Lewd Dungeon Master: This Orc Is Too Damn OP!-Chapter 238: Penguin?

A short while later.

I headed back down to basement 1, where Lune was keeping watch. Thanks to Lune standing guard, able to hear the enemy’s conversations echoing off the cave walls, I’d been able to rest for a bit. Now it was time to swap out.

"Lune, go to Luna and get some rest. I’ll take watch from here."

"I rest best when I’m next to you, Master... Wait, I smell my sister."

"Of course you do. I slept on top of Luna."

"There’s a really strong chocolate scent on you. You did it, didn’t you, Master?"

"Yep."

"I’m next."

"Yeah. Just the two of us."

Lune figured it out right away, and forgave me just as fast.

’Can’t really blame her for being annoyed.’

She’d been here for a solid hour without a break, keeping tabs on the enemy, while I, who’d promised to be back in ten minutes, had spent a full hour going at it with Luna. I’d be pissed too if I were in her shoes.

’Maybe I should let her have her turn like Luna did.’

Having both Lune and Shaitan show up in the dream together would be interesting. I tucked away all my wishful thinking about what we’d do after the Halphas Legion battle, and asked Lune for the situation report.

"What’s the enemy doing?"

"No major movement yet. The Flare Panteras are running around keeping the fires going, but they don’t look like they’re dying anytime soon."

Lune pointed to the ground beneath the 2nd intercept room. The pit was still blazing, practically a fire hell that only the Flare Panteras could survive, and it had branched out like roots underneath the entire dungeon.

"Digging up from below and blasting the fire pit... that’d be risky. They know what’s under there: a scythe would find its mark. Too dangerous."

The Flare Panteras moved so fast, and the hypocaust tunnels the slimes had dug were deep enough that the Pale Riders’ scythes couldn’t pierce through the ground to stab them even when they did break through.

"Can’t attack, but I think they could manage a small hole or two."

"What are you planning?"

"Just digging a diagonal hole to get a look inside. This thing works for that."

I tapped on the system screen. Since my vision synced with my subordinates, the Flare Panteras running along the floor shared their vision with me. Most of the angles were looking up from below, but that was more than enough to get a read on the enemy’s status.

"Furcas is just lounging around at the base camp. Unbelievable. Breaks into someone else’s dungeon and sets up a whole tent. Absolute trash."

"What if we set fire to it from a distance?"

"They’d notice if we got too close. Doesn’t seem like they’re just sitting there being dumb. Tch."

Furcas was perched on a death horse, radiating murderous intent and watching every direction. The subordinates appeared to be resting inside the tents, which meant if we torched those tents, the Pale Riders inside wouldn’t make it out unscathed.

"But they’re just... sitting there. Shaitan, what did we say to do in a pattern like this?"

[If our forces are weaker than the enemy’s and the enemy is giving us time, you ordered us to use every second of that time to build our strength.]

"Right. While they’re getting comfortable, we grow stronger."

It wasn’t the right time to go on the offensive. So for now, we needed to focus on defense.

Buying time. That was the path our legion had to walk to survive.

"Alright, let’s get construction going. Lune, the moment you notice any enemy movement, tell me right away. Even if we have to stop mid-build, we’ll pivot and respond differently."

Gurgle, gurgle.

The slimes scattered again. I issued commands to them one by one, expanding the floor of basement 1 further and throwing together a few improvised ’gimmicks’ on the fly.

"It won’t be easy to break through."

And if they did break through... maybe I’d reward them with an axe to the head. I shook off the dark humor, pushed it out of my mind, and threw myself into the construction.

...And then it was time.

***

[In front of the portal — Halphas Legion temporary camp.]

Morning had come.

There was no way to tell morning from night inside the dungeon, but Furcas could gauge the time by the light coming through the portal.

6:66 AM.

Quite the pointed hour. Furcas rounded up the remaining forces and stepped toward the portal. From within its flickering light, a figure emerged.

Black head, white belly, and a yellow beak on top.

The kind of creature Rok would’ve called a ’penguin’, and that’s exactly what it was. A massive penguin, standing nearly two meters tall.

"I heard from Father that all the Pale Riders got wiped out. What exactly have you been doing?"

"My deepest apologies, Your Highness."

Furcas prostrated before the black penguin. A flash of irritation crossed the penguin’s eyes, and it scattered mana into the surrounding air to cool itself against the damp, sweltering heat. A faint mist of water vapor rose around the penguin.

"Ugh, it’s so hot. What is this? Does something fire-based live here?"

"...Well, about that."

Furcas explained how they had fallen into the enemy’s clever trap.

Furcas made a point to emphasize, strongly, what a vicious, cunning, and brutal group the enemy was: setting traps, luring them in, and then setting them on fire like monsters. The more Furcas talked, the worse Furcas felt inside, but it was the only way left to salvage any shred of self-respect.

"Yeah, no. You just got your ass kicked because you were weak."

"Ugh..."

There was no comeback to that. The penguin was right: if Furcas had been stronger, none of this would have happened. That just made the blow to Furcas’s pride sting even worse.

"That part is interesting though. The enemy is using humans?"

"Yes. The enemy deployed human adventurers to attack our Pale Rider unit. They lured them into a trap and set them on fire..."

"I don’t care how you got wrecked. More importantly, why is it so hot in here? I’m already sweating buckets and I just walked in."

The penguin opened its beak and fanned inside with a flipper. Even with mana cooling the air around it, the heat crept back in fast and the penguin’s body temperature was rising quickly.

"Ugh, hot. What did they do to this dungeon? Aren’t you guys hot?"

"...The death horses are completely wrecked. We’re effectively unable to charge anymore."

Pale Riders weakened as the distance between rider and mount grew. So as the death horses, still technically living creatures, wheezed in the heat, the combat strength of the Pale Riders hit rock bottom.

The penguin glanced back at the soldiers filing through the portal and wrinkled its face.

"Ugh, then I brought them back for nothing. Tch."

Behind the penguin, the previously slain Pale Riders had returned to the battlefield, resurrected by Halphas. They came in fired up and ready for revenge, only to recoil in shock at the scorching heat of the dungeon.

The dungeon, which had felt eerily empty before, barely a soul in sight, had somehow gotten so hot you couldn’t even lie down on the floor. It was like a river of fire was flowing somewhere underneath. The Pale Riders who had died when their death horses burned in the 2nd intercept room groaned at the heat.

"What are you all doing? Did you burn to death or something? ...For real? Sorry about that. But then you’ve gotta push through it! Where’s your fighting spirit?!"

The penguin waved its flippers and raised its voice. The beak clacked up and down, hurling criticism at the Pale Riders one after another. The Pale Riders had no choice but to stand there and take it in silence.

"Ugh, at this rate I have to step in myself. Furcas! Tell me about the enemy’s forces. Hand over the dungeon layout too. Once I’ve got the full picture, I’m going in."

"Your Highness intends to go personally...?"

"If not me, then who?"

The penguin’s yellow beak gleamed as it sneered.

"If I’m going to take over this legion, I need to show what I’m capable of, don’t I? Watch closely. Watch me tear Andras’s dungeon apart."

From within the shadow of the penguin’s beak, a dark light flickered.

"Pay attention. Watch how the one and only princess of the Halphas Legion conquers a dungeon."

***

"Huh, I’m actually looking at a real live penguin inside a dungeon."

Through the Flare Panteras’ shared vision, I confirmed the enemy’s third wave with my own eyes.

The Flare Panteras had been darting across the dungeon floor, quietly carving out tiny peepholes, and through those peepholes I was able to sync my vision and catch a look at the enemy.

"Shaitan, have you ever seen a monster like that before?"

[No. It’s a new type. Most likely a unique individual specific to the Halphas Legion.]

"Yeah. Whatever they did to make it, they must’ve bred something into something somewhere."

Scattering seeds wherever they pleased, and this waddling penguin was the twisted result. I shifted my focus to the other forces trailing behind it.

"...If you’re going with a penguin, commit to the penguin: why are there cockatrices behind it?"

Following behind the penguin was a pack of monsters, giant roosters, each standing well over two meters tall. Between the black feathers, reptilian scales and armored plating were clearly visible. A rough count put them at well over a hundred.

’So the Pale Riders were just the appetizer.’

Every single cockatrice looked battle-hardened, scanning in every direction with sharp eyes.

The peepholes the Flare Panteras were using were tiny, but even then, I was close to pulling them back out of fear of being spotted. If the fire leopards were caught, the penguin and the cockatrice unit would start digging up the floor immediately.

"To Agni: lead all Flare Panteras and fall back to the ’furnace.’ Recon is done."

[I’ll move the slimes to the designated location.]

On Shaitan’s orders, the slimes tucked inside the stocking started creeping and crawling forward.

Since the stocking stretched out long, the slimes had to elongate their bodies the same way a 3-star slime dragon would. They were technically wearing the stocking, but realistically, if they got spotted from the ceiling and stabbed, it was instant death. Still, mentally speaking, using slimes as scouts felt a lot less heavy than using beastmen.

Step. Step.

The slimes moved along the ceiling and spotted the enemy unit passing directly below. A slime quietly poked its head out into an open gap and caught a glimpse of the enemy forces rounding the corner of the passage.

"Too weak to risk engaging... Did they pass?"

[The penguin noticed. But it kept walking.]

"Right... Good thing the slimes are so weak."

Too small a nuisance to bother with, apparently, the penguin and the cockatrice unit entered the opening of the straight-shot corridor. All they had to do was charge straight through and there’d be no resistance, but after what the Pale Riders went through, their movements were extremely cautious.

"It spotted the slimes and just kept going. This one’s no pushover."

Waddle, waddle.

"Sure enough. Someone once said ’check every stone before you teleport’ as a joke, and here’s exactly that. Super careful."

Waddle, waddle.

"...Jeez. Not even a sparrow: just slow as hell."

Even with time on our side, this kind of approach was inconvenient.

The Pale Riders had run the straight-shot route in under a minute, but these bird-brains were marching in formation, matching the penguin’s pace step for step, inching along together. Probably about 3 km/h at best.

"Is that penguin doing this on purpose? Just to piss me off?"

[It seems like they’re just checking carefully for traps as they go.]

"...Heh. That’s a relief, then. The slower they come, the better it is for us. Alright: moving into phase two of the plan."

I picked up the most powerful weapon I had, sourced all the way from Ras Vegas.

"All orcs in the dungeon: grab your weapons."

Thud, thud, thud!

Before I’d even finished the order, the orcs swung their weapons off their backs. The exact same thing I was holding, something capable of slashing, stabbing, bashing, and on top of that, doing dungeon construction on the fly. The most powerful tool there is.

"Starting now: we dig."

The sound of shovels hitting earth began to echo out from the final intercept room.

"The remodel isn’t done yet."

If we couldn’t beat them head-on, we had to take them down another way.