Volume 3 Chapter 11 (1/2)

Wight who was left in charge after his lord had gone out to conquer [Viscosity] and [Evil]'s dungeons quietly concentrated. Never did he doubt that his respected lord or even the girls his lord loved would succeed.

However, his duty was to protect the city his lord, Procell, founded. It was an important duty entrusted to him precisely because his lord had faith he could do it.

Failing was absolutely not an option even if it meant sacrificing their lives to protect the dungeon.

”Wight-sama, the enemies have arrived.”

The brown-skinned girl beside him, a Dwarf Smith, spoke with a slightly tensed voice. In recognition of her operation of the golems which played a major role in the last war, she was appointed to be the adjutant to Wight.

Wight was currently in the second room of the dungeon and was therefore unable to survey the enemies through the crystal. To make up for this and to serve as his eyes was his adjutant, the Dwarf Smith, who was able to see what the golems she controls could see. By letting her report detailed information, Wight would then be able to issue the appropriate instructions.

Their first line of defense, the first room of the dungeon, seemed like the same 2 kilometer straightforward room used in the war against the [Wind] Demon Lord with Mithril Golems equipped with heavy-machineguns stationed near its exit. …it was actually an improved version of that room with many and various additional gimmicks.

”Hmm. Miss, how many enemies are there?”

”About ten.”

”I highly doubt the enemies are only this much. I think it's safe to assume these enemies are spies sent to gauge our strength. If that is what they want, then let us show it to them. Issue the order to begin attacking.”

He judged that it didn't matter which kind of trick was at play and ordered an attack.

By the Dwarf Smith's command, the Mithril Golems pulled the trigger of their heavy-machineguns and unleashed a mass of murderous intent.

Like that, the curtains of the battle were raised.

Procell's words floated in Wight's mind. Each of his lord's words were clad in a radiance seen in the likes of gemstones.

His lord had imparted to him countless of tactics.

Even now, his heart was with his lord. He decided that just perfectly accomplishing the role granted to him wasn't enough; he would do better than perfect.

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~[Steel] Demon Lord Zagan's point of view~

I really have unreliable allies thought [Steel] Demon Lord Zagan as he clicked his tongue.

He allied himself with two other Demon Lords but they were so unbelievably useless. After letting the [Creation] Demon Lord do as he pleased, they lost the will to fight and decided to just hole up in their own dungeons.

In the end, he had no choice but to conquer Procell's dungeon on his own.

Still, he got to admit he was thankful to Procell for deploying his best monsters outside of the dungeon.

Though it was that incompetent decision of Procell that forced Zagan to be the only one to set out to conquer the dungeon in the first place, he didn't feel angry about it; if anything, he felt happy to be the one to get to personally crush Procell's crystal. He thought of such and raised the corner of his mouth while being clad with his Monster of the Covenant, a Killing Armor.

The Killing Armor was a higher-ranked Living armor. And monsters of the Living Armor lineage were monsters that had great offensive and defensive capabilities. They were also armors that were hollow inside and could therefore be worn.

Aside from the Killing Armor, the two A rank monsters that were loaned to him were also by Zagan's side. He was as safe as could be imagined. A coward such as him wouldn't dare go out to the battlefield if he had anything less than this.

”That guy Morax did a wonderful thing giving me his A rank monster. He's still useless but he's at least better than [Viscosity]. Fufufu, now, let's attack this deserted dungeon with two A rank fully-leveled monsters!”

The [Steel] Demon Lord chuckled so.

No matter how he thought about it, there was no way for him to lose.

Even so, he knew he needed to be cautious about the Mithril Golems and their huge cylindrical weapons that were used to crush the [Wind] Demon Lord.

To break through of those, he formulated his plan. Procell would probably not even know what hit him.

First was to send out scouts.

Zagan wasn't a fool that would just implement his Mithril Golem countermeasure right off the bat. There was always the chance that there could be traps placed to counter his own countermeasures. Hence, to confirm whether or not Procell used the very same tactics as before, Zagan sent out scouts.

A tiger does its best even when hunting sheep. There is no room for error.

D rank Living Armors made clanking noises as they entered Procell's dungeon from the white space. The purchase of these monsters with DP became possible ever since Zagan had made the B rank monster Killing Armor. And so, losing the Living Armors was of little to no consequence since he could always just buy some more.

Zagan then closed his eyes.

Supposedly, his ability was to create ores and that would make one think of production. However, there was two other points to his ability. He concealed these two points to even his allies and made them think he was a fool that would carelessly expose all of the cards on his hand.

Anyway, the first one was that he could also see what the inorganic-type monsters under his control could see. Some monsters could do this with golems but his Unique Skill was overwhelmingly far more extensive.

The second was that he could enhance the defense and magic defense of the inorganic monsters in the same room as he's in. His monsters which even normally had high defense would become much tougher, enough to rival an iron wall. Any half-hearted attack would be easily shrugged off.

He thought of his Unique Skill as appropriate for him who would someday be the strongest Demon Lord.

And like that, Living Armors entered Procell's dungeon.

”Really now, a fool only ever knows one trick, huh?”

Zagan sneered.

It was a straight path and at its end were the Mithril Golems and their cylindrical weapons; the very same scheme Procell used in his battle against the [Wind] Demon Lord.

Seeing this, [Steel] Demon Lord Zagan was convinced and certain that his strategy was superior to Procell's.

It was clear just from their first moves. Procell probably thought they would devote themselves to defense given their side's advantage and thus intended to defeat them by ordering all of his troops to attack.

In actuality, their side opted for an aggressive strategy; when attacked, they were to immediately share that information to the others and whoever was not attacked would invade Procell's dungeon. To Zagan, it was an ingenious plan.

[Evil] Demon Lord Morax suggested that Procell had managed to see through their strategy but for Zagan, that was an overestimation born only out of Morax's main force being annihilated all at once. Really, that Morax is such a coward.

In addition, the countermeasures against the Mithril Golems which Procell seemed to rely heavily upon were perfect.

Other than the ranks of their medals, Zagan was confident he wouldn't lose to any other aspect against Procell and that included this [War].

And then, after he had beaten Procell, his next target was [Wind]. He felt that her medal—An A rank and one of the four great elements—suited him just fine.

That'll show that shit of a woman for rejecting my offer of an alliance. After I break her crystal, I'll be sure to make her suffer..

After their first year, the new Demon Lords were to be given a new crystal should theirs be broken within that timeframe. However, that would amount to nothing if the Demon Lord themselves were killed. So if Zagan were to threaten to kill a fellow new Demon Lord, he should be able to pretty much make them do anything he wished.

”Now then, time to show them all my strategy!”

Zagan shouted so and the slimes in the vanguard began creeping its way forward. Most noteworthy was the gigantic light green slime that looked like it could swallow a fully grown adult whole. Beside it were more than a hundred dog-sized slimes.

The gigantic slime was [Viscosity] Demon Lord's Monster of the Covenant, an Acid Slime.

While the relatively smaller ones were the D rank Glow Slimes that Ronove had become able to purchase.

A characteristic of the Acid Slime was its [Shock Absorption]. In exchange for an almost nonexistent attack power, this monster was more than able to withstand a barrage of attacks coming even from an A rank monster. In addition to that, this slime also possessed powerful self-regeneration.

The Glow Slimes too possessed similar abilities albeit of several ranks lower.

His strategy was exceedingly simple.

First, the Acid Slime was to advance while it endured the enemies' onslaught. When it has taken too much damage, the Glow Slimes were to act as its shield and buy the Acid Slime some time to heal itself. The Acid Slime also had the ability to absorb into itself another slime's liquid body. This meant that the Acid Slime could absorb the bodies of the fallen Glow Slimes that acted as its shield to speed up its self-regeneration.

And then, once they were close enough, the Acid Slime was to wrap its acid body onto the Mithril Golems and their mysterious weapons. The acid wouldn't be able to melt mithril but the weapons should be ruined. So long as the weapons were taken care of, everything else was easy; there was no need to fret about the slow-witted Mithril Golems.

But then, by his estimate, things might not even need to reach that point. This was based on the projections of the war before where the cylindrical weapons took a rest from firing, suggesting a limit to its continuous use.

Furthermore, since it was a long-range weapon, it should have limited ammunition.  He was confident that before the slimes even get the chance to swallow the weapons, those would have first turned into useless metal rods.

For this war, they had handed DP over to [Viscosity] and had him make a massive amount of slimes. And Zagan fully intended to make a profit out of this investment.

”I have to finish things here before [Viscosity] falls. Though I doubt his A rank monster would lose to Procell's monsters. Well, it is [Viscosity] and he most probably will find ways to screw himself up.”

And like so, the slimes borrowed from [Viscosity] entered Procell's dungeon one by one.

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