New Quests.

As I was admiring my new summon, Spectre, another quest window popped up in front of me.

It wasn't even that surprising to me anymore.

All I've been doing after coming to this world is just work, work and more work.

[Quest Received!]

[Quest: Reach the Surface.]

[Time Limit: 10 days, 12 hours, 59 mins]

[Upon Failure: Insanity]

...

'Insanity? Is it gonna mess with my mind? *Sigh... Whatever, I wanted to go to the surface anyway. Haven't seen sunlight in a long time.'

'But finding the surface would be a very difficult task, judging from the long time limit.'

I began brainstorming ideas about how I could reach the surface quickly. I didn't even know how deep underground I was...

'Should I just go Minecraft mode and dig straight up? Nah, I don't think that's gonna work in this world with advanced physics, haha...', I chuckled.

The only choice I had left was to explore the dungeon and find some way to go up it.

I had been on stairs before that went upwards, but once I did that, I found myself facing weaker monsters with a lesser amount of magic crystals, so I returned back down.

'You know what? I have subordinates now... I can just order them to find the surface for me! And, the monsters near the surface are weak! They can easily handle them!', I thought.

But then, the encounter with the former Spectre, the zombie knight came to mind.

I shook my head and steeled my resolve.

'Expect the unexpected. I won't fall victim to carelessness.'

With that thought, I got up from my throne and faced my bowing subordinates, namely Desmond and Spectre. The other monsters were stationed in the corridors. I didn't want my hard-earned throne room dirtied.

"We are leaving for the surface. You two will support me.", I commanded.

And Corvis who was on my right shoulder this entire time yelled "Craw! Craw!".

The two skeletons shook their skulls and said in unison, "Yes... My lord...".

I left my throne room and started walking towards the stairs that I had in mind.

As I walked through the corridors, I felt a feeling I had felt back when I made my first descent game. The feeling of accomplishment.

The dimly lit corridors with the torches, the floor cleaned up, the walls repaired. It looked like a real dungeon now...

"Craw! Craw!", Corvis seemed to be proud of me.

"Haha, thanks Corvis. I appreciate it.", I said. I wanted to give him a treat or something but I couldn't. Corvis wasn't an ordinary crow, he was a Dark Spirit, After all, he didn't need food. Just like me.

I couldn't comprehend the biology of my own body. How in the world am I still alive and well after I did that much manual work?! I haven't eaten or slept in over a month!

--- Around two hours later ---

"Huff Huff Huff", I huffed as the tiredness caught up to me. I suddenly felt a sensation I hadn't felt in over a month.

Hunger. Thirst. Sleep.

'What... Is happening... Why am I suddenly feeling all these things...?', I barely managed to even keep awake.

"Craw! Craw! Craw!!!!!", Corvis yelled.

"What...? I'm far away from the dungeon core...?"

Then it hit me.

All this time, I have been close to, or at the same Y-level of the dungeon core.

'Was the dungeon core... supplying me with energy all this time...?', I wondered.

"We're... Going back down...", I commanded.

--- After 30 minutes ---

'The tiredness is completely gone...', I thought.

My suspicions were correct.

'No wonder the time limit for the quest was this big... It's because of this stupid side effect.', I mused.

Being a Dungeon master, if I strayed away from my dungeon core too much, I would start to feel extreme fatigue and even my mana would be slowly syphoned away into the atmosphere.

'So, How do I even get to the surface then? I'll just collapse even before I reach the goal...'

I also couldn't count on my summons to carry me back safely, since I didn't know what happened to them once I went unconscious. They could very well also become unconscious and just fall to the ground, since their puppeteer, me, is out.

But, I wasn't completely out of ideas yet.

'Maybe if I intake actual food, I'll be okay?', I thought.

But there was nowhere near enough time to prepare food, let alone reach the surface after preparing food.

But then, a disgusting thought came to mind.

'Will I have to eat monster flesh...?'

I didn't even want to imagine the taste of something looking so grotesque.

'All those times I forced Steve to eat Rotten Flesh... Now I have to do it too?!', I thought worryingly.

There was no other choice. Of course, I could come up with another idea to reach the surface, like taking the dungeon core itself with me, but that idea was bogus.

I had already tried moving the dungeon core while building the throne room, but the thing wouldn't budge. I tried to break it off from the ground, but I got a warning notification from the dungeon core itself-

[WARNING!]

[DUNGEON CORE IN DANGER!]

[DUNGEON CORE IN DANGER!]

I got so scared that I jumped away from it, hurting my butt in the process.

My face contorted at the realisation of my situation. I had to eat monster flesh or I would go insane.

I didn't want to risk eating monster flesh and getting some sort of disease, but I FOR SURE didn't want to risk becoming insane!

'I'll be very angry if this doesn't work... Please... Let this work...', I prayed.

There was no way I was gonna eat zombie flesh, so only 4 options remained.

The slime, the kobolds, the shadow goblins, or the minotaur...

I was hoping that the minotaur would taste just like beef since its head looks like a bull's.

I also prayed that I didn't catch any disease when eating them...