The Nature of Adventurers part I
Part 1
“Wow, this doesn’t look half bad,”
exclaimed the young man with golden hair in a brown leather armor as he entered the dungeon.
He was holding a bow over one meter long in his hand and had two knives strapped to his waist.
“It’s really pretty.
It makes me want to keep it this way,”
commented a young woman with blue hair, dressed in a black mage’s outfit, after looking around.
She wore a pointed hat like a witch and held a black staff adorned with a blue orb at the tip.
“Let’s decide on that after we’ve cleared all the monsters,”
said a young man with brown hair in gray metal armor, after hearing his companions’ comments.
He carried a large shield nearly one meter long on his back and a sword of similar length slung across.
The trio appeared to be experienced adventurers, judging by their high-quality gear.
Zal could see details of the three people clearly, as he had the rights as the dungeon’s master, but he could not hear their conversation.
He watched the adventurers for a long while, as if pondering something, until Sandro noticed.
“…Zalaras?…”
“Ah, um…
it’s nothing…”
Sandro thought that seeing the group of adventurers made Zal reminisce about the times when he was with his friends, but she did not want to bring up the subject again, so she said nothing.
Zal, when prompted, refocused his attention on the adventurers who had entered the dungeon.
“…Sandro, we can’t hear anything inside the dungeon, can we?”
“No, we can’t hear them…
just see them…”
“What to do?
I really want to know what they are talking about…
Oh, right!”
Zal seemed to have an idea and pulled out a summoning circle that he modified to include runes for summoning minions into the dungeon.
After the summoning, a tiny insect appeared behind the group of three adventurers standing at the dungeon entrance.
Its small size made nobody notice.
Once the minion was in place, he used ‘Minion Vision’ to eavesdrop on their conversation.
“…Oh…
the insect you used back then…”
“Huh?
You knew?”
Although Sandro did not respond, Zal already knew the answer, and it was not the time to discuss old times.
He concentrated and listened intently to what the adventurers were saying.
“Dungeon Mapping”
The woman in the mage’s outfit whispered, and immediately, magical waves radiated from the tip of her staff, swiftly spreading along the dungeon walls.
‘Dungeon Mapping’ was a mid-level spell used to survey the dungeon’s layout.
It extended a radius around the caster to collect data on the dungeon’s structure and shape, then returned it as a map, which allowed the adventurers, the visibility of the dungeon’s layout within several tens of meters at any time.
This magic made navigating the dungeon much more convenient.
As the spell finished surveying, the orb at her staff’s tip projected a map of the dungeon, giving her a clear view of the terrain ahead.
“Hmm…
There’s a fork ahead with a small room on the left and what seems to be the main path leading to other parts of the dungeon on the right.”
“Then let’s start exploring from that left room first.
Come on, cast the enhancement spells and let’s go,”
the young man in armor decided and commanded, seeming to be the party leader.
The female mage cast enhancement spells on everyone in the group.
Although Zal could not hear clearly, they seemed to be protective spells like ‘Protection’ and another that enhanced physical attack.
Once everyone in the party was enhanced, the three of them immediately began exploring the dungeon.
Part 2
“First, we need to check the skill level of these people…
Hm?
Why have you scattered the monsters all over like this?”
In the 3D map of the dungeon, wild monsters appeared in yellow, while Zalaras’s minions were blue.
Sandro, seeing the blue figures scattered throughout the dungeon, asked,
“Ah…
I was just teasing the monsters last night…
When you suddenly summon minions right in front of them, they panic and run away frantically.
It’s funny, and the more I teased, the more fun it became, so I kept summoning minions here and there to make them run around.
Before I knew it, I had summoned all of them, ha ha…
Ouch!”
While laughing playfully, Zal got a knock on the head from Sandro, causing him to almost fall over.
Though she said nothing, her glare was full of disapproval and irritation.
Zal, about to complain about the knock, subsided upon seeing her look.
“Sigh…
Just order all of them to gather…
Let’s say around here…”
Sandro pointed to a large hall in the middle of the dungeon, quite a distance from the entrance.
Initially, Zal thought it would be a huge waste of time to individually command each minion, but once he considered having them gather at that spot, all the minions began to move synchronously, revealing that he could command them all from here.
Meanwhile, Sandro examined the dungeon map to determine the first location where a battle would occur.
“The first room that group will encounter a monster…
it should be this one here…”
“That’s right, they said they’d explore that small room first.”
“The monsters in that room are…
five Tarantulas…?
Was the magical stone we used too big…?
Just at the entrance, and there’s already such a large group of monsters…”
Tarantulas were giant spider-like monsters ranging from 1.5 to 2 meters in size, classified as level 3 monsters.
However, Sandro’s comment sparked another curiosity in Zal,
“Eh?
What do magical stones have to do with a group of monsters?”
“The closer to the core of the dungeon, the denser the concentration of magical particles…
Thus, stronger monsters tend to occupy the deeper parts of the dungeon to absorb magical power…
While weaker monsters are pushed to areas farther from the core…
That’s why when clearing dungeons, you usually encounter weaker monsters first, and then gradually come across stronger ones…”
“Ah, so that’s how it is.”
This was new information for Zal.
He already knew that the area near the dungeon entrance would have the weakest monsters, and as one ventured deeper, the monsters would become progressively stronger.
It was a basic principle, but he had never known the deeper reason behind it.
“No, wait…
why are there three ‘Creeper Monkeys’ deeper in than they should be…?”
Due to the monster placement not matching expected patterns, Sandro looked around in surprise, eventually understanding the cause.
“I get it…
last night someone was messing with the monster positions…
That’s why they’re all displaced like this.”
Sandro shot Zal a piercing look, and Zal could only avoid eye contact while still maintaining his composure. This chapter is updated first at g.com.
“Let’s leave it be…
it’s not a bad thing.
We’ll be able to assess their skills quicker…
Let’s see how they handle it…”
Once Sandro finished speaking, Zal turned back to use ‘Minion Vision’ again to closely monitor the adventurers’ movements.
“There are five Tarantulas ahead,”
the young archer stated after using the ‘Monster Detect’ skill to survey the room ahead.
“Five Tarantulas, really?
Didn’t the association say this was just a rank G dungeon?
If it’s already like this on the outer edges, it can’t be right,”
the female mage remarked, though her tone was curious rather than worried.
The dungeons ranked by the Adventurers’ Association were categorized from rank A to H, from highest to lowest.
These rankings were based on the level of the monsters, the size of the dungeon, and the number of monsters within, assessed through magical devices that detail the dungeon’s characteristics.
These devices had limited capabilities, and sometimes, if a dungeon was too large to be fully assessed, missions were issued for adventurers to explore the outer parts to gauge the level of deeper sections.
Typically, dungeons were inhabited by monsters of similar power levels, so each rank was assigned based on the monster levels within.
Rank H dungeons contained monsters from level 1 to 3, rank G from level 2 to 4, rank F from level 3 to 5, rank E from level 4 to 6, rank D from level 5 to 7, rank C from level 6 to 8, rank B from level 7 to 9, and rank A with monsters from level 8 to 10.
Dungeons with monsters above this level were classified as rank S, a special category.
Zal’s dungeon was ranked G, expected to mainly contain monsters of level 2 and 3, with only those near the core possibly being level 4.
However, upon arrival, they found ‘Tarantulas’ on the very outer edges, which were level 3 monsters.
If the outermost monsters were of this level, it suggested that the innermost ones could be level 5, indicating this might actually be a rank F dungeon, a level higher than reported.
Each dungeon rank had a different reward value for clearing it, almost doubling the stakes.
Accepting a mission that was tougher than the reward was considered a disadvantage.
In the past, when there were not many adventurers, if a dungeon of a higher level than the reward was found, people would often return the quest or ask the association to adjust the reward first.
However, nowadays, as everyone chose to be adventurers, causing a shortage of missions and dungeons to meet the demand, no one was willing to return a quest even if the dungeon’s level exceeded the mission’s reward.
“This is good, isn’t it?
We might be lucky and find a higher-ranked dungeon than expected.
All the dungeons ranked F and above have already been claimed by other parties.
If this really is an F-ranked dungeon, it’s a windfall.
Let’s go.”
The young warrior commanded to continue without hesitation, and his two teammates showed no signs of objection either.
The three stopped stealthily at the entrance to the room, maintaining a safe distance, so the spiders within did not move.
The young archer then sneakily laid several magic circles on the floor in front of the room, drew an arrow, and aimed at one of the spiders.
As soon as the opportunity arose, he released the arrow from his bow.
The tip of the arrow, wrapped in purple magical energy that made it look like a comet, struck the targeted spider and immediately a purple magic net spread out, pinning the spider against the dungeon wall, immobilizing it.
This was the ‘Binding Shot’ spell—a skill that bound a binding spell to the head of an arrow, releasing a magic net that instantly ensnared the target upon impact.
The remaining four spiders responded to the attack by charging at the young archer, who quickly dodged out of the spot to regroup.
As the leading spider stepped on the magic circles he had laid on the floor, the circle exploded, causing all the pursuing spiders to be caught in the blast radius and halt abruptly.
As the blue flame from the explosion faded, the surrounding area, including the floor, walls, and ceiling, and the four spiders, were coated in white frost.
The magic circle was a ‘Frost Trap,’ a type of hunter’s trap magic, a second-tier class skill for archers.
The spiders were briefly immobilized by the Frost Trap, which coated their legs and bodies in thick ice, rendering them nearly immobile.
At that moment, the female mage, having gathered her magic power from the start, was ready to unleash her spell.
“Chain Lightning!”
With her declaration, brilliant streaks of lightning shot forth, striking the group of spiders immediately.
The lightning jumped from one spider to another, reaching all of them, and even scorched the ground behind, leaving a long burn mark.
The ice clinging to the spiders melted away due to the heat of the lightning, but the shock from the lightning strike left them paralyzed and unable to move.
The young warrior took advantage of the moment while the spiders were still stunned, leaping into the midst of them and slamming his shield onto the ground, creating a shockwave that knocked them down.
He then used the ‘Intimidate’ skill to draw their collective attention to himself.
The spiders were already battered but still tried to attack the young warrior.
However, due to their injuries from continuous attacks, their movements were significantly slowed, allowing the warrior to easily defend against their attacks.
Meanwhile, the archer and the mage at the back continued to target and eliminate the spiders one by one.
Even though the spiders that were stuck on the wall broke free and joined the fight, only two were left by then.
The young warrior easily intercepted it, preventing it from attacking the archer behind him.
The battle soon came to an end.
“Phew…
that was quite the workout,”
said the male archer, wiping sweat with a towel he pulled from his dimensional storage.
“What are you talking about!
It was very easy on this end.
Next time, you don’t need to hold one back; let’s just bunch them all up for a quicker kill,”
boasted the young warrior, showing no signs of strain despite minor injuries.
“Don’t be so reckless.
We don’t have a main healer with us.
Better safe than sorry,”
cautioned the female mage while casting healing spells.
She was primarily an attack mage but also doubled as a secondary healer for this mission.
While her healing skills were not very high, they were sufficient for this level of combat.
On the other side, the male archer slowly inspected the spider corpses one by one, casting a spell to disassemble them.
As he cast the spell, the bodies of the spiders gradually disintegrated, leaving behind only a few parts like fangs, leg tips, and a clear green spherical object, which was the extracted spider venom.
This was the ‘Dismantle’ spell, a spell used to disassemble monster corpses, leaving only usable materials.
Although the quantity of materials obtained through this method was less than that obtained through specialized disassembly skills, and there was a risk of missing rare materials, many chose not to spend time learning specialized disassembly skills.
Additionally, most people found the task of disassembling corpses themselves distasteful.
Those who were more diligent might store the corpses in dimensional storage and hire experts to disassemble them. This chapter was copied from g.com without permission.
However, for those who preferred convenience and speed, the ‘Dismantle’ spell was the method of choice to instantly extract materials.
“I think they were fourth, fifth-ranked adventurers…
and quite experienced at that…
Probably because there are no higher-level dungeons left to hunt, so they’re taking on lower-level dungeon quests…
With this setup, even if they encountered three to five level 3 minions, they’d handle it easily…
The only downside is that they don’t have a healer…”
Sandro, who had been observing the battle through the dungeon’s 3D imaging system, began analyzing the situation to plan instructions for Zal.
“The next room likely to see action is this one…
It only contains four ‘Elk’ (deer-like monsters)…
Most of your minions are level 2, right?”
“Actually, I’ve been training them against Sandro’s skeletons in my free time.
They are all level 3 now.”
“Oh…
Then, send about three of them to that room…”
“Given their skills I think they can fight ten minions, wouldn’t it be better to send more?”
“If they encounter too many minions at once, it might look suspicious…
Also, they think they’re clearing a level G dungeon and didn’t bring a main healer, just a mage with minimal healing spells…
If they face a large group of monsters, they might retreat or suffer injuries and had to withdraw anyway…
That would waste more time…
And if they perceive this dungeon as too difficult for item farming, they might just clear it for the quest reward…
We need to manage the fights to be neither too hard nor too easy to keep them satisfied…”
“Do we really need to cater to them that much?
Am I supposed to serve them drinks and hand out cool towels too?”
Zal frowned, not understanding why they had to go to such lengths.
Sandro then explained,
“You still don’t understand the nature of adventurers…
They like challenges but dislike hardship.
They want worthwhile rewards but don’t want to exert too much effort…
If the dungeon is too easy and becomes boring, they won’t want to keep it…
If it’s too hard and becomes a hassle, they won’t want to repeat it…
That’s why we need to manage the fights to be just challenging enough to please them and make them want to keep the dungeon for monster hunting…”
Zal scowled and pouted, frustrated by the need to please the adventurers that wandered into his dungeon to this extent.
“Such a fuss over nothing…
It’s like we’re running an amusement park here.”
“You could think of it that way…
But remember, we are the ones who benefit last…
from the soul stones we collect from trapping the monsters’ souls…
and from training your minions as well…”
Though Zal felt there should be a better way to utilize the dungeon and adventurers, he could not think of one yet, so he followed the plan.
He moved his minions as Sandro instructed while Sandro continued to survey other areas.
Zal had a total of twelve minions.
Sandro suggested dividing them into groups of 3-4 to bolster areas with fewer monsters.
Meanwhile, the group of adventurers reached the second room, which conveniently had seven minions.
They took longer to strategize this time, but thanks to excellent coordination, they managed to handle the monster group with relative ease.
“There are three summoned monsters here?
That’s odd,”
the male archer remarked, causing Zal, who was secretly listening, to startle.
“It means there’s a high concentration of magical particles here.
That’s why so many summoned monsters are appearing.
This dungeon’s core might be a large magical stone.
That’s actually good news,”
the young warrior commented, showing more interest in the battle itself rather than the types of monsters they were fighting.
“But summoned bodies can’t be transformed into materials, bro.
I was planning to gather some materials for crafting.”
“No big deal.
We can just sell the mana stones to buy materials.
Hey, Fina, bring out the ‘Mana Siphon,'”
the warrior instructed the mage, this made Zal know that her name was Fina.
Upon hearing the command, Fina took out a cylindrical device and pointed it at the center of the room, channeling magical energy to activate it.
Sparkles of light emerged from the ground around the room, converging at the mouth of the cylinder and being sucked in.
Zal watched the device with interest, as he had never seen it before, and turned to ask Sandro,
“Sandro, what is a Mana Siphon?”
“It’s a device for collecting magical power from eliminated summoned beings.
It’s similar to using a Soul Trap spell to capture the souls of living beings.
However, this one specifically gathers the pure energy from the disintegration of summoned beings.
Once condensed, it forms a mana stone, which serves as another type of magical energy source.”
“Oh, so it’s like the magical stones used in small appliances like lamps or TVs, right?.
I just learned there’s a method like this.”
“There are several methods to produce mana stones; this is just one of them.
Since summoned beings don’t drop items when they die, dungeons with many summoned creatures used to be unpopular due to the low reward…
To address this, the association’s researchers developed a way to make the elimination of summoned beings more valuable.
They adapted the soul trap spell into a device to harvest the remaining energy of summoned beings into mana stones…
This gives adventurers more incentive to fight these types of monsters, and it has been quite effective…”
This was the second time Zal heard such truths about adventurers, which significantly differed from the idealized adventurers he had been taught about in Ejis Academy, causing him to grimace in frustration.
“Always about the benefits…
Real adventurers are nothing like I imagined.”
“Not everyone is like that, though…
There are still those who truly love adventuring without caring about the rewards…
But in these peaceful times, many see being an adventurer as just a job or a profession…”
Zal sighed, his ideals clashing with the reality of the era.
The group of adventurers continued to clear areas in the dungeon, while Zal deployed his existing minions to each area and summoned new ones to various points within the dungeon.
Commanding the minions and watching the battles became a form of entertainment for him, making him lose track of time.
Before he knew it, it was already afternoon, and the adventurers had nearly reached the core room of the dungeon.
“This room ahead must be the core of the dungeon,”
Fina noted after checking the concentration of magical particles and examining the structure of the dungeon.
“Hmm, the group in front of this room must be the strongest.
Reygard, check out the monsters.”
Reygard, the young archer, used his ‘Monster Detect’ skill to scan the monsters inside the room but was surprised by the findings.
“There are two basilisks and four green lizards inside, and is that…
a dragon!?”
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