“If you don’t know then don’t waste my time.”
“Wow. So the Demon King has a daughter. I hope I get to see her before I escape.”
“Escape?”
Oops. Should’ve kept my mouth shut.
“So that’s what you’re doing in the armory. You’re planning an escape! That’s what the dagger’s for!”
Busted!
“Put that down! Come quietly and you won’t get hurt!”
“Ahhh!” Mil tried to shield herself from the lizardman’s spear using the iron ring.
Fzzzzz!
“Huh?”
“Guh!”
The ring fired a lightning spear that passed straight through the lizardman.
“Uh-oh. I’m sorry.”
The lizardman had collapsed into twitching a heap on the floor with his eyes rolled back into his head. But he didn’t look too badly hurt.
Oh, that’s right. Lizardmen are weak against lightning, aren’t they? But I think I just knocked him out. He’ll be okay...probably.
“Uh... What the...?”
Mil suddenly felt a sensation of lightness, as if something were filling her with newfound strength. She tried reading her own stats with Goddess Eye.
Name: Mil / Level: 15
HP: 182
MP: 77
STR: 89
DEF: 75
INT: 67
DEX: 80
SPD: 70
LUK: 25
“Oooh!” I’ve jumped from level 2 all the way to level 15!
Defeating a monster or demonkin was one way to level up, but simply dealing damage worked too. Since the lightning spear counted as Mil’s attack, and it had dealt enough damage to knock the lizardman unconscious, it was enough to level her up.
Fighting stronger opponents was the fastest way to level up. She’d often heard adventurers in the royal capital say the stronger the monster, the faster you improve. That had to be the effect she was seeing.
Even so, she hadn’t expected to advance this quickly, even from a fight in the Demon King’s Castle.
“I might get stronger quicker than I thought.”
All she needed for an adventure were some good items and a high level. It was looking like she’d have both in no time.
“Ugh. Uuugh.” The shock-addled lizardman slowly climbed to his feet. He’d recovered from the attack surprisingly quickly. Or perhaps it wasn’t so surprising given that he was a demonkin under the Demon King’s command.
“M-Mr. Lizardman?”
“Ugh... Aren’t you the prisoner His Majesty brought here?”
Does he not remember what just happened?
“If you don’t hurry, Princess Mary’s going to get away,” Mil told him.
“Oh, you’re right. Where is she?!”
“She was headed down that corridor.”
“Thanks for your help!” The gullible lizardman went running off in the direction Mil had pointed.
I’m lucky he didn’t remember. Now...where was I?
“I suppose I’ll hang onto this dagger.”
Next up was the treasure vault.
✧✧✧
“Hello, Mr. Treasure Vault.”
Mil slowly opened the door, releasing a gush of cold air from within. If she wanted a better weapon, this was the place to find one.
Mil was holding a torch that she’d found a few moments earlier, and taking it turned out to be a wise choice. The treasure vault was located in the basement, with no light sources to speak of.
She’d visited this vault just once in the month since her arrival at the Demon King’s Castle. It was packed from floor to ceiling with weapons, armor, and enchanted items. Exploring the room the first time had been fun, but after being satisfied by a brief look, Mil hadn’t considered coming back until now.
This was where equipment too special for the regular armory was stored, and Mil thought there might be some great finds inside.
In the light of her torch, Mil saw treasure chests and shelves filled with precious jewels, but unlike the armory, it looked like most items here had just been tossed in with abandon. Even the treasure chests were a mess with necklaces and whatnot hanging out of them.
“Is this really the treasure vault? Feels more like a storeroom.”
There was so much clutter that she couldn’t help but think so.
Mil opened a nearby treasure chest and held her torch over it. She saw some accessories inside, but Goddess Eye told her that they were just jewels with no magic powers to them, save for a few items with weak enchantments.
Next she checked some swords and spears that had been thrown into a barrel. Once again, the enchantments left her unimpressed. Anyone carrying weapons like these through the royal capital would look like a successful adventurer, but Mil expected more from the Demon King’s Castle.
“Is this really a treasure vault...? Something’s not right here.”
Nothing she found looked good enough to get her adventure started.
“Maybe this treasure chest—whoops!”
She tripped over a sword lying by her feet while making her way through the room in the darkness.
“Uh, uh, uh, oh... Ow!”
Keeping her torch tight in one hand, she couldn’t recover her balance in time to avoid smacking her head into the stone wall.
Ka-clunk. Vrrrrrr.
“Um?”
Mil’s head had pushed a piece of the stone wall inward, and while she was recovering a huge section of the wall shifted and slowly slid out of the way to reveal a new opening.
“A secret door! This must be the real treasure vault!”
As they say, every slime has a silver lining. Mil had gotten lucky. Though she realized she should have been expecting a secret room or two here and there. This was the Demon King’s Castle after all.
Learned: detection
Requirements: Find a secret door or follow a trail belonging to a monster.
A status window popped up in front of her. It seemed she’d learned a new skill by discovering the secret door. She checked her stats to confirm it, and sure enough, “detection” was newly listed under her passive skills.
If skills could be learned by fulfilling the right requirements, Mil started thinking there might be a lot of things worth trying out. But for the moment, she had other priorities.
“Don’t mind me... Wow.”
Unlike the storeroom she’d just come from, everything in here was beautifully organized.
The room was rather small, only big enough to accept a few people at a time. A red carpet covered the floor, and against the walls were glass cases filled with all sorts of jewelry—enchanted items, no doubt. But what got Mil’s attention was an object hanging on the wall.
“A magic sword?”
It was a one-handed sword, just about the right size for a human. Mil picked it up and felt its weight—too heavy for her to swing. Then she drew the sword from its scabbard and found a black, double-edged blade. If ever a weapon was worth examining with Goddess Eye, it was this one.