It was noon by the time the dungeon was in sight.

The entrance of the dungeon had been sprayed with a dangerous beast attractor, and thus the ground above was all messy with beast footsteps. For some reason, the spray induced some sort of hallucination that lured the beast down the ravine, which Lorelei would then hunt with the golems. Really, if I had known that it was this effective, I would have done this much sooner.

Once the corpse of the hybrid deer was absorbed by the dungeon, I entered the Artificial Realm with Blizzard in tow. Lorelei was already standing in anticipation of our arrival.

“You know, I’m surprised that you’re able to hunt that many in such a short time. Granted, most of the contribution is thanks to her, but you have done well.”

“It’s obvious, isn’t it?” I said with a high chin. “I wouldn’t dare show my face if I’m not that capable. At any rate, I’ll purchase the elixir now.”

“You sure? It’s worth 10,000 CP. Just imagine how much we can—”

“Now isn’t the time to be thrifty when the mental health of someone is on the line. CP can be gathered again, but she may not recover if we let her be.” I locked my gaze into her eyes and asserted, “So, Lorelei, by all means, don’t dissuade me further.”

“Very well.” Lorelei didn’t voice any more objections afterward.

I checked the menu and found that the total amount of CP was well over 17,000. It was more than sufficient, but most of the juicy dangerous beasts around here had been hunted into extinction as a result. Thanks to Blizzard’s extraordinary sense of smell, we were able to locate most of the dangerous beasts in the surrounding area. While not all stones were left unturned, finding more would be quite a daunting task unless we searched deeper into the north.

Anyway, I went ahead and purchased an [Elixir (10,000 CP)] from the Item Creation catalog, and a small vial as large as a ten-milliliter bottle filled with thick red liquid suddenly appeared out of thin air and fell onto my hand. Because it was such a valuable item, I began sweating all over and almost made the elixir slip off my grip.

“Oops. Don’t wanna have a mishap at this point in time.”

Next, along with Lorelei, I entered the beastkin girl’s room. She was currently fast asleep; it appeared that fatigue finally caught on to her not long after I left the dungeon. I inched closer to her with light steps in fear of waking her up while carefully holding the glass vial like handling a fragile beauty that might break any moment.

“What are you sneaking around like a thief for? I had cast magic to put her into a deep sleep so she wouldn’t wake up easily.”

“Seriously? How?” I don’t think the Geo elementalist we keep knows how to cast sleeping magic…

“Simple, even though I don’t know any spell for putting her to sleep, by manipulating mana around her in a very subtle and soothing way, I can produce a similar result. It’s just an easy trick.”

Yeah, okay. Simple, my ass! Like anyone can learn magic as easily as she does… Being a creature versed in mana, Lorelei could learn magic much more easily than many others.

Not bothering to argue with her logic, I removed the somewhat disheveled bandage on her head and inspected the wound on her supposedly right ear, which had long dried up. The wound was horrifying, yes, but I didn’t mind it too much, unplugged the vial, and dripped a drop of the red liquid on it. There were only so many drops inside, so I was trying to save it up as much as possible.

Miraculously, when three drops of the elixir dropped on her wound, flesh began to expand from the base of her missing ear. It was akin to a growing plant that grew up at a speed visible to the naked eyes. Peculiar yet true. Soon enough, a triangle ear was formed before hair started to grow on it and formed a flawless, smooth furry ear — her original wound had all disappeared as if she was never injured in the first place.

“Amazing! This thing is indeed a cure-all potion!” I sighed in amazement.

Even other parts of her body all healed up. This thing would serve as a lifesaving card in times of need, so it had to be kept in a perfectly safe location.

Now that was done, I could finally release the tension in my shoulders and had myself slumped to the ground. I was literally wiped out. From getting raided in the night, hunting creatures in the forest, and exploring the old, abandoned house, maybe a break would be in order. I mean, it was more tempting than a pile of gold right now.

Although there was still the matter with her slave collar, I didn’t dare to do anything to it; I feared it might explode if I were to be rough with it. And if that wasn’t bad enough, the collar was too attached to her neck, so all I did would just injure her in the process. But the silver lining was that I could use [Programming] to alter the collar and prevent all that. Just that there were too many things I didn’t know. For instance, an active slave collar had a stripe that shone blue, but hers had none, thereby my hesitation — at least until I understood more about the collar.

Standing up, I trudged out of the room.

“Where are you going?”

“To the courtyard… for a breath of fresh air.” Replying was exhausting enough, but I preserved with it.

“I’ll accompany you there,” Lorelei said.

I didn’t reply and simply grunted.

We exited the mansion through the portal and arrived at the courtyard. I was immediately basked with fresh air and warm sunlight — this place was truly a magical place to be able to simulate all of this perfectly.

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“Vincent, I think you need some sleep…” With a glint in her eyes, Lorelei pointed to a nearby bench. “How about resting there? I’ll notify you if something urgent happens.”

“Okay…” I yawned, tossing down my backpack.

Going back to my room was too much of a hassle, so I just laid down on the bench. Despite sleeping on a hard surface, my memory told me that I drifted to a long-awaited sleep within a moment…

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What would you do when something licked you in your sleep?

I woke up to the licking sensation on my left cheek. And strangely enough, there was a squishy texture under my head; it felt like a soft, squishy marshmallow was cushioning my head. What a pleasant sensation. No, this doesn’t feel right!

I peeked from the small slit of my eyelids. Two purplish-black medium-sized peaks… and a giant wolf… Huh? How weird… Was I dreaming? While still in deep deliberation over whether this surreal view was a dream or not, the giant wolf on my left licked my face again.

Disturbed, I turned to the right, and my nose touched the meaty soft wall of the pillow. Since when did pillows have walls? I took a deep breath and smelled a familiar fragrant scent. Smells good.

“Fueh! It tickles…” Hm?! “Does it feel good?” That particular voice struck me awake from my slumber.

“Bwuh! This is not a dream?”

“What dream?” Lorelei poked her head over, all while patting the giant wolf or, more correctly, Blizzard. “Hmm-hmm, this big rascal must have woken you up.”

As if being rinsed by a bucket of cold water, the whole thing finally hit me.

“Whaaaa…?! Are you giving me a lap pillow?”

“Why, of course. Anything wrong with that?”

“I… I don’t know…!” I was about to rise up, but one of her hands firmly held me down. She tricked me! Damn her… Though it was not like I’d anything to complain about.

As someone that majored in computer science, I had minimal contact with girls, considering the ratio of males far outweighed females in this field of study. It was only thanks to the situation that I didn’t act all nervous around girls here… Wait, maybe being a Dungeon Master plays an important role in this…

“How long have I been out?”

“Around six hours, I guess.”

“Seriously? Won't your thighs go numb from being a lap pillow for such a long time?”

“To be honest,” she blurted, “that’s precisely what’s happening; I can no longer feel them.”

“Then…”

“But I don’t mind,” she said, without making a single change of expression.

“Ahem. In any case, I’m all awake now.”

“So?”

“The assessment will end tomorrow, and while there’s a chance, I want to finish up with the dungeon’s modification.”

“Then stay like this for ten more minutes.”

After weighing things for a bit, I agreed to her request.

Seeing Blizzard standing on the side had me thinking about her children, so I asked, “Um, where are her children? I haven’t seen them since this morning.”

“They’re on the field over there. Playing around.” Lorelei pointed to an empty grass field not far away.

“I see.”

“Say, I think we should reward Blizzard. How about making her a Crowned Monster?” Lorelei suddenly suggested.

“Hm? Can a hybrid even become a Crowned Monster?”

“I dunno, but it’s definitely worth a try.”

This piqued my curiosity: What would happen when a monster became a Crowned Monster? Blizzard was strong, very strong in fact. I wouldn’t stand a minute if I were to fight her without using code-imbued equipment and weapons. Thus, this could be the perfect chance for testing this out.

The rest of the time, I spent relaxing on Lorelei’s lap while listening to rustling wind hitting leaves in the distance. It was truly soothing to the heart. Naturally, my head was working nonstop in planning for the dungeon.

Once ten minutes had passed, I tried to get up, but her hand was still pressing against my head — unwilling to budge.

“What’s with the rush?”

“C’mon, Lorelei. As much as I want to stay like this, I mean, like I said, I don’t have time to waste!” Forcefully breaking free from her hand, I managed to rise up.

“Well, if you so insist.” Her flat voice faded out at the end.

Blizzard stood in front of me and eyed me with a pair of clear, intelligent eyes. She didn’t make any sort of movement and stayed still in place, being one with the environment.

“Before I turn you into a Crowned Monster, I will ask you this once: Do you want to become stronger?” I felt that asking for consent was the most crucial thing here, considering there was only one chance so far.

“Woof.” She made a not loud but clear bark, but I knew there was determination inside.

“All right.” I reread the description of Crowned Monster just to make sure.

[Crowned Monster]

A monster of the covenant, a chosen one among many. Will make the chosen monster grow alongside the dungeon and even spark their evolution faster.

Remaining usage: 1 (Unable to be retracted upon use)

I still didn’t know the conditions of getting more of this but leaving it unused would be missing the whole point.

“Okay, I’ll begin with the procedure.” Without tarrying any longer, I selected Blizzard as the Crowned Monster target and the remaining usage changed to zero. So, is it successful?

Just then, there appeared a bright circle, not unlike the one in monster summoning, under Blizzard’s feet, and shortly, yellow light illuminated her body. Her stature rapidly expanded and enlarged, her claws getting sharper, her fur thickened and glistened up. This evolution lasted for about twenty seconds and somehow looked familiar to me. Wow. So, this is how monster evolution works.

As far as I knew, Monster evolution was something unique to the dungeon since I never heard about goblins turning into hobgoblins outside. However, goblins turning into goblin warriors or goblin archers wasn’t totally unheard of.

When the light dispersed into particles, Blizzard let out a loud howling. Her figure looked grander than the pre-evolution state. I checked her status, only that the first thing I realized was that she was no longer a hybrid.

Species: Starlight wolf

Sex: Female

Age: 12 years old

Height: 304 cm

Stats:

* STR: C (67)

* AGI: B- (81)

* VIT: C- (61)

* MAG: D+ (57)

* SPR: C (66)

Accumulation Points: 132 [C-]

“Waah! A C-rank monster… Even the cheapest and weakest among them is well over 2,000 CP.” My posture stiffened as I marveled at the sight of the current Blizzard.

I looked at Lorelei and found her not much better than me.

“Lorelei, do you need to save your ever-expensive expression for this kind of occasion?” She had seldom been that expressive when normally interacting with me, after all.

“Yeah, right. Said the one that can’t stop gawking.” Her snarky remark was what came out instead.

“Ahem.” I quickly changed the subject and stroked Blizzard. “Please guard the dungeon well, Blizzard.”

“Woof!” Blizzard snuggled onto me with her large body, causing me to fall under her heavy weight.

“Haha! Good girl.” Her fur was so thick and silky, like the most expensive kind of fur coat. Burying myself inside was such a heavenly feeling, I believed that I could fall asleep in an instant here.

Now that we had a strong monster protecting the dungeon, I could be more at ease when going out. Though I decided not to let her become the Dungeon Boss yet in case I needed her to do some reconnaissance.