Dungeon Opening Battle

Although we were able to obtain permission to incorporate Mount Magros into Wenti, the most important matter still remained.

We had to somehow deal, with our own hands, with the vast number of monsters that had remained there unthinned for hundreds of years.

At the very least, we had to reduce their numbers to the point where they would not come spilling out.

Apparently, Mount Magros was now in such a state that no one knew where a collapse might occur and monsters might emerge from.

So first, as an emergency evacuation measure, we decided to use Tree-to-Tree Transfer to have the dwarves evacuate to Guinea Village.

The dwarves other than a few, including Vis-san, who volunteered to act as our guides, were entrusted to Chief Degji.

“If they have any requests, please help them as much as possible. For now, I will leave you some money for immediate expenses.”

“Leave it to this Degji, yes.”

And so we returned to Mount Magros, and under the guidance of Vis-san and the others, we began considering where we should enter the dungeon from—.

The inside of Mount Magros was extremely intricate.

It seemed that, as a remnant of how they had dug new tunnels whenever the need arose, the internal structure had become quite complicated.

Without Vis-san’s guidance, I was certain we would have gotten lost.

“—Here. It is firmly guarded with an iron plate made sticky by mixing in monster materials, so that it can absorb shocks.”

Vis-san stopped and knocked on the iron plate with a rap-rap.

There was an iron plate there with a faint yellowish tint.

It had an incredible sense of weight.

Judging from the echo that came back when he knocked, it was probably very thick too.

Certainly, if it was this, it looked like it could keep monsters from getting in.

By estimating the approximate thinness of the strata from the geology and the interior structure of the volcano, they had dug caves forward in relatively safe places and apparently lived there.

We did not currently have the technology to survey the layers and infer the internal structure of the volcano.

…Their technical skill really was amazing after all.

If only they did not use it in such strange ways, and were not so close to being alcoholics, they would have been perfect…

“There are four more of these, making five in total. And together with the very first entrance we sealed, that makes six entrances currently leading into the dungeon.”

“Should we attack from the entrance after all? That seems the surest way…”

“It would not be a problem now that the evacuation is complete, but the issue is whether we have enough annihilating power to kill off all the monsters that come pouring out from the entrance.”

Compared to the other openings, the dungeon entrance was considerably wider.

Most likely, if we opened the entrance, monsters would come flooding out all at once from there, just as they would during an ordinary stampede.

The defensive measures used when a stampede occurred were already established to a certain extent.

Several makeshift earth walls were built around the dungeon, and the monsters were reduced in stages.

First, the monsters were cut down near the entrance, and if their numbers grew too large, the defenders would fall back to the earth wall behind them; if that was broken through, then to the next earth wall, and so on.

But even with that much caution, in the end the defensive walls were often breached and the monsters spilled into the town.

So the method of entering the dungeon from other breached places and reducing their numbers from within also became an option.

“Please tell me about the monsters that came out from the various places. …Ah, before that, please tell me about the monsters that appear in the Mount Magros dungeon as well.”

“Yeah. The monsters that come out here are…”

The dungeon that had formed inside Mount Magros, which had once also been a bustling mine.

It apparently inherited the nature of the place that had already been there, and so there were many golems and fire-type monsters.

Still, from what I was hearing, the monsters did not seem all that strong.

If that was the case… maybe we could do it?

“All right, I’ve decided.”

“What will you do?”

“I’ll manage the sheer number of them with my Wood Golems, and if some powerful enemy comes that they cannot handle, then I’ll rely on Nadja.”

“Leave it to me!”

And so, in order to deal with the monsters that would overflow from the dungeon, we decided to reopen the tightly sealed entrance once more—.

The entrance to the Mount Magros dungeon had been buried near the foot of the mountain.

Apparently it had once been one of the underground passages, and they dug that place back out.

At the end of the cave that had been made to slope diagonally downward through the gentle foothills stood an iron gate.

This was the dungeon entrance.

“Preparations are complete… are.”

“You really do not need to force yourself to use polite speech.”

“That is not something I can do… do. Since you are helping us, I must properly uphold my obligation.”

“I see, so that is how it is.”

At the place Vis-san pointed to while trying so hard to use polite speech stood an enormous lump of iron, clearly on an entirely different scale from the iron plates we had seen earlier.

Because the dwarves who had stayed behind had shaved away quite a lot of it for us, cut pieces of iron were scattered all around.

All that remained was for us to give it one final push, and it would break.

“All right, preparations are finally done…”

I began taking out a truly enormous number of Dark Wood Golems.

At the moment, I had just finished lining up the seventh row.

The sight of the pitch-black Dark Wood Golems standing in a long line side by side, with multiple rows stretching further behind them, was simply overwhelming.

Incidentally, this time numbers mattered more than firepower, so I was spacing the individuals apart to a certain extent and making sure they were not packed too densely together.

And for dealing with large foes, I had also prepared units on the left and right that were densely packed together and strengthened so they could fire powerful Black Projectiles, while further outside were the Element Wood Golems led by the Fire Wood Golems.

Since this might turn into a long battle, I had also properly prepared Holy Wood Golems as healers, so our preparations were perfect.

Vis-san had asked me, “Are you planning to go to war with someone?” but… it really was something like that.

I thought it would not be an exaggeration to call it war when we were trying to deal with the monsters of a dungeon on the verge of a stampede.

After putting everything into perfect order, I made a circle with my hand toward Vis-san.

Vis-san nodded and pressed the switch, and then… boom!

A huge explosion occurred, and the iron plate flew inward toward the inside of the dungeon.