Monster Company Tycoon - Chapter 42

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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 42
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At first, hiring was haphazard—we took anyone who applied.
But this time, I set conditions.
Certification holders only.
And filtering applicants this way meant that the Fairy had to be paid more.
“Give us an extra thousand.”
“Aren’t you just being a bully? You do the same work as everyone else anyway!”
“We have to do the job twice over! Don’t like it? Then forget about it!”
Brownie tried to negotiate with the Fairy, but the outcome was predetermined. The problem was that we needed them.
Without their help, we had no way to spread word about the Dungeon.
“Hiss… Once our Dungeon becomes famous, we won’t need those freeloaders. We can just stick up a ‘Help Wanted’ sign at the entrance and monsters will line up around the block!”
“Sure. Keep working at it.”
The Fairy pocketed the silver coins with a cunning smile, then vanished just like that.
“Those bastards really grind my gears. Money-hungry fairies!”
As if Brownie wasn’t obsessed with money too.
How was it that every creature in this world—human, monster, or fairy—was mad for coin?
In any case, the Fairy delivered results worth every last copper she’d been paid.
Within a day, monsters wanting to join were knocking on our door.
I settled into the office and reviewed the résumés Brownie had collected.
“Hmm… just having Certifications alone really raises the bar.”
Before, we’d only gotten applications from common rabble—Skeletons and low-rank Goblins.
But this time, even monsters I’d heard of while playing the game were applying.
If I had to rank them, the old applicants were Common-tier, but now we were getting something closer to Rare-tier.
“Trap Design Certifications… there really are so many kinds.”
I sorted through the applications first by those with trap-related Certifications, then made a second pass to flag the ones with unusual specializations.
The first category of trap design.
Physical traps.
These were the basic kind most people thought of when they heard “trap”—floors that suddenly give way beneath you, volleys of arrows erupting from wall fissures, that sort of thing.
“Your race is… Gnome?”
“Yep!”
He was a tiny monster, barely knee-high to me—so small he had to stand on a footrest just to reach the desk chair.
His pressed pointy hat was striking, and his appearance was adorable, like a Christmas ornament come to life.
His nose and cheeks were flushed red, as if he’d been pinched, and I kept catching myself staring at them.
“I see you hold a Grade-3 Physical Trap Design Certification.”
According to the system, Grade 3 was the lowest rank, followed by Grade 2, Grade 1, and Expert.
“Yep!”
Beyond the Certification, his other stats were no different from those of low-rank monsters. Since this wasn’t a combat role, attack power or defense were irrelevant anyway.
“Could you explain how this Certification would benefit our Dungeon?”
“Yep!”
Suddenly, Gnome bolted upright and bowed deeply.
“First, allow me to thank you for granting me this interview. I am honored to have applied to your esteemed company.”
“Good grief.”
So he could speak properly all along?
His serious, measured voice was jarring coming from that cute face, and his polite manner caught me completely off guard.
While I scrambled to hide my surprise, Gnome launched into a fluent explanation.
He laid out trap designs suited to our Dungeon with professional precision, methodically describing which types of traps he specialized in.
“Well, you certainly sound like the kind of talent we’re looking for. I’ll review your application and be in touch.”
“Yep!”
Later, I met several more Gnomes, and it turned out that Physical Trap Design specialists usually worked in teams.
Installing and maintaining traps alone simply took too much time, they explained.
I wondered why they hadn’t all interviewed together from the start.
“Isn’t it better if even one of us passes than if we all fail together?”
That’s the answer I got—they were each taking their own shot at the job.
It was a cutthroat job market.
Next came the second category of trap design.
Disorientation traps.
These drew adventurers’ attention, clouded their judgment, and made the Dungeon harder to conquer.
The first applicant for this specialty was, without question, the poster child for the field.
“So you’ve inherited the family business and worked in trap disruption for generations….”
“Yes….”
The applicant’s species was Mimic.
Mimic attended the interview while hiding inside a round earthenware jar.
Coming and going, the jar rolled along the floor, and during the interview, the lid was only slightly ajar—there was no way to see Mimic’s true form hidden within.
It moved like a hermit crab or snail, concealing its body inside its shell.
Through the narrow opening, only a pair of red eyes gleamed faintly, just barely visible.
Because of this secretive nature, the personality was rather timid and cautious about meeting strangers, which made the interview quite challenging.
Mimic. A well-known monster.
It would disguise itself as a treasure chest and wait in ambush, then strike at unsuspecting adventurers who approached without guard.
Mimic primarily employed the technique of hiding inside objects that piqued an adventurer’s curiosity, and with enough skill, it could even shapeshift into objects directly.
This Mimic held a third-degree Luring Trap Design Certification.
Not yet skilled enough to shapeshift directly, it could only use the method of hiding inside objects to lure adventurers, according to its own account.
“An 82% luring success rate is quite impressive. We’ll review your application and be in touch.”
“Yes….”
Another type of trap disruption involved using illusions. And on this front, a monster I’d encountered several times in the game had come in for an interview.
Small-bodied, with translucent insectile wings on its back—a Fairy.
It bore little resemblance to the beautiful sprite one might imagine. The skin was a pale blue, the teeth sharp and pointed, and the expression so fierce that it looked rather unsettling.
Or perhaps sinister would be more apt?
Fairy’s specialty was sensory disruption and illusion generation using Fairy Dust.
The technique involved inducing hallucinations in adventurers to lure them into dangerous places, scrambling their sense of direction so they’d wander down the wrong paths, or creating false doors and passages to trap them in confusion.
“The Fairy Dust you use has passed safety inspections, correct?”
Fairy’s résumé even included a separate certification of testing.
“Mmhm.”
[This Fairy’s Fairy Dust has passed both addictive substance testing and in-body residue and accumulation testing.]
“These days, you mess up with Grundo and they haul you in. Our dust is safe for your kids!”
Really, what a fussy thing to check for….
Though I suppose if the Fairy Dust were truly dangerous, not only would I be at risk, but the other monsters too.
“Your work history is quite unusual. Rather than Dungeon or field raids, you’ve worked as an assistant at festivals and commemorative events….”
“Mmhm. Better hourly rate.”
With Fairy Dust’s versatile applications and its small frame making it easy to conceal, it made sense that it could work in that capacity too….
“We’ll review your application and be in touch.”
“Mm, thanks for your time!”
Finally, the third field of trap design.
Biological traps.
In the brutal, hard-difficulty game, even the trap varieties were exceptional.
Schools of Piranhas lurking underwater to ambush intruders, carnivorous plants that wrapped their tentacles around unsuspecting prey and dragged them away, swarms of blood-drinking insects that harassed rest—the list went on.
All these methods—deploying living creatures to attack intruders or impede their movement—fell under biological traps.
This applicant was someone Brownie had mentioned was rare to find—genuinely specialized personnel, I recalled being quite surprised.
“Your species is… Alraune, then.”
If this were a gacha game, Gnome, Mimic, and Fairy would be rare cards, while Alraune would feel like a rare-plus.
“You hold a third-degree Plant Cultivation Certification.”
Biological traps, unlike other fields, had no separate “trap design” certification.
Instead, they were subdivided into related certifications like breeding, cultivation, and plant husbandry, depending on which creatures one worked with.
Alraune specialized as a cultivator handling plant-type biological traps.
“Yes, that’s right.”
Alraune was, along with Gnome and Mimic, a monster I could face without taking off my glasses.
The upper body resembled that of a woman, but the lower half consisted of a large flower and roots intertwined together.
Her manner of speech and gestures were quite refined, and she carried a dignity that made it hard to think of her as just another monster.
“Could you explain what a Plant is?”
“When mana infuses a plant, it transforms into a Magical Plant Sprout. And when that Magical Plant Sprout absorbs sufficient mana to evolve into a monster, we call the resulting individual a Plant.”
Alraune continued her explanation in a measured, gentle voice.
“However, unlike ordinary monsters, Plants lack selfhood and reason. They retain their plant characteristics, so they cannot leave the ground where their roots have taken hold.”
“So they’re not particularly dangerous for monsters, then.”
“A Plant growing wild outdoors would be hardly more than easy prey. Since they cannot move, all one needs to do is identify their attack range and navigate around them.”
Alraune smiled gently.
“But a Dungeon is different. In a confined environment where movement paths are limited, one can deliberately position Plants by location and species. You can block corridors, channel intruders in specific directions, or coordinate with other traps.”
I see. The disadvantage of immobility becomes almost irrelevant in a Dungeon.
“I currently maintain three stable varieties of Plant that I can reliably cultivate and manage. I can select and deploy them according to the Dungeon’s terrain and purpose.”
If plants were to grow in our dreary Dungeon? Of course, they wouldn’t be ordinary plants, but….
‘That might actually look pretty impressive.’

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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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