The two continued their conversation. The atmosphere slowly went back to normal after that gloomy phase.
"So? What do you want to do now?" asked Harriet. She wanted to quickly shift the topic to a brighter one.
"I don't know. It is really hard to make a decision, but I can say for sure that I won't join the Cyclone Alliance," calmly declared Five while finishing his plate.
"What? Why? Did I not explain to you the benefits? It is not just for Kroff's teaching! I know that you don't trust him yet, but it is for your own good."
"It is not that... I think that you are too naïve. His help... might turn out to be a trap. Think about it! Even if they do not bind me to the alliance with a lot of restrictions. It is certain that I will have to depend on the monster that Kroff will give me."
"But that particular monster, can just be used as a spy and turn against me in the future before I become strong enough to be a threat. A level 20 monster will definitely become one of the main figures of the dungeon, at least for the early stages. I don't even know how long it will take me to be able to summon level 20 monsters. I simply cannot shelter such a dangerous variable. If I am not wrong, Kroff will probably give me a species that can somehow communicate with him," declared Five.
He was very clear about this type of strategy. After all, wasn't he himself surrounded by traitors in his previous life which led to his downfall. It was something he did not want to see again. His monsters, he would summon them himself.
Hearing that, Harriet made a surprised expression. When she recalled Kroff's recent actions, she found that it was really a possibility.
"This... I don't think..." started Harriet, but she was immediately interrupted by Five.
"It does not matter. These are just small details. Some DP would, naturally, be very helpful but besides that, Kroff's teaching might just not be worth it. Just by looking at his dungeon, I can already see several ways to improve the amount of DP generated."
"Really? What did you find?" curiously asked Harriet, she knew that Five only had an overview of the real dungeon and found it hard to believe that he could find many flaws.
"Just look at the first floor. If I am not wrong, DP is generated according to the time the adventurers spend in the dungeon. Kroff could at least arrange it so that the adventurers would spend more time on the floor instead of just walking straight towards the stairs. I am not talking about a labyrinth, but at least twisting the paths a bit," said Five as he took out a piece of paper and a pen.
He then drew a plan view of the first floor, showing how if some tunnels were blocked, the adventurers would be forced to take a longer path. This simple change alone would at least double the amount of time spent on the first floor.
"Furthermore, the slimes are clearly not useful. Not a single adventurer below level 5 was in the dungeon when I looked at the map. It is clear that only adventurers having reached a certain level would hunt in the dungeon, and at that point, they can just casually kill the slimes. Completely removing the slimes could actually be more beneficial. Without the slimes, the adventurers could set their camps on the first floor and therefore generate DP as they rest there. If it was up to me, I would have long gotten rid of the first floor."
"Then about..."
Five continued, pointing out several things that he observed. Harriet's eyes would occasionally widen in surprise. Even though she was not very knowledgeable in Dungeon Management, she could clearly see that Five's suggestions could indeed improve the dungeon to some extent.
Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.
As for Five, he did not mind sharing his ideas with Harriet anymore. Sharing their pasts did build some trust between them, and through the oath, they also promised that she would not divulge any information about their talk to Kroff.
"This... What you say is right. Can I really not tell master about these?" excitedly asked Harriet.
"Mmm. These are my own ideas for my dungeon. You can use the ideas yourself when arranging your harpies and the floor you defend, but don't say a word to Kroff. Since he is not inclined on helping me, there is no need for him to know about them," calmly answered Five.
"Alright. I won't say anything, but these ideas won't be useful for higher level floors," answered Harriet with a disappointed expression. Five's ideas would be very useful for the first few floors, but the higher ones were different. Harriet just wanted to share this information with Kroff since it was a way for her to contribute to the dungeon and through that, the status of the harpies would naturally improve.
"I can't help you with that. I need to see the floor's arrangement before making a judgment. Now, since you know so much, can you tell me more about what my training here would include?" curiously asked Five. He wanted to know what Kroff reserved for him. This way, he could at least prepare himself.
"I don't know much, but I know that it mainly consists of theoretical things. However, I heard that master will temporarily give you control over the first 10 floors so that you can get used to managing them. Additionally, he should allow you to farm some slimes to gain some DP I think," explained Harriet.
"Alright! That's a solid piece of information."
Harriet nodded as she stood up and picked up the trays. They talked for more than 30 minutes. It was long past lunchtime and Five still needed to meet Kroff. He was told to visit the floors and to come back when he finished.
It was time for the afternoon lesson but Five did not have high expectations.
And as he expected, he was just taught how to use the dungeon store to purchase monsters and other items; it was self-explanatory. He spent the rest of the day looking at Kroff replacing the dead monsters on the first 10 floors.
It was a very boring task, but he could see the different commands available on the interface and the cost of the monsters. Judging from the DP he obtained from killing the slimes, he calculated that he would obtain two thirds of the monster's cost when killing them.
After a few hours of boredom and silence, Kroff decided to make something more entertaining for Five. He made a cold smile as he moved his hands, projecting a new scene. He decided to show how merciless dungeons could be as he baited the adventurers to the secret treasure room on the tenth floor.
...
On the tenth floor, a group of young guard recruits was taking their final test there. As long as they succeeded in killing one goblin each, they would officially join the city guards. It was a simple task, but they needed to do it in groups of five and so, needed to kill at least 5. Their instructor was standing behind the young recruits, supervising the operation with a carefree expression. He internally grumbled, displeased as this useless task was allocated to him.
The young men were tall and well built. They wore simple armors and held crude weapons, but these were already enough for them to defeat goblins. 4 goblin corpses were already lying around; they only had 1 left to kill.
The group of five were facing an already injured goblin when suddenly, the latter decided to turn around and run away instead of making a suicide attack like the other ones. The recruits quickly chased after it, but they were surprised to see that the goblin did not run towards the tunnel but instead went straight to the cavern's wall.
The young recruits smiled. They saw that the goblin had nowhere else to run and would definitely die under their swords. They were already celebrating the success of their exams. But suddenly, the goblin used its club and smash the wall and what happened next surprised them.
A light blue glyph on the wall suddenly lit up and the wall slightly trembled, opening a path for the goblin to escape.
"What!? What is that?" asked one of the recruits.
The instructor behind them showed an expression of surprise and immediately rushed towards the group.
"We are rich! We are rich! This is a secret chamber! There are definitely treasures in there!" exclaimed the instructor as he went past the group.
"Collect as much as possible! Quick! Before the others learn about it" said the instructor as he rushed through the wall gap, his eyes glimmering with greed.
The young recruits quickly followed their instructor. They were all clearly excited. It was an unexpected surprise and a good opportunity to get rich. Inside, the room did not look too different from the others, with the exception of an altar made of the same material as the wall at the center of the room.
The young recruits immediately noticed their instructor rushing towards the altar. It was surrounded by gold coins and jewels, and on top of it, was a shiny longsword magically standing straight without any support.
The sword looked very enticing, emitting a yellow light. The second his eyes fell on it, the instructor simply could not resist and immediately grabbed the sword. He felt a great sense of satisfaction as he held the sword in his hands and made a few swings in the air.
"Finally, a decent weapon! It is at least peak grade 1! I don't need to serve as an instructor for these idiots anymore!" said the instructor to himself.
He was still deep in his thoughts when he was suddenly interrupted by a shy voice.
"Eh. Instructor? " asked a young recruit.
The instructor was rather displeased to be interrupted and he angrily replied, "What is it? Why are you still standing there? Don't you see all these gold coins! Hurry and collect them!"
"But instructor, don't you find it strange? The goblin we chased is nowhere to be seen," declared another recruit while looking around with a nervous expression.
Instantly, the instructor took notice of this detail. "That's true, where is the goblin?" murmured the instructor, but that was the last thing he did as a large shadow suddenly appeared behind him.