The Legend of the Tunnel Strategy
Among my subordinates, there weren't many with the potential to evolve. However, those who could were monsters with the potential to reach 3-star status, and the Big Slimes that had been with me since the early days of dungeon operations were the prime example. Leveling up, and then cannibalism. If a slime evolved by consuming species other than its own, the Slime Dragon that followed the Big Slime evolved by consuming slimes and Big Slimes once again. Seven days. After the three Big Slimes had scoured the slime sub-dungeon for seven whole days, I finally got my hands on three Slime Dragons. Although they were only level 35, their majesty was beyond compare.
Kkeureureuk! The Slime Dragons roared and crawled forward. Moving like snakes, clinging to the cave walls, their speed rivaled my own running pace. And sitting atop the sprinting Slime Dragons were three warriors: Eila, Arthur, and Harsus.
"Haaah!" Eila swung her sword from the neck of a Slime Dragon, decapitating goblins. Arthur swung his chipped mace, crushing the wings of a gargoyle statue. Harsus leaped from his Slime Dragon, ambushing a camel monster from the ceiling.
"Start covering fire!" Following my order, the hunters I had fully recruited as subordinates aimed their bows and crossbows. Camel monsters were rushing from the opposite side of the corridor where the Slime Dragons and the assault squad were rampaging.
"Meari!" At my command, Meari immediately fired a flaming arrow made of magic toward the front. It didn't have much lethality, but it was enough to create a flash of light. Seeing the fire arrow explode, the assault squad grabbed onto the Slime Dragons clinging to the walls. There was nothing but enemies in the hunters' line of fire. The assault squad stuck to the walls to avoid the line of fire, and I stretched out my staff and shouted.
"Fire—!!" The hunters, who had been waiting only for my signal, all released their arrows. Pointy arrowheads, made by sharpening claws obtained from the Andras sub-dungeon and fletched with harpy feathers, flew toward the camel monsters.
Thwack! A claw arrow embedded itself in the thigh of the camel monster charging at the forefront. Thanks to being sharpened to a fine point, Andras's claws boasted more lethal sharpness than iron arrows. They were arrows crafted from monster materials to begin with. With humans who had lived by hunting firing them in unison, the camel monsters had no choice but to collapse quickly.
Thwack, thwack! As the monster in front fell, the camel monster behind it began to charge, using the corpse as a shield. Arrows embedded themselves into the corpse one after another, and on the back of the camel monster that flashed by, I saw three humps.
Kkeureureuk! The camel monster was aiming for none other than Eila. The Slime Dragon was startled and opened its mouth wide, but the camel monster sharpened its claws, intending to tear both the Slime Dragon and Eila to shreds. And at that moment, a sound of air being pierced, faster than any arrow, grazed past my shoulder.
Thwack! The wind arrow that precisely pierced the camel monster's heart also pierced the head of a goblin fleeing behind it. Ryun, the sharpshooter who had sniped two at once and saved an ally, held her head high, showing off her skills.
"......." Eila gulped, looking at the hole in the end of her sleeve. Ryun's shot was certainly accurate, but if it had veered just a little more to the side, Eila's wrist would have been pierced first. My gaze immediately turned to Ryun, who blushed while pulling the string again, aiming forward.
"I didn't do it on purpose!"
"...I know. As if you would." I comforted Ryun, nodded once to Eila, and surveyed the battle situation. The corridor was littered with the corpses of goblins and gargoyles, and it seemed all the camel monsters had fled, except for the one that had been hit by the rain of arrows at the front. Gremory's subordinates had retreated temporarily. The choice of attack was ours.
"Then, how shall we fight from now on...." When utilizing strategies and tactics passed down from ancient times. I had the slimes devour the enemy corpses and then set up a temporary base in the corridor of Gremory's dungeon.
"Ryun, go scout. Never go into that tentacle monster's room. Got it?"
"Yes!" Ryun led the hunters out beyond the corridor. I checked if the soldiers had any injuries after the initial clash, and other than the Slime Dragons' skin being a little scratched, there was nothing out of the ordinary.
"Heh heh, then let the scouting proceed as scouting, and shall we carry out our plan as planned?"
Kkeureureuk. Lime, who was at the very back, tapped the armband on her forearm with her palm and smiled proudly. It had been a long time since Lime had dug holes in a dungeon with the slimes. It was someone else's dungeon, but it would soon be mine.
"Lime. Start."
Kkeureureuk. While Ryun was out scouting, Lime led the three Slime Dragons and began digging a tunnel near the portal.
"Phew, stupid fool. Did you think I wouldn't know that?" Gremory quickly caught the distortion in the flow of mana spreading inside the dungeon. Once might be a mistake, but she wouldn't be fooled a second or third time. If the opponent's main strategy was digging tunnels, it was only natural for a dungeon master to prepare countermeasures.
'And that guy, he's useless after all.' If he had any brains, he would have assumed the opponent would deal with a strategy they had already been hit by once, but this foolish pig seemed to think that because it worked once, he would get the same result again. Gremory had already caught a new tunnel being dug from the portal side. And the moment she was about to order a countermeasure—
[Is the conquest going well, Gremory?]
The phantom of a black crow appeared in the crystal ball. Gremory, not wanting to show her ugly state, smiled, feigning composure. "What is it, Halpas?"
[I contacted you because I was curious since five days have passed and there's no news of the conquest. Andras shouldn't be that strong of an enemy, right?]
"Hmph. You have a complaint? If you're dissatisfied, go open a portal to Andras's dungeon and eat it yourself. Who do you think doesn't know you're planning to mark it with a curse and then raise it to eat later?"
[If you know, why don't you help a little? I even sent you our dungeon's ace on purpose.]
"I wish you'd take him back." For Gremory, it was pleasant in many ways, but a monster that even pointed tentacles at the dungeon master was a burdensome existence. Although Halpas, who had sent him, had a look of incomprehension.
[I don't understand. That's why I say you can't know those who lay eggs with their wombs. How good is the cloaca-]
Crash! Gremory threw the crystal ball against the wall. As the crystal ball shattered into pieces, the black crow's phantom disappeared.
"That bastard... I'll return him to our camels someday." To think he was rushing her when only five days had passed, not even knowing the situation here. It was truly pathetic, but Gremory had been able to reach this position as a dungeon master thanks to Halpas. She would build up her strength and point a sword at him someday, but right now, she had to overcome the crisis in front of her.
"Ugh, I don't know why he has to contact me at such an important time." Gremory scanned the mana flowing throughout the dungeon again. It took quite a while, but thanks to that, she could clearly see where the enemy's tunnel led. The tunnel that started from the portal was again—
"......?" Did she feel it wrong? Gremory gathered mana and scanned the dungeon again. Her intuition couldn't be wrong, but she couldn't understand the current situation at all.
"What the...?" The tunnel was being made. The three Slime Dragons were twisting their heads in a spiral and beginning to bore a new path underground. Gremory felt a sense of déjà vu at the movement, and the hair all over her body stood on end.
"Exactly when?" It hadn't even been a few minutes since her contact with Halpas. And yet, in that short time, they had already bored that much of a tunnel?
"R-run after them! Pursue!" Gremory hurriedly sent her troops. All troops, except for the defensive forces already deployed in the underground tunnels Pahuu had dug, rushed toward the vicinity of the portal where the Slime Dragons had started digging. Gremory bit her lip, calculating the time. Six hours? It felt like she could hear Pahuu's mocking laughter. It seemed like the time it would take for Pahuu to dig a tunnel and arrive would be much faster than the time it would take for Gremory to lay eggs and regain her strength.
Rummmble! Pahuu dug deep into the path from the portal to Gremory's heart. Deeper than the tunnel he had made before.
"Are you crazy?!" Pahuu, who had made the first basement floor and raided Gremory's heart, now began digging a tunnel from the second floor above ground.
Kwad-d-d-d! The Slime Dragon's body wriggled, creating a gentle slope. Under Lime's direction, the Slime Dragons' heads, spinning furiously, were faster than any tunnel excavator. "Ryun, do you know that saying? In life, you can be hit by a tactic once."
When I first pierced the wall of Gremory's heart, I dug an ant tunnel in the wall and advanced to the heart. If it hadn't been a clone, Gremory would have been pierced by me immediately, and this war would have ended.
Kwad, k-d-d-d! The Slime Dragon's head twisted sharply to the right. Following Lime's instructions, who had read the location, we were able to advance above the ceiling of Gremory's dungeon at a fast walking pace.
"And if you get hit by the same tactic twice, that's being a fool. It's being stupid." After being toyed with by Gremory's clone, I immediately took Gremory's clone hostage and escaped to the portal. Lime dug the underground tunnel alone and escaped to the ant tunnel, and successfully dug a hole to the tentacle monster's room and escaped back to the ant tunnel.
"But this is a paradox. The fact that the same strategy keeps working means the opponent is that foolish, but it also means it's the most effective tactic for the opponent. To be hit again by something you've already been hit by once." And I poked at that negligence.
"'Would they really do it again? They'll do it once and stop. Would they do it twice? No way.' Heh heh, it's something that makes people go crazy."
"But will this really be effective? Unless Gremory is a fool, she would have taken countermeasures."
"If she takes countermeasures, that's even more of a problem. How would she deal with it? Either they try to fill in or block the tunnels we dug, or they pursue the path we dug like that."
Kieeeeek!! Goblins began to rush hurriedly into the corridor we had passed. The goblins, looking ferocious, aimed their poison needles at us and threatened us. We had created a dead end ourselves and became rats in a trap.
"Oops. But you should have sent a stronger enemy. Ryun!" As soon as my order fell, Ryun fired an arrow to the other side of the corridor. No matter how many camel monsters there were, it was insufficient in many ways to enter through that narrow hole. A corridor the width of a Slime Dragon. I crawled on my belly and advanced onto the temporary second-floor corridor we had made on the slope the Slime Dragon had created.
"So, Ryun. Do you know what happens if you get hit by the same strategy three times?" I pointed at the floor with my foot. While the entrance coming up was narrow, the second-floor corridor was wide enough for me to straighten my waist and spread my hands left and right.
"If you get hit by one tactic three times, it becomes a legend." Once when going. To the wall. Once when coming. Underground. And once again when going. To the ceiling.
"Let's make a legendary tunnel operation once today."
"But Master, I have a question." Ryun asked while making a wind hole in the brows of the goblins crossing to the other side of the corridor. "What if Gremory already knows?"
"It doesn't matter if she knows. It's a strategy based on the premise that she'll notice it anyway. It's useless even if she knows." It was best if she didn't notice, and even if she did, there was no major problem if we pushed ahead with the operation as is. The core of the 1st Army performing the ceiling tunnel operation was to fluster and deceive Gremory.
"It's a strategy for an all-out war to begin with." The destination of this tunnel wasn't Gremory's heart.
"We are becoming the hammer." Lime sent a signal. I rubbed the back of my hand and activated the tattoo. Vitality began to flow into my body, and I was ready to start the fight.
"Lime!"
Kkeureureuk! The Slime Dragons' heads faced downward. I ran forward and jumped through the hole the Slime Dragons had made.
"Wooooaaah!!" A wide common area. I jumped down behind the camel monsters above the corridor where the enemy's main force was concentrated. And at the same time, our dungeon's subordinates on the other side of the corridor rushed in head-on.