"…."
(Something is off.)
The dungeon master had though.
(The predators have not showed themselves…. No…. Only different invaders are coming.)
The dungeon master was confused.
It was the third day after the dungeon was discovered… And now "human" invaders were the only invaders attacking the dungeon.
These invaders weren't…. Well, they came, they slew monsters, then left, the others came and did the same, then repeat.
Some were stronger, while some were weak.
Some were injured, but none were killed.
…
(Confusion.)
(What the hell is going on?)
(Why the hell only weaker invaders show up? Did something happened to the predators from before?)
The dungeon master could not understood at all what was going on from its perspective.
It was still scared and consumed with despair after meeting the predators…. And it was questioning why were they not showing up.
Why they didn't came back yet and destroyed the dungeon?
It didn't understood at all what was going on.
…
….. And so, this subject needs to be looked though the eyes of the adventures guilds in order to be understood.
"Source of income and power"
Like said before, the dungeons can be source of income and power, but it can also be source of danger.
Dungeon are seen as an dangerous objects that needs to be destroyed as soon as possible in order to avoid any form of danger…. However, this isn't always the case.
Sometimes the guilds or the nobles have strong enough "soldiers that are able to destroy all of the dungeon monsters without experiencing massive loses.
And that is what the "dungeon taming" process is called. Simple put, the dungeon isn't destroyed, but instead its tamed.
Now, what is the "dungeon taming" anyway?
Simple put, destroy the monsters.
Guilds posses the basic knowledge and understand some things from inspecting and analyzing the dungeons.
1- "The dungeons needs monsters to grow."
2- "If the monsters fully manifest, the dungeon will experience an growth or it will cause it to create more monsters."
Those are the two basic informations that each guilds are equipped with…. So, what they do with this information?
Simple put, they wipe out monsters.
If adventures destroyers enough of the monsters inside the dungeon, they will straight up block the dungeon growth.
Locking the dungeon ability to growth and not allowing it to get stronger.
And while they are doing that, the slain monsters will help the adventures in their class growth as well as provide them with the loot that they can sell for profit.
"Keeping the peace while also earning money"
…
And as of right now, the dungeon has now been targeted for the "taming".
The dungeon was losing its ability to growth as the adventures only focused on slaying the monsters, straight up not letting the dungeon move at all….
Domestic it.
And as for the dungeon master?
It still didn't knew what was going on at all or what these people were doing….. However, it understood one thing, an obvious thing.
Its monsters were being hunted down by the invaders, not allowing the dungeon to produce enough monsters, with in turn it didn't allowed dungeon to harvest enough miasma. The dungeon movement was halted in place, just as the adventure guild had planned…. It was completely "stuck".
The dungeon master knew who was the problem, the adventures….. It wanted to kill them…. But there was two problems.
The first problem were the monsters. It can probably summon its dirt golems as dungeon monsters, It had many different type of dirt golem, especially the "big dirt golem", the one with highest offensive power among all golem types.
However, this strongest golem does cost bit of DP and it has also another problem.
"What if the enemy takes it down? Will the DP be wasted? There were sometimes some stronger invaders or they came in big group?"
Dungeon master wasn't sure if that plan would work.
Not only that, but it was also very worried about the predators appearing at any moment.
….
And the second problem was that the adventures were not even thinking about attacking the dungeon master room. Some the adventures made their way to the dungeon master and saw it waiting for them, but they didn't even fought him, instead they just run away. And after there was nobody else, only that first group willingly came near the dungeon master room, but everybody else from now on for some reason straight up didn't went anywhere near it. They came near it, looked at the dungeon master, and then never came back.
It was waiting for them, but they never came… They didn't even showed any interested at all. They were avoiding the dungeon master room for some reason…. And because of that, the dungeon master couldn't get to them directly at all.
The dungeon master maybe could kill few of the intruders, but only if they could come TO HIM…. Since he is still bound to the core and could not move away from it.
…
It was annoying…. It felt as if it was getting "mocked" or something…. And it was also still confused about…. It realized something was off, but didn't knew what yet….
However, this also meant that the dungeon master could experiment in peace, since nobody would disturb it…. So at least there was an light in the tunnel….. Right?
[DAY 4]
[DAY 5]
"…"
(Something is off.)
The dungeon was still alive….. And nobody had even tried attacking the dungeon master at all.
"What was going on?"
(By now…. Should had been attacked….. But not yet?)
(If anything,…. They are only aiming for the monsters?)
Dungeon master realized something after the third day.
(These people weren't aiming at all about destroying the dungeon.)
(No.)
(Their goal was to slay monsters?)
(But why?)
(If they destroy the dungeon core, the dungeon monsters will be no more.)
(No reason.)
The dungeon master understood what these new invaders were doing, they were only aiming to kill the monsters.
But it didn't understood why.
…
Still, this weird circumstances gave the dungeon master time to somewhat experiment with creating puppet parts out of the wood, getting better and better at it, while also trying to find an way to properly replace its body parts.
…
But there was obvious problem.
Miasma.
The adventures were killing the monsters, not allowing the monsters to produce any miasma at all.
Miasma production lack = no dungeon growth.
Miasma production lack = lack of necessary DP to obtain materials for the experiments.
Besides not being able to grow the dungeon, dungeon master had another problem. Its research could not continue at all, since it couldn't get materials at all…. One of the dungeon master hopes, the "research", was completely locked away all of the sudden, leaving the dungeon master in the state of panic.
…
This was an crisis.
The number of the monsters present in the dungeon had scientifically dropped and the amount of time needed to replace the lost monsters is now much longer…..
"Annoyance"
The dungeon master knew that this cannot continue, or the dungeon won't growth and the dungeon master won't be able to continue its research.
Without either of those things, the dungeon will be either hunted down by the predators from before…. Or it will be stuck in its current form forever.
…
(if they are aiming for the monsters….. Then maybe stop making them?)
"…."
(But no monsters…. Means no miasma….. And what if they try attack me instead? Nothing is protecting dungeon core…. But me.)
Dungeon needed monsters, but the monsters were being hunted down…. This was problem that the dungeon master couldn't avoid.
It HAD TO no matter what create monsters, no matter if the dungeon master liked it or not.
But the question is how would it profit?
It cannot kill any of those invaders, since they care more about their survival than slaying monsters and when they are exhausted they just run away.
The dungeon DP resources was getting completely dry…. And this problemed needed to be solved.
"But how to solve it?"
"Dungeon monsters are the only bet, but they are also getting destroyed all the time by these new invaders?"
"…"
(If this problem isn't dealt with…. This dungeon will be stuck…. Like this…. Forever…. Not ready…. Not ever ready for the predators that could come back.)
It needed an answer…. But the problem is how would it do it?
Its research option was straight up locked since the dungeon isn't obtaining enough miasma right now.
"Can I use anything I have on hand as an answer?"
"…"
(No. Won't work.)
"Should I go with the summon stronger monster option?"
"…"
(No. Wouldn't work, may even cause more problems instead.)
"…"
(If I could just leave the room...No…. Even if I could, what if I provoke them? What if all of these invaders that were attacking the dungeon decide to go all in instead of taking turns?)
(They showed no interested even checking or entering the room where I could.... Wait.)
(They are not attacking the room…. The core…. I don't know why…. But they are not attacking it…. They are keeping distance...Then…. What if I use this? What if I hid the monster here?)
Dungeon master knew that the adventures were keeping their distance from the dungeon master room, they understood that maybe it could exploit this fact…. And so, it went and tested its theory.
The dungeon master continue summoning monsters in the dungeon… But bit less, storing some of the miasma…. Until the summoning the dirt golem inside its room.
….
And then waiting game come…. It waited and waited… New invaders come…. Killed the monsters…. And then left….. But even so, they never came directly to the dungeon master room.
No invaders came and attacked the dungeon master room, even though there was an monster beside the dungeon master in here….. And the golem was still operating, producing miasma.
(IT WORKED!) – though excited dungeon master.
(They don't know that the golem is here and they didn't attacked! I have saved the monster!)
(I have an monster that didn't died and is able to produce miasma.)
The dungeon very simple plan had worked…. It was simple, but nobody had even realized what was going on.
The dungeon master instantly understood that the invaders don't have any way of knowing where the monsters are, they only know where the dungeon master room was and that they should avoid it.
An small progress was made…. But was start.
Yes…An start of something "chaotic" …. That will come…
The dungeon master managed to put up the plan quickly in its head, an base of the plan to be exactly…. But it would work.
"Confidence"
An simple trick, an simple lie.
An simple tactic.
An simple danger that is nobody aware of yet.
(Yes…. Yes! I had secured the means of securing miasma!)
(…But its too small…. Far too small…. I need more! I need more!)
(Research?)
"…"
(No. Abaddon the research for now, cannot do it now… Need more… Need more golems.)
(But…. Not enough space…. Expand. Expand this room. Give more space…. Horde the golems…. Create the army.)
[Meanwhile: adventure guild.]
"Huh…. So, you are saying the profit from that brand new dungeon is far better than the one from the undead dungeon?" – asked the short many with somewhat obese appearance.
[Mayor of the Rabbit city.]
"Well, pretty much 100% yes, if we compare it to the completely useless type dungeon, then yes." – replied the guild master.
"The income from the dungeon was somewhat…. Well, it is an very weak dungeon, an very low rank dungeon where you mostly you can obtain the doll body parts… But sometimes you can also obtain these." – said the guild master as he pulled out small magic crystal.
"Oh? Magic crystals?" – said interested mayor as he picked the crystal and started looking at it.
"Hm…."
(Well…. I'm still pissed off on this bastard for destroying the dungeon without our permission…. But then again, this new dungeon does make people interested…. And if it can produce the magic crystal…..) – though the mayor while not even trying to hide his greedy smile.
"…"
"Very well. This will do." – said the mayor as he gotten off the chair, before then starting to walk away towards the door where the human rabbit hybrid like person with fur growing its entire body was waiting.
"I will inform the lord about this…. And lets also hope you will give us some next good news." – said the mayor before then leaving alongside his maid.
"…"
"…"
"Tch."
(Fucking prevented pig.) – though the guild master.
(The only reason why he came was to "boss around", since I defied his and the lord orders regarding the undead dungeon destruction.)
(Still, it should shut them up for sometime since the puppet dungeon is way more profitable than we had though.)
(True, its low rank dungeon and the drops are pretty much straight up gamble…. But still, this dungeon is profitable.)
(And not only that, but the adventures are interested into that dungeon, giving us an nice profit…..)
"…"
(Yea…. We obtained an perfect dungeon that is placed in the perfect location.)
"…"
(But still…. Even after all that time had passed, both Arthur and Adam are still missing.)
(The entire forest was searched, even the more dangerous part of it…. But no traces at all were found.)
(What is going on…. Even if they were killed by some random monsters, we would had at least obtained something like piece of their cloth, but nothing... Were they by any chance kidnapped?)
(But why would they?)
(illegal slavery?)
"…"
(No, we would have more kidnapping case ages ago.)
(And these two are orphans. Their parents and from what I know, their parents were homeless bastards that killed themselves.)
(So it's definitely not some "debt collection" either.)
(This doesn't make sense.)
(These two had talent to become somebodies…. But right now, they are still consider "nobodies" ….. So, it wouldn't make any sense at all to target these two particularly at all.)
"…."
"…"
(No…. I really can't let this go…. This case is too bizarre and unknown….. Something inside of me is telling me that this isn't something normal and needs to be "found out" ….)
"For fuck sake…. Where are you boys?"