Chapter 14:

- An Unwanted Intruder -

My Life As A Dungeon Lord's Assistant


“You see. It’s a misconception that skeletons are a form of necromancy. It wouldn’t make sense as to why specialized skeletons like golden skeletons would exist. Was there a humanoid creature with golden bones when it lived? With diamond bones? It’s ridiculous!” Taro explains,


“I get that.. But -” Akari interjects,

“What appears to be necromancy is actually the use of golems. I understood it when a bone with inscriptions on it flew into my face the other day. The magic infused in that singular bone were controller runes not spiritual! It was made to abide by the flow of magic of the main controller in the head.”

“I get that but -!” Akari shouts, “Why am I stuck sorting through them!”

Akari cries as she sits on the floor picking through the bones of yesterday’s fight. She was ordered to sort each bone into their corresponding pile. Taro was nearby picking through them to arrange into new skeletons.

“Bear with it Akari,” Taro keeps working “With a bigger dungeon, we need more troops to help defend the dungeon. Otherwise it’d just be you running from corner to corner!”

“Ughh!” she whines,

“Anyways as I was saying: Skeletons are used because the skeleton of a living creature is the perfect template structure for the range of movement that golems would need to perform. It explains why skeletons are oft defeated when the skull itself is cracked or destroyed.” Taro continues, “However this method to defeat them is common knowledge. That’s why…! We'll fill the empty heads with gun powder!”

“Gunpowder!?” Akari says startled,

“Yes! Gunpowder!” he reiterates, “It can cause damage to the dungeon so I think that’s why this method is not used often. However! I think we should deploy these explosive boys near the rope bridges we have. Hehee!”

“You know I’ve been thinking this for a while, Taro.” Akari says nervously, “Your traps are pretty ruthless aren’t they?”

“Huh? Too much?” he says worried,

She shakes her head,

“Nah, I think it’s great!” Akari smiles,

Just then a slime hops over in a rush!

“Byruu!!” it coos,

“Lil shion?! “ Akari asks, “ What is it?!”

“*Gryuuu! Gryuu!!” the slime continues,

“Taro! We’ve got an intruder in one of our unfinished trap rooms!” she translates,

“You could understand them? All this time?!” Taro asks taken aback,

“Hm?” Akari responds as though Taro was the weird one, “Yeah?”

“Nevermind that!” Taro gets back on track, he calls out to a dwarf, “Hey Lapis! Notify Shion!”

“Aye Cap’n!” he responds,

“Let’s go Akari, We don’t want them to explain all the inner workings to everyone else!” Taro sets off.

They head to one of the unfinished rooms. It was a long hall filled to knee height in sludge, uneven footing lay at the bottom to slip up adventurers. The idea was to have pressure plates scattered as well to set off bolts or spikes. The hapless intruder stood in the middle with no means to continue. Two of the other slimes chewed on their hands to ensure they couldn’t grip onto the walls.

When Taro saw the intruder, he froze. A million feelings rushed to his head. Finally he clenches his fist.

It’s you.” He angrily says,

The intruder was the female knight that had killed Shion. Taro took a step towards her. Akari holds his hand back.

“Taro wait!” Akari pleads, “Calm down!”

“Calm down?! How could I calm down in front of that murderer!” he screams, Taro was seeing red. The knight looks away ashamed.

“P-Please…” the knight says, “They’re… coming… help…”

“What?! Help you?! Who would do such a thing -?!”

Suddenly taro felt two cold hands caress both of his cheeks. It came from behind, they were Shion’s. Taro looked up to see her soft expression.

“Taro. It’s ok.” She softly speaks, “Slimes, let her go.”

The slimes released the knight..

“Shion?! But -” Akari protests,

Shion gracefully pulls out the knight from the sludge. She lay there on her knees and hands. The knight was far more disheveled than when they last met, her once proud ponytail was unkempt and singed at the tips. Dark bags hung from her tired eyes.

“Are you ok?” Shion asks,

“Why?... I.. I killed you…” she says weakly, “You should hate me…”

“I know you were following your own way of justice… You can’t help your circumstances…” Shion says wistfully, “I know that better than anyone...”

“...” Taro stood by speechless,

“Nevermind that!” the knight shouts, “They’re coming here!”

“Who is?” Shion asks,

“An oni army.” her eyes narrow, “Three hundred, strong.”

“?!” Akari froze in fear,

“They heard a rumor of a red one horned oni causing problems and raided the village of the marshes.” she continues,

“Oh no…” Taro gasps,

“I tried to evacuate as many as I could to this village… But I alone could not do much… against them." the knight shakes in fear. “Their leader. The four horned oni… was unstoppable.”

“Father…” Akari clenches her fists,Taro notices Akari shaking.

“They’re going to come here! The justiciar have cast me and these people out!” The knight clings to Shions’ dress, “Please… The people have nowhere to go…”

Taro reaches out and holds Akari’s hand.. She looks at him shocked. Taro gives her a reassuring nod. Akari bites her lower lip and after a moment refocuses herself.

Shion looks at Taro, “Taro…”

“Fine, we should help.” he agrees, “For the people.”

“T-Thank you…” the knight grovels into the ground. “Thank…you…”

Later on in the atrium the dungeon residents plan out their defense strategy.

“As of right now we have three main routes of entry available,” Taro outlines, “The main features of each are as follows:

The middle route is the most direct way, however a large chasm extends the majority of the hall, it can be traveled via rope bridge.
Right most route contains the sludge room. It is long, winding and narrow.

And the left route is filled with pitfalls with deep cavernous chasms and crevices.”

“We don’t have much time,” he continues, “So finishing off the right most route is of utmost importance.”

“Aye!” Dusty salutes, and the team continues.

The knight said that the army will arrive in three days' time. So Akari, Taro and Shion worked tirelessly on the skeletons throughout the night.

Taro takes a break. He walks to the outside of the dungeon overlooking the village, more lights glimmer at the far off town.

“Huh, I guess they really were driven away.” Taro says to himself.

“They were… “ a voice from behind says,

“Who?!..” Tar says shocked,

It was the knight.

“Oh… I thought you left.” he says,

“I… was looking for ways to fortify the town. Despite this dungeon being the target, they will inevitably attempt to pillage the town for more resources…” The knight says,

“I see…” Taro begrudgingly answers,

“I know you still hate me, and as a knight my pride would not ask for help from ones who despise me.” she looks to the distance, “ But this goes beyond pride.”

“Haah…” Taro sighs, “I guess in a way I can respect that… So what is the deal with the oni leader?”

“A monster… No offense.” the knight answers, “His strength is something I’ve never seen before.”

“Huh. Must be bad if it’s got you this scared.” he says, “But I gotta say, we're pretty strong too now!”

“Really?” She asks with a glimmer of hope in her eyes,

“Yeah, we’ve got a justiciar, dwarves, an army of skeletons, an oni, and a whole Dungeon Lord.” Taro tries to reassure,

The answer did not help her confidence however.

“Even so…” the woman says sadly,

“We’ll lose.”

Asephy
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