The bathroom of an old, shabby studio apartment.
Crouching down, Cheol-woo let out a rough breath as he scrubbed with a brush.
"Ugh, this damned sewer smell will not come out."
The waterproof boots and lightweight armor on the tile floor still bore every trace of yesterday’s struggle in the waterway.
Even after pouring detergent over them and scrubbing hard, the musty, fishy smell of dirty water stabbed at his nose.
It was an F-rank dungeon, but the discomfort caused by the flooded environment itself was beyond imagination.
Still, compared to the satisfaction of having obtained an entire dungeon, this much trouble was nothing.
"Even so, these things are going to pay for themselves. I cannot throw them away."
He even hummed as he set down the brush and turned on the shower.
With strong water pressure, he washed away the remaining foam and mud residue.
Then he spread newspaper widely across the living room floor and carefully laid out the dripping equipment to dry.
Next came the weapons.
He took out the goblin short spear and the curved hook tool, then began wiping them thoroughly with a dry cloth.
If even a little slime mucus or monster blood remained, the metal would corrode quickly.
The tricks he had picked up while cleaning other people’s equipment during his porter days were proving useful at times like this.
"Good. Very clean."
Finally, he pulled this way and that on the rope and the small breathing aid he had used to cross the deep section, checking them for damage.
Only after all the maintenance was finished did the tension finally leave his body.
"Haa."
Cheol-woo lay spread-eagled on the floor.
His entire body felt as heavy as soaked cotton.
Because he had been exposed to cold muddy water for so long, the muscles in his calves and thighs were still trembling faintly.
It was better than the days when he had carried other people’s luggage and walked for two days and nights, but fighting all the way to the boss alone was certainly a heavy drain on his stamina.
"I should just sleep properly today."
His eyelids grew heavy.
Unable to hold out any longer, he slipped into sleep where he lay.
His heart, as it looked toward tomorrow, was more peaceful than ever.
The next morning.
Thanks to a full night’s sleep, the trembling in his legs had completely settled.
With a refreshed face, Cheol-woo made himself a cup of coffee and sat on the sofa.
Holding the warm mug in one hand, he tapped the air with the other.
A translucent management window floated up smoothly.
[Owned Dungeon List]
-Goblin’s Abandoned Mine (F)
-Sleeping Waterway (F)
Two names appeared side by side before his eyes.
Without hesitation, he pressed the activated [Enter] button beside the name Sleeping Waterway.
HUM.
The air rippled lightly, and a small gate about Cheol-woo’s height smoothly formed in the middle of the living room.
Unlike the huge, noisy gates managed by the Association, this one shone with a quiet and docile blue light.
He set down his coffee cup, then put on his dry, fresh lightweight armor and boots.
With the goblin spear and waterproof bag slung over him as well, he stepped straight into the gate.
RUSHHH.
His vision brightened, and the familiar sewer-pipe passage appeared once more.
But the atmosphere was distinctly different from yesterday.
The water that rose to his ankles was still murky, but the traces of battle were nowhere to be found.
"It has already cleaned everything up."
Cheol-woo touched the passage wall.
Even the pile of stones that had collapsed yesterday under the water cannon fired by the boss had been restored as though nothing had happened.
The shattered remains of the slimes and the corpses of the crustaceans had not left even the slightest trace.
It looked as though the dungeon itself had recovered its wounds like one enormous living organism.
He moved forward with a satisfied expression.
There was no need to fight monsters to the death today.
This was merely an inspection of his territory, a chance to look around and calculate how he would use it from now on.
Splash. Splash.
The sound of his boot soles cutting through the water echoed through the dark passage.
While walking through the shallow area, Cheol-woo suddenly stopped.
Bubbles were swelling up beneath the surface.
When he approached and looked closer, he saw Aquatic Slimes the size of adult fists slowly gathering transparent mucus and taking shape.
"Oh-ho. They are not fully formed yet."
He did not stab them with his spear and simply watched.
A short distance away, between the cracks in the stones, a small crustacean was curled up.
Looking closely, he saw that its new shell had not yet hardened and was still soft. Far from showing aggression, it looked busy trying to hide.
Cheol-woo opened the management window again and checked their detailed information.
[Aquatic Slime]
-Current Population: 27
-Regeneration Cycle: 3 days required (in progress)
[Shell Pincer]
-Current Population: 15
-Regeneration Cycle: 4 days required (in progress)
"The cycle is completely different from the abandoned mine."
The goblins in the abandoned mine returned in part every half day, but these creatures took three to four days per individual. Even among F-rank dungeons, the regeneration cycle differed completely depending on the ecosystem.
It seemed that even at the same F-rank, the difference in habitat and species changed everything.
He pressed down on the resource tab.
This time, instead of minerals like the abandoned mine’s iron ore or Azure Mana Iron, a completely different list of names appeared.
[Producible Resources]
-Refined Mana Water
-Aquatic Mana Herb
-Slime Nucleus
Cheol-woo’s gaze moved toward the edge of the passage.
In the dark gaps of the mud, where water shimmered, young leaves with a faint blue glow were growing in clusters.
They were Aquatic Mana Herbs.
The leaves were not large enough to harvest yet, but the colony itself seemed fairly wide.
"Not bad. If I leave it alone for a few days, it will turn into a bundle of cash."
As for Slime Nuclei, he could obtain them by killing the slimes once the monsters were fully grown.
The Mana Herbs only needed to be harvested periodically.
Without rashly touching anything for now, Cheol-woo memorized their locations and continued deeper inside.
After passing through the section where the water grew deeper and deeper, he finally reached the innermost reservoir space.
It was the inner room where that grotesquely enormous boss monster had been coiled yesterday.
Of course, now there was only a wide, empty pool of water sitting there in silence.
"I wonder when that thing will come out again."
Since he had destroyed the boss Core and obtained ownership, it was obvious that it would revive after some time, just like the supervisor in the abandoned mine.
He slowly walked around the pool and examined the surroundings.
Then he noticed a thin stream of water flowing from deep inside the wall.
It was completely different from the murky muddy water in the outer passage. This water was clear enough to reveal the floor beneath it.
Trickle. Trickle.
Clear water continuously flowed from a crack in the wall and filled a small groove.
Cheol-woo approached and dipped a finger into the water.
A faintly cool yet refreshing energy seeped through his skin.
He immediately opened the resource information.
[Resource Information: Refined Mana Water]
-Natural water that stably contains a trace amount of mana.
-Can be used to compound low-grade recovery potions and as a basic alchemical solution.
-Current Storage: 12 liters
-Replenishment Cycle: 5 liters flow in daily
Cheol-woo’s eyes gleamed.
"Recovery potions and alchemy materials."
This was quite valuable information.
The iron ore and Azure Mana Iron produced by the abandoned mine belonged to the metal and mineral market, flowing to forges and equipment production companies.
On the other hand, the Refined Mana Water and Aquatic Mana Herbs produced by Sleeping Waterway were items that pharmaceutical companies and alchemy workshops would go mad for.
"So each dungeon works in an entirely different market."
He muttered while rubbing his chin.
All he had done was obtain two F-rank dungeons that others treated like garbage dumps and ran away from.
But as a result, he now had two permanent factories producing basic resources in entirely different fields.
What would happen if he continued collecting more dungeons with different characteristics like this?
‘Minerals, herbs, recovery potions, and later, maybe even food or special components.’
All of it would belong solely to Cheol-woo.
He would not need to bow his head to major guilds and beg for quotas, nor would he have any reason to be undercut by subcontractors.
The more resources he accumulated, the wider his range of choices would become without limit.
"Ah, this feels really damn good."
Cheol-woo did not try to hold back the laughter leaking out of him.
For a moment, he considered taking out an empty water container and scooping up the mana water, but soon shook his head.
There was not much stored yet, and he had no reason to sell it cheaply because he urgently needed money.
For now, the priority was understanding how the resources accumulated and cycled.
After firmly confirming the location and water quality of the mana water inflow point, he turned back without regret.
"My business here is done."
After returning to his studio, Cheol-woo sat in front of his desk without even changing clothes.
He opened the drawer and took out an old spiral notebook.
It was a notebook that still bore the habit from his porter days, when he had obsessively recorded other people’s raid times and settlement amounts.
He opened a clean page wide and gripped his ballpoint pen.
"Let us see."
He drew a line across the top and divided the page in half.
On the left, he wrote [Goblin’s Abandoned Mine]. On the right, he wrote [Sleeping Waterway].
Below them, he began writing down the information he had confirmed in the management window today, one item at a time.
-Abandoned Mine: Iron Ore (24 hours/Partial Regeneration), Azure Mana Iron (15 days), Low-grade Mana Stone (24 hours/Partial Regeneration)
-Waterway: Refined Mana Water (daily/5L), Aquatic Mana Herb (4 days), Slime Nucleus (3 days)
He transferred each dungeon’s production volume and regeneration cycle by target into a single table.
The denser the simple handwritten notes became, the higher the corners of Cheol-woo’s mouth rose.
It was a shabby notebook, but this was an asset inventory far more valuable than the quarterly performance report of any major corporation in the world.
"The abandoned mine is for waiting patiently and touching large sums of money."
He tapped the left column with the tip of his pen.
Rare resources like Azure Mana Iron would raise suspicion if he carelessly released them through cash-out channels, so it was right to let them sit for the time being.
"The waterway is for steady turnover and rolling small money."
He moved his pen to the right column.
Since Refined Mana Water and Mana Herbs were used as consumables in alchemy, if he sold them anonymously in small amounts, there would be less chance of being traced.
The characteristics of the two dungeons fit together ideally.
"At this rate, I could earn money just by breathing without going hunting for a while."
Cheol-woo lifted the notebook and held it up to the fluorescent light.
It felt distant now, as though the version of himself who had been staring hard at guild boards in search of porter work only a few days ago belonged to another lifetime.
He closed the notebook and set down the pen.
"For the time being, I should not overdo it. I should just strengthen my foundation."
He decided to put aside the idea of going outside right away to clear another dungeon.
The Goblin Mine Supervisor in the abandoned mine had already finished regenerating and was staying in the innermost area.
His current top priority was to subdue that monster without destroying its Core and unlock all the remaining locked dungeon control authorities.
Until then, he planned to mine common mana stones and steadily build up his starting capital.
Cheol-woo rolled his stiff neck and rose from his chair.
Outside the window, dusky evening light had settled before he knew it.
His stomach growled loudly.
It seemed his stomach, which had been trapped in tension since yesterday, was finally asserting itself.
"Should I grill some meat today?"
His steps were extremely light as he picked up his wallet.
More than the balance stamped in his bank account, the two reliable assets that would keep springing forth from now on made him feel full.
A quiet hum flowed between Cheol-woo’s lips as he stepped out the front door.
"Just wait."
He muttered briefly while listening to the sound of the door lock engaging.
Like a diligent farmer waiting for the harvest.
No, like a demanding landlord tending his territory.