Chapter 258
The Patrolling Dungeon Master
Handing over the imitation B-Rank adventurer (D-Rank) to the adventurer guild, I treated everyone to pudding.
Incidentally, I had a decent amount of spending money on me, so that amount was basically just within the margin of error looking at the income we have nowadays.
Also, the dice that guy used only ever came up with fours, fives and sixes. It looked like he’d been secretly switching in his dice when I checked them out.
Done with looking into the inn, the last thing to do is the dungeon.
First, [Great Tsuia Mountain Tunnel]. It’s actually only a part of [Cave of Desires], but as far as the adventurer guild’s management is concerned, they are separate dungeons.
It has a mechanism that opens the gate upon the toll being paid, the toll itself being based simply on total weight. Because of that, the main trade goods going back and forth were Pavuera’s spices and Sia’s wheat as they were relatively light goods and sold at a decent price.
The rooms that had the tollgates were arranged side by side in the center of the cave. If someone couldn’t pay the toll, they’d either have to turn back, abandon some of their cargo, or try and sell it to other merchants right then and there.
I’ve moved the tollgates around and even increased the number of them, but no one seemed to think much of it since there weren’t any monsters. It’s convenient, but is it alright for them to be like that…?
… Maybe the merchants all think they’d be kept from being able to the use cave if they make too much of a fuss?
“Well then, Ichika, that’s enough. I know what’s happening from here on.”
“Nn? ‘Kay, reward?”
Ichika smiled and left after I handed her curry bread as her reward.
From here on is the main dungeon, [Cave of Desires]. I headed back to the village chief’s room.
… To be blunt, I was tired of walking. Using the menu should be good enough yeah? It is a dungeon after all.
The first thing after passing the dungeon’s entrance was the stone entrance floor.
It had many traps, such as blades popping out of a door or how some of the flagstones on the ground turning into pitfalls. The traps further in were deadly if not handled carefully, but the ones near the entrance were just to the level of causing someone to twist their ankle.
And Goblins being the enemy was a feature.
They’re suitable for making a floor that beginners can train on. You could even say that it’s thanks to this floor that this dungeon is seen as relatively peaceful. They’re filled with cheap things, but there are a good number of treasure chests that spawn, so it’s even a good way for beginners to earn some pocket money.
Next up, the labyrinth floor. Taking up both the second and third floors assuming one took the correct route, this was the main money maker for those in our dungeon!
The reason for that was that iron golems spawned here.
The body of an iron golem is made out of solid iron. In other words, it was a giant iron bar. It could sell for a considerably good price.
The iron golems could spawn practically infinitely through the monster spawner, so even though it looks like a dungeon, there’s a good reason it’s called a dungeon mine.
I also make various things using their iron. As for killing my associates, well, golems are materials. They’re different.
Something like that.
Moving on, the golems that mimic walls and move around change the labyrinth’s route slightly.
… Come to think of it, the magic sword test room is there too, huh. It being a proper test room is finally starting to become common knowledge.
What appeared immediately after making it through the labyrinth was a facility that had been named the [Avarice Lodge]. It was set of DP exploitation rooms, they could be passed by without needing to stop at.
The DP I can get from adventurers increases if they are confined. Therefore, the [Avarice Lodge] was several small rooms where those staying in them could acquire items and gold for locking themselves up in the room for twelve or twenty-four hours.
In truth though, we’re just putting a suitable amount of money or items in from behind the scenes. We’ll give out a magic sword blade golem sometimes as a special prize, so it’s a very stupid… very profitable facility.
After passing by the [Avarice Lodge] and descending the trap-infested open ceiling spiral staircase was the warehouse area.
It’s the place I protect with the various golems I make through my experiments with [Create Golem] like the four-armed golem or the pincushion golem, but it’s basically an easy area that you can get a magic sword blade golem from. Having both orderly pathways and rooms, it really was a warehouse.
Adventurers had started to make it there recently.
After that, the path divided into four. One led to the arena, followed by a boss room. Another led to our neighbor dungeon, [Flame Cavern]. The third one led to the riddle area, followed by an area I’m still working on. The final one led to Succubus Village.
My handmade haniwa golems lay in wait in the arena. They had various gimmicks and were pretty strong. It would take at least a C-Rank adventurer to do anything against them.
The boss room had an iron haniwa made of solid iron just waiting to greet intruders in it.
After that was the core room. It’s just a dummy core, though. By insisting that this was the final floor to the outside world, it should cause our dungeon to be recognized as a good, shallow dungeon.
Our apprentice witch, Nerune, had her lab stationed as a hidden room within the core room’s ceiling. She researches magic tools day and night there—when she isn’t working her part time job, that is.
… I think she’s looking into an [Engine Magic Tool] right now? She’s developing a magic tool that rotates and uses pistons. The pistons move through the expansion of air caused by thermal energy, so it should be able to be a clean energy if we use magic tools for that.
Eh? You say that an engine golem would be good enough?
Well sure, but there’s meaning in having things that people other than me can make. Honestly, an engine magic tool might even perform better.
… Rather, there isn’t really much else to research right now.
As for the cave that led to [Flame Cavern], well, it’s basically Feni’s house. Having an entire floor loaned out as a kennel feels luxurious as heck.
It’s been swimming through the magma like an archerfish more recently, increasing its offensive strength somewhat. There’s nothing really else to talk about. Our relations with [Flame Cavern] are good.
And uhh, I made a variety of variety show attractions for the place that’s still under development. It looks like a playground for people into crossfit. Well, the interior’s still under development, so what else would you expect?
Finally comes Succubus Village, a village protected by succubi.
Right now I just have them making limbless dolls as a side job, but they’ll squeeze any adventurers that wander in dry and strip them down to their underwear before rolling them outside the dungeon. Man or woman, they’ll have fun with anyone. I told them to not go so far that someone dies though.
Furthermore, I’ve made preparations to give reinforcements if adventurers resist them. Looking at how I set it up, it’s practically the same thing as a bottakuri bar. [1]
Suira acts as the village chief for Succubus Village… they want to have proper jobs and not just a side job, but I can’t think of anything for them to do right now. Sorry.
When I checked them out through the monitor, I saw the loli succubus, Michiru, carving a small doll for her side job. Holding onto the limbless doll with such a serious face, fixing it little by little as she rubs her face against it and licks it… Yep. Looks like she’s particular about its feel. Maybe that’s why they’re so popular~
I closed the monitor. Looking about—done.
… Time to sleep!
Footnotes:
A bottakuri bar is a bar that invites guests in, forcing them to stay until they run out of money through force. Illegal as heck.