The Bird's Trap (1)
"A new dungeon has appeared?"
"Yes, that's right. A dungeon has appeared one hour's carriage ride to the west. After hearing the rumor, Prince Kevin led soldiers to investigate, and it turned out there was indeed a dungeon."
Kanisia reported to the man sitting in the high seat.
The man was wearing a sleeveless shirt, so his boulder-like, hardened arms were fully exposed, covered in scars from rough work. His hair and eye color were the common brown one would expect. However, a faint smell of blood could be sensed from him — something that could never be called the criminal's.
It was only natural, in a way, that he carried the faint scent of blood.
How many times had he stained his hands and large axe with blood to reach this position? If all that blood were collected, it could fill a large jar to the brim.
This man was the Blood Axe King Glaust Tiger who had become the ruler of Chinnimoni with one axe and blood. He was 23 when he earned the name Blood Axe King, and now he was only 26 years old.
"A dungeon... pu, puhu hu hu!"
Unable to contain his joy at Kanisia's report, the Blood Axe King, who had been wearing a stern expression, finally burst into laughter.
"It seems the Nameless God is watching over Chinnimoni and me. Prince Aisen."
"Yes, Blood Axe King."
"As soon as the meeting ends, make a donation to the temple. Since the God has shown such favor to me, I must repay that kindness."
"I will, Blood Axe King."
In the distant past, when dungeons first appeared in this world, they were veritable hells themselves, spewing forth terrifying monsters.
One could imagine the fear: the very words "the dungeon will come and take your crying child" were enough to stop a child's tears.
But that was no longer the case.
Now, dungeons were good training grounds for masters' growth and precious business items that could accumulate astronomical wealth.
Right here, the Blood Axe King alone received dungeon usage fees from all masters except his own subordinates, earning enormous gold every month as a result.
Yet the ruler of Chinnimoni, the Blood Axe King, could not be happy that another such dungeon had been discovered.
Originally, no one could claim ownership of a dungeon, but the current masters — precisely the kings and queens who possessed cities and power — considered even those dungeons as their own property.
"..."
Haa.
Kanisia, seeing the Blood Axe King's eyes glittering with greed, let out a secret sigh. The Blood Axe King, or rather Tiger, she remembered was not such a man who coveted wealth.
He had been a pure young man who was kind to his family and neighbors and could find happiness in small things.
But what was he like now?
Only six years had passed.
In just six years since he received the Divine Selection and left his beloved hometown, he had changed like this. Every night, the moans of fairies echoed from his quarters, and he thought everything in Chinnimoni was his own, even people.
Was I supposed to follow him out of the village to see such a sight?
No.
Kanisia had liked the pure Tiger. So, when he received the Divine Selection and decided to leave the village to become the strongest person in the world, she had willingly followed him.
Actually, Kanisia had not desired strength. She had just wanted to be with Tiger.
But now it was different. She was with him, but she was not happy at all.
'Is the blessing bestowed by the gods actually a curse rather than a blessing?'
That must be it. Otherwise, the pure Tiger would not have changed like this.
That's why Kanisia had fallen in love with him. She couldn't accept the changed Tiger.
"... Master."
"..."
"Princess Lora!"
"Huh? Did you call for me, Blood Axe King?"
"What are you thinking so seriously? Are you not concentrating?"
"... I'm sorry."
Kanisia bowed her head at the sharp gaze directed at her. The Blood Axe King clicked his tongue at the sight.
"So, have you scouted the dungeon?"
"Prince Kevin attempted to conquer it at 10 a.m. today with his fairies, but it failed."
"Failed?"
At Kanisia's answer, the Blood Axe King frowned.
Prince Kevin, who was leading the current dungeon conquest, was a 3-star powerful nature-attribute mage. His fairies were also all 3-star.
It was hard to believe that such a Kevin would fail in dungeon conquest.
"Information on the dungeon?"
"According to the information Prince Kevin has conveyed so far, the dungeon's difficulty is C-rank, and the appropriate level for conquest is..."
"Wait!"
"Yes?"
"What did you say? C-rank?"
"Yes."
"..."
At the word "C-rank," the Blood Axe King became serious.
All dungeons near Chinnimoni were D-rank. In D-rank dungeons, mainly lower growth stones were dropped, and occasionally, if lucky, medium growth stones.
Currently, all members of the Blood Axe King's force were 3-star or higher, so they needed many medium growth stones to raise their stats. Moreover, since growth stones were released in very small quantities on the market, even if you paid more than the average market price, you couldn't get them.
But a C-rank dungeon was different.
Lower growth stones were no longer dropped. Instead, medium and upper growth stones were dropped. Mainly medium growth stones, and if lucky, upper growth stones.
Since the Blood Axe King needed medium growth stones, it was more efficient to conquer a C-rank dungeon than a D-rank one.
"C-rank... keep reporting."
"Yes. The dungeon conquest appropriate level is 70 levels, and the monsters that appear in the first section are one Dullahun and ten elite skeleton warriors, three elite skeleton mages, twenty skeleton warriors, and ten skeleton archers."
"In the first section?"
"Yes, that's right."
At the Blood Axe King's question, Kanisia nodded, and the princes and princesses who had attended the meeting sighed.
"Hoo..."
"So many monsters appear in the first section..."
"How many are there in total? 43?"
"And there's a Dullahun, so that's mid-boss level. A guy like that appearing from the beginning?"
All the masters gathered here, including the Blood Axe King, were skilled in dungeon conquest to the point where they could conquer D-rank dungeons with their eyes closed. In all the dungeons they had conquered so far, there had never been more than 40 monsters appearing from the start.
"If we proceed as usual, the dungeon's difficulty may have increased. Adjusting the number of entrants would lower the difficulty."
One man spoke his thoughts. It was Prince Leon, one of the masters under the Blood Axe King.
Deliberately exceeding the maximum number of entrants was a natural thing in Chinnimoni. That way, you could get more growth stones, items, and experience from conquering a dungeon once.
"Blood Axe King. It seems like it would be best if you personally led...?"
A woman sitting next to Prince Leon opened her mouth. It was the Freche Princess with purple short hair and a small mole next to her lips, which was attractive.
Among the people gathered here, the strongest was undoubtedly the Blood Axe King.
Because other masters and fairies were 3-star, while the Blood Axe King was a full 4-star.
"That seems right. Leon, prepare for the dungeon conquest. I will lead my fairies and personally go."
"Yes, Master."
"What about the other masters?"
"Even for the sake of contingencies, it would be good to go together. After all, there must be someone to protect Chinnimoni... Kanisia, you stay in Chinnimoni. With you and Abraham, I can stop the Gabriel family from doing strange things during my absence."
"Yes, I understand."
The Blood Axe King entrusted Chinnimoni to Kanisia while he went to the dungeon conquest. From his perspective, Kanisia, who had been with him since childhood, was more trustworthy than his fairies.
*****
Using a whopping 20 million gold to promote me and Aquaril to 3-star at the temple, we headed to Kanisia's house. The promotion was completely unexpected, so we were 30 minutes late.
"You're here? You're quite late."
"Sorry. I had to stop by the temple for a bit."
"The temple? Why there... eh? You don't mean...?"
At the mention of stopping by the temple, Kanisia's eyes widened. There was only one reason a master would go to the temple to worship the Nameless God.
"Yes. I'm now 3-star too."
"Wow... you're not normal either? Really, congratulations! Congratulations!"
Kanisia congratulated my promotion as if it were her own.
"What. We're barely 3-star now. Rather, I should thank you. If it weren't for you, I wouldn't have been able to promote so quickly."
It was sincere. Kanisia had given me a lot of help since we met.
She taught me how to increase conquest efficiency, gave me 16 lower growth stones, helped catch a ghost jester, and obtained the sword energy skill for half price for Aquaril.
Without her help, I would still be stuck at 2-star.
"Aish~ What did I do?"
Feeling my sincerity, Kanisia blushed and looked embarrassed. Then, she whispered in my ear in a small voice.
"If you're that grateful, show me how grateful you are later."
"That's my specialty."
Her stamina stat was what? Compared to when I first had sex with her, my stamina stat had grown a lot. If I was lucky, I could even send Kanisia away.
"Come in quickly. I've prepared the alcohol table!"
"Okay."
I entered Kanisia's house with Aquaril.
"Welcome back, Prince Han."
"..."
When I entered the house, I was startled. Abraham, who was a head taller than me, was wearing an apron and cooking.
It wasn't a naked apron or anything... but damn, it was scary. I thought it was a monster.
"Anyway, let's eat!"
With Kanisia's exclamation, the drinking party began.
*****
"Haa... haa..."
"Huaa..."
I and Kanisia lay on the bed enjoying the afterglow of climax.
'Tch. I guess I still need to raise my stamina stat more?'
Even though we were both 3-star, I had thought to make Kanisia faint, but unfortunately, it was still hard to make her faint. Her stamina stat was 48 (40+8) points, but Kanisia had even higher stamina stat than me.
"Haa... it was good today too, Alan."
"Me too."
Kanisia, panting, turned towards me and whispered. It was a shame I couldn't make her faint, but I couldn't deny that we had a good time.
"By the way, Kanisia."
"Yes?"
"What happened today?"
"Happened?"
"Yeah. Your expression was bad."
"... hi."
"Huh? Why are you suddenly smiling?"
I had felt it earlier when drinking, but it seemed different from usual. What to say... did she look like she had a lot of worries?
"Just... I thought that now you can feel my mood just by looking at my face. But strangely, that feels good?"
Kanisia smiled bashfully and buried her face in my chest. I could feel her sweet breath.
"Happened... yes. There was."
"What happened?"
"A new dungeon has been discovered."
"... dungeon?"
'No way?'
At the mention of a new dungeon, I tensed. At this point, the secret organization Palos's Bird, which no one knew, had used the dungeon to trap the Blood Axe King.
Was the story finally progressing?
"Yes. But the difficulty is a whopping C-rank. So, in two days, Tiger will personally lead his fairies and masters to conquer the dungeon."
"... no way, you're going there too?"
If Kanisia was going into the dungeon with the Blood Axe King, I would do anything to stop it. In that place, Kanisia would die trying to save the Blood Axe King.
However, contrary to my worries, she shook her head.
"No. While Tiger is away, I'm supposed to take charge of Chinnimoni's defense."
"Ah, I see? That's good."
"Good? What is good about that?"
'Oh no! I made a mistake.'
At Kanisia not going to the dungeon, I was happy and accidentally made a mistake. Before she could think oddly, I hurriedly explained.
"It's because I can't meet you while you're in the dungeon."
"What? Puhu! Oh my~ Our Alan's little brother wanted his sister to see it that way?"
"... yeah, let's say that."
Kanisia seemed to have misunderstood something strange, but since it went well, I let it slide.
'Palos's Bird, I wanted to face them after growing stronger... but there's no choice.'
If I didn't intervene, the Blood Axe King would die to Palos's Bird. So, I had to obtain as much as possible in the meantime.
So, what could I obtain? No, what should I obtain?