Chapter 10
Chapter 10
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 10
Chapter Title: The Dungeon Emerges
-----------------------------------------------------------------
The Continent Adventurer Guild Union Office.
The office was filled with all sorts of people.
Each one was the branch manager of an adventurer guild scattered across the continent.
From the capitals and major cities of empires and kingdoms to rural branches, the sheer number was impressive.
"The Union Leader enters."
A rugged man covered in scars appeared.
He was Kyle, the one who united and led all the adventurer guilds spread far and wide.
"Thank you all for taking time out of your busy schedules."
Everyone fell silent.
No one had carved out time just to hear pleasantries when they were all so busy.
Yet no one dared speak up openly in front of Kyle.
Who was Kyle, after all?
The Union Leader ruling over every adventurer guild on the continent.
And though retired, he was an Adamantium-rank adventurer.
Considering how few such ranks existed on the continent, one could truly feel the weight of Kyle's presence.
In the midst of that heavy silence, Kyle wasn't oblivious.
"Alright, since you're all busy, let's get straight to the point."
He slammed the desk, drawing everyone's attention, and opened his mouth.
"First up is the matter involving the White Church."
People showed their displeasure right from the first agenda item.
"The White Church's issues have nothing to do with us, do they?"
Someone countered Kyle's words.
A few others nodded slightly in agreement.
It was a natural reaction, given the differing natures of adventurer guilds and churches.
"This isn't so simple. The White Church is staying silent for now, but from what I've looked into separately, it seems one of the sealing stones has been released."
"……!"
Even those who had been indifferent widened their eyes and turned toward Kyle.
"What... what does that mean...?"
"Sir Kyle. Can you take responsibility for that claim? This isn't something to speculate on!"
"Even so, the Church hasn't said a word. Isn't it too early to jump to conclusions?"
The news of a sealing stone being released was no mere rumor to them.
Inside those sealing stones slumbered the demons that had once ravaged the Eldorado Continent.
Not just powerful monsters, but high-ranking demons and even demon kings were sealed within.
Fortunately, the continent had united its strength to repel and seal them away.
The resulting sealing stones were stored deep in the Church's underground vaults under strict management.
But now, one had been released.
If Kyle's words were true, the Church bore grave responsibility.
"However, with no official announcement from the Church, I trust you'll all keep this to yourselves."
Spreading word without the Church's confirmation?
They might even be branded as heretics against the goddess.
And if that happened, Heretic Inquisitors would come knocking.
A visit from a Heretic Inquisitor was as good as a death sentence.
They were mad dogs loyal only to the Church, hounding their targets until death.
Everyone knew that, so Kyle trusted they'd keep quiet.
"Next, the list of newly appeared dungeons. Sixty-seven in this month alone. Fortunately—or unfortunately—no standout ones."
Adventurers explored dungeons and hunted monsters, selling byproducts or using them for gear.
Dungeons were essentially resources.
By "standout," Kyle meant no high-rank ones.
"All sixty-seven dungeons will be rated Iron rank."
Guilds primarily rated dungeons.
The scale matched adventurer ranks: Iron, Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, Diamond, Adamantium.
New adventurers started at Iron.
Dungeons followed the same system.
Kyle's words implied these sixty-seven were so unremarkable they barely qualified as Iron.
"Finally, beyond those sixty-seven, there's one more."
"That makes sixty-eight, doesn't it? Why single it out?"
Everyone nodded in agreement.
No need to confuse things by separating it.
"This one's a bit ambiguous. A dungeon found in the Sail Kingdom mountains, discovered by a hunter."
The issue was, Kyle added, no energy readings at all from it.
"Maybe the dungeon itself is just weak?"
Most would think that, but Kyle was cautious.
"So, I'm temporarily rating it Bronze."
Kyle mulled over the hunter's words again.
'There was nothing here until ten days ago. I saw it with my own eyes.'
Maybe he overreacted based on that alone.
Still, Kyle worried about potential issues.
Better safe than sorry.
"If no anomalies in a week, we'll downgrade it to Iron."
After getting the Status Window, I'd been insanely busy.
Mana tests, then full-on porter work.
Thankfully, porter gigs were easy to snag. Who knew the Status Window gap was this big?
One other change?
The Status Window hooked me on that first EXP gain.
Non-stop running left me beat.
"But tomorrow's a rest day..."
A couple days off should fix me up.
Fired up a game for the first time in ages.
Sudden mental breathing room, maybe.
"Come to think of it, it's been about a week?"
The Dungeon Stealth from my first login popped into mind.
One-week duration, already expired.
Looking back, did it even matter?
I'd even paid real money, logged in a few times, then ditched it for work.
But before quitting, I'd given the lieutenant full authority.
"Hope the lieutenant's doing alright."
Touching the screen showed my dungeon.
The maid-outfitted lieutenant was still patrolling everywhere.
"Man, she's diligent."
Even in a game, no one could hate that work ethic.
That wasn't the issue.
I was staring at my dungeon on screen.
Yes, definitely a dungeon.
"Wait, what the hell is this?"
Was I seeing things?
The dungeon looked totally different.
The long straight passage now opened into ant-nest-like caverns midway.
Invaders would pass narrow halls into wide open spaces.
And not just one—three of them.
Broad flat floors with pillars for cover dotted around.
"Whoa, they really put thought into this."
Near the entrance, skeletons were mass-deployed.
"It grew this much?"
I'd just left it alone...
Full authority to the lieutenant was the right call.
But this level of build-up must've burned gems.
Ten monsters cost 5,000 gems.
Nearly 30 skeletons now—way more than the 5,000 I had left.
My eyes went straight to the gem count.
"Huh?"
It was ridiculous.
"4,300 left?"
My eyes okay?
Ten skeletons cost me 5,000. Idling dropped it by only 700.
Yet monsters tripled, dungeon expanded hugely.
"......"
Should I be happy?
Felt like my efforts got invalidated.
No, positive spin.
My involvement got it this far.
I tapped a skeleton.
They're all 1-stars with the exception of the 2-star I had fused before.
Fuse the rest for more power? Hit [Fusion].
Ah.
Forgot the devs' style.
This game pushed spending hard.
No fusing deployed monsters meant keep gacha-ing with gems.
Use new pulls for fusion.
Not entirely bad.
It made sense another way.
Just leaving it alone makes it grow so easily, I couldn't increase the difficulty here..
"The Dev guy, I get it."
If the difficulty is too high, I'll give up soon, and if it's too low, there's no reason to spend money.
When I touched the screen again, a new alarm popped up..
"......?"
Cancel what I just said.
This game was brutally hard.
A bronze grade dungeon, isn't this too much?.
The Lieutenant is a 6-star.
And just looking at the skeletons, there were a lot of them..
"How strong are the invaders?"
Now I was scared.
Surely they're not trying to induce spending money, right?
Even so, with 6-star monsters, they've crossed the line.
Having been in the Eldorado continent for 2 years, I'm confident in my knowledge of adventurer grades.
Grades are determined in the order of Iron, Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, Diamond, Adamantium.
Bronze
Second from bottom.
In fact, on the Eldorado continent, the existence of 6-star level beings is so rare that it only exists in historical records.
In reality, my dungeon should have been Gold at least, right?
It seems like games are indeed different from reality.
"Sigh..."
My hand was naturally going to the shop window, not to end the game.
There's no choice.
If my dungeon is weak, I have to buy gems or something.
Today, the Adventurer's Guild was bustling with people.
This was the Adventurer's Guild in the Sale Kingdom.
Three adventurers, armed with shabby equipment, entered the guild.
They looked like newly minted adventurers to anyone who saw them.
They went straight to the information desk and presented their adventurer IDs.
"Um... we'd like to inquire about nearby dungeons. Do you have any requests?"
The attendant checked their IDs.
Iron-rank adventurers.
With their rank, they could only go to iron rank dungeons.
However, the number of iron rank adventurers had recently surged..
All the remaining iron rank dungeons currently have requests out.
"Excuse me, is there any dungeon left?"
They'd leave empty-handed.
The attendant felt sorry.
Then recalled the branch chief's words.
- Bronze dungeon, but treat as Iron. Rank drops soon—handle it.
Near the kingdom mountains, perfect.
Bronze, but soon Iron.
'Eager kids... sending 'em away's harsh.'
Better give it to these newbies than wait.
Three could clear an Iron dungeon.
Oh, there happens to be exactly one dungeon left! It's an iron rank dungeon and it's in the Sale Kingdom's mountain range, so it's close by
In response to the guide's question about what they would do, the three adventurers smiled and immediately agreed.
There was still an iron rank dungeon left?
Today was a lucky day.