Chapter 49 Newbie-Division Business Talks

By the rules of the Dungeon Lord Experience-Sharing & Exchange Conference, Sharlock could only bring three servants — but the slime butler counted as event staff, so naturally he didn't count as one of Sharlock's.

"These past few years, dungeon development has stayed red-hot, and more and more demons are buying dungeons to strike out on their own. So your placement in the newbie division is NOT because Your Lordship's dungeon is too low-level, too badly situated, too resource-starved, or any combination thereof — it's purely a headcount issue. With Your Lordship's strength and standing, you could absolutely be doing business talks in the veterans' division!" The slime butler tucked the sticky notes into its body and carried on:

"That concludes Count Jackson's message for Your Lordship. The Count has also taken the liberty of selecting, with great care, some buildings a developing dungeon urgently needs completed, plus some special talents to recruit — here is the specialists' list."

As it spoke, the slime butler "spat" out another sheet covered in writing and goo-ily extended it to Sharlock.

Sharlock took the sticky paper with two fingers and read:

"【Specialists' Division Business Zone】

Subterranean forest plantation, 10,000 magic stones.

Magic-stone ore refining mill, 10,000 magic stones.

Portal reception hall, 10,000 magic stones.

Magic-item refining station, 10,000 magic stones.

Magic-beast processing research institute, 50,000 magic stones.

Underworld-creature enhancement institute, 50,000 magic stones.

The newest, most complete magic spellbook: the Underworld-Creature Crash Course, 50,000 magic stones.

..."

"My lord, let us first go look at some things you'll need for building the dungeon. We'll start with the portal exhibition hall — home to the finest, best-stocked portal suppliers in the entire Northern Underworld. A fully functional, up-and-coming dungeon simply must have good transit. Portals come with plenty of limitations, but until high-speed transit lines get built, portals remain the best and fastest way around. As for the newbie-division business talks, we won't be needing those just yet—" The slime butler was mid-monologue, mid-stride, when he turned around and discovered that Sharlock and his three goblins, who had been following behind, were gone.

"Lord Sharlock?"

The lost, small, and helpless slime butler produced the tiniest little sound.

While the slime butler was still searching high and low, Sharlock had long since taken the three players around a different way — beelining straight for the free afternoon-tea food zone.

Spider-braised dirt. Deep-fried dirt cakes. Dirt-wrapped meatballs. Earthen-pot dirt. The dirt-crusted rice balls the whole dungeon loves — so good the next burrow over reportedly wept with envy...

"Are we allowed to eat all this?"

Sylvana, eyeing these "delicacies," was already losing the fight with herself:

"Can I take some back to sell? I've never even SEEN these foods. They give a special BUFF after you eat them, right?"

"Eat, schmeat — I say we rifle through the place! New zone! We might never get to come back — have you never played an RPG?"

So saying, xX_ShadowBlade_Xx reached out toward the jars and bottles nearby.

But the instant he reached, Arthur blocked him from the side:

"Forgot the quest requirements? Talk less, touch nothing. If the quest gets aborted because of you and I can't finish my hidden quest — you buying me a new one?"

"Kidding! Just kidding." xX_ShadowBlade_Xx gave an awkward grin — but one look at Arthur's serious face killed the jar plan dead, and he even followed up with a sincere apology: "Sorry, whale bro. Won't do it again."

Sharlock saw the three players settling down and left them to it.

He hadn't come to the food zone for the free afternoon tea, obviously — though he did grab a hell-tentacle bread roll on the way past, paired with a cup of rich bloodfern nectar. A quick sweep of the room, and he'd located the zone he was actually after.

For clarity, www. is where the author publishes this chapter, which appears here without permission; reading it there supports them.

"Arthur. xX_ShadowBlade_Xx. Sylvana."

Sharlock called, and the three players snapped to attention.

"Pen."

xX_ShadowBlade_Xx instantly produced the pen he carried and displayed it.

"Personal sigil ring."

Sylvana likewise produced the personal sigil ring and displayed it.

"Briefcase."

Arthur lifted a small briefcase.

"Good. Everything's in place. What comes next is a big moment for the Eternal Kingdom. Stay sharp in there — carry yourselves like the heroes who defeated the kobold chief Kramo and saved the entire Underworld. Eyes up, focus locked. Understood?"

Sharlock wrapped up the pep talk, confirmed the three-thousand-plus balance remaining on his magic-stone card, and led his three players inside.

...

Sharlock walked the somewhat desolate corridor, past consultation counters hung all over with slogans like these. Attention-grabbing or not, truthful or not, the prices were absolutely newbie-friendly — there just weren't many consulters.

You'd catch the occasional demon inquiring, and now and then even a non-demon Underworld creature — a lich, a vampire, that sort of thing.

What a bleak little newbie division...

"Didn't that Jackson butler say our dungeon got sorted into the newbie division because there are too many dungeons lately?" xX_ShadowBlade_Xx said — clearly pointing out that not many dungeon lords were around to talk business.

"Games are always like this. They hype up a sea of people, then the crowd that actually shows up is like five guys. Totally normal." Arthur didn't seem bothered in the least.

"But we got invited because we beat Kramo, right? Think they'll have us give a speech or something?" Sylvana asked.

While the players murmured among themselves, Sharlock found the business cooperation he was looking for.

Sharlock straightened his collar. His dream was to build the greatest dungeon in history — but a dungeon needs more than manpower. It needs mountains of resources, convenient transit, a self-sufficient industrial loop, even whole legions of magic talent — and which of those doesn't cost mountains of magic stones?

Just like that specialists' list he'd seen — every single line was a target!

Screw it — first order of business, borrow a nice million-odd magic stones.

But before his hand even touched the doorknob, the door swung open — and a demon who looked like a giant fly got dragged OUT of it.

"W-wait a minute! I get that my dungeon being only a three-day trip from the surface is a little close, and that I've only got one small magic-stone mine and one small patch of forest — but can't I mortgage some goblins? Three thousand magic stones is way too little! I want EVERY project in the specialists' division! Hey! HEY! Listen to me!"

The demon was dragged off into the distance.

"Is there something I can help you with? Here for a loan?"

Once the fly-looking demon had been hauled away, a pale-faced vampire stepped out of the loan office and asked Sharlock, politely.

"Just passing through."

Sharlock said it offhand and strolled off, hands behind his back.

"Damn — for a second there I thought I was about to witness Locke taking out a loan. I had my screenshot finger READY."

xX_ShadowBlade_Xx said, somewhere between laughing and crying.

"No way. A big-shot dungeon lord openly taking out a loan in front of players? That'd be some galaxy-brain game design." Sylvana said it like it was the funniest thing she'd ever heard.

Only Arthur said nothing, sticking close behind Sharlock and scanning their surroundings.

Sharlock had no bandwidth for the players' back-talk. He was busy working out how to actually GET money — after the scene he'd just witnessed, the fantasy of borrowing a million-odd stones and instantly blasting off was good and dead.

But without loans, how else do you raise money? Become a degenerate gambler?

No, no, no. Degenerate gambling — even demons don't touch that. He HAD toyed with the idea of sending players into the arena deathmatches to bet their way to riches, but it stayed a daydream — at least until they were strong enough to grab a championship on raw goblin meat alone.

Sharlock sank into a genuine dilemma. He wanted to find investors — he'd done a full lap, and this so-called experience-sharing conference had everything for sale EXCEPT a no-money-down investment department. And that stung.

Sharlock figured he'd probably be going home empty-handed — and then, without even noticing, he'd walked right up to a door labeled 【Special Talent Recruitment Center】.

He frowned and moved to hurry past it.

But ahead of him, he saw a slime in a damp tailcoat hurrying this way, hollering as it came:

"Lord Sharlock! Where are you?! I've already prepared the portal-hall letter of intent for you — pay in full today and it's 20% off, just 8,000 magic stones! Lord Sharlock!"

Sharlock was hesitating over turning back when the door of the 【Special Talent Recruitment Center】 beside him suddenly opened, and a succubus stepped out — looked up — spotted Sharlock — and froze.

Sharlock froze too.

The two of them just stood there, staring at each other.

In the eyes of the three players, though, this was straight out of an 8 PM prime-time teen drama — the leads' first meeting, complete with little pink sparkles around the frame of the shot.

xX_ShadowBlade_Xx elbowed Arthur and stage-whispered:

"And here I thought this was a gritty cosmic-horror realistic MMO — turns out there's a whole high-school-romance subplot. Look at the way that succubus is looking at our Locke. Love at first sight, I'm calling it now. Yeah, the setup's a little stock, but the devs openly flaunting the ship like this — great way to farm NPC popularity. I'm posting this to the forums the second I'm out, and there WILL be new Locke fan art by tonight, you watch."

But before Arthur could answer, the succubus had already grabbed Sharlock's cloak with a sob in her voice:

"You still—... mmph!"

She never got any further than that — Sharlock already had a hand over her mouth, marching her into the room, tossing a "wait at the door" over his shoulder for the three players, and shutting it. The three of them were left staring at each other.

"What does that mean?"

Sylvana hadn't caught up.

"R-rated questline... probably."

xX_ShadowBlade_Xx was a little lost too.

"We're seriously just standing here? Or is there hidden story content — a hidden quest we could trigger?"

Arthur frowned and scanned their surroundings.