"What are you still doing here?"

The goth loli stays in the dungeon control room.

"That core and I are connected. It is my heart."

She's staying by to guard it. I suppose it's fine, every one of these damn dungeon isekai stories has a loli. All she does is knit cute plushies. “Oi, Necromancer, can you raise more dead?”

“Why not just summon them with DP?”

They’re cheap, but we only have 100 DP (50 from the corpse of Blondie and the Cartographer) “It’s economical if we use your power to summon more.”

“Can’t.”

“Why not?”

“Don’t wanna.”

Goddamit! How do I get this kid to do what I want? Think, how do people get kids to act outside of their interests?

“What if I gave you candy?” You can get a child to do anything with candy. Even get in unmarked vans.

“What’s that?”

Is there no candy in this world? Whatever, I’ll just make some. Raw resources like sugar are available in the Store System for only one DP. Tools are cheap as well.

“Done.”

“What is it?”

“Caramel crisp.” The easiest thing to make. Here’s the recipe. Heat up sugar, add milk, stir, wait for it to cool. I you burn the sugar then I laugh at you.

I offer a chip of caramel to the goth girl. Like a cat, she tentatively sniffs it before pouncing on it.

“Uwa! It’s sweet.”

I show her the pan full of it. “If you summon some more skeletons then I’ll give you the whole pan full.”

“Okay!”

Mission success! The cost of making candy was five DP, compare that to the cost of one skeleton, which is ten DP. This shop system is convenient, but damn is it pricey. Now, to use these skeletons to be even more efficient!

“For someone with no taste buds, you make good food. Mr. Skeleton.”

“It’s Anon.”

I set the current skeletons to improve the current dungeon. They aren’t the brightest, but they work with a sense of clumsy abandon that almost makes their actions cute. I set one skeleton to dig a well. The rest are set to dig the first room as deep as possible.

I and the goth loli set off to the graveyard in the dead of night. The crow's caw, the sounds of a shovel on loose dirt. I walk towards the sound. The pale moonlight illuminates two figures halfway down a grave.

“Did you hear that?” One man asks the other.

“No, and keep your voice down.”

I sit in the bushes while Lilia prepares the summoning ritual elsewhere. Judging by their nervous habit of constantly looking over their shoulders I would venture to guess that what they are doing isn’t legal.

I call out to them. “Whatcha doing?” They freeze. One of them works up the courage to call to the darkness. “Who’s there?”

“A dude.”

“A dude, who?”

“A dude who’s wondering what you’re doing.”

The other man stands up from the grave. He speaks with a sophisticated accent. “We are partaking in the relocation of economical assets from the recently deceased to the still living.”

“Grave robbing?”

“Precisely.”

“Well, it’s not like the dead can take it with them.”

“Exactly the point. Praytell, what are you doing out here at this late hour my good chap?”

“Same thing, but different.”

“What does that mean?”

The man standing in the grave shrieks as the person he was robbing begins to get up. He quickly jumps out of the way of the awakening corpse.

“As I said, I’m out here robbing graves.” I step forward so the two can see me. “A lich!” One hisses. I move to correct them, but stop myself. It would be more beneficial if there was the fear of a lich in them. The skeleton comes to my side. It’s dressed in a decayed suit. A golden ring on its finger. I slide the ring off and toss it to the graverobbers.

“Sorry for interrupting. You guys don’t need the corpse do you?” I would hate to have gotten in the way of their looting.

“Who would buy a skeleton?”

Opportunity strikes.

“Me.” It would be very convenient, and safe if instead of coming to the graveyard we could have the bodies delivered to the dungeon.

“How much?”

I check the Store System. One gold is one DP. “One gold for three?” It seems reasonable. I have no way to tell how much a gold coin is actually worth.

“Deal! Where do you want them delivered, boss?” The eagerness tells me I sold myself short, but it doesn’t matter all that much,

“To the dungeon to the north.”

“The weak skeleton one?”

I nod.

“Will do! expect us soon.”

“Thank you, guys.”

We arrive back at the dungeon. Using the teleportation powers the dungeon grants me I teleport to the top of the well I had the skellies dig. I drop a stone in and can’t hear when it hits the bottom. “Make some noise down there bonehead.” The clacking of bones, it sounds like a xylophone at the end of a long long hallway. I throw a rope down to him. He grabs it and we haul him up. Then we lower the heart of the dungeon down into the well. One cement mixer bought from the Store System and we are ready to entomb the heart of the dungeon.

“Anon! You can’t do this.” Lillia punches her tiny fists into my sides. I hold her off with one hand and keep pouring the cement.

“Why not?”

“How will adventurers clear the dungeon if they can’t find the core?”

“They won't, that's the point. If they break it we die.”

“But the dungeon manual says that the core has to be reachable.”

“It is reachable, just have to use a shovel. Plus, what do I care about the dungeon manual? It’s not a mandate of god.”

“But it’s required by the King.”

“King of where?”

“The King of All Humans.”

I pause at her stupidity. We are monsters. We live in a dungeon. Why would we care about a book written by a king?