Dungeon Cleaners Inc. 2

  J. R. Saileri

  Disclaimer

  Copyright © 2023 by Saileri / J. R. Saileri

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form possible without permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  Cover design by Resuta.

  Typography by Ripley.

  Edition: 01.12.2023

  Acknowledgements

  First of all, to my lovely supporters from Patreon, who decided, for whatever reason, to honor me with their presence, often sharing kind words, comments and feedback, besides the obvious financial support. I love you all guys and girls! Even if I started writing just for fun, you are now partially my reason to keep improving further and further!

  And from that incredible, supporting family, I want to specifically mention my Living Legend backers—Moheebi3abc, Lynderyn, Muff_Diver_Dave, and Jeffrey B.; my EX rank backers—Julian, William H., and James M.; and of course my S-rank backers—Fandley, Soen K., Darth Mole, Dennis W., William J., Michael S., Tonatsi, Robert H., Fussel, Trenton S., SIDracon, Alvzorin, Rando C., TheGovnor, Sura, Jampodevral, Drew P., D3monEmper0r, Riley M., Solomon P., Eddie F., Chocotaku, Nicholas G, and Saint.J.

  Moving off this long Patreon-train, I can’t not bring up my best friend—Peres. Even though I’m sure it’s annoying at times, I can always count on you when a random word that I need suddenly decides to escape my chaotic mind. Your help in catching it is very much appreciated.

  Last but not least, to all the readers that follow my works, and to You, who reached for this book. I can never fathom how thousands of people are following me on these various fantasy journeys. Thank You for giving this story a chance. Many of you might not be aware of how anxious an author can get about their own writing. But, just the thought of making someone enjoy a good time even for a brief moment is something incredible. I hope you all will never run out of good books to read!

  CONTENTS

  Foreword

  Chapter 1 All In

  Chapter 2 A Shitty Assignment

  Chapter 3 First Encounter

  Chapter 4 Defender’s Stigma

  Chapter 5 Proper Introduction

  Chapter 6 The Witch’s New Abode

  Chapter 7 Blood-Stained Treasure

  Chapter 8 Whack-A-Skelly

  Chapter 9 Stored Surprise

  Chapter 10 Risky Games

  Chapter 11 Old Acquaintances, New Project

  Chapter 12 The Arcane Way

  Chapter 13 Basic Advanced Circuitry

  Chapter 14 A Great Match

  Chapter 15 The Sound of Silence

  Chapter 16 A Tough Case

  Chapter 17 The Wonders of Modern Technology

  Chapter 18 A Precise Venture

  Chapter 19 Rising Suspicions

  Chapter 20 Bold Accusations

  Chapter 21 The Trail of Crime

  Chapter 22 The Hunter and the Prey

  Chapter 23 Establishing Hierarchy

  Chapter 24 Upgrades, People, Upgrades

  Chapter 25 Another Chick on the Team

  Chapter 26 In the Hands of Death

  Chapter 27 In Time of Crisis

  Chapter 28 A Silent Moment Worth a Thousand Words

  Chapter 29 A Glimpse into the Future

  Chapter 30 To Leap Into Unknown

  Chapter 31 Unexpected Confrontation

  Chapter 32 Grand Resupply

  Chapter 33 The Fallen Apostle

  Chapter 34 Master of Deception

  Chapter 35 Power of the Mind

  Chapter 36 A Spoonful of Freedom

  Chapter 37 Fast and Needed

  Afterword

  What’s Next?

  Where To Find Me?

  More Stories Like This

  Character Sheets

  Skill Glossary

  Foreword

  Yo! Saileri here! Just wanted to throw in a few words before we dive into the book! Also, a huge thank you for deciding to give my novels a try!

  I have seen many people mentioning that it would be so nice to have a short summary of the story at the beginning of the volume and that’s exactly what I decided to include in my book. The section before Chapter 1 briefly summarizes the events of Volume 1, so if you are coming here straight after reading it, feel free to skip it without losing anything. If quite a few days passed since you read my story, I hope it will help you refresh your memory. Of course, it won’t be as detailed as the book itself so I still recommend reliving the first volume completely ;)

  This story is my second bigger project, which I have been writing on the side to take it slowly, and a more serious attempt at a real litRPG. Dungeon Cleaners Inc. is something I thought would be fun—a mix of the usual adventure fantasy, and a bit of limited urban fantasy, with a little sprinkle of non-invasive and mostly supportive litRPG elements here and there, plus a little twist at the conjunction of those two subgenres.

  If you are looking for some exciting fantasy dungeon crawling with a pinch of relaxed atmosphere in the modern world, then this book might be for you! Oh, and a quite smart, collected, inquisitive main character who likes to lead more than get personal with enemies, focusing on building a strong team that brings out the best of his talents, but also doesn’t stray away from getting some blood on his hands maybe? Hop in, then! Let me just mention that it might get a little spicy at a moment or two :)

  One more thing before I stop holding you hostage here. If you like to discuss things related to the story with others or even with me, the author, feel free to join my Discord server! Plenty of people meet there and love to comment on stuff or theorycraft! There’s also a dedicated channel for reporting mistakes so you can poke me there if you stumble on any! Some of them might have been made intentionally :)

  Without further ado, enjoy!

  Story So Far

  Beware! Spoilers from Volume 1!

  This is only an extremely brief summary of past events.

  Lucas King was playing one of his favorite PC RPG games with quite tough difficulty while enjoying his brief moment of respite after his company had laid off his team of IT programmers when a weird and slightly creepy message greeted him right past the final boss encounter. After reading the stream of conversation-like messages, he decided to join the company offering him riches for the service of protecting his home realm from monsters trying to invade it through Dungeons opening all over Earth. The company was able to redirect those Dungeons to their employees’ homes, and so, Lucas was going to lead a different kind of team from then on.

  He spent a moment reading through the introductory manuals and his own status screens, provided by the magical visualization system that he could operate through his PC and a provided smartphone. Familiarizing himself with the options, Lucas chose a Class called Overlord and proceeded to summon his first Subordinate.

  A woman with draconic features and the name Aisha showed up in front of him. She had crimson hair often woven into a lush ponytail, a strong, well-toned body covered in some areas by dark red scales, two ferocious horns coming from the sides of her head, and a thick draconic tail. Her eyes were just as fierce scarlet with vertical pupils. She introduced herself as a drakan.

  Lucas and Aisha took a few longer minutes to talk about their situation since she was the more experienced person in terms of defending various realms from the forces of darkness. Afterwards, they prepared some initial equipment and ventured into their first Dungeon where she taught him the basics of adventuring and helped Lucas make his first kill.

  With their first adventure wrapped up, they familiarized themselves with the guides and instructions more and completed a few more purchases like casual clothes for Aisha and other beauty products necessary for all females of her race. Since they were now both limited to the space of Lucas’ apartment, they had to get things through the special store that accepted both Earth Dollars and Dungeon Dollars.

  The next day, Lucas started training with the grimoires he had bought, trying to learn Mana Control and Telekinesis. According to Aisha, who was doing maintenance for their gear in the meanwhile, his pace was incredible and it didn’t take him longer than a few hours. Afterward, they relaxed a little and delved into danger again.

  Scouting the Dungeon, the duo stumbled on some deposits of Darksteel Ore, soon running into more Kobolds mining it. Cooperating together, they took the group of six monsters down, learning more about Lucas’ powers of control over Aisha as his Subordinate, which could help a lot in a bind. Since they leveled up thanks to that, they sat down to check their skills and stats.

  For the next few days, they explored more of the Dungeon while practicing against Kobolds. Lucas continued to map out the caverns, raising his Mapping skill. Through those days and nights, they slowly grew closer to each other and Aisha was becoming bolder and bolder in her teasing, which resulted in them taking a shower together.

  Making some more detailed plans, they tackled the last area of the Tutorial Dungeon. Aisha massacred the Kobolds with her Berserk while Lucas snuck around and killed off the ranged stragglers. When she was chasing the Shaman around, Lucas prepared a trap for the slippery monster and made it step on sharp knives, allowing Aisha to finally catch up to it.

  With the
clear confirmed, they returned home and found a congratulatory package from J, the person who had introduced Lucas to his new job, even though they shouldn’t be contacting him after the recruitment. While waiting for their results, Lucas couldn’t take Aisha’s teasing anymore and they decided to spend their time doing something a bit more exciting and took their relationship to another level.

  Surprisingly, after spending an intimate moment together, they managed to unlock the full potential of his Class, which became Overlord of Lust thanks to Aisha’s willing and conscious submission to his lead and not only. They both gained a lot of useful abilities.

  Curious about the entire thing, they searched through the available Wiki and Forums, finding out that Overlords were quite evil people in general, save for Lucas’ version which emphasized consent and the well-being of one’s Subordinates. He felt quite bad nonetheless and Aisha tried her best to reassure him that no Class could be inherently evil.

  They received their payout and rewards, examined their new abilities, and looted the Dungeon before it closed, chatting about various topics related to such places. Soon enough, they received their second assignment and examined it too. The Beginner Dungeon required them to eradicate the Seed of Doom.

  Their first expedition revealed a mossy and earthen environment. The enemies turned out to be wooden monsters resembling humanoid trees with leafless shrubs instead of heads. Lucas recognized them as Woodmen and they retreated to prepare a poison in the form of a saline solution. With the testing coming out very much alright, they ended their day on a quite exciting note, not even making it to bed.

  Then, they decided to put their new poison on the D-Market and it turned out that the saline solution they had put up for sale exploded in popularity and earned them tons of Dungeon Dollars. Spending a day working on a safe stock of goods, they placed them in their storage room and went to sleep, ready for more delving.

  Making their way through the earthen tunnels, they stumbled on a pink Pixie hiding from the monsters. The cute sphere joined them and wanted the duo to follow it, which they did. Running after the pink orb, they found a room with more Pixies, though locked in wooden bird cages and clearly having their energy sucked out. With some effort, they wrecked the place and freed the mystical beings.

  After retreating, they received a Bonus Objective to save all the Pixies from their doom and naturally agreed to help their new friend out. Aisha encouraged Lucas to take their Pixie in as his familiar and he finally caved in, giving it the name Rose. The Pixie was extremely enthusiastic to join them.

  The next day, they began the grand operation of freeing the captive Pixies. To maximize their effectiveness before the Seed noticed their efforts, they split up and headed for different prison chambers. For the first few locations, things looked rather well. At least until a new kind of enemy joined the battle, a short and scythe-armed version of wooden monsters that were extremely fast and agile.

  Lucas summoned Aisha to him as his situation was getting dire and they were ambushed at the exit of the cavern, sent flying by the bulky Woodknight. Enemies swarmed them, and while the drakan lady whacked her opponents desperately, missing her weapon, Lucas was being held down under a pile of Woodmen and their other variants. Moments before a tragedy, he somehow ordered Aisha’s weapon to fly towards him and it landed right in her hand. What followed next was a massacre as she invoked her Berserk.

  Lucas carried the spent Aisha on his back, guided home by Rose. They slowly recovered while reading about Lucas’ new ability called Armsweaving, which allowed him to order a bonded weapon to move according to his will. Not wanting to give the Seed enough time to think up a strategy against them, they shared a quick stat-boosting intimate moment in the shower and headed back out right after gathering whatever they could.

  Locating the last prison chamber, they finally freed all the Pixies and agreed to take a peek into the boss room. They found a giant tree trunk embedded in the wall of an earthen cavern filled with a bunch of different variations of wood monsters. Deciding to thin their numbers a bit before coming back the next day, they jumped into the battle.

  Amidst the fight, the chamber was flooded with the Pixies they had freed, all gathering under the high ceiling. They cast some kind of magic and evoked a barrier that pushed all enemies aside, trapping them against the walls. Unfortunately, the giant tree trunk didn’t like it and ripped itself off its perch, beginning its own assault.

  Through quite some effort and smart planning, they managed to defeat the enemy and vanquished the Seed of Doom. Returning home, they rested a little and decided to loot the Dungeon before the rewards were calculated, finding a massive gem behind the Seed’s sitting place.

  Once more, a message from J greeted them, in which the person explained that they could now leave their apartment for a short time, given to them after the successful clear. Of course, Lucas and Aisha immediately jumped onto that opportunity and went on a little date together. The drakan lady was mesmerized by Earth and enjoyed their time outside greatly.

  But, she enjoyed the most the moment they walked into the restaurant where Lucas’ ex-girlfriend worked. The tease Aisha usually was, she didn’t spare the woman who had dumped him for someone better off, though thankfully, Lucas dragged her away before things got too far. They walked back home ready for more adventures.

  Chapter 1

  All In

  I took a sip of warm coffee from my new favorite mug while sitting in front of my PC and scrolling down a bunch of news sources I used to check in the mornings. Literally seconds after I’d learned that you could purchase official merch with graphics and artworks related to my new company—Dungeon Cleaners Inc.—which also coincidentally overlapped with one of the best games, in my opinion, I’d made an instant order for a bunch of small stuff.

  The best thing was the fact that the items available in the Dungeon Store weren’t just under the commercial brand created by the developers. As an employee, I could request custom orders, which were otherwise unavailable. Officially, at least, since no one stopped you from distributing the goods further, but that would be a complete waste of Dungeon Dollars.

  Therefore, after parting with some spare change—gods, I still wasn’t able to get used to the feeling of spending hundreds of dollars casually—I’d gotten myself a nice, big, black mug with an emerald text resembling the game’s theme. The font read World’s Best Employee.

  Quite fitting, I would say.

  As for the news, well, there was nothing new in them. It hadn’t been that long since I’d joined this unusual, paranormal company, and started exterminating monsters inside Dungeons threatening the peace of Earth, or this realm, but the blissfully unaware world hadn’t changed in the slightest. Slightly over two weeks wasn’t that much time here.

  However, my current situation had completely changed how I looked at various accident reports and such. I just couldn’t help but wonder if those were real or just cover-ups for failed Dungeon clears, like the one gas leak J had mentioned during our initial interview. There was no way for me to investigate that, honestly, and it would keep my mind going every single time. Perhaps after I got a few more promotions, I would be able to access some more information through my employer.

  In any way, the world continued moving forward and I felt even more detached from it than I had been even before getting scouted. My ability to interact with anything outside of my apartment had been vastly reduced so there was no use in thinking about those matters too deeply.

  Even if I wanted to, I had limited options to interfere. All I could do was make sure that my job was done, protecting this side of things, and hope that the people in power didn’t fuck it up on theirs, where monsters other than normal humans weren’t really an issue.

  At least I thought they weren’t.

  What did I know in my little, dimension-locked apartment? Maybe the world was really taken over by lizard people wearing human skin. Nothing would shock me anymore, honestly. I was too deep in this paranormal shit.