"Fire the Arrows! Gobbo!"
A large volley of arrows flung through the forest—black arrows fletched with red feathers and smeared with poison howled through the air.
Only a moment later, they drilled through a pack of grey wolves.
[15 Gale Wolves Slain]
∟ Gained 150 DP
∟ Gained 300 XP
∟ Gained 55 EP
Gobbolas stood at the head of the goblins, holding his longbow as he drew it fully before releasing an arrow at the leading Alpha wolf from the Gale wolves.
Woosh—!
The Alpha stood with a body close to two metres in size, with several arrows piercing its body—it tried to run towards the goblins near the dungeon entrance.
Thud—!
The wolf's skull exploded from the steel arrow, penetrating its eye socket and popping the gooey ball.
A small wolf whimpered before the battle ended.
[Gale Wolf Alpha Slain]
∟ Gained 150 DP
∟ Gained 200 XP
∟ Gained 10 EP
——------------------------------------------------------
Meanwhile, sitting on his throne while creating small embers of fire in the shape of letters to practise his mana manipulation. Leonhardt gazed at the panels in the corner of his vision, waiting for the right amount of DP to buy land.
The cost increased depending on the land bought; some cost hundreds, others thousands, but the closer to his dungeon core, the more affordable.
"Oh, I levelled up!"
Leonhardt gazed at the changes in his attributes while enjoying the warm sensation of power flowing through his body. His strength reached D Rank, and his mana instantly refilled.
He noticed a trend in which all C rank attributes increased by 5 points at each level, while D rank increased faster by 10.
"What are you doing this time?" Zafira's curious voice echoed from the elegant table and chairs Leonhardt bought because they were on Sale. The full kitchen set was placed in the spare room beside his.
He eyed Zafira from head to toe... curious about how she became more alluring and sexy each time she appeared. Were her thighs always so thick? He wondered while remembering her affection increasing when he bought the set.
Leon could only sigh that a single point made him happy...
"Watching a legend in the making," Leonhardt exclaimed with shining eyes while watching his goblins moving towards the eastern forest.
"You mean that dumb goblin?"
"He isn't dumb... his archery will spread throughout the known world one day!"
"Hah..."
Zafira sighed and turned away.
Their interactions felt like this recently, although Zafira helped clean and maintain the dungeon without complaint. But when she finished, the rabbits would escape to Leon's room, causing her to become irritated and take it out on him.
Because it was a normal occurrence, he ignored her and swiped the screen to the land purchase screen.
『Wife, where can I buy land now?』
[If you keep calling me your wife, I will take half of all your earnings.]
『But we signed a prenup!』
[...]
Immediately after taking the lovely voice from the dungeon core, he noticed the map changed, and several spots that were red before had now turned orange with a small icon. [For Sale] appeared over them.
He could buy almost anywhere within a certain range of the dungeons, and each square differed in size, but the smallest was 100 metres x 100 metres. The most expensive slots were the four around the current dungeon core room.
『Why does it clearly benefit buying outside?』
[A dungeon's Rank only increases when the internal dungeon grows. External land isn't counted]
Suddenly, learning about this feature made him wonder if increasing his Rank would be a bad thing.
Instead, he chose to study the system further.
『Can you show me more information about dungeons and my surroundings?』
[No problem, Master!]
Thanks to the system and the knowledge that lingered in his mind, Leonhardt gained immense amounts of information about the world and its past.
The human kingdoms that lingered around his dungeon were never at peace, always fighting against each other or within themselves with revolts, wars and rebellions.
Thus, he thought creating both a dungeon and a kingdom to protect that dungeon would be the smartest thing to do.
At least in theory...
『I will need to take it slowly, gain the forest and farm DP and EP...』
He then started planning to use Gobbolas to improve their archers with training and his abilities, but the main issue was that their fighting force couldn't be made of only ranged troops.
『Maybe I should evolve a goblin warrior.』
The memories and knowledge which Leonhardt gained seemed to carry a useless amount of trivia and knowledge from strange things called movies, and the genre was quite specific.
『Ahem, Ex-Wife!』
Leon tried to be smart, but there was only silence...
He tapped the three squares attached to the dungeon entrance... this cost him a total of 500 DP.
However, he wanted some more advice from the dungeon's wife. There was a limit to how far he could push the mysterious woman.
『Though I know she isn't always here... It's lonely when she's gone.』
Leon discovered this the other night when Zafira woke him up with her snoring. He tried to contact the dungeon for hours but received no response. Because he couldn't sleep he woke Zafira up and mentioned her snoring.
However, the person in question denied she snored and gave Leon a black eye.
[Are you sure you wish to purchase these lands?]
A cold, mechanical voice, not the same as the usual sarcastic wife.
He didn't hesitate and tapped the accept button that appeared in front of him. There wasn't any reason to increase the dungeon depth.
So he chose the forest instead.
∟ Used 500 DP
Suddenly, the dungeon began to tremble, and the number of squares allotted for the Magical Air Filter dropped by three.
[Squares Remaining: 43/50]
'Oh? The mana regeneration and critter bonus is applied to the outside!'
Leonhardt bought the square ahead of the entrance and to the east and west. His land acquisition now encompassed a significant portion of the western and eastern forests.
This situation allowed his goblins to create a small outpost to farm monsters.
"I should give Gobbolas some orders..."
Meanwhile, Leon continued his current actions, unaware of Zafira's strange gaze. Her golden eyes were drawn to whatever the handsome chimaera chose to do.
『How did he manage to increase the dungeon size so quickly?』
The mysterious actions of the Dungeon Master slowly began to draw her attention.
Zafira stood from her table and began to walk towards the entrance. She used her long tail to flick the overgrown flora and plants, trimming them back to make each square more beautiful.
"To think he could make such a vibrant dungeon... What a strange man."
Zafira stood at the entrance, her gaze narrowing.
She was able to see thousands of metres away and noticed the human village. Several people pointed in the dungeon's direction, holding swords and bows. Zafira suspected that those pointing at the dungeon belonged to the group killed a few days before.
"How will he managed to fight them off... they seem to have brought mercenaries."
She momentarily thought, should I help him? Before shaking her head and curling her hands into fists and flicking her tail to the side—thanks to the changes in the dungeon, she could leave the main room during times of no combat.
"I could crush them..."
Not that she liked Leonhardt, but the dungeon was so calm and peaceful... no one tried to kill her or force her into marriage because of her bloodline.
『Having a handsome guy who doesn't annoy me isn't so bad...』
Yet her eyes always lingered on his figure, curious but confused. She rubbed the table he bought with a wistful look on her face, biting her lower lip.
It was the first time she could buy her furniture, and she got too excited.
Despite this, Leon didn't complain and even set aside the DP to purchase the entire set, which was quite costly for a new Dungeon Master. Zafira bit her lower lips—Leon left the room, vanishing further into the distance where she couldn't follow and could only watch.
"..."
However, the real issue that irritated her was that she slapped her tail against the ground, creating a loud snap and stomping so hard that her hooves cracked the marble flooring.
"Why doesn't he ask me for help?"