【My name is Loulan. I'm a transmigrator, I just turned twenty, and I'm a... fanatical monster-girl enthusiast!】
Inside a tavern in Coldiron City, on the northern frontier of the Human Empire, a young man in modern casual clothes idly fiddled with a wooden rum mug. His chin propped on one hand, he sighed in lonely misery.
【Getting transmigrated in the flesh was unlucky enough. Even worse, I didn't get some ridiculously badass cheat. If I hadn't lucked into a well-heeled corpse on the road, I probably wouldn't be living nearly this well. Sigh...】
"Hey, human lad. Are you the one who accepted my master's commission? I rarely judge by appearances, but you..."
All of a sudden, a male wolf demihuman steward in a black tailcoat sat down gracefully in the chair across from Loulan.
The moment his prospective employer's representative arrived, the dejected Loulan perked right up. He knew his glorious rise was about to begin!
Loulan straightened in his seat, politely extended his right hand, and introduced himself.
"That's me. Allow me to introduce myself: I'm Loulan, from the distant East. I understand that I don't look like much, so several employers have already passed me over. You're the first person who has still been willing to speak with me after seeing me."
"Hmm..."
The wolf demihuman paused, glanced at Loulan's right hand, then extended his own and shook it.
He guessed this might be a custom from Loulan's homeland. Out of professional courtesy, he chose to respect the other man and accept the friendly gesture.
【Too bad demihumans aren't the furry kind. Sure, I don't exactly like ordinary humans, but aren't demihumans just humans with a little something extra?】
The newly transmigrated Loulan had initially been thrilled.
He might not have had a ridiculously badass cheat, but that didn't mean he had no cheat at all. He wasn't worried about his future in the slightest. In fact, he was a little excited.
Yes, excited to meet all sorts of monster girls〜
But... reality was cruel. This world had humans, elves, dwarves, and every other fantasy element imaginable, yet there was no place in it for what Loulan loved.
Even demihumans were nothing more than humans with a few bestial "decorations."
Orcs looked more like exotic species than they did!
Then again, from what Loulan had seen over the past few days, most of this world's orcs didn't suit his tastes. In other words, they were ugly as fuck!
Otherwise, he really would have liked to spend some money in the city's pleasure district.
"My name is Huian. You may call me An. May I ask where your adventuring party is? A Darkest Dungeon is no ordinary dungeon. My master doesn't wish to see anyone throw his life away for nothing. That would be a waste of the empire's manpower."
Huian was exceedingly polite, his eyes full of concern for Loulan's safety.
Across from him, Loulan naturally understood the reason for that look. If he had a choice, he wouldn't want to take this goddamn Adventurers' Guild commission either. Why couldn't he just solo the instance?
It was all the same anyway. Once he entered the Darkest Dungeon, his cheat would display its full might and carry him straight to the top!
But...
【Doesn't want anyone throwing their life away? More like he's worried about wasting his family's dungeon slot...】
Loulan thought with contempt.
In this fucking otherworld, even wild dungeons counted as private property! Yes, private property!
The kind you couldn't enter without permission!
The nearest unclaimed territory was a full six thousand kilometers from Coldiron City. That didn't even account for the dangers of the journey or the stretches without roads. The distance alone was enough to make Loulan give up!
Dungeons, the common instances of Western fantasy worlds, also existed in this one. They were divided into three categories based on their level of danger.
Adventurer Dungeons, Garrison Dungeons, and Darkest Dungeons.
Adventurer Dungeons needed little explanation. They were excellent places to grind experience and hone one's skills, usually appeared in clusters, and weren't considered private property.
A Garrison Dungeon was exactly what its name implied: a large dungeon occupied by a military garrison. Dangerous but rich in resources, most counties had one or two, or even more. They were a symbol of military might and were generally closed to outsiders.
A Darkest Dungeon combined the first two types.
It was extraordinarily dangerous and abundant in resources, and it even produced peculiar supernatural resources—relics! Every last one was a priceless treasure.
The nobles naturally wouldn't let such things slip away. The greatest difference between a Darkest Dungeon and a Garrison Dungeon, however, was that the former couldn't be controlled, and the monsters inside had to be culled from time to time.
Thus, the nobles had turned them into a means of amassing supernatural resources. They hired adventurers to explore the depths, then claimed a portion of the relics they acquired according to contract, usually one to three. Sometimes there were even exorbitantly priced commissions for a specifically named relic.
Powerful adventurers were happy with this arrangement as well. Not only could they weed out some detestable "rats," they also received the noble's fee and kept any relics beyond the contractual quota. Three birds with one stone!
"Hmm..."
This time, it was Loulan's turn to fall silent. In response to Huian's question, he merely shrugged and spread his hands in embarrassment.
"As you can see, I'm alone."
The meaning was obvious: he didn't have an adventuring party at all. If his cheat didn't require it, he wouldn't even have chosen to enter such a dangerous place. After all, he was a genuinely fragile modern man who had transmigrated in the flesh!
As for his cheat.
【Curated Monster-Girl Mod Collection】
Perhaps it was because he had happened to be playing a game called 【Darkest Dungeon】 before his transmigration, with a curated collection of 【Dungeon】 mods created by expert modders installed.
That had become his cheat, complete with a user manual.
As long as he was inside a Darkest Dungeon, he could "take" certain content from those mods into reality, even modded relics. Each item cost a different amount depending on its rarity.
Some things, however, were explicitly priced at 【Free】! That was what gave him the confidence to set foot inside a Darkest Dungeon!
And the Darkest Dungeons in question were this world's Darkest Dungeons!
As a hardcore monster-girl enthusiast, nothing could motivate him more than the fact that his cheat just "happened" to sell items that could turn monsters into girls.
Thus, to live a spectacular life in this world! To achieve his ideal existence! And, most of all, to possess a crystal palace full of monster girls!
He, Loulan, intended to conquer the entire Darkest Dungeon single-handedly, daaah!!!
"I'm very sorry, Mr. Loulan. If you don't have an adventuring party of your own, I'm afraid the Corisu family cannot allow you to accept this commission."
"Clink〜"
Loulan said nothing. He merely tossed several gold coins onto the table with a crisp clatter, drawing the attention of everyone in the tavern.
"No, sir. You may not understand what I mean. This isn't a problem that money can solve. The Corisu family's reputation..."
"Clink〜"
Loulan said nothing. He simply kept adding money.
"All right. Perhaps we can discuss this further. I'm sure my master won't mind earning a little extra spending money."