Chapter 16: Preparing

Chapter 16: Chapter 16: Preparing

The three wolves had gathered near the outer section of the dungeon.

The poisonous bats had already moved into the upper portions of the corridors, their markers constantly shifting as they explored their new surroundings.

The giant spiders were somewhere deeper inside the first floor.

Ragnar’s eyebrows rose.

"They’re already moving?"

He hadn’t expected the monsters to begin exploring immediately.

Unlike the Gacha Summons, these creatures didn’t possess complicated personalities or backgrounds.

However, they weren’t completely lifeless either.

They behaved according to their natural instincts.

That alone made the dungeon feel different.

Ragnar closed the system.

"I should go take a look."

He left the throne room and began walking through the stone corridors.

For the first time since awakening in this strange world, the dungeon no longer felt completely empty.

His footsteps were no longer the only sounds echoing through the halls.

Somewhere in the distance, he could hear the faint scratching of claws against stone.

Then came the occasional fluttering of wings. And somewhere deeper within the dungeon. Something crawled slowly across the ceiling.

Ragnar’s smile widened.

"This is much better."

He continued forward.

Soon, he reached the area where the wolves had been placed.

Three large forest wolves stood together in the middle of the corridor.

Their gray fur was almost identical to the wolves Ragnar had encountered previously, although these three were slightly smaller.

The moment they noticed Ragnar approaching, their ears immediately stood upright.

All three stared at him, the largest wolf slowly lowered its head, and the other two followed.

Ragnar stopped several meters away.

"So you recognize me as your master."

The wolves didn’t answer, they simply remained still.

Ragnar smiled.

"Good."

He then continued walking.

A short distance away, several dark shapes suddenly flew through the air.

Whoosh!

Three poisonous bats circled above him before disappearing into a side corridor.

Ragnar looked up.

"They’re already exploring."

He couldn’t help but chuckle. Then he heard another sound.

Scrape.

Scrape.

Scrape.

Ragnar slowly turned his head.

At the end of the corridor, eight long legs emerged from the darkness.

A giant spider crawled out.

Its body was nearly as large as Ragnar himself.

Behind it came two more.

He stared at the three spiders.

"...Okay."

He swallowed.

"They’re bigger than I expected."

The spiders climbed onto the ceiling and began moving along the stone walls.

One of them suddenly stopped. A thin strand of web extended from its body.

Then another.

Within moments, a section of the corridor had begun filling with sticky white threads.

Ragnar’s eyes widened.

"They actually know how to use their abilities without being commanded."

That was valuable, his dungeon was no longer an empty shell.

He now had eleven goblins, three wolves, three poisonous bats, and three giant spiders.

Twenty monsters in total.

Ragnar stood in the middle of the corridor and looked around.

For the first time since he had awakened in this unfamiliar world, he genuinely felt like he was standing inside a dungeon.

A faint smile slowly appeared on his face.

----

Back in the human village, several days had passed since Kyle returned from the forest with news that had completely changed the atmosphere of the small settlement.

What had once been an ordinary hunting village, where people worried about having enough meat to survive the coming winter, was now filled with an unusual sense of anticipation.

The discovery Kyle had reported had spread throughout the village almost immediately. At first, many people had been skeptical, unable to believe that a massive stone structure could exist deep within the forest without anyone noticing it before.

However, Kyle’s serious expression and the wound still visible along his side had been enough to convince the village elders that he wasn’t telling a simple campfire story.

There was a dungeon somewhere inside the forest, and if Kyle’s description was accurate, it appeared to be completely untouched.

That single possibility had changed everything.

Over the past few days, Kyle had personally gathered the village hunters and explained everything he had witnessed.

He told them about the magnificent stone hall standing alone among the trees, the strange cave-like entrance leading into the actual dungeon, and most importantly, the goblins that had attacked him the moment he entered.

He didn’t exaggerate the danger. In fact, Kyle repeatedly warned them that the dungeon was more dangerous than it appeared. The creatures inside weren’t mindless animals waiting to be slaughtered.

They worked together, surrounded him, threw spears at him, and nearly killed him when he attempted to escape.

Despite those warnings, however, the hunters’ eyes had only grown brighter.

A dungeon.

Even the word itself carried an enormous amount of weight in this world.

For a poor village like theirs, even finding one valuable treasure could change everything.

Inside one of the larger wooden houses near the center of the village, several hunters gathered around a long table.

Spread across the table were maps, pieces of parchment, ropes, torches, knives, dried meat, water containers, and various other supplies they intended to bring into the forest.

However, the most noticeable change wasn’t the equipment lying on the table.

It was the hunters themselves. They were wearing completely new leather armor.

The armor wasn’t particularly luxurious, but compared to the worn clothing and patched leather they had previously relied on, the difference was enormous. The leather had been carefully treated and reinforced, covering their chests, shoulders, arms, and thighs while still allowing enough freedom of movement for hunting.

Several hunters were also carrying newly purchased weapons.

One man repeatedly drew his new iron sword from its sheath, admiring the clean edge of the blade.

"Look at this."

He couldn’t hide the excitement in his voice.

"This is real iron."

Another hunter laughed.

"You’ve already looked at it twenty times."

"So what?"

The man proudly raised the sword.

"How often do you think someone like me gets to hold a weapon this good?"

A few of the others laughed. Even Kyle couldn’t help but smile.

Their previous weapons had been little more than hunting tools. Some had been handed down from older generations, while others had been repaired so many times that nobody remembered what they originally looked like.