Ding—
Ding—
Ding—
“What the hell? Why does the alarm keep going off?”
My smartphone was ringing nonstop, spitting out alert after alert.
“Maru, bring me my phone.”
At my words, the skeleton swiftly handed me the phone.
A skeleton soldier who had come out from the dungeon into this place where I now lived.
It felt awkward to keep calling him “skeleton,” so I gave him a name.
There wasn’t any particular meaning behind it.
He just followed my orders as well as a dog would, so I named him Maru.
Now, seeing Maru do the dishes, clean the bathroom, and even cook ramyeon properly made me feel proud.
It was enough to make the thought, “Oh, my precious boy,” come naturally.
“What kind of alert keeps going off like this?”
I immediately checked the contents of the alerts.
- The owner of the “Red-Haired Tribe” Dungeon has pledged loyalty to Master Lee Ganghyeon.
- The owner of the “Sticky Puddle” Dungeon has pledged loyalty to Master Lee Ganghyeon.
- The owner of the “Dregs of the Demon Realm” Dungeon has pledged loyalty to Master Lee Ganghyeon.
The alerts continued.
And finally, the last one.
- The owner of the “Inheritance of Nature” Dungeon has pledged loyalty to Master Lee Ganghyeon.
“What is this?”
For this many dungeons to pledge loyalty to me in such a short time…
When I counted them all, a total of twenty-six dungeons had come under me.
Could it be that they had gone on a conquest spree in that brief amount of time?
I checked the earlier alerts as well.
- Adjutant Celia has attended a banquet of nearby dungeon owners.
Right. It was definitely after that alert appeared that the dungeons suddenly began surrendering one after another.
It wasn’t as if Celia had done anything in particular.
“Hmm…”
Well, there was nothing to agonize over.
My dungeon’s power was growing, and good was good.
In a situation where I couldn’t even spend more money to buy extra gems right now, there was no way I’d refuse monsters increasing for free.
“I welcome it, if anything.”
- The number of dungeons that have sworn obedience under your command has greatly increased.
- Dungeon organizational restructuring is recommended.
“Organizational restructuring?”
- A dungeon is no different from a single nation.
- For efficient operation, merge and reorganize your dungeon’s organizational chart.
It wasn’t wrong.
When I only had one dungeon, it didn’t matter, but now that my forces had grown like this, I couldn’t keep running things with the old slapdash approach.
“More importantly, this place had a loyalty and affection system.”
It was something I’d forgotten because there hadn’t been any major problems until now.
After all, the monsters from the dungeons that Celia and the Death Knight had conquered last time had all been merged into my dungeon, so I hadn’t worried about them.
And then—
- Azmo, owner of the “Temptation of Illusions” Dungeon, is satisfied with Master’s grace.
- Azmo’s affection has increased.
- Azmo’s loyalty has increased.
The incubus dungeon existing in another dimension that had pledged loyalty to me didn’t seem to have any issues with loyalty or affection either.
“What did I do for those guys again?”
After thinking for a moment, I soon remembered one thing.
“Ah, I gave them friends.”
Those little punks. They had the loyalty of men.
If they were that kind of guys, there shouldn’t be any big problems even if they were in another dimension.
The problem was the twenty-six dungeons conquered today, and they were quite troublesome.
“If I merge them, I don’t have enough space to place the monsters…”
My dungeon was saturated right now.
After doing some draws at the end, every zone had become packed with monsters.
Expanding the dungeon right away was awkward too.
“I need to classify them first.”
Still, it was dangerous to leave more than twenty dungeons unattended.
I had never seen loyalty or affection hit a low point yet, so I had no idea what kind of results that might bring.
It made no sense to go through the trouble of conquering them only to let them become independent again.
- Two dungeons can be merged with each other into one. The merged dungeon will increase in size.
“Oh.”
So there’s a function like this too.
The first thing I checked after seeing that alert was their racial composition.
For starters, I merged dungeons with overlapping races into one.
“Undead types with undead types, orcs with orcs.”
After going through that process, the twenty-six dungeons had been reduced to nine before I knew it.
“Let’s merge them a bit more.”
This time, I combined those that were somewhat similar in type.
“Goblins and orcs should be able to live together.”
In the end, the twenty-six dungeons were reduced to four.
Extreme compression.
Even so, I didn’t reduce them any further from there.
Looking at the current dungeon layout, the four dungeons had been arranged as if they were surrounding my original dungeon.
It was a pleasing arrangement at a glance.
Rather than merging all the dungeons into one, leaving them dispersed like this would make it easier to gather information about the surrounding area.
“Now then, I need to pick someone to monitor these dungeons.”
Naturally, this would be done by monsters belonging to my dungeon.
In other words, I needed a position in charge of managing the four dungeons while going around and patrolling the surroundings.
“Right. Lich, I’ll leave this to you.”
A lich was fundamentally an undead monster.
Since it didn’t feel fatigue, it seemed fine to work it continuously.
On top of that, it was a four-star monster, and as long as I kept replenishing it with skeletons, it was a troublesome existence. Perfect for the job.
I clicked on the lich and assigned it a position in the settings window.
There was nothing separately established, so I entered it manually.
- Lich (★★★★) (Inspector)
These guys understood my words so well that just writing this much should be enough for them to do a good job.
At the same time, I pulled the lich appointed as inspector out of Zone 1 and placed it outside the dungeon.
It was possible because the restriction preventing them from leaving the dungeon had been lifted.
Now the lich would lead its skeleton troops, patrol the forest, and monitor the four dungeons.
“And if, by any chance, there’s a rebellion or something…”
For now, it was only my speculation.
But preparing for even minor things like this made me feel more at ease.
This was reality, and if my dungeon got raided, my life would be in danger.
“Ah, this one goes to you, Death Knight.”
In other words, a unit for suppressing rebellions.
The sight of the Death Knight with a massive shield on its back was truly reassuring.
In a way, it was essentially responsible for protecting the dungeon.
I gave the Death Knight the title of Knight Commander.
“Now it finally feels like the foundation is taking shape.”
And the most important position: dungeon management.
“This has to be Celia, no matter what.”
She had done well so far, so it was only right that Celia continue doing it.
Next was diplomacy.
As the dungeon continued developing in the future, there would be many issues that could cause external friction.
“This is Celia too.”
From what I’d seen of Celia so far, even if diplomatic disputes arose, she would resolve them smoothly.
Next was the legislative side.
In truth, calling it “law” was a bit grandiose, but at the very least, I needed someone to maintain internal discipline within the dungeon.
Someone to punish those who undermined discipline.
“Hmm…”
This, too, could only be Celia.
And so Celia was placed in charge of the dungeon’s overall management, while also handling diplomacy and internal discipline.
“And…”
This was quite important. I had seen something like this somewhere before.
It was the idea that if you gave slaves ranks, they would watch each other more closely to see if anyone tried to run away.
It was time to make use of that.
“Who was the one that surrendered to me first?”
According to the alerts, it was the owner of the “Red-Haired Tribe” Dungeon.
That owner was none other than an orc.
- Skol (★★★)
It was even a named unique monster.
“As expected.”
I knew there was something unusual about him.
“I should give this guy the position of margrave.”
From now on, he would be in charge of defending the surrounding dungeons.
I’d have to give him equipment befitting that role too.
A quick-witted guy like this naturally made me want to give him something extra.
“And next…”
Like that, I continued thinking over and assigning the remaining positions.
* * *
“Section Chief, Department Head Moltis is looking for you.”
At his subordinate’s words, Gullon raised his head in shock. He was so startled that he fell into fear, his very flesh trembling.
Why would the department head suddenly be looking for him?
The department head Gullon knew did not pay enough attention to call in a mere section chief.
He issued instructions through the deputy manager below him, and hadn’t Gullon himself seen the deputy manager’s face far more often than the department head’s?
‘Did something go wrong?’
What had he done recently?
No matter how much he thought about it, there wasn’t anything in particular that could be faulted.
The most recent thing was his visit to the dungeon in the mountains yesterday.
‘Did he not like the report I submitted?’
Even when he searched his memory, there was nothing in the report that could be criticized either.
He had inspected the dungeon he visited yesterday and written his impressions in the report.
The contents merely explained why that dungeon was not at a level the merchant company needed to concern itself with.
‘Is he just in a bad mood?’
The department head Gullon knew was capable, so he wasn’t someone who handled work according to his mood.
He looked only at one thing: the ability of his subordinates.
Even so, Gullon didn’t think he had done anything particularly wrong, so he couldn’t understand why he was being summoned.
“Section Chief?”
When Gullon remained silent for a while, his subordinate called him once more.
“Ah… yes, I’ll go right away. Thank you.”
After dismissing the subordinate, Gullon prepared to go up to the department head’s office.
Still, he couldn’t go empty-handed, so he gathered documents related to the work he had done recently and headed to the department head’s office.
Knock, knock—
“Come in.”
He had only knocked on the department head’s door a few times, but a voice from inside told him to enter.
The problem was that the voice was cold.
Very much so.
“Department Head, you called for me?”
Gullon bowed politely, and a document flew toward him.
“Read it.”
Department Head Moltis, with his massive build, spoke in a low tone.
A monster with the physique of a huge bear and a face resembling an owl: an owlbear.
That was Department Head Moltis’s race.
Naturally, he had no high-ranking demon bloodline in his veins, so like Gullon, he had no so-called connections.
He was someone who had taken the position of department head in the audit team solely through ability.
With someone already frightening in appearance now wearing a scowl as well, Gullon felt as if his blood were drying up.
“What are you doing, not reading?”
Unable to resist the department head urging him again, Gullon picked up the document.
A short title was written at the top.
[Changes in the Dungeon Power Structure in the Seil Kingdom Mountains]
The content was simple.
It stated that the dungeon handled by the merchant company’s merchant Moru had conquered twenty-six dungeons near the mountains.
And that had happened yesterday, at the banquet held in the evening, no less.
“……”
Gullon broke out in a cold sweat.
Was what he was seeing really correct?
The level of the dungeon he had seen yesterday had not been high.
It definitely hadn’t.
And yet the contents of the document saying it had conquered every dungeon in the nearby mountains felt unreal.
All in a single day—no, during the time the banquet was being held.
“What in the world is this…”
Gullon muttered with a grave expression.
“Thanks to your report, I was the one who got chewed out terribly.”
Moltis’s gaze grew even sharper.
A subordinate’s mistake was ultimately the superior’s responsibility.
“The dungeon you said we didn’t need to pay attention to made as many as twenty-six dungeons surrender. In an instant, at that.”
In effect, that was every nearby dungeon.
“And yet you called it a dungeon the merchant company didn’t need to pay attention to. Gullon, are those eyes of yours just decorations?”
Of course, the mountains were vast.
Even if twenty-six dungeons were merged, in the grand scheme of things, it was only a portion.
However, due to the nature of the mountains, they bordered the Demon Realm, and human adventurers frequently came and went there, making it a location that drew attention.
Because of that, the dungeon owners in the mountains tended to prioritize survival over forming conspicuous alliances.
So for the most part, they exchanged information through gatherings like banquets, but never even considered directly growing in size or forming alliances.
At least, that had certainly been the case until now.
But with yesterday’s incident, the balance of power had completely changed.
“It’s true there was a record of that dungeon merging another one before, but this matter has grown far too large.”
The matter had grown large.
That meant someone had to take responsibility, and Gullon was not so incompetent that he failed to realize he, himself, had been chosen as that person.
“I will go and resolve it.”
Twenty-six dungeons.
In other words, twenty-six dungeons that the merchant company had been handling had all knelt before a single place.
Of course, that single place was also handled by the merchant company, but there was a great difference between trading separately with twenty-seven dungeons and trading with one dungeon that possessed the scale of twenty-six dungeons.
From the merchant company’s perspective, they did not want the dungeons they traded with to grow in size.
Because that would increase the dungeon’s voice accordingly.
“Section Chief Gullon.”
Moltis’s eyes narrowed further.
“I do not want another Baalcherit to appear.”
It was a name Gullon knew well.
Baalcherit.
A five-star vampire, and likewise someone who had made the nearby dungeons kneel and established herself as a regional power.
From the merchant company’s perspective, they had no choice but to treat Baalcherit with respect because of her overwhelming forces, but for that very reason, they did not want another strong power to emerge.
Naturally, there were other alliance-type dungeons or dungeons that had greatly expanded in size.
But the more their number increased, the more the merchant company suffered losses, so all they wanted was to maintain the status quo.
The one fortunate point was that the Order’s movements had been unusual lately.
“Right now, the Order is weakening Baalcherit’s forces. Our merchant company sees that as an opportunity.”
For reasons unknown, the White Order had recently been subjugating the dungeons near Baalcherit, eating away at her power.
For the merchant company, this was an enormous opportunity.
And yet another strong power was appearing?
That was absolutely unacceptable.
“You understand what I’m saying, don’t you? I’ll contact the higher-ups separately. From this moment on, you are no longer affiliated with the merchant company.”
At Moltis’s words, Gullon’s expression stiffened.
There was no way he didn’t understand what that meant.
He was to resolve the situation under Gullon’s personal name, not the name of the merchant company.
The part about contacting the higher-ups likely meant they would assign him monsters whose identities were unclear.
He had to lead them and resolve this matter.
If he succeeded, he would break even. If he failed, he had no future. Just looking at Juwel’s state yesterday, the merchant company would not leave him alive.
“Understood.”
Knowing very well what it meant, Gullon gritted his teeth and bowed.