“Yeah. I’ve got no problem with that whatsoever,” I blurted out, not batting an eye. I knew what I said might sound absurd at first, but upon thinking it further, they weren’t “good” people either — ones that could be swayed by money to kill others. Not the slightest bit did I have something against killing them and this would do the world some good by decreasing the number of scum in this world.

No need to second-guess at a time like this, particularly when I put my life on the line here… Yeah, not gonna regret it one bit… Had I always been this apathetic to life?

“You sure?”

“Absolutely! This isn’t just an arbitrary decision for me. I understand your concern, but my perspective has changed here.” Becoming a Dungeon Master meant that I couldn’t be partial, and I ought to play along with what I’d signed up for, lest I got myself killed. And… now I didn’t feel that killing humans for my own survival was wrong; I’d been pretty much desensitized to killing ever since becoming a Dungeon Master.

“Very well. I will trust you on this one.”

“Good.” I understood that she was just voicing her concern for me, but that was unneeded. Hm… She’s more human than I thought.

Anyway, the force that we had built amounted to fifteen self-improvised clay golems, the original three monsters, and miscellaneous animals not worth mentioning. Except for the newly built ten golems, I’d also made one “special” golem with the core gotten from the hybrid boar.

Among the fifteen golems, ten were equipped with weapons from the Dungeon Menu. While I could craft something myself by molding the iron ingots, that would take too much time. On top of that, the weapons bought straight from the menu offered better quality than do-it-yourself blunt weapons. I mean, what would they do with blunt weapons? Beat them to death? Thus, I didn’t mind suffering some CP losses.

As for what kind of weapon, they were [Iron Greatsword (50 CP)], [Iron Halberd (35 CP)], [Reinforced Board Shield (35 CP)], [Iron Mace (30 CP)], [Iron Spear (20 CP)], two of each respectively, and combined making up ten. On the contrary, with an iron ingot that only cost 50 CP, I could “technically” make two of something similar to an iron broadsword that cost the same while still having a bit to spare. Processed items sure were more expensive… If only I could make them sharp myself… Wait, that’s it!

Inspiration suddenly struck me at the last moment, but I hadn’t had enough rest these past two days, so I decided to scrap it for later. Sitting in one place and making golems all day had been time-consuming work to do. Time spent really, really well… I am not a robot…

Although I’d thought about changing their hands into weapons, it came with a catch that they wouldn’t be as dexterous as they were — not having fingers. So, all these expenses for their weapons added up to 340 CP. Money well spent.

“Lorelei, I’ll be cleaning up and resting inside the mansion. Tell me if they make an unexpected move,” I told Lorelei and stood up. My body and neck crackled from the stiffness brought about by prolonged sitting.

“Mm-hmm. Sure, rest well.” She nodded.

With that taken care of, I walked to the mansion. Since coming to this world, I had yet to take a bath even once, and of course, I stank like hell. No, maybe saying that was a bit too much, as I didn’t smell any bad odor exuding from my body; it was just that I’d sweated a lot.

One of the other reasons why I avoided taking a bath other than being preoccupied with what I was doing was because this was inside the Artificial Realm. I mean, using mana instead of water was kind of disgusting… There were other “reasons” as well, but whatever. Right, later I’ll make an open bath in the dungeon.

By chance, the total hour of this world seemed equal to my world. There wasn’t any noticeable difference, at least shown by comparing my smartphone and the digital clock on the menu.

Done with all that, I was sleepy as heck; I’d burned the midnight oil yesterday to prepare all these traps. I wanted to hit the sack right away and say good night to the world, but the restless and stomach-churning feelings were keeping me awake. Uhh, is all this preparation enough?

An unknown world brought with it unknown possibilities… Fear of the unknown couldn’t be more real.

“Ah, geez. Screw it! Whatever happens, happens!”

I got into the bed with a cat leap, snuggled under the blanket, and closed my eyes. Let this dream continue as my mind wandered into oblivion. Good night for a while…

Rowan and His Contingent’s Perspective

The next day at dawn, Rowan rallied his men to march into the dungeon.

The dungeon — the ol’ small ravine — had a narrow gap that Rowan could easily jump across with a width about four times its gap, yet it had an abysmal depth, and its bottom couldn’t be seen. Obviously, Rowan didn’t order them to just jump in, he had already thought this through; after all, he had his own sense of proportion.

“Carry out the ropes!” he ordered, signaling his men to move.

““Sir, yes sir!””

They took five climbing ropes out from the camp and another five boulders that had been scavenged beforehand. Once placed in line a few feet away from the edge of the ravine, they dug out holes to half bury the boulders in before tying up the ropes around each of the boulders respectively. The ropes were then slowly tossed down into the ravine. Crude but creative.

“Keke. Now, who’s gonna take the rope and descend?” Erick, the ranger, questioned.

These ropes were at least ten times taller than Rowan, but once they reached down halfway, they disappeared as if plunging into another dimension. Freaky. Even the people looking from above weren’t sure whether to descend or not.

“Don’t squander around! You.” Rowan pointed at the thin hooded man.

“Me?”

“Yes. You’ll be the first to descend. Fear not. We will follow you shortly.”

The thin hooded man gulped. “R-Roger, sir…”

Rowan was well aware of what this little subordinate of his was worrying about, so he stomped the ground and spoke up.

“Men, have one of the ropes pulled back… Now tie yourself with the rope; you may climb up if you find something dangerous. Once inside, pull him back on my command.”

His henchmen did as they were ordered. The thin man, now not looking as timid as before, gritted his teeth and began descending. Rowan knew that he couldn’t refuse his order as he was among the weakest in the group.

Slowly but surely, he reached the halfway mark. He gave a last look up, especially to the three men holding his rope, before jumping down.

Ten seconds passed… Then twenty seconds… Rowan had yet to give an order to pull the man back up, nor did the guy try to climb up by himself.

When it had been a minute, one of the three men holding the rope inquired, “Sir… should we pull him up?”

“…Pull him up.”

The three men looked at each other and began pulling the rope, yelling, “Heave-ho, heave-ho!”

“Sir! No need to pull me up; it’s safe down here!”

A voice echoed from within. It appeared that sound could travel inside and out freely, unobstructed.

“What did you see inside?”

“Not much. I can see clearly what’s above. But I dare not venture deeper… since the darker it becomes…”

Finding that there were no problems, Rowan issued an order, “Good. Your contribution, I’ll remember it. Men, we descend!””

There was no longer any need for hesitation; this was, after all, just a new dungeon. Just what kind of insidious traps and monsters were within? They definitely wouldn’t amount too much. Overly cautious was fine and all, but needless worry would just bog down their progress.

The remaining twenty-five men descended slowly with the five ropes, five at a time. The order had been decided in advance with the ones bearing shields to be the vanguard and the others occupying the middle and back spot with the elementalists at the rear. While the gap of the ravine might be rather narrow, it was wide enough for them to descend with the ropes.

Rowan and Erick followed once all of them had descended. While descending inside, a cry of pain resounded from within, followed by several more explosion noises accompanied by people screaming in agony. This made Rowan hesitate… clenching the rope hard, but he kept descending soon.

Inside, Rowan could, at last, see what just happened. Not far from the landing side were three large holes that seemed to have been caused by explosions with a copious amount of blood and body parts scattered about and one other sunken-in ground that looked like a pitfall trap, trapping and incapacitating one unfortunate guy inside as sharp spikes pierced his body like a porcupine — his vital status obvious. Before even the dungeon liberation proceeded far, he had lost four good men.

“Don’t move from your position!” This had been a mistake; he should’ve deployed Erick with his [Ranger Sense] Vocation among the first few who descended since he would be able to tell when danger approached. No, most of all…!

Rowan glared at the thin man angrily, snatched him up, and hollered, “You said that it was safe down here!”

“I, I don’t know s-sir… I just explored the most peripheral area… Give me another chance…” The thin man was trembling, his voice was rather obscure.

“Hmph! You’re lucky that I’m not cruel.” Rowan released his grip on him since he still had more “use” later, so killing him would be a bad idea as it would also lower the morale of the group.

“Sir,” Erick informed, “this place is filled with strange and bizarre traps. I sense danger all around us.”

“Can you tell the safe location to advance?”

“It’s not impossible, but…” He glanced at the others before falling back at him.

In tacit understanding, Rowan instructed three men bearing shields to walk in front. He also had the few behind to light up the torches and lanterns they had brought. Lanterns were more expensive, so the majority were crude torches made from coals and charcoals.

With light illuminating the interior, the dungeon interior was visible. Not that far from where he was standing was the entrance to a cave. Deeper inside, the land appeared muddy like a marsh, but not a single monster or creature was lingering in the area. Somehow this left an eerie, foreboding feeling inside of Rowan. Since when was there a marsh inside a cave?

“Aaargh! My leg!” The left-most shield-bearer abruptly stumbled as one of his legs fell into the pitfall trap where one of the sharp spikes pierced through his foot. “Help me!”

“What an insidious trap—”

Another explosion rang as one person accidentally stepped on the wrong ground. Half of his body exploded into pieces as he was thrown some distance away… “S-Sa… ve…”

This sent a cold chill down Rowan’s spine, and the others’ countenances didn’t look any better than ghosts. Still, this didn’t do enough to render them to retreat; danger and opportunity always coexisted together.

Fortunately, no more people fell victim to the traps, and they finally advanced to the cave area of the ravine. However, this didn’t make Rowan let his guard down even a tiny bit.

Muddy puddles filled the ground here and there. Smells of putrid rotten eggs stung Rowan’s nose; he remembered that he used to eat rotten food when he was little. Not again would he experience the same thing…

“How is it?” Rowan asked the ranger, Erick.

“Nothing. The area is safe; we should proceed just fine,” assured him.

Yet that didn’t stop Rowan from worrying. He knew that he was always overly cautious about handling things, some people even called him a chicken, but he always gave them payback for saying that to him. But this was different; his hunch was telling him otherwise.

The stillness of the air and the stepping of shoes against greasy mud being the only audible sound didn’t help in alleviating his worry.

When they entered the cave, the noxious smell thickened. Moreover, it was becoming unpleasantly dangerous, as some of his men were showing sluggish movements as they walked.

“Oh, no! The air is poisonous!” Erick informed.

Rowan obviously had realized this too, but the gas wasn’t so lethal that it would kill, so he had been ignoring it awhile. Furthermore, being occupied by worry had made his mind a bit muddled. Luckily, among the five elementalists, there was one that mastered Anemo Elemental Magic — by casting wind, it would blow away the poisonous gas.

However, before he was able to issue a command—

“What?! Poisonous?!”

Rowan wasn’t sure who yelled that, but that scaredy-cat must have dropped something into the puddle of water as there was a splashing sound mixed in. At the last moment, he managed to catch a glimpse of what was dropped: a burning torch.

Once the torch fell down in the muddy water, it caused a chain reaction: Fires spread about from the water before explosions followed incessantly, as it burned everything that got engulfed by it to crisp.

“Arrrghhh!!” One man behind him, also holding a torch, caught fire, got burned alive, and dropped the bringer of their destruction — flames surfaced from behind them, spreading at an alarming rate, and turned into a wall of flame, blocking their path of retreat.

“RUN!! Run deeper into the cave!” Rowan ordered as he quickly scurried first inside. But it was too late, as fire abruptly surfaced from every corner.