I sat on a flat boulder that was nearby and fixed my posture. Iâve already shown Lapis my worst side, so I didnât have even the slightest right to make a display, but I wanted to be serious today. I had an important business proposal.
Lapis furrowed her brow slightly after hearing my request. It was so minute that I wouldnât have noticed it if it werenât for my ability that allowed the other partyâs emotions to transfer to me.
âYou are interested in receiving a loan?â
âThatâs correct.â
The Keuncuska Firm doubled as a bank. There are times when Demon Lords required emergency funds. In those cases, the firm would lend them the money.
There was one thing I realized after spending half a month extracting ores non-stop. It was the fact that, at this rate, it was only natural for an adventurerâs axe to fly at me and take my life.
2 gold a day? If I worked for a hundred days without rest, then I would only manage to make 200 gold.
With 200 gold, far from being able to hire a lowest-tier golem, I wouldnât even be able to hire a goblin. Iâd just barely be able to hire a goblin after grinding my bones to dust swinging a pickaxe. How was I supposed to protect my dungeon with a golem and 2 goblins?
âI canât.â
Adventurers seek dungeons. Riffâs party, who have become hostile towards me, were making me nervous.
It wouldnât be strange for a party to invade my dungeon at any moment. I canât sit back and leisurely wait for my money to pile up by mining.
I believed that receiving a large loan and slowly paying off the interest would be better. Honestly, I was confident that I would be able to pay back the loan itself and not just the interest.
However, Lapis voiced her refusal.
âSir Dantalian, many Demon Lords have borrowed money from our firm. Among them, there are a fair amount of Demon Lords who only manage to pay off their interest. Not only is this due to the interest increasing each month, but the profit earned by their dungeons are inconsistent as well.â
Lapis shook her head. Her pink hair waved from side to side.
âThe largest profit earned from dungeons are paradoxically the adventurers that come to invade them. The stronger the adventurers, the more profit that is earned. It is inevitable for strong adventurers to have good equipment and items, and Demon Lords can take those from them. In contrast, dungeons that only receive low-quality adventurers will barely profit at all.â
ââŠâŠ.â
âMost importantly, it is a question as to whether the firm will even loan you a lot of money. The Keuncuska Firm is a place that only pursues profit. It is an organization that causes other demons to become astonished by how cold-hearted they are.â
Lapis emphasized once more.
âIf there is no guarantee for profit, then even if it is a Demon Lord that asks for a loan, it will still be firmly declined. Pardon my rudeness, Sir Dantalian, but the class of a Demon Lord is determined by the class of how trustworthy they are. It is a question as to how much the Keuncuska Firm will trust you, Sir Dantalian, when your rank is still F.â
âYouâre probably right.â\n
âNot only does the firm possess a large military unit under its wing, but it has enough funding to hire more as well. The firm is merciless towards Demon Lords who do not pay back their interest. They have even threatened and used force against some in the past.â
She lowered the tone of her voice.
âOnce, His Excellency, Rank 25 Demon Lord, Glasya-Labolas received a loan and did not pay back the interest for 70 years, the Keuncuska Firm mobilized no less than 36 demon armies and invaded His Excellency Glasya-Labolasâ dungeon. The Demon Lordâs monster units were wiped out and, in the end, His Excellency Glasya-Labolas had no other choice but to pay off the interest that had piled up for 70 years. As a result, his dungeon went bankrupt.â
Lapis let out a small sigh.
âThis is the Keuncuska Firmâs strength. This is the reason why the firm was able to establish itself as the greatest firm on the demon continent for the past 3,000 years. Sir Dantalian, I am advising you not as an employee of the firm, but as another demon. Do not borrow money from the firm rashly.â
I could feel the other partyâs sincerity.
This girl truly thought that my request was foolish. She wasnât being cold-hearted. If anything, tricking me into receiving a loan would most likely help her personal business result.
Even though ensnaring a Demon Lord by loaning a small sum would be profitable for the company, Lapis disregarded her evaluation and the profit of the firm she worked for simply because she didnât want to scam me.
She continued in a clear voice.
âBe patient. It may be difficult now, but if you slowly gather money for a century or two, Sir Dantalian, I believe that you will definitely manage to obtain a splendid dungeon as well.â
Lapis Lazuli. A demon with a cold face and tone who also possessed a businesslike manner.
However, different from her outer appearance, she was pure. She was quietly shining with her pure creed.
I pushed my request further towards this Lapis.
âWhat if I possess a business proposal that will most definitely be successful?â
ââŠâŠ.â
She gave me a blank look.
âOf course, our firm does not hold back on investments. If by the rare chance Sir Dantalian possesses a sure business idea, that is.â
You most likely do not, though, was what she was saying in between the lines.
I smiled lightly.
âAn epidemic.â
ââŠâŠ?â
Lapis knit her brows. \nâWhat do you mean?â
Good. I have her attention.
This is where it all begins. I whispered in my head.
âActing skill, activate.â
A row of notifications appeared before me.
ăActing has been activated.ă ăA bonus effect will be granted to your skill according to your intelligence and charm stats.ă ăThe die of luck has slipped from your hand! The chance that the other party doubts your statement has been âslightlyâ lowered.ă
I received the Acting skill for beating the tutorial. It was literally a skill that increased my acting ability.
There was a fixed chance to lower the other partyâs suspicion âslightly, somewhat, fairly, or incrediblyâ; however, since my intelligence and politics stats were abysmal, at most, I could only lower it slightly.
It seems that the type of skill I was bestowed depended on the actions I took during the tutorial.
If I got through the tutorial by force, then I would have probably received a skill like Thousand Endurance or Adept Army Commander, and if I had gotten through the tutorial by strategizing and planning out my moves, then I would have most likely received a skill like Long Spear Efficiency or Octal Notation.
For instance, Thousand Endurance was a skill that raised their characterâs strength by 140% for a long period of time. It was also the skill that my hero character had in Dungeon Attack.
On the other hand, not only was Octal Notation a skill that turned the entire party the character was in into a stealth squad, but it also raised your party membersâ strength and defense by 25%. Either way, both of these skills were referred to as overpowered skills.
Damn it, in contrast, the Acting skill was trash.
For starters, it had no direct connection with combat. The most important factor in Dungeon Attack was, obviously, the combat. In that regard, the Acting skill already received a failing mark. Moreover, it isnât capable of deceiving the other party completely! Be it âsomewhatâ or âfairlyâ, these were all subjective and relative terms.
In the first place, why were skills important? It was because they were capable of always displaying a reliable effect. They always exhibited a predictable effect, thus it allowed people to plan things out because they could theorize what would happen if they used the skill at a certain point.
An unreliable skill that you donât know when and how well it will work?
I couldnât even laugh at it. It would have been better if I could raise my stats a little instead.
There was a time where someone asked on the Dungeon Attack fan site about the Acting skill and some others. They couldnât figure out why these skills existed. It didnât lower the enemy forcesâ intellect and it wasnât like Dungeon Attack possessed a separate political or diplomatical systemâŠâŠ.
I suggested that they might have added those skills in name only just so that they could have exactly 255 skills.
Honestly, I didnât know what exactly the Acting skill did as well. I even forgot that this skill existed in the game. A trash skill that even an advent fan of Dungeon Attack like myself was unfamiliar with. The Acting skill.
âWell, itâll probably be as helpful as the dirt under an antâs claw.â
\nI would consider this cruelâŠâŠ but once I realized that I was coincidentally dropped in the year 1505, I was ecstatic. I was so happy that I ran around with my one good leg.
Because I could take advantage of this situation.
âAn unprecedented epidemic will sweep across the continent soon. Black herbs are the cure for the disease. This was information which only I knew!â
Who could possibly imagine something like this in the world?
The black herbs that grow on the mountainside and are useless for normal illnesses and have such a tough texture that you couldnât even use them as an ingredient. The absolutely pointless plant that you couldnât even use as a spice was the one and only cure for the worst epidemic in history.
Black herbs were a weed that had no name until the Black Death started to spread. People started to refer to it as black herbs once they realized that it worked against the Black Death. Moreover, people discover the effect of black herbs several years after the plague had spread across the entire continent.
What does this mean?
âIf I stockpile on black herbs now, then Iâll be able to earn an unimaginable profit.â
This was definitely a cruel thing to do. Each black herb I collect would have normally saved someoneâs life.
However, I may think, speak, and act the same like the people in my world, but I treasured myself more than the characters in a game and I cherished my golem and goblin as well. I wasnât kind enough to let a chance to develop my dungeon slip by for some random people I donât know.
âI know what the cure for this encroaching epidemic is. If I monopolize on the cure now, then I will be able to earn a massive profit later.â
We exchanged questions and answers for a while.
How was I certain that an epidemic was going to spread, how did I discover what the cure was going to be, it was these sort of questions. I simply fleshed out the information I had and lied appropriately.
Now then, Lapis Lazuli. How will you react?
ââŠâŠ.â
Her azure eyes gazed right at me. Eventually, her soft lips spread apart.
âI apologize, but I still cannot.â
There was no hesitation in Lapisâ eyes. I received a firm refusal.
***
TL Note: Thanks for reading the chapter. Nothing really much to say, this is just an exposition chapter to introduce the plague. Iâm still waiting for Handholding scans.