Dungeon Defense (WN)

Chapter 17: Pave 10 Paths and Earn a Penny (7)

“……If that is true.”

While the other executives were mulling over the destructive force the ability to create an epidemic possessed, the wolfman muttered.

“Dantalian may be the Great Demon Lord of Angolmois.”

Great Demon Lord of Angolmois!

It was a type of religious belief that has been passed down for generations in the demon world like a legend. It was similar to the belief of a savior in the human world. One day, a Demon Lord capable of uniting the blood and anguish-filled demon continent will appear and the demons who have always been confined within the demon continent, which is on the back of a dragon that calls itself the guardian of the world, will be able to roam freely under the sun. It was a cliche legend; however, to the demons that have yearned to escape from this world, Angolmois wasn’t a simple legend, but the very desire that contained the hopes of both their pasts and presents.

“You really are an article of nonsense. To make matters worse, it baffles me that some of you even nodded your heads in agreement. Since ancient times, be it a Great Demon Lord or a Great Demon God, everyone who has added ‘Great’ to their names has never been a decent person.”

The goblin smirked.

“For the past thousand years, there have been 4 Demon Lords who claimed to be an Angolmois. Have you already forgotten? You low quality goods that I feel embarrassed to even call my comrades and, honestly, I’d rather not call you my comrades if possible, I’m asking you all if your brains have already spoiled from eating crow meat. The four of them were all swindlers! Either that or dreamers.”

The goblin stood up. He was holding a staff that was twice his height.

“How many of our people were sacrificed for that dream? Just how many demons were needlessly like a moth to a flame? If souls truly exist, then the netherworld is most likely filled with the souls of our people. Heed me! If your skulls aren’t just empty cans and are skulls that actually know a thing or two. Angolmois is nothing more than a political move used by those Demon Lords.”

It’s a rather old and wearisome move, the goblin muttered as he turned around. The old vampire called out to the goblin as he made his way to leave the conference room.

“Torkel. Where are you going?”

“I will go meet this Demon Lord called Dantalian or whatever.”

The goblin slammed his staff on the floor. The firmly shut doors of the conference room opened by themselves.

“I don’t care whether he’s an Angolmois or not, but it’s true that his business proposal was well-timed. We failed to recognize this and chose to disregard it. Shouldn’t we apologize? Dimwits, stop mulling over pointless matters. We are, foremost, merchants.”

The old goblin left briskly. The other executives had an idle discussion about the several Demon Lords who had previously claimed to be an Angolmois before leaving the conference room in twos and threes. Only the vampire and the wolfman remained. The wolfman personally brought some wine and spoke as he poured the vampire a glass. Compared to his previous demeanor, he was now behaving incredibly courteously.

“Sir Ivar, how should we act? If you believe that Dantalian is too much of a dangerous individual, then give me the order. My teeth did not grow to simply eat steak.”

“Have I ever doubted the strength of your teeth? There is no need for you to behave rashly. Demon Lords are the allies of demonkind. This is a principle that has never changed. Demon Lords have no reason to threaten us as long as we do not become hostile towards them first.”

All Demon Lords situate their dungeons in the human world and live there. While demonkind were perpetuating their bloody struggle in the demon world, these individuals declared that they would lead all of demonkind to a different world and uncover a new dream. These individuals were the Demon Lords. In other words, demons had no reason to fight the Demon Lords for rights or benefits in the demon world. They didn’t live in the same place, after all.

The old vampire took a sip of the red wine.

“Regardless, if the Demon Lord tries to interfere with our profit, then that would be a different story.”

A cold smirk was hanging on his lips.

* * *

Uahahaha!

I’ve recently gained the habit of laughing whenever no one is around. My grin nearly stretched from ear to ear.

Every time I laughed, my goblin would tilt its head and ask, ‘What’s wrong with Master?’ and my golem would answer, ‘I don’t know, but he’s acting scarily.’ with a shrug. I didn’t mind it, though. Even if they couldn’t see it, I could clearly see it before my eyes.

My dungeon’s brilliant wealth!

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ [Dungeon: Dantalian’s Demon Lord Castle]

Rank: Over the hill(F)

Technology Research: 0 Magic Research: 0

*Special Skill: None *Monsters: 0 units *Wealth: 20,311 gold

※The castle is in ruins. Neighborhood kids refer to this place as a fun playground! This place is in danger of being conquered at any moment. Urgently open the ‘Monster Employment Tab’ and prepare yourself by hiring a unit of monsters. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Fantastic! Amazing!

Among the people who caught the Black Death, there were naturally aristocrats and clerics. According to Lapis, people were skeptical about the effectiveness of the black herbs at first, but once the efficacy of the herb was confirmed, their price skyrocketed as they were purchased in bulk. In the end, after making an investment of 1,000 gold, I profited by no less than 25,000 gold. From that gain, I gave 5,000 gold to Lapis in order to pay the principal and interest for the emergency funding I had received. Thus, I made twenty times the profit.

There was a time when I went to Gangwon Land. I was shocked when I saw the middleaged women and men pulling the slot machine levers endlessly. They were pulling the levers as if they didn’t want to waste even a single second. At that time, I failed to understand why they would put their lives on the line like that, but now I understood. Once you’ve had a taste of success, you can’t go back.

‘How can I go back to mining when making money is this easy?!’

I made an average of 2 gold a day from mining enchanted ores nonstop. If I were to calculate how long it would take me to make 20,000 gold at that pace, then it would take about 10,000 days; in other words, approximately 27 years. Was that not insane? On the other hand, as a result of receiving a loan of a thousand gold and investing all of it boldly, I made more than 20,000 gold in no more than 10 days. I spent my entire day grinning happily.

‘Nevertheless, I can’t get ahead of myself.’

This wealth is nothing more than funding to defend my dungeon. No matter how much gold I have, it won’t be able to protect me if all of it is rotting away in my storage. After letting out one more laugh, I opened the monster employment tab.

Although my wealth has improved immensely, I think it might be because my dungeon is still level F as I couldn’t hire monsters that were stronger than the lowest-tier golem yet. It was most likely a system where the variety of monsters I could hire broadened according to my level.

‘I might be able to hire a dragon once I reach around level A.’

I felt my heart pounding. I had more hope compared to a few days ago. I felt as if I could actually make it through this. If I had a dragon that naturally has the passive ability to resist magic and has a massive AOE attack called Breath, then……. Of course, this was still just wishful thinking. Regardless, even this wishful thinking was something I couldn’t possibly imagine a few days ago. I will probably never forget the sensation I felt as I stabbed Hawk in the throat.

Now then, let’s hire some monsters.

Having a lot in numbers wasn’t the answer to everything and having high stats wasn’t that great either. There was something more important and vital in the game than those two things. And that was━━.

‘Synergy.’

I examined the monster employment tab carefully.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

<table width="686"> <td width="120">Monster Name <td width="78">Stamina <td width="76">Attack <td width="76">Defense <td width="85">Price <td width="120">Slime <td width="78">2 <td width="76">2 <td width="76">2 <td width="85">70 Gold <td width="120">Lowest-tier Fairy <td width="78">4 <td width="76">3 <td width="76">2 <td width="85">160 Gold <td width="120">Goblin <td width="78">4 <td width="76">4 <td width="76">4 <td width="85">250 Gold <td width="120">Lowest-tier Golem <td width="78">7 <td width="76">5 <td width="76">5 <td width="85">400 Gold

[Useable Fund: 20,311 Gold]

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

“Mmm.”

I’ll ignore the slimes. Be it their movement speed, attack, or defense, they were simply luggage that didn’t have any particularly good stat. They had a strong point of not being affected by bladed weapons that well, but their stamina was low anyway, so it didn’t matter. I started to think while looking at the lowest-tier fairy, goblin, and lowest-tier golem.

“F-rank adventurers are still the only parties that come here. At most, they only have spears and bows.”

Talking to myself has become a habit ever since I was dropped into this world. It felt like my head would become clearer whenever I said my thoughts out loud instead of letting it spin inside my head. I continued to murmur.

“They may be weak to magic damage, but golems would be appropriate since they can resist physical attacks.”

According to the setting of the game, regardless of whether they were the lowest-tier golems or the highest-tier golems, they all received 200% damage from magic attacks and 50% damage from physical attacks. Golems were perfect for F-rank adventurer parties that couldn’t possibly have a priest or a mage. This was also the reason why the first thing I bought was a golem.

“There probably won’t be any mages until E-rank, so it should be fine, but…….”

Hawk pointed out something that I hadn’t thought of; that the adventurers would be fine as long as they attacked from a safe distance while hastily retreating at the same time. There was a chance that another adventurer would have the same idea. I required monsters that could support the golems.

I purchased 5 golems and 10 fairies. My strategy went as so: the golems will stand at the front of the formation while the small but quick fairies shoot magic from the backline. At most, the only spell that the lowest-tier fairies can do is Wind Cutter, a technique that compresses the air and fires it, but I knew how I could take advantage of this.

“Low-tier adventurers are completely ignorant when it comes to magic.”

I had no doubt that even Wind Cutter would appear like an incomprehensible mystical ability to peasants who have never seen proper magic before in their lives. The adventurers will definitely become flustered by the sudden appearance of magic. Thus, while they are all panicking, my unit of golems that boast high defenses will use that opportunity to charge in as dps-cum-tanks.

A unit organization that considers synergy, positioning, and the mental state of the opposition.

“Literally a unit made specifically for low-tier adventurers.”

I smirked.

No one knows what monsters torment adventurers the most better than I do. I put a painstaking amount of effort into Dungeon Attack, after all. I also had a period in my life where I was a beginner, and the formation that frustrated me the most was a combination of golems and fairies. It’s embarrassing to admit, but my party actually got wiped out by this formation quite a lot.

I made the golem (level 2) I had hired during the tutorial as the unit leader. I then situated them in the large tunnel in front of the Demon Lord room so that they could intervene at any time. The golems behaved in a disciplined manner as they stood in a line and gave me a salute. The very sight of 6 golems standing in a line was overflowing with dignity.

─Kyaru! Kyarururu!

On the other hand, the fairies were flying around me ceaselessly. Watching the hand-sized fairies fly back and forth was hectic, and yet, I felt happy. They were super cute, after all! The golems and the goblin were also cute, but how should I put it? It felt like I was looking at a bunch of my daughters who had grown up prettily. My mind ended up feeling faint as I watched the fairies flap their wings energetically as they played.

“Ah, my cute girls!”

I held one of the fairies and gave her a big kiss. It seemed the fairy liked it as well as she began to giggle loudly enough that it resonated throughout the cave. Sheesh, my children know how to follow the mood as well. There’s nothing for your dad to teach you now!

─ Kyaruru? Kyaru?

I couldn’t speak their language, but I instinctually knew what she was saying.

“Of course. Your dad thinks you girls are the prettiest!”

─ Kyaruru!

The fairies immediately rushed towards me. One of them hid in my hair while another latched on to my cheek. This is what happiness feels like, huh? I always wondered why my friends kept whining about wanting to go through the struggle of getting married and having kids, but if the kids are as pretty as my fairies, then I think I wouldn’t have any regrets.

Right when I had forgotten all of my troubles and was enveloped by a paradise of happiness.

“E-Ehem.”

I heard someone clear their throat behind me. Once I turned around, I saw a goblin with a very wrinkly forehead. He was leaning his body against a staff that was much taller than he was.

I knitted my eyebrows. Who are you supposed to be?

“It is an honor to meet you like this, Your Highness Dantalian.”

The goblin bowed. However, due to the natural body proportions of a goblin, it looked as if he only lowered his head. In any case, I didn’t feel any hostility from him.

“Who are you?”

I responded informally. This was something that Lapis pointed out a couple of days ago, but it appears that there has never been a case where a Demon Lord spoke to a demon formally. Lapis must have been right, as the old goblin stayed bowing as if this was completely normal.

“This humble one’s name is Torkel and I am an executive of the Keuncuska Firm. I am here because there is something I wish to discuss with Your Highness about in regard to the epidemic.”

Aha. So that’s why.

I kept up only the minimum amount of caution. He was someone I was expecting to come one day. From their perspective, I was someone they had to get information out of since I had predicted the outbreak of a contagious disease. If they have to, they’re probably planning to grab my hand and do business with me.

“I welcome you to my humble abode.”

“For starters, let me apologize for our shameful behavior. Even though Your Highness Dantalian had foreseen an epidemic, our firm treated it lightly. No matter how this one looks at it, this was a fault on our side.”

“What of it? Anyone can make mistakes.”

The goblin then raised his head.

“I thank you for your magnanimous generosity. Now then, about the issue I wish to discuss…….”

“Wait a moment. Where is Lapis?”

I cut him off. The goblin gave me a confused look.

“Lapis. The individual who was exclusively in charge of handling my needs.”

“Ah…… yes; however, as the matter at hand has become like this, as an executive, I will personally-”

“No need.”

“Pardon?”

I was moved by how Lapis dealt with affairs. I believe that I was able to make a profit of 20,000 gold from a thousand gold investment not because I was that great, but due to how talented she was. If Lapis weren’t around, then would I have been able to earn even a penny with my knowledge of the future? No. I was able to make this much because she listened to me and did her best.

When I offered to give her 500 gold as a bonus, Lapis responded by saying,

‘I only did what I had to do.’

and refused. She refused so sternly that I almost fell for her, that cool city girl! Lapis was now the one person I trusted the most in this world.

‘You said you were being treated as an outcast in your workplace, right? I’ll bring you up properly.’

As I thought these words in my head, I spoke.

“As it has always been, Lapis will be the one to handle my needs.”

“B-But, that child is only a rank 5 personnel.”

“And she is also the one who bestowed upon me an immense profit. There is nothing more that needs to be said. Either dispatch her to me or come here with her.”

I turned around and began playing with the fairies again. I could obviously tell that the goblin was incredibly bewildered behind me, but I paid him no mind. It’s their side that’ll find it regrettable now anyway. Sure enough, after about 3 minutes, the goblin used teleportation magic to leave.

“Hm. Needless to say, he probably stepped forward because I seemed like a valuable customer. Where was he when I wanted a loan? Seriously, people that shamelessly steal their subordinates’ achievements are the ones I hate the most.”

-Kyaru?

“Oh dear, my pretties! Were your dad’s words too difficult? I’m sorry. Pretties, let’s kiss and make up!”

-Kyarururu!

The cavern was filled with the sound of fairies laughing for a while.

In the distance, I could feel my goblin’s disappointed emotion transfer to me as he thought, ‘Our master is a pedophile…….’. No, you’re wrong. That’s really a misunderstanding. My preferences are perfectly normal! More importantly, Bling, where did you learn such an inappropriate word!?

***

TL Note: Thanks for reading the chapter. Slowing down a bit because of all the assignments that are due next week. It’ll probably stay like this until my midterms are over, but I should still have a decent amount of time to work on translating between a couple of my classes. At the very least, a chapter every week should most definitely be possible (this is only in the case of DD WN, once I get into Handholding again, that will undoubtedly take longer). Like usual, let’s see how things go.

See you in the next release.