"Esteemed senior, all I ask in our cooperation is a little lipservice. You won't be hunted throughout the lands, your hated family will die, and I'll get to do business. Everyone's happy! Nothing could go wrong." Lifting his hand and gesturing towards the woman, Gill continued, "And you milady, if you don't mind, I could leave some gold for you." Smirking, he took out a pouch and filled it with a few dozen coins. "So long as the gold is in your possession, I urge you to not eat any fruit, watch out for any holes in the ground and to always be on guard." He then threw the pouch to the woman who was ashen faced once more.
"I once heard a human saying, 'the desire of gold is not for gold. It is for the means of freedom and benefit.'" Gill smiled. "If you don't mind a little temporary hardship, I'm certain you'll have a splendid time with your child in the city." As he cackled and walked back towards the dungeon, the woman didn't know what to do with the pouch in her hand. The old man on the other hand swatted her hand and threw the pouch at the back of Gill's head.
Sidestepping and grabbing the pouch, Gill waved his hand as it disappeared into thin air. Showing a small smirk, he disappeared into the dungeons darkness. As the three outside were about to relax, they heard Gill shout out a reminder. "That party of ten I mentioned should arrive within two days. You have that long to make your decision, whatever it might be." Sending a spiteful glare towards the dungeon, the old man turned to leave this misfortunate place immedietly.
The woman pulled the child by his hand and hurried after the senior. "Father, what should we do? Things have completely strayed from our original plan." Anxious about all that would happen, she couldn't figure anything out. Things were moving too fast when they were talking with that demon. "I don't even know why that monster would want to spread out his cursed coins…"
"That's because you're still much too inexperienced. Not that it's common to meet demons that don't try to stab you to death on sight." The old man sighed. "As the Church always says, never trust a demon. If you think back, you'll notice how he kept rattling on about his gold to probe our intentions." The old man then pointed out a few key areas. "For example, despite being magnitudes stronger than me, he didn't leverage his power but rather probed our intent and knowledge."
"From the very first interaction, we don't even know if that piece of food was poisoned or not. The demon immedietly planted a false sense of goodwill in our hearts just by mentioning the idea by stopping junior from taking a bite." As he continued to disseminate their entire conversation, he added, "He didn't pretend to be a good samaritan either. When I probed about that spoiled brats situation he showed us his undead corpse, to show that he truly is a wicked demon, albeit an eloquent one.."
"After both sides, so to say 'understood' our places, I asked about his intent." The old man then tapped at his own temple. "That's when he took hold of the entire pace of the conversation. He told us about his past, his current situation and finally part of his goals." In a helpless gesture, he continued his explanation. "After sharing part of his motives, he placed a conundrum of morality on our heads. Help the demon expand his reach by spreading the gold of misfortune, in exchange for the death of our hated family." Sighing deeply, he finished it all with a simple shrug.
"In my attempt to refuse aiding the demon, he countered with his superior strength. We can't refuse unless we want to be hunted by the family throughout the lands or just die on the spot. It's not as if I've got any influence to speak of." The old man concluded.
The woman was stunned by all the mind tactics that occurred that she didn't notice, her face paling more by the second. "B-but there's still a few holes in the demons plan.." She stammered. "The demon could still sell us out, and what stops us from killing the party of ten coming this way. Wait, is there even a party coming? Argh, I don't even know if a word he said had a smidgen of truth!" She held her head between her hands while trying to figure things out.
"Back to the point of his actual motives around the coins. I believe there's a tremendous secret involved for such an intelligent creature to spread them out." The old man muttered. "As he said, he's a greed demon. What kind of greed demon wants to relinquish its own gold? It clearly intends to earn back more than he's spending on the expenditure…" As if he almost grabbed hold on something massive, he finally realized! "That curse of misfortune… A single coin for misfortune, a hundred for a calamity… Anyone killed by misfortune and terrible events in hold of his gold would grant him their souls!"
Wide eyed and flabbergasted at the horrible truth, the old man started shaking in fear. If the demons golden mint were to appear in any region, county or kingdom it would spell disaster! Imagine, the demon is simply sitting back, earning a wealth of commodities as his gold of misfortune spreads and ramps up his strength. At the beginning it will be tremendously slow, but as he keeps on mining and minting new coins… This dungeon has the potential to become the greatest calamity of the entire continent! The meager Fairweather county doesn't even leave a blip on the map of the world, and such a creature has already started brewing within its confinement.
"That bastard of a demon even has an alibi! He simply tames the creatures of this forest to do his bidding, painting a picture of forest creatures doing trade with humankind!" The old mans breathing turned ragged like the bellows, "As he said, how could a chipmunk be seen as something dangerous? If anything, it would be hailed as a blessed creature that spreads wealth to the entire country for little cost! No, we must stop the demon at all costs!"
Rushing on their way towards the City of Fairweather in hope of finding someone that would believe their tale, after half a day of speedy travel they met up with the clan's party of 10 on their way to the dungeon. The old man wasn't in the mood to even consider taking them out. What if that's also part of the demons plan? Who can tell? The demon perhaps? Ha! He has grand matters to attend to, there's no time to play into the hands of that monstrosity.
'That old man seems oddly familiar…' Hidden thought to herself by the seat of the wagon. Not really paying attention, they passed eachother as fellow strangers travelling down the road. Looking back down on the dungeon scanner in her hand, they were still about a days travel away from arriving at the dungeon. 'Soon, little brother, soon I will take your revenge.'
—
Meanwhile, back in the dungeon Gill was in a jolly good mood. He never had any extravagant hope to pretend that he didn't exist like some sort of 'dark hand behind the curtains'. The only real way for the old man to 'play a winning hand' would be to not say a word about the dungeon. Gill knows that human greed trumps all, especially among those that do work for others. Even the most valiant knight wouldn't say no to gold, so long there's enough of it.
Even if rumors about the curse of misfortune were to spread, so what? It's nothing but a rumor. The dungeon coins are still gold. Where there's gold, there's bound to be robberies. Can't blame that on a random curse, right? Other things like tripping over edges, falling out of bed and whatnot - who cares? They'll be rich! If anything the populace will place doubt over the curse, claiming it's the nobles way to raise taxes for the thousandth time.
That's right, Gill intends to do some special promotions for all of his upcoming customers. He's going to make Chipper spread out a few white lies that the dungeon core is a variant type that basically converts items into gold. He will also spread news that the dungeon is filled with poisonous smoke that cause certain death. Should anyone enter, they'll die. Should they take the dungeon core, it'll lose the ability. Fool proof! The valiant knights of the country might even station themselves outside to protect the dungeon. Gill couldn't help but snicker to himself at the thought.
The few that actually step inside the dungeon despite Chipper warning them would simply never return. Gill is the strongest in the lands after all. The whole 'chipmunk dungeon'-ploy will play out just wonderfully. As he's amassing wealth, purchasing buildings and perhaps saving up for a dungeon schematic, he could then open up the second layer 'for sale'. The damned place is still nothing but a straight corridor times two after all.
Once the setup is complete, the dungeon store could sell 'permits' or 'insurrances' that allow entry. Those that come inside will have the chance to rob the dungeon treasury. Imagine, all the things the dungeon has bought from all over the lands collected in one spot. One successful heist and you'll be the richest in the kingdom! Of course, all of this is predicated on naught but a pile of lies. The few that 'survive' will all be rewarded with extra gold, never any actual treasure.
Or perhaps some cursed treasures wouldn't be bad? Gill had seen them in the store before, but they're all extremely expensive. The effects on the other hand are stellar indeed. A sword that can cut anything in the whole world, but as a caveat you'll be cut too after every swing. A treasured goblet that spews out golden coins day in and day out! Of course, the gold it spits out are all Gill's misfortune coins. A silver crown that forces all who speak with you to tell the truth? Shame it goes both ways, now everyone knows you did something nasty with your neighbours wife.
The possibilities are endless! Unable to sit still for even a moment, Gill briefed Chipper on what he'd thought up before returning to the core room. As he sat down on the couch he felt somewhat restless. All of these ideas were predicated on the fact he had enough time to grow the dungeon. Standing back up, Gill rushed down the gold mine to speed up his earnings. Swinging his mining pick like a tornado, the time flew away like a breeze.
Ten hours later he took a break to assess his earnings. In total, he made another 1,000 gold from mining by himself. Another 250 from the undead plus the 725 he still had in the bank prior left him with a grand total of 1,975 gold!
Smiling satisfactorily, he took the lift back up from the gold mine. Just as Gill was about to sit down and browse some wares, the dungeon alarm went off again. 'Am I cursed or something? The alarm just keeps on going off whenever I'm up to something great…' he grumbled to himself. Opening up the menu to see what's going on this time, he couldn't help but smirk. The fabled adventurers finally arrived.