It's Dangerous Outside the Dungeon, Master

* * *

From the queen gradually approaching, a fragrance that seemed impossible to exist in this world wafted.

A fantastical fragrance like the rainbow-hued flower with its fantastical appearance.

“‘Void’s Shade’.”

Before savoring that fragrance.

Before it could affect Serha or Xue, I absorbed and blocked it with shadows.

I could already tell how dangerous that fragrance was from the example of the red Alraune, so how much more powerful would the queen’s be?

“Ugh…?”

Serha, who had almost lost consciousness from just a moment of the fragrance, regained her senses.

“Are you okay?”

“Ah, yes! I’m sorry. I think I’ll just be a hindrance, so I’ll step away for a bit.”

“That might be good. Xue. You too.”

My beautiful silver werewolf hesitated for a moment before shaking her head.

Although it doesn’t matter since there are many guards in my shadow anyway, and I can hold out until she rushes over from nearby…

“…No. I’m fine… Don’t worry, I can endure enough if you help me.”

“Alright. Do that then.”

Yes, she must be anxious.

Only after Serha’s presence had moved sufficiently far away did I look at the approaching Alraune Queen with displeasure.

Despite the situation, she still wasn’t suppressing her fragrance.

As if to say, ‘Try it if you dare.’

“It’s not the first time I’ve seen you, but it’s the first time we’re meeting face to face like this, Dungeon Queen.”

The Alraune Queen’s eyes didn’t turn at all to the two moving away, only looking at me.

That gaze filled with strange obsession and aesthetic appreciation was similar to that of Yuran, my first maid lord I met before.

Even if the direction was slightly different.

“I’ve heard that.”

“I still remember. The sight of you riding in a carriage on the human road outside the forest. The foolish humans beside you only thought of you as human, but I could tell right away.”

“When was that?”

“It must have been when you first left this dungeon. I’ve been longing to meet you like this since then.”

Her words immediately suggested a possibility to me.

The fact that she knew of my existence from that time but didn’t make contact was probably because she was being considerate of me, albeit clumsily.

Me, a being with such intense beauty as to catch her eye.

Fortunately, now I didn’t need to leave this possibility as just an assumption.

“If you wanted to meet, you must have had opportunities before.”

“But you were still weak then. I thought it might be burdensome if I approached at that time.”

As expected.

If I hadn’t been so pretty or handsome, this queen would have approached me in some way long ago.

And that approach would probably have been… with a high probability, hostile.

I’m already well aware of the influence previous Dungeon Lords had on the surroundings from what I heard from Kamaya.

That’s probably also the reason why the other two queens are against contacting me now.

“And I also had confidence that that patience wouldn’t last long.”

“Confidence?”

“Yes. Confidence that you would quickly become strong and appear before me like this. Much stronger than then. And sure enough.”

The queen who smiled brightly approached, emitting an even stronger fragrance than before.

Honestly, it was an unpleasant act.

She must have already seen me block that fragrance earlier.

Even if it’s true that controlling the fragrance is difficult, there’s no way someone of queen level wouldn’t be able to do it.

Yet she was still emitting the fragrance.

“You appeared before me like this. With power equal to us queens.”

The fact that the current me and she are of equal level means that she is currently a monster with elite-grade abilities.

By the standards of when I encountered this world as a game, it would be equivalent to a guaranteed 4-star grade at birth.

This is the highest grade that can be normally obtained from the dungeon’s mercenary gacha in normal times.

‘5-star by birth was only released through events or seasons.’

All ordinary elite-grade beings start at 4 stars.

There are cases where they are 5 stars or higher even starting as elite grade due to growth limits or other criteria, and similarly, there are cases of 4 stars even with birth grade below advanced.

And this also meant that with just a moderate investment of resources, they could become 5-star grade or high-grade beings.

The system I acquired after coming to this world doesn’t show these star ratings, so I wonder if it’s meant to be judged on your own or if it’s completely gone even in game terms…

“I see. That’s fortunate.”

Still, it’s a level of ability that makes me suppress some displeasure.

Elite grade is also the highest level of inland humans currently.

At least, it should be appropriate to use as meat… no, plant shield.

“Yes. It’s really fortunate. That you’ve become this strong…”

And right after I suppressed my displeasure like that, her fragrance suddenly disappeared.

It didn’t disappear completely.

The fragrance was still lingering around me.

But the fragrance that had covered the entire surroundings and made one dizzy just from olfactory stimulation had now diminished to just give a faint stimulation.

The ‘test’ was over.

“And that you’re so cool-headed as to not react to unpleasant actions given by others.”

“You were testing me.”

“Evaluating others based on others’ words or brief impressions is something only fools do. Don’t you think?”

When I answered as if I hadn’t known, the queen just smiled brightly.

In her mind, until just now, I must have been misjudging her.

Bound by Serha’s evaluation that ‘Alraunes are beauty-obsessed’ and the previous red Alraune’s actions, I must have thought her emitting fragrance was just a rude act of being distracted by my face.

‘This much should be enough to match her mood.’

Of course, this was just appropriately responding to her test.

Although she’s better than the other two queens who are hostile, she couldn’t be called my complete ally yet.

Like Kamaya.

There’s no point in revealing everything even if you do well, so hiding appropriately is a virtue.

It was like that on Earth too.

Don’t they say to hide 30% of yourself wherever you go?

“It’s unpleasant, Queen.”

“I’m sorry, Dungeon Queen. For testing you carelessly.”

As if she was truly sorry, she put her hands together and bowed, then soon whispered with a slightly reddened face.

Her desire.

“If you’re really displeased, you could spend a night with me.”

“I’ll decline. I dislike that even more.”

“My… How cold.”

Her appearance, lowering both eyebrows as she spoke, looked truly pitiful, giving off an atmosphere that would make an ordinary man forgive anything.

I heard the Alraunes here often interact with humans, so it seems she’s naturally gained experience in charming humans.

Since she has a beautiful face and resembles humans, it must have been easy to seduce thoughtless guys.

It’s strange to invite me, who inevitably has to be hostile to humans in such a situation, but…

“But that makes you look even more delicious. Your…”

“Let’s just introduce ourselves.”

“Oh my, come to think of it, I haven’t even told you my name yet. This is really rude. I’m sorry.”

Perhaps this is where the ‘beauty-obsessed’ personality applies.

Looking at her current words and actions.

“My name is Nirvana. I’m the queen ruling this swamp.”

This was what happened during the encounter with Nirvana, the Alraune Queen, one of the four queens.

* * *

”Nirvana’, huh…’

Somehow, it feels like there’s malice in the naming.

Nirvana is ‘enlightenment’ in Buddhism.

It refers to a practitioner attaining enlightenment and crossing over from this world ‘this shore’ to the other world ‘that shore’.

‘Whether the meaning of that name is ‘a charm so intense that the one who overcomes it enters nirvana’, or ‘a temptation that even brings down practitioners who have entered nirvana’.’

It’s malicious yet appropriate.

Flutter.

Just looking at that flower that doesn’t seem to be of this world.

A flower with a black background and rainbow light shimmering.

At first glance, it might remind one of the halo of someone entering nirvana, but unlike in the West where rainbows are seen as a good omen, in the East they were seen as an ill omen.

Even in our country, there are records of rainbows with white and rainbow colors appearing before the Third Literati Purge and Japanese Invasion of Korea, so it could be said to have great superstitious significance.

‘This too is contradictory when tied to her name.’

Of all things, an ill omen for nirvana.

Isn’t it a combination that seems like it would drop all those involved into the abyss or that the place they ascended to would be hell?

It should be called demonic rather than monster-like.

“The main body of an Alraune would be both you and the flower, right?”

As a result, I couldn’t help but be curious.

What this flower is, and what relationship it has with her.

“Are you curious about me? Yes, that’s right. We are two yet one at the same time.”

“Two…? Are you saying the flower has separate intelligence?”

If what she says is true, it means that floating lotus flower also moves with different intelligence from the Alraune in front of me.

She affirmed this.

“That’s right. Some of the others aren’t, but we both have intelligence. This child is my avatar.”

“Then, what should I call your avatar?”

“Originally, it’s a flower called Iris Black Lotus. It’s a flower that blooms receiving dark elf magic.”

Ah. I see.

The representative flower of swamps is the lotus.

The flower symbolizing Buddhism is also the lotus.

It’s just that the petals were too large and fluttering around like wings, and the stems below were also sparkling with rainbow colors, so I couldn’t possibly think of it as an ordinary flower.

…Wait.

Then, are those sparkling like beads lotus roots?

“Well then, let’s get to the main point.”

I’m curious about how a flower raised by dark elves was reborn as a monster, but it would take too long to talk about that.

I was still busy.

Besides her, I still had to meet two more queens, and it would take at least a week to meet them all and have conversations.

This was only possible for me.

‘It would be good to look at the dungeon too.’

If there’s anything most urgent besides that, it would be about the dungeon.

Now I need to properly start up the dungeon, then look at the results and readjust.

However, this wasn’t something that absolutely required my presence.

‘It’s fortunate that there are two who can act as deputies. There are also many external collaborators now.’

Eve was handling internal dungeon affairs, while Ran was taking care of some of the external dispatched personnel’s work.

In addition, with the increase in human-bodied subordinates like Cerebrum Skull and humans dispatched externally, there were also many things that could be done even if I wasn’t necessarily in the dungeon.

Still, if possible, I wanted to see it directly.

Because it’s my property, my dungeon.

“My, why are you in such a hurry? Shall we have a meal and talk?”

However, she had no way of guessing the circumstances on this side and no intention of asking, so she was just proceeding with things as she pleased.

It was the self-centeredness befitting the leader of monsters.

“Let’s do that.”

“Don’t tell me you’re still upset about earlier? I said I was sorry about that, didn’t I? Or… do you need a gift?”

“It’s fine. You’ve already given a gift.”

I shook my head at her question.

This isn’t a lie.

Right now, I’m merely acting hurt and upset.

About her, who conducted a test forcefully and sprayed fragrance that could harm my subordinates.

Of course, in the latter case, I was genuinely displeased enough to affect my sincerity, but it wasn’t enough to ruin this important meeting that affects the big picture.

However, if I can get a gift, there’s no need to actively refuse it.

“Fufu. Let’s consider that as something given to look good. Right. How about this?”

In that sense, the deal she proposed was quite good.

“I’ll send some children I’ve been keeping an eye on to the dungeon. Of course, in the form of making a contract with you. How about it?”

Of course, this was a mutually beneficial deal.

Dispatching forces to the dungeon is originally the most essential thing in the deal between us.

She can more accurately grasp the situation of the dungeon, and I gain immediately usable forces.

In addition to that, not only raising the grade of those forces, but offering to move them completely under my affiliation was enough to be considered a gift.

How well she’ll keep that promise is something to be watched.

“Sounds good. I look forward to it, Nirvana.”

“Me too. Let’s continue a deep cooperative relationship from now on, Libertas.”

It didn’t take long to finish the conversation and even shake hands.

However, what I overlooked was that she had been quite looking forward to meeting me.