Opening the Dungeon (8)
If I thought about it coolly, I’d been unlucky. Still, even with two possibilities staring me in the face, I didn’t give up. The effects were different. While the chance of a ★ appearing was the same, the odds for ★★ and ★★★ could be different, right? Please, let it be a ★★★. If it appeared after breaking through a 1% probability in just ten pulls, I was prepared to use it to the very end, no matter what it was. Please, 3-star! 3-star!
But that future wasn't in the cards for me. As the purple smoke settled, what appeared in the summoning circle was neither a slime nor a slaine, but a corpse reeking of rot.
High Ghoul (★★☆) has been summoned.
"Well, at least it's a 3-star."
Wow. Between the slime and the high ghoul, I’d pulled two 3-stars. Since the total star count was three, they were both 3-stars. Hahaha. "Shit." If a 4% chance was going to hit, couldn't it have been the 1% one to make me feel better? It was top-tier at toying with a man's heart.
"No, wait. At least I don't have to fill the slime squad completely. Right?"
Kkeureureuk?
"Can't you understand me?"
Kkeureureuk?
The high ghoul tilted its head, its rotted arms hanging limp. Even if it couldn't understand my words, it likely possessed the intelligence to follow my orders. It was an evolution of a ghoul—sturdier than the base form. "I don't even know what a normal ghoul is like, so what am I..."
Suddenly, lightning struck my brain. I opened the 'Magic Stone Summoning' menu and cheered at the updated list.
# Slime 0 / 5 (Lowest)
# Ghoul 0 / 10 (Lowest)
# High Ghoul 0 / 10 (Low)
Current summonable monsters: 3 types.
"How kind."
It consumed nearly twice as many lowest-grade magic stones as the slime, but thanks to summoning a high ghoul—the superior species—it seemed I could now summon the lower species as well. 'Yeah. If it's going to be unfriendly anyway, I might as well enjoy the fun of figuring it out.'
There were a few other problems I needed to look into. But I couldn't let the high ghoul just sit around, so I took it and headed out of the cave.
Gagagak.
The slimes were gnawing away at the cave walls, bit by bit. The one working the hardest was the Slime Dragon (planned) I’d summoned with the monster scroll. Though the progress was slow, it was definitely piercing the wall, and Lime, wearing a stem armband, was at the forefront, gnawing away with the most vigor. Seeing her head buried in the wall, hands pressed against the stone, she almost looked commendable.
"Working so hard that your insides are sparkling..."
Sparkling? "Hey, you little shit!!"
I rushed over in one stride and grabbed Lime by the shoulders. Lime stood still, a half-chewed magic stone in her mouth. *Gulp.* Lime swallowed the stone.
"Heh, yeah. I told you to eat the cave wall, but I didn't say you could eat whatever you found in the middle of it, did I?"
Lime stopped moving. At the same time, the other slimes froze. "Oh? Look at these guys."
Perhaps because they’d eaten the magic stones, their levels had all risen slightly. I was both proud and pissed off that these guys were auto-leveling on their own. An increase in combat power was welcome, but I didn't appreciate my resources—which might be limited—being consumed without my supervision.
"Lime. Your squad, if you find magic stones while digging the cave, you collect them. You know what a magic stone is, right? Do you want me to show you how to pull them out of you?"
Shake-shake.
As expected of someone who surrendered to me because they didn't want to die, she was damn good at looking after her own life. I rubbed Lime's face with my hand and affirmed, "Lime. While you dig the cave as I instructed, you take the magic stones from the other slimes and pile them all up. Right next to my bed. Got it?"
Nod-nod.
Lime nodded vigorously, and I ordered the slime squad to return to work. 'They didn't find any when I was digging earlier.'
Why did the magic stones have to pop out just when I realized I needed more? Or had these guys been eating them before I could even see them? *Crunch, crunch.*
"...Looks like the latter."
After staring at them for about a minute, one of them had a magic stone in its mouth. The creature popped the stone out of its body, and Lime picked it up to store it in her own. "Yeah, just do that. If the amount is low when I get back..."
Kkeureureuk.
Lime started banging her head against the wall to show she was a model worker. Since I’d warned her once, she wouldn't slack off. I’d let it slide this time since I hadn't known magic stones were in the walls, but if there was a next time where they truly slacked off...
'That’s when you really become Lime juice.'
Lime (★★☆☆) would become Lime (★☆☆). A 3-star Slime Dragon that listened well and worked hard was better than a 4-star slime human that didn't listen. Anyway, when I returned, there would be a decent amount of magic stones secured. Given my luck, it would probably just be lowest-grade ones, but it was still welcome to have something appear while digging the dungeon.
"Let's go, High Ghoul."
Kkeureuk.
I arrived at the cave entrance with the high ghoul. The wooden traps I’d made were already completely destroyed. 'They did their job well.'
Making a loud noise to signal the presence of an intruder. Since I couldn't make decent traps with my own hands, this was the limit. 'Would've been nice if I had a goblin.'
When you think of traps, don't you think of goblins? But I’d used up all my monster summoning scrolls. So, I had no choice but to wait for the next opportunity.
"High Ghoul, remember this place well."
I scanned the surroundings and carefully led the high ghoul out of the cave. Fortunately, there was no one outside, and I took the high ghoul to the logging site I’d opened up.
"Your mission is this, this." I pointed to the trees Lime had felled by gnawing at the base. "Lift them."
Kkeureuk.
The high ghoul tried to lift a tree, but it lacked the strength, and its arm nearly fell off. "Then lift this."
Kkeureuk.
The high ghoul held a log in one hand. It was the size of the log the system recognized, and the high ghoul tucked the log under its arm with its free hand. "From now on, you are to stack logs of this size at the dungeon entrance. Only these logs here. Got it?"
Kkeureuk.
I’d even specified them one by one, and the high ghoul nodded, as if it understood that much. About twenty logs I’d designated. I tucked two under my own arm and had the high ghoul lead the way. The high ghoul looked around and started running in one direction.
"As expected of a 2-star by birth."
Fortunately, the high ghoul arrived at the dungeon entrance safely with the log. I stacked my log at the entrance, and the high ghoul followed suit. "You can do a good job, right? I trust you."
Kkeureuk.
The high ghoul waved both hands and turned its back. The sight of it running toward the place where the timber was piled was, to anyone's eyes, that of a diligent worker. 'If you do it right, I'll even give you a name.'
Since it's a high ghoul, Harsus. Well, I'm not its father, so it should be fine, right?
* * *
The children didn't return even after lunchtime. Although they were a bit big to be called children, they were still greenhorns who hadn't long finished their coming-of-age ceremony. To the village elders, they were always immature kids, and their behavior was no different.
"Nobody has returned. Isn't something wrong?" The parents of the missing young men gathered in one corner of the square, worrying about their children's safety. Even after the sun had passed its zenith, the young men hadn't returned for lunch.
"Oh, kids can play late sometimes! Aren't they in the prime of their youth? Just wait!" Richard's father, the village chief, shouted, losing his temper. The other parents were intimidated by the authority of the village chief, but they couldn't just sit still when their children were in danger.
"But Chief. Isn't it strange that even Richard hasn't returned? He's a kid who shows up even when he's slacking off at work as soon as it's mealtime."
"...Eing, they probably went off to hunt some piglet! They’re just trying to eat it among themselves without bringing it to the village to share! Don't worry! Is there any dangerous monster in this land? No! Isn't that right, May... where is that woman?"
The chief looked for the woman named May. May, a widow who raised Mary alone—who was also the lover of his son, Richard—and the village's only mage, hadn't appeared in the square.
"Maybe she's researching all night again? It's sleeping time now..."
"Where is there a mother who sleeps when her daughter has gone missing?! Are you out of your mind?!" At the chief's roar, Jack and Kai's parents spat harsh words in their hearts. But the chief wasn't observant enough to notice that, and he stomped off to pound on May's door.
Bang, bang, bang!
"Hey! What are you doing! Are you sleeping?!"
The chief pounded on the door so rudely it was a wonder he’d even knocked at all. Fortunately, there was a stir inside. If she hadn't woken up after the chief pounded that loudly, something would have been wrong.
"......What is it.... *Yawn*."
May, looking dazed as if she’d just woken up, greeted the chief with her clothes disheveled. Not being Mary's mother for nothing, the valley visible between her disheveled clothes was incredibly deep, but the chief composed himself and explained the situation.
"...Hmm, is that so? Then they'll be back before nightfall. *Yawn*, what a fuss. I'm going to sleep...."
Thud.
May was carefree, and seeing that, the other parents wondered if they were overreacting.
"But Chief. Even so..."
"Ugh, let's wait until evening! If they still don't show up, we'll go look for them. Until then, get back to work! We're still a long way from paying our taxes!"
At the chief's urging, the villagers returned to their workplaces one by one, harboring anxiety. Until the time the sun crossed the mountains, they immersed themselves in work to forget their unease. The young men did not return.