“Um… when you say fix the dungeon — is something broken?”
“…Everything.”
The Demon Lord answered my question with an expression of profound distaste.
At first I thought I’d offered her some kind of insult, but that wasn’t it.
“Everything was destroyed. …Ugh, I hate this. When I think about the cleanup, I’d rather just shut myself in this dungeon for ten thousand years or so…”
She looks like someone who has so much to do that she doesn’t know where to start — completely at a loss.
If I had to put it in terms I understand: the last day of summer break, for someone who did absolutely no homework all summer.
“So if you’d just seal the entrance, that would be enough. After that, I’ll take about ten thousand years to slowly… work on things whenever I feel like it.”
That’s the kind of thing a person says when they are absolutely never going to work on it.
And besides, being stuck in here for ten thousand years would be a serious problem for me.
For now, maybe I should just do what I proposed and build a wall across the entrance.
If that makes her think of me as even slightly useful, it’ll be worth it.
“Alright, I’ll seal it up.”
I select Create Wall and bring a wall into existence at a position that neatly covers the entrance.
Good, this way any new intruders won’t be able to get in… probably… right…
“Oh? This is more impressive than I expected. Yes, this would certainly… w-wait, did you die?! I never told you to risk your life over it!”
I forgot to think about how much mana I had left…
The Demon Lord, suddenly convinced I’m dead, starts flustering around in a panic.
Huh… even someone that powerful panics like this. Kind of a strange thing to witness… it is…
◇
“What is wrong with this person…”
He was as good as his word, I’ll grant him that.
A solid dungeon wall, conjured in an instant. Getting inside will be considerably harder now.
Not that it would stop a human Hero or a beast-kin’s strongest warrior — they’d break through regardless.
Even so, having this wall here versus not having it makes an enormous difference.
“…He’s not dead, it seems.”
There’s a life force, mana is present, and he’s breathing.
He’s lost consciousness, by the look of it.
Could it be mana exhaustion?
“Still… he knew I was an enemy to the world, and he still wanted to serve under me.”
There was a strong resolve in his eyes when he said it.
Is it because he’s a demon? No — ever since I became the Demon Lord and made an enemy of the world, every demon who wasn’t directly under my command surrendered to the other races.
Some of them broke from me entirely and threw themselves on the mercy of other factions. I remember that quite well.
“This is a first… since I took the name Demon Lord, he’s the first person to have chosen to be on my side.”
Unfortunately, not one of my subordinates remains.
Every stronghold across the land has probably been destroyed or repurposed by now.
And this underground demon realm — the last one left — was torn apart by the Heroes.
“You’re the only one I have. So please wake up soon.”
…No. That’s not right.
He simply seemed useful for repairing the dungeon. That’s all.
If he can build a wall in an instant, he should be able to fix the broken rooms as well, and be of use in all sorts of ways.
That’s why. There’s no deeper meaning to it. What kind of excuse is this, exactly…
“Honestly… you’re a terrible person, you know.”
Come to think of it, I never even asked his name.
I’d like him to wake up so I can ask him all manner of things.
…To better understand my subordinate. That’s all.
◇
“Ugh… where am I…”
Rough stone walls greet my eyes. Right — this is a dungeon.
I built a wall without any mana left, so I passed out again.
“You’re awake.”
Oh — right! I collapsed while trying to prove myself useful to the Demon Lord.
“Y-yes!”
“Any discomfort? If you’re feeling unwell, please don’t push yourself.”
“N-no, I’m fine! I think it was just a mana shortage!”
That was close. The last thing I need is for her to decide a subordinate who can’t manage his own health is useless.
Fortunately my mana has recovered somewhat, and while I’m not at full capacity, the physical exhaustion is gone.
“We haven’t introduced ourselves yet. My name is Fiona Silvana. The Demon Lord.”
Her name was on the stat screen, but the Demon Lord actually has a proper name. It’s obvious in hindsight, but this is a game world, and my friend only ever called her the Demon Lord, so I genuinely didn’t know.
Even so, for a Demon Lord…
“That’s a cute name.”
“What?!“
Oh no. That was an incredibly tactless thing to say. Borderline disrespectful.
“I meant it as a compliment!!”
All-purpose phrase for turning a slip of the tongue into flattery. Please save me.
“…I— is that so. Fine, I suppose.”
Saved.
Though I realize I’ve let the Demon Lord introduce herself without introducing myself — also disrespectful.
Thinking that, I hurried into my own introduction.
“My name is Izumi Rei! My race is… demon? I think?”
“Why do you sound uncertain… Izumi Rei. That does sound like a reincarnate’s name.”
“Um, my given name is Rei, so if that’s easier, feel free to call me whatever you like…”
“Very well. I look forward to working with you. Rei.”
A reincarnate’s name — which probably means the people getting sent to this world are mostly Japanese.
What does that goddess have against Japan…
Maybe because it’s the country that made the game?
“Rei. I understand now that you can repair the dungeon using your reincarnate’s ability. What can you do besides build walls?”
“Let’s see — I can create floors.”
“…What else?”
“I can make ceilings.”
“I see… Fixing damaged rooms should at least be within reach.”
Good. I was worried she’d drop me for being too limited.
A room would need four walls plus a ceiling and a floor — a minimum cost of 6 mana, and more if there’s a door. Which means I don’t currently have enough mana to build a single room.
“Um, Demon Lord.”
“Fiona.”
“…Lady Fiona.”
“I suppose that’s acceptable. What is it?”
She corrected me to use her name — probably still the effect of as a compliment from earlier still doing some work.
Dropping the title entirely felt dangerous, so I added the honorific, and that apparently just barely cleared the bar.
“My mana is very low, so there are limits to what I can do.”
“I see… that means we either need to increase your mana or find an external source to draw from.”
Increasing it — the most obvious way would be leveling up.
There’s no level shown on the stat screen, but based on how the original game worked, there’s probably a system where defeating monsters raises your level.
As for an external source… I’m called a Dungeon Master, so maybe the dungeon’s own mana could work.
Switching through the screens, I notice a few things.
First, the grey icon that had been deep in the dungeon is gone — replaced by a blue one.
Which means that during all that running, I actually made it all the way to the dungeon’s depths, and that grey icon was Lady Fiona.
The color change must be because she’s now an ally.
The beast-kin icons might have changed color the moment they became hostile — but I was too busy desperately running to pay close attention.
Come to think of it, the beast-kin icons have disappeared entirely.
The only icons on the map are mine and Lady Fiona’s.
Did theirs vanish because they died?
And the number displayed in the upper right corner of the map — the 0 — has changed too.
It’s now reading 50. What caused that?
“Is something wrong?”
“Ah — just that some of the numbers on this dungeon map look different from earlier.”
“…A map? It seems I can’t see it. Is that your power as a reincarnate, then?”
“Oh, you can’t see this screen?”
Apparently the map, the stats, the menu — all of it is visible only to me.
If Lady Fiona can’t see it, no one else probably can either.
“But a dungeon map with a changing number… how did it change?”
“It was 0 before, and now it’s 50.”
“It was 0… could that be the dungeon’s own mana, perhaps?”
“Wait — dungeons have mana?”
“Yes. I’ve mentioned it several times, but the Heroes devastated us, and the dungeon itself died once…”
There’s that sullen expression again.
If her mood sours I might end up catching the fallout, so I need to bring her back around.
“Then I’ll fix the dungeon for you, Lady Fiona!”
“Oh… I see. For me.”
Good — the mention of the dungeon being repaired lifted her mood.
“Ahem. Yes, well — most likely, when the dungeon died, its mana dropped to 0. Then it barely reactivated by absorbing the mana from the Heroes’ bodies after they fell.”
Right — it came back to life on the mana of the Heroes who died inside it.
“And when I defeated the beast-kin warriors just now, it would have absorbed their mana as well. That’s probably what became the dungeon’s mana.”
So anything that dies inside the dungeon gets converted into fuel for it.
If that’s the case — if we keep defeating things in here, the dungeon would just keep growing stronger.
There’s actually been a change in the menu screen too.
Create Branching Path: Mana Cost 5
It’s a different color from Create Wall, but this entry is now glowing as well.
I’d assumed it was because my mana had recovered — but that’s too fast given how slowly it’s been recovering.
It might be that these menu options can be activated by drawing on the dungeon’s mana directly, not just my own.