Sharlock was a young Dungeon Lord, and his dungeon didn't even qualify as a starter dungeon — because the dungeon core itself had been junked.
The reason Sharlock had bought this dungeon — the kind where even the core was abandoned — was NOT the honeyed sales pitch of the succubus saleslady at the sales office, with her occasional flirty winks and her none-too-subtle hints of "special favors." It also wasn't because the ground around this particular dungeon core was packed with diamonds — foul, rock-hard, and utterly worthless.
And it definitely wasn't because the nearest entrance to the surface world was a mere day's journey away. Sure, that meant Sharlock could reach the surface in a day — it also meant every Light-faction race on the surface could come crusading after this Dungeon Lord in a day, too.
No, the reason he'd bought this dungeon — nightmarish location, off-the-charts danger, core stone dead and needing a massive cash infusion to reboot — wasn't that Sharlock loved a challenge. It was that this was flat-out the cheapest dungeon in the entire Underworld.
Whining any further was a waste of breath. Sharlock was a demon with ambition and goals. Instead of complaining, better to spend that brainpower rebooting the dungeon core ASAP and getting his Great Project underway!
"Pump in mana, then press your personal sigil ring onto it..." Standing before the abandoned, lightless core, Dungeon Operations Manual — courtesy of the saleslady — in hand, Sharlock began rebooting the dungeon core one step at a time.
After he'd pumped in the vast majority of his mana, to the point of nearly collapsing from exhaustion, Sharlock took out his personal sigil ring, soaked it through with his own blood, and stamped it down onto the dungeon core.
Once the name "Sharlock" seeped into the dungeon core in letters of blood, the core slowly began to glow — and then Sharlock heard a low voice rising out of it:
"Traveler who walks between the myriad worlds, I salute you. Will you accept me, Dungeon Lord?"
Sharlock's brow furrowed. He flipped through the Dungeon Operations Manual from start to finish one more time, confirmed that part definitely wasn't in there, then raised his head and stared blankly at the dungeon core in front of him. What now? Did I buy a bootleg core?
The dungeon core waited a while, got no answer out of Sharlock, and continued: "Not a transmigrator? A native, then?"
Sharlock's frown deepened as he muttered to himself, "There's something wrong with this core. Nope. I'm going back to that saleslady for a refund. Cheap really is cheap for a reason!"
Sharlock turned to leave, and the dungeon core behind him panicked and hollered: "O future great Demon King of dungeons! That was merely some terminology I picked up from another world — there is nothing wrong with me! Please wait, don't return me! With my location and these conditions, I'd never sell in ten thousand years!"
Sharlock stopped in his tracks. This absolutely, positively had nothing to do with the dungeon core sucking up to him. It was purely and simply because it had called him "the future great Demon King of dungeons" — which was a fact!
A talking dungeon core was admittedly a lot to wrap your head around, but Sharlock was no veteran Dungeon Lord — just because he'd never seen one didn't mean they didn't exist. Maybe they were just rare. Seen in that light, he might've actually gotten a bargain.
Since the core could talk, and its thinking was reasonably coherent — so it wasn't broken — that just made Sharlock's grand plan even easier to pull off! He spread his arms wide and, standing before the dungeon core, delivered the very first speech of his career as a Dungeon Lord.
"Within one hundred years: dig out one hundred rooms for dungeon monsters! Build ten kitchens, ten interrogation rooms, ten torture chambers, and two enormous training grounds! Plus a labyrinth to tempt surface adventurers, a library, treasure, and my own luxurious bedroom and the richest treasure vault of all!"
Naturally, first things first — he needed the dungeon's very first batch of laborers. Goblins!
Taken without permission, this chapter came from where the author publishes the story; reading the official version supports the author.
As for how to summon goblins, the Dungeon Operations Manual covered it in exhaustive detail: all you needed was mana and the corresponding dungeon level.
Sharlock's dungeon was, of course, the lowest of the low — a Level 1 dungeon — which meant the only dungeon monster he could summon was goblins. And leveling the dungeon up was simple, too: just throw money at it. Buy up or seize another dungeon core and let your own core devour it — one core devoured, one level gained.
Having read the manual cover to cover with the utmost care, Sharlock got ready to pump more mana into the dungeon core, summon his goblins, and launch his glorious career as a Dungeon Lord!
But just as Sharlock moved to recruit goblins, the dungeon core in front of him shouted again: "Wait! If you recruit goblins the standard way, a regular goblin runs five magic stones a month in wages. Why not try contracting with goblins from another world instead? Otherworld goblins don't just work without wages — they're diligent, AND they pay YOU!"
"Pay me? Why?" Sharlock nearly laughed out loud. Never in his life had he seen such a bizarre goblin.
"Because they are whales who drop money without blinking," said the core.
What the dungeon core said was hard to believe, but Sharlock was tempted all the same — he genuinely didn't have the magic stones to cover goblin wages. Sure, you could theoretically mine up magic stones while expanding a dungeon, but given this dungeon's location, the odds of digging any up were microscopic. The place was practically sealed in hard diamond.
After some serious deliberation, Sharlock decided to give the otherworld goblins a shot. Since they were beings from another world, he'd need — per the dungeon core — extra mana to set up a "server." Also known as a portal.
For the next week, Sharlock poured his own mana into the dungeon core to build the server. Or, if you prefer, the portal. The core barely chatted with him the whole time, and only once the portal was finally finished did it sit him down and explain the situation in the other world.
Because of the cultural gap between the two worlds, the otherworld goblins might say bizarre things and pick bizarre names for themselves. They might even spontaneously form cliques, trade and haggle among themselves, get into brawls and kill each other, or do other things that looked unbelievably dumb and childish. The core hoped Sharlock would brace himself.
Also, since the two worlds were different, a Dungeon Lord's management style for otherworld underlings would need a few tweaks. Barking orders in a hard tone wasn't the best way to manage them — running things through the official forums would be far more effective.
As for what the official forums were, the core gave a simple explanation: think of it as something like an embassy between the two worlds.
Sharlock more or less got the picture. The otherworld goblins' hobbies struck him as odd, but as long as he wasn't the one paying wages, there was no problem whatsoever. He could hardly wait to summon the goblins and put them to work.
Except the core didn't start summoning goblins right away — it had Sharlock handle the publicity and recruiting himself. Which, naturally, also happened on the official forums.
Getting onto the official forums required the core as a medium. A screen-like thing appeared on the core, along with a so-called keyboard and mouse. Once it had taught Sharlock how to use them, he had one more duty on his plate: maintaining and managing the dungeon's official forums as the Dungeon Lord — and above all, recruiting the first batch of dungeon monsters, known in the other world's lingo as "beta testers."
When Sharlock entered the official forums, he was greeted by a dizzying wall of otherworld text. But learning a written language was no great hurdle for a high-tier demon, and Sharlock picked it up in no time. Then, following the core's instructions, he published the dungeon forums' very first thread — 【The world's first VR MMO — Dungeon: The Eternal Kingdom — enters closed beta soon! Beta testers wanted!】
As for the content, that was drafted per the core's suggestions, of course. Sharlock also took the chance to give his dungeon a properly sinister, spine-chilling name — the Eternal Kingdom!
Then he gave the core a cool name of its own — Bru!
The core fought both names with everything it had, but when had Sharlock ever backpedaled on a decision?
And while Sharlock and Bru were busy arguing over names, people were already leaving comments on the official forums.
【VioletBloom: Dungeon: The Eternal Kingdom? I'm out! Back to the DFO grind for me!】
【ChiefThunderhorn: This actually looks kinda interesting! A VR MMO! Check the promo footage — I seriously thought that was filmed with a camera!】
【DrNice: Pre-registered! Hope the devs pick me for CBT1. I promise 24/7 uptime, and I'll report any bug the second I find it!】
【OneLumpOrTwo: Promo and description look solid, but the class lineup is pretty thin. Launching with one class — goblin? Hope they open more classes soon. Still, the whole VR MMO gimmick is definitely gonna pull a ton of sign-ups!】
Replies like these started flooding in almost immediately. Every time Sharlock refreshed, several more pages of comments appeared, and the applicant count climbed straight up the chart — in just a few short minutes, a hundred or so people had signed up.
Sharlock was a little spooked. He had NEVER heard of goblins having to line up and APPLY for a job! And he'd never planned on recruiting anywhere near that many goblins!
Sharlock looked over at Bru and asked, "Bru, is the other world like... a world of goblins?"
The core, "Bru," said: "Well, basically. Over a billion of 'em. Not that we need that many — this dungeon's space couldn't hold them anyway. Let's screen fast and pick the ones with good attitudes. Much easier to manage."
Sharlock had been thinking the same thing, and got to work processing the application list page by page.
In a single day, more than five thousand people had applied for the beta — and given the Eternal Kingdom's current footprint, it could hold a hundred people, tops.
Any more than that was flatly impossible. Even if — per the core "Bru" — they needed no wages, they'd still need to eat and drink, right? Goblins don't eat much, but every scrap of it costs magic stones, and what was left in Sharlock's pockets would cover exactly three days of food for a hundred goblins. After that, the hundred goblins would have to head out and hunt for themselves.
Sharlock quickly settled on his hundred beta testers. But before welcoming them, there was one more thing he had to do.
Buy them pickaxes so they could get mining!