Dungeon Defense (WN)

Chapter 130: Morning in Rome (5)

Chapter 130: Morning in Rome (5)

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“……How does that sound?”

Roughly an hour later. I gave a lengthy explanation about the future I had planned for my Demon Lord Castle.

Lapis and Laura mulled over it silently. Shortly after, the two of them opened their mouths.

“That is absurd.”

“I agree. That is a pipe dream.”

“How much money do you think we will need? The maintenance fee of the main road alone would take up a large sum…….”

“Most importantly, it would be excessively dangerous. Instead of intercepting the adventurers, we would be luring them in. If things go wrong, then your life would be in danger, Lord.”

I grinned.

“But it would be interesting.”

They went silent again as they thought about it. Lapis spoke up as if she intended to organize one detail at a time.

“Setting aside whether this is an absurd plan or not, let us first discuss each practical detail. Sir Dantalian, you mentioned you would perform a drastic renovation of your Demon Lord Castle.”

“That is right.”

My Demon Lord Castle was much too shabby. It was just a cave. It was ridiculous. It’s not like I want to spruce it up like a palace and live extravagantly, but I would at least like to have various facilities that would help an army of monsters defend my dungeon.

This was the final size that I had planned.

“……But 10 floors underground. Such a scale is unheard of.”

Lapis sounded fed up.

A dungeon that goes 10 floors underground!

The cavern my Demon Lord Castle resides in is massive. It takes several hours just to walk from the entrance to my Demon Lord room. Due to this size, we spend most of our time near my Demon Lord room. At most, the furthest we go is to the underground pool that is in a secluded corner of the cave.

I wanted to expand this by 10 floors. From Lapis’ perspective, this was a preposterous scale that made her speechless.

“The final goal is 10 floors, but we have to first prepare the 1st floor. In any case, my Demon Lord Castle has to become much bigger than it is now.”

My plan was simple.

I intended to accept an extreme number of monsters into my Demon Lord Castle.

I only realized this after coming to this world, but residing within a Demon Lord Castle was apparently considered a great honor for monsters. It isn’t because they get to live alongside a Demon Lord. Apparently, living in a Demon Lord Castle was like heaven itself for monsters.

The substance that preserves the bodies of skeleton soldiers and zombies, beings that should normally lose their strength and become bones and clumps of flesh, is none other than mana.

Mana flows all throughout nature. However, if you wish to obtain enough mana to maintain your physical form, then you have to eat animals. The higher the species are on the food chain, the more mana they have in their bodies.

This is the reason why humans are the most appetizing prey to monsters. Humans have lived their entire lives eating all sorts of animals, so they’re practically clumps of mana compared to other races. Humans can live without using any mana at all while monsters have to consume mana to live……. It’s inevitable that the two races would fight.

However, what would happen if a monster is inside a Demon Lord Castle?

Demon Lord Castles have an overwhelming amount of mana flowing through it all year round. It is a place where you could get magic stones just by mining in the caves. Basically, monsters don’t have to painstakingly hunt humans if they live in a Demon Lord Castle. The simple act of breathing is enough to preserve their lives!

If Demon Lords didn’t have absolute authority over monsters, then they would have invaded and taken over Demon Lord Castles long ago. That’s how tempting this place is.

?And I intended to open this up to them.

It didn’t matter if goblins, orcs, lizardmen, or zombies came. I planned to accept all monsters that came to my dungeon indiscriminately.

They don’t need any qualifications either.

They don’t have to go out of their way to become my subordinates either.

They just have to bring themselves here.

“Every Demon Lord only pursues a small number of elite soldiers. Demon Lord Castles are mana repositories. Only those with great ability are allowed to bask in its treasures. ……Although this logic does make sense, it cannot be used in my Demon Lord Castle.”

I brought my hands together and grinned.

“We will go with numbers. We will simply rely on overwhelming our enemies with numbers.”

We will create a great dungeon with 10 floors. Each floor will be filled to the brim with monsters. I will reside on the 10th floor. By putting my Demon Lord room on the bottom floor, I’ll be able to live comfortably and peacefully. If you exclude the absurd amount of money this will cost, this was quite an amazing solution.

Lapis groaned.

“The dignity of your Demon Lord Castle…….”

“What dignity? You would probably die trying to find the dignity of a Rank 71 Demon Lord.”

“Lord, you mentioned overwhelming our foes through sheer numbers, but there is a fatal flaw in that plan.”

Laura seemed intent on doing whatever she could to stop my plan. She was most likely also on the side of having a small group of elite soldiers over a large army of low-quality soldiers. Oh dear, this is why tacticians are troublesome. They always romanticize small groups of elite soldiers regardless of the era.

“Speak.”

“If we go with numbers, then the average person will definitely be unable to invade; however, what will you do if the other party is a small group of extremely powerful elites?”

Laura spoke in a confident tone that sounded as if her argument was foolproof. 

“There would be no need to subjugate every monster in a Demon Lord Castle of that size. They simply have to go through the shortest path……from the entrance straight to your Demon Lord room. They would aim for a blitzkrieg. On the other hand, we would only have a disordered rabble. It is obvious that they would only run away if strong foes were to appear. The Demon Lord Castle will easily be captured.”

“Huhu.”

I chuckled.

“That is the reason, Laura. That is why we need a large-scale reconstruction.”

“Hm?”

“I intend to turn the entire Demon Lord Castle into a single massive labyrinth.”

Laura tilted her head. From her perspective, she was talking about the efficiency of the Demon Lord Castle itself, but I had abruptly mentioned a labyrinth. However, it was an obvious choice for me to turn my dungeon into a maze.

This was for the sake of limiting the adventurers’ path.

“For starters, the travel route will be like this.”

I drew a rough blueprint of the maze on the floor with a piece of chalk.

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Dungeon Entrance (First floor)??B1 Entrance??B2 Entrance??B3 Entrance … B10 Entrance??Demon Lord Room

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“Here, we will surround both sides of the path with a firm wall.”

“Ah. Is that why you are calling it a labyrinth?”

I nodded.

“We will have to make the walls very thick and sturdy so that adventurers do not try to break them down. The condition here is that we cannot make the distance from here to the entrance excessively long. For example.”

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B1 Entrance????????????B2 Entrance

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“If the adventurers are forced to walk an excessively long distance for a single floor because the labyrinth twists and turns to a drastic degree, then they would consider breaking the walls down to be a more efficient form of travel. Breaking all of the walls down would naturally take more than a few days, so they would most likely start to take over the land gradually from the entrance. We cannot allow them to do this.”

There’s no point if the path is excessively short. The adventurers would barely suffer any losses.

There’s no point if the path is excessively long. The walls that we would be paying so much for would get destroyed by the adventurers.

“It has to be the perfect length. It must feel somewhat long, but also short enough that it would seem like a waste of time and effort to break the walls down just to go a bit faster. We will also have to be concerned about the areas where the monsters will live.”

“Are the monsters not going to live in the labyrinth paths?”

I shook my head.

“I intend to make those paths rather narrow. Although it will differ in size depending on the area. In any case, a large number of monsters can’t reside in a place where the path is narrow. Therefore, a residential area for the monsters will be prepared over the labyrinth walls.”

I added to the drawing on the floor.

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B1 Entrance???????B2 Entrance

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?: Labyrinth wall

?: Monster residential area

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Laura stared at my layout for a moment before shaking her head in disapproval.

“Then the adventurers will be completely isolated from the monsters! There will be no fights.”

“You are killing me, Laura. The drawing is like this as a matter of convenience. We will make openings at appropriate locations. We will make them go through areas where the monsters will want to protect.”

“Hmm.”

If we do this, then fights will only occur at specific intersections.

I added a slight detail to the blueprint.

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B1 Entrance??? (?) ???B2 Entrance

??????????????????????

??????????????????????

?: Labyrinth wall

?: Monster residential area

?: Battlezone

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Adventurers will have to go through a battle every time they go through this spot. From their perspective, it would probably seem like monsters are spawning in an empty path. Of course, we will have to set up various devices to prevent them from realizing there are openings.

In other words, this would be a respawn area.

“For example, we could cultivate a large number of mushrooms here. The mushrooms will absorb the mana within the dungeon as they grow. As the mana in the air decreases, the monsters will have to consume the mushrooms to live. For the adventurers, mushrooms filled with mana could fetch for a good price. ……The two groups will collide as the monsters fight to protect this spot while the adventurers fight to pillage the spot.”

Even I think this would be diabolical.

If I left them be, then lots of monsters could live by breathing alone although not to an affluent degree. However, if we grow mushrooms, then that would become impossible. They would have to fight adventurers.

“Despite this, they are only adventurers. Whether it would be more efficient to live in the wild and pillage entire villages or live in a Demon Lord Castle and fight a few dozen adventurers every now and then. I am looking forward to seeing which option they choose.”

Furthermore, I added.

“Each floor has a different mana density. The mana becomes denser the deeper you go into the cave. We will give monsters that fight off adventurers well the right to relocate. If you wish to live well, then fight well. Would this not be a good source of motivation?”

“…….”

Laura hummed with a somewhat dissatisfied look on her face before nodding her head. 

“Then only elite monsters would remain on the 10th floor.”

“That would be in the distant future. We still must start with the first floor underground. In other words, we still have to test whether things will go according to my plan on a single floor first.”

Lapis spoke up at this moment.

“Sir Dantalian, you must resolve the prerequisite first.”

“Hm?”

“The money.”

Lapis continued in a very serious tone.

“You are referring to them as simple walls, but this is a task of creating maze-like paths throughout this enormous space. This construction would be massive. A few gold coins are not nearly enough. Where do you intend to get such money?”

“Oh, that?”

I responded casually.

“I’m going to borrow it.”

“……Pardon?”

“Have you heard of a loan? I’m going to go big.”

***

TL Note: Thanks for reading the chapter. Fortunately, I think my health has improved a lot now. My appetite is now smaller than before, but that isn’t really a bad thing. As long as my stomach isn’t actively trying to kill me. Well, there’s nothing else to say. I’m just trudging along. 

I’ll see you guys in the next chapter.