Dungeon Defense (WN)

Chapter 10: Tutorial Cleared

* * *

I wasn’t able to catch up to Riff’s group. The golem’s movement speed was slower than I expected. By the time I brought down the other group, Riff’s group had already reached the entrance.

I gave up on my pursuit. The golem only having 2 health left was also a reason why I abandoned my pursuit. In the end, including the one person that got away in the beginning and Riff’s group, I wound up losing 6 people.

The 2nd fight was fierce. After ordering the golem to crouch down in a dark corner of the cavern――doing this made him look no different from a normal boulder――I hid behind a stalagmite. The golem ambushed the group the instant the adventurers were about to pass by. The surprise attack itself was a success. Two adventurers died within a minute.

“Why is there a monster left!?”

“Fuck, did he spawn naturally?”

The problem was what came next. Although the remaining three were also rookies, they must have faced monsters before. Through experience, they knew that they could fight back against a monster as long as they didn’t panic. Two of them guarded with their wooden shields and the other person attacked with his metal mace. The golem’s health dropped down quickly from the 6 it had originally.

I got nervous and revealed myself from behind the stalagmite. I decided to take a gamble because I was afraid that the golem might die. I shouted loudly in order to attract their attention.

“Aaaaah! Adventurers, a bunch of adventurers are coming!”

They turned towards me on reflex because of my sudden shout. Before the expression asking ‘What are you doing here?’ could appear on their faces, the golem swung its fist at one of the adventurers’ heads the instant they lowered their guards. Like that, one of them dropped out. My sudden arrival and the news that other adventurers were approaching caused them to become flustered and they got wiped out once their formation was lost.

I wonder if he narrowly managed to put two and two together. Before the last adventurer died, he turned to glare at me despite his two broken legs.

“Demon Lord――You son of a bitch, you betrayed us!”

He threw his spear at me. I panicked and fell over. Since he had tossed his spear without any leg strength, it couldn’t reach me and fell limp on the ground. The adventurer’s head was crushed under the golem’s arm before the spear could even finish rolling.

Immediately after, the word 「CLEAR!」  appeared with some fanfare.

─ You’ve cleared the tutorial mission.

─ As a reward for completing the tutorial, you have been given 1 skill. The skill type will be determined according to the actions carried out by the player.

─ Congratulation! You’ve acquired the skill ‘Acting’.

I heard a slightly robotic female voice in my ear. The 「CLEAR!」  sparkled in front of me. The capital letters were glimmering with various colors like the words that could be found on casino slot machines.

I stared vacantly at the light. Shortly after, a new hologram screen appeared with a voice saying ‘Outcome Report’. It was a report about the tutorial.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ [Outcome Report]

*Number of monsters Leveled UP: 1　　　Number of incapacitated monsters: 0 *Number of captured prisoners: 0

Gold in possession:　611 gold Gold robbed:　 +2 gold　 　　　Pillaged gold: -201 gold

Total fund:　412 gold

*Dungeon experience: 0026/1000 (Lv.01) ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

A sound effect that didn’t suit this gorey scene of corpses scattered throughout the cavern and the crushed skulls and brains resounded. I couldn’t accept this gap in my head. I looked at nothing in particular while crumpled up.

Tap.

Something touched the end of my foot. The spear that was tossed by the final adventurer had finally come to a stop at my foot.

“Uugh……!”

The queasiness I’ve been holding back until now surged up all at once. It was the vomit that I’ve been managing to hold back using the excitement of the battlefield as an anesthetic. I tried to hold it back this time as well; however, vomit and gastric fluid flowed out the instant I opened my mouth. A disgusting, brown liquid poured over the handle of the spear.

There was a time in my first year of university where I was dragged by a club senior to a redlight district and lost my virginity. At that time, the smell that was emanating from the lower part of the woman who was taking care of me was sincerely disgusting. It was so bad that I couldn’t imagine a man that would want to go down on her could possibly exist. However, that was on the weaker side. The smell of blood that emanates from a human’s head, from their spilling out insides, was more disgusting than anything else. I never knew that blood could give off such a wretched scent.

“Uugh! Guuuah!”

Something similar to the clots of blood scattered on the ground was also flowing through my body right now, this thought went through my head. My queasiness became worse. It felt like I was vomiting out my own brain. While my mind was becoming faint, a ding sound――a sound I now detested, blared.

「You have leveled up.」

I collapsed on the spot I had vomited and passed out.

I don’t know how long I was out for. I couldn’t see the sky from inside the cave. Light fixtures that looked like they were enchanted with magic, a faint, white light emanated from these spherical objects. I blinked. The cavern ceiling was distant, so I could only see darkness.

I felt so tired that I could die. I wanted to continue lying down, but I couldn’t endure the wretched smell. I let out a groan as I lifted up my upper body. Right when I was about to instinctively use my right foot to stand up, I abruptly remembered.

‘Ah. Right, I can’t move my right foot.’

Surprisingly, I accepted this fact rather casually. It might be because it felt like a heavy fog was pressing down on my head, so my mind felt dull. I looked around. The golem was standing obediently at my side. It seems it was standing guard to protect its master while he slumbered.

“……Thanks.”

I’m uncertain whether a lowest-tier monster could understand me, but I expressed my genuine gratitude towards it. This golem was the one and only existence in this hostile world that I could trust.

─ Krwah.

Something rather surprising happened. The golem grumbled as if it understood me. Was this also perhaps a Demon Lord ability?

I crawled on the ground and approached each of the adventurers’ corpses. It was to take the gold they were holding. The first thought that went through my head the moment I opened my eyes was ‘I have to survive’, followed by ‘I need money’. Guilt towards committing murder for the first time in my life?

There was nothing like that.

To be more exact, I didn’t have the leisure to have that sort of emotion.

I ended up losing one adventurer in my first fight. It was clear that he would tell Riff’s group about my betrayal. Riff’s group will most likely get upset and they’ll get even more upset once they hear that their comrades were slaughtered mercilessly.

I don’t know when they would return to this dungeon for revenge. There’s also a chance that a different adventurer party would actually invade as well. A party of 20, or perhaps, 30 people. I have to accumulate as much money as I can before then.

‘Demon Lord――You son of a bitch, you betrayed us!’

I heard a voice in my head as I took the last gold out from the final adventurer. I grit my teeth. I wanted to smirk, but it didn’t come out well. It wasn’t a smirk that came out but a trembling voice.

“You guys reap what you sow. It’s also your guys’ fault for lowering your guards.”

If they didn’t invade, then they wouldn’t have died.

I tightly gripped a coin with my blood and vomit-soaked hand. It was then that a new hologram appeared before my eyes. It was a notification informing me that the affection of Riff and the other adventurers had dropped to zero. I got up staggeringly. I sat on the golem’s shoulder and ordered it to go to the Demon Lord’s room.

What was going to happen to me?

It was a mystery. What kind of place this place was, why this world was similar to Dungeon Attack, and above all else, why I’ve been thrown into this situation. Nevertheless, there was one thing which I was certain of.

That I was going to spend the rest of the day sleeping on the bed in the Demon Lord’s room.

***

. . .

***

─ Tutorial end.

─ Player status.

***

[Player: Lolita]

True Name: Dantalian Race: Demon Lord　　 　Faction: Dantalian’s Demon Lord Army Attribute: Neutral(-10)

Level: 2　　　　　Infamy: 16 Job: Dungeon Manager(F), Demon Lord(F)

Leadership: 14/19　　Might: 2/5 　　Intelligence: 25/25 Politics: 10/20　　Charm: 4/7　　Technique: 1/10

*Titles: You have no titles. *Abilities: You have no abilities. *Skills: Acting

[Achievements: 0] [Subordinates: 1 units/30 units]

─ You will now proceed to the next stage (stage no.01).

***

TL note: Thanks for reading. There are already several differences compared to the LN, so I think it’s okay to say that the WN is another story in itself.

In any case, my classes have resumed, so you’ll have to wait about a week or two before my schedule is set in stone. I’ll still be translating whenever I have the free time to do so. Furthermore, I’ll most likely be able to start Handholding translations soon as well, so look forward to that. I’ll see you guys on the next release.