It's Dangerous Outside the Dungeon, Master

* * *

After finishing two rounds of dancing and returning to my seat, Sonia’s expression had brightened considerably.

It seems she enjoyed it a lot. That’s good.

“It’s a bit hot.”

“Ah, I’ll bring you a drink…!”

“Thank you.”

As I sat down while receiving her fanning, she ran faster than Xue as if she were my real partner.

Her face held a cute atmosphere that made it worth moving directly.

Then my gaze soon turned to Alexis.

It was to hear the results of the task I had entrusted to him early on.

“How did it go?”

“Ah… well. The results aren’t that good.”

Alexis answered with an apologetic face while putting his hand on his neck.

The reason I brought him here was to form his new party as he would now gain a new identity.

A party for ‘Alexis Samigina’ to replace the dead ‘Alexis Julka’.

I thought the results might not be good since he’s human and likely to be more focused on playing with women, but it seems he didn’t betray that unwelcome expectation.

“…”

Shake shake.

When I turned my gaze to Maria, she was shaking her head too. It seems there were no results on this side either, even though I had asked her, a veteran adventurer in her own right, to help Alexis a bit.

Well… you can’t fill your stomach with the first spoonful, I guess.

It can’t be helped.

“It’ll be fine. Stay active around here for a while. I need to buy a mansion anyway, so I’ll need a manager for that. You can register anew with the guild here and build up achievements, right?”

To prepare a trap base for the dungeon in Copzerin, someone needs to stay nearby and manage it.

I was planning to entrust that to Alexis and additional personnel ‘conscripted’ locally.

However, he didn’t seem to think that way, as his expression wasn’t good.

“…To have to build everything from scratch again at my level.”

It must be frustrating to lose all the comrades and wealth built up over several years and start from the beginning.

In the case of wealth, I actually stole everything in their hideout after extracting information from his comrade’s memory, but that’s not a fact he can know now.

He won’t know in the future either.

“I could give it back if you want to be active in your old form.”

“You’re joking, right, Lady? If someone rumored to be dead comes back, the temple will take them away first.”

Right now, he was a body that shouldn’t go to the temple.

Because a considerable part of the power inside him has been replaced with that of the demon realm.

They say that when acting normally, it’s fine if he doesn’t use magic power obtained from the demon realm or just uses it to strengthen his body, but if he enters a large temple or contacts a renowned priest, it would be difficult to hide the presence of that magic power.

In this world too, holy power and magic power, or more precisely the magic power of demon races, are conflicting powers.

‘Is it fortunate in this case that this isn’t near a magical realm?’

If there’s anything fortunate in this situation, it’s that most renowned priests are busy supporting adventurers active on the front lines with magical realms.

Isn’t it natural for the most capable priests and healers to be together in the place where the most injuries occur in the world?

“Yes. It’s a joke. So do well. If you don’t want to form ties with the temple, you shouldn’t get injured even once, right?”

“Haha…”

“It will also be a much easier start than before.”

“I… suppose so.”

The way inland adventurers grow is mainly through ‘dungeon growth management’ jointly administered by the adventurer’s guild and the state, or ‘dungeon exploration’ to find and conquer dungeons secretly growing in remote areas where state administration doesn’t reach.

Of course, besides these, there are also things like participating in wars between territories or requests to find specific treasures in dungeons, and sometimes solving mysteries occurring on the continent, but those two are the main ones.

Since dungeons are always difficult spaces, it would be hard for an ordinary adventurer to operate without injury, but…

『Occupation and Rank – Elite Magic Swordsman』

『Attributes – Health 49 Technique 42 Durability 39 Magic Power 51 Resistance 48』

『Characteristics – Specialization: Fire Magic, Specialization: Lightning Magic, Advanced Specialization: One-handed Sword, Non-human, Balancing, Magic: Gale Wind, User of Magic Armor』

Alexis is an elite-rank adventurer.

He knows that he probably won’t get injured inland unless something unusual happens, so he just laughs it off.

Originally only able to handle fire magic, I gave him the characteristic of handling lightning sorcery by sacrificing a few Hobgoblins who handled lightning sorcery, and in the process, his magic power and other abilities were even further strengthened than before.

“Then, I’ll go out first. It doesn’t seem like there’s anything more to gain here.”

“Contact me regularly.”

“I hope you stay safe.”

Still, Alexis disappears after politely greeting according to etiquette at the end.

Of course, I’ve already attached separate surveillance and protection for him who will be active in society. If there’s a threat that would put an elite adventurer-level being in danger, we also need beings to observe the subject of that threat.

Although we can confirm death through the dissolution of the contract if Alexis dies, we need to record what the situation was separately, don’t we?

『Title/Individual Name – Dead Man’s Armor』

『Characteristics – Dead Man’s Armor, Soul Absorption』

『Dead Man’s Armor: Absorbs the user’s magic power to create a barrier that deflects ranged attacks and magical attacks.』

『Soul Absorption: Delivers a powerful attack proportional to magic power, and absorbs the blood and souls of slain enemies to strengthen the user and armor.』

This high-rank summon and growth-type rare-grade equipment that will always be with Alexis as inner armor was a suitable individual to perform both his surveillance and strengthening simultaneously.

When we see him next time, he’ll be even stronger.

Both him and the armor.

“Leonis. Is there some problem?”

Next was Leonis, who was still looking depressed.

I was also curious why Sonia had such a shocked face.

I had some guesses, but I hope it’s not that. I have no idea how to handle it if it is.

But if I don’t handle it and leave it alone, I can’t guess how their situation will change and what confusion it will cause.

Because Sonia is young, and this Leonis fellow seems naive.

“…I was.”

“What?”

As I approached him and opened my mouth, an immediate answer came before I could ask a proper question.

“I was rejected.”

“Oh my.”

So this fool chose the even more stupid path of pushing his favor after dancing just once.

“What are you doing? There’s no point in supporting you.”

“I don’t know either… Haah.”

If you wanted to make someone lacking awareness recognize love, shouldn’t you start by getting them used to it slowly first?

…Not that I know much about it either.

* * *

I wanted to hear in detail what happened between Leonis and Sonia, but unfortunately there was no time for that.

-Ladies and gentlemen who have graced this occasion. Regrettably, today’s banquet ends here. We hope you have a safe return to your lodgings and an enjoyable after-party, and we inform you that the hall doors will close in 1 hour from now.

“Oh dear.”

As soon as the announcement that the banquet had ended was heard, it was conveyed through the surveillance being I had separately attached to her that the ‘target’ had started moving.

“It seems I’ll have to listen to that story leisurely later.”

“Is there a need to listen leisurely…?”

“Well. It’s an unknown matter, isn’t it?”

After instructing the three to return to their lodgings, I gave instructions to the two except Sonia to survey vacant houses within Copzerin tomorrow.

It was to find a place to make into a trap.

“A house with bad rumors is better…?”

“Yes. No matter what bad rumors there are, they can’t infringe on a Dungeon Lord, and wouldn’t the price be cheaper the more rumors there are? We can just repair what’s broken and use it.”

“Ah, ha… I guess that’s true. I understand.”

I explained the reason to Maria like that, but actually, houses with rumors of being haunted or such are better for decorating as a new dungeon.

More precisely, for making into a dungeon entrance, but anyway.

“Um, Master…?”

“I have some business. I’ll resolve it quickly and return to the lodgings, so go ahead and rest first.”

“…”

As we were about to part ways for a moment like that, I became puzzled seeing Sonia hesitating and not following the others.

As if feeling anxiety or something, she was holding onto my sleeve while shaking her pupils, as if there was still something she hadn’t said.

“Do you have something to say? Sonia.”

“I…”

“Yes.”

“Would it be… impossible for me to go with you?”

It was a difficult question.

What I was about to do now was very suitable work for a demon with human-level intelligence.

“I’m not sure what you mean by that.”

Is she trying to stop what I’m about to do? Or is she trying to participate for her own purpose that I don’t know about?

As long as I don’t know the reason, I couldn’t let her participate in that work.

“I mean…”

“Sonia! Let’s go quickly. We shouldn’t disturb the Master.”

Maria takes Sonia away before she can express her thoughts. I could have stopped her, but I decided to let them go for now.

Whatever Sonia was thinking, I was convinced that this was a matter I needed to talk to her about thoroughly.

In a different direction from Leonis’s story.

“You guys.”

-Yes, Master.

“Please investigate one thing for me.”

-Just say the word.

Finally, after instructing the Cerebrum Skulls including Talhan to investigate certain matters I learned at the party, I delved into the alleys of the city.

Streets full of shadows.

A place as comfortable as home for me.

* * *

That night.

“Hiiiek…!!”

Baroness Hailey Schum Gremit, a noblewoman of the Kingdom of Heisen and an external collaborator of the black market association ‘Midas’, received four skulls.

The heads of the guards she had been relying on.

“You have information that doesn’t suit your status, human child.”

The person who threw them was watching her from within the city’s shadows.

With purple eyes gleaming in the night shade.