Chapter 28: The Unhinged Players

Thanks to the sudden traffic accident, the entire caravan had ground to a stop. The beetle beast at fault looked a little panicked, and beneath its front leg — right after that "SPLAT"-like sound of a lump of meat getting stomped open — red blood had begun to seep out, quickly pooling into a small red puddle under the beetle beast's foot.

The beetle beast peered down at its own foot, apparently finding the sticky sensation a bit unpleasant, and lifted the foot up. Then, upon seeing the carnage underneath, it set the foot right back down, with a soft wet squelch.

Not only was the whole caravan dead silent, even the players who'd been whispering had gone quiet. Though to Nicholas, they didn't look tense-or-furious silent — it looked more like... resignation, suppressed giggling, that kind of thing.

A moment later, a goblin with the words 【xX_ShadowBlade_Xx】 hanging over his head poked his head out toward the stopped caravan and, with zero regard for the gravity of the scene, loudly asked:

"What's going on? I step away to make ONE livestream thread on the forums and I miss WHAT?!"

The second he spoke, the players around him who'd just gone quiet instantly blew up.

"OldMacDonald just got popped like a grape by an event NPC. Too damn realistic."

"See that puddle of red over there? That's OldMacDonald."

"Can you even be saved after getting stomped popped? MEDIC!"

"Damn, are you guys trying to laugh me to death so you can inherit my +2 hiltless short sword?! HAHAHA!"

The players who'd just settled down instantly kicked up a racket again, bursting into waves of howling laughter.

Nicholas could not understand how these goblins could laugh out loud this easily after watching one of their own get stomped open. He absolutely could not laugh — his face was white as chalk. Watching the demon lord Sharlock beside him knit his brows, Nicholas hadn't expected things to go this far, and said to Sharlock:

"L-Lord Sharlock, this..."

"Tricky, tricky. Never thought something like this would happen — but I know it's not all on you. Some of the blame goes to him for not watching where he was going."

Sharlock frowned, looking a little sour.

Nicholas felt this had gone well past "not watching where he was going," but with his own side having already stomped the guy open, there was no point in pushing blame around now. The good news was Lord Sharlock didn't seem angry about it. For the sake of their future working relationship, Nicholas figured he ought to say something:

"Lord Sharlock, I am willing to cover the corresponding damages, plus compensation for this goblin and his family. I promise I won't put you in a difficult spot."

Nicholas said as much.

"Ah, well. The incident itself was never your fault to begin with. But what's done is done. All I hope is that the compensation will let his grandpa, grandma, parents, wife, dozen-plus kids, and the little sister paralyzed in bed — that all of them can live free of want from here on out."

Sharlock sighed, wearing the resigned look of a man saying "it is what it is."

Hold on, what? Grandpa, grandma, parents, wife, a dozen-plus kids — and why is there a bedridden paralyzed little sister thrown into the math?

Goblins' day-to-day expenses weren't exactly huge, but this whole clan added up to nearly twenty people, one of them bedridden — and they all need to live free of want from now on?

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Count the grandparents' and parents' pension at five hundred magic stones. His dozen-plus kids — a hundred magic stones each for education and living expenses — call it fifteen kids, and that's fifteen hundred right there. Then the lost-wages payout for his death: a goblin earns five magic stones a month, sixty a year, and say he could've worked another thirty years — that's eighteen hundred.

Add on emotional damages, funeral costs, all the miscellany — go cheap, a burial on a mass-grave hill, no less than two hundred magic stones. All this odds-and-ends already adds up to four thousand magic stones! And that's WITHOUT counting the bedridden paralyzed little sister! Throw her in, and it's at least another thousand on top!

Talk about trouble!

Five thousand magic stones meant nothing to a big merchant like Nicholas, but paying out compensation like this would make this whole trade run basically a wasted trip. He'd originally planned to pay out a hundred magic stones, tops — how was he supposed to know it would balloon into THIS!

Nicholas's first reaction was that this demon lord Sharlock was shaking him down. When a servant died in an ordinary dungeon, you paid out a set amount of compensation — the price varied by rank and strength, but for a lowly Underworld creature like a goblin, fifty magic stones was the ceiling!

Honestly, Nicholas's own mental ceiling had been a hundred magic stones — and that was only because he wanted to stay on Sharlock's good side. But now that it felt like Sharlock was extorting him, he got a little guarded.

"Count Nicholas, I know it's hard on you. I know running trade routes isn't easy — you're out here digging through dirt and hauling ore day in and day out, earning an honest, backbreaking wage. And me, as lord of the Eternal Kingdom, I've got an obligation to shoulder my share too. Tell you what — you pay two hundred magic stones as a gesture, and I'll cover the rest myself. Ah, there go a few thousand more magic stones..." Sharlock had caught sight of Nicholas's pale face, sighed, and said as much.

"Hold on a moment, Lord Sharlock. You're truly going to spend several thousand magic stones? This may be your first dungeon, so perhaps you don't know — the standard compensation for a goblin is only about fifty magic stones."

This time Nicholas was genuinely alarmed. No matter how rich you were, you didn't just toss several thousand magic stones at goblin compensation, did you?

"This may be my first time as a dungeon lord, but I do know the basics. It's just — well, you know how it is in my position. A lot of people are watching. They hold discussions every single day, and they criticize from time to time too. I spend hours every day reading their commentary on my dungeon. Sure, I've already recruited this many servants, but the queue of people applying to join my dungeon is still tens of thousands deep — heads practically busting to squeeze in. I can't take them on right now, but I'll need them down the line. This is the first traffic-accident death of a goblin in my dungeon — I've got to take the right stance and make a statement, so my servants, and the ones lining up to join, can all feel at ease."

Sharlock finished his earnest, heart-to-heart speech, and Nicholas's expression grew more and more stunned.

An application queue tens of thousands deep? Masses of attention every single day, discussing the dungeon around the clock? Was this Lord Sharlock really a whale to THIS degree? THIS famous? Was he the son of some great noble? He could even be Satan's own son — that was absolutely on the table!

Once the thought hit, Nicholas's hands couldn't help trembling a little. If this really was Satan's son, or a second-generation high-tier demon of that caliber — this generous with money, this fast a dungeon boom, this many goblins recruited at the start — it all made sense. As for why he'd come out to some backwater, dangerous nowhere to build a dungeon, with no ready magic stones on hand — presumably some elder in the family had booted him out with a "here's a few hundred thousand magic stones, go start your own business!" This was just a noble out slumming it as a commoner for the life experience. Extra difficulty mode, even.

At that social tier, magic stones stopped being money in their eyes — they'd literally toss them around like rocks!

Once Nicholas thought it through, it all clicked — and the more he thought, the likelier it seemed. That was a plane of existence he couldn't even reach. If he could build a trading relationship with a figure like that, maybe even become his lackey someday, Nicholas could practically see the bright future already —

The honorable Lord Nicholas! A high-rank vampire with his very own dungeon, standing shoulder to shoulder with the high-tier demons as an equal!

Honestly, at first Nicholas hadn't even wanted to pay the two hundred magic stones — a hundred had been his mental limit. But with this epiphany, never mind two hundred, he'd have happily paid two thousand!

Of course, there was also the possibility this Lord Sharlock was just talking a big game! Playing big-shot to con him out of magic stones. But two hundred magic stones to buy peace of mind and a shot at an opportunity — Nicholas figured that was a fair trade. What if it was all true?

Paying the two hundred would feel like plucking out a single hair, in exchange for a friendly welcome into the city. As for the background of this high-tier demon called Sharlock — he could suss that out slowly on his own! Thinking of it that way, Nicholas felt much better.

Besides, Nicholas didn't believe any demon lord would run a bluffing scam like this just to con him out of two hundred magic stones. Nobody's THAT broke.

"Lord Sharlock — my perspective was too small. I understand now. Please, help me hand these two hundred magic stones to his family. It's only a little, but it's a token of my regard, and an expression of my apology."

As Nicholas spoke, he produced his magic-stone card, and Sharlock produced his own. The two quickly transferred the two hundred magic stones, and the moment Sharlock saw the stones hit his account, he declared with utmost righteousness:

"Of course. Rest assured — these two hundred magic stones aren't for me, they're for his family. This compensation, I will deliver into his family's hands as quickly as possible."

And then everyone carried on like nothing had happened. Under Sharlock's direction, the fifty-strong caravan with its thirty wagons and thirty beetle beasts rolled straight into the newest, not-yet-finished excavated space — originally earmarked by Sharlock as the players' communal dorm, now temporarily lent out to the caravan.

As for OldMacDonald's stomped-open corpse, naturally the other players tidied it up and chucked it off to the side, giving the dungeon a nice sweep-down while they were at it — the Eternal Kingdom takes its city appearance very seriously.

With that, everyone was more or less happily ever after. Nicholas couldn't help breaking into a smile himself, and now he could understand all the goblins around them howling with laughter — and he was even more certain that Sharlock's identity was no small thing.

A demon lord of that caliber? Having recruits this unhinged was perfectly understandable.