“Haha! Great idea~ Got the feel for it with the auxiliary dungeon, now on to the next one.”
“We don’t really have to do that much, as it turns out.”
“Yeah. If anything, we tend to do too much~ Like triggering every trap at once and nearly wiping out an entire unit.”
“Would you drop that already… I was panicking.”
Pilukaya’s right — the only active intervention I made against an intruder group was that one mass trap trigger.
Everything else has been monster restocking, chest refills, post-incursion maintenance.
Maybe the auxiliary dungeon was actually going well.
Low effort, steady stream of intruders dealt with.
…What hurt was getting on that reincarnate’s radar.
It was perfect passive income — mana and experience coming in automatically with almost no work — and now it’s compromised.
But complaining won’t help. All the more reason to do better this time.
“Still, let’s shore up what we have first.”
“You mean another dungeon near a human village?”
“No — I mean finishing maintenance on the existing auxiliary dungeon first.”
“…That place can still be used?”
The boss had been defeated and the chest taken.
Fully cleared, I’d assumed it was done.
“It just lost its monsters and chest. Restock the same as always — more this time, but still.”
Right. Even if this is a game world, it’s also a real world.
A cleared dungeon doesn’t have to stay cleared.
“But — if a dungeon that was already cleared suddenly shows signs of activity again, won’t that raise alarms?”
“Probably fine? When the Demon Lord was at full power, bosses were back the next day.”
“So dungeons were respawning every day… how did anyone fighting Lady Fiona have energy left over.”
Though maybe they decided it was an endless loop until Lady Fiona herself was defeated.
If everyone else handles the dungeons while the Heroes focus on the Demon Lord, that’s how you win as the human side.
“Monsters almost never leave the dungeon on their own, so they just culled them periodically. And once the boss was cleared, the chests were empty anyway.”
Makes sense.
If monsters only appear inside, that’s just the acceptable ongoing cost.
Which means the auxiliary dungeon can still do its job.
Once monsters start repopulating, people will want to keep numbers down before they overflow. Add a restocked chest and intruders will come for the treasure too.
So if we maintain it properly, the traffic should return to normal.
“Alright, let’s get the auxiliary dungeon sorted out.”
“So motivated~ I want to improve my standing too, but I doubt I’m getting clearance to go fight anytime soon.”
“Your ability’s just too useful. Honestly Lady Fiona’s opinion of you is probably going up the whole time.”
“Oh? Oh~ That’s actually not bad. Hmm, though — there’s nowhere to promote to above the Four Heavenly Kings. They might need to invent a new rank.”
Above the Four Heavenly Kings… sounds like additional content waiting to happen.
Pilukaya in good spirits beside me, I kept restocking the auxiliary dungeon while my mana recovered.
◇
“Why didn’t either of you come help me?!”
“I was restocking monsters and chests in the auxiliary dungeon.”
“I was monitoring the underground demon realm and auxiliary dungeon.”
Lady Fiona returned in a clearly agitated state.
Neither Pilukaya nor I had coordinated at all, but we each produced something plausible and braced for the fallout.
It worked — Lady Fiona apparently couldn’t argue with either answer and fell silent.
“Rei-sama and Pilukaya-sama have been doing their work. Perhaps my liege could also apply herself?”
“Yes, yes…”
Why does this incredibly powerful demon occasionally look like a small woodland creature.
Primila’s going to say something, but seeing her like this makes me want to help anyway.
“But you know — since Primila and Pilukaya came back, the dungeon work has been going smoothly. Which means Lady Fiona making resurrection elixirs is good for the entire Demon Lord’s Army.”
“You too…”
“Rei! You are on my side!”
Primila and Pilukaya are on your side too.
She came over and patted my head with some feeling, so her mood appears to have recovered.
“Rei. Narrowed down some candidates for you.”
“Oh, thanks — there are more than last time.”
“You asked for near the beast-kin villages, so I looked at that area in more detail.”
This spirit really is exceptional.
“Scouting the beast-kin territory? Something on your mind?”
“The existing auxiliary dungeon has been stable, so I thought it was time to build a new intake point.”
“That makes sense. Now that the boss has been cleared once, intruder traffic may well drop.”
Having managed all her dungeons alone at one point, Lady Fiona picks up on this kind of operational discussion quickly.
As for motivation — actually, having her too motivated and getting replaced might be a problem. Better to keep Lady Fiona exactly as she is.
“So Pilukaya-sama scouted the beast-kin territory.”
“Yep~ Not bad, right? Give me some credit here.”
“Yes — your eyes are truly reliable, Pilukaya-sama.”
Agreed. With Pilukaya around, the quality of situational awareness is on a completely different level.
“By the way, why beast-kin? They’re rough and aggressive.”
“You mentioned before that elves are cautious and beast-kin are the opposite. The auxiliary dungeon was meant to be low-key — this time I want to actively draw intruders in.”
“That does make beast-kin ideal. Unlike the human Heroes, the beast-kin Hero had a straightforward approach: kill every demon in sight.”
“He attacked me at the entrance, you know…”
“Right. Those brutes, trying to kill my Rei… shall I go have words with the beast-kin nation?”
“Please don’t. We don’t have nearly enough strength for that yet…”
And without me around there’s no more gacha.
Lady Fiona seems to have a grudge against beast-kin.
“Rei-sama will have my protection, so that will not happen again.”
Having Primila as a bodyguard is genuinely reassuring.
But — that beast-kin Hero. The one who called himself the strongest warrior. His raw stats exceeded Primila’s.
If he eventually recovers his strength and comes back for us, the Four Heavenly Kings alone might not be enough…
“Thank you, Primila. I’ll keep growing the dungeon so I’m not a burden to any of you.”
When the Heroes return, I don’t want to drag anyone down. I need more options — even if it’s just slowing the enemy down, that’s something.
◇
“Respawned? But we defeated the boss.”
“Yes, though thanks to Kunimatsu-sama, we wiped out all the goblins in one run. For now only a few of the weaker ones seem to have come back.”
So — even defeating the boss and collecting the chest doesn’t end it.
Then again, mob enemies respawn after you beat the boss in games all the time.
Somehow I’d assumed that defeating the boss was the end of it, but a single dungeon in this world is a persistent problem.
“Should we go back through it ourselves?”
“No — tying Kunimatsu-sama to a dungeon of that level would be wasteful. The goblins inside are weak enough that general culling is sufficient. From here, adventurers will manage that dungeon on a rotating basis.”
So the kingdom pays a small bounty and keeps adventurers cycling through.
Otherwise, if monsters escaped the dungeon into the outside, that would be a serious problem…
Dungeons were more of a long-term headache than I’d realized.
If the Demon Lord keeps building more of them, the human side might gradually be worn down over time…