It's Dangerous Outside the Dungeon, Master

* * *

[I see. That’s regrettable.]

The moment Libertas’s last words fell, two things at that place evaporated.

Thud-!!

One was Libertas’s left arm.

Thwack-!!!

The other was the Arachne King’s upper body.

A Dungeon Lord’s body is one of the most magically efficient sacrifices in this world.

Libertas, who knew this knowledge, transcended her limits by sacrificing her arm, then blew away the Arachne King’s body with ‘darkness’ summoned and connected to her body.

[…Keuhek!!!]

The full-powered lightning strike blew through the Arachne King’s upper body before he could prepare anything.

Bigger and more powerful than what he had done to the ant queen not long ago.

-Clack!

[Remove… that trash… it’s unpleasant to look at.]

That incident was the first case of Libertas voluntarily sacrificing her own body to amplify magic power.

[W-wait! I-I’m sorry!]

Although she didn’t finish him off at the end due to ‘some guilt’ she possessed, and later realized that was a mistake.

That violent impulse she carried out herself remained like a brand on Evangeline, just from that one act.

* * *

Therefore, that scene did not appear in this world.

“Die.”

The lightning strike shot towards the Arachne King who was raising both arms and laughing loudly was Xue’s.

Clang!

“What is this act…?”

However, it was blocked relatively easily.

The Arachne King was also elite-grade. Among them, he was a strong enemy with far more years accumulated than Xue.

However, he should have retreated from his position as soon as he detected the ambush and prepared for the next attack. Because Xue’s attack was merely to ‘fix the direction of his head’.

Crack! Crunch!

“…Keuhek!!”

Evangeline carved out his head and heart, which had momentarily stopped moving to block Xue’s attack, in an instant that even Libertas watching couldn’t perceive.

After mounting his body, she took his head with one strike, his heart with the second.

With just two sword strikes.

As if there was no carapace, or rather flowing through between the carapace instantly.

And before his body could feel her presence.

“Kha-kuluk…!”

“You all…?”

The Arachne King faced a crisis of death by her summons just before Libertas’s rage could boil over completely.

Although they were said to be at the entry level of elite in simple specs, it was an achievement far too great for two summons that the system still treats as ‘advanced’ to obtain.

Summons also differ in the amount of magic power they can use at once depending on their ‘recognized grade’, and as already mentioned, he was someone seasoned as an elite-grade.

-Kishaaak!!

-Enemy!!!

Spiders who recognized their king’s death began pouring out from all directions of the cave.

Of course, they couldn’t reach Libertas.

Although the spider king’s living space was certainly wide, the entrance was too narrow for all those spiders to enter.

-Tack!!

-Thud!

When the dungeon’s elites lined up behind the bone wall summoned by the skeleton mage, that alone was enough to block the rushing spiders.

“I’ll protect this place.”

“I-I’ll help too!”

With Xue joining in, not only could no one enter this place, but Serha, being a magician, also quickly accepted the situation and began to move.

“This is… what…”

Even amid all this, the Arachne King was still alive even with his fallen head touching the ground.

Due to the toughness and magic power befitting a king of monsters, though his body had stopped functioning, his head hadn’t stopped thinking yet.

The dungeon’s master received and held up that hideous head that Evangeline had brought to her.

“…Regrettable, Tigris.”

That appearance was quite calm.

So much so that it was hard to see her as someone who had just felt intense anger and hatred, who had been triggered by trauma.

This scene was created because their timing of action was very appropriate, as a result of them knowing their master’s heart better than ‘last time’.

Because they succeeded in resolving it just before her heart could be distorted once by anger.

“Just… before…!”

“Yes. The atmosphere was quite good. That’s why it became more regrettable.”

Whatever the cause, she had decided to kill him, and this was the result.

Then the subsequent cleanup should also be done cleanly.

Suddenly, a ‘simple’ method of using rampaging spiders to deal with the ants and reduce that queen’s position came to mind, but…

‘Simple methods always come with risks.’

She immediately discarded that path.

As mentioned, although she had no intention of actively preserving her humanity, conversely, she also had no intention of abandoning it extremely.

So now, it was time to instill fear in those who were enemies, if only to avoid abandoning something bigger.

To that end, Libertas raised one hand to match his five eyes.

What happened next was considerably horrific.

Squelch-!

“Kyaaaaaak!!! Aaaaaaak-!!!”

“Your eyeballs fit my five fingers perfectly. How convenient to hold.”

She who inserted her fingers into his eyes like picking up a bowling ball and fixed the head in her grasp.

While simultaneously operating necromancy and healing magic to regenerate nerves while appropriately controlling his head not to die, Libertas raised one hand to point at the king’s children.

“Come forward. All of you.”

Although it was a result of her subordinates moving independently, anyway, the past was the past.

Libertas didn’t confuse the order of what needed to be done.

‘Who would be good.’

What needed to be done now was not questioning or praising her subordinates, but first settling these spiders.

Before other spiders came to their senses and started acting up claiming to be kings or generals.

* * *

Despite my order, the Arachne royal family couldn’t show a very quick response.

“…The king…”

“Is he dead…?”

“No, he’s not dead yet but…”

“That can’t be considered alive…”

Some baby spiders just blankly stared at the sight of the Arachne King whose head and heart had disappeared before their eyes, as if they still couldn’t properly recognize reality.

Looking at how they call Tigris ‘that’, he must have been quite unpopular.

“Children. Let’s move.”

“She’s calling us. The Dungeon Queen.”

Fortunately, not everyone was like that.

Three female Arachnes who appeared to be the oldest among them began leading the rest of the family.

‘That’s…’

The black hair covering their spider lower bodies caught my eye.

This was something that remained in my memory.

It was an appearance that some people preferred over the original blue color, so I had to consider it when gifting that spider to my acquaintance.

If these Arachnes inherited the characteristics of their original species directly, that color would be evidence of the most seasoned females among ‘Gooty Sapphire Ornamentals’.

“You must be the queen consorts.”

“That’s correct, Your Majesty.”

In other words, now just before the death of the first Arachne King, this color would be a mark that they are the highest-ranking creatures in this cave.

This means they are either the most likely to become rulers of the spiders in the cave, or individuals who could create another ruler.

It also meant they were the targets I needed to bring under control first.

“Y-Your Majesty…?”

“Dungeon Lord…? Are we going to die?”

“She’ll kill us all for nutrients… Dad did that too…! He said that’s what kings do!”

“… It will be alright.”

Of course, this didn’t mean such queen consorts could achieve complete stability for other individuals, but it would be better than being completely frozen and unable to move.

“From now on, you belong to me. Not your biological father, but because I decided so.”

Therefore, I declared in the way most familiar to such spiders.

Those who have been owned and bound by someone all their lives tend to find comfort in such relationships more easily.

“…”

Sure enough.

The spider king’s children kept silent while watching my mood with learned helplessness, and to that, I naturally gave instructions to the queen consorts.

“You all. Come forward first.”

“”Yes.””

Tigris’s queen consorts showed no signs of resistance and walked forward to kneel before me in a modest posture.

If he had seen this, he might have screamed in bloody tears not to take his possessions.

“Kuuuung…”

His head was already in my hand squeezing out bloody tears it should shed, so he couldn’t perceive the outside.

“Starting with the eldest.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

An Arachne woman with black hair who appeared to be in her 30s stepped forward first.

Though her hairstyle and skin weren’t well-groomed as befitting a species living like beasts, seeing that she was quite beautiful just in her basic form, it seems Tigris’s eye for beauty wasn’t too bad.

The other wives also possessed their own ‘human-like’ beauty.

The Arachnes also had eyes resembling human eyes except for the three eyes on their foreheads, so looking just at their upper bodies, there wasn’t much dissonance.

“‘Child of magic. Do you swear allegiance to this one, Dungeon Lord Libertas?'”

“‘I swear.'”

“‘You shall give me loyalty and devotion. I shall give you desire and survival. Here and now, the contract is sealed by a Demon King candidate.'”

Whoosh-!

Contracts with beings that were originally monsters are much simpler than those with humans.

Because there’s no need to obtain the Demon King’s guarantee, the demon realm’s contract document itself isn’t necessary.

There is only the magical effect of incorporating those who have surrendered or voluntarily want to join under the Dungeon Lord.

This had less behavioral enforcement than contracts with humans, but instead was a semi-permanent contract maintained without large magic power consumption.

“You all first calm down the other spiders. I have things to discuss with your children.”

This was the first instruction.

The changes they needed could be brought about slowly in the future, and now unnecessary sacrifices needed to be reduced.

“”Understood, Your Majesty.””

The queen consorts who finished the contract talked among themselves, then each went in different directions to begin settling the spiders.

-Chirururu…

-Crack…

-Kiiii…!

Although the speed was noticeably slow at first glance, it would gradually get faster.

Simply because they had no need to activate ruler pheromones while the spider king was alive, the queen consorts who were now liberated would soon get used to it.

After being convinced of this just by watching briefly, I turned my attention to the king’s children next.

“Will it be okay…?”

“If it wasn’t okay, she wouldn’t have contracted with our mothers…”

They were already much more stable after seeing their mothers’ safety secured.

Thanks to this, the atmosphere became suitable for conversation.

“Among Tigris’s… no. Just the oldest among you all, come forward.”

Eight sons and ten daughters. The king’s children totaled eighteen.

Among them, one son and two daughters stepped forward.

They seemed quite tense, as if instinctively sensing what I was going to do to them.

Among them, one of the two daughters was so nervous that she tripped while coming forward…

‘No, she has a disability in her legs.’

“You. Come forward.”

“Y-yes? M-me?”

“Yes.”

The woman approaching hesitantly, as if unable to believe the fortune that had befallen her.

The largest pair of eyes in the same position as human eyes were sparkling, and the other three eyes embedded above were pitch black and glossy while watching my mood.

Come to think of it, I remember reading that spiders’ other eyes are for crisis detection.

When I recalled the words ‘crisis detection’, I thought of Evangeline’s sword strike from earlier.

‘So that’s why they fixed the direction his back of the head would face with Xue’s attack, and struck from directly behind.’

All three of the Arachne’s eyes except for the largest ones are spread in a corner formation.

Probably to properly detect crises from all directions except the front. This must also be why the Arachne King didn’t get confused while using multiple spells simultaneously.

‘In other words, they knew exactly the Arachnes’ weakness…’

So to strike at that weakness in crisis detection, they approached precisely below the back of his head and carved out that head first.

‘…As if they had fought before. …And as if they knew how I would act.’

If I had properly vented the anger I felt this time, I wouldn’t have maintained my composure, and then I wouldn’t have been able to settle these spiders in time.

Even if I were to enter such a state now, Evangeline or Xue could try to settle things, but without the Dungeon Lord’s contract, they couldn’t bind them perfectly.

In that case, different thoughts might have emerged from the surviving spiders.

“Evangeline.”

-Clack.

So Eve’s actions were carried out at a very appropriate time, but.

Nevertheless, this is the right way to say it.

“Prepare to be scolded when we return. How could you blow off the head of my conversation partner without orders?”

-Tack.

Evangeline accepting my words somewhat dejectedly.

However, there is no hint of defiance or rebellion in it. Rather, there is only joy and slight relief that she couldn’t quite hide.

While patting the side of her head, I continued the rest of my words.

“…You did well.”

-Clack!

Although she reacted as always, unchanging, just seeming pleased at my praise…

‘So it was like that after all.’

What had been a simple suspicion had changed into a firmer conviction.

Why she watches from a distance like that.

That question still remains.