Chapter 409: Disown Me
The place Hases had discovered was beyond anything I could have imagined, and somewhere I hadn’t given a second thought to in a long time.
"...Such a place existed?"
Even Shaitan had never seen it in person. It was close to our dungeon yet impossibly far; a forgotten place. For anyone at the executive level or above, it was a place that technically existed but never needed visiting.
"Yeah. It’s where I first carved out a path to secure a water source."
The back exit of our dungeon. Between sheer cliff faces, I had used Lime (back when she was a 2-star slimefolk) and her slime squad to dig a slope leading downward. Thanks to that, we’d been able to supply ourselves with fresh water from the valley.
"It’s precisely because you were considerate enough to keep everyone dry that no one ever found it. No wonder we couldn’t find anything no matter how much we searched the first floor."
"We only considered the entrances to basement 1 that were inside the dungeon, so it never occurred to us that a new entrance could open outside the dungeon as well. ...This is quite the predicament."
At a bend in the slope, at the end of the path orcs and ghouls used to fetch water, a new entrance had appeared. It wasn’t a staircase but a hole leading inward, and anyone could tell it had formed as a result of the dungeon’s rank increasing.
"We have no choice but to go in. There’s a high chance the enemy’s portal opened inside."
"Won’t it be dangerous?"
"It will be. But the real danger isn’t the ones who came through the portal."
"...The slimes."
Shaitan had the answer immediately.
"There were enormous slime dragons on basement 1 as well. That area was unlocked when the dungeon rose to D-rank. If we assume the difficulty scales up as it rises to C-rank...!"
"Exactly. We’re looking at 4-star slimes running the show at minimum."
Minimum level 55, maximum level 75. If 5-star monsters showed up, we could be facing creatures as high as level 90. After all, this dungeon was once operated by none other than the current number one, Baal.
"We can’t just sit here. We need to get in there and crush those slimes right now...!"
Anxiety gripped me. I grabbed Lune and sprinted toward the entrance.
"Please wait, Master. Isn’t this actually a good thing?"
Shaitan caught my ankle with her tail. I could have dragged her along and charged in if I wanted, but I paused at her words.
"We don’t know how strong the slimes are, but they’ll be fighting the enemies who just came through the portal. Both sides will take damage, and all we have to do is mop up whichever side comes out weaker."
"So, borrowing something you always say, Master... it’s like getting the job done without lifting a finger?"
"That’s a fair point. And that would be the ideal scenario I could only dream of."
Both sides tear each other apart, fight, cause internal strife, and ultimately weaken themselves. Then we devour both weakened forces. That was undeniably an excellent situation for our legion.
"But Shaitan, you seem to have forgotten something crucial. The slimes that have taken root in this newly formed underground space aren’t ordinary slimes!"
"...! You’re right. You intend to bring the lordless slimes into the legion as..."
"Those things are walking magic stones! They’re EXP on legs!"
"...Pardon?"
"They’re experience points, magic stones, and blobs of slime that rightfully belong to our legion! And you’re telling me the bastards who got lucky with a portal are going to hunt them? Absolutely not! I can’t stand the thought of losing that EXP and those magic stones!!"
This was essentially the same thing as field hunting in your typical MMORPG.
Hunting grounds are limited, mobs don’t respawn infinitely, and in fact, there’s a hard cap.
"And the dead ones don’t just sit there either! Slimes are creatures that cannibalize by default; they swallow their dead, magic stones and all!"
Unacceptable. The ones who opened a portal into our dungeon weren’t just invaders attacking our legion. They were nothing but a band of thieves trying to steal the EXP and magic stones from the 3-to-4-star slimes that rightfully belonged to us!
"Shaitan, send a messenger! From both Ras Vegas and Raspica, have the people I designate sent here immediately!"
"Understood. ...One moment. Should I send Hases or Rastujad?"
I grabbed Shaitan’s tail, walked over, and patted her on the shoulder. She stared at me blankly, then her eyes went wide.
"Sorry, but those two are combatants. ...I’m sorry. If I’d known this would happen, I would’ve left at least one unicorn behind at the dungeon."
"W, wait. Really?! I’m... the one going?"
"Hee hee, good luck, Shaitan!"
Lune clenched her fist with an annoyingly cheerful grin, cheering Shaitan on. Hases and Rastujad, who had come down the slope to join us, stood behind Shaitan and scratched their cheeks sheepishly.
Graaagh.
"Hm, what? Hases? You want to go yourself?"
Grrrr.
"You think it’d be faster for you to sprint to both Ras Vegas and Raspica and relay the situation than however long it’d take Shaitan to walk, run, or fly there? Hases, that means you’ll lose time you could’ve spent growing stronger. Are you sure about that?"
Grrrrr.
"...You’re confident in physical work, and you can build your strength by going through the sub-dungeons along the way? Even though having you deployed here right now might be better, bringing reinforcements against strong enemies as quickly as possible would make taking them down that much easier? And if I give permission, you can just get stronger through ghoul synthesis with dead humans? ...Hases, were you a saint in a past life?"
Grrk?
Hases tilted its head. Its reasoning was sound, on every point.
"...I’m ashamed of myself."
She had wings, but flew slower than a harpy, which was only 1-star.
She had legs, but was obviously slower on foot than a ghoul.
Moreover, just as it would be somewhat undignified for a lady to sprint at full speed, Shaitan, both a Madame and the Demon King’s daughter, had never once run at a full sprint.
"I’m sorry, Hases. I think I gave you the wrong name."
Grrrr.
"What? You think Hases is a perfectly fine name? ...I promise you this. I will make you the leader of all undead, no matter what. Go, and come back safely."
Grrk.
Hases took the parchments I’d scribbled on in both hands and climbed back up the slope. Rastujad watched Hases’s retreating figure for a long time, then lifted its staff, the one with a skull dangling from the tip, and tapped the ground.
[Lord of the legion, I will fill the void Hases has left.]
"You know, sometimes when I look at you two, I think you’re really nothing like undead.... Heh, all right. Let’s go, then."
In the vanguard, an orc who served as both tank and melee DPS: me.
In the middle, a ranged DPS high elf: Lune.
And in the rear, a dark mage Ghoul Lich: Hases.
A perfect formation with all three elements needed for a dungeon raid, working in harmony.
"Wh, what should I do?"
The task of requesting reinforcements, which Shaitan should have handled, was now taken over by Hases. As a result, Shaitan’s role was left hanging, and since her value as a "combat asset" was somewhat lacking, her role was inevitably limited.
"Shaitan, your role is this."
I draped my robe over Shaitan, then handed her a blank parchment.
"Map the place."
***
[At that moment, in the forge of Chiron Castle, County of Sagittarius.]
Clang, clang, clang.
The clear ring of a hammer began echoing far from the forge. A small girl wearing nothing but a tank top that was practically underwear hammered away at the anvil, sweat pouring down her face.
"Princess, how long are you going to keep up this pointless charade?"
Beside the girl, Rhodopelli, stood dwarves with long, drooping beards, watching her with eyes full of displeasure.
Some of them wanted nothing more than to seize Rhodopelli and drag her away, but as fellow dwarves, stopping another dwarf’s work in a sacred forge was tantamount to picking a fight to the death.
"Princess, how long do you intend to keep this up?"
"Quiet. Don’t interrupt me."
Of course, speaking to a blacksmith in the middle of focused work was equally rude. But the elders gathered around Rhodopelli had no choice but to engage her.
"Don’t toy with us, Princess! We can plainly see you’re just tormenting that metal to avoid talking to us!!"
Rhodopelli had picked up her hammer and entered the forge precisely to ignore the dwarf elders. It was a kind of protest. A refusal to speak with the dwarves.
Clang, clang.
The hammer struck the anvil once more. Rhodopelli dunked the heated metal into cold water and paused to wipe her sweat. Every last dwarf’s eyes were bloodshot, trembling with rage.
"Fine, what’s the problem?"
"We have told you time and again that we are here to deliver His Majesty the King’s royal command to return to the royal castle immediately!!"
"Yeah? Well, you just delivered it. So you can head back now."
"Princess! We are saying we intend to take you back to the royal castle, you thick-hea... ahem."
One dwarf nearly let a slur slip in his fury. Rhodopelli raised her eyebrows, then clicked her tongue as though disappointed. Dwarves had no crime of royal insult on their books, but the near-slip would have been a perfectly good excuse to dismiss them.
"Hmm... Princess, why not pay a visit to the royal castle?"
Naturally, Count Sagittarius himself had stepped in to quell the commotion the dwarves were causing throughout the castle. No one else was equipped to handle a dwarf kingdom’s princess and her elders.
If someone else had intervened and made a misstep, the dwarves might well have betrayed the human alliance and sided with the Demon King’s Army.
"Isn’t His Majesty simply calling for you out of concern for your wellbeing?"
"Bullshit. Everyone knows he wants to lock me up in the castle because he’s afraid his only daughter might become a rape victim, and that it might tarnish his precious reputation."
The dwarf elders fell silent at Rhodopelli’s scathing words. They, too, had once turned a blind eye to Rhodopelli’s excursions, and Rhodopelli knew full well that it was thanks to their help that she’d been able to live freely in the human world.
"Sorry, but I’m not going back. Go tell my father, His Majesty, this: if he doesn’t like it, he can disown me and strip me of my royal title. I’ll live as just Rhodopelli."
"Princess!!"
"Oh, right. You need a justification, don’t you? Hmm... then how about this?"
Clang.
Rhodopelli pointed at the rows of equipment lining the forge, all dwarf-crafted armaments she had forged herself, and smirked.
"The gear I sold to humans is ending up in the Demon King’s Army’s hands. So I’m going to go get it back myself. That should work, right?"
"Ngh...!"
"Heh, see? What dwarf in the world could sit still knowing their own creations are being swung around by someone they never sold them to? Am I wrong?"
Rhodopelli twirled a dagger she had previously crafted and grinned.
"I’m not going back until I’ve retrieved my babies."
***
"Heh heh heh, this new Seax sure is sturdy!"
Splat, splat.
Slimes burst apart like leaves in the wind. I slashed anything blocking my path with the Seax Mark 3, stomped flat anything going for my legs, and elbowed anything charging from the side into the wall.
"Worried for nothing. They’re all just Big Slimes. Heh heh heh."
The newly opened basement 2 (working title) was overflowing with slimes from the entrance onward, but the vast majority were Big Slimes. There were quite a lot of them, too many for me to handle one by one, but I hadn’t come here alone.
"Master, I’m shooting!"
Lune unleashed a barrage of wind arrows. I raised my halberd overhead and spun my whole body around.
"Behold, this is what they call a Whirlwind!!"
Whoosh, whoosh.
The halberd spun like a pinwheel, crushing the slimes clinging to the ceiling. Wind arrows flew toward the Big Slimes charging in from the sides.
Thwip-thwip-thwack!!
Lune had aimed her wind arrows at my belly. As the arrows hit my belly mid-Whirlwind, they ricocheted off in every direction. The slimes that had been rushing at me were riddled with holes by the wind arrows bouncing off my gut.
"Lune, careful! A few slipped through!!"
Slimes hiding among their comrades’ corpses shot past me like streaks of light. They zigzagged left and right, dodging our attacks.
Their target wasn’t Lune; it was Shaitan, behind her. On Shaitan’s lower abdomen, a purple glow, a seal, was shining through even her clothes. The slimes charged straight for Shaitan’s seal.
"Stop them!!"
[As you wish.]
Glorp, glorp.
The ruptured Big Slimes suddenly stacked themselves into a tower in front of Lune. The Big Slimes slammed headfirst into the wall of slime corpses that had materialized in an instant.
Squelch, squelch, squelch!
The slimes and the dead slimes began devouring one another in a frenzy of cannibalism. In the meantime, I spun around and bludgeoned the surviving slimes to death with my halberd.
"Heh, nice work, Rastujad!"
[...The mana consumption is terribly inefficient, but for disposable use, it’s more than sufficient. Leave the rear to me.]
Ghoul Lich.
Around Rastujad, the ground was overflowing with slimes splattering slime in their death throes.