The fourth volume of Delicious in Dungeon marks the first time that the story has looked away from the main cast of Laios, Senshi, Marcille, and Chilchuck and instead, the story opens back on the surface above the dungeon. This breather of a chapter provides a surprising amount of insight into how this magical dungeon fits into the rest of a magical world and what greater forces are at play. This is particularly interesting since it seems that the story will not end with the Red Dragon’s death after all.
As the cover of this volume indicates, Laios and the gang have finally made it down to the orcs’ abandoned town, only to find that the Red Dragon is still awake and that this will make their dragon-slaying much harder to accomplish. This is only one of several “unusual” details that Kui inserts into the story; despite having been around for ages, it appears that the dungeon is undergoing some changes with potentially enormous ramifications. Kui isn’t particularly subtle in tying several different subplots together in this volume, such as the overlap between Marcille’s reason for adventuring and why outside powers are also very interested in the dungeon, but you don’t necessarily have to be subtle for a story to work. It’s solid foreshadowing and suggests a creator that has thought out their entire story beforehand.
That foreshadowing comes in very handy for the gang as they fight the Red Dragon, and things almost go horribly wrong several times. The dragon is awake and not sleeping. They’re short on people and short on weapons that can take on a dragon. And, as they later discover, an almost-worst-case scenario has occurred with Laios sister Falin. The only thing that kept me from bracing for the worst was the mood of the story so far; I couldn’t imagine Kui would do a complete reversal on the series’s mostly-silly tone (especially since it would’ve meant for a heartbreaking end to the story) but this volume showed that the story will not pull any punches if it comes down to it.
While this volume had fewer comedic gags in it than the previous volumes, this only made me realize just how much heavy lifting those comedic sequences do. They provide a lot of characterization, lore, and the recipes for each meal! Delicious in Dungeon appears to be Kui’s first long-form work and it’s amazing just how easy they make it look. Even when this volume takes a turn for the serious and breaks its own conventions the story still feels incredibly consistent and the plot progression feels completely natural. As the first arc of Delicious in Dungeon ends I am very interested to see where this adventure will take our characters next and what’s lurking even farther into the dungeon.