Level Up! The First Adventurer
Level up! As the floating sensation enveloping his body faded, the man opened his eyes.
Shwaaa—
A vast grassland stretched out before him... or maybe it was more like a hill?
Unlike the Shelter, there was an endless blue sky, a cool breeze blowing through, and slimes freely bouncing around the hill caught his eye.
Blink blink.
"Wh-what... is this...? Am I dreaming?"
He'd bought an item from the community market as if entranced.
Of course, he'd thought it was a joke...
"It's real...."
The rustling breeze brushed past him, as if to say this was no dream.
"But what's this?"
In the corner of his vision floated a blue window like the community interface, with numbers ticking down like a timer.
[29:37]
[29:36]
"It's counting down..."
What did that mean? And how would he get back? Thoughts like that raced through his mind, but...
Thud— Thud—
"Guess I'll hunt first?"
Maybe because he'd lived so long starved for monsters, his mindset was to take down the ones in front of him first and think later, rather than overplanning.
Tat-tat-tat— Slash—
*
"Oh...."
I fiddled with Kkomangi while staring at the screen on the monitor.
"So using a ticket really sends them into the dungeon I made."
A timer hovered above the head of the man who'd entered the dungeon.
"Probably the ticket duration...."
The base ticket time was likely 30 minutes. Leveling up the ticket duration in the dungeon status would extend it, right?
Slash—
The man on screen deftly swung his sword, cutting down slimes one by one.
"Whoa, this uncle's got some slick moves? Are all explorers like this?"
No comparison, so I couldn't gauge his exact level, but he looked pretty seasoned to me.
The man picked up drops from the fallen slimes, wandering around and hunting every slime he spotted.
A few facts I'd learned from monitoring:
"The map really isn't that big yet...."
Slime Hill looked endless, but...
"At best, school playground size?"
I'd guessed from the observation camera not going farther, but seeing the explorer uncle hit an invisible wall and turn back confirmed you couldn't go beyond, no matter how vast it seemed.
And another bit of info.
"Monsters respawn even with someone in the dungeon."
A glow gathered, and poof—a slime popped out, soon bouncing around the hill.
As I analyzed the dungeon while spectating the explorer uncle's hunt, the 30-minute ticket time flew by.
The uncle's body was wrapped in light, then vanished from the dungeon.
"That's how you exit, huh?"
Anyway, I now knew my ability had huge potential.
In a world where dungeon resources were everything, I'd become a dungeon master. Sure, only slimes for now, but from the community reactions, even catching one slime was tough, so it was plenty impressive.
The issue was...
Monster Max Population Growth Rate LV. 0
Monster Respawn Speed Growth Rate LV. 0
Variant Appearance Rate LV. 0
Owned Field Count LV. 0
Ticket Duration LV. 0
…
Remaining Points: 1
Dungeon abilities grew with points.
"How do I get remaining points?"
The standard way was hunting monsters myself for EXP. Leveling up probably gave more points.
"But I don't wanna work...."
I knew what was needed to strengthen it, but I didn't want to risk my life hunting monsters....
As I pondered seriously entering the dungeon to hunt—maybe to save this crumbling world—a new window popped up.
Ticket user's settlement complete.
EXP +31 acquired
Slime Jelly x1 acquired
Level up!
Invest your remaining points.
"Oh?"
Looks like I wouldn't have to suffer after all.
"Damn it, Kkomangi!! I love you!!!"
"Hek hek..."
I hoisted Kkomangi up and chomped wide-mouthed into his squishy head.
This cute little guy!!
"Hmm... Should I put the remaining tickets up on the market?"
The ticket user gave me some of their EXP and items from the dungeon, so hoarding tickets would be a loss.
"Tickets come from Kkomangi's poop tomorrow anyway, so yeah, list 'em."
As I went to post tickets on the community market, I remembered something important.
"Oh right, the explorer uncle cleared all the slimes...."
Posting now would suck since efficiency would be low right after a clear.
Monsters needed time to respawn.
"Speaking of, I leveled up, so let's spend those points."
Remaining Points: 2
Too many dungeon status options to decide easily.
Boost monster respawn speed? Not bad... but no idea on exact efficiency....
I started pondering each option again.
*
The man returned to his original spot amid a glow of light.
"Back?"
He hurriedly opened his expandable backpack.
"Ha... haha... It's not a dream... not a dream!!!"
He laughed maniacally, shouting.
"Not the time!!"
He snapped to his senses and hurried home with light steps.
"Vera!! Honey!!! I'm home!!"
"Daddy!!"
A little girl ran out and hugged him.
"...Honey, what's up? Suddenly..."
"I made a killing today! Vera, wanna go eat something yummy for dinner?"
"Yummy stuff!!"
Tomorrow would be another day where even one slime was hard to catch, but right now, he wanted to be the reliable head of the family.
...Hope another ticket shows up on the market tomorrow?
He could only pray for the miracle to repeat.
*
*
"Alright, decided."
After agonizing over the dungeon status...
The option I chose to invest points in was
Owned Field Count LV. 0
Owned Field Count first. Right now, I only had one field, the one I named Slime Hill.
More fields would basically double the dungeon's scale.
Or maybe not. But I had to experiment one by one.
"Ah, screw it—let's go!!"
Owned Field Count LV. 0 → 1
I invested the point, and the dungeon list in the status now showed three.
[Slime Hill]
[New Dungeon 1]
[New Dungeon 2]
"Whoa, two new ones? Jackpot."
Checking the new dungeons via observation: forest and rocky mountain terrain. Initial terrain seemed random.
Key is whether new fields count as fully separate dungeons.
If all fields merged into one dungeon, they'd share max monster count.
If so, total loss....
But luckily, mobs respawned separately in each. Different respawn timers per dungeon meant they were fully independent.
"Phew... good."
I customized [New Dungeon 1] and [New Dungeon 2] into [Slime Hill 2] and [Slime Hill 3].
More dungeons meant more tickets now.
Ticket Production Count LV. 0 → 1
...Come to think of it,
"I can't do anything about tickets, huh?"
I didn't make them—Kkomangi had to poop for that.
"Kkomangi, you wanna poop or something?"
"...Hek hek?"
...Just from a day, but his bowel activity was super active, so I'd see the production boost soon.
Knock knock—
"Hm...? Who's this late at night?"
Click—
"Who—gasp."
The moment I opened the door, my eyes locked on the enormous bosom.
"Hng... You're the tenant? Nice to meet you. I'm the landlord here."
A weary-looking mature elf stood at the door.