Chapter 8: This Is A Real World

Chapter 8: Chapter 8: This Is A Real World

He stood from the throne with a grin spreading across his face.

"I’ve gone broke again."

Despite saying that, there wasn’t the slightest hint of regret in his eyes.

Instead, he was eager to see the results.

"If everything worked properly..."

"My little goblin camp should have grown quite a bit."

With that thought, Ragnar left the throne room once more.

His footsteps echoed through the familiar corridors as he made his way toward the entrance hall.

When he finally reached the Goblin Camp, he immediately noticed the difference.

The camp was noticeably livelier than before.

The original five goblins were no longer the only inhabitants.

Six new goblins had appeared.

"Looks like it worked."

Ragnar couldn’t help but smile.

Eleven goblins.

Although it still wasn’t an impressive number, it was more than enough to noticeably increase the dungeon’s defenses.

Over the following days, Ragnar gradually became accustomed to his new life as a Dungeon Boss.

Every morning, he would inspect the dungeon through the system map before walking through each corridor personally. He observed how the goblins worked together, occasionally stopping to watch them spar against one another using their crude wooden spears.

The goblins couldn’t speak, but they learned through repetition.

Whenever one of them discovered a better way to defend the camp, the others quickly copied it.

Day by day, their coordination improved.

Although their individual strength remained unchanged, Ragnar could clearly tell that they were becoming more efficient as a group.

Occasionally, wild beasts wandered into the dungeon by chance.

A lone wolf.

A wild boar.

Once, even a massive mountain goat accidentally crossed the invisible boundary while fleeing from a predator in the forest.

Every intruder met the same fate.

The eleven goblins worked together flawlessly, surrounding their prey before slowly wearing it down through coordinated attacks.

Each victory earned Ragnar another precious Soul Point.

Unfortunately, the beasts rarely appeared.

Sometimes an entire day passed without a single living creature entering the dungeon.

----

Three days quietly slipped by.

Inside the throne room, Ragnar sat on the edge of his obsidian throne while absentmindedly staring at the transparent system screen floating before him.

His current Soul Point balance was displayed clearly.

Current Soul Points: 3

"..."

Ragnar stared at the number for several seconds before letting out a long, exhausted sigh.

"Three days..."

"And I’ve only earned three Soul Points."

He leaned his head against one hand while rubbing his forehead with the other.

"This is way too slow."

His original excitement had gradually begun to fade.

When he first arrived in this world, earning Soul Points had seemed simple enough.

Kill monsters.

Collect Souls.

Expand the dungeon.

Repeat.

Reality, however, proved to be far less generous.

His dungeon wasn’t located beside a busy road where travelers constantly passed by.

Nor was it hidden near a city overflowing with adventurers eager to explore dangerous places.

Instead, it was buried deep within a quiet forest.

The occasional wild beast might stumble inside by accident, but those opportunities were incredibly rare.

At this rate...

Even upgrading his dungeon would take months.

Ragnar looked toward the Upgrade menu once more.

Required Soul Points: 50

Current Soul Points:

3 / 50

His lips twitched.

He suddenly remembered why so many players in Dungeon Maker had spent real money instead of grinding. The early stages were painfully slow.

Still, Ragnar wasn’t in a hurry for adventurers to discover his dungeon.

He knew better than anyone how dangerous people could become once they started raiding.

He remained seated upon his obsidian throne long after closing the system interface.

The crimson flames burning inside the ancient braziers flickered quietly, casting dancing shadows across the vast throne room. Normally, he would have spent his time browsing the system or planning the future of his dungeon.

However, after three uneventful days, he found himself doing something entirely different.

Thinking.

His fingers rhythmically tapped against the armrest of the throne as he replayed everything that had happened since awakening in this world.

"...Now that I think about it..."

His eyes slowly narrowed.

"From the looks of it..."

"...I’m probably not inside the game."

At first, Ragnar had genuinely believed he had been transported into Dungeon Maker. Everything had seemed identical. The dungeon’s layout was exactly as he had designed it.

The system interface functioned almost the same, and even the rules regarding Dungeon Bosses and monsters had remained largely unchanged.

Yet, the more time he spent here, the more differences he discovered.

The greatest difference was the outside world.

Ragnar slowly stood from his throne and shortly after he arrived at the entrance hall.

Crossing the winding corridors, he eventually arrived before the invisible barrier separating his dungeon from the outside forest.

He quietly watched the scenery beyond it.

A gentle breeze caused countless leaves to sway together.

Birds flew from one towering tree to another while colorful insects drifted lazily through the air.

Small rabbits occasionally hopped between the bushes before disappearing into the undergrowth.

Everything looked unbelievably alive.

Over the past three days, Ragnar had observed dozens of different creatures wandering through the forest.

Some had accidentally entered the dungeon.

Most simply passed by without noticing it.

He had seen mountain goats with spiraling horns, black-furred boars nearly twice the size of those on Earth, bright blue birds that shimmered beneath the sunlight, and even strange deer whose antlers faintly glowed at night.

None of them existed inside Dungeon Maker.

At least, not in the version he had played.

He slowly folded his arms.

"The ecosystem here is completely different."

"The monsters aren’t spawning from nowhere."

"They live..."

"They hunt..."

"They reproduce..."

He had even watched predators stalk their prey over the past few days.

The wolves that wandered into his dungeon hadn’t appeared because of some game mechanic.

They had simply been hunting.

The mountain goat that had accidentally entered hadn’t been spawned by the system either.

It had been fleeing from another beast.

Everything behaved exactly like a real ecosystem.

The realization made Ragnar’s expression gradually become more serious.

"If that’s the case..."

"This isn’t a game anymore."

"This is a real world."