“Mm…”
Celia tilted her head as she read the report.
“What should we do about this?”
It was good that they had dealt with the adventurers.
For those who guarded the dungeons, stopping invading adventurers was their purpose.
In that sense, everyone had carried out their duties splendidly.
The banshee’s method of controlling a paladin and luring the opposing adventurers into the dungeon had been truly excellent.
Thanks to that, seven adventurers, along with several sacrifices, were now under the banshee’s control.
If all went well, they might even be able to form a force made up of adventurers.
Second, she also liked the response of Skol, the orc who led the “Red-Haired Tribe” dungeon.
It was said that he had broken all of his opponents’ will with overwhelming momentum.
A warrior ought to have that sort of spirit and conviction.
He had fulfilled his role.
Lastly, the slime’s method had also been truly good.
According to the report, it had lured the adventurers to a hot spring.
If the banshee had lured its opponents with a paladin, the slime had stimulated their primal desires.
To those whose bodies and minds were exhausted, there would be nothing more enticing than a place to rest.
It was a strategy only a slime could pull off.
But there was a problem.
“At this rate, there are hardly any adventurers left, are there?”
Too many adventurers had already died.
Far too many.
Of course, they had not been completely wiped out.
Some adventurers were still wandering nearby, fleeing.
But the purpose this time was not simply to stop the adventurers.
It was to evaluate the four dungeons under her command.
Of those, two had been evaluated, but two still remained.
However, the number of survivors was awkwardly insufficient to evaluate the other dungeons.
“Should I ask them to send more adventurers?”
Celia pondered.
In truth, there had been a separate reason these adventurers had come to the mountains.
A noble of the Kingdom of Sayle had independently hired them and entrusted them with a request.
Secretly, no less, while disobeying the royal family’s orders.
Naturally, Princess Irena had said she would root out everyone involved, but Celia had stopped her.
After all, they were offering to come in on their own; she could not let such an opportunity slip by.
Celia had intended to use them to find the shortcomings in her own dungeon and the others.
But it had been in vain.
“It seems the adventurers’ skill level was far too low.”
Clicking her tongue, she pushed the documents aside.
Then she looked at the Goblin Lord beside her.
“I read the report you submitted, Goblin Lord. You said you need adventurers in order to establish a royal guard?”
At Celia’s gentle words, the Goblin Lord nodded.
“That is so, kehek.”
The Goblin Lord nodded and took out a long object.
It was a mana gun.
The one who had first given this mana gun to the Goblin Lord was Celia.
Celia had obtained this weapon as well; Azmo, who was on Earth, had gifted it to her when they first met.
A mana gun.
It was a weapon used by Hunters on Earth.
Its principle was similar to the crossbows used by adventurers and mercenaries, but the difference was that it could be fired easily as long as it was supplied with mana.
In short, as long as there was enough mana, it was a weapon that could be fired endlessly.
And naturally, if the mana’s grade was high, its power would rise as well.
“So this is the point.”
Celia picked up the mana gun.
Holding it, she soon infused it with mana.
Celia’s mana stat was S-rank.
It had already been proven through experiments that injecting Celia’s mana into the mana gun produced tremendous power.
After learning that fact, Celia had personally charged the Goblin Lord’s mana gun for him.
After all, if its power was low, the weapon would lose its meaning.
But she could not do that every time.
So they had thought of another method.
A way for the goblins themselves to charge the mana guns while still producing high power.
“A royal guard made up of half-goblins.”
Celia spoke as she returned the fully charged mana gun.
Goblins were not a race particularly outstanding in mana.
Even the Goblin Lord himself lacked outstanding mana, which was why he was in a position to borrow Celia’s power.
Of course, there were some among the goblins who utilized mana.
Goblin shamans were the representative example.
They used mana to cast various spells, but in the end, they were still goblins.
They could not draw out the mana gun’s power to its maximum.
Ultimately, they needed a breakthrough to solve this.
For that purpose, the Goblin Lord had made a proposal.
The mass production of half-goblins by using adventurers.
The goal was to create a royal guard that used mana guns through them.
Half-goblins.
As the name implied, goblins whose blood was mixed with another lineage rather than being pure-blooded.
In this case, it could be said that human blood was mixed in.
Celia did not view this negatively either.
Had she not been the one to give the goblins a human girl in the first place?
Whether by coincidence or not, that girl had also possessed mana.
And if just a little more time passed, the first child would be born.
Celia tapped the desk a few times with her finger, then opened her mouth.
“We’ll capture all the surviving adventurers alive. I do hope there are beings with mana among them.”
The purpose of the half-goblins was to cultivate goblins with powerful mana.
To increase that probability, the human partner also needed to possess mana.
And not merely possess mana, but mana of a high level.
The higher it was, the higher the mana grade of the half-goblins born between them would likely be.
If they repeated such cycles, then one day, goblins possessing powerful mana would be born among them.
If that happened, not only would the goblins’ overall fighting strength rise, but establishing the Goblin Lord’s royal guard would also become easier.
In the end, this would strengthen the dungeon’s own military power.
And the stronger the dungeon became, the sooner Master’s plan could be brought forward.
Thinking so, Celia rose from her seat.
Most of the adventurers were already dead.
There were some surviving adventurers, but their numbers were far too lacking to evaluate the strength of the other dungeons.
In the end, Celia decided to set this evaluation aside here.
That did not mean she had any intention of sending the surviving adventurers back as they were.
Should they not pay the price for daring to trespass into the domain of the Great One?
“Let’s capture all the remaining ones alive.”
She intended to make proper use of the remaining adventurers.
Not only for the Goblin Lord’s plan, but if there was room, it would not be bad to use the banshee and operate an entire adventurer unit.
Master was a great being who would rule over even broader territory in the future.
To that end, they needed more strategic cards.
“Tell everyone. They must not leave so much as a scratch on them.”
At Celia’s command, the shadow waiting nearby disappeared.
Now her order would be conveyed to everyone within the territory.
With the Goblin Lord in tow, Celia slowly stepped out of the dungeon.
* * *
“Haa… haa…”
Nariel and Isrin were cutting across the forest.
They were short of breath, but they could not stop here.
“We just have to get out of here, so hang in there a little longer!”
Isrin encouraged her and pushed herself even harder.
The reason they were running was nothing special.
Because this place was hell.
There was no safe place left.
Until just a moment ago, they had been in the slime dungeon.
Had their brief lapse in vigilance been the cause of disaster?
The adventurers who had been resting in the hot spring inside the dungeon had been annihilated.
At first, the slimes had treated them amicably, so the adventurers had been able to relax.
In other words, they had let their guard down, but that could not be helped.
After witnessing the miserable defeat of their comrade in the battle against the orc, everyone’s will had already been broken.
On top of that, when counting the time since they had accepted the request and set out, they had not rested properly for days.
In such a situation, what adventurer would simply pass by a place where they could rest?
Moreover, the slimes had been friendly toward them, so everyone had let their guard down.
But they had never been friendly at all.
‘To think they’d use such a cunning trick.’
The slimes had tempted the adventurers into the hot spring, then wiped them all out at once.
The adventurers’ skin had begun melting away in acid.
The expressions that had been smiling and joyful moments before instantly turned into screams filled with despair and pain.
In an instant, all their flesh melted away, leaving only bones behind.
Most of the adventurers met empty, meaningless deaths.
The few adventurers who remained chose to scatter in all directions and flee.
This place was hell.
It was a place they never should have entered.
That was why everyone thought the same thing.
Rather than stay together, scattering and fleeing would give them a higher chance of surviving.
‘I should never have accepted the request!’
Now she understood why the Kingdom of Sayle and the Adventurers’ Guild had forbidden entry.
Something was strange about the mountains now.
Having thought that far, Isrin shook her head.
For now, getting out of this place came first.
There would be plenty of time to think about other things after they escaped the mountains.
The penalty fee?
She no longer even thought about it.
Survival came first.
“L-let’s rest for just a moment… Haa…”
Nariel, gasping heavily, stopped in place.
It seemed she had already pushed herself to her limit.
“Yeah. Let’s do that.”
Isrin, too, had run too much.
She needed a little rest.
The two settled beneath a suitable nearby tree.
“Ha, I feel like I can finally breathe.”
Isrin lay flat on the ground.
Then she quietly gazed upward.
Darkness had already fallen.
The forest was filled with silence.
And thanks to the branches stretching out in every direction, not even the moonlight shone through.
“…Do you think we can survive?”
Nariel spoke weakly.
“I… was so happy to meet you, Isrin. You were the only one who saw me as I was.”
“……”
Nariel continued speaking.
“So I was always grateful. Even after learning what I was, you treated me without discrimination.”
Nariel removed the hat she had pulled low over her head.
“I’m sorry for only telling you this now. I was just too ashamed all this time.”
When she took off her hat, her hair swayed and fell down.
“From now on, I don’t plan to hide anymore. Like you told me, I’m going to live proudly.”
More than anything, her ears caught the eye.
Her ears were not those of an ordinary human.
Their tips were pointed and elegant.
Nariel shook out her hair once, then spoke to Isrin.
“So, what I mean is… If we make it out alive, with me—”
Huh?
Nariel, who had been speaking, closed her mouth.
“……”
Strange.
Isrin, who should have been beside her, was nowhere to be seen.
She had vanished without a trace.
“Isrin…?”
Nariel hurriedly looked around.
But all that filled the place was darkness.