Suffer the Life Profession Players, the Dog Devs Take the Blame

One Leaf Knows Autumn's guess was correct; they really did miss out on a lot of good stuff.

But—

What does this have to do with the esteemed Lord Demon Lord? In any case, Leon didn't miss out on any good stuff.

Aren't the lifestyle players always complaining about not having any work?

Well, here it is.

He's finding them work!

The entrance to the first floor of the Maze.

The hall was covered in cobwebs, and a group of dark Skeleton Soldiers were lined up obediently.

The reason these guys were so dark was mainly because they had just come out of the coal mine. As for those who weren't so dark, they were mining iron.

Speaking of which, Leon had to complain about the quality of the bones buried in these mines.

Maybe it was because the people buried here had been dead for so long, but some players' bones would fall apart as they were digging, leaving only half their bodies stuck in the ground.

Leon couldn't bear to deduct Contribution Points from these unlucky little guys who died accidentally, so he specially allowed them to pay with Hell Money.

Why not just waive it? That's because some combat players protested, shouting things like, "That's not fair, unless you waive it for me too."

So, he compromised.

Anyway, whether he gave it or not, it was all Hell Money, and he didn't really care. As long as the players were happy.

"Is everyone here?"

Appearing as a BOSS, Leon counted the number of people present and found that there were surprisingly many players who had come to join in the fun.

Not only players from the "Mining Department," but even those from the "Department of War" had come.

He nodded, a satisfied expression on his face, and without waiting for the players to reply with a drawn-out "We're all here," he went straight to the point.

"Very good."

"In Hell, dissection is a profound science, because the conditions and environment there are very harsh, and many resources need to be obtained from the corpses of magical creatures..."

"And the most important and most basic of these resources... is the Magic Crystal."

From the Magic Crystal Chalk used to draw Magic Arrays, to the wicks in Magic Crystal lamps, to the core units on war behemoths and the core of the Demon Lord Territory... all of them cannot do without the magical Magic Crystal.

And the most magical thing is that this thing only condenses after a magical creature dies.

It doesn't exist when they're alive.

Leon reasonably suspected that this rule might have been set by some god in the First Era.

But that's not important.

What's important is that he's now going to teach these little players how to collect Magic Crystals from the corpses of Cave Spiders! Leon erected a wooden board in the open space and began to write and draw on it with charcoal.

"...The collection of Magic Crystals is a great science. Skilled artisans can remove the Magic Crystal within three cuts and ensure the integrity of the magical creature's corpse to the greatest extent, without damaging other valuable materials."

Few people could understand the abstract scribbles.

Whether it was the players standing obediently or You You, who was worriedly watching from the side.

Finally, the busybody You You couldn't help but whisper.

"Um... Respected Lord Demon Lord, actually, you could just demonstrate it once using the Recording Crystal, and You You can help you upload the tutorial video. If you demonstrate it like this, even You You can't understand what you're doing..."

Leon, who was speaking vividly, paused, even forgetting the line he was halfway through.

However, the players couldn't see You You at all, so he was the only one embarrassed there.

"...Alright, alright, I get it. Just shut your mouth for now. This is method acting. I'm acting out a story animation. What's the rush!"

Annoyed, Leon pushed away the wooden board, took out a Crystal Ball from his pocket, and walked to a Cave Spider corpse.

"...Theoretical teaching is over! Now, I'll teach you the actual operation process."

As he spoke, he took out his Magic Wand and cast an Air Vortex Spell to flip the Cave Spider's corpse over.

Then, he manipulated the Air Vortex to float the Crystal Ball to the side and took out a silver Dagger to cut open the back of the spider's head.

The dark green crystal, about the size of a thumbnail, was hidden near the pharyngeal ganglion.

With a gentle slice of the Dagger, he picked out the Magic Crystal and displayed it to the players on the tip of the Dagger.

"See, it's that simple."

Worried that the players couldn't see, he also used his Magic Wand to light the torch next to him.

Seeing Lord Demon Lord's miraculous skill, many players applauded in surprise.

"Oh, oh, oh..."

"So that's how it is!"

"As expected of Lord Demon Lord!"

Selectively ignoring the "skip" and "GKD" sounds, Leon slightly raised the corner of his mouth with a hint of pride.

Just kidding.

He was, after all, a top student with a perfect score in theoretical courses.

Especially recently, not only the theoretical courses but also the practical courses have visibly improved.

"Very good, very good. Now that you've learned it, let's start working!"

"Remember what I said, extract the Magic Crystals while minimizing damage to the monster's corpse!"

"There are many treasures on the Cave Spider, from glands to teeth, and even spider silk and chitinous exoskeletons... Forget it, it's useless for me to say these things to you. You just need to know that it exists."

He waved his hand and, before the players started trying to walk by exploiting the bug of using their hands instead of their legs, he released the players' feet that had been immobilized.

In an instant, the players scattered like released ducks, rushing towards the nearest Cave Spider corpse and gesturing at them with the Daggers they had snatched from the Rat Rat.

As long as you take out the gallstones from the monster's brain, you can get the equivalent of cutting off a Rat's tail as a reward! Collect 100 of them and you'll get extra Contribution Points! This task is too profitable!

Looking at the busy scene of the players, Leon, standing on the side, couldn't help but reveal a "really good" expression.

The low intelligence of summons has always been the most troublesome problem for all mages specializing in summoning spells.

Like the Bond he was currently using.

Although he could project his mental power to control it with precise movements, that would affect his spellcasting and was not convenient at all.

Unlike his adorable little players.

More AI than actual AI.

This fellow villager who claimed to be the God of Machines really left him a good thing.

"Lord Demon Lord... what are you collecting these Magic Crystals for?" You You asked curiously, looking at the smug Leon.

Leon said with a smile.

"They have many uses, the most direct of which is selling them for money."

The Magic Crystals from adult Cave Spiders were much larger than those dropped by Skeleton Soldiers, and they were also much more valuable.

According to the knowledge he had extracted from Chris, a Cave Spider Magic Crystal could be sold for 100 Bronze coins at the Adventurers' Guild, and even 120 if it was of good quality! Although this amount wasn't much, it was enough to cover part of the Great Cemetery's deficit.

When his "personal merchant" came again next time, he could use the Magic Crystals to replace part of the payment.

By the way, the exchange rate between Os Empire Bronze coins and Os Silver Coins was around 100:1.

It was said that two centuries ago, this number was still 25:1.

The reason it had become like this was ostensibly due to inflation, but in reality, it was due to "indirect taxes."

The emperor mixed copper into the silver coins, and the nobles mixed lead into the copper coins, and eventually, it became like this.

It was said that, unable to endure the empire's exploitation, the northern academy states even simply replaced the silver coins' ecological niche with Magic Crystals for internal circulation... after all, there were not many feudal lords there, mostly mages and mage towers.

In comparison, Hell, which only had "Keila" as currency, did not have these problems.

In Hell, when the price of one thing went up, everything went up, which meant that nothing went up in the end. There would never be a situation like in the Os Empire where the price of bread went up but the price of wine did not.

Although Leon didn't know what was so funny about this, it was one of the human jokes in Hell.

You You continued softly.

"...But, you are a Demon Lord, do you really need so much human money?"

Leon said matter-of-factly.

"Of course, it's useful. I can't use Keila to buy things in the human world, can I?"

Construction costs a lot of money! Especially repairing teleportation Magic Arrays, repairing altars for summoning other magical creatures, etc., the cost is almost like building wonders! Moreover, proselytizing is also a money-burning activity, and he can't afford to support a few acolytes without money.

Currently, there were only skeletons in his territory, but it couldn't always be just skeletons.

He was, after all, a Demon Lord with dreams.

Just as Leon was thinking about the bright future of the Great Cemetery, he suddenly noticed a skeleton standing still.

The ID was also quite pitiful, it seemed that they usually had a big appetite and needed a large bowl to be full.

Looking at [Xiao Wan Can't Get Enough], who was about to cry, Leon sighed and said.

"You... go clean up those spiderwebs."

He was just planning to transform the Maze entrance into other facilities.

He really couldn't stand the corpses of the Cave Spiders, so cleaning up the spiderwebs wouldn't be a problem, right? "As you command, Lord Demon Lord!"

Xiao Wan Can't Get Enough breathed a sigh of relief, happily running off to clean up the spiderwebs.

Speaking of which, is this PUA? It's still something she doesn't like doing, but because it's not as annoying as something else she dislikes even more, she's actually happy about it.

Leon suddenly felt a little guilty.

Very good.

This showed that he was doing the right thing again.

Leon watched for a while on-site and, seeing that the players were even more skilled than he had imagined, turned around and returned to the Demon Lord Territory, diving into his workshop to brew potions.

Compared to Magic Crystals.

He felt that the "beast medicine" from Hell should be more valuable.

Anyway, there were so many materials, it would be a waste not to brew some.

By the way, he could also record some footage so that the interested little players could learn as well.

Just as Leon had left the Maze, Arakdo from the Weave Shadow Nest quietly led a group of hunters to the main hall at the Maze entrance.

This was Her Majesty the Queen's "development area," and also the place that adventurers called the "North Peak Mine entrance."

But even so, it had never seen a few adventurers enter through this entrance since it was born.

And the moment it stepped into this territory, it saw a scene it would never forget in its life.

Corpses everywhere! Dried blood like a dried-up stream!

And what shocked it even more was that a group of Skeleton Soldiers holding daggers were dissecting the corpses of its kind, just like the adventurers outside!

"These bastards..."

Some of the hunters were enraged, their mouthparts grinding together, wishing they could rush up and chew these Skeleton Soldiers into bone dust!

However, some hunters had undisguised fear in their scarlet eyes.

Skeleton Soldiers...

They were even lower-level monsters than Ratfolk, and almost no one would bother with them except for slimes.

But at this moment, these bone frames, which should have no brains, actually possessed intelligence no less than that of humans!

What frightened them was not just these skeletons themselves, but also the Necromancer who summoned them—

Just what kind of great power did that guy have!!!

"Retreat!"

The resourceful Arakdo was shocked and decisively issued a retreat order, taking the hunters away from this place of right and wrong before that Necromancer discovered them.

They ran all the way.

Arakdo didn't dare to pause for even a moment, heading straight into the depths of the Weave Shadow Nest, to Lord Arachinos's court!

On the dense and tight spider web.

The enormous Queen was chewing with her mouthparts, savoring the taste of the few male Cave Spiders from before.

She had just been fed.

In every sense of the word.

Risking being eaten by Her Majesty, Arakdo trembled and kowtowed on the ground.

"Your Majesty, as you commanded, I have scouted the situation in the frontier!"

Moving her enchanting and enormous body, Arachinos lazily looked at her subject.

"Speak, what is the situation there?"

"It's a Necromancer!"

In an instant, Arachinos straightened up, her face filled with panic.

"A Necromancer?! How could there be a Necromancer?!"

Humans would never cultivate such a disgusting thing, and such a disgusting thing wouldn't come to the Maze for no reason! There was only one possibility—

He was a professionally trained guy! And he might even be from that place! "That Necromancer is very strong! The Skeletons he summons not only have intelligence, but also possess extraordinary power above Bronze or even Steel! Alat Lulu, the most cunning hunter under my command, died at their hands!"

Arakdo stated his findings, a trace of fear, even terror, flashing in his scarlet pupils.

"There's no mistake..."

"He is the successor appointed by Hell... the new Demon Lord who has come to replace the Reggie Dragon Demon Lord!"