章 21: Final Stretch
"!? Finally, this late in the game and somebody decided to play police."
I quickly commanded some of my strongest defending monsters to guard the door towards the core room. Since I found out that there was someone trying to play the assassin card, I can't let my guard down now that my monster army is marching towards the other dungeons. Right now, because of the probability that my dungeon will be attacked by a monster army was low, I had to keep my guard up on any infiltrating monster.
Thankfully, I had some countermeasures at hand against sneaky monsters like them.
***
~ Third Person POV ~
"Hehe…"
An elf continued to laugh softly inside the room. On the screen, what was projected was human dungeon master that had black hair and eyes. Seeing that he became aware that someone employed his tactics, he completely went into cautious mode and quickly applied countermeasures.
"In the future, he might be one of the strong dungeon masters in the world."
For centuries, the elf had experienced being a dungeon master, and the elf also had experience in the outside world. He was one of the dungeon masters that ruled a dungeon with an SSS-rank dungeon. Using his wit, knowledge, and skills, he continued to survive, unlike others who died by the hands of adventurers and countries.
When he became a dungeon master, he was just a slave, an illegal slave at that. During the day of his 12th birthday, he was kidnapped when out on an errand by slave hunters. Three years later, the master that bought him died, and for some reason, the slave collar, which was worn by slaves to submit to their masters, broke. There has never been a case where a slave collar broke, at some chances, when slaves were released, the collars would be removed, not break.
When the slave traders saw this, they restrained him and put another collar on him, just to have it break again. With no more chance of slave loyalty, they had to dispose of him. Learning that he would be disposed, he quickly ran out of the building, while shaking off the pursuers.
Running through the city streets tired him out, but he had to keep running, if he didn't want to die. He ran through an alley, but at that moment, the next scene stunned him. What appeared was a cave, and behind him, there was no alley.
Feeling that there would be no more pursuers, he flopped down and lost consciousness. The next time he woke up, he saw the same cave interior, but this time, there was a note at the center of the room, along with a crystal orb the with size of a volleyball. He picked up the note, and was able to read, even if he was illiterate.
Reading through the note, he shed tears, finally being set free from the slave traders clutches. This was the start of him being a dungeon master.
Going back to the present, he was now looking at one particular dungeon master who had a bright future ahead.
"A cool head, taking measures against threatening possibilities, kind, and also uses his subordinates to their fullest. I will not be surprised if he has the makings of a king."
Laughing while complementing the young dungeon master, he continued commanding his monsters to defend his dungeon and attack others.
***
Three dungeon masters were left in this game. One was a human with black hair and black eyes, another was an elf with an appearance of a 15 year-old teenage boy, and the last was a female elf with the appearance of her late teens.
In the core room of the female elf, what could be seen was her smiling at the screen. Even though she was smiling, her eyes were not. Her name was Liz Tanya, a 2 month old Dungeon Master.
"… Haahh… Even that didn't work. Honestly, just how good is that dungeon master with the three Demon Trolls to gain that much DP to summon those three? Actually, how did he get the tyrant, the sage, and general variants?"
While questioning herself what she knows she has no answer to, she looked thoroughly at the screen which shows that her monsters were being mercilessly killed by three rampaging Demon Trolls.
"Even so, this was a good experience. I just hope that I die a painless death or instead, destroy the dungeon core to get out of this painlessly."
While resigning herself to her inevitable defeat, she looked back at how her monsters lost at the entrance of her dungeon.
Her dungeon was built with an appearance of a tower in order to tire out the monsters when climbing up the stairs to the next floors. Even if this had significant effects, who knows how it will affect their next battle.
She had two A-rank monsters that can rival a Demon Troll, but the variants just toyed with them until they died. The two monsters were a Magical Holy Beast in the form of a white tiger, and the other was Magical Darkness Beast in the form of a black panther.
Even if their bodies stood two meters tall and were three meters in length, their strength were just equal to the Demon Troll Sage and Demon Troll General, but was severely inferior to the Demon Troll Tyrant. In actuality, a Demon Troll Tyrant is an S-rank, but that was only if the Demon Troll Tyrant was able to live for a long time while gaining strength and evolving.
There were cases in the past where people summoned a Demon Troll familiar, just to summon a Demon Troll Tyrant and lose control over it, having their countries destroyed in the process. This is one case similar to it, except that the summoner was able to have control over the Demon Troll Tyrant. It is also said that if you successfully summon a Demon Troll Tyrant, the next Demon Troll summons would be a sage and general, following knights, mages, etc. Just like the military ladder implemented in countries. But the dungeon masters in the present have no knowledge of this.
With a fight you would consider as that of an adult and child between the Magical Holy Beast and Demon Troll Tyrant, the result would be completely obvious. After that fight, the Demon Trolls, along with some of the monsters raided the Dungeon Tower, and as a last result, used her final trump card, which is using kamikaze attacks using monsters that could result in a destroyed city. But that didn't even phaze the continuing Demon Trolls. The only casualties dealt were about 75 % of the raiding monsters.
With her last trump card rendered useless, Liz resigned to her fate to lose.
"Well, at least I reached third place."
Moments later, she lost consciousness because of a blade swiping through her neck. At least it was painless.
***
What transpired in the dungeon tower was simple. Distract monsters using the Demon Trolls, and the Goblin Assassins, following the instructions of the tacticians and using the information of the Goblin Ninjas, head towards the core room and kill the dungeon master.
This was viewed through a holographic screen by a male elf.
"Even if the raid force is annihilated, once the covert troops get in deep, then it is over. Not a bad strategy."
While grinning, he continued looking at the screen. Everytime he is seen looking at the screen, you could only see a grin forming on his face.
"Too bad, you decided to deal with another dungeon master first instead of me. Let me show you that there is a proper order when dealing with enemies."
***
~ Daichi POV ~
"!? What the hell!?"
While looking at the screen, I saw that my dungeon was being raided by a huge amount of monsters. It numbered about 500, less than the last attacker, but along them, were several monsters that could easily deal with my monsters. Just looking at them makes me think that my Demon Trolls won't win against them.
"Damn! After getting this far! I won't fall!!"
Sending a transmission via telepathy to my monster army, I had them quickly rush towards the last dungeon. If I look at the information given to me by a Goblin Ninja, the last enemy dungeon master's dungeon was closer than to mine. Looking at the monsters raiding my dungeon, I concluded that there would be no more strong monsters at the enemy's dungeon.
I had the three Demon Trolls quickly run towards the last dungeon. With their legs, stamina, and strength, they should be able to reach it in 5 minutes. Also, the core room could be easily reached in another 5 minutes if they hurry.
"Damn! Was there a bug inside!? But how!? There were monsters inside that could detect enemy monsters' presences, how did they get in!?"
Since there was a bug inside, the enemy might know the layout of my dungeon, making my pseudo-maze rooms useless. There might also be a chance that they know the items I summoned using DP to use against raiding monsters. There was also another gimmick that the door connecting to the passage was a fake, so I hope that that didn't get noticed.
I had to buy time for about 10 minutes or more, and judging by the enemy's troops, it will take about 9 minutes for them to reach. One reason was one of their monsters. It had an appearance of dog with three heads. Its fur coated a fiery black, with fangs that looks like it can pierce through anything. If this was in history class back on Earth, this monster will be called Cerberus, the watchdog of hell.
It disregarded my defending monsters like they were pebbles on the sidewalk while running at a fast pace. On the first floor, it kept on running through the shortest route in the maze rooms. It took about two minutes and twenty-five seconds. Just like I predicted, I need to buy an additionaly one minute.
Kicking my brain into high-gear, I quickly gave commands to my monsters on how to delay Cerberus. I had them place the huge-bear traps, oil I summoned using DP to make the path slippery. I also activated some of the giant pitfalls on the third and fourth floor.
The Cerberus, just like a raging tornado, quickly ran through the passageways while kicking up a storm. The giant bear traps had no use because of its hard skin. Some were just crushed because of the weight. The oil instead became a double-edged sword because of the flame breaths emitted from the mouths of Cerberus' three heads. The pitfalls also had become useless because of the information leakage.
At this rate, I will lose!
"Anything, is there anything I can do!?"
Finally, I remembered something I summoned using the DP. I quickly had it carried by my monsters and thrown in front of Cerberus. The Cerberus stopped and picked it up with its mouth from the middle head. After that, it left.
"I-IT WORKED!?"
What I had used was something unbelievable. It was a giant white bone. There were too many things to retort to. I mean, the final stretch, ended up being settled by a single bone!?
The reason I did that was because I was left with 5 DP after using all of the DP for my defense. And since there wasn't anything I could summon using the 5 DP, I just summoned that since it would be a waste.
"H-Ha… Hahahaha… With this, I'm safe! Even with this raid, I win because it will take another 15 minutes before they reach this room."
While I was slumping in my chair out of relief, I never had realize, that I was jut playing into the hands of the enemy.
"!? D-Damn it… I lose…"
In front of me… Was a single Goblin Assassin…
With a single swipe of its blade, my vision flew into the air until it went all black.
週次パワーステータス
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