Chapter 116
Chapter 116
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 116
Chapter Title: Warrior, Inspiration Strikes!
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Having regained her senses, Belesa first sent the soundly sleeping succubi back to the 90th floor.
But she'd been exposed to those forbidden spells—stronger than even transcendent magic—so her mind had cracked badly.
In the end, she couldn't take it anymore!!
"Heh heh heh..."
"B-Belesa?!"
"Gyaaaah!!"
Boom!! Boom!! Boom!!
She smashed her head against the wall!
Serena, who was there with her, tried to stop Belesa.
But petite Serena couldn't hold back the rampaging Belesa.
"This won't do! Ella!!"
Groooan!
Feeling her own strength wasn't enough, Serena hurriedly called for another friend.
That energy felt incredibly close.
Right outside the door, even!
Soon, Serena flung open the room's door.
Boom!!
"Ella! Hurry and help me stop Belesa... Huh?"
"Uwaaaah..."
In truth, the great witch Ella had been watching Belesa's disgrace from start to finish.
So she was cackling to herself, wondering how to tease her friend later.
—When...
'Auntie.'
'Cough?!'
Ella had overheard the forbidden spell Serena mentioned.
She ended up massively exposed to it, just like Belesa.
With both women out of commission like that, what could Serena do?
The girl had no choice but to leave her friends until they came back to their senses.
"Gyaaaah!"
"Hueeeek..."
"Sigh..."
They really were friends too embarrassing to show in public.
***************
A little later, Belesa and Ella, now sane again, had become extremely calm.
"Yeah! It's too much to block the bright future of some young person with a bright future at our age!"
"Right, right! We lived just fine on our own in the past, and now we've got friends by our side like this?"
"E-Ella!"
"Belesa!"
Squeeze!!
"You're talking nonsense."
Serena, unable to tolerate the profanity, glared at the two aunties hugging each other.
Anyway, Serena asked Belesa why she'd fallen into such extreme delusions.
"W-Well, you see..."
Belesa soon explained using magic, and Ella and Serena, seeing the form it conjured—
"Oh."
Indeed! They couldn't help but admire Valak's true appearance!
Ella in particular, seeing Valak's sturdy upper body and looks, thought not that he'd be a total dog... no!
She decided he absolutely couldn't be left wandering the city alone.
"I thought his face looked pretty handsome even without the helmet at the end of the banquet? But fully stripped... wow..."
"Alright, everyone, enough with the weird delusions. So, Belesa, what now?"
"Hm? What about?"
"Whether you'll be able to face the champion from now on."
"T-That..."
Love bleaches the mind.
Belesa knew that all too well.
So she'd thought a situation like this would never happen to her!
But Valak's bare body was seriously dog...
Thwack!
"Ow!"
"Stop blushing and spit it out already!!"
"Ugh... Serena, you're so violent.... F-First off, since it's my role, I'll see it through to the end."
"...Tell me if it's too much. I'll take over."
"Serena, you?"
Everyone reacted with surprise that shy Serena was stepping up.
But if the guide suddenly bailed, it'd look weird, so Belesa decided to go ahead.
"Pfft, Belesa, you're not doing this just to satisfy your own greed, right?"
"It's not like that! Plus, thanks to what Serena just said, my head's clear now, so I'm fine."
Soon, Ella and Belesa mulled over the forbidden spell once more.
[Giving up is easier....]
—They embraced that absolute truth in their hearts.
As Ella and Belesa shed chicken-tear-like droplets from their eyes, Serena watching couldn't understand why.
Why couldn't this girl empathize...?
Because she was the only virgin among the three, stuck in the form of a tiny little girl.
Anyway, with her mental armor fully equipped, Belesa set out amid her friends' cheers.
"Our baby! Fighting!!"
"Belesa, do your best~"
"I'll be back soon~"
Belesa soon arrived at Valak's guest room, took a deep breath, and knocked.
Knock! Knock! Knock!
"Lord Valak! It's Belesa!"
"Oh! You're here! Wait just a moment!"
Valak and Ferguson's tour of the city Asteria began.
***********
Walking through the city together, Karian felt relieved seeing Belesa as calm as before, smiling bashfully.
But how had she snapped out of it so quickly?
He was dying to know the truth.
But his instincts told him he'd get hit if he asked, so he kept quiet.
Soon, as Valak admired the vast, beautiful city, Belesa spoke up.
"Heh heh heh... Lord Valak, what do you think of the city's scenery?"
"Quite surprising."
"Hmm... That's a pretty bland reaction."
"Right? Isn't this Lord Valak's first big city like this?"
Oh, right—they didn't know about the Demon King's administrative chamber.
The Demon King had shown cities on this level before anyway.
It couldn't compare to the dense skyscraper jungle of his previous life, so it felt a bit sparse.
Brushing off the topic, as he walked with the group, eyes gathered around them.
Women even glancing at him and Ferguson with the predatory gaze of beasts spotting prey!
This really was the animal kingdom!
But when our brains—Karian's brought incubus—glared at them, they fled their spots quick.
"Bro... the women in this city are pretty aggressive, huh."
"Tell me about it."
Me and number two marveled at Karian's divine move.
If he hadn't brought the incubus...
Whew, we almost couldn't even sightsee.
Soon, touring this massive, beautiful city, a sudden intense light flared from the walls.
"Skeleton merchant, what's that?"
"Ah, that's the defensive magic on the city's barriers activating."
"D-Defensive magic? Does that mean the city's under attack right now?!"
"Well, you see... actually, this place is..."
Aha, so it's inside a dungeon?
That explained why it didn't feel dungeon-fatiguing like mine.
Dungeon merchants built the city inside too, so it made sense.
"But wouldn't it be better to build in an even safer spot?"
"This is prime real estate. And now that the city's complete, those things wandering outside act as extra defense. Also..."
Being the midpoint between all dungeons.
With abundant resources, they built the city here.
Yeah, you can't beat a prime location.
Intelligent beings' habitats are all the same.
One thing bugged him, though.
"So what are those things outside?"
"Lord Valak, Lord Valak—if you're that curious, want to go see together?"
"Eh? Is that okay, Lady Belesa?"
"You're special VIP guests in the city anyway, Lord Valak and Mr. Ferguson!"
"Then I'll take you up on it."
"Got it~ Then Karian, give backup?"
"Yup!"
With the incubus and Karian casting magic, we reached the top of the city walls.
*****************
Atop the massive walls, the city's scenery stretching endlessly to the horizon was stunning.
"The city's really as big as a small kingdom outside?"
"That's actually downplaying it."
No way—this huge city was manageable?
But with lights off here and there, lots of empty buildings.
Won't this turn into slums if not careful?
"Aw~ Don't worry. The city's run by tons of dolls and magic, and those empty buildings are because chimeras haven't moved in yet."
"Oh yeah, chimeras. Where are they now?"
"Training at camps elsewhere right now."
Training camps... As a pillar of the nation, that stirred bad memories.
But curiosity piqued about chimera training.
"Hmm... You seem really interested in the chimeras, Lord Valak. Want to check them out tomorrow?"
"You mean it?!"
"The banquet closed the daytime events, and the closing ceremony's pretty free-form after."
"Ooooh!"
Then we had to!
What would chimeras trained on diverse combat data from my dungeon look like!
If they could spar decently with me, perfect!
City's checked out.
Looking opposite, weird monsters charged the walls madly from the dark forest.
"What... are those?"
"A feature unique to this dungeon. No races—just artificial monsters."
Apparently, at night in this dungeon interior, those spaghetti monsters spawned infinitely.
And what?!
They dropped magic stones when killed?!
"Thanks to them at night, we get infinite resources."
"Even different-colored ones from the caves!"
"T-That's why it's prime real estate!"
Holy crap... this was a farming dungeon!
Explains the dungeon merchants' wealth.
Block off dozens of farm dungeon entrances, set up workshops inside?
Kya~ Money printer! Show me the money!
Infinite resources.
Reason dungeon lords like the Demon King exist!
Anyway, those trash mobs!!!
"Perfect for our dungeon?"
"Heh heh heh, knew you'd react like that, Lord Valak."
"Could you tell me the magic stones' market price and uses?"
"Magic stones are basic resources for magic tools and scrolls. They used to cost more than spirit stones."
Demand still overflows, then.
Mages take hours for one or two, so dungeon mob farming crushes efficiency.
Now challengers have reason to hunt trash mobs—think other ideas.
Unlike cute little spirits, killer visuals.
Each spaghetti mob strong.
Perfect for my near-endgame dungeon's trash—hard challenge level.
Late-game dungeon needs freaky mobs like that, right?
"This sparks tons of ideas for room concepts. Belesa, could I buy some of that spawning land and transplant to my dungeon?"
"Of course!"
Great! Awesome!
Gonna gain so much from this summit!