My Dungeon Life – Chapter 1746-1748

Chapter 1746

Ending the conversation with the girls was difficult, as they were still in a stimulated mood after going shopping and getting ready for the party. For most of them, getting ready and looking beautiful were almost effortless endeavors. Thus, they didn’t have to waste a lot of prep time putting on makeup or cleaning themselves. A little magic from Faeyna could instantly clean the body better than any shower, and the girls were flexible, skilled, and had each other to work off of. Since they were already dressed, they wanted to spend time with me, but I wanted to make a portal back to Chalm.

I didn’t want to have to explain that to them. First off, I had already been mocked as a daughtercon enough, and I didn’t want to see any smug expressions. I knew some of the girls weren’t like that, but others were merciless when there was a chance to tease me. Secondly, I was a little worried about Jespain knowing I left. They seemed to watch us very closely, and if the girls acted suspiciously while I was gone, then it might leave some issues. Thus, I did my best to try to get some of my own time.

“I’ll see you girls in an hour.”

“Why does Master not want our company?” Celeste asked tearfully.

“Isn’t it obvious?” Miki cut in. “It’s because Master needs to do that.”

“Hmm? What’s that?” Bernice asked.

“You know…” Miki’s cheeks turned red. “He needs to… release… pressure… before the party.”

“Pressure?” Bernice blinked until realization crossed her face and she shot me a scathing look. “Ah! That? P-pervert!”

“What?” My eyes widened. “That’s not…”

“Oh? Master should have said something!” Lydia cut in. “I would have taken care of it.”

“Please, I’m Master maid.” Faeyna appeared from the next door as if she had been listening to us in secret the entire time. “It is my responsibility to take care of Master. Frankly, I’ve not been able to practice my duties as a maid very well since coming here since Master is always busy and surrounded by beauties, however, this is a situation best suited for servants. You girls may go back. My girls and I will prepare Master properly for the dance in every possible way.”

When she said girls, a few girls poked their heads out from behind her, including Cici. They had red, shy faces as they looked at me. These girls were only children! What was she talking about preparing properly?

Before I could protest, Shao spoke up. “Neither of you are going to be able to satisfy Master. Remember? We cannot do anything until Terra has her body back.”

“Ah… me?” Terra gave the scathing glares of the other girls a tearful look.

“No wonder…” Lydia put her finger to her cheek. “To think that Master has had no choice but to build up the pressure all this time. Then, he just wants a little time for some relief, we get in his way. Aren’t we all a bit responsible for this?”

Her words took the pressure off Terra, as all of the girls looked down sadly. My mouth was opening and closing. I wasn’t an animal. Sure, I wanted it, but I could wait!

“Master, please, go finish your business!” First declared. “We will watch the door and provide you absolute privacy until you’re satisfied.”

This was somehow worse than the original thing I had been trying to hide. I quickly targeted Lydia, who always had the most sway in the group and routinely kept the peace, and opened up Slave Communication.

“I just want to go visit Eliza for a bit.”

Lydia cocked her head and then nodded at the girls. “Come, let’s not embarrass Master further.”

Her words seemed to be law, and the maids quickly retreated to their small room and the rest of the girls filed back into their larger shared room. Lydia stopped just before she entered the room and turned to me, a slightly worried look on her face. I gave her a reassuring smile.

“I want Master to know I don’t mind whatever you do, but I’ll warn you that using your daughter for such things is only proper in small doses. In the future, please just use one of us to unload your lust.” She responded over Slave Communication before turning away and ducking inside the room, closing the door behind her.

My smile fell. I had failed to get my point across completely.

Chapter 1747

I opened up a portal and stepped through, and like that, I was no longer in Jespain, but Chalm once again. I appeared in the familiar field near the pond that had become the dungeon’s boss room.

“Daddy!” Eliza ran up and threw her arms around me. “I missed you, daddy. Hmm? What’s wrong?”

“N-nothing!” I had just let Lydia’s words get to be a bit more than I should, and being hugged by Eliza felt a bit awkward.

I quickly put such thoughts away and gave her a proper hug and kiss. The kiss was on her forehead, as it should be.

“Daddy arrived so suddenly, it surprised me. What did you bring me?” She immediately asked as soon as our embrace broke.

“Ahhh… um… I just came back for a little bit. I’ll be returning to Jespain shortly.” I hadn’t bought her a gift.

It wasn’t like I wouldn’t have thought to do that. It was just that I still had a week in Jespain. This had just been a very quick return. I had been away for a little less than two full days, and I had just wanted to see her and use the dungeon a bit. However, to the newly born Eliza, she wouldn’t recognize that. When I scratched the back of my neck awkwardly, Eliza’s eyes started to form tears.

“D-did daddy forget about me?” She sniffled.

We had even been shopping the whole day. I had boughten something for every girl there, but I hadn’t considered getting gifts for the girls left behind. That hadn’t even occurred to me yet. We had been spending so much money that I didn’t buy anything on my own. It was all dresses, jewelry, alchemic supplies, and even bobbles that the girls had asked for. That stuff was still on all of them, so I didn’t even have a single thing from Jespain.

Wait! There was one thing. I quickly pulled the coin from Jespain out.

“I found this!” I declared, feeling like the worst father ever.

“Hmm?” She looked at the item in my hand as I started to sweat. “It’s shiny!”

She reached out and took it, and I let out a breath as a big smile appeared on her face.

“Y-yeah… it’s a coin from Jespain.” I explained like this had been my big plan from the beginning.

“Hehe… daddy gave me some lore. It’s perfect!” She admired the coin happily before it suddenly disappeared in her hand.

The one nice thing about Eliza having only existed a few days was that her sights were rather low. It turned out she was easy to satisfy. That’s when her words caught up with me.

“Lore? What do you mean? Did you absorb the coin?”

“Mm!” She nodded. “It was rather easier because it was already made by a dungeon.”

“What?” I cocked my head. “You’re saying that coin was found in a dungeon?”

“No, daddy…” She shook her head. “The coin is created by a dungeon. It’s not a material object, but a small piece of dungeon lore, like all of daddy’s guards.”

“The mobs? You’re saying the coins are like a dungeon monster?” I asked.

“Something like that…” Eliza paused like she was having trouble coming up with the right words. “It’s like a dungeon created an object tied to itself, like a weapon that disappears when a mob dies.”

That kind of made sense. Monsters could leave drops, but those drops weren’t always the items they had on them. Most monsters had some level of clothing, weapons, or even armor. When they died, those things would disappear with them. It turned out items could be created similarly to mobs.

“Mobs die when they leave a dungeon for too long though…” I reasoned.

Eliza nodded. “True, but these aren’t alive. Their presence is dependent on the dungeon that made them though. If they get too far away, then they would disappear. Had daddy not teleported directly into our dungeon, the coin would have likely shattered the second you ended up too far away.”

Chapter 1748

Eliza’s words had given me a great deal to think about. I understood why Jespain’s currency couldn’t be replicated now. Jespain’s currency had all been made inside of a dungeon. Those coins were bound to that dungeon and only existed as long as they were within a proper range of that dungeon. Once the coins were too far away, they would disappear.

This was fundamentally different than the items that were dropped in dungeons or left in chests and could be taken out and used. Those were physical objects. Mana was put into them and they were converted into real items. Sometimes, the laws of the dungeon caused those items to function differently relative to other items, such as a copy of a malacrum or silvthril sword acting like the real metal while inside the dungeon, but they were still fundamentally their unique objects.

If I took the sword forcefully from some sword-wielding skeleton and it wasn’t a drop, I could certainly use the sword in the dungeon, but once I left, it would have disappeared like smoke and the mana from the sword remained with the dungeon. As a result, such items consumed less mana and the dungeon would recover the lost mana when the conditions were met. This was an anomaly I had read about when researching dungeons in my spare time. It had never seemed relevant, and I had never considered using the technique in such a manner.

When Marina had said that the coins couldn’t be counterfeited, she had meant it. Although Eliza had copied the lore of the coin and made a duplicate, that duplicate could either be attached to Eliza’s dungeon, and thus not be carried very far away, or it could be a real physical coin. Either way, its existence as a forgery would be rather obvious. It wouldn’t have a connection to the dungeon, and anyone who knew about the true source of the coins would be able to quickly tell.

I still considered having Eliza make me a few bags of counterfeit coins, but I threw out the idea. Such a thing would only cause an incident if it was found out, and I couldn’t see it benefiting me very much. Rather, brushing up on my negotiation skills and creating a proper trade agreement was the direction my focus should go.

“Daddy? What’s up?” Eliza asked, noticing the worried look on my face.

“Given what we know about their currency, this suggests two very worrying things about Jespain,” I spoke out loud before I could help myself. “It means that Jespain is using dungeons as a natural resource, and it also means that they likely have such a dungeon stretched out underneath most of Jespain.”

To use the currency throughout Jespain, the dungeon would need to be nearby Jespain. They had to be doing something similar to what Calypso had done in the Bandit’s Respite. She had managed to move large quantities of seemingly immortal bandits around, and she had done so with the power of a dungeon stretched out under the land. Since the country and city themselves weren’t a dungeon, that meant that the dungeon was hidden underground.

“Wouldn’t such a thing require lots of miasmas?” Eliza asked.

She hit the nail on the head. For such a dungeon to exist, it would eat away at the mana of the country. I noticed the mana was rather low in the city, but this lifestyle there’s didn’t seem sustainable. When Calypso was doing it, she was fueling her dungeon with sacrifices of countless people she killed, and she had only been doing it for months. Otherwise, the ground above would have turned barren and dead.  Jespain presumably had been running like this for years, so they had to have some source of mana. Just where were they getting the supply?

I noticed Eliza still watching me with a clueless and innocent expression on her face. I reached out and patter her head. This had to do with another country and its secrets. The best thing I could do was not get involved.