After I died, my personal maid rebelled.

The lord who guards the soldiers...

His legs stopped trembling, and Kindem grew increasingly curious about Duke Oswald; he had never seen a lord like him before.

So much so that after dinner, when he returned to his tent, even though he was wrapped tightly in the blankets, Kindrum couldn't fall asleep, tossing and turning, unable to shake off the conversation between the two men.

Lord Barton's anger was genuine. After the curse-slaying campaign, all the soldiers returned to the Northern Territory unscathed, except for the Duke, who became an undead.

Any subordinate who was loyal to the Duke would be furious upon hearing this and would want to give the soldiers a good scolding.

But this was the Duke's own choice, so Barton had nowhere to vent his anger.

In fact, on the way to escort the dwarves to the city of Broadvalley, Kindrum saw Barton's terrifying appearance when he suddenly flew into a rage after receiving a certain message.

However, the dwarves at that time were all worried about their future fate, and no one cared what Barton was cursing about.

Why are there no dukes among the dwarven nobility?

Kindem couldn't understand why, if the Duke said they had defeated the curse, the Dwarf Kingdom had continued to this day without a single upper-class dwarf saying, "We must break the curse of slavery."

Lord Oswald would work alongside us, eat the same food as us, and would usually grant our requests and fulfill them immediately.

We wanted a hug, and he knelt down to hug us, even though his clothes were covered in mud...

Why, why can't we dwarves have a lord like Oswald?

With these questions in mind, Kindem stayed up until midnight before falling into a deep sleep. The next morning, Kindem was jolted awake by the familiar work chants and quickly got up to get dressed.

Damn beard, getting up before dawn! Those overseers must use whips...

Stepping out of the tent, Kindrum paused, his hand on his belt pausing. After a long moment of bewilderment, he gave a self-deprecating laugh.

He was no longer a slave of the Dwarf Kingdom.

His companions were busy digging foundations and building houses. They even left a breakfast for Kindum. Kindum sat down at the simple table and picked up his bread when he saw the Duke and Marquis Barton, who had changed into their battle uniforms, pass by him.

Oswald smiled at him. "What's wrong, Kindem? Have you caught a cold? There's a doctor in the team. We'll have him take a look at you later."

"No, it's nothing," Kindem hurriedly replied. Seeing the two men leading a troop of soldiers, preparing to head deeper into the forest, he couldn't help but ask, "Sir, where are you going?"

After binding his leggings, Oswald, who now cherished every inch of his flesh and blood, casually replied, "There might be trouble in the mountains. Let's go investigate."

Kindrum grabbed a loaf of bread and hurried after him. "Sir, I can help you. You will need the dwarves to get into the mountains."

Upon hearing this, Barton stroked his chin and sized him up. Kindem was physically fit and had received military training. The dwarf, skilled in drilling, might actually come in handy this time in their search for the underground city.

Barton cast an inquiring glance, and Oswald nodded. In any case, their trip was just an exploration to confirm whether an underground city existed and what the environment inside was like.

After finding out the truth, Oswald planned to wait for Paul to arrive so that the two of them could deal with the lowest-level boss together.

"Then you'll be the only one. Go change your gear."

"yes!"

……

After changing into a poorly fitting leather armor, Kindrum carried an axe, as if he had returned to his days as a common soldier.

He was somewhat excited and took the initiative to walk at the front to clear a path for the group. There were fewer bushes in the northern woods, so the group walked quickly and smoothly.

Oswald leaned on his staff, remaining silent the way, growing increasingly uneasy the deeper he went into the forest.

It was so quiet, so incredibly quiet.

Around noon, Oswald ordered the squad to rest for a while. He walked to the side, leaned against a big tree, and lit his pipe.

Patton, sitting on the ground with a cigarette in his mouth, exchanged a glance with Oswald, both noticing that something was amiss.

There were hardly any sounds of birds or animals around, and even the chirping of insects, a unique sound of autumn, was sparse.

The soldiers and Kindred squatted on the ground, passing each other jerky and chatting merrily. Oswald, pipe in hand, sighed helplessly. Kindred was one thing, but he clearly remembered asking Rondo to pick out an elite squad for him…

These dimwitted guys should have brought Timothée along.

After extinguishing their pipes and waiting for everyone to regain their strength, Oswald made new arrangements.

"Barton will go first, the soldiers will provide backup, and Kindrum will follow me at the back."

The group continued on their way, and Oswald released his magic to search, but the ground remained still, and the strange sound never reached their ears.

For Oswald, the best outcome would have been for everything to go smoothly, but not long after, the magic he was searching for received feedback from the monster.

"Two o'clock, Patton, walk that way, stop after a thousand steps."

Upon hearing this, everyone immediately prepared for battle. Kindem, with the awareness of being in the front line, took off his axe and quickly walked to Oswald, warily guarding his surroundings.

Oswald paused for a second. "No, you're protecting me?"

I patted Kindem's head to encourage him. I must say, the dwarf's head is quite interesting. It's about the size of a basketball and easy to curl up.

The group quickly stopped, and everyone looked up at the hillside.

Neither Oswald nor Barton knew who the monster was lurking behind the hill.

Patton took down his bow, drew his arrow, and gestured to the scout behind him with his eyes. The scout immediately understood, rushed forward, picked up a stone from the ground, and threw it forcefully over the hillside.

"Awoo!"

The moment the tiger-striped beast appeared, Barton released the taut bowstring. The arrow, like a streak of light, powerfully pierced the beast's head. The beast collapsed to the ground with a thud, lifeless in the blink of an eye.

After confirming that there was no further danger, Barton stepped forward, drew the knife from his waist, and quickly cut off the still-warm penis of the tiger-striped monster. He then put it to his mouth and licked it vigorously.

"Pooh!"

Barton spat out his saliva, threw away the tiger whip, and frowned as he said to Oswald, "Sir, the taste is off. This isn't a naturally grown magical beast; it's been catalyzed by the dungeon."

Everyone's expression changed; now it was finally confirmed that an underground city was indeed being built in the mountains.

Oswald chuckled. The muffled thunder rumbling from inside the mountains indicated that, even if it wasn't an underground city, it must have been caused by an incredibly powerful magical beast. In short, in this life, his bad premonitions were always right.

"Maintain the same formation, continue advancing in the direction the monsters came from, and try to find the dungeon entrance today."

"Yes, sir."

The forest was unusually quiet, devoid of birds and beasts. Occasionally, a magical beast would rush out to attack the group, but these beasts, which couldn't even survive in the dungeon, posed little threat even on the surface.

[Host, even this system has PTSD now. Could this suddenly appearing dungeon be some kind of trap?]

Oswald remained calm. (You're asking me? Shouldn't you be the one giving me the intelligence in this situation, Chief?)

[Um... Keep it up, host. You know this system has always been your strong support.]

The system went offline at lightning speed as soon as it popped up. Although the host was enjoying the adventure it had been looking forward to, it was worried. The goddess had been unethical last time, cutting off its connection with the host and catching it off guard.

For the system, there is no bigger stain on its work than this!

Even if it couldn't provide any help to the host at the time, the host would definitely panic without a system!

Yes, it is that important.

"My lord, I see it. It's the entrance to the dungeon."

After Patton nimbly traversed a thicket, he suddenly stopped. There, on the meadow ahead, stood a quaint little castle.

The castle gates were wide open, and a small magical beast rushed out in a panic, dashing out of the meadow and disappearing into the dense forest...

Dungeons are a very strange thing.

They will suddenly appear, then dress up their exteriors in the architectural styles commonly found in the four races, while their interiors continuously build downwards, forming layers of levels, and finally giving rise to a large number of monsters and the final boss.

As for the reason for the formation of the underground city, even the Vatican's explanation is vague. This is because such power clearly transcends human capabilities, and the Vatican does not want such an evil entity to have any connection with the goddess.

Oswald couldn't say whether the game influenced reality or reality influenced the world. In any case, the most abstract thing about the dungeon was that there were safe spots and treasure chests inside!

Since the more powerful the monster, the more it prefers to stay in the lower levels, the adventurer's journey to challenge the dungeon only becomes more and more difficult as the progress increases, and the adventurer also has to face the danger of exhaustion.

But it doesn't matter, there are absolutely safe floors in the dungeon where adventurers can rest. In fact, some of the safe floors in older dungeons have been highly developed and have become very popular.

After seeing the dungeon with his own eyes, Oswald confirmed that this thing was definitely related to the goddess.

The castle possesses such vast magical power that even a great mage standing here would have to exclaim: "How can the light of a firefly compare to the bright moon?"

A thought flashed through Oswald's mind: Could it be... that the goddess is playing dirty tricks on me?

Without any further instructions from the Duke, everyone could only stand there and wait, watching as one little monster after another ran out from inside.

After a brief moment of thought, Oswald decided to go and see for himself. If this underground city was indeed prepared by the goddess specifically for him, then running away wouldn't solve anything.

Otherwise, what if she opens the dungeon in the Duke's mansion next time, or directly accumulates a wave of monsters to invade the northern territory?

He couldn't just let innocent people suffer because of the bad relationship between the time traveler and the god of the plane.

Oswald sighed softly and gave orders to his squad members.

"Leave two people outside, the rest of you go in together. Once we reach the first safe point, the soldier and Kindrum stay behind, and Barton and I will continue exploring."

"The deadline is one day. If we are not out by this time tomorrow, the soldiers left outside should immediately return and report to Count Rondo. He will know what to do next."