Nightmare Fantasy Online - Chapter 37

Aha…, this guy’s huge.

The Crystal Hellion looks like your typical image of a fiend, only made completely out of crystal. I watched it as it walked down the corridors with heavy steps.

Hm-hm-hm. That’s right, the Darkland Fort’s Crystal element goons have finally arrived! The Hellion is just one of the four demon races I’ve chosen as the Fort’s new bodyguards~. Even if they’re only protecting the 3rd floor for now.

Ah, and the pre-evolutions of the Crystal Hellion are the Vile Pebble, a jumping rock-like demon with a jagged mouth, the Vile Crystal, the same as the Pebble, just with crystals instead, and the Lesser Hellion, which looks like a moving statue just like with the Crystal Hellion, except this guy being of some black-colored material that I’m not sure what is.

As for why I’ve dragged out adding these guys to the Dungeon is because I needed time to let the DP recharge itself. And with that DP, I did some changes to the Fort. Specifically, I boosted its stats. This is what the Dungeon looks like right now:

Facility List:

Considering that these stats requires FP to be kept at high ranks, it would be smarter to focus on a single stat…, but then I remembered that increasing a single stat to rank [D] alongside the Monster stat would provide rank-D monsters. Of course, I would spend some points to get them all up after considering that!

*Cough*, and the other bad guys under my reign are as follows:

As for their pre-evolutions, the Djinn is Grey Demon => Unstable Djinn => Evil Djinn before they reach Orbuculum Djinn.

The Bomber evolved from Vile Pebble, => Vile Crystal, just like the Hellion, and its E-rank evolution is called Crystal Cracker. The name probably comes from firecrackers.

The Succubus is from Pink Demon => Lesser Succubus => Lesser Jewelry Succubus. And as an extra note, I can’t get the original Succubus, just like how the other E-rank Djinns are impossible.

However…, I can’t order the Succubi to my Player Room or whatever…, the most I can have them do is to serve as waitresses in the Café facility. That’s pretty decent. Especially since you can use DP to modify facilities like Cafés so that the workers will cosplay and stuff. But I lack that all-important DP right now!!

Grr, just adding new floors won’t cut it. Not that I can even if I save up to it. I need to pay 150 DP for the fifth floor, which I can’t get right away. If I wanna let the Dungeon grow, it needs to get some invaders. But there are barely any frogs that take a visit these days!

…should I try to lure players into this place? No, there’s the risk of them conquering this place. But right now, I have D-ranks patrolling the 3rd and 4th floor. If anything, won’t it be better to lure them in here now before they grow too strong for my Dungeon? But the Darklands are too far from the nearest player town, and too worthless for people to come here.

They could try to brave the Darkland Pass, but if they’re strong enough to do that, then this place won’t stand much of a chance in its current state. Still…

Damn, what’s with this catch-22 situation!? I want weaklings to come, but they need to be strong just to qualify to come this far. Strong enough that they can be a potential threat to my Dungeon!

If there was just some sorta bait I could lure even the weaklings with. Something that lures JUST the weaklings would be the best, but I’m in no position to be picky…

Let’s go and ask the boss. He should be done listening to the complaints from that expedition group or whatever they are.

—

“-and therefore, we want your opinion regarding this problem.” – Belford

“No, why me?” – Garami

The first thing the boss did, along with the vice-captain guy from the expedition group, was to drag me into his office and start talking about some gibberish about “defeating the Vile Queen”.

“I won’t do it. It sounds scary.” – Garami

“That’s fine and all. We’ve tried to come up with a plan all day but to no luck. We even tried holding a meeting with the low-ranked adventurers, not that it worked. Honestly, we’re grasping at straws here…” – Belford

That’s sorta rude, calling me a straw.

“Weren’t you guys ready for her majesty?” I asked the vice-captain who jerked at my question. Sus…

“…top secret. I cannot tell you.” – Vice-captain

“Tch. So there was some dirt going on,” said the boss with a sour tone. Guess even he wasn’t told of this.

“…all you need to know is that the Queen, or one of her henchmen, is in the ownership of an enchanted ring. We are required to bring it back, no questions asked.” – Vice-captain

“Hey, you’re going to ignore that the Vile Queen is setting up her lair so close to this village?” asked the boss with an evergrowing angry voice. The vice-captain didn’t say anything back and simply looked at the floor.

“…the Queen builds a Dungeon around her, was it?” I asked the boss in an attempt of getting the conversation back on track.

“Ah, that’s right. Like I mentioned before, when the Vile Queen arrives in our world from wherever they come from, they first create a Dungeon that secures their powers while in our realm. Never knew they hired local Goblins as henchmen though.” – Belford

And that’s how the expedition group fell. The Goblin army enhanced by the Queen’s leadership and magic took them by surprise in the worst way possible. They even lost their leader who was as strong as a C-rank adventurer.

From what I can gather, it seems that this ring was stolen from its owner, considering how this vice-captain guy said that they were supposed to “bring it back”. They must have been prepared for robbers, or maybe they even believed that the villagers were the thieves? That could explain why they left a group behind, “whippersnappers” or not.

That didn’t do them good against her majesty and her horde of green goons.

“…where did you say the Queen was?” – Garami

“That’s a sudden change. What’s going on?” – Belford

“If the ring is all this guy wants, then it’s fine if I get whatever non-rings the Queen and her goons stole?” I asked the boss, who then turned his gaze at the vice-captain.

“…we were given no other orders than returning with the ring, yes. Not that I think we will ever obtain it. A Dungeon produced by a Vile Queen is said to be impenetrable.” – Vice-captain

He’s not wrong. I only busted my place because I was inside from the start.

“And said Dungeon’s not completely created?” – Garami

“That seems to be the case. A Dungeon this close should bring a hit on our radar-type magitechs.” – Belford

Meaning it’s still in the state from when the vice-captain got his butt kicked. A cave system that the Goblins use as a hideout/fortification against the forest life and the adventurers. The Union has known about it for a long time, but they didn’t have the means of taking the Goblins out when they had the home-field advantage.

Though, the Dungeon could be finished before we know it, so waiting for reinforcements ain’t a good option. This means that all we have on our hands are anything in this village and the bounty of the forest that we can harvest…

“I think I have an idea,” I said to the two men, who straightened their backs as I explained my plan.

Geez, what sorta star was I born under to get mobbed by two Queens while playing this game?