Reverse Dungeon

Keith spoke with an awkward expression.

“Didn’t we agree that you would tell me before my heart became stained?”

“Did we?”

Ian could never remember clearly after talking to Keith. He did remember deciding that, since Keith seemed bothered by Louise, he would praise Keith whenever he praised Louise.

Hadn’t he done that?

Reading Ian’s expression, Keith replied,

“That was not exactly proper praise.”

“Ah. Right.”

This bastard judges the quality of compliments, too?

Ian had no idea what qualified as proper praise.

“There is much tragedy on this continent.”

“...?”

“To those who live in darkness, you are like a light. At first, I admired you because of that. But now... I am no longer certain whether that is a good thing for you.”

Ian had trouble understanding what he was trying to say.

Has his illusion about me shattered?

If it was going to shatter, shouldn’t it have happened long ago?

The fact that words like these made his stomach lurch was unpleasant.

This was exactly why he hated being ruled by emotions.

“What are you trying to say?”

“But that is your nature, Ian. You will not change.”

What was that supposed to mean?

“What, are you telling me to stop looking after Louise?”

Though, had he really been looking after her?

You couldn’t just abandon an ally who refused to listen.

“No. You should do as you wish.”

Ian had thought he was about to be criticized, but Keith smiled instead.

“I have finally realized that protecting someone like you is my duty. ...I think I finally understand what I am supposed to do.”

“Yeah? And what exactly are you planning to protect more than before?”

A bad feeling crept over Ian.

Then what have you been doing until now?

Hadn’t Keith been protecting him just fine already?

Keith rolled the beads of his rosary.

“I merely followed the path you walked without any purpose.”

“Sure. Keep up the good work.”

Before the conversation could drift into something sacred, Ian cut it off.

This was not the time.

He ignored Keith’s dissatisfied expression.

One ally secured.

Now it was time to summon the others.

In Reverse Dungeon, there were two major ways to reach the ending.

The first was the classic "Dungeon Defense" route, where you repelled every monster wave that descended upon the dungeon.

The second was the opposite.

Rather than defending at all, you killed the Demon King and removed the need for a defense in the first place.

Naturally, the intended route was the first one.

If it's a defense game, you're supposed to defend. What kind of sense does it make to go kill the Demon King?

Ian had been an innocent gamer, so at first he faithfully played according to the concept.

The problem was that the defense never ended.

When does this end?

There is an ending, right?

Is the whole concept just infinite defense?

After dying dozens of times, even an optimist was bound to become skeptical.

Even so, Ian tried to remain rational.

The game description clearly said:

Defend against the monsters and save the world.

Right. No sane developer would make a game like that.

Determined once more, Ian challenged the final defense again.

...And died dozens more times.

These bastards are straight-up lying in the game description.

He should have stopped trusting them the moment a Demon Archduke appeared in the tutorial.

After adding one more mark to his growing distrust of the developers, Ian began searching for another method.

Every game had hidden tricks—

No, hidden pieces.

There had to be another way to reach the ending.

And eventually, he found it.

Let's go back to the beginning.

Why had this whole disaster started in the first place?

Why were monsters that had been minding their own business suddenly launching a full-scale assault on the dungeon?

The answer was obvious.

The Demon King.

Get rid of that bastard and the problem disappears.

In-game, mamool were irrational and violent creatures.

Demons were selfish and evil beings.

In other words, cooperation between them was fundamentally impossible.

Unless the Demon King was removed.

After that realization, Ian stopped focusing on preparing defenses and invested more heavily in developing Heroes instead.

There had been plenty of trial and error there as well.

He discovered that concentrating resources on a few individuals dramatically increased the clear rate compared to spreading growth evenly across a large group.

Through that process, he established a new strategy.

Develop the dungeon only enough to prevent it from collapsing during the campaign, and focus on raising Heroes through regional questlines.

His success rate rose exponentially.

Admittedly, when you started at zero percent, any increase looked impressive.

In any case.

Eventually, Ian succeeded in eliminating the source of all evil with his playable Heroes.

And he reached the ending.

It was the usual cliché ending.

The monsters return to the Demon Realm, and peace comes to the world.

But he liked that sort of thing.

A perfect happy ending.

Later, out of sheer stubbornness, he even completed the defense ending.

Still, the route with the higher win rate had unquestionably been Demon King elimination.

Does that even make sense?

Then why put the word dungeon in the title?

Why classify it as a defense game?

Was it all just to mock the players?

At this rate, even a determined newcomer would quit before reaching the ending.

Worried the company might go bankrupt, Ian had even sent several emails suggesting they change the game description.

You might get sued at this rate.

Nothing changed.

He often wondered where that pointless stubbornness came from.

Regardless, two conditions were required to achieve the Demon King elimination ending.

The strength to kill the Demon King.

And enough defensive power to protect the dungeon while the strike team was away.

The strike team will be me, Keith, Nameita, and Jenea.

A ranged damage dealer, a melee damage dealer, a tank, and another ranged damage dealer.

A classic party composition.

Where was the healer?

Paladins are naturally tank, damage dealer, and healer all at once.

Keith would handle it somehow.

Paladins were generally much better at self-healing than healing others, but—

It's fine. Just don't get hit.

If a damage dealer managed to get beaten to death while fighting behind two tanks, that sounded like the damage dealer's fault.

Ian had briefly considered replacing Jenea with Louise.

After a little thought, he discarded the idea.

Louise's deadly poison produced results that bordered on magic, but poison was ultimately a debuff.

Its strength came from accumulated damage over time.

Louise herself was an excellent archer, so she could finish off enemies weakened by poison.

But—

I can't remove the mage.

That was the problem.

And it wasn't as though he could bring Sema.

The depressing reality was that Sema happened to be the most talented mage in the dungeon.

Is that really okay?

Maybe he really should have married Dorian.

If Dorian were here, the problem would solve itself.

Dorian's Spirit Magic skill level far exceeded Jenea's.

Jenea's advantage was her ability to communicate with every type of elemental.

But as a replacement for a mage, Dorian would be far more efficient.

Suppressing his regret, Ian shook the thought away.

Jenea listened better, anyway.

...Does she, though?

In any case, Jenea had originally been a playable character.

To allow players complete freedom in building her, she possessed high affinity with all elementals.

A character's personality already restricted player freedom to some degree.

If players couldn't even choose their growth path, then it wasn't a game anymore.

It was a graphic novel.

At least it proved the developers weren't entirely brainless.

Not that it mattered much.

The reason Jenea had been given the title of "Guardian of the World Tree" was supposedly because she could communicate freely with many elementals.

People believed she had received the blessing of the World Tree.

Not once during any of Ian's playthroughs had the World Tree ever provided a special buff.

Then why make that part of the setting?

Ian truly did not understand.

That left Louise, Momisia, Contacca, and Sema behind in the dungeon.

...

Louise and the archer corps would provide ranged firepower.

Contacca, the mamool stationed throughout the dungeon, and the traps would handle the front line.

Momisia would provide support buffs.

So far, so good.

The problem was the mage and the healer.

Sema and the Magic Tower were improving steadily, but calling them exceptional magical damage dealers would be generous.

Setting aside Sema's success rate with skills, his magical discipline itself was awkward.

A water mage.

Versatile, but lacking offensive power in the early stages.

And Sema's skill levels and practical ability were barely beyond those of a beginner. 𝘧𝑟𝑒𝑒𝘸𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝓁.𝘤𝘰𝓂

Could he fulfill his role without Ian personally directing him?

No.

Ian assessed the situation realistically.

Then there were the healers.

The temple was growing rapidly thanks to the priests transferred from the Vatican.

But Ian wanted more healers.

Ideally, the entire Vatican.

We'll bring in every allied force.

There was a saying, wasn't there?

United, you live. Divided, you die.

And if everyone was going to gather somewhere, a well-equipped and secure dungeon would benefit the allies as much as it benefited him.

If they failed to see it that way—

Ian was perfectly willing to help them reconsider.