It's Dangerous Outside the Dungeon, Master

* * *

The initial purpose I had in mind for this inspection was to check and record the nearby terrain and monster ecosystem.

Although I had maps obtained from Solemio and Copzerin, there were too many things that couldn’t be known from those maps alone.

‘I don’t know why they live with such roughly made things.’

Military maps often recorded the distance between cities and villages as ‘about how many days by foot, how many days by carriage,’ and while magicians’ maps had somewhat better distance records, they still had limitations.

Although places where orcs or goblins appeared were marked, there was no record of how extensive their range was or where their villages were located.

‘Of course, I know that the locations of wild monster colonies or nests change frequently, but…’

Shouldn’t there at least be some sign of rough investigation of risk factors?

There was nothing like that on the maps.

“Whew.”

In that sense, the first thing I did was ‘mountain climbing.’

Before going around directly, I decided to look for terrain where monsters might be from a high place. High mountains themselves are also places with many unique monsters.

“It’s getting a bit hot now.”

Mountain climbing with the body of a high-rank Dungeon Lord was literally an irresponsible pleasure.

I barely felt any stamina exhaustion, and it didn’t seem like much time had passed, but before I knew it, I was standing at the mountain peak.

Considering that this mountain was by no means just a neighborhood hill in height and had no developed hiking trails, it was quite a fast and smooth climb.

High valleys or cliffs were in the middle, but climbing those wasn’t difficult either.

I just had to straighten my back and walk as if climbing stairs. Thanks to the help of soldiers reaching out from my shadow.

“It feels good to reach the top.”

Even if the hardship was less, it doesn’t make the view from the mountaintop any less beautiful.

Well, the clouds look so close from here.

My gaze scans the mountain range’s ridgeline, which extends widely east and west. One side continues with gentle slopes, the other with ridges made of rough cliffs.

“Here is… my dungeon. And Solemio is over there.”

The side with more gentle slopes is towards the Kingdom of Heisen, where my dungeon entrance exists, and the side with rougher cliffs is towards the south, the Grand Duchy of Arilit.

This terrain was also the reason why my dungeon, while existing on the mountain range that forms the border between those two countries, could be considered to be essentially within the Kingdom of Heisen.

“It’s peaceful.”

These two countries are officially hostile, but in reality, there’s almost no conflict.

The southern Arilit Grand Duchy became a hostile country because it was a grand duchy of the Norn Empire to the southeast. Still, in reality, they share trade profits coming through the river flowing south from Heisen.

‘Of course, it’s also true that war could break out anytime.’

The Kingdom of Heisen and the Norn Empire, the suzerain state of the Grand Duchy, have abysmal relations currently.

This is because rumors are rampant that the Norn Empire ate up the small country of Hilsa between the two countries and is now aiming for Heisen beyond that. Heisen also supports Hilsa in preventing the realization of those rumors.

I don’t know which came first. There’s just the fact that the two countries keep growling at each other because of rumors that erupt sometimes.

‘The most likely guess is…’

I suspect this is a ploy by one of the established Dungeon Lords who have achieved demon realms.

The two most likely culprits:

Agares in the south, who would benefit from the Norn Empire threatening the west if they want to gradually eat away at the lands of kingdoms north of their demon realm.

Or Eligoth in the east, who would benefit from making the Norn Empire focus elsewhere by blocking the lands they’re expanding into.

‘Of course, this is only if the culprit is a Dungeon Lord.’

Even excluding those two, many could be culprits.

It could be the war faction within the empire, though the possibility is slight, or it could be ‘villains’ that surely exist among humans.

Fanatics, or humans who were evil from the start.

‘What’s important to me is…’

Well, there’s no need to obsess over information that can’t be known no matter what I do right now.

“Ah, hmm…”

Two armies caught my eye as I was stretching after closing my parasol.

The northern Heisen Kingdom army seemed to be training, setting up camp in the middle of the plains in a hectic manner. I can only pray for the health of the professional soldiers who came out to train in this scorching sun.

The southern Arilit Grand Duchy army was transporting something. It’s probably military supplies unless some noble or royalty abused their power.

Seeing those armies’ movements makes the reality of my dungeon clearly imprinted.

The biggest problem I face.

‘My location is right in the center of the Eastern Continent.’

Being in the center of the continent while straddling mountain ranges and large rivers, making it a rural area, was just early luck.

Ultimately, the fact that this place is in the middle of human-occupied territory doesn’t change.

‘Move the dungeon?’

Moving to the northwest coast might make expansion itself a bit more comfortable. However, the current mountain dungeon is a bit safer, so there are pros and cons.

Other directions are out of the question.

Burrowing further west into the mountains is possible with the current dungeon expansion, and heading to other plains is just suicide.

‘Absorb and grow by consuming other Dungeon Lords found nearby…’

Most of those Dungeon Lords are already under human ‘management,’ and the rare ones that haven’t already lost their will to grow, so they have little magic power to be nutrients.

They might become more versatile later under my rule, but they’re useless right now.

Who knows, I might use them to feed dungeon cores or the Lords themselves to my summons.

‘If I try to actively catch and eat adventurers…’

If I cross the line wrong, this method of revealing presence without hiding it might lead to suppression by allied forces from all over the kingdom, like Serica near Copzerin.

‘And to raise influence by alternating between cooperation and hostility among countries…’

The surrounding countries are all great powers, so there’s little room for negotiation. Before that, the power difference was already too great, so the probability of becoming a slave unilaterally is much higher.

‘The case of becoming a subordinate from the beginning…’

Of course, rejected.

Humans make slaves even among their own kind. What more with this beautiful body?

It’s nonsense.

‘In the end, there’s only one way.’

I have to infiltrate and control information while eating away at the interior of human countries, growing the dungeon with their lives and resources, just like now.

Of course, it’s not an easy path, but it’s the only way.

In that sense, this Count’s party might become a new turning point on this path.

“What I want to find first is… Serica’s core, I guess.”

If I get Serica’s dungeon core, I could return it to her and receive other compensation, or I could feed the core itself to my dungeon and increase its power. Either way, it would return as a great reward.

Although I’ve already returned that fragment to her, I could borrow it briefly if needed.

‘Well, that’s after finding it…’

-Screech!

As I was thinking about the future of my dungeon, a cry suddenly rang out, naturally cutting off my thoughts.

Looking up at that, I saw something circling in the sky right above my head.

‘A big… bird?’

That’s what I thought at first.

But the more I looked closely, the more it quickly became apparent that it wasn’t a bird.

As that bird gradually descended from a height that was difficult to make out even with a Dungeon Lord’s vision, its form became properly visible.

“A harpy… It’s my first time seeing one like this.”

A body full of feathers and such flashy exposure that it’s hard to look elsewhere.

A very famous half-human, half-bird demon.

It was the appearance of an individual I had never heard of in Evangeline’s reports so far.

“You guys. Have you seen it before while scouting?”

-Clatter.

-Clack!

We haven’t been negligent in scouting this area.

In a situation where my soldiers should know better than me about the creatures living around here, what came from the shadows were all negative emotions.

Well, if a harpy had been seen even once, Eve wouldn’t have omitted reporting it to me.

“Was it hiding somewhere…”

If a creature my subordinates couldn’t see suddenly appeared, it’s probably because either their territories didn’t overlap at all so there was no chance to see each other, or it was hiding.

And the wild monsters of this world are basically natural recluses.

They do eat humans who carelessly enter forests without safety awareness, but basically they try hard not to invade human territories or other strong beings’ territories.

If they don’t, they’ve learned through long history that it could lead to big trouble for themselves and their kind.

So it was a natural idea to think that a harpy I hadn’t seen before was ‘hiding’.

-Clunk.

-Screech?!

Without any order, as soon as the approaching harpy was recognized, Axe jumped out of the shadows gripping his axe.

Hammer and Katar also came out holding their weapons.

It was a good attitude prioritizing my safety above all else, but the problem was that the harpy approaching me was startled by that and quickly retreated.

“It’s alright, go back inside. It doesn’t seem like it will harm me.”

-Clunk!

“Haha. Really?”

Axe shakes his head, saying he can’t do that.

It’s probably because what I said was a ‘suggestion,’ not an ‘order.’ Still, seeing that I’m rather enjoying this situation where a summon refuses the Dungeon Lord’s words, I guess I’m not very normal either.

Well, anyway.

“Then stay.”

-Clunk!

“You there. Come here. Didn’t you have business with me?”

In the end, with Axe behind my back, I reached out my hand towards the harpy with my parasol closed.

Meaning for it to come closer.

If it’s scared, it can just fly away, but that child was still clearly showing it had business while watching this side cautiously from there.

-Screech…

“I, I see the queen of the dungeon…”

The female harpy, who approached cautiously while completely cowed, drooped her wings to the ground and bowed her head.

There were two surprising things about that appearance.

One was that her language ability was excellent enough for smooth communication, and the other was that she actually used ‘etiquette’.

This quickly revealed that this harpy, which looked like a wild monster, was serving a superior, and that superior had a high education.

After all, the harpies of this world are not demons with such high intelligence and reason.

“Nice to meet you. Where did you come from?”

“I didn’t come… the Lady came up.”

“I see. It could be seen that way too. Then, what’s your business?”

“Our queen… wants to see the Lady.”

“Queen?”

The harpy nodded a couple of times at my question.

I quickly dismissed two thoughts that came to mind.

‘A queen, huh.’

One was whether their group was large enough to call the leader a ‘queen.’

But that couldn’t be.

The larger an organization, the harder it is to hide. If the group were that big, it would have been difficult to even stay out of sight, but we had never seen them until now.

Unless there was some special magic or barrier, it was right to assume the group wasn’t that large.

Only then could the group be hidden at the level of ‘skill.’

‘There was no such event in MilDun 1.’

The other was whether it was possible to contact wild monsters like this.

Of course, I’ve also suppressed and recruited wild orcs, goblins, kobolds, etc., and used them deployed at the dungeon entrance before, but I had never thought there would be monsters requesting proper dialogue like this.

Of course, I couldn’t come up with an answer about something I had never experienced, so I just erased this question.

“Alright. Let’s go.”

I’ll find out when I meet them anyway.

* * *

And so I met the harpy queen.

“Pleased to meet you. The newly surviving queen of the dungeon.”

She was a very ‘large’ harpy.

In both the literal and figurative sense.