Delayed Transfer

Mark headed to the thirty-sixth floor on the fourth day of his dungeon dive project. He was motivated due to the excitement that the Warp Gate brought him. The possibility of going back to Earth and seeing all his friends, all the new technologies that came out, the new animes, movies, T.V. shows, games, and web novels brought his blood to boiling point. Once he completed all the floors in his dungeon, he would then focus on finding a way back to Earth.

He was sure that with the magic and resources that the city had, Mark would be able to find an archmage or two to help him. He was also diligent in collecting items from the bosses since they were a way for him to earn the currency that he would use to pay for the assistance from the wizards of Narcone. The unidentified items on the first floor of his dungeon were growing and he didn’t even count how many magic blue items and legendary purple items he had. Sadly, he hadn’t received any new mythical orange items. He was hoping that the fortieth-floor boss would give him one.

Mark was concentrating too much on diving his dungeon that he had even forgotten his thought of allowing the twins to level up but when he remembered it, he thought of the fact that the boys were enjoying their lives too much currently playing with their friends and he wanted them to live their lives freely for now.

Before he went to the thirty-sixth floor, Hamil came during the night to inform him that some nobles and officials wanted to speak with him but he told the circus leader that if it were about employing him or inviting him to stay in the city permanently to decline in his stead but Hamil insisted that he would still need to talk to some of them since those people were truly important.

Mark knew that he would give in since he still needed a good relationship with the government of Narcone. He wanted to be able to speak with some of the city’s archmages regarding his “going home” project so he told Hamil to schedule him for a meeting after a couple of days.

The thirty-sixth-floor setting flabbergasted Mark since it looked like an alien planet. The sky was purple, and the flora and fauna that he could see were strange and truly alien-like, even weirder than the plants that could be seen in the movie Avatar. Thankfully, it wasn’t a jungle, so the flora and fauna were scattered around.

The monsters on the floor were also weird. It was like they came out of a child’s imagination of what an alien monster should look like. They were not terrifying but could only be described as strange and weird.

Some of the monsters look like Barney the purple dinosaur from that kid's show and most of them looked like the monster puppets from Sesame Street or the Muppet Show. Mark even had the urge to capture some of them to give as pets to the kids but since they were monsters from the thirty-sixth floor, even though they looked harmless and cute, they pack a considerable punch especially if one was a normal person.

Mark was also sure that if he tried to bring out a monster from his dungeon, it would just disappear. It was just a whimsical thought that he wanted to bring out some of the monsters to rear as pets. Mostly.

Every time he encountered the fluffy dinosaur monster he could almost hear it sing the “I love you, you love me…” song from that children's show.

It almost traumatized Mark and he was glad that once the monsters were killed, their corpses vanished and did not remain.

After a couple of days, he was able to conquer the thirty-seventh floor. He leveled up from level one-hundred fifteen to one-hundred twenty-five. His unspent stat points were twelve and his unspent skill points were thirty-four. Mark planned to think carefully about which stat he would put the unspent points, the same with his skill points so he held off on spending them.

Mark had to admit that after five days of continuous dungeon diving, he was a bit tired so he decided to rest for a day or two and tackle the issue of meeting the officials and nobles who wanted to meet with him.

After dinner, he went to Hamil’s carriage to inform him that he was ready to meet the nobles and officials the next day.

“Mark you’re here! You’re first schedule meeting tomorrow is with Arissa’s parents.” Hamil said.

While Hamil was talking to him, Deo and Toby were making googly eyes at him so he laughed and gave a cheesecake to them.

“What is this?” Deo asked.

“It’s called a cheesecake. It’s my favorite cake and I want you to try it,” Mark said to the kid.

Halinda immediately took the cake and sliced it so everyone could have a taste. Even Mark was given a slice by Halinda and he accepted so he could join in on the fun of eating a delicious cake while they were talking.

As usual, everyone exclaimed that the cake was delicious.

“After Arissa’s parents, your next schedule would be at lunch with a government official and then  another noble after that and a fourth one late in the afternoon.”

“What do they want to talk about? I can’t meet with people all the time! I’m still busy with my research,” Mark said, flabbergasted at the busy schedule that Hamil prepared for him the next day.

Halinda, Deo, and Toby laughed at Mark’s expression. Deo then asked for a soda so he gave Halinda a few liters of cold soda.

“I’m sure they wanted to talk to you about the movies and their source. They would also try their best to invite you to become their retainer or something like that,” Hamil said while eating a cheesecake.

“They wouldn’t be able to afford me,” Mark boasted and everyone laughed.

“You don’t need to worry though since you’ll only be busy tomorrow and the day after. I’m sure that, everyone will know that you don’t plan to leave the circus.”

“They wouldn’t resort to doing something dramatic like kidnapping my family and friends and holding them hostage or something like that?” Mark asked.

Hamil and Halinda laughed when they heard what Mark had said.

“At the end of the day, they were simply interested in the movies and they were just entertainment. It wouldn’t bring them great power so they wouldn’t resort to something dark like that,” Hamil comforted Mark.

Hamil then said that he would go to his RV at around nine in the morning since his first meeting was scheduled for ten. The circus leader then reiterated that the next schedule was around one in the afternoon.

After that supposedly important talk, Toby asked Mark if he planned to explore the dungeons in the city and Mark told the teenager that he already explored the first floor of the Novice Dungeon and the first floor of the Library of Cormantura together with some adventurers.

“What was it like?” Toby asked.

“Well, the novice dungeon is just like the beginner dungeon that we went to last time. The monsters were weak but the library is beyond you. The monsters were strong and one hit from them will result in your demise so don’t even think about wanting to check it out. I haven’t checked the labyrinth yet and I don’t know if I will be able to since I’m very busy right now with my magic research,” Mark answered Toby.

After that talk, Mark went back to his RV to rest and unwind by reading a web novel on his phone.