its victims to stone and then killing them with poison.
The completely petrified crocodile beastman died, frozen in a grimace of agony, like a stone statue.
◇
“That was nasty…”
“The basilisks are strong.”
They had created three branching paths. The left and right were simple paths, but with the way the dungeon was set up, they would quickly converge, making the branches useless.
So, they had decided to turn the middle path into a maze.
If someone got lost in the maze, it would take time to clear the middle path, and they’d join up with the left and right paths later.
With that in mind, they added a bunch of basilisks to the maze, and they turned out to fight in a much more cunning way than expected.
“Ah… So, they use the maze to chase and kill with poison. Those basilisks are clever.”
But before the poison could completely take effect on the crocodile beastman, they had lost several basilisks.
Naturally, they would need to replenish them, but it seemed like it would be difficult to handle multiple enemies at once.
“I need to think of a better strategy… Wait, the menu has changed.”
Defeating the crocodile beastman had raised both the dungeon’s magical power and his own stats as usual.
But this time, a new trap appeared in the dungeon’s menu, added after the crocodile beastman was killed.
Poison Mist: Consumes 10 magic power.
“Oh, right. The trap menu has suggestions,” he thought.
Apparently, the menu had updated because the basilisk had defeated an enemy.
“Hey, Primilla .”
“Yes, Rey-sama?”
“Do poisons affect the basilisks themselves?”
“No, their own poison, as well as other poisons, should not affect them due to their resistance.”
“I see. Thanks, that’s helpful.”
“Well then, maybe I should trap the basilisks with a poison mist trap,” he thought. But just as he was about to set it up, Fiona-sama looked over at him with a dissatisfied expression.
“What’s the matter?”
“I can answer questions like that too, you know…”
“I see… Thank you?”
“Next time, please ask me.”
“Okay…”
It was strange. Primilla was supposed to be acting as Fiona-sama’s assistant or secretary, resurrected by her to serve her.
It didn’t make sense to bother Fiona-sama, the Demon King, with such trivial things, but maybe Fiona-sama was just a bit bored anyway.
