While Five and Harriet were discussing, Kroff was sitting on his throne, intrigued at the developments.
"It is as you said, Mehlroth. They really stopped dispatching guards for their training there," said Kroff.
"Thank you for your praise, Master! " answered a tall silhouette covered with a black cape. It was Mehlroth, another one of Kroff’s strongest monsters. Mehlroth was actually a Soul Eating Ghoul; it was a high-level ghost type monster. While normal ghouls did not have any physical bodies, Mehlroth evolved and succeeded in condensing a very fragile physical body. However, the body itself was disgusting to look at and therefore, Kroff gave him that black cape to completely cover it. Not only did it protect its body, but it also gave it a very gloomy aura.
"Maybe you should possess a few more humans. Gathering information will help us with our future plans but make sure to not get caught. I don't want to initiate a war with this Marquis," said Kroff.
"As you wish Master. Just let me know when some high-level guards will enter the dungeon. I will immediately cast my spells then. It will be a waste to possess any more low-level guards; they don’t give us much information," politely replied Mehlroth.
Mehlroth, being a ghost-type monster, had the unique ability to possess living creatures. He could temporarily take control of these creatures or at the same time, he could just passively experience the lives of these creatures. And the second option was precisely what Mehlroth did; he possessed some of the guards that entered the dungeon a couple of months earlier. Later, he used the possessed guards to learn about the plans of the humans. Although they were only some relatively low-level guards, it was still enough to gather some information. From them, he learned that the guards would retreat from the dungeon for a period of time and would instead train in another location inside the city itself.
While Mehlroth's technique had amazing effects, it had a very high price but this sacrifice was what allowed Mehlroth to obtain his high position in the dungeon. Kroff was, in a way, a good master. He prioritized and rewarded his most dedicated monsters and naturally, when he saw the sacrifices made by Mehlroth, he promoted him.
He only cared about the loyalty and usefulness of his monsters. For example, Roy was given a high position due to his camouflage skills which made him an extremely dangerous assassin. In the same way, Harriet also obtained her position not only because of her caring personality but also because of her flying and wind-controlling abilities which could turn her into an excellent scout.
As for Mehlroth, not only could he communicate with all the monsters via telepathy, he also had this possessing technique which could be very useful. As such, Mehlroth secured a high position in the pyramid of monsters.
"There is something I would like to know, master. Did you plan to give Five the control of the first 10 floors precisely because the guards would stop coming?" asked Mehlroth.
Kroff was surprised upon hearing the question and answered, "You are smart. This was one of the reasons, yes. And giving him 10000DP was also my plan; this way, he could survive for a few days before getting into debts. And naturally, when he will exhaust those 10000DP, he would naturally have to pay from his own pocket!" answered Kroff with a gloomy smile.
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"So this was the plan! Master is so smart, I would have never guessed it! It is indeed a way to make him pay back all the DP he earned from killing the slimes without killing him. He might even have to pay with the DP he generated himself,"
"I wonder what face he will make when I will announce that he would have to pay in case his allocated DP goes negative! According to my contract with Gaia, I need to teach him for a minimum of one week to a maximum of 2 weeks; this way, I can just keep him here for as long as possible and milk out some DP out of him!" said Kroff. "Since we are on the topic, is it not strange that he is again spending more time than usual with Harriet in their communal room? Maybe I should remove this privacy thing..."
...
Back to the Harpies’ Communal room.
"Eh, I still don't understand the purpose of this. Sure, it does add some more.... mystery? But what is the actual purpose?" asked Harriet with a confused expression.
It was already the second sketch shown by Five. This time, he showed the plans of several floors. They looked very different, but it was still looked out of place. The rooms were strangely positioned; some were much larger while others were smaller and clustered together. There were also some random tunnels with dead ends. It was the first time she saw such a map and she definitely would not want this to happen to her Avian Cavern.
"I think it's cooler this way. Isn't it better to have only a single thin path and make every player go through the whole floor? We get more DP like that!" said Five with an innocent expression.
Harriet was speechless. After all the good ideas she heard from Five during the first few days, how could he not realize that this was a bad idea. It would mean more monsters killed and would create choke points as all players would need to progress together to advance.
She did not know what to say and decided to simply change the subject. "Anyway, don't you need to monitor the dungeon more instead of doing these maps? It's only half a day but you've already lost 1000DP without counting the 1000DP you used for the slimes. I know that the number of humans in the dungeon is steadily increasing but it is still alarming to have made such losses."
"Oh, that? Do not worry about it. It will be fine when more players will come into the dungeon. In fact, I predict that tomorrow we will have a lot of adventurers in there. But maybe I need to tweak the respawn time a little bit," declared Five.
The dungeon could automatically summon monsters that were slain after a certain period of time. It could also be done manually but there were way too many monsters to do so for normal ones. Right now, the respawn time of the normal monsters on the first 10 floors was 15 minutes. Five made a quick adjustment to the interface and increased the respawn time to 30 minutes. This way, the players would need to waste more time.
As for changing the arrangement of the floors, he was still not satisfied with his actual sketch. He needed it to be discreet; he showed the maps to Harriet to see her reaction and it was clear that she did not like them.
"Since we've finished our lunch, what about going back?" asked Harriet.
"There is no need, right? There are no more lessons now. I just need to take care of these 10 floors." Five said as he turned his attention to the notepapers trying to figure out a better way to arrange the floors.
"Mmmm" Harriet simply sat down and observed Five's work. She quickly put away the two trays and silently sat back in front of Five.
After just 5 minutes, Five raised his head and looked at Harriet. He was not insensible and could feel that she was not very happy right now. While he himself was busy, he could clearly see that Harriet had nothing to do but could only stay with Five to protect and guide him.
"Let's go to the Avian Cavern, it is better to work there!" said Five.
‘At least, she’ll have her sisters there.’
And immediately, Harriet's expression brightened. She found it boring to stay in the communal room but would not voice it out since Five was at work. But now that he expressed his desire to go to the Avian Cavern, she was naturally very happy.
Five quickly stood up and followed Harriet. He was careful to pick up the notepapers and place them in his inventory. Since he was now leaving the communal room, he was worried that Kroff might sneak a peek at his notes and so, decided to hide them. As for how he would plan his maps, he would simply try to design them from scratch but without starting from the Chinese characters to make things less obvious.