The Dungeon Monsters Keep Offering Sacrifices

The dungeon monsters keep offering sacrifices – 010

EP.10 The Revealed Dungeon

The Adventurer’s Guild Union Office on the continent.

Various individuals had gathered in the office.

Each of them was the head of an adventurer’s guild from different parts of the continent.

They had gathered from the capitals and important cities of the Empire and Kingdom, as well as the rural branches.

“The Union Master is entering.”

A rugged man with scars all over his face appeared.

He was Kyle, the one who led the united adventurer’s guilds, uniting them as one.

“I appreciate everyone taking the time to be here, even though I know you’re all busy.”

Everyone remained silent.

Nobody had time to listen to such greetings when they were all busy.

However, no one dared to speak directly in front of Kyle.

Who was Kyle?

He was the Union Master who ruled over all adventurer’s guilds on the continent.

Even though he had retired, he was an Adamantium-ranked adventurer.

Considering that there were only a handful of them on the continent, one could realize how remarkable Kyle’s presence was.

In the midst of everyone’s silence, Kyle was not oblivious to their hesitations.

“Alright, let’s get straight to the point since I know you’re all busy.”

Kyle tapped his desk and then began speaking, leading everyone’s attention.

“The first matter concerns the White Order.”

People expressed concern as soon as the first agenda was raised.

“The White Order’s affairs don’t concern us, do they?”

Someone objected to Kyle’s words, and a few others nodded in agreement.

The adventurer’s guild and the White Order had different identities, so such a reaction was natural.

“It’s not that simple. The White Order is currently maintaining silence, but from what I’ve separately found out, it seems that one of the sealing stones has been released.”

“…!”

Even those who had shown no interest turned their heads to Kyle with widened eyes.

“No… What is that…?”

“Master Kyle, can you take responsibility for that statement? This is not something to speculate about!”

“Even if you say that, hasn’t the Order made no official statement? It’s too early to make any judgments, I think.”

The statement that a sealing stone had been released was not just ordinary news to them.

Inside the sealing stones were monsters that had once shaken the El Dorad Continent.

It included powerful monsters, as well as high-ranking demons and demon lords.

Fortunately, with the combined efforts of the continent’s inhabitants, they managed to drive them out and seal them.

The sealed stones had been meticulously guarded deep within the White Order’s underground vaults.

But now, if the sealing stone was indeed released, the Order would bear significant responsibility.

“However, since there has been no official announcement from the Order, I believe everyone will exercise discretion.”

With no official statement from the Order, spreading this news would be risky.

Perhaps some might even be branded as heretics if they lost faith in the goddess.

If that happened, the Inquisition Officers of the Order would likely come personally.

The arrival of the Inquisition Officers was equivalent to the arrival of death itself.

hey were fanatics who only pledged allegiance to the Order and never let go once they questioned someone.

Kyle believed that everyone would exercise discretion on their own.

“Next is the list of newly appeared dungeons this month. There are 67 dungeons in total. Unfortunately, there are no dungeons of significant note this time.”

Adventurers explored dungeons and hunted monsters within them.

They sold the spoils of their hunts or used them as equipment materials.

Therefore, dungeons were like valuable resources.

When Kyle mentioned that there were no noteworthy dungeons, it meant that there were no high-grade dungeons.

“We will assign an Iron grade to all 67 dungeons.”

Dungeon grades were mainly determined by the Adventurer’s Guild.

The grading criteria were naturally based on the adventurer’s rank system.

he first rank a new adventurer started with was Iron rank, and then they progressed to Bronze, silver, Gold, Platinum, Diamond, and Adamantium ranks.

Dungeons were graded according to the same system. According to Kyle’s words, all 67 newly appeared dungeons were deemed to be of Iron grade.

“Finally, there is one additional dungeon apart from the 67.”

“Doesn’t that make it 68? Is there a need to separate it?”

Everyone nodded in agreement, wondering why it needed to be singled out.

“This one is a bit ambiguous. It’s a dungeon discovered in the Sael Kingdom’s Mountain range, and it was found by a hunter.”

The problem was that no energy was detected from the dungeon, Kyle added.

“Maybe the dungeon itself is weak?”

Perhaps most of the people thought that way, but Kyle was cautious.

“So, I’d like to temporarily designate the grade of this dungeon as Bronze.”

Kyle pondered the hunter’s words once again.

‘Just ten days ago, there was absolutely nothing here. I saw it with my own eyes!’

Perhaps he overreacted, only going by the hunter’s words.

However, Kyle still feared the possibility.

One could never be too prepared for safety.

“If there are no issues with this dungeon for the next week, we will downgrade it from Bronze to Iron rank.”

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***

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After the status window appeared, I became incredibly busy.

I conducted magic test and began working as a porter in earnest.

Fortunately, finding work as a porter was easy. The difference in having a status window was quite evident.

There was another change as well.

After the status window appeared, gaining experience for the first time was quite enjoyable.

I ran without stopping, and my body was becoming more accustomed to it.

“But I do have a day off tomorrow…”

Taking a break today and tomorrow should be fine. I hadn’t played the game in a while, so I decided to start it up.

“Come to think of it, it feels like a week has passed.”

Suddenly, I remembered the dungeon I first used when I started the game. The duration was supposed to be a week, but the date had already passed.

Looking back, I wondered if it had any significance. I had even spent money on in-game purchases, but due to being busy, I had completely neglected it.

However, I had set all the permissions to my servant before logging out.

“I hope my servant is doing well.”

I touched the dungeon on the screen. My maid-clad servant was still wandering around various parts of the dungeon.

“This one is really diligent.”

Even though it was a game, there was no one who would dislike such a diligent character. However, that wasn’t the issue.

Clearly, I was looking at my dungeon on the screen. Yes, it was undoubtedly the dungeon.

“No, but what’s going on?”

Had I seen it incorrectly?

The appearance of the dungeon had changed significantly. The long corridor had openings like ant nests in the middle.

If anyone entered the dungeon, they would have to pass through the narrow corridors and encounter these wide-open areas in between.

Moreover, it wasn’t just one of these open areas, there were a total of three.

“There’s a lot of effort put into this.”

Furthermore, in areas close to the dungeon entrance, there were numerous skeletons deployed.

“Wow, this is really impressive.”

But to achieve something like this, they must have spent a lot of gems, right?

To draw just 10 monsters from the gacha required 5,000 gems.

Judging by the number of skeletons alone, it would have been insufficient even if they had used all the remaining 5,000 gems.

I immediately checked my gem count.

“Huh?”

When I looked at the remaining gem count, it was truly surprising.

“I still have 4,300 left?”

Was I seeing things? When I drew 10 skeletons, it cost 5,000 gems. But now, after completely neglecting the game, I only lost 700 gems.

Moreover, the number of monsters had increased significantly, and the size of the dungeon had clearly changed.

“…”

Should I be happy about this? It felt like my efforts were invalidated.

No, let’s look at it positively. Perhaps this progress happened because I was here to begin with.

I touched one of the placed skeletons. Except for the 2-star skeleton I had previously synthesized, all the others were 1-star.

With the remaining ones, I thought that if I combined them, the power would become even stronger, so I touched the [Synthesis] tab.

– Monsters that have already been placed cannot be used as materials for synthesis.

–

Ah.

I momentarily forgot the game developer’s character. Upon reflection, this game was exceptional in encouraging in-game purchases.

The message “Monsters that have already been placed cannot be used as materials for synthesis” meant just that. In other words, it was no different from saying, “Spend more gems and keep drawing”.

That seems to mean using these monsters as materials.

Of course, it couldn’t be seen as entirely bad. I understood it in another sense.

If I just leave it be, it grows so easily like this, so they couldn’t raise the difficulty level any further here.

“Developer, I understand all of this.”

If the difficulty is too high, people will give up quickly, and on the contrary, if it’s too low, there’s no reason to make in-app purchases.

When I touched the screen again, a new notification appeared:

– The adventurer guild has determined the grade of this dungeon.

–

– The grade of the dungeon ‘Nest of the Evil God’ is Bronze grade.

–

“…?”

The statement I had just made was canceled.

This game was incredibly difficult.

Bronze grade dungeon?

Isn’t this going too far?

My servant is a 6-star monster, and just looking at the number of skeletons, it was a lot.

“How strong are the creatures invading this dungeon?”

I started to feel anxious.

Perhaps they were trying to encourage in-app purchases with this?

Even though I had 6-star monsters, they might have crossed the line.

I’m quite knowledgeable about adventurer ranks since I’ve been on the El Dorad Continent for a year. The ranks go from Iron, bronze, silver, Gold, Platinum, Diamond, to Adamantium in that order.

Bronze grade. Second from the bottom. Moreover, in El Dorad Continent, 6-star creatures were considered rare and extremely so.

In practice, shouldn’t my dungeon at least be set to Gold grade?

It seemed that the game was indeed different from reality.

“Sigh…”

My hand naturally moved to the in-game store instead of closing the game.

There was no other option.

If my dungeon was weak, I needed to purchase more gems.

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***

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Once again, the Adventurer Guild was bustling with people today.

This was the Adventurer Guild in the Sale Kingdom.

Three adventurers entered the lively guild hall.

They were armed with shoddy equipment, and it was clear to anyone that they were freshly minted Iron-rank adventurers.

They went to the reception desk and presented their adventurer identification.

“Um… We’d like to inquire about any nearby dungeons we can explore. Is there any request available?”

The receptionist checked their identification. Iron-rank adventurers. With their rank, they could only enter Iron-grade dungeons.

However, the number of Iron-rank adventurers had increased recently, and all the Iron-grade dungeons currently had requests.

“Oh, is there any dungeon available?”

In the end, they would have to leave empty-handed.

The receptionist felt sorry for them. Then, she suddenly remembered what the branch manager had said.

“This is a Bronze-grade dungeon, but you can just think of it as Iron-grade. It’ll be downgraded to Iron-grade soon, so dispose of it as you see fit.”

Fortunately, the mountain range near the Sale Kingdom was relatively close.

Even though it was a Bronze-grade dungeon, she thought it was okay to entrust it to these novice adventurers.

With three adventurers, they should be able to conquer at least one Iron-grade dungeon.

“Oh, we happen to have one last dungeon available! It’s Iron-grade and located in the Sale Kingdom’s Mountain range, so it’s nearby.”

In response to the receptionist’s question about what they would do, the three adventurers smiled and immediately accepted the offer.

There was still an Iron-grade dungeon available. Today was their lucky day.