I couldn't just sleep.

It was hard to give up the limited opportunity to raise levels, so I assembled three mother-daughter groups.

Harpy (★) and Harpy (★☆).

Lime and Slimefolk.

And Meri.

First, for distinction, I gave new names to the harpy and slimefolk born as my daughters.

"From today, your names are 'Harpuia' and 'Line.'"

"Harpuia...."

Guruk.

The daughters bowed their heads as if to cherish their names. Lime stroked Line's head with her hand, and the harpy was so choked up she even shed tears.

"Why are you crying?"

"Sob, master, you gave my daughter a name...! Sob!"

The harpy was happy that even though she hadn't received a name herself, I'd at least given her daughter one. But it wasn't quite right to give the harpy a name either.

A harpy was a harpy. I decided to keep my mouth shut until I could give a surprise gift when the harpy evolved to Harpy Angel.

Gururu.

Lime had become quite mature after becoming a slimehole, and Line just stood there blankly, lost in thought. Both were children born from monsters, so Meri was the only one I could properly communicate with.

"You're the big sister. Got it?"

"I don't know if Line is a little brother or little sister though?"

"Don't worry about that, I've got it all figured out."

I'd take care of the evolution conditions for slimehole separately. What they needed was to raise their levels.

"You five are going to grind the slime dungeon starting today. Lime's the leader. Got it?"

Gururu.

Lime, who'd passed level 35 and become 3-star, could easily beat even a slime dragon 1-on-1. I entrusted the five with leveling in the slime dungeon.

"Probably won't happen, but if a slimehole appears, run."

I didn't know how often the hidden boss appeared, but it would be difficult in many ways to face a level 50 existence.

"So starting right now?"

"Yeah. Harpy, you stop laying eggs for a while too. Talk to me if the others say anything."

"The others won't say anything. I'm the harpy with the most seniority in the dungeon anyway."

Rather, the harpy was receiving respect from the harpies. Apparently because she'd birthed a 2-star Harpy Angel or something.

'Makes sense to get respect for breaking through a 6% rate.'

Even I found it respectable. Though it was someone else's seed.

"Well, go on then. Do all 3 runs, and Lime, collect the magic stones and bring them back for now."

Gururu?

Lime seemed to ask: Didn't we melt all the magic stones to make experience for the slimes?

"Yeah. We'll make it into experience, but I want to gather them first and try an experiment."

Currently I had no lowest-grade or low-grade magic stones except for 1 mid-grade magic stone. I'd already melted them and fed them all to the slimes, and I'd thought there was no reason to do magic stone summons anymore.

But a reason to do magic stone summons had emerged.

"Line."

Guruk.

"You'll need to help with an experiment for me too."

Lime became a perfect woman by eating 10 women. Then wouldn't Line undergo similar growth?

"Well, I'm counting on you."

Gururuk.

"We're going."

"Dad, we'll be right back~"

The five mother-daughters waved to me and left for the sub-dungeon. The harpies flew with wings, the slimes carried each other, and Meri left with quick steps holding her staff alone.

"...."

I felt a bit sorry for Meri. Should I go with her? The moment I had that thought.

Guruk.

Lime grabbed Meri's hand. Meri also smiled and held Lime's hand back. Natural as it was, their appearances were too similar.

A moment later.

While I was drinking from Lune, the five mother-daughters returned safely. Though they didn't all hit level 15, they brought quite a lot of magic stones.

'Now I can do magic stone summons with these.'

For strengthening forces.

Precisely for 'food for slimefolk.'

***

Patter patter, rain fell. Mud splashed with each gallop, but the horses ran through the muddy road in the rain.

"Hyah!"

The woman in a raincoat drove the horse herself, and knights lightly equipped with armor followed behind. Only five people, but they were elite knights who followed the Baroness in the barony.

"Halt!"

With the woman, the Baroness's shout, the party stood before the destroyed slash-and-burn village overflowing with an ominous atmosphere. A man sitting at the rear of the knights, behind Sir Gray, screamed and jumped off the moment he saw the village's condition.

"Aaaah! No!"

The man was the hunter who'd first informed the castle of the 'dungeon's' existence. Having gambled everything because his child hadn't returned, the village was completely destroyed with no trace of people.

"Sir Gray."

The Baroness asked with a hardened face in the rain.

"Where do the monster tracks lead?"

"Th-that is...."

Gray couldn't bring himself to raise his head. While he'd returned to the castle, the ground had become muddy from rain that suddenly fell from the sky.

In other words, the traces of monsters that attacked the village were being erased, and those traces no longer remained.

"Damn, should've sent one person back and pursued them."

"Or we all should've gone together to exterminate them and rescue the people."

The other knights criticized Sir Gray's judgment. Gray could only hang his head and swallow his frustration.

Rain.

If only it hadn't rained, Gray would've quickly discovered the monsters' traces and earned the honor of personally guiding the way.

But now instead of honor, he was receiving disgrace and insults, and Gray had nothing to say about it.

"Sir Gray. Do you remember where the monster tracks last led?"

"...This way."

Gray pointed to the brush stretching long from the village square. But there were no footprints there either, already erased.

"...."

The Baroness was silent. No matter how much she thought about it, the reason the slash-and-burn village was so devastated was clearly that monsters had attacked.

And synthesizing various assumptions and analyses, it was as if monsters had come directly from a 'dungeon' and struck the village.

Information was needed. And direct confirmation was needed.

"...We retreat for now."

"Pardon?"

"We retreat, then make a plan. Knights, keep your mouths absolutely shut about this situation so the citizens don't worry."

The Baroness pulled the reins and turned her mount around. There was no way to pursue further, and no way to find traces.

"We'll thoroughly search this area as soon as the weather improves. Sir Gray!"

"Yes!"

"Don't blame yourself. It's not your fault. If anything."

The Baroness raised her head toward the night sky. Large raindrops ran down the Baroness's cheeks.

"It's the fault of the monsters that settled on this land."

And the Baroness couldn't tolerate monsters living in her territory.

"We're exterminating 'monsters that were hiding.' Understand?"

"Baroness, surely...?"

"...We must hide the dungeon's existence. And."

The Baroness took a deep breath and nodded.

"Everything that comes from the dungeon must become property of our barony. We absolutely cannot let those central bastards' dirty feet touch this land. Understand?"

"Yes!"

The knights answered the Baroness with resolute voices. But Gray didn't readily answer confidently.

"Yes...."

Gray surveyed the surroundings with a powerless voice. Though much was now erased, the monster traces he'd definitely confirmed during the day were vivid in Gray's eyes.

'If there really is a dungeon.'

Wasn't this place no longer safe either?

Like darkness deepening, Gray's worries deepened too.

***

The rain reached near the dungeon. The humans in huts shivered in the cold, having to pass time in their respective positions.

"Cold...."

The temporary huts without even mud applied let wind blow right through, making the humans feel cold. If only they could light a fire, but they had no equipment to start one.

No authority either.

From the moment they survived through mating with monsters without running away, they'd volunteered to become slaves.

And this was the misery slaves experienced.

"...Hey, do something about this."

One female slave gave Lily a venomous look. While the others had torn clothes or were half-naked, Lily at least had a robe to wear.

"Is it nice spreading your legs for an orc and getting to wear stuff?"

"Yeah, it's nice."

Lily was shameless. No one among the slaves was on Lily's side, but Lily threw her weight around, using the pig orc inside the cave as her backing.

"You all be careful. You know what'll happen if I go in and just open my mouth, right?"

"Hmph, did you maybe get seeded inside?"

It was contemptuous language, but Lily was silent. The other female prisoners' expressions instantly colored with disgust and horror, and Lily growled with venom.

"...You think you're different? I was just first. You idiots."

"W-we need to escape...! Monster seeds will be planted!"

"Being penetrated is fine if you just stay quiet! But getting pregnant with a monster, hiii!"

"...The temple investigators will find out right away."

The quick-shooter spoke soullessly. Unlike the endurance guy, he'd ejaculated nearly 8 times just today, and most of it went inside Harpy Angel and other harpies.

"Someone who copulated with monsters. Definitely getting burned at the stake."

"So what! I can just hide forever! I, I can't stay like this...!"

"With ghouls out there like that? Didn't you see how they tore people apart and ate them?"

Kruuruk.

A red ghoul briefly stuck its head into the hut at the commotion. All the prisoners had been carried to the dungeon on ghouls' backs, but physiological revulsion couldn't be helped.

"W-wait a moment. Um.... Let me meet the dungeon's master."

Kruk?

Lily stopped the red-skinned ghoul—Hases. Hases turned and bent down, and Lily swallowed and pleaded with Hases.

"Please. Everyone will freeze to death like this."

Kruuuruk.

Hases firmly shook his head. Though a monster, it was a being that clearly communicated, and Lily hung her head and bit her lip.

"Tsk, idiot. Becoming a monster's breeding bitch made your head go bad or something?"

"Totally crazy, keu-! Ah...cold."

The humans suffered from the cold, and Hases watched them for a moment before standing up. Lily was silent, and they just wasted energy only to have to shiver in the cold again.

Thud, thud.

Heavy footsteps echoed around the hut. Rough breathing was heard too.

Thump.

A heavy footstep different from the ghouls' footsteps stopped in front of the hut.

"Cold?"

There stood a green monster.

***

I suddenly felt really bad for the humans. Even after experiencing running in harsh winter conditions when my piece-of-shit car died in the middle of nowhere during a snowstorm and I had to run to find help, I hadn't thought at all they'd shiver in the night cold in a situation where facilities weren't properly set up.

Inside the dungeon was warm. Despite the cave stretching long in a circle, perhaps because of the [Dungeon] characteristic, the internal temperature stayed constant.

Especially around the bedroom it was so warm you could sleep naked. So neither I nor Lune wore clothes in the bedroom. Now Eila was included too.

'But if I bring them inside, capacity gets exceeded again.'

Bringing them in as subordinates meant definite capacity excess. But bringing them in as prisoners was reluctant in its own way.

There were two systems for releasing beings who'd become prisoners from prisoner status.

'Kill them or make them subordinates.'

The opportunistic system of locking them in prison only at night and releasing them during the day to work outside didn't work.

But if they died from hypothermia while it was raining like this, it would be quite unpleasant.

"...Ah, damn it."

Can't help it since there's rarely anything to do at night anyway. Still, it was better to use labor outside capacity even a little than to wake up in the morning and have ghouls clean up human corpses.

"Sleep in the cave for today."

It was clearly capacity excess but couldn't be helped.

'Just being a bit heavy or whatever.'

The moment my words fell, the humans stood up. They followed behind me hesitantly, and beside me Lily was glancing at me while sneakily trying to walk together. I pointed at the humans to Hases and the ghouls.

"Grab them and you know where, right? The place where the barracks got wrecked today. Stick them in there."

Kruuuruk.

The ghouls grabbed humans one by one and entered the dungeon interior. As soon as they entered one by one, the dungeon's internal capacity exceeded and everyone's movements began to slow.

"Tsk."

Need to increase dungeon capacity quickly. For that, the only method was to increase the dungeon rank itself.

[Dungeon Rank Increase]

[E-rank -> D-rank]

1). Achieve Danger Level 50 (52 / 50)

2). Secure 3+ ★★★ subordinates (2 / 3)

3). Achieve Summoning Facility Lv.2 (O / O)

"...?"

What, why'd the danger level increase? I looked for why the danger level rose by 30 more than before, and quickly found the reason.

"Luna."

I'd repelled Luna, who was higher rank and level than me, with my junior.

"...."

Next time we meet, I'll make sure to shower her from face to belly in white honey. I expressed gratitude with a mind to even bow toward the Elven Forest, then led my heavy body to walk to the bed and flopped down.

Snore, snore.

Lune and Eila were sleeping in my bed. Both looked quite exhausted, like they were suffering from sleep paralysis.

'Can't they even sleep properly from capacity excess fatigue?'

Looks like it won't work.

Resolving to definitely make them sleep outside starting tomorrow, I lay down on the bed without waking the two.

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