Chapter 87：The Dungeon Lord sends out his bait again.

The next day, 18th Sun, was tranquil like the one before.

I did some adjusts in the human refugee camp houses and while I was at it Bia called me.

Finally one of the shirts I ordered was complete, so I wasted no time and ran to the seamstress to put it on.

The new shirt was completely brown, nothing fancy and a little tight. It was the typical villager cloth, but that's exactly what I wanted from the start.

Noble's clothes may be beautiful but they are nowhere near as practical as commoner clothes and I have a vague memory of them being a nightmare to clean and repair.

The seamstress easily noticed the problem and said that she would make the next one bigger.

I thanked her for the quick work and happily exited the tent.

With nothing to do, I should able to accumulate a bit over a thousand Mana, but I was surprised that I had 1300u Mana when I checked the next morning.

It seems like something tried to invade the Dungeon again...

Well, the defenses are working correctly, so there should be no problem.

...

19th Sun, night time.

The Thunder wolf is growing bigger at a scary pace. Today it's already twice as big as when we got him. If he keeps growing this fast, I wonder how big the adult form will be...

Since the day we went to bath in the river I haven't seen Alice. At first it was because I was too busy, later because Michela always stopped me. Of course I could sneak around or force my way if I wanted, but when I look at Michela's eyes I don't see the same distrust as before, so I thought at least for now it was better to hold back and wait.

As I leave the warehouse I start smelling burning corpses and hear a faint scream.

"What was that? Someone screaming?And this smell....The fire trap!!!"

I run toward the entrance and instead of taking the short cut, I take a look at the trap corridors.

Sure enough the fire trap had been activated as the ground was still on fire when I got there. The corpse had already vanished but it's metal armor remained and it was easy to recognize by the size. Orc armor. The enemy arrived!

Covering my body with Mana, I activate building mode and walk through the walls, reaching the poisonous gas corridor to take a quick look. Inside I see not only the ground covered by armors from the previous attack but bit wood blocks barring the traps from activating.

Manipulating mana to move the wood blocks, I clear the traps at once and get out of the room.

It seems like whoever is invading the dungeon is being careful to disarm each trap one by one instead of launching a full scale attack... Those traps should catch a few more of them but the traps damage will be limited. I need to expand our defenses and prepare for the worst...

Running back to the elves camp I called Stone out.

"Stone. The orcs arrived."

As I mention orcs I see a strange spark of light appear for a second on Stone's eyes.

"Orcs... Where are they?"

"They should be out of the cave. They are sending in small groups of orcs to disarm the traps before launching an attack."

"They number?"

"Unknown. The Dungeon cant scan outside, we would need to send scouts of our own to find out..."

"Then what are you waiting for? Choose some people and send them out!"

"Stone, calm down! Sending them out is suicide! You should know that!"

"But if we don't do anything we will be just waiting to die! If you can't send anyone, I will go!"

"No, wait! I got a perfect person for the job!"

...

15 minutes later, me, Stone and Ruyk found ourselves in front of the trapdoor shortcut to the entrance.

"Now listen, Ruyk, I got a job for you!"

"Yes Master! For saving Ruyk from the villainous elven puppies, Ruyk will surely repay you!"

"All right, just shut up and listen!"

"Ye-hmm..."

Ruyk starts to answer but sees me glaring at him and just nods his head.

"Your mission is simple, you will go down this rope, walk toward the cave's entrance, count how many orcs are there and come back to tell us. Got it?"

Ruyk nods his head.

"Good! Then go!"

I open the trap door and through the rope down.

Ruyk goes down the rope silently and sneaks out of the cave.

..

...

Complete silence...

Minutes felt like hours...

One by one, slowly and silently passing by without any change...

Until this happened.

"Maaaaaaaster!!!!!!!"

"Help! Help! They are coming after Ruyk!!!"

"Save me master! They want to kill Ruyk!!!"

Noticing the goblin was coming, I started preparing the fireball in advance, and as the goblin finally appeared in my field of vision I was ready to shot it out.

Behind Ruyk a dozen orcs were chasing him, with weapons at hand and armor covering their bodies.

I waited a few more seconds and as Ruyk approached a bit I launched the fireball right over his head, trying to hit the orcs behind. Unfortunately they were well trained and jumped back as soon as they saw the fire approaching them. But the explosion was still able blind them temporarily and buy precious seconds we used to pull Ruyk up the rope and get him out of the danger.

"Thank you, Master! Master saved Ruyk's life again!"

"All right, so, how many orcs were there?"

"Hmm..."

Ruyk scratches his head and start counting his fingers then answers:

"A lot!"

I do my best to hold back my anger and don't kill the creature in front of me.

Thinking back, maybe this was my mistake!

Damn! Why did I put my trust in a goblin thief!?