“So, you are making a request to the Adventure Guild?” The silly Goddess asked me in my room. Speaking of which, she got a better inn at a lower price because she was an Adventurer, so she moved to that inn. I couldn’t move to her inn because I was not an Adventure. However, every night, she was still coming to my place to bother me. Annoying, seriously.

“Yep. You sure get your information fast.” I sincerely praised her. I only put that request today after asking the Adventurers in the guild about the herbs and monsters that could be located in the surrounding area. There was a lot of variation, as the Acropolis was located in the middle of almost everything.

In the north, a little further, you could find a desert after the plains. In the west, there was a mountain range. In the south, you could find swamp areas and further south, there was a sea. In the East, there was a huge forest. Yep, almost everything could be found in this area. Well, the distance was quite far though. Besides the forest that right beside Acropolis, the other places were around a week distance away from it by carriage. But still, since Acropolis was in the middle of those places, the traffic was quite busy. No wonder the city prospered like this.

However, there was a disadvantage of having a location like this as well. Well, naturally, it was because the degree of danger would be several levels higher than the other places. For example, if the Newbie Village was located in this location, it would be decimated in less than a week. After all, monsters usually wandered to this fertile area looking for food. Well, it happened everywhere, however, because of the various lands surrounding Acropolis, the monsters coming to this city became a usual occurrence. Usually, it happened once a week… wait a minute, was that caused by an event from the game?

I remembered there were weekly events in the game, perhaps it was similar to that. Anyway, because of that, it became even more dangerous here. Though the Knights and the Adventurers were patrolling the main road every day, so it was relatively safe, as long as you didn't wander far away from the main road. Also, the villages around the Acropolis were protected by the Knights since those villages were important for Acropolis. They supported the livelihood of the people living in Acropolis after all.

Let’s go back to our main topic. So, I put the request of gathering herbs to the Adventure Guild just a few hours ago. And the silly Goddess knew about it almost immediately. She must be paying attention to the Request Board all the time, huh?

“Why didn’t you ask me?” She asked.

“Why would I ask you if I can ask the other Adventurers? Besides, aren’t you busy leveling up? I heard there’s a fierce blond woman warrior who kills monsters left and right. That is you, right?” I only heard it from Rita when I ate my dinner earlier.

“Yep, that’s me. You sure get your information fast too.” She praised me with the exact same words I used to her. "Oh, but for your information, I'm not fierce, alright?"

Scary. Stop cracking your fingers like that!

Well, that was information I got from Rita though. “ Cough, yeah, sorry, you are not fierce. Alright then, so, when you go adventuring tomorrow, can you look for those herbs too? The more you can gather, the better it is.”

“Naturally, but what will you pay me with? You don’t even have money, do you?” She asked.

"Eh? Do I have to pay? If that's the case, no, thank you, I'll depend on the other Adventurers who take my quest." I rejected it immediately. I didn't have any money, how could she expect me to pay her?

She smiled. Of course, not the sincere smile people used to show how happy they were. It was a threatening smile as her hands grabbed my shoulders. It hurt, seriously. "Fey, you can pay me with anything other than money, can't you?"

...that was definitely a threat. "...you want me to pay with my body?"

After asking that stupid question, she tightened her fingers and I could feel my bones cracking under the pressure from her fingers. Also, her smile became even more terrifying!

“…I was joking. I’ll owe you one. Is that alright?” Even though I hated owing to other people, especially to this silly Goddess, I didn’t have much choice now. Well, it should be alright. I would pay her as soon as possible.

“Alright! Don’t forget about it!” She said excitedly. Did I make a mistake by making that promise? Oh well, whatever. I would let my future self to deal with this problem. 

“I’m going now. See you tomorrow, Fey.” The silly Goddess exited the room while saying such goodbye lines. After she left, I jumped into the bed and hugged Slimerin. Speaking of which, when I went out today and yesterday, I always hugged her. She was getting better at controlling her own body so I wasn’t drenched again. Also, she was obedient and never uttered a single voice while we were outside. People perhaps thought that I was hugging a plush toy. Yep, a Slime-shaped plush toy.

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By the way…

“…Slimerin, is it more comfortable being hugged by that silly Goddess?” I asked curiously. Whenever we were alone with the silly Goddess, Slimerin preferred to stay in her arms rather than mine. She obediently came to me when I asked her though, but it seemed she liked that silly Goddess more than me.

“Master, don’t worry, there are still rooms for improvements! I suggest you drink a lot of milk from tomorrow!” Slimerin abruptly gave me a piece of advice.

“...so, it’s because of that, huh?”

“Cough, Master, i-it’s not only because of that! Well, it’s true that she is softer, ack, cough, cough, I mean, she is fat so her stomach is softer…”

“Enough, you don’t have to elaborate. Well, that is a fact after all. It’s not that I really care about it.” I said.

“…erm, Master, if you don’t really care, why do you pinch me so hard…?” Slimerin protested silently, but I didn’t hear her protesting. Yep, I didn’t really care. Let’s sleep!

…

“…Slimerin, is it here?” I asked Slimerin. I was in my Slime Armor. It was not morning yet. Actually, it was still in the middle of the night. Slimerin and I sneaked around in the city and we went to the Dungeon in the city.

There were almost no Players in the night like this. I wondered if they had the same day-night cycle with this world. Or maybe, they were hunting in the night. I heard there were a lot of monsters that only came out in the night after all. As for the citizens of this city, there were only the patrols and some courtesans. It was easy to sneak around since we were not human. I meant, not in our human form. Me, I meant.

So, the Dungeon. It was protected by tall walls, but it served no problems for both me and Slimerin who could stick on the wall. There was a huge metal gate on the Dungeon’s entrance. Perhaps it would be used in case of outbreaks. Right now, it was opened wide and there were four guards there. But they didn’t notice us who were above them and entered the Dungeon furtively. Yep, my aim from the very start was this Dungeon. If I could get this Dungeon, I could get limitless supplies of herbs and other ingredients.

Speaking of sneaking, I had to train my sneaking a bit before going into this mission. The reason for that was because my Slime Armor produced 'byop' sound effect when I pulled it from the floor. That was why, I trained to crawl like a snake. Hm? Snake was slithering? Well, anyway, I tried to move silently without pulling the Slime off the ground. Or the ceiling.

As I entered the Dungeon, I dropped from the ceiling. I didn’t know how the Superhero that could stick the wall did it, but I was getting dizzy after sticking to the wall for less than fifteen minutes. I felt disoriented. Well, perhaps being bitten by a mutant spider would make you invulnerable to a dizzy state.

There were monsters that looked like a small dog, well, the skeleton of a small dog. No, its movement was more like a cat, so perhaps it was a mini-tiger remain?

When it noticed us, it immediately pounced on us, but I elegantly directed it to the wall and it crashed into the walls and its bones were disassembled. That was what would happen to people who attacked recklessly inside a Dungeon. And speaking of people like that, usually, newbie Adventurers or even Champions and Heroes did something reckless like that on the first few floors. For example, a blond Hero that entered my Dungeon charged into the first Slime he met, and his end was being eaten by that Slime. Well, only his equipment though, but it was enough to embarrass him in front of his party members. In the end, he ran outside, naked, and cried with grievances. I never saw him again after that. As for his party members, they became even more cautious after that and they reached the tenth floor.

Alright, let’s focus on clearing this Dungeon again. Unlike my developed Dungeon, this Dungeon was still in its development state. I didn’t feel a strong Mana wave from this Dungeon. No wonder the monster was so weak.

The monsters looked like small animals like those small dogs. Naturally, they only had skeletons without skins or flesh. Perhaps the Dungeon Master of this Dungeon was a Necromancer or a Skeleton Warrior. Anyway, it must be not so strong or else, even the first floor would be filled with Death Knight. Also, judging from the Mana wave, it seemed this Dungeon was not too deep. Perhaps it only had twenty floors or at most, twenty-five. But most likely, it only had ten floors.

“Let’s finish it as soon as possible.” I said to Slimerin. Based on my estimation, if I ignored all the monsters, I could go to the next floor in less than five minutes, so, going to the twentieth floor should take me around… an hour. Oh, fighting against the Boss would take fifteen minutes, depending on the Boss’ strength, so perhaps I needed three hours for taking over this Dungeon and returned to my inn. Yep, let’s do this!

Each Dungeon had different styles, depending on the Dungeon Master. For example, this Dungeon had a style similar to a cave. It must be because the Master of this Dungeon didn’t have high intelligence, or it preferred places like this. But looking at the Undead monsters, I believed the Dungeon Master didn’t have high intelligence. If the Dungeon Master was a Lich or high-level Undead like Vampires, they would transform this Dungeon into catacomb-style Dungeon or castle-style Dungeon. My Dungeon? Well, I didn’t have any preferences, so in the past, my Dungeon had different styles for every floor.

Speaking of Dungeon, even though the style might be different, but almost every Dungeon Master instinctively created their Dungeon into a labyrinth. As far as I knew, there was only one Dungeon that had one room for every floor and each room was guarded by a strong guardian. As for most Dungeon, they had labyrinth built in their Dungeon.

There was a reason for this. Even I didn’t know the reason, but a Dungeon Core couldn’t be kept in a confined room. So, there would always be a way from the entrance of the Dungeon to the Dungeon Core. And the Dungeon Master had to protect the Dungeon Core. So, the easiest way to protect it was to place the Dungeon Core in the deepest floor, and each floor was made into a labyrinth so the Adventurers would take a long time to get to the Dungeon Core. Not to mention the monsters that would delay the Adventurers, so, considering the supplies they brought, they would always return after twenty floors or so. It was really the easiest way to protect the Dungeon Core.

Alright, so, the simpler the labyrinth was, the easier it would be to conquer it. And this Dungeon was perhaps the simplest Dungeon that I knew. I really reached the second floor in less than five minutes and the road only had a few branches. I could easily guess the correct way by sensing the Mana, but normal Adventurers wouldn’t be able to do that. Well, I had been living in a Dungeon for countless years after all, so it was because of the difference in experience.

Speaking of which, I knew the situation with other Dungeons because every decade or so, there would always be a meeting between Dungeon Masters all over the world. Naturally, I never attended such a meeting personally, but I always sent my Familiar, my Slime to attend it. My strongest Slime in the past had similar strength to other strong Dungeon Masters after all, so it was not a problem to send my Slime as the representative. Maybe the other Dungeon Master thought that my Slime was the Dungeon Master of my Dungeon?

Anyway, an hour after I dove into this Dungeon, I reached the first Boss. It was a Skeleton Warrior, which I easily defeated. Well, it was weaker than Zero, and now, I had Slimerin with me, it was easy to defeat it. We continued and after another hour, we reached another floor Boss. This time, it was a Skeleton Warrior, a Skeleton Archer, and a Skeleton Mage. This time, we took a long time because of the Skeleton Mage kept interrupting us every time we almost defeated the other two Skeletons.

Anyway, after an hour of intense fighting, we won. And when we entered the next floor, we found what we had been looking for all this time. It was a ball, floating around half a meter above the ground. I could feel intense Mana from it. Well, it stood above a Dragon Vein after all, so the Mana was quite strong. Yep, it was the Dungeon Core.