Trying to freeloading again with the same trick as last time?!
And while I was away from the boss room, some guys might have broken through the third room.
To get this far means they've wiped out all the players in the other rooms!
No good. From now on, if too many people gather on the first floor, I'll make a massive iron ball roll down the narrow path.
It's because of what you players did, so don't hold it against me!
Thanks to these new super cowards pouring in, the coins are piling up fast.
Soon enough, I'll be able to buy another dungeon seal scroll.
While I'm repositioning the traps on the first floor, what rooms should I add?
This dungeon's concept is breaking through rooms with diverse and tough themes to reach the final boss—me.
But it's not like every newbie I meet in the game is a fresh, talented one like Hyrim.
If there are this many super coward newbies, how should I—
No, this is an opportunity.
A chance to make my dungeon even more popular!!
And with this, I've pinned down my dungeon's location.
"Right by the starting village!!"
The village you go to after creating your character or finishing the tutorial in the game!
If newbies keep coming like this, my dungeon must be in the hills behind the starting village!
So, how can I keep drawing those newbies into my dungeon?
Even if they burn my eyes, their sheer numbers mean the abyssal coins are raking in at an insane rate.
So, for maximum efficiency...
'DAMN. Bal-snot, you actually thinking efficiency right now?'
Furious Balak?
'Bal-snot! The way you're acting right now is straight out of some merchant who'd sell their soul for a buck!!'
W-what?!
'My son!! Snap out of it! Are you gonna make those newbies waste their time stuck in this dungeon, or let them venture out into the wide world for adventure and joy!!!'
Right... Furious Balak has a point.
These newbies shouldn't be tied down here.
They need to enjoy all the stories and adventures this world has to offer, not get stuck here because of my stubbornness.
I almost made the worst choice of lowering the dungeon's 'difficulty'... Huh?
Difficulty? Dungeon? Adventure?
Yes!! That's it!!
Aha!! I've got it!!
With the money from those newbies, I can reinvest it to give them an adventure!!
'Bal-snot! Exactly! You've got so many options right now! Why deny it? Now say the answer, My son!!'
Attach another dungeon to my dungeon.
In other words, build a training ground slash mini-dungeon full of romantic adventure and exploration at the entrance!!
That way, even if I spend all my coins, I can inject those newbies with the romance that keeps them coming back to this world!
Then, the romance-crazed newbies will keep adventuring in this world, and from them, a tiny handful of top-rankers will emerge!
And those rankers will challenge me, completing the virtuous cycle!
Aah... This is the answer!
Eureka!
Plus, I can kick those newbies out of my main dungeon—one stone, two birds!
Furious Balak, you're the best! Thanks, partner!
'Of course, Bal-snot. I'll always be by your side.'
Alright~ Now that Furious Balak's given me direction, how should I go about it?
One thing upfront: no mid-level difficulty.
Just a haven for super coward newbies.
And a haven for veteran hardasses.
Only those two difficulties in my dungeon.
Why?
Other dungeons need to eat too, right?
That's the spirit of camaraderie among colleagues.
And I know better than anyone the problems when all players flock to one dungeon in a game.
A game where you have to go into one dungeon for all content?
Ugh, sounds like a trash game already.
Then!!
Press!
As soon as I hit a button, the skeleton merchant appeared in the boss room.
"Lord Balak, here to buy something else?"
"No! I need dungeon consulting!"
"Yes? C-consulting?
What's consulting?!
Simply put, it's getting advice from an outsider to make your business run smoother.
To give newbies packed with romance an adventure, I desperately need the skeleton merchant who crosses between the dungeon and the outside world!
I, warrior Balak, know my limits all too well, so I'll swallow my pride!
After I explained the direction I wanted for the dungeon.
The glint in the skeleton merchant's skull faded away.
**************
Karian trudged to his master with Balak's bizarre requests.
"Ughhh..."
In the footage that monster showed, heroes were nowhere, and adventurers were flooding the dungeon.
Could weak adventurers who struggle even against goblins make it through the first room that stumps heroes?
They couldn't even cover a fraction of it before getting ejected outside.
It should be a happy situation no matter how you slice it, so why was that guy asking for a training ground...
And not just any—he was paying for it?!
Damn... I'm going crazy.
B-but!! Master will think this is nonsense too!
Time to put the brakes on that monster!
Knock knock knock...
"Master, it's Karian."
"...Come in."
When Karian reached the massive door and knocked, it opened automatically, letting him inside.
The room was a lab and grand library where the lich, having turned his floor into one, was conducting various researches.
"My disciple. I've granted you plenty of autonomy and authority so most matters don't reach me. Why come to me?"
"M-Master, it's that..."
Karian then told the lich everything Balak had said.
Hearing it, the lich—
"Sure, let's do it."
"Whaaat?!"
The lich, in an extremely good mood, accepted all of Balak's demands!
A lich, an immortal who became one to master all knowledge and truth of this world and beyond.
So, what would he hate most?
"I'll defeat you, Lich, and bring peace to this world!"
"Evil one! I will destroy you!"
"In the name of the gods!!"
Heroes barging into his lab like cockroaches!!
Because the current world had designated all the lich's labs as dungeons, heroes kept invading endlessly, even after death.
Those cockroach-like pests didn't just disrupt research—they burned precious records and wrecked equipment.
Cockroaches that smash your home and respawn no matter how many times you kill them!
Aah... What a horrific life!
Worse, the lich's infamy came from black mages who worshipped him, despite having nothing to do with it.
His genius intellect had long ago mastered biology just by introspection.
He researched other things, never stooping to crude human experiments!
But his foolish worshippers did that crap.
When an employee screws up, the CEO takes the heat.
Thus, the lich automatically became the world's enemy.
Sure, he got free data from the black mages' wild experiments.
But the false accusations pissed him off beyond that, and he was about to be dragged into a dungeon, forever cut off from his dreams—wait, huh?
Turns out it's the penthouse suite guarded by the ultimate gatekeeper?
A hotel where no one disturbs his research, and he can renovate freely?
What better spot for a truth-seeking scholar!
Plus, the place corrected away most bosses' desires and fatigue, letting the lich research nonstop without rest—he was thrilled!
Most bosses in the abyssal depths were in similar straits.
Sure, there were troublemakers in the dungeon who thought differently.
But they'd long been erased when the supreme beings established the dungeon hierarchy.
So, at the lich's call, the 90-100 floor bosses gathered in the conference room again.
"Yawwwn... Lich, why'd you call?"
"Ugh... Hangover..."
"Our champion wants something peculiar."
""""Something peculiar?""""
Karian, who came with the lich, trembling, explained Balak's wishes to the bosses.
"A training ground... And one that makes money."
"Pfft, he really wants something weird."
"Hmm... To build the training ground our champion mentioned, how much space expansion do we need?"
"No need for that. There's tons of space in the upper dimensions. Just build it there."
"Gonna need almost a whole sub-world."
"Bored anyway, perfect. So, where do we start..."
Stunned that it was happening, Karian stared blankly at his master, who sighed.
"Why the puzzled look?"
"I-Is such a huge space really being made inside the dungeon?"
"So many issues... Haven't you explored what this dungeon even is?"
"The Abyssal Depths?"
"You've seen the dungeon records too, right? Then voice some of the obvious questions."
Pondering the lich's query, Karian spotted the anomaly right away.
"Th-there's no path connecting the floors?!"
Just as Karian said, there was no way from floor 1 to 2.
If there was, Balak would've gone 'Hee~ what's this~?' and descended to floor 100 by now!
"You only now realize..."
"S-Sorry, Master."
"Enough. It's my fault as your teacher for—"
"Aaah!! Master!!"
Headaching over his disciple's idiocy, the lich kindly explained.
"So... each floor of this dungeon is its own separate dimension."
"Correct, foolish disciple. This dungeon only opens a portal to the next floor's dimension after defeating the boss on each. Otherwise, you find a hidden portal to the floor directly above or below."
"But can't we freely move between floors like this?"
"That's thanks to the records left by previous bosses, dimwit disciple."
Before entering the dungeon, the 90-100 bosses had found records of past bosses moving between floors.
Upon arrival, they detected faint dimensional passages linking floors and created reverse portal magic.
"But that monster turned floor 1 upside down, and there's no hidden portal there—"
"If it exists, it'd start from floor 2. Why hide something like that on floor 1, which is basically the entrance!! You ignorant fool!! I can't erase you because you're handling important tasks!!! Arghhh!!!!"
Fuming at his disciple's antics and craving to erase him, the lich clutched his neck.
Before these paragons of competence, united in their resolve to survive the dungeon, Karian was speechless.
*****************
After a brutal scolding from the lich, Karian got extra assignments and headed to floor 73.
What unfolded before his eyes was a vast ancient forest.
He soon met the boss here.
"Hm? Aren't you Karian, one of the lich's lackeys?"
"Lord Karsein, greetings. No issues lately?"
"I'm a tree spirit, so in a forest like this, I'm always full of vim and vigor—don't worry. More importantly, is this official notice for real?"
"Yes, Lord Karsein."
"Perfect timing~"
Floor 73 boss. The corrupted tree spirit Karsein.
Karsein had been at a loss because his lesser spirits followers were bored out of their minds.
The elder council—no, the 100-floor alliance bosses' offer to build a playground for his kids was more than welcome.
"But won't Lord Karsein's children get badly hurt?"
"Psh~ Kids grow strong when raised rough. I'm here, so they can come anytime, and my little ones crave combat too. Plus, this notice says we get something we really need?"
"Spirit stones, right."
Spirits, lacking the concept of death, leave spirit stones when banished from the mortal plane after losing power.
Since those stones fetch a good price in the mortal world, they'd be decent income for adventurers.
Watching Balak's requests proceed so smoothly step by step, Karian felt reality crash down on him again today.