“Haa… ha….”
Someone was running through a dark forest.
They wore a large robe that did not fit their body, so their face could not be seen. Only the silver hair peeking out from beneath the robe swayed gently.
Even while running, they clutched the object in their arms tightly so as not to drop it.
They looked as if they might stop breathing at any moment, but they never slowed down.
‘I just have to get over this mountain…!’
Beyond the great mountain lay the Demon Realm, the land of death.
They only had to reach that place.
‘Just a little longer.’
The unidentified figure glanced back.
Far behind, through the trees, there was a group following.
“You wicked being, stop at once! In the name of the Order, we shall judge you without fail!”
Holy knights shouted loudly as they chased on horseback.
‘Just a little farther….’
If they could only reach the Demon Realm, those people would stop their pursuit.
They had to hold out until then.
They were already short of breath.
And so the midnight chase continued.
* * *
I remembered the day I first awakened.
The day when, despite awakening, my joy did not last long.
‘No, I was actually in despair.’
The reason was that I didn’t get a status window.
It was a day I should have been happy, yet at the same time, it gave me despair.
I even resented it, wishing they simply hadn’t awakened me at all.
Even so, I pulled myself together.
At first, I held on to the hope that if I worked hard, things would be all right.
Right, if I kept trying hard, maybe I could become something.
But that was an arrogant thought.
No matter how much I swung my sword, I was still a Hunter without a status window.
To narrow that gap, I made one choice.
I enrolled in the Hunter Academy, which was only permitted to Awakened.
Even if I didn’t have a status window, I was still an Awakened.
Getting admitted itself wasn’t difficult.
The problem came after that.
Because the four years I spent there were no different from hell.
Not only my classmates, but even my juniors looked down on me.
Even when the professors ostracized me and treated me unfairly, I endured it again and again.
Right, if I worked even harder, someone would recognize my efforts.
But the efforts of someone without ability were nothing but an illusion.
Still, I endured.
I held on, looking only at that one Academy diploma.
Although I graduated last in my class, I still managed to graduate from the Academy.
But that was all.
Even after graduating from the Academy, I was still a half-baked Hunter without a status window.
‘It was probably around then, wasn’t it?’
I realized it.
No matter how hard I tried, unless the fundamental cause was resolved, I would ultimately remain in the same place.
It wasn’t a matter of talent.
Since I didn’t have a status window in the first place, effort or whatever else aside, growth itself was impossible.
After realizing that, I turned my eyes away from reality and began escaping into games.
At least in games, the more time and money I poured in, the easier it was to put my name among the upper ranks.
“Well, things are different now.”
I had a status window.
Possibility had opened up.
So naturally, I began putting in effort again.
“Of course, I’ll keep playing games.”
Not to escape reality like before, but solely to stabilize my mind and body, I intended to play games.
In other words, it meant I was playing games to relieve stress.
I play games to relieve stress, but I end up getting more stressed?
That was contradictory.
It was hard to accept.
So I had to make up for my dungeon grade dropping.
“My goal is dungeon growth and decoration.”
It felt like I had been playing the game too haphazardly all this time.
Since the concept was defending a dungeon, it was something I needed to properly set aside time for at least once.
I immediately clicked the screen and looked at the dungeon.
First, there was now a function that allowed me to install facilities, and dungeon expansion had added additional features.
Even if they were called facilities, there was a limit to the kinds I could purchase right away.
“I’ll definitely install the lieutenant’s office… Ah, a prison would be good too.”
When I looked at the dungeon earlier, it seemed the goblins had captured one adventurer.
More adventurers would be captured in the future, so it seemed fine to start preparing little by little now.
- 5,000 gold is required to build this prison.
- You do not have enough gold.
- You can purchase gold with gems.
The problem was that I had no gold right now.
All the gold I had obtained when I first bought the lieutenant synthesis pack had been used to increase the size of the dungeon.
“Can I spend the gems I have too?”
Usually, in games, you could purchase in-game currency with paid currency like gems.
- 100 gems are worth 10,000 gold.
“That’s pretty good, isn’t it?”
The number of gems I currently had was 9,800.
That was equal to a total value of 980,000 gold.
That didn’t mean using all the gems would be anything but a stupid choice.
For now, I decided to exchange only 800 gems for gold.
- You have consumed 800 gems and obtained 80,000 gold.
Using the 80,000 gold, the first thing I bought was the prison.
- 5,000 gold will be consumed.
- You have purchased a prison.
- Would you like to place the prison?
No. Not yet.
For this kind of thing, the standard was to prepare everything first and decorate at the very end.
I immediately turned my eyes to another facility.
I had always been concerned about Celia, who moved around every corner of the dungeon.
I purchased the lieutenant’s office, a space where she could stay while also carrying out her duties.
- 10,000 gold will be consumed.
- You have purchased the lieutenant’s office.
Aside from that, I looked at the hut, another facility I could purchase.
It came with the description that it was a space where monsters could live.
“Hmm….”
Were there any guys who needed huts right now?
No matter how I looked at them, the skeletons didn’t seem to need one much.
Just look at them even now.
The sight of those bones standing motionless in place….
They looked as though they had just burst out of a grave.
Even though this was a game, that sight was actually a little frightening.
Still, those guys seemed like they would get along fine without something like this.
The only ones left were the three goblins, but there were too few of them.
“Let’s think about the huts later for now.”
There were few types of facilities I could purchase, so there wasn’t really anything else to buy.
More importantly, it was now time to decorate the dungeon itself. Placing the purchased facilities would come after that.
I immediately touched [Dungeon Expansion].
“Oh….”
More diverse functions had been added than I expected.
At the beginning, if I could only increase the dungeon size by spending 100,000 gold, now various decoration options appeared.
I could make new paths, and I could also expand the spaces where monsters would live.
“I can even make waterways?”
At the same time, it seemed I could also choose what terrain to use to decorate the dungeon.
With this, a truly large number of options and strategies became possible.
If I made waterways, I would also be able to place monsters that lived underwater.
Even if not, it would become an excellent means of briefly stopping intruders.
Of course, not everything could be built for free.
Some consumed gems, while others consumed gold.
But my wallet was fat.
Without hesitation, I spent gems.
* * *
As I decorated the dungeon, before I knew it, three hours had passed.
Thanks to that, my eyes, which had been staring only at the screen, were bloodshot red.
“Still, I’m done!”
I changed and decorated the dungeon’s internal structure according to the design I wanted.
After decorating, I even carried out additional monster draws, then synthesized and placed monsters in each location.
Even in my own eyes, it was so well made that I felt proud.
First, the original dungeon had been a simple structure with a single passage.
From the entrance to the end of the dungeon, there was only one passage. If intruders came in, all they had to do was keep going straight.
So, from the intruders’ point of view, they gained the advantage of only having to pay attention to the front.
Since they only had to look ahead without worrying about their backs, as the dungeon’s defender, the burden on me would grow heavier the further they advanced.
But now, it was different.
When you entered the dungeon, the path ahead split into two forks.
I had pulled forward Area 2, which had been behind Area 1.
Now, intruders would enter the dungeon and have to choose between the path on the left and the path on the right.
The left path led to Area 1, where the undead lived.
If they chose the right path, they would be choosing Area 2, where the goblins lived.
“Very good.”
Now, as far as I was concerned, I had a variety of strategic options.
Since I made it a forked path, I could split the enemy’s forces.
What if the intruders didn’t split their forces and all rushed down one path?
Then I could use the monsters placed on the opposite side to strike them from behind.
And one of the reasons I made it a forked path was because of racial traits.
There was a fatal problem for monsters other than the undead race.
It was that, as living beings, they had to eat to survive.
Skeletons did not need such consumption, but goblins were different.
They were beings that could not survive without food.
Until now, Celia had been getting meat from somewhere and feeding them.
Of course, even that had only been possible because the number of goblins so far was barely three.
But now, things were different.
Because I had drawn like crazy.
Thanks to that, the number of goblins had exceeded thirty.
That meant the number of goblin mouths that had to be fed meat had increased accordingly.
It wasn’t as though Celia could keep obtaining meat forever.
Here, I had one thought.
What if I moved the goblins’ area forward and made it so they could freely come and go outside the dungeon?
I would make them hunt outside and carry out their own feeding activities.
Right now, the monsters couldn’t leave the dungeon.
But this restriction would be lifted someday.
At that time, the monsters would probably be able to freely go in and out of the dungeon.
My goal was to have them hunt on their own from then on and establish a single ecosystem.
As the number of goblins in Area 2 increased, I also purchased and installed the huts I had postponed earlier.
At the same time, Area 2 also gained a mid-boss.
- A mid-boss has been set for [First Floor, Area 2].
[First Floor, Area 2 Mid-Boss]
- Goblin Lord (★★★★★)
- The loyalty of minions placed in [First Floor, Area 2] increases.
- ‘Goblin Lord’ effect activated! Increases the loyalty of all goblin-type monsters.
Just looking at it made me feel proud.
“Now I won’t need to touch Area 1 and Area 2 for a while.”
That was true.
Because this time, I had emptied my wallet as though possessed.
[First Floor, Area 1 Monster List]
- Death Knight (★★★★★) ×1
- Lich (★★★★) ×1
- Banshee (★★★) ×3
- Ghoul (★★) ×6
- Skeleton Swordsman (★★) ×11
- Skeleton Mage (★★) ×3
- Skeleton Archer (★★) ×6
- Skeleton Soldier (★) ×19
- Skeleton Archer Apprentice (★) ×11
- Skeleton Magic Trainee (★) ×8
[First Floor, Area 2 Monster List]
- Goblin Lord (★★★★★) ×1
- Hobgoblin (★★★) ×3
- Goblin Shaman (★★) ×1
- Goblin (★) ×27
Just looking at it made me feel full.
How should I put it? It was that kind of reassuring feeling, like no one would be able to break through for a while?
Although it was a shame that the types that came out of the draws weren’t all that varied.
Of course, if a third party invading the dungeon saw it, even now it would probably look like a mixed hybrid, like a stew of everything thrown together.
Because the more diverse kinds of monsters existed inside a dungeon, the more troublesome that dungeon became.
There was a reason why Kim Suho, who had appeared on TV not long ago, could solo clear a C-rank dungeon but had trouble from B-rank onward.
Starting from B-rank dungeons, monsters with various matchups appeared, making them difficult to攻略.
Having gotten the idea from that, I intended to place monsters with various matchups.
“That’s why I keep dividing the areas too.”
In the first passage of the dungeon, Area 1 and Area 2 were located respectively.
In the place connected behind them were Area 3 and Area 4.
I decorated these areas as well, modestly though it was.
Area 3 was the place that appeared after passing through Area 1.
Unlike Area 1, where undead existed and a bleak energy lingered, Area 3 was covered in a green meadow, giving off a refreshing atmosphere just by looking at it.
In truth, I had hurriedly changed this area’s concept because of a monster that came out of the draws.
Among the fields, there was a huge flower, but it was not a simple plant.
The insects that looked like butterflies flying above the flower were not simple creatures either.
[First Floor, Area 3 Monster List]
- Man-Eating Tentacle Plant (★★★) ×1
- Bloodsucking Butterfly (★★) ×6
Those beings were none other than monsters.
The plant devoured people, and those bloodsucking butterflies were terrifying entities that sucked blood.
The moment someone was drawn in by that beautiful flower and approached it, they would be eaten.
Interestingly, the description said it would eat monsters as well, but would not react to undead.
That was why I placed them in Area 3, which was connected to Area 1 where the skeletons were.
If those things were to eat the goblins by any chance, it would be a loss for me too.
Area 4, which was behind Area 2 where the goblins resided, currently had only a small lake made in the center.
I had not placed any monsters there yet.
No monsters that seemed suited to living underwater had appeared, and for now, it would at least be able to serve as a place where the goblins could come to drink water.
“I can just catch some fish and raise them later, right?”
Since this place was strictly a dungeon, sunlight did not enter.
That meant that even if there was water, farming was impossible.
Still, I should be able to raise fish in the lake.
In addition, I also changed the previously empty appearance of the central area, which was called the end of the dungeon.
This place was important in its own way.
Because it was where the core, which could be called the dungeon’s heart, existed; in a sense, it was like the final bastion.
The central area had to serve as a kind of command center that controlled every area.
So I installed the lieutenant’s office.
When I installed the lieutenant’s office, Celia made a delighted expression.
“Still, she is a lieutenant in name….”
Shouldn’t there be monsters to attend to her?
I set aside a few skeleton soldiers.
The soldiers stood on both sides, lined up as if guarding the lieutenant’s office.
Of course, since they were one-star monsters, it would be difficult to expect much ability from them, but this kind of display was important.
“It makes it look like there’s something there.”
It gave off an atmosphere as though an important being was present here.
In addition, I installed the prison in a secluded corner nearby.
Not right away, but later, I intended to place separate monsters to guard near the prison too.
“Now it finally feels like a dungeon.”
The dungeon grade would probably rise again too.
“Should I start getting ready to sleep now?”
I decided to be satisfied here for today.
I was already completely drained from staring at the game screen for over three hours.
On top of that, I had spent so thoroughly that almost no gold or gems remained.
Even if I wanted to do something more, I was in a situation where I couldn’t.
Before I knew it, it had grown dark outside.