READ NOVEL ONLINE Chapter 6
Chapter 6
“Hoo…”
I said that to Phenex, but my work for today is done. Unless I extend the day, that is.
‘When was the last time I worked so hard?’
I recall the past deeds of Kim Seo-jin before entering the game.
…They are of no use at all.
‘Well, I don’t want to die, that’s why.’
I don’t want to die.
…I don’t want to die?
‘I don’t know, …I’m tired.’
I was overwhelmed by sleepiness because I experienced too much in one day.
I woke up in another world, faced a death threat, and even mingled with demons.
“…”
Suddenly, I looked at the place where I would sleep.
‘It’s a mess.’
There is nothing decent in this place except for the throne.
This dungeon is not yet fully alive.
A crude something made of wooden scraps and cloth serves as a bed. And even that, the demons don’t have a place to sleep. They say they sleep leaning on a pillar.
‘I need furniture and housing items urgently. Damn it… The things that were only luxury or self-satisfaction became important.’
It’s work, work.
A pile of work.
‘I have to open the Garden of Regeneration first, and the change in the supply of goods…’
Thud
And then, my body tilted.
Snore…
Snore…
“You must be tired.”
“Yes!”
“We should also take a rest.”
Swoosh…
Lucifer says.
“Lord Faust…”
To me, who fell into a nap, he offers a sweet dream.
“Have a nice dream.”
* * *
I got in the car as early as dawn.
My wife doesn’t have much time at home because of her project. Today, she had to go to work at dawn, so I had to move early with her.
Vroom…
The road at dawn was quiet and heavy. The fog was low and I couldn’t see far.
Tick.
Tick tick.
Seung-ah, who was sitting in the passenger seat and fiddling with the pad.
Ugh… She’s so mean.
“Are you late today?”
Pause…
Don’t make that sorry face.
I didn’t mean to make you feel guilty.
“Ah… Yes.”
“Isn’t it too long since we had dinner together?”
“But we sometimes have late-night snacks together, Seo-jin!”
…That’s right, yes.
“Thanks to that, we’re both gaining weight. We’re both chubby.”
“Ahaha! What are you talking about, you look good! A kind-hearted couple was our dream.”
“I told you many times that it didn’t mean I wanted to get old fast…”
“Hmm… What do you think…?”
Should I act a little spoiled today?
“Let’s eat together, dinner! I want to eat, dinner!”
“Date request, should I accept or reject…?”
Ah, it’s expensive, expensive.
She used to tease me when we were dating, and she hasn’t changed.
“I thought we would always be together when we got married…”
“…Me too, Seo-jin. Should we quit together?”
“Then wouldn’t our goal of being a couple be unkind?”
“Ah! That’s right.”
Seung-ah seems to feel very sorry.
“Just this, …just finish this. Today, I’ll go home early…”
Really?
I was excited and turned my head to the passenger seat.
Bang-!
…Huh? That, that car!
It’s a straight signal?
Turn, turn the wheel…
Crash-!
Crash!
The car spins as if it escapes from gravity. I feel it even as I lose consciousness.
Beep-!
…
Click…
Click…
My fingers move.
Thank goodness.
I’m safe, me.
Seung-ah…
Seung-ah is okay, right?
“Se…”
“Seo-jin!”
“Seung-ah… Seung-ah…”
“Kim Seo-jin!”
“Mr. Kim!”
Where is this?
Why are they crying?
Mother-in-law? Why are you crying?
“Mr. Kim… Oh… Poor…”
Why, why are you crying?
Why…
Huh?
Seung-ah?
…Seung-ah!
“Seung-ah…”
…
Seung-ah died that day, in an accident with a drunk driver… She stopped breathing next to me.
“The defendant sincerely regrets his actions, and has made efforts to recover the victim’s damage…”
Don’t make me laugh.
Reduced sentence? …Forgive him?
If I forgive him… If that brings Seung-ah back… I can forgive him a hundred times, a thousand times.
But… No.
Seung-ah won’t come back.
Why do you forgive him as you please, and decide as you please…?
Why can’t I… get angry, or condemn that villain?
Why?
“Professor Kim… What are you going to do? The living have to live.”
The living?
Do I look alive to you?
Without Seung-ah, I…
I… I’m as good as dead.
Yeah…
Should I die?
I’m dying, yes.
My consciousness fades.
My breath…
No more…
…Sir.
…Faust sir.
“Lord Faust.”
“Hoo-hoo…”
“Are you all right?”
“Pu-ha-ha… Huh… Huh…”
My breath rose to my lungs.
My blurred consciousness became clear.
Is this reality? What is a dream?
“Nari! Good morning! Huh?”
The faces of those two demons came into my confused sight. Is this a dream?
“…”
Or was it a dream when I lost Seung-ah?
“Did you have a nightmare?”
“Nari! If you spit out saliva as soon as you wake up from a bad dream, it flies away!”
“…Who.”
“Who was it? Ah! Grandpa said that!”
Spit! Spit spit!
‘…Why are you spitting that saliva.’
Besides, the saliva is splashing.
“Heehee… It flew away!”
Phenex laughed.
Her laughter was so fresh and vivid like a summer barley field.
“Ah…”
Maybe for a moment, I wished that this was reality rather than the colorless life of Kim Seo-jin who lost Seung-ah.
…Is that so?
Am I still Faust today?
“Yeah…”
I got up and said to Phenex.
“The bad dream is gone.”
…I’m busy.
I have a lot of work to do today.
* * *
“Yay, done!”
Garden of Regeneration raid, complete.
[The construction of the Garden of Regeneration begins.]
[It is a core infrastructure facility.]
[The construction will take a considerable amount of time depending on the grade of the facility.]
…
I succeeded in raiding the Garden of Regeneration, which was my goal, from the morning.
In fact, all I did was lead Phenex to the woods early in the morning.
‘Have I gotten rid of my worries?’
The Garden of Regeneration might be the most important facility for the user.
What is the most important thing to run a dungeon?
Wicked traps? An evil curse that destroys the adventurers’ sanity? The environment that holds their feet?
Or powerful familiars?
They are all important.
They are all important, so they must be preserved.
The Garden of Regeneration prevents the user from losing the familiars and the environment among the dungeon resources they have.
Familiars receive the dungeon’s magic and are transferred to the Garden of Regeneration instead of dying when they consume the corresponding magic.
‘I can’t lose the familiars I’ve raised hard to the hands of the adventurers.’
However, this only applies to the dungeon defense. In the episodes and raids that take place outside the dungeon, all resources can be ‘lost’.
It’s a ridiculous policy. But the users didn’t know that the episodes outside the dungeon would be updated later.
“You only have to be careful for these three hours, then you won’t die.”
It was quite famous that an unlucky user, caught up in a bug-like event, lost his 6-star demon within these three hours.
So, as long as such an absurd thing doesn’t happen, there is no problem.
‘It takes longer than that.’
In the game, I received the construction as a reward immediately after watching a simple cutscene, but that convenient feature was not given in reality.
I don’t know why.
Is there only one or two things I don’t know?
‘As soon as the Garden of Regeneration is built, I’ll go for the first dungeon boss.’
The widow spider Agnea.
The sticky threads and prey that were left in the raid area pointed to the first dungeon boss I would face.
‘I haven’t raided the Altar of Growth yet, where I can raise the level and skills of the familiars… It would be too hard to face it with just Phenex.’
When the Altar of Growth is built, the level limit of the familiars is lifted.
The user learns the dungeon system step by step by freeing the parts that the developer has restricted through the raid.
‘The damage that Phenex at level 1 can do to Agnea is about… half of the maximum health.’
This was the definite information that many pioneers who tried to raid the first dungeon boss with a level 1 demon revealed.
Of course, the game’s combat has become reality now, so it might be a little different, but not much.
Then…
‘I’ll raid Agnea… after the Altar of Growth raid.’
The contents that would have ended in 20 minutes in the game took days in real situations.
I don’t have any resources to summon a 6-star demon or additional troops.
The resources needed for summoning can only be obtained by raiding the magic stone mines in the dungeon or by getting magic stones through the dungeon defense missions.
‘Ah, there was another route to get magic stones.’
The magic stones that the developer sprinkled to lure the users.
…Commonly known as ‘feed’.
In the game, I simply received it through the interface, so I was looking forward to it, but as expected, the expectation turned into disappointment.
There was no button to view the announcements on the interface.
‘I guess there’s no feed.’
But the part that I could hope for was that there was a difference in the amount of resources, so maybe there was a difference in the amount of magic stones as well.
“Follow me.”
Kikik…
Kikikikik…
I’m going to scout the nearby area that I have to raid in the future.
Goblin 1 and 2.
Go-il and Go-i and Lucifer went with me.
Go-sam and Phenex are in the restaurant.
…They’re eating without a care.
Jukuk…
Jukuk…
The Garden of Regeneration is being built diligently.
The garden is connected to other areas.
For example…
“Is that it?”
“Are you talking about the monster that occupies the area?”
“Yeah.”
“It’s confirmed. The traces found in the garden also point to that place.”
“What was that space used for a long time ago?”
“According to the results, it was not revealed.”
“…Not revealed?”
“There is no information left.”
This is a bit troublesome.
I’ve never had this before.
‘Is the information different from what I remember…’
I’ll have to check it out with the goblins as scouts as soon as the Garden of Regeneration is built.
‘Damn… If I had some feed for about 10 years, it would have been much faster.’
I couldn’t eat the feed, so I only rolled the three goblin brothers I got from the first tutorial.
Ha… Well, I can’t complain about what I don’t have…
“…Lord Faust.”
“What’s wrong?”
“The goblins have been out of sight since a while ago.”
…What?
“It’s been quite a while since you ordered them to check the passage that leads to the other side and come back right away, but they haven’t returned.”
‘That…’
I suddenly had a bad feeling.
You only have to be careful for these three hours, then you won’t die.
I couldn’t believe that I had blabbered such a thing just a while ago.
Usually, things happen as they say.
Jukuk…
Jukuk…
I walked slowly to the place where I sent the goblins to check the location of the passage.
I felt a bad pressure.
The discomfort increased as I got closer to the passage.
And finally, after approaching the passage, I was able to confirm what happened to the goblins.
“…They’re dead.”
“They were hit by arrows. It’s a sniping.”
“Yeah.”
[Confirming the death of the goblin runt.]
[Traces of intruders are found.]
[The dungeon defense begins from this moment.]
[Tip: If there is an entrance that has not been discovered yet, enemies can invade through unexpected routes.]
…
There were only two arrows.
One in the runt’s head, one in the brute’s chest.
He’s got a good skill.
‘Wait, the death message only popped up on one side?’
My eyes naturally turned to the brute. I approached him and examined the wound…
Thud-!
“Hmm…?”
The goblin brute was not dead.
He suddenly moved like a seizure and grabbed my wrist tightly.
‘Why…?’
He quickly turned his head to one side.
Reflexively, my eyes also turned to that place.
Squeak-!
“Lord Faust!”
Bang…
I barely dodged the arrow that flew at me.
‘…I almost died.’
A voice of regret came from the darkness.
“Tsk…”
It’s a human.
‘An adventurer!’
He’s loading another arrow on the bow.
‘What do I do?’
Currently, Faust is unable to fight due to weakness, and Lucifer also said that he has difficulty in combat due to the aftereffects of long-distance teleportation.
And the goblin escort is incapacitated.
‘Phenex… Ah!’
A lifeline that came to mind suddenly.
I remembered that there was a device that activated when someone entered the dungeon through a hole.
Vroom!
“Ow!”
The human in the dark screamed and disappeared somewhere by teleportation.
[Faust was attacked.]
[The curse of the rotten root is activated.]
[It teleports a single-target intruder to the entrance of the dungeon.]
[It consumes energy.]
[The curse of the rotten root is completely destroyed.]
It’s a low-grade curse for the tutorial.
The curse was equipped from the beginning to explain how it works.
It’s cheap and disposable, but it saved my life.
If it wasn’t for that curse…
And if it wasn’t for this guy lying in front of me…
Kikikik…
The goblin brute let go of his faint consciousness.
Maybe he knew that I would come here, and he predicted that I would be in danger.
…Not bad?
He did his job.
“…Rest for a while.”
The crude leather armor that the goblin brute wore prevented the arrow from penetrating his organs.
With an unexpected luck, I’m still alive.
“Lord Faust, it’s an adventurer.”
Why?
Did the adventurer barge in before the basic construction of the dungeon was completed?
This is unlucky.
…Unlucky?
‘Could it be…?’
Something I thought of once before.
‘It’s a bug-like event. Damn it!’
Maybe an adventurer who fell behind from the group slipped into the dungeon with a setting.
And that happened in the early stage of the raid, which was almost like a tutorial…
‘I can’t spend more time on the situation analysis. I have to come up with a plan…’
A plan?
Why not let Phenex take care of it?
‘Unbelievable…’
Phenex can’t handle it.
The moment she clashes with the adventurer, the adventurer will surely rush into the heart of the dungeon.
Why?
Because of Phenex’s personality that I mentioned before.
Personality 【Indomitable】
Phenex cannot completely win the boss battle with the intruder during the dungeon defense. (0/15)
When the target of the battle is a single target, Phenex returns to pure flame after dealing a certain amount of damage… See more
It’s because of this trash-like personality.
A personality that is like a curse.
That’s why Phenex was shunned.
‘Phenex will lose to the adventurer in the early game. Damn it… How do I…?’
Do I face the adventurer who was wounded by Phenex with the goblin slinger who is somewhat intact?
That’s nonsense.
The combat power of each adventurer is at least equivalent to a 2-star boss, or a 3-star.
The slinger will be easily defeated and rush into the heart of the dungeon…
‘…Wait?’
I hurried to the heart of the dungeon with a flash of thought.
And I checked the map of the dungeon and quickly started to block the passage of the infrastructure.
Block.
And block again.
With this, a single path from the entrance where the adventurer bounced off to the heart of the dungeon is completed.
He can now only reach the heart of the dungeon through this path.
…Huh?
“Lord Faust?”
What is this…?
“Wait.”
Is it not unlucky?
Rather…
“I just sorted out my thoughts.”
It’s lucky, isn’t it?