All invaders have been defeated!
The defeated invaders dropped items!
You received experience points.
Dungeon monsters received experience points.
Shuutarou exhaled with relief as the system messages appeared one after the other, signifying the end of the attack on his castle.
Good job, Beorite and Punio!
He had the first dungeon invasion under his belt, and the rewards he got from it were seriously overkill.
His level had increased beyond what should’ve been possible. It looked like a glitch. He’d have to think of a really good excuse before rejoining his friends, but first, he wanted to finish checking the invasion reports.
An enemy has been taken captive.
What?
Shuutarou traced the strange message with his finger. He heard a knock, and the door to his room opened.
“Welcome back!” he said.
He smiled at Beorite and Punio and gave them both a hug. Even Elroad smiled at the monsters.
“Splendid work,” Elroad told them. “You didn’t allow the intruders to enter the castle proper, steadily reducing their numbers while easily holding them back. In the end, they effectively caused their own demise. You’ve even taken a captive!”
“You got them all!”
“Leaving nothing for us to do,” Bertrand added, puffing out circles of smoke.
He was putting on his usual disaffected look, but deep inside, he was triumphant with joy and pride.
“What do we do now?” asked Theodore.
Shuutarou guessed he was referring to the captive.
A middle-aged NPC in armor was standing next to Beorite. He wasn’t in chains, but he looked terrified. It was Holivay, the last of the adventurers, who had been certain he wouldn’t make it out alive.
“So you brought back a prisoner, but what use is one measly prisoner?” asked Gallarus. He stared down at the NPC.
“Better than killing them all,” said Vampy.
“Pfft! Should’ve brought at least three if we’re gonna interrogate them.”
“Enough.” Bertrand interrupted their bickering. “Don’t talk about that now.”
Shuutarou didn’t understand why Gallarus would want more captives, but Bertrand did. The giant’s interrogation methods were, to put it bluntly, torture.
The way out of Ross Maora Castle led either to the location near Allistras where Shuutarou had used his Create Dungeon skill or to somewhere near him, but the invaders were clearly from a zone far beyond what Shuutarou had ever visited. So where did they come from? How did they get in? Why were they trying to get into the castle? Were there more of them waiting somewhere outside?
Gallarus wanted multiple captives to ask all these questions so that he could compare their answers as he tortured them, but before he could explain that, Bertrand shut him up, out of concern for Shuutarou.
The captive stood quietly, shuddering, listening to the conversation around him.
Where is this? Hell?
He was close to passing out from fear. He’d been brought to a room with several monstrosities far worse than even the slime and the knight who had mercilessly crushed his squad. Should a monster like any of those present appear in Holivay’s homeland, none would survive, slaughtered in the blink of an eye. The dungeon hadn’t been discovered that long ago, and the force sent in to destroy it was presumed to be many times stronger than required. How wrong they had all been…
“Mr. Captive.”
“Yes?” Holivay replied to the boy who’d spoken to him.
Shuutarou was checking out detailed info about the captive in his dungeon menu and asked, “Where does this dungeon connect to outside?”
Shuutarou thought that the dungeon was only connected to Allistras, and he was worried about players randomly falling in, but the NPCs had evidently come from somewhere else. Discovering where that was would be tremendously useful.
“R-Ross Maora, sir,” Holivay answered shakily.
So the castle could be entered from Ross Maora, and it exited to Allistras or the location where Shuutarou was. The boy was a little puzzled by how that worked.
Maybe I can let him go and ask him to tell others not to ever come here, he thought, reading the help prompt about captives.
A captured invader can be freed by their allies. They will also regain freedom if the dungeon is destroyed. The dungeon master has control of their captives and can kill them, release them, or forcefully expel them from the castle.
Shuutarou didn’t want to risk any more invasions, not only because of the danger to himself but also to the residents of his city, Regiuria. If it was possible, he’d rather send Holivay away back to Ross Maora and have him tell all the other NPCs to keep clear of his castle. But could Holivay do that? He was just an NPC. His programming was very different from the Evil Overlords’.
“What’s past the Gates of Death?” Shuutarou asked Holivay.
“I do not know.”
“Where is the God of Darkness?”
“I do not know.”
“Why did you attack the dungeon?”
“I cannot remember.”
Not only was the NPC unable to provide any information related to the endgame, but he also didn’t even know why he and his comrades were invading Shuutarou’s dungeon. Eventually, Shuutarou ran out of questions.
Why can’t I answer anything he’s asking me?! Holivay was screaming to himself, confused and frustrated. Nobody realized what he was going through on the inside.
Vampy sighed heavily. “Let’s just kill him now.”
“?!”
“No, Vampy,” said Shuutarou. “He’s too valuable.”
“Ah, I see…”
From their exchange, Holivay finally figured out who had the most authority there.
The boy is the master of the dungeon…
The least threatening of this horrifying assembly was the master of them all. Holivay reckoned the boy was no stronger than an A-rank adventurer, yet it was him who decided who lived and who died. Determined to survive, Holivay resolved to obey the boy.
“Mr. Captive,” said Shuutarou.
“Y-yes, M-Master?”
“I won’t kill you for no reason. But please don’t ever forget what happened when you tried to attack my castle.” Shuutarou spoke quietly, but with detectable anger.
Tears in his eyes, Holivay could only manage to reply, “Yes, sir.”