Step 1:
Let’s Raid the Neighboring Village

1

“Uuuh, I thought I was going to die…” Lilu complained.

Lilu glared at Aur spitefully. She was lying on the ground, her body entirely covered in semen.

“Don’t be stupid,” he replied. “What kind of a succubus dies from having sex?”

Contrary to Lilu, Aur showed no signs of exhaustion from ejaculating tens of times.

“Are you a monster?” Lilu asked. “How many times did you cum…?”

“It was good though, right?” Aur grinned, causing Lilu to look away. He had fucked her all night, to the point where she couldn’t even move her legs due to experiencing ecstasy for the first time. Not only did he fill up her vagina, but he also came in her mouth and ass multiple times. When she was no longer able to move a muscle, he came all over her body, completely defiling her.

Lilu didn’t have any complaints about it, though. The contract did state that he could have sex with her whenever he pleased, and even if it wasn’t in the contract, it was her job as a succubus to have sex. On the contrary, she felt moved and happy that she was able to experience a pleasure she had never felt before.

However, it was quite clear that he had hurt her pride as a succubus by manipulating her body with magic energy, not to mention being toyed with by a mere human. That was why it was hard for her to honestly admit she’d enjoyed it.

“Well, don’t sulk like that,” Aur said. “It isn’t like I toyed and played with you for fun—I did have a reason. It was part of building the dungeon if you look at the bigger picture.”

“…How can something like this be part of building the dungeon?” Lilu wondered.

Her strength having finally recovered a bit, she sat up.

“The dungeon core absorbs magic energy from the Dragon’s Vein,” Aur explained. “The speed of absorption and the amount it can store aren’t very high yet, but it can provide an infinite amount of magic energy if you’re only recovering stamina with magic. So, if I make up for the loss of stamina with magic energy, then it is possible to have sex with you almost indefinitely.”

Aur revealed the secret behind his abnormal stamina. It was a spell that rewound the clock of a body back a few moments, recovering its previous energy. If he felt tired, then he’d just rewind his body’s clock to a few moments earlier. That was how he’d acquired infinite virility. It was a spell that consumed a lot of magic energy, but it was nothing compared to the one that restored his youth.

“But I can only do it in this dungeon near the core,” he further explained. “It has to be within a 30-foot distance or so. If I’m not within that range, I won’t be able to take magic energy out from the core. And so.”

Aur placed his hand on Lilu’s head, then cast a quick spell that did two things: first it sucked magic energy from her body into his, which was then used to restore her vitality, and second, it blew the semen covering her body right off.

“I stored my magic energy in your body using my semen,” he continued. “As you are a demon, you can store several times more magic energy than an average sorcerer—making you like a small mobile dungeon core.”

Lilu’s temples twitched, but Aur didn’t notice it.

“It wouldn’t be convenient for me to stay in this dungeon indefinitely since there’s only so much I can do with my magic energy alone. However, demons are quite impressive. It took me an entire night to fill you all the way up with magic energy. Well, this much should do, at least for now, but…”

“Stop with that bullshit!” She cut Aur off and raised her fist. “Ah, I want to hit this idiot, but I can’t since the contract forbids me from harming him—but I want to hit him so badly.”

“W-Why are you so angry!?” Aur asked in surprise.

Aur thought he had comforted her by telling her he had a good reason for doing it, but it seemed like it only made things worse. Lilu, who had only been sulking a little before, was now completely furious.

Luring men and having sex with them were everything to a succubus, but Aur had not only walked all over her, but also told her she was simply a magic energy battery to be used at his convenience. If you asked Lilu, it was the equivalent of him denying her very existence.

“Shut up. You can go fuck a goblin for all I care!” Lilu yelled. “You dungeon freak, you are just an old geezer pretending to be young!”

Lilu shouted and cursed at him, for the contract did not prohibit her from verbally abusing him. This was the first time in her demon life that she’d directed so much rage at a human.

2

“And so, since we need to raid that village now…can you stop being mad already?” Aur said to the still-angry Lulu as he pointed at a small village in the distance.

For Aur, it had been a few months since he’d been aboveground, and for Lilu, it had been decades (counting from the last time she’d been summoned.)

“I’m not in a bad mood or anything,” she said.

Aur sighed internally after he heard Lilu speak in a tone that made it clear she wasn’t in a good mood. Even I know that it wasn’t what I did that made her mad, but what I said, but I have no witty words to say that’ll cheer her up, anyway, he thought. I’m not a horny young man or anything, so cheering a young girl up just seems foolish to me, so I’m just going to stop thinking about that. Even though she looks and acts like a young girl, she is still a demon, so her mood probably won’t affect the efficiency of her work, anyway.

“Well then, let us go over things again,” Aur began. “I have mastery over magic to some extent, but most of my research was spent on the dungeon core. I am confident that when it comes to controlling magic energy, I’m one of the best in this world, but I don’t have much combat experience, and I’m not suited for it. It’s not like I’d lose to a mere villager, but things would get dicey if a swordsman with a bit of skill appears. In short, you are the only one that can fight, so I’m counting on you.”

“…Alright, I’ll kill them all,” Lilu answered with a grAur, her eyes looking diabolical. Aur felt slight pity for the villagers who would be on the receiving end of her anger, but he walked with her towards the entrance of the village, nonetheless.

There was a sculpture of a monster placed at the entrance to ward off evil, and there looked to be a village girl standing next to it.

“Alright then, first one to go…kefu!”

Aur grabbed Lilu by the neck since she was about to immediately start her assault.

“What the hell are you doing?” she barked.

Lilu protested, but he ignored her and started talking to the village girl.

“You there, girl. Bring the chief here. Tell him that the Evil Sorcerer, Aur has come here to demand tribute. Know that there will be death if you defy me.”

“Huh?”

The girl put on a dubious look after hearing him speak grandiosely—as if she were looking at a madman. Aur cast a quick spell, igniting a flame on his palm, which he then shot at the fence surrounding the village.

What followed was an explosion that blew the coarse wooden fence to pieces. Not stopping there, the flames spread to other parts of the fence, producing black smoke.

“I won’t repeat myself again. Make haste if you don’t want your village to be burnt to the ground,” Aur said in a deep voice, prompting the girl to start running towards the center of the village as fast as she could.

“It’s quite a hassle,” said Lilu in a dissatisfied tone. “Wouldn’t it be better if we wordlessly slaughtered them all?”

What a frightening thing to say, Aur thought.

“They can be of a better use for us if they are kept alive,” Aur replied. “But if they decide to oppose us, then I will show them no mercy. And this village will oppose us.”

“How can you be so sure?” Lilu wondered.

“Just wait and see.” Aur grinned, making Lilu feel like something bad was about to happen.

After a while, a middle-aged man walking with a cane, presumably the chief, showed up. He looked to be in his mid-40s. He had brown hair and was well built.

“Apologies for keeping you waiting, milord,” the chief said. “I have heard that you desire tribute…”

“Yes, you have heard right. If you agree to my terms, things will be fine, but if you don’t, then your village shall be destroyed.”

“That sounds frightening…” the village chief replied. “Of course, we will pay you tribute.” The village chief bowed deeply and raised up his cane as if in prayer. “…If you are fine with an iron sword!”

He pulled the cane apart, revealing a gleaming white blade. It was a sword cane.

After drawing his sword, he got within striking range of Aur, aiming for his neck. He’d deceived him and had intended on slaying him from the beginning, but Aur dodged it with ease.

“Tch, he dodged it…” said the chief in annoyance.

“Lilu, protect me,” Aur ordered.

Lilu moved in front of Aur to guard him, abiding by the contract they had made. At the same time, armed men appeared from the back of the house and gathered behind the chief.

“Wait! What is this situation!?” Lilu exclaimed.

“It means that they weren’t intending on listening to us from the start. But leaving that aside, he is a terrible actor,” Aur said. “You make it obvious you are hiding a weapon if a man like you, who has yet to turn 50, uses a walking cane.”

Aur spoke to Lilu in the first half, and the chief in the last half.

“I’m grateful for your advice,” the chief replied. “I’ll be careful next time…after killing you!” The chief swung his sword at Lilu.

Lilu somehow managed to block it by making her nails as long as a sword.

“Aur, he is strong…!” Lilu warned. “I’m no match for him, so let’s make a run for it!”

“No,” Aur bluntly replied.

Lilu only spoke loud enough for Aur to hear while somehow parrying the sword, but he replied in the negative. She was somehow managing to parry his strikes but wouldn’t be able to block it properly if the men behind the chief went to his aid.

Succubi weren’t considered good fighters among demonkind to begin with. However, as she was a middle-class demon, she could deal with your average swordsman, but the chief was clearly in a league of his own.

With a zing, Lilu’s nails were cut in half.

“Goodbye, demon girl. If you are going to hold a grudge against anyone, then hold it against your foolish master. I’ll make sure he follows right after you,” said the chief right before he swung his sword.

“Now, kill him,” Aur commanded.

And then a grey-colored arm came out of the chief’s chest.

“…Eh?” Lilu yelped. Nobody there could get ahold of reality and were frozen in place. It hadn’t just popped out of the chief’s chest. The guardian statue placed at the entrance of the village had moved and punched a hole through it.

The chief dropped to the ground, dead; he hadn’t even had time to make a single sound.

“The rest are just riffraff without any fighting experience or training,” Aur said. “I’ll leave them to you, Lilu, Gargoyle.”

Aur left the area, leaving the dumbstruck people behind. What followed was a complete massacre.

“Hey, when did you place a gargoyle there?” After a while, when there was no one left moving, Lilu questioned Aur in the village…no, in the ruins of a village. “I thought you moved the statue with magic energy, but that’s a real gargoyle. That was a bit startling, you know.”

Gargoyles were one of the most famous types of demons. It was a demon with a pair of wings and an ugly appearance—the most demon-like demon. But the distinctive thing about it was that it looked no different from a statue when it was immobile.

That’s why multiple statues of imitation gargoyles were created and used to fend off thieves and as a charm to ward off evil.

It served as a kind of deterrent simply by making others think of the possibility of it being real. However, the thought of getting killed by the statue guarding the village had never crossed the chief’s mind.

“I placed that here around 30 years ago,” Aur revealed.

“Huh?” Lilu’s mouth opened wide at an unexpected answer.

“I knew that there was a Dragon’s Vein around here,” he continued, “so I pretended to be a merchant who was trying to increase his sphere of influence and sold it to them. They happily bought it, saying, ‘How well-made it is!’. That’s only obvious since it is real, and so I learned about the current chief’s abilities and personality through this gargoyle. He was a former adventurer and was a somewhat famous swordsman a long time ago. There was no way he’d be obedient, so I gathered them since it would be easier to exterminate them.”

“I see… You really are cunning and meticulous to a creepy level,” Lilu judged.

“I’ll take that as a compliment,” Aur replied indifferently and ended the preparations for his spell. The magic circle was massive. The corpses of the villagers had been piled up on top of the magic circle drawn in the center of the village.

“Now then, let’s begin,” he said. “It’s a hassle to handle this much, so I’ll be taking magic energy from you.”

Not even waiting a second, he forcefully pulled Lilu towards him and kissed her. She acted a little uncomfortable but didn’t resist.

“…I’ll say it just in case, but holding hands is enough to recover some magic energy.”

“Aaaah, allriight.” Lilu pretended to be indifferent, but since she didn’t look him in the eye, it seemed like she didn’t dislike it.

Seems like her mood has finally gotten better, at least somewhat. What a pain in the ass… Aur thought, but surprisingly it wasn’t as unpleasant as he had imagined. I suppose I won’t tell her that kissing is the most effective method of getting my magic energy back.

He then turned back to the magic circle and started his preparations, then began incanting a long spell.

3

“Now then, with this, we have a decent amount of fighting power now.” Aur nodded after looking at the men and women of different ages standing before him. The group differed in age and sex, and they held different things that could be used as weapons such as swords, sticks, and various farm tools.

They only had one thing in common: they were all dead. They were what people referred to as the living dead. The living corpses had been brought back to life with Aur’s magic energy.

“You really don’t trust others, do you…” Lilu looked around and muttered.

The gargoyle had been forced into complete submission via a contract. It would faithfully do whatever it was ordered to do, and it wouldn’t be able to do anything if it wasn’t told to. It was a common thing seen in contracts with demons who were lower in rank than middle-class demons.

And the corpses didn’t have wills of their own to begin with. They were puppets that were moved with Aur’s magic energy. Lilu was the only one with free will, but the things she could do were limited due to the detailed contract.

The way he dealt with things was hardcore, so Lilu assumed that something must have happened in his past. But she didn’t pry. It wasn’t that she thought it would be rude, it was that their contract had a clause that forbade her from asking about it.

Aur didn’t respond to her and started talking. It wasn’t clear if he hadn’t heard it or had just ignored it. “Alright, let’s head to the next village.”

“Next?” Lilu wondered. “Are we going to destroy a village again?”

The undead were carrying the food and valuables of the village out by the armful. The village wasn’t all that prosperous, but as winter was drawing near, these things were in abundance.

Lilu, who was a demon, didn’t need to eat human food, but it was more than enough for Aur, who was just a single person.

“No, but it’ll be the real deal from now on,” said Aur as he grinned, causing Lilu to facepalm. She had only been with him for a day, but she had started to notice that whenever he grinned like that, he was usually thinking of something bad.

Lightning scorched the earth with a sound so loud that it felt like it was going to rip through space itself.

The sky was clear with not a single cloud in sight. There was no way it could have rained, let alone produced a lightning strike like that—it had been the product of Aur’s magic.

Though it consumed a lot of magic energy, its area of effect was narrow and didn’t pack much of a punch. It was enough to kill living things, but it didn’t have much of an effect on inanimate objects like rocks and boulders. It didn’t have a lot of uses, but when it came to threating people, it was quite effective. The villagers, startled by the sudden sound of thunder, came out of their houses. What they witnessed there was a dubious man in a grey robe, a woman whose clothes were barely covering her up, and an army covered in blood.

“Listen well. I am the Evil Sorcerer, Aur.”

“I thought about it before, but isn’t it weird to say it yourself?” Lilu commented.

“Silence. Things like this are better if they are made easier to understand,” Aur countered Lilu, who’d whispered that observation to him, in a hushed voice.

“I have come here today to propose a deal,” he continued.

Aur chose the oldest man in front of him and started talking.

“A…deal?” the old man sputtered.

Compared to the previous village chief, this one seems far more amiable, Aur thought. One reason for this was that this village didn’t have any good fighters, and the other was because there was an army of undead behind him.

“You have heard right. Present me a tribute of food and a beautiful, pure maiden once a month. In return for that, I shall give thou mine blessing. There shall be no poor harvest, and neither shall the wolves, goblins, and bandits bother thou.”

Lilu’s expressions were letting out that she didn’t expect this from Aur, but he decided to ignore it.

“Um… What if we don’t accept that deal?” The villager asked while fearing for his life. Aur raised his hand in response.

With this gesture, some of the undead behind him took a few steps forward. “These are the fools who rejected my offer.”

“…Mister Georg!” Some of the villagers raised their voices after looking at the thing that was once a village chief.

“So that old man used to be famous,” Lilu muttered.

“He was way too skilled to be in a small village like that, so it was only obvious that he’d be popular,” Aur retorted. “The thing that awaits you in the case that you oppose me wouldn’t be something mild like death,” he told the old man. “Eternal slavery is what you shall be getting. But if you accept my offer, you’ll be promised a hundred years of good harvests. I’ll promise the safety of more people than the maidens you’ll offer. Now then, is your chief wise, or is he a fool?”

The villagers looked at each other. I think they already know the answer, Aur thought.

It did not take them long to fully pledge their loyalty to Aur.

“Very well, if that’s the case, then build an altar at the center of the village and make an offering on the first day of each month. The offerings should be a cow, two pigs, and five chickens. Five percent of all kinds of crops harvested that month should be offered. Similarly, make the maiden wait on the altar on the first day of the Month of the Dragon. Remember that the maiden should be pure and beautiful. The girl must be chaste.”

“That’s very detailed…” Lilu murmured, but Aur ignored her again.

After that, the gargoyle was placed in the middle of the village as a form of protection and to keep an eye on the villagers. Aur cast the spell of fertility on the fields and then left the village with the undead and Lilu after leaving simple instructions on how to build the altar.

“Phew... It’s nice to be back here,” Aur said.

Aur and his companions had returned to the dungeon after a couple of days. They had gone through several villages, giving them all the same proposition. No village apart from the first one had resisted, and thus six villages in total came under his rule. Some of the villages were a bit far away, but that wasn’t an issue since he could use teleportation magic with the dungeon core’s magic energy. The altar he’d made the villagers make also served as a marker for it.

The room looked much livelier thanks to the furniture Aur had brought from the village he destroyed. He sank himself into the sofa comfortably.

“I was a little surprised, though,” Lilu began. “I thought you were going to destroy everything and plunder it all. But contrary to my expectations, you shared your magic energy with them and guaranteed them their livelihoods.”

It wasn’t like she felt any remorse for the villagers, but she preferred for them to be cared for to some extent. Even though she was a demon, it wasn’t like she was the embodiment of death and destruction.

“We wouldn’t be able to get our hands on enough resources if we did that,” Aur explained. “It’s like taking care of livestock. If they starve to death and can’t make a living, then we won’t be able to get our share from them.”

“Oh, I get it,” she replied in understanding.

Aur’s explanation about how they were just like livestock made sense to Lilu since humans were just like that from a demon’s perspective. They didn’t like killing humans because they were useful to them, and they didn’t feel like killing something that meant them no harm. However, if they fought back, then they’d kill them without hesitation.

“Aur, you really are more of a demon than a demon,” Lilu admitted.

“…I’ll take that as a compliment.” With a somewhat resentful look on his face, Aur stood up from the sofa and moved to the bed. “We have plenty of things to do,” he continued, “but for now, we are done with one thing. Let’s get some rest today. Come here…”

“Didn’t you say you won’t be needing me for the time being? And you’ll be getting a young girl soon anyway,” Lilu said, but she approached the bed anyway since she had to obey the contract.

Ah well, here we go again… Aur thought, sighing internally, but he didn’t let it show. “The first girl won’t arrive for another two weeks. And I didn’t ask for a virgin just to have sex with her.” He forcefully pulled Lilu’s arm while lying on the bed, taking her into his arms.

He’d made a deal with six villages and set it up so they would offer him a new girl once every two months.

“You have enough magic energy accumulated inside you, but I have something ‘accumulated’ here as well,” he told her. “And…there’s no way there’s a human out there who’s more enjoyable to fuck than a succubus who exists only to have sex.”

Though he wasn’t used to it, Aur complimented her, causing Lilu to look at him and grin. Even though what I said in that lip service is true, it still feels a little humiliating to have to say unnecessary things, he thought.

“And since your body is made of magic energy,” he continued, “pouring it into you will increase your storage limit, though not by much. Your storage limit is far greater than that of humans to begin with. You’ll have to deal with me often, so be prepared.”

“Yes… Master.”

Aur pushed Lilu, who was whispering seductively near his ear, down and sighed internally once again. Why did I have to pick such a troublesome demon as my partner, he thought, oblivious to the fact that Lilu was thinking something similar.

4

“Haa... That felt good.”

Lilu was laying down on the bed like a cat dozing under the sun with a relaxed look on her face. A cloudy fluid gushed out from the hole between her legs. Her entire body was covered in semen, and it was more than last time, but unlike before, it seemed like she wasn’t so tired out to the point of being unable to move.

“...Seems like you can handle more. Did my magic energy not work on you?”

“That isn’t the case. You made me cum many times...” While saying that, she changed her position and muttered, “I’ll clean it up,” then put Aur’s dick in her mouth. “I guess it’s because I didn’t resist and accepted you, so it made it better...and I didn’t have to worry about my posture because it was on the bed, unlike before.”

Aur could hear her loud and clear even though she was licking his cock with her tongue. For succubi, their tongue and mouth weren’t used or needed for speech, but rather for giving blowjobs.

“Oh, it’s getting bigger…” Lilu observed. “And well, you put magic energy into me along with your cum, right? I am not allowed to suck your life force out according to the contract, so I haven’t absorbed it, but I did suck out a bit of your magic energy. That made my condition better.”

“…What did you just say?” Aur was lying down letting Lilu tend to his desires, but he reflexively sat up after hearing what she’d said.

“Hey, it’s just a little! Even if it isn’t a part of our contract, I’m aware of my limits…” She hastily came up with an excuse. But she didn’t move her mouth away from Aur’s crotch even during that—an impressive feat that only a succubus could pull off.

“...Normally, the magic energy of others is not so easy to absorb, even for demons,” Aur explained. “Although we refer to it as magic energy, there is Mana scattered throughout the atmosphere and earth and there is Od inside of living beings. The nature of these two is completely different. What the dungeon core is collecting and what’s being poured into you is my Od, and for someone other than me to use it, it needs to be changed to mana first and then to Od, but…”

“Ah, I see. It seems like our magic energies are similar in nature, so I could suck it out without doing anything. Is this what you call good compatibility?”

Lilu deepthroated Aur’s cock, wrapping her tongue around it as if to give it a finishing touch.

“The color of my magic energy is amber, you know. Normally, the color of a demon’s magic energy is black or purple… Guh, I’m going to cum…!”

“Hmm, it’s delicious… Your personality is trashy, but your cum is really delicious.” Lilu gulped, swallowing Aur’s semen. On top of that, she sucked it up like a straw, letting out a voice of satisfaction.

“Nobody asked… But if we can use the same magic energy like that, then I can make use of it. You are allowed to take 10% of the magic energy I pour into you.”

Aur got up from the bed covered in sweat, semen, and vaginal secretions. He wiped his body with a damp cloth and put on his clothes.

“I’ll have to install a hot spring someday…but in the meantime, there are other things to attend to.” Aur drew a couple of magic circles with his blood, similar to the one he drew while summoning Lilu, but it was simpler than the one he used to summon her.

“You somehow managed to create a dungeon, got yourself some furniture, and you get food on a regular basis… Is there anything else you have to do?” Lilu inquired while changing the sheets as he was doing that.

“Don’t be stupid,” Aur retorted, “if this was all then I wouldn’t have made an effort to summon you… Come forth, Imps.”

With a raise of his voice, several tiny demons sprang out from the magic circle. They were the size of a human baby, but they were anything but cute. Their bodies were smooth and hairless, and they had bat-like wings sprouting from their backs.

Their ears were pointed sinisterly, and they had an ugly, malicious grin on their faces.

They were one of the lowest-ranking demons, though still demons, nevertheless. Imps were often used as familiars by sorcerers since they could cast simple spells and possessed the intelligence of an average human.

“First, we need to greatly expand the dungeon. Imps, dig the dungeon according to this map.” Aur handed the map he had prepared in advance to the imps and told them what to do. The imps immediately got to work. “There are two reasons why we’re expanding the dungeon: to create countermeasures for intruders, and to increase the amount of magic energy we can collect.”

Aur took the dirty sheets from Lilu, who was struggling to find a place to put them, and gave her a copy of the map instead. He then continued his explanation. “Currently, this dungeon has an almost direct path from the hole above the ground to the room containing the dungeon core. Since I dug straight down to find this. This means that if there are any intruders, they will be able to raid this room immediately, which is pretty bad. It’ll be all over if the dungeon core is destroyed. We need to make the dungeon a complex labyrinth so it won’t be easy to breach.”

“…Can’t you just put walls around this room so that no one is able to enter?” Lilu asked.

Aur shook his head at Lilu’s simple question. “I can’t do that due to the second reason. Although this dungeon is in the middle of the dragon’s vein, it isn’t like magic energy will flow into the dungeon core if it is just placed here. I have carved magical symbols on the hallways of the dungeon, and they make the surrounding magic energy flow into the core. It’s similar to a plant expanding its roots and sucking up the nutrients under the ground. So, the more we expand the dungeon, the more magic energy it will get. If we isolate the core, then that won’t be possible.”

“Aah, I see. So the dungeon acts like a three-dimensional magic circle.”

“You are quite a fast learner. Though, it isn’t like a magic circle, it is a magic circle.”

Figures and patterns held meaning, and the meaning had power. A magic circle was a type of magic that used the meaning of the figures. For example, what was meant by Circle was: the differentiation of the things inside and outside the circle. A simple circle was the smallest form of magic circle that could keep intruders out.

What Aur was trying to create was something similar to that, but tremendously complex in comparison. By carving a magic circle on the walls and then looking at it as a whole, it would become apparent that the walls themselves were a magic circle.

Furthermore, unlike two-dimensional magic circles, the underground magic circle was going to be a three-dimensional one.

“I see…” Lilu said. “You are quite a versatile thinker.”

“Why are you talking about it as if it doesn’t concern you?” Aur sighed after Lilu, who was amazed after looking at the map, said that. “I haven’t summoned you just to handle my lust. You are going to be the architect of all of this.”

“Haaa? No, no, no, I can’t do it, I definitely can’t do it! It’s that, right? The one in which you need to design things so that the magic energy doesn’t get murky and reaches the core? And at the same time where you make the dungeon like a labyrinth so that intruders won’t be able to get here!?”

“There’s more. You need to create a defense system for the entire labyrinth, and you have to think of the number and size of the rooms so they’ll be ideal places for the monsters to reside in.”

“Why has the difficulty level risen further!? It isn’t possible for me!” she screamed.

“You don’t have to worry about it,” Aur assured her. “It’s not like I’m telling you to do it all by yourself within a day. You can learn things from me and start learning about this project on a small scale.”

Lilu looked at the map again and frowned. Unlike humans, demons didn’t use magic based on theories, but they could understand basic magic circles.

The one Aur had designed was extremely complex even from her perspective.

“I didn’t expect that I would be made to learn about magic…” Lilu said. “We have a contract, so I’ll do it, but don’t expect much from me, alright?”

“If you can understand how difficult it is, then you won’t have much trouble. Wisdom is more about knowing what you don’t know than what you do know. You’ll be able to do this eventually,” Aur said while gazing straight at her.

Lilu looked away. “Well, I’ll try to do it as much as I can. I’m your familiar, after all…”

Aur nodded and grinned. He then placed his hands on her shoulders. “Well then, let’s start with something easy.”

It was already too late by the time she noticed his grin…

“Ugh, it stinks…”

She wore a deep frown and was moving a small knife, generating a rough sound with each movement.

She could feel an unpleasant slimy texture, her fingers filthy with sticky blood and fat. Her entire body looked miserable.

She was in the middle of the process of taking off the flesh from the villagers who had turned into the living dead.

“Don’t damage the bones too much,” Aur said. “Remove the flesh properly; it would be a hindrance if it were left on.”

“Can’t we just burn it?” Lilu asked.

“No, burning it would make the bones brittle, and thus useless. If you want to produce good quality skeletons, then you need to remove the flesh by hand.”

The first thing Aur was making Lilu ‘learn’ was how to create skeletons. Living dead could easily be created with a corpse, but they had dull movements and weren’t very strong. No matter how complex the dungeon became, it would all amount to nothing if these were the ones guarding it. They were made into ‘moving bones’ by removing all the flesh and then casting a spell on the bones. Skeletons weren’t very strong, either, but they were still much faster than the living dead.

The muscles of a corpse didn’t do anything, so even if it were attached, it would just be dead weight. Of course, skeletons weren’t as durable as the living dead since their flesh served as armor, but even so, the living dead themselves weren’t very durable in the first place.

It was clear that the skeletons, who could move as fast as a human being, were more suitable for defending the dungeon.

“After you are done stripping the flesh, carve magic circles on the bones and make them move. Carve it so the magic energy flows into the joints, and don’t forget to give them pseudo-sight. There would be no use for a blind skeleton.”

She stripped the bones of flesh, carved the magic circles onto them, and then rinsed and repeated…

Even though it had been a small village, there were hundreds of corpses.

“Alright, I’m going to get to work on something else,” Aur told her. “Don’t slack off and keep working.”

“Wa-Wait… Help me a little, you stupid master—!”

Lilu’s scream echoed throughout the dark cave.