Side Story: Kou’s Memories (1)

Today as well, I steadily went about operating Master Alec’s dungeon all day long.

It was around noon outside.

Warm sunlight was pouring down into the mansion’s garden.

“The shop is good. The mansion is good, the garden is good. The surroundings are fine too. —Today as well, though the weather is clear, the waves are high, everything is peachy-keen!”

My voice echoed through the pure dungeon hall that emitted a pale blue light.

It was a very comfortable space, as if it cleansed the heart.

—It was all thanks to Master.

Wanting to repay the debt of having been saved, I worked hard at keeping watch twenty-four hours a day.

In the garden, a large wolf was leaping about.

It seemed to be practicing magic with Teti-san.

For some reason, I could not take my eyes off that sight.

A silver wolf as large as a hut. Its lithe body and dignified face. Its large eyes shone with a cool brilliance.

—Mr. Wolf somehow feels nostalgic…

I was internally surprised by my own words.

—Nostalgic!?

And then I discovered memories within myself that I had almost completely forgotten until now.

“I… remembered…!”

I found myself one after another recalling things like when I had just been born and when I had been serious.

When I realized it, I was here.

A large hall illuminated by a hazy light. Pillars stood in rows at equal intervals.

I tried to move, but I could not move.

“Where is this? I’m pretty sure… I won the game…”

The moment I wondered that.

Information about how the dungeon worked and what its purpose was immediately flowed into me, and I understood that I had become a Dungeon Core.

It seemed that this time, I simply had to win this game.

However, there was far too little information to run a dungeon.

I ended up muttering the same thing again.

“Where is this…? If this is one of those island starts, I won’t like that.”

The initial location was important for a dungeon.

It was better to start in a place with lots of materials so you could build a stronger dungeon.

If this were some deserted island with nothing on it, there would only be sand, and I would be unable to do anything before it all ended.

“I can’t tell what it’s like outside. I’ll make an entrance.”

I extended one corridor out from the hall and connected it to the outside.

If some strong monster came barging in, it would be the end of me.

But I wanted information about the outside.

If I did not investigate where I was and what I could do, I could not form any countermeasures.

My heart pounding, I waited for a visitor.

But for a while, nothing happened.

I considered various situations and thought up countermeasures.

—If it’s a grassland, maybe a rodent-type dungeon would be good?

If it were by the sea… a merfolk type… no, a crab type should have better cost performance and be stronger.

If it were a desert…

About two hours passed after the tension finally snapped, and at last the first visitor appeared.

It was a wolf with poor fur.

It staggered unsteadily as it walked down the corridor.

I carefully observed its condition.

—It looks like it lost a fight and ran away?

When the wolf reached the hall, I made a negotiation item appear before it.

A whole roasted bird.

White steam rose from it, and the skin glistened deliciously.

The wolf’s eyes widened a little.

Then it let out a low growl and warily checked its surroundings.

But its eyes were fixed on the roasted bird.

“Please, go ahead and eat~”

When I called out to it, the wolf wobbled as it jumped back.

Apparently I had startled it.

—At any rate, it does not look like it will attack?

As I watched quietly, the wolf cautiously approached the roasted bird.

Then, after sniffing it, it took a bite.

—It ate it!

From there on, it was like a raging torrent.

The wolf forgot all about me and greedily devoured the roasted bird.

“Ah~ bird bones break easily, so be careful, okay?”

“Kuon.”

The wolf cried as if to say it understood.

It carefully licked the bones clean with its tongue.

In no time at all, the wolf had finished eating the roasted bird.

Perhaps it realized I had been speaking to it, because it looked at me, a round sphere, and happily stuck out its tongue, panting.

“I’m glad you liked it. If you want, would you like to become the Dungeon Master?”

“Kuun.”

The wolf nodded as if in agreement.

—Did it understand the meaning of my words?

I had thought it was just an animal, but perhaps it was a monster after all.

“I seeee. Then I’ll register you as the Dungeon Master.”

I set the wolf as the Dungeon Master.

Then a certain amount of the knowledge the wolf possessed flowed into me.

“—I see, I see. So outside is a forest. And a very large one too. There are animals and monsters there as well… mhm, mhm. Then it seems it would be best to make this an animal-type dungeon as is. Is that alright?”

“Woof!”

The wolf barked while wagging its tail.

It was surprisingly cute.

I decided to use a potion to heal Mr. Wolf’s injuries.

With a puff of smoke, a bottle rolled onto the floor.

“Drink that liquid.”

“Kuun.”

The wolf knocked over the potion bottle, spilled the contents onto the floor, and lapped it up.

Its injuries completely healed, and it came nuzzling close to me, the sphere.

I could tell its fur was fluffy.

—Fluffy, so cute.

And so I decided to operate an animal-type dungeon.

After that, every day was busy.

I had Mr. Wolf bring me dirt, stones, and tree branches.

Using those materials, I expanded the dungeon and set traps.

At times, Mr. Wolf came running in while being chased by animals or monsters.

I used traps to defeat them and turned their meat into materials.

A few days later, enough materials had accumulated, so I made new wolves.

I thought it would be better if Mr. Wolf had subordinates.

I made two Tier 1 (E-rank) Gray Wolves and two Tier 2 (D-rank) Forest Wolves.

Efficiency up!

They brought in inorganic materials several times faster than before, and they were now able to hunt in packs and bring back monsters too.

Also, because the pack had become stronger as a group, they went and added other wolves from the forest to their ranks.

They became a group of over fifty.

Once that happened, they started defeating not just goblins, but even orcs and trolls.

The leader, the Dungeon Master wolf, became a Blood Wolf, the Gray Wolves became Gray Fangs, and the Forest Wolves evolved into Great Wolves.

The number of underlings increased even further.

—The animal-type dungeon is feeling pretty good~

Wolves in particular obey the strong and form packs, so I was able to increase the number of underlings efficiently.

A pleasant miscalculation.

The more underlings there were, the faster materials could be gathered.

I also put thought into how I expanded the dungeon.

The first floor and basement first floor were made with lower ceilings and fewer traps, so they would become dens for animals and goblins.

I stayed on basement second floor, and I made a Lesser Giant as the floor boss.

Eventually, I planned to increase it to five floors, then ten.

It was fun watching it expand exactly the way I envisioned.

The dungeon level also kept rising.

—However.

That was as far as I was allowed to take it easy.

A few days after full-scale operation began, the beginner protection barrier came off, and the dungeon battle phase began.

A few days after welcoming Mr. Wolf as the Dungeon Master.

Today as well, I had been working hard all day running the dungeon.

However!

Suddenly, the dungeon glowed red.

“W-wah!? What is this!?”

As I flustered in a panic, the word Enemy appeared on the management screen.

“The enemy is here!”

The time from invasion to arrival was extremely fast.

I hurriedly called back the subordinate monsters and deployed them in the dungeon.

Since I was on basement second floor right now, it seemed that an invasion corridor was forcibly connected to the hall one floor above me, on basement first floor.

With almost no time to wait, the corridor formed and monsters came pouring in.

There were many goblins about one meter tall.

But many of them were goblins armed with bows, armor, staves, and the like.

I ended up shouting without thinking.

“There are so many advanced classes!?”

Even though we had goblins too, they were still only Tier 1 lower-class ones.

Before long, it turned into a chaotic melee.

The battle in the first hall was overwhelmingly one-sided against us.

We suffered heavier losses than the enemy and retreated.

What was more, the enemy goblin group passed through the hall and advanced down my dungeon corridors.

It backfired that I had kept the traps sparse so they would function as dens.

“Aah~ they keep coming in more and more…”

Feeling as if I were about to cry, I stared at the information being displayed on the panel moment by moment.

Still, in several corridors connected to the hall, the wolves were fighting very hard.

Working together, they defeated enemy goblins through pincer attacks and dividing their forces.

The enemy’s advance slowed down just a little.

Then the Dungeon Master wolf said something to our goblin leader.

The leader nodded and climbed onto the wolf’s back.

The other goblins also climbed onto the wolves’ backs.

“Wah! Wolf Riders are born!”

About fifty Wolf Riders used their mobility to toy with the enemy.

They attacked with bows from long range, then closed in and drew their blades.

With their sheer number of attacks and charging force, they cut down the enemy goblins’ advanced classes one after another.

Before I knew it, they had cornered the enemy leader, a Hobgoblin, and the Dungeon Master wolf bit into the area below its neck.

“Gguu!”

The Hobgoblin collapsed with a muffled death cry and was absorbed into the floor.

At the same time, the forcibly connected corridor disappeared.

It did not seem like any additional monsters would be coming.

The dungeon fell quiet.

Only the wolves’ rough breathing echoed.

“…We won?”

Together with a goofy fanfare, victory was displayed on the panel screen.

And then the spoils of war were displayed on the screen.