We made it to the dungeon without much trouble after that second night.

Seeing as I was an insomniac night owl, I would have either Johan or Darnelle teach me the basics of magic at night as well as practice using the Dungeon Master Magic System that I seemed to have. In the morning I’d fall asleep in the carriage while Patty and Claire chatted next to me and Voop snuggling to my side. Despite being a gelatinous slime monster, Voop surprisingly didn’t leave any residue on me and when I would touch him, it was like pressing on one of those squishy toys that was so popular nowadays.

After the fourth day, when we were close to the dungeon, we abandoned the carriage and horses, so as not to draw suspicion to our dungeon.

While I knew that was counterproductive, Johan once again explained things clearly for me. Adventurers would come to small time dungeons in order to test their skills without any risk of death. If they were to see an abandoned carriage owned by the Hero’s knights (with the implication of that they died in the dungeon), they would report it back to the kingdom’s capital and send a whole squadron of knights instead, which would lead to our immediate extermination.

When he put it that way, it all made sense, but… where we really that weak?

That was the only thing I could think of as we made our way to our dungeon by foot at night. It was now more dangerous to travel in the morning, but luckily the trip was short, so just as the sun decided to rise up we made it.

The dungeon entrance was a crumbling ruin of its former glory. The stone columns were in serious disrepair with moss and vines covering most of it. The once proud square doorway was dirty and dusty, home to several noisy aggressive birds and their nests. The interior was dark, with no sense to just how deep it was and no matter the position of the sun, it’s light wouldn’t cut through that almost miasmic darkness.

“Home sweet home!” Darnelle cried in relief as he walked in ahead of us.

“Finally, Boss you’re gonna love everyone, c’mon!” Patty was tugging at my sleeves with her beak and I was forced to follow in even though I really didn’t want to.

Since it was dark, I had to resort to using my phone’s flashlight to make my way through. I didn’t have the night vision that the other’s had or a keen sense of direction to find my way around. I guess you could say I was lucky that I was summoned here with everything I had on hand, which included my phone. Patty and Voop would sometimes ask questions about my world, like how my phone worked, what it was like being a dungeon master on the other side, and other stuff like that. I tried my best to satisfy their curiosity but I was happy when Johan finally told us we were here.

‘Here’ was one of the dead ends to the dungeon and Johan pressed his hand firmly against a seemingly random block. It glowed with energy for a moment before an entranceway opened up, leading us to a surprisingly well lit area. Unlike the rest of the dungeon, which was monotonous and derelict, this rest area was clean and tidy. It was well lived in sure, but it was still maintained, with signs of repairs here and there. The walls were scrubbed down and clean, and the floor had shabby rustic carpets on the floor to keep the chill away. Torches lined the wall here, and they brought some warmth to the cold dungeon chill.

There seemed to be several doors that cut off different rooms from others, a large nest in the corner with three eggs (I would later learn these were Patty and Claire’s would be children), a hearth pit in the middle, and a rough wooden table and chairs to the side. Several shelves with different cutlery, kitchen utensils, and everyday objects lined the walls above the tablet. On another side were a set of large bookcases filled to the brim. This seemed the only thing truly out of place, since it looked pretty high quality. But before I could keep looking around, new voices cut in.

“YOU’RE BACK YAY!!!” Two tiny goblins rushed towards us and latched onto Patty and Claire. Instantly the two hugged them both and started cooing at them and petting their heads. Their innocent nature and large toothy smiles game me the impression that they were children, and when I checked their status pages, my theory was confirmed.

“You two, you gotta introduce yourself to the Boss,” Patty said, gently putting one of the goblins down.

“I’m Moby!” said the one that was in Claire’s arms.

“AND I’M GOBY!” said the other.

They seemed to be identical twins, and they were dressed in shabby dresses that were made out of a patchwork of old clothes, but other than that they were clean. Goby had what little hair she had tied up in a bow and Moby had hers laying flat on her head, where it curled up slightly. With their introductions done they turned back to Claire and Patty.

“DID YOU BRING GIFTS? DID YOU DID YOU?” they asked in unison.

A dry dusty cough sounded from the side, and a skeleton walked over to us.

WAIT A SKELETON?

I jumped in shock for a moment, but the skeleton ignored me for the most part. “Goby, Moby, behave, or I’ll put you in the time out corner,” he said, his teeth clacking loudly as he spoke.

He gave off the air of a distinguished elderly grandfather or a butler, the effect only ruined by the fact that his three piece suit was just as patchworked and worn as the twin goblins. Just as I was thinking that he turned to me and bowed deeply. “I am Sir Alfred Bonesworth, and I am happy to serve our new Lord and Master of the Dungeon.”

Seriously?

Seriously?

His name was Alfred! Alfred Bonesworth! The situation was too perfect that I had to bite my lip hard in order to stop myself from laughing. I nodded and tried to introduce myself back.

“I’m, hehe, I’m uh Leonardo Flores, heh, but please call me Leo,” I said, choking back the chuckles that were threatening to bubble up.

Alfred looked at me in what I could only interpret as confusion, but nodded and bowed again. Oh Alfred, I’m so sorry I’m the type who can’t help but laugh at a funny joke or ironic happenstance, no matter how serious the situation is.

“So is this everyone?” Even though I asked that, I already knew the answer, since the dungeon map gave me a list of all the monsters dwelling in it.

Johan nodded and the atmosphere got gloomy for a moment.

“We would have more but… we lost a few during the last human encounter,” he said quietly.

Oh.

The reality of their situation hit me.

This wasn’t a game. This was sincerely life or death to them. Biting my lower lip, I steeled myself for the future.

‘I promise no matter what, I won’t let something like that happen again.’ That was the vow I took upon my heart when I realized just what my friends had to go through.

Johan set about introducing me to everyone formally, and I managed a closer look at my surroundings. My initial assumption about the doors leading to different rooms were correct, as Johan pointed out to me. The first door would be my own, the second was Alfred’s, and the third belonged to Johan and Darnelle. That last bit of information caught me off guard for a hot second, but looking back it should’ve been obvious. Darnelle and Johan were the closest to each other, and they always exchanged sidelong glances or jokes and… damn I really was oblivious wasn’t I?

When I asked about Claire’s room, Darnelle just laughed while Johan looked at me in confusion. He pointed to Patty’s nest and I felt like smacking my face for my sheer obliviousness. No wonder Patty and Claire was so close. God wow I was as dense as a rock wasn’t I?

The fourth door led to a small tiny bathroom, which was really a glorified hole in the ground over an underground river and a bucket of water, but after roughing it in the woods for the past few days, it was practically a godsend.

All in all, the entire place was the size of a small apartment, so it was a little cramped but livable. After the short tour, Johan started to catch me up to speed on the more finer details.

His explanation covered everyone’s position and how dungeon summoning worked. I finally started to get a feel of how things should work and what sort of problems I would be facing. It sort of went down like this:

Darnelle ► recon and luring humans to the dungeon

Johan ► acting as the leader/evil overlord in the dungeon in order to tempt adventurers as well as dungeon healer

Patty ► scouting and distracting the humans with her voice mimicking skills.

Voop ► canon fodder in order to gauge the humans skill level

Alfred ► keeping Goby and Moby in check and scaring any humans from getting too close to the hideout

Claire ► acting as the group tank and taking care of any humans that could prove dangerous and wipe out the entire dungeon as dungeon boss

I learned from Johan that previously there were more slimes than just Voop but they had died in one of the more vicious attacks when the human city requested adventurers to clear out any and all dungeons. They weren’t the only casualties; Moby and Goby’s parents also suffered during that attack. It was only because of Claire and Johan that the rest of the group managed to survive.

Currently our dungeon was labeled “Cleared/Abandoned” which gave us enough time to repopulate and fix things up.

When I took all that into consideration, my first chart of course was to summon as many monsters as possible in order to up our numbers. But that brought up a whole new number of challenges. Apparently there was a difference between a【Dungeon Master’s Summoning】and a 【Summoner’s Summoning】. The difference, while seemingly miniscule, was actually a difference like the ocean and a river.

A summoner’s summons come from a dungeon or any monster’s resident and makes a contract with them. If a monster is stronger than the summoner, then there’s a chance the monster won’t agree to the summons and return, or kill the summoner. If a monster is weaker though, they have no choice but to obey. Naturally the stronger a summoner, the stronger the monster they can summon. Once the monster is no longer needed and are still alive, they get sent home.

Meanwhile a DM’s summoning was more permanent. Most monsters summoned to a dungeon are those who are already looking to start off their own life, or find a new home to settle in, making dungeon summoning a symbiotic relationship. But while a summoner can force a monster into servitude, a DM cannot. A monster summoned into a dungeon has no contractual obligation to stay there and serve their new master; even more there’s a chance they can instead choose to fight the DM and become the new master of the dungeon. It’s for that reason a lot of dungeons are mono type dungeons; that is to say, they only have one type of monster.

It’s easier to breed a certain type of monster in a dungeon, or have the descendents of the first summoning to keep on going, than it is to maintain a dual/poly type dungeon via summoning. Still though, our situation was a strange one. Most dungeons didn’t even have a Dungeon Master anymore according to Johan, and thus were turned more into “homes that monsters lived that in turn humans hunt down.” Or something to that effect.

So with all that and more, I decided to summon and then in turn breed slimes! Seeing as they were naturally weak low level creatures that bred fast, and had an unexplored evolution path, it was only the right course to make.

But I would come to soon realize that had its own set of problems.