“Brother Dylan, don’t take your clothes off, come drink a little first.”

As Dylan finished tidying the campsite and was about to undress, Clororo handed him a flask of mana potion.

“Brother Clororo, isn’t this a bit too much…?”

They had passed through two cities in a row, each with detection arrays set up. Dylan couldn’t enter to resupply, so he had to ration his potions.

But Clororo, relying on his racial shapeshifting talent, could slip past those low-level detection arrays easily, so he’d never lacked supplies along the way.

For the past few days, Dylan had been drinking only Clororo’s mana potions, and he felt rather embarrassed about it.

“What nonsense. If you go strutting around naked, you’ll attract attention—and that puts me in danger too. Don’t be so polite, it’s just a little potion.”

Scratching his head, Dylan drank a few mouthfuls, then pulled a few gold coins from his pocket.

Clororo understood at a glance and pressed his hand down to stop him.

“No need. It’s on the public expense anyway.”

To Clororo, Dylan was just a young man fresh into the trade.

Though Dylan looked older than this “merchant” persona of his, that was only because of the host body he had parasitized. In truth, Dylan was younger than he appeared, just like Clororo himself, who was older than the merchant form he wore.

Every time he saw Dylan’s clumsy mistakes, it reminded him of his own early days.

He had only made it this far thanks to the help of his seniors.

And Dylan’s situation was worse than his had been.

Low-level mimicry, unprofessional spy training, and to top it off, doing the hardest kind of task—delivery.

Though Dylan had stubbornly stuck to his principles and never revealed any mission information, Clororo had already noticed that backpack he never put down yet never opened.

In fact, after so many days together, it was impossible not to notice.

Clororo couldn’t even find an opening seam on the bag—it had to be a sealed container, the kind that self-destructs if forced open.

That sort of delivery job was the hardest.

Gathering intelligence only required behaving normally. But carrying a suspicious bag like that… it was practically painting a target on himself.

Sometimes Clororo even wondered if Dylan had offended someone higher up and was being deliberately sent on a suicide run.

All he could do was keep looking out for this unlucky junior until his own new mission came down.

“Brother Clororo, why is security so strict lately?”

Dylan remembered how before, cities around here didn’t check anything. Now there were inspections and detection arrays everywhere.

“Brother Dylan, that stutter of yours… Anyway, of course it’s strict. They’re afraid of His Majesty’s retaliation.”

“His Majesty… the Emperor?” The word felt strange on Dylan’s tongue.

“Of course! His Majesty must be furious. That fake Hero Summoning trap the humans made left Lord Shadowfiend’s fate unknown—the Empire suffered a huge loss.

How could His Majesty not retaliate? The only thing is, no one knows how yet.”

Shadowfiend’s disappearance couldn’t be hidden. In the demon side, this wasn’t a secret at all, so Clororo spoke freely.

But for Dylan, it was the first time hearing it.

A fake Hero Summoning? A trap?

And one of the Twelve Pillars of the Empire, Shadowfiend, had been taken out?

So much had happened outside while he’d been in the dungeon?!

But he quickly latched onto the key word—retaliation!

“Then… could it mean outright war?”

War would be the most direct—and most impactful—retaliation.

But Clororo just waved his hand.

“Impossible, Brother Dylan. As spies, we must know how to read the times.

The elves and dwarves are watching closely. They’d never let us wipe out humanity and grow unchecked.

Unless…”

Clororo deliberately paused. Sure enough, Dylan asked, “Unless what?”

Clororo leaned close, threw an arm around Dylan’s shoulder, and even though they were in the wilderness with no one around, he lowered his voice.

“There’s a rumor that besides that trap, the humans secretly held a real Hero Summoning.

If that can be proven, the Empire can start war without restraint.”

“Ah?” Dylan’s eyes went blank, not understanding how summoning a Hero was connected to starting war.

Clororo looked at him like a hopeless blockhead.

“Idiot! If there’s truly a Hero, then the elves and dwarves won’t help humanity!

If our Empire grows stronger, their lives get harder. But if humanity grows stronger, do you think theirs get any better? Right now they side with humans only to balance our strength.

But if a Hero really appears, that changes everything.

With the Demon King gone, a Hero growing up would be overwhelming power! Believe me, not only would we want him dead, even elves and dwarves wouldn’t let him live if they had the chance.

Who would want a being above them, able to kill or spare them at will, with no restraints?

At the very least, until the Hero is dead, they’d most likely remain bystanders.

Of course, all this is on the condition that a Hero really has been summoned.”

Clororo took a swig of mana potion to wet his throat, then, seeing Dylan still looking dazed, didn’t press further.

He only added a reminder:

“Brother Dylan, dangerous tasks may come down soon. Remember to measure your strength.

Failing a mission means punishment—but if you’re caught by humans, you’ll lose your life!

Between the two, weigh it carefully.”

After that, he patted Dylan and led the way forward.

Dylan followed, still digesting the flood of information.

——

Lin Jun was digesting it too.

Humans, demons, elves, dwarves… Hero Summoning, traps, confrontations, reprisals…

No wonder!

No wonder so few diamond-rankers were active in the dungeon!

No wonder not a single human above level 60 had entered so far!

They had all been pulled away by the demons.

Which meant…

Right now almost no one could threaten him?

He had been restraining himself, keeping the mycelium only on the first five floors, afraid of drawing too much attention.

But now it seemed that caution had only wasted growth time!

Fortunately, human-demon tensions were still ongoing, and might even escalate into war.

If he started expanding now, it wasn’t too late. Before humanity had hands free, he could spread mushrooms through the whole dungeon!

Maybe… maybe even try extending the mycelium toward the dungeon’s entrances he hadn’t dared touch before…

…

Come to think of it, that Hero Summoning rumor must be fake, right?

He was the Hero, wasn’t he?

But even that didn’t make sense.

He hadn’t killed a single demon. Instead, he had dismantled plenty of humans. What kind of Hero was that supposed to be?

A demon Hero? No—that would clash with the role of Demon King.

Wait a second…

Could it be… the Hero of Monsters???