By now, it’s been clear that some things haven’t changed.

This boss room’s door inside the dungeon is one of those things.

Even back in the game, there was a door right before a Boss fight.

In fact, the door was, and still is, an important part of raiding.

Other than keeping the Boss in, it also provides intelligence.

Based on the design of the door, players can make a pretty good guess what kind of Boss Monster is awaiting them on the other side.

The door also serves as a save point.

Once we’d figured out what the Boss could be, we would start the preparation. If the compatibility was too horrendous, some of us would simply teleport back home to switch out some gear before coming back.

Thanks to the door, our previous progress wouldn’t be lost.

And as for the door standing before us...

“Chief, it’s probably a lycanthrope.”

“Yep. Probably a standard two-stage type, too.”

“Should we go with the usual?”

“That works.”

Emily pushes the door and open up the way inside.

As soon as we enter, dark particles begin to gather at the center.

Back in the game, this would be a cutscene where everyone would be locked in place and forced to watch this short clip of animation.

However, that no longer works in this world.

The moment I see the animation play, I begin conjuring magic.

By the time the Boss takes on a complete form...

“Guhk!”

It immediately gets bound by my CC magic.

At this stage, the Boss has the shape of a human male.

He looks to be around forty years old with a magnificent beard.

However, he’s now stuck in one place because of my Dark Binding.

Now that Emily has a mind of her own, there is simply no way she’ll miss such a wide open opportunity to overwhelm the enemy.

I mean, even the game’s simple AI was able to make that choice.

She quickly dashes toward the Boss and unleashes a barrage of fist attacks. It’s just one of the most basic Monk skills that don’t even cost mana to activate.

However, Emily’s wearing Tier 1 gear enhanced to the max by me.

All of a sudden, she’s in possession of unfair passive skills.

Most of them are power multipliers, too...

The lycanthrope’s handsome face now looks like that of a pig.

His HP has also been trashed down to barely 20%.

“Insolent insects!”

The Boss suddenly gets angry and shakes off my binding.

Here it is, the Rage mechanic.

When it transforms, it’s going to undo all debuffs.

Its aggro gain also skyrockets to increase difficulty.

The man grows a lot more fur and becomes a werewolf.

However, before he can attack, Emily activates a taunt skill.

“Come here.”

She’s provoking it, but she’s definitely not getting arrogant.

The werewolf, now with less intelligence and more instinct, easily takes the bait and charges straight at Emily. It’s extremely bloodthirsty in this form.

The Boss has certainly attacked Emily, but he’s confused.

He’s certain that he threw an all out claw attack at Emily, and yet, she’s still alive and kicking. On top of that she’s stopped his arm with one hand.

A cute, small hand is holding a big, veiny wrist, yet the big guy can’t move at all. He’s completely stuck there. If he wants to move freely, he’ll have to rip out his hand.

“Rupture.”

While the Boss is stopped by Emily, I cast another spell.

This time, I try using voice command.

And indeed, the spell is working just fine.

I can clearly feel the mana getting taken away from me.

The werewolf pauses for a moment and explodes.

However, it’s not a combustion type explosion.

This time, it exploded because I used Water magic to vaporize all the water inside his body at once. And the result: he immediately becomes a pool of blood.

It looks like voice command is going to be handy.

Though, it’ll be for very specific situations.

I’m not going to throw some chuuni names around normally, though.

“Chief, I didn’t know you had a spell like that?”

“Yeah, I came up with it just now.”

“That’s incredible, but leave some for other sorcerers as well, okay?”

“Nope. Your Chief’s gonna’ have all the arcane knowledge of the world.”

“Figures~”

The pool of blood on the ground is slowly absorbed by the ground.

So, this is how a dungeon recycles...

In the game, this would just be an ending animation instead.

Afterward, the rewards would appear in a message window.

However, in this reality, it’s completely different.

Once the Boss’ corpse is fully reabsorbed, the innermost wall of the Boss Room suddely collapses by itself, revealing a pile of loot.

A quick look through the items puts a wry smile on my face.

“I thought there’d be new items, since it’s not the same world and all...”

“I guess nothing’s changed.”

These are all items that are expected to drop from a Tier 5.

I’m sure they’re worth something for the people in that town.

However, I won’t just leave them here.

I still need to figure out market prices and the rarity of items in this world, so I’ll definitely bring these back to the Association and learn some things from them.

“I wonder why we were thrown into this world.”

“I’d also like to know the same thing, Chief. Our house was originally in such a beautiful place, and now it has to be in an ugly grassland together with lowly monsters.”

Emily pouts again, and I want to do the same thing as well.

But surely, there must be something good in this world.

Though, I’d say that letting the girls become alive is good enough for me. If it’s with these two, I can spend a whole eternity even in this foreign world.

Not everything’s the same as in the game anymore, but I’ll work with it.

On the contrary, not being limited by the confines of a public community opens up some interesting possibilities for entertainment.

After all, this world does function like a private game server.

“We’ll figure something out once we know more about the world.”

“Just leave all the paperwork to me~”

“Oh? How dependable.”

“Fufu. I manage all of our Guild spending on my own, you know?”

“Of course. I entrust it all to you after all.”

I let Emily hold all the items in her own Item Box.

Kyoka also comes back with a detailed map of the entire dungeon.

Turns out, there are some secret pathways we didn’t explore.

Normally, I’d sniff all these secrets out, thanks to the unreasonable perfectionist in me, but I guess Emily and I were flirting a bit too much along the way...

“Kyoka. Go back to our house and make a physical copy of the map.”

“Yes, Danna.”

Her bewitching voice comes quietly from my shadow.

Shortly after, I can’t feel her presence anymore.

That Shadow Step skill is really convenient, or overpowered even.

Anyways, what she brought back was map data from a skill.

With that, I now have a complete map of this dungeon in my head.

However, I can’t sell something like that to Maendorg.

If I want to make money off of him, I need an actual map.

There are tools in our house which will help Kyoka with drawing a detailed map. She does possess the necessary abilities thanks to the Classes that I gave her.

While thinking about various ways to make money, I take Emily to the hidden paths and explore the rest of the dungeon.

It’ll be a complete clear before the Boss respawn again.

.

.

.

Stormspire Dukedom, East of Windgate City.

This huge city is built as a fortress with its back against a cliff.

Taking the shape of a half-circle, Stormspire has maintained its defenses for countless years without being penetrated once. It’s become the pride of the residents.

The view from the Duchess’ mansion is especially good, since it’s next to the waterfall pouring down from the river above the cliff.

Inside a secret building within the mansion...

“Sir Maendorg. It’s rare for you to come through this way.”

The beautiful Duchess Rosabelle greets Maendorg at the teleporter.

Accompanying her are two female attendants.

“Your Ladyship, it’s been a while. And yes, I have urgent news.”

“It’s been a while, indeed. Well, what kind of news could possibly send Sir Maendorg rushing over like this? Could it be...”

Maendorg steps off the teleporter and stands before Rosabelle.

She’s a Duchess, yet he skips formalities.

In reality, that’s just how respected the Dragon race is.

“Yes, a Tier One has finally appeared in Windgate.”

Rosabelle’s face brightens up like a cheerful little girl.

“My, my! My daughter will finally be saved!”

“Yes, you are very fortunate.”

“And what might that mean?”

“The Tier One has registered as a Solo.”

“It couldn’t be more perfect, could it?”

“Indeed. Solo Adventurers are less likely to be unreasonable.”

“I just hope that I can meet their demands...”

“For now, I’ll keep an eye on them until I see that they’re truly trustworthy.”

“I can only rely on you, Sir Maendorg.”

“Don’t mention it. I’m merely doing my job.”

They bid farewell as Maendorg returns with the teleporter.

Duchess Rosabelle goes back to the mansion and stares at the face of her sickly daughter, lost in thoughts and sorrow.

“If only I didn’t let them go that day...”