"Young man. No, young friend. Let me ask you a few things about this dungeon."
The man spoke in a friendly tone. His name was Hauk — the leader of this adventure party.
He didn't hide the worry in his eyes.
"I hope I won't be digging up any unpleasant memories for you."
"I-It's fine. All of you are lifesavers just for rescuing me."
"Well, the young one's got excellent manners."
Hauk beamed and turned to his companions.
"I wish my own brats would mature just this much."
"What are you talking about? Felix here can already take care of himself. My son is the real hopeless one, tsk tsk."
"Young people these days have no manners, no manners at all."
It was a little funny, actually. The age-old maxim that young folks are impudent held true in the past, in the present, and across dimensions alike.
"I heard your companion was attacked by monsters. First, let me offer my condolences. But can you tell me what kinds of monsters were mainly present? And how many were there?"
"They were golems. A golem unit. There were a whopping fourteen of them..."
"What? Fourteen?!"
The adventurers were shocked to their core.
For an F-rank adventurer, a golem was a monster you needed at least five people in formation to take on. Fourteen golems was a death sentence. They couldn't help but be stunned — they'd infiltrated this dungeon expecting it to be nothing special, only to find that kind of firepower waiting inside.
"Ugh... at first a single golem appeared right in front of us. Just one, that's all."
I shed tears.
"We were an adventure party lacking in both fame and skill, but we weren't so pathetic that we couldn't handle even a single golem. We quickly formed up and fought back. But, but then — from the side passages, golems came pouring out all at once!"
The adventurers exchanged panicked glances, at a loss for what to do. I smiled to myself.
The forces guarding the dungeon were insufficient. Adventurers kept pouring in. In this ridiculous situation, the grand strategy I'd chosen was simple: outright deception.
Some might curse it as disgraceful and shameless. But this method is legitimately classified in military strategy as "feinting with an empty fortress." For someone like me who only possessed the Acting skill, it was the best move available.
*Please fall for it.*
So far, the plan had been working pretty well.
Last week, too, an adventure party had been fooled by my stellar performance and turned back. Fourteen golems were more than a shoddy party could handle, after all. But saying it worked "pretty well" was another way of saying there were times it didn't.
The adventure party's captain, Hawk, opened his mouth.
"Friends, comrades — this is an emergency."
His expression was dead serious.
"I made you a promise, swearing on my own name. As a lifelong friend who grew up in the same village, as a companion who fought through the mire of hardship together, I swore that not a single one of you would die — that I'd send every last one of you home alive. You trusted my word. Some of you stepped into a dungeon for the very first time in your lives, relying on me alone. But first, I owe you an apology. I can no longer promise that I'll keep that vow."
"Nngh."
"Well, with over ten golems, what can you do…"
The adventurers sighed. Some glanced back down the path they'd come from.
Unlike the ordinary monster villagers that lived naturally in mountain ranges, dungeon monsters fetched serious money. Even just the leather was far more premium than what wild monsters offered. These people had mustered the courage to enter the dungeon chasing a payday, but now, facing an overwhelmingly powerful foe, even their greed was losing its fight.
"Fortunately, this young person here gave us the information we needed. Just by being spared a certain defeat, we may already count ourselves lucky. If anyone here wants to turn back, I won't stop you. However!"
Suddenly, a sound effect blared.
'Junior Adventurer Hawk has activated the "Speech" skill!'
*You've got to be kidding me!?*
I was startled. What in the world was this — a puppy doing a tap dance on the first day of summer?
I quickly pulled up Hawk's stat window.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Name: Hawk
Species: Human Affiliation: Lebiant Village
Alignment: Good (+25)
Level: 3 Renown: 2
Class: Fisherman (B+), Adventurer (F)
Command: 20 Force: 12 Intellect: 3
Politics: 15 Charm: 10 Skill: 10
Affinity: 26
Current Psychology: 'Fourteen golems... definitely a terrifying enemy. But!'
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
'But? But what!?'
It's outrageous that an F-rank adventurer has a skill. As an F-rank Demon Lord, I do have an Acting skill, but still, I am a Demon Lord after all.
As a victim of Dungeon Attack, I can say this with absolute certainty: there are absolutely no cases of an F-rank NPC possessing a skill. Even the most heroic NPCs all start out without skills. But this world is just...
'How high is the difficulty setting!?'
Hawk continued his speech, calm and resolute.
"We have families to support. Right now, the women and children of the village are probably waiting for us, mouths parched. How long can we hold out? That worthless lord has absolutely no intention of lowering taxes. Next week, that demon-like tax collector will arrive, and we can't even pay half the demanded amount."
The crowd fell silent as if a mouse had died. I could easily guess they were each picturing their own homes.
Damn it. A man with a wife and children on his back becomes ruthless. This isn't going well.
"Of course, if we all die, that would be putting the cart before the horse. Honestly, against fourteen golems, we can't win even if we risk our lives. But, comrades, what if I have one idea?"
"A plan? How could there be one? Against fourteen golems."
"Think of it the other way around! Young man, you did say fourteen golems, didn't you?"
Hawk posed the question. I nodded reflexively.
"Y-Yes."
"There weren't any other monsters besides those, I trust."
"...That's correct."
Hawk cracked a smile.
"There's the enemy's weakness right there. The fact that it's only fourteen golems. As everyone knows, golems are quite slow. Their punches are fast enough, sure, but their movement speed is lacking. Understand? All we have to do is retreat and snipe the golems from a distance."
"Oh!"
"That's brilliant!"
The adventurers cried out in admiration.
Meanwhile, my jaw was hanging wide open—close enough to kiss the floor. He was right!
"If even a few goblins or fairies had been mixed in, our strategy would've failed. But if it's only golems, the matter actually becomes simple. Use your bows aggressively. Just backpedal while peppering them with arrows. It'll take time, but we'll inevitably wipe out the golem squad eventually."
The adventurers chattered with excitement. They already had the air of a victorious battle.
"Now that's dead simple!"
"What a relief. I don't have to worry about my wife chewing my head off anymore. Honestly, if we'd had to storm the front gates again, I'd be a dead man."
A hologram flickered to life.
[Levian Village Adventure Party (F)'s Speech skill succeeds.]
[Levian Village Adventure Party (F)'s morale greatly increases!]
I nearly blurted out a curse word out loud. Who would've thought that using a bluff about the strongest monsters among low-tier creatures would backfire like this?
I was the world's biggest fool. I wanted to kill myself. If there had even been a stalactite within a meter, I might have slammed my head into it. Still, while my stupidity was a major factor, that adventurer Hawk was just too good.
Even so, no matter how you put it, it wasn't easy for a beginner's adventure party to take down fourteen golems with just rocks and arrows. It required tremendous courage and tenacity. Captain Hawk of the adventure party had inspired them with courage and tenacity. By making them think of their families and children.
'If only the skill I had was even close to that.'
I felt tears welling up. To be inferior as the Demon Lord to the lowest-grade NPC. How had a peak player of Dungeon Attacks ended up in this state? I was filled with a sense of disillusionment with life.
Separate from the sorrow, my mind was racing.
Prepare for a rainy day. Even though I hadn't imagined golems had such a weakness, I had prepared a few strategies just in case.
"Captain Hawk!"
I promptly knelt on the ground.
"Hm? You...?"
"I was moved by your speech, Captain! Please, let me join the party too!"
A crease formed on Hawk's brow. He seemed to think it was troublesome. I shouted even more desperately.
"I, too... I also have a family. Three young little sisters and my aged mother are waiting for me... For three months already, we haven't even had a decent dog soup to eat... Our village had poor harvests last year and this year, so we can't hold on any longer."
"Oh, is that so?"
"Just like you all, I couldn't stand life anymore, so I jumped into this damned dungeon. But instead of making a fortune, my companions, the men of the village, died. Never mind my family, what about the village people...? If even I can't earn money, *sniff* our village, our village..."
The atmosphere grew solemn. The only sound was my pathetic sobbing echoing eerily through the cave. A moment of silence passed.
"You... you truly are."
Hawk blew his nose loudly.
"You truly are a wonderful young man! I only thought of my own family. But you worry about the entire village... What a noble young man! How beautiful! In my forty-five years of life, I, Hawk, have never been so ashamed! Just knowing that someone like you will live in the next generation, my venture into this dungeon has already been sufficiently meaningful!"
He grabbed both my shoulders firmly and cried out with a voice choked with emotion.
"Yes, yes! We must go together. We must be together, absolutely! Are we strangers to each other? Are we not all people born into this cursed world? Aren't we all just struggling to survive somehow? My dear comrades! What do you all think?"
"Oh, don't be so sentimental. Did you really think we wouldn't feel the same way?"
"We too are men of Levian Village with burning hearts! If we aren't moved by what that kid said, we wouldn't be worthy of traversing the purple waterways!"
The adventurers clapped me on the shoulder as they passed by. One by one, they met my eyes. And each gave a firm nod.
I nodded back. A wordless bond passed between us men. I pulled a bottle of alcohol from my pack.
"On a joyful day like this, we can't do without drinks. As it happens, I've been serving as the party's pack mule. There isn't much to go around — barely a mouthful per person — but since when has quantity mattered? Let's share a drink together and steel our resolve before battle!"
Good! Good! The adventurers cheered. I handed over the bottle. They passed it around, moistening their lips with the alcohol. From ancient times, alcohol had often served as a tool of war. A little alcohol boosts the morale of soldiers, after all.
"Right then, young man. You'll be last."
Hawk handed me the bottle. I accepted it with a polite bow and tipped it into my mouth. Seeing this, Hawk thrust his arm high into the air.
"We will be victorious!"
"Uwooooo!"
"We will return alive!"
"Uwoooooo—!"
Once again, a notification flashed by announcing a major boost to morale. They didn't really need to tell me. Right before my eyes, the fighting spirit of these men was overflowing — no, exploding. I joined the roar as well, shouting so fervently that the alcohol pooled in my mouth nearly sprayed out.
It was just as the party was about to set off.
"All right, then. Let's move out— Razef?"
One adventurer took a step forward and crumpled to the ground as if the floor had given way beneath him. His companions rushed to him in alarm.
"Hey, what's wrong? What happened all of a sudden?!"
The bravado from moments ago was gone, and in its place, panic swept through the group in an instant.
That was only the beginning.
"Wh… what…?"
"The ground is...?"
With a few seconds between them, every adventurer began to collapse. The last one to fall was Hawk. The leader really was the leader, wasn't he? He kept stumbling in confusion right up until his knees buckled.
After one minute, I was the only one standing in the cave.
"Ptui."
I gathered saliva in my mouth and spat it onto the floor. Just in case, I pulled out the medicinal herbs that served as an antidote and chewed them vigorously. It had been worth preparing a trump card.
I drew my dagger. I walked slowly through the adventurers who had fallen to the ground.
Thud! Squelch!
Each time I passed an adventurer, I drove the blade into their neck. Deaths followed without a last cry, without terror, without shock. Some seemed to resist the drug's effects, groaning over and over. Groans couldn't stop a blade. The dagger tore through its target's nape without mercy.
...I didn't want to do this.
All of you were good people. Yes, people. You were a race that stood against the Demon Lord. For you to live, I had to die. And for me to live, you had to die.
This time, I lived. That was all.
My footsteps stopped in front of Hawk's body.
"You should've just gone back, Hawk."
I drove the dagger into Hawk's neck. I felt the sensation of muscle parting and bone scraping through the palm of my hand.
I raised my head. I stared up at the cave ceiling for a long time.
The ceiling was high. But unlike the clear sky outside, the higher the cave ceiling went, the darker it became. A headache crept in, so I yanked off my tin-pot helmet. It clattered against the cave floor with a metallic ring.
"Damn it."
Cursing under my breath, I rifled through the adventurers' corpses one by one. I swept up anything that looked worth selling.
How long would I have to keep doing this? Did this world even have an ending...? As if sensing my mood, the Goblin and the Golem had quietly come to stand beside me at some point. They simply stood nearby without a word.
It was the next day that Lapis brought news of the Black Death's outbreak.