Opening the Dungeon (5)

I tasted Ryun above and Eila below, devouring them both until I was fully satisfied. "Haaah..." Ryun’s lower body was covered in the marks of my sucking, her face flushed a deep, beet red. But since her arms were still bound by the vines, she couldn't offer any resistance. "Haa, haa..." Ryun rolled her eyes back and fainted. As a pure elf who knew nothing of the act of sex, she had spent the entire time I was sucking on her spewing nonsense about how dirty and impure it was. But now, she was exhausted and collapsed.

I laid Ryun down gently on the bed next to Eila. 'One is a 1-star with the potential to grow to 5-stars, and the other is a 4-star, though I don't know when she'll wake up.' It would be truly great if I just knew how to make them my subordinates. I stood up from the spot, leaving my regrets behind. More than thirty minutes had already passed, and the summoning facility was sitting quite elegantly in one corner of the cave.

'It’s basically just a pigsty, isn't it?' Wooden stakes and thin, bamboo-like vines were laid out on the floor, forming something like a magic circle. And in the very center, the Slime Dragon’s magic stone sat at about the height where my hand could reach, emitting a strange, eerie light.

"As expected, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the basic gacha." If it were just summoning subordinates using a parchment form, I would be used to it from playing countless gacha games, but I couldn't bring myself to summon a monster right away. 'I have the worst luck.' Even my reincarnation gacha had been a massive failure. In a world where the system only activates if you are a Dungeon Lord, I was born as a slave soldier for another demon, and I even reincarnated as an orc—a fat orc, at that, who couldn't lose weight no matter how much he exercised.

If there was one positive thing, it was that I seemed capable of growing up to 5-stars. If the remaining two stars of Pahou Kumcheoku (★★★☆☆) meant I had two more opportunities to grow, then I could definitely reach 5-stars. Still, since it was my first gacha, I decided to summon a monster with a light heart. I didn't know what kind of monster would be summoned, but at the very least, I desperately needed manpower to remodel the dungeon. 'Maybe they'll even be the subordinates who defeat my enemies.'

Gacha. It was time for the gacha. I unfolded the Monster Summoning Scroll. A geometric magic circle was drawn inside the parchment, and I immediately pressed <Summon Subordinate>. Fortunately, since the summoning facility was in place, the summoning proceeded without a hitch.

"......Do I even need a 'Friend' list?" I saw some strange names for the summoning methods. I pressed them one by one, slowly, and learned their characteristics.

"What the hell is this shitty, doomed game?" How could the gacha luck be so trashy that it even limits the number of stars I can grow to? The person who made this system must be a malicious existence. How could there be a separate seed for royalty and nobility—no, for 5-star and 6-star beings! I was furious, but I couldn't just use my Monster Summoning Scroll recklessly. 'I'll hold off for now.' It wouldn't be too late to summon after checking out the other methods. Since the traps I set at the entrance hadn't been triggered yet, I had the peace of mind to check the other summoning methods.

"Lime. They say you're a monster that gobbles up five lowest-grade magic stones." Lime didn't answer. Having already devoured the entire Slime Dragon, Lime was busy eating the remains of the other slimes. I felt a sense of déjà vu and rushed over to pull Lime away. "Hey! Did you eat the magic stones?!"

Crunch, crunch! Half of a lowest-grade magic stone was already melting in Lime's mouth. Like a hamster with its cheeks stuffed with food, Lime had shoved a whopping eight lowest-grade magic stones into its body and was melting them with its mouth. "Spit it out! I said spit it out!" I squeezed Lime. Lime twisted its body in pain, and eventually, the lowest-grade magic stones popped out of its body. "Sorry. But who would have thought those would be needed?"

Lowest-grade magic stones were worth less than the pebbles on the side of the road. They were the kind of things that couldn't even be processed into magic tools, used only by young dungeon monsters for playing marbles. "You just eat the slime remains. No magic stones, you brat. I'm going to use these to make your companions." Lime, looking limp, devoured the slime remains. I hurriedly ran around the dungeon and collected all the cores of the slimes I had crushed; they were all lowest-grade magic stones. Only 40 of them. Considering there were about 70 slimes inside the dungeon, it meant the remaining 30 had been eaten by Lime.

'...It should be enough for 6 of them, at least, since she's a 4-star.' I decided to believe that. If she couldn't properly do the job of 6 subordinate slimes, I would use Lime for the 'slime-jerking' that the ugly adults of my tribe used to enjoy in Forneus's dungeon. 'Lowest-grade magic stones have no other real use anyway.' Still, just in case, I'd keep some extras. I set aside enough for one slime and piled the remaining 35 lowest-grade magic stones in one place. 'There are two things I haven't checked yet.' One was the summoning method. I checked the 'Affinity Summon' that was the problem.

"If it's unavailable, why even show it? Getting my hopes up. Damn it." Ptooey. I spat at the screen once, then checked the other thing. It was the facility I had finished constructing.

"Oh, come on...." Suddenly, I grew to hate Lime. One summon by the Monster Summoning Scroll, and 8 if I counted the slimes I could summon by scraping together every last lowest-grade magic stone. I was exactly one short. "......No, wait." If it's magic stones, aren't they right there? That innocent creature, knowing nothing and comfortably gorging itself on slimes. 'Usually, in games like this, don't you get resources back if you sacrifice a subordinate?' Like crafting materials, experience books, or magic stones, or magic stones. I left that as a last resort and tried to carry out my intended purpose first. 'To remodel the dungeon, I at least need to make some slimes-'

Clang! A sharp sound of something cutting through the air rang out. I stopped what I was doing and picked up what I had whittled out of a piece of wood. An intruder. I didn't know who it was, but they certainly wouldn't be coming with good intentions. That was only natural, because those who were entering now were 'destroying' the traps as they ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠came in. I pushed Eila and Ryun to the side of the bed and gripped the club ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠I had made by whittling a piece of wood. Whoever came, even if it were a group of elves or Forneus's pursuit squad, I could not die here. 'I'll kill them all.'

A small mountain village in the Virgo Barony. In this small village with a population of barely twenty, the vanity-filled youths were busy playing at being adventurers again today. Their crude wooden swords and armor woven from animal hides looked somewhat plausible, and they were at least showing off the 'hero' vibe.

"Alright, let's go! Today, we're definitely conquering the dungeon!" Richard, the blond youth at the head of the group, held his wooden sword high and encouraged his party with a bright smile. There were three youths including Richard, and one brown-haired woman fumbling with a staff. Those four were members of the <Richard Knights>, who were famous even in the village.

"Richard! Any further is dangerous! Monsters start appearing from here!" "Yeah. Didn't they say we can't go without the adults' permission?" The other two youths tried to calm Richard down, and Richard threw a tantrum, swinging his wooden sword. "Jack! Kai! You guys are too scared! Right, Mary?" "...Yeah." Mary, the woman holding the staff, blushed and agreed with Richard. The other two youths' expressions soured, but Richard, emboldened by Mary, strongly asserted his opinion.

"Let's just take a quick look at the cave entrance, okay? We saw what was inside last time, didn't we?" "There was one slime." "Yeah, a slime! Can't the youths of the Great Zodiac Kingdom catch a single slime? Don't worry. A slime is something you can beat to death with your bare fists!" Richard clenched his fist and led the way, and the three followed behind him. The place they arrived at, following the path they had checked in advance, was the slime dungeon they had discovered previously—

"W-what...?" The entrance was blocked. They had clearly marked it last time, but that mark had vanished without a trace. "Richard, look over there." Mary pointed to a spot quite far from where Richard was standing. Below the sheer cliff, where vine stems hung down like feet, was a cave entrance that clearly showed signs of something going in and out.

"It's a dungeon!" Richard ran toward the dungeon without a second thought, and the two youths hesitated, glancing at each other. "Richard, wait for us!" Mary followed Richard, her face flushed, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠and the two youths followed Mary with expressions that said they had no other choice. "Look at this! There are slime tracks here—"

Snap. Something caught on Richard's shoulder. A branch embedded in the wall sprang out from a place Richard couldn't see and grazed his cheek. "Ouch..!" Blood appeared on Richard's cheek. The party was wrapped in silence. "...The fact that there's a trap means there's something inside, right?" "Richard. Let's go back. We should tell the Elder...." "No! If we do that, the territory guards will come again!" Richard shook his head firmly and gripped his wooden sword. "...Let's just do a reconnaissance, and if it's an enemy we can handle, we'll defeat them!"

"What? What if we can't handle it?" "We run away. Don't worry, have you ever seen a monster above the lowest grade appear in our Virgo territory?" Richard's eyes were full of confidence. And it didn't take long for that confidence to turn into despair.