47 : Venomulard After – 1

“Now then, I’ve got to get started on a bunch of stuff.”
I was able to defeat Venomulard, most likely because various things worked in my favor.
When I went to retrieve the potion kettle, I also collected Venomulard’s corpse and stuffed it into my Poisonous Bite Rat’s Fur Bag.
Looks like it managed to fit thanks to the disintegration.
My right hand… will probably heal itself once I return to the safety area.
The other items… seem beyond repair.
My Rat Flail was completely broken, the tooth knife used in the battle was in the same state, and the rebar with attached concrete was smashed into smithereens as well.

“Sei!”
I shifted the dangling meat fern flower vines that made up Venomulard’s bed to uncover what he was hiding.

“A book? No, a diary maybe?”
What laid there was a diary, clad in a dark, sinister aura.
It seems like this was the center of the curse within the『Tower of Mice』
I reached over to pick it up but… before my hand made contact, a translucent screen emerged in front of me.

“Heh… That’s pretty interesting.”
3 choices appeared.
Destroy, Preserve, and Claim.
By destroying the center of curse which was the diary, the dungeon itself would collapse as well.
If the dungeon disappears, I’d be all out of options so this wasn’t really something I could select.
Preserve refers to leaving the diary as it is and consequently, leaving the dungeon alone.
Apparently, keeping the dungeon like this for a while would allow for another new boss to manifest as something like a weakened version of Venomulard. Though, I have no idea what would happen after.
Claim would mean looting the diary and the center of the curse, creating a new dungeon.
At that moment, I’d rise to a position of a dungeon master of some sort, but it seems like you can tweak a few of the settings around too.

“The only choice to consider here is Claim, right?”
Yep, no matter how you look at it, the most exciting pick here was Claim.
With that said, I selected Claim and relocated the center of the curse into the eye on my chest.

≪Title,『Dungeon Ruler』has been acquired≫
“Of course.”
Since I also obtained a title, I decided to take a look at my status.

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『Spawn of Jugemu』・Taru　Level 8
HP: 132/1070
Satiety: 100/100
Interference: 107
Abnormalities: 19
‏‏　‎Immortality, Insect Wings ×6, Additional Eyes ×11, Levitation
Titles :『Spawn of Jugemu』,『Rawism Beginner』, 『Unusual Cuisine Eating・1』,『If You Eat Poison, Lick The Plate・1』,『Iron Stomach・1』,『First Cursed Production』,『Poison User』『Insufficient Curse』, 『Gluttony・1』,『First Sorcery Acquisition』,『Hide And Seek・１』,『Dungeon Ruler』

Sorcery・Evil Eye Arts:
『Magic Eye Of Poison・1＋＋』(Taruwiveno)

Owned Items:
Poisonous Bite Rat’s Fur Clothes, Poison Rat’s Pointed Hat, Appraisal Loupe, Poisonous Bite Rat’s Tooth Knife, Poisonous Bite Rat’s Fur Bag, Potion Kettle, etc.

Owned Dungeons:
『Tower of Mice』
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△△△△△
『Dungeon Ruler』
Effect: Gain a buff in the dungeon you own. (Changeable)
Requirement: Obtain your own dungeon.

Thou art the bane of mankind. Curse you!
▽▽▽▽▽


“Hmm…”
The settings window on the top right of my vision had a red exclamation point next to it.
It appears there were various restrictions and explanations that needed to be made regarding ownership of a dungeon.
So I read over them but yeah…

“The dungeon’s boss has to have at least 10 abnormalities or more. No problem for me.”
First and foremost, it seems like the boss and center of the dungeon were required to have their abnormalities at 10 or higher.
This, balanced along with the curse concentration is what serves to create and maintain the dungeon. Even if the center point is moved into an item, the one doing it has to meet those conditions by having the appropriate amount of abnormalities.

“As for the buff… let’s just allocate it all into natural regen for now… Oh, my right hand came back.”
The title included selectable buffs such as an increasing max HP, strengthening interference, stealth, as well as enhancing your sorcery’s power or adjusting how quiet it is when it’s casted.
Since my right hand had healed, I switched it to sustain satiety for now.

“Restricted intrusion from the outside. Players can only enter up to the safety room in at the entrance. Monsters… ah, they have to be a higher level to enter. I wonder if that giant bird counts. For the time being, let’s just have it so people are prohibited from entering if their level is lower than mine and set fixed coordinates so the dungeon will be fine even if the building that it’s in is gone.”
I fiddled with the settings, configuring the rats’ territories, their attack targets, and tweaked the structure of the dungeon to my convenience too.
However, I couldn’t reduce the number of safety areas nor was I able to remove the bottomless pit that was on the 3rd floor.
The former was because it was a systematic restriction. The latter was probably due to my level being too low.
Also, there were things that seemed like they’d take too long… such as the housing system, so I decided to put them off for later.

“Now, what should I do about the dungeon’s center?”
Currently, the center point of the dungeon was me.
Having said that, if I remained as the center of the dungeon, I wouldn’t be able to leave the dungeon.
Which is why I needed to find something else to serve as the center point.

“Something non-living sounds good.”
If you used a living creature as the center point, it’ll directly cause the dungeon to be destroyed when it dies and it could take action on its own too.
That’d be really troublesome.
In that case, it’s probably better to just have an inanimate object as a the dungeon’s center.

“Hm… I’ll have to put that on hold for now as well.”
Despite this, I didn’t have anything that could fulfill the role of a center point right now, so I suppose I’ll have to hold off on it.
I’ll try to make something ideal for the job later.

“The contents of the diary… you’ve had a lot on your plate, didn’t you?”
I tried reading the diary, but it’s become a bit worn down, possibly because it was removed from its position as the curse’s center.
The diary seems to be written by a person who was trapped inside this building, gradually getting cornered by the disintegration phenomenon, monsters, and zombies, eventually drawing their last breath while resenting everything in the world.
Although the first half of the diary was written out properly, the second half was crazed and the writing was tinted with a color that resembled blood.
Hmm, the thoughts of a person with their back driven against the wall was enough to form a dungeon, so you could say that it’s considerably strong, but as far as I could see, there were no aspects of the unknown within their expressions or emotions. In other words, it’s dull.

“Well, at least I sort of know how to craft cursed equipment now.”
At any rate, I’ve figured out a way to make equipment that would work outside of the dungeon, which was my initial objective.
In a sense, it was similar to the grudge table.
You just have to bear strong feelings while appealing to the surrounding curses.
Using suitable materials might help with it too, but it was more important to have confidence that it’ll work.

“Next… I guess we’ll head over to the safety area and dismantle Venomulard’s corpse there.”
“Chuu.”
I quickly finished all I had to do here.
Once I settled on my decision, I made way towards the safety area.