My gaze is drawn to the little girl’s form; thankfully, she is dressed… Otherwise, I’d be shanked in the ass once I got to prison…

She looks like she is 12 years old, her petite frame cementing that fact into my brain. She was dressed in a puffy, silver-colored jacket, with a black undershirt. Whether the undershirt was sleeveless or not was unknown due to the puffy jacket. She also wore black, somewhat baggy shorts that reached up to her knees, black knee socks, and white sneakers.

All in all, an outfit that would not be rare in the contemporary era.

She had short, periwinkle hair that only reached down to her neck, and slightly pointed ears, not long like those twin elves.

She opened her eyes and her deep, lavender eyes took all of my attention.

“… Papa…?”

… Oh shit… Somehow, this feels very, very wrong… I died a virgin, for fucks’ sake! And I’m not even 21 years old! Mentally!

“Papa…?”

“…! Yes…?” I snap out of my barreling train of thought.

“Papa!”

The girl launches herself from the box and into me, hugging my thick-as-a-log arm. In my vision, she was tiny, just the same size as a Goblin.

‘All right… Calm down, what was she again? It was referred to as a [Dungeon Helper] by the system, and her name was right next to it….?’ I was busy gathering my thoughts. The little girl prodded my arm, hugging it, poking it, sometimes slapping and punching it like some kind of toy.

“… Tough…” the girl’s muttering brought me out of my mind as I focused my gaze on her.

“Uhm… What’s your name, little girl?” I asked with an anxious smile. Strong being or not, harming a child is a prospect I would never face.

“Mu…? Name… Domino…” she tilted her head cutely to the side, her large eyes full of innocence.

“Hmm, Domino, huh…?” I cupped my chin in contemplation. Throwing caution to the wind, I readied myself for my next question. “What are you anyway?”

“Mhm…” Domino nodded and let go of my arm. She retreated a few steps behind me before looking up at me with her innocent gaze. “Me… Dungeon Helper… I help with Dungeon… Managing, summoning, buying…”

“Hmm…” I slipped back into my thoughts. ‘So, effectively, she’s a mini-Dungeon Master, only she isn’t combat-oriented, but more economic-oriented. That is actually useful because it allows me to delegate some repetitive tasks to her, such as re-arming the traps I buy from the Dungeon Menu, summoning mobs whenever I enter a new room, and other things, freeing up a lot of time for me to train the Dungeon Mobs/Defenders/Residents and make some gear for them without relying on the Market.

“-pa… Papa…” I felt a tugging on the black fur on my arm. I’m a Silverback, mind you. I lowered my gaze to see Domino tugging on it, her curious gaze fixed on my face. She tilted her head once again – quite cutely, I might add – and brought herself to speak. “Tired…?”

“…No, I’m not tired. Why do you keep calling me Papa, anyway?” I asked, curiosity driving my question. I would’ve assumed that instead of ‘Papa,’ what she would’ve called me instead was… ‘Boss,’ ‘Master,’ or even just ‘Dungeon Master.’

Not that I’m not grateful. I’m glad she isn’t calling me ‘Master.’ That just makes me feel like a damn pedophile…

“Mhm… I call Papa… Because Papa is Papa…” she stated as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

… What the hell is this cliché anime bullshit…? I expected a rational answer, seeing that her response earlier to what her job was logical… Then again, the System loves trolling me…

Fuck you, System…

“… Anyway,” I decided to let that train of thought slide. I’d rather roll with it and continue with my life, thank you very much… “First things first, can you call me anything other than ‘Papa’?”

“No,” she immediately responded with intent to kill, marring her visage. Yep, definitely not pissing her off in the future.

“Alright,” I said, feigning a cough to… retract my previous statement. “What can I do to make my dungeon more secure?”

“Mhm…” Domino nodded and brought out a holographic screen. On the aforementioned screen, I could see the entire dungeon. I can see Gobi placing traps around the Forest Area, the other Goblins doing some work on their camp, the monkeys following the orders of their drill instructors, who happened to be Gong and Manny, and the other gorillas in the Mine area mining for ore. “Dungeon Defense standard… abysmal… require more troops… suggest luring/kidnapping and taming monsters…”

“… A possible task. I’ll have some chimps lure in some monsters from outside the Dungeon,” from my answer, Domino nodded agreeingly.

“Also suggest arming Dungeon Defenders… Quality is required,” I agreed with that statement.

“And also training them how to fight,” I remember the time I looked through video platforms about monkeys fighting. Most of the time, they just flail around, trying to grapple their foes and bite them to death. Gorillas fall harshly under this category.

If a gorilla knew how to use its strength, not just flail around, then it could probably fight against a grizzly bear. That said, the grizzly would still have quite an advantage due to how they are made. The Grizzlies didn’t terrorize people in the early 1900’s for nothing.

What was it that they said, ‘Gunshots only make it angrier…?’

Anyway, if I could teach the gorillas and other monkeys to fight like a human would, this would incredibly bolster their fighting capabilities. I can recall a news article where a silverback gorilla tore the head off a human with its bare hands.

There’s no photographic proof, but if that’s true, a gorilla could be one of the most lethal dungeon mobs I could ever acquire.

Domino agreed with me with a nod of her cute face.

“Domino, can you manage the Dungeon for me right now?” I pointed to the ore stack and the blacksmith’s set I had purchased at the Market,” I need to make some pickaxes for the new mobs in the Mine area.”

“Anything for you… Papa…” Domino chirped happily, her expressionless face making it even cuter.

‘… Damn it… this feels… so… so wrong…’ I buried that thought within the deepest part of my mind and went on my way towards the Blacksmithing set. I need to focus, and distractions will just waste precious time.

[][][][][][][][][][][][][]

After a few hours of work, I finally made 5 pickaxes. It was a hard, grueling task, but it was all worth it.

[Blacksmithing] 1 -> 2

It might not be much, but this tells me that leveling up my skills is still possible, even with the damned debuff.

[Estimated time until completion… 235:32:51]

Setting the debuff duration aside, I found out that a pickaxe required a sturdy stick, and about 2-3 ingots of iron. Luckily, the gorillas mined just enough to make about 15-20 ingots of iron.

Anyway, with my task done, and my Dungeon supervised by Domino, I now had to give the miners their pickaxes. I nod to Domino, who has been instructing Manny to relay her instructions to Gobi and the rest of the Goblins on where to place the traps, as I place each pickaxe in my inventory.

Even if the Goblins didn’t know how to place traps, Gobi did, and it wasn’t that hard to teach them how to place simple traps. As obvious as the traps are with good eyesight, they can hamper the movement speed of the invaders.

Domino returned my nod with a tiny smile, as I continued on with my task. Domino also taught me one of the functions of the Dungeon, and that was to create passageways from the Dungeon Core Room to the other rooms in an instant, which could only be used by me or Domino alone.

For some reason, I used this feature unconsciously when I went to the forest area by myself, completely bypassing the mining area. I guess that I was too caught up in my mind that I went unaware…

How unfortunate. It seems that hauling the ores to the Dungeon Core Room won’t be instantaneous.

That reminds me that I need to teach some of my mobs the art of blacksmithing, even if my abilities are mediocre. Everybody has a starting place, and if my mobs start 1 kilometer before the starting area, so what?

I was so in my head that I didn’t realize I was already at my destination, with various other gorillas and Goblin miners staring at me with concern.

“You okay… Boss…?” a gorilla approached me, probably the lead miner.

“Yes, just fine,” I grabbed the pickaxes from my inventory and gave the new miners their gear. The goblins bowed respectfully, while the gorillas bared their teeth, opening their mouths to show both rows of teeth as a sign of submission.

After that, they took the pickaxes and went off to do their work.

All in all, I guess this was pretty productive. Next is teaching the defenders how to fight like a human. The last time I taught them, it was just how to swing their weapons, and block attacks. I’ll give props to the chimp who learned how to use a bow.

How the hell did Chip even figure that out, I do not know, but it is hella useful.

Done with that, I headed towards the Forest area to meet with the monkeys. Still, one thought kept plaguing my mind…

‘Where the hell can I get some quick DP…?’