Monster Taming Broadcast

Use the tracking ticket.

Follow the voice guidance for 2 hours.

“Move forward.”

“Turn right.”

“Turn right.”

“Changing route.”

“Turn left.”

How far the Wanderer Merchant is.

How much longer until arrival.

Without providing any detailed information,

just guiding the way, frustration slowly seeped in.

“When are we getting there? Can’t you give me some hints?”

Boglebogle—Surely you can’t expect to estimate the arrival time? The Wanderer Merchant isn’t gonna stay in one place. With the name ‘wanderer,’ they’ll keep moving around.

Pururu—Shut it. I didn’t ask you.

“Turn left.”

No answer came to the question.

The voice diligently continued with its guidance.

Well, it probably doesn’t even have a self to answer.

“Centaurettes. If it gets too hard, just tell me. I can get down and walk myself.”

[No way! Not tiring at all! You can ride me forever! Hehe!]

Riding on the overly excited voice of Centaurettes, we kept moving.

Then suddenly, Pururu dropped a random question.

Pururu—Hey, do we really need to go directly?

“Of course we do. I need to use coins when I meet the Wanderer Merchant.”

Pururu—What about sending a tamed monster to make a proxy purchase?

Yumi—You can’t make proxy purchases with a vending machine either.

Pururu—It’s a different case, isn’t it? Who knows.

Rize Nova—Proxy purchasing might be possible, but initially, we need to go there ourselves. We haven’t confirmed whether proxy purchases are possible yet.

Yumi—Besides, you can’t hand coins to the tamed monsters, so how are you going to delegate a purchase?

Pururu—Ah. Can’t coins be materialized?

Mysticism—Can’t they?

“I tried to touch the coin screen once to materialize it, but it didn’t work then.”

Pururu—How do you hand it to the Wanderer Merchant?

“I guess just by touching it like a vending machine.”

It could be a different method to give to the Wanderer Merchant.

Maybe there’s a way to materialize the coins.

I didn’t need to think about it now; I could just ask when I got there.

Boglebogle—Does Neo Hyeong-seok not know about the Wanderer Merchant?

Yumi—I don’t think he does. I heard the Wanderer Merchant only sells to the Supported Ones.

Boglebogle—Oh, so they don’t sell to the Rulers or Lone Ones.

Yumi—Coins are exclusive to Supported Ones.

Come to think of it, I hadn’t asked that.

I turned back to the monsters accompanying us.

Kinogine Aracne.

Black Magma Slime.

Blood Jellyfish Princess.

Necro Puppetmaster.

Bastet Daong.

Excluding Centaurettes and Iris,

I had a total of five monsters escorting me.

“Puppet, call Neo Hyeong-seok.”

[Understood.]

I left Neo Hyeong-seok at the hideout.

Today, I assigned him the protective role along with the other monsters.

But calling him here wasn’t a problem.

The Necro Puppetmaster can summon his puppets to him instantly, no matter where they are.

[Did you call, Explorer?]

The air distorted, and Neo Hyeong-seok appeared before me.

There was no particular reason I called him.

I just suddenly became curious.

“Neo, do you know about the Wanderer Merchant?”

[I know of its existence.]

“You know of its existence? That means you’ve never bought anything from the Wanderer Merchant?”

[Correct. Rulers purchase items from other monsters, not the Wanderer Merchant. Tickets like kin summoning rights are bought from gacha machines, not vending machines.]

Though I couldn’t gather useful information about the Wanderer Merchant, I continued to ask questions.

Information about the Rulers wasn’t particularly useful, but I was still curious.

“What do they use to purchase?”

[Rulers also use coins. Unlike explorers like you who get support from assistants, they obtain coins by stealing from the Supported Ones. That’s the most efficient method.]

Yumi—Oh, so Rulers can use coins too. Haha!

Mysticism— But couldn’t they have just asked Centaurettes from the start if proxy purchasing was possible with tamed monsters?

Pururu—That brainless fool probably wouldn’t remember.

If you kill a Supported One, you can take all their coins.

You could also forcibly receive some coins by intimidation.

Neo Hyeong-seok added,

[And killing a Supported One, like Min Hyeong-seok, is amateurish. To keep obtaining coins, you should leave them alive and keep taking coins repeatedly.]

Neo Hyeong-seok continued.

[My mother also used to… no, she had to regularly offer coins to the Ruler. Because of threats of war if she didn’t.]

Then Centaurettes chimed in, supporting his words.

Yumi—I can understand why Centaurettes’ mother disliked the Rulers.

Rize Nova—Ruler traits seem to be characteristics exclusively for people with bad personalities.

Mysticism—A trait with looting as a basic option.

Boglebogle—Isn’t there a way to help the Supported Ones for good and receive coins in return?

Pururu—Honestly, it’s more convenient to steal than to bother doing all that.

Yumi—Someone with a personality like Pururu would fit well as a Ruler.

“Besides that, is there no other way to obtain coins?”

[Of course, there are various ways. You can also gain coins by sacrificing the souls of your summoned allies to the Ancient Labyrinth, or even piece by piece, to be precise—what I mean is having the Ancient Labyrinth gradually nibble away at the allies’ souls without them noticing.]

“Don’t tell me Min Hyeong-seok used that method?”

[…He certainly did.]

What a surprise.

Hearing more about it,

I learned that although five allies had been sacrificed as offerings for monster evolution, the number he sacrificed for coin acquisition was far greater.

He was a being of countless horrifying tales.

Pururu—What a garbage person. He better rot.

Mysticism—Let’s hit Neo Hyeong-seok. Bad guy.

Boglebogle—Neo Hyeong-seok isn’t at fault. He’s just carrying memories.

“Anyway, so it is possible to be self-sufficient without having to steal coins.”

[Yes. But you can acquire fewer coins compared to stealing from Supported Ones, so stealing is far more efficient.]

Well, sure.

No matter how hard I try, it would be hard to acquire as many coins as Supported Ones do.

Because Rulers don’t have any assistants.

By the way,

I heard that Rulers can also purchase tickets similar to evolution tickets.

However,

they can’t evolve outright without conditions like I do with evolution tickets.

Because monsters don’t trust their masters,

there are several strict conditions attached to evolution.

For instance, they might need to consume a certain number of their kin.

Looking at it this way,

it seems the Supported One trait is particularly advantageous compared to other traits.

The Lone One, Azelas.

The Ruler, Neo Hyeong-seok.

Listening to their stories, one can tell they have different traits.

I wonder if it’s the trait that most contributes to the Labyrinth’s development among all the traits?

If there are hits and misses in traits,

the Supported One trait must be a hit.

And this is just my assumption, but

maybe the Ancient Labyrinth wishes for explorers who can harmoniously coexist with monsters and hopes such explorers become the rulers of the Labyrinth.

Choosing traits might even be a personality test.

If it’s not that,

it wouldn’t be possible to explain why one trait is overwhelmingly powerful and favored by the Labyrinth.

Well, anyhow.

At least I made a good choice with that one trait.

While I was inwardly proud of my past choice,

I heard the voice saying,

“You have arrived. Ending guidance.”

The voice of the tracking ticket ended.

I stopped in my place and looked ahead.

Not too far away,

a monster squatting down came into view.

A crocodile dressed in clothing like a human, wearing a hat—was it a fedora? And a coat.

Mysticism—

Mysticism—It’s a crocodile!

Yumi—It’s a crocodile.

Rize Nova—It’s a crocodile…

Pururu—Crocodile has appeared!

Boglebogle—Doesn’t look that strong.

This seemed to be the Wanderer Merchant.

*

—The Wanderer Merchant is a crocodile.

—There is no Wanderer Merchant that is not a crocodile.

—Please be cautious of impersonators.

Suddenly, the phrase from the vending machine popped into my mind.

If it’s not a crocodile, it’s an impersonator of the Wanderer Merchant.

[Hello, Explorer. I am the Wanderer Merchant, Crocodile Merchant.]

The monster in front appeared to be a crocodile, so I didn’t have to worry about impersonation.

They were also found through the tracking ticket, and there were no other monsters around.

The Crocodile, approaching me first, seemed to be used to this situation. After greeting me, it pulled out a bundle from its coat and spread it on the ground.

[You wish to find something other than tickets, right?]

“…Yes, I don’t intend to buy anything for sure, but I’m just curious about what you have for sale. Is it okay to just browse?”

[Of course. You can look without buying. Unlike my impersonators, I won’t charge a viewing fee, so please take your time.]

To my surprise, the monster was quite kind.

From its tone of voice to its actions and expressions, everything was friendly.

[If you see any items you’d like to purchase, let me know.]

On the spread-out cloth,

the Crocodile began displaying various items along with their price tags.

In this situation, usually, a regular person would be distracted by the items for sale.

However, my interest was more focused on the Crocodile Merchant itself.

That’s because,

‘This guy is way stronger than he looks…’

The danger level of the Crocodile Merchant was SSS-class.

I couldn’t help but be amazed and stared at its face,

when I realized something odd.

‘…Wait a minute. Why is it rated SSS class?!’

Is it unaffected by nerfs?

Or is it possible it was nerfed and is still SSS-class?

Filled with questions, I cautiously opened my mouth to ask.

“Excuse me, may I ask you something?”

[Feel free to ask. I’ll answer whatever I can.]

“Does your strength remain unchanged even with an Explorer nearby?”

[Hmm? Ah! So you have the ability to gauge your opponent’s strength?]

Crocodile instantly grasped my question’s intention.

When I nodded, he continued to answer.

[As you asked, my power does not weaken even in the presence of an Explorer.]

…I’d better act as polite as possible with this guy.

Pururu—Hahaha, but the more you look, the more it seems like a loser.

Mysticism—

Boglebogle—Looks weak.

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