The Traps Of The Ordinary Cave

Hey, Shun here!

The knowledge from Sun Tzu's Art of War might start to pay off!

Uh, not really. I guess the three R's: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle helped me more in building a dungeon that's DP saving. The Art of War did nothing to help me.

What? I just wanted to mention it.

This experience is really teaching me how to be frugal with money. Or in this case, DP.

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(Haku's POV)

Right as five lizardmen walked their way up the mountain, all of them fell down with a swoosh and a plop, getting impaled by sharp stone staves on the bottom of the deep pit.

"There are pitfalls right at the start?!"

"Order the goblins to go first! We'll find the pitfalls by seeing where they fall!"

Back at the [Ivory Proving Ground's] camp, the retainer handling offensive reconnaissance was hurriedly dealing with the traps before her. She was feeling quite stressed out as, right from the start, she had to deal with pitfalls.

Several of their troops, including their main attacking force, the Minotaurs and Lizardmen, were swallowed up by the pitfalls in an instant. Normally, she would just launch bodies at the pitfalls until they were filled up with corpses, but they were invading an enemy dungeon.

Also, they have a limited amount of DP to play with. Aside from that, the monsters just got absorbed the moment they died.

That wasn't a major problem, though. She could just avoid the pitfalls after determining where they were located.

After letting the Goblins fall on the deep pits by ordering them to move around, Dolce marked every pitfalls on the map before announcing.

"Okay, I've marked all the pitfalls down! Invasion start!"

"Ah! Wait, two minotaur just fell! Ngh, the spears at the bottom killed them instantly!"

"But why?! I just saw a goblin walk right there and he was fine!" Unfortunately, the [Ordinary Cave] even had pitfalls that ignored goblins and only activated for minotaurs and lizardmen.

If at first, they thought this was a coincidence and luck, this time, they're beginning to think that this was something else.

"Pitfalls that choose specific targets?! I'm certain those cost a lot of DP… He must be trying to finish the battle right at the beginning."

"Aaah! Another minotaur, gone! Two groups consisting of six lizardmen also fell! We only have twenty-seven Minotaur left! And we're down to eighty-three lizardmen, too! Come on, Misha! Do your job right!"

"I'm telling you, the goblins walked all over those places!" Another minotaur fell. Their numbers were dwindling.

Somewhere, a pitfall's covering collapsed after three lizardmen and four goblins all stepped on it at once. Haku's sharp observation didn't let that slip by.

"…I see now. I believe the pitfall covers are collapsing based on weight. That's why the goblins haven't been falling."

"Ah, yes. That explains what's happening, and such a covering could be mass-produced for little DP. That man… certainly is clever."

"There should be empty air beneath the pitfall covers. It will take some time, but please advance slowly while hitting the floor and listening for any changes."

"Understood! Goblins, do it!"

My goodness. Clever indeed. I can't think of a better way to buy time than this. But now that we know how it works, we have nothing to fear.

The goblins advanced through the dungeon, hitting the floor and sometimes breaking the pitfall covers.

As they advanced, they finally arrived at the stairway that leads to the [Ordinary Cave's] first basement floor. Right off the bat, when a lizardmen stepped on a section of the stairway, numerous arrows came through, shooting them.

"There seems to be someone down there! Someone's shooting us with arrows!"

Haku furrowed her brows at the report.

"Let one Minotaur walk in front. The arrows should be nothing to it. Advance with caution."

"Yes! Minotaur, advance!"

Their journey to the [Ordinary Cave's] dungeon continued as they encountered various traps that they never expected, cutting down the numbers of their invading forces even further.

"We've conquered the enemy dungeon's first four rooms! We have… an unfortunate amount of wounded due to surprise attacks on the way here. Many of our goblins died on the way."

"I was quite impressed with the trap that launches a sword through a door after you try to open it. Also, that door where when you try to open it, a bunch of arrow will shoot through it is also brilliant."

"Don't forget those strong Goblins and Jellies. I didn't expect that Jellies could kill some of our Lizardmen."

"I'll have to think about using those traps myself. Also, Misha, those Jellies were equipped with some kind of armor that provides them with some attacking prowess." Haku said with an expression of slight amazement and surprise written all over her face.

"Nevermind that, now… how are things on our dungeon's side?"

"The enemy troops have reached the third floor and… our flamethrowers are holding many of the rodents back! Some rabbits managed to jump right past it but they were immediately dealt with." The flamethrower traps were indeed just flamethrowers that spat out fire. This time, Haku had chosen flamethrowers that turned on and off in a set pattern.

If she set them to fire constantly, they would soon jam up and become completely useless. Having them pause temporarily on a regular basis was necessary.

"…The lizardmen we went out of our way to get aren't proving to be very helpful against the rats. How are we doing offensively?"

"Well, that's our problem, princess… Starting from the fifth room of the first floor, the dungeon… is a labyrinth!"

"Truly? He would use a labyrinth to challenge me, the [Ivory Labyrinth]? I am impressed, to say the least. Split our troops and begin exploring." Impressed or not, Haku wasn't worried.

Labyrinths were effective against adventurers, but not dungeons. Mazes were meaningless in the face of a map, and once the exit was discovered, troops could be directed along the correct path with ease.

"Oh, it looks like some golems and those nimble weapon-wielding rabbits are wandering around. They're moving in groups of five… a-and they have bows?! Golems with swords and the rabbits are guarding the archers in the back! They're crushing our goblins!"

"What?! These group of monsters, acting like adventurers? That's quite a sight. We have no choice but to use lizardmen against them. Move the goblins as sentries while attacking with lizardmen, then minotaurs."

"W-What in the world?! These monsters have really powerful weapons! They're cutting right through our lizardmen's blades?! I-I can't believe it… The swords and the daggers in this squad all have magic equipment!"

"What did you just say? These squad of monsters… have Magic Blades?!"

No matter how economic and DP efficient they are, this wouldn't justify the fact that these squads of monsters have magically imbued weapons. Actually, now that they noticed it, weren't all the monsters they encountered up until now have magically imbued armors and weapons?

These equipments go for a hefty price so they should have no more DP left by now. They really went all out.

"And really now, we've been seeing nothing but golems and rodents for a while now. Is there some specific reason as to why there's only such monsters in his dungeon?"

"…Is he using them out of favoritism or something of the sort? If so, that lack of seriousness will prove to be his undoing. Gather our troops and crush the golems between our minotaurs!"

"Understood! W-Wait… what?! H-Hold on, the map is acting weird! Why is there a wall right there?!"

"…What?!" The map showed a passageway, but looking through the monsters' perspectives, no such passageway could be found. And as they tried to figure out what was going on, their gathering troops were being steadily cut down.

"No way! Is this an [Illusory Labyrinth]…?! No way, one of this size would cost way more than 100,000 DP!"

"Perhaps he isolated only a few, crucial areas to be mobile. If so, he could buy one with only fifty… no, forty thousand DP. Hopefully that is the case, and that would make this his last line of defense."

Haku genuinely admired Shun's strategical skill. He had used his small pool of DP quite efficiently.

Very good. This Dungeon Battle had been founded on the idea that they would duel with the same amount of DP. The winner, then, would be decided solely by the quality of their strategies and tactics.

Who could use less DP to do more? That was the true core of this battle.

Would Shun have won had Haku fought fair and truly used the same amount of DP…? She didn't even need to question it. She knew, deep inside, that he was her definite superior.

"Fufu. I suppose my one regret here is that we are dueling with a mere 200,000 DP." If the battle had been one with 1,000,000 DP instead, their duel would have become a genuine war.

It's such a shame that they were fighting with only 200,000 DP. From Haku's perspective, that wasn't nearly enough for Shun to prevent her from winning in quick fashion.

After all, with no strong monster to guard their dungeon, it's just a matter of time before victory falls into her hands. Then, after that, she could have her sweet time with her cute sister Number 695.

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(Shun's POV)

I had long equipped the Jellies and Goblins in the first few rooms of my dungeon with Wearable Golem Armors and Golem Blades. The Golems after those first four rooms were also added there even before the Dungeon Battle was proposed.

The only changes in the first few floors were the pressure plate traps in the stairways of our dungeon and the traps that shoot out swords. By the way, the one who's shooting an arrow at the individuals who step on the trap on the stairway is the Golem Statue I made during our three day preparation.

All the materials I used were all free since all of them could be mined at the dungeon's walls. In fact, I have a whole stock of them hidden in a specified room of the dungeon.

I had made the bow out of wooden scraps, formed into a bow by the use of my [Create Golem]. The arrowheads, on the other hand, is made out of clay and stones.

As for the moving Wall Golem, I was watching the map and moving them around as soon as they enter the enemy's blindspots. Maybe I should teach these Wall Golems how to move after gathering enough information after this Dungeon Battle.

"Hahaha, looks like our initial theory was a success. The Wall Golems are moving around undetected!"

"Those are the things you kept on punching for the past three days, right? They can move? I don't see feet on them or anything."

"It's the Golems I've been making even before the Dungeon Battle was suggested, remember? These are the finished product of those."

Believe it or not, these mobile Wall Golems cost exactly 0 DP. They were free. Zero cost, with material expenditure.

I made them from the soil that we constantly dug out when we were expanding our dungeon. Plus, since they're only moving around inside the dungeon, I didn't even have to buy magic stones for them.

Convenient, right? After I teach them how to move on their own by the end of this fight, we'll have an autonomous [Illusory Labyrinth] of our own that costs only 0 DP.

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※~To be continued~※

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Author's Remarks:

※ The battle is starting! I didn't know that writing this would be fun.