Reverse Dungeon

Ian thought:

Should I abandon him...?

He had thought this was supposed to be his break time, yet before the monster wave had even arrived, he was already heading out to hunt demons first.

Why was it called a defense game? Wasn’t the whole point to cover your territory in traps, hole up inside, and wait for the guests to come to you? Going out to fight them was not the way of a defense game.

First, Ian asked, “So... we need to rescue Sema, right?”

“We were captured while trying to save him!”

“Please save him, Lord Ian!”

The people burst into tears.

If he abandoned Sema here, their loyalty would hit rock bottom. And even if Sema was only a 3-star hero, he was actually quite useful in the early stages.

“All right... Let’s drag him back before he cries himself unconscious.”

“Waaah!”

“Long live Lord Ian!”

The people raised their hands and cheered.

When they had first been placed under Ian’s command and told to stop the Mamools, they had been sunk in despair. Now, however, they believed in Ian’s abilities.

If Ian said he would do something, then it could be done.

Even the idea of farming in this dungeon had only been half-believed at first, yet Ian had brought back the and turned the farm into a massive success.

Ian chose three people with military training and added them to the rescue team for Sema.

“Poison Hunter” Louise activated his skill.

“!”

On the ground where the woodcutters had been cutting timber, a jumble of footprints surfaced as black marks.

Among them were prints that did not belong to humans, but to something large and grotesque.

Louise pointed to the trail.

“This way.”

They followed the traces and arrived at a place thick with demonic energy.

It was a grand coliseum.

The enormous circular structure seemed to rise endlessly overhead. Inside it, demons filled the seats, letting out bizarre shrieks.

Kiiieeek!

Kieeeek!

The people hesitated.

Ian asked them, “Should we abandon Sema?”

“N-no!”

“Let’s rescue Sema!”

They gripped their tools tightly and steeled themselves.

“But... how are we supposed to rescue Sema from here? There are too many demons. Those aren’t Mamools. They’re demons.”

In front of Ian, Louise was careful to refer to Sema respectfully.

Demons were a higher species than Mamools. They were demons in the truest sense of the word.

And the aura coming from the demons gathered here was anything but ordinary. If they fought them head-on, they would be turned into prey in an instant.

Ian nodded.

“Right. We can’t force our way in from above. We’ll go below.”

“...?”

“There’s a secret passage here.”

“...Excuse me?”

“How does Lord Ian know that?”

Louise asked the obvious question.

“I’ve been here before.”

He had, in the game.

Ian answered without the slightest guilt.

To the demon coliseum? How? 𝒻𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝘯𝘰𝑣ℯ𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝘮

The others were curious. But before they could ask, Ian took the lead.

He shifted several stones in the wall aside, revealing a small door.

“......!”

When he opened it, a narrow gap appeared.

As Ian tried to enter first, Louise blocked him.

“I’ll go first.”

“......?”

“Then go.”

Louise grunted as he crawled through the narrow gap.

Once he was through, the space beyond proved surprisingly large. A staircase led downward. It was horribly dark, but Louise quickly fashioned a torch with his practiced hands.

Ian squeezed through the gap as well.

The people following him descended the stairs after Louise.

“Ah... this place is...”

“Yeah.”

The moment they reached the bottom of the stairs, Louise understood where the secret passage led.

Prisons lined the left wall.

The Mamools locked inside began to grunt as soon as they caught the scent of humans.

To demons, Mamools were nothing but lower creatures, treated no better than slaves or pets. The Southern Demon Grand Duke coming personally to retrieve such Mamools was what made him such a peculiar character.

These Mamools had been captured for the demons’ entertainment. The guards had starved them so they would put on more violent fights.

“These... things!”

Even though the Mamools were behind bars, the people were too frightened to step forward easily.

Leaving them behind, Ian ran down the corridor first.

“Find Sema! Quickly! We find him and get out!”

“Yes, Lord Ian!”

Louise immediately obeyed.

As they began running down the prison corridor, the others snapped back to themselves and followed.

They searched for Sema in hushed voices.

“Sema!”

“Where are you, Sema?”

Then a voice boomed from somewhere above, echoing throughout the coliseum.

“Thank you for waiting! The grand battle prepared for tonight! Werewolf versus Mamools! ...What? You say a werewolf outside the full moon isn’t entertaining? Of course it isn’t. Look up at the sky again, ladies and gentlemen! Tonight, it is a full moon!”

It’s a full moon now?

That could not be right.

As any halfway competent gamer would be, Ian was sensitive to the game world’s environment. There were many events tied to full moons. If today had been a full moon, he would have known.

He checked the system window.

It definitely was not.

It seemed some kind of magic had created an artificial full moon.

They really do every kind of insane thing, don’t they?

A werewolf that lost its sanity under a full moon could not be controlled even by demons.

Ian was curious what they planned to do if the werewolf attacked the audience, but there was no time to think about that.

A bloodcurdling scream rang out from ahead.

“Aaaaaagh! Lord Ian! Help me!”

“......!”

Ian and Louise looked at each other and immediately ran.

They grasped the situation at once.

The coliseum cells were not built to be completely dark. Each had a small window high above, allowing the light of the full moon to enter.

And for some reason, Sema was in the same cell as a transformed werewolf.

“Lower your head!”

The moment Sema heard his master’s voice, he instinctively threw himself flat on the floor.

Ian and Louise stood shoulder to shoulder and fired at the werewolf at the same time.

Thud! Thud!

At such close range, the werewolf could not dodge.

Grrrrrrr!

The poisonous arrows sank in, and the werewolf let out a furious howl.

The scream was so piercing that Ian’s heart began to pound.

Ah, damn it...

He had drawn aggro.

The werewolf slammed into the bars.

BANG!

Crackle...!

Electricity surged, and the bars repelled the werewolf.

Good job.

Ian cheered for the bars as he drew another arrow.

Louise had already released his bowstring.

Thud! Thud! Thud!

Grrrrrrgh!

The werewolf screamed in unmistakable agony.

Then it grabbed the bars.

Sssssizzle...

With a burning sound, the smell of cooked meat filled the air.

More than the nauseating stench, what shocked Ian was the sight of the bars bending.

The werewolf’s fur bristled.

Then it leaped through the widened gap between the bars.

“Aaaaah!”

Ian screamed despite himself.

The werewolf closed the distance in a single bound, aiming for Louise, who had caused it the most pain.

Louise threw himself into a roll and narrowly avoided the werewolf’s claws.

The werewolf’s gaze shifted to Ian, who was still down.

Before Ian could react, the werewolf grabbed him and hurled him into the air.

“......!”

Ian could not even scream.

With a shock that felt as though his spine had shattered, he crashed into something hard.

“Lord Ian!”

The voices calling him sounded distant.

Ian barely managed to open his tear-filled eyes.

Gritting his teeth, he drew his bow.

His hand was visibly trembling, but he had to shoot.

Ian gathered Level 5 at the tip of the arrow.

A stream of light formed in the air, flowed into the arrowhead, and made it blaze brilliantly.

You should have killed me, you bastard.

Instead of throwing him.

Ian released the arrow.

The «N.o.v.e.l.i.g.h.t» shot struck the werewolf squarely in the neck.

Kaaaak!

“You’re dead.”

Ian drew another arrow.

Just as he was about to use again, a voice suddenly rang out.

“Don’t shoot! Please, don’t!”

What?

Ian looked over.

There was a little girl in Sema’s arms.

Was she about ten?

Utterly out of place in this hellish prison, her small round face was swollen like a steamed bun from crying.

“It’s because of the moon! He’s only like this because of the moon! That man is a good person!”

“Lord Ian, that person... the werewolf... anyway, he saved us! Please don’t attack him now!”

Can’t this bastard see I’m dying?

“If you hadn’t been captured, I wouldn’t have to shoot him!”

“I’m so sorry!”

Ian had not actually intended to shoot the werewolf dead.

He was simply so angry and in so much pain that he could not think of any option except firing the arrow.

All his attention had been focused on making the werewolf hurt.

But that was foolish.

Louise was still drawing aggro, but it felt like watching someone walk a tightrope. At this rate, Louise might die.

Do I really have to use this here?

With a heart full of bloody tears, Ian opened the system window and declared:

[Declare as the second dungeon.]

Ding!

[Discovered an ownerless dungeon.]

[Declared as the second dungeon.]

[Ownership: Southern Demon Grand Duke Ishter (Deceased) → Ian]

The original meaning of dungeon was prison.

This coliseum prison, which held Mamools captive, perfectly met the conditions to become a dungeon.

The moment Ian gained ownership of the dungeon, he issued a command.

Open all doors.

Click!