I am the Demon King of the Dungeon!

When I left the blacksmith's shop, the sky was already turning a pale white.

The morning light spread up from behind the eastern mountain ridge, like a thin golden veil covering the entire town of Greystone.

The Dragon Fang Sword left by my father...

Arthas stood at the alley entrance and glanced back at the unassuming blacksmith shop.

He doesn't like randomness; he has to arrange the tasks himself.

……

Back at the Dusk Inn.

Raine sat at the dining table with a large plate of fried eggs and bacon in front of him, his mouth stuffed full of food, his cheeks bulging like a hamster's; Oris sat opposite him, holding a cup of hot tea, and nodded slightly when she saw Arthas.

"Where are you going?" Ryan asked, his mouth full of bread, his words muffled. "I knocked on your door but no one answered."

"Let's go for a walk."

"A walk? Where to?" Renn swallowed the food in his mouth. "Going out for a walk before dawn?"

"I can't sleep."

Renn glanced at Arthas, but didn't press the matter. He simply patted the stool next to him and said, "Let's have breakfast first! After we eat, we'll go get the quest!"

"Hmm." Arthas sat down, and the innkeeper brought him the same breakfast. He ate slowly, his mind still on the Vivre Card.

He desperately wanted to know what had happened.

After finishing the last piece of bacon, Alsace put down his knife and fork and said, "I'm done."

"So fast?" Ryan was still struggling with the fried egg on his plate. "You've only been eating for less than ten minutes!"

"As long as you're full, that's fine."

"Then wait for me..."

When the three of them stepped out of the inn, the sun had already risen completely above the eastern mountain ridge, and the streets of Greystone Town were bustling with people, filled with noise and laughter.

The guild hall was already packed with adventurers.

Raine squeezed to the front of the task board and rummaged through a pile of parchment, his brow furrowing more and more.

"strangeness……"

"What's wrong?" Oris asked, puzzled. "Didn't we agree to go to Dark Hemcas?"

"The quest is gone." Renn flipped through the quest board again, confirming there were no Dark Hemcas investigation quests. "They were there yesterday, why are they all gone today?"

"The quest is gone?" Oris frowned slightly, walked to the quest board and flipped through it, but indeed found no quests related to Dark Hemcas.

For Raine, who wants to reach Silver rank, simply grinding for equipment without any mission assignments is not the best option.

Undeterred, Renn grabbed an adventurer who was tearing up a quest sheet: "Hey bro, have you seen the Dark Hemcas investigation quest?"

The adventurer was a burly man carrying a greatsword. His eyes lit up when he heard the words "Dark Hemkas".

"You want to go to the third floor too?"

"Also?" Ryan caught the word.

"Ugh, don't even mention it." The burly man sighed, stuffed the mission sheet into his pocket, and pulled out a recording crystal from his waist. "Take a look at this for yourself."

An image appeared on the crystal.

A pool of orange-red lava surged with heat, and a group of fire slimes lined up neatly at its edge, bouncing around with a "plop, plop." The scene shifted, and an obsidian slide spiraled down from the dome, its end disappearing into the lava pool. An adventurer, whose face was obscured, rushed down the slide, screaming as he plunged into the lava. What splashed up was not blood, but orange-red light.

The adventurers don't seem to be conquering a map; they're more like playing a game.

"This was taken in the early hours of the morning, showing the 'new look' of the third floor." The burly man put away the crystal, his tone a mixture of envy and helplessness. "Everyone in Graystone Town is talking about it now—slides, drop towers, spinning teacups…and hidden monsters. Do you think this is what a dungeon should have?"

Renn opened his mouth wide and couldn't close it for a long time.

"Moreover," the burly man said in a low voice, "the boss on the third floor is now a Balrog. It won't really kill you; after you defeat it, it'll chat with the adventurers, asking if the slide is fun, and that there are new sets of armor to farm..."

Not going all out?

Arthas raised an eyebrow.

"...The BOSS can chat with adventurers?" After watching the video, Renn now wanted to go to Dark Hemkas even more.

"Yes. Yesterday, a small team finished the raid, and she even gave them a new set of armor. Those guys went straight to the guild and gave it a five-star review." The burly man shook his head and said helplessly, "Now Dark Hemkas has become incredibly popular among adventurers, and everyone wants to go."

"What about the mission? Why is the mission gone?"

"What do you think? It's all gone already!!!"

"Sold out? That can't be true..."

You can go to the dungeon without accepting a quest; the difference is whether it can increase your adventurer's level. Logically, the quest lists shouldn't be all taken.

"Due to the unusual activity on the third floor, the Adventurers' Guild is now strictly controlling access, and you can't go without a quest slip. As a result, several popular streamers have been paying high prices to buy up Dark Hemkas quests, so now both those who want to go and those who don't want to go are vying for them, since everyone is making a profit."

"It's the streamer again..."

The burly man patted Raine on the shoulder and said earnestly, "Brother, these days you really can't do dungeon raids without money; it's a resource monopoly."

After saying that, the burly man turned and left, leaving Ryan standing there with an expression as if he had been hit on the back of the head with a hammer.

"The voice streamer..." Oris repeated the word in a low voice. "I think I know who it is. Those guys are adventurers who specialize in streaming dungeon walkthroughs. They have at least 800,000 fans."

"Over eighty thousand?" Ryan's voice rose an octave before falling back down. "That's really a lot of money."

"Yes. They specifically pay high prices to buy out popular quests and stream them exclusively, earning both traffic and money." Oris paused. "Adventurers are scrambling to sell quest logs, and guilds certainly won't refuse, since some streamers don't even ask for rewards, and the exclusive commission fee can even be ten times higher."

"ten times……"

Arthas stood in front of the quest board, looking at the parchment torn to shreds, a slight smile playing on his lips.

Unexpectedly, the third floor became a sensation among adventurers overnight. It seems that being unconventional has its merits, and the income from fear points will definitely increase in the future.

"What do we do now?" Renn scratched his head, looking bewildered. "We can't go to Dark Hemcas. What quest should we take?"

"That one," Arthas pointed to a parchment in the corner of the quest board.

Mission type: Escort

Objective: From Graystone Town to Holy City

Client: Cole Greystone

Renn turned to look at Arthas.

"Do you know him?"

"We've met once."

"You really dare to take on an escort mission? A short escort distance is fine, but it takes a full seven days to get to Holy Radiance City. What if it's some kind of trap?"

"It's not a trap. He's a blacksmith, and he has a sword that needs repairing. I'm taking him to Holy Radiance City to find the materials."

"This..." Renn hesitated, turning to look at Oris.

Oris simply nodded slightly.

"Alright, let's take this one." Ryan tore off the task sheet and went to the counter to register.