“A dungeon.”
“Yeah. Should we tell the village?”
“Don’t be stupid. We found it — why would I let anyone else get in our way.”
“Fair point. The idiot Demon Lord went and built us a training ground. Might as well have it to ourselves for a while.”
A bull beast-kin and a crocodile beast-kin. Visibly powerful builds that promised high Strength and Fortitude — they knew it, and they were proud of it.
Finding a dungeon, neither of them considered it a threat.
A foolish demon had given them a place to hone their skills. That was likely how most beast-kin would see it.
“Branching path. What do we do — split up?”
“Yeah, no point in two of us taking the same route.”
Despite being companions, the idea of fighting together apparently didn’t occur to either of them.
They separated immediately, each taking a different path.
“Ugh… what is this. Oil everywhere — can’t get any traction.”
The bull beast-kin noticed the footing immediately and muttered to himself.
A thought to turn back crossed his mind, but he dismissed it — going back to chase down his companion now would be a waste of time.
That one was probably already pushing ahead, already grinding through monsters.
So he would push forward too, and defeat whatever was waiting.
It didn’t occur to him for a moment that the bad footing might actually be a problem for him.
“That sound… bats.”
His hearing wasn’t as sharp as other beast-kin who specialized in it, but still better than a human’s.
The sound of wingbeats approaching him — faint enough that a human would miss it entirely. He didn’t.
“Bats aren’t worth my time, but fine.”
As promised, he swatted the approaching Poison Bat aside without effort.
A halberd that most humans couldn’t even lift, wielded with the full force of a bull beast-kin, swept it away.
Slippery footing or not, an opponent like this was beneath him.
“Hope something more interesting shows up.”
He advanced with that expectation.
Then his ears caught something else.
Something coming toward him. Not a living thing. A sound like crackling flame.
He spun around and dodged the fireball bearing down from behind on instinct.
“Tch. Traps — what a tedious thing to do.”
Monsters, even weak ones, were worth fighting. Traps held no interest at all.
Simple thinkers, as a rule, disliked mechanisms like that.
Which meant he didn’t stop to think about where the fireball would go after he dodged it.
“…What.”
He’d avoided the trap.
Even an ambush from behind — the cowardly demon way — hadn’t hit him.
And yet.
“Are you serious?!”
Fireballs don’t travel in a straight line forever.
Gravity pulls them gradually, curving them downward in an arc.
And where this one landed was the oil-soaked floor.
For a moment the beast-kin didn’t understand what had happened.
The floor in front of him erupted into flame. And the fire was spreading toward him.
By the time he understood that the oil had ignited, he was already sprinting back the way he came.
Fortunately, the fire spread slower than a full sprint.
But that was assuming he could actually run — and this was an oil-slicked floor.
“Damn it—!”
The fire caught him.
His powerful frame wouldn’t hold for long after that. What remained would be charred black.
◇
A low rumbling sound came from beside me.
I looked over. No. That couldn’t be.
“Lady Fiona… are you hungry?”
“N-no! That’s not it! I don’t have any cannibalistic habits, and I’m not that kind of demon!”
But the timing was impossible to ignore.
Watching a bull beast-kin burn to a crisp and then her stomach growls — she absolutely wanted to eat it.
“Please understand. I don’t eat beast-kin. But I do eat cattle. And that was a bull beast-kin.”
“Meaning?”
“Isn’t it understandable that the sight made me hungry for beef?”
“…You do want to eat him, then.”
“That’s not what I said! If you stop being on my side, Rei, I really will shut myself away for good!”
We can’t have that, so this topic ends here.
Primila looked resigned. Pilukaya was barely containing himself.
If I kept pushing this, knowing Lady Fiona, she really might lock herself in her room.
Anyway — it didn’t go quite as I’d imagined.
The fireball landing on the oil path and starting a fire — that part was fine.
But I expected it to become an instant inferno. The fire spread slowly enough that someone could run from it.
Lucky that the bull beast-kin couldn’t keep traction on the oil, or he might have gotten away.
Against someone who could move through bad footing, or fly — they’d probably escape.
I’ll need to think of something better.
Wait — the menu changed.
Defeating the bull beast-kin increased both the dungeon’s mana and my stats as expected.
But this time, a new trap entry appeared.
Heat Wave: Mana Cost 15
From the name — a wave of flame?
The timing, the type — it’s probably tied to defeating an enemy with the fireball trap.
Maybe new traps unlock based on how many times a trap has been triggered, or the number of enemies killed with it. Something along those lines.
I’ll swap it in for the fireball later.
Now — the crocodile beast-kin. Only two intruders this visit, so once this one’s handled the dungeon is clear.
◇
Blissfully unaware that his companion had been reduced to charcoal, the crocodile man was navigating the non-oiled path without incident.
But no matter how far he went, he couldn’t seem to reach the next room.
Another corner. He’d lost count of how many. He exhaled with the patience of someone who’d had enough.
“This is ridiculous… should have turned back immediately.”
After splitting from the bull beast-kin, the crocodile man had found a room quickly.
Inside: a large group of Kobolds, a proper horde with a leader, blocking his path.
The coordinated pack attack was more entertaining than a typical Kobold encounter, but he wiped them out alone all the same.
That part was fine.
He’d actually enjoyed it, and if the monsters ahead got harder, this dungeon had some promise.
With that thought he moved past the room — and found three branching paths.
Left and right were narrow, unpaved. The center was wide and properly finished.
The middle was clearly the main route. Left and right probably led to dead ends at most.
On that assessment, he took the center and moved into the next room.
Unlike before, this room was clearly larger.
And yet it felt cramped — because the interior was sectioned by multiple walls, forming a complex network of passages.
He’d just pick a direction. That was his plan as he turned corner after corner, moved forward, and gradually lost any sense of where he was.
“That’s IT. Enough of this! Break already!!”
He finally snapped and swung his weapon into a wall.
He was carrying a war hammer. In terms of raw destructive power, he probably exceeded even the bull beast-kin.
He’d smash through every wall and be done with this room.
But no matter how hard he struck, the wall didn’t budge.
Of course it didn’t. Even the strongest beast-kin warriors needed time to break through.
Someone beneath them wasn’t making a dent no matter how many times he swung.
“Damn demons. I’ll kill you.”
He directed his resentment at demons he had no proof were even there, and gave up on the walls.
“Hm? Something moved.”
Composure recovered, he started forward again — and caught a moving shadow.
Something was just around the next corner. He rushed after it before it could escape.
And then — as if it had been lying in wait — a black lizard breathed directly at his face.
“What?! You!”
He threw his arm up to cover his face on instinct, but the Basilisk’s venomous breath had already hit.
The arm accomplished nothing but blocking his own view. He lowered it.
He’d braced for the Basilisk to follow up — but it wasn’t there anymore.
“Get back here!!”
At the far end of the corridor, just rounding the next corner — he barely caught a glimpse of the Basilisk fleeing.
He ran after it.
Carefully this time, in case something was waiting around each bend.
“I’ll kill you!”
He turned the corner cautiously. No breath attack.
Instead, ahead of him, the lizard scrambled away in apparent desperation.
He chased without thinking, driven by sheer frustration.
Corner after corner, each time catching a glimpse of the fleeing lizard’s back, teeth clenching.
His composure eroded with every turn. By the time he’d lost count of the corners, a torrent of venom struck him from behind.
“How — when did it get behind me—”
The lizard he’d been chasing had circled around to ambush him.
That’s what he assumed — but the one he’d been following was still visible ahead, disappearing around the corner.
Then who had hit him?
He turned. His blood went cold.
Without him ever noticing, more than ten Basilisks had gathered behind him.
“A decoy…”
The fleeing one was bait all along.
While he’d been single-mindedly chasing it, the rest had been following him.
Which meant he was never the one doing the chasing.
“Don’t underestimate me!!”
He didn’t go down without a fight.
He swung the war hammer, connected, sent Basilisks flying. The ones behind him were driven back.
“…Hah… hah…”
That was as far as he got.
His extremities wouldn’t respond. Cold and rigid, like stone.
The Basilisk’s venom was working through him.
Petrify the target while alive. Immobilize them. Then finish with concentrated poison.
He’d walked straight into it.
The crocodile man stiffened completely, expression locked into something like agony, and died frozen in place — a grotesque statue.
◇
“That was brutal~…”
“Basilisks are no joke.”
I’d built three branching paths. The left and right were simple corridors, but left as-is they’d just merge again quickly and the branching would be pointless.
So I went ahead and made the center a maze.
A maze would slow anyone pushing through the center, and they’d eventually merge later with the side paths.
That was the logic. And after putting a large number of Basilisks in the maze for good measure, they turned out to fight in a way I hadn’t anticipated.
Using the maze to run, lure, and deliver poison from the flanks and rear. They’re smart.
But before the venom finished off that crocodile beast-kin, we’d lost several Basilisks.
Restocking is a given — but against multiple intruders at once, this might not hold up.
I need to think about improvements, but nothing comes to mind right now.
Poison Fog: Mana Cost 10
Ah. The trap menu had a suggestion ready.
Apparently unlocked by the Basilisks defeating an enemy.
“Hey, Primila.”
“Yes, Rei-sama?”
“Does venom affect Basilisks themselves?”
“No — they’re immune to their own poison, and to other poisons as well.”
“Good to know, thank you.”
That means flooding the area with the Poison Fog trap while the Basilisks are inside should work cleanly.
I was about to set it up when Lady Fiona looked over with a displeased expression.
“Is something wrong?”
“I could have answered that question too, you know…”
“I see… thank you?”
“Ask me next time.”
“Yes…”
Odd situation. Primila was revived specifically to be my aide — secretary, escort, support.
Dragging the Demon Lord herself into that role seems like it defeats the purpose.
But Lady Fiona does seem to have time on her hands.