Monster Company Tycoon - Chapter 18

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Monster Company Tycoon
Chapter 18
“You said a preliminary survey is possible, right?”
“Yes, yes! Of course. Since you’re entrusting us with your precious students, you should absolutely come and see it for yourself.”
For a moment, it felt like the Dungeon had transformed into a taekwondo academy. But this wasn’t the time to be picky about circumstances.
“Then I’ll visit in person. After that, I’ll decide. It’s not that I don’t trust you—it’s just that I’m naturally suspicious by nature.”
In her words, I sensed a deliberate consideration not to hurt my feelings as Ragnar’s acquaintance.
“Wise words, indeed! Just let me know when you’re available, and I’ll make the arrangements personally!”
As the conversation was winding down, Ragnar approached the table.
“Looks like it went well.”
“You too—throwing me into an impossible situation like this.”
“Beginners gain the most from practical combat experience. Surely you know that, Master?”
Master?
I blinked in surprise, glancing between the two of them.
“Ah, she’s my mentor as an Adventurer. I forgot to mention it.”
How could something so important have slipped his mind until now?
At least the Master-Disciple Relationship explained the deep trust between them.
“Are you still holding onto what happened back then?”
Luadis’s voice grew heavy.
“Master, of the ten Adventurers who leave the Training Facility and begin their first journey, five lose their lives.”
I stiffened.
The world outside was that dangerous?
It was definitely the right choice not to recklessly flee the Dungeon.
“Training and actual combat are different. People panic or freeze, unable to even swing a sword properly before death claims them. If they’d had more practical experience, wouldn’t more of them have survived?”
Ragnar seemed to already know how I planned to persuade Luadis. Or perhaps he was lending weight to my proposal.
“Do you believe the Dungeon can coexist with us?”
“I still believe the Dungeon must be destroyed. It’s a nest harboring dangerous monsters.”
“Ugh…”
“But what I believe in is Choi. If this Dungeon has made a contract with Choi, then I think coexistence is possible.”
Ragnar looked down at me with those characteristic drowsy eyes.
It couldn’t be just because I resembled Cha-cha, his companion dog. Was he trusting me too much? I appreciate it, but…
No. He clearly trusts his own strength.
The strength to reduce our Dungeon to rubble in an instant if things went wrong.
That was how the partnership with our client took its first step.
***
Before heading back to the Dungeon, I paid another visit to the Restaurant where we’d posted the help-wanted advertisement.
“Um… excuse me.”
“Oh, welcome back. Did you forget something?”
Even during lunch, I’d noticed the Restaurant had a warm, welcoming atmosphere.
The owner had a mobility issue and mostly stood at the counter, while his wife juggled both the kitchen and serving, looking a bit overwhelmed.
“I saw the advertisement on the door. You’re hiring…?”
“Ah, are you applying?”
“Yes, yes.”
They close at dusk, so really only the lunch rush is busy, with plenty of downtime afterward.
The couple seemed kind enough. It didn’t seem like a bad place to work.
“We’d certainly appreciate young help, but I can’t offer much in wages. Are you alright with that?”
The monsters had wanted the same arrangement, and this world unusually used weekly wages rather than monthly. It was convenient to get paid quickly.
The shift was three hours a day with no days off.
Working at the Restaurant would earn thirty thousand won per week.
‘That’s about fifteen hundred won per hour…’
By the standards of my original world, it would be considered exploitative, but considering the monsters had wanted five hundred won a week, I was actually making a fortune.
Ragnar hadn’t complained about the wages either, so this must be the standard rate in the Village.
“I’m just grateful to have the opportunity to work.”
Never mind the money—they provide lunch! Free meals make this more than worthwhile.
“Is that so? Do you have experience working in a restaurant?”
“Well… I’ve done plenty of similar work.”
Serving tea and snacks to visitors had been my basic responsibility, and once the CEO implemented some strange welfare policy where I had to prepare breakfast for employees every morning.
I did it. And whenever the company held drinking parties, I’d clean up the next morning too.
Serving, preparing, cleaning—I’d done it all. Surely that counts as experience?
But the woman conducting the interview’s expression had turned inexplicably sympathetic.
“Do you need a lot of money?”
“Ah… yes. The more the better, I suppose.”
“Then whenever you have time, check the bulletin board in the Village Square. Residents often leave notes there when they need odd jobs done. You should be able to earn some spending money that way.”
“Oh, thank you for the advice!”
Two hours of travel between Village and Dungeon, plus work on top of that—five hours total.
I couldn’t afford to leave the Dungeon unattended for too long, so I had no intention of extending my hours further, but the occasional trip to check the board seemed manageable enough.
***
Two days later, Luadis visited the Dungeon as promised.
Alone, without an escort.
“Oh, you’ve arrived!”
Wanting to make a good impression, I’d drilled proper etiquette into the monsters beforehand.
“Important client coming! If anyone screws this up, you’re all getting chewed out! Want your pay docked!?”
“No, sir!”
Brownie had picked up my corporate jargon so well by now that she was using it herself.
While the eager Brownie herded the monsters into line, I hurried outside to greet Luadis.
“You’re living in the Dungeon, then?”
“Haha… yes. I’m imposing on their hospitality. This is the lobby. Quite… spacious, isn’t it?”
“There’s absolutely nothing here.”
That was the second time—after Ragnar—I’d been wounded by the truth.
“I’m working on improvements. It’s just… I’m short on funds at the moment.”
“It’s still strange to hear that Dungeons operate on human money, no matter how many times I’m told.”
“It does seem odd, doesn’t it? I was quite shocked when I first learned about it myself.”
I led her toward the gateway where the monsters were standing by.
“Everyone’s waiting to say hello—”
“No need for that.”
Shing.
Luadis suddenly drew her sword.
“W-why so suddenly!?”
“Isn’t it best to gauge one’s true strength through direct combat? Treat me as you would any ordinary Challenger.”
“W-wait a moment, please!”
Ragnar’s master, no less! She has to be incredibly strong!?
No, no—all my staff will be wiped out!
“They’re delicate employees—monsters, I mean! If you fight them, there won’t even be bones left to bury!”
“I won’t kill them.”
“If you leave and another Challenger comes along, my Dungeon will be in real trouble! This is sabotage!”
Luadis looked at me with a gaze tinged with pity.
“Huh….”
“You really do run this place like a business establishment… no, never mind. I’ll hold back reasonably, so don’t worry.”
“You have to promise! You have to hold back a lot! A whole lot!”
With that, Luadis opened the gateway’s door and decimated every single monster in less than ten minutes.
All the carefully thought-out strategy, all the diligent training I’d put them through—utterly useless in the face of overwhelming power.
…….
“Weak is what I’d heard, but this is far more pathetic than I expected.”
In the wake of her passage lay monsters strewn about, groaning heavily from their thorough beating.
Even Small Slime’s trump card—Digestive Acid Spray—had been anticipated and dodged, so it proved useless.
How would I restore the morale of my shattered staff….
I felt like lying down among the fallen monsters myself.
“At this level of strength, they won’t gain practical combat experience from our students—if anything, you’ll just breed arrogance.”
“Ugh….”
Her words cut like ice, piercing my chest like a blade.
“So… then… your proposal was….”
Was it really ending like this…?
“If you shape them into something worth using, perhaps not.”
“Pardon?”
“Once you finish your shift at the Restaurant, you’re to come back with me.”
“You mean….”
“I’ll teach them a bit, until they’re more useful than wooden dolls.”
“What!?”
Her words left me utterly speechless.
She was offering to personally help my monsters improve—and she was an accomplished instructor who trained Adventurers no less!
“I’ve given Ragnar’s words a great deal of thought myself. I do my best to provide my disciples with opportunities to face monsters before they graduate, but it’s never enough. It’s a terrible thing when they leave this world without ever having made a name for themselves.”
Ah, I sighed quietly. Of the ten who took their first step into adventure, five never reached the next milestone—they lost their lives along the way.
“The only thing I can do is make them stronger. So I’ll cooperate.”
“…!”
“However, there’s one more point we need to address.”
Securing a contract was never going to be simple.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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