“That last match was really scary! Master, the enemies are getting much stronger! I need your bonuses so that I don’t die!”

“Uh-huh…”

“Seriously, Master! My armor was severely damaged! A beauty like me almost got a scar! What would you do if you had slaves with scars! Other slavers would definitely look down on you.”

“Of course.”

“That’s why Master needs to buy me this armor I saw in the store! It’s very shiny… ahem… I mean, it’s very protective! Please increase my budget so I can buy it! The guys have already made a killing betting on me, but they won’t let me see a single penny! Plus, sister snuck into my bed last night! She said she was cold, but then she touched this and that! Master, this can’t stand!”

“I see…”

“Your beautiful Paladin is putting her life on the line for her Master, and you definitely must give her the love and adoration she deserves!”

“Yup.”

“Are you listening to me, Master? Send me some money immediately…”

“Oop… caaaaaaaa… I seem… be… losing… reception…”

“What reception! This is a magical communication stone! You can definitely hear me fine! I even hear girls giggling in the background! Why am I the only slave who must sacrifice her life-“

“Oop… it’s a magical tunnel I’m going through… magic reception loss… keep up the hard work. Bye!” I turned off the magical stone and leaned back with a sigh.

When I sent them such a device and contacted them, it was more of a formality. I was just checking up on their progress. The ranked matches had begun, and she had already been through three such battles. However, the big matches didn’t even start until next week. That was when she could get eliminated. Yet, after an hour of listening to Carmine complain about everything, I was tempted to just give up on the gladiatorial race completely. However, a promise was a promise, so I held on.

It had been a week since I had returned from finishing Widow’s Dungeon. In that week, I had expanded the dungeon and the fairy spring. There were three dozen fairies caring for it now. I ended up getting swarmed when I went to visit, and Celeste ended up blowing them all away. Even then, I was nearly stripped naked. The giggling fairies took off and hid when Celeste went to punish them.

As for the dungeon, I had worked with Raissa and expanded the training facility per her observations with the troops. They had encountered the siren, but not the giantess yet. As for the Queen, I made her a room which had a long hallway connected with the mansion. She complained when that entrance didn’t go directly to my room. I made sure it actually deposited nowhere near my room. This was for my own safety, of course.

This technically meant that the mansion functioned as a side entrance to our dungeon, in a similar way that Widow’s Dungeon had the mine. However, the Queens’ room required several extremely difficult conditions to enter. Technically, you could call her one of those end game bonus bosses, but at the level of the troops entering the dungeon, this sort of thing would be impossible.

It did make me wonder what other secrets the Great Dungeons were hiding, considering what I could do with just this small one. Well, my dungeon was a little different from the get-go. Most curses developed naturally and were controlled by an ego that only gained intellect with time. While the Dungeon Bosses themselves protected the dungeon and pulled on its miasma, they didn’t usually directly interfere with its growth unless there was some need. As for me, my dungeon was designed and nurtured by me, so it was built with a more direct purpose. That purpose was training soldiers at the moment, although I eventually hoped to turn the dungeon into something like Dirage, where it could be a staple of our city.

At the moment, there were four safe rooms, one on the first, one on the 5th, one on the 9th, and one on the 14th. The siren trial was on the 10th, basically untouched from its original form. The 15th floor had the giantess, who was mostly just there as protection, although I did promise to visit her regularly. From what I understood, Astria and Elaya visited her too. Astria found the miasma to be thickest in her room, so when she was eating it, she stopped by. As for Elaya, she said that the giantess reminded her of Xin.

I asked her if the giantess was an actual representation of Xin. She admitted it was. Had Xin died, and the curse managed to get a hold of a piece of her soul, the corrupted boss might have ended up looking more like her, but this was the form that Xin took. She reminded me that while representative, they were not too similar. After all, the siren was representative of Elaya’s own desires, and it looked nothing like her. The giantess only had vague similarities to Xin. That was coming from my own memories delivered via the lore.

The 5th floor didn’t contain a mini boss. I didn’t actually have the Summon Boss ability yet, so I could only tame strong monsters and use them as my bosses, and if any died, I wouldn’t be able to replace them. Well, with Raissa leading the soldiers on expeditions, it was pretty safe, and I didn’t worry too much.

Raissa still wasn’t showing yet, but I did hire a midwife who functioned as her assistant. I still didn’t have the guts to tell her I knew she was pregnant, and I didn’t know if Raissa knew herself. Well, the midwife was given explicit orders to make sure Raissa ate well and got plenty of rest. I think she figured it out pretty quickly, but that was fine. It wasn’t that I wanted it to be a secret, but that I thought Raissa would get depressed if she wasn’t the first to know.