Dungeon Core Repaired.

*WOOSH!* *SPLATT!* *IMPAIL!* *BREAK CRACK* *SHU SHU SHU SHU!*

The sound of battle was ringing the walls of the collapsed dungeon.

*CLANG! TING!*

"Miasma Spike.", I chanted, impaling the 'Orc Ghoul' that was struggling to get past the minotaur and attack me.

Looking at the minotaur, it was quite badly damaged and needed to be healed as soon as possible.

"Necroflame.", I chanted, covering the minotaur's skeleton in a black and sinister flame, healing the minotaur's bones and strengthening them temporarily.

"Keep me safe while I recover some mana.", I commanded the undead minotaur while I sat down on the floor to rest.

"Craw! Craw!", Corvis cheered me up.

"Haha, thanks Corvis. I appreciate it...", I showed my gratitude.

Worried, I decided to check my status board. If it went below 5, that meant that Desmond or any of the assassin undead that went with him died.

'I should've sent him with more tanky summons... I hope he's fine... He's probably my strongest summon right now... and He's also a very good ally in battle... It would be a waste to lose him.'

I checked the status board and was shocked to see my summon count.

[Raise Undead(4/5) I]

...

"We're going back for now... We've gathered enough magic stones.", I commanded the minotaur, who was picking up magic stones and putting them inside a sac that I found on the ground.

After listening to my command, it picked up the sac, swung it behind its back and followed me back to the core room.

--- After reaching the core room ---

"Why isn't he coming back?!", I said out loud.

"Corvis! Go look for Desmond and tell him to return.", I commanded.

"Craw!", Corvis immediately obeyed and flew off to the dark corridor.

Oh, and by the way, I couldn't use the dungeon's broken crystals as light sources anymore, so I used magic stones.

Looking at the walls of the dungeon, there were once torches on them, but now, they were all either extinguished or their holders were broken.

--- After 10 minutes ---

*tap tap tap tap*

I could hear the footsteps of my summons closing in on the core room.

"Desmond! You're fine!", I sighed a sigh of relief after seeing the damaged Desmond. He was damaged, but at least he was 'alive'... or 'undead'? I don't know...

"My lord... forgive me... one of the assassins... has perished...", Desmond looked at the ground while admitting his incompetence.

"It's fine. I can get better undead for you. How about you show me how many magic stones you gathered?", I tried to be optimistic. I was relieved that it wasn't Desmond who perished...

"Yes... My lord...", Desmond bowed again before turning his head around to the one assassin.

It was carrying a sac of glowing blue stones.

"Put everything on the ground and let's count them.", I commanded.

The undead obeyed and soon, the floor of the core room was glowing blue. It almost hurt my eyes.

"16... not bad for a first haul... But Desmond... I didn't expect you to get 1 more than me?", I complimented Desmond.

"Apologies... My lord... I'll get... less next... time...", it seemed that Desmond doesn't understand satire...

"No, what you did today was praiseworthy. Good job. Keep it up.", I took a more formal tone this time and Desmond seemed to understand better.

"Thank you... my lord...", he replied.

"Now... let's summon some monsters and get this quest over with...", I said.

"Craw!", Corvis agreed and flew to my shoulder.

--- after shopping ---

I decided to buy 3 orc ghouls, 2 shadow goblins and a minotaur.

That took all of the magic stones I had.

But the results did not disappoint!

As soon as I clicked [Purchase], a black portal appeared and the monsters emerged from inside it.

The orc ghouls were just like their names suggested. They had the body of a fat and muscular humanoid, slightly taller than 6'5ft and had the head of a pig.

They weren't normal orcs though, they were 'Orc Ghouls'. So, they had chunks of muscle, tissue and skin either missing or dangling from their undead body.

The shadow goblins were both archers. They would provide backup to the orc ghouls in case any intruder did manage to get into the dungeon.

The minotaur was actually for Desmond. I thought we both could use tanky summons as protection while casting spells.

I destroyed the assassin that was taking up the summoning spot, killed the minotaur that I just summoned and made it into an undead.

Why didn't the minotaur fight back?

It was my summon to begin with. A monster that strictly followed my orders and lived and died at my whims. I simply commanded it to damage itself severely before I dealt the final blow.

I now had 3 summons in total. Desmond and two undead minotaurs.

The magic stone I got from killing that minotaur was a measly 1 intermediate magic stone. It seems that summoning monsters requires more magic stones than the amount we get from killing them.

Now that I had completed the mini-quest, I waited for the reward, and sure enough, that black translucent window appeared once more.

[Mini-quest completed!]

[Rewards: 5 Intermediate Magic Stones.]

"That's a decent reward I guess.", I accepted the reward given to me by the mysterious system.

[Quest Received!]

[Repair 20% of the dungeon.]

[Time: 30 days, 24 hours, 59 minutes]

[On failure: Dungeon core breakdown.]

...

"WHAT?!", I yelled out.

"30 DAYS?!", I yelled again.

A 30-day-long quest was way too much... And how could I even know how much area 20% was?

"Craw! Craw!", Corvis tried to cheer me up.

"*Sigh... I can't let the dungeon core break down again... I don't know what will happen if the core breaks... I might even die!", I concluded.

Without much of a choice, I decided to plan my next moves.

'To rebuild the dungeon I will first of all need materials... and then... I'll need workers... and then... I'll need more workers...'

The material wasn't as big of a problem as getting workers was. I only had a few monsters and needed loads more to finish the project in time.

That said, it doesn't mean that the material wasn't a big problem in and of itself.

'Well, this dungeon is in a cave... I'm sure I can get the raw materials quickly... Desmond can use earth magic, so he may be able to create bricks and pillars out of the raw materials?', I thought.

'But Desmond has limited mana... He can only do so much before exhausting his mana and waiting for it to refill again...'

"Desmond... How much mana do you have with respect to me?", I asked.

"About... as much... as yours... my lord...", Desmond replied.

"Well, that's not bad... but it isn't enough... Hmm...", I started brainstorming ideas of how I could manage all of this in 30 days...

'For the materials I need Desmond... and Desmond needs more mana... Desmond can get more mana if he becomes stronger... and to get stronger, he needs to kill many monsters... Killing monsters gives magic stones which I can use to summon more monsters and hasten the mining and construction...'

"Yeah, that's it! It's almost brain-rottingly simple!", I exclaimed.

"The solution to this predicament is to kill as many monsters as possible...", but as I said the solution out loud, I realised just how shitty of a solution it was...

Like a badly made RPG game where you keep grinding levels and farming monsters... Every problem in the world can be solved if you kill enough monsters...

"*Sigh... I don't have a choice, do I? I have to do this mind-numbingly boring task for 30 days...", I sighed.

"Well... at least I don't need to eat or drink or sleep...", I said out loud.

Indeed. In these 3 days, I have never had to eat, drink or sleep at all. I guess it's because I'm no longer human... I'm an Arch-Demon...

...

"Desmond. Let's go and hunt as many monsters as possible before I completely run out of stamina. We need as many magic stones as possible and we also need to get as strong as possible...", I commanded Desmond.

"Corvis... Please don't let me go insane...", I told Corvis.

"Craw... Craw!", Corvis sounded sad but determined at the same time. Not that I know how sad and determined crows look like.