A new day dawned and the Viscountess and the self-declared concubine prepared themselves to inaugurate the Minotaur Dungeon and usher in the first three adventurer parties that would explore its treacherous depths and bring back the precious 'loot' from within. Meat for nourishment and monster parts for crafting. The tension and excitement were tangible. They were in the great halls of the first floor, the safe room that would double as a shelter for the population would the siege threaten the civilians. With ingress strictly controlled by the former midwife and Bootleg Guildmaster of Mirfield and magically-reinforced walls, it would be a safe haven for the humans.
The irony of sheltering people in a dungeon was not lost to them. However, their hero and leader engineered the dungeon in such a way that the passive presence of people inside brought great benefit to the facility and its monstrous master. The surplus regeneration of MP and Stamina of the humans, the amount that would be lost when these resource pools hit their cap would be drained and redirected into the Dungeon Core to be used as energy. The same principle applied to the City Core in the nearby town. Sheltering them would bolster the Dungeon to the expense of the town and that was the reason the Dungeon would be used as a shelter only if needed.
The great hall had acoustic properties, not unlike other large, empty rooms. Any sound would reverberate and amplify as its energy ricocheted over the extremely smooth walls. Fortunately, hundreds of tree trunks absorbed part of this energy, or the two dozen people currently present would make the place unbearable just with their heartbeats and breathing. Helen noticed that and decided to use some of the hides of the creatures hunted to create large leather tapestries to hang on the walls and pillars.
The room was sterile at first, but a single day with all the wood stored permeated the air with the scent of sap and wooden notes. It felt like the storeroom of a sawmill or a furniture shop. Pushing her senses and impressions to the background, she looked at the three parties that were waiting on her, eager to start their delve.
The Thundering Hammers were there on the Lady's indication. Their service clearing the fields of pests was exemplar. The second party was adequately named the Reborn Brothers, led by Growald and Brunn, the two men Grendel used as guinea pigs for his curse-lifting method and the third party, the Mirfield Rangers. These were a specialized group where everyone had the same class, [Ranger]. She noticed Marcy snickering by her side. The members entered the city coming from Whiteridge and Strawrford on different days and formed that party a week ago. They were very vocal in going to the Dragon Valley even though it was forbidden. To appease them, Mercy allowed them one of the few slots to delve into the Dungeon.
These were probably spies. They claimed to be former residents, part of the refugees that fled during the Troll Crisis, as the events after Grendel arrival were slowly being reckoned into recent history, but the redhead mother and daughter duo knew everyone in town by heart, the guildmaster even literally had a hand or two in delivering the current and scattered youth onto this world. And Marcy, although oblivious to some aspects of life, was keen on remembering the gossip about everyone in town.
To sum up, the mother did not remember delivering these kids and Marcy did not remember growing up with these kids. They had a solid background otherwise, able to cite their alleged parents and friends among the refugees that went north and west, fleeing what they feared to be the collapse of the town. Those references, the redhead women knew very well and it only added to their suspicions.
They were spies, the leaders of the city were sure of it. The reason they were even allowed to delve the Dungeon was to catch them leaking information. Tancred was that very moment in the Core Room watching attentively that party. At the sign of the first slip, he'd notify Helen and everyone else through party chat. But they were willing to risk information leak before attacking an innocent. Their paranoia wasn't at that level yet. And hopefully wouldn't ever reach the point where people suffered just because of a suspicion.
Mirfield needed adventurers just like all settlements did. They provided monster parts, harvested herbs, patrolled the wilderness around the city. The few walled enclaves of people that remained on the continent were surrounded and, in a certain way, besieged by monsters all the time. They only survived because it was not enticing for most monsters to enter the low magic zones, brave the walls, fight the humans for little benefit while suffering from mana starvation. There were easier morsels elsewhere.
Before she cut the rope that kept the three parties from entering the teleportation pad leading to the first monster floor, Mercy gave a brief speech. Helen was so absorbed in her thoughts that she missed most of it.
"... And remember, you cannot go further than the first floor after the halls. Going down to the second floor will result in a heavy penalty."
Heavy? It meant sudden death. Grendel's spiders set a trap there. If they went further than the safe zone after the stairs landing, they would be trapped in the magical webs. They were betting the spies would try to do it. They would be captured and later interrogated. The second floor had some monsters and animals so Tancred could feed the Core from the excess energy. The return rate for the power invested in spawning one creature was roughly two weeks. And he needed the energy to build the third monster floor. Once the floor was populated, the ambient magic absorption would be enough to keep the Dungeon running.
After all, the endless charging sessions had to be suspended once the siege started. Everyone would be busy elsewhere.
Mercy cut the rope and the adventurers cheered. The adventurer teams went down with twenty minutes between them. The first floor of the Dungeon had E-rank dire bunnies, F-rank wolves, E-rank lieutenant wolves, and E-rank boars. The wolves can form packs and the boars walk in groups. The maximum threat rating for the packs is a C-rank. The boss is a D-rank Bloodstreak Wolf with three lieutenants and eight wolves.
Helen missed the last party's descent. She caught herself falling asleep and jerked her head back, startled. Zahariel put a hand on her back.
"You stood there silent all the time, Helen. Are you still feeling down? You should rest today," The angel gently suggested. "I'll stay here and watch over the entrance."
Helen nodded. The stress was building up again. The carpenters would begin processing the wooden logs and build the facilities this floor desperately needed. But she didn't want to leave the floor undefended.
"I guess I'll retire for the day. We need to take care of those adventurers. There is something fishy about them."
"Don't worry about that. I can take all twelve of them with a blindfold. Go and get more rest."
"I'll do that. Bye."
Zahariel's unique magic and class setup allowed him to detect intruders and protect a perimeter. If there's one person suited for the job, it was him. But Helen was not going back to the Surface.
Helen: I'm going to take a nap. There is nothing for me to do anyway!
Marcy: Good! That's the spirit. You gotta stay on top of your game, girl!
Helen: Tancred, can you expand the safe zone of the second floor?
Tancred: Of course I can. But why?
Helen: I'm going to sleep behind the spider's nest.
Marcy: Are you crazy? You should go see Alvus now. Like right now!
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Helen: No! I want to be there to help catch the spies. And there is no way Grendel's minions would raise a claw against me.
Shraaizar: That'sss true. Let the girl sssleep where she wants, Marcy. The sspiderss might not be able to talk but they know well the master's mate.
Helen: Tancred, can I borrow some cushions?
Tancred: I'll teleport them to you!
Helen: 😃
Marcy: One day I'll make you teach me how to do that!
The minotaur teleported Helen to the core room and from there to the second level landing. The three spiders don't even tilt their heads. The girl reached out and let the smallest of them, Swan, to crawl over her hand. With a giggle, she caressed the feathered back of the angelic wolf spider. Swan was venomous and hunted without webs, using Light magic, Illusions, and rarely, Illusions.
The plumes were softer than Zahariel's wings. The fast spider skittered around the girl and raised the front pincers in a greeting.
Helen spoke in the monster language. "Hello, Swan. Good job you and your sisters are doing here. Can I sleep with you?"
What she got back were a sequence of clicks and a stridulating chirp. After spending that long with Mittens, Helen was a sort of expert in arthropod language.
"Greetings, tic, human! We, tic, welcome you!" The spider conveyed. Helen caressed her feathered abdomen again. "It tickles," She jumped away.
Helen turned to the second spider, the iridescent and long-legged primal recluse, Skitter. She waved and the spider shied away, rapidly shifting colors. "Don't worry," she said. "I won't touch you."
Skitter was another caster spider, able to wield all elements, including most combinations, like Ice or Magma. And she could imbue the elements into the webs she wove. Right now, the path was blocked by an invisible wind-attuned web. Even though Helen knew it was there, she couldn't see it.
Finally the largest one, with a body ten feet long from the chelicerae to the spinnerets plus the legs, the "juvenile" ice widow. Helen shuddered a bit when she remembered the one they killed in Beelzebub's Dungeon and how big she would become once she became "adult". Her carapace was crystalline and whitish-blue with a darker blue hourglass in her belly. This specimen must've just spawned when Grendel tamed it. Crawly's webs were ice-attuned and while Skitter could also make them, the specialization meant the former's ice webs were stronger and colder. The blonde girl waved at the spider.
"Crawly, hello. I'll be in your care and will help you capture the spies."
The big spider didn't turn around. She just clicked her chelicerae.
"Yes, yes. Make yourself comfortable, human. The master told us to treat you like one of our clusters. Rest easy behind our webs."
A bunch of cushions popped out of nowhere and fell to the ground. Skitter wove a hammock and Helen laid them over, then lied down. She was asleep as soon as her head hit the soft cushion.
She dreamed of laying on a swarm of Swans. The angelic wolf spider, not the bird.
"..."
"Helen, wake up! Silly noblewoman, sleeping in the middle of a dungeon!" Petal stirred Helen awake.
"What happened?"
She pointed in the direction of the stairs, "Crawly and Skitter captured spies in their webs!"
Helen blinked in disbelief. She knew some of these new parties were spies but she hoped they weren't.
"How many?" Helen asked, worried.
"Ten!" The fairy chirped. "They were fighting back, so Swan bit them. Wolf spider venom can paralyze."
Helen reluctantly stood from her web hammock, any drowsiness gone because of the tension. "That means almost all the adventurers were spies."
"Yeah, silly. Glad you can do the math," The fairy snickered. "All of them are here, come!"
Helen went to check. Indeed there were twelve people-shaped cocoons.
Helen: Zahariel, how many monsters corpses were turned in by the adventurers so far? And how long has it been since they went down?
Zahariel: Zero. And I think it has been almost the entire interval between two bells. I went down to check and found some boars around, I killed them and brought them up to Soren so the guild dismantlers had something to work on.
Tancred: Now that you mention, there are several boar and wolf corpses in the core's storage. I'll teleport them to you, Zahariel.
"Swan, please cut the webs to show their faces. And Petal, charm all of them. I want answers and I want them now."
"Easy peasy! {Bewitch}! And {Bewitch} you too!" The fairy went over them one by one, charming them as soon as their faces were revealed.
Weakened by the venom and unable to resist the fairy's magic, they all confessed. Growald and Brunn, the two Grendel used as guinea pigs in Alvus' clinic, were sent by the guild to investigate the disturbance caused by the death of the Guild Master and stayed around, feeding information to the guild. The others were advanced scouts for the guild and the army.
Helen also learned how the information leaked. Brunn has an advanced Wind spell called [Far Whispers] that allowed a message to travel to a predetermined location at four times a fast horse's speed. All of their information was already in the enemy's hands. But they had information about troop movement. Fifteen hundred troops and adventurers from Strawford were bound to arrive tomorrow. The main body of the army from Heorot took the route through Whiteridge and were still five to eight days away.
"Are you going to eat them?" Crawly asked.
"No. The punishment for spies and traitors is death," Helen replied, "but that is the Lord's decision. I know just what to do with them."
Helen: It is confirmed. All the twelve adventurers we sent into the dungeon are spies. They have been leaking our information ever since we returned here during the cursed plague. Growald and Brunn were guild agents. Everything about us they came to know was already reported to Heorot. There are also fifteen hundred knights and adventurers coming down from Strawford.
Mercy: I can't believe it! Those kids were so nice! I fell for their act!
Helen: At least they don't know about the Hill or other information regarding Beowulf. Alvus and Cloude, raid their inn rooms and seize all of their belongings. I already took their cards. Tancred?
Tancred: Yes, Helen. What can I do to help?
Helen: Can you start digging the third floor? Make several small rooms with just a viewport and a few inches open underneath in place of the doors. We are moving all the spies and infiltrators we capture there. They are going to become MP farms for the dungeon.
Tancred: I'll do that.
"Petal, erase all their memories from since they arrived here in Mirfield. Meditate, rest and retry. No matter how long it takes."
"Okie Dokie, Helen! It will be hard but I'll do my best!"
She begins to wipe them clean.
Helen: Sepal, are you in town?
Sepal: Affirmative. I am at the guild processing some requests.
Helen: Please pass your requests to the other receptionists. I need you to use remote senses to check where the army is. How many day-marks are there on the roads before they reach us. Check both west and north roads.
Helen: Everyone, stay on alert. If they had twelve spies already here since before winter, we can only wonder how many others are there. Father, I want you to take the carpenters and bring them to the dungeon. We need to speed up the construction inside the Dungeon hall to use as a shelter for the civilians.
Azelinus: I will do that.
Helen: Cloude, double the patrols.
Cloude: Alright. I will also see if any of the guards are going to betray us.
Helen: Mercy, please check the energy levels of the City Core.
Mercy: Wait a bit, let me pull the interface. Here! The sleeper alone gave us over four hundred thousand MP already. He alone amounts to around one hundred fifty thousand every day. Your bees aren't giving much energy. I think it is because they don't stand still.
Petal: They're bees, what did you expect, silly?!?
Marcy: The bugs understand each other.
Helen: After Petal and Tancred finish processing the prisoners, she will go get the logs and bring them here. Tancred, take the spiders back to the Hill. We need to defend there too, in case they already know. Shraaizar and Kochurearc, you should take care there too.
Kochurearc: I will forbid all hunting in the west and double the guard. The shadow goblins will scout from a safe distance.
Helen: Cloude, we are going to move the prisoners in the stockades to the dungeon later today.
Alvus: The harvest of the west fields will finish well before sunset. At least we won't have to worry about grain.
Helen also used her own inner network to give her pets orders. "Emory, you and your pups are to keep watch around the manor. Keep your ears open if any maids are talking ill of us behind our backs. Report to me immediately if any suspicious movement is detected. Mittens, keep watch on the road and do not engage the humans. Caramel, I will take another fifty bees with me to the human town. Select the highest leveled ones and send them to the roof of my house on the hilltop."
They all acknowledged their missions. After a while, Sepal reported.
Sepal: Reporting. The troops coming from the west are moving very fast past the second day-mark. There are fast troops coming south from Strawford. They all should arrive during this night or tomorrow morning.
Helen: Alvus, set fire to the east and south fields. We won't have time to harvest them. I'll make it rain during the night. At sunset, the gates are to be closed. No one is to go outside without our permission.
The last day of freedom before the siege.
Thirteen days until Grendel wakes up.