Departure

"I heard that you wanted to speak to me?"

In the middle of the night, Five walked out of the dungeon under the guidance of Angela. The silver-haired harpy led Five to a small clearing where the Shaman was still waiting for Mira to finish brewing her last potion.

The Shaman's eyes widened when he saw Five's figure but he quickly recollected himself, "It is true! He can really come back from the dead," said the Shaman to himself.

He turned to Angela, "Angela, please look after Mira, I will have to speak to your master in private."

Five and the Shaman walked to a reasonable distance from Mira. "I would first like to apologize. We said that we would guarantee your safety on this expedition but in the end, we failed. I know that it is not much, but I brought a few items here to show my sincerity."

The Shaman proceeded in taking out a few items from his pouch. He was well prepared and very quickly 11 small bottles appeared in front of Five.

"What are those?" Although he asked the question, Five immediately obtained the information about the potions. They were all stat-increasing potions. Each potion would increase the stats by 1 but they were all unique. There were the Grade 1 and the Grade 2 versions of each potion. Five has already seen these potions in the Dungeon Shop and they were not exactly cheap. The Grade 0 version would cost 1000 DP, the Grade 1 version would cost 10000 DP and the Grade 2 potion was 10 times more expensive.

The potions were very useful, but they were not worth the price. Furthermore, when Five was looking for ways to improve his monsters, he found that the potions would only have half their effectiveness when used on monsters.

"A few potions that can help you get stronger. I have already taught the Grade 0 version to Angela but she still needs to practice a lot to obtain an acceptable success rate. She is quite talented; I am happy to have her as my student," answered the Shaman.

He then pointed at the last remaining bottle. "This contains a viscous gel that can be dissolved into water to form a special bath. It will help improve your physique. I hope it will make up for your losses."

Five quietly nodded and sent all the items in his inventory. They would be very useful to him. He clearly understood that the Shaman had had some intentions in sending him to represent the tribe at the meeting but at that time, he was blinded by the idea of finally leaving the dungeon and meet some players.

"Now, shall we get to business? I would like to increase the number of people we are sending to the dungeon. But naturally, we will need to obtain a few more benefits too."

Five internally sneered, 'Tssk! You know very well that your people would not need to go to the forest anymore. You think that just a few potions would be enough to grease my hands?'

"What kind of benefits?" asked Five.

"We are planning to send at least 300 people every day. However, we would like you to open two more floors and we would appreciate it if we could find some resources on those floors. For example, the ores on the first floor are useful but we would like to be able to harvest more advanced ores too. The same goes for the 4th floor. We can pick a few herbs there, but they are the basic ones," said the Shaman. He wore an innocent face as he expected Five to immediately agree.

"300 people?" murmured Five. It was a huge increase in the current number of visitors he had but Five was still not satisfied! He wanted all the tribes of the surroundings to come to his dungeon. "An interesting proposition. I will open one more floor for you. As for the ores and herbs, I can indeed spawn them in the dungeon, but it will depend on the rarity of the herbs you are looking for."

"Of course, it will all be useful items that Angela will also need in the future. At the moment, she is using the herbs I provide but she is consuming more than I expected. The plants are not so rare, but neither are they too common in this region. I am mostly asking you to provide resources that are usually harvested by the other tribes," answered the Shaman.

"I don't have any problem in providing more resources, just give a list to Angela. Is there anything else?" asked Five. He had long been planning to increase the variety of resources that could be available in the dungeon; now that an expert was giving him pieces of advice on which one to choose, Five would not say no to some free information.

"I have one more request to make. Since we will be sending so many people to your dungeon; we would like to ask for your protection in case we are attacked," hesitantly said the Shaman.

Five furrowed his brows; he knew the Shaman would not come here just to talk about the increase in the number of people. Five was not completely clueless about the situation. 300 people represented the total population of a small tribe. Unless the Black Iron Tribe was planning to send all the women, elderly and children to his dungeon every day, Five could easily guess that the tribe came up with some sort of partnership with other tribes.

"Have you not decided to ally with other tribes? Why do you need my protection?" asked Five with an innocent expression. Not only did Harriet notice the delegations of the other tribes arriving at the Black Iron Village, but Dreidus also notice that a few barbarians wearing different outfits have been roaming through the dungeon these past few days.

'He knows!' instantly thought the Shaman. "Yes. This is the only way we will be able to send in more people. However, as you already know from the tribes' meeting, all the tribes are already aware that we have a dungeon. Many are eyeing the dungeon and will start by targeting us. If the Black Iron Tribe falls first, then the tribe would monopolize the dungeon. They will only send in their own tribesmen; at most a few hundred per day."

"Oh? And you are not planning on monopolizing it?" sarcastically asked Five. He was not new to this sort of behavior. To him, it did not really matter which tribe was visiting him; however, he might be able to take advantage of the situation.

"No no no. We are already agreeing to share with our partners. We will just like to get a few benefits as we are the ones who discovered the dungeon. In the future, we will naturally allow others to enter the dungeon," awkwardly said the Shaman.

"Interesting... Will you also allow the players with who you've made a few trades to come here?"

The Shaman froze. He was willing to share it with the other barbarians as it would benefit them as a group but if the players were allowed in, wouldn't they just bring all the resources back to the townsmen's territory? It would badly influence the economy of the barbarians.

Seeing the Shaman's hesitation, Five continued, "Since you have already decided to start opening yourself to the townsmen, why don't you just build some sort of inns for them to stay at? You can allow the players to go to the dungeon and simply charge them a fee at the entrance. What do you think?"

This was precisely what Five was after! He obtained a decent amount of DP from the NPCs but the one consistent source of DP was the players! The NPCs would roam the dungeon to collect resources but the players were focused on farming exp! They did not particularly focus on resources; the players represented a different kind of customer. Furthermore, the barbarians' level would take forever to increase while the players would do so rather quickly, increasing the DP they generated.

"This... I will need to carefully think about this before giving a definite answer, but I do not see why we would not allow them in. We might not do so immediately but in the future, we will. However, I know that the other tribes are not as open-minded as the Black Iron Tribe, I know they will definitely not allow those players to go to the dungeon."

Five could see the Shaman's nervousness. In the end, he simply answered, "I will help in defending your village, but I will not put the lives of my monsters at risk for nothing. You have obtained quite a few materials from the monsters of the dungeon and I can see that you have been trading actively. In exchange for a few of those items, I do not mind assisting in the protection of your village, but you should not expect me to do all the work."

The Shaman paused for a moment. He has been the one making most of the items highly sought by the players. He knew their value but at the same time, the lives of his tribesmen were priceless. "Alright. I agree but we will have to make a few more changes to the contract. Since there will be two other tribes joining us, I would also request to allow them to know of your existence."

Five nodded, "Sure. I have nothing against this... Let's hurry up then. It is already late."

...

After the discussion with the Shaman, Five returned to the dungeon and immediately went to sleep. Tomorrow was going to be a long day.

When he woke up, Five immediately checked the time. There were still a few hours before he would be teleported to the auction and he needed to get ready. He sat down to eat his breakfast with his monsters and at the same time, quickly checked the amount of DP he had.

1255986 DP were currently sitting in his inventory. There has been a massive increase in DP last night as Harriet and the Beast Kings killed all the beasts that dared to rebel against them. Although it looked like a lot, Five knew that they would all disappear in an instant.

Five chatted with Harriet, trying to obtain as much information about the existing alliances of the dungeon masters. Since he would be interacting with them, it would not harm Five to learn a little bit about them.

Soon, only one hour was left before the countdown would reach 0. Five took out the dungeon core and brought it to the 6th floor where the cadavers and corpse eaters were.

Using the interface, Five quickly spent all his hard earned DP and summoned the previously agreed monsters. The usually wide cavern became suddenly crowdy. The atmosphere became stuffy as the tall menacing undead monsters appeared one after another. Their aura was imposing; had they been in the wild, a fight would have probably immediately been started but in the dungeon; they all instinctively knew that they were allies and immediately recognized Five as their master.

The scariest monsters were without a doubt the Defacers. It was not just because they had the highest level but also because Five would feel a chill whenever he would look at the completely empty face.

"Dreidus here will lead you during the next few days. Please listen to him," commanded Five. The monsters grunted in approval as none of them could actually speak.

The group then walked out of the sixth floor and climbed the stair upward to the fifth floor. Five had already warned the Shaman to ask the barbarians to leave the dungeon during that period of time. He did not know how they would react if a large army of undead monsters suddenly appeared.

The barbarians were strong but against such a large army, they would not stand a chance without the help of their totem spirit.

Fortunately, the Shaman took Five's warning seriously. As they arrived on the grassy plains of the fifth floor, not as single barbarian could be seen.

"Dreidus, you take it from here. You know what to do!" said Five.

"Don't worry! It is not the first time I am doing something like this. The dungeon will operate as normal in our absence," answered Dreidus.

The lich grabbed the dungeon core and swiftly departed. Once he arrived on the first floor, he would then summon 500 skeletons before passing the dungeon core to Lyra.

Five nodded as he watched the army of undead monsters loudly make their way to the stairs leading to the fourth floor. The usual monsters did not react to this army and respectfully stepped out of the way. They all looked at Five in reverence, knowing that he was the dungeon master.

Only Alice and Angela were left by Five's side. Harriet had already left the dungeon earlier to gather the beasts. She has already started her journey toward the nearest dungeon; the one located at the Prairie Dog Tribe. Compared to the undead, the beasts were living creatures who had limited stamina. The Undead monsters could continue their journey during the night without feeling tired, but it was a different story for the beasts.

Fortunately, the beasts traveled at a much faster pace than the undead monsters; it was especially true for the wraith and the liches. In the end, both armies should have arrived and probably also raided the Prairie Dog Tribe's dungeon by the start of the second auction.

Five bit his lips as he slowly made his way back to the meeting room. He was still wondering whether he made the right decision. If he could choose to attack the other players; they could choose to attack him too.

Five did take some precautions by leaving behind the Haunting Ghosts, 3 liches and the rest of the monsters as usual. Lyra was also staying at the dungeon to look after the monsters. They should be enough to defend against regular attacks but who knows what will happen if the attackers decided to go all out. On the other hand, he also had the barbarians to help defend his dungeon in case of emergency.

As the Beast Kings killed a few beasts last night, Five had still about 60000 DP as leftovers. It was the only budget he had for the auction, but he was not planning to use it anyway.

"If there is an emergency, do not hesitate to use all the DP left."

Alice, Angela, and Five sat in the meeting room as they waited for the countdown to reach 0. There were still a few minutes left but they felt like an eternity.

This time, Angela would the one to accompany Five on this journey. He was allowed to bring one monster with him and although he would have preferred to bring Harriet with him, Five knew that she was indispensable to the success of the raid.

Typically, dungeon masters would bring monsters that specialized in crafting with them to the auctions. Some of the items sold there were often rare materials that only craftsmen could identify and use. At the same time, the craftsmen usually had a better understanding of the value of items and could help the dungeon masters estimate the prices.

Angela was already a Grade 0 alchemist. It was not much but she was the best Five had. In the end, Five was not really going to the auction to buy useful items; his pockets were completely empty. His only hope was that the raid would be a success.

Soon, the countdown reached 0 and in a flash, Five and Angela vanished from the meeting room leaving Alice alone.