"What do you mean 'they can't come that day'!?" - Garami

  "Exactly what this letter says! Master, please do not fall into any bad habits of shooting the messenger! Pretty please!!" - Bloom

  The maid in front of me pleaded for mercy, but honestly, I didn't have the energy to vent my anger on her. Re-reading the scroll, which looked like something straight out of a ninja anime, didn't help the situation. Siel Fortum, the ninja girl who had agreed to move into one of the Zones I had prepared for their use, couldn't come to the Dungeon Battle this weekend.

  "Hey, hey, ain't this a breach of the contract or something?" asked Rolf, who was one of the two other Guild Members who had the gall to meet up today.

  "Considering they have yet to move into this 'Tricky Mansion' Zone, I'd say we have no right to force them into combat at this time," answered Palug, the other member who had the time to come and hear me whine.

  "I KNOW!! But still, I didn't expect they'd be too busy to try and make a good impression!" - Garami

  For whatever reason, Siel and her cn, who had pnned to move in along with her, had gone AWOL, leaving behind only this scroll that was given to Bloom while I was offline through what Bloom called "a messenger bat(?)". What, are owls or pigeons not good enough for ya?

  Seeing as even Inhabitants could join the Dungeon Battle, I had pns to invite a bunch of high-ranked ninjas from Siel's cn to help us invade the Behemoth’s Lamp and take their Dummy Core before that Author-guy would notice anything strange. As, those pns were sunk faster than the Titanic.

  "Maybe this is the start of a new quest line?" - Palug

  "Even if it was, it's not like we have the time for it... And now I'm starting to get worried. Palug, you go and check if you can find anything about the Fortum cn." - Garami

  "Really? Should I not help here?" - Palug

  "You're the guy who did the impossible and started messing with the Big Bad's conscience. You have to take responsibility for that, buddy." - Rof

  Hey, who're you calling the "Big Bad"? ...Aw, who am I trying to kid? I've even got that [Demon Lord] Extra Skill.

  Palug then decided that there was no time to waste and left in a hurry not too different from a certain white rabbit that seems to never be on time. Not that I think he can manage to bring Siel back in time for the Dungeon Battle. We're talking about ninjas here. They're not going to be that easy to find.

  "Maaaaan. If I had known it would be this difficult getting enough members, I'd asked Cold=Rose to recruit more mercenaries." - Garami

  "You don't have to beat yourself up too much, boss. Who'd guessed most of the Guild being busy this week?" - Rolf

  Yeah. Bones said he had an IRL fishing event to go to, while the twins were visiting an aunt out of town for this and the next week. Aino had it the worst, as she said she would be busy with overwork at her company. Just how much of a sweatshop is that pce!? Then there's the current problems with Siel and all...

  Right now, even if we added Bloom to the list, our Darknd Walker guild could fill 3 out of the 15 mercenary slots for the Dungeon Battle, but I couldn't find it in me to ask Cold=Rose to take care of the remaining 12 alongside the 21 slots she had been tasked to fill. I mean..., ain't that kinda pathetic for a Dungeon Master not to find help to defend their Dungeon?

  Rolf agreed with me and we both sternly scolded Palug and Bloom when they tried to say anything else on the matter. I am starting to feel a real kinship with this motor-crazed slime.

  "In that case, we can only hope to recruit some pyers from the port town," I said, ignoring the idea of people closer to the Dungeon being of any help.

  The nearest settlement where pyers can have their base is that vilge-like pce I visited on my way to the Barataria port town, but the area around it is too low-leveled for people who can visit Dungeons. There used to be a pyer-made settlement inside the Darknds, but a bunch of the natural fauna destroyed it before the test racing event, so it will take time before high-level pyers return to the area.

  "Ah, that's not a good idea," said Rolf, blowing up my pns like the Hindenburg. Hmm, a lot of my ideas tely seem to take after rge vehicles that went up in smoke.

  "That Author-guy seems to have his pns on recruiting members," he said, showing me a post on one of the official bulletin boards......WHAT THE HECK!?

  To whoever is willing to grant victory to my Dungeon, the "Behemoth's Lamp", on its crusade against the "Darknd Fort" this weekend will be gifted a life-long pass to the future Succubus-manned brothels that are pnned to be released on my Dungeon's "civilian floors"!! - By "the Author".

  Th-th-that little...!!

  "What I don't get is why he didn't open up those shops before this. Wouldn't they be good for 'business'?" - Rolf

  "That ****ing swindler!! He's pnning on using my Demon-line to recruit more members to his team!" - Garami

  "What!? ...How?" - Bloom

  "*Sigh*. Simply put, when a Dungeon Battle is over, the winning side can take one aspect of the loser's Dungeon and add it to their own." - Garami

  "Aha~. Since your Fort is famous for its red-light district-like casino, this Author-guy decided to jump on the bandwagon." - Rolf

  It's not like the loser of the Dungeon Battle will be completely robbed of the taken aspect, but it will be pced under a seal until a stupid amount of DP is paid. What a horrifying system, this Dungeon Battle rules... Well, big stakes make for big games. Plus I just gotta win in the end.

  "Then what will we obtain if the Darknd Fort wins?" - Bloom

  "Not sure yet. I was pnning on using the Dungeon Battle as a preview of our potential prices." - Garami

  "Already counting your chicks, ey? Then you got a good defense pn ready?" - Rolf

  "Pretty much," I said while sorting through the Dungeon's defense pns in my mind.

  The first floor has stayed the same as before the racing event, using the "Common" Dungeon monsters like the goblins and bats. The "Glutton Kitchen" acts as bait for possible Dungeon Dives while I've added a few more decoration facilities to brighten the atmosphere.

  Speaking of the Kitchen, some new rules regarding food in the Dungeon were added after the racing event. Food stands can only be pced as sub-facilities of a proper kitchen, meaning the "Sweets Stand" and "Facility Stand" had to say goodbye. Luckily, the Kitchen can now serve more items, not even restricted to the stuff that could be sold in the two stands. The DP I initially used for them was returned after the update, so there's no loss there either.

  Another part of the update made it so that the Dungeon Monsters are also requiring food now. In short, unless you put up a Kitchen or a linked Food Stand on a floor, that pce will be caught by a vicious circle of monsters starving to death and being respawned. It's no good having your monsters stave, so I added "Glutton Stands" on all floors with monsters that need three meals a day. The good thing is that the Stands increases your natural DP recovery limit by 10 points for each unit, so I guess it's fine.

  The second floor retains our main tourist attraction, the "Greedy Casino", plus the "Royal Cafe". The tter is more akin to a shop than a Kitchen, so it wasn't removed as the food stands on the first floor. The "Chip Chests", special treasure chests that contain coins unique only for the Fort's shops, that are pced on some of the floors will be gdly accepted by people wishing to visit the casino or the cafe here.

  The monsters here are Crystal-based demons, just like before. I've also been adding some new stuff that ups the "red-light district" factor for the floor..., but in retrospectively, that's made this floor's defensive powers moot. I shouldn't count on it and the 1st floor too much in the Battle.

  The 3rd floor is when things get interesting. The monsters here belong to the common group, but other than the Chip Chests and Glutton Stand, I've added 1 facility that enhances the stats and spawn rates for each of the monsters, "Goblins", "Dark Elves", "Giant Bats", and "Diredogs". In short, we're running a pseudo-monster house floor.

  The 4th floor is another take on an endurance trial. I've used the Swamp element + the Undead monster line here to make an utterly horrifying floor for anyone without the proper logistics. Skellies and zombies don't have to eat, so no Glutton Stands here. We do have stuff like mushroom facilities or the "Swamp Witch's Cauldron", but whoever said none of those mushrooms or potions weren't killers~?

  The 5th floor relies on the Shadow element and the Arachnid monster line. Miranda, the Arachne I managed to hire as a boss before, is stationed here, along with tons of different spiders and trap facilities.

  Then there's the next 3 floors, all recently added thanks to the rewards from the race event. They're all copies of the 4th floor, meaning Swamp-themed Undead floors. I'm gunning for a stamina challenge here. The st two floors left are the Darkness + Demon floors that I already had before the racing event, but thanks to the rules of the Dungeon Battle, they won't see anything this time around.

  The Dungeon Battle will set up a Dummy Core on the nth floor of the Dungeon, zones included, with "n" being a number decided by both participants. That Author guy wanted a "9-floor challenge", so the first 8 ones + the "gender bender" zone that I have pced right outside the Fort's front entrance will be my lines of defense.

  I could add more Zones to my defense, aka forcing the Author to travel through them instead of floors, but the only other Zones left are the "Tricky Mansion" that Siel's cn was supposed to move into..., and this "Guild Home" Zone that Rolf, Bloom, and I currently am in right now.

  It was also funded thanks to the st event's reward points, like the "stamina challenge" from before, and boy is it worth it. All the guild members can set this pce to log into or transport to from a transport gate located in the various towns and cities, making it so much easier to meet together..., as long as people have the decency to log into the game!!

  We can also add "decoration" items that grant various boosts to the guild, but that's not important at the moment and the Dungeon Battle, so let's skip that.

  "Hmm..., yeah, we should be fine," I said to Rolf, confirming my answer from before I started looking back at the Dungeon's build.

  "That kinda answer doesn't exactly inspire confidence, boss." - Rolf

  "Can you bme me? We got no info about the Behemoth's Lamp's combat potential. The rumors on the BBS say it's reted to snakes, djinns, and other 1001 Nights-reted stuff. Oh, and its primary element is Metal, but nobody's gone deep enough to find floors with other elements." - Garami

  "Nothing else? Not even something from the racing event?" - Rolf

  "I tried looking for vids, but the Lamp wasn't used as a race course for the event." - Garami

  "Whazzat supposed to mean? Is the thing so new it couldn't be added to the grand prix?" - Rolf

  "Nah. If that's the case, it wouldn't have enough floors and zones to compete in a 9-floor Battle." - Garami

  "Ah, true." - Rolf

  "And that also makes it important that we have enough troops to go on the offense here. 9 floors aren't something to sneeze at." - Garami

  Another rule of the Dungeon Battle states that if all the forces for one Dungeon, both monsters or mercenaries, are defeated, then that will count as a loss for that Dungeon even if the Dummy Core is still intact. With so many floors that we need to travel through, this "complete annihition" condition might be a better way to win the game. Even a single extra pyer, NPC, or monster could change the course of this war.

  "Ehm..., excuse me?" started Bloom. "If we need help, could we not just ask them?"

  "Them?" - Garami & Rolf

  "Well..." replied Bloom nervously before silently pointing at herself. What is she......?! Oh, them!! Yeah, those guys should have enough firepower to spare! Let's hope I still have some loose change in my wallet. The price tags those Bckmarket guys use are damn steep, but worth every cent. Let's hope their mercenary selection holds the same quality.