Chapter 114

Bolstering the Dungeon’s Defenses

"Master, Lefi! Come on guys, rise 'n shine, it's already mornin'!"

The first thing I heard as my consciousness slowly returned from the void was Lyuu's voice . It was paired with a sense of motion . It felt like someone had grabbed me by the shoulders and tried to shake me awake .

"Nrghhh…" The first thing I saw once I opened my eyes was the dog-eared maid's face . She had a huge, shit-eating grin plastered all over it .

"Oh… hey Lyuu . Morning . "

"Good mornin', Master," she chirped . "I gotta say, seein' this first thing in the mornin' is a real sweet sight for sore eyes 'cause it's adorable 'n all, but everyone's gonna be up soon, so I think you two should prolly save the flirtin' for later . "

"Huh…?" I was still barely awake, so I didn't manage to fully process her words . I did however realize that there was a bit of a weight on my chest, so I directed my eyes downwards only to be greeted by a facefull of pretty silver hair and a pair of elegant looking horns .

Following the silvery strands led me towards her neck . There, I saw both an exposed, well shaped collarbone and the smooth, unblemished skin that covered her nape . I felt the urge to stare, but managed to force my gaze just a bit further, where I witnessed a modest chest gently rise and fall as its owner breathed in and out .

The sight was captivating . I couldn't help but stare as I finally realized that, for some odd reason, I had embraced Lefi in my sleep . Wait . Huh? The fuck? How? When? What?

I wasn't the only one that Lyuu had awoken . The dragon girl in my arms began to stir because she too had been subject to a thorough shaking . She batted her long, pretty eyelashes a few times before finally opening her eyes and revealing the glimmer jewel-like pupils that lay within .

She slowly, groggily raised her gaze in time with me lowering mine .

And as our eyes met, we stopped .

There was a moment of silence .

We stared at each other, both too surprised to act or speak .

"G-Good morning . " After a while, I managed to voice an awkward greeting .

"I-Indeed . I bid you good morning . "

She reciprocated in an equally awkward manner . But neither of us knew exactly what we were supposed to say .

There was another awkward pause .

This time, Lefi was the one to break it .

"Ummm… I wish to be released . "

“S-sure, my bad . ”

She rolled off of me as soon I lifted the arm that I had most likely wrapped around her in my sleep and slowly began to get up . Likewise, I shook off my sleepiness and raised my body now that I was no longer being weighed down . Alright . What the actual fuck happened last night?

I surveyed our surroundings and realized that there were a large number of empty bottles rolling around us . Empty wine bottles, of course . Ughhhh . I drank waaaaay too much last night . I can't even remember what happened . When the hell did I even pass out? I guess I must've just grabbed Lefi because I was cold or something . Probably happened while I was asleep .

Lyuu had always been a morning person . And as such, she seemed to be the only other one of the dungeon's residents that had already awoken . Leila was out of sight, which meant she was most likely still in her room . Illuna was sleeping nearby with an angelic look on her face . And Shii was still in her slime form . I had no way of knowing whether or not she was still asleep, but the fact that she wasn't moving meant that she probably was .

"You two might wanna wash up . " The maid glanced at Lefi and I as she started cleaning up the mess we left . "'Cause you both reek of booze right now . "

"Good point . And thanks," I replied . I got up and started moving towards the small bath we had set up in the throne room . The one we had set up in the Japanese-style inn was much larger, but it was too far away .

"Oh right . You want to go first, Lefi?"

"I see no reason for us to take turns," she said, confused . "Why should we not simply enter together?"

Though she still seemed half asleep, the look on her face was undoubtedly one of bafflement . Yeah, sounds about right .

Lefi had never really cared about being seen in the nude . She didn't find it even the slightest bit embarrassing—which made sense . Dragons didn't wear clothes . The only reason she was wearing them now was because she thought that it was kind of chilly without them . I was sure that she would strip right down to her birthday suit and stay in it if I ever decided to turn up the thermostat and transform the dungeon into a land of everlasting summer .

I knew that I wasn't about to change her opinion regardless of what I said, so I ultimately ended up just accepting things as they were . I was just going to have to suck it up and fight the urge to stare . Lefi had a track record of flashing me triumphant, cocky grins and rubbing it in my face every time she caught onto the fact that she was turning me on, so I had to make sure I didn't let it show .

"Sure, that works . Let's go," I said in as unflustered a tone as I could manage .

"I shall have you wash my hair . "

"As you wish, my lady," I said with a sigh .

And so the two of us went off to bathe . Lyuu, who had bore witness to the whole interaction, continued to watch with a shit-eating grin as we left .

***

Everything after our nice refreshing morning bath went as per routine . We got out, had breakfast with everyone else, and then the dungeon's residents each went off to do their own thing . Illuna and Shii went outside to play around in the grass while Leila and Lyuu started doing their usual chores . Talking to Lefi seemed to have paid off, as the dragon girl crawled over to her futon and started rolling around without a care in the world . She was probably going to head right back to sleep . Whew . Glad to see she's back to doing whatever she wants . Normal Lefi is best Lefi .

As one of the dungeon's residents, I too was off doing my own thing . Specifically, I was standing in front of the cave that used to mark the dungeon's entrance and thinking up ways I could beef up the dungeon's defenses .

Visiting the capital had led me to realize that humanity's champions, those that stood at its apex, were in fact pretty strong . I managed to beat the guy I fought, but I probably would have been butchered rather easily had I been up against a group of two or more . Humans weren't exactly what I would call the biggest threat either . I had no doubt that there were beastkin, demons, and demihumans out there that had stats that easily trumped humanity's greatest . I figured that the races most likely had warriors capable of defeating me in combat and that I would ultimately have to face them should I ever make enemies out of anything beyond just a group of humans or two .

And even a single defeat meant death .

I couldn't allow myself to ever lose if I wanted to live .

I had initially thought that making myself stronger was the best choice I could make . But because I didn't know any way of growing stronger besides hunting monsters, I ended up setting the option aside for the time being . Because I knew that bolstering the dungeon's defenses was much more likely to produce immediate results .

As they were now, my traps weren't powerful enough to defeat anyone as powerful as the man I had fought in the capital . The most they could do would be to slow stronger invaders down . Flat out killing anyone or anything that powerful simply wasn't going to happen .

But that was fine .

The dungeon's defenses didn't need to prove fatal . They just needed to function as a means of harassment . I wanted them to drain my foes of their potions and then get them down to half health or less . In the ideal case, I wanted the intruders to arrive before me battered and covered in wounds .

And the best way to do that would be to get more monsters . I didn't have enough under my control . There was Shii, Rir, and then the three wraith girls . That was it . Of the five creatures I had under my control, only one was capable of truly engaging powerful foes in combat . Of course, I knew that creatures like Rir were few and far between . I probably wasn't going to be able to get my hands on anything on his level, especially since I wanted to summon a group of four .

The reason I specifically wanted four was because quality trumped quantity . Weak monsters weren't worth all that much in a fight . I could easily jump into a crowd of a few hundred and tear through them in a manner reminiscent of a dynasty warrior . There was no reason why anyone with stats somewhat similar to mine wouldn't be able to do the same .

One would have to amass a mob the size of that one army of ants I'd fought back in the day to truly have quantity even begin to shine . Oh man, that was awful . There were so many of them that I felt like I couldn't see anything but ants for miles . Unlike a certain socialist state, I wasn't able to use political witchcraft to turn farmers into soldiers overnight . I couldn't just throw bodies at my foes until they ran out of ammo . That type of strategy took way more DP than I had .

Most importantly, the creatures I summoned needed to be powerful enough to thrive in the Wicked Forest—a domain that couldn't exactly be labeled hospitable . Any creature that lived within it needed to possess a certain degree of str