"What? One of my servants died? How'd he die? Is somebody invading?"
Sharlock hadn't expected trouble to break out in the dungeon when he'd barely been out at all, and he hurried back — on the way, the dungeon core, "Bru," gave him a quick rundown of the situation.
There was no invasion. One of the players had committed suicide — by ramming himself into a wall.
Why would goblins from another world just up and kill themselves for no reason? Had he piled too much work on them? Sharlock didn't get it. As lords went, he was already remarkably enlightened and generous — even with all the bizarre needs of these otherworld goblins, he'd bent over backward to accommodate them — and now one of them had gone and offed himself!
On this, the core, Bru, had his own theory:
"He probably just wanted to see how reviving works after you die. It's his first time in this world, after all — you'd want to get a feel for all the mechanics while you're here, and it makes for better guides when you head back to the other world. Perfectly normal."
Sharlock genuinely could not fathom what kind of guide you could write about killing yourself, but he rushed straight back to the dungeon all the same — where he found the suicidal player mobbed by a ring of onlookers.
"Is 【xX_ShadowBlade_Xx】 on a corpse run? How come he's been lying there this long and still hasn't respawned?"
"Maybe there's some kind of respawn condition? This is a brand-new game mode, after all."
"What if you die and there's no coming back — you just start over from scratch?"
"Same setup as Sword Art Online? That death penalty is way too harsh — total newbie repellent. If that's real, this game is hardcore as hell."
"This game's hardcore by default, dude. Just look at the graphics — one hundred percent true-to-life VR. Even a permadeath penalty would honestly be par for the course."
"Make way, make way — the Lord's back!"
"Whoa, deaths summon the LORD himself now? The NPC interactions in this game are way too realistic!"
The players weren't just rubbernecking at the dead 【xX_ShadowBlade_Xx】 — they'd formed a circle to debate whether 【xX_ShadowBlade_Xx】 could revive, and when. Sharlock's return stirred a ripple through the crowd, and everyone quickly cleared a path, letting Sharlock walk right up to the late 【xX_ShadowBlade_Xx】.
Sharlock recognized this dead otherworld player — he was the very first one who'd walked out of the portal, the one with the green name 【xX_ShadowBlade_Xx】 floating over his head. Right now he lay on the ground not breathing, and judging by that green forehead, cause of death was clearly "ran headfirst into a wall."
A revival method did exist, of course — it just meant a trip to the Realm of the Dead to redeem his soul first. And to Sharlock's mind, rather than burn a mountain of energy hauling himself to the Realm of the Dead to revive the guy, it'd simply be more convenient to summon a fresh goblin.
Just as Sharlock was about to write this goblin off and have the corpse chucked outside the dungeon, the dungeon core, Bru, stopped him:
"One moment, Your Lordship. This goblin's soul was never taken into the Realm of the Dead. He's still inside the core, my lord."
At Bru's words, Sharlock focused his attention into the dungeon core — and sure enough, there was a white blob bobbing up and down in there. The goblin's soul! Though it didn't seem to have much in the way of awareness; Sharlock tried communicating with it and got zero response.
"You're the one who collected his soul? Even otherworld creatures are supposed to have their souls go to the Realm of the Dead first when they die. Since when are you that powerful? Or is this goblin just that special?"
Sharlock found the whole business a little hard to grasp. He could pull it off too, technically — but only if he claimed the soul at the exact moment of death.
"When I summoned them, I worked in a few little tricks, so the Realm of the Dead in this world never notices or collects their souls. Whether you can even call these things 'souls' is up for debate — I lean toward 'consciousness.' Either way, once they die, you just repair the body, pop the consciousness back in, and they revive. Naturally, if the body's been completely pulverized, you send the consciousness home and summon a new one. In the other world, that operation is known as — rerolling a character!"
So said Bru.
"Is this some new dungeon core feature? I didn't see anything about it in the manual." Truth be told, the moment Bru was halfway through his explanation, Sharlock had already whipped out the Dungeon Operations Manual the saleslady had left him — and the dungeon core section said nothing of the sort.
"No, I'd call it a feature unique to me. After all, who else would think to marry mana with technology? Ah, right — 'technology' is the other world's version of magic. It lets people talk across thousands of miles, lets folks with zero mana fly through the sky, and can even beam one man's image and voice to hundreds of millions of people in an instant!"
So said Bru, with no small amount of pride.
NovelPhoenix hosts the author's publication, while this chapter was reproduced without approval; reading the source supports their work.
Sharlock was curious about this otherworld magic called "technology," but he felt no envy whatsoever. He could do all of that himself — it would just cost a fair bit of mana. Honestly, judging by the behavior of the otherworld goblins, he had exactly zero fantasies about their world. It was probably a madhouse over there.
Now that he knew Bru was behind it all, Sharlock stopped asking questions. Mortals might gawk and gasp at resurrection, but as a ranked demon, Sharlock had plenty of ways to revive a servant — none of them quite as convenient as Bru's, that was all.
Repairing a body wasn't anything difficult. Sharlock extended his hand and threaded fine wisps of mana into the corpse of 【xX_ShadowBlade_Xx】 lying on the ground. Soon, the green head — caved in from the wall impact — began slowly mending, and before long it was back to its original shape. Then Bru guided the soul, a.k.a. the thing he insisted on calling a consciousness, and poured it back into 【xX_ShadowBlade_Xx】's body.
The next second, 【xX_ShadowBlade_Xx】 climbed to his feet, taking a deep breath.
"Damn! I'm alive!"
"So the respawn mechanic in this game is the Lord showing up personally to revive you?"
"I thought we'd straight-up lose the account when we died!"
"Bro, what's it like being dead? Did you do the corpse run at all?"
"You think it's tied to how wrecked your body is? Look — His Lordship repaired his corpse first, and THEN he revived."
Everyone was crowded around 【xX_ShadowBlade_Xx】 chattering about respawn mechanics when some guy hollered "My turn!" and heroically charged headlong into the furnace where the blacksmith Simba was smelting iron. Naturally, he ceased to exist as a person.
Sharlock felt a headache coming on. He hadn't expected a second suicide this fast — and by THAT method, no less. To stop any more players from experimenting with dying, Sharlock gave a grand sweep of his hand, unleashed the dominating aura of a ranked demon, and ordered the goblins to get right back to their tasks.
That finally scattered the goblins. As for the one who'd dived into the furnace and burned to slag — roughly thirty minutes later, the core, Bru, summoned him back from the other world. He returned with a whole new look, same name as before, minus every copper coin he'd been carrying. In Bru's words: he'd rerolled his account.
All told, Sharlock now had a working preliminary understanding of his players' bizarre behavior.
He still had to finish the map of the new zone Bru had mentioned, plus the bestiary, plus the related update posts on the official forums — so he didn't linger to supervise. His presence wouldn't make much difference to the players' work ethic anyway. All he had to do was mark out a big stretch of construction zone and work goals, and Bru would post the mining and hauling to the players like quests.
Sharlock returned to the magic item known as a "computer," logged into his dungeon's official forums, and — on Bru's advice, matching the other world's phrasing habits and tone — began drafting a new announcement: 【Dungeon: The Eternal Kingdom's CBT1 Is Going Smoothly! New Map Test Opens Tomorrow — the Spider Nest!】
The way Sharlock saw it, posting announcements and maintaining the website was basically advertising his dungeon in the other world — building brand recognition. This was going to be the greatest dungeon of the future, after all, and the greatest dungeon of the future could hardly go around being a nobody!
The announcement's content was mainly the simple map Sharlock sketched of the stretch from the dungeon to the Spider Nest, followed by the bestiary of monsters living in the Spider Nest — most importantly, each monster's write-up and its strength rating.
For example:
【Monster Name: Subterranean Spider
Monster Description: One of the most common creatures of the Underworld. Not much in the brains department, terrified of light, and will attack most species on sight. If you spot one of these while you're alone and not packing some serious strength, RUN — immediately — because they live in colonies!
Level: 0-5
Possible Loot: spider legs, spider meat, spider silk (rare), and more.
Note: Most loot can be exchanged for currency at the dungeon core hall.】
【Monster Name: Killer Vine
Monster Description: Sounds like a plant, but it's actually an animal. It normally disguises itself as a vine and attacks any creature that wanders past. Very easy to kill.
Level: 0-2
Possible Loot: killer vine pelts, killer vine meat, and more.
Note: Most loot can be exchanged for currency at the dungeon core hall.】
Entries in that vein. On top of these ordinary creatures, Sharlock also threw in one boss-grade monster.
【Monster Name: Spider Queen
Monster Description: The queen of a subterranean spider colony — there's only ever one per colony. Fiercely territorial, and typically shielded by masses of subterranean spiders. Under normal circumstances you will never see her, because long before you get close, the swarms of subterranean spiders on the perimeter will have already killed you.
Level: BOSS
Possible Loot: spider legs, spider meat, spider silk (rare), spider eggs (extremely rare), Spider Queen hair (extremely rare), and more.
Note: Spider Queen hair is a magic material that interests Lord Sharlock. Should you manage to obtain some, you will earn a large amount of Lord Sharlock's affection and reputation.】
"Look, I AM genuinely interested in the Spider Queen's hair — it would fetch a fine price, and you could forge some seriously strong armor with it. But why is it that when my servant presents me with loot, I have to raise my affection for him, and he walks away with reputation from ME?"
He'd written it up Bru's way, but Sharlock couldn't help raising his questions anyway.
"Because these otherworld players are not like ordinary Underworld creatures — they care intensely about their sense of self-worth and their honor." So explained Bru: "You are their lord. Your affection, and the reputation they earn through you, are one way they display that self-worth and honor — it is how they express their devotion to you. Owning plenty of metal currency is, of course, the other way."
Sharlock nodded. So that's how it was. This whole business of lesser beings flattering and fawning on their superiors, cozying up in hopes of attention and favor — perfectly normal in the Underworld too. It's just that it sounded exactly like those human knights on the surface, the ones who prized honor above everything, even their own lives.
Once the announcement was drafted, Sharlock gave his write-up of the grand new playground's opening one last careful check for errors, and only then clicked Send.
After the announcement went out, Sharlock checked the time: most of a day had passed since he'd first summoned the hundred otherworld players. Outside the dungeon core hall, most of the players were still busy at work, grinding through every kind of grunt-work quest for metal currency. A few otherworld players were sprawled motionless on the ground — not dead, asleep. In Bru's words: they'd logged off.
The Underworld naturally has no day or night, but as a Dungeon Lord, Sharlock did keep track of time. In fact, quite a few dungeons mimicked the surface world's day-night cycle; Sharlock's dungeon simply wasn't big enough yet to need one — and he wasn't rich enough to splurge on that kind of luxury either.
As the hours ticked by, more and more of the goblins outside drifted off to sleep — "logged off." With no dorms built yet, they just crashed wherever there was floor. Once the dungeon's construction was further along and proper rest dorms existed, the goblins wouldn't have to sleep scattered across every corner of the dungeon.
The blacksmith Simba rolled out his sleeping bag too, found a spot with fewer players around, and crawled in — pausing to chase off a few goblins who'd gathered to watch him sleep with a couple of swings of his hammer. Sharlock paid no mind to his subordinates' roughhousing. He turned his attention back to the official forums — he wanted to see how the otherworld crowd rated his magnificent dungeon.
Soon, out of all the junk threads cluttering the forum, he found the hottest one, the one with the most replies —
【Beta Tester MEGA LEAK: The Complete, Most Cutting-Edge Dungeon: The Eternal Kingdom Guide!】
══════════════════════ DUNGEON LORD'S NOTE ═══════════════════════ xX_ShadowBlade_Xx face-checked a wall to test the respawn mechanic, got personally revived by a Demon Lord — and then some maniac yelled 'My turn!' and dove straight into Simba's furnace.
Which death test would you have run first?
Five stars and a quick review equals one fully charged dungeon core. You'd be doing Bru a solid!