“Great job, Ramiris. Now we can finally move on to part two of the plan.”
She flitted her wings as she replied, “Hee-hee! Of course! I’m a hard worker when I wanna be, y’know!”
I turned to Veldora. “Well, sorry this took so long, but I think it’s time for you to let your aura out.”
“Ahhh, the time has come, has it? Kwah-ha-ha-ha! I am ready!”
Yes, the moment was here.
The Dungeon had ducts and stairways connecting all one hundred floors to one another. How did they keep things ventilated all the way to the bottom? With magic—and that’s the best answer you can get from me. Maybe we didn’t need those ducts at all, but they were there to ensure magicules would make their way to each floor. And that rush of magicules would happen once Veldora came to that central chamber in Floor 100, assumed his original form, and cut loose.
“All right. Here I go. Hraaahhhh!!”
I didn’t need the theatrical shouting, but I suppose he felt better that way.
Instantly, a spectacularly evil aura engulfed Ramiris and me. I had enclosed us in an Absolute Defense barrier, just in case, but for a moment, it felt like a bomb went off in front of us.
“Phew… Sh-sheesh, that was dangerous,” a shaky Ramiris said. “If you didn’t protect me, I might’ve been blown right outta here…”
Yeah, that was stronger than I thought. The shock wave was packed with an intense concentration of magicules, easily enough to kill a normal person.
“Kwaaaaahhhh-ha-ha-ha! Make way for Veldora!!”
The boss chamber—er, sorry, Veldora’s underground lair—was pretty large, but with the Storm Dragon back to his normal size, it actually seemed a tad cramped. I hadn’t seen him in dragon form in a while, and the sight was just as stately and magnificent as I recalled.
Seriously, if he would just keep his mouth shut, he’d be so majestic.
“Ahhh, such a relief! But oooh, what an onrush that was. If I did that outdoors, there might have been a little trouble!”
He made it sound so casual, but that scenario would’ve been a disaster. And if it was such a “relief,” why were there still magicules coursing out of him?
“W-wow, Master… I didn’t think you’d wreck the labyrinth itself…”
Ramiris was right. The explosion had caved in the walls a bit; the internal pressures had been too much to withstand. And this wasn’t even him attacking!
“Guess you really were holding in a lot, weren’t you? Can you maybe, you know, loosen the valve on it a bit now and then, so it doesn’t come to that again?”
That was just the magicules mixed in with the aura blast, after all, and they came in dense. Veldora’s total energy count must’ve been off the charts. No wonder releasing it was so dicey. Definitely gotta vent a bit more often than that from now on.
Then I was struck with a brilliant idea. Why don’t we build another room in Floor 100 to serve as storage? We could put in the iron ore and so on that we get from the mines, then infuse it with magicules to transform it into magisteel ore in a flash. That stuff’s worth its weight in gold, far more in demand than regular metal ore, and it could become a huge resource for us.
“Ramiris, can you make another room connecting to this chamber?”
“Sure! No problem!”
She was already hopping to it. Next time I stop by, I’ll bring in some of the metal ore we have in storage around town.
As I schemed internally, the magicules gradually began to distribute themselves around the Dungeon, just as planned. Most floors still didn’t have walls or internal structures, so there was nothing stopping them from diffusing into every corner of the labyrinth. The magicule count on Floor 50, even, still surpassed what you saw in the deepest part of the Sealed Cave.
Now we’d just have to wait for monsters to start appearing. At this rate, I could expect some real juggernauts.
Veldora spent the rest of the day releasing his magic and chilling dragon-style in his lair, and the next day, I brought Beretta and Treyni with me.
“Ah, Rimuru,” he purred to me, “last night was the most enjoyable one for me in ages.”
“Oh? Good. Keep releasing as much as you want from now on, okay? No holding back. Just never do it outside of here, okay?”
“Kwah-ha-ha-ha! Oh, I understand.”
Did he? I wasn’t sure, but I had to take him at his word.
Discussing matters like this would be awkward, so I had him go into human form for a moment as I explained the current situation to Beretta and Treyni. I wanted to get right to work, but before that, I needed to make one final check with Beretta.
“Beretta, you swore to Guy that you’d serve Ramiris, correct? You still feel the same way now?”
He gave me a surprised look. I wondered if, under the mask, his expression actually changed a bit.
“…Sir Rimuru, I apologize if this is rude, but as I stated before, I wish to serve both you and Lady Ramiris.”
“Yeah, I remember, but doesn’t that go against what you promised Guy?”
“…It does. I was alone at the time, and—”
“No, no, don’t worry about it. Ramiris wound up here in town anyway, just like you wanted. She’s gonna help run this labyrinth for a while, and I expect you’ll be happy to help us out, right?”
“Of course!”
“Great, then serving her is pretty much the same as serving me anyway.”
I had been thinking about this ever since I heard about that—the idea of having Beretta just switch his allegiances to Ramiris, if he wanted to. That’s what he promised Guy, likely the strongest of all demon lords, and I don’t think Guy appreciated people who broke their promises to him.
“If that is what you wish,” he briskly replied, “then I will work under Lady Ramiris.”
Wow. Everything turned out the way he wanted, didn’t it? Ah well. I wonder where he learned
