It's Dangerous Outside the Dungeon, Master

* * *

“…Hmm. It was good to speak confidently, but this is troublesome.”

The harpy queen’s confident proposal met with obstacles from the very first step.

She proposed a ‘meeting of five queens’ at a secret meeting place where queens usually gather through communication channels they use among themselves. Still, two out of the other three queens immediately opposed it.

“I’m sorry. They’re both cowards.”

“No, it’s fine. Carefully considering one’s own safety from the position of leading a group is another quality of a leader.”

“The new Dungeon Lord is quite understanding.”

The harpy queen is apologizing because of her own boasting, but this is actually not something to apologize for at all.

She has already benefited me tremendously by letting me know about the existence of the other three forces.

The benefit of changing beings who might become unknown enemies into beings who could also become allies.

‘It’s not that I don’t understand their position either.’

Even if I were in those queens’ positions, I wouldn’t want to let ‘the leader of an unverified enemy’ approach their secret meeting place.

To put it bluntly, what if they end up attacking later after finishing the conversation with smiles on their faces?

So.

“It might be troublesome, but please convey my proposal. Tell them I’ll go to meet them if they specify a place. There shouldn’t be a problem with contact, right? If you already knew about my existence, the other queens must also know my location and that of my dungeon.”

“That’s right. I understand. If I can’t even help with this much, I won’t be able to save face.”

Fortunately, a positive answer came back to my second proposal made through the harpy queen.

Not only that, it seems the other force that was already positive about gathering at the meeting place even said to meet right away.

The identity of that force is…

“Where is it?”

“Alraune. They inhabit the wetlands to the east of your dungeon.”

Fortunately, this time it was beings I was aware of.

There’s just one problem.

“So they have a queen too. However…”

“Is there some problem?”

“The schedule will be a bit difficult.”

The wetlands to the east are where the Alraunes inhabit.

That place was located on the banks of a large river a bit further southeast from Solemio.

In other words, a place that would take four days of normal human walking from here. Even if they came out to meet halfway, it would still take two days to move.

Now when I need to depart within three days at the latest to participate in the count’s party, it’s difficult to match the schedule.

“It seems I’ll have to postpone meeting the others for later. I need to deal with the fixed appointment first.”

“Is that so? Then it can’t be helped. I’ll set up appointments on my side while you’re absent from the dungeon.”

If I were a complete outsider like this, the importance of that appointment would be low, but according to the harpy queen’s words, she has sufficiently interacted with them.

If she shows that she actively cares about the appointment with me, the other queens probably won’t just ignore it or easily try to be hostile to me.

“It must be troublesome for you. Thank you, Queen.”

“Not at all. If I don’t do at least this much, I won’t be able to save my pride as the leader of the group who made bold claims.”

“I’m even more grateful when you say it like that.”

So this was a big help.

If I could repay the favor with just verbal thanks, it would be help that makes me owe her a really big debt of gratitude.

And she’s even erasing that debt on her own, so I’m all the more grateful.

“Then, I’ll look forward to an even better meeting next time. Queen of the dungeon… no, Libertas.”

“Me too. Kamaya.”

And so that day, the harpy queen and I parted while exchanging goodwill.

For an unexpected meeting, it ended on an excellent note.

* * *

After leaving the harpy’s nest, I set out again to check the terrain around the dungeon as per my original purpose, and got some results.

First, I properly organized points that could become tactically important places and the distances between them.

In two ways.

“There’s not much to add or subtract; it’s pretty much as I knew.”

-Clatter!

One is magical distance.

After placing skeletons in each area, I directly checked how long it takes for a magic signal shot at a certain intensity to reach, measuring to see how efficient communication would be.

The second is the actual distance.

I checked the ground movement distance with the footsteps of apprentice skeletons that don’t slow down when tired or speed up when healthy like humans and the straight movement distance with my flight.

“This should be enough to properly establish where to ambush and how to strike those entering from where.”

At least making it impossible to even dream of ‘smooth resupply’ near my dungeon. That’s the immediate goal I’ve set.

And to achieve that, there were a few more things that needed to be improved additionally.

First, one thing that needs to be improved quickly.

“To think all the other monsters would have run away.”

While humans may not know, the wild demons are properly aware that there’s now a properly surviving and active dungeon in this area.

Because of this, the number of common demon groups, such as orcs or goblins, has noticeably decreased near the dungeon.

At least within the range that could be checked in a day or two, there were no demon groups at all, and it seemed I’d have to go beyond that distance to properly find any.

‘It seems Kamaya and the other queens, and some groups confident in their strength, are still remaining.’

There could be cases hidden in ways I can’t perceive, like Kamaya’s harpy tribe, but such cases are really impossible to find, so they’re out of the question.

There are one or two ogre families still remaining, but if there are no other demons nearby, it’s certain these will soon move away, too, as they’ll have little food to eat.

“I didn’t know I’d have to care about this far… Phew.”

Of course, just because a dungeon exists in one location doesn’t mean all wild demons will come in, bowing their heads on their own.

There’s no reason for demons who have already found their own way of living in the wild to seek change.

That’s why they’re probably setting up villages to avoid the dungeon.

‘The problem is that as a dungeon, the existence of such wild demons isn’t completely unnecessary.’

Well, leaving this situation as is will naturally reveal the dungeon’s location.

In a way, like, ‘There are strangely few wild monster groups around here. There must be a dungeon.’

To construct a ‘natural wild environment,’ I now have to contact monster groups from my side.

“It would be difficult right away since I have things to do, but I’ll have to subjugate a few monster groups while I’m out. I’ll have to bring the army too.”

Of course, those means won’t be very lenient.

Mostly force, sometimes killing, occasionally at the level of curses or mind control.

-Clunk!

-Tack tack!

-Clatter!

“Yes. You guys will get to be active.”

From within the shadows, I felt Axe and the jesters making sounds and emotions responding to my words.

Quite a warlike response full of emotions.

Warriors will be warriors, I suppose.

‘She was like that too.’

Speaking of warriors, I remembered about Kamaya.

Since our first meeting, when the hospitality ended, she had been showing signs of wanting something while looking at me but was patiently waiting.

“I wonder what Kamaya wanted from me. Do you guys know?”

-…

The shadows suddenly become quiet.

Hmm. Of course, they wouldn’t know. Even before being smart or not, they wouldn’t have developed that kind of thought process.

Maybe it was too mischievous a question.

But considering she seemed to be a ‘warrior’ too, and my children are warriors, I can guess their veins might be similar.

‘A chance to fight’.

Adding ‘what to fight for’ on top of that should do, right? My soldiers are just soldiers, but she’s a leader.

‘If I think grandly…’

“The revival of harpies. Or something like that.”

It’s just my delusion for now, but I think it’s an interesting guess.

Even if it’s not exactly something so grand, if the context is similar, her desire will surely become a great opportunity for me.

Of course, that’s if my guess is correct.

‘Anyway.’

From thoughts about Kamaya, I turned my thoughts back to what I was originally doing.

I happened to be at the hut I had used to nurse Sonia, and here I recalled about the direction of dungeon improvement I had been thinking about all along.

‘It’s tiring having to care about parts I didn’t need to when it was a game.’

Dungeon needs adventurers to eat for growing.

Especially in cases using summons that directly use human bodies, like necromancers, it’s even more necessary to secure high-quality summons.

However, the current method of making them come directly to the dungeon has the risk of danger no matter how much it grows, as long as my dungeon is located in the middle of human lands.

My dungeon improvement plan was inspired by this.

“I’m not sure if this will be possible yet, but…”

‘Come to think of it, the entrance doesn’t necessarily have to be next to the mountain.’

Installing ‘traps that activate teleportation to send into the dungeon when conditions are met’ in various areas where humans live, like this hut.

This is a method with pros and cons, even just thinking about what immediately comes to mind.

The advantage is that it becomes easier to control information about my dungeon, and the disadvantage is that I don’t know how much materials and time it will take to implement this method.

When moving from outside to inside the dungeon, I’ll have to change its internal appearance to make it more familiar to humans to prevent the recognition that ‘the place I’m in suddenly changed’.

‘Even considering such disadvantages, this advantage is the benefit I need right now.’

Even now, thanks to the Cerebrum Skulls I’ve extracted to the maximum working hard, they’re excellently ‘disappearing’ adventurers in various places, but this alone can’t control rumors forever.

Even now, some people have heard rumors but have yet to come to the dungeon, so I’m investing manpower in that part, too.

There’s a limit to concealing the existence of Cerebrum Skulls that are actively making others disappear.

However, ‘places where people disappear when they enter’ would not need additional investment to control the risk if I just spent money and touched up rumors a little.

‘Well, if rumors about that place get too severe, I can just turn off the trap for a while.’

It’s not even a disadvantage that it’s difficult to adjust the level of adventurers flying into the dungeon.

That’s the case now too.

Putting a restriction like ‘not activating for adventurer parties above a certain level’ could control the danger at entry, but this isn’t a fundamental solution either.

It’s also a problem if only adventurers below standard enter the dungeon too much.

‘Rather, it’s a time when I should welcome the risk.’

The dungeon can grow more greatly the stronger the adventurers who come.

Thinking about that aspect, it might be better not to control such risks now.

In the first place, the number of elite and above adventurers in the interior is very small now, so in this situation, elite adventurers would rather take on better paying requests than take on investigations of simple ‘places where people disappear’…

“The more I think about it, the more appealing it is.”

“What are you saying?”

“It’s nothing. More importantly, are the preparations done? Everyone.”

Thinking I should ask Scarlet to draw up an estimate for dungeon renovation like that, the time I returned to the dungeon was when preparations for the second outing towards Copzerin were finished.

The purpose of this outing is to release Alexis Julka into society, give him time to build up achievements and find clues about the dungeon core thief.

And to attend a party for that purpose.

‘A party at a noble house in a fantasy world.’

As I recalled those words, I unexpectedly felt my heart beating a bit faster around my chest.

‘I’m looking forward to it.’

Curiosity about upper-class culture that’s hard to encounter on Earth. Expectation of being able to see proper fantasy world nobles.

Both were pumping my heart.

‘It seems like a somewhat childish emotion, but…’

I decided to just leave that emotion as it was felt.

It didn’t seem too bad to think about.

* * *

“What do you think?”

“What about you, Mother?”

After Libertas left the harpy’s nest.

As Kamaya, sitting alone and downing the fruit wine left as a gift, suddenly opened her mouth to ask, her daughter Serha, who had been lying down in the bedroom area, raised her body and asked back.

As if it was an already expected conversation, naturally.

“I… think she can sufficiently aim for ‘Demon King.'”

“I think so too.”

When Kamaya, who seemed to be pondering for a moment, put forth her opinion, Serha also nodded without hesitation.

“Is that so?”

“Yes. It’s a really rare quality for such a young Dungeon Lord to be able to show such calmness and caution. If we help her first when her forces haven’t prospered yet, she will absolutely not forget this help.”

In the eyes of the girl speaking at length shone a sharpness she had never shown to Libertas before.

It was a quality of an advisor that anyone could see.

“Since the queen and heir’s opinions match, all that’s left is to do our best.”

“We’re no longer living as wild monsters now, right?”

“It was a long life of obscurity. And this is something worth trying.”

After downing the fruit wine heartily, Kamaya’s eyes flicker with flames as she puts down the bottle.

The long, long life of seclusion was utterly unsuitable for harpies who soar through the skies with wings, probably for most races with intelligence.

‘Born, gained intelligence, and for 50 years… we endured for a long time.’

It’s not that they want something grand. They just want an environment where they don’t have to live in hiding.

Freedom, or renown.

Kamaya had a nature that couldn’t live without grasping one of the two, but until now, she couldn’t catch the environment to establish that will properly.

But now, she has found the seed to create that environment from one small-bodied Dungeon Lord.

“Then we should splendidly solve the first task.”

“Will you go?”

“If you move directly, it won’t save face as the queen, right?”

“It’s not just because you like moving and creating the political situation yourself?”

To her mother’s question who was regaining motivation like that, the daughter also grinned and stuck out her tongue.

“Of course. How fun is it for everyone to move, according to my thoughts?”

“Be careful not to become arrogant.”

“Yes!”

An appearance that looks very delicate on the outside. However, in those large eyes flickered the same flames as her mother’s.

Flames of ambition that couldn’t be hidden.