Monster Company Tycoon - Chapter 31

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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 31
Thud, thud.
For a while, the forest echoed with nothing but the sound of earth being excavated.
Neither of them had proper tools, so they were digging through the soil with their sword sheaths.
I was starting to wish I’d called Brownie after all. Being a sprite of the earth, she’d have excavated it in an instant, wouldn’t she?
“It appears the ground has already been disturbed once before. The earth is not as firm as it should be.”
“That’s probably because the monster clawed its way through directly.”
That made sense—if the corpse had transformed into a monster, it couldn’t have stayed buried underground. It would have found some way to emerge.
Yet for all that, the grave remained surprisingly intact. Even Ragnar, who had come searching for this grave before, hadn’t noticed anything amiss, which spoke volumes.
What if the exit path had shifted somehow?
I glanced around just in case, but I couldn’t spot anything particularly suspicious.
It had been quite some time since the two of them had begun digging.
“Ah, Sabira’s armor.”
“So the remains escaped while the armor stayed behind.”
“The head is… still here.”
“Poor soul.”
Forgive me, but… would you mind not going into too much detail…?
I’m afraid I’ll start imagining things, and it terrifies me.
I could see Ragnar in the distance, cradling a round helmet in his arms.
“Miss Choi, I’ve found Sabira’s head. This should be the head Durehan is looking for.”
“Eek! You don’t have to show me! Stop! Don’t remove the helmet!”
He’d started to open the helmet as if to show it to me, so I cried out urgently.
I quickly removed my glasses.
My desperate plea seemed to have worked—Ragnar stood there for a moment, simply watching me.
“You’re quite the nervous sort, aren’t you? I have to wonder how you manage to run a dungeon. You spend every day surrounded by monsters, don’t you?”
At Luadis’s jab, I swallowed my tears of frustration and nodded. He had a point.
I wish the Demon Lord had brought someone with a bit more nerve.
I can barely sit through a horror movie, for goodness sake.
“However, Miss Choi, you’ll need to use this head to summon Durehan directly yourself.”
“Ah… yes, that’s right. Of course. Is there… anything we could cover it with…?”
Through my blurred vision, I saw Luadis remove the coat he was wearing and drape it over the head.
Only then could I put my glasses back on.
With my vision clear again, my eyes met Ragnar’s, who had been staring intently at me.
“……?”
He suddenly seemed to have grasped something, nodding to himself before gesturing for me to come closer.
“Are you all right now? Can you come nearer?”
“Yes.”
The way the fabric bulged upward was impossibly distracting. There’s an actual human head under there, isn’t there?
“Well then, what should we do now?”
Luadis asked while regarding me with curious eyes.
“I’ll do my best to summon him.”
“Is there some sort of technique involved?”
“Right now, I’m not an ordinary person—I’m here in my official capacity as a Scouter.”
“A Scouter?”
Tense as I was, I couldn’t even answer Luadis’s question, just nodding my head.
“But just in case he tries to hide again, could you perhaps step back a bit, Ragnar?”
“Understood.”
With only Luadis remaining, Ragnar slowly walked off in the direction of the Village.
“Haaah….”
I took a long, deep breath to steel myself.
To think I had to do this ridiculous thing again.
Demon Lord, if you’re watching from dreamland, are you seeing this? I’m working this hard for you!
Just as I’d shifted into presentation mode in front of Luadis before, now I shifted into scout mode.
I am now a proud Dungeon Manager!
“Durehan!”
I tensed my abdomen and called out in a loud voice.
My sudden outburst caught Luadis off guard, and he wore a bewildered expression.
Please don’t look at me like that. I’m too embarrassed.
“I’ve come from the Hermit’s Dungeon! I’m a Dungeon Manager who wants to recruit you! Could we talk for a moment?”
“Is that supposed to be a special technique?”
“Well, I’m doing my best, at least.”
To be honest, I’ve never actually seen a professional Scouter in action, so I’m not entirely sure if I’m going about this the right way.
‘Then again, since this is a company, calling myself a Headhunter would probably be more accurate.’
Since I took this job, I’ve never updated my resume, so I’ve never been contacted by a Headhunter myself—but I’ve heard plenty of stories from employees who’ve left.
Most of the former employees had simply moved on after receiving transfer offers from other companies with much better conditions. About half of them had gone through a Headhunter to get those offers.
‘I even wondered once if there was someone out there deliberately targeting only people who’d worked at our company. Looking back now, that seems pretty absurd.’
The CEO used to complain that employees I’d hired had an especially high turnover rate.
But you really have to examine the cause and effect here.
I don’t mean to boast, but the people I hired were genuinely good at their jobs. Every one of them was talented.
Since the company was so stingy, we never even scheduled interviews with applicants who had impressive resumes. There was no way our company could offer proper compensation to someone of that caliber.
I had to be realistic and hire candidates with modest experience levels.
Yet when we actually worked together, their potential gradually revealed itself. They were like pearls hidden inside shells—brilliant in ways a resume could never capture.
The company had always had high turnover, but each time one of those ace employees left, the company grew steadily stronger.
Of course, we never had enough talent to fill the gaps they left behind, so we were always walking a precarious tightrope.
So isn’t it natural that other companies would covet people who worked so well?
How could the CEO complain about high turnover when he never offered good enough conditions to retain talented people?
‘I’ve heard plenty about how the Headhunters approached our employees.’
How they described the position they were offering, what advantages they touted when encouraging the transfer, what salary and benefits they proposed—things like that.
And all the people who’d transferred said one thing in common.
They hadn’t thought much of it at first, but as they listened, they gradually felt their resolve wavering.
So my job as a Headhunter was clear.
First, catch their interest. Then plant the conviction that they could do better than this.
“Durehan! Don’t you think it might be nice to work in a better environment? I can absolutely guarantee you proper compensation befitting your abilities.”
“Miss, surely you’re not….”
At Luadis’s urgent words, I lowered my voice to a whisper.
“If you just suddenly call someone saying your friend wants to see them, they won’t come, will they? It’s bait. Pure bait.”
“Is it now…?”
No, it’s one hundred percent sincere.
“How much longer are you going to wander through the forest living like this? At Hermit’s Dungeon, we can provide you with a stable place to stay!”
I’d heard that Headhunters take commissions from companies to find suitable talent, and when someone gets hired, they receive a fee.
I’d also heard that sometimes the fee is calculated based on the hired person’s salary.
So a Headhunter can’t just grab anyone and pitch a transfer.
You have to find talent that a company would actually want, and show them the genuine advantages of the new position in a way that makes them want to leave their current role.
Of course, you can’t just invent benefits that don’t exist. There are limits to what a company can offer its employees.
So the real skill is making those ‘limited benefits’ look as attractive as possible.
Our dungeon—still just a crumbling old cottage, really—but I’ll do my absolute best to present it well!
‘Good. I’ve got the general idea now.’
The eye of a professional Scouter, able to recognize someone’s true worth.
The gift of gab of a Headhunter, making a new position sound irresistible.
And finally….
The spirit of a merchant, willing to shake a customer’s heart to sell even one more thing!
After all, I need to make this upper-tier Monster want to join our dungeon, don’t I?
Mix these three elements in the right proportion and I should be fine.
“When were you planning to bring up the head issue?”
“If I do that now, it’ll look too calculated. I’ve got a plan.”
“Interesting. Do go on.”
Luadis stepped back, watching me with curious eyes as if to see how far I’d take this.
I felt like a grandchild performing tricks, but I had to push through the embarrassment.
“I can match your salary! Up to 1500 En per week, of course. And if you work hard, I can raise it even more!”
“You… I didn’t take you for the type. Isn’t that a bit underhanded?”
Luadis looked at me as if seeing me in a new light.
“I know! But our current employees only make 500 En per week. That’s three times as much!”
I know full well. It’s garbage pay.
But that’s all I have to give….
“And to be clear, that 500 En weekly salary? The employees proposed it themselves.”
Monsters rolling around out here are offering 500 En….
Since Durehan only recently became a Monster and still doesn’t understand how the world works, maybe he’ll accept three times that amount?

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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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