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Volume 8 Chapter 207

Dungeon Front Market (Trial)

The next morning──
Today, all members of the Elnor family were gathered in my mansion.
「This meal is delicious」
「Tina’s cooking is so good!」
What was a bit different this time was that Yoko’s mother Kikyo and the Wind Spirit King Sylph were also present.
Since Kikyo became a member of the Elnor family, she would be dining with us from now on.
Sylph had come to the mansion with us yesterday when we went to pick up Rifa in Alheim.
Sylph had expressed a desire to visit my mansion someday, and since I had something I wanted to show everyone today, I had invited her to stay as one of the spectators.
「Hehe, thank you. Sylph, would you like seconds?」
「Yeah, I do!」
Despite it being morning, Sylph had a tremendous appetite.
「Is everyone free today?」
「Yes, we don’t have any specific plans. What’s up, Haruto-sama?」
I wanted to show everyone the dungeon I prepared yesterday.
「I renovated the Ruin’s Dungeon. I want to have its debut」
「Already done? You’re amazing, Haruto!」
I had explained to Hakua, the previous master of the ruins dungeon, in advance that I would be renovating the dungeon.
「Yeah. I adjusted the difficulty so that ordinary adventurers can challenge it, made it a bit more complex like a maze, and added more floors」
The dungeon in the ruins, originally built for the training of heroes, had an overall simple structure so that heroes could level as they pleased.
I made them more like mazes, just like ordinary dungeons, and increased the number of levels.
I also placed artificial monsters and treasure chests.
「What do you mean by debut, nya?」
「I’m thinking of having some people challenge the dungeon I adjusted. Meldie is one of the candidates, but can I ask you too?」
「That sounds interesting! I’ll conquer Haruto’s dungeon, nya!」
「Who are the other candidates?」
「Actually, I’ve invited two people who are not from the Elnor family. Ideally, I want a four-person party for the challenge, so I need one more person, preferably a healer..」
「Shall I take on that role?」
「I can do it too!」
Two individuals with the highest-class healing abilities in this world, the Dragon Priestess Ryuka and the Holy Maiden Seira, volunteered.
「I’m okay with either!」
「I can manage healing to some extent as well」
It seemed that Sylph and Kikyo could also act as healers.
However, I had already decided on the person I would entrust with the role.
「Can I ask Seira for this time?」
「Understood!」
And so, the members challenging my dungeon for the first time were decided.
──＊＊＊──

I teleported everyone to Vestier.
At the gate to the Vestier capital, two familiar figures were waiting.
「Haruto-sama, it’s been a while, nya」
「We’ve been waiting for you」
Sally, a cat beastwoman, and Lilia, a dog beastwoman.
I had fought against Sally in the martial arts tournament of this country before and, impressed by her strength, had asked her to join my clan if I ever formed one.
Lilia was Sally’s friend and worked at the checkpoint in the capital.
Both of them were dressed for battle.
I planned to have these two beastwomen support my family members and conquer my dungeon.
Yesterday, I had contacted them through the communication magic stone I gave to Sally, asking if they could challenge my dungeon.
Lilia happened to be with Sally at the time, so I asked her as well.
They were surprised by my sudden contact, but they quickly agreed to the dungeon conquest.
「Both of you, please help us today」
「Yes, nya!」
「We’ll do our best!」
Afterwards, I introduced Sally and Lilia, who had not met Kikyo and Seira, and explained my purpose to everyone once again.
I am the owner of the Vestier Beastman Kingdom.
Vestier is my country.
Because it’s my country, I want to protect its residents from threats like daemons and demons.
However, I can’t stay in Vestier permanently.
If a crisis arises, I can quickly come through teleportation, but there might be situations where I can’t make it in time.
Beastmen are a strong race in this world, but even among them, individuals who can defeat demons alone are as rare as Leo, the Beastman King who lifted the ban on magic.
That’s why I wanted to increase the number of beastmen who could fight demons.
However, raising a person to a level where they can fight demons is quite challenging.
It’s impossible to become as strong as Leo by defeating ordinary monsters like those found in the forest.
Unless you have special skills, you need to level up quite efficiently.
That’s where the dungeon, originally prepared for hero training, came in handy.
I transformed the ruins dungeon into a dungeon for strengthening my allies.
For ordinary adventurers, I opened floors one through ten, allowing them to challenge those.
I added floors eleven through twenty to the original ten floors.
These additional layers would serve as the training ground for strengthening my allies.
I set it up so that by completing the program I incorporated, they would reach a level where they could defeat demons by the time they cleared the dungeon.
「Well then, shall we go immediately!」
I teleported everyone to the ruins dungeon.
──＊＊＊──

「Eh!?」
「Oh, uh? Wh-why──」
Tina and all my wives present were frozen in place.
We had teleported to the ruins dungeon using the teleportation magic circle I had set up in front of the dungeon, and everyone was surprised by what I had prepared there.
「It’s quite impressive, isn’t it? I put a lot of effort into getting everything ready!」
In front of the dungeon entrance, I had built a weapon shop, an armor shop, a tool shop, a restaurant, an inn, etc.
I made them in a hurry, so the buildings only had walls and roofs.
The assortment of goods was still lacking, but the form was somehow there.
I plan to invite merchants later and establish it as the Dungeon Front Market.
To attract adventurers to the dungeon, it’s important not only to have an interesting dungeon but also an environment that supports adventurers.
I realized this from the light novels in my original world, so I decided to try it out.
「I want to build a small town here eventually. A town to support adventurers challenging the dungeon. It’s still a long way off, but──」
「Oh, Master……」
「Hmm? What’s wrong, Yoko?」
「I know that a town can be built near the entrance of the dungeon. I understand that you are imitating that. However──」
Yoko walked up to the clerk at the nearby tool shop.
「Why do the shopkeepers look like this?」
She pulled the armor shop clerk’s clothes and dragged him outside.
──He looked exactly like me.