4

First Battle

The first thing I did the next morning was to take a more in-depth look at my dungeon's features. As a demon lord, my purpose was to manage the dungeon and ensure that it was safe from invaders. Despite that, I had refrained from inspecting the defense mechanisms. I understood that procrastinating wasn't something I could do forever, so I made up my mind, got off my ass, and began acting on the responsibility that I put off for so long.

Unlike Lefi, I wasn't a freeloader. I had to pull my own weight. Speaking of Lefi, the Supreme Dragon turned out to be the type of girl that left me wanting to voice a thousand retorts. She had pestered me for a futon the moment she saw mine and persistently nagged until I gave in to her demands. Much to my surprise, she fell asleep the moment she plopped her body onto the soft mattress and had yet to awaken. The fact that she was still passed out served to evidence that she'd taken one hell of a liking to her new bed.

My first real act as dungeon master was to increase the amount of area the dungeon covered. The dungeon's expansion function required me to denote a specific space, so I began by selecting the cave right outside my dungeon. A strange energy pulsed through the cave the moment I hit the confirm button.

"Woah! So that's what Lefi meant by the dungeon's magic."

The cave hadn't gone through any sort of visual change; it still looked exactly as it had just a few seconds prior. But the same couldn't be said for its ambience. All the cool, relaxing air had suddenly vanished. In its place was a sense of warmth and coziness. Though the change felt rather drastic, I knew that I wouldn't have noticed it had I not been standing in the cave as it happened.

I quickly opened my map and gave it a look. Through it, I confirmed that the cave really had become a part of the dungeon. The fact that my territory had expanded caused a shot of excitement to rush through my system. I immediately felt the urge to continue growing the dungeon by increasing both its size and the number of floors it contained. But as I was lacking in DP, I found myself unable. As such, I temporarily shelved the idea and made a mental note to revisit it at a later date.

Speaking of DP, I had gained an incredible amount of it. I ended the night with a value somewhere under the 500 mark, but I now had over 2000. The source of my income was obviously none other than the dragon lazing around in the throne room. As she wasn't one of my subordinates, the dungeon treated her as an intruder, and therefore, a source of DP.

At first, I'd thought that her presence would result in a net DP loss. I was worried that she would continue eating chocolate nonstop and slowly drain me of all my resources, but I'd failed to consider the amount of DP that she would generate. I now understood that I benefited greatly from having her around. The effective tenancy agreement we established was just as sweet for me as it was for her. Keeping her in the dungeon meant dealing with her and entertaining her, but the sheer amount of DP she generated was more than enough to convince me to do it all with a smile.

"Anyway, enough thinking. I should probably summon something," I muttered. To be honest, I didn't need to summon anything. The Supreme Dragon's presence rendered my dungeon effectively immortal. I was sure that nothing would be able to threaten it so long as she remained. Still, I felt that, as a dungeon master, I was at least obligated to summon something. I needed to play around with the system and figure it out, so I opened up the monster catalogue and scrolled until I found the cheapest thing on the list. It was sorted by price, so all I needed to do was navigate to the list's bottom and give the very last entry a quick tap.

Particles of light suddenly began gathering in front of me as the monster I selected was given physical form. The light faded just as quickly as it appeared and revealed a creature with a sort of translucent body. It was tinted blue from head to toe, or so to speak, as it didn't actually have either. Its entire body was comprised of a single, round blob a bit smaller than the average shih tzu or dachshund.

"Wow, you're much cuter than I thought you'd be."

I gave the monster, the slime, a bit of a poke. Its stretchy, elastic body shook as I prodded it before snapping back into position as I retracted my finger. It seemed to recognize me as its summoner, as it responded to my action by playfully latching onto my hand. The slime was adorable. It was so cute I couldn't help but think of it as something along the lines of a domesticated pet.

"You know what? I'm going to give you a name." I paused for a moment to think before continuing. "Alright. You'll be Shii."

***

General Information

Name: Shii

Class: None

Race: Slime

Level: 1

HP: 11/11

MP: 2/2

Strength: 15

Stamina: 37

Agility: 26

Magic: 11

Dexterity: 52

Luck: 110

Skill Points: 0

Skills

Predation I

Regeneration I

Titles

Kin to the Demon Lord

***

The slime was weak, but I didn't mind. It was more than cute enough to make up for its lack of strength. I immediately began thinking about keeping the slime alive, so I quickly checked the encyclopedia implanted in my brain. In reading the dungeon monster entry, I realized that my summons didn't actually need food. They sustained themselves by consuming the dungeon's mana. The discovery I made was a highly convenient one. It not only indicated that Shii was an awesome pet that I literally didn't even have to take care of, but also allowed me to understand that I wouldn't have to inconvenience myself with preparing meals for all the monsters I summoned regardless of how many I ended up with.

Hold up, does Shii's stat page say what I think it does…?

I felt the urge to groan as I realized that Shii's luck stat was higher than mine.

Wait, wait. Don't jump to conclusions, Yuki. You might not actually be that unlucky. It could just be that your luck stat looks really low because of how high all your other stats are. Yeah, like, Shii could just be super lucky or something. Yeah, that has to be it… Totally… Yeah…

I attempted to convince myself that there was nothing wrong with my luck stat, but I failed. I ended up falling to my hands and knees and moaning in despair. The slime approached me and rubbed itself against my legs. Its movements were slow and soothing.

"Are you trying to cheer me up?" I asked as I blinked in surprise.

The slime leapt up and down over and over as if to say yes.

Holy crap. Shii's cute as hell. I swear it's even more adorable than all the other pets I've ever had combined. Yeah, you know what? Luck doesn't matter. It ain't worth shit. I managed to get myself a pet this god damn cute even without super high luck. Bad luck doesn't exist unless you believe in it. Besides, it's not like bad luck is really that awful a thing to have either. If you're normally unlucky, lucky moments will seem all the more special due to how rare and infrequent they are. Lucky people are clearly less lucky because they don't get the same rush from actually striking gold. Yeah, I understand now. The lucky are unlucky, and the unlucky are lucky. Thanks Shii! I've finally awakened to a universal truth, and it's all thanks to you!

I rambled on and on in my head and managed to use a sort of questionable, convoluted sort of logic to assert that there was nothing wrong with me.

Alright, that's enough messing around with the dungeon for now. Screw work! It's time for Shii and I to deepen our friendship!

And so, I spent the rest of the morning playing with Shii—Or at least that was what I intended. The map shot open in the middle of our play session. An enemy had entered the dungeon.

A low growl suddenly came from the cave's entrance, so I quickly spun my head around to face it.

There, I saw a sort of wolf. It had three demonic looking heads, each decorated with a bizarre, ferocious face. For a canine, its body was massive. It looked even larger than the average golden retriever.

***

General Information

Name: None

Race: Cerberus

Class: None

Level: 32

***

A wave of nervousness washed over me as I analyzed the enemy, only to realize that I couldn't see its stats. Its level was too high. To make matters worse, the cerberus was the first monster to have ever intruded upon my territory. I didn't know how strong it was, nor how I was supposed to deal with it.

Likewise, Shii also seemed kind of scared, but the slime stepped forwards regardless. Though Shii lacked a head, or any other appendage for that matter, I could still kind of tell that it was glaring at the dog in an attempt to intimidate it.

Damn. Shii's got guts. Wait, is it just me, or does this kinda feel like a P*kemon battle?

"Alright Shii, you got this!"

The slime gave its body a bit of a shake. Though I didn't speak slime, I could tell that it was trying to say something along the lines of "leave it to me!"

Seeing my pet's reliable reaction caused me to shake off my nervousness and get a hold of myself. I realized then and there that my foe was irrelevant. It didn't matter how strong my enemies were. Their power levels changed nothing. As a demon lord, my task was to annihilate any and all invaders, regardless of how weak or strong they happened to be. And fortunately, I was equipped with all the tools I needed to do exactly that.

I had never been the type of trainer that bred or EV trained my Pokem*n. Nor had I ever bothered grinding just because I was worried about an upcoming gym battle. I'd always just pushed on with nothing but my own strategic mind. And never once had I failed I saw no reason for my current scenario not to follow the same trend. It was time for me to begin my tale as that underdog that rose above all that stood in his way.

Come at me dog! I'll show you the difference between a wild Pok*mon and one under a real trainer's control!

"Alright Shii, show 'em what you got! Let's start things off with a Quick Attack!"

Naturally, the slime wasn't able to pull of a real Quick Attack, but it obeyed my orders and attempted to tackle its foe nonetheless. Unlike a real Po*emon, the cerberus didn't just sit around and wait for its turn. It instead swatted my slime away as if it were nothing but a mere nuisance. A single wave of its front paw was all it took to send Shii flying into the side of the cave. The slime lost its form as it came in contact with the rocky surface, splattering its insides all over the wall.

"The hell do you think you're doing to my pet, you fucking mangy mutt!?"

Thinking back, I should've known that there was no way Shii could have possibly beaten the cerberus. Slimes were literally the weakest monsters the dungeon could summon. There was simply no way for one to beat something that was not only innately more powerful than it, but also a good 30 levels higher. Though it was in part due to my own stupidity, I ended up getting angry at the wolf-like monster regardless. I immediately ran up to it in a fit of rage and shoved the sole of my right foot into its torso. The attack I launched was poorly formed; it was a typical yakuza-style front kick.

The three headed dog didn't even so much as try to dodge the attack. It simply stood there and tanked it—only to burst into a thousand different lumps of flesh.

"Uh… what…?"

All that was left of the "dog" was an indistinguishable piece of meat. Its entire upper body was missing. My surroundings had been dyed a deep shape of crimson and decorated with all sorts of guts and entrails. And of course, the exact same could be said for my body. I was covered from head to toe in red. I was so confused by the outcome that I stopped what I was doing and just stared.

The heck? Was that it? Seriously?

After a brief pause, I directed my gaze back towards the "dog." There was no doubt that it was dead. It wasn't moving any more. In fact, it wasn't even twitching.

Unlike when I encountered Lefi, my newly improved senses hadn't screamed at me this time. My body hadn't warned me about any sort of impending doom. That said, I'd still assumed that the Cerberus was stronger than me. It was a whole 31 levels higher, so there was reason for me to believe that its stats would totally trump my own.

But clearly, I was wrong.

Hmm… Did it maybe not react to my kick because it just couldn't keep up with how quickly I was moving? And does this mean that my stats are actually pretty high? Wait, I just beat up a pretty high level monster. I should probably double check my status card to see if anything's changed.

***

General Information

Name: Yuki

Race: Archdemon

Class: Demon Lord

Level: 12

HP: 2320/2320

MP: 6900/6900

Strength: 672

Stamina: 701

Agility: 574

Magic: 915

Dexterity: 1273

Luck: 70

Skill points: 17

Unique skills

Magic Eye

Translation

Skills

Item Box

Analyze I

Martial Arts Mastery I

Titles

Demon Lord from Another World

DP: 2250

***

Defeating the cerberus had earned me a good chunk of experience. My level had increased by eleven, and most of my stats had gone up a good bit. The only one that had remained static was luck, but I didn't care. I was already over it.

I mean, again, I still don't really have anything to compare myself to, but I guess my stats are actually pretty decent.

Though I discovered that I wasn't actually as weak as initially anticipated, I wasn't about to let myself get cocky. I knew that there were all sorts of abnormally strong freaks out there. Hell, I lived with one. Naturally, there weren't Lefi-tier creatures just lying around all over the place, but I was still going to play it safe. I didn't want to end up like the video game villains that shouted "impossible" upon losing to the protagonists because they assumed that their high stats would allow them to triumph. Nor did I want to end up like the foolish demon that had challenged Lefi, only to lose his pride and life in one fell swoop. No way in hell was I about to let myself be stupid enough to wastefully discard my second life.

Wait! Why am I sitting around thinking about random bullshit!? This isn't the time for that!

"Shii, you okay!?"

I closed my status window in a hurry and ran up to the slime-stained wall. Fortunately, the cerberus' attack hadn't been enough to drain all of Shii's health. The slime was still alive. In fact, it had already started regenerating.

"Whew…" I heaved a sigh of relief. "Sorry, I pushed you way too hard. I should've known that the cerberus would be too much for you to handle."

The slime responded to my words by giving itself a shake. It was almost as if it was saying "Don't worry, I'm okay."

Almost.

Again, I didn't speak slime, so I couldn't actually tell.

Alright, from now on, I'm going to need to remember that Shii's a pet. Pets and P*kemon are different. Pets aren't meant for battles. They're just there for you to cuddle and love. Ugh… this is all my fault.

I frowned as I realized that I had to be more rational. I'd lost control not once, but twice. A fatal mistake. I'd end up having the rug pulled out from under my feet if I didn't learn to keep my cool.

Maybe I should make "stay cool" my motto or something.

I nodded and acknowledged the idea as I plopped myself down beside Shii. Only after the slime finished regenerating did I finally return to the throne room.

"Hmmm…" I propped my face up with one of the arms I had resting on my knees as I frowned. I was seated upon the throne, which I'd slowly become accustomed to.

"What is the matter?" Lefi asked. "You appear awfully focused for a man staring off into the void."

The dragon girl stopped poking Shii to give me a dubious stare. She'd been complimenting the slime just a minute prior; she mentioned that she found it surprisingly adorable. Despite living for over a thousand years, today was the first she'd ever interacted with a slime.

"It's nothing spe—Wait, did you just say the void?"

Can she not see the menu?

"Indeed. It appears as if you are flying off into the distance in a manner akin to that of a fool. The only conclusion I can possibly draw is that you are gazing upon your status, as I do recall you mentioning that you had the analyze skill," said Lefi. She nodded as she spoke, as if coming to some sort of understanding.

"You make it sound like you have it too."

"I do. It is quite the convenient skill. Leveling it has allowed me to fully comprehend everything I had ever needed regardless of the circumstance. I'm sure it would serve you the same. It is unfortunate that there have only ever been a mere handful of individuals that have come to understand its value. Very few have ever fully leveled the skill."

"Wait, did you not know I was a demon lord until after you entered the dungeon? Wouldn't analyze have let you figure that out earlier?"

"You are correct," said Lefi with a nod. "But that is only because I chose not to activate the skill. I assumed you to be just another weak and worthless demon that thoughtlessly invaded my territory. I would have realized that you were more than that when you offered to strike a deal, but I was unable. My thoughts had all been swept away by the sweet scent and flavour of the chocolate you presented me. I had not the chance to give a second thought to your identity."

"I see."

"Speaking of chocolate, I would like some."

"You're going to get cavities if you eat that much chocolate."

"What are you saying? I am an ancient dragon. Abnormal status conditions do not affect me," said Lefi, as if she were stating the most obvious thing in the world.

Wait, so cavities are treated like status effects?

I opened the catalogue, purchased a bag of sweets, and chucked in Lefi's general direction.

"Hmmm? What are these?" Lefi raised one of her brows in confusion.

"Cookies."

"How interesting." The Supreme Dragon opened the bag and popped one of the sweet treats into her mouth. "Mmmrrpphh! How delectable!"

That "Mmmrrphh" though.

"Relocating was a splendid choice. The food here is delicious and the bedding is comfortable. I knew not that living in a human form was this convenient and comfortable."

Seeing the childish, happy expression that appeared on Lefi's face as she munched through the cookies I presented her caused a wry smile to show on my own.

Whew. I'm glad she likes the cookies. A full bag of cookies is cheaper than a bar of chocolate and contains a whole bunch more stuff. It's much more cost efficient.

"So I take it you are contemplating your stats?"

"Yeah. I was just thinking that I kinda want to learn how to use magic. Magic's my highest stat, so I'd imagine I'd probably be able to cast stuff if I figured out how."

One of the biggest factors that contributed to my desire to cast magic was the gruesome scene that followed the Cerberus' death. Though my physical stats seemed somewhat decent, I couldn't see myself making use of them. I had spent my past life living in peace; I wasn't exactly all that keen on blood or gore. More importantly, though I had somehow managed to defeat the three headed wolf, I highly doubted that I would continue to succeed. Monsters far more powerful than the Cerberus were bound to exist, and I highly doubted I would be able to win against them with my physical prowess alone. Likewise, I was fairly certain I would find myself defeated if I attempted to engage a member of the races in physical combat—there was no way a random civilian would find themselves in the midst of a dungeon. The only ones that would challenge me were experienced warriors with much greater mastery over the martial arts than I.

I had to get stronger. Some claimed that there was no need for a demon lord, or any other sort of ruler, to train and become more powerful. They vouched that training was akin to throwing away one's pride. But as far as I was concerned, every member of the aforementioned group was an idiot that had sealed his downfall in stone. And it was for that reason that I intentionally chose not to rely on the Supreme Dragon. I understood that growing dependent on her would one day come back to bite me in the ass.

Given this world's harsh nature, there was no reason not to grow more powerful. My magic stat was my highest, and the world I'd been reincarnated in was one filled with magical energy, so I saw no reason not to learn the art of magecraft.

That was, of course, but one school of thought. It was equally valid for me to focus my energies on summoning powerful monsters capable of crushing my foes with ease. But I didn't. To be honest, there wasn't any real logic governing my choice. The only reason I'd chosen magic over the monster-based route was because I wanted to use it. That was all.

The only problem was that I lacked the technical know-how. I had absolutely no idea how I was supposed to even begin to cast a spell. I tried firing off a kameham*ha[1] and even tried to stop time by screaming "the w*rld[2]," but neither approach yielded any results—not that I was expecting them to. Both attempts had just been for kicks. But all jokes aside, the kick I performed netted me the martial arts skill, so I figured that doing something along the lines of casting a spell would net me a skill centered around magic.

The problem is that I don't even know what magical energy really is.

At first, I thought that I would be able to just feel the mana inside of me in the same manner that I'd somehow managed to feel the dungeon's mana, but I couldn't quite get it to work. I tried concentrating and even meditating, but all my attempts had ended in failure. A part of me suspected that I'd only proven unsuccessful because Lefi's joyful, entertained cries had distracted me and prevented me from truly focusing, but that didn't quite seem to be it. I believed that it was more likely that I just didn't have the right kind of approach.

"That is true. Your magic stat does appear to be above average," said Lefi. "Oh? Your level increased? I assume you defeated a monster or two while I was asleep?"

"Yeah. Oh right, that reminds me. I've been meaning to ask you for future reference, but how are my stats?"

"Of course, monsters have different specializations, so it is difficult to provide you a meaningful comparison. I can, however, affirm that all of your individual stats are at least average when compared to the monsters that have made the surrounding area into their territory. Naturally, there are still many far more powerful than you. For example, your stats fail to reach even a single percent of my own."

Less than 1%!? Holy shit, dude, that's insane!

Lefi tossed the last cookie into her mouth as I contemplated the sheer extent of her strength. Her expression made it clear that her thoughts failed to align with my own. All she cared about was that there were no longer any cookies for her to snack on; she was wearing a clear expression of disappointment.

"Of course, I mind not teaching you the magical arts." She shot a few glances at me as her face lit up with expectation. "But only if you are willing to pay the pri—"

I cut her off by chucking a second bag of cookies straight at her. I didn't bother saying a word. I could tell from the look in her eyes alone that the bag of sweets I offered her was more than enough to cover my tuition.

"I see that you understand my terms. Very well, I shall make you this century's most powerful mage!"

Times like this, I really have to appreciate just how easily she's swayed by her stomach.