Chapter 3
Overnight, I became a dungeon master.
That meant I had to prepare for the countless intruders who would come crashing in from now on.
According to the head mod, a dungeon in this world was like a treasure vault—a place many people were desperate to conquer.
I still had no idea where this world was, why I had come here, or why I had become a dungeon master.
For now, I decided to put out the immediate fire first.
For now, I had 23 hours left until the wave.
Short if short, long if long.
Luckily, I had the reliable ally called Dungeon Gallery.
There was a huge difference between getting help from the start and starting from scratch and banging your head against the wall.
Newbie: What should I do first??
Information makes people move with incredible efficiency.
Or rather, it lets you push the chances of success to the absolute limit.
MagicHero: Hah, traps...
DIP: Set up traps first, yeah.
SsibganSaranggae: Traps are really good.
I Have No Minions: Traps <- best value for money, GOAT.
The keyword that came up unanimously was traps.
SsibganSaranggae: First, if you break down the ways to defend a dungeon during a wave, there are basically three.
ㄴSsibganSaranggae: 1. Trap installation.
ㄴSsibganSaranggae: 2. Raising the dungeon master's combat power.
ㄴSsibganSaranggae: 3. Raising minions.
SsibganSaranggae: Each has its pros and cons, but you're low level right now, so you're probably short on points.
SsibganSaranggae: Boosting your own stats has some risk when you haven't even fought before...
SsibganSaranggae: Don't hire minions. Just set traps, yeah.
Traps, huh.
Sure enough, in the dungeon roguelike game I play, the most annoying thing was always traps.
When I manipulated the hologram, countless functions appeared.
"Dungeon expansion, dungeon theme, dungeon minions... ugh, why are there so many? This UI is garbage."
It took quite a while to find the trap category.
My eyes almost fell out.
"This one?"
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【Trap Purchase】
【Harpoon Trap (★1)】 - 500P
【Arrow Trap (★1)】 - 500P
【Wire Trap (★1)】 - 500P
【Debuff (Direction Loss) Trap (★1)】 - 500P
【Poison Infliction (★1)】 - 500P
...
...
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【New Dungeon Master Bonus】
【When you spend points for the first time, regardless of the category—traps, weapons, growth……(omitted), and so on—the points you spend will be treated as having ten times the value.】
The points I currently had on hand were 5000.
I guessed the stars indicated the traps’ grade.
But why does everything look so crude?
"Maybe I should ask for recommendations among these."
There was something called the New Dungeon Master Bonus.
In cases like this, the order matters.
When I went back into the gallery to ask the veterans again.
Huh?
Golem King: But I don’t recommend traps.
Golem King: If the target has high agility or is very wary, they can dodge traps surprisingly well.
Golem King: Once it activates, that’s it—you can’t use it again until the run ends... and if it gets destroyed, the points just vanish.
Golem King: At your current level, you’ll probably only be able to buy low-grade traps anyway, so I think hiring minions is better, yeah.
Golem King: The things other people worry about can all be solved by hiring automaton-type minions, so newbie, trust me once and maybe buy a golem...?
ㄴDIP: But automata are all expensive...
ㄴGolem King: That’s solved if you set the dungeon theme to steampunk.
ㄴDIP: Choosing a dungeon theme already feels a bit much. The standard move is to get points first and decide later, right? Besides, automata are hired at their final stats, so you can’t really raise them, which makes their performance a bit awkward.
ㄴGolem King: Hey, are you looking down on steampunk and automata right now???
ㄴDIP: Honestly, I think winter theme and undead are way more busted lol.
ㄴGolem King: ?
ㄴGolem King: It’s ridiculous hearing that from some dungeon noob who almost got schooled by dwarves, you fucking bastard lol. Just get lost, motherfucker~
ㄴDIP: ?
ㄴDIP: Why are you cursing, you fucking bastard? lol Weren’t you the one who, last time, with humans...
…….
…….
While I was away for a moment, they suddenly started fighting among themselves?
Watching them hurl curses so filthy they were hard to even say out loud, it was downright heated rather than heartwarming.
Newbie: Guys, calm down...
I was wondering if I should summon the admin or something.
ㄴSsibganSaranggae: Just ignore them. They’ll make up later, yeah.
ㄴI Have No Minions: So did you buy the traps??
The other veterans brushed it off as if it were just part of everyday life.
The head mod told me Dungeon Gallery was a warm, friendly place.
But seeing them fight like that, it didn’t seem to be.
Anyway.
I uploaded a picture.
Newbie: Which one is good??
ㄴSsibganSaranggae: They’re all usable when you’re out of points.
ㄴSsibganSaranggae: The names all look crude, but they’re sturdier than you’d think. Against goblins, one trap can wipe out eight at once.
ㄴSsibganSaranggae: Wire traps are a bit weak in power, but the area they cover is huge. They get better when combined with poison.
ㄴSsibganSaranggae: The number of creatures allowed to enter the dungeon is set according to the dungeon master’s level. Hang on a sec~~~
ㄴSsibganSaranggae: From level 1 to 20, the maximum number of intruders allowed to enter per wave is 10 creatures.
ㄴSsibganSaranggae: Even if they all enter at once, five traps should be enough to handle them.
ㄴSsibganSaranggae: As long as no trolls get in, yeah...
A troll, huh.
Even the head mod and this veteran kept bringing up how strong trolls were.
ㄴNewbie: That strong?
ㄴSsibganSaranggae: Regeneration is the tricky part.
ㄴSsibganSaranggae: You have to kill them in one shot before they regenerate, or stop the regeneration itself, but you can basically assume there’s nothing you can buy at low level that does that.
Hearing that, I felt a little uneasy.
If a troll shows up right from the start, won’t I die on the spot?
ㄴSsibganSaranggae: Trolls are rare. The dungeon’s only been formed for less than a day, after all.
ㄴSsibganSaranggae: Don’t worry too much.
ㄴNewbie: Then I’ve got a question
ㄴNewbie: Goblins and trolls are living creatures that eat and poop too, right?
ㄴSsibganSaranggae: Yeah, of course.
ㄴSsibganSaranggae: But why?
ㄴNewbie: No, just curious.
ㄴNewbie: Then why are you saying not to hire minions?
It was something I was personally curious about.
Wouldn’t that actually be a huge win?
This is why cash-strapped, cutthroat small companies keep trying to hire people.
It’s to dump the work they can’t do and the work they don’t want to do onto someone else.
Of course, that analogy was pretty far-fetched.
But from an efficiency standpoint, isn’t a group better than an individual?
You’d have a subordinate to do the hard work for you.
If the price gap isn’t that big compared to traps, wouldn’t hiring minions be the better deal?
ㄴI Have No Minions: Have you ever raised an animal?
ㄴNewbie: No, I haven’t.
I was busy just trying to make ends meet.
I do remember being fond of a friend’s dog, but I’d never raised one myself.
ㄴI Have No Minions: To put it simply.
ㄴI Have No Minions: First you have to feed them, clean up their poop, and regularly take them out for walks or playtime so they don’t get stressed.
ㄴI Have No Minions: But what if you can’t do that?
ㄴI Have No Minions: Then they’ll start growling and try to bite you, right?
ㄴI Have No Minions: If they’re small like puppies, that doesn’t matter lol
ㄴI Have No Minions: A minion guarding a dungeon basically has to be strong from the start. If it isn’t strong, there’s no reason to raise it, and it could end up putting the noose around your own neck instead.
Ah.
So minions aren’t the kind of guys who work faithfully 24/7 for free?
ㄴI Have No Minions: But what if the minion has high intelligence?
ㄴI Have No Minions: That’s when the worst-case scenario happens.
ㄴI Have No Minions: You can see it in this one.
I Have No Minions left a link as a comment.
I clicked it, and a post appeared before my eyes.
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Title: Dungeon bro is seriously fucked......
Author: Elelelelere
The human minion bastard I mentioned before brought all the other minions with him and is staging a revolt at the front gate—what the hell do I do...
I kept explaining over and over that the mana stone in the dungeon is no different from my life, but he kept demanding it as wages, didn’t I say??
I kept telling them to fuck off and even beat them, but they didn’t get it and started a coup instead... shit, I have to throw hands right now so I can’t take questions. Never, ever hire or raise intelligent bastards like humans...
Hah, shit, my dungeon life.
*Comments
Golem King: Is this person even alive...
DIP: I don’t think they’ve been active at all since then.
Orange★: May the deceased rest in peace.
I Have No Minions: May the deceased rest in peace.
...
...
──────
Looking at that post, I made up my mind.
I decided I would never hire minions unless I absolutely had to.
ㄴI Have No Minions: We call that “getting revolutionized.”
ㄴI Have No Minions: Honestly, raising minions is easier than leveling up the dungeon master himself, right?
ㄴI Have No Minions: The system itself is more efficient that way, but if you can’t control the minion, don’t make it in the first place. Pro tip.
ㄴI Have No Minions: Like Golem King said, there are automata or undead and other minions with no self-awareness and no bodily functions, but.
ㄴI Have No Minions: Those minions are fundamentally expensive in points and have flaws. In the first place, until you choose a theme, it’s better not to summon them at all.
ㄴNewbie: What’s a dungeon theme?
ㄴI Have No Minions: A system where, depending on the theme, certain minions, traps, or skills become cheaper or are newly added. You decide it later.
ㄴI Have No Minions: Winter, death, chaos, hell, ancient, cave, sea, kingdom, mine, steampunk, and so on—there are a ton of them.
ㄴI Have No Minions: Anyway, if you’re not going to summon a specific themed minion or trap right now, it doesn’t really matter, so you can think about it slowly. Anyway, with 5000 points, there are almost no themed minions or traps you can buy, and even those are garbage.
I see.
It made perfect sense.
ㄴI Have No Minions: Anyway, if I were you, I’d lay traps as a base first, spend the rest of your points on your own growth, and only summon minions when you really feel you need them.
ㄴI Have No Minions: As for themes, decide once you’ve saved up around 50,000 points, and since you also have the New Dungeon Master Bonus, let’s put points into your stats first.
Maybe this was someone else’s problem.
I felt grateful to the people who had taken the time to explain so carefully.
Newbie: Thank you so much for telling me. If I survive the wave and last a long time, I’ll definitely repay you.
ㄴSsibganSaranggae: So what race are you, Newbie-chan??
ㄴNewbie: Human, yeah.
ㄴSsibganSaranggae: Gasp!!!???
ㄴSsibganSaranggae: Newbie-yam
ㄴSsibganSaranggae: C a n w e g e t a l o n g n i c e l y~~~~????
SsibganSaranggae’s tone suddenly got weird.
So that was the “ssibgan” in SsibganSaranggae?
ㄴI Have No Minions: Our newbie can forgive you even if you’re ssibgan, yeah...
ㄴNewbie: Hehe...
Even in this world, humans seemed to be treated as ssibgan too.
ㄴNewbie: Can I ask just one last thing?
ㄴSsibganSaranggae: Of course, Newbie-yam!
ㄴI Have No Minions: Yep
ㄴGolem King: Yep
ㄴDIP: Yep
What the hell, when did these bastards get here?
ㄴDIP: We came back after making up.
ㄴKing-Jjang Evil Spirit: fight, sex, make up, fight, sex, make up, fight, sex, make up
ㄴGolem King: We didn’t have sex, you fucking bitch
Anyway.
In the end, following the veterans’ method was the orthodox answer, but the biggest problem was that I wouldn’t be able to deal with a troll if one showed up.
So a pretty groundbreaking idea came to me.
I asked the veterans what they thought about it.
ㄴI Have No Minions: Huh????
ㄴOrange★: Oh, this is honestly a little surprising.
ㄴGolem King: I guess it might be possible...
ㄴDIP: In theory, it looks like you could even kill a troll??
ㄴKing-Jjang Evil Spirit: You’re the first bastard I’ve seen who’s going to burn all your starting points on that...
ㄴWhaleWhaleYeah: This is gourmet.
ㄴPsych Ward Chief Patient: Insane.
ㄴSealed Philosopher: Wow, what are you, a genius?
ㄴSealed Conqueror: I acknowledge that.
ㄴMagicHero: W-w-would you maybe leave a reply for me just once...
ㄴNewbie: I did!
ㄴMagicHero: T-th-thank you!!!!
ㄴKingSlayer: Hm... is this the average Dungeon Gallery newbie??
ㄴAnonymousButcher: Good idea.
ㄴSsibganSaranggae: O u r n e w b i e i s s m a r t!
The reaction wasn’t too bad.