It turned out that after conquering the dungeon and claiming ownership of the dungeon core, Ryu was recognized as the administrator of the dungeon after its restart.
As the administrator, it was necessary to adjust the spawn rates of the monsters in the "Earth Dragon Lair" dungeon, especially if it was going to be used for training.
However, Ryu had simply placed the core and left it alone. While this wasn't a problem for naturally occurring dungeons, the dungeon, left in a half-finished state, was becoming rather strange.
It's surprisingly unknown that humans can become dungeon administrators.
This is because there are not many adventurers who have experience conquering dungeons.
Also, in cities known as maze cities, where dungeons are a major industry, it is strictly forbidden to damage or steal the dungeon core. After all, the dungeon is a shared resource for the city.
However, there are also dungeons called "Managed Dungeons." These are managed by countries or guilds and used as resources (or for novice dungeons).
In such cases, the adventurer who conquered the dungeon transfers or sells the ownership of the core to the guild or country.
However, for now, it's being reported that Ryu-jin destroyed the dungeon core. And the dungeon is said to have naturally resurrected, so there has been no talk of buying it.
As for the Earth Dragon Lair, after its restart, Ryu immediately prohibited inter-floor monster movement and leaving the dungeon, but left it alone after that. This resulted in an abnormal number of monsters accumulating inside the dungeon.
If he were to lift the restrictions and allow the dungeon to become completely natural, the number of monsters would eventually stabilize due to natural selection. However, that would also mean that monsters could leave the dungeon and harm people in the city.
Also, the Adventurer Guild had just started training novice adventurers, so there was no reason not to use the lower floors as a beginner dungeon. Ryu finally realized that he should adjust the dungeon properly.
Returning to the city, Ryu reported the abnormal situation of the dungeon to the Guild Master and asked Catherine what kind of monsters he should set for each floor to make it ideal.
Upon hearing this, Catherine said,
"So you were the dungeon administrator all along? (laughs)"
Ryu had reported to the former Guild Master, Daniel, that he had destroyed the dungeon core. But Catherine knew that was a lie.
While it's true that it's not widely known that humans can become dungeon administrators, Catherine, who worked at the Guild headquarters, was well aware of such information.
Catherine had guessed that Ryu had put the core back when the dungeon resurrected. However, she was also busy rebuilding the Guild and had been putting off checking the dungeon.
Since there was no need to hide it anymore, Ryu admitted that he was the administrator and decided to re-adjust the dungeon monsters in consultation with Catherine.
He assumed that the country, the lord, or the Guild would eventually buy the rights to the core. But for the time being, they agreed to keep Ryu's identity as the administrator a secret and use the dungeon.
Dungeon administrators can determine the types of monsters that appear on each floor and the characteristics of the floor itself.
Therefore, they decided to use the first eight floors as training for beginners.
The monsters that would appear were goblins, kobolds, orcs, and so on.
They started with monsters that weren't very high level and gradually increased the danger level of the monsters that appeared.
The boss of the eighth floor was a culmination of everything up to that point, and monsters like the higher-level versions of the monsters that had appeared so far, or king-type monsters, were set to appear there.
The first eight floors would serve as an introductory course for beginner training, and from the ninth floor onward, the dungeon would become a regular dungeon with powerful monsters.
The deeper you go, the more dangerous the monsters that appear. Naturally, this included the Earth Dragon, the namesake of the dungeon. Hearing this, Catherine held her head.
The dungeon already had more than 100 floors, and there were many dangerous monsters in the deeper floors. It was likely that no adventurer would be able to reach the deepest floor. Even if they did, it would be impossible to defeat the boss monster, the Hydra.
But it was decided that it was okay to leave it that way. If the dungeon were to be conquered, the ownership of the core could be transferred, so it was better to make it impossible to conquer.
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After all the plans were decided, Ryu transferred to the room where the dungeon core was placed on the deepest floor of the dungeon, manipulated the dungeon core, and changed the structure of the dungeon.
It was a bit of a bone-breaking task to set everything up in detail for all 100+ floors, but he managed to finish the settings.
Ryu took a quick look at the condition of each floor, and after confirming that everything was okay, the dungeon training for novice adventurers resumed.
Next Time
Ryu is targeted by assassins from the underworld?!
Stay tuned!