Dungeon Defense (WN)

‘Now what?’

I desperately put my brain to work.

What can I do to escape from the evil hands of these adventurers?

Dantalian was currently captured by a group of adventurers. At this rate, I’ll be dragged to the nearest city and executed. The adventurers will most likely be pleased once they receive the bounty reward. A small festival will be held in the city market and people will proudly proclaim that they had subjugated a Demon Lord. While all this is happening, my head will probably be put on display at the end of a spear.

Damn it.

People say that even if you’re taken to a tiger’s den, you can survive as long as you stay calm. That might actually be true. I mean there is a chance of survival.

However, that’s only when a human is the one that’s taken. Not a rabbit! No matter how composed a rabbit manages to stay inside of a tiger’s den, they’ll just die. They don’t have even the slightest chance of survival. How depressing…….

‘If I had at least become Rank 32 Asmodeus. No, even Rank 68 Belial would have been good enough.’

The inside of my mouth tasted bitter.

The adventurers that had captured me clearly were not great by any standard. At a glance of that Riff guy’s outfit, you would think that he was just a beggar. The other adventurers were also trying to look cool in their own way, but telltale signs of their shabbiness were leaking out intensely. They were probably at the bottom of the ladder. A party of rank F adventurers.

If I had at least 20 goblins under my wing, then taking out a party of this level would be a breeze. Despite my appearance, I’m a player who has reached the zenith of Dungeon Attack, after all. I know the weaknesses of adventurers better than anyone else. Nevertheless, I didn’t have even a single one of those goblins who are known to be common in the wild. Therefore, I can’t do anything even if I wanted to.

“Hey. His leg may be sprained, but isn’t he a bit too slow?”

“I’m telling you, he’s purposely going slow so that he can buy some time.”

The idle chat among the adventurers stopped. Was it because they had nothing to talk about for the moment? It seems they had decided to talk about me as they began to speak in a hostile tone.

The leader of the adventurers, Riff, chuckled.

“Your Highness Demon Lord. My comrades aren’t very patient.”

These bastards. They’re acting like this even though they clearly know my right foot is messed up.

“I’m sorry! I’m sorry! I’ll walk faster!”

I bowed my head at once and apologized. It’s my fault for being weak.

Riff grinned in satisfaction.

“Aha. It’s good that you respond so quickly. Still, us adventurers are rather paranoid when it comes to things like this. My comrades are starting to suspect that Your Highness Demon Lord is deceiving us right now. They think that you’re trying to buy some time for your subordinates to arrive.”

I made an expression that was similar to the ones given by the most victimized panhandlers at Seoul Station.

“Please dismiss such thoughts!”

How great would it be if I actually did have a monster subordinate?

The portion of my thigh that scraped a sharp rock on the floor earlier hurt like hell now. I began to shed tears.

“I once had subordinates. Goblins, imps, orcs…… They weren’t much, but they were my precious subordinates.”

I supplemented a lie. They probably wouldn’t believe me if I told them I didn’t have any monsters anyway.

“However, before your group arrived, a total of 3 other parties attacked this place one after the other! You men are the 4th group to come here. My subordinates are all dead…… kuh, they were children that had been with me for the past 30 years too…….”

“H-Hey?”

Riff’s tone shifted to panic.

“Don’t tell me you’re crying?”

“Hk…… I’m not…….”

I spoke sorrowfully as if I were doing my best to hold back my tears. Tears flowed down my cold cheeks.

My words were a lie, but my sorrow was sincere. Although I had a rubbish lifestyle, I also had someone I cherished. It was my daily life which I loved in my own way.

However, I suddenly died in a car accident, woke up to my foot being messed up, an arrow got stuck in my thigh, and, above all else, I had to beg for my life to someone for the first time in my life which was frustrating.

“Huuk……mother……kuh.”

I ended up thinking about my mother. My mother who most likely believed till the very end that her son was vigorously studying.

How will she react to my death? Her son, who was studying hard at a cafe on a hot day, got hit by a car on his way home. That’s probably how she’ll picture it.

She was the one who recommended me to go study at a cafe. There’s a chance that she might think that her son’s death was her fault. Even though it actually wasn’t. Even in my final moment, I left an eternal burden on my mother’s shoulders. What a terrible son.

“Uuhk…….”

The sound of pitiful sobbing echoed throughout the cavern.

Once it did, the adventurers were taken aback. Riff even got upset.

“Hey, hey. Fuck. Who made him cry?”

“Come on. How was I supposed to know about his past?”

The person who had accused me of deliberately walking slowly tried to justify himself.

“I noticed that there weren’t a lot of monsters here even though it’s a dungeon. Those other guys must have cleared this place out first.”

“He became penniless in an instant, huh. Tsk tsk…….”

“Demon Lords are also living beings, so it’s only natural that they would have mothers as well.”

The mood became soft.

It was then that I heard a sound effect in my head. A bunch of holograms appeared before me.

「Novice Adventurer Riff’s affection has risen by 3.」 「Novice Adventurer Daneff’s affection has risen by 1.」 「Novice Adventurer Luke’s affection has risen by 1.」

My tears stopped.

Wait, there’s an affection point system for males as well?

It seems that this world is a lot more complex and subtle than I thought it was. How could there be humans who grow fond of a Demon Lord, the monarch of monsters, just because he cried sadly? I felt so baffled that I forgot about my pain for a moment as I stared at the notice window.

Meanwhile, the adventurers were interpreting my gaze on their own.

“Jeez, look at that gaze of his, it’s like he lost the entire world.”

“If a dungeon is ruined, then that’s the same thing as the Demon Lord’s life being ruined as well.”

“I wonder if it’s because we’ve been constantly seeing monsters, but this Demon Lord seems more human than I expected.”

These people are excessively naive. Is it because this is around the medieval times?

According to the game’s premise, most adventurers were originally farmers. Once the exploitation of nobles became too severe, they went out to hunt monsters since they believed that they were going to die poor anyway. Although there are powerful mercenaries out there as well, there are only a select few. Almost every adventurer is a farmer that gave up on farming and decided to hold a spear instead of a hoe.

People of the medieval times are boundlessly cruel when they need to be cruel since they have no knowledge of civil rights, and they’re also overflowing with emotions.

‘Huh?’

I remembered something.

‘If I play this out well, then I might be able to use this.’

I hastily worked the abacus in my head. I had a good idea. I’m saying it again, but I know what adventurers are weak to. I know very well what they would fear the most in this current situation.

There’s a 50/50 chance with this. It may or may not work. Nevertheless, I wasn’t in the position to be playing it safe. I’ll be executed in a town square if I let things go like this anyway. If I’m going to die either way, then there’s no harm in trying, right?

I promptly went into my performance.

“Regardless, I’m relieved to have met you, gentlemen. You didn’t try to kill me the moment you saw me even though I am a Demon Lord.”

A bitter smile appeared on my lips.

“You’ve been considerate towards me, despite my bad injuries, and you’re even supporting me like this……huk. This is my first time in the past 200 years that I’ve ever met such virtuous adventurers. The fact that I’ve been caught by such gentle souls like you all is a light in my misfortune.”

This was obviously a lie.

These guys started shooting arrows at me the moment they laid eyes on me. They probably didn’t spare me because I was pitiful, but simply because they wanted to loot this dungeon. Who cares, though? It didn’t matter what the truth was.

I had to garner their affection no matter what.

‘How will they respond?’

I waited impatiently. I didn’t fabricate actions that never happened. I merely added an interpretation to their actions. In general, people tend to interpret their own actions in a more positive light.

The adventurers finally reacted.

“No, we didn’t really do that much…….”

“You also cooperated with us well, didn’t you?”

「Novice Adventurer Riff’s affection has risen by 6.」 「Novice Adventurer Daneff’s affection has risen by 4.」 「Novice Adventurer Luke’s affection has risen by 6.」

Outside of these three, the affection of all of the other adventurers went up as well.

‘Perfect!’

I made a fist in my mind. Compared to the small amount of affection that went up previously, it went up by a reasonable amount this time. I had a rough grasp of things now.

“I’m sorry for delaying everyone due to my slow pace. Now then, gentlemen, let us make haste towards the treasury.”

I did my best to speak energetically. I didn’t actually speak energetically, I spoke just energetic enough to make it clear to others that I was forcing myself to speak like this in order to liven up the mood.

The adventurers cleared their throats.

“Ehem. Hm. We don’t really have to rush, do we?”

“Mhm, that’s right. It’s not like the treasury is going to grow legs and run away.”

“Your feet must hurt a lot as well, so let’s go slowly. This shouldn’t be an issue since there are no monsters anyway.”

They weren’t constantly terrifying beings. In other words, they were beasts that could be reasoned with.

Additionally, I knew what the beasts known as adventurers were weak to the most.

“Uh, but…….”

I narrowed my eyes slightly. I continued in a troubled tone.

“If we take too long, then another adventurer party might invade this dungeon as well. They’ll be able to reach the Demon Lord’s room with ease since all of the monsters are gone. Would this not trouble you gentlemen……?”

“What!?”

The adventurers were startled.

Dungeon monsters are unable to hurt Demon Lords. As long as this party keeps holding me hostage, they are safe from any monster threat. However, when it involves other humans and not monsters, then that’s another story.

On some occasions, parties cooperate when conquering dungeons, while, on other occasions, they compete against one another. The Demon Lord’s head which the dungeon’s gold and bounty reward rely on……this was nothing more than appetizing game for adventurers.

These people were individuals who had left their homes and traveled to foreign countries solely for the sake of making money. It didn’t matter whether it was monsters or humans that had money. If anything, they could change into a pack of thieves at the snap of a finger. That’s what adventurers are.

The job known as adventurer has a bad reputation in this world.

‘Aren’t they just a reserve group of thieves that are going around trying to make money?’

This is the most common opinion people have in regard to adventurers. If you’re a human, then it’s only natural to become a farmer in the place you were born and raised. As expected of a medieval era, wanderers were treated badly. Nevertheless, where there’s smoke, there’s fire. It isn’t rare for parties to plunder each other.

The adventurers furrowed their brows and started discussing with each other.

“Damn it. I didn’t consider that at all.”

“There’s no certainty that another party will come. There’s nothing to worry about.”

“Idiot! He said that there have already been 3 parties that came here recently. There’s a good chance that there are other bastards who’ve heard the rumors and are coming to attack.”

Their faces gradually became grim.

“Aiming for when the dungeon is weak……something like that, huh? That sound plausible.”

“If, as the Demon Lord had said, there isn’t a single monster left, then we have to risk our lives against a healthy party of adventurers.”

“Shit! Like hell I’d just hand over our treasure to them!”

The older adventurers that had more experience tried to calm their companions down. Losing your cool in a dungeon wasn’t a wise idea. However, the farmers who had dived into this dungeon in order to turn their lives around in an instant couldn’t compose themselves.

“Everyone. There’s a chance that another party could be approaching right this minute.”

I spoke in an overly concerned tone.

“How about we head towards the treasury for now? You can walk and talk.”

“He’s right.”

“Let’s take the gold first! Yeah!”

The others agreed.

「The Novice Adventurer Party, ‘People of Jalsen’, has lowered their wariness towards you by a fair degree.」

“Let’s get a move on. We can’t waste any time even by the length of your penises!”

“The men of Jalsen aren’t gullible enough to let our prize be taken from right under our noses!”

All of the adventurers let out their own respective shout as they resumed their march.

***

Author’s Afterword

ForSmile// Thank you for leaving the first comment. Personally, I also want to try getting hit by a resurrection truck…

김조작// Even if his lower body is overpowered, his right foot is already broken, so… Of course, if it’s broken, then it’s possible to play(?) accordingly!

fewfqew// Thank you for the first coupon. I’ll repay you with an entertaining story.

***

TL note: Thanks for reading. Sorry about taking a fair bit to release this one. I’ve been a bit busy meeting relatives and friends in the morning for the past few days, which is usually the time I translate, so I didn’t have that much time to get work done.

In any case, I’m not really sure if I should keep translating the author’s afterword when he’s responding to comments you guys can’t even see. It’ll also be fairly difficult for me to find the actual comments as this WN was uploaded on a different site before being moved to KakaoPage. Feel free to tell me in the comments whether I should keep translating these or not.