Chapter 480.1

What to aim for in the face of Death

“――Well then, Rir, Enne. Operation [Welcome back to the ground world] is now underway.”

“Kuu.”

[…hmm]

“Well, this is an operation to return the Asura Golem we buried in the underground world to the surface. There is no meaning to this operation…I just want to do it. So it’s a mission that’s going to be carried out.”

“Ku, kuuu…”

Rir overflowed with a strained cry as if asking, “Do we really have to do it?”

[…Master, I also prefer to leave it down there. It’s just going to be a bother.]

“Kuu.”

“Mm, I think it’s a bit pitiful to wait for it to slowly decay underground, rather than if it were to be destroyed in a fight.”

In the end, that Asura Golem did not become DP until the end of our exploration, so it should technically still be alive.

After all those years of guarding the dungeon, to end up decaying underground… it was a bit pitiful, you know?

I understood what they were thinking.

This was simply my own hypocrisy.

This action meant nothing.

A Golem had no soul, no will, and only moved on a predetermined set of actions.

But…well, why not?

As long as I was satisfied, that was all that mattered.

–And so, deep in the West Area, we set foot.

Last time we visited the west area, I installed a dungeon door there, so it was now just a short walk away to reach.

Of course, this dungeon door was carefully concealed as the West Area was very dangerous.

The dungeon door to the North Area was placed in a remote area that was just a short walk away here, I also placed another dungeon door that led to a path near the East Area.

In the North and East Areas, there were also several dungeon doors that we used to return home, but only I or Rir could find them.

Rir was super smart and knew how to use the dungeon doors I had installed, and since he had the next highest authority over the dungeon after me, he could install the doors on his own.

The Demon Forest was already littered with dungeon doors all over the place.

I had a good grasp of where dungeon doors were placed so far and where they led to, but if I didn’t write them down or something soon, I might forget about them one day as their number increased.

Even if I could remember them now, how could I be sure that I would remember them in, let’s say, ten years?

I now belong to a long-lived species, and I could live over a hundred or two hundred years, so I should do such things while I have the time.

As we continued onward, relying on the map function, we didn’t come in contact with any particular opponents, and eventually the ruins we had seen before came into view in the distance…

“…It’s quiet.”

“Kuu…”

[…hmm. It should have noticed us by now…]

That Golem would have shot beams all over the place before, but it didn’t seem to be on a rampage right now.

Okay, convenient.