Sharlock was just about to use a teleport scroll to head to Frostlake when he glanced at 【Arthur】 and 【xX_ShadowBlade_Xx】 standing nearby. He thought it over and said:
"You two — get scrubbed clean and come with me. I need an extra pair of hands."
Arthur and xX_ShadowBlade_Xx exchanged a glance, then hurried to fall in behind Sharlock. As for the other players — they were so jealous they were about to bleed out of their eyeballs.
"How are these two SO lucky? Back-to-back special quests!"
"Wonder what His Lordship the Dungeon Lord wants them for this time."
"Whatever it is, there's gotta be good loot involved!"
"That's whale treatment for you. Not strong enough? That just means you haven't spent enough money!"
"Pretty sure it's got nothing to do with being a whale. The other three whales didn't get picked — and this game doesn't even have a cash shop or any way to top up. Even if we WANTED to spend money, we couldn't."
The otherworldly players were off chatting again, and with impressive enthusiasm at that. By now Sharlock knew these people from another world were a crowd that absolutely lived for group chat, so he didn't find it strange anymore — and he had no intention of stopping their chatter. He was, after all, an extremely enlightened and benevolent lord. Besides, these players built the dungeon way faster than ordinary goblins. A little fondness for chatting hardly counted as a flaw.
Sharlock handed management of the dungeon over to the core, "Bru," then took the unknown magic item they'd pulled from the spider's body and had Arthur and xX_ShadowBlade_Xx come stand beside him.
Both of them looked a little nervous — xX_ShadowBlade_Xx kept swallowing, and Arthur had the face of a man bracing for a boss fight. The other players watching from around them shot over envious looks.
Sharlock pulled out the teleport scroll and tore it. A teleportation magic circle appeared beneath his feet, and with an amplification from Sharlock's mana, the circle expanded until it swallowed Arthur and xX_ShadowBlade_Xx too. Then a flash of magical light — and all three of them, Sharlock, Arthur, and xX_ShadowBlade_Xx, vanished from the spot together.
The players stared at the gorgeous teleportation magic that had just flashed past, and at the now-empty patch of ground. It took a good long moment before someone finally snapped out of it and cried:
"Damn! What the hell WAS that?!"
"That was magic just now, right?! His Lordship's skill?"
"Looked like a skill scroll to me — I saw Locke pull out a scroll and tear it."
"Can we buy one?"
"Where'd they go? A new map? I'm so jealous I'm seeing red!"
And once again, lively chatter echoed through the whole dungeon.
The magical glow flashed, and the next second Sharlock, Arthur, and xX_ShadowBlade_Xx were standing in the portal reception hall of the neutral city of Frostlake. Find the original chapter at novelping.com.
"Fill out your forms and move it — there are people waiting to use the portal behind you!"
It was the same savage orc as before, barking at Sharlock's group with zero patience before slapping a form against Sharlock's chest.
Sharlock took the form and started filling it in, while Arthur and xX_ShadowBlade_Xx just stood there, eyes bugging out at everything around them. To them, the world unfolding before their eyes was a completely brand-new one.
Succubi, gnomes, giants, golems, mantisfolk, minotaurs... and, just like them, goblins!
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Sharlock was long since used to these races and creatures, but Arthur and xX_ShadowBlade_Xx had never laid eyes on a single one. Seeing this many species all in one go, plus the grandly built portal reception hall itself — those massive stone pillars, exquisitely carved, lined up in rows to hold up the reception hall's roof — and on the ceiling mural, a demon with wings outspread, surrounded by a retinue of demons, pointing a finger at a mortal, with a burning fiery hellscape all around.
"That's 'The World Ender' — it depicts the great demon Rogilankaimi destroying the surface world. Back then the great demon Rogilankaimi very nearly wiped out the entire surface world, though he was stopped in the end. Whether it's all actually true, nobody knows — it's just a painting." Sharlock said this while finishing up the form, having caught the expressions on Arthur's and xX_ShadowBlade_Xx's faces.
xX_ShadowBlade_Xx nodded, then started craning his head every which way, and while gawking around he said to Arthur beside him: "This is HUGE scoop material. I gotta grab more shots — I'm writing up the leak thread tonight!"
Compared to xX_ShadowBlade_Xx's excitement, Arthur seemed way more composed — just wide-eyed, looking around everywhere.
Sharlock handed the completed form to the gnome on duty at the exit. The gnome's ear was still wrapped in bandages — except now BOTH ears were bandaged — and while recounting his tragic ordeal from the night before to a coworker, he stamped Sharlock's form.
With his travel permit sorted, Sharlock led Arthur and xX_ShadowBlade_Xx out of the reception hall. Frostlake's streets were bustling: giants hauling goods took slow, lumbering steps, while hellsteeds and skeletal horses pulled all kinds of wagons, clattering fast over the cobblestones. Sharlock didn't linger on the street, which meant xX_ShadowBlade_Xx and Arthur didn't get the chance to gawk much more — they could only hurry after him, leaving the street behind and heading toward the market.
Sharlock arrived at the market, once again ignored the goblins hawking goods along the street, and with his two subordinates in tow quickly found the shop he was looking for.
In the front display window: glass bottles full of green-bubbling liquid, and a one-eyed, sharp-fanged parrot perched on a suspended wooden stick. Something that looked like some creature's innards hung by the door sign, and the sign on the door read 【Welcome Wagon Magic Goods Shop】.
Sharlock confirmed it was a magic goods shop, then pushed the door open and walked in.
xX_ShadowBlade_Xx and Arthur, following behind, whispered back and forth before trailing Sharlock inside. They kept looking all around, and once in the shop they could barely resist reaching out to touch the magic wands on the shelves.
"This is the scepter of a great magus who fell in battle in the surface world! The human kingdoms have launched two whole wars over this scepter — three kings died! — and every one of those wars was fought over fakes. The REAL mage's scepter is right here with us — at the 【Welcome Wagon Magic Goods Shop】!" A gnome in a gentleman's bowler hat, long nose thrust forward, a single round lens perched on his right pointed ear, his face wrinkled like a newborn baby's, rattled off the entire history of the scepter at breakneck speed, took a deep breath, and then, still at breakneck speed, continued:
"Honored Demon Lord, buy right now and I can give you a special 10%-off friendship price — nine thousand eight hundred magic stones takes this mage's scepter home! Comes with a complimentary teleport enchantment, one-hour cooldown, bindable to one fixed portal so you'll never need a teleport scroll again! And if your purchases are too bulky to carry, the shop also offers a dedicated delivery service, plus one exquisite little gift! Just think about it — don't you feel like you'd practically be robbing me blind?"
Just hearing the price made Sharlock's facial muscles start twitching, but Arthur and xX_ShadowBlade_Xx clearly had no real concept of what magic stones were worth. Arthur even blurted out:
"Is this a hidden quest reward? Are magic stones the premium currency they're rolling out later? Where's the top-up window, though? Anything under a million, I'm good for."
"My god, dude. You're kind of a whale, you know that?" The source of this chapter is g.com.
xX_ShadowBlade_Xx looked at Arthur with something like admiration.
Arthur ignored xX_ShadowBlade_Xx entirely, staring earnestly at the gnome shopkeeper like he was waiting on an answer.
The gnome shopkeeper had never studied any otherworld knowledge and certainly didn't know these two goblins were players from another world. Worldly and experienced as he was, he couldn't understand a single word of what this goblin was saying. So he turned a questioning gaze on Sharlock.
Sharlock, of course, knew full well that these two goblins, xX_ShadowBlade_Xx and Arthur, were players from another world, summoned through the dungeon core "Bru." With the two worlds differing so wildly in knowledge and common sense, it was only natural the gnome shopkeeper couldn't follow a word Arthur and xX_ShadowBlade_Xx said. But Sharlock had no intention of explaining — that was a trade secret, after all!
"Sorry to disappoint — I'm not here to buy. I'm here to ask you to appraise a magic item for me."
As he spoke, Sharlock pulled out the metal sphere from before. It still gave off a dim magical glow. Sharlock could only sense faint mana from it, and he couldn't tell at a glance what the thing was — which meant it probably had some history behind it. In other words: worth some money!
Seeing Sharlock produce the metal sphere, the gnome shopkeeper pushed up his glasses, then took the sphere from Sharlock's hand with a withered, spindly finger, his pointed nails scraping across the metal with a grating screech.
While Sharlock waited for the gnome shopkeeper to appraise the sphere, Arthur frowned and asked xX_ShadowBlade_Xx:
"Why won't anybody tell me where the cash shop is?"
xX_ShadowBlade_Xx rolled his eyes:
"Whale bro, you killed that spider mob and triggered a hidden quest — we are OBVIOUSLY mid-questline right now. That wand just now? Forget it. That was just quest flavor, for looking at."
The two of them muttered back and forth on the side. Sharlock had long since gotten used to otherworldly players treating everything like a quest, but the gnome shopkeeper simply could not. Hearing the two goblins launch into that weird talk again, he couldn't help sneaking a couple glances at Arthur and xX_ShadowBlade_Xx, then whispered to Sharlock:
"My lord, I believe these two servants of yours may have something wrong with their heads..."
"Thanks for your concern..."
After examining it forever, the gnome shopkeeper pulled out a book and started flipping through pages for reference. After a stretch of flipping, he stuck out his tongue and gave the sphere a thorough all-around lick. Sharlock really, REALLY wanted to remind him that this metal sphere had come out of a subterranean spider's stomach — but watching the gnome lick it with such absorbed, passionate dedication, Sharlock just couldn't bring himself to say it.
"I've got it just about figured out!" After that marathon of an appraisal, the gnome shopkeeper took off his glasses and said, "This is a key. A key to the Ancient Ruins."
══════════════════════ DUNGEON LORD'S NOTE ═══════════════════════
Turns out our boy Arthur is a whale: he heard one scepter costs 9,800 stones and asked where the top-up window was — 'Anything under a million, I'm good for.' So how whale is Arthur, one to ten?
Rarer than a talking core: a 5-star review from you.
Do it for Bru — he's asking nicely.