Your Majesty, Dinner Is Ready. - Chapter 24

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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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Chapter 24 – Time to Get Used to It
“I wonder what kind of reward we’ll get…?”
With Marlin supporting me, I climbed the altar—a structure resembling a grand staircase.
The headache from overusing Mystery was one thing, but the aftereffects of taking lightning across my entire body bare-handed made it impossible to walk alone.
“Whatever you expect, you’ll get more than that.”
“A Tier 10 Mystery Book!”
“That’s not expectation—that’s fantasy, so it doesn’t count. Let your imagination settle on something realistic.”
By utilizing Hidden Pieces to adjust the difficulty to its maximum, one could obtain the finest rewards.
Precisely because the boss entity—the Corrupted Statue of Meterd—grew proportionally stronger, even the Harmony Church had refrained from challenging it rashly, leaving it as unknown information.
If a gimmick capable of overwhelming even high-level priests were to trigger, it would be foolish to risk losing valuable talent, so their caution was entirely justified.
‘Without direct experience, I wouldn’t have dared attempt it either.’
My memory of exploiting the weakness with Black Lightning Bloom proved invaluable in this conquest.
That was the true allure of Dungeons.
Even the strong could perish meaninglessly in a low-tier Dungeon, while the weak could achieve spectacular feats if they possessed the right methods—a place where anything was possible.
This was why I couldn’t help but love exploration.
“Kar, careful now.”
Supporting my unsteady legs, we reached the summit of the altar.
Atop the flattened peak lay various treasures arranged like offerings.
Four types in total.
Before examining the rewards, I surveyed the floor carefully and tilted my head.
‘As I thought….’
This altar with hidden rewards only appeared after defeating the boss entity at maximum difficulty.
Yet traces of someone else’s passage were scattered throughout.
‘They succeeded in the conquest before us and claimed their rewards.’
So Ermentaz hadn’t looked tired for nothing.
Still, the unknown challenger must have used a different method than mine—not targeting the core directly.
The thirty-minute survival approach.
The Corrupted Statue of Meterd was actually the type of boss that neutralized itself automatically if you survived for a set duration.
The reward type differed, but the difficulty remained largely the same.
“…Kar, why are you suddenly smiling?”
“Something interesting has come up.”
Who could it be?
I had no leads yet, but I found myself oddly curious.
Unexpected variables that posed no threat to life were always welcome.
“You didn’t overexert your mental strength to the point of becoming a little unhinged, did you…?”
I pressed acupressure points across Marlin’s crown as she whispered concerns to Rosalia, then took her head in both hands and turned it to face me.
“Marlin, look at that. I think you’ll like what’s there.”
“…Huh?”
Marlin’s tail, drooping with exhaustion, suddenly began to wag vigorously.
“Jewels!
The first hidden reward consisted of gemstones in a dazzling array of hues.
With applications across alchemy, magic, craftsmanship, and countless other fields, they were always in high demand and fetched premium prices.
“They’re beautiful!”
“Take them all.”
“Really? I can?”
Marlin’s eyes shone with unbridled brightness.
“When have you known me to lie?”
“Kar, thank you!”
Marlin beamed as she began greedily scooping the gems into a leather pouch.
It was a pleasant sight, though a hint of concern crept in.
I hope she grows into a healthy rogue and not a gold-obsessed miser. That much, at least.
“Sister, you take this.”
I handed Rosalia a pair of boots from beside the pile of gemstones.
《Equipment – Light-stepping Boots》
《Prevents your feet from sinking into sand, marsh, or soil. Reduces the sound of your footsteps.》
Simple equipment, yet remarkably effective.
For an Explorer who had to move as cautiously as possible within a Dungeon, there was no finer gear.
And if someone as capable as Rosalia wore them—an assassin of her caliber?
Unless you were a tank, no one could stop her.
……
Rosalia nodded quietly, then carefully gathered up the boots and tucked them away into her own shadow.
The light in her eyes made it clear she was pleased.
“Would it be acceptable if I took the remaining two items?”
“Of course!”
Marlin answered brightly, while Rosalia gave her silent assent.
“Thank you.”
I’d intended to claim them anyway, but having it acknowledged like this made the spoils of conquest feel all the lighter in my hands.
I picked up the softly gleaming necklace first.
A delicate pendant adorned with fine ornaments, crowned with a small mirror—nothing ostentatious, but beautiful nonetheless.
《Artifact – Copying Mirror》
《Replicates the effect of one Mystery of Tier 3 or below. That such a broken artifact exists!》
This was one of the artifacts that had made my Heretical Doctrine build possible in the first place.
The limitation to Tier 3 and below was frustrating, but even with that constraint, the applications were endless.
I’d already decided which Mystery’s effect to copy.
‘Dark Cloud Rumble.’
A Mystery that enhanced other abilities by half the amount of whatever stat had declined.
Currently, thanks to the curse from the Nature God and the blight it had inflicted, it only applied to Agility among the reduced Strength and Agility—but with this artifact, I could extend it to Strength as well.
And beyond that, I now had a Mystery that could raise Strength too.
‘That’s the most important thing.’
The last Hidden Piece—a yellow Mystery Book—I picked up slowly and brushed the sand from it.
Unlike usual, the information didn’t appear immediately; a moment of silence passed before words materialized in the air.
《Tier 1 Mystery Book (Growth-type) – Avatar of the Earth》
《Accepts the earth’s vitality to strengthen the body. Originally this must have been an innate Mystery of the Earth Elves… but why does it exist as a Mystery Book!》
The font of the text twisted subtly throughout.
The emotion of astonishment bled through clearly.
《Bewilderment: Why do you not react with shock? Could you have known this too? Even the Wise One blinks blankly in confusion!》
“Get used to it. It’s going to keep happening.”
I waved my hand through the text floating in the air, then looked around at my companions who’d cleared this dungeon with me.
“Should we head out?”
I was thinking it was time to go back and get some well-deserved rest.
***
A room furnished with luxurious furniture.
A long-haired man sat on the sofa, gazing at the wine swirling in his glass.
He held the glass loosely in his hand for a while, just swirling it gently, before finally speaking.
“How was it?”
Whoosh.
Immediately, the red-haired assassin Rosalia burst forth from the shadows and bowed her head respectfully.
“Excellent.”
“…Is that so.”
Odillon paused for a moment, then chuckled softly and took a single sip of wine, wetting his tongue.
“Seems it was quite satisfactory.”
This elf, who rarely spoke even when her master called, had answered immediately upon being questioned.
If one were to compare her to an ordinary person, it was as though she’d been so excited that she rambled on endlessly.
“Better than expected.”
Kar, the heretical priest.
From the moment he discovered Hidden Pieces in two consecutive explorations, I’d suspected something was amiss—and my intuition proved correct.
“So if we were to form an expedition centered around that one, you believe it could surpass even my brother’s and sister’s expeditions?”
“…”
This time Rosalia didn’t answer immediately, falling into serious contemplation for several minutes before finally speaking.
“The potential is certainly there.”
It was an ambiguous answer, but Odillon nodded as though satisfied.
Considering that this elf had a rather stringent standard for evaluating others’ abilities, it amounted to nothing short of high praise.
So she was truly impressed.
“Understood.”
However I thought about it, this was talent I absolutely could not afford to let slip away.
I had to intercept him before the Harmony Church formally brought him into their employ.
Odillon withdrew a letter sealed in a pristine envelope from his pocket and extended it to her.
“An invitation. Deliver it to him.”
“Yes.”

Rosalia nodded and melted into shadow, disappearing into the distance.
Odillon watched the space where his assassin had vanished for a moment, then drank his wine slowly.
‘An assassin and a cultist, one each.’
Setting aside Kar’s two wards—still too green—he needed four more people to fill the expedition’s six slots.
To assemble an ideal expedition, what classes of talent should he recruit next?
Odillon sipped his wine in silence for a while, lost in thought, when suddenly his eyes narrowed.
‘The boots changed.’
They looked like a reward from this dungeon expedition, but why hadn’t he reported it?
Was he afraid Odillon would confiscate them?
It meant Kar must have been quite pleased with his new acquisition.
“…What does he think I am?”
He ran a hand irritably through his long hair.
It was impossible to know what his subordinate truly thought of him.
***
Four days had passed since we cleared the Tomb of the Earth Elves.
During that time, I’d been recuperating from the accumulated exhaustion—both physical and mental—of the previous expedition.
Mostly by sprawling thoughtlessly across the sofa.
“Kar, you’re holed up indoors far too much, aren’t you? You should go out for a walk now and then,” Marlin said from the armchair beside me, looking up from a library book titled “Dungeon Fundamentals Even a Slime Can Understand!”
She was chiding me while turning pages.
“How cruel. Your patron is languishing in pain, and you speak so coldly?”
“You’ve been fully recovered for two days. I know it.”
“This is exactly why I can’t stand perceptive little ones….”
Marlin was right; the injury had healed long ago.
But proper rest meant focusing entirely on recovery, didn’t it? That way, one could work with renewed vigor when the time came.
Having worked under Manager Choi—that demon who’d drop urgent work on her subordinates’ days off, demanding it finished by evening—I’d become acutely sensitive to the value of vacation time.
‘Still, I suppose it’s time to get back to it.’
I mustn’t forget.
The world would perish within five years if we couldn’t clear the Nightmare Dungeon, the most difficult labyrinth of all.
Four days of rest was enough. Time to work again.
Today happened to have a scheduled appointment.
“Hello!”
As I was preparing to go out, a dungeon management priest arrived at my door.
It was that bright, conscientious priest who’d overseen the Fire Ant Cavern.
《A junior priest of the Harmony Church’s Dungeon Management Priesthood, Seeking Light division. Reina, human, twenty-three years old. She talks so much it hurts one’s ears and has an exceedingly cheerful disposition. Best kept at a distance due to the noise.》
“Here’s the information fee!”
“Information fee!”
Marlin, who’d been watching from the sofa, perked up and rushed over.
“Sister Reina, it’s so good to see you!”
“Our tiger friend, how’ve you been? You look healthy—that’s wonderful!”
After exchanging warm greetings, Priest Reina beamed and pressed two plump pouches of money into Marlin’s waiting arms.
“First, one pouch is payment for the information you provided about Hidden Pieces in the Lurker Ghoul Colony Base and the Fire Ant Cavern—fifty gold each, so one hundred gold total!”
“One hundred gold!”
“And the other pouch is payment for information about what happens when you activate the Hidden Piece that strengthens the boss entity of the Tomb of the Earth Elves all the way through. That’s eighty gold!”
One hundred eighty gold in total.
In Korean currency, roughly eighteen million won.
Since it was information about an E-rank dungeon, even Hidden Piece data didn’t command a huge sum.
But to a teenager whose eyes glazed over at the sight of money, it felt like a staggering fortune.
…….
I poked Marlin, who stood frozen as if she’d fainted on her feet, to bring her back to life.
“Please keep providing information, Kar!”
“Is there a regular customer discount?”
“Of course there is!”
“Then I’ll be happy to keep selling.”
“Wonderful!”
Priest Reina then produced bronze-plated identity badges shaped like shields and gave them to both Marlin and me.
“You’re both Bronze Badge Explorers now!”
At last, we’d been officially recognized as Explorers pulling our full weight.
Without this, you couldn’t truly be called an Explorer.
You’d just be someone who happened to delve into dungeons.
“If you wish to advance to a Silver Badge, you’ll need to take the examination, so keep that in mind!
After the priest departed—the one who had supplied four voices all by himself—I stepped outside with the two young siblings.
“Patron, where are we going?”
“Somewhere good.”
I pulled out the invitation I’d received days ago and examined it.
[Four days hence. Come then.]
– Odillon Brites.
For an invitation, the message was absurdly sparse, but for a young master whose sociability had withered to ice, this much amounted to generosity.
I placed my hands on Marlin and Abel’s shoulders as I spoke.
“You two need to mind your manners.”
Odillon.
Among Korean gamers, he went by the nickname “Sindillon.”
“We’re going to meet the person who will take full responsibility for recruiting talent for our expedition corps and handling our finances.”

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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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