“Before I roll the gacha, should I take a look at my monster list first?”
Right before rolling the gacha, I checked the number of monsters in my dungeon.
[Owned Monster List]
- Skeleton Swordsman (★★) ×1
- Skeleton Archer (★★) ×1
- Skeleton Soldier (★) ×16
- Skeleton Archer Apprentice (★) ×7
- Skeleton Magic Trainee (★) ×4
“Hmm…”
A total of twenty-nine monsters were roaming around the dungeon.
The number had definitely gone up.
The problem was that they were all clustered around skeleton types, and even then, most of them were one-star monsters.
I wanted nothing more than to synthesize all of them, but the game system wouldn’t allow it.
If I pulled more of the same ones, I’d have to avoid deploying them and just keep them in storage for now.
With that thought, I rolled the gacha.
- Dungeon-Affiliated Monster Summon! (1 roll: 550 gems)
- Dungeon-Affiliated Monster Summon! (10 rolls: 5,000 gems)
I currently had 14,800 gems.
As planned, I could do two ten-roll summons.
“First one, here we go!”
I pressed the ten-roll summon button with gusto.
Wouldn’t something good come out if I poured my energy into it like this?
- You have summoned Skeleton Soldier (★).
The first one, as expected, was a Skeleton Soldier.
After seeing him so often, even the rusty sword he was holding felt familiar.
- You have summoned Skeleton Soldier (★).
“Fuck.”
- You have summoned Skeleton Soldier (★).
“Dear game developer, do you have anything resembling a conscience?”
Three skeletons in a row, seriously?
Aigo, my money!
- You have summoned Goblin (★).
“Oh!”
For the first time, something that wasn’t a pile of bones appeared.
A green-skinned dwarf wearing ragged clothes and holding a small stone axe in one hand.
Even though it was only one star, I was overjoyed.
So this game…
It really does have other monsters, huh?
Riding that momentum, I kept tapping the screen.
- You have summoned Ghoul (★★).
What’s with this variety?
This time, a ghoul came out.
Unlike the skeletons, this one had flesh on it.
It was just that its appearance was far too grotesque.
Still, the fact that my dungeon was breaking away from being a skeleton monoculture was a positive thing.
After all, if you’re living in the twenty-first century, a multicultural dungeon isn’t a choice. It’s a necessity.
- You have summoned Goblin (★).
- You have summoned Skeleton Soldier (★).
- You have summoned Skeleton Archer Apprentice (★).
- You have summoned Goblin (★).
“……”
Was this roll a dud too?
Just as that thought crossed my mind, an unexpected event occurred on the final pull.
- You have summoned Death Knight (★★★★★).
“Jackpot!”
There had still been a lot of skeletons in this roll too, but that didn’t matter.
At the very end, a five-star had come out.
It probably wasn’t as good as my six-star lieutenant, but a five-star monster was about the same as an A-rank monster on Earth.
If there was no one to stop an A-rank monster, it possessed enough power to reduce a small city to ruins, making it nothing short of a disaster for humans.
“Wow, this guy’s even wearing armor?”
Maybe because it was a five-star, its appearance was definitely different.
Skeleton Soldiers had their bones exposed as they were, without a single piece of clothing. On top of that, they held a rusty sword in one hand.
The Skeleton Swordsman, at least, had an old leather outfit draped over it. And in its hand was a sharpened sword.
Even among monsters that used swords, the Death Knight was on another level.
It wore plate armor that anyone would recognize as fit for a knight, held a refined sword in one hand, and a massive shield in the other.
All of its equipment was dyed black, but that made it look cool in itself.
“As expected of a five-star.”
Feeling delighted, I tapped the Death Knight.
- Grade: ★★★★★
[Traits]
- Death Aura (A): Its very existence bestows a blessing upon fellow undead and terror upon humans.
[Basic Information]
Vitality: A
Attack Power: A-
Defense: B+
Mana: B
[Skills]
- Triple Pierce (B): Rapidly thrusts three times in succession, dealing damage to the opponent.
- Death’s Revival (A): Immediately resurrects after death. However, the skill cooldown is 7 days.
- Shadow of Death (A): Those killed by the Death Knight’s sword are reborn as ghouls.
It was amazing.
It could revive even after dying, though there was a cooldown.
In particular, the Shadow of Death skill was truly absurd.
“So ghouls can be copied!”
On top of that, ghouls were two-star monsters.
If I could keep copying something like that, I’d have a tremendous fighting force.
For now, I decided to deploy the Death Knight and the ghoul in the dungeon first.
“The place where the skeletons are gathered should be best, right?”
At present, the skeletons were deployed in a location close to the dungeon entrance.
A cave-shaped dungeon.
Even if it stretched straight ahead, the passage itself had been narrow. However, when I logged in again after leaving it alone for several days, the dungeon’s appearance had changed drastically.
That was what had resulted in its current form.
Enemies would enter the dungeon and walk along the narrow path. Then, before long, they would step into a wide-open space.
That was where the skeletons were located.
When I looked closely at that place, I could see a small name displayed at the top.
[1st Layer, Area 1]
“1st Layer?”
I understood the area part.
The two wide spaces behind it were also named Area 2 and Area 3, respectively.
But what did 1st Layer mean?
Could this thing possibly continue expanding underground?
If so, the scale was larger than I’d thought.
- This function is not yet available.
Just in case, I tried pressing the dungeon expansion tab, but it said I couldn’t use it.
“Huh…”
Since I couldn’t use it right now, I turned my gaze back to Area 1 without lingering on it.
[1st Layer, Area 1 Monster List]
- Death Knight (★★★★★) ×1
- Ghoul (★★) ×1
- Skeleton Swordsman (★★) ×1
- Skeleton Archer (★★) ×1
- Skeleton Soldier (★) ×16
- Skeleton Archer Apprentice (★) ×7
- Skeleton Magic Trainee (★) ×4
Just adding one Death Knight made it feel reassuring.
On top of that, the Death Knight had a skill that gave a blessing to fellow undead.
I didn’t know what that blessing was, but it was probably some kind of buff.
“What should I do with the rest of them?”
I had deployed the ghoul and the Death Knight.
Now the ones left were three goblins, four Skeleton Soldiers, and one Skeleton Archer Apprentice with an absurdly long name.
Looking at it again, the name really was long.
Why not just call it an archer?
It made me wonder how much the developers were trying to raise the difficulty of synthesis.
I deployed the three goblins in Area 2.
In my mind, Area 1 had already settled into an undead concept.
“So you guys can go to Area 2.”
If Area 1 is breached, the role of you three will be very important.
And I decided to use all four Skeleton Soldiers as synthesis materials.
To synthesize, I needed to use two of the same monster as materials.
But monsters that had already been deployed couldn’t be used as materials, so I decided to use the two soldiers I had just pulled from the gacha as materials.
- Synthesizing Skeleton Soldier (★).
- Consuming Skeleton Soldier (★) ×2.
- Synthesis successful! Skeleton Soldier (★) has evolved into Skeleton Swordsman (★★).
- Synthesizing Skeleton Soldier (★).
- Consuming Skeleton Soldier (★) ×2.
- Synthesis successful! Skeleton Soldier (★) has evolved into Skeleton Swordsman (★★).
With this, two two-star Skeleton Swordsmen were added.
“Mm. I’ll keep this guy for now.”
Only one Skeleton Archer Apprentice had come out of the gacha.
Since there was only one, I couldn’t use it as synthesis material, and deploying it in the dungeon felt awkward too.
[1st Layer, Area 1 Monster List]
- Death Knight (★★★★★) ×1
- Ghoul (★★) ×1
- Skeleton Swordsman (★★) ×3
- Skeleton Archer (★★) ×1
- Skeleton Soldier (★) ×16
- Skeleton Archer Apprentice (★) ×7
- Skeleton Magic Trainee (★) ×4
[1st Layer, Area 2 Monster List]
- Goblin (★) ×3
And then there was the lieutenant who had been forced to change her name because of me.
[Lieutenant]: Celia (★★★★★★).
All of it was perfect.
“But Celia’s the only one with a name, huh?”
Now that I thought about it, all the monsters that had appeared as candidates when I summoned a lieutenant had names, just like Celia.
“What’s the difference?”
Back then, even the one-star ones had names.
My pondering only lasted a moment.
“Whatever.”
I immediately entered the shop to proceed with my second summon.
“Let’s go for the remaining ten-roll!”
However, this time, a new type of alarm sounded.
- An intruder has appeared in the dungeon.
An intruder had appeared.
* * *
Green leaves swayed gently.
Thanks to that, the discomfort from the heat seemed to ease a little.
“Are we still not at the dungeon?”
Jane, who was following at the very back, spoke in a breathless voice.
“According to the map, it should be around here…”
Her older brother, Ronnie, looked around while checking the map.
“Or should I carry you?”
“Get lost, Denver.”
“Okay!”
Ronnie shook his head as he looked at Denver and Jane.
They had all grown up together since childhood.
There was no way he could fail to know that Denver was interested in Jane.
‘Still, we’re entering a dungeon. They should have a little more sense of caution.’
The atmosphere wasn’t bad, but they always had to stay alert.
An Iron-rank dungeon.
No matter how low its rank was, there was nothing wrong with being careful.
As he looked around, he spotted a cave between the trees.
“Found it! Looks like that’s it over there.”
At Ronnie’s words, everyone turned their gaze.
From the outside, it looked like a small cave.
“This seems like it’ll be super easy.”
Denver shouted confidently and stepped forward.
“Wait! We should still proceed while staying on guard!”
“The dungeon’s this small. What’s there to be on guard about? There’s a reason it’s Iron-rank.”
Ignoring Ronnie’s words, Denver walked straight into the cave.
Having no choice, Ronnie and Jane followed after Denver.
And so, they stepped into the dungeon.
Unlike the outside, where the summer sunlight beat down fiercely, the inside of the dungeon was pleasantly cool.
However, it was too dark.
Normally, dungeons were something like homes where monsters lived.
But the fact that it was dark without a single torch felt unfamiliar to them.
“It’s so dark we won’t be able to move forward, will we?”
At Ronnie’s words, Jane lit a torch with magic.
Thanks to the torch, the now-bright dungeon was no longer a problem.
“Shouldn’t you be conserving your mana from now on?”
Ronnie’s concern was reasonable.
To a mage, mana was as important as life itself.
A mage who ran out of mana would immediately become prey for monsters.
Not even a small spell could be used carelessly.
“Don’t worry. I brought this.”
The necklace hanging around Jane’s neck. It was an artifact.
“That’s…”
Ronnie could not continue.
That necklace was something their late mother had left behind.
At the same time, it was an artifact with the ability to restore mana, so he had given it to Jane, who could use magic, rather than keeping it for himself.
Jane treasured their mother’s keepsake.
“I know. Still, I want Mom to see us. To see that we grew up so well and became adventurers who can even subjugate dungeons.”
Jane fiddled with the necklace.
When they were young, a monster wave had struck the village where they lived.
Ronnie and Jane had barely survived, but their parents had lost their lives.
“Yeah, you did well.”
Ronnie nodded.
“……”
In truth, he had not wanted his younger sister to become an adventurer.
Rather than wandering from place to place and carrying out requests as an adventurer, he had wanted her to go to a small territory and become an exclusive mage for a noble.
His younger sister Jane had the ability to do that.
However, Jane had stubbornly opposed it and eventually followed Ronnie to become an adventurer herself.
There was only one reason.
Because for Jane, who had lost her parents to a monster wave, nothing could have been more traumatic.
Whenever Ronnie saw his sister like that, he felt sorry for her, yet proud of her at the same time.
‘Yeah, first we’ll earn money.’
Ronnie had one goal.
Once he earned money, he dreamed of enrolling his sister in a magic academy.
However, that dream—
Swoooosh!
An arrow that suddenly flew in pierced through Ronnie’s head.
“Uh……?”
It had now become a dream that could never be fulfilled.