“Did I make it too big?”
The dungeon is bustling again today.
Beastmen come in, only to be converted into magical power and experience points.
At the first fork in the road, half of them fall to the oil and fire traps, and on the other path, those who chose the central maze at the next three-way fork also get eliminated.
Those who didn’t choose the maze and went left or right, find that the left path leads to a dead-end room filled with low-level monsters, where they just cause some chaos before retreating.
The right path has gargoyles and rock traps set up, and so far, no one has been able to get through.
“The oil path, the maze, and the gargoyles—no beastman has made it past those yet, huh?”
“Well, I think that’s only temporary. A few have retreated. I thought they’d only be able to move forward, but it seems there are some reasonable beastmen among them.”
As Pilkaya said, we can no longer defeat every beastman that enters.
Some survive while being set on fire, others return to the entrance of the maze after either having poison resistance or simply by chance. Some escape from the gargoyles.
They’ll probably return to the town and share the information they’ve gathered during this exploration with their companions.
“Little by little, they might start figuring out the dungeon’s structure and eventually find a way to conquer it.”
“That’s right. So, even the places that are troublesome now might eventually be dealt with easily. And if it just ends there, it would be too anticlimactic.”
“That’s true. In the long run, the deeper rooms and mechanisms will make sense, so it’s probably better that it’s big.”
“As Pilkaya said, the beastmen can’t be underestimated. Look, check out the end of the maze.”
At Lady Fiona’s command, I looked and saw a rabbit beastman moving through the maze.
Maybe it’s because they’re herbivorous? They seem skittish and not as combative as regular beastmen.
This rabbit keeps advancing through the maze without hesitation.
“Impressive. They haven’t made a mistake while moving through the maze so far.”
Primilla evaluated the enemy with admiration.
Indeed, this beastman is different from the others. Unlike the usual beasts that blindly move forward and get lost, this one seems to carefully think before advancing at each fork.
Could there be some kind of pattern? …No, there’s no such thing in this maze.
I also traced the map and it was quite difficult. Actually navigating through it would increase the difficulty even more.
“…She’s avoiding both the basilisk and the poison mist while advancing.”
“Wow, you’re right. Since it’s a rabbit, maybe its ears are helping?”
The basilisk might be avoided that way, but the poison mist has nothing to do with sound…
Given that she already knows the path, it’s likely she’s relying on something other than hearing to make decisions.
As expected, when the traps fail to even be encountered, the maze’s mechanisms lose their effectiveness.
The rabbit beastman ended up breaking through the maze unscathed.
Well, these things happen.
But the dungeon is not over yet.
We can finally start to see how effective the upcoming traps might be.
First, the combination of a pitfall and rolling rocks.
“…It’s not moving.”
“Yeah. It doesn’t look like it’s resting either.”
It’s trying to move forward, but keeps pulling its feet back as though it’s struggling to make a decision.
…Something’s off. You wouldn’t hesitate like this on a normal path.
“I don’t get it. I don’t understand why they’re hesitating here.”
“Normally, it wouldn’t make sense. So… does that mean they’ve noticed the pitfall?”
“…A trap-sensing ability, you mean? If that’s the case, did they treat the maze like a trap and find a way through it?”
“That was the optimal solution when avoiding enemies and traps. It’s likely they have some kind of special ability.”
But if that’s the case, why would they stop at just a pitfall?
If they know it’s there, avoiding it shouldn’t be hard.
What are they hesitating for?
“Ah.”
I don’t know who made the sound, but at that moment, everyone present probably had the same reaction, so it didn’t really matter whose voice it was.
The rabbit took an unexpected action.
“…She jumped in. On her own.”
As Lady Fiona said, the rabbit resolutely leaped onto the pitfall.
It wasn’t a case of failing to avoid it.
It looked as though the rabbit was fully aware of the pitfall’s presence and, for some reason, deliberately jumped in.
“The boulder fell too, but judging by the situation, the rabbit inside is probably unharmed.”
“Yeah, but at least we achieved the expected result of trapping them.”
“By the way, it seems all the other intruders have been repelled. What shall we do about the beastman we’ve trapped?”
…So, despite setting the pitfall as a way to divide them, the only one who made it to this point was that rabbit.
What to do? It wouldn’t be right to leave things as they are.
I’d like to reset the pitfall and boulder before the next group of intruders shows up.
“For now, let’s go around and reset the traps we used.”
“I’ll accompany you. There’s a chance that rabbit might attack you, Lord Rey.”
Having Primilla with me puts my mind at ease.
If I were alone, I might end up in trouble.
—After all, the opponent is a reincarnated one.
Serika Tokito
Magic: 12
Strength: 10
Skill: 27
Stamina: 9
Agility: 28
I was curious about how smoothly things had been going, so I checked the stats—and they were clearly abnormal.
It was obviously a name from the same place I came from. Completely different from the names of the beastmen I’d seen so far.
In other words, this rabbit is likely a reincarnated person, just like me.
The stats are lower than Kunimatsu’s. Compared to mine, it’s fairly even, which makes the stats relatively low.
At the very least, they’re weaker than the beastmen who have been challenging this dungeon so far.
Yet, considering how smoothly they progressed, it’s likely due to the effects of some kind of skill.
Well, I don’t have high expectations, but since we’ve captured them, I might as well meet them.
◇
A path is created between the nearest point of the underground demon realm and the dungeon for beastmen.
This allows us to travel to and from that dungeon.
Once done, I can create walls to block the path, preventing any invasion from their side.
The problem is that it consumes a fair amount of magic power, so I’d rather avoid doing it often.
After arriving at the end of the maze, I reset the traps.
The boulder covering the pitfall vanished cleanly, revealing the face of the rabbit trapped below.
“I surrender! I’ll do anything! Please, just save me!”
The reincarnated one… shouted that at me.
“Anything,” huh? But the opponent is a beastman. That means they’re an ally of the player characters, not the demon race.
Honestly, I can’t trust them not to betray us later, and I’d rather avoid unnecessary trouble.
“Shall I act as a spy!? I could betray not just beastmen but humanity itself!”
…Even if they offer to be a spy, Pilkaya could probably investigate most things.
For places with tight security, this reincarnated one likely wouldn’t be able to gather that kind of information anyway.
“Wh-what? No way! Are you serious? They’ll think I’m joking…! Fine! This is all I’ve got left!”
While muttering to themselves, they suddenly let out a resolute cry, as if cheering themselves on.
…Are they communicating with someone? If so, they might be dangerous.
“Wait, wait! I’ll work as a shopkeeper! How about that!?”
…Now that’s an interesting idea. I recently built a shop, but I hadn’t thought of a use for it, so I’ve kept it hidden.
If this reincarnated one can put it to use, that’d be great, but how do they even know about the shop…?
“For now… I’ll consult Lady Fiona.”
I don’t know if this reincarnated one is plotting something.
I can’t even tell if their plea for mercy is genuine.
Honestly, I’ve reached the point where I’m not sure if I can trust anyone but the demons.
So, I’ll leave the decision to my superior.
I called Lady Fiona, who was likely watching this through Pilkaya.
