After the interrogation of Remia and Jack, excluding the mage who couldn't wake up.
I held the hammer handed to me by the skeleton.
Although it belonged to Jack, who had fought with goblins once, it was quite clean without any flesh stuck to it.
It seems he maintained it well. I wonder if they were adventurers who at least knew the basics.
Unfortunately, because they couldn't escape the limitations of being novices, they'll die here like this.
"You said you'd spare us-!! If you were going to do this, why did you make me heal him?!"
A scream that doesn't care about straining her voice hits my ears.
On the other side, the bound Remia was struggling with her whole body.
Since I had been showing positive reactions all along, she must have been caught up in her confirmation bias. Even revealing information to the enemy of humanity must have been done under such rationalization.
However.
"I never said such a thing, Remia."
"…?!"
"If I let you leave here alive, humans won't let me survive, will they?"
"I won't tell! I won't tell anyone…!!"
"That's unfortunate."
Thud-!!
The first weapon I've ever wielded in my life.
It cleanly shattered Jack's head, who had woken up and was glaring at me.
Naturally, the result wasn't clean. Thanks to the strength contained in my body, it crushed the head in one go, but the blood and flesh that splattered like a watermelon soaked the hem of my dress thoroughly.
I chose the hammer because I thought I'd have to stab multiple times with a dagger, and I didn't want to borrow the skeleton's weapon again.
If I had known it would be this messy, I should have just borrowed the longsword.
'Huh.'
I clearly thought my clothes were wet, but for some reason, it doesn't feel heavy.
It's not that I don't feel it's heavy because I'm strong, but it really hasn't increased in weight.
Finding it strange, I looked at my clothes, and the dress that should have been stained with blood and filth was clean as if nothing had happened at all.
I was puzzled, but it's a good thing for now. I decided to check it later and move on for now.
"Why…! Why!!!"
"There's no problem with survival, Remia."
"Aaaargh-!! I'll kill you! I'll kill you-!!!"
Hearing her screams, I waited for a moment.
A person who was human killed a person. There should naturally be a recoil from that.
And.
"…!"
I shuddered for a moment at the nausea rising from within.
Anyway, this negative emotion shaking my soul is clearly the guilt of being human and the shock of deviating from society.
That's what it is.
Fortunately, I didn't show reactions like collapsing on the spot, which might have looked detestable to the victims and their companions.
But it was clear that a big shock had come.
However, I couldn't stop here now.
'I'm sorry. Please don't forgive me for showing you more cruelty than necessary.'
I closed my eyes for a moment to mourn for the one I killed and those I was about to kill.
-Clack.
'Stop. This is my job.'
-Clatter…
The skeleton approached me, gripping its sword handle as if to say it would do it.
I stopped it by expressing my intention to prevent it.
Although I felt a bit sorry for its dejected appearance…
'I need to get used to killing.'
There probably won't be a time in the future when I can get used to slaughter, especially murder, this easily.
In 'MilDun 1', the time between waves was set to be about 2 weeks to 1 month, but there's no guarantee that a game turned reality would strictly follow that rule.
I had to delay people from noticing the danger of the dungeon as much as possible, and in the meantime, take time to adapt.
'Is this another fortunate thing about this being the world of MilDun 2?'
If these humans had come through a designated request from the guild, I would have detained them first and looked for another method.
It doesn't make sense to specifically send out a request and then not monitor those carrying it out.
However, in this era 200 years later, the perception that dungeons are easy targets popping up everywhere allowed me to make another choice that could save me while also reducing resource consumption.
The time it took for them to get here was about four days, combining travel time and entry time. It would have taken a week including dungeon exploration and returning after cleanup.
Assuming there was no one else paying attention to them.
If I kill them all to prevent information from leaking, I could expect to gain at least a week. If I confuse the information through other tricks, I could hope for two weeks.
So saving one was enough.
"…"
"You damn demon spawn who can't go to hell or heaven!!"
The target was either Sonia the mage who was still unconscious, or Remia who was screaming and cursing.
After a moment of deliberation, I decided to save Sonia.
This was because a token of her apprenticeship in the mage guild was found on her person.
A mage belonging to a guild, even as an apprentice, rather than a wanderer. If false rumors were spread by someone with even a little more connections, people would be more easily swayed.
And above all, I judged that it would be easier to deceive her since she hadn't seen my face yet, and I was also curious about the magic overflowing within her.
"Break Sonia's legs. Cleanly, so they can be healed in the near future."
-Clack!
Watching the skeleton nod at my instruction and approach the mage, I this time gripped Remia's dagger.
The corpse I was about to create this time needed to be killed as cleanly as possible.
For the sake of 'harvesting'.
Somehow, we ended up killing the original owners with their own weapons.
"Huu… huuk…"
Perhaps she no longer had the energy to even scream, the woman bowed her head with a completely exhausted look.
I grabbed her hair, knocked her down on the spot, exposed her body, and.
After checking the position of the heart by caressing her body a couple of times, I stabbed in one go. It was my first attempt, but that was enough.
Thud…!
"Kuuuugh-!!"
The sensation felt by my hands, far more sensitive than my original body, was terrible.
The eyes of the victim, who didn't take her eyes off me until death, filled with resentment, were frightening.
Through the widely dilated brown pupils, clear purple eyes are reflected. The gleam flickering in those eyes and a cold yet somehow fragile face that looks like it might crumble at any moment are visible.
『Dungeon level has increased. Lv.1 ▶ 2』
『Demon Lord Candidate 'Libertas' Dungeon Lv.2』
Fortunately, I wasn't smiling or anything like that.
* * *
"It's okay."
I said that unnecessarily to the skeleton who had left Sonia somewhere, but the worried feeling being transmitted didn't diminish at all.
Of course, I had made an unconvincing statement too.
My gloomy mood was probably being transmitted to the skeleton as well.
Still, an individual's gloom will never stop the clock of the world, so I can't postpone what needs to be done now.
Especially if it's something that yields higher benefits the faster it's done. For example, necromancy, which can create better summons if the corpse is intact.
"Well, let's get started."
I try to speak brightly, but inevitably there was a sense of discomfort in my heart, as what I was about to do wasn't exactly a cheerful task.
-Clatter.
It seems to feel that too. Judging by how it tilted its head sideways with a 'Is that right?' kind of look.
Still, we have to do it. What else can we do?
'Well then, first…'
『Congratulations, Demon Lord Candidate!』
The first thing to do was to deal with this message blinking before my eyes after handling or deciding the fate of the first intruders.
『You've successfully dealt with the first intruders! Cruel yet elegant handiwork. An excellent start for one destined to become nobility!』
I had been feeling this a bit before, but it seems this message is being sent by a living entity.
Moreover, there is someone who's watching this place—perhaps the one who sent me here, the one who made me abandon everything I had in reality.
Thinking that way makes me feel like my stomach is twisting.
-Clack.
"It's okay."
I stopped the skeleton approaching me, probably sensing my discomfort, and continued reading the message.
『From now on, Lord, you can view the information of your summons!』
'Right. Finally.'
Seeing that message, I felt clear anticipation.
It was a strange feeling to have, considering that in MilDun 1, the information about summons wasn't really much to speak of.
Although the area of specialization differed depending on the weapons they had or the condition of their bodies, in the end, the specs of mass-produced summons were all pretty similar.
So the information for common summons like skeletons was shown all at once in a window that gathered standardized information.
It was just a matter of roughly estimating the current abilities of the summon by finding and comparing the information of the summon and the information of its title.
Special summons drawn from gacha, or heroes with settings that the demon race or Dungeon Lord had successfully corrupted, did have individual status windows. Still, even those were just stats, skills, and background explanations…
In MilDun 1, where the only growth element for basic individuals was 'Class Up' by gathering experience points, that was enough.
'But now it's different.'
If they had brought over the information from MilDun 1 as it was, I would probably be really disappointed.
First of all, since it had become reality, it would be difficult to form tactics with such fragmented and unclear information.
Plus, I also had information about necromancy that could strengthen summons in my head.
『Title/Individual Name – 'Perfect' Skeleton 'Swordsman'』
『Title – Perfect : A title given to individuals who are perfectly excellent in all aspects compared to existing individuals.』
『Title – Swordsman : A title given to individuals who have the characteristic of handling swords despite being basic individuals.』
'It really was true.'
Fortunately, there was no need for such worries.
What appeared before my eyes was clearly an information window for a single individual. It was as I expected, no, even better.
I had anticipated 'Perfect', but I couldn't have expected that an additional characteristic would be attached to a skeleton.
Because I had no experience with it.
『Attributes – Health 12 Technique 15 Durability 10 Magic Power 12 Resistance 13』
"My goodness."
Below the name and title, the secret of how my skeleton was able to overwhelm an ordinary adventurer was revealed.
For reference, the initial ability scores of the 'Perfect' zombie I first encountered when I was playing the game were Health 11, Technique 9, Durability 12, Magic Power 6, Resistance 11.
In the case of ordinary zombies and skeletons without any titles, all of them are 5 or, at most, below 7.
At that time, I couldn't see the information for each summon individually, so this is just an estimate… but having seen countless samples from other people and compared them, it shouldn't be off by more than 1.
Later, after repeated class-ups, it became a top-tier individual called 'Glutton', and it helped my comfortable 'MilDun 1' play, but my current skeleton is stronger than that zombie.
That wasn't all.
『Characteristics – Specialization: Swordsmanship, Necromancy』
『Swordsmanship – Receives bonuses for all actions using swords.』
『Member of Necropolis – This soldier is receiving your special blessing. Increases the two highest stats of the individual.』
Here, 'Member of Necropolis' must be that 'certain benefit' from before.
Upon checking, my current skeleton was receiving bonuses to 'Technique' and 'Resistance'. Exactly 1 each.
I wonder if it will get better towards the late game.
It was a good characteristic that strengthened advantages. Although I don't feel like thanking anyone for it.
The thing to note is swordsmanship.
In MilDun 1, characteristics were given to each individual, so it was one of the few elements that appeared along with the individual name and title when bringing up the information window for each summon.
However, at least in my memory, such characteristics were never attached to basic individuals like skeletons.
Even that 'Perfect Zombie' didn't have anything like that.
"You really were an amazing one, weren't you?"
-Clack!
The skeleton's cheerful clattering resounds in response to my admiration.
I was feeling more and more reassured by it.
I even had the rational suspicion that this one might be the compensation for all that wealth and connections I lost in reality.
It probably isn't, but if it were, I might feel inclined to forgive a tiny bit.
So, using materials for such a being would be more than appropriate, wouldn't it?
『Name – Jack Miller』
『Name – Remia Olas』
My gaze moved towards the first harvests.