RD | Chapter 23

Ian thought.

‘Should I abandon him…?’

He thought it was break time, but before the monster wave even arrived, he found himself going out to hunt demons first.

Why is it called a defense game? Isn’t it because you lay traps all over your territory and wait for guests while hunkering down? Going out to fight isn’t the way of a defense game.

First, Ian asked, “So… we need to rescue Sema, right?”

“We were caught while trying to save him!”

“Please save him, Lord Ian!”

People burst into tears.

If he abandoned Sema, their loyalty would drop to the floor. Initially, even though Sema was a 3-star hero, he was quite useful.

“Alright… Let’s drag him back before he faints from crying.”

“Wow!”

“Long live Lord Ian!”

People raised their hands in cheer.

At first, when they were under Ian’s command to block the Mamools, they were in despair, but now they believed in Ian’s capabilities.

If Ian says he ‘will do it’, it’s possible.

Even the idea of farming in this dungeon was met with half-belief, yet Ian brought back the <World Tree> and turned farming into a great success, didn’t he?

Ian selected three people who had military training to join the rescue team for Sema. ‘Poison Hunter’ Louise used his skill.

“<Trace Tracking>!”

The ground where the woodcutters had been chopping wood revealed a jumbled mess of footprints that turned into black marks.

Among them were footprints not of humans but of something large and grotesque. Louise pointed at the mark.

“This way.”

They followed the traces to a space filled with demonic energy. It was a grand coliseum. Inside the enormous circular building that required looking up endlessly, demons were seated, letting out bizarre screams.

Kiiieeek!
Kieeeek!

The people hesitated. Ian asked them.

“Should we abandon Sema?”

“No, no!”

“Let’s rescue Sema!”

They gripped their tools tightly, steeling themselves.

“But… how do we rescue Sema here? There are too many demons. That’s not Mamool; it’s demons.”

Louise used respectful terms for Sema in front of Ian.

Demons were a higher species than Mamools. The race called ‘demons’ was what demons were.

The aura of the demons gathered here was far from ordinary. If they fought all of them, they would become prey in an instant.

Ian nodded, “Right. We can’t force our way through from above. Let’s go below.”

“…?”

“There’s a secret passage here.”

“…Yes?”

“How does Lord Ian know about that?”

Louise asked a sensible question.

“I’ve been here before.”

He had been here in the game. Ian answered without any guilt.

‘To the demon coliseum? How?’

People were curious. However, before they could ask, Ian took the lead. He moved aside a few stones from the wall, revealing a small door.

“……!”

Opening the door revealed a narrow gap. As Ian tried to go in first, Louise blocked him.

“I’ll go first.”

‘……?’

“Go ahead then.”

Louise grunted as he crawled through the narrow gap. Once through, the space behind was surprisingly spacious. There were stairs leading downward. Though it was horribly dark, Louise quickly crafted a torch with his skillful hands.

Ian also squeezed through the gap. The people following him descended the stairs after Louise.

“Ah… this place is…”

“Yeah.”

Upon reaching the bottom of the stairs, Louise immediately recognized where this secret passage led.

Prisons lined the left wall. The Mamools trapped there began to grunt as they smelled humans.

Mamools¹ were merely lower beings to the demons, treated no better than slaves or pets. The Southern Demon Archduke coming to find these mamools was a unique character. These mamools were captured for the demons’ entertainment. The guards starved them to see intense battles.

“These… things!”

Despite the mamools being imprisoned, people were too scared to step forward readily. Leaving them behind, Ian ran down the corridor first.

“Find Sema! Quickly! We need to find him and get out!”

“Yes, Lord Ian!” Louise immediately followed the order.

As they started running down the prison corridor, the others snapped to and joined the run. They searched for Sema in hushed tones.

“Sema!”

“Where are you, Sema!”

Then, a voice boomed from the wall above, echoing through the coliseum.

“Thank you for waiting! The grand battle prepared for tonight! Werewolf versus mamools! …What? You say a werewolf at a time other than a full moon isn’t fun? Of course, it isn’t. Look up at the sky again! Ladies and gentlemen, it’s a full moon!”

‘Is it a full moon now?’

That couldn’t be right. As a sensible gamer, Ian was sensitive to the environment in the game world. There were many events on full moons, so if today was a full moon, he would know.

He checked the system window.

Definitely not.

It seemed like some magic had created a full moon…

‘They do all sorts of crazy things.’

A werewolf losing its sanity under a full moon can’t be controlled, even by demons. Ian was curious about what they would do if the werewolf attacked the spectators, but there was no time for that.

A blood-curdling scream came from ahead.

“Aaaaaagh! Lord Ian! Help me!”

“……!”

Ian and Louise looked at each other and immediately ran.

They quickly understood the situation. The cells in the coliseum weren’t designed to be completely dark. There was a small window above through which the full moon’s light entered the cell.

And for some reason, Sema was in the same cell as a transformed werewolf!

“Lower your head!”

As soon as he heard his master’s voice, Sema instinctively prostrated himself on the floor.

Ian and Louise, shoulder to shoulder, shot arrows at the werewolf simultaneously.

Thud! Thud!

At such close range, the werewolf couldn’t dodge.

Grrrrrrr!

As the poisonous arrows dug in, the werewolf let out a furious howl. The scream was so piercing it made Ian’s heart beat wildly.

‘Ah, damn…’

He had attracted aggro.

The werewolf slammed into the bars.

Bang!

Crackle…!

Electricity surged, and the bars repelled the werewolf.

‘Good job.’

Ian cheered for the bars while drawing another arrow. Louise had already released his bowstring.

Thud! Thud! Thud!

Grrrrrruk!

The werewolf screamed in pain, definitely from the agony.

Then, the werewolf grabbed the bars.

Sizzle…

With the sound of burning, the smell of cooking meat filled the air. More than the nauseating smell, what shocked Ian was the bars bending.

The werewolf, with fur bristling, leaped through the widened gap between the bars.

“Aaaaah!”

An involuntary scream escaped Ian’s mouth.

The werewolf closed the distance in one leap, targeting Louise, who had caused it the most pain. Louise dodged by rolling on the ground, avoiding the werewolf’s claws. The werewolf turned its gaze to Ian, who was lying down. Before Ian could react, the werewolf grabbed him and threw him into the air.

“……!”

Ian couldn’t even scream. With a shock as if his spine had shattered, he crashed into something hard.

“Lord Ian!”

The calls felt distant. Ian barely managed to open his tear-filled eyes. Gritting his teeth, he drew his bow.

His hand was visibly trembling, but he had to shoot. Ian gathered Level 5 <Purification> at the arrow’s tip. A stream of light formed in the air, absorbed into the arrowhead, radiating a brilliant light.

‘You bastard, you should have killed me.’ Instead of throwing me.

Ian released the arrow. His shot hit the werewolf’s neck precisely.

Kaaaak!

“You’re dead.” Ian drew another arrow. As he was about to use <Purification> again, a voice suddenly rang out. “Don’t shoot! Please, don’t!”

‘What?’ Ian looked over.

There was a little girl Sema was holding. Was she about ten? Inappropriately for the place, her round, small face was swollen like a steamed bun, and she was crying.

“It’s because of the moon! It’s because of the moon that he’s like this! That man is a good person!”

“Lord Ian, that person… the werewolf… anyway, he saved us! Don’t attack him now!”

‘Can’t this bastard see I’m dying?’

“If you hadn’t been caught, I wouldn’t have to shoot him!”

“I’m so sorry!”

Ian hadn’t actually planned to shoot the werewolf to kill him. He was just so frustrated that he couldn’t think of any other option but to shoot the arrow. All his focus was on causing the werewolf pain. But it was foolish.

Louise was drawing aggro, but it felt like a tightrope walk; he thought Louise might die at this rate.

‘Do I really have to use this here?’

With a heart full of bloody tears, Ian opened the system window and declared.

[Declare as the second dungeon.]

Ding!
[Discovered an ownerless dungeon.]
[Declared as the second dungeon.]
[Ownership: Southern Demon Archduke Ishter (Deceased) → Ian]

The original meaning of dungeon is prison.

This coliseum prison, which held mamools, perfectly met the conditions to become a dungeon.

As soon as Ian gained ownership of the dungeon, he issued a command. ‘Open all doors.’

Click!