Chapter 33: The Players' New Trouble

The slime-monster in front of him had a body that was green all over — and beneath its semi-transparent not-sure-you'd-call-it-skin layer, you could see the gooey stuff inside, caught somewhere between liquid and solid.

They were the Underworld's slime-monsters, and they went by another name, too: slimes.

But which name you used depended on the situation. The uglier, grittier, more realistic-looking kind got called "slime-monsters," while the somewhat prettier, cuter kind got called "slimes." As for the one in front of Sharlock, standing there in a soggy tailcoat — that one could only be called a slime-monster.

"Excuse me — are you the lord of the Eternal Kingdom dungeon, Lord Sharlock?"

The slime-monster in front of him looked at Sharlock — or rather, was facing Sharlock — as it said this.

Because you couldn't actually tell where this slime-monster's eyes were. It did have an opening that resembled a mouth, though.

"You're Count Nicholas's butler? This shipment is all yours."

Once Sharlock said that, he pointed at the enormous pile of materials that had been teleported in behind him — spider legs, spider silk, and all the rest — then handed the manifest in his hand over to the slime-monster.

A tentacle-like gooey something peeled off the slime-monster's body and carefully stuck itself to the manifest without wetting Sharlock's hand. Then the slime-monster said:

"Lord Sharlock, thank you deeply for making this trip. In gratitude, His Lordship the Count wishes to extend you a lifetime 20% discount — though of course, that discount applies only to His Lordship the Count's own shop."

"What does His Lordship the Count's shop sell?"

"A ladies' boutique."

Sharlock bid farewell to the slime-monster butler and his gracious invitations, left the receiving hall, and went off to shop for what he needed.

Beds and the like obviously had to come from a carpentry shop. Sharlock was currently carrying five thousand magic stones plus a thousand-magic-stone gift card — to put it plainly, loaded beyond belief. Go on, name one stall in this market he couldn't walk into. I order a hundred beds — you gonna charge me a hundred thousand magic stones for that?

Sharlock picked out a shop named 【Only Pricier】 Carpentry and walked in.

The carpentry shop reeked of a strange, rotting smell. Twisted chunks of wood hung from the walls, black liquid dripping off them nonstop. An unstrung wooden bow lay on a table. Inside the shop, a stonefolk sat in a chair, working through a ledger — and the moment someone walked in, the stonefolk sprang up and came over to greet him:

"Welcome, welcome! What might the customer be looking to buy? This shop's newest arrival: Starfang, the Stars' Fury — absolutely high-grade replica, indistinguishable from the real thing!"

Why did that line sound so familiar to Sharlock? But he could swear he'd never set foot in this shop before. He followed up with the shopkeeper:

"Pass on the bow — no use for one right now. I'd like to order a hundred beds."

Once Sharlock finished, the stonefolk shopkeeper ran some quick numbers, then said:

"One thousand magic stones, delivery included."

Sharlock found the price acceptable and pulled out the gift card to pay — but the stonefolk shopkeeper kept right on going:

"You look like a demon lord of considerable standing. Here to buy beds for your new dungeon, are you? Ah, so many new dungeons have started developing lately — demand for beds has shot way up, so a little price inflation lately is only natural. But no matter! I'd suggest you don't buy quite so many beds. We happen to have a deal package perfectly suited to a distinguished new lord such as yourself — take a look!"

The author publishes this chapter where the story was originally posted, while this page presents an unapproved copy.

"Would that be the 【100th Anniversary Mega Sale: Just 800 Magic Stones — Take a Brand-New Carpentry Workshop Home!】 deal? Don't tell me it also comes with ten beds? And provides a carpenter at a hundred magic stones a month? And that carpenter can cook, too, right?"

After Sharlock finished asking, the stonefolk was just pulling out a flyer with 【100th Anniversary】 printed across the top, and the shopkeeper froze:

"H-how did you know?"

Once the stonefolk shopkeeper said that, Sharlock sank into thought. Honestly, rather than buying a hundred beds, better to catch the shop mid-sale and buy the carpentry workshop — two hundred magic stones cheaper. But the critical problem: there were no wood resources anywhere near Sharlock's Eternal Kingdom dungeon!

Forget an underground forest — the place barely even had dirt. It was practically walled in by diamond on all sides. In just these twenty days, digging through that hard, foul-smelling, worthless diamond had already wrecked several pickaxes.

When would he ever dig his way to underground forest resources — or whether he'd even reach them inside a year — honestly, even Sharlock didn't have much confidence. The Eternal Kingdom was a very, very, VERY remote dungeon, and it was resource-starved to the extreme: nothing but diamond, and then more diamond. On top of that, its location sat dangerously close to the surface, and its core had been abandoned for who knew how many years. Which was exactly why it was cheap enough that Sharlock could afford it in the first place.

Honestly, managing to excavate a flower bed, a food storeroom, and the nearly finished hundred-player communal dorm within a mere twenty days had already blown way past Sharlock's expectations. Before buying the dungeon, he'd drafted up several century-scale plans.

So what now? Which way to jump?

"Then I'll order the hundred beds, AND add on the carpentry workshop package. Oh, and a carpenter with masterful cooking skills — and I do mean masterful."

Back in the broke days, Sharlock had no choices. Now he was carrying a fortune — why choose at all? He wanted it ALL.

Once Sharlock said all that, the stonefolk shopkeeper was rather taken aback — he hadn't expected this young Dungeon Lord to be so thorough — and immediately thumped his chest and promised:

"Rest assured, my lord — I will absolutely recruit you the single most masterful cook of a carpenter there is!"

Satisfied with the shopkeeper's attitude, Sharlock also put in an order for a hundred magic stones' worth of short bow arrows, and left his dungeon's address so the shopkeeper could arrange a construction crew and the delivery of the hundred beds plus the arrows.

As for shipping costs — those, naturally, were the shopkeeper's problem. With everything settled, the owner went off to contact the construction crew and prepare the goods.

The reason Sharlock was recruiting a carpenter was, mainly, that he hoped the man could take over cooking duties from Goldmane the blacksmith. After all, Goldmane was forging iron and enhancing gear one minute and cooking for a hundred-odd people the next — the workload was genuinely brutal. Add in the constant harassment from those idiot players, and Goldmane had been coming to Sharlock for heart-to-hearts and psychological counseling more and more often.

There was always some player convinced Goldmane was hiding a hidden quest, hoping to pry a holy sword left behind by some dragon-slaying hero out of him.

But Goldmane wasn't one of the otherworld players. If the pressure got too heavy or the job stopped making him happy, he really would up and quit. Sharlock was a bit of the sentimental, remember-the-old-days sort — and the main thing was, by now Goldmane had more or less gotten used to those players. If he quit, who could guarantee the next blacksmith could stomach the players' harassment?

With the necessities handled, Sharlock planned to keep browsing for whatever else was worth buying. But before he could even start shopping, he heard Bru's rather resigned voice:

"My lord, I believe it would be advisable for you to return to the dungeon as soon as possible. The players from another world have run into trouble."

His Lordship had left the dungeon, hauling away untold quantities of basic materials — and what he left the players with was a whole sea of confused question-mark faces.

Why hadn't Nicholas taken those materials with him? What were those things Nicholas had handed to Locke afterward even for? And where had Locke taken those materials off to?

These assorted questions plagued the players — discussed in-game or on the official site — and every conclusion pointed in one direction: this had to be a hidden storyline!

That Dungeon: The Eternal Kingdom had hidden storylines was already confirmed fact — the first five-man pushing squad had killed the first subterranean spider and triggered a hidden storyline, and Arthur and xX_ShadowBlade_Xx got to follow Lord Sharlock all the way to the legendary Frostlake City.

xX_ShadowBlade_Xx had even made a forum post about that one — with pictures, no less. Not a hoax.

So had somebody triggered a hidden storyline again? The moment everyone thought it over, the odds seemed sky-high! Maybe even the resurrection-system maintenance was BECAUSE someone had triggered a hidden storyline — maybe Locke the NPC had carted some player off to play out the story!

So who the heck triggered it?!

Just as everyone was wondering, someone suddenly came sprinting back in a panic, hollering:

"There's a BOSS at the Spider Nest!"

The players had been mid-discussion about hidden storylines, and at that shout, they immediately stampeded over. A few of the timider ones — or the ones guarding their wallets, not wanting to die — didn't tag along, but those were a minority in the end.

The players sprinted along to the Spider Nest, only to find that the spot that should have been the players' material-farming paradise was now occupied by a pack of freaky-looking monsters.

Luckily, since Sharlock had announced the resurrection-system maintenance before leaving for Frostlake City, not many players had been farming materials out there — only two players were strung up on a pole: one with the name 【Arthur】 over his head, the other with 【BurningChestHair】.

Those creatures carried big heads like a hellhound's, with scaly hides in a deep shade of red. Their builds were burly — at minimum, way burlier than the players.

And in the middle of the pack, one hulking individual was especially eye-catching: twice the size of the others, gripping a theatrically styled great iron hammer, a long pair of tusks jutting from his mouth, wearing a set of armor that shimmered with a faint blue light. The armor looked a bit big on him, but not absurdly so.

"Those are kobolds, right?!"

In the crowd, xX_ShadowBlade_Xx pegged the identity of those freaky creatures at a glance.

The kobolds had clearly spotted the sudden swarm of goblins too. They tensed up on the spot, bunching around the burliest kobold of the group. That kobold heaved his iron hammer high, barked out a few words in some strange language — and then the whole pack of them charged at the spectating players...