Dungeon Defense (WN)

Riff grabbed his hand axe.

“Shut up and listen to me, you wimpy bastards. You guys don’t know anything. If you’re looked down on in the adventurer world, then that’s the end of the line for you. What will happen if we tuck our tails between our legs in fear of another party even though we conquered a dungeon? I’d rather hold a funeral for you guys than have to watch you guys go through that.”

“You idiot…!”

Cyclops grabbed his spear tightly. This was a touch-and-go situation. It seems that even their comrades couldn’t stand to watch their fight get any more out of hand as they began to step in. Riff struggled and shouted at them to let him go. The situation only managed to calm down after six of them stepped in to hold Riff back.

“Hey, we shouldn’t be fighting amongst ourselves!”

“It’d be great if those other bastards got here while we’re like this, huh?”

“Calm down, Daneff. Okay? Nothing good will come from us fighting.”

At a glance, it seemed like an internal conflict had occurred.

I was feeling impatient.

‘Damn it, what are these level 3s and 2s doing….’

I secretly wanted an internal conflict to happen. My plan was like this. After being told that a party of 25 adventurers was coming, these guys would all run away in panic. As similar adventurers, they should know that adventurers are essentially pillagers. They should know full well that the other group wouldn’t let them go peacefully.

At that moment, I intended to make them use me, a Demon Lord, as bait. I have a bounty on my head, after all. Make your escape while the other party is focused on me― I’ll lie to them like this. Thus, this was how I intended to make it out alive safely……however, the two people’s inner thoughts were completely different from their outward behavior.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Name: Riff Race: Human　　 Faction: Jalsen Village Attribute: Neutral(-15)

Level: 3　　　　Fame: 2 Job: Lumberjack(B), Farmer(D), Adventurer(F)

Leadership: 15　　Might: 30 　　Intelligence: 4 Politics: 2　　Charm: 6　　Technique: 21

Affection: 21 Current thought: ‘Shit, there’s no way we can win against 25 people. We have to run away, but if we meet them on our way out, we’re fucked. If we split our party into 3 groups and….’ ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Name: Daneff Race: Human　　 Faction: Jalsen Village Attribute: Neutral(-10)

Level: 2　　　　Fame: 1 Job: Farmer(C), Adventurer(F)

Leadership: 10　　Might: 22 　　Intelligence: 6 Politics: 4　　Charm: 11　　Technique: 5

Affection: 20 Current thought: ‘It’s unfortunate, but we have to sacrifice someone.’ ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

……It was surprising. These two people were planning things out more calmly than anyone else.

There is a total of 3 pathways that lead from the entrance of the dungeon to the Demon Lord’s room. They believe that the enemy is approaching from one of those paths. Even if they run away, there’s a chance that they might meet the other party on their way out. They’ll definitely get wiped out.

Then let’s split the party into 3 groups.

By creating groups of 5 from the 15 members, they’ll each go down a path to the exit. One of the groups will meet the enemy; however, the other two groups will ‘definitely’ survive. Riff and Cyclops, these two people had immediately thought up a plan that could keep as many people alive as possible.

Their rookie companions may be taken aback by the sudden idea of splitting the party up into smaller groups. The party had stuck together the entire time, after all. Therefore, Riff and Cyclops purposely made the situation volatile. The two biggest veterans of the group have split apart――it should be easier to split the group up in a situation like this.

Without having to exchange any words beforehand, these two managed to create this entire situation by only exchanging gazes. If their inner thoughts didn’t appear in their status screen, then I might have been deceived as well. I lamented inaudibly.

‘Why do the NPCs in the tutorial have such impressive artificial intelligence!?’

If this were truly a game, then these guys were low-level adventurers who would all die to a monster’s paddling. However, is this world no different from reality? They possessed life experience that couldn’t be displayed by their stats alone. Although they were naive enough to be deceived by my act and cruel enough to fire arrows at me unwaveringly, they were also capable of thinking calmly in desperate situations. They possessed aspects that were so diversified that you couldn’t possibly view them as artificial intelligence.

‘Damn it, my foot is aching needlessly.’

A pain traveled up from my right foot. Will I be able to get out of this alive?

I shook my head. The opposition is simply a bit smarter than I expected. There’s nothing to despair about yet. No, if anything, I should be delighted that the unit of 15 men was going to be split into smaller groups. I guess you could call this a good out of evil.

It wasn’t long before Riff and Cyclop’s quarrel came to an end. It was then that Riff suggested that the party should split into 3 separate 5-men groups as if this idea had just come to him. At first, the others stirred at the idea of having to sacrifice one of the groups; however, once it became clear that Riff’s idea was the most optimal decision, they nodded.

“Moreover, I don’t want to stick together with that coward.”

Riff scoffed towards Cyclops. Cyclops got upset, but the people around him quickly calmed him down, so he didn’t raise his voice. As this occurred, the party naturally split into sides.

I was slightly hoping that they would leave me behind since my broken right foot would only slow their escape, but it seems they had no intention to give up on the bounty that was on my head. Once I checked my status, I saw that there was a 10,000 gold award if I was captured alive. Damn it, how I had such a price on me was a mystery.

“Sons of bitches, go die! We’ll get out alive if you do.”

“You’re the ones who should die.”

The adventurers snickered as they split apart. They went down their respective paths while following behind their group leaders. I ended up getting dragged by Cyclop’s group. Under the pretext that they had to carry the luggage known as me, they were assigned the shortest path to the exit. I silently stared at my <Monster Employment Tab> while being carried on the back of a burly adventurer.

“…….”

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

<table width="686"> <td width="120">Monster Name <td width="78">Stamina <td width="76">Attack <td width="76">Defense <td width="85">Price <td width="120">Slime <td width="78">2 <td width="76">2 <td width="76">2 <td width="85">70 Gold <td width="120">Lowest-tier Fairy <td width="78">4 <td width="76">3 <td width="76">2 <td width="85">160 Gold <td width="120">Goblin <td width="78">4 <td width="76">4 <td width="76">4 <td width="85">250 Gold <td width="120">Lowest-tier Golem <td width="78">7 <td width="76">5 <td width="76">5 <td width="85">400 Gold

[Useable Fund: 511 Gold]

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

I hesitated for a moment. If I hire a monster, then it will truly come down to their or my demise. Failure means death. I couldn’t use any other strategy. Wouldn’t it be better to garner more sympathy from these naive men and get out alive like that? Isn’t that the most optimal option to prevent both my and their deaths?

No.

I coldly selected the lowest-tier golem. This was the strongest card I could select with the amount of gold I had. It was easily twice as strong as Cyclops, the strongest member here. Soon after, a projection asking me if I wished to hire a lowest-tier golem appeared before me.

‘Hire.’

「You’ve hired a lowest-tier golem!」 「Would you like to summon the lowest-tier golem?」

They’re the ones who attacked me first. I wasn’t merciful enough to forgive such an act of aggression. Of course, I’m a foolish person in the real world. I played games all day and I considered myself as trash. Nevertheless, this place isn’t the real world. This is a game world, the world of Dungeon Attack.

I’m the emperor of Dungeon Attack.

Even if I’m Demon Lord Dantalian and not Hero Lolita, I’m undoubtedly the peerless hero that had conquered the Great Demon Lord’s castle and obtained the highest possible stats. I’m a piece of trash in real life, however, I never allowed myself to be a piece of trash even in games. That was my pride as a ‘player’.

‘An emperor would never spare the lives of those who were hostile towards him!’

They were simply acting according to the game’s scenario. You could probably lay this excuse out. However, was it not the same for me as well? Would it not be a part of the game’s scenario to bestow death upon the humans who had invaded the dungeon as ‘Demon Lord Dantalian’?

“They probably won’t come down this way, right?”

“Eh, we may be unlucky, but we aren’t that unfortunate.”

“In the one in ten thousand chance we see them, we should just give them all of our gold. Gold may be important, but is it more important than our lives? They’ll probably spare us if we hand the Demon Lord over to them.”

These guys weren’t even remotely ready for battle. They were talking about surrendering before the battle even occurred. This was the best possible opportunity. I bit down as strong as I could on the ear of the man who was carrying me on his back. The man’s ear was torn off in an instant.

“Guaah!”

My body fell to the ground as the man let out a cry. I couldn’t prepare for the fall at all, so I wound up hitting the ground hard. The impact made my head shake and it almost felt as if someone had punched me in the head. I could hear the sound of the other adventurers panicking.

“Jack? What’s wrong?”

“Kuh, kuaaah! T-That bastard, my ear…!”contemporary romance

While they still couldn’t comprehend this situation properly yet, I shouted.

“Lowest-tier Golem――Summon!”

A purple light filled the cave. In an instant, a geometric symbol was drawn on the floor. The light was coming from there. Something large emerged from the symbol while causing a light earthquake. It was an arm made of stone. As the golem’s rocky hand grasped the ground and pulled itself up, it almost looked as if the golem was crawling straight out of Hell.

─ Kuhuuuuoh!

The golem roared. It seemed to welcome the outside world after being trapped underground for so long. The monster’s emotions were transferred straight to me. It was demanding for a battlefield that was appropriate for its initiation. It was shouting that if I gave it the command, it would tear those humans apart at any moment.

This is a monster!

This is a Demon Lord’s ability!

I felt my body heat up. There was a corner of my mind that was advising me to regain my composure, but I ignored it. If anything, this was the time to give my body to the excitement. I shouted at the golem.

“Crush them all!”

The golem swung its arm before I could even finish my sentence. Its goal was the closest person to it, Cyclops. If the only experienced guy dies, then there’s nothing to worry about. Cyclops jumped to the side in surprise. His reaction time wasn’t bad, but he was foolish. If he had lowered his body to the ground, then he probably would have avoided the attack. The golem’s wide fist smashed into Cyclops in the middle of his small jump. Cyclops let out a short cry as he was sent flying. After being flung more than 3 meters, Cyclops collided headfirst into a stalactite. I heard the sound of bones shattering.

─ Kuhruuaaah!

The golem let out a cheer the instant it had accomplished its very first order. The calm air inside the cavern reverberated violently. Before I could even think of another command, the golem stomped on the young man who I had bitten the ear of. The man wasn’t crushed immediately and proceeded to let out horrific screams. I could feel the golem getting upset.

It was the unpleasant feeling one would get after stepping on an ant but not managing to kill it. The golem raised its leg and strongly brought it down over and over again 6 times. The screaming stopped around the fourth stomp. Brain matter was smeared on the bottom of the golem’s stone foot. This was a sight which would normally cause swear words to come out, but for some reason, my body was filled with delight.

“Huuaaak!”

A pathetic scream resounded throughout the cavern. Once I turned my gaze, I saw that one of the adventurers was trying to hightail it. He was running away cowardly, leaving behind his comrades who were still trying to figure out whether they should combine their strength to fight this monster or not.

“Fuck! Don’t run away!”

“That son of a bitch deceived us! Oh God, Daneff!”

The remaining two people got into position and put up their guards. The golem snickered. That snickering transferred to me as well. Even as their final struggle, this was incredibly pitiable. Furthermore, one of them was an archer, so his defenses were even worse since he didn’t have a shield.

“Go for the weaker one first!”

My monster obeyed my command loyally. Although golems are slow in general, it swung its large fist towards the archer. The archer practically tossed his body to the side in order to dodge. The fist barely missed him.

“Ha, I dodg――.”

Regardless, it seems he didn’t even consider the fact that the golem had two arms. The golem’s left arm struck the archer’s face the moment he boasted proudly as he turned to face the monster again. The archer’s face caved in. He fell over limply.

Now the last one.

“U-Uaaaah!”

The adventurer charged at the golem with his spear. His blunt spear stabbed into the joint of the golem’s arm. Did he believe that that was the golem’s weak spot? A hologram which displayed that the golem’s health had dropped by 1 appeared before me. Accomplishing such a feat, despite being struck by fear, was commendable. However, that was it. After being bit by a being that was like an ant to it, the golem became appropriately enraged and swung its limbs around wildly. The adventurer desperately dodged the fists, but his hip was broken once he got kicked by the golem’s leg. The golem unhesitantly smashed its fists down like a hammer over the body of the adventurer who had fallen and was groaning in pain.

“Haa, haa…….”

My faint breathing flowed through the cave. Other than this, everything was quiet. The golem had stopped in place and was waiting for my next command. The first fight I encountered after coming to this world ended blandly like this.

“Hoo…… huaaa.”

What idiots.

Golems are powerful but slow. Rather than facing the golem, it would have been better if they had aimed for me instead. If they had used me as a hostage, then the golem would have been forced to stop attacking. The adventurers had forgotten such a simple fact. It was most likely because the most experienced person, Cyclops, had died first and they never imagined that a monster would be summoned.

I looked at the golem and murmured.

“Not yet… it isn’t over yet.”

I saw the ability of F rank adventurers. They were too competent to disregard simply because they were F ranks. I don’t know when I’ll be able to get out of this shitty world, but it’s clear that stronger adventurers will one day invade this dungeon as well. E rank, D rank, and one day, A rank adventurers will arrive.

I have to stop them vigorously. I have to hire units of monsters and install all sorts of traps in this dungeon. If I want to do this, then I need money. A lot of money! I can’t let my 1,000 gold coins be taken away this early on. I have to get back the money the other groups had taken from me.

“Dungeon Map Tab.”

A map of the dungeon appeared before my eyes. The other adventurers appeared as red dots on the semi-transparent screen. The adventurer who had run away earlier appeared on the map as well. He was quickly running towards the entrance of the dungeon. Let’s leave this guy be. I can’t catch up to him anyway.

However, there’s no need to let the others escape.

I searched through the adventurers’ dead bodies and reclaimed my gold. From this point forth, money is my lifeline. While a bizarre feeling of excitement flowed through me――for some reason, I didn’t feel the need to calm my emotions down――I ordered the golem to carry me. The golem lifted me onto its shoulder with ease.

I now had a clear view. I ordered the golem to move towards the path the adventurers were heading in. The golem’s footsteps echoed lowly throughout the cave.

***

TL note: Thanks for reading. I’ve been slightly busy lately because my classes will be resuming next week, so I’ve been trying to plan out a schedule. I’m not exactly sure how my schedule is going to look once my classes resume, so pardon me if there’s an initial delay. Hopefully, I’ll get the last part of this tutorial section translated before then.

See you guys in the next release.

done.co