Dungeon Hunter - Chapter 60
Chapter 60: Episode 16. Breeding Species (4)
Shabel Tigers had many characteristics that could be advantageous in Korea. They had long and sharp fangs, they were quick and fast in the dark, and they were very familiar with mountainous terrain.
I immediately tried to change the landscape of the dungeon. I expected that if they were a bit more familiar with their landscape, on top of matching the frequency of Mana, the Shabel Tigers’ reproduction rate would increase.
“Lyhee, I have a quick question. How many points would it cost to change the entire eighteenth floor into mountainous terrain?”
Lyhee, who was watching me while gently sucking her finger, tilted her head. “I guess the cost would depend on the numbers and the heights of the mountains.”
“What if the landscape was something like a bent mountain range?”
I thought about a wide mountain range, which would be an ideal place for Shabel Tigers to flourish.
Lyhee extended all ten of her fingers and started to fold them down one by one.
“Master, Lyhee did the math. It will cost about 250,000 points.”
“Okay, let’s change the landscape then.”
“It isn’t hard to change the landscape. However, do you really think it’s worth the points? There are very few Shabel Tigers now.”
“I can increase the number.”
From the shop of everything, I purchased a hundred additional Shabel Tigers.
This was a very bold decision.
Even though I was working on an achievement quest at the moment, the amount I would be rewarded was elusive. In such a situation, it would be very risky to pour 500,000 points into Shabel Tigers. If I considered the cost of changing the landscape, the total amounted to about 800,000 points.
However, only mediocre demons would think that such an investment was too risky. I had way more points remaining than any other demon. Had it been another demon, the amount that I was spending would equal their entire fortune, while I could consider such an expenditure as “investment”.
I thought that this could be a once-in-a-lifetime chance.
Even if the rewards from the quest weren’t worth the points that I spent, I would be able to learn more about achievement quests in the end. I strongly believed that quests like this one would give me more first-time achievements.
‘I don’t think that other demons have completed any achievement quests yet.’
If I assumed that other demons hadn’t completed any quests yet, my investment was definitely worth it.
Lyhee’s eyes widened.
“M-master! Is there something wrong? If you spend so many points impulsively, you’ll regret it! Lyhee is sure of it. I tried to make some forests without letting you know, and I regretted it so much the next day… Oops!” Lyhee hurriedly shut her mouth.
However, I had already known about it.
Fairies were known to be playful and often lied. Lyhee was no typical fairy. In fact, she was the exact opposite. She was bad at lying and often accidentally spit out her thoughts.
“Change the terrain.”
“O-okay. Hehehe.”
Lyhee, thinking that she hadn’t been caught, laughed awkwardly. “I’ll change the terrain first and get you a honey tea.”
Hadn’t she said that she would never get me a honey tea again when I came back from Japan? She must have forgotten about it.
Fairies easily forgot minor details.
Furthermore, one could only do beekeeping and collect honey if there was a forest nearby.
The forest on the fifteenth floor had been created recently. Lyhee had been making teas for far longer than the forest existed, and that meant she had her own secret forest somewhere in the dungeon.
In addition, I had already learned about the forest with the help of my crystal ball.
She should have been punished harshly for her embezzlement. However, I let her go this time because the number of points she used was very small, and the tea was pretty good. I surely had low standards for Lyhee compared to others.
Whether Lyhee knew what I was thinking or not, she was constantly smiling and laughing.
My hypothesis turned out to be true. After the landscape changed, the Shabel Tigers’ reproduction rate increased noticeably. Releasing prey near the Shabel Tigers also had a synergetic effect.
However, there wasn’t much time left. I only had another thirty days.
In the meantime, I needed to have female Shabel Tigers bear as many offspring as possible.
I could have also tried to release some Mana, but doing so would result in many side effects, such as failure of fertilization and the mother possibly dying. I learned this from experimenting with Werewolves.
The best that I could do at this moment was to wait and have the Shabel Tigers reproduce naturally.
Several days had gone by while I was focusing on maintaining my dungeon.
The stone that I received from Devorong, which I had kept in my pocket, started to shine brightly. ‘Finally, I got a call.’
I fished out the stone, and after I let some of my Mana flow into it, a voice boomed from it.
<ul>
Mr. Randalf Bruciel, do you remember me? This is Devorong.
</ul>
Devorong was the host of Auction of Devildom.
I nodded my head. “I remember you.”
<ul>
Phew! That is a relief. I was so worried that you might have forgotten about me! I wanted to contact you earlier, but I was not allowed to contact you privately outside the World of Spirit. Mr. Randalf, you are one of the best customers of our auction house, haha.
</ul>
“Did you call me to just say hello? If that’s all, this is a little bit disappointing.”
<ul>
No way. Did I not mention the ‘gift’? Of course, the gift that I told you about wasn’t the stone that you are holding now. If it was merely that stone, I would have been mad, too, if I were in your shoes. I wanted to give you a real gift that might be very helpful to you. Are you interested in finding out the list of items for our auctions in advance?
</ul>
That was the real message, and the message was exactly what I wanted to hear.
“That is interesting for sure.”
<ul>
Haha! Then everything will be easy from here. I told you that it would be a gift, but it will be more like an exchange. Of course, Mr. Randalf, you are not going to lose anything.
</ul>
“I can do schmoozing.”
<ul>
Why, Mr. Randalf Bruciel, you do have common sense! You’re so different from Spirits. They do not have any common sense, and that makes it hard to do business with them. I will send you the list shortly. It is very hard to sneak even one piece of paper from the system, but I can do it for you, Mr. Randalf, since you’re our VIP.
</ul>
He was showing off a little too much, but what he said was indeed true.
In fact, it was almost impossible to reach out to someone in this world from the World of Spirit. Every possible channel was blocked.
It was a gamble to sneak even a piece of paper through the system.
‘But it’s necessary.’
No one made demons more uncomfortable than I did.
In other words, I could set the stage for Deverong.
That alone made me special among the Spirits of Dark. Points were necessary to improve their classes.
I was quite sure that had they known how many points I possessed, their attitudes towards me would have changed even more.
However, I didn’t tell them about the points that I had. If they found out about them, they could increase the initial prices of the items up for auction.
A few minutes later, a space near the Dungeon Core shimmered, and a piece of paper dropped down like a fallen leaf. The paper was filled with words, which were the names of about a hundred items that would be shown in the upcoming auction.
“The list looks good.”
<ul>
I look forward to working with you.
</ul>
“As do I.”
Such a collaboration would be a win-win situation for both Deverong and me.
We had agreed upon this secret collaboration, which hopefully no one would find out about.
Although I had the list of items in my hand, there were quite a few items that I couldn’t identify just by looking at the names. However, for the items that I recognized, I could plan in advance and efficiently set aside the points that I would spend on them.
‘There are quite a few things I should get from the upcoming auction.’
Rubbing my chin, I read through the list of items.
Indeed, the items were much better than those from last year.
However, I couldn’t find anything like high monsters on the list. It made sense, because catching such a monster was challenging, even for the Spirits of Dark.
Of course, I couldn’t be sure. There could be top-notch monsters that I hadn’t heard of. I could even run into some special monsters like Krathra.
Anyway, I moved on.
‘Depending on the rewards of this achievement quest, I’ll see what I can get.’
I stared silently at the crystal ball showing the entire dungeon.
Most of the female Shabel Tigers’ bellies were swollen.
After thirty days of work, the quest would be finished by the end of the day. A female Shabel Tiger could bear four or even five cubs at once. After doing the math, I expected that at least a hundred cubs would soon be born.
I waited quietly until the cubs were born. Soon enough, several message windows popped up in the air.
[Achievement quest—the breeding species has been completed.]
[Shabel Tigers match the Mana frequency of the dungeon by 99 percent.]
[You have successfully bred a total of 166 cubs.]
[Calculation for rewards in progress. The fact that Shabel Tigers are intermediate monsters of Level 3 was taken into consideration.]
[The base compensation of 1.5 million points and additional compensation of 1,717,768 points have been rewarded.]
‘It was a quest that was worth 3.2 million points…’
The base compensation was already very generous. The reward for eliminating a demon for the first time had been two million. Compared to such a reward, this compensation made sense. Furthermore, the additional compensation was greater than the base compensation.
I had already earned more than I invested.
In addition, I now had about 5.7 million points in total.
This number was a lot larger than my initial goal, which was four million points.
However, there was more.
[Unbelievable achievement! You have completed an ‘achievement quest’ for the first time!]
[An achievement quest is a bonus that one can receive when his or her achievement points reach a certain threshold. Depending on the performance, one can earn a tremendously large amount of points as a reward.]
[800,000 points will be rewarded.]
Now, the total was 6.5 million!
“Huh.”
I was so amazed at such a large number that I couldn’t even laugh.
<hr />
The Auction of Devildom was only fifteen days away, and I wanted to make the best out of the remaining time. There was no time to squander.
I left the dungeon and headed for the Guild of Heaven’s Will with Krathra. It had been a while since our last visit.
Entering the second floor of the guild, I found that all of the members of the Devil Hunter attack unit were quietly staring at the TV hanging on the wall.
“Oh my God. The world is coming to an end.”
“Monster Waves are occurring simultaneously in thirty different places… Sigh!”
Yoo Eunhye, whose eyes were full of tears, said to Lee Jihye, “Jihye, shouldn’t we make moves, too? People are calling for help from many places. A few minutes ago, the guild master sighed and told me that he doesn’t know what to do.”
Lee Jihye shook her head. “The one they want is probably our attack unit leader, not us. Do you think we’ll be much of a help?”
“Still… More than a hundred thousand people have died already. ”
“Did you forget that you almost died while attacking a dungeon not so long ago, or do you just not care about yourself?”
“Then are we supposed to just sit here and watch the whole catastrophe? Anyone who can should help those who cannot.”
Looking concerned, both were having a heated discussion.
Boom!
Krathra, who was watching the whole scene, slammed his spear on the floor. At the same time, the unit members turned around. When they saw me, their eyes widened.
“Unit leader!” They looked very welcoming.
I had been gone for a while, ever since the second monster wave in Korea.
“Where the hell have you been?” grumbled Lee Jihye.
Ignoring her complaints, I continued speaking. “We, the Devil Hunter attack unit, will combat the Monster Waves all around the world from this moment on. We will deploy tonight. I expect all of you to join.”
“Just as usual, our unit leader! I can’t help but love this man!” Yoo Eunhye winked and grinned.
I must have looked like a savior to her. However, I didn’t care much about looking nice. Instead, I had another plan.
‘Someone must have started these Monster Waves to earn points. I can’t just sit back and watch.’
I wanted to stop the waves as much as I could.
That was my first plan.
But I also wanted to kill two birds with a single stone. Since I was making moves, I wanted to use the Devil Hunter attack unit and receive the spotlight while fighting monsters.
It would be funny if a demon became the final hope and the best warrior of mankind.