When I woke up, the clock was already pointing to the afternoon.
Lunchtime had already passed.
Thanks to that, my stomach was thrashing around with a tremendous growl.
“Maru, food—”
Out of habit, I almost asked Maru to make me something to eat, but then I shut my mouth.
The ramen with Maru’s special “hand flavor” from the day before came to mind, and I was too afraid to say it.
‘I’ll have to train him again.’
I never imagined he would teach himself by watching videos on boiling bone broth.
He was even using a smartphone freely….
I realized anew that undead were a more intelligent race than I’d thought.
“I’d be in trouble if he does something weird again.”
That was why I planned to teach Maru how to cook myself.
It wasn’t that Maru’s touch tasted bad, but still, you know?
“Anyway, is Maru doing housework?”
I could hear the vacuum cleaner running beyond the door.
Maru had now become an existence I couldn’t do without.
He handled not only basic cooking like ramen, but also dishwashing and cleaning perfectly.
And that wasn’t all.
He ran the washing machine on his own, hung up the laundry, and neatly folded the dry clothes before putting them in the closet.
“He’s practically a born homemaker, isn’t he?”
These days, he showed improvement day by day, to the point that he vacuumed and even mopped the floors.
Maru did whatever he was taught without a hitch.
Thanks to that, I had reached the point where I no longer needed to do the housework myself.
Everything ran smoothly without me lifting a finger.
“Should I bring over more skeletons while I’m at it?”
The altar level of my dungeon was currently 2.
Naturally, I couldn’t summon high-grade monsters.
“Maru was originally 1-star too.”
He was 4-star now, but Maru had originally been a 1-star skeleton soldier.
The demonic sword Celia had offered as a sacrifice.
And because of that demonic sword, I had obtained a skill.
In the end, by using the demonic sword and the skill, Maru had been able to evolve to 4-star.
“Should I make a skeleton unit while I’m at it?”
A unit made entirely of bones would be deployed wholly for housework.
They didn’t reek of rot like ghouls or zombies, and they didn’t need to consume anything or sleep.
Skeleton monsters were beings that worked a full 24 hours a day.
Weren’t they practically born to do housework?
“Now that I’ve said it, I should bring over one more.”
Before upgrading the altar, I had barely managed to bring over a 1-star skeleton soldier.
But now, the altar was level 2.
‘Who would be good to bring over?’
Since I was going to put it to work doing housework anyway, it didn’t matter much.
Soon, Maru and I would be actively clearing dungeons in earnest.
When that happened, I needed someone to take care of the housework.
“If the altar is level 2….”
Maybe this time I could summon a 2-star one.
I immediately brought over my smartphone and launched the game.
[Eldorad]
I tapped repeatedly, quickly skipping past the unnecessary screens, and entered the dungeon.
[First Layer, Area 1]
- Mid-Boss: Death Knight (★★★★★)
As soon as Area 1 appeared, I checked the skeletons first.
“Hmm.”
Everyone was bound to have desires.
As I looked through the monster list, I became a little greedy.
“2-star feels kind of lacking, doesn’t it?”
The current Maru was 4-star.
Not only 1-star, but even 2-star felt a bit ambiguous.
Who knew?
Even if the altar was level 2, maybe I could bring over a 3-star monster.
“Let’s just check.”
I immediately tapped the 3-star Skeleton Knight.
Then I ordered it to come to the altar in the center of the dungeon.
I remembered that, last time, I had initially tried to offer Maru as a sacrifice, only for him to be summoned instead.
This time, too, it would probably change from a sacrifice to a summon.
The Skeleton Knight soon arrived at the altar.
It would be nice if it worked, but the chances were high that it wouldn’t, so I also brought along a 2-star Skeleton Swordsman.
“Now then, why don’t you go up onto the altar?”
Just as I clicked the altar and was about to offer the Skeleton Knight as a sacrifice.
“?”
Celia suddenly appeared, pushed past the skeleton, and climbed onto the altar.
- The altar’s level is far too low to offer Celia (★★★★★★) as a sacrifice. Please upgrade the altar.
What was this situation?
Why had Celia suddenly climbed onto the altar?
“Is there some meaning to this?”
Celia merely stood still on the altar.
Seeing that, I couldn’t help tilting my head.
“Did the command get tangled up somehow?”
It had been working fine until now, but the command suddenly got tangled?
That seemed unlikely.
“Ah, don’t tell me this is rebellion?”
Had I done something to upset her?
I closed my eyes and thought it over carefully.
Of course, there was one thing that came to mind.
No, it didn’t seem like just one thing.
“I did work her too hard, didn’t I?”
Maybe I had made only Celia do too much work.
That thought suddenly crossed my mind.
Celia was in the position of chief administrator.
She had to look after not only the current dungeon, but also the four subordinate dungeons under it.
She must have had a lot to do already, but there weren’t enough personnel to handle the work.
That was why the lieutenant system had been the solution.
“The problem really is the lieutenant.”
The lieutenant currently under Celia was a worm-like monster.
Its name was Kkomuri.
I didn’t know where to use it right away, and even if I put it in the lieutenant position, it was useless.
A worm couldn’t very well do administrative work while wriggling around.
It was essentially a lieutenant for show.
In the end, it probably hadn’t been of any help to Celia.
“Hmm….”
Once I thought of it that way, I felt a little sorry.
But I did have one excuse.
In truth, Kkomuri had been the last one to appear in the lieutenant draw back then.
The problem was that a warning had appeared, saying that if I rejected even Kkomuri, the price of lieutenant draws would double from then on.
The current price of a lieutenant draw was 10,000 gems.
If that doubled, it would be a whopping 20,000 gems.
Since 5,000 gems cost 110,000 won, that was a bigger price than expected.
Of course, with my current abilities, it was money I could earn quickly.
But I had to look not at the present, but the future.
There was no guarantee there wouldn’t be penalties like this in the future, and the price might even continue to rise.
‘I feel bad for Celia, but choosing Kkomuri was the right call.’
There might come a time when I had to reject something because it was truly urgent or because I needed a specific monster.
When that time came, I would have no choice, but not now.
With a somewhat gloomy expression, Celia stepped down from the altar.
“I feel bad, so I should do something for her.”
For example, a gift or something like that.
But for now, I had something else to do.
“Let’s start over for now.”
The Skeleton Knight climbed onto the altar Celia had stepped down from.
- The altar’s level is too low to offer the Skeleton Knight (★★★) as a sacrifice. Please upgrade the altar.
“…….”
Of course it wouldn’t work.
It seemed that with altar level 2, a 3-star monster was completely out of reach.
“Just how high do I have to raise it?”
I wasn’t even asking for 5-star or 6-star.
It would be best if I could at least summon around 4-star monsters reliably.
Going further than that, it would be nice if a dimensional gate that allowed free passage opened, but that seemed unlikely.
Even if such a thing existed, it would probably require an absurdly high level.
“Wait.”
Then wouldn’t it be enough to really just raise the altar level?
Come to think of it, after upgrading the dungeon core, there should still be sacrifices left.
As soon as that thought occurred to me, I immediately took action.
A new window appeared before my eyes.
- Trait “True Dungeon Master” has activated.
First, I activated the trait.
- Absorbed sacrifices exist.
- Please select the category you wish to receive as a reward with the corresponding sacrifices.
1) Upgrade Dungeon Core (Cannot be selected)
2) Upgrade Dungeon Altar (Cannot be selected)
3) Create Empty Dungeon
But I couldn’t select it.
When I selected the corresponding item to see why it said it couldn’t be selected, another window appeared.
- The number of sacrifices required to upgrade this item is insufficient.
The number of sacrifices was insufficient.
In the end, there were no options I could choose right away.
“Tsk.”
It couldn’t be helped.
Since it had come to this, let’s move on to the next one.
The Skeleton Knight came down from the altar, and next, the Skeleton Swordsman climbed up.
- The altar’s level is low to offer the Skeleton Swordsman (★★) as a sacrifice. Please upgrade the altar.
No, this didn’t work either?
“Huh….”
I hadn’t expected even 2-star to be impossible.
If this was how it was, it was really a bust.
I didn’t ponder for long.
I knew there was no point in clinging to something that wasn’t going to work anyway.
What remained was 1-star.
Since I had been considering only skeleton types from the beginning, the choice was quick.
“Let’s go with a Skeleton Soldier.”
A 1-star monster that used an old sword.
This time, the Skeleton Soldier climbed onto the altar.
- Offering the Skeleton Soldier as a sacrifice.
- Warning! The corresponding monster has been confirmed as belonging to Master’s dungeon.
- Conflict! The corresponding monster will be changed from a sacrifice to a summon.
- There is a previous record of summoning an affiliated monster.
- [Monster Summon] has been unlocked.
- You will soon be able to receive the Skeleton Soldier.
So I really could still only summon 1-star monsters.
It was disappointing, but there was one big gain.
‘Monster Summon.’
When I looked through the system, there was no need to bring the monster I wanted to summon all the way to the altar.
A summon window appeared with just a touch.
On top of that, the number of entities I could summon was also set.
[Monster Summon] - (2/5)
- Maru (★★★★)
- Skeleton Soldier (★)
The total number of entities I could summon right now was five.
But for now, my purpose wasn’t to summon them for battle, but simply to make them do housework.
“I don’t need to pick any more right away.”
Soon after, an intense light began to burst out from the smartphone.
Since I had experience summoning Maru, I quickly placed the smartphone on the floor.
Then, after a moment, the light disappeared, and a Skeleton Soldier appeared above the smartphone.
“Clack!”
As soon as it saw me, it bent its waist at a right angle.
“…….”
How should I put it?
The Arch Lich had been like that, and Maru had been like that too, but each and every one of them felt overly dramatic in their actions.
‘Is this an undead trait?’
But I couldn’t say anything about it.
It had only just been summoned to Earth. Everything must be bewildering to it.
At times like this, I needed to assign it an excellent trainer.
“Maru.”
When I called his name, Maru darted into the room.
“We’ve got a newbie.”
I introduced the Skeleton Soldier beside me to Maru.
“By the way, it’ll need a name, won’t it?”
Since it would be living together with us at home from now on, it needed a name I could call it by.
“Hmm.”
This time, I pondered a little longer.
Naming was always difficult, so I was careful.
“How did I come up with Maru’s name again?”
I was sure it was because he seemed like an obedient puppy….
“Right, I’ve decided! From now on, your name is Koko.”
The newbie immediately had a name that suited it.
Maru and Koko.
They were names that went well together.
“Maru, make sure you hand things over to Koko properly.”
Maru saluted once, then took Koko and left the room.
Now, if even Koko became skilled at housework, there would truly be nothing left for me to worry about.
“So this is the life of a ruler.”
I lay down on the bed for a moment and stared at the ceiling.
“Now I just need to start building up my strength in earnest.”
Soon, I would enter the dungeon with Maru.
If there was one thing I found disappointing, it was that Maru’s grade was 4-star.
In hunter terms, he was B-rank, but I couldn’t help thinking it would have been nice if he were a little higher.
“Well, even so, that’s a happy worry.”
Crash—
At that moment, I heard the sound of a dish breaking beyond the door.
But I didn’t pay it much mind.
‘That’s how you learn.’
As I was having that meaningless thought.
Ding—
An alarm rang.
What was it?
I immediately looked at my smartphone.
- A special mission has occurred!
A special mission?
I immediately touched the screen.
- Dispatch Maru (★★★★) to the dungeon “Nest of the Evil God.”
- Reward: 5-Star Transcendence Ticket for Maru (★★★★)
- Time Limit: 4 hours
“Dispatch?”
Reading through the contents, it was a mission telling me to dispatch Maru.
The problem was the destination.
“If it’s the Nest of the Evil God, isn’t that mine?”
It was the name of my owned dungeon.
Why was it telling me to send Maru there?
‘Is it in some kind of danger?’
But my dungeon had Celia.
If it was someone on Celia’s level, she would stop most intruders.
I wasn’t worried at all.
“I really can’t figure it out.”
No matter how much I thought about it, I couldn’t tell why this mission had appeared.
But one thing was certain: the reward was good.
“If Maru becomes 5-star, that would really be amazing.”
It would essentially be the same as living with an A-rank hunter by my side.
The problem was that I had to send Maru.
Based on my past dispatch experiences, the chances of Maru returning immediately were extremely low.
“Am I going to have to live without Maru for a while?”
If there was one fortunate thing, it was that I had brought Koko in as Maru’s successor.
On top of that, there were still 4 hours before the special mission had to be carried out.
Crash—
I heard the sound once more.
Crash—
The sounds came one after another.
I immediately got up and left the room.
“This isn’t the time.”
I now had something to do at once.
Together with Maru, I had to train Koko for 4 hours!