Dungeon Defense (WN)

r Party(F)’s Speech skill was successful.」 「Levian Village Adventurer Party(F)’s morale has increased greatly!」

I almost let out a swear.
Who knew that using the strongest monster among the lowest-tier monsters, golems, as my bullshit card would end up being my downfall.

I was the stupidest person in all the land.
I wanted to kill myself.
If there were a 1m long stalactite nearby, then I would have probably impaled my head on it.
My foolishness played a big part, but the adventurer called Hawk was really something else.

It may sound easy, but actually trying to take down 14 golems with a group of novice adventurers using only stones and arrows was anything but easy.
You’d need great courage and tenacity.
Their party leader, Hawk, managed to fill them with those two things by making them think about their families and children.

‘If only my skill was that good as well.’

I felt like crying.
How could a Demon Lord be worst than one of the lowest NPCs? How could the player, who was at the peak of Dungeon Attack, fall this low? I felt skeptical about life.

Despite my sorrow, I was busy turning the screws in my head.

People say it’s wise to prepare for a rainy day.
Even if I didn’t consider the golem’s weakness, I had already devised several different strategies just in case.

“Leader Hawk!”

I hastily got down on my knees.

“Mm? You……?”

“I was moved by your speech! Please allow me to join your party!”

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Wrinkles appeared on Hawk’s forehead.
It seems he felt troubled.
I shouted more desperately.

“I also…… I also have a family.
My three younger sisters and my elderly mother are waiting for me back at home…… I haven’t been able to earn any decent profit for the past 3 months…… Our village has been experiencing a famine since last year, so who knows how long we have left.”

“Huh, so you had your own set of circumstances.”

“Just like you all, I dived into this damn dungeon because life was becoming too difficult to endure.
And yet, far from making any sort of profit, my comrades, the men of our village, were killed.
My family might be all right for now, but what about the other villagers……? If even I don’t manage to earn anything, then, hkk, our village, our village will…….”

The atmosphere became solemn.
Only the sound of my sobbing echoed throughout the cavern.
There was a moment of silence.

“You…… You are truly.”

Hawk blew his nose.

“You are truly a splendid young man! At most, I’ve only been thinking about my own family, but you’ve been worrying about your entire village…….
What a noble lad.
Is this not beautiful!? Throughout my forty-five years of life, I, Hawk, have never felt this embarrassed! Just knowing the fact that a lad like you will be leading our next generation has made this dungeon adventure meaningful!”

He grabbed both of my shoulders before speaking in a stuffy voice.

“Aye, aye! We shall go together.
We must! We aren’t strangers! We were all born in this accursed world.
Are we not all struggling to live our lives? My close comrades! What do you think?”

“Ha, you’ll make me sad if you think we’d have a different opinion.”

“We are also warmhearted men of Levian Village! If you weren’t moved by that lad’s conviction, then you have no right to cross the violet river!”

The adventurers patted my shoulder as they walked past me.
One by one, they met my eyes before giving me a firm nod.

I naturally nodded back at them.
A silent commune among men was exchanged back and forth.
I pulled out a bottle of alcohol from my bag.

“We can’t have such a blissful day without any alcohol.
Fortunately, I was the porter of my party.
There isn’t a lot, so everyone can only have one sip, but does the quantity matter? Let us firm our resolves together before the battle.”

Yeah! Yeah! The other adventurers agreed in unison.
I passed the bottle.
The adventurers each took a sip before passing the bottle to the next person.
Since ancient times, alcohol has often been used as a tool in war.
A small amount of alcohol was capable of raising your morale, after all.

“Now then, lad.
You’re the last one.”

Hawk handed the bottle to me.
I politely received the bottle and emptied it in my mouth.
Once Hawk saw me do so, he raised his arms.

“We will win!”

“Ooooooaaah!”

“We will go home alive!”

“Ooooooaaah━━!”

A received a notification telling me that their morale had raised greatly again.
There was no reason for it to go out of its way to tell me.
The man in front of me was bursting with vigor.
I joined in on the shouting.
I cheered so fiercely that I spat out the alcohol that was in my mouth.

Right when the group was about to depart, it happened.

“All right.
Let us go…… Rajeev?”

As soon as one of the adventurers took a step forward, he fell to the floor as if the ground under his feet had sunk.
The others became alarmed and approached him.

“Hey, what’s the matter? What’s wrong all of a sudden!?”

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Their previous energy had vanished like thin air and a wave of confusion swept over them.

But that was only the beginning.

“H-Huh……?”

“The ground……?”

Within the span of a few seconds, all of the adventurers started to fall one by one.
The last person to fall was Hawk.
As expected of the leader.
Till the very end, he was perplexed by the chaos.

Once a minute had passed, I was the only one left standing.

“Bleh.”

I gathered the saliva in my mouth and spat it out.
I took out some detoxifying herb just in case and chewed on it.
Preparing a trump card was a good idea.

I took out a dagger and proceeded to walk between the fallen adventurers.

Schnk! Schnk!

Each time I passed an adventurer, I stabbed my dagger into their throats.
Death without any cries, fear, or surprise followed.
It seems some of them were able to resist the drug somewhat as they groaned on the floor; however, groans weren’t capable of stopping a blade.
My dagger slit their throats without any problem.

……I didn’t want to do this.

These people were all good humans.
That’s right, humans.
A race of people that were hostile towards Demon Lords.
If they want to live, then I have to die, and if I want to live, then they have to die.

I was the one to live this time.
That was it.

I stopped in front of Hawk’s body.

“It would have been better if you had gone back, Leader Hawk.”

I stabbed his neck.
I felt my blade penetrate his muscles and scrape a bone.

I raised my head.
I stared at the ceiling for a while.

The ceiling was high.
Different from the sky outside where it became clearer as it got higher, the ceiling of a cave became darker the higher it was.
I started to get a headache, so I took off my cheap helmet and threw it aside.
Clang, the helmet let out a metallic sound as it hit the floor.

“Damn it.”

I kept swearing over and over again as I looted each and every corpse.
I gathered every item that could be sold for a fair price.

How long did I have to keep this up for? Is there truly an ending to this world……? They must have felt my emotions as I noticed my goblin and golem approach my side.
They stood next to me silently.

It was the day after this that Lapis arrived in order to tell me about the outbreak of the Black Death.

***

TL Note: Thanks for reading the chapter.
The next chapter will take somewhat longer to translate as I have to take care of 3 assignments over the weekend (Also Code Vein has just come out and I may or may not be on that grind).
I’ll return to my regular pace once I’ve finished these assignments.

I’ll see you guys in the next release.