* * *
“There are two ways. Either make them come to you on their own, or go out and scout them yourself! But realistically, the second option is impossible, so you’ll have to make them come. You need to post a recruitment notice.”
“How do I post a notice?”
At my words, Brownie flew up high. Then it suddenly began shouting loudly into the empty air.
“Fairies of the wind! I have a request!”
I quietly watched what Brownie was doing.
A moment later, wind blew in around us, and small life forms draped in what looked like thin cloth began appearing one by one. They were the same size as Brownie.
“We’re recruiting new employees. Spread the word.”
“Pay up.”
“Uh, how much?”
“How far do you want it spread? The farther it goes, the more expensive it is.”
The wind fairies were quite prickly in personality.
Brownie turned to look at me.
“How far should we spread it? If we leave it to these guys, they’ll spread the rumor that we’re recruiting employees far and wide. Of course, it costs accordingly.”
So these fairies served as a hiring platform.
“What’s the cheapest option?”
At my question, the wind fairies looked at me with disdain.
“This area. A one-hour radius around the dungeon. That’ll be 1,000 eon.”
“What’s the standard for a one-hour distance?”
“One hour on foot for you.”
If I walked for an hour… I could go about 4 kilometers. That meant they would only spread the word within roughly that range. About twenty laps around a running track, maybe?
Our dungeon’s current budget was only 100,000 eon. I had to spend it as frugally as possible.
“Then let’s start with the one-hour radius, please.”
“Pay up.”
Among the coins Brownie had given me, there were a few with different materials and engravings.
They were probably coins of different denominations, but the problem was that I couldn’t pick out exactly 1,000 eon’s worth myself.
Left with no choice, I placed all the coins I had on my palm and spoke to the wind fairy.
“Take as much as your fee.”
The fairy flew over with an annoyed expression and picked up a single silver coin, clutching it to its chest. Despite its expression, the way it cradled the coin showed it treasured it quite a bit.
Silver, octagonal coin is 1,000 eon. Noted.
“Next time you commission us, spend some real money. What’s a mere 1,000 eon?”
“Once our dungeon takes off, we’ll obviously spend a lot! And you guys said making money is hard these days too! Stop grumbling and go do your job!”
After the grumbling wind fairies left, Brownie came flying back to me, huffing.
“They’re just low-grade fairies who can’t get any requests besides these, and yet they look down on us!”
“Will they spread the word properly?”
“Fairies always work exactly as much as they’re paid. They will spread it.”
But then something occurred to me.
“Is it really all right not to post a detailed recruitment notice? I only said we’re recruiting employees. What if someone comes after hearing the notice and is disappointed because the conditions don’t match?”
“The only ones who’ll pay attention to rumors spread by low-grade wind fairies are low-level creatures anyway.”
Brownie said, pretending to cross its short arms.
“If you want to reel in truly impressive monsters, you’d have to commission at least a high-grade fairy. Those ones would charge a million eon for a one-hour radius.”
“Money really is everything….”
“Just wait one day and applicants will come flooding in!”
I looked at the dungeon’s exterior. At least on the outside, it looked perfectly fine.
A dungeon that was flashy on the surface but hollow inside…….
If I described this dungeon as a company, it was no different from a freshly founded startup.
It was far below even a small business.
I had fled a dogshit company only to land in a startup…….
‘No! Every big corporation started as a startup too, didn’t they? It’s too early to be disappointed.’
I organized in my head the dungeon operation manual I had learned from the fairy so far.
A dungeon must gather two resources.
One is the money used for actual operations, and the other is the fear that raises the dungeon’s infamy and strengthens the Demon King’s power.
Both resources can be obtained from the adventurers who challenge the dungeon.
Therefore, I had to devise a way to draw adventurers into the dungeon.
“Will monster applicants really come flooding in?”
“Of course! This is a large dungeon run personally by a Demon King! It’s different from all those mediocre instant dungeons!”
To monsters, did it feel like a big corporation simply because a Demon King ran it?
Or, since a Demon King is something like a king among monsters… a public enterprise?
Brownie said I only needed to wait about a day.
In the meantime, even though the dungeon was empty, I thoroughly inspected every corner, and in my head I mapped out a plan to operate the place.
I had to make this work somehow. I chanted 10 billion in my mind and squeezed out every last idea.
* * *
The first night on a dirt bed was utterly terrible.
“Ugh…. Once I make a lot of money, I’m definitely buying a bed first.”
My entire body screamed with muscle pain.
I set up my room in the inner section of the office. It was a truly fantastic setup that allowed me to go to work the moment I woke up.
The former boss would have given a standing ovation, saying I had outstanding company loyalty, but there had been no other choice to begin with.
“I should conserve the lighting….”
The dungeon’s internal light sources were limited. Torches dimly lit the darkness at regular intervals, and apparently they had come included as a freebie when the dungeon was purchased.
Strangely, they were all made of magic fire, burning endlessly without fuel.
However, the brightness was weak and couldn’t illuminate large areas.
I took one of the torches hanging in the corridor and brought it into the office.
And to draw that light into my room as well, I had no choice but to make my sleeping spot in the inner part of the office.
“Did you sleep well? Hurry and get ready! Applicants are waiting outside!”
“What? Already?”
I had been told applicants would come flooding in after a day, but I had never expected them to come this soon.
“If they were waiting, why didn’t you wake me earlier? Weren’t they left standing too long?”
“Hehe, you don’t know anything. This is all part of the test!”
“A test?”
“It’s about testing compliance! If they can’t show dissatisfaction even after waiting a long time, they’ll also endure overtime, workplace abuse, and unreasonable workloads later, won’t they? If they’re the type to cry and run away because the work is hard, then the time was wasted.”
I stared at Brownie in disbelief.
Had the former company’s boss died and reincarnated into that thing? I felt like I needed to peel back its shell and check.
“And the fact that they endure hardship also means they’re that desperate. Even if you pay them peanuts, they’ll work like slaves.”
The word “demon” reached the tip of my tongue, but I barely swallowed it.
“I… want to run the company—no, the dungeon—in an extremely humane way.”
I was sick of black companies now. I wanted to work at a normal company!
“What does humane mean?”
“It means I want to treat employees properly.”
“Yeah? But you only have 100,000 eon in operating funds, don’t you? You spent 1,000 eon yesterday, so now it’s 99,000.”
“…I’ll go wait for the applicants. Let’s hurry.”
“No, you stay here. I’ll bring them in.”
Brownie tapped the desk a couple of times, then zipped outside.
A moment later, I began to hear murmuring from outside along with multiple footsteps.
“Everyone wait here! The order starts with you, number one! You come in when your number is called, one at a time!”
Brownie bellowed with all its might.
With a trembling heart, I peeked through the gap in the door, then hurriedly shut it and sat back down.
All kinds of vicious-looking monsters were packed in tight…. I felt like seeking out a god I didn’t even believe in.
What happens if the interviewer faints at the sight of an applicant?
I desperately wanted a calming pill. There probably weren’t any calming pills in this world, were there?
“Ready? Should I send them in? Ah, I brought the applicants’ resumes. They’ll come in according to the order stacked on top.”
Brownie placed a thick stack of papers on the desk. There were quite a lot.
“Phew, phew…. I can do this. I have to do this.”
I took deep breaths to steady myself, and….
“Ten billion, ten billion….”
I chanted ten billion like a spell. And amazingly, my mind calmed rapidly.
“All right, send them in.”
At my consent, the door opened.
“Greetings. Clatter.”
A skeleton clad in worn armor creaked its way over and bowed deeply.
I barely swallowed my scream. A human skeleton, looking far too realistic, was right before my eyes.
…If the applicant before me had muscles and skin attached, it would have been a perfectly ordinary interview room.
With trembling hands, I picked up the top sheet of paper.
