* * *
The day finally dawned.
The new employees who had just joined the dungeon had spent the entire night practicing combat and were fully prepared to welcome the challenger.
We couldn’t even pay overtime, yet their enthusiasm was tremendous.
It suddenly occurred to me that the dungeon needed a training facility.
Of course, there were still plenty of other facilities that needed to be set up first, but…
Once this first challenger was handled well, I resolved to immediately prepare spaces for the new employees.
“I’m so nervous.”
I, too, had barely slept all night.
If things went wrong, the dungeon could be conquered by the very first challenger and that would be the end.
Brownie and I hid together near the entrance and waited for the challenger to appear.
Please, let it be someone incredibly weak. Let it be a beginner adventurer who has just started their journey!
How much time passed? Just as I was growing tired of waiting, I heard chattering voices from afar.
“This time, I’m definitely going to get permission from my parents!”
“Are you sure this is okay? We haven’t even finished our basic swordsmanship training.”
Two different voices!
The fact that there were two challengers, not one, made my head spin for a moment, but there was still hope.
As long as both of them were weak!
As the two drew closer, their appearances became clearer.
Seen up close, they were…….
“What? They’re just kids?”
I also had a complex about my small stature, so I tried not to judge people by appearance alone, but no matter how I looked at them, they were clearly children.
Middle school age at most?
“Humans can work as adventurers once they’ve lived thirteen years.”
Brownie said it as if it were no big deal.
“So thirteen? That’s way too young. Kids that young… fighting monsters and all that?”
In my world, thirteen is the age for cram schools and PC rooms…
“There are adventurers who set records in upper-tier dungeons at sixteen. Give those kids three years, and they’ll be the ones shaking down passing monsters for money.”
“Even so…….”
“Isn’t it better this way? No matter how weak the new hires are, would they lose to kids like these? Look at the way they’re holding their swords. It’s completely sloppy.”
Brownie chattered excitedly.
But my conscience pricked at me, and I couldn’t just leave it alone.
What if the children got seriously hurt in the dungeon? What if they lost their lives…….
No matter how urgent my situation was, I didn’t want to do something cruel to children.
“Brownie, this doesn’t feel right.”
“What? Are you seriously worried that the monsters might take an adventurer’s life in the dungeon?”
“Of course I am. I’m human too. How could I just stand by and let human children come to harm?”
“You’re gravely mistaken about dungeons!”
Brownie scolded me in a dumbfounded voice.
“Th, then it’s not like that?”
“Of course not! If an adventurer dies, the dungeon loses out! They have to challenge the dungeon again and again for us to make money.”
That made sense. If the number of adventurers decreases, the dungeon can’t earn as much money.
The Demon King gains power from the fear extracted from adventurers, and the dungeon is operated with the money adventurers put in the prayer box.
“Then… what’s the condition for a challenger failing to conquer the dungeon?”
“It’s when they feel extreme fear, as if they might die. Once they’re in that state, the sacred relic can place a curse on the challenger that makes them lose consciousness and become incapacitated. To us, that’s the signal that there’s no more fear to extract, so we should drive them out.”
No matter what happens, we must prevent challengers from reaching the deepest part of the dungeon.
The reason is that we must protect the sacred relic.
On the first day of the contract, Brownie had explained to me about the ‘sacred relic’ kept deep inside the dungeon.
“The sacred relic is the very core that maintains the dungeon! It’s a very, very important object that extracts fear from adventurers and can bestow the Demon God’s blessing upon the dungeon.”
Completely ‘conquering’ a dungeon was no different from having its sacred relic stolen by adventurers, making the dungeon unable to function as a dungeon.
Normally, to prevent that, a reward room is built right in front of the sacred relic’s storage area as a decoy, guiding adventurers to obtain a suitable reward and return satisfied.
But we hadn’t even built such a reward room yet… so we had to stop the first challenger no matter what.
“Of course, injuries during combat are unavoidable. But the dungeon will never allow things to go as far as unrecoverable injuries or death. We have to let them recover and challenge again!”
In other words, it meant only injuries recoverable with treatment were permitted.
Even so, I really wasn’t keen on it, but….
“Oh! They’re coming, they’re coming!”
Brownie bounced on top of my head and pointed outside.
While we were talking, the children had already arrived at the dungeon entrance.
“I had no idea there was a dungeon near our village.”
“I found it by chance while gathering herbs. Maybe I’m the first discoverer!”
“Whoa……. But isn’t it a bit… creepy? Can we really do this?”
“Are you going to practice vertical slashes until your arm cramps forever? If we clear the dungeon and come back proudly, the master will have no choice but to acknowledge us. Then he’ll give us permission to go on our adventure!”
“Wait! Aren’t you going to pray before challenging it?”
“I already did yesterday. If I carried it around in my pocket, I’d get caught skimming off errand money, so I just put it in the prayer box.”
The children seemed to have prepared quite thoroughly to challenge the dungeon. They had well-worn wooden swords and leather plates strapped front and back with cords as armor.
They were exactly the beginner adventurers I had so desperately hoped for, but I still felt uneasy.
“Where are you going?”
“I’m going to tell the monsters to go easy on them.”
“Is that necessary? We should show them how bitter life can be!”
“Like you said, we need to go easy on them so those kids don’t get discouraged and come back to challenge us again.”
“Oh! You’ve thought this through.”
I quickly headed to the first floor where the monsters were waiting.
* * *
I sat in my personal office and monitored the dungeon situation through the status screen.
It was a kind of manager-exclusive authority that allowed me to see every corner of the dungeon, granted by the power of the sacred relic.
A moment later, I could see the little challengers entering the first floor on trembling legs.
“I can see the children’s attack and defense power.”
Strangely, the challengers’ combat power was displayed on the monitor.
Both were level 2, with attack power 50 and defense power 10—combat power far below the monsters.
‘There’s no chance they’ll win.’
Brownie, watching beside me, said.
“At the current level, you can only see information on challengers below level 10. To see information beyond that, you’d need to enhance the sacred relic.”
“If a high-level adventurer visits, it’ll really be a disaster…….”
Once adventurers pass the entrance, the dungeon provides a lobby where they can lightly prepare for combat.
The lobby was a kind of save point, considered by unwritten rule a place monsters did not cross into.
“If they open that door, a monster will come out.”
“I’m scared…….”
At last, the dungeon’s first challengers opened the door, and just as practiced, a low-ranking goblin leaped out with a roar to seize the initiative.
“Ahhhhh! It’s a goblin!”
“Kihihi, so tender-fleshed humans have come without fear.”
It said such chilling words, but… in truth, that goblin was a vegetarian.
“Um, does the dungeon provide lunch by any chance?”
“Uh… no. Our dungeon still lacks a lot of benefits…….”
“Ah, I’m a vegetarian, so I just thought I’d ask. O, of course! I can work hard even without meal benefits!”
To draw out the challengers’ fear, the monsters needed to act as viciously as possible.
One of the children fell on their rear, but the other immediately raised their wooden sword and stood in front of their friend.
“I’ll handle you!”
Their hands were trembling, but they were quite brave.
“Hiya!”
The little adventurer’s attack looked clumsy, but it was a fairly proper strike.
“Teon!”
‘So that brave child’s name is Teon.’
The goblin had no equipment yet and had to take the attack with its bare body. Fortunately, the children’s attack power was so weak that almost no damage was dealt.
The goblin merely wore an expression suggesting it felt a slight sting.
Even so, the monsters were faithfully carrying out my request to play along appropriately.
“You’re quite something for a young one! But can you block this attack too!? Clatter.”
“Huh! It looks like an incredible technique is coming! Teon, dodge!”
“I won’t run away!”
“Take this! Special Move: Hard Swing!”
The more cornered the children became, the more something like a red aura began rising from their bodies. That was probably the visual manifestation of the ‘fear’ the dungeon absorbed.
In the end, the children, toyed with by the monsters, reached the limit of their fear and fainted.
