The Price of Survival

Thankfully, the hatching counted toward the summon limit. It was a relief in more ways than one, so I happily tallied the remaining magic stones. Fifteen lowest-grade magic stones. The first run through the Slime Dungeon had ended with leveling up Ryun. Enemies had swarmed us before I could properly loot, and I’d only managed to grab six. There are only 24 low-grade magic stones left. That was the count after summoning the High Ghouls. Lime hadn't managed to collect any low-grade stones, so she’d returned empty-handed.

Given the time, the fruits of my farming will likely be ready by tomorrow. I’d been so focused on gathering wood and organizing the interior of the cavern that the time for dinner had long since passed. The harvest, which took six hours by default, wouldn't yield its fruit until after midnight tomorrow. External activities are a hassle at night, so that’s effectively it for today.

The ghouls were busy cleaning up the dungeon after the battle. The slimes were repairing the collapsed sections of the dungeon. The harpies were split between resting and focusing on new production activities. In the end, all that was left was what I, the dungeon master, could do. And that was building facilities.

I have 90 units of wood. The 90 pieces of wood that the High Ghouls hadn't even managed to stack in the storage would rot away if left alone. Since I’d brought back nearly 200 and the system had deemed the rest unusable, there was a good chance the system would judge the remaining wood as defective, too.

What kind of facilities can I build? I pulled up the list of all constructible facilities. Bedroom (1), Storage (2, one of which was Lv.1), Prison (1), Barracks (4). And the Incubator and Hatchery I’d secured via blueprints. Anyone could see that the latter two were facilities to help with the farming cycle. But they aren't exactly urgent right now.

There was something else that was truly urgent. The Prisoner Prison. With the addition of the human prisoner known as the [Village Chief], there were now three prisoners: the Chief, Mei, and Eila.

"You filthy bastard! How could you cum inside a monster! Because of you, humanity is doomed! You’re going to be the vanguard that kills us all!"

"What?! Fuck, is that how you talk to someone who came to save you?!"

"You came to save us and got captured yourself, you moron! You should’ve bowed your head to the noble and begged him to send soldiers!!"

"This bitch won't shut up!! Just because you have big tits! Did you survive by seducing that monster with them?!"

The Village Chief and Mei were growling at each other, spitting curses. Only two days ago, they had been lovers, but now they were bitter enemies who would kill each other if given the chance.

"You, you bitch! I saw it! I saw it clearly! At the end, you were hugging that pig-like monster! Fuck, you traitor to humanity!"

"What?! Don't talk bullshit! I ran away to save you guys! How was I supposed to know it was ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠a dead end?! Did I know?!"

"Shut up, shut up! Fuck, dammit!"

It was fine for them to hurt each other's feelings with insults, but leaving them like this made it incredibly uncomfortable to eat in the same space.

"...Hmm." Ryun, who was eating carefully beneath me, frowned. As an elf, her hearing was sharp, and I hadn't considered that she could hear the two humans shouting. I need to expand the facility first.

It took time, but no materials were needed. Just beside the storage, the hunters' luggage collected by Harsus and the ghouls was piled up. The robe Ryun was wearing was also a looted item. And among them, there was plenty of usable iron—daggers, arrowheads, and the like. It amounted to about three times the iron in Mei's short sword.

Right, the system doesn't care about quality. I just had to place the items at the construction site. I divided the iron scraps and wood appropriately and lined them up next to the prison. This left me with 60 wood. Three whole prisons began to form next to Eila. I have to build as many as I can while I can. I didn't know what the result of the expansion would be.

I finished my meal, tapped the ears of Ryun, who was cleaning my urethra with her mouth, and she stood up, swallowing what she had in her mouth. "Thank you for the meal."

"Yeah. Dinner was a bit late, though."

I took Ryun to the front of the summoning facility. On the way, I kept inserting and removing my fingers from her rear, busy expanding her back passage. "Haaah...." Ryun was so focused on finding a position that made it easy for me to insert my fingers that she didn't care about anything else. She’d walk a little faster than my pace or crawl on all fours like a beast, lifting her hips high.

Squish, squish. It was clumsy, but her effort was commendable, so I let her do as she pleased. My fingers were slick with Ryun's secretions, and I stood before the summoning facility, catching my breath. I still have five summoning opportunities left. And I had to summon based on the limited amount of magic stones—15 and 24.

Thanks to the Harpy (★) giving birth, I could now summon the higher-tier Harpy Angel. But I had no intention of summoning harpy-type monsters. I can just hatch eggs for harpies. So, to fill the summon count, I needed slimes or ghouls. Ghouls were especially important.

Harsus's squad had eight members excluding himself. Due to the system characteristic where the squad leader is excluded from the squad capacity, two more ghouls could be added. I need to straighten out that Ghoul (★☆) too. How would he act when higher-grade ghouls joined as his subordinates? I rubbed the nectar-tasting honey from Ryun onto my fingers and summoned the High Ghouls without hesitation.

"Gacha!"

Ryun was indeed divine. "Ha, Pa, Ta... From now on, you two are Charsus and Zarsus." I couldn't use the name 'Ka'... because he felt like he was going to die. If a mob like a Lich ever appeared, I thought I might name that friend Kasas.

"Harsus!! Take the new recruits!!" I shouted toward the cavern, and Harsus soon ran over to take charge of the two newly born soldiers. Kkeureureuk. Thankfully, the two High Ghouls weren't as clueless as some others. Perhaps they followed Harsus because his level was much higher, even though they were the same type of High Ghoul.

Zarsus can grow up to 3 stars, so I should evolve him differently than Harsus. High Ghoul growth had three total paths. The evolution route would be decided by my intent, but it would be much better to evolve them once they met the conditions. With this, the squad is complete.

Three summon opportunities left. To fill those, I had to do something else first. "Ryun, Lime. Let's go."

"Where to?"

"I haven't finished my two daily quests yet."

A short while later, we had defeated two Slime Dragons. Now, both of them could easily handle Big Slimes, and all I had to do was pick up the magic stones from the back and stomp on the Slime Dragon's head to finish it off. There's no need to hunt them if they don't even drop mid-grade magic stones. Still, it felt incomplete to leave without killing the dungeon boss. Ryun and Lime must have gained experience points while hunting the Slime Dragons, too.

Thus, after two runs through the Slime Dungeon, I obtained 42 lowest-grade magic stones and 4 low-grade ones. It felt like a bust for the low-grade stones, but I felt good knowing the lowest-grade ones had increased significantly.

"Lime."

Kkeureureuk?

"Eat all the low-grade ones." As I tossed the low-grade magic stones, Lime did a tap dance and gobbled them up.

And thanks to that, Lime reached level 25. Through piercing the ceiling, eating humans, and consuming magic stones, Lime had become the highest-level entity in our dungeon.

"Lime."

Gureuk.

"I'll make you even smarter." And tomorrow, Lime would become the most intelligent being in our dungeon. Lime began to dance, twisting her waist at my words, and Ryun covered her mouth with her hand, giggling at Lime's appearance.

Lime, Human Consumption 9 / 10. And there was still one human woman in our dungeon we hadn't eaten yet. I’d pass on Eila because I had to eat her myself. I filled the remaining summon counts, eagerly awaiting tomorrow.

"Gacha."

"That fills the summon count." Sure enough, what I’d been waiting for finally appeared.

Naturally, I expanded it. The summoning facility would be unusable during that time, but today's summons were already finished. When I woke up tomorrow morning, the facility expansion would be complete. Now, all I had ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠to do was wait for the day to pass.

"Then, let's sleep, Ryun."

"...Master?"

Ryun pointed to the two humans who were still noisily cursing each other, and I stood up and threatened the pair.

"If anyone makes even the slightest sound from now on, I'll use a ghoul to fuck you."

It became very quiet. I held Ryun in my arms and fell asleep with my fingers inserted in her rear.

Sigh, sigh. At the hour when everyone was asleep, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Mei caught her breath and looked for an opportunity. Escaping the dungeon on her own was impossible. Therefore, she needed a 'scapegoat.'

Nod, nod. They couldn't speak, but Mei and the Village Chief saw one point of contact.

- Then what about the villagers?! What are you going to do about the villagers!

- I don't know! How would I know what's going to happen now! Let's offer a sacrifice. And escape in the meantime.

The two reached a tacit agreement using finger signals they’d used back in their mercenary days. It shouldn't have been easy to communicate, but having worked together countless times, they could read each other's intentions just by looking at their eyes.

'Both he and I are bastards.' Whether they lived in the same village or not, if they could survive by sacrificing others' lives, they were the type of people who would sacrifice an entire city, let alone a village. 'So, I will survive.'

Thankfully, although the monster had intentionally fucked her from behind to humiliate her, the Village Chief didn't know that yet. In contrast, Mei knew all too well that the Village Chief had impregnated a monster. If the two of them escaped and got out, the Village Chief would be in a position where he would have to live for Mei for the rest of his life. Or else, he would have to cut Mei's throat to get rid of her. 'If I offer myself a few times and coax him, he'll come around.'

She refused to die. So, she decided to survive by acting coy. After all, the Village Chief was excellent at one thing, if nothing else. But.

"Huu...." Mei couldn't fall asleep. Her rear, which had been pierced by that massive rod, was throbbing, making it impossible to sleep. She wanted to insert her fingers for comfort, but if she made a sound, she would definitely be caught. "Haa." It was definitely big. Bigger than the Chief's. And Mei had seen with her own eyes that the massive rod was trying to be gentle with that crazy elf, while it was brutal to her. 'Should I try it once before I go...?' She was curious. How would it feel if that massive rod pierced her front?

Gulp. Mei's brain began to spin furiously. However, Mei couldn't confirm one thing: that her belly had begun to swell, very slowly, little by little.

At that time, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Virgo Barony.

"Haa, haa!" The man collapsed in front of the city wall. The guards frowned at the man's disheveled appearance, but they were intimidated by the aura he exuded without even realizing it.

"Hu, huuuuk...!" The man was covered in wounds. His eyes were torn, and blood flowed down like tears. "I, I want to see the Lord!"

"...My friend. I don't know where you came from, but please calm down first—"

"It's a dungeon!"

The man decided to gamble his life for his son, who he didn't know was alive or dead. "A... dungeon has appeared in the village!"