Gremory (2)
Richard is a D-rank adventurer operating near the Leo Marquisate. He took on any job that paid, regardless of the difficulty. It was for his wedding fund; farming alone wasn't enough to make ends meet. Fortunately, Richard had been taught by his father and could hold his own in a fight, and he was smart enough to objectively assess his own skills, choosing only missions with the appropriate level of difficulty.
The receptionist once asked him, "Why are you so desperate to earn money?"
Richard replied, "I'm going to save up and buy a beautiful ring. Then, I'll buy a house in a quiet territory, not on some front line."
It was unclear how many years it would take to afford a newlywed home by only taking D-rank quests, but the receptionist didn't want to crush the romantic dreams of a man like Richard. "Then how about this quest?"
"What's this? A job to check if there's a dungeon or not?"
"Yes. We received a request from the Virgo Barony. It's quite a distance from the barony, so it's awkward to send knights. Above all, since the Elf Forest is nearby, there's a risk of causing trouble if we drag soldiers along."
"How much does it pay? Let's see. Hmm... Good! I'll take this quest."
Richard readily accepted the request. The difficulty was judged to be a perfectly reasonable D-rank. After all, it was just a job to verify the presence of a dungeon.
"Did everyone else find it too bothersome? Heh."
Richard arrived at the Virgo Barony in one go. Without even seeing the face of the baron, who was said to be quite handsome, he headed straight to the location in question following the butler's instructions.
"Nothing special here!"
That thought lasted only a moment. He arrived at a strange slash-and-burn village in front of a cliff, far away from the village he was supposed to investigate.
"...An outsider? An adventurer? What brings you here?"
A woman with a pretty face but a rather tough-looking demeanor greeted Richard. She introduced herself as Lily.
"I came because I heard there was a dungeon around here..."
Richard examined the state of the village. The wooden fence looked decent enough, and there was nothing particularly strange about the villagers. The only unsettling thing was that the number of villagers was far too small compared to the state of the village.
"What is the name of this village?"
"Las Village."
"Pardon?"
"It's Las Village. They say if it gets bigger someday, it'll change to Las City or something, but for now, there aren't many people. So, Las Village."
Richard accepted Lily's explanation. True to the name "village," the population was small, not even reaching ten people. And then, Richard discovered something strange in Lily's words.
"Did someone else decide on the village name? Is there a village chief or someone like that?"
"Yes, there is. ...Though he went to catch chickens right now."
"I see. Then where is the chicken farm?"
"......."
Lily and the residents of Las Village openly showed their reluctance toward Richard. It was a glare far more intense than the typical wariness slash-and-burn villagers had toward outsiders.
"...Why are you so insistent on looking around?"
"Ah, it's nothing major. I received a tip that there's a dungeon nearby. Don't monsters like goblins that come out of dungeons have a knack for sniffing out the scent of chickens and rushing in? Haha."
"Hmm, is that so? ...It's inside here. We raise chickens inside the cave."
"Pardon?"
"They kept disappearing when we left them outside. Be careful. They should be laying eggs right now."
But the sun was high in the sky? Richard felt a sense of déjà vu at the series of situations that defied common sense, and suppressing his anxiety, he asked for permission and entered the cave.
'There's something here.'
He clearly felt something strange. However, because Richard judged things based on the common sense of an adventurer, he couldn't imagine at all what the inside of the cave would be like.
"It's a bit strange for just a natural cave—"
Kkeureureuk.
In the darkness, red eyes burst forth. There, wearing woven black feathers, was a monster—a ghoul.
"U, Uwaaah!!"
That was Richard's last memory.
"It's become certain. The information that there might be a dungeon has spread. But it doesn't seem to be confirmed yet. Seeing them come one by one like this."
The adventurer registration card and the quest completion certificate of the unconscious male adventurer, Richard, provided a lot of information. Today, as always, Harsus caught the foolish beings entering the dungeon and brought them in as prisoners.
"Is there any more information to be gained?"
"No. I've already obtained enough information from the female adventurers who came before. Today is just for cross-verification."
"Notice from the Leo Marquisate Adventurer Guild: There is a possibility that a dungeon has occurred near the Elf Forest in the vicinity of the Virgo Barony. Requesting investigation by a small number of personnel. This is it, isn't it, Master?"
"Yes. I didn't know the Elf Forest would be helpful in this way."
It's an area where there's no problem as long as you don't enter, but it's awkward to send a large reconnaissance party. For some reason, Baron Virgo set the quest reward quite low, and as a result, riffraff began to gather one by one.
"Harsus. When you're done, take this to the barracks yourselves. After you finish your meal, ask the slimes on the ceiling to handle the cleanup. I'll leave the front to you."
Kkeureureuk.
Harsus unlocked the prisoner's cell and went inside. Now, Richard would be invited to the ghouls' barracks, penniless.
"Ryun, how many have come in so far?"
"Including the man who came in today, it's 15 in total!"
"That's more than I thought in just a few days."
Usually, it's a rule of thumb that the number of enemies increases as the countdown progresses, but enemies that were sparse at first began to increase in number one by one.
"Still, it's fortunate that Harsus can cut them all off."
"Arthur wants to step up as well, though."
"Tell him it's Arthur. He hasn't even evolved yet, so what's he talking about."
"Besides Arthur, everyone else is waiting because they haven't evolved."
"Ugh. I have nothing to say if you put it that way."
Over the past few days, our dungeon has achieved significant power enhancement. Thanks to this facility right next to the summoning facility, the 'Altar of Sacrifice'. It's a facility that uses magic stones or monsters to strengthen subordinates and monsters. The higher the grade, the higher the experience gain. Except for high-grade individuals, the levels of almost all monsters reached their maximum. In fact, it's the point where the maximum power for the current situation is equipped.
"I can keep raising the experience, but the maximum level is the problem. Tsk."
"So why don't you just use the Monster Enhancement Ticket, Dad?"
"No. I'm going to save that and use it myself. Anyway, if the kids evolve or synthesize, the ★ increases, so the maximum level goes up too."
The maximum level was the problem. Unlike individuals with high innate grades like Ryun or Eila, those with low grades had their growth stagnated after hitting the level cap for their grade, which was 15 or 35.
"Augh, if I had known evolution would be blocked, I would have postponed the synthesis."
"That's why I told you to look into it a bit more before doing it."
"...No, how was I supposed to know it would turn out like this? I'll proceed slowly from next time. Still, there's not much left now, so can you bear with it a little?"
"Ugh."
I started the synthesis into Andras on the 9th day of dungeon life, and now there are about 48 hours left until Andras is born. Counting attendance, it's already the 14th day. New facilities have increased, but there was no major change in our dungeon other than not having a way to utilize the facilities, or just raising the grade of existing facilities but being unable to develop further. Except for the one 'door' that appeared.
"When did they say they'd arrive?"
"They said they'd arrive soon."
"Then I'll be going."
A situation where all subordinates are hiding in various places in the dungeon to welcome the guests coming to the dungeon. Whether they will be guests or enemies is something you only know when you face them directly.
"Phew."
I took heavy steps toward the back passage leading to the cliff. The back path of the dungeon I developed, currently past the intersection where the passage leading down to the blocked B1 floor and the Andras sub-dungeon are, just to the right of the path leading to the cliff hole.
Clip-clop, clip-clop.
I heard the sound of horse hooves that shouldn't be heard in our dungeon. I stood in the passage, gripping the cheap iron sword I had looted from the adventurers who had entered the dungeon a while ago.
"Stop. I won't tolerate anything beyond that."
"And if you don't tolerate it, what are you going to do? Are you going to fight?"
A seductive woman's voice flowed from the other side of the passage. The woman riding a green horse was looking down at me in a black dress, her red hair fluttering.
"Say, if you're going to talk, why don't you get off?"
"I don't want to? I'm a higher grade, so why would I do that? Ohoho."
"Grade probably isn't a measure of the dungeon owner's strength."
"That's something low-grade things say to mentally masturbate. Don't you know that the closer you are to 1st, the stronger you are? Hahaha."
The woman got off the camel—which I thought was a horse. I'd have to take off the black dress to know for sure, but the woman's body had enough volume to be known just from the silhouette.
"I wondered who the kid was that occupied Andras's dungeon, but to think it was such an idiot."
"So, shall we have a go, you and this idiot?"
"Hmph, I don't associate with kids who fight ignorantly. So, tell me. Have you made a decision?"
The woman tilted her head with a face that said it was obvious. "Whether you'll become my subordinate, or whether you'll have an all-out war with me and all die to remain as slaves. I, Gremory, am coming in person to make a proposal for once. Choose. Will you surrender, or will you die?"
"......."
Survival of the fittest. The Demon King Solomon operated 72 dungeons and sent rewards to dungeon owners according to their grades every certain number of days. The degree of reward differed depending on whether one's dungeon corresponded to a higher level.
The names registered from 1st to 72nd played an important role in the criteria for how much they contributed to the battle against the human alliance, and the degree of danger. Although it wasn't an absolute indicator, it was also a measure to know how dangerous other dungeons were. And Solomon built a system so that dungeon owners of lower grades could challenge owners of higher dungeons and take them over. Just as I killed Andras and turned him into a Dimension Stone, others could now come to attack my dungeon.
But what was this? It wasn't just that insubordination occurred. Just as underdogs try to bite the higher grades, the higher-grade bastards were also showing their teeth to attack lower-grade dungeons. Just like the woman in front of me right now, Gremory.
"How long are you going to keep me standing in a place like this? You have no manners."
"Do you want to sit? You're welcome to sit by my bed. No, I'll let you lie down."
"Fufu, a pig like you isn't my type. Get lost. What did you do to Andras? I clearly opened a portal to attack Andras's dungeon. It wasn't a pig orc like you, but naked bird-heads that were supposed to greet me."
"There's no reason to tell you. Why? Were you planning to get eaten by the bird-heads?"
I deliberately provoked Gremory. Gremory frowned at the continued insults, but shrugged with a relaxed face.
"No? It's the opposite. I was going to let them taste the flavor of the males in our dungeon. Andras's subordinates, they're numerous, but each one is weak, right? Ohoho."
"So that's why you're always riding that horse and fucking it? There's a strong smell of chestnut blossoms wafting from under your dress."
"......."
Gremory avoided answering. The horse that followed beside her also turned its head.
"...For real?"
"Mind your own business regarding other people's sex lives. You, I really won't leave you alone. What are you thinking, trying to attack when you're weaker than me?"
"If you're pissed, fight me here. Don't you know you have to try it yourself to know if I'm really weak or not?"
"Hmph, you seem to have somehow found a good subordinate and caught Andras, but it won't work on me."
"So is that why you've been getting beaten up and running away every time you cross over for the past three days? Surrender? You're talking nonsense. You're the ones who should surrender."
I lifted my iron sword. Gremory was momentarily flustered and stepped back.
"I'm really getting pissed off. How about we really fight? Huh? If I catch you, I'm going to fuck you up. After I shove you into my bed and taste you once, I'll pass you around to the studs in our dungeon."
"Y, you rude pig! That's it! Negotiations are broken! Fight! And I'm going to slice you up and grill you over charcoal! The goblins will love tearing you apart and eating you!!"
Gremory screamed and turned her body. Her waddling walk looked like a duck's butt.
"Yeah. Let's definitely have a go."
My cheap provocation worked better than expected, and the negotiations with Gremory were broken. I hadn't intended to negotiate in the first place, but once I saw Gremory, the thought of negotiating flew away in an instant.
"As always, new prey is welcome."
What would the skin under that black dress taste like? I lifted my iron sword. And a moment later.
Kyaaaaak!!
Goblins jumped out of the portal, letting out strange cries. My anger surged at the sight of the short, squat goblins.
'They jumped out from the side while I was doing wall-fucking with Ryun.' So, three days ago from now. My battle for supremacy with Gremory began when an attack started from a portal that suddenly opened while I was secretly fucking Ryun in the dark passage.