And the beginner’s dungeon had its dungeon master subjugated, but perhaps because the dungeon core was left as is, or perhaps for some other reason it reappeared.
In other words, I don’t know for how long exactly, but in a dungeon with no lord, as long as you have the dungeon core you can control the dungeon, and because of my divine enchantment skill the effects spread via the dungeon and the dungeon core figuratively fell into the palm of my hand… Is this for real?
This is bad, seriously bad.
It seems like the dungeon master of an endlessly growing dungeon would be subjugated, so if this gets found out my life will be targetted.
And now that the place that should have been a beginner’s dungeon got turned into this, they’ll immediately notice the abnormality.
Now that it’s come to this────
“Let’s pretend it never happened.”
Mn, thinking about it carefully, even if the abnormal change of this dungeon is made public, I can just put on an innocent face and live in town.
After all, I haven’t tested to see if other people can see it too, but as long as the skills and titles on my status screen aren’t seen by anyone else, there’s no way that anyone should know that I’m the dungeon master.
Jashin Average – 8
Chapter 8 – Moving
Hello, it’s Anri.
This is a bit sudden but… I was driven out of the inn.
Strictly speaking, my five days at the inn were up, and when I asked to extend it I was refused.
I hadn’t noticed it myself, but the innkeeper obasan was terribly afraid, so we probably accidentally had eye contact at some point.
And though I did think that this would happen before long, being driven out this early was beyond expectations.
And the fact that I wasn’t forcefully driven out, but that they entreatied me “I’m begging you, please leave” pierced my heart, so I’m pretty depressed.
Perhaps I should be looking for a replacement inn, but the shock was just so great that I can’t find the motivation for it.
And in a way, it might be perfect timing.
Since I haven’t solved the problem of balancing my income and expenses, you could say that this is a good chance for me to think about really doing something about it.
It’s just that if I don’t think about it like that, I won’t be able to go on, though.
While taking a breather in the central plaza cafe that I ordered a red tea in last time, I thought about my plan for now.
There are two general paths that I’m considering.
The first is that I’ll guarantee some other income source, and the second is doing something about the “shelter” issue that takes up most of my expenses.
I considered the former when I signed up to the Adventurers Guild too, but because it was too hard I ended up giving up.
In both personality and skill abilities I’m devastatingly unsuited for the hospitalities industry, and it’s not as if I have the know how either so jobs in production are impossible.
There’s basically no path for me to take in trying to earn money except for adventuring.
Alchemy using my divine enchantment──buying cheap things and selling them after enchanting them with divine protection──is something I considered as well, but because there’s a high chance that the weapons and clothing I enchant turn into cursed items, to begin with I wouldn’t be able to sell it, and even if I could sell them, it’d be an extremely eyecatching thing to do and would probably bring me trouble.
As for the latter, finding a place to live is difficult too, and since I only have 5 gold with me I don’t have enough to buy a house, and because renting a house and staying at an inn both have the risk of being driven out, I can’t calm down.
In the first place, living in an environment with other people means that I’d always have to be careful so that I absolutely wouldn’t meet eyes with anyone, so to begin with it was impossible.
Ideally it’d be “a place with nobody around”, “not rented, but owned by me” and also “has a fairly decent living environment”.
Since I’m stating my desires, it’d be best if it comes with “a way to make money” as well.
“As if such a convenient place…”
could exist, was what I wanted to say, but the truth is that if I don’t care about what methods I use, there actually is such a place, which is why I’m so troubled.
Do I take principles, or do I take profits…? That balance has probably already tipped in my heart.
You can’t deal with an urgent problem without sacrificing something in return.
Mn? A samurai pretends he has eaten well when he has no food, you say?
I’m not a samurai, so there’s no problem.
Gathering my thoughts, I headed to a store to stock up on food.
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Three hours later, with a large amount of food stuffed into my item box, I came to the dungeon from the other day.
I’ve twisted my ideals and chosen the path of profits, in order to live in the dungeon.
“a place with nobody around” …From the town, it takes two hours to get here on foot, and there are no oddballs that have taken up residency here
“not rented, but owned by me” …I am the dungeon master after all
“has a fairly decent living environment” …It’s not that great now, but I can expand it and remodel it as I please
comes with “a way to make money” as well …There’ll probably be plenty of easy targets with money from now on
The demerits are ‘obstructions to my peace’ and ‘the pain to my conscience’ but the former can be fixed by strengthening the dungeon, and as for the latter, even in the worst case scenario, I’m going to compromise and make it a rule in my heart not to let anybody die.
Having made up my mind like this, I entered the dungeon.
I could grasp this vague and delicate feeling of “it feels like I can do this for some reason” with my ability as the dungeon master.
For example, since the dungeon is the area ruled by the dungeon master, as long as it’s within the dungeon I can move where I’d like, and although this is limited to when I’m inside the dungeon, I can see and hear all the places inside the dungeon.
I used teleportation to move to the room with the dungeon core.
In a small room of about 6 tatami, a blue crystal of about 50 centimetres was floating in the air.
This was probably the dungeon core.
I touched the dungeon core with my hand as I muttered.
“Dungeon Master.”
Name: Holy Land of the Evil God
Attribute: Darkness, Death, Pestilence
Floors: 3
Mana: 1532
My own status was the same, but the dungeon status couldn’t get any more sinister.
I’ll pretend that I didn’t see the name and attributes, and look at the other entries.
Having three floors means that it probably took over the beginners dungeon as is.
A lot of the fundamental structure has been changed, but I guess the separation into floors hasn’t changed.
It seems that the mana value is the amount of mana that’s been accumulated by the dungeon, and it seems that using this I can expand or maintain the dungeon.
There are two ways to accumulate mana in the dungeon core; either when the dungeon master personally fills it with mana, or when invaders die in the dungeon and their mana is sucked away.
The dungeon core serves as a piggy bank too, and if the dungeon master puts in mana every day, they can utilise mana above their capacity.
For example, an average dungeon master’s mana value is 10 to 20 thousand, and since it costs 1 million to add a floor, at that rate they’d eternally be unable to add floors to the dungeon, but if they store it in the dungeon core then regardless of their capacity, if they store 10,000 each day, a simple calculation will tell you that it�
�ll take them 100 days per dungeon floor.
But actually putting all your mana into it would probably be bad, and you’ll probably need to use mana for other things as well so it wouldn’t go so simply, and you’d need a longer amount of time to add a floor.
Having learned all this information from the dungeon core, I smiled bitterly.
As expected, it seems that a mana value of 3 million is abnormal.
Just having a nights sleep will restore most of my mana, so each day I can add three floors, meaning that in 100 days I can add 300 floors.
No, I mean, even if I add that many floors it’s just going to get impossible to manage, so it’s not like I’m going to do it though.
Mm~mm, I want to stop saying ‘mana value of ___’ and give it some kind of unit. Maybe points?
Anyway, I poured 3 million mana points into the dungeon core, and used 2 million from that to add two layers.
It seems that the floor with the dungeon core automatically stays the furthest down, and right now it’s become the 5th floor, with a new 3rd and 4th floor above it.
I made the 3rd and 4th floor orthodox and typical labyrinths, but I used the remaining 1 million points to remodel the 5th floor into a base.
I divided it into a few rooms and created a bedroom, living room, kitchen, bathroom, toilet, storeroom, and an office with the dungeon core in it.
While I was at it I used mana to create a pseudo-sun and established a day/night cycle.
There was an off feeling about having the light come from directly indoors rather than from outside a window, but I’ll probably get used to it before long.
What’s left is to use one of the larger rooms to create an indoor vegetable garden… it’ll probably be a while before any harvests though.
Because I was remodelling as I liked, the 1 million points were used up in a blink, but for now I’ve made it look like the bare minimum for a residential section.
At the end, I instructed all living beings to intercept intruders, but I made sure to give a strict order not to kill them and only knock them out.
With normal monsters there’d probably be dissatisfaction and a chance that they’d ignore the orders and go with their instincts, but the inhabitants of this dungeon are all non-living monsters with no sense of self, so they’ll probably obey my orders absolutely.
Because I used a huge amount of mana, I’m feeling sleepy, but somehow overcoming it with willpower, I headed to the bathroom.
It’s the first chance in a while for me to get in a bath, so I can’t fall asleep until I’m satisfied with the bath.
I was really thoroughly soaked in the first bath I’d had in days, and while still in the water, I fell asleep.
Jashin Average – 9
Chapter 9 – First Purchase
This marks the final chapter that I’ve promised you guys. So expect no more chapters. I mean, it doesn’t mean I won’t do them, but don’t expect any! Because they won’t come! Although I might post some. But they won’t come! So you’d better not expect any!
This is a teaser! And I’m doing more teasers which might turn out to be even more amazing to some of you, so yeah! Holdest thy tongue!
* * *
A kantoui（貫頭衣） is a Japanese type of clothing that’s basically a simple cloth with a hole for putting the head through, worn like a poncho. According to a certain Chinese text, Japanese people were wearing these at the end of the third century.
* * *
Former adventurer, Dungeon Master Anri here.
I fell asleep while still in the bath so I thought I would catch a cold, but I turned out as healthy as ever.
If I had to name a problem, it would be that the curse apparently activated while I was asleep, and I ended up soaking in the bath with the tantou and robe equipped.
I can’t change, so I’m stuck with being soaking wet like this…
Well, if I walk outside for a while it’ll probably dry off, but because I’m soaked down to my underwear it feels gross.
Am I going to be unable to bath for more than 30 minutes?
Pulling myself together, I took out food from my item box and after having a simple breakfast, I teleported to the entrance.
Leaving the dungeon, I headed towards town.
Having made a decision to become a dungeon master, the problem of “shelter” is now gone.
Because of the curse I can’t change, and I can only worry about the problem of “clothing” without being able to do anything.
What’s left is the problem of food, and although I did buy a large amount yesterday, and I’ve established an indoor vegetable garden as well, the food stores can only decrease, and it’ll be a while before I can harvest.
Even if I could harvest them, I’m not a vegetarian so it’d be tough for me to live only eating vegetables.
Meaning that I’ll be forced to make a shopping trip in town once in a while, but… there’s one problem with this; I don’t know how long I’ll be able to come and go here.
With the events with the church and the Adventurers Guild, a group of people probably already have suspicions towards me, and once the transformation of the dungeon is known, it wouldn’t be strange even if there were people who linked the timing together.
Thinking about it like that, it would probably be better to assume that one day it’ll become difficult for me to come and go here.
Considering that I’ll be unable to enter and exit the town, I want somebody I can entrust the shopping to, but unfortunately I have nobody to rely on.
Don’t say lonerised! I know I am.
Even if I were to hire someone, there’s nobody I can trust and leave everything to, so there’s only one choice left that comes to mind.
Showing my Adventurers Card and entering the town, I headed towards the slave dealer.
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I first found out that this world had slavery right after I reached town.
I had an image of slavery being illegal and shady, but it was in normal shop in a place relatively close to the main street and the memory of being shocked but that is still fresh in my mind.
Based on the information I heard from other peoples’ conversations, as well as some guesses of my own, the slaves of this world are apparently separated into four types; people whose statuses had been dropped to slavery as punishment, the crime slaves; people from a defeated country who were taken as war prisoners, the war slaves; people who had fallen to slavery as security for a loan, the debt slaves; and finally people who were born to two slave parents, the birth slaves.
There are various reasons why they separate the origins of the slaves, but they’re all unrecognised as humans all the same, and bought and sold for money.
The slaves are forced by a contract to their master to absolute obedience.
In this world where magic exists, ‘absolute obedience’ doesn’t mean just a rule, but being compelled to obey the commands of their master.
Even if you ordered “kill yourself”, no matter how much they tried to refuse, their body would move on its own and they would suicide.
Slaves are treated as possessions, so no matter how a master treats them, the master won’t be punished.
Because they’re fundamentally expensive, I dont think people would kill them on a whim too often, but that’s not an absolute.
The most expensive slaves are young females, followed by men with good builds.
As someone born in Japan, I’m opposed to the slavery system, but a person who won’t betray me no matter what could be said to be the most suitable.
…*
…*
…*
“Welcome. Will you be purchasing a slave today?”
When I entered the shop a neatly dressed, tidy-looking man asked me that at the very beginning.
It seems that he’s the shopkeeper here, but he was so different from the arbitrary image I had of slave traders being fat men that I was at a bit of a loss
as to how to react.
When I nodded, he guided me to one of the tables set in the shop.
The shopkeeper sat down right opposite me, and our business talk began.
“Our shop has all sorts of slaves prepared. What kind of slave could it be that you are looking for?”
“In the first half of their teens, and a female… ah, and on the verge of death.”
The moment I stated my request, the shopkeeper froze, and looked my way.
Because I can’t look at him in the eyes, with my eyes still hidden, I replied with silence.
There’s no doubt that it was the third condition that he reacted to, but of course I have proper reasons for saying it.
The first is the price; I’d feel reluctant about ordering around people my elder, and since I’d need courage to eat and sleep together with someone of the opposite sex, I want a girl in the first half of their teens, but in that case the 5 gold I have with me might not be enough.
If it’s somebody who doesn’t have long because of illness or injury, then even if they’re a girl in their early teens, I thought that the price would be lowered greatly.
I wasn’t sure if they even sold someone like that to begin with, but there are apparently uses… as human shields against strong monsters, and the experimental materials for mages though.
The second reason is that even if I bought a slave here and left the shopping and my daily life to them, there’s the problem of that slave being afraid of me.
From the point of keeping my secrets, I’d need to have them live in the dungeon with me, but if we’re living together then it’s probably impossible to not ever meet eyes with me.
Even though with the absolute obedience to their master, a slave can’t go against them, in the end they’re only bound in their actions.
If I ordered them “Don’t be afraid of me.” they would just be unable to act afraid, and it wasn’t as if the fear itself would disappear.
I’ve come up with one countermeasure, but for that to work I need them to accept me at least once.
If they’re not somebody grasping at straws on the verge of death, they won’t meet the prerequisites.
Evil God Average 【First Half – Book of Evil】 Page 5
