Checking Status And A Story About Poop

Life in the log house I built in the Goblin Forest had, before I knew it, reached one month.

I tilled the soil around the cabin to make fields and flowerbeds, and thanks to Rin’s diligent care, sprouts had already appeared.

Honestly I’m not interested in flowers, but when I see Rin happily report, “Master, sprouts have come up in the flowerbed!”, I think—ah, I’m glad I prepared this base for Rin.

“As for me, I’d rather the vegetables grow faster than the flowers…”

“You’re honestly always thinking about eating…”

Of course, I’ve also put effort into security.

The current base is in a dangerous forest where a Goblin Lord once lived.

There are wild animals, and of course monsters too.

There’s a high chance Rin could be in danger from those seeking the field’s vegetables or human flesh.

Therefore I’ve enforced 24-hour patrol security by Shadows.

When I dive into dungeons and leave the cabin, I always have Rin bodyguarded by main-force Shadows like Minotaur and Dullahan-class ones.

The Shadows on patrol sometimes hunt wild animals like deer and boar.

At such times I ask Rin to cook the game like venison.

Rin once served as a slave under a restaurant owner, and using herbs and spices purchased in the Royal Capital she prepared game without any gaminess; Ekarraat praised it so much she even went out herself to look for wild animals.

Speaking of wild animals, when we had just moved, I once tried to exploit the habit that carnivores mark their territory by pooping in it to spread their scent and claim it.

So I tried to have Ekarlaat—the highest-ranking lifeform—spread her poop, but she scolded me, “I do not defecate!”

Indeed, since becoming Undead I haven’t produced excrement.

While I was at a loss, Rin—the only one here who actually poops—blushingly said, “Um… if my poop is okay, I-I can spread it…!”, but I rejected it because spreading the excrement of an innocent girl like Rin wouldn’t be effective for marking territory.

――Let’s leave the poop story at that.

――So, yeah.

This is how I’m living a fulfilling life.

＊＊＊

――And now.

I stood before a dungeon near the Royal Capital.

“Even though revenge is on hold, it’s never bad to raise levels, and if I don’t move my body my senses will dull.”

Lately I’ve been leveling mostly in dungeons far from the Royal Capital.

Dungeons in remote locations are unpopular with adventurers because they take time to travel to, but since I can use Vanargand’s spatial transfer I can come and go freely, making them excellent hunting grounds.

“The name—well, I don’t know it anymore. Every time a new dungeon appears, I clear it before the Guild can assign rank and name.”

By the way, I haven’t cashed in Magic Stones or Dungeon Cores because I’m wanted and can’t step over the Adventurer’s Guild threshold.

So I’ve spent everything on reinforcing Shadows.

Thanks to that, all main-force Shadows are enhanced by two stages (with my level up I was able to enhance Shadows up to two stages).

My and the Shadows’ current statuses look like this.

――That’s how it is.

Unfortunately, the original members—the Orc and the Gargoyle—have fallen from main-force status.

When I carried out vengeance on the hero party, I wiped out the monsters of 【Crimson Night Moon】 and turned many into Shadows, so Orcs are now treated like common fodder just like Goblins.

There are about fifty Orcs alone.

“My Level has broken into the triple digits, so the day I catch up to humanity’s strongest might be near…”

――As I recalled recent events and cut down monsters I encountered, I found myself on the dungeon’s second floor before I knew it.

“There’s no real challenge. E-Rank or maybe D-Rank?”

‘For the current Sid, this isn’t even a warm-up. Better to clear it quickly and generate another new dungeon.’

“I hope an A-rank dungeon is generated next.”

I descended the stairs joking with Ekarlaat.

Unlike the upper floor, the dungeon’s second layer had a thin mist drifting through it.

It’s not completely unseeable, but visibility was certainly limited.

I stopped thinking about unnecessary things and concentrated my senses as I advanced.

‘Sid… there’s someone.’

“(Another adventurer in such a remote dungeon…?)”

I couldn’t believe there’s another adventurer willing to delve into a dungeon with the worst access, taking half a day round-trip even by patrol carriage.

Being wanted, I wanted to avoid meeting other adventurers face-to-face.

Just before I turned on my heel to avoid running into an adventurer—

“Well, well—what a rare thing to meet an adventurer in a place like this. Could it be—there’s some reason you can’t show your face in public?”

――He parted the mist and appeared before me.

“I’ve been commissioned by the Adventurer’s Guild to carry out a quest to check the difficulty of a newly appeared dungeon. Otherwise, I wouldn’t willingly come to such a remote dungeon.”

Of course, that was a lie.

It’s common for the Guild to ask veteran adventurers to scout new dungeons for difficulty, but I haven’t taken such a quest.

“What about you?”

“Me? I’m just looking for someone.”

The adventurer across from me stepped forward.

A distance where I could still make out his face through the mist.

He had long white hair for a man and glasses that gave an intellectual impression.

As for his clothing—he wore a lab coat over the robes of the Holy Church.

I had a bad feeling.

“Looking for someone? In a dungeon?”

“A man named Sid Ranorus of the Shikai Tribe—if you’re an adventurer you should know him, right? A great criminal who killed royalty—ah, just like a young man such as yourself. The wanted poster looks just like you.”

“You’re mistaken. Just being of the Shikai Tribe gets you suspected, and I’m sick of that Sid-Shikai Tribe nonsense. Killing royalty is a disgrace to the clan, utterly.”

“Stop the transparent lies――Sid Ranorus.”

“…Tch.”

A voice of certainty.

So I’d been found out.

The lie I desperately told had been nothing but a farce.

“Who are you then? A bounty hunter after the reward? If so, you’d better stop. You’ll lose your life for a mere 10 million G bounty.”

“Oops, my apologies—I haven’t introduced myself yet.”

The man in the Holy Church robes bowed courteously in a gentlemanly manner.

“I am one member of the Knights of the Stigmata, ‘the Fifth Stigmata’—Selva Arturus. In the name of God—binding wisdom as a sacrificial blade, holding the sage’s prayer upon the scales—I shall annihilate Shadow Necromancers—yo.”