It's Dangerous Outside the Dungeon, Master

* * *

Although Maria and Leonis wanted to leave the city immediately, they both knew that was impossible.

Even if Leonis could search for the detailed location of the dungeon, they still needed to reinforce their forces for the battles fought inside.

The adventurers they had gathered so far were specialized in searching for dungeons and people.

They needed to hire other adventurers or mercenaries for combat power.

At the very least, they needed people to protect the rear, including Sonia, apart from Maria and Daniel who would be going into battle.

“Here’s your payment. All four of you have worked hard.”

“Thank you, Miss Maria.”

“I wish you luck, Miss Maria…! I’m sure you’ll be able to find your sister!”

“Thank you, Velvet.”

And thanks to that, I also had a few days of time.

My coming to the human city was not only to obtain information about the enemy but equally important was to check the information about the surroundings.

For that purpose, when everyone was asleep and the city’s curfew was in effect, I slipped out of the inn where Maria’s group was staying and stepped into the night sky.

“The night is a bit cool.”

It was summer, or a season as hot as summer.

Still, as I looked down at the city from atop the city walls where the patrol guards were asleep, a pleasant wind that wasn’t humid blew.

I didn’t expect this since there’s a river nearby.

It felt indescribably good to slip out alone after being among people who showed goodwill towards me but weren’t very friendly.

‘I can see well.’

The darkness of the cities in this world was incomparably darker than Earth, but that wasn’t a problem for me.

Just as vampires have the power of blood and emotions, and succubi have the power of dreams and souls, necromancers’ necromancy also has the power of shadows.

Day and night had no meaning for my movements.

‘It’s over there.’

“Let’s go.”

-Clack.

The fortress city’s walls were high, and thus their shadows were deep and thick.

After falling from the city wall, I safely landed on the ground by stepping on the white skeletal hands rising one by one from within those shadows.

“Eek…!”

A shrill scream of an unlucky person was heard.

“Oh dear.”

“I-I didn’t see anything…!”

“Right. Now you won’t see anything ever again.”

Crunch!

I had already emptied the inside of my inventory in the room for times like this.

As the skeleton that used to be a bandit but became loyal to me pulled the corpse into the shadows, it was stored in my inventory.

I could either dump it in a suitable place, or if I couldn’t dump it, just ‘summon’ it as is.

“It’s high.”

The lord’s inner castle was close to the eastern part of the outer wall and was built higher than the city walls, perhaps for command purposes.

Guessing that the lord’s living space and conference rooms would be at the highest point of the castle to receive sunlight, I immediately moved towards the shadow of the inner castle.

“Now, go in.”

Then, a summon with cloudy gray bones and crystal eyes embedded in the back of its hand.

I sent the ‘Necromancer’s Eye’ into the interior of the castle.

I couldn’t sense any gazes or presences. If someone had witnessed this scene from outside, alarms would have rung already. Dozens of bizarre bug-like things were crawling into the castle.

Moreover, this castle had no defenses against a Dungeon Lord’s magic power.

It’s understandable since there have been very few Lords who broke out of dungeons throughout history, but it’s rather disappointing from the perspective of someone who was somewhat tense.

“It’s more disappointing than I expected.”

Thanks to that, it didn’t take long for the results of a series of actions to be in my hands.

I didn’t leave any traces.

The only unfortunate victim was a homeless person I saw near the city wall. The existence of that poor life will soon be forgotten.

However, the results were less satisfactory than expected.

“To think that the locations of nearby villages and where what monsters live aren’t properly recorded…”

All I could see were just the locations of mountains, rivers, forests, and cities.

The ‘military map’ was literally a miserable thing with only the terrain and city locations recorded.

I knew that the quality of medieval maps couldn’t be good, but I had some expectations since magic exists here.

“Ah. Mages.”

Suddenly, it occurred to me that mages might have more detailed maps.

I pondered for a moment.

Although the lord’s castle wasn’t defended against magic power, would the mage guild be the same?

Of course, the conclusion was that I wouldn’t know unless I tried.

Coincidentally, now was when the city’s forces had left their posts to subjugate the senior Dungeon Lord. Even if not the ‘Eyes Tracing Truth’ guild, it was a moment when I expected there to be considerably fewer people at the headquarters.

‘It’s worth trying.’

Thinking so, I looked at the second map I had obtained from the castle.

It was drawn more detailed than the first map recording the terrain of the area, and it was a sketch of the inside and outside of the fortress.

The inn where Maria’s group and I were staying was in the southern part inside the outer wall, and the ‘Eyes Tracing Truth’ mage guild was also nearby.

The lord’s castle was to the east.

And along the northern and western outer walls, there were three more mage guilds.

Probably a deployment considering forces to respond immediately if something happened to the city walls.

To my eyes, that path looked like a walking trail.

‘It would be just right to take a round and come back.’

Leaving such an inner impression, I started to move.

Fortunately, the effort of moving all night was worthwhile.

* * *

After spending the first day resting like that, Daniel returned late in the morning of the next day.

Given our slow travel time, it wouldn’t have been strange if he had arrived with us, but.

“You’ve worked hard.”

“Maria. I’m a bit late, aren’t I?”

“No, you’re right on time. We can rest today and depart tomorrow.”

“Really? That’s fortunate. I couldn’t find the dungeon, but I secured a suspected location. We can take the new mage and check it out.”

“You did really well. It’ll be much faster.”

Maria, Leonis, and Daniel moved quickly.

They pressed the adventurers’ guild and mercenaries’ guild in the city to check the remaining forces, and at the same time, secured a few forces by offering quite a large reward.

Large-scale requests are not only big jobs but also come with large rewards, and because so many people move, the survival rate is relatively high.

Many people had left to carry out the large-scale request of subjugating the rampaging dungeon posted by the city, and those remaining were likely to follow later, so additional expenditure was essential.

“Still, fortunately, we were able to secure a few people.”

“They’re not very reliable, but…”

Although there were no ‘high-rank’ adventurers at all, they could only recruit two formal adventurers and two apprentice adventurers.

Two vanguards and two mid-range fighters.

“Oh my. Miss mage. We meet again like this.”

Among them was a familiar face.

The clumsy, formal adventurer from the Western Continent who observes well but can’t hide his pride is the tracker Gyeonghan.

Meanwhile, it seems the others had already taken requests for the battlefield. Should I say it’s fortunate that I won’t meet more familiar people?

The fact that this person, who would be rated worst by Maria, was hired again despite being the only one left means that there really are so few people in the city.

“Sir Gyeonghan. We meet again.”

“I couldn’t forget the taste of the jerky you gave me, Miss mage.

“Ah, this?”

“Wow. After eating this, I can’t put any other jerky in my mouth.”

“That’s good to hear.”

He was still a man who was good at putting on a facade.

“Sir Gyeonghan. I’m counting on you this time.”

“Miss Maria! Of course!”

But he’s a person whose expression crumples towards anyone who treats him badly even once.

I could see Gyeonghan’s distorted face as he turned away from Maria.

He looks like he’s about to do something.

Clop clop clop…

After that, the movement to the dungeon that started on the morning of the third day proceeded much faster than before.

Because we got a carriage.

It was too short a distance to spend money on moving by carriage, but it was thanks to Leonis, who was in a hurry, generously spending his wealth as a mage.

While the previous novices and Maria’s group had to combine searching, this time we just had to move quickly.

‘…I knew from hearing about it, but it’s uncomfortable.’

Even so, we couldn’t get a high-class carriage, so it was quite uncomfortable.

I had a demon body and the others were trained, so we had good recovery or no problems to begin with, but Sonia, who was physically weak, became pale and felt nauseous.

“Sonia. Are you okay?”

“I’m… fine. No problem.”

Maria looked upset as she had urged Sonia several times to rest in the city, but Sonia absolutely wouldn’t listen.

It must be puzzling since she said that when they were younger, even just a year ago, she used to follow her well.

“…”

I shook my head at Maria who was looking at me.

It meant that I had already tried to persuade her several times, but she wouldn’t listen. This wasn’t a lie.

I had actually persuaded her, and she had refused.

[…Do you understand?]

[Yes, Teacher.]

It’s just that I had told her something a few times before that.

* * *

For Sonia, this life-altering event was something that had to be concluded somehow, and that conclusion had to be seen with her own eyes and finished with her own hands as much as possible.

And that if she didn’t do so, it would be difficult to move forward.

Such talk.

“My friends… I must…”

“Sonia…”

Thanks to that, Sonia’s stubbornness now was indeed ‘her own’. Just because the wind blows doesn’t mean the ship always follows it, right?

Although there’s Maria’s regretful headwind, in the end, Sonia is holding the helm.

After watching the two of them for a while, I turned my head towards the approaching energy I felt.

The power of the core.

It was the presence of the object that should be called my other half.

‘It seems the change of pace went well too.’

For several days, I felt the atmosphere of this world while looking at places where people live. Although development is a bit slower and the culture is quite different, it felt like traveling to a foreign country with good public safety.

The return after such a good trip is always pleasant.

I felt the same way now.

‘I want to see her soon. Eve.’

The image of her, like a large dog waiting for me, comes to mind.

The Eve in my imagination was beautiful, but I couldn’t immediately tell her hair color, so it always had a different color scheme. Only her eyes were unified in the blue series since the glow of her eyes was blue.

“…Whew.”

Somehow, the image of her sitting like a dog and wagging her tail came to mind, and I quietly smiled so others wouldn’t notice.

It was a thought not fitting for right before a battle, but that couldn’t stop my imagination.

* * *

At the same time, Rita’s dungeon.

‘…She’s coming.’

Even though she was just a skeleton trifle that couldn’t even be near the dungeon core, Evangeline could feel the approaching presence of her master.

Click.

Rustle.

-Clatter.

As she rose from her seat wearing Jack’s breastplate, blue eye lights began to rise in the darkness.

Dozens of soldiers, each holding weapons that would be perfect for thieves, such as axes or hammers, rose up.

Even their appearances were slightly different from each other.

From minor differences in build to major differences in their species when alive.

-Clack!

Snap!

However, unlike the non-uniformity of their appearances, there was a certain discipline in the movements of the skeletons gathering together.

Movements that made it hard to imagine these were ordinary skeletons that hadn’t achieved any class-up, movements that seemed more like those of skeleton soldiers.

Shring!

As Evangeline raised her sword, the skeletons following her raised their weapons high once and began to march.

A little over a week.

That was the time it took for Evangeline to be able to command the skeletons with faint intelligence like an army, even without Rita’s direction.

『Genius Commander – When commanding fifty or more soldiers, the commander’s own and the soldiers’ main stats increase. This is proportional to the number of soldiers.』

In the status window that she herself couldn’t see but vaguely felt, the ‘blue’ characteristic that had bloomed while Rita was away was shining.

It was something that even she didn’t know – that this was the result of leading subordinates who were stupid in life and even stupider in death, training their movements with the sole intention of showing a cool appearance to her returned master, bringing back what existed in the future and past in a different form.

If Rita were to learn of this, she would only be able to smile. Whether it was a laugh of disbelief or a smile of genuine joy.

Anyway.

-Clack.

The swordsman’s eyes burn blue as she resolutely grips her sword once in the shadows of the dungeon entrance.

A battle was approaching Evangeline and her master.