School had long been over, yet the torture for Moros was about to begin. The next customers would arrive in a few hours and he had to prepare the dungeon for the arrival of his esteemed customers.
Back when he had given up on his succession spot for his family, so that his brother may rise, he had always imagined the idea of guarding the family dungeon to be a bit more glamorous and golden.
He dreamed of being the guardian of the next generations to come and level up every day. Reality however was far far from bombastic. Describing it as the most boring, most tiresome activity in the world was way more fitting.
On paper, it sounded too good to be true…being the Guardian of one of the 4 unconquerable dungeons left on the planet of Elysium.
Unconquerable was not indicating a high level of difficulty, moreso were their names proving that no one had found the boss monsters of these places.
The impossible maze of the Tempest clan filled with treasures, the endless jungle of the Glaze family, brimming with all sorts of rare and exotic monsters, the abyssal lake of the Torrentia clan stuffed with legendary herbs and extinct plants…and then there was the Terra family.
A dungeon existing out of a blob creature named Balla. Ballas were as useful as the nipple on a man. They had one talent, namely having none.
A blue, translucent jello, around 10 centimetres tall and wide, bouncing merrily around without any care in the world. They were stupid, had no survival instinct and could not even attack.
These lovely things that Moros killed for a living, did not give much XP, nor did they drop any big mana crystals; they were neither dangerous, smart, fast or anything one would expect a monster to be.
Worst of all, they did not even work as target practice for any magician…because somehow these things can survive and reduce the strength of any magic thrown their way.
"Wow, what a strong creature…"
Moros had thought after hearing about their ability, but he quickly came to realise just how useless they were after finding their fatal weakness.
All it took was them being poked by a finger and all their bodies exploded like a firework, spreading cheers and joy and organs all around.
And Moros received this Christmas present on a daily basis.
The only benefit that this dungeon brought was a special monster that respawned every 50 times the dungeon had been "cleaned" of all its monsters.
Three Balls stacked on top of another, the rare monster "Super-Balla" gave the one who killed it a permanent bonus attribute point, whenever they levelled up.
As such all the rich families let their spoiled, rich brats enter this dungeon and pay good money to get such a nice perk.
Leaving Moros with the lovely duty of touching all these lovely blobs and bathing in all sorts of unspeakable liquids.
The descendant of the Terra family was less than thrilled at his daily tasks, his heart certainly wished he would have forced his ungrateful little brother to take on this important task.
At least, for a day he would want that little shit of his to know just how much he went through so he and his family could tour all around the globe to sell that great idea of his.
Moros sighed, his brother might be a bit arrogant, but he loved the fella regardless.
He was the guy to revolutionise the whole world of magic when he was just 4 years old, he had all the right to be proud of what he accomplished.
Although Moros would deduct a few points, for that gargantuan ego of dearest little brother.
Not that it mattered much what he thought of him, since he was slurping on the finest wine, while the older brother had to sip the monster juices. Life might not be fair, but at least, he could make it so that his brother had it easy in life.
Moros held his breath as yet another Balla creature went poof upon the slightest touch.
It was not a job he liked to do, but the alternative was starving to death. And swallowing your pride was rather easy if you got to swallow food in return.
But, if people asked Moros what the most annoying aspect of dealing with these little worthless things was, it would be the constant spam of notifications that flooded his vision.
[Killed a Balla: gained minuscule amounts of XP]
[Killed a Balla: gained minuscule amounts of XP]
[Killed a Balla: gained minuscule amounts of XP]
Whenever he turned a Balla into pudding, such a notification appeared before his eyes and informed him just how worthless the activity truly was. At this point it just looked like a copypasta to him.
Normally, if the creature had any semblance of worth, a monster core or other objects would be dropped should it be killed.
Ballas however dropped called 'earwig', because once you've seen these tiny monster cores, you will be laughed at by everyone and their mother. The size of a rice grain, one needed more to kill a hundred monsters to gather the equivalent of a small magic core.
Even the magical system, existent since the dawn of time, did not deem it necessary to produce a notification that an earwig had dropped.
Moros sighed again, it took him 10 minutes to kill all the monsters here, afterwards the monsters would regenerate, begging to be killed once again. And he needed to do so 50 times just so a Super-Balla would appear.
"Life truly is great," muttered the teenager under his breath, a general annoyance buried beneath the layers of blood and guts on his face.
To pass the time, a melody passed over his lips as he laboured himself through the horde of insignificant monsters.
The murder spree came to a sudden halt as his magical visor began to hum and a message popped up.
[The little shit Garrulous has left a voice message, would you like to listen to it?]
"Play it," yelled Moros in sheer annoyance at the implications of what his brother may want from him. Didn't he know by now that his scheduled monster slaying was in full swing?
Fine diner music began to fill the dungeon and the whisper of highly intellectual discussions entered the ears of an unwilling listener. This did continue for a bit, causing the elder brother to groan in even more frustration.
To pass the time Moros grabbed a few unsuspecting Ballas and threw them through the room. The faint sound of explosions in the distance never failed to make him giggle.
"Yo brother, I don't have much time, since I am about to have a 1 on 1 tutoring session with the daughter of the chairman of Magico Industries, if you know what I mean."
Moros did, in fact, not know what his brother meant, he merely waited for his brother to say the reason he called him during work.
"Could you do me a solid, and give the 'super-duper special' to some kids belonging to the Elite…I kiiinda did take a bit of 'financial compensation' for it."
The kids of the elite…trouble came knocking on the door. Especially, since the super-duper-special is a long kept secret, reserved only for the descendants of the Terra family.
If the patriarch ever found out about the secret being exchanged for a bribe, Moros' head would take on the consistency of a Balla. Or as an old Elysium idiom said: his father was a hammer, he the nail.
The killer that could only kill the tiny little creatures before him shook his head.
The super-duper-special really was not worth all the trouble. But alas, his brother needed the money for whatever reason, so he did what every older brother would do and just did what was best for the family..
"Love you too bro."
The words were spoken a bit hasty and rather quickly, one might assume the daughter of the Chairman had arrived for their intense 1 on 1 tutoring.
"Another sleepless night, huh," Moros spoke with a slight grin on his face.
"Sorry guys, you will have to die a bit faster, Uncle Moros here has a tight schedule tomorrow."