Chapter 23 Dungeon Core: “The Eternal Training Ground”

POV Ace

This was a terrible morning. I was woken up at 4:00 AM by one of my guards saying that the Dungeon Fairy Guild had arrived. This was a moment that I absolutely feared. From this point on, I was 99% sure that they would take control of the dungeon and start taxing everything to high heaven.

They would probably also make the dungeon completely rework every floor to their standards of dungeon design. Hopefully, they would at least decide to keep the last two floors as they are quite literally the best place to grind your iron rank.

I had no idea how this dungeon came up with its latest floor design, but other than the headache it proved to be at the start, they are now one of the main attractions for new adventurers. I didn’t even want to think about the meat industry and I’ll just have to hope that I can convince the Dungeon Fairy Guild to keep the current drops. For that, I moved to my office table and searched the drawers for the paperwork to show how good those drops are for the surrounding areas and even for the nobles of the world.

We are currently the biggest producer of rations on the continent and thanks to using mostly meat, they are highly sought after by everyone who uses rations. We mostly produced something called pemmican, but that also requires berries. That has also been an incredibly lucrative business opportunity as we are surrounded by a forest where we have planted so many of them that we are completely changing the ecosystem of the forest.

Of course, the pieces of meat with the best taste and texture are prepared and then delivered to nobles who pay quite the premium for the luxury of such a quality product. All of this wouldn't be possible without the young nobles who have come to this place to train their skills and advance their ranks.

Currently, I have five noble parties with the same deals I made with the first two, but there are a lot more of them here now. They simply didn't have the vision or the resources to gain a prevalent position in this town like the other five have.

I rushed down to meet with the representatives, but I was informed that the Dungeon Fairy had already left to do his job. All I could do was curse silently. There were six guards and one assistant for the Dungeon Fairy, and they all looked like assholes.

If I hadn’t had this much practice, I would have cracked a smile when the adventurer guild leader rushed in so fast that he almost seemed to have teleported here. All of them froze in fright, and I had to wonder if those guards ever had to do anything except look menacing.

Over the next few hours, more and more people showed up, making the Dungeon Fairy Guild representatives more worried. As, everyone who showed up had connections to the very top of this world power structure. Honestly, I have never felt so out of touch with my roots.

How was I not only someone who could speak to these people like they were my friends, but I actually held some power over most of them. Of course, this could all come crashing down if the Dungeon Fairy doesn't bring good news.

And finally, he appeared. He looked so tiny, yet they were the only ones capable of making contracts with dungeons. At first, they supported and kept the dungeons from conquering their surroundings, but over time, they became the masters of dungeons.

While they didn’t control every dungeon, it was incredibly rare for them to give up command to others. "The dungeon has been successfully shackled. We, the Dungeon Fairy Guild, will now sit down with the leadership of this town to discuss this dungeon's future," announced the Dungeon Fairy.

I had always hoped that perhaps the dungeon would somehow be able to resist it, but I knew that it was a foolish hope. "Please follow this way," I said to the Dungeon Fairy and led them to one of the side offices so we could hear their proclamation of what’s going to happen to the dungeon. The adventurer guild leader joined me with a few others as we all sat down and watched as the Dungeon Fairy lazily flew up and down while making some sort of a contract.

"When we first got the readings for this dungeon, we were excited, but unfortunately, it seems that we were a bit too late. It has already gone and messed up making so many rooms, and I would be surprised if it could make one or two more floors.”

“It was also quite pushy and set in its ways, which was weird but irrelevant. The Dungeon Fairy Guild has decided that this dungeon needs too much work to be brought up to standard and its potential is too limited for us to spend our resources. Here, with this contract, the dungeon will officially be yours, Ace, was it?" The Dungeon Fairy finished.

I was completely dumbfounded. What was going on? Nevertheless, my hands moved without me ordering them to, and I signed the paper before even understanding what was happening. "Well, this was a pointless trip. Let’s head back," I heard the Dungeon Fairy say before they left the room, leaving everyone else here sitting without knowing what had happened. This didn't make any sense. What was going on?

POV Dungeon Core

As soon as my instincts were singing the praises of the Dungeon Fairy, I received a contract that I was urged to sign. I knew what contracts were; they were agreements, and this one felt like it would bind to my soul. I didn't want to just agree to it as I had seen plenty of ants fall for unfavorable agreements. I didn't know the language in which the contract was written, but I was able to understand it, and the more I did, the angrier I got.

"What's the holdup, dungeon? Sign it already!" I could understand the words, but they made me even angrier. However, I couldn't do anything to him as he was somehow stopping me from using my powers to make a monster.

Wait, but what about moving a monster from a different part of my dungeon into my core room? The next moment, the most powerful bear I had in my dungeon appeared in my core room. The Dungeon Fairy was completely taken aback and wasn't able to escape as my bear tried to kill it with a bite.

It was, however, able to create a mana bubble around itself. This saved it from death, but as my bear bit down, I could see the mana bubble beginning to crack. It tried to escape the same way it got here, but I exerted control over this space, not allowing it to teleport away.

"If you kill me, you will be destroyed," it said, and for some reason, I believed it. I sent the command to my bear: do not kill the fairy but do not let it escape as well. I didn’t know what to do next. I chose to continue to read as the Dungeon Fairy continued to tell me that I needed to sign that contract; otherwise, I would die.

I felt I was stuck; every choice seemed to lead to death. This made me angry, and I almost exploded with fury when I read a part of the contract that stated that a dungeon that signed this contract needed to destroy every bug it had in its dungeon. That meant every one of my ants needed to die for me to live as a slave.

Not having any other outlet for my fury, I attacked the contract and found that the part about destroying the bugs disappeared. I tried the same with another section of the contract, and I could just make the words disappear. Was there a way to escape my fate?

I tried to add something to the contract, and I could, but would I be able to change this into something that would save my life? Perhaps, but I wasn’t confident in that. Fortunately, I had creatures who were making contracts daily, and one by one, I started to summon the best of the best from the ant nations who made contracts for a job.

I started describing the problem and interpreting the entire contract so they would know what we were up against. The Dungeon Fairy was confused for quite a while, but when we started to truly make large changes, he started to understand what was going on.

"Are you mad? I will never agree to sign anything," he started to exclaim, but for the first time, I spoke to something that wasn't mine. "You can either sign or die, but I will not live as a slave." That shut him up, and after a few hours, my ants were finished. Eventually, the Dungeon Fairy signed the new contract as his life was more important to him than my secret freedom.

As he teleported out, I knew that I was safe for at least up until the 25th floor when a more lenient but powerful contract signing was supposed to happen between me and the Dungeon Fairy Guild. They will probably do something different, but until then, I was guaranteed safety from the Dungeon Fairy Guild, and they couldn't divulge to anyone that something was wrong. It was finally time to get back to claiming my territory and expanding my 11th floor to find out how big I truly am now.