It's Dangerous Outside the Dungeon, Master

* * *

“Is this the place?”

“That’s right! Our home is below here!”

“You’ve hidden it well…”

The place I arrived at following the harpy who called herself ‘Phinis’ was a high cliff slope on the side of the Principality of Arilit, not towards the Kingdom of Heisen.

To be precise, it was an artificial cave made in a place that couldn’t be seen from below due to a large rock protruding from the cliff near its summit, and also couldn’t be seen from the top because it was deeply dug in.

“It’s really a wonderful hideout.”

“Right? Right right?”

The cave I entered following Phinis’s guidance was indeed a wonderful place.

The area near the entrance was just ordinary except for being well-hidden, but the ample open space that appeared as we went inside showed its true value.

From the high ceiling, natural light half-hidden by foliage was coloring the inside of the cave green, and on thick plant stems hanging here and there along the cave walls and hammocks made on them, some harpies were sprawled out sleeping carelessly.

It was evidence showing they felt safe here.

“Our queen made this with magic!”

“With magic? This wide place?”

“Yeah!”

When I asked, a bit surprised at Phinis’s words, I saw this young harpy nodding proudly with her head held high.

I couldn’t help but be surprised.

If her words were true, it meant the harpy queen here had enough magical knowledge to be able to delicately construct such a wide place.

That also meant the power of the several dozen or so harpies here couldn’t be completely ignored.

It was a statement that made me regain my caution, which I had been letting down because their numbers didn’t seem that large, no matter how I looked.

“This way!”

Phinis, with a much brighter face than her scared impression at first, whether that initial fear had gone somewhere or she just felt relieved being back home, was leading me.

“Look over there!”

“Humans?”

“No, they’re not. The power in their body is strong. It’s a Dungeon Lord.”

“A Lord? It’s been a while since I’ve seen one…!”

From caves made in the walls, harpies who had discovered our appearance were flying over one by one, their faces full of curiosity.

That appearance was… well, quite a feast for the eyes, I should say.

They wore almost nothing on their upper bodies, just like the common knowledge about harpies.

“A queen of the dungeon when she’s so small? She doesn’t look that strong.”

“If you’re so confident, go challenge her to a fight.”

“We can’t do that to the queen’s guest.”

“Are you scared you might lose?”

“What?!”

It was unexpected that there were male harpies, too, but on the contrary, they had their lower bodies well covered with feathers or leather pants, which was fortunate.

At least I won’t have nightmares.

Flap!

Thud-!

As I approached the front of the largest and highest cave among those in the wall following Phinis like that, a being flew from there with a heavy wing sound and landed in front of me.

And so I met the harpy queen. My first impression of her was…

“Pleased to meet you. The newly surviving queen of the dungeon. I am Kamaya, queen of the harpies here.”

…That of a ‘winged female warrior’.

Unlike what I had heard about her being a magician.

* * *

Thud-!

When I first saw the harpy queen, my first impression was that she was ‘large’.

Not unrealistically large, but a height that seemed like it would be about 3 meters… enough to look down on even me when I was a man, which caught my eye first.

‘I have to admit what needs to be admitted. She’s about twice my size.’

I hope she doesn’t say the bad words that it’s more than twice.

Even Phinis was larger than me, and other harpies were larger than average people, but Kamaya had a height and build that was truly on a different level.

The next thing that caught my eye was her long, disheveled red hair grown down to her waist, hiding that huge body and feathers of the same color as that hair covering her body like they were directly on it.

And between those, muscles twitching powerfully in a well-developed state.

‘At that level, it seems like she could fly with muscles rather than wings.’

Should I say the shape of strong muscles that look like they could launch her body into the sky with muscle power alone stands out?

Those muscles were moderately swollen but not excessively divided or covering her figure, so it seemed like if someone with this taste implemented the impression of a female warrior slathered with sexual fantasy to the extreme, it would look like this.

‘…Wow.’

And her heart is… hugely large too.

That’s why the first impression was ‘female warrior’ with wings at that.

“Nice to meet you, Kamaya.”

“Mm.”

When I held out my hand upwards, she bent her waist to the extent that I felt like she was curling her muscles as much as possible, then grasped back with her winged hand and spoke.

“Excuse me for being so forward at our first meeting, but may I touch your body? This place is not good for conversation, you see.”

“If you just go ahead, I’ll follow behind.”

“Can you do that? I understand.”

Flap-!

Immediately understanding, she spread both arms and flapped her wings, making a sound that seemed different in weight from that of other harpies. That huge body floated up and then quickly disappeared to where she had come from.

It was a flight that seemed to me like ‘lifting the body with muscle power,’ as my initial impression was.

“Thank you for the guidance.”

“Bye-bye!”

Tap.

I, too, greeted Phinis, who had guided me here, then lifted my leg and stepped into the air.

Of course, what I stepped on wasn’t complete air, but the shadows in the direction where light didn’t reach inside the cave.

As always, I moved slowly at my own pace with my waist straight, but I quickly rose up, following behind Kamaya by floating my body and making large strides through shadows imbued with physical force.

‘It’s very neat.’

Kamaya’s room… or should I say palace, that I entered like that.

Either way, it was a cleaner space than I had thought.

Judging by how Kamaya, who had entered slightly before me just now, roughly threw the weapon she was holding anywhere, there must be a separate being who cleans.

I could tell who that being was right at the next moment.

“Mother. Again like this… things should be put in their proper place.”

“Don’t you take care of it well anyway, Serha.”

A harpy with a wild hairstyle similar to Kamaya, but instead with short hair giving a delicate pink impression.

Unlike the harpies I had seen so far, this harpy, smaller than me in both height and build, approached wriggling, then lifted her mother’s spear with a swish while sharply nagging.

Though she looked thin on the outside, muscles standing out in splits were noticeable on her arms, revealed between feathers.

It’s such a strange appearance that I wonder if perhaps the harpy queen’s bloodline has a fantastic constitution of internal muscles.

“If you handle things carelessly like this, the queen’s dignity won’t be established… Ah.”

That small harpy, Serha, nagged Kamaya some more while holding the spear up high, then discovered me and froze.

Then she hid behind her mother’s back with a ‘rustle’ sound, sidling sideways.

Not realizing the spear above her head was dangerously swaying next to her mother Kamaya’s hair, the sight of her sticking out just her head and then hiding again from beside a huge body about three times her size was unbearably cute.

“G-Guest…! Why didn’t you tell me!”

“I forgot. That you’re picky about people.”

“Mother is always insensitive…!”

“A child who cares about the queen’s dignity doesn’t plan to greet her mother’s guest? Come out.”

“Ugh…”

They’re quite a mother-daughter pair with seemingly very different personalities.

Or is that child only like that when young and will become similar to her mother when fully grown?

That would be a bit of a shame.

“A-Ah, hello… I’m Serha, Kamaya’s only daughter…”

Letting such impressions flow by appropriately and waiting patiently, Serha, who finally came out from behind Kamaya’s back, greeted her carefully while covering her eyes with her hand.

One protruding fang at the corner of her mouth and a missing tooth next to that fang was a cute appearance.

It’s an attitude that naturally makes a smile flow out without needing to force it and softens the voice along with it.

“Nice to meet you, Serha. I’m late in introducing myself, but I’m Libertas, the Lord of the dungeon that appeared at the foot of this mountain.”

“D-Dungeon Lord…!”

Tap!

However, Serha’s reaction was different from my expectations.

This delicate harpy quickly retreated with an attitude mixed with fear rather than unfamiliarity towards a new person and hid behind her mother again.

“…?”

“Please understand, queen of the dungeon. We have met other Dungeon Lords before.”

“…I see. I understand.”

If other Dungeon Lords came here, regardless of their business, the probability that they maintained a polite attitude like me now is low.

Even if they did, in most of those cases, it would have been deception.

“So I’d like to ask, do you know what business you came up here for?”

So the queen’s question was full of wariness.

It means I couldn’t feel any positive expectation that I might be a friendly existence.

“There’s no particular meaning.”

Nevertheless, I couldn’t give an answer that would please her. For example, talk about various relationships with positive meanings like cooperation, exchange, alliance, etc.

Because I just found out for the first time that they were living here in the first place.

How could I suggest anything when I don’t know what I can do for them, and I don’t know what they can do for me?

“No… meaning?”

“Huh…?”

Hearing my words, the mother and daughter blinked, their eyes wide open as if they had never thought of such an answer, and looked at each other.

They look so alike that you can tell they’re mother and daughter at a glance when they do that.

Although the size difference is still enormous.

“It may sound strange, but I actually just found out for the first time that there’s a harpy nest here.”

“Hmm…”

“What’s going on, Mother?”

“No, that’s…”

When they heard that I was actually moving to record the terrain around here, the harpy queen scratched her eyebrow with a face that directly revealed a troubled emotion.

It’s an attitude as if she thought I must have come here wanting something.

I can guess the reason for that.

‘Previous Dungeon Lords must have only come to request cooperation or try to subjugate them after learning of their existence.’

There must have been dozens or hundreds of beings born as Dungeon Lords in this area before me.

If any of them who survived, avoiding human eyes, and gained even a little powerful strength learned about the existence of such a wild demon group, they would have definitely tried to include them in their forces.

Otherwise, they wouldn’t have seen a way to survive in the midst of this human land.

‘…Well, the reason their presence is practically non-existent now is probably because they’ve already fallen or died.’

However, I had been so focused on human affairs until now that I had no room to actively search for surrounding monster groups.

Moreover, since there were no events like cooperating with external monster groups like this in ‘MilDun 1’, I didn’t even expect such a thing to happen.

Therefore…

“Was it making a fuss over nothing…”

Her invitation ended up deliberately revealing their existence to me, who might have just gone back down the mountain without anything happening.

If I really said I came to mobilize them as forces, I could just end the conversation by making a bet with conditions, but now I can’t even do that.

‘But it’s not a bad situation for me. My response wasn’t bad either.’

‘Differences from other competitors’ sometimes bring benefits in deals.

If I show aspects that are different from those of other Dungeon Lords now, it might create groundwork for building good relationships in the future, if not now.

“Tch. Can’t be helped.”

“Mother?”

“Serha. Go out and tell them to bring some food. We have a real guest.”

The appearance Kamaya is showing now also seems like a clue to that relationship that might be gained in the future.

“Uh… Ah, yes!”

Serha’s figure disappeared out of the cave, running with quick steps and then flapping her wings.

A moment later, harpies started coming in carrying fruits that could only be seen in high mountain areas or meat from beasts.

“Hmm… I hope you’re not unable to eat meat?”

The problem was that all that meat was raw…

Having a Dungeon Lord’s body, there would be no problem digesting it, but it’s not particularly something I want to eat.

It’s not like I have a body that desperately needs food in the first place.

“I can eat it, but I don’t enjoy it. The fruits alone are sweet and delicious enough.”

“That’s fortunate.”

Kamaya didn’t say much about that.

Well, they’re wild demons who have lived, hiding their presence on the ground while leading a group in the mountains.

If they’re not demons originally with bodies easy to mix with humans, it would be stranger to have formalized rituals for hospitality.

Now it just means to deliciously eat the food being offered.

“You are certainly different from other Dungeon Lords… those trash.”

“Is that so?”

“Mm. … At this level… yes, at this level, I should talk with other friends too.”

After such simple food hospitality ended, the harpy queen spoke to me with a more comfortable face like that.

About unexpected benefits she could give me.

“Other… friends? Why?”

“To repay your gentleness in responding without complaint to a forced invitation and not making any violent demonstrations despite having powerful strength and an army with you in that small body.”

Sure enough.

It seemed she had already sensed my army waiting in my shadow.

I wonder if she didn’t say anything about it because I had been consistently friendly.

“I wasn’t hoping for such a thing.”

“It doesn’t matter from our standpoint either, as this is fair. Information about Dungeon Lords is something demons consider sensitive.”

Of course, this was a proposal I had no reason to refuse from my position.

It could be seen as a reward for the caution and honesty I had continuously shown.

“What kind of people are those friends?”

“Other queens. I’ll introduce you to the queens of three forces who usually interact or keep watch while in seclusion in this area. It won’t be a bad proposal for you either.”

She still doesn’t seem to be revealing what she ‘really wants,’ but seeing her eyes full of goodwill towards me doesn’t seem too bad.

I can wait until she speaks.

“I gratefully accept your kindness.”

With this, I gained a clue to meet a total of four forces that had been in seclusion in this mountain range.

Even if I don’t achieve the best results, just leaving a good impression on the harpy queen is enough of a gain.

How I turn the remaining opportunities into results is now up to me.

And I was confident.

‘Whoever they are, they probably won’t try to become my enemy, at least.’

Confidence is a ‘good investment item’ in the Dungeon Lord world.