Before the heroes found the hidden chest inside the dungeon.
Balrak was mulling over how to reconfigure his dungeon when he suddenly faced a very important problem.
"I'm bored."
That's right! Balrak was incredibly bored because no one was making it all the way to him!
No matter how much he trained here, he was still a living being.
When he trained on the mountaintop, beautiful nature that soothed his mind and body just by looking at it, along with cute and adorable animals, had embraced him.
But this was a dungeon! Stuck in a boss room surrounded only by walls, always training alone—it was only natural for boredom to set in.
Of course—
"Graaaah!!"
"What the hell is this!!!"
"No!!!"
Watching the adventurers and heroes suffer inside the dungeon was quite the entertaining sight.
But the adventurers were so weak that it was rotting his eyes, so he couldn't even watch the footage right now.
And the more rooms he added to the dungeon, the fewer beings reached him.
Those entering the dungeon would surely struggle immensely and give up midway, so as Balrak pondered how to solve this.
A strange energy suddenly began to emanate in his boss room.
Karian was currently wandering the floors, conducting business to meet Balrak's demands, so there was no reason for him to come to the first floor.
So who could it be!
Who had arrived riding that strange energy!
Soon, its identity was revealed.
"S-success! Finally, I escaped that pl… ace…"
"Hm…?"
And so, a white and fluffy being appeared before Balrak.
"...?"
Caught off guard by this completely unexpected encounter, Balrak and the newcomer shared a brief but intensely awkward and embarrassing moment.
Once the other side grasped the situation, it suddenly started making a huge fuss.
"Hiiik?!"
"What? Hiiik?"
"P-please spare me!!!"
The new arrival's reaction made it seem, to anyone watching, like a cute white fluffy girl was terrified by Balrak's ferocious aura and heavy presence.
But the being that had appeared before Balrak was!!
"What the hell is a grown-ass man doing squeaking like that!!!"
"Kraaaah!!! My ears!!!"
A full-grown male wolf-man.
*********************
Not long after the white fluffy gay furry appeared before me.
I was curious about what had happened too.
So first, I gave him a quick mental adjustment.
"So your name is…"
"Ferguson, sirraaagh!!!"
"You little… Shape up!!"
This punk's name was Fergus.
So, the furry had been transported to some dungeon like me.
He luckily found a hidden portal inside and moved, but it happened to send him to my dungeon.
That means there were a lot of guys like me who got dragged into dungeons.
"Hey, furry, how long have you been in a dungeon?"
"Pardon? My name is Fergu…"
"Don't answer a question with a question!"
"Yeeees, sirrr!!!"
This furry had also been dragged into a dungeon about a few months ago, by his reckoning…
W-Wait, that means!
"Ah~ The game hasn't been out long!"
"Game?"
"You don't need to know. And what's with the 'yo'…?"
"Krghhh?!"
It hadn't been long since the mental adjustment, so I'd let it slide for now.
But if he kept it up later, I'd kick him out of the unit.
Anyway, since this furry and I entered around the same time.
The players must have entered this other world right when I did.
It felt great piecing together truths linking to truths, getting closer to this world's reality…
But what to do with this gay furry punk?
I'd invested time in the mental adjustment myself, so I didn't want to treat him too harshly.
But this furry? For surviving in my dungeon, he looked muscle-less at a glance, and the strange power inside him felt ridiculously weak.
In a word, he was pathetically weak!
Even if those super cowards from the footage earlier all five rushed him together, he'd probably drop dead.
No matter how I thought about it, the only outcome was this furry dying inside the dungeon.
Damn… Was this what it felt like to have a notorious torture officer from past-life army tales—total nuclear waste—end up as my subordinate?
No real answer here.
"Haa…"
"Khup?!"
"Don't react to every damn thing I do!"
"S-sorry, sirraaagh!!"
Still, this gay furry had some good points: he was pretty obedient and had decent situational awareness.
So for now… I knew nothing about him, so time to hear his story.
"Furry."
"Yeees, sir!!!"
"Tell me the trajectory of how you survived here."
"Pardon…? N-no, got it, sirraaagh!! I was cursed as a child and—"
"Hold it!!!"
"W-why, sirraaagh!"
"I won't tolerate boring, pretentious sob stories in front of me. Summarize in three lines. Short ones!"
"Eh?"
Tch, judging by his reaction, he was still a kid at heart.
In cases like this, I had no choice but to explain.
"Listen up, furry. I'll share one very important truth from my life as Warrior Balrak."
"Th-thank you, sirraaagh!!"
"Others—and all beings—are not interested in 'you' at all. They're even more indifferent than that."
In my past life, during regular social or work life, one thing you absolutely shouldn't do is drone on about your family backstory or life woes.
Why not?
Listeners just end up looking down on you more; they won't open their hearts and empathize.
Because they're ultimately strangers.
Ultimately living different lives, so even if you spill all your misfortunes, they'll just politely go "Oh, wow, yeah" without ever truly understanding.
To sum it up simply…
You'll just ruin the vibe or spark random fights, coming off as a total trash-tier idiot!
"Got it now? The world is cold. Colder than you imagine."
"…I see. Huh? Hiiik?!"
"I'll let this one slide. So summarize your life in three short lines! Go!!!"
"Yeees, sir!!! I was cursed with the werewolf affliction as a child!!! My parents abandoned me!! I've been hiding alone in the mountains ever since, sir!!!"
"Good! Perfect summary!!"
Guys who can do this always~ try to pull that boring pretentious sob story crap.
Anyway, this furry: orphan, cursed, lonely. Sounds like he'd lived a seriously tough life.
And I could see it.
Inside that grown man's heart.
A cute, girly maiden heart peeking out at me from this big dude!
Seeing that inner world made rage boil inside me, but it was horrifying to think I could've ended up like that without meeting old man back when I was a kid.
So…!
"Furgus, attention!"
"Aaagh!! Ferguson, attention!"
"I'll be the one to crush that girly heart of yours!"
"Pardon?"
I didn't know how this furry would fare in my dungeon.
But now that he was here, I'd smash that ugly maiden heart.
And since I met my inner good-advice-giving spirit Balrak thanks to old man.
I could make this guy's inner furry spirit meet him too!
"Furgus!!"
"Aaagh!!"
"What dream did you once chase for yourself back then!!"
"D-dream, sirraaagh?!"
"Yeah! Tell me the star you wished for as a kid!"
"I-I…"
｢I wanted to be a chef!!!｣
The moment the white wolf furry shouted that his childhood dream was to be a chef!
Balrak, listening from across, realized how to keep this trash-tier subordinate alive in the dungeon.
And what his dungeon needed most!
It was exactly!
"A rest area!!! A dungeon rest stop!! Yes!! That's it!"
Why hadn't I thought of this?!
My dungeon rooms—excluding newbie mini-dungeons—would be set to high difficulty.
The more rooms, the more player fatigue and stress would spike.
In short, it'd become a dungeon that's just brutally hard and unfun, one no one wants to enter!
But what if there were rest areas after every few rooms?
Especially ones selling special items?
It could keep provoking players' challenge spirit while managing their fatigue and stress.
Plus, if the furry sold food there to fulfill his dream.
It'd be the perfect way to keep this trash subordinate alive!
Ah… This was the answer.
A truly genius idea.
But there was one problem…
"Furgus. If you cook, won't fur keep getting in the food?"
"Th-that's why I gave up the dream, sir!!!"
"As expected…"
In my past life, when eating out pleasantly, finding a hair in the food was utterly disgusting.
And this guy was a wolf-man.
Eating his food meant eating wolf fur instead of a meal!
How the hell to fix this?
**********************
While Balrak was deep in thought about Ferguson.
Karian, on another floor, had nearly finished the lich's tasks and was humming back to his master.
On the way, he got curious about Balrak's status and checked the first floor, only to be shocked by the unexpected sight.
"The boss from another floor moved to the first floor?!"
W-what to do?
No, master must have already predicted this, so he knows how to—
"Oh right. Those guys were there."
"Y-yes, sir?!"
That's right! The Elder Council, including the lich, had completely forgotten about the bosses on floors 2 through 10 due to Balrak's overwhelming presence on the first floor!
Their plan from the start: since they'd been sent to the abyss, they couldn't block floors 1 through 10 in time, so they abandoned that section.
Instead, they started by blocking the secret portal on floor 10, piling up magical and physical barricades like crazy, then holding a defense.
But with Balrak so strong on floor 1, there was no need for such desperate defense.
The early bosses got pushed from their memories, and eventually, they forgot them entirely.
As a result! The bosses from floors 2 through 10 had been holed up in the dungeon, unaware of where they even were!
"Th-then, should we at least bring the bosses from floors 3 through 10 to our—"
"Disciple, is that really necessary?"
"Pardon…?"
Rather than explain, the lich showed him the situation on floor 11.
"The 11th floor is like this now, so excluding Balrak—the current dungeon guardian and champion—no one can come this way. And here's the boss on floor 10."
"A-a giant snail?!"
"That one's a special specimen; bigger than normal, but still just a beast. No need to worry. And aren't the bosses from floors 3 through 9 living just fine on their own?"
As the lich said, the bosses on floors 3 through 9 were already enjoying their peaceful lives.
Seeing them, Karian felt embarrassed for overreacting.
"Disciple, we're not nannies. And they each have their own paths. They don't look troubled—why interfere in their lives?"
"I've been too narrow-minded. Thank you for the enlightenment, master."
"Good that you understand. And if they move, we can save them when that giant snail on 10 eats them. If they go the other way—"
Like the guy on floor 2, they'll head to floor 1.