A deep, secret place.
A dark, cold atmosphere hung over it.
The candles set up around the chamber drove back the darkness, however faintly, carving shadows into the walls.
And those shadows were moving busily.
“Ah, it begins at last.”
It was none other than Celia.
“The time has come to spread Master’s will in earnest.”
Recently, Master had reorganized the dungeon’s internal structure.
An environment had been created in which each individual was assigned duties and could work for Master’s sake.
The fact that he had reorganized the structure like this was not simply for the sake of efficient management.
Surely Master was testing us.
It meant we were to adapt to the current situation and prepare for the goals that lay ahead.
“Master is undoubtedly looking toward a greater world.”
No matter how many other dungeons had come into Master’s embrace, their scale was still far too small.
A great being would never be satisfied with this.
He was someone who would rule not only the current dungeon, but villages and cities beyond it, and not stopping there, every nation and every land across the continent.
The great and noble Master had surely held such a grand plan in his sights since long ago.
“This Celia is still struggling merely to keep up with Master’s insight.”
The current reorganization was nothing more than a part of the plan to come.
In the end, its present purpose was the bare minimum groundwork for when Master built his forces and established a nation.
“Ah, how rapturous. Master!”
All would prostrate themselves on the ground and offer their loyalty to Master.
Celia smiled, rejoicing from the bottom of her heart.
Then, before long, she composed her expression once more.
“This, too, is a test. It is still too early to rejoice.”
Master had laid out the grand framework.
Mr. Lich was circling the dungeon and the nearby forest, serving as an inspector, while Mr. Death Knight was tending to the dungeon’s defense under the title of knight commander.
On top of that, she herself had many duties.
Chief administrator, in charge of diplomacy, and the one who maintained discipline.
That alone showed how important Master considered her to be.
Celia took it as a sign that he wanted her to produce even greater results.
At the same time, she thought—
She herself would have to fill in the details upon the board Master had prepared.
“Let us begin by taking control of the mountain range.”
To do that, information was essential.
They had only annexed a portion of the dungeons in the mountain range so far.
Now, they needed information not just on that portion, but on the entire mountain range—and beyond that, they needed to expand even into the human world.
“We will need a department in charge of intelligence.”
However, she and those bound together with Master were restricted in their movements.
Someday, that restriction would be lifted as well, but for now, it was impossible.
Even so, it was not as though there was no method.
There was a good alternative.
They could use those who had recently come under Master.
Unlike those who had been in Master’s embrace from the beginning, they had no restrictions on their movements.
Of course, they were already beings whose souls were bound to the dungeon.
Still, if she made use of the fact that they had no restrictions on movement, they would be able to fill at least a little of the current gap in intelligence.
Of course, their capabilities could be a problem, but that was something she would take care of.
Celia intended to reward thoroughly those who performed well.
“Please watch over me, Master!”
Celia clenched her fist tightly and steeled her resolve.
From now on, it was her time.
***
“Haa… ha….”
Beren was currently having the worst time of his life.
‘Fuck!’
The orc’s strength was far more powerful than he had imagined.
Who was he?
He had led the Red Fang Mercenary Corps and roamed countless battlefields until now.
Was he not a mercenary who had survived battlefields filled with blood and despair?
And yet he could not even take down a single orc and was instead being pushed back.
‘There’s this much difference in strength?’
If there was any silver lining, it was that the skeletons around them were remaining still.
Of course, there had been a few members who tried to break through the skeletons, but all of them had left this world.
Because the skeletons they had tried to break through had exploded and taken their lives.
At first, it had seemed strange, but he soon understood why.
It was none other than because of the lich.
No matter how ignorant one was about monsters, it was not as if one knew nothing at all.
On the contrary, he knew the monsters that were often talked about.
For Beren, that monster was the lich.
A lich was one of the monsters evaluated as difficult to deal with.
The problem was none other than its skill. It was said to explode the skeletons around it. And that was true.
With so many skeletons around them like now, there would be few beings as troublesome as a lich.
Beren, too, had heard about it somewhere before, and was able to remember it belatedly.
Of course, the lich was not interfering at all aside from exploding skeletons.
Rather, it was quietly watching them while making a show of writing something down.
It was humiliating.
Come to think of it, the orc he was facing did not seem to be fighting with all his strength either.
‘Are they toying with me?’
At the same time, rage surged up in him.
“Ghk.”
He could not believe that he was being pushed back by something like a monster.
In a fit of anger, he kept swinging his weapon, but the only result was that it was blocked by the opposing orc’s weapon.
This was because there was one fact Beren did not know.
If he had possessed knowledge of dungeons and monsters like an adventurer, he might have noticed that the orc before him was no ordinary monster.
But until now, Beren had faced fellow humans on battlefields; this was his first time truly facing monsters, and so he did not know.
That was why he was blaming his own skill and pressing even harder.
If anything, it was the worst choice he could have made.
Because in the process of pushing forward, openings began to appear in his stance.
The orc warrior Skol, who was leisurely blocking all of Beren’s attacks, was not unaware of that fact either.
Whenever even the slightest gap appeared in Beren’s stance, he swung his sword and inflicted a shallow wound.
It looked like he was simply playing with him.
“Tsk.”
Skol clicked his tongue softly.
He had thought perhaps a warrior who could make his heart pound had come to him after so long, but the human before him did not possess that caliber.
He was even destroying himself.
Originally, the most important thing in battle was to remain calm and observe one’s opponent, but the human before him was merely swinging his weapon in impatience.
Of course, Skol understood why.
Skeletons had already surrounded them, so they could not flee, and the subordinates who had recklessly tried to break through were already dead.
Skol casually knocked aside Beren’s weapon and glanced to the side.
The lich entered his field of vision.
The lich was observing his battle and writing something on paper.
‘How is it? Chwik!’
Surely its purpose was to inform the Ruler of his magnificent battle.
Feeling proud, Skol slowly applied pressure to Beren.
He had shown more than enough of what he had to show.
Since he was thinking of ending this tedious fight soon, he increased the intensity.
Tak—
The lich, who had been watching the scene, nodded.
Then it began recording on the paper.
- Averted gaze during combat. Grounds for deduction.
The lich was a coldhearted inspector.
At the same time, it looked at the Death Knight, who had at some point approached from the side and was watching.
Looking at the Death Knight, the lich nodded.
- Neglected dungeon defense and abandoned post while on duty. Grounds for deduction.
The lich truly was a coldhearted inspector.
* * *
There was someone watching the current scene from afar.
It was Gullon, who belonged to the audit team of the Demon Realm Trading Company.
Gullon was currently using a telescope to watch everything that was happening without missing a single detail.
And at what he saw, Gullon’s toad-like face began to tremble.
“Insane.”
A curse slipped out before he realized it.
The sight he saw was that monsters were currently defeating humans.
But this was not something that could be viewed so simply.
‘There’s a lich and even a Death Knight?!’
Each of them was combat power one could readily believe to be the master of a dungeon.
And yet they were being handled as if it were nothing.
Because Gullon had been chewed out by the department head, he knew very well.
The dungeon masters in this vicinity were mostly, at best, one-star or two-star.
Among them, he knew for certain that a three-star orc was the maximum.
That was why he did not waste time wondering which dungeon the Death Knight and lich belonged to.
‘Were they hiding their strength?’
When Gullon himself had visited the dungeon, he had not sensed power on that level.
At most, there had only been a skeleton knight.
Gullon’s entire body trembled.
The trading company likely did not know that there was this level of combat power here.
No, the merchant in charge surely might have known.
But if the trading company did not know, then the only conclusion was that he had deliberately not reported it.
‘He was a frightening bastard.’
Had he even won over the merchant in charge?
Most of all, the fact that he had not revealed his combat power gave Gullon chills.
‘Anyway, what do I do?’
Gullon pondered for a moment.
The four shadows behind him.
They were monsters the trading company had attached to him.
Since they were shadows themselves, they had no definite form.
They were beings that could go anywhere so long as there was darkness and shadow, specialized in intelligence gathering and assassination.
That was why they had no names or identities—in short, they were monsters of unknown origin.
The reason the trading company had assigned them to him was obvious.
Resolve the current situation.
In other words, dismantle that force before it grew any larger.
But look at that scene.
Wasn’t there a Death Knight and a lich?
‘There’s definitely more hidden strength.’
It was only reasonable to think so.
How badly had his report, written based only on appearances, been torn apart?
Thanks to that, Gullon was in a position where he would be kicked out of the company if he failed to resolve this matter.
“…….”
The problem was that he could not think of a way to resolve it.
Even with the shadows, beings specialized in information gathering and assassination, they would have difficulty dealing with not only the Death Knight, but even the lich.
An opponent had to be only moderately strong. This was practically digging his own grave.
“Phew….”
Gullon let out a deep sigh.
If he had followed his heart, he would have been filled with the desire to run away.
But the presence of the shadow beings behind him bothered him.
If he threw aside his mission and left, they would target him first.
Just as Gullon’s thoughts were growing long—
‘Now that I think about it….’
A good idea suddenly came to him.
The moment it did, Gullon turned toward the shadows behind him.
“There is an old saying that in order to bring down an enemy, one must enter the enemy’s interior.”
In truth, he had no idea whether such a saying existed.
Gullon was simply spouting whatever came to mind.
“We will enter the opposing dungeon under the identity of the trading company.”
Gullon began explaining the plan to the shadows.
“As long as we can get inside the dungeon….”
Of course, unlike his outward appearance, different thoughts were blooming inside him.
‘Let’s surrender. This is suicide.’
The trading company that had abandoned him no longer existed in his mind.
No matter how slow-witted he was, he understood the way the situation was turning, so he could make his choice.
The problem was that his priority was to get away from the shadows immediately.
‘Yes, as long as I can get inside the dungeon….’
Gullon thought of Celia.
Judging by their combat power, he believed that if it was her, she would be more than enough to deal with the shadows.
Gullon thought that if he ran to her dungeon, begged desperately, and threw himself flat on the ground, perhaps he could at least save his own life.
‘Please….’
He had learned that to survive in a cruel world, one sometimes had to be quick on the uptake.
* * *
Ding—
Ding—
Today, just like yesterday, my smartphone rang.
There was no need to look at the contents. It was obvious.
“Celia will take care of it. For now, let’s hurry and get this done.”
There was something I had to do right now.
It concerned the skeleton beside me. Its name was Maru.
If I wanted to officially keep this guy with me, I had to report it to the Awakener Center.
It was not anything grand just because it was called a report. I simply had to notify them that I had a summoning-related ability, like a summoner or spirit master.
This was a law set by the government for the purpose of preventing crimes by hunters, and if I did not make this report, then walking around with a skeleton like this would be illegal.
“Let’s just get it registered quickly and come back.”
I would probably have to register as a necromancer.
If there was one unfortunate thing, it was that I wished this guy were powerful—but it was a one-star skeleton soldier.
By this world’s standards, it was essentially a weak monster that even an F-rank hunter could hunt.
“Well, still, it’s convenient in a lot of ways.”
At least this guy was doing all the housework.
And in any case, this guy was not the main event.
The real thing was something else.
“Please let the day I receive the demonic sword come quickly.”
It was none other than the demonic sword Celia had offered as a sacrifice.