Chapter 12
Newbie : Minions?
ㄴShibgan Love Dog : Yep yep
ㄴI Have No Minions : Yeah
ㄴGolem King : If it were me, I'd summon a minion right now.
The veteran players unanimously called for minions.
Didn't they initially tell me not to summon one because it might revolt?
When I asked why they were suddenly saying that...
ㄴShibgan Love Dog : The Anomaly minions have the 'Initiation' tag!
ㄴNewbie : What's Initiation??
ㄴShibgan Love Dog : It means they're only active during waves.
ㄴShibgan Love Dog : To put it in human terms so Newbie can understand, they're only active when intruders come in and sleep the rest of the time, you know?
ㄴNewbie : Ahh
ㄴShibgan Love Dog : Minions with the Initiation tag usually live for the purpose of 'eliminating intruders'... so they won't harm the dungeon master.
ㄴShibgan Love Dog : So you don't have to worry about them staging a revolution.
ㄴNewbie : Thanks for telling me, Sarang, haha
ㄴShibgan Love Dog : If you're grateful, kiss me when we meet later >_<
ㄴNewbie : Huh?
ㄴGolem King : I have automatons like that, and they work really well, yeah.
ㄴGolem King : But why are the minion descriptions so vicious...? There's even one that says it'll snap your neck if you take your eyes off it lol... What is it, a yandere...?
ㄴDIP : It's just like you, Mr. Shibgan Love Dog, yeah...
ㄴPsych Ward Chief Patient : Shibgan Love Dog is more of a menhera than a yandere...
Hmm.
But now that I think about it, these bastards talk like internet ghosts.
ㄴNewbie : How do you guys even know words like menhera and yandere?? Didn't you say you have no memories at all??
ㄴGolem King : Newbie.
ㄴNewbie : Yeah?
ㄴGolem King : Did anyone teach you how to breathe when you were born before you figured it out yourself?
ㄴNewbie : Nope.
ㄴGolem King : Community slang is like that for us... We just naturally know it...
Seriously?
What the hell is Oblivion, anyway, to have taught me such sophisticated and beautiful words?
ㄴShibgan Love Dog : Newbie, I'm not a menhera ㅠㅠ
ㄴShibgan Love Dog : I really am...
ㄴNewbie : LOL, got it.
Anyway, that was a long digression.
Back to the main point.
ㄴNewbie : What do you guys think looks best? I have exactly enough points to buy one right now.
ㄴThe World Is Cold : Newbie, when did you earn that many points???
ㄴNewbie : I earned them by killing hobgoblins and goblins last time hehe...
The chat stopped.
A moment later.
ㄴThe World Is Cold : I'll kill myself.
ㄴKing Slayer : Whoa, breathe, breathe.
ㄴOrange★ : Honestly, watching how many points and how much experience Newbie earns... I am pretty jealous.
ㄴWhaleWhaleYeah : A remarkable bastard who can even make the head mod green with envy...
No.
It wasn't intentional flexing.
Don't just say you're jealous; recommend a minion too.
ㄴI Have No Minions : The Guide looks good to me. Just reading the description makes me feel like I'll go insane...
ㄴPsych Ward Chief Patient : I'm voting for this one too.
ㄴAnonymous Butcher : Same here. It seems able to do a little more, so I like it better.
ㄴGolem King : Yandere, go go go!
ㄴDIP : How can you pass up a neck-snapping yandere lol
ㄴWhaleWhaleYeah : For real lol
ㄴSkeleton Bones : Game Master, go go go! I like poker.
ㄴSealed Philosopher : ?
ㄴSealed Conqueror : ?
ㄴKing Slayer : Can you even pick up cards with your hands? lol
ㄴSkeleton Bones : Everyone, put your hooks away and shut up.
Actually, I had already decided on the answer.
It was also the minion best suited to this maze right now.
But.
Cross-checking is always necessary.
So I deliberately threw out the question.
They might call me someone who only asks questions after deciding on the answer.
But so what?
As long as they didn't find out, it didn't matter.
ㄴShibgan Love Dog : I...
...
...
ㄴOrange★ : I think this one looks a little better too.
ㄴOrange★ : Of course, I think the others' opinions are reasonable as well.
Good.
Now I had my justification.
Newbie : Then I'll take the head mod's and Sarang's opinions into account and prepare this one.
ㄴGolem King : Too bad.
ㄴDIP : Next time, you'll do the yandere one, right?
Hmm.
Probably?
***
Manticore, the man-faced lion and ruler of the Roujinrat Great Mountain Range, was a Dark School mage who had fallen into the form of a lion.
Though he had no faction and wasn't particularly powerful, some even said his influence in this world was insignificant.
Even so, the reason he had acquired so many epithets was surely Manticore's grotesque and intimidating appearance.
His body was approximately four meters long, with a height of about 1.5 meters at the shoulder.
This quadrupedal monster looked more like a beast than a human, but...
Could it be called the uncanny valley?
This beast's head was exactly like a human's.
Instead of a mane, it had hair; its face had wrinkles, its eyes had dark circles, and it had 28 teeth.
It looked just like the face of a forty-year-old mage who had been worked to the bone at a mage tower.
"Neither goblins, hobgoblins, nor trolls are any match for me."
The creature muttered in human speech.
Its intelligence was likewise human-level.
Manticore had once been human.
His way of thinking was simply more vicious and selfish by society's standards.
He had sacrificed 27 children to transform himself into a monster, intoxicated by his sweet desires for power and wisdom.
"Dreamland…."
A dungeon that had appeared in Roujinrat even though it wasn't time for its location to shift.
Unfortunately, although Manticore was a mage, he didn't know all that much about dungeons.
He was a mage, but when he had still been human, he had spent all his time in the mage tower.
Thus, despite being a mage, he was no more a dungeon expert than an ordinary person.
"It's clearly a newborn dungeon, so how is it holding them off?"
He had at least realized that Dreamland, unlike other dungeons, was a newly born dungeon.
That much was apparent from the entrance.
The dungeon entrance was strange.
It resembled the Black Gate passed down through oral legend.
A round, arched gate made of obsidian.
At its center was a rippling rift.
As time passed, invisible foreign matter accumulated on the gate's exterior...
Only mages or those sensitive to mana could sense it, and no means could remove it. The gate itself was likewise indestructible.
Dreamland's entrance had no foreign matter at all.
It was clear evidence that it was a newborn dungeon.
"It definitely looked like an insignificant dungeon."
Manticore had gotten a direct look at the dungeon master through the goblin.
He had assumed the master possessed some remarkable trick, but the master's entire combat style consisted of swinging a crude knife.
"He must be hiding something…."
It shouldn't be a problem.
Manticore wasn't as foolish as goblins or trolls, and he possessed magical knowledge as well.
But.
It would be best to prepare thoroughly.
No matter how new it was, a dungeon was still a dungeon.
"I need to prepare."
Though he was a monster, he had once been a mage of the Dark School.
He still had connections in the human world.
Mana stones were the most valuable treasures in this world.
Even fragments weighing only a few hundred grams traded for prices in the hundreds of millions.
If he absorbed the power held by that dungeon's mana stone...
He would be able to wield power far greater than he did now.
Manticore thus left the dungeon entrance.
Meanwhile.
While taking a brief walk outside, Dreamland's dungeon master sensed something suspicious and concealed his presence.
"He looks fucking creepy."
He offered a brief assessment from far away.
***
─────
Title : This is a real anomaly
Author : Newbie
What the fuck is this creepy-looking bastard?
I thought I'd lose if I fought him, so I just hid and watched...
*Comments
Sealed Philosopher : He really is fucking creepy-looking lolol
King Slayer : That's a manticore, yeah. Why is that guy there?
─────
Manticore.
That appeared to be the name of that hideous man-faced lion.
ㄴNewbie : King Slayer, who the hell is that bastard??
ㄴKing Slayer : He used to be a pathetic Dark School mage, but he killed children and became a monster because of it.
ㄴKing Slayer : I heard he's pretty infamous as a criminal.
What?
He was a truly heinous bastard.
ㄴNewbie : Given that he's been lurking around the dungeon entrance and all, he's the culprit, right?
ㄴKing Slayer : I think there's a 99% chance, lol.
ㄴKing Slayer : We should probably be especially careful this time... He might bring other Dark School mages too, yeah.
ㄴNewbie : What's the Dark School?
ㄴKing Slayer : Black mages. A group that uses human lives as sacrifices to cast spells.
ㄴKing Slayer : I've fought them a few times, and they're even more like evil spirits than I am, lol.
Hmm.
Looks like this time I'll most likely be dealing with humans.
Humans who can even use magic, at that.
ㄴNewbie : What if they come to kill me ㅠㅠ What if they suddenly teleport and stab me??
ㄴKing Slayer : What kind of middle-schooler nonsense is that...
ㄴKing Slayer : Inside a dungeon, no spatial-movement magic can be used except escape scrolls for getting out, so don't worry about it.
ㄴKing Slayer : Even the Blessed don't pull that kind of shit, yeah.
ㄴNewbie : What are the Blessed, then...?
ㄴI Have No Minions : People like us who can see status windows.
Is this for real?
This is fucking shocking.
There are people who can see status windows besides us dungeon masters?
ㄴNewbie : For real?
ㄴI Have No Minions : Yeah. They even resurrect in temples when they die.
ㄴNewbie : That's insanely overpowered...
ㄴI Have No Minions : Other than dying of old age, there's basically no way to kill them, so everyone hates dealing with them. They're not that common among intruders, so don't worry.
Anyway.
The one I'd just written about was Manticore.
I'll think about what comes later when it happens.
I took my eyes off the hologram.
Then I looked at the motionless lump of liquid sitting in the core room.
It wasn't Mallangi.
It was on my lap right now.
It was a minion I'd just purchased.
"You're the only one I can count on."
Please, against those vicious black mages...
I hope you put on a good show.