Vampire Aren.
She was a young vampire who had barely escaped the Paladin’s large-scale air raid.
She had currently left the dungeon she originally lived in. And she was living contentedly in her current location.
“I like it here because there are many friends!”
Blood-sucking butterflies fluttered around Aren.
Aren caught one of the flying blood-sucking butterflies and shoved it into her mouth.
As she chewed, the juice of the blood-sucking butterfly burst in her mouth.
“…Delicious! As expected, butterfly friends are the best!”
Aren’s red eyes shone brightly.
Aren was very satisfied with her current life.
She was playing with the blood-sucking butterflies as they flew around, and then she suddenly looked at a corner.
There were some beings situated there.
“Ugh…”
The ones situated in the corner were giant venomous spiders.
They were still drooling as they looked at Aren.
“They’re not friends…”
As Aren was about to turn her gaze away gloomily.
“Are you playing quietly here?”
The Savior appeared.
“Pretty sister!”
It was Celia. Aren immediately leaped into Celia’s embrace.
This was the dungeon where Celia was the Chief Administrator. The dungeon, consisting of various sectors, was quite large, and Aren was living in a place called Sector 3. Sector 3 was a place close to nature, with wide fields where man-eating plants, blood-sucking butterflies, and spiders lived. Celia had built a small hut for Aren to live in at such a place. Of course, she didn’t receive absolutely no compensation. Aren was not yet an official member of the dungeon. She was a visitor. Strictly speaking, she was like a dungeon refugee.
Not being able to let Aren play idly, Celia assigned Aren a task. It was sector management. Unlike other sectors, Sector 3 had no monsters that thought and acted on their own. Therefore, as per Celia’s orders, Aren was personally moving around and managing the monsters within Sector 3. And the reason Celia had come to find Aren now was no different.
“I have another mission for Aren today.”
Celia smiled and gently stroked Aren’s head.
“Yes!”
Aren responded with a smile, feeling Celia’s touch.
“Aren is so kind.”
Celia praised her and handed something to Aren. It was a small box. Aren received the box and checked its contents.
*Wriggle-wriggle-*
Something was wriggling inside the box. Looking closely, it was something like a worm.
“Wriggly…?”
Aren murmured, looking at the wriggling creature.
“Yes, that’s right. It’s a child bestowed by the Great One. From now on, Aren’s mission is to raise that child well. It’s very important, so you must never make a mistake. Do you understand?”
Celia believed that Aren would be able to handle a mission of this magnitude well. She would have raised it herself originally, but she had a lot of work piled up at the moment. In such a situation, she needed an extra hand, so she entrusted it to Aren. Celia warned Aren while making her request. Along with the warning.
“Instead, if Aren raises it well, I’ll let the spider friends out.”
She also offered a carrot to motivate Aren.
“Really…?”
As expected, Aren’s eyes lit up once more. For Aren, the spider friends, or rather the spiders that were not friends, were not beings she wanted to befriend. So Celia’s words were very welcome.
“Don’t worry! I’ll take good care of my wriggly friend!”
Aren clenched her fists and showed her confidence. She immediately opened the box and placed the self-proclaimed wriggly friend on her palm.
“Wriggly friend! From now on, Aren will protect you!”
As if understanding Aren’s resolve, the wriggly creature squirmed more vigorously. Seeing the wriggly creature, Aren, with skillful hands, quickly grabbed a blood-sucking butterfly nearby. Then, she placed it in front of the wriggly creature.
“Let’s be friends with the butterfly friend too!”
The wriggly creature squirmed and began to envelop the blood-sucking butterfly Aren had caught. After completely wrapping itself, it suddenly opened its mouth. Small thorn-like things were densely attached inside its mouth.
“Wow! As expected, my wriggly friend likes butterfly friends too!”
As Aren murmured and examined the wriggly creature closely, “Huh? What’s this?” The wriggly creature squirmed and something fell onto Aren’s palm.
“…Scales?”
As far as Aren could see, the wriggly creature felt similar to something else not only in appearance but also in surface.
“Ah! It’s just like the long friend!”
The snake Aren knew, the long friend, also had scales like that. However, the wriggly creature’s scales felt a bit harder.
‘Maybe my wriggly friend will also turn into a long friend when it grows up?’ Aren looked at the wriggly creature with anticipation and excitement.
***
Name: Little Baby Worm, Wriggly (★)
Characteristics: A young individual of a worm. It crawls underground.
– Would you like to set it as a subordinate officer for the dungeon ‘Evil God’s Nest’?
– [Yes] [No]
Wriggly was the tenth and last one to come out in the subordinate officer draw. She was going to refuse originally. However, since refusing would double the price of the next draw of a subordinate officer, she had no choice but to select it as a subordinate officer.
“Yes, let’s look at it positively.”
Celia was originally a 3-star. For that being to wield such immense influence now, perhaps Wriggly could also be expected to grow exceptionally? Of course, she knew it was unreasonable to compare herself to Celia. Still, she didn’t let go of hope, believing there was a small possibility. In addition, she secretly hoped that a separate promotion special package like Celia’s would appear, but nothing like that materialized.
“Well, it’s not right to rely too much on packages.”
I convinced myself and sent Wriggly, who came out of the draw, to Celia. The dungeon managed by Celia could be said to have a well-established system. Even if a 1-star monster was assigned as a subordinate officer, the possibility of such a system collapsing was essentially zero.
“Let’s just draw some monsters separately.”
Apologizing to Celia, I checked the dungeon list.
[Evil God’s Nest]
– Chief Administrator: Celia (★★★★★★)
– Subordinate Officer: Wriggly (★)
– Subordinate Managed Dungeons: [Red-Haired Tribe], [Village Covered in Mist], [Scraps of the Demonic Realm], [Sticky Puddle]
– Special Notes: There exists a Dungeon Core connected to the owner, Kanghyeon Lee, through souls.
“Looking at it like this, there’s a huge difference?” One star under six stars… If a package that allows Wriggly to grow appears, I would definitely buy it. For the time being, I could only apologize to Celia and hope that Wriggly would grow well. I prepared for the next draw. Since I gave Celia a new subordinate officer, it was now Azmo’s turn. Fortunately, the subordinate officer to be drawn this time was decided quite easily. As soon as the draw was made, a monster with no less than four stars appeared.
Name: Master of Transformation, Betta (★★★★)
Characteristics: A slime whose entire body is blue. It has the trait of perfectly mimicking the opponent’s appearance. Betta, once seen, is never forgotten, and it replicates the appearance as is. While replicating the appearance, it also weakly copies the opponent’s traits.
– Would you like to set it as a subordinate officer for the dungeon ‘Illusionary Temptation’?
– [Yes] [No]
“Wow!” A blue slime appeared all over its body. While slimes might seem weak, it was a 4-star. “It perfectly mimics its appearance.” Moreover, upon checking the details, it was a monster that seemed very useful in many ways. “This will solve one of the biggest problems.” The dungeon managed by Azmo currently had one major problem. That was that its composition was too simple and monotonous. Since all monsters were Incubi, it would be easy for intruders to respond. In fact, dungeons of B-Rank and above were generally difficult because monsters of various attributes appeared. It was difficult because one had to calculate various possibilities and mobilize multiple hunters for response. If it were only Incubi like now, it would only be a matter of time before it was overrun. Although there were Death Knights and Arch Liches together now, they couldn’t be deployed in that dungeon forever. To be clear, I had to focus more on my original dungeon, where my life was at stake, than on Azmo’s dungeon. Of course, that didn’t mean I would foolishly abandon Azmo’s dungeon. “It’s always good to have more dungeons.” I immediately assigned the one that came out of the subordinate officer draw to Azmo.
[Illusionary Temptation]
– Administrator: Azmo (★★★★)
– Subordinate Officer: Betta (★★★★)
I already felt proud just by adding an additional subordinate officer. Finally, I touched the screen to check another dungeon I owned. It was the dungeon where I had captured Ji Taehun and Ji Seongmin last time. It was the F-Rank Skeleton Dungeon. Perhaps it was thanks to my ‘True Dungeon Master’ trait? Originally, people couldn’t understand the words of the Skeletons. But to me, even their words became audible. Thanks to that, I could communicate with the F-Rank Skeletons, the monsters in the dungeon, and they pledged their loyalty to me. Well, I accepted their loyalty as there was no harm in having more dungeons.
“Hmm, I can’t manage these guys separately?” The problem was that unlike other dungeons, the F-Rank Skeleton Dungeon, where I had personally received their loyalty, had no way to manage it.
[Weak Skeleton Dungeon]
– Administrator: Vacant
I couldn’t even arbitrarily assign someone as the administrator. Only the name of the Skeleton Dungeon appeared, occupying one of the list on the screen, but there was nothing I could touch.
“Do I have to go manage this place myself?” This is such an annoying system. I need to figure out why this place, unlike others, can’t be managed through a smartphone.
***
The dungeon ‘Illusionary Temptation’. There, the administrator Azmo was continuously talking to someone. “With this air freshener, the scent of clothes becomes wonderfully good.” Azmo said so and began spraying air freshener towards the clothes in front of him. *Psh-psh-* “How is it? Isn’t the scent very good?” As Azmo said, the clothes began to emit a pleasant scent. The owner of the clothes nodded in satisfaction. It was the Death Knight. How wonderful the smell was from the maid outfit attached to his shield. The Death Knight felt great satisfaction. At the same time, an Arch Lich was present next to him. He had recently been promoted from Lich to Arch Lich thanks to the owner’s grace. He too felt ecstatic and satisfied with the oiling from Azmo’s subordinates. Perhaps this place was heaven? The Death Knight and the Arch Lich wanted to stay in this dungeon longer. And then. A change began. *Woong-woong-* The dungeon’s entrance began to vibrate.
