The End of the Bandits

It had been one week since the adventurer attack. In a way, the dungeon was at peace.

There was no harm to the bandits, and no adventurers came.

Twice during the week, bandits who had gone out brought back corpses. The four corpses turned into about 600 DP. Capturing them alive must have been too difficult.

… Honestly though, isn't that poor earnings for twenty-six people? Well, one of them is a child who doesn't fight.

Ah, their reward? Since they didn't kill inside the cave, I told them it would take ten-odd days. I'm not going to give it to them right away, you know?

By the way, the boss makes the dog-eared girl his plaything every day… That's the one part that isn't peaceful from my perspective.

Even if I'm told that's just how slaves are treated, as a Japanese person I can't immediately accept it.

What's more, while the other slaves work as bandits, just one of them becomes a plaything.

Is it at least some small comfort that no one besides the boss has laid hands on her?

From the underlings' perspective, their assessment seems to be "the boss is a lolicon." They were talking about either buying a more adult female slave next time or getting one by raiding.

"… Still, he doesn't get tired of it day after day, does he?"

"It's starting to become an eyesore."

"I had a feeling he was a good guy, but I guess I was imagining it～…"

Still, the fact that Rokuko gets upset over a girl being made into a plaything might mean she has some human-like qualities.

"It's just… having the dungeon dirtied by this… unpleasant kind of bodily fluid… it's irritating."

"Oh, that's what it is… Though is it okay that I've been using the master room as a toilet?"

"Ah, you and Gobsuke are fine, it can't be helped… I did technically summon you as monsters."

"So I'm in the monster category too… Come to think of it, I was summoned, wasn't I?"

"It's kind of like circulating within myself, in a way. It doesn't feel great, but… besides, that kind of thing can't be helped, right?"

"At this rate you'll develop a scat fetish. But man, your tastes in goblins and scat are pretty bad."

"I don't have a fetish for getting aroused by excrement, you know?! Kehma, you're also misunderstanding the thing with the goblin, aren't you?!"

That was yesterday, when I was teasing Rokuko.

As for today's dungeon… it seems the time has finally come for the peace to be broken.

No, perhaps it's the time for peace to arrive.

"Ah, something incredible is approaching…"

Hearing Rokuko mutter that, I pulled up the map.

The map of the surrounding area… As long as it's within the dungeon's line of sight, I can see detailed terrain and information. On it, red dots indicating enemies were already displayed, marching in orderly formation.

"About thirty people, huh… They've finally come. Was that early, or late…?"

"Who's coming? Those guys?"

"Yeah, probably a subjugation force. And judging by how they're advancing, they're a trained group. Probably a knight order… This is the end for the bandits. Though if by some chance they survive, that would be nice too."

The bandits seemed to have noticed as well. I brought up a semi-transparent monitor from the menu and decided to observe what the bandits were doing.

Being able to watch anything inside the dungeon as if surveillance cameras were installed is really convenient.

Looking at it, a scout underling was hurriedly reporting to the boss.

"Boss, this is bad! Knights! They're heading this way!"

"What?! How were we discovered? We killed everyone who saw this hideout!"

The bandit boss was panicking. It seemed he hadn't considered that a knight order might be dispatched because of that.

"No, but knights are still human. It's not like we can't kill them… How many?"

"S-sorry, I came back the moment I saw armored figures. At least, um, more than five!"

"Tch, can't be helped then… Well, whether there are many or few, fighting them inside the dungeon is the same."

"Is that so?"

"If there's few, we can take care of them with an ambush. If there's a lot, we'd just get surrounded and finished if we fought outside."

"Ooh! I see, as expected of boss! Alright, you heard him everyone! Let's ambush them!"

"""Yeah!"""

It seemed they were motivated to fight, and inside the dungeon at that.

How very convenient. It was truly worth teaching the bandit boss about ambush tactics and how to use the passage exits this past week. I'm really glad he wasn't smart enough to run away.

"So, can the bandits win?"

"It depends on how strong the knights are, but… if there are about thirty as strong as those adventurers from before, they'll almost certainly be wiped out."

I should be able to see the knights' situation on video soon as well.

Since this was the result of my work, I decided to watch until the bandits were annihilated.

The bandits' formation was eight people in the entrance room, eight people in a room partway to the core room, and nine people including the boss in the core room itself. It meant splitting their forces, but realistically, this was about the limit for how many could fight or ambush in each room.

Just as the bandits finished their ambush preparations, the knight order arrived at the cave entrance.

"Halt. Henry-dono, is this the 'Ordinary Cave'?"

"Yes. Most likely, that is the bandits' hideout… Please avenge Beck."

"Understood. I appreciate the cooperation… Life, return the beat to my wave — [Life Search]."

A knight clad in full-body armor used a skill. For an instant, a transparent wave spread outward from the knight who used the skill… Judging by the name, it seems to be a skill that searches for living things. Perhaps it works on principles similar to echolocation.

At the very least, this should make the bandits' ambush ineffective.

"Hmm… Just as I heard, there appear to be at least eight people. They're lying in ambush."

Indeed, eight bandits were waiting in the first room.

… I wonder if he couldn't detect beyond the wooden doors? Or was it the effective range?

"That matches our information."

"Very well, commencing the bandit subjugation. There don't appear to be any captives, but… just in case, use the sleeping drug."

"Yes sir!"

"Five people will watch for attacks from outside. The rest, surround the entrance. Take down any bandits who come out."

"Understood."

The knight order took positions surrounding the cave exit and began burning incense at the entrance.

… So that's their approach. Well, if they know there's an ambush waiting, there's no need to deliberately walk into the trap.

After the incense had been burning for a while, there was movement on the bandits' side.

Around the time they started smelling the incense, one of them couldn't resist the drowsiness and collapsed.

"Guh, this is… sleeping drug! W-we have to retreat to the back room!"

"No, we should charge out before we can't move! If they're using tricks like this, there can't be many of them. Let's go!"

"If we go to the back and close the door, the smoke won't reach… ugh… w-what do we do…"

"Hmph, coward. You just sleep. I'll finish them all!"

The newcomer who had become an officer after finishing off the adventurers inside the cave before was now staking everything on one gamble, heading toward the cave exit with five slaves in tow.

The only ones left were the one who had collapsed from drowsiness and the one who had suggested retreating… The latter was crouching, having been punched in the stomach.

The six who went outside, their combat ability diminished by drowsiness, were cut down by the swords of the knights surrounding the entrance before they could do much of anything. The dull swords they threw in desperation were easily deflected by the knights' armor.

Listening to his comrades' screams, the remaining man muttered "Ah, I wasn't wrong…" before he too succumbed to sleep as the eighth person, falling there.

It seemed he didn't realize that his decisive mistake was becoming a bandit in the first place.

Once the incense had thinned enough to not wake the sleeping bandits, the knight used [Life Search] again.

"[Life Search]… Hmm, two remaining for now."

"Alright… The passage is narrow. We'll proceed two abreast. Be careful."

The knights filed into the dungeon one after another… Though of course, since the area in front of the cave where the knights had been positioned was already within the dungeon's territory, they were technically already inside the dungeon.

Yeah, it was the right call to expand it. Otherwise, the DP from those six who died first would have been wasted.

"… Alright, two bandits. Finish them off."

"Is that acceptable?"

"Even if there are others outside, they can't come back at this point. Besides, our job is to destroy the bandit hideout. As long as we crush the leader, we can leave any survivors to the adventurers afterward… And look, there's still more ahead. There are probably better fighters deeper in than these underlings at the entrance… Though if there weren't, that would mean the boss was among those we just defeated."

"Indeed."

The two sleeping bandits had their heads cut off, and DP came in.

Feeling a tug on my clothes, I looked to see Rokuko with a puzzled expression.

"You haven't been absorbing the corpses. Isn't that wasteful?"

"… Absolutely do not absorb them, alright? If you do that, we won't be able to hide it anymore."

"Hide what?"

"… If they learn that this dungeon eats people, or if they figure out that this beginner dungeon has been acquiring energy this way, they might consider it a dangerous dungeon and destroy the core. I do have some insurance, though…"

"Uu, I'll die if the core gets destroyed… Insurance? What's that?"

"… Remember when I made that goblin room before?"

"Aah, the one you made a bit away! The dummy 'Ordinary Cave,' right?"

"Yeah. The maps in this world aren't very accurate, so even if a cave is in a slightly different position, we can probably pass it off… maybe. My faint hope was that they might misunderstand and think this cave is just an ordinary cave…"

"Mm-hmm, I see… Huh? But what about the core?"

What I really wanted was to place a dummy core and use the castling function… a function that instantly swaps it with the real Dungeon Core in an emergency (usable even when intruders are in the core room), but there was no helping it. That thing costs 5,000 DP. I couldn't afford it until yesterday's DP. Moreover, it's the type of equipment that requires connecting a path, or something, so it can't be installed when there are intruders anywhere in the dungeon.

"… Well, since separating rooms with doors counts as dividing floors, if it comes to it, we could turn the core room into an impenetrable trap room."

By dividing things into floors, you can install traps even when there are intruders on other floors.

… Naturally, the condition that there can't be intruders in the room still applies.

"Right now, the bandit boss and his people are lying in wait in that very core room though."

Of course, the bandits count as intruders.

"Yeah… In other words, right now we have to appeal that we're a harmless dungeon and hope they overlook us."

"I see, that's why you're not absorbing the corpses. So how do we get them to overlook us?"

"… F-for now, let's just wait and see."

In truth, there was nothing I could do at the moment.

I turned my attention back to the knights.

"Is this room for war spoils? A bed… ugh."

"… That's a distinctive smell. Were there women here too? Either they haven't used [Purification] much… or they've been at it so much that even using it wouldn't help."

The knights were currently examining the boss's bedroom.

That room was where the dog-eared girl had been made into a plaything. Incidentally, the dog-eared girl was currently under the bed. Her eyes were like those of a dead fish, and she hadn't moved an inch. Without finding her, the knights moved on to the next room.

If the knights had used [Life Search], they might have found her, but for some reason they didn't. Maybe there's a usage limit? Or perhaps the knights doing the search simply couldn't use it? The captain-looking knight who had used [Life Search] outside was currently in the entrance room giving instructions to subordinates.

Beyond the boss's bedroom was a jail.

I had set it up so they could keep anyone they captured from raids, but in the end they never used it. It had become storage for war spoils.

"Nothing good here."

"Bad timing, maybe? If we'd come a bit earlier, there might have been valuables. The food supplies are pretty stocked, so… or if we'd come a bit later…"

"Hey, that's in poor taste. But well, taking some of this sake should be fine, right?"

For the record, I had retrieved the noteworthy items to the master room before the knights reached this room. Though there really wasn't much of value. They should throw away moldy bread like that… The only useful thing was maybe the light magic tool? It was like a lantern… Well, the boss had taken anything usable for combat to the core room.

So only food and shabby spoils remained. Since it was a dead end beyond that point, the knights began carrying out the boxed food supplies.

Once most of the spoils and food had been carried out, the assault resumed.

Just as a knight put his hand on the wooden door and tried to open it, a sword sprouted from the door.

"Guah?!"

It wasn't a trap. A bandit had stabbed through the wooden door, piercing the knight trying to open it.

Then, destroying the door, they came slashing.

"Uoaaaah!"

"Guh?! Ryan, fall back! Uooooh!"

The injured soldier withdrew, and combat began.

"Damn it, I told them to be careful of ambushes at the door, and they let their guard down… Light, heal this one's wounds — [Healing]!"

"S-sorry, Captain… guh… ugh…!"

Wrapped in magical light, the injured soldier's wounds healed. The large gash closed up, and the bleeding stopped. He was still weak and exhausted, but his life was no longer in danger.

… So that's recovery magic. First time I've seen it.

While I was admiring it, the battle had ended.

"I'm sorry, but Heggs was also injured in that fight. Please heal him."

"Damn, this is exhausting… If I collapse, you're taking command, got it? Light, heal this one's wounds — [Healing]."

"Can't be helped, it can't be helped. Captain's the only one who can use recovery magic… Seriously, I wish healing scrolls were more widely available…"

"There's simply not enough healing scroll production, and the Church monopolizes what there is…"

Hmm, that's good information… By the way, it seems healing scrolls can be exchanged for 100,000 DP. That's how rare they are… Same price as the cheapest dragon. Yeah.

However, if wounds can be healed like that, the bandits no longer have any chance of winning.

"Alright, moving on. You saw what happened to Ryan, so watch out for ambushes… This 'Ordinary Cave' is supposed to be a very shallow dungeon."

"Captain. There's a pickaxe here. Maybe the bandits dug further in."

"Hm? Dungeon walls repair themselves even if you dig through them. Why would they have something like that?"

"I don't know, but… there are traces of digging on that wall there."

Is that so? I looked at Rokuko.

"Normally you close up any holes that get opened, right? Don't humans do the same?"

"Like healing a scratch, I guess."

"Something like that. Though it doesn't particularly hurt."

"Hmm…? What could that mean? Well, bandits making their base in a dungeon is already quite unusual, so maybe it's related to that?"

"What if the bandits are the dungeon boss?"

"Hahaha, I've never heard of humans becoming a dungeon boss. Perhaps the bandits are actually dragons?"

"The rooms up until here have been too small for a dragon."

The knights joked around while carefully advancing through the dungeon.

The remaining bandits were just the nine lying in wait in the core room.

The dungeon only had eight rooms, but they had been overly cautious, so it took time. Finally, the knights arrived in front of the last room, the core room… Of course, the knights wouldn't know it was the core room until they opened the door.

I switched my view to the bandits.

An underling who had his ear pressed to the door moved away and went to report to the boss.

"… Looks like they're here."

"Alright. Ready your bows, quietly… The moment they open that door, shoot them dead."

"Boss, you think we can do this?"

"Heh. They should be pretty worn down from getting here. All we have to do is give one final push and it's over."

I wonder what would happen if I told them that the knights had recovered and suffered zero losses.

… They'd destroy the core in a fit of rage and I'd die, so let's not.

… Creak. The wooden door to the core room slowly opened.

The instant a line of fire to the passage opened up, the bandit boss gave the signal to shoot.

The arrows made hard clanging sounds as they were deflected by armor. But one arrow. Through sheer luck — or the worst luck for the knights — one arrow slipped through the eye slit meant for visibility and pierced straight through the brain.

I saw the DP increase at the corner of my vision. It seemed he died instantly.

"Ryui! Damn, it's no good! He's not going to make it!"

"Tch…! We only got one!"

"Boss!"

"You bastards! Aim for the joints! Our attacks will just bounce off their armor!"

The bandits charged in slashing.

"Geh, you bastard, you're Geromelon's Ove!"

"Don't call me by that name!"

"Uwaaah!"

The bandit boss flew into a rage and slashed wildly. His ferocity made even the fully armored knight flinch. Seizing that opening, he drove his sword into a gap in the knight's armor and — violently stirred up the contents inside. Seeing the DP increase again, it seemed he'd killed him.

I don't want to see what's inside there…

Also, what kind of nickname is Geromelon?

"What, the rude fellow who vomited up melon during a meal with the Princess!"

"How dare you kill Ryui and Eijin, you vomit bastard!"

"That melon was rotten! It wasn't my fault! Why the hell did I end up with a bounty on my head!"

"Because after eating too much and vomiting, you falsely accused the chef of serving rotten melon and killed him! Right in front of the Princess!"

"Shut up! He was jealous that the Princess was in love with me! If it weren't for that, I'd be Emperor by now!"

Ah, thanks for explaining about Geromelon. Turns out it's literally what it sounds like, and even more hopeless than I expected.

After that, Geromelon fought harder than expected, perhaps because of his rage.

He killed one more person with his sword and inflicted numerous wounds on the knights.

But that was as far as it went.

The subordinates who had been supporting him in coordination were gradually picked off, and instead, knights surrounded him, sealing his movements.

And then, before he knew it, a sword was growing from his stomach.

"Damn it… After coming… this far…"

With a thud, Geromelon dropped to his knees and fell.

A knight grabbed him by the hair and forcefully lifted his face to ask.

"Hey, are there any other comrades? Geromelon."

"Tch… Everyone here was all of us, damn it… Why… I did what I was told…"

His voice trailed off to a whisper near the end, but it seemed to reach the knight's ears.

And with that, every last bandit became DP.

"So there was a mastermind? … There were signs a woman had been here, but maybe she escaped."

"He said 'everyone,' but… I'm not sure. Oh, it looks like this is the Dungeon Core room."

"Huh, so this is it… That's a Dungeon Core, huh. First time I've seen one."

"As we'd heard, it was a shallow dungeon. There weren't even any stairs."

One of the knights pointed his sword at the Dungeon Core.

"Alright then, let's destroy the core."