Ara cautiously looked around before carefully climbing up the cliff.
“Sister, let’s go together,” she heard from behind as Cheong followed her up the cliff.
“Hmm! What is this place?”
“It’s too high, sister. I’m scared,” Cheong expressed his fear.
Ara then swiftly lifted Cheong up to the top of the cliff.
Upon reaching the top, they were greeted by a breathtaking view below the cloud-touched high cliff.
“It’s so cool!”
“Indeed, it is spectacular!” Ara then took out some items from her backpack—a small sketchbook and colored pencils. She began to draw intently with her tongue slightly poking out, while Cheong watched her side.
“It’s candidate number three!”
“Wow! It’s the third candidate!”
After selecting the third location, Ara and Cheong climbed back down.
Fortunately, Ara had carved steps into the cliff on the way up, making the descent easier.
“!!”
As they reached the bottom, Soo and the slimes warmly greeted them, as if asking how it was.
“It was okay!”
“I’m glad I didn’t go. It was scary.”
Soo and the slimes looked at each other, confused about whose account to believe. However, Ara’s true intention was to explore various places in the vast dungeon.
“Now, let’s go find another place!”
“I’m so excited!”
At the same time, similar events were happening in other teams scattered across the dungeon.
Kyu-seong’s familiars were looking for places to set up new portals, each with their own criteria.
Ara sought adventure; Mammon preferred lush vegetation; Ras chose scenic and rugged terrains; Ashu looked for new ingredients.
Although there were occasional overlaps, the dungeon was vast enough to avoid collisions. And Kyu-seong, monitoring everything through the minimap, was checking on the scattered children.
Currently, Mammon and Frey, who were always bickering, were teamed up.
“I told you we should go north! I knew there wouldn’t be anything here!”
“Humph! My intuition told me to go this way. And I don’t even know what north is.”
“Eek! So I trusted your intuition, and it turned out to be an empty plain! And what do you mean you don’t know what north is?”
“What are you talking about? What is north? Is it a plant name?”
“Frey, do you even know what north, south, east, and west are?”
“Are they names of flowers?”
Hearing their conversation brought a smile to Kyu-seong’s face.
Eventually, Mammon and Frey noticed Kyu-seong’s presence.
“Lord Overlord!”
“Lord Overlord, Mammon keeps making absurd claims!”
Frey flew over and scolded Mammon, who was flustered and waved his hands.
“Me, when did I! I didn’t do anything wrong!”
“Mammon keeps interrupting. If you trust my intuition, we can really find an amazing place!”
“Oh, it’s so unfair…”
Whether Mammon and Frey fought or not, the goblins and fairies who saw Kyu-seong greeted him cheerfully.
“Kirik!”
“(^^)/”
After patting the cheerful children, Kyu-seong looked up to see Mammon and Frey still arguing. Thinking about how well they managed to travel together, Kyu-seong asked if there were any issues.
“Nothing much? Just don’t go to dangerous places recklessly.”
-Yes! So far, there haven’t been any problems!
-I’m okay because I have wings unlike the goblins. Hehe.
-I have a universal poison resistance!
Watching the two bicker amused Kyu-seong, who briefly heard about the locations chosen by Mammon and Frey’s team before moving on. Riding on Purr made it quick to reach the other teams.
The children were not moving fast as they were searching for locations, and moving together slowed them down.
‘It’s good that Ras and Ara didn’t have to struggle while running at full speed.’
If it were just the two of them, they would have had to ride Purr all day to cover the locations they were inspecting, but since they were accompanied by slimes, Kkumuris, and Gnoll, their speed was slowed down.
The next team was Ras.
Ras was surprisingly accompanied by Kkumuris.
It seemed that they had become quite friendly as they were together in construction and engineering.
‘How curious.’
Honestly, the expressions and gestures of the Kkumuris were inscrutable.
They were children who often performed meaningless actions or did odd things but surprisingly got along well with the Gnolls.
-Sniff sniff! Is that Kyu-seong?
“Yes. Were you doing well?”
Kyu-seong, who arrived following the minimap, soon faced Ras’s team, greeted by energetically whirling tails.
Though Ras spoke indifferently, it seemed his tail was whipping so energetically he might fly into the sky.
-What brings the Lord here!
“Just came to see how you’re doing.”
-I was digging a tunnel.
“……Eh?”
What’s that supposed to mean?
Kyu-seong was puzzled by the mention of digging a tunnel but was soon astounded to see the Gnolls actually digging one.
“A tunnel? Why are you digging this?”
-The scent. A strong scent that agitates the Lord’s nose.
Even when speaking seriously in a child-like voice, it was only adorable.
Kyu-seong scratched his head and then took a closer look at the tunnel.
The location was near a giant mountain.
But it was not just any mountain; it was made of unknown dirt.
‘There’s not a single plant.’
A bland brown mountain.
It made one curious about the composition of the material.
It didn’t seem like ordinary dirt…
Passing the diligently digging Gnolls, Kyu-seong inspected the tunnel.
The entrance was being made incredibly large.
Kyu-seong’s family could enter in a group without any problem due to its size.
-The Lord’s location will be the best. You can look forward to it.
“Oh, okay, I’ll be expecting great things!”
Hmm, it seems Ras won’t be moving any further.
The location was about a 2-hour distance from the slime village, so it seemed a bit difficult to travel back and forth without a portal.
Having checked on Ras’s team, Kyu-seong decided to check on the last team, the Breeding Tribe.
Ara had already been checked first, so what remained was Ashu’s team.
It was interesting to see how well the newbies in the Dungeon of Gluttony were doing.
-Hehe.
“What?”
And there, Kyu-seong also found Kkumuris with Ashu and the Breeding Tribe.
“Aren’t you being sneaky?”
-Hehe.
The Kkumuriss made a vacant noise.
In the meantime, the Breeding Tribe who spotted Kyu-seong welcomed him.
-Beep beep!
-Peep peep!
“Hello, kids. Oh! Is this place interesting?”
The location found by the Breeding Tribe was a peculiar place.
It was almost half a day’s journey from the village.
True to their fast-moving rabbit nature, they were scouting the farthest places.
-Kyu-seong Kyu-seong has come!
“Hey. Hello, Ashu. How’s it going? Have you found anything?”
-Look at this! Ashu found it!
Ashu handed over something that looked like a fruit.
It resembled a coconut, and trees laden with them were scattered around the place Ashu found.
The area was covered with plants that looked like tropical vegetation. It was Kyu-seong’s first time seeing such a place, so he first checked the fruit.
“Doesn’t show any item description. Have you eaten it?”
-Uh, yes.
Sensing Ashu’s odd reaction, Kyu-seong decided to crack open the hard fruit.
Crack!
“Uh? This…….”
The inside of the fruit was not filled with liquid like a coconut. However, the flesh somehow felt oddly familiar. It seemed like something he had seen on TV…
‘Cacao?’
The flesh of the fruit was similar in appearance to that used as an ingredient in chocolate. Curious, he tasted it but could not discern any recognizable flavor or scent. Simply put, it tasted awful.
“Ugh.”
“It’s not tasty? But since Ashu found it, it can’t be tasteless!”
Despite his efforts to convince by waving his arms, he couldn’t claim it was tasty when it wasn’t.
Kyu-seong frowned, wondering about the taste, and then decided to take it with him.
Maybe it would taste better processed?
Anticipating that cacao fruit also doesn’t taste good raw, he collected several of Ashu’s discovered fruits through Bokkeum.
‘Maybe Jae-seong would know.’
After collecting the fruits, when Kyu-seong asked Ashu if she had chosen a location, Ashu made a face as if she had forgotten.
“Ashu has been so busy looking for food that I forgot!”
“Well, that’s not necessarily bad.”
In fact, the place Ashu had discovered was filled with unfamiliar plants and trees, promising new foods to be found.
Kyu-seong generously praised Ashu, who was excited by the prospect.
“Hehe! Ashu will find more food! And then cook it all using the cooking skills learned from Master!”
Before long, Ashu was referring to Jae-seong as ‘Master.’
“But Ashu, aren’t you getting the roles reversed, where the master becomes the student?”
Thus, after checking the various plants and fruits Ashu had found, Kyu-seong returned to the Slime Village.
He had set aside a 3-day period to find a location for the portal, considering the vastness of the dungeon and the time needed for the return.
***
“Pururuk.”
“Oh, hello, kids?”
Upon returning to the village, the young Pururuk, not seen in a while, were energetically hopping around.
These little ones, having been handled by humans from the start, were less fearful than older Pururuk. They energetically explored here and there, causing the adult Pururuk to worry and chase after them.
“They’re cute.”
-Pururuk.
While petting a palm-sized baby Pururuk who had come to show affection, Seon-ah approached and asked.
“How are the kids? Did you check everywhere?”
“Yes, they were playing well.”
“They won’t get hurt, right?”
“They’re stronger than you.”
“Still….”
No matter how strong they are, it’s hard not to worry. Is this what being a parent feels like?
Jae-seong and Father were outside the Dungeon of Gluttony, designing a restaurant. They were soon to start construction, considering various cooking facilities and interior designs.
In the village, Mother, Chef Orié, and Seon-ah got along well and chatted warmly. It was curious how they communicated since Chef Orié could not speak Korean.
‘Is she learning Korean already, or has she improved?’
Meanwhile, unable to join in the chatter, I tended to the sweet potato field prepared for the golden crop.
With winter nearly over, I planned to finish preparations before the snow melted and start working as soon as it did.
“Hmm, maybe I should enjoy winter a bit more before that.”
After the 3-day location scouting contest, I planned to have a fun winter with the kids. We’d have snowball fights, hold a snowman contest like we did before, and make shaved ice again… I was already feeling excited. Having lived here for a while, I felt like I was keeping my childhood spirit alive, despite not being very old.
“Oh, maybe I’ll build an igloo before the kids come back.”
I wanted to surprise the kids when they returned. So, quietly making snow bricks one by one, I drifted into my own world of childhood dreams. The snow falling heavily. Somehow, it felt lonely without the kids. Three days now seemed too long.
“Kids, come back soon!”
Cliche Novel 