Reverse Dungeon

Ian’s dungeon continued to expand without end.

The people who came after seeing the notice soon realized they had made the right choice.

Ian, the master of the village, was royalty. ◆ Nоvеlіgһt ◆ (Only on Nоvеlіgһt) One of his subordinates had revealed that he was “the son of a king,” so everyone knew Ian was a person of noble blood.

Even without that, Ian naturally drew attention. Whenever he approached, the people who had come to the dungeon village in search of survival instinctively flinched.

Ian did not treat them harshly.

He simply asked, in a gentle voice, “Name?”

“Pardon?”

“I should at least know the names of the people who have entered my village. Tell me yours. What should I call you?”

“M-my name? Someone like me? It’s Hobbs, Your Majesty.”

“It isn’t Your Majesty.”

“......?”

Ian met the vagrants in person and greeted them one by one.

He was not trying to move them to tears. He simply wanted to learn their names.

As expected, no one above 4-star.

He had hoped for an easy windfall. Most of them were ordinary people around 2-star. They would not be much help in defending the dungeon, but they were useful for increasing its population.

Ian turned his head with faint regret.

Louise was watching him with a deeply satisfied expression.

......?

Ding!

[People consider you a benevolent ruler.]

Yeah, yeah.

Think that all you want.

Ian wanted to get rid of his tyrant reputation as quickly as possible. Because of that reputation, he could not properly do the things he wanted to do.

The forest surrounding the dungeon was now entirely Ian’s territory.

Since Louise had installed numerous traps throughout it, Ian could tell when someone entered through the approach without even moving.

Trap installation was a skill in itself. The moment a trap was triggered, its installer could tell who had stepped on it.

The traps also had a “target setting” function, so they would not activate unless the target was hostile to the dungeon.

CRACK!

The instant something snapped in his mind, Louise reported to Ian.

“It isn’t a person. An enemy has come.”

“There’s an intruder. The target is... a demon.”

“......!”

DING-DING-DING-DING!

A state of emergency was declared throughout the dungeon.

As the alarm rang out, people abandoned whatever they were doing and rushed into the caves assigned as their homes.

“Ian! Hans is missing!”

Someone shouted.

Ian clenched his teeth.

“Sema, check!”

“Yes, sir! <Water Mirror>!”

Sema touched his staff to the spring.

Fortunately, the spell succeeded on the first try.

Whether that was truly fortunate was another matter.

“Aaaaah! Hans!”

The farmer who had reported Hans missing clutched his head.

Reflected in the water was a corpse with one arm torn off by a demon.

Ian watched, not even aware that he had bitten his lip hard enough to bleed, as the demon held Hans’s body and moved its mouth.

The words it formed were simple.

“Human scent.”

There were other human corpses besides Hans.

The people who had moved to the dungeon village after seeing the notice had all become prey.

Ian realized something else.

There was not just one demon.

There were several.

And when several arrogant demons moved together, there was only one possible reason.

A noble higher in rank was commanding them.

It isn’t a demon archduke.

The game developers could not be that insane.

Probably.

They would not send another demon archduke at him now, not after already throwing one at him before.

Of course, Ian had never destroyed a coliseum, drawn the demons’ hostility, and done something like “public recruitment” this early in the game either...

Is it a noble?

A being who had sworn loyalty to a demon archduke and received a title according to its power and wisdom.

They were the ones who actually governed an archduke’s lands.

The demon noble burst into laughter and shouted, “So it’s true! There really is no demon archduke here!”

They had entered deep into the territory, yet no demon had appeared to stop them.

That confirmed the accuracy of their information.

The demon’s laughter reached Ian.

Everything that happened inside the “dungeon territory” could be seen and heard by him.

No.

The demon had not crossed into the southern demon archduke’s territory.

It had invaded Ian’s territory.

Ian also understood why those demons had taken such a risk.

They believed that if there was no demon archduke, no one here could stop them.

And unfortunately, they were right.

With Ian’s current power, he could not stop a noble-class demon.

The southern archduke had vanished, but the demons eyeing the resulting power vacuum would not suddenly come flying in to defend this land.

They needed to conserve their strength so they could compete for the next archduke’s seat.

Even if this land would become theirs once they became the next archduke, why would they waste strength protecting territory they did not yet own?

That was how demons thought at their core.

Selfish.

Greedy.

Driven by desire.

Ian’s dungeon could not stop that demon noble.

Ian roughly swept his bangs back.

Then he pressed a hand to his forehead and said, “We can’t fight them inside the dungeon.”

“B-but how...? They’ll catch our scent soon and find us!”

“I’ll go out and lure them away. Use that opening to escape, Lord Ian.”

Louise stepped forward.

Ian pushed him back and thought.

The idea itself was not bad.

If it worked.

If it failed, it would be a disaster.

No. Think of another way.

Ian tried to think normally.

But the enemy was right in front of him, and his mind kept whispering the same ridiculous thought.

Try something you’ve never done before.

Are you even a gamer?

Cold sweat broke out across his skin.

Will this really work?

The demon noble’s laughter seemed to echo right in front of him.

Ian had to make a decision before the dungeon was discovered.

So, right now...

There was no other way.

Ian sighed and put on the demon mask.

“Ian?!”

“Everyone, come here. We have work to do.”

“......!”

The subordinates included in Ian’s “everyone” gathered before him.

First, Ian used Sema’s experience points to buy a <Levitation> skill book, then shoved it into his arms.

“You learn this.”

“......”

“Everyone understands, right? If we fail, I die. Don’t feel pressured. Let’s do this properly.”

“How are we supposed to not feel pressured?!”

Sema’s question spoke for everyone there.

Ian ignored it and ran down into the dungeon.

There’s something I need to prepare.

The remains of the demon archduke, abandoned in the dragon’s territory.

The reason this unknown subordinate, clearly not one of the southern archduke’s own, had invaded the territory was obvious.

Because there was no southern archduke.

Then all we need to do is show them that the archduke still exists.

Ian used <Purification> as sparingly as possible as he descended deeper and deeper.

The demon archduke had widened the hole cleanly, so it was easier to climb down than before.

His HP, however, was dropping fast.

Should I use <Purification> one more time?

Ian considered it, then rejected the thought.

If he woke the dragon, everything would be over.

This time, he could not pull another stunt like II-Je.

The dragon had exhausted too much power killing the southern archduke.

More importantly, it was a creature that could not leave this cave.

By the time the demon noble finished butchering the dragon, Ian’s entire party would already be dead.

Trying not to look at his HP, which had already fallen to half, Ian approached the dragon.

Without <Purification>, the dragon did not wake.

It simply lay there unconscious, its scales glistening dark red beneath the stain of demonic energy.

Ian passed that enormous body. freёwebnovel.com

And from the corpse of the southern demon archduke, he succeeded in taking the item he needed.

Done.

Ian checked his nearly depleted HP.

Then he sprinted madly back up the cave.

The western demon noble, who had been enjoying the human hunt, suddenly looked up.

A vast wave of demonic energy was approaching at terrifying speed.

Every demon stopped moving and turned in that direction.

The southern demon archduke was known to be mentally unstable.

That alone was not especially strange.

Most demons whose bones were steeped in demonic energy were like that.

What made the archduke peculiar was his extreme sentimentality.

One day, he might pity the weak.

The next, he might kill them for being filthy.

One day, he might weep over flowers.

The next, he might summon a storm and uproot a mountain.

The whims of the southern archduke were almost a natural disaster.

Impossible to predict.

Who could ever know what he was thinking?

It was always wise to avoid disasters.

A pale face, with scales faintly showing beneath the skin.

Red horns.

A black cloak.

Black hair swept back from the face.

Black eyes gazing down at them with melancholy.

And a sudden surge of overwhelming demonic energy.

Ah.

A chill ran through the western noble.

The southern demon archduke was floating in the air, looking down at him.