Chapter 19 – Dungeon Opening Plan
Chapter 19 – Dungeon Opening Plan
At the cafe where I had an appointment with Minju, I left two Magitech Armors to escort the place and about six Worker Bugs to handle supplies in the vicinity.
It went without saying that I ensured one Observation Probe in the sky and one inside to keep a precise grasp of the situation at all times.
Since the Worker Bugs were planned to continuously gather resources nearby in addition to supplying the Magitech Armor, they could be maintained without significant loss as long as I collected the gains steadily.
After properly recovering the Mana Stone from the large Nest and returning to the Shopping Mall, Sua and Deokchan welcomed me.
“Oh, Mr. Siwoo! It feels like it’s been a while!”
Sua’s left eye had become a black bruise.
And for some reason, Deokchan was glaring at me with angry eyes.
‘Ugh… Could it be…?’
Sua’s eye must have been injured during training.
‘This is all for the sake of your daughter…’
I felt like making an excuse.
“Uh, well… You. There’s something I want to say.”
“Father! You’re not going to bring that up!”
“Sua, even so, your only daughter—”
“Mr. Siwoo, more importantly!”
Sua cut off Deokchan’s words with a loud voice.
It seemed she was trying to change the subject.
“Is there any way I can use my ability in combat?”
“Ah, about that.”
Something happened to come to mind.
I pulled out my smartphone.
“Would you like to see this?”
What I showed her were clips from popular media, such as movies and animations, showing Ability Users using water-related techniques.
Adding to that, I fleshed out the explanation by describing the methods Water Ability Users used in my previous life, making it a quite plausible explanation.
“Wow… You’re saying I can do this?”
“Wouldn’t it be entirely possible?”
I shrugged as if I wasn’t entirely sure.
“I’ll try it right now! Thank you, Mr. Siwoo!”
Sua headed up to the rooftop in excitement.
It seemed she intended to experiment immediately.
Seeing her learn with such passion, Deokchan’s emotions seemed to soften a bit, and he approached me quietly to apologize.
“Sigh… You. I’m sorry. I trust you. However… I hope you understand that it’s not easy to watch my only daughter get hurt.”
“Of course, Elder. I will try to hold back a bit.”
Of course, the “holding back” was only in words.
She had to become even stronger in the future.
* * *
I went up to the Shopping Mall 6th Floor, washed up quickly, and flopped face-down onto the bed in my room.
‘Wow… How many days has it been.’
They say you suffer once you leave home, and it truly felt that way.
Meanwhile, the Shopping Mall 6th Floor looked much better than when I first arrived. The most noticeable change was, without a doubt, the cleanliness.
The black dust that had accumulated over time had been scraped away by the Worker Bugs, and the stains that wouldn’t come off had been completely removed once Sua started water-cleaning.
Thanks to that, the Shopping Mall boasted floors that sparkled, just like the brief peak of its glory when it was first built.
‘At this rate, people would believe it if stores moved in tomorrow.’
Of course, it was people, not stores, who were planned to move in. And it had become a much better place for people to live.
Unlike before, where everything was wide open and there was no privacy, panels had now been erected to block off areas.
While I was away, Deokchan had somehow obtained wallpaper and paint to decorate the surroundings to fit the atmosphere.
It might seem like nothing, but it definitely felt like the atmosphere had come alive. The only downside was that electricity still wasn’t running, so it was a bit dark.
‘I need to secure proper electricity soon.’
There was clearly a limit to the capacity of Deokchan’s generator, which was used at most for charging power tools.
It was only possible to use essential items for daily life, such as lights or smartphones, through the tedious process of charging a large stack of USB power banks scavenged from the general store.
Of course, the Worker Bugs handled all the tedious parts. And in urgent cases, I could use the Worker Bugs to light up the area.
But the fact remained that it all cost labor and Mana.
‘I’m starting to run low on Mana Stones, so I should reduce Mana consumption.’
That wasn’t all.
By summoning the Assault Cannons, which were Medium-Class machines, they were eating up a considerable amount of maintenance costs. They consumed a massive amount of Mana, slowing down my recovery speed.
‘I’ll really have to tighten my belt for a while…’
With those thoughts, I checked the research results once more.
[Composite Research in progress… 36%]
Advanced Research was truly a Mana Stone-eating monster. Especially now, when the purity and Mana content of the Mana Stones were low.
Therefore…
The Nest Mana Stone obtained this time was a significant achievement.
‘Bring it here quickly.’
“Ding!”
At my command, a Worker Bug struggled and panted as it carried the Nest Mana Stone and displayed it in the center of my private room.
A large Mana Stone, about the size of a watermelon or a basketball.
“Now… how shall I use this?”
A smile flickered on my lips.
* * *
‘Should I just finish the research first?’
That was the first option that came to mind.
The [Composite] research I was currently conducting was one of the “essential researches” provided by the research institute from the start.
It wasn’t simply about strengthening a specific machine with Essence…
It was a technology that helped all machines and was essential for creating higher-tier machines.
‘It would be great to finish it quickly, but…’
I checked the Mana quantity of the Nest Mana Stone.
‘As expected for the very beginning, it’s not that much.’
It was slightly disappointing.
‘Let’s think about other uses for now…’
There were other options, such as building facilities. That is, if I weren’t already consuming a significant amount of Mana Stones for the Composite research.
‘Considering the maintenance cost of summoning facilities… it would probably be difficult.’
A facility cannot be stopped during summoning. If you don’t consistently feed it Mana Stones, the facility summoning rift becomes unstable and eventually fades away.
In other words, all the investment made up to that point would be wasted!
‘I must avoid that at all costs.’
I was already short on Mana Stones; there was no way I could withstand summoning a facility. Therefore, I had to put facility research on hold until I had a surplus of Mana Stones.
Fortunately, however… the Nest Mana Stone was something that could actually “create that surplus of Mana Stones.”
‘As expected, the answer is [Counter-Invasion].’
It was time to use the Nest Mana Stone to connect a [Dungeon] for farming.
* * *
‘Now, where should I connect the dungeon?’
I began searching for a suitable location, switching between the Observation Probes flying near the shopping mall.
Deokchan, acting as the site foreman, had recently been leading Worker Bugs to tear down empty houses nearby. Thanks to that, suitable clearings were appearing occasionally.
However, there were a few things to consider.
‘This place seems too far for now.’
First, it couldn’t be too far. A dungeon was, so to speak, a workshop that could steadily produce byproducts.
If the distance between such a workshop and my Main Base was too far, it meant the Worker Bugs would have to work several times harder to transport the byproducts. If the distance doubled, the Worker Bugs would have to make the round trip twice.
That wasn’t all. If someone from the outside targeted my dungeon, it would be that much harder to defend.
In short, closer was better.
‘But this place doesn’t seem right either…’
However, I couldn’t just create it right in front of my shopping mall.
The dimension connected by a Mana Stone was fundamentally the home of Monsters. In other words, a failure in management would lead directly to an outbreak of Monsters.
Since I planned to manage it well, that probably wouldn’t happen, but the mere possibility was a risk.
For example, if I thoughtlessly connected a dungeon inside the shopping mall and made a mistake one day, I might have to abandon my Main Base.
And because that risk was so great… as a human, there was a high probability I would deploy more troops than necessary.
It would be a pointless waste.
‘So… something moderate is best.’
As I scanned the clearings, my eyebrow twitched.
“Oh. This place looks like it would be okay.”
A distance of about 1-2 km from the shopping mall.
It was a sufficient distance to respond if anything happened.
The paths connecting it to the shopping mall were wide and clear, so the scalability looked good.
“Alright. I’ll go with this place.”
Having thought it through sufficiently, it was time to put it into action.
* * *
The next morning.
I was at the site with Deokchan. I was in the middle of requesting him to build a small, hollow warehouse building.
“Hmm… the ground seems fine around here.”
“How many Worker Bugs should I assign to you?”
“Well, the more of those fellows, the better.”
Deokchan laughed heartily.
“The more there are, the faster it’ll be built. But is this really alright? I’m a carpenter, not an architect.”
“Well, you’re surely better at it than I am.”
“Ahem… Well, I have built plenty of small warehouses.”
“That’s more than enough.”
I gave him a thumbs-up.
“Alright, I’ll do my best.”
Deokchan nodded reluctantly.
‘Well… it doesn’t need to be that grand.’
The dungeon was a top-secret matter. Therefore, I needed a building to act as a screen so it wouldn’t be easily seen from the outside.
That was all I was requesting.
It didn’t need to be exceptionally sturdy or beautiful. I would be satisfied as long as it was practical and had a spacious interior.
As I explained the conditions I wanted and specified the width and height of the building, Deokchan quickly moved back and forth, conceptualizing the design.
‘It seems there won’t be any big problems.’
It likely wouldn’t take long.
‘Once I have the dungeon, the limit on growth will be lifted.’
The Mana Stone problem, which was currently causing a bottleneck, would be solved.
Artifacts with various effects…
Mithril Mines, and so on.
I could obtain things that only seemed to exist in fantasies.
‘I will become even stronger.’
I was dying to open the dungeon as quickly as possible.
* * *
Having left the construction to Deokchan, I sent a short text to Minju on my way home.
[Minju… is everything alright?]
[Ah! Mr. Siwoo… I’m so sorry. I had a little fight with my sibling ㅠㅠ I’ll resolve it quickly and contact you! Please stay safe!]
[Yes, it can’t be helped. You be careful too, Minju.]
‘A fight with their sibling… I wonder what happened?’
I tilted my head for a moment. Since there were no special notifications from the Magitech Armor, I figured it probably wasn’t anything serious.
Meanwhile, having taken out my smartphone to text Minju, I headed to Apoin almost out of habit.
It was to check if there was any new information.
‘It’s about time that guy showed up…’
Just as I was scrolling quickly through the bulletin board.
A post with a massive number of recommendations caught my eye.
[Electricity keeps cutting out so I decided to make it myself.txt]
[Do you guys know? ㅋㅋ Actually, Korea’s coal power generation rate is around 40%? There’s a reason why electricity keeps cutting out in the provinces lately. How on earth are they bringing in coal in times like these ㅋㅋ]
[So I tried making electricity myself.]
[Materials: Pressure cooker, iron pipe, welder (don’t ask why I have this), a suitable motor rolling around the house (?), water.]
The content after that was as follows:
By drilling a hole in the lid of the pressure cooker and welding an iron pipe to create a small ‘boiler’ that could boil water.
Then, using the steam produced by heating that boiler to rotate blades connected to a motor, electricity was generated. In a way, it was nothing more than a small thermal power plant.
The reaction was explosive.
[Ohhh! He’s an ‘Ability User’ in a different sense! An Ability User has appeared!]
[Wasn’t that the original meaning of Ability User?]
[Full-on ‘Mom’s home-cooked’ electricity ㅋㅋㅋㅋ]
[Can’t you use an electric rice cooker instead of a pressure cooker?]
[Would that even work?]
[If it worked with an electric rice cooker, wouldn’t that be perpetual motion ㅋㅋ]
[…]
“Found him!”
This person… was the ‘information’ I was looking for. He was indeed one of my Past Life Comrades.
I immediately sent him a private message.
[This is SSWOO, who posted recently. Would you like to join our survivor group? Not only are we protected from Monsters, but we have secured all essentials like food, clothing, and shelter, so we are prosperous.]
[Ah ㅋㅋㅋㅋ ‘The’ Mr. Siwoo? Doesn’t sound bad… But what do I get if I go?]
Thinking about what he would have wanted if he were his past self, I decided to give an answer he would like as much as possible.
[The generator you made this time. I’ll let you build it on a larger scale. I’ll provide all the materials, as well as basic material processing and labor.]
[Call. Big call.]
A fast answer without a shred of hesitation.
“Puhahaha.”
Laughter escaped me naturally.
I had been a bit worried, but he was exactly the same as in his previous life.
[By the way, which subway line should I take?]
The subways had stopped long ago. Along with the joke, it seemed to be a question to gauge my intention of how we were actually going to meet.
‘He still hits the core points in this life.’
That was one of his characteristics.
I pondered for a moment how to answer.
[Tell me your location and I’ll come pick you up.]
‘This time, I’ll be the one to go get him.’
He was my Past Life Comrade and the guy who would solve our electricity problem.
Going out to greet him for a moment was no trouble at all.
Of course… it was because I planned to work him just as hard.
‘I’m counting on you again this time.’
The smile would not leave my face.
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Error:
Great demon king of fire: bioluminescent fire manipulation.
…
which is stabilized by fire manipulation
Castle builder: the restrictions on the Castle will be lifted.
Mans man: [Ah haha, ‘the man’ Mr. SSWOO?