Julius

This is an old post.

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Title: The Last Thing I Want to Tell You Guys

Author: Chongchong Sage

I've always said we'd survive for a long, long time, but I never thought I'd be the first to go.

The situation is the worst. My minions are all dead, and almost all the traps have been smashed to pieces.

I'm holding out in front of the core room... well... I don't think we can beat these guys.

For now, these bastard marked elves said they'd spare us if we told them the secrets of other dungeons.

I've got loyalty to you guys, and even if I spilled everything, they'd just be the kind of bastards to take the mana stones anyway, so I told them to go fuck themselves...

A real man, right? lol

Anyway, there won't be anything dragging you into this even if I die, so don't worry too much, okay.

Whether I'm just unlucky or my head is full of crap...

If I'd known this would happen, maybe I should've gone with a steampunk theme like the Golem King?

I know everyone has it rough, so I'm sorry for showing up with bad news...

Still, I wanted to leave you guys with one last message...

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Now that I've said all the things I've always wanted to say, I feel completely relieved.

I don't want to die, but what can you do.

I wanted to survive for a long time too, hang out with you guys, and share information.

This too is fate, so I guess I'll just accept it.

I don't know if there'll be anyone sad, but if there is, you guys should just take it as it comes too.

There's one last favor I'd like to ask.

Later, if these sons of bitches ever come looking for your dungeon.

Please get some satisfying revenge for me. Then I think I can rest easy in the afterlife.

Especially Julius—this elf bastard is unbelievably nasty.

You remember my favorite minion, right? He killed it in front of me in the most agonizing way possible.

Please make him suffer the same way. I'm begging you.

Anyway, I'm heading out now.

Even if I die, I'm taking one of them with me.

Everyone, live long.

And I hope you're happy.

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***

As I explained before.

Dungeon Gallery is a place for socializing, and at the same time.

It's also a place where dungeon masters share information so they can hold back the waves more easily.

Besides the simple daily posts and live updates I usually upload.

There are also posts on a wide variety of topics.

For example, information about the races that live in this world and the like.

Thanks to that, even a newbie like me can easily come across unfamiliar material.

And search for the data I want, pulling it up right away.

Of course, Dungeon Gallery has something called newbie privileges.

So I usually get help from the veterans who know a lot.

But there are definitely things that are awkward to ask about.

The search function is very useful for handling those parts.

After coming to the Forest of Life this time.

I dug through every post related to the marked elves.

I found posts uploaded long ago by a dungeon master named Chongchong Sage.

Their culture, tendencies, attitudes, techniques, kinds of magic, and so on.

There was a lot of useful stuff, like their intelligence level and average combat power.

The Forest of Life information the veterans gave me too.

Seemed to have been based almost entirely on Chongchong Sage's posts.

Ssibgan Saranggae: Hmm... he was a pretty cheerful guy, right? I guess you'd call him one of those likable regulars... He organized his info really well, traded jokes around, and kept the atmosphere nice and friendly...

ㄴSsibgan Saranggae: You know the type. Someone with such a cheerful vibe that even really hard things get turned into humor...

ㄴSsibgan Saranggae: He was devoted to Dungeon Gallery! He cheered everyone on every day to survive a long time, and there were almost no people who disliked him—he was a really pure-hearted guy...

It wasn't just Ssibgan Saranggae.

Even the head mod, Namanbuhaeopseo, and other users remembered Chongchong Sage fondly.

The reason I'm specifically asking for information is

that he was also the author of the posts about the marked elves.

ㄴNewbie: He's dead, right?

ㄴSsibgan Saranggae: Yeah...

ㄴNewbie: Killed by the marked elves?

ㄴSsibgan Saranggae: Right.

In the Forest of Life,

because he was a dungeon master slain by the marked elves.

ㄴSsibgan Saranggae: No one starts out strong, you know. Everyone has a childhood. Dungeon masters are the same.

ㄴSsibgan Saranggae: Everyone's levels are crazy high now, and nobody can easily touch them, but back then they were low. There were far more dungeon masters than there are now, yeah, well, that sort of thing.

ㄴSsibgan Saranggae: Chongchong Sage was a cheerful dungeon master, and he wasn't a fool either, but the marked elves, moving in groups, were more vicious and more powerful than Chongchong Sage expected... well, in a word, he was just unlucky.

I don't know Chongchong Sage.

I'd never interacted with him, and I wasn't even a dungeon master back when he was around.

I came across Chongchong Sage's posts just to get information.

The reason I learned his story firsthand was also almost by chance.

How should I put it.

Maybe because it didn't feel like someone else's problem.

Or maybe because the ones I'm facing are the marked elves.

I feel like I could be more ruthless than ever right now.

Chongchong Sage asked me to take revenge on the marked elves.

Human greed never ends, so as long as escape scrolls exist, my guess is they'll be back again.

Newbie: Who's Julius?

ㄴSsibgan Saranggae: The big boss of the Forest of Life. He used to be just a normal marked elf, but I guess he had some talent and monopolized Chongchong Sage's mana stones. From what I've heard, he's not a Blessed One, but even though he's still on the younger side among the elves, he's already regarded as a strong one.

ㄴNewbie: Huh...

ㄴSsibgan Saranggae: But it's just the mana-stone boost, so don't worry too much!

As the junior who got the info for free....

Shouldn't I naturally avenge my senior?

I became a fisherman waiting for a bite.

And decided to wait for the right moment.

***

Forest of Life.

Marked Elf Headquarters, Elder Chamber.

"Did you really confirm that they went in?"

"Yes, Elder Julius."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes. There were many others besides me who saw them enter the dungeon. The marked elf expedition led by Lady Tir entered Dreamland. It's confirmed."

Elder Julius stroked his chin.

Tir definitely entered Dreamland with an escape scroll.

Even if things went wrong, she should have been able to get out, so why did she die?

With my subordinate's testimony just now, the possibility that Tir ran off with the escape scroll is completely gone.

'They say a lot of variables can happen inside dungeons, but Tir isn't the kind of person who can't control them. Did things go wrong because she was caught at the entrance with the escape scroll?'

I can't make sense of it at all.

He knocked on the table with a stiff expression.

He had once cleared a dungeon before.

By the mages' estimate, Dreamland was a dungeon roughly six months old.

But the dungeon Julius had encountered had been created ten years earlier.

Even though conditions were worse than they are now,

he had killed the dungeon master and seized the mana stones.

In the first place, Tir was trustworthy not just in terms of ability, but as a person too.

Because she was the one most loyal to him in this forest.

So he had even given her an escape scroll.

'Of course, anyone would lose their mind at the sight of mana stones, so I hadn't trusted her completely.'

He hadn't expected Tir to clear it in one go.

Dungeons are basically tricky.

No matter how new a dungeon is, it'll be hiding at least one sharp fang somewhere.

This time was closer to a scouting expedition for information.

"……."

He'd sacrificed an escape scroll and his subordinates, but

had nothing to show for it.

A thoroughly unpleasant situation.

Julius mulled it over.

'I need to reorganize the team from scratch. The losses are substantial. We took a lot of combat units, and if we failed, there may be many magical traps. It's a shame that Reberio, our most useful mage, died.'

It wasn't stubbornness.

He thought it was perfectly possible.

'Two escape scrolls. Two chances.'

It wasn't impossible to buy escape scrolls.

He was a villain who made money through plenty of criminal schemes.

However.

Among expensive items, there were bound to be things that were hard to obtain no matter how much money you had.

That was exactly escape scrolls.

Why else would scrolls be so expensive?

They're insanely difficult to make, and only a limited number of mages can make them.

Their quantity was overwhelmingly low even among the magical items sold by the Spatial School.

Even the scrolls that were completed were sold to the Blessed Ones first.

So criminals like Julius had to spend far more time and money to buy one.

It wasn't something you could just buy easily with money.

"……."

No matter how he thought about it,

he judged it to be fully possible.

He was strong.

His magical knowledge was excellent, and his combat power was strong too.

That was because he had devoured a dungeon master's mana stones.

The atmosphere around them wasn't good to begin with.

There was currently a growing movement in the South Kingdom to exterminate the marked elves.

Humans are always like that—when it's useful, they use us.

But when public sentiment turns against us, they want to designate us as enemies of the kingdom and use us as scapegoats.

We've already invested so much that just running away now would mean enormous losses.

Still.

If they can secure just the mana stones.

They won't just make up their losses; they'll also get enormous profits.

If he didn't do this, to put it crudely, he'd be a spineless coward.

It didn't take long.

Julius entered Dreamland with the newly assembled expedition team.

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Creak, creak.

Julius.

He let out a suppressed groan as he stared at the old, shrouded mechanical device.

***

It was definitely called Tir.

In the rulebook she had written,

the following phrases were written down.

1. Only ride suspicious machinery alone.

2. Avoid corridors without lighting.

3. Die, you fucking piece-of-shit bastards, just die die die die die die die die die die die die die die die die die die die die die die die die die die die die die die die die die die die die die die die die die die die die die die die die die die die die die die die die die die die die die die die die die die die die die die the die the die the die the die the die the die the die the die the die the die the die the die the die the die the die the

4. Do nothing.

I crossed it out.

And then I rewrote the wording to sound a little more like a proper rulebook.

People say stuff like this needs a certain vibe, right?

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Dreamland Entrance Guide

1. The elevator is for one person.

2. Corridors without lighting are not Dreamland. Never set foot in them.

3. If you have an escape scroll, don't let your companions find out. It can lead to horrifying consequences.

4. If you can't go on, taking your own life is also an option.

5. …….

6. …….

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Sodaegari: Newbie-nim, when are you posting the live update? T_T

ㄴHaegolpyeodagi: I heard Julius entered this time, so for real... how's it gonna go...

ㄴMabeop Hero: He'll probably have an escape scroll too and be cautious, so killing him is probably going to be hard...

3M Hamster: Maybe Newbie-nim can do it?

ㄴGoraegoraegeurae: I saw before that he was good at sowing discord too... Newbie really has dungeon master talent, yeah.

ㄴKingjjang Akryeong: From what I've heard, Julius is insanely greedy, so he might not give up on clearing the dungeon until he gets the mana stones; he could really die this time, yeah.

ㄴJeongsinbyeongwon Suseok Hwanja: The dungeon master of the future avenging the dungeon master of the past... that's incredibly interesting.

ㄴSillun Character: These bastards lol, it's funny how they're not even considering the possibility that Newbie's dungeon will be breached.

ㄴKongkong: I can't even imagine Newbie's strange phenomenon losing...!

ㄴNammanbuhaeopseo: You don't have to force yourself to avenge Chongchong Sage. Your life comes first, after all.

ㄴOrange★: Do your best this wave too.

Ssibgan Saranggae: Newbie~!

Ssibgan Saranggae: I heard that if you secretly decide, 'When this wave is over, I'll marry Sarangi,' you can even repel a Blessed One ㅠㅠ

ㄴSsibgan Saranggae: (Newbie's expected answer: Yeah, sure, I love you.)

ㄴAnt Queen: That's ridiculous.

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I put down my pen.

Of course, I wasn't planning to give it as a gift to the intruders.

This is a rulebook to help the veterans understand.

Let's upload it to the Gallery once the live update is over.

And then.

I uploaded the scene the camera was watching to the Gallery today as well.