“Alright, improved.”
“You’re surprisingly ruthless for someone who seems harmless, Rei~”
More like just cowardly.
I’m weak. If the dungeon gets cleared and someone comes after me, it’s over.
So I want to convert intruders into mana as efficiently as possible — to get just a little more out of the dungeon.
The higher my own level, the harder I am to kill, and the more mana I can use. Pure upside.
“The underground demon realm itself only has the entrance built out, but even so, neither Pilukaya-sama nor I have had to step in.”
I’d like to renovate the demon realm itself eventually, but for now I want to focus on the independent dungeons.
Everything I build over there, every intruder repelled — it feeds back into what I can do.
And once that grows, I’ll be reworking this place too — stronger traps, stronger monsters, better rooms. No point doing it twice.
That slack only exists because Pilukaya’s surveillance and the two Heavenly Kings’ strength are covering for me.
…Which means what Lady Fiona should genuinely be doing is probably exactly what she’s been doing — running the chest gacha and trying to pull a resurrection elixir.
“Looks clean. They’re actually burning before they can escape this time.”
The beast-kin moving through the oil path got caught in the flames.
Replacing the Fireball with the Heat Wave changed things considerably — now the entire corridor ignites.
The Heat Wave itself doesn’t deal massive damage, and the beast-kin won’t go down from it alone.
But as an ignition mechanism for the oil path, it works perfectly. The flames now spread instantly rather than in a slow crawl.
“If that trap were placed everywhere, it’d be so much easier for me to fight~”
“…That’s a pretty brutal idea from you, Pilukaya.”
“I’m a demon.”
Aren’t you a spirit? Did something change at some point?
“The maze has become a significantly more dangerous room than before.”
Primila seemed to have been watching the beast-kin entering the maze, and murmured as much.
The maze suits beast-kin as opponents, honestly.
The moment they step in, they’re convinced they’ll push through easily and charge ahead.
And being less prone to deliberation than other races, every single one gets hopelessly lost in a way that’s almost elegant.
Trying to force their way through with raw power doesn’t work either — they don’t have the strength of the top beast-kin warriors, so the walls hold.
“There are a lot more of them this time compared to before, but it looks like they’re all getting lost anyway.”
If anything, having more of them in there seems to be making them hostile to each other.
The group pushed far enough to trigger the Poison Fog trap.
All of them took a direct hit. Left alone, they should collapse somewhere in the maze.
“Merciless. As expected of Rei-sama.”
“The Basilisks are acting on their own — I didn’t actually give them any orders…”
Not that it mattered. The beast-kin had the misfortune of encountering the Basilisks in their already-poisoned state.
From there, same as before — more venom, chasing the running Basilisks, gradually petrifying. Under dual assault from the Basilisks and the trap’s poison, the beast-kin fell one after another.
“Oh — leveled up. Menu has new entries.”
I’m starting to understand the pattern.
My level probably increases through accumulated experience. There seem to be three ways to get it.
Using the Dungeon Master skill. Repelling intruders. Monsters fighting intruders.
The third yields only a trickle compared to the others — better than nothing, but marginal. The core goal is just to bring intruders in and let the dungeon do the rest.
The menu expansions follow a similar logic — they unlock through skill usage, rooms and traps proving effective, or my level going up.
Izumi Rei — Mana: 33 / Strength: 15 / Technique: 23 / Fortitude: 22 / Agility: 17
Mana is now higher than a Goblin Mage’s.
Not that it matters for fighting — if it came to that, I’d still be dead in one hit.
Pitfall: Mana Cost 5 Create Shop: Mana Cost 10
Two new entries.
The Pitfall is straightforward — obvious enough what that does.
The other one is the problem.
…A shop. Am I supposed to run a business inside a dungeon? Even if I made money, there’s nothing to spend it on.
“Rei. What’s wrong? You look troubled.”
“Um… the menu expanded.”
“That’s worth celebrating. So why the expression?”
“There’s an entry called Create Shop… I have no idea what to do with it.”
Lady Fiona fell silent at that.
The expression on her face was hard to describe. It was probably identical to mine a moment ago.
“…Once the Army is restored, everyone could use it?”
Pilukaya offered that, but yeah — that’s about the only use case.
For now, it seems functionally useless.
“A shop implies selling things. Even if demons ran a stall, no other race would patronize it.”
Right. Primila’s correct.
This is strictly for internal use, and only once we have more people and more mana to spare.
“Anyway — I want to try the Pitfall. Lady Fiona, I’m going to go install one.”
“Then I’ll accompany you as your escort.”
“Have fun you two~ Stay safe~”
Lady Fiona waved us off cheerfully. Primila and I headed out to install additional traps.
While we were at it, I reapplied the oil path. That one’s been getting a lot of use — after enough intruder traffic it loses its coating and just becomes a regular floor. Maintenance between visitor groups matters.
“Done.”
“I see… catching anyone who lets their guard down after clearing the maze in a pitfall. As expected of Rei-sama. Merciless.”
That’s a compliment, right?
The intent is exactly what Primila described. No one has made it through the maze yet, but eventually they will.
So placing a pitfall right after the exit — catch anyone who relaxes when they think the hard part is over.
That was the plan, but it looked a bit different in practice.
“It’s shallow.”
“Not deep enough for a fatal fall.”
I’d thought so.
It has real depth — just not enough to kill outright on impact.
Climbing out would be difficult, but anything that can fly would just bypass it entirely.
“…Should I put a boulder above it?”
“Given the dimensions, the boulder probably wouldn’t fall into the pit itself, but it could seal the opening and trap anyone inside.”
“Alright, I’ll set a rolling boulder above it.”
Since the idea is to catch intruders in the pit, not roll the boulder into it.
And that covers today’s work. New trap installed — oil path was the only thing needing a full restock, so I still have mana left over.
What to do with it. The curiosity is getting to me. Should I test it while I have the spare mana?
◇
“So that’s why a shop appeared near the entrance.”
“I’m sorry. Curiosity won.”
“No need to apologize. Testing things is always worthwhile.”
After finishing the work and returning to Lady Fiona, I reported honestly that I’d gone ahead and built the shop.
Pilukaya’s shared field of view would have given it away regardless.
“But it really was just a plain shop. And empty — we’d have to supply the inventory ourselves.”
“Thanks to my liege’s investments in the chest gacha, at least inventory wouldn’t be a problem.”
“Exactly! The moment has finally come for my treasure chests to shine!”
Primila was almost certainly being sarcastic.
Lady Fiona didn’t register it at all.
A Demon Lord’s dignity, apparently, is impervious to indirect attacks of that caliber.
Still — no inventory even included. I’d half-hoped there would at least be a shopkeeper. The problem runs deeper than that.
No apparent use, and somehow it just looks suspicious standing there.
For now I’ve enclosed it in walls to keep it out of sight. Whether there will ever actually be a day to use it — unclear.