Chapter 051
The dungeon monsters keep offering sacrifices – 051
EP.51 Selecting the Second Manager (2)
Vampire Aren.
She was a young vampire who barely escaped the grand assault of the Holy Knights.
Currently, she was in a state of leaving the dungeon where she originally lived, and was contentedly living in her current location.
“There are so many friends here, I love it!”
Blood-sucking butterflies fluttered around Aren.
Aren caught one of the fluttering blood-sucking butterflies and stuffed it into her mouth.
The more she chewed, the juicier the essence of the blood-sucking butterfly burst in her mouth.
“… Delicious! Indeed, butterfly friends are the best!”
Aren’s red pupils sparkled brightly.
That’s how satisfied Aren was with her current lifestyle.
While playing and frolicking around with the blood-sucking butterflies, she glanced momentarily at a corner.
There, some beings had taken their place.
“Ugh….”
The beings in the corner were giant spiders.
They were still drooling, looking at Aren.
“They’re not friends….”
As Aren pouted and tried to avert her gaze elsewhere.
“Were you quietly playing here?”
A savior appeared.
“Pretty sis!”
It was Celia.
Aren immediately jumped into Celia’s embrace.
This place was Celia’s dungeon, where she was the Manager.
The dungeon, consisting of several areas, was quite extensive, and Aren was staying in an area called Area 3.
Area 3 was a place close to the natural scenery with vast fields, carnivorous plants, blood-sucking butterflies, and spiders.
Celia had built a small shack for Aren to stay in such a place.
Of course, it wasn’t entirely free.
Aren was not yet officially a part of the dungeon.
She was a visitor.
Strictly speaking, she was akin to a dungeon refugee.
Since they couldn’t just let Aren play around, celia assigned her a task.
It was the management of the Area.
Unlike other areas, Area 3 didn’t have monsters that acted and behaved on their own.
Therefore, Aren followed Celia’s orders to personally manage the monsters within Area 3.
And the reason Celia came to see Aren wasn’t much different now.
“Today, I want to give Aren a different mission.”
Celia smiled and stroked Aren’s head.
“Yeah!”
Aren also smiled as she felt Celia’s touch and replied.
“Aren is really good.”
Celia praised, handing something to Aren.
It was a small box.
Aren received the box and checked its contents.
Rustle, rustle –
Something was rustling inside the box.
Upon closer inspection, it was some worm-like creature.
“A tiny creature…?”
Aren muttered while looking at the wriggling presence in the box.
“Yes, that’s right. It’s the child sent down by the Master. From now on, Aren’s mission is to take good care of that child. It’s very important, so there should be no mistakes. Understood?”
Celia believed that Aren would handle this level of mission well.
Originally, she should have raised the child herself, but the current workload was quite overwhelming.
In this situation, with one less hand, she entrusted it to Aren.
While giving instructions, celia cautioned Aren.
With the caution,
“Instead, if Aren takes good care, I’ll let the spider friends out.”
She also presented a carrot to boost Aren’s enthusiasm.
“Really…?”
No sooner said than done.
Aren’s eyes sparkled once again.
For Aren, the spider friends, or rather, not friends but spiders, were not beings she wanted to get close to.
So, celia’s words were very welcoming to her.
“Don’t worry! I’ll take good care of my worm friend!”
Aren clenched her fist, revealing confidence.
She immediately opened the box and placed the self-proclaimed worm friend on her palm.
“Worm friend! From now on, Aren will protect you!”
Understanding Aren’s determination, the worm friend wriggled more energetically.
While watching the wriggling worm friend, Aren skillfully grabbed a blood-sucking butterfly that was nearby.
Then, she placed it in front of the worm friend.
“Let’s be friends with the butterfly friend too!”
The worm friend wriggled and began to wrap around the blood-sucking butterfly that Aren had caught.
Wrapping its body completely, it suddenly started to open its mouth.
Inside the mouth, there were small thorn-like things sticking closely together.
“Wow! The worm friend also likes the butterfly friend!”
Aren mumbled as she observed the worm friend closely.
“Hmm? What’s this?”
As the worm friend was wriggling, something fell onto Aren’s palm.
“… Scales?”
To Aren’s eyes, the worm friend not only had a similar appearance but also a surface that felt similar.
“Oh! It’s just like the long friend I know!”
The snake, which Aren knew, also had scales like that.
However, the worm friend’s scales felt a bit harder.
‘I wonder if the worm friend will transform like the long friend when it grows up.’
Aren looked at the worm friend with anticipation and excitement.
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Name: Little Worm, wriggler (★)
Characteristics: A worm’s offspring. Crawls in the ground.
– Would you like to set as the Manager of the dungeon ‘Nest of Evil God’? –
[Yes]
[No]
The Little Worm that came out on the last of the ten Manager selected.
Originally, I was going to refuse.
But if I refused, the cost of the next Manager selection would double, so I chose the little guy as an Manager.
“Alright, let’s think positively.”
Celia was originally a 3-star as well.
That Celia, who was now exerting tremendous influence, might not the Little Worm also undergo unusual growth?
Of course, comparing it to Celia was unreasonable, and I knew it well.
Still, I didn’t let go of the thread of hope, believing in the small possibility.
In addition to that, I secretly hoped for a special promotion package to come out like it did during Celia’s time, but there was no appearance of such a thing.
“Well, relying too much on packages isn’t right either.”
Understanding myself, I sent the Little Worm that came out from the draw to Celia.
Celia’s dungeon, where she was the Manager, had a well-established system.
Even if a 1-star monster was assigned as an Manager, the system wouldn’t collapse just because of that.
“Let’s draw monsters separately.”
Apologizing to Celia like that, I checked the dungeon’s list.
[Nest of Evil God]
– Manager: Celia (★★★★★★)
– Assistant: Little Worm (★)
– Subordinates’ managed dungeons: [Red-Headed Tribe], [Village Shrouded in Mist], [Remnants of the Abyss], [Sticky Puddle]
– Special Note: There exists a dungeon core connected to the master, Lee Kang-hyun.
“Looking at it this way, the difference is too much, isn’t it?”
1-star below 6 stars… I had the intention to definitely purchase any package that would allow the Little Worm to grow.
For the time being, I could only hope that the Little Worm would grow well with a sorry heart towards Celia.
I prepared for the next draw.
Since I gave Celia a new assistant, this time it was Azmo’s turn.
Fortunately, the subordinate to be drawn this time could be decided quite easily.
As soon as I rerolled the draw, a monster with four stars appeared.
– Name: Genius of Transformation, Vetter (★★★★)
– Characteristics: A slime with a blue body.
It is a genius of transformation with the ability to mimic the appearance of others. Once Vetter sees someone, it never forgets and copies the appearance exactly. While copying the appearance, it also copies the faint characteristics of the other person.
– Would you like to set as the Manager of the dungeon ‘Temptation of Illusions’? –
[Yes]
[No]
“Wow!”
A blue slime appeared.
Just saying slime might make it look weak, but this fellow was a 4-star.
“Mimicking the appearance exactly.”
Moreover, upon checking the details, it seemed to be a monster useful in various ways.
“This way, the biggest problem will disappear.”
Dungeon managed by Azmo, currently had one major problem.
That was the overly simple and standardized composition.
Since all monsters were composed of incubus, it would be easy for intruders to deal with.
In reality, dungeons of B-rank and above mostly had monsters of various attributes, making it challenging.
Calculating various possibilities and mobilizing multiple hunters for countermeasures made it complicated.
Currently, having only incubus would make it a matter of time before they were defeated.
Now, although Death Knight and Arc Lich were there, it was not easy to place them in that dungeon indefinitely.
Certainly, I had to focus more on my original dungeon, where my life was at stake, than Azmo’s dungeon.
Of course, I didn’t foolishly abandon Azmo’s dungeon easily.
“More dungeons are better.”
I immediately assigned the fellow from the subordinate draw to Azmo.
[Temptation of Illusions]
Manager: Azmo (★★★★)
Assistant: Vetter (★★★★)
Even though I only added an assistant, I already felt a sense of accomplishment.
Finally, I touched the screen to check another dungeon under my possession.
It was the dungeon where I captured Ji Tae-hoon and Ji Seong-min last time.
It was the F-grade Skeleton Dungeon.
Perhaps it was due to my ‘True Dungeon Master’ trait.
Originally, humans couldn’t hear the words of skeletons.
But thanks to my trait, I started hearing their words too.
As a result, I could communicate with the F-grade skeletons, the monsters in the dungeon, and they pledged loyalty to me.
Well, having more dungeons wouldn’t hurt, so I accepted their loyalty.
“Hmm, can’t I manage them separately?”
The problem was that unlike other dungeons, the F-grade Skeleton Dungeon, where I personally obtained loyalty, had no way of management.
[Faint Skeleton Dungeon]
Manager: Vacant
Moreover, I couldn’t assign anyone as the Manager as I pleased.
It merely occupied one slot in the screen list with the name of the Skeleton Dungeon, and I couldn’t touch anything about it.
“Do I have to go there and manage it myself?”
It’s truly an inconvenient system.
I needed to find out why only this place couldn’t be managed through the smartphone.
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‘Temptation of Illusions’ Dungeon.
There, Azmo, the Manager, was talking to someone.
“If you have this air freshener, the scent of your clothes will change very nicely.”
Azmo said so and started spraying air freshener on the clothes in front of him.
– Spritz –
“How about it? Isn’t the scent very pleasant?”
As Azmo said, a good scent began to emanate from the clothes.
The entity who owned the clothes nodded in satisfaction.
It was none other than Death Knight.
To have such a pleasant scent from the maid outfit hanging on his shield was truly satisfying for Death Knight.
At the same time, Arc Lich was beside him.
He had recently received the grace of Master and upgraded from Lich to Arc Lich.
He, too, was feeling satisfaction, enjoying the enchantment applied by Azmo’s subordinates.
Perhaps this place was like heaven?
Death Knight and Ark Lich wanted to stay longer in this dungeon.
And then,
A change began.
Wooong-
The entrance of the dungeon began to vibrate.