Dungeon Defense (WN)

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Fabian naturally became the leader of our party that had increased to 20 members. Our progress to capture the dungeon was going smoothly.

It was sort of embarrassing to say that we were capturing the dungeon. The biggest obstacle we had faced so far had been 3 to 4 goblins. We overwhelmed them with both our numbers and overall strength.

The adventurers had forgotten about how they had panicked after facing consecutive forks in the road and were now chatting about how silly it was that they got scared and that this really was a low-ranking dungeon.

However, I was able to tell.

‘They were all young goblins. Tsk tsk…….’

Humans can’t really tell a monster’s age. It’s especially difficult since the bodies of monsters grow to their full size when they’re still young. However, their cries are slightly different. As a Demon Lord, I could tell just by their faces whether they were young or old.

‘These were probably monsters that didn’t hear the evacuation notice and couldn’t get away in time.’

How unfortunate.

There were monster settlements beyond the labyrinth walls. All of the goblins that lived around the Demon Lord castle had immigrated here. They would normally live in the empty spaces at the end of tunnels, but they would make their way out through the hidden tunnels whenever adventurers invaded like the current situation.

I was allowing monsters to live in a mana-filled environment for free. However, each residential area was assigned a point which the monsters had to defend from adventurers. They had to protect those points whenever the dungeon was in danger.

If you were to compare this to a human nation, then these were like local armies……. Should I call them slightly converted garrison farms?

The monster villagers would protect specific points while the elite monster unit led by Laura supported them.

As a Demon Lord, I was basically obtaining defending troops by simply giving monsters a place to stay. There was nothing for me to lose.

I did tell them that young monsters didn’t have to fight, but……there will always be troublemakers. The young goblins probably missed their chance to evacuate because they were busy playing in the tunnels. This resulted in them becoming prey for the adventurers.

“There’s nothing to worry about if this is as tough as they get.”

Fabian commented leisurely.

“I was worried that the tunnels might become narrower, but that didn’t happen. And there are no traps.”

“What kind of traps would be considered dangerous?”

“Hm? For example.”

Fabian thought for a moment before answering.

“It would’ve been bad if there was something like a spider nest. There was a Demon Lord castle that was a cave and had nothing but spiders and bats. Have you ever seen a spider that’s as large as a water buffalo before? They dart across the walls and attack you endlessly. I almost went insane trying to fight one.”

“I see, a spider nest, huh?”

I went around asking the adventurers things like ‘What are you glad isn’t in this dungeon?’ and ‘What would’ve been dangerous?’.

It probably seemed like idle chatter to them, but I was going to use this information later.

In the game, monster spiders were nothing more than trash mobs. I thought they weren’t very efficient monsters since they could get cut down with a single sword slice, but it was different for actual adventurers. I would have never known about this if I hadn’t joined this adventurer group and asked questions.

The adventurers showed off their knowledge as they gave all sorts of answers to my questions.

“There’s nothing that could really be called a trap other than the forked roads.”

There were people who were more afraid of traps than monsters.

“There are only goblins, so this is a piece of cake!”

There were people who said conquering dungeons was easy if the type of monsters that appeared in it was fixed.

“We have a wide field of vision thanks to the bright mana stones.”

And other people who pointed out things that were never described in the game.

“I see. So even that is helpful.”

I played along and nodded.

In other words, I was questioning the beta testers.

The beta testers I had paid a lot to bring here were splendidly pointing out the flaws in my dungeon. The adventurers were only scoundrels, but they had a lot of pride―vagrants always have a lot of pride―so if you give them a chance to boast, then they will always take it.

Thanks to this, Dantalian’s Demon Lord Castle was going to be improved in many ways. Mhm, thank you very much. The flaws you’ve reported will be patched before opening day. Please look forward to the official launch.

If you survive that long, that is.

“We should be arriving at the Demon Lord room soon.”

Fabian spoke up. It has been about 2 hours since we entered the dungeon.

It was reported by the exploration team that went through the dungeon yesterday and the day before that you could reach the Demon Lord room in two hours regardless of the route you took. They, however, had made a mistake. The explorers had gone through the dungeon when the goblins were behind the walls.

Well, who would think that there would be monster settlements behind the labyrinth walls? The explorers reported to the adventurers that this was “a perfect example of a low-ranking dungeon”.

A misinformed report leads to the ruin of parties.

The adventurers realized this the moment they emerged from the last tunnel. The front entrance of the Demon Lord room. The adventurers saw something they had never predicted to see in the open space before them.

“……A girl?”

There was a blonde girl there. It was Laura.

The adventurers furrowed their brows as they failed to understand why some girl would be in the middle of a dungeon. However, the biggest mystery was the object that the girl was holding in her hands. Laura was holding a human skull.

“Mm? Oh. So you have finally arrived.”

Laura turned to face us once she noticed our arrival. She let out an obvious yawn.

“Truly, you fellows are much too slow. This young lady almost fell asleep waiting for you all. To think you would take more than two hours to get here when this young lady had not assigned any sort of unit in your tunnel! I do not know who your leader is, but they are much too cautious.”

“…….”

The adventurers became quiet. The girl’s tone sounded way too flat for the location they were in.

There were dozens of heads lying around Laura. She handled a dagger skillfully as she skinned the head and carved out the eyeballs with a poise that made it clear that she was accustomed to this act. She didn’t stop moving her dagger even as she spoke to the adventurers.

With a ‘thud’, Laura tossed the head to the side once she was finished skinning it. There was a small hill of skulls with tiny bits of flesh attached to them just next to her. If you included those, then there were more than a hundred ‘things that were heads a few moments ago’.

‘Jeez, she’s doing it again.’

I felt a headache coming.

Laura acquired a weird hobby ever since she came to my dungeon. She would turn every intruder that had tried to invade the dungeon into a skull and put them on display like some sort of museum. I told her to stop since it looked horrendous, but she was at it again. Sheesh.

Laura spoke with a tone that sounded as if she were commenting about today’s weather.

“I was bored, so I started working on your comrades first. No matter how scum adventurers may be, it is rude to make a maiden wait.”

“B-Bleeeugh!”

Someone vomited. It was probably a rookie adventurer who had little experience.

There decapitated heads scattered about. Their eyeballs, tongues, and skins were soaked in blood. This was more than enough to make someone sick if they’ve never experienced a battlefield before.

A few veteran adventurers managed to figure out that ‘she’ wasn’t a normal girl and took out their spears. Fabian was one of them.

“……Who, who are you?”

“Hmm. Is it not courtesy to reveal one’s own name first before asking for the name of a mademoiselle?”

Laura furrowed her brows. Fabian’s expression turned stiff as he felt as if the girl was taunting him.

I knew, however, that Laura was truly trying to maintain formalities. Laura was different from me and didn’t have a hobby of cajoling her opponents.

“Fabian, I’m an adventurer.”

“This young lady goes by the name Laura de Farnese.”

Laura got up and greeted them. She lifted the ends of her skirt and bowed as if she were some lady at a ball. Her pure white knees were revealed when she raised her dress to bow. Fabian became bewildered as he asked back.

“……a noble?”

“I am the second esteemed daughter of Parma. My family has already fallen into ruin, so there is no reason to worry about it.”

“Why is the esteemed daughter of a noble doing in a Demon Lord castle? Were you perhaps kidnapped by the Demon Lord?”

“Mm? Kidnapped?”

Laura chuckled. Her laughing face was truly bright like that of a girl in her teens.

“You have listened to too many fairy tales. What would a Demon Lord do by kidnapping a noble’s daughter? No, it is not exactly wrong to say that I was kidnapped.”

“If you were kidnapped, then we will protect you. If the Demon Lord is making you do that, then you can stop right now and…….”

“How foolish. If your wit is as slow as that, then you will only get done in by this young lady.”

Laura let out a sigh. She was still skinning the head.

“This young lady is not here due to another person’s will. I decided to stay here on my own. Oh, I was able to skin it cleanly this time. As I thought, it is easier to do work on a female.”

“……Doing something like that to a corpse, is that solely your will as well?”

Laura nodded.

“It is a recent hobby of mine.”

“Damn it. You’re just an insane girl.”

Fabian spat on the ground.

“You brat, you talked about maidens and courtesy, but where is your courtesy to the dead!?”

“This is this young lady’s own way of holding a funeral. These heads would have rotted away as meals for monsters if I left them be anyway. Would it not be better for the dead if at least their skulls remained? At the very least, this young lady will remember their deaths.”

Laura responded calmly. She genuinely believed that. Fabian’s face contorted with disgust.

“Yeah fucking right. You’re just mocking the dead.”

“Mm. That may be the case.”

But, Laura tilted her head as she continued.

“Are you not the ones who invaded this Demon Lord castle first? You are the ones messing this place up, not us. You are the ones who were disrespectful first.”

She smiled lightly.

“Is there a problem with desecrating the lives of pieces of rubbish?”

“Uuuaagh!”

One of the adventurers couldn’t hold back any longer as he ran forward while shouting.

He raised his axe up high and swung it down as hard as he could. It was what you would call a Rage Slash where you would swing with all your strength.

– Slaaash!

However, the adventurer’s head went flying a few steps away from his target. A longsword had appeared out of Laura’s shadow and sliced the adventurer in half from his groin to his head. The sword returned to her shadow once the corpse fell powerlessly to the ground.

“Death knight, you should have left the head intact!”

Laura glared at her shadow and shouted.

“I cannot add it to my collection like this……! You guys kill humans much too inefficiently. Your blade will only become dull faster if you swing your swords like that! Aah.”

She looked at the severed corpse with a disappointed gaze. The adventurers felt themselves get consumed by fear once they witnessed the girl seem genuinely disappointed by the state of the corpse. What was that just now?

What is this girl?

“I am asking this just in case, but……where, did you get those heads from?”

“Obviously, I got them from the other intruders who came here with you guys. Honestly, they were so weak that I was let down. I had some hopes since there were 150 of you, but they were quite literally a rag tag group of weaklings.”

The adventurers trembled.

Laura smiled as she stared at them. There was neither affection nor hostility in her gaze. It was like she was giving a passing smile to a random person she happened to meet the gaze of. Her smile held no other meaning.

“You can run away right now if you want. Ah, 20 people would be a bit too much. You all can come to an agreement and allow 5 members of your group to run away. This young lady will be capturing the remaining 15.”

“……To think this is a Demon Lord castle protected by a necrophilic girl. We’ve come to quite the ridiculous place. Everyone, get into formation with me in the center! Let’s show this crazy bitch her place!”

The adventurers formed a line of defense with Fabian at the center.

“It cannot be helped if you are going to approach me willingly to be punished.”

Laura placed the head she was holding on the ground before unsheathing the sword at her waist.

“Regret and lament the fact that you looked down on Demon Lord Dantalian, adventurers.”

Several notifications appeared before my eyes.

「Adventurer party ‘Fabian’s party (temp)’ has appeared!」

「1st-floor boss ‘Laura de Farnese’ is intercepting the enemy.」

「A boss battle has begun!」

***

TL Note: Thanks for reading the chapter. This is pretty exciting. We’re getting a lot of things we’d probably have never seen in the LN here. It really does make you understand how vastly different the WN and LN are. I guess it also explains why the author is struggling to write the LN since so much was changed. Why do I feel like I said this before already?….

Welp, this was still a fun chapter and I’ll see you guys in the next one!

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