The moment they heard "gnome from Frostlake," the players perked RIGHT up. Thanks to xX_ShadowBlade_Xx's pinned guide thread, Frostlake now ranked as the most mysterious place in the players' collective imagination. Seeing an NPC who'd come straight FROM Frostlake — didn't that mean Frostlake was about to open up for players? Or maybe this gnome was the lead-in quest for unlocking Frostlake!
While the players mobbed the suddenly-teleported gnome with questions, Sharlock walked over. The gnome was busy fielding a "Huh?" from this side and a "What?" from that — but the instant he saw Sharlock coming, he dropped respectfully to one knee, gave Sharlock a grand bow, and then declared with theatrical flair:
"Great Lord of the Eternal Kingdom Dungeon! I am Gnome Captain Moros, come from Frostlake! I have accepted your recruitment and stand ready to train your servants. So, my students are these..." Gnome Moros looked out at the ring of goblins surrounding him — some in armor, some bare-chested, some in tattered rags, all watching him with open curiosity — "...strapping, valiant, big-future goblins, yes?"
"Is he talking about us?"
"That's the skill trainer from the announcement, right?"
"Damn, we can finally learn skills!"
"Hurry it up, hurry it up!"
Naturally, the players chattered nonstop the entire time.
Sharlock walked up to the gnome, looked him up and down, and said: "The special talent I'm after is one who can mold my servants into warriors. You, if I'm not mistaken, were working security in the portal reception hall?"
The implication was obvious: Sharlock didn't trust this Moros one bit. He was shelling out twenty magic stones a month, after all — if all he'd hired was some good-for-nothing slacker, that was flat-out unacceptable.
"My lord, I completely understand your concern — but please believe me, this is a job I can absolutely, DEFINITELY handle!" As he spoke, Moros produced a medal and said, with great emotion: "This is the gold award I won in the gladiator championships in the arena in my youth — came bundled with a fifty-magic-stone prize, too! Don't judge me by how I look now, my lord: in my day I was a legendary gladiator! I served other lords! I fought dragons! I battled sirens! I stared down priests! Right up until I got married..."
At this point, a desolate look came over Moros. "It's a very, very long story..."
"That's enough — I can roughly guess how the post-marriage part goes." Sharlock raised a hand, cutting off whatever Moros was about to say next. "Let's start with a one-month probation. Probation pay: the standard gnome rate, ten magic stones a month. If you can train these goblins to hold their own against subterranean spiders in a head-on fight, the job is yours for real."
Moros's face lit up, and he dropped to one knee again on the spot: "I, Moros, will gladly serve Lord Sharlock!"
"Then let the contract hereby be sealed." Sharlock extended a finger; a magical contract appeared in his hand. He quickly signed his name and handed it to Moros, who pressed his handprint onto it:
"The contract hereby is sealed!"
Once the two of them finished contracting, the magical contract vanished. Moros stood up, buzzing with excitement, and asked:
"Did you bring a bed? Bedsheets?" Sharlock didn't answer — he fired back with a question of his own.
A quiet source note: this chapter was taken from the author's posting without approval, and reading that posting supports them.
"What with leaving home in rather a hurry... I'm perfectly all right with a shared dormitory!" Moros said this most sincerely.
"In that case — this gnome is called Moros, and from now on he is your skill trainer. Now hurry up and build a bed to serve as Moros's bunk!" Sharlock commanded the players before him.
The players had been munching popcorn over the dialogue like it was a cutscene, thoroughly entertained — then Sharlock's order landed mid-scene and the whole crowd scrambled into work mode.
Before long, not far from the little pixie's bed, the players had thrown together a bunk of packed dirt and grass roots.
Moros stared blankly at the freshly built bunk, then at the little pixie beside it. The pixie scrunched herself smaller.
"Moros, as you can see, our dungeon has only just gotten off the ground — plenty of important things come before dormitories. These goblins sleep straight on the ground. Of course, YOU'RE special talent; we certainly can't have you sleeping on the floor. This bunk is yours from now on." Sharlock pointed at the just-built bed, then asked: "If there's no issue, that freshly dug open space over there is your training ground. I'll have the goblins prioritize laying stone floor there. These goblins are in your hands from here on."
No dormitory stung a little, sure — but look at this startup dungeon, recruiting a hundred goblins straight off the bat! A Dungeon Lord with spending power like that was a rare breed! Sharlock didn't look like a particularly rich lord, but judging purely by the sheer number of goblins, and by how hard those goblins worked with no dormitory to their name, Moros felt all but certain: the benefits this lord handed out had to be AMAZING!
Moros was already looking forward to it — to finishing his probation and officially partaking of the Eternal Kingdom's employee benefits!
"As you command, my lord!" Moros perked up instantly, radiant with vigor.
"If there are no further issues, then come with me — I'll walk you through the specific job requirements."
With that, Sharlock led Moros back to the dungeon core hall. Once the hall's doors were shut, it was just the two of them.
Sharlock might have recruited these otherworldly players a skill trainer, but the dungeon's construction still depended on those same players. Free training was a one-time deal — two hours — and after that, more training cost money. Otherwise the players would train all day, every day, and then who'd do the work?
And that money, naturally, wasn't magic stones — it was metal currency.
Then there was the training schedule. Outside of Moros's sleeping hours: two-hour training sessions with a half-hour break in between. All in all, pretty humane.
"The training hours are no problem at all — but my lord, why charge them copper coins? Is that not a currency that only circulates on the surface? It's worthless here." Moros gave his opinion — or rather, the whole notion of training goblins AND charging the goblins a fee for it was bizarre in itself. Becoming a trained warrior was grueling work! Most goblins wanted no part of training. Come fight time, they'd just squeeze their eyes shut and charge in with a "waaaaa!!" — or else dodge the fight entirely.
Which was exactly why adding a "pay money to train" condition just handed those goblins a license to slack off in broad daylight! Moros had originally planned to run mandatory training — but now, forget mandatory: they could just say "I've got no money, so I'm skipping training!" If things actually went that way, Moros couldn't promise to turn these goblins into proper warriors within a month. This chapter was taken from novelping(.)com without permission.
"On that point, worry not. It's a reward mechanism of our Eternal Kingdom — one of the ways we reward their hard work. As for whether they'll slack off and skip training, that won't be a problem either. You'll understand once you start. Oh — and the first training session is free." With that explanation delivered, Sharlock sent Moros off to get ready for work.
Moros said no more. The lord had spoken, so out to the training ground he went.
The training ground was already packed with waiting players, every one of them wide-eyed and expectant, watching Moros make his way over from the dungeon core hall.
"He's finally here! Training time at last!"
"Settle down, settle down — focus up, focus up!"
The players who'd just been chattering away fell silent the moment they saw Moros approach, waiting for him to train them in the arts of combat.
Moros had assumed it would take serious effort — maybe even making an example of one of them — to get a hundred goblins to quiet down and follow orders. But all he did was walk up and stand there, and every last goblin went silent, staring at him with rapt focus, as if terrified of missing a single word.
These goblins were — unexpectedly — little angels.
"By order of His Lordship, each of you is entitled to two hours of free training! After that, additional training sessions cost one hundred copper coins each, two hours per session, with a half-hour rest between sessions. During training, you follow my each and every arrangement and command. Do you understand me?!" Moros bellowed at the goblins before him.
"YES, SIR!" the players bellowed back in perfect unison.
And so began their first-ever training session in this sword-and-magic "game world"...
As Sharlock watched the players, under Moros's direction, kick off their opening regimen of conditioning and combat technique drills, he spotted — over by the flowerbed — one otherworldly player who had not joined the training with the rest. That goblin had 【Charlie】 floating over his head, and he was... planting flowers in the flowerbed.
"Bru, didn't you say these players all love combat and adventure? Why isn't that one training?"
Sharlock asked "Bru."
"I believe..." Bru pondered a moment, then said: "That would be a pure life-skills player! And a sightseeing player!"
══════════════════════ DUNGEON LORD'S NOTE ═══════════════════════
Meet Moros: gold-medal gladiator, dragon-fighting legend, fearsome warrior — 'right up until I got married.' His students responded to his first command with a perfectly united 'YES, SIR!' Are you a combat grinder or a Charlie?
If this one got you grinning, a 5-star rating and a quick review would make my whole week!