Chapter 100

Chapter 100: The Desert (4)

Monster Taming.

Dominating monsters and putting them to work—a technique that was simple yet remarkably effective.

Monster Taming was not an officially existing technique in the game.

It was a bug-like exploit I'd created by leveraging a gap in the system.

Because of that, Monster Taming had neither an advantage nor disadvantage in that proficiency didn't exist.

A swordsman who'd swung a sword once and one who'd swung it a million times had a gap as vast as heaven and earth—but with Monster Taming, a beginner and an expert were no different.

Put positively, someone like me who knew the tricks could replicate exactly what I'd done in the game. Put negatively, there was no room to develop it further.

One of Monster Taming's signature applications:

Tame a monster inside the dungeon, then send it on reconnaissance to serve as the vanguard.

─Arf! Arf!

The moment I entered the dungeon, barking greeted me.

Large canines sculpted from yellow brick.

Gatekeepers of this place, it seemed.

"Aggressive ones."

Monsters generally didn't attack first, but occasionally certain conditions would trigger hostility.

For instance, if the intruders' advance toward the dungeon's interior was unwelcome, monsters would become hostile once you crossed a certain threshold.

Identifying these nuances was important.

To tame monsters, you couldn't be in a hostile relationship.

These ones needed to be lured out rather than approached.

"Let's see... type is beast, attributes are stone and sun. In that case, this is the ticket."

The moment I rummaged through my spatial pouch and produced something, the monsters stirred.

Monster Taming was similar to training animals.

Step one of befriending animals: bribe them with food.

"Tempting, isn't it?"

A long rib soaked in sunlight.

For sun-attribute monsters, this was game over.

I waved the rib side to side, and the monsters' tails started wagging in sync.

Cute things. Who'd look at them and think they were man-killing monsters?

"Come here if you want it."

I set the rib down at my feet, and the monsters bolted over and clamped onto it.

They started fighting over the single rib, each insisting it was theirs. I pulled out a few more and distributed them.

"Easy, easy. There's plenty—no fighting."

The monsters devoured the ribs as if possessed.

I said "ate," but what they truly craved wasn't the food itself—it was the sun-attribute mana within.

The reason dungeon-dwelling monsters tried to leave through the Gate once one appeared.

The Gate had a property of absorbing the dungeon's mana, gradually depleting it.

Once mana ran low, monsters had no choice but to venture outside to replenish—and already hungry, the Gate's maddening effect made them even more frenzied, leading them to attack humans.

Monster Taming exploited this in reverse.

Feed hungry monsters and make them your allies.

Properly speaking, you'd whittle their health down, capture them, take them outside the Gate, and then begin taming—but these ones were just scout-and-discard disposables, so that wasn't necessary.

Monsters captured and taken outside required extensive bonding time with the Tamer, but those tamed inside the dungeon bonded quickly and could be put to work right away—that was the advantage.

For the record, it was impossible to use this property to turn every monster inside a dungeon into an ally.

Producing the specialized food for taming was no simple task.

Mass-producing it cost far more than just raiding the dungeon conventionally.

"That's right. You were really hungry, weren't you?"

Making eye contact with each one and stroking them, they quickly became docile dogs that followed my lead.

I'd worried because they'd looked aggressive, but it turned out to be far simpler than expected.

"Alright, a gift to celebrate our friendship."

I produced dog collars from my spatial pouch.

I'd crafted them with my blacksmith skill, complete with adjustable sizing for monster bodies.

The monsters didn't resist as I clasped the collars around their necks. Proof that taming was successful.

"Good boys."

Two enchantments were layered on the collars.

One was Communication Magic and Video Magic for reconnaissance.

The other was a mental-type enchantment that heightened their affinity and loyalty toward me.

"Go as far as you can and look around. Not just a quick sweep—observe carefully, got it? Do a good job and I'll give you one of these as a reward."

I waved the same rib as before, and the monsters brimmed with enthusiasm.

When I gave the signal to go, they raced off without hesitation.

***

"Unbelievable......! What are you? You're basically using cheat codes to solo-clear a dungeon! What even is this?"

When I exited the Gate and delivered my report, Baekryeon was beside herself.

Zhuge Soyon wore a smug, mocking expression.

"Pfft. Auntie, how country-bumpkin can you get? That's our professor—getting surprised over something this small is disrespectful."

No. It wasn't disrespectful.

You were the one being rude. When I first showed you the paper, you made a bigger fuss than anyone—and which person living where was that?

When Baekryeon glared murderously, Zhuge Soyon ducked behind me.

The two of them seemed well-practiced at this dynamic.

Chinese top guilds were surprisingly chummy with each other. America, meanwhile, acted like they wanted to kill each other.

"Soyon, stop messing around and come help organize the data. We need to plan the strategy."

"Okay~."

The tamed monsters were actively scouting, and the Stage 1 survey was nearing completion.

I pulled Zhuge Soyon in and began analysis and strategy planning.

"Three types of monsters. No traps. Simple composition."

"On the other hand, movement looks inconvenient. The paths are narrow and twisted like a maze."

"Wait. The mana flow in here is strange."

At my command, the monsters quickly tracked down the source of the anomaly.

A Magic Circle with a spiral design.

"What is... this?"

Zhuge Soyon was puzzled by the unfamiliar form.

I'd encountered it several times in the game, but in the current timeline, it appeared to be a Magic Circle whose existence hadn't yet been discovered.

"Let's analyze it."

Normally, analyzing a Magic Circle was an incredibly arduous and complex process—but the moment Lee Yeeun had presented her paper, it had become a simple task.

Zhuge Soyon quickly analyzed the circle and identified its nature.

"It's a magic that confuses intruders. Ugh, what kind of mechanism is this? It doesn't cast a spell on you—it manipulates the ambient mana flow, so debuff resistance is meaningless. And detecting the Magic Circle in the first place wouldn't be easy."

This Magic Circle was one of those traps with a special talent for driving people insane.

The truly vicious part was that the player couldn't tell they'd fallen into the trap.

If you'd wandered every corner of the dungeon and still couldn't find the exit, nine times out of ten this Magic Circle was active—and you had to hunt it down.

An obnoxious trap, but there was exactly one easy way to detect it: Monster Taming.

The circle only activated on intruders, so sending in a tamed monster—like now—revealed it easily.

Lucky break.

What were the odds of stumbling into this Magic Circle right when I was using Taming?

"Could you have the tamed monsters destroy the Magic Circle?"

"Impossible. They don't have the means to break it."

"Hmm."

Zhuge Soyon fell into thought.

A moment later, she came back with an idea.

"I thought of one method—want to hear it?"

"Go ahead."

"We use the tamed monsters to lure out every monster inside, then I go in and dismantle the Magic Circle."

"A herding hunt, essentially."

"Yes. Clear all the threats first, then I'll slip in, remove the circle, and come back."

The Magic Circle exploited the target's own internal magic in reverse.

In other words, Zhuge Soyon—an Awakened with barely more resilience than a civilian—could navigate the interior without issue.

"Too dangerous."

Which made it all the more worrying.

No matter how thoroughly we cleared the threats beforehand, if there was a trap or monster the scouts had missed......

"If you're worried about me, just make sure the path is nice~ and safe before I go. Don't miss a single thing—search every last corner."

Zhuge Soyon's eyes shone with deep trust.

When she looked at me like that, I couldn't say no.

"Alright. Fine."

"Hehe."

Zhuge Soyon then laid out her strategy point by point.

From how to execute the herding, to specific formation adjustments—she built the most efficient tactics possible.

China's genius girl, Zhuge Soyon.

Since our first meeting, when she'd already been called China's greatest strategist, the girl had grown yet another level in the time I hadn't seen her.

During the Pacific Dungeon, she'd absorbed in mere hours what Florian's prodigies had spent over ten weeks learning—making my lecture content entirely her own in that short window.

Not content with merely mastering my theories, she'd since grafted her own frameworks, expanding her domain even further.

How to put it.

This kid was insane.

Zhuge Soyon was observing, thinking, and understanding from nearly the same vantage point as me.

At this rate of growth, in a few years she might absorb everything I had and climb even higher.

Watching her grow was a pleasure.

If Zhuge Soyon had survived the game and remained an NPC, wouldn't she have become a support character rivaling or surpassing Lee Yeeun?

"How's that?"

"Good. More than enough."

Preparations complete.

All hail the genius assistant who'd cut my workload in half.

Bringing Zhuge Soyon had been a good call on multiple fronts.

The scouting by my tamed dogs was wrapping up too.

Even among monsters, hierarchy existed—the ones near the entrance couldn't penetrate deeper territory.

"Gather up, everyone. Time for the briefing."

I assembled all four parties and relayed the plan.

Everyone nodded without question.

A good sign. It meant trust between commander and party was well-established.

First came the herding.

I had the scouting monsters rally their neighbors and drive them toward the entrance.

"Here you go."

Entering the Gate, I tossed the promised ribs to the dogs.

The monsters crowded around, happily gnawing away.

With that, their role was finished.

They'd brought in the prey; the hunting dogs were no longer needed.

Monsters of the same type—especially those from the same dungeon—shared a strong sense of camaraderie.

Given more time, a chance to truly bond, things might have been different—but we didn't have that luxury.

It was brief, but thank you. I'm sorry.

From here on, we're enemies.

"Wipe them out."

Before a party of twenty-plus A-rank-and-above Heroes, the first stage's monsters—stripped bare of every last secret—had no chance of survival.

Stage 1 ended in a one-sided massacre by the hunters.

─Situation clear!

─Standing by as instructed.

Considering it was their first time working together, their performance exceeded my expectations.

Murakami in particular delivered a standout showing befitting Japan's strongest Hero.

Now only the final task remained.

Zhuge Soyon, who'd been directing alongside me, stood up.

"Professor, I'll be going now."

"Go."

Zhuge Soyon entered the dungeon to dismantle the Magic Circle.

That process, too, was over in a flash.

The girl—close to an ordinary person in terms of combat—strode through the monsterless dungeon without a moment's hesitation.

Reaching the Magic Circle's location, she dismantled it with practiced ease.

─Done.

"Good work."

Stage 1, clear.

Riding the momentum, the expedition pressed deeper into the dungeon.