75. The Withered Giant Kkomangi
Clearly, Kkomangi had been full of energy just before entering the park, and he eats the exact same meals as me every day.
So the cause of Kkomangi turning out like this was obvious.
…The massive batch of Golden Tickets produced inside the dungeon…
It must've been an enormous burden not just on me, but on Kkomangi too…!!!
"Keung…"
Kkomangi noticed I was back and crawled over.
"Kkomangi…"
…First things first, I needed to feed him something.
I pulled out a mountain of monster materials piled up in my dungeon inventory.
Enough slime jelly to fill the entire one-room apartment.
"Kkomangi… you okay? Think you can eat?"
"Keng…"
Kkomangi crawled over to the jelly mountain and started sucking them up one by one.
Huluk—
……
Ten minutes later.
He'd already devoured hundreds… no, thousands of them… but there wasn't much change.
He'd put on a little weight compared to before, but Kkomangi's body was still skin and bones.
Maybe because these were all byproducts from his own body to begin with… they weren't that effective.
That's when it hit me—
The sensation I'd felt back in the shelter.
Thanks to that, I vaguely knew that to nourish Kkomangi, feeding him living creatures would be the surest way.
'But no way.'
Once you cross that line, there's no going back.
Pretty much all lifeforms in the shelter are people… It wouldn't be hard to cause some "accidents" for dungeon explorers, but growing the dungeon that way… it doesn't align with my style.
Even if that's Kkomangi's natural growth method.
And anyway…
'His strength will gradually recover over time.'
I could tell because we're connected.
The power for my Dimensional Transferee ability keeps springing forth endlessly, like it's flowing in from another world.
…If I had to compare it to some game, it's like infinite minerals?
Gas for teching up or high-tier units seems to increase with levels…
Right now, Kkomangi felt like he'd been squeezed too hard and his resources had dipped into the negatives.
Once Kkomangi finished the jelly, I fed him another pile of monster materials from the dungeon inventory.
While stuffing him with that insane amount, I drafted a notice.
'Gotta clean up the Golden Ticket mess…'
And the evening tickets too.
With Kkomangi like this, evening ticket supply was impossible for now.
Well, more like I couldn't supply enough.
I'd release the backup tickets I had, but… I'd keep steady operations going for places like the salt fields, orchards, and park, while slashing quantities way down for monster-hunting dungeons like the original Slime Hill.
Conveniently, everyone was in park-opening mode and taking a break from hunting, so a dip in monster dungeon tickets shouldn't be a big deal.
"Get some good rest today, Kkomangi…"
Asking him to poop in this state would just suck his soul out instead of jelly poop.
He needed at least today to recover.
"Hmm… notice content…"
…Better not mention the Golden Ticket giveaway turning into a disaster.
Showing an imperfect side of dungeon ops going forward would be a bad move.
Good thing I had a way to fix it now.
Hello, this is the Dungeon Master.
The newly opened Starlight Lake Park has seen a ton of visitors right from day one—thanks so much for that.
That said, due to insufficient prep, a few unfortunate incidents occurred.
We spotted plenty of areas needing improvement, as well as parts you all seemed to love.
We'll patch up the shortcomings and amp up the hits to create an even better park.
And now, the bit you're all dying to know: the Golden Tickets.
Golden Tickets are a new ticket type I created, fixing the pain points of regular ones.
The park guerrilla event was a mini-promo for them.
Why this approach? Golden Tickets won't be sold on the market.
From now on, they'll only be obtainable through special methods!
I'll reveal how tomorrow along with the dungeon patch notes.
Also, a minor issue cropped up with dungeon ticket production during the event, so some monster dungeons will have fewer evening tickets than usual.
Bear with us on that.
The notice went up, and the gallery buzz instantly shifted.
Or had it always been about Golden Tickets?
Yeah, it hadn't even been that long since the Golden Ticket rain.
Isekai Survival Gallery
By the time I finished the notice, Kkomangi had polished off nearly the entire mountain of monster materials I'd given him.
Tons—literally several tons—gone into that tiny body… it just kept going in.
Thanks to that, he was back to over half his original size.
"Glad you're okay, Kkomangi… bro messed up."
"Hek hek…"
Still far from full, so I bulk-bought monster materials from the market and kept feeding him.
Sure enough, materials from shelter dungeons (not my ticket ones) worked better—Kkomangi recovered faster than before.
I'd slacked on monster dungeons while teching up facilities like the park, orchards, and salt fields. Time to make more.
"About time to open mid-layer monster dungeons…"
Planning new Cockatrice and Minotaur dungeons using those two materials I'd fed him.
Tasty chicken and beef.
Cockatrices can petrify, so without proper prep, they're a tough bird…
Minotaurs outbulk even Owl Bears with their brute mass. Muscly, so meat's not the best… but hey, beef.
The worry with every new monster? Variants.
'Hmm… no clue what variants these'll spawn, kinda concerning…'
Should be fine—run another Variant Strategy Contest with Golden Tickets as prizes.
With the park open, maybe some hidden masters will show up with killer strats.
And the key part of tomorrow's patch notes.
How to get Golden Tickets.
Thanks to past gains and my link with Kkomangi?
Feeding him that massive material haul let me spot a new change.
It was…
"Dungeon Status Window."
I checked the monster list in the dungeon status window.
New monsters popped up that weren't in my old dungeons.
Giant Slime
Giant Rock Lizard
Giant Mud Crab
Giant Giant Spider
Giant Orc
Giant Owl Bear
Giant Harpy
Result of feeding him all that bulk? Giant series newly unlocked.
"Newly unlocked monsters…"
Tied to my growth? Or just what happens with mass feeding? Dunno, but I'd use these for Golden Ticket supply.
I'd learned dungeon powers go beyond status tweaks while making Golden Tickets.
With my current level…
I could set those Giant series drop items to Golden Tickets.
Like with variants, special monsters let me embed rewards inside.
If this works, their natural population control via cost means steady Golden Tickets without overtaxing Kkomangi.
"Alright, let's do it."
I added a new function to the status window.
No more boxed in by the status window.
Key is how you apply the power. Now that I'd learned magic and gained some dungeon control…
I could surely tweak the status window too.
Projecting a strong image using mental construct techniques.
Slowly, new text etched beside the monster names.
[Giant Slime] [Item Drop Setting]
[Giant Rock Lizard] [Item Drop Setting]
[Giant Mud Crab] [Item Drop Setting]
[Giant Giant Spider] …
"…Ha, success."
Giant series… without the park Golden Ticket fiasco, I might've never discovered this.
Turning crisis into opportunity…? Fixed the mess and unlocked Item Drop Settings to boot.
'Things are going my way…'
Stay sharp, though.
Anyway, just reveal these in tomorrow's patch notes…
But first, check Giant specs myself.
Grabbed an empty dungeon slot and deployed the Giant series.
Watched via dungeon observation as they respawned.
My current dungeons regen most monsters quick.
"Giants, so maybe 2-3x bigger?"
First to regen in a glow, as expected: Giant Slime.
"Takes forever…"
Nearly a full minute for the glow to form the shape.
Glow faded, slime formed mid-air and dropped due to gravity.
BOOM—!
Huge roar, ground cratered around impact, shockwave shook the trees.
"……Huh?"
Something off about the slime's size on screen.
"Wait, why's the perspective all wonky…?"
Like the slime was way too close to the camera?
No, this was…
Quick-deployed regular slimes.
Unlike Giants, they popped up instantly.
Eyeballed comparison with regular slimes…
"…Th-this thing's like 10 meters tall…?"
Regular slimes max out at 1m height tops. But Giant Slime? At least 10x that.
Yeah…
……Giants were fucking huge.