LIGHTNOVELWORLD Chapter 45
Occurrence of Large-Scale Monsters. A situation where countless monsters pour out from a Dimensional Door that suddenly appeared in midair.
According to my research in the Adventurer Guild, this is a phenomenon that has been occurring for about 10 years.
Putting aside all the explanations and details, if I were to summarize this as the current Demon King and former Intermediate Realm Demon King top dog in one line:
Dimensional Door.
It’s a method of producing countless monsters in a specific location, raising them until they reach a saturation point, and then using their combined strength to open a Dimensional Door and release them into that location.
For example, excavating a vast space deep underground, equal in size to a human city, and then churning out countless spider monsters.
The spider monsters prey on their kin, reproduce by laying eggs, and expand their numbers and power.
When the space becomes too cramped, forcing the group to reduce their numbers, they open the Dimensional Door and swarm out.
A race that can grow strong enough as a colony within a limited space.
A space where that race can reproduce from hundreds to tens of thousands.
The necessary facilities to hide this from others thoroughly.
And a Dimensional Door that can transport all entities at once.
If all of this is in place, one day, a Dimensional Door opens in the middle of a city, pouring out thousands of monsters.
To summarize simply:
Producing monsters underground.
Deploying them into enemy territory using spatial magic.
The end.
From the humans’ perspective, it has been said that giant slaughterhouses like natural disasters have appeared unexpectedly in various places for the past 10 years.
The idea itself is quite amazing.
A strategy combining evil intent aiming to outsmart the enemy and murderous intent to kill, aptly named “Dark Raven.”
How do I know the name of the strategy?
Because…
“This is my improved strategy.”
500 years ago.
When advancing the Demon King’s army to conquer a royal palace, there was a time when 100,000 Demon King’s troops couldn’t cross a terrain blocked by merely 5,000 humans due to the natural geography.
Blade Canyon.
Named for its cliff-like formation that resembled a blade, it was a place that could not be crossed without a proper path, and the castle walls positioned halfway up the mountain were nearly impossible to breach with ordinary strength.
So, we simply opened a Dimensional Door to send the Demon King’s army straight to the enemy kingdom’s capital.
Of course, in the process, we scouted the enemy kingdom’s capital, located the enemy’s main forces near the castle walls to draw their attention, found the coordinates for their location, and carefully prepared to cast the spell to open the Dimensional Door before the humans caught wind of it.
Although the enemies sensed my mana flow due to the large-scale magic and rushed to disrupt my casting, I barely succeeded and air-dropped trolls into the empty royal castle, seizing it.
That was a legendary command worthy of being etched in the history of war—my command as Belphegor—but now it’s being used by Asydia.
“Damn it, who is using someone else’s strategy without permission?”
Generally, once someone uses a strategy, it tends to be copied by others, but it stings to see those Asydia fools using it.
“If you’re going to use it, at least do it properly!”
Dimensional Door magic should be based on the premise of remaining undetected by the enemy.
Even if discovered, the locations of the portal openings should never be found out.
In fact, when I captured the kingdom using this strategy, I pondered long about how to conceal the Dimensional Door opening in the heart of the enemy territory.
After much deliberation, I seduced the enemy kingdom’s princess, convincing her to secretly create an altar within the castle to open the Dimensional Door.
At first, a single monster slipped through, then three, and gradually, all the monsters I had collected crossed the Dimensional Door, and the princess sacrificed her kingdom to become mine.
The princess who led her nation to ruin by being deceived by the Demon King.
I had to personally entice her because concealing the location of the Dimensional Door was no easy task.
But then…
“Currently, we have confirmed a large-scale Dimensional Door opening near the Northern Lake of Normans. It’s about 20 km away by distance. Considering the kind of monsters, they would reach the walls of Normans in under an hour.”
Why does the Adventurer Guild know of that location?
Are the Asydia folks unaware that their large-scale operation has been exposed to the enemy?
Do they genuinely think that sketching a magic circle in some nearby forest or cave won’t be noticed by the enemy?
“Excuse me for interrupting. I have a question. How did you confirm that the Dimensional Door is opening?”
I couldn’t hold back my curiosity and interrupted the Bald Branch Leader.
He blinked for a moment, then confidently gave me a thumbs up.
“It was discovered by the Flame Hero, Bearnes.”
“…….”
So, the Hero caught wind of it.
If that’s the case, I can’t argue.
No matter how cautious one is, if a Hero says it, there’s no dodging it.
Being outsmarted by a Hero is akin to being hit by a natural disaster.
“Uh, Master. If the Hero discovered it, shouldn’t we just destroy the Dimensional Door?”
“Good question, Lucius.”
Dimensional Doors are opened from both sides.
A magic circle is needed to open a Dimensional Door, but mana must also shimmer on the opening side to form its magic circle.
Opening two Dimensional Doors simultaneously and connecting them is the essence of dimensional space magic.
The problem is that magic is cast under the assumption that the two sides will connect as one, so if one side is destroyed, both are obliterated.
Even if created, there’s the risk of flying off to some random coordinates or only half of a body being sent through.
“If we want to eliminate the monster threat, we can simply close the Dimensional Door before it opens.”
The risk should be mitigated before it even sprouts.
That’s the right answer; that’s safety.
However…
“Lucius. If there’s a fruit that can be eaten freely as long as it isn’t planted in the ground, what would you do?”
“Uh?”
“So what I mean is, if there’s an opportunity with massive rewards but comes with risks, what would you do?”
“……I’m not sure?”
Lucius tilted his head in confusion.
I was about to explain to him when the Bald Branch Leader seemed ready to speak, so I pointed at him.
“…Normally, you close a Dimensional Door before it opens. However, the Flame Hero, Mercenary King Bearnes, is here right now. And… I can’t go into detail just yet, but I can confidently say that the Adventurer Guild has the capability to gain significant loot and close the Dimensional Door before it goes out of control.”
The Dimensional Door’s rampage.
“Lucius. No matter how difficult the hole is to penetrate, if you keep thrusting and widening it, it will eventually give way.”
“Y-yeah…?”
“It’s the same principle. The Dimensional Door may start small, releasing only one or two monsters, but as they trickle in, they gradually expand the space.”
Initially, it’s small enough to avoid detection by the enemy.
And gradually, the Dimensional Door is created with the assumption that a large number of monsters will spill out.
“Then we wait for the right moment to open the floodgates and start catching the monsters as they come out. What will that give us?”
“Uh, a chance to hunt enough to handle?”
“Exactly.”
At least, until just before the Dimensional Door goes out of control.
It’s magic stone party time!
“The Adventurer Guild officially declares as of 09:19 today: We will hunt the monsters coming through the Dimensional Door created at the Northern Lake of Normans and will close it before ‘the Dark Being’ emerges at the rampage.”
Here we go!
“The estimated opening time of the Dimensional Door is around 20:00 tomorrow. We hope for the involvement of brave adventurers who will combat the beasts coming through the Dimensional Door, and the Adventurer Guild will…”
Swallow.
“We will proceed with the raid alongside the Hero, Bearnes.”
A raid.
It refers to a magic stone party that hunts the monsters crossing through the Dimensional Door.
*
After successfully completing our D-rank registration at the guild.
Before taking a break, our topic of conversation was naturally the Dimensional Door and the raid.
“Rosmas, have you ever participated in a raid?”
“No, I haven’t.”
Even Rosmas, who had been quite active as an adventurer, had never seen one.
I wanted to gather information from Morzen, who seemed knowledgeable about the raid, but the receptionist was too busy with people looking to register for the raid to even take a sip of water.
Originally, us getting D-rank and receiving bronze tokens instead of wood was already a full workload for her.
There were too many people for us to leisurely chat or check on other quests, so we decided to just return to our lodging.
“Then shall we finish discussing the raid once we get back to the inn…?”
However.
Before heading back, after buying a few items.
“Rosmas, we can eat this, right?”
“I like tomatoes.”
“What about cheese?”
“…I’m not really into the stronger stuff.”
Elves like vegetarian food.
But that doesn’t mean they completely avoid dairy products.
I made sure of that 500 years ago.
-Demon King! As the representative of the elves, I demand improved treatment for the captured elves in terms of their meals!
-You won’t eat meat even if you die? Fine, then eat this.
-…What is this white, sweet thing? Could it possibly be the Demon King’s—
-Hahaha! This food made in the Demon World is called ‘Ice Cream!’ It’s made with milk. Keh keh.
-Milk… really? Ah, that’s alright. Can’t have eggs though. Hoo, I see, Demon King. This is—
-I added more honey and sugar than this fistful.
-Kyaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhh—
As I picked foods to feed the elves I had captured, I learned a bit about their dietary preferences.
They won’t eat foods with life in them, but they’re not completely against milk or dairy products—mainly things like cheese.
“This and this, please.”
“That’ll be 2 silver, please.”
I chose various foods for Rosmas and Lucius.
As Rosmas was packing away what I bought into a paper bag, she cast me a worried glance.
“Uh, Witch.”
“Yeah, what is it?”
“This is… just ingredients.”
“Yeah. So?”
“Why…?”
Rosmas pointed at the bag with a serious expression that conveyed her complete confusion.
“You said we were going to eat a delicious meal, right?”
“Yeah. And?”
“But these are just ingredients.”
“Correct.”
“…You’re not just going to lay them out and eat them, right?”
“Are you joking?”
Rosmas was quite a peculiar one.
“Who eats ingredients raw without cooking them first?”
“…Ingredients?”
“Exactly. I said we’d eat something delicious, didn’t I?”