Chương 69: Chapter 68: The One True Dungeon

Inside the Core Chamber of Blackstone Dungeon, several different scenes were displayed across the light screens in front of Owen. The two screens in the upper-right corner showed Rayne's party and Harlan's party. Both parties had spent quite some time exploring Graywood Town again today, and Rayne's party had even caught sight of the Corrupted Goblin Warrior blocking the road ahead. Fortunately, they had only watched it from a distance and had not rushed in to challenge it.

Otherwise, they probably would have received a complimentary Trial Return package today.

"Good thing they didn't just walk up and provoke it. That thing isn't even in the same league as the Bellringer's Scion." Owen's core rocked gently twice. Harlan's party, on the other hand, had suffered terribly. Owen had no idea how they had managed it, but while wandering through the streets, they somehow ran into three patrols of Desiccated Guards at once and found themselves surrounded on all sides. Two of those patrols were even full five-member squads. All six of them were sent scrambling.

In the end, only Colvin managed to escape on his own, while Doro broke through the encirclement under Harlan's desperate protection. The remaining four all received free Trial Return tickets. Harlan himself had been pinned to a wall by three spears. Even as he lay dying, he still clutched the Bandit's Amulet tightly in his hand and managed a weak mutter.

"Fuck... This is what you call luck?" He lowered his gaze toward the amulet in his hand.

"More like a curse... Damn amulet..." Owen stared as Harlan slowly breathed his last, too stunned to react. Several seconds later, his core abruptly rocked twice.

"Wait, how can you blame the amulet for that?" Owen grumbled indignantly.

"That thing just boosts your drop rate. It doesn't actually make you lucky!" As for why Harlan had somehow managed to run into three patrols of Desiccated Guards at the same time... Owen selectively ignored that question and placed the blame squarely on Harlan. However, Owen had not been focusing all his attention on them. Over the past few days, Owen had spent more time watching Sinner's Canyon than anywhere else. After all, he had only recently made extensive changes to its terrain.

Some problems were impossible to spot through his own inspections alone. He could only rely on adventurers running the area again and again to expose the problems lurking in different corners. The most serious problem so far had appeared along one of the paths leading to the Whisperer's underground prison. Owen had no idea what had gone wrong when he altered the terrain, but a strange pit had somehow appeared there.

Worse still, it was so well hidden that it was almost impossible to notice unless someone looked carefully. The first unlucky adventurer to step into it had been bringing up the rear of his party. He somehow missed his footing and fell straight in. By the time he realized what had happened, he was stuck in the pit, and none of his teammates ahead had noticed. When the others finally realized someone was missing, they even assumed the man had grown frightened and fled on his own.

It took Owen a while to notice that there was still someone trapped inside the pit. Even worse, the adventurer struggled for ages but could not climb out no matter what he tried. In the end, Owen could no longer bear to watch. He temporarily summoned an ordinary Desiccated Corpse and had it jump into the pit to give the adventurer a quick death, successfully "rescuing" him.

The strange mix of terror and delight on the adventurer's face at the sight of the Desiccated Corpse was something Owen suspected he would remember for the rest of his life. That night, once all the adventurers in the area had left, Owen filled the pit back in. He had originally assumed that would be the end of it.

Instead, when the unlucky adventurer returned the following day, he loudly told everyone in the camp what had happened to him, then dragged three entire parties along and led the whole crowd straight back to the scene of the accident. Then they found absolutely nothing. Not only did the unlucky adventurer get scolded by his own teammates, but several of the other adventurers who had made the trip for nothing even joined forces to beat him up. Owen watched the whole thing unfold, squirming guiltily the entire time.

After thinking about it for a long time, he secretly increased the unlucky adventurer's drop rate as compensation. The bonus was roughly twice as large as the one provided by Harlan's Bandit's Amulet.

"Well... bugs are inevitable sometimes!" The azure glow inside the Core Chamber dimmed slightly.

"Just think of this as compensation from the administrator!" After saying that, Owen hurriedly switched the light screen to show another location. Continuing to watch would only make him feel increasingly awkward. There had also been a problem with the Chainbound. The skill Owen had originally given it allowed it to use up to two chains at a time and control up to two challengers.

However, when a five-person party challenged the Chainbound two days earlier, they accidentally triggered an interaction that even Owen had never anticipated. At the time, the party's priest and archer had been standing too close together. When the Chainbound hurled a chain at one of them, it somehow wrapped around both adventurers at once and bound them together. The problem was that when Owen originally configured the skill's restrictions, the system did not count how many people the Chainbound was controlling.

It only counted the number of chains currently in use. That meant that even though one chain had caught two people, the system still registered only one active chain. When another adventurer saw what had happened, he immediately rushed forward to rescue his two companions. The Chainbound promptly threw out its second chain. The third adventurer was bound as well. The remaining two adventurers stood frozen in place.

They looked at their three immobilized companions, then at the Chainbound in front of them, their faces filling with despair. In the end, all five of them were savagely thrashed by the chains. The entire battle left Owen trembling with fear. As soon as it ended, he hurriedly adjusted the skill's restrictions. This time, he changed them so the system counted the number of challengers under the Chainbound's control rather than the number of active chains.

Once the Chainbound had two people bound, it would no longer be able to throw another chain. This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

"Why did so many weird bugs appear when all I did was give the earlier areas a simple update?" Owen's wail echoed through the Core Chamber. Although these mistakes occasionally brought him large amounts of Soul Energy, he did not want to earn energy this way at all.

"Looks like I'll have to think everything through more carefully from now on. This isn't some early-access game where I can just hand-wave the problems away whenever something breaks!" If something like this happened in one of the games he used to play, the worst consequence would have been upsetting the players. In this world, however, he could genuinely leave someone traumatized. Owen had seen the adventurer who fell into the pit several more times recently, and the man seemed to have become somewhat paranoid.

Every time Owen saw him glancing around suspiciously, he could not help squirming all over again.

"... I'm really sorry." The good news was that Owen's Soul Energy reserves had once again surpassed one hundred thousand over the past few days and were still steadily climbing toward two hundred thousand. Whenever he saw the number tick upward, Owen could not help chuckling happily.

"I can't spend it all! There's no way I can spend all this Soul Energy!" Owen lay on the stone pedestal, his mind filling with fantasies about how he should spend all that energy. As his thoughts wandered, an idea occurred to him.

"Oh, right! I should check how much energy my next core advancement will cost!" Owen summoned the interface and opened the core advancement panel. This time, however, Soul Energy was no longer the only requirement. [Core Advancement Requirements: 600, 000 Soul Energy; 3 Subordinate Cores]"Subordinate Cores?" Owen froze.

"What are those supposed to be?" There were no additional explanations anywhere on the interface. He searched it from top to bottom but still could not make any sense of it.

"Don't tell me... I'm supposed to make other dungeons my underlings?" Owen cried out in shock, and the light radiating from his core dimmed slightly. Like hell he was going to take those psychopathic murderers as his underlings. Between the conversations he had overheard from adventurers exploring his dungeon and the hazy fragments of memory he still retained, Owen knew enough to want absolutely nothing to do with other dungeons. Besides, how was he even supposed to turn another dungeon into a Subordinate Core?

Through that horrifying communication channel? There was no chance in hell Owen would ever connect to it again. The first time could be excused as ignorance. If he went back in now that he knew there was something wrong with it, then he would truly be an idiot. Owen slumped listlessly against the stone pedestal and let out a helpless sigh.

"I thought I'd be able to keep advancing as long as I had enough energy. Looks like I was being too optimistic..." Was he supposed to launch a Demonic Tide and actively attack other dungeons? Owen fell silent for a moment.

"But if I did that... wouldn't that ponytailed guy at the camp just wipe me out while he was at it?" Just then, Owen had an idea.

"What if I send the interactable units outside instead? They don't look like monsters, so that shouldn't be classified as a Demonic Tide, right?" Owen perked up at once. A dungeon that was supposed to be humanity's enemy, yet joined forces with humans to fight other dungeons instead... Wait. Why did that make it sound like he was betraying his own kind?

"Ptooey! What kind of bullshit is that? Those things aren't my kind!" Owen's core trembled violently, as though he wanted to shake that thought straight out of his head.

"I've decided! From now on, I'm what a dungeon is supposed to be!" The azure light inside the Core Chamber abruptly brightened.

"I'm going to join forces with Rayne and the others and turn this world into what it was always supposed to be!" Just as Owen was envisioning his glorious future, a notification appeared in front of him. [Special Watchlist Target Entered: Guildmaster]"Hm? Is he here to challenge the Whisperer again?" Although Owen had complained that the new function seemed useless when he unlocked it a few days earlier, it had not taken him long to add everyone he cared about to the Special Watchlist. Greer was one of them.

Recently, the old man had been secretly slipping into the dungeon almost every night to fight the Whisperer. Although he still had not managed to win, Owen could barely contain his excitement whenever he watched them fight. Greer was also clearly improving. The last few times Owen saw him, he even thought the old man seemed much livelier than before. However, the first notification had barely disappeared when a second one appeared, instantly putting Owen on edge.

[Dangerous Target Detected: Adamantite-rank Adventurer]"... Wait." Owen's entire core froze. He had only thought about it, hadn't he? He had not even sent any of the interactable units outside yet! No. There had been that little gray mouse a few days ago... The azure glow radiating from Owen's core dimmed at once.

"D-did they find out?" Just as Owen was growing unbearably nervous, the two men standing in the center of the circular plaza began a very strange exchange.

"Eli, there's an adventurer outside who was forced into a contract by another dungeon. How do you think we should help him?"

"Master, I'll be honest with you. I can't make that decision right now either." Elias paused for a moment.

"Perhaps... we can find a solution inside this dungeon?" When Elias finished, the two men glanced at one another before sighing at the same time. Both of them wore expressions that were equal parts exasperated and amused. Maybe even they thought they looked ridiculous right now? Either way, none of it made any sense to Owen. At the very least, however, one thing was clear. These two did not seem to have come here looking for trouble.

"So... what exactly is a forced contract?" Owen asked in confusion, conjuring a giant question mark beside himself.

"Dungeons can form contracts with humans? What are they even for?" Before Owen could think any further, the two men in the circular plaza began walking toward the Bronze Gate.

"Wait. They aren't actually coming in here to discuss it with me, are they?" Owen trembled violently. Rationally, Owen knew that Greer and Elias would not harm him. Yet for some reason, the thought of letting them come any farther inside, perhaps even as far as the Core Chamber entrance, filled him with an inexplicable urge to keep them out. Why? He had always longed for someone to talk to. Why did he feel this way now that the opportunity had actually arrived?

"Maybe I should have Mr. Dummy stop them for a while first..." After issuing instructions to his traveling-merchant persona, Owen began searching the interface for anything related to contracts. After searching for quite some time, he finally discovered a relevant function hidden in an obscure corner. [Reputation Contract] [Form a contract with a favored challenger and win glory for your dungeon. Every contracted challenger is one of a kind! The dungeon will gain the right to provide contracted challengers with intensive training. In return, they will spread the dungeon's name and increase its popularity.] [Current Contract Capacity: 0] [Current Status: Contracts Unavailable] [Reason for Restriction: Insufficient Divine Power to enforce and guarantee contracts.]"Divine Power!?" Owen's deafening shout rang through the Core Chamber.

"Where am I supposed to get something like that? It doesn't exactly sound like something a lousy rock like me should be messing with..." Owen glanced at the light screen, where Greer and Elias were approaching the slope, then looked back at the notification in front of him.

"Hmm... Wait! The Guildmaster said it was a forced contract..." Owen scrolled up and down through the entire contract interface, but he could not find any function called a Forced Contract. However, as he kept looking, he came across an entry on contract dissolution. [Contract Dissolution: A dungeon may unilaterally dissolve a contract it has formed with a contracted challenger without obtaining the challenger's consent. If another dungeon is found to have formed an illicit contract that violates the ■■■■ Principle, the contract may also be dissolved by a third-party dungeon.]"Hmm... This should be what they're talking about, right?" Owen stared at the explanation for quite some time.

"But it doesn't say how I'm supposed to dissolve it." Still utterly confused, he continued searching for more detailed instructions. No matter how far he scrolled, however, the interface only displayed that single short explanation.

"Anyway, a forced contract certainly doesn't sound like anything good." Owen's core tilted slightly to one side.

"Maybe I should have the Guildmaster bring that person inside later. Then I can see what I'm supposed to do." ◆ ◆ ◆ Greer and Elias finally caught sight of the ruined church ahead. Throughout the journey, both men had been thinking about how they should begin the conversation once they arrived. Or, more precisely, who they could even ask for the answers they wanted. Before they reached the church entrance, however, they noticed a figure standing in front of it.

An old cloak, disheveled hair, and a face that always seemed to carry a trace of exhaustion. It was the traveling merchant. Greer remembered Rayne and the others mentioning this man. Although Greer had never met him, those features were distinctive enough that he recognized him almost immediately. This time, however, the wooden-frame pack Rayne's party had mentioned was nowhere to be seen. And the way he was standing there... Greer continued forward, stroking his chin as he studied the merchant.

"Could he be... waiting specifically for us?" The moment he spoke, Greer and Elias both turned their heads and looked at one another. It seemed that this dungeon truly could understand what they meant. The concern in Greer's eyes immediately gave way to excitement.

"Hey, boy. Do you think... we could ask Blackstone Dungeon to send us some reinforcements?" Elias froze, disbelief spreading across his face.

"You mean... those people Rayne and the others mentioned? The ones who look no different from ordinary residents?" Greer let out a soft sigh. He knew what Elias was worried about. The truth was, even he could not be certain what unforeseen consequences this decision might bring. Still, for some reason, he felt they could try trusting Blackstone this once. After all, ever since they had discovered the dungeon, it had never truly taken a single life.

"If it can help us, just think of how many lives we could save." Elias fell silent. For some reason, he suddenly remembered something Magnus had once said. Fighting for your life on the front lines isn't the only way to save people. Elias slowly closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Only after a moment did he open them again and look seriously at Greer.

"Master, that still depends on whether Blackstone agrees!" Greer froze for a moment. Then he raised a hand, rubbed the back of his head, and let out a sheepish laugh.

"You're right." He looked back toward the traveling merchant standing in front of the church.

"We shouldn't keep him waiting any longer. Let's hurry over." The two of them quickened their pace and headed toward the doors of the ruined church.