It's Dangerous Outside the Dungeon, Master

* * *

“Did you rest well? Serha.”

“Yes, Lady! Thanks to you!”

Right after the army’s organization and maintenance was finished, I called Serha who was in the guest room.

‘Maria’s skills have improved.’

Although I returned her power, I had told Maria, who is still a maid or servant, to help with Serha’s grooming.

Perhaps because of that, Serha’s appearance when I met her again was much more organized than before.

Should I say she became even cuter, with less wild flavor as her messy hair and feathers were tidied up?

“I had no idea a dungeon could be this comfortable. That thing called a blanket was really good too!”

“If you want, I’ll send a few to the harpy nest as well.”

“Really? Mother and the others will be happy too!”

It’s not bad if I can gain the goodwill of all the harpies by giving just a dozen or so blankets.

Due to their physical characteristics (mainly sharp feet), I’ll have to provide intact blankets periodically, so if I sell them on the condition of receiving costs later, items to exchange for some small wealth will accumulate.

‘Considering Kamaya’s personality, it might be easier to put her in my debt by ‘selling cheaply’ rather than giving for free.’

“If you’re happy, I’ll be happy too.”

“Hehe.”

I saw a sharp light flow in Serha’s eyes as she smiled pretending not to know anything, but I turned my head pretending not to notice.

That kid. Her gaze is busy.

“Now I have to go north. I’ll ask you to guide the way.”

“Are you taking the whole army?”

“There’s no need for that.”

The personnel heading to the northern coniferous forest are half of the advanced and regular skeletons, and two platoons of skeleton soldiers led by two skeleton officers.

However, skeletons other than soldiers here also move with the platoons normally.

This is because elite-grade soldiers and officers have characteristics that affect a wide area.

『Special Group Tactics – The more individuals of the same type nearby, the more all individuals’ health increases normally and magic power increases slightly.』

『Advanced Command – The more lower-level individuals of the same type nearby, the more the officer’s health and technique increase, and all individuals’ technique increases slightly.』

『Gaze of Resentment – Makes the living cower with a gaze full of dead people’s resentment. Slightly lowers the technique of nearby hostile living beings whose average ability is lower than 1.5 times that of the characteristic holder.』

The ability of upper-level undead soldier series is to make allies stronger and enemies weaker.

This was also the reason why I invested some of the ‘upper-grade summon slots’, which I don’t have many of currently, in them.

Although deputies also have buffs for allies, they’re slightly lacking, and officers are worth more than what was invested in them.

“‘Void’s Shade’.”

Swoosh!

As I stomped the ground with my foot along with the spell, my shadow greatly expanded and sucked in the soldiers who were lined up.

A moment later, what remained in that place were the four of us – me, Eve, Xue, and Serha – and those who came out to see us off.

“Was that just now…?”

“It’s a magic that every Dungeon Lord has one of.”

“Wow!”

When I nodded and spoke to Serha’s question as she asked with curiosity with her eyes wide open, she showed a behavior of unnecessarily stepping on the shadows on the ground while circling around me for a while.

It’s a waste of time, but I decided to watch that cute appearance for a moment.

Anyway, it’s a situation where we have to travel for four days even by normal carriage to the coniferous forest.

If something goes wrong in that time with a little more time spent, it can’t be helped.

“There’s really nothing…”

…Of course, I won’t deny that my heart has become more generous because of this cute appearance.

“Are you done?”

“Ah, I’m sorry…! You waited, didn’t you!”

“It’s alright. Let’s go.”

After showing her a generous smile and stroking her head, we got on the carriage like that.

* * *

Xue becomes the coachman during normal waking hours for living beings, and Eve takes over during other times to pull the carriage.

Originally, horses would need time to rest, but this time there was no need for that.

This is because what we rode was a carriage pulled by horses made only of white bones and black shadows, not ordinary horses.

-Kihihing…!

Clip-clop…

Ghost horses.

These are creatures usually treated as a set with Death Knights.

If you look closely, you can see that sound is being made even though the horse’s hooves aren’t touching the ground.

“We’ve finally arrived!”

Anyway, thanks to the special nature of these horses, we got off the carriage when we arrived at the entrance of the coniferous forest.

Since there was nowhere to stop by or rest in between anyway, we arrived here by running the carriage without stopping once.

It’s no wonder Serha was excited.

“You must have been bored.”

“No! I wasn’t bored because I was with you, Lady!”

“Really?”

“Yes!”

But it seems she wasn’t actually bored.

During every free moment, she was looking at my face to the extent that it was slightly burdensome even for me, so I thought she was undoubtedly bored, but.

‘I was feeling a bit sorry, but…’

I wasn’t feeling bored.

I was focused on magic books for most of the travel time.

At most, it just felt like killing time reading web novels on a train, not really boring.

“They’re fighting…”

-Clack.

As I shook off the somewhat apologetic feelings I had towards Serha, I noticed Xue muttering something while looking beyond the forest.

She was leaning slightly forward as if seeing something there, with her ears folded in a wary posture and her whole body tensed.

Eve was looking in the same direction too, so there must be something there.

Perhaps a fight broke out somewhere nearby.

“It’s over…”

“Already? That’s unfortunate. I was hoping to see how the battle between the two forces would unfold.”

“The fight nearby is over… there’s still a lot more.”

“Is that so…?”

The area ruled by the northern queen. That is, this coniferous forest where we arrived is located on a plateau about three days northwest of Solemio.

‘Was it called Mistheim?’

It’s bordered by the Eisenrite mountain range, which is higher than this plateau, to the south and west. And on the plateau, as the name suggests, there’s fog all year round and dense coniferous forests, making the interior hardly visible.

This plateau and forest also share the same name.

“So this is that tree.”

I had heard rumors about the trees here even among humans.

Although it’s a dangerous place with many monsters, the wood obtained from here is of good quality and sells for a high price, so there are often requests where woodcutters and adventurers accompany each other.

Tak tak.

When I knocked on the tree out of curiosity, a strong resilience and solid sound came back.

This fir tree, named ‘Heisen Mistheim Iron Wood’, forms the coniferous forest here, and at the same time, it was a wood famous as material for all kinds of weapons and armor due to its toughness and flexibility.

“I wonder if they know? That the reason they’re alive and well here is because of human needs.”

“What? What do you mean by that?”

“Humans really like this wood.”

As such, the existence of monster groups here was actually well known to the kingdom side.

The reason why this place hasn’t become a place for monster subjugation despite having such useful materials here was also famous.

A place with useful materials and monsters that are sufficiently hostile to humans even if they don’t actively expand externally.

Yet there’s a reason why this place doesn’t become a target for subjugation aimed at ‘monster extinction’.

‘They were lucky.’

It’s because according to the research results of magicians, the reason why the ‘iron wood’ grows so hard is due to the excrement of the monsters living here.

“That means…”

“It means that parts of monsters are mixed in the bark of this tree.”

“Ugh. When you put it that way, it’s a bit grotesque…”

The excrement of the monsters here contains some components that create ‘hard shells’, and it’s said that the fir trees here maintain their elastic and tough quality because they absorb that excrement.

From the human perspective, it’s a situation where they just need to periodically subjugate the monsters here and control their numbers so they don’t increase too much.

This was also the reason why Solemio could maintain its fortress-like appearance and relatively large size as a city despite being an inconvenient countryside.

The management of this place is jointly handled by the adventurer guilds of Copzerin and Solemio.

‘In fact, it’s not Heisen-made, but monster-made Mistheim Iron Wood.’

As such, my taking over this place would be no different from reclaiming legitimate ownership rather than usurping ownership.

Of course, that’s sophistry.

“Let’s go towards where the ruler of this place is said to be.”

“Understood! It’s this way!”

“Xue. If there’s a battle nearby, let me know right away. We should observe at least once.”

“Okay…”

Rattle…

Shaa…!

I looked around while riding in the carriage led by Xue.

Unlike when we came here, the presence of leading the carriage relatively slowly.

The sound of strong winds blowing through the fir trees so dense that it’s doubtful whether everyone can fully receive sunlight.

And the white darkness that’s white due to fog but doesn’t actually let in sunlight, making it difficult to distinguish even 10m ahead with the naked eye, plus the light reflecting in between.

It’s a sight that generally gives a mysterious and eerie impression.

The ‘flow’ felt within is also strange…

Wait.

‘I thought something was strange.’

Although mountainous areas tend to have frequent fog, places where fog is constant all year round like this region are rare.

The reason why wind and magic power can’t escape this area was spread out right before my eyes.

“The culprits were the trees.”

-Clatter.

“You felt it too? The trees are all holding onto light and fog.”

-Clack!

“As you said, it would be interesting to properly research.”

That secret was the airflow created by this place, or more precisely, each fir tree individually.

Rustle…

Fir trees that grew using monster corpses, bodies and blood soaked in magic power as fertilizer.

Those plants, long accustomed to magic power, are instinctively using magic to tightly hold onto the moisture and light they need without letting go.

This should be seen as the fir trees’ magic use reaching the realm of primitive ability.

It’s literally a naturally occurring labyrinth.

‘I wondered why there’s so much fog but it doesn’t stick to the skin much.’

When I refresh my thoughts and look around, the air nearby is just cool, not sticky enough to increase the discomfort index of passersby.

No matter how high up it is, with such high humidity, it should be irritating as water forms on skin or inside clothes.

“With this level of ability, new monsters will soon appear in this forest.”

“Like a new ruler…?”

“Not that. There are already two leaders.”

“Ah, I guess so.”

If we give these fir trees here a longer lifespan and safer environment, they would quickly become monsterized like Alraunes or contain spirits.

That’s what I meant by ‘research’.

Rattle.

While observing the surrounding scenery and thinking like that, I felt the carriage stop with my body.

“This way… huh?”

“There was a sign of battle, Lady.”

“I see. Let’s walk.”

It was news of a battle.

After getting off while hearing Serha’s perplexed voice and Xue’s calm voice, I started moving with Xue in the lead.

“Kisaak!!”

Thud!

“Kyaaaa!!”

Crack!

The scene that unfolded before our eyes after not walking much was a battlefield where blood and mucus from warriors wearing hard shells and magic beasts were splashing.