The monkey with spiky hair was staring at us fiercely, its body wrapped in blue electricity.
“Uhuhuhu! Great Sage, Heaven’s Equal! Come here!”
– Oohkik!!
Crackle!
As Ryu Wang-jin swiftly embraced the monkey, a million volts surged through him. It was reminiscent of a certain electric rodent from a pocket monster game.
“Uwoooah!! This is great!!”
But of course, this was Ryu Wang-jin.
Even among Level 8 Awakeners, he was one of the strongest, and despite being electrocuted all over, he remained unfazed.
– Oohkki?
Who would have thought a spirit would take such a form?
And an electric-wielding spirit, no less—completely unexpected.
‘I didn’t expect it to be born the moment I planted the seed, either.’
Well, a good thing is a good thing.
At least we got to see the results right away without any unnecessary worry.
“Greetings! I am Ara!”
– Oohkik!
Fortunately, the monkey wasn’t aggressive toward Ara.
Not only that, but it was docile toward everyone except Ryu Wang-jin.
However, instead of being offended, Ryu Wang-jin was even more delighted.
“Hahaha!! Does this mean it acknowledges me as an equal?!”
Honestly, it seemed like he was just happy with anything the monkey did.
Now that we had an unexpected new family member, it was time to give it a name.
Calling it just “monkey” wouldn’t do.
“What should we name it?”
“Son Ogon!”
“But isn’t that your nickname, Lord Ryu Wang-jin?”
“No! My nickname is Son Goku! So, this guy’s name shall be Son Ogon!”
Scratch.
Well, if that’s what they want, fine.
“From now on, your name is Son Ogon!”
– Ookya!
As if it understood, Son Ogon nodded.
Then, it suddenly ran toward me and climbed up my body.
– Ookkya-kya!
“Don’t pull my hair. That hurts.”
It seemed to like me, but its way of showing affection was a bit too much.
“It’s cute.”
“So, this is how the family grows!”
“This isn’t fair. Why do only cute creatures gather around my brother…?”
“Ara is even cuter.”
After carrying Son Ogon on my head for a while, I finally managed to set it down.
Standing next to Cheong, the blue aura around them became even more pronounced.
“Hmm, now that Ogon is part of the family, it’s time to check its abilities!”
Let’s see just how powerful its lightning is.
Crackle!
“Oooooh!”
“It is the King of Thunder!”
When I told it to show its abilities, Son Ogon wrapped itself in electricity and began radiating energy.
The lightning that spread out in all directions was quite formidable.
Yu Bi-hong, watching this, was amazed.
“The power is incredible. We’ll need to measure the exact numbers, but at this level, it should rival a high-tier Awakened…”
“Come to think of it, our village has been suffering from a power shortage. Our Ogon can be our electricity supplier!”
“…Ah, sorry for interrupting. What were you saying?”
Yu Bi-hong gave me a dumbfounded look, then shook her head as if it was nothing.
I guess it wasn’t that important.
Anyway, most of the devices in our village ran on magic stones, but thanks to Ogon, we could now use electricity.
Magic stone-powered devices weren’t omnipotent.
They were expensive and lacked variety, but now, we no longer needed to worry about that.
“My parents will be happy.”
– Oohkik!
I should introduce Ogon to my parents soon.
They’ll surely find it adorable and praise it a lot.
“Using such a high-tier spirit just for electricity…”
“The Great Sage, Heaven’s Equal, reduced to a power generator…”
I could hear faint murmurs of pity, but I chose to ignore them.
Since we had a new family member, we decided to go on a dungeon tour together.
With so many changes to the dungeon, it was time for a reintroduction anyway.
First stop: the Rabbit Village.
This place was usually empty and quiet, as the rabbits only came here to sleep.
In a way, they were the most diligent beings in our dungeon—just like our slimes.
‘At least the goblins and the others have some leisure activities.’
The Breeding Tribe was utterly obsessed with cooking.
Thanks to them, we could enjoy pleasant meals, but sometimes I worried if they were overdoing it.
Rabbits were everywhere.
I was always grateful for them.
“It’s quiet here.”
“They were so passionate, yet the village itself is so quiet.”
After taking a look around the village, we headed to our next destination.
Next stop: the Fairy Village.
Everyone was already familiar with this place, but we decided to visit in order for Ogon to see it.
“Greetings!”
-\(‘Дo`)/
-(‘ᄆ’)>
Hmm…
Seeing the fairies welcoming us, I couldn’t help but say something.
“You’ve gained a lot of weight, haven’t you?”
-(00)!
– \ ( Д° )/
-0.0;
The fairies averted their gaze or looked flustered.
Their adorable reactions made me want to tease them more, but I held back.
– \” (д• ;))
As if trying to prove how hard they had been working, the fairies brought out honey.
We sat in the Fairy Village for a while, dipping bread into the honey they offered.
“Nom nom.”
Mmm, it was delicious as always.
Especially lately, since Soo’s herbs had been growing here alongside the bees, the honey had an even richer taste.
“The honey tastes different from before.”
Ryu Cheon tilted her head in curiosity.
I nodded in agreement and introduced our herbs.
Speaking of which, where had Soo gone this time?
I didn’t see Frey, either.
“They are processing the honey from these creatures.”
“Wow.”
The herbs watched us with curious expressions.
Seeing both sides observing each other made me smile.
– Ookik?
“You don’t eat it, okay?”
Ara kindly explained to Son Ogon, who was curiously poking at one of the herbs.
“Shall we move on?”
Leaving the Fairy Village, we headed to the mines.
The mines were far livelier than before.
All thanks to the little humans.
In the past, mining had been aimless and sluggish.
But now that they had the clear goal of helping the little humans, the children seemed to find it fulfilling.
Clang! Clang!
Carts full of minerals and materials were being transported.
Goblins were busy refining the raw materials.
The Gnolls were hurrying back and forth.
Seeing the bustling scenery, people paused to watch.
“It seems even busier than before.”
“Recently, we’ve been getting more work. Thanks to that, the kids are enjoying themselves.”
“…They have more work, and they’re happy about it?”
Oh dear, someone was misunderstanding.
These kids weren’t working—they were playing!
Of course, I didn’t say that out loud and just gave a vague smile.
No matter how much I explained that I was a kind and caring monster welfare manager, they wouldn’t understand.
– Keng!
Just then, a Gnoll approached us and said something.
Looking in the direction it pointed, it seemed a cart was about to depart for the Nyang Village.
Was it suggesting we go along with it?
“Do you want to go ahead? We’ll look around a bit more before leaving.”
– Keng!
Riding in the cart could wait until we were done exploring.
We toured various parts of the mines.
The mine interior, the mineral and material storage, the goblin and Gnoll resting areas—everything.
After seeing it all, Yu Bi-hong and Ryu Wang-jin were impressed.
“It’s surprisingly well-organized.”
“The amount of resources is incredible. There are over ten massive warehouses….”
Yu Bi-hong subtly shifted her gaze to inspect the mine.
Then, she nodded.
“It’s so vast that even if we mined for a lifetime, we wouldn’t extract everything. A mine this large would take decades to excavate even with modern heavy machinery.”
I had to agree.
With the mountain’s immense size, it was uncertain whether we could ever fully deplete its resources.
And though I hadn’t mentioned it, our dungeon was filled with mountains like this.
This one was simply the closest.
“You produce more than most major guilds. Would you be interested in collaborating?”
“It’s a bit difficult at the moment, but I’ll consider it in the future.”
“That’s a shame.”
After finishing our tour of the mines, we each boarded a cart.
“Departing now!”
“Let’s go!”
In the end, Seon-ah stole Ara away and, with a victorious grin, echoed Ara’s departure call.
The cart train set off for the Nyang Village.
The group was once again amazed at how the cart moved on its own.
“A magic stone? Is it a magic stone?”
“If we improve the design, we could use the spirit’s electricity to add even more features.”
Thanks to Ryu Wang-jin and Yu Bi-hong’s conversation, I was learning a lot.
So, if we use Son Ogon’s electricity, we can do even more?
At this point, it seemed like a good idea to build railway tracks connecting all the villages.
‘Why didn’t I think of this sooner?’
I had already connected the mines and Nyang Village, yet I hadn’t considered expanding it.
As I secretly rejoiced in planning another major construction project, we arrived at Nyang Village before I knew it.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
Nyang Village was still under construction.
The second large forge was slowly taking shape, and the houses for the cats were coming together.
For now, they all slept together in the forge, but just in case, we were also building homes that suited their individual tastes.
Of course, they could continue living as they were now if they preferred.
“This is an incredible forge! Even our guild doesn’t have something like this!”
Ryu Wang-jin was astonished as he looked at the forge equipped with a massive furnace.
This was exactly why I wanted to show them this place.
This grand forge was a masterpiece created by the combined efforts of our people.
Its scale could rival that of a modern factory.
Of course, factories on Earth were mostly automated, making a traditional blacksmith forge like this quite rare.
– Oook!
Son Ogon seemed to enjoy the heat of the forge.
He had been buzzing with electricity while running around excitedly.
– Meow.
“Gasp! A-a cat!”
And then, the true owners of Nyang Village.
Ryu Cheon, Yu Bi-hong, and Jung So-yeon froze at the sight of the cat blacksmiths.
Even Ryu Wang-jin looked flustered.
“T-these cats are blacksmiths?”
“That’s correct.”
“This is absurd!”
I wondered why they were so shocked, but then Ryu Wang-jin suddenly picked up a cat that had approached him.
“A tiny, adorable creature that also works as a blacksmith! How admirable! Lee Kyu-seong, I beg you—can’t you let me adopt just one?!”
“Ah, that’s a bit… I’m sorry.”
“Ugh!”
So Ryu Wang-jin was a huge cat lover.
Because of that, he eagerly went around, inspecting every single cat.
“Calico! Mackerel tabby! White cat!”
I had never seen him this hyper before.
Watching him interact with the cats without any hesitation made me chuckle, but then I tilted my head.
“So-yeon, where’s Bell?”
“He said he had something to do and disappeared.”
He was probably napping somewhere again.
I wanted to show him to Ryu Wang-jin, but too bad.
– Meow, meow, meow!
The cats excitedly led the guests away, saying they had a gift for them.
These friendly, dog-like cats eagerly got to work at the forge.
Clang! Clang!
“Ooooh, they’re really skilled!”
“…So cute.”
After about thirty minutes of work, the cats presented each guest with a handmade gift.
They were true craftsmen with exceptional customer service skills.
Each person soon held a beautifully crafted mithril accessory.
“This is a small sword.”
“Is this a metal hairpin?”
“Shoulder armor? That’s interesting.”
Receiving their gifts wasn’t the end, though.
The goblins, who had been waiting for the second phase of crafting, started engraving intricate designs on the gifts.
The materials they used came from the mines—rare gemstones not found on Earth.
“Hahahaha!! This is fantastic! Absolutely fantastic!”
Ryu Wang-jin was thrilled with the small sword he had received.
His sword was engraved with cloud patterns, an image of Sun Wukong’s circlet, and the Ruyi Jingu Bang staff, all detailed in vibrant colors.
“I’m glad you’re satisfied.”
“I’m not just saying this—the craftsmanship is excellent. They are true masters!”
Saying this, Ryu Wang-jin suddenly leaned in and whispered to me.
“Would it be possible to place a special order later?”
“A special order?”
“You see, I’m always called the Great Sage, Heaven’s Equal, but I never had the proper equipment for it.”
“Equipment?”
“Yes, the Ruyi Jingu Bang. I’ve had it custom-made several times before, but none of them met my expectations, so I never carried one.”
Now that he mentioned it, despite always surrounding himself with clouds, he never actually had a Ruyi Jingu Bang staff.
I had assumed he already had a similar weapon, considering how often he talked about Sun Wukong.
“Alright, I’ll see what I can do.”
“Thank you! I’ll make sure to repay you properly.”
“Oh, come on, no need for that between us. Just take it.”
I said with a smile, and Ryu Wang-jin burst into hearty laughter.
Hmm, so he had already tried several times but never found one he liked?
If even someone with his high standards wasn’t satisfied…
‘Bell! You’re up!’
The time had come for Bell, who spent his days napping and lazing around, to finally do some work.
Cliche Novel 