The All-In Gambit
The moment I resolved to kill them all, I compared the enemy's strength to my own. My forces were woefully insufficient. If Gremory and I were to engage in a one-on-one duel, could my remaining troops defeat hers? I shook my head firmly. But what if the dungeon master and her subordinates joined forces for an all-out war? I ordered my troops to advance slowly, while I used the slime dragons to pierce the ceiling and strike ahead of my main force. My destination was the common area, where more than half of the enemy's subordinates were gathered.
I’ve already mapped out the entire dungeon structure.
I had spent over twenty hours exploring Gremory’s dungeon. We had hidden in the shadows, scouting every corner to understand its layout. The path Lime had carved as the vanguard of the slime dragons was only possible because we knew the structure so well. I decided to launch an all-out war in the area where the enemy had concentrated their forces. Hammer and anvil. The role of the cavalry, which should have flanked them, became mine—I flew to the enemy's rear by piercing the ceiling with the slime dragons. As soon as I dropped down, I scanned the enemy ranks. Surprisingly, Gremory was nowhere to be seen. There wasn't even a clone, nor was there the 4-star camel she usually rode. The surroundings were filled mostly with 3-star camels and bronze gargoyles. It was clearly a force overflowing with elites.
"Nothing but cannon fodder!"
I began to rampage, swinging my iron sword, which had become little more than a club, in every direction. I ripped the wings off a gargoyle, jammed the sharp end into the brow of a camel monster, and smashed my iron sword into the crown of a goblin rushing at me with a dagger. Thwack! The flat of the blade caved in the goblin's forehead. I focused on hacking, crushing, and trampling the stronger monsters. Kreeeeaaagh! The monsters began to go berserk, their eyes glowing with a crimson light. The air in the cave was thick with the scent of Gremory’s mana, and the camel monsters, having received their master's permission, charged at me in a frenzy.
"Barrage!"
I grabbed the face of a charging camel monster and twisted it to the left. Since their noses and mouths were so prominent, their faces looked remarkably like phalluses; twisting and bursting them felt strangely satisfying. Swish-swish! A rain of wind arrows poured down from the sky. Line was firing at every target she could see through the hole I had jumped down from. The goblins let out death cries as blood streamed from their bodies, and the stone gargoyles were turning from limestone to basalt. With me rampaging in the rear, hacking and smashing, and Line providing cover from the ceiling with a relentless barrage of arrows, our first division’s strike at the enemy's rear was a success. The monsters seemed torn between attacking me, the only one on the ground, or our dungeon subordinates, who were relatively weak but possessed solid defenses.
Krrr-ruk.
High-defense ghouls and high-ghouls stood at the front. Behind them, the hunters began firing bows and crossbows through the gaps between the ghouls, who were relatively thin. Whenever goblins tried to counterattack with poison darts, the ghouls would swat them away with their arms or block them with their bodies. They didn't show perfectly organic coordination yet, but fortunately, a commander was standing in the center of the formation, sword in hand, issuing orders that kept their movements fluid, however slowly.
"Rotate! Men, fall back! Women, prepare to fire!"
Under Eila’s command, the hunters moved systematically. They took turns firing arrows based on gender, and the goblins fell to the ground one by one with Andras’s claw-tipped arrows embedded in their bodies. Kieeeeek! I didn't have time to watch. A wolf-like monster leaped from behind a camel monster to claw at me. I raised my iron sword to deflect the claws and kicked the wolf monster in the jaw. Yelp! The nameless monster whimpered like a sick dog and rolled its eyes back. I gripped my iron sword in a reverse grip and stabbed it deep into the wolf monster's mouth. Even if the blade was chipped, a sword was still a sword. The wolf monster died with its mouth pinned to the floor.
She must have increased her forces in a hurry!
I sensed that Gremory was squeezing out every bit of her power. She wasn't present on this battlefield herself, but Gremory was trying to pressure us by deploying all sorts of monsters in addition to her lineup of goblins, gargoyles, and camel monsters. They seemed to be reinforcements hastily brought in from the Demon King's castle. But—
"Wooooaaahhh!!"
With a roar, I grabbed the camel monster’s wrist and swung it wide. I pulled with such force that it felt like I might rip the arm right off, and the camel monster flailed like a party doll, kicking other monsters with its legs. Thud, thud-thud-thud!Kieeeeek! The camel monster screamed in agony. Perhaps because I was gripping it too tightly, its wrist felt like it was about to be crushed. But that wasn't enough. I pivoted my body in the same motion, spinning around. The monsters were caught off guard by my whirlwind, using the camel monster itself as a weapon. If you're panicked, you die! I mercilessly threw the camel monster onto the gargoyles. The camel monster’s massive frame crushed two gargoyles as it hit the floor.
Stab!
A sudden burning sensation flared in my calf. A goblin had tried to slash my Achilles' tendon, and I instinctively pulled my leg back, narrowly avoiding disaster. Crunch! I stomped the goblin into a pulp. If I didn't suppress them quickly, they would keep targeting my calves. I swung my iron sword wildly, threatening the surrounding enemies. The number of enemies still looked well over a hundred. And every one of those hundred had to die today. The battle, where I held out as long as possible while my subordinates chipped away at their numbers, continued without end.
Bam!
Gremory could no longer stand it. Her subordinates were being killed or having their necks snapped one after another, making it impossible to gauge the situation on the ground. She had to create a clone and send it. To create that clone, there was one priority: spawning. The seeds of the tentacle monster inside Gremory still had a long time to go before they could be harvested. But Gremory had a magical item that could shorten that time: a Magic Crystal.
Gremory, carrying her bulging belly, sat directly on the summoning facility. She gripped the purple-glowing Magic Crystal and shoved it inside. Squish, squish! The tentacle strands that had been blocking her vagina in a spiral pattern flowed limply to the floor. Thanks to the power of the summoning facility, which reacted to the mana of the Magic Crystal, the tentacle strands that prevented spawning seemed to have been severed and scattered across the floor.
"Ughhh—!"
Gremory shoved the Magic Crystal deep into her vulva. Having pulled out the tentacles, the crystal entered the loosened hole all too easily, and the magic circle inscribed on the summoning facility began to erupt with intense mana. "Ugh, kee-it, hhh-aaah!" Gremory let out a cry at the sensation of something wriggling inside her womb. The offspring of the tentacle monsters, which had grown into egg shapes inside her belly, were swimming happily in her womb, feeding on the mana of the Magic Crystal. Every bit of that stimulation was transmitted to Gremory as pleasure, and she tensed her lower body.
"Nng, ughhh...!"
Gremory’s lower abdomen, which had been moaning, heaved, and soon an egg the size of a chicken egg popped out of her vagina. The tentacle monster offspring, disguised as eggs, slipped out of Gremory’s belly along with the mucosal lining. Squelch, squelch. Saliva dripped from Gremory’s clenched lips. One, two. Every time Gremory’s belly heaved, the tentacle monster offspring poked their heads out of her vulva, and Gremory, powered by the Magic Crystal, rapidly laid eggs one after another.
"Haaah..."
Gremory, having shuddered a couple of times, lay back on the summoning facility and exhaled mana toward the ceiling. The mana danced in the air, forming a human figure. "Hoo, hoo." Gremory gasped for air and pointed toward the front for the clone she had just created. Even if the clone’s power wasn't equal to the original, it had enough strength to use magic and threaten the enemy. I must kill that pig. Gremory ordered one of the 3-star camel monsters guarding the entrance to the inner sanctum to take the clone and head to the battlefield, then crawled back to her bed and lay down. Gremory, who had been at the peak of spawning, needed a moment of rest. And that rest was the time the clone would buy for her. The clone hurried onto the camel monster’s back and headed for the common area.
Thwack, thud!
The goblins fell to the floor powerlessly. Whenever the camel monsters felt excited, they would rush over and smash their heads in. The only way to deal with the endlessly surging enemies was to kill them off, and I followed that method, beating the monsters to death with my blood-soaked fists. "Hooo..." I let out a heavy sigh, slightly exhausted. The number of Gremory’s subordinates was beyond imagination, and those who had been scattered throughout the dungeon were beginning to return to the common area one by one.
Krrr-ruk.
The subordinates on the anvil, who took turns resting, could relax, but as someone tasked with disrupting the rear alone, I couldn't help but feel the fatigue. "Master!" "Hoo, don't come down! I can still do this!" Line seemed to want to save me, trying to lead the slime dragons down. I shouted toward the ceiling, steadying my mind. This was only the beginning, and there was still a long way to go before the main game. I had to make up for the lack of strength myself. Just as I steeled my heart and reached out to rip the wings off the gargoyles surrounding me—
"Ohoho!"
A familiar yet unpleasant high-pitched laughter pierced my ears from across the passage. Just when I thought I wanted to rest for a moment because I was exhausted, Gremory appeared. The movements of Gremory’s subordinates also began to slow down for a moment.
"To think you'd come back after being beaten so badly, you idiot!"
Gremory provoked me from the start. Having seen blood, I had lost my sense of reason, and I retorted to Gremory’s words instinctively. "The one who got beaten badly was you. You haven't come to your senses yet." I swung my blood-stained iron sword in the air as a threat. Gremory had appeared full of confidence, but when I threatened her, she gulped and stepped back. She seemed to be gauging whether my threat was a bluff or if I was actually showing off a surplus of strength. It was both a bluff and a display. I braced my trembling legs and provoked Gremory.
"What are you going to do by sending just a clone? Heh, did you come looking for me because you wanted to be impaled for real this time?"
"You perverted bastard, your head is only filled with that! You made a mistake, you idiot! Hahaha!"
Gremory laughed frivolously in a high tone, looking at me with disdain. "While you're doing this here, I guess you don't care about the portal?!"
"......!"
I was startled and scanned my surroundings. Only then did Gremory smirk, hiding behind her subordinates. The urge to shove my iron sword into that arrogant face mocking me surged up.
"Ohoho! Your main base must be empty right now! This is your defeat for pouring all your strength into the attack!"
"...So you sent that camel monster. The 4-star one."
There was one enemy I hadn't seen for a while. That camel monster, with whom I had had intercourse while facing Gremory’s main body, hadn't appeared even though we were rampaging like this. It was certain that it had taken the portal to raid our dungeon, just as I had expected. I couldn't help but laugh at Gremory’s mercenary tactics, which were playing out exactly as I had anticipated.
"Kuh, kuh-kuh-kuh!"
"Wh-what?! Are you crazy?! Why are you laughing?! Do you not understand the situation?!"
"Ah, it's nothing. I just thought I could win even more easily."
One of the three most formidable entities in Gremory’s dungeon was heading to our dungeon. That meant if we blocked the path back from the dungeon, that detachment would never be able to return. The core of the battle was hunting the dungeon master. Therefore, my defeat didn't mean I lost just because my dungeon was being ravaged.
"You can laugh right now?! All the remaining subordinates in your dungeon will be slaughtered! By my beloved subordinate whom I have raised with all my might!"
"You must be having a hard time looting an empty dungeon. Did you say hello to him for me? Lime!!"
I shouted to Lime, who was waiting on the ceiling. "Collapse the passage coming from the portal right now!"
"Wh...at?"
Gremory’s face twisted in panic. I spat the blood-mixed saliva from my mouth onto the floor and gripped my sword. Gremory, hiding behind the camel monsters, was looking at me with trembling eyes.
"You... what on earth have you done?!"
"What have I done? It's simple."
I steadied my breathing and smiled broadly at Gremory. "This is what you call an all-in. Have you ever heard of a base swap?"
I had brought my dungeon's strength—literally 'everything'—over to Gremory’s dungeon. My subordinates, my wealth, and even the eggs that hadn't hatched yet. "Gremory, I'll give you my old house, so give me your new one."
To your dungeon. Of course, in the end, both would become my house.