Chapter 2

I am a Dungeon Core.

I have no name; a Dungeon Core is just a Dungeon Core.

I am an existence that embodies the will of the dungeon, which determines its structure.

The dungeon I created myself is one where, if you defeat the monsters that spawn inside, you can obtain treasure and, occasionally, food.

Humans called it the "Dinner-Free Dungeon."

Food is produced.

This has been quite popular, and a dungeon that improves the food situation keeps adventurers staying for a long time.

The longer they stay and continue fighting in my dungeon, the more dungeon points I can gather.

Therefore, compared to other dungeons that only produce treasure, I have been able to earn many more dungeon points.

But that's all.

Around the time the dungeon expanded to about the 8th floor, the revenue and the cost of maintaining the dungeon became almost level.

For the next 40 years, the dungeon I created has not grown.

If I force it to grow any further, the maintenance costs will definitely become too high...

So, even though I want to expand, I can't.

If a dungeon stagnates and the adventurers get tired of the treasure that comes out, the number of adventurers will decrease, and eventually, the dungeon will have to shrink.

On the other hand, if I change the content of the drops to avoid this, the number of adventurers can drop drastically, and the dungeon can end very quickly.

The reason is simple.

We, the Dungeon Cores, don't really understand what humans seek and what makes them happy.

In other dungeons, if a certain gem is very popular, I might try to copy it, but doing so can cause my dungeon to decline quickly.

The human master says it's because the rarity value disappears.

But the concept of rarity is something we don't really understand.

In any case, to prevent mutual collapse,

"There is a rule in the Dungeon Core community that we do not allow copying popular dungeons, as it leads to mutual destruction."

My dungeon has 8 floors.

This is slightly larger than average and can be considered a decent achievement, but it is far from being a huge dungeon.

I want to become a much larger dungeon.

The desire to grow is an instinctive, primal desire of a Dungeon Core.

But after 100 years, I only managed to create an 8-floor dungeon, and then 40 years of stagnation...

This was the limit of the dungeon I could create with my own sense.

During the 40 years of stagnation, I decided to use the points I had accumulated little by little to summon a human soul from another world and have them create a new dungeon.

While the method of making a human the master is a copy of what other large dungeons have done, it's not about copying the drops or dungeon rewards, so it shouldn't be a problem... probably.

In fact, several dungeons have already copied the method of making a human the master and have achieved considerable success.

So... I just want them to create a dungeon larger than 8 floors.

I want to grow... I want to grow.

For that, I am willing to give dungeon authority to a human.

Besides... even if I give all the dungeon authority, I still have the power of life and death over the soul from the initial contract.

If the results are worse than mine, failing to reach even 5 floors in 50 years, I can just kill them.

I spent 40 years accumulating points to buy this human.

Don't disappoint me.

"Alright, let's create a hot spring dungeon."

...The human I obtained suddenly said this.

Is this really going to be okay?