chapter_0058

58 – Dungeon Management

58 – Dungeon Management

Cron responded, but Laer, the Magic Tower Lord of the Red Magic Tower, couldn’t believe it.

Deploying a thousand soldiers to manage the dungeon meant leaving a hole somewhere in the territory.

In peacetime, when everyone was on good terms, it would be fine, but in an empire divided into factions like now, that news would surely invite someone’s invasion.

The Lord of Cron couldn’t be unaware of that.

Rather, it could be a trap to strike the rear of another territory trying to attack his own after saying that.

Laer thought she couldn’t believe it until she saw a thousand soldiers with her own eyes.

‘Just you wait, they’ll definitely say there’s a problem in their territory and they can’t send soldiers. Damn bastards…’

As a Magic Tower Lord who had dealt with countless dungeons, she had developed a deep distrust of lords.

She thought she couldn’t trust Cron until the soldiers arrived before her eyes, and she planned on the premise that they wouldn’t come.

And a few days later, Zeke suddenly burst in and shouted.

“M-Master! They’ve arrived!”

“Who arrived? Did a Goblin King pop out of the dungeon?”

Zeke said with an expression that he had seen something unbelievable.

She thought her disciple was just making a fuss again.

“The soldiers of Cron have arrived.”

“…Really?”

“Yes! It’s real!”

She headed out of the tent to see for herself.

There, a legion of a thousand soldiers and knights stood.

They held flags with the silver dragon, the symbol of Cron, emblazoned on them.

As she couldn’t believe that soldiers had really come, a silver-haired young man who appeared to be the lord and a familiar face approached her.

“I am Calix Crone, the Lord of Cron. I greet the Lord of the Red Magic Tower.”

“I am Laer Sialenis, the Magic Tower Lord of the Red Magic Tower. I express my gratitude for the cooperation of the Lord of Cron.”

Laer was seeing the Lord of Cron for the first time.

The silver-haired young man was a lord who, in Laer’s eyes, exuded a truly virtuous aura.

‘No, I can’t trust him this easily. There have been plenty of lords with kind impressions.’

She greeted Calix like that and turned to the familiar face.

She looked at her disciple, Sharen.

“It’s been a while, Master.”

“Yes, it’s been a while, Sharen. You look well.”

She was meeting her disciple after five years.

The last time she saw her, she said she was helping people with hope on the surface, but she was collapsing to a dangerous degree in everyone’s eyes.

But now, she was brighter than before.

Laer gave the Lord Calix a few more points.

* * *

Thanks to the soldiers of Cron, Laer was able to start more serious dungeon management.

She deployed soldiers with the Magicians of the Red Magic Tower in areas around the dungeon where monsters appeared, and she deployed them more meticulously around the dungeon gate, where monsters could be summoned from anywhere.

With the worry about monsters gone, the Magicians of the Red Magic Tower could begin the work of analyzing the dungeon in earnest.

Moreover, what Cron brought was not just that.

“I heard that there is already enough food. So I brought consumables such as wine, cheese, and potions.”

“Uhyo! Wine!!”

“How long has it been since I had cheese! Thank you, Lord!”

The food was sufficient with the support of the surrounding lords.

But there were no luxury foods like wine and cheese at all, and thanks to that, the Magicians were suffering.

With the wine and cheese that Calix had brought, the Magicians of the Red Magic Tower were able to regain the strength to manage the dungeon after enjoying a drink for the first time in a while.

As the lord himself took the lead in cooperating with the Red Magic Tower and spared no support, the area around the dungeon began to be perfectly controlled.

How long has it been since such perfect dungeon management…

Laer, who was watching everything from the sky, thought.

Sharen, who was flying with her, said.

“How is it? Master, our Lord is a good person, right?”

“Yes… I admit it. He’s the most lordly lord I’ve seen recently.”

Laer thought that what she had to admit, she had to admit.

Calix Crone was the lord who fulfilled his responsibilities as a lord the most among the lords she had seen recently.

He was different from those damn bastards who ignored her requests.

Sharen said proudly at Laer’s words.

“That’s right. Our Lord is different from other lords.”

“Why are you happier when I praise the Lord than he is?”

“Well, praise for the Lord is praise for me. You can praise him more, Master.”

Laer was surprised and amazed at the sight of her disciple shrugging her shoulders and boasting about her lord.

Sharen was Laer’s niece.

Laer’s younger sister was an elf Magician like her.

She was a Magician as talented as Laer, and she was growing up with the expectations of her clan, but she fell in love with a human knight and caused an accident.

Even now, there was discrimination against mixed-bloods on the continent, but it was especially severe 50 years ago.

Her sister eventually became a fugitive with her husband, and they gathered with other fugitives like themselves to create a small village and try to live there.

But the village was destroyed by an attack by purists, and Sharen’s parents were killed.

Before she died, she asked her sister a favor.

If something happened to her, she asked her to protect her daughter, Sharen.

She took Sharen as her disciple and raised her in the Magic Tower to keep her promise to her sister.

Sharen had lost some of her memories due to the shock of her parents’ death when she was young.

She thought it was the way for Sharen, and she deliberately did not restore her memories.

Because of that, Sharen thought that their parents were ordinary elves and humans who met and married in the village.

Sharen, who had grown up like that, one day jumped into the human world to help people.

She knew how dirty the human world was, so she tried to stop her, but she insisted, and she became darker every time they met after that.

Thinking that if she left Sharen in the human world any longer, another tragedy would happen, she was going to keep her in the Magic Tower by force the next time they met, when she told her that she had become an exclusive Magician.

At first, she was very worried that she had been seduced by some strange bum.

But now, seeing Sharen smiling and proudly boasting about her lord, she was a little relieved.

At least her disciple and niece seemed to be having a good time meeting a good lord.

Laer added points to Lord Calix.

While they were doing that, Zeke flew towards them.

“Master! Sharen! The dungeon investigation seems to be over.”

“I understand. Let’s go down, Sharen.”

“Yes, Master.”

* * *

Everyone involved in dungeon management was gathered in the tent of the Red Magic Tower.

When Laer and Sharen finally entered, the investigator of the Red Magic Tower, who was in charge of the dungeon investigation, began to announce the investigation results.

“As a result of investigating the dungeon gate, we have found out two pieces of bad news and even worse news.”

“Let’s hear the bad news first.”

The investigator’s expression was not good.

Laer decided to hear the bad news first.

“The dungeon that occurred here is a 1st class dungeon.”

“Oh my…”

“A 1st class dungeon…”

Dungeons are divided into grades 0-5.

Grade 0 rarely occurs, and the entire empire mobilizes all its forces to respond to it the moment it occurs, so the highest grade dungeon that can be generally encountered was grade 1.

Since no 1st class dungeons had occurred for nearly 10 years, there were many Magic Tower Magicians who were experiencing a 1st class dungeon for the first time.

“When we interpreted the hieroglyphs recorded on the gate, it is expected to be a dungeon blessed and cursed by the goddess of the bow, ‘Mer’, so it seems necessary to thoroughly prepare for an arrow attack.”

The good news was that they knew which god the dungeon was related to.

If there is such information, it becomes much easier for adventurers to attack the dungeon.

“What’s the even worse news?”

“That is… judging from the state of Magical Power flowing through the gate, the Dungeon Wave is not far away.”

“How many days are left?”

“At the earliest, 3 days, and at the latest, 5 days seems to be the limit.”

The inside became noisy at the investigator’s words.

Because the remaining period was too short.

“3 days! The Dungeon Wave will occur before the adventurers arrive!”

“Gathering adventurers can be done somehow with teleportation Magic. The problem is the risk. If it’s a 1st class dungeon, even adventurers famous in the capital will hesitate to challenge it.”

If it was 3 days, the dungeon could explode while the adventurers were coming here.

Even if the Magicians of the Magic Tower transported them with teleportation Magic, even the top-class adventurers had to risk their lives if it was a 1st class dungeon.

It was usually difficult to find challengers with rewards.

“We’ll have to prepare for the Dungeon Wave…”

“That’s terrible! It’s a big deal if a Dungeon Wave occurs here. The logistics of the west will be completely destroyed!”

Laer eventually thought of dealing with the Dungeon Wave, which was the most common way to deal with it.

But the manager dispatched from the Platinum Council was horrified.

Dungeon Waves were not a good way to deal with dungeons.

The large number of monsters that came out as the Dungeon Wave occurred were filled with poison, and they polluted the land, making it uninhabitable for people for a few years at the shortest and decades at the longest.

This Argon Plain was also a logistics route connecting the west and the south.

If a Dungeon Wave occurred here, the west and the south would suffer enormous damage in the long term.

“Then is there a solution? The dungeon is dangerous and it’s difficult to find adventurers. Are you going to persuade the Platinum Council to pay for hiring dozens of 1st class adventurers?”

“That… that’s…”

If they told this story to the Platinum Council, the Dungeon Wave would eventually explode while they were fighting over responsibility.

Laer was not expecting anything from them at all.

As the story was flowing in the direction of abandoning the Argon Plain in effect, Calix stepped forward.

“There is still one way.”

“Lord Cron, what is the method?”

The manager of the Platinum Council listened to Calix’s words.

It was because he trusted that he would have some solution.

Laer was also looking forward to what Calix would say.

“It’s to attack the dungeon without borrowing the power of the adventurers in the capital.”

Everyone froze at Calix’s words.

The manager barely regained his senses and asked carefully.

“By any chance… do you know any famous adventurers, Lord?”

“No, I don’t.”

“Or are there any of your vassals who have experience attacking dungeons?”

“No, there aren’t.”

The manager was frustrated at Calix’s words.

If there were no adventurers and no vassals, then who on earth would attack that 1st class dungeon?

“Then who on earth is going to attack the dungeon?”

The manager asked directly out of frustration.

Calix answered confidently at his words.

“I will.”

Sharen later remembered that moment like this.

Even if she used the strongest ice Magic, the air would not have frozen that much.

The author’s words (author’s afterword)

Bard 1: Loosen your throat!

Bard 2: A new song is coming!!

Thank you for watching today too!!!