’This man is mad...’ 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝚠𝕖𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝕖𝚕.𝚌𝗼𝗺

The middle-aged official leading them through the inspection route thought as he stopped in front of the fortieth resource dungeon they were viewing.

The young man behind him, Klaus held that strange compass in his trembling hand, and the artifact pointed straight forward while releasing a distinctive glow.

This wasn’t the first time. ..Or the second. Out of all forty resource dungeons they’d checked today, that compass had glowed exactly four times, and the official was genuinely intrigued as to why. What made those four dungeons special? What was the compass detecting? He didn’t have any answers, but the consistency was impossible to ignore.

"Mirela..." Klaus whispered, his voice hoarse and weak.

Mirela immediately reached into her coat and pulled out a white vial. She stepped forward, her goat horns visible under the afternoon sun, and placed one hand on her master’s burning hot back. His skin radiated heat through the fabric of his shirt which was a fever from the poison reaching critical levels.

She opened the vial with her teeth, tilted Klaus’s head back gently, and poured the entire contents into his mouth.

The antidote tasted bitter and medicinal.

Klaus swallowed reflexively with his throat working to get it down. Almost immediately, his body violently rejected the neutralized poison. He coughed hard, doubling over, and a thick blob of purple sludge came spewing out onto the ground at his feet.

His face gradually returned from that sickly pink flush to its regular healthy color. He took a deep, shuddering breath which was his first proper breath in almost an hour.

The Compass of Truth stopped glowing immediately, sensing that its holder was out of mortal danger and no longer in a genuine life-or-death situation.

Klaus straightened up slowly, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. He turned back to the official and said clearly, "I want to buy those four resource dungeons."

The man blinked. "All four? Sir, are you certain? That’s quite a—"

"All four," Klaus confirmed.

The official recovered his professional composure quickly. "Alright, sir. Each unregistered resource dungeon is priced at twenty-five gold coins... That brings your total to one hundred gold coins for all four."

Klaus nodded without hesitation. "That’s acceptable."

The official whose name was Elliot, Klaus remembered sighed and gestured back toward the town. "Let’s head back to the office then. We’ll need to process the paperwork and complete the transaction officially."

He began walking, and Klaus fell into step behind him. Mirela walked at Klaus’s side, staying close.

She ran a hand through her white hair nervously with her goat ears twitching. "Master, do you feel alright?"

Klaus sighed, rolling his shoulders to work out the tension. "Yes, I’m fine now. We just need to finish this business before we can rest."

She nodded with relief visible on her face.

...

Within ten minutes, Klaus found himself sitting at a luxurious mahogany table in an impressively decorated office.

He adjusted his shirt collar, trying to look presentable despite having just vomited poison. Mirela stood behind him in her casual clothes, hands folded, watching everything carefully.

This was the Office of the Mayor of Galen Town, and it certainly looked the part. Rich wooden furniture, expensive paintings on the walls, thick carpets, crystal decanters of what was probably very old alcohol. Luxurious but tasteful, which was expected for someone holding the position of mayor.

The man sitting across from Klaus was surprisingly not some fat corrupt official like Klaus had expected, but rather a fit man in his fifties with sharp eyes and an easy smile.

He clapped his hands once, and a servant entered immediately carrying a tea service.

"Welcome to my office, dear Klaus," the mayor said warmly as tea was poured for both of them. "I’m sure you’re aware, but your reputation precedes you."

’I’m not sure exactly what I did to earn a reputation though?’

Klaus’s eye almost twitched.

So he’d saved Cedric Arlain from the Death Cult. So what? It wasn’t even really him who’d dealt with that situation... Zephyra had done most of the heavy lifting with her ridiculous abilities, he had merely escaped and wasn’t this reputation going to cause more problems than benefits in the long run? People would have expectations.

"I am aware..." Klaus said simply, keeping his expression neutral.

The mayor smiled wider. "Your bravery truly brought honor to all adventurers that come from Galen Town. Acts like yours remind people why the Guild exists in the first place."

He took a sip of his tea, then set it down and got to business.

"But that aside... Elliot informed me that you want to purchase four unregistered resource dungeons. Is that correct?"

Klaus nodded. "That’s correct."

Mayor Aldwin sat up properly with his posture becoming more formal. He pulled out a set of official-looking documents from his storage ring, and they materialized on the desk between them in a neat pile.

’At least after all that glazing, he better give me some kind of discount or something.’

"Are you absolutely sure you don’t want to have them properly inspected before making your purchase?" the mayor asked, raising an eyebrow. "Even a magical compass... however interesting can’t truly tell you whether there’s actual wealth inside a resource dungeon. You could be buying glorified mud pits."

Klaus instantly recognized what the man was doing. He was trying to get Klaus to spend more money on inspection services, or maybe trying to talk him out of the purchase entirely so the dungeons could be sold to someone else later at higher prices once they were registered and cataloged.

"I’m quite sure of my choices, Mr. Mayor..." Klaus said with a slight edge to his voice.

"Confidence is essential in business," Aldwin said smoothly, apparently unbothered by Klaus’s tone. "Very well then."

He pulled out four specific files from the pile and laid them out in a row.

"North Resource Dungeon Six, Twenty-One, Thirty-Three, and Forty. These are the four unregistered resource dungeons which you wish to purchase, correct?"

"Correct..." Klaus confirmed.

"Each dungeon is priced at twenty-five gold coins, bringing your total to one hundred gold coins."

Klaus nodded. "I understand."

The mayor leaned back in his chair. "Now, would you like to hire workers who can help you mine and extract the minerals from these dungeons? I can arrange for experienced teams."

Klaus considered this.

"Yes, I would appreciate that," Klaus said.

The mayor clapped his hands together once. "Excellent! Then with the mining teams included, your total comes to one hundred and twenty gold coins."

Klaus blinked. "One hundred and twenty?"

Why the hell would he be paying one hundred twenty when the dungeons only cost one hundred? Where was that extra twenty gold coming from? Did the mayor think gold grew on trees? Did he think Klaus was stupid? Mining didn’t cost that much.

"Naturally you’d be skeptical since this is your first time purchasing resource dungeons," Mayor Aldwin said smoothly, as if he’d expected the question. "However, when buying from a town or city, you need to pay not only the standard commercial tax but also a processing commission. This money goes toward the maintenance of other resource dungeons in the region and helps Galen Town maintain its infrastructure."

He paused, then added almost casually. "It’s also fine if you want to pay in installments over several months. We offer very reasonable payment plans with added benefits that could reduce the total amount you’d owe."

Klaus’s eye twitched.

He should have known better than to expect anything straightforward from a politician. The mayor was obviously trying to keep him bound to the town financially, probably to ensure Klaus couldn’t just take his dungeons and leave or to maintain leverage over him for future favors.

Klaus took a deep breath, then said flatly. "I’d rather pay everything at once. I’ll also need the workers available starting tomorrow."

Mayor Aldwin raised both eyebrows, clearly not expecting that response. "Tomorrow? That can certainly be arranged, though it’s quite soon. How exactly do you plan to pay—"

Klaus’s storage ring glowed.

A pile of gold coins... exactly one hundred twenty of them materialized on the desk between them with musical clinks, stacking themselves neatly.

The mayor’s eyes widened slightly. That was a significant amount of liquid currency for someone Klaus’s age and apparent rank to be carrying around casually.

’This must be the money he received from the Arlain family as a reward.’ Aldwin thought, reassessing the young man sitting across from him.

He recovered quickly and nodded, his professional smile returning. "Excellent. Very efficient, Mister Klaus."

He pulled out the contracts from within the files and slid them across the desk.

"If you’ll sign here, here, and here... these dungeons will be officially registered under your name."

...

"HAAAH!"

Taula shouted while gripping her oversized battle axe with both hands with golden aura coiling around the weapon like living light. She swung it down with devastating force onto the head of a charging orc.

CRACK!

The creature’s skull split open like a melon, brain matter and bone fragments spraying outward. The orc’s body went instantly limp and collapsed forward. Taula planted her boot on its chest and yanked her axe free with a wet squelching sound with blood dripping from the blade.

"Hehehehe~ Klaus, did you see tha—"

An orc snuck up behind her while she was distracted, raising a crude wooden club to smash her skull from behind. Before it could bring the weapon down, a concentrated beam of silvery moon mana slammed into the side of the orc’s head.

The beam didn’t do much actual damage... barely left a burn mark but it did make the monster stagger sideways and turn its attention toward the beastkin who’d attacked it.

Mirela stood several meters away with her eyes crackling with moon mana as her expression was fierce despite her obvious lack of offensive power.

"That’s pretty good, Mirela!" Taula called out cheerfully.

She dashed forward and slashed horizontally in one clean motion, her axe cutting completely through the orc’s midsection. The top half of its body slid sideways and hit the ground separately from the bottom half with blood pooling rapidly.

"Now you only need to make your attacks like... ten times stronger! No, wait... make it a hundred times stronger for them to actually do anything useful!"

Mirela’s eye twitched. "Did you just call me weak, Taula?"

"Pretty much, yeah," Serra chimed in from her position at Mirela’s side.

She raised her staff as a group of goblins came shrieking toward them, waving rusty weapons. Golden holy light covered her staff, glowing intensely, and several concentrated beams of radiant energy fired forward in rapid succession.

BOOM BOOM BOOM!

Each beam impacted a goblin dead-center, and the creatures literally exploded into chunks of meat and burnt flesh, scattering across the dungeon floor.

"Boss, are we done here?" Serra called out toward where Klaus was fighting.

Klaus moved backward smoothly as a massive club came down in a clean vertical arc, wielded by an orc twice his size. The weapon... a crude thing made of wood and bound metal slammed into the stone floor where he’d just been standing with tremendous force, kicking up dust and debris and leaving a crater in the solid rock.

WHAM!

Another orc attacked from his right side with a horizontal swing, trying to catch him while he was recovering from the dodge.

Klaus ducked under the strike at the last possible second, dropping into a low crouch. The club whooshed over his head close enough that he felt the wind from it, and the weapon hit the dungeon wall instead with a deafening crash, sending stone chips and fragments flying in all directions.

Klaus immediately transitioned from his crouch into an upward thrust with both hands gripping his sword tightly. He drove the blade straight up with all his strength behind it, aiming for the soft tissue under the first orc’s jaw.

The steel punched through skin and muscle, through the roof of the mouth, through the palate, and kept going straight up through the skull with brutal efficiency.

The tip burst out through the top of the orc’s head with a sickening squelch, gray brain matter and dark blood splattering outward in a spray.

The orc’s yellow eyes rolled back until only the whites showed. Its body went instantly limp and began falling backward like a puppet with cut strings. Klaus fell with it since his sword was still deeply embedded in its skull, unable to pull free in time.

He hit the ground hard on his back with the dead orc partially on top of him.

The second orc roared in rage and raised its club high overhead with both hands, clearly aiming to bring the weapon down and pulverize Klaus while he was pinned on the ground with his sword stuck in a corpse.

Klaus twisted and yanked his blade free with a spray of blood and brain. He used the momentum to flip himself up and over the falling orc’s body in a smooth acrobatic move, planting one hand on its shoulder and vaulting.

The club came down...

CRUNCH!

... and smashed directly into the first orc’s already-dead body, pulverizing it into a mangled mess of broken bones and torn flesh.

Klaus completed his flip and landed behind the second orc. He gripped his sword with both hands with blade held horizontally at waist level.

’Heh...’

He twisted his hips and slashed in one fluid motion, putting his whole body into it.

The blade cut clean through the orc’s midsection at stomach level. The cut was so clean that for a moment nothing happened then the top half of the orc’s body slid sideways and hit the ground with a wet thud with organs spilling out in a steaming pile.

Klaus landed in a crouch, breathing hard but grinning slightly.

It had been one week. A full week since he’d purchased those four resource dungeons and started mining operations with the ctown provided workers... A week since he’d cashed in on the absolutely massive amount of valuable minerals they’d extracted.

There had been a few minor problems... some "mineral swallowers" but he’d made short work of them with his sword.

It wouldn’t be a stretch to say that he was now one of the richest men in Galen Town but that wasn’t even the best part.

He’d done several Gacha rolls over the past week with histickets. Most of them had been trash... one-time-use consumable items that were moderately useful but nothing special. However, among all of them, there was one pull that stood out like a shining star.

「Trait: Aura」

「Tier: Apprentice」

「Description: With this trait active, you have the ability to use aura in bursts. Increasing your rank in the art of aura makes your human body far stronger and more durable.」

He now had the ability to use aura!

Sure, he was only an Aura Apprentice... nowhere near the level of a Practitioner like Taula, and laughably far from a Master but his body now housed multiple different types of energy.

Mana from his spells and now aura running through his muscles and bones and he’d also been raiding dungeons with the girls throughout this past week, gaining combat experience and leveling up steadily.

Klaus stood up properly with a satisfied sigh. Serra was already moving around the battlefield, using constructs of golden holy light shaped like hands to retrieve the monster cores from the corpses.

"Right, what’s next?" Klaus asked, looking toward the stone staircase leading upward.

They were currently on Floor Nineteen of the Galen World Dungeon. That meant once they climbed to Floor Twenty, they’d face a Boss Monster which was the kind that respawned periodically in World Dungeons and usually had excellent drops.

"Do we take a break first, or do we push forward to the boss?"

"I think we should go up now," Mirela said while adjusting her cloak. "After we defeat the boss, we can return to the Guild and sell everything we’ve collected today."

The others nodded in agreement.

Once you passed Floor Fifteen in a World Dungeon, the dungeon’s magic automatically registered where you’d stopped. When you used a Dungeon Escape Stone to teleport back to the entrance, the next time you entered, you’d spawn back at your last checkpoint instead of starting over.

"I’m pumped! Let’s go!" Taula yelled enthusiastically.

She grabbed Klaus’s arm and practically dragged him toward the stairs. Serra and Mirela followed behind them.

They climbed the stone steps with their footsteps echoing in the enclosed space. The air grew colder as they ascended, and Klaus could feel his heartbeat picking up with anticipation.

Boss fights were always dangerous, even in lower-floor dungeons. The monsters were smarter, faster, stronger—

Their voices died in their throats the moment they reached the top of the stairs and stepped onto Floor Twenty.

"AHHHHH!! HELP ME!!!"

A woman with short dark hair wearing a pointed witch’s hat was crawling desperately toward them, reaching out with one blood-soaked hand.

Her lower body was completely missing... severed cleanly at the waist, leaving a trail of blood and internal organs behind her as she dragged herself forward with her arms.

Before any of them could react, a massive shape moved in the darkness.

A huge black and white werewolf... easily three meters tall, with muscles like iron cables under its fur lunged forward. It grabbed the crawling woman by the head with one enormous clawed hand and lifted her off the ground.

She screamed as the werewolf opened its jaws wide... revealing rows of razor-sharp teeth and bit down.

CRUNCH!

The screaming stopped abruptly and the woman’s body went limp. The creature began eating, tearing chunks of flesh away with savage efficiency.

Klaus’s eyes swept across the boss chamber.

Multiple bodies lay scattered across the blood-stained floor... an entire adventuring party, by the look of it. Some were in pieces. Some had clearly been partially eaten with their weapons and equipment lay discarded where their owners had dropped them.

’It seems adventurers tried raiding this floor boss... and the whole party got wiped.’

Klaus stared at the massive creature as it finished consuming the witch’s corpse and slowly turned its attention toward the four of them standing at the chamber entrance.

He recognized this monster immediately from his countless hours playing Artemis Online back in his previous life.

This was a Were-Hound... a Boss monster known for its devastating speed and regeneration.