Monster Taming Broadcast

Day 71 of the Labyrinth.

After checking the interior construction status of the Desert Town, I returned to the hideout and called the remaining monsters.

The reason for the summoning was simple. I needed to confirm each of the monsters that chose to stay at the headquarters instead of migrating and to select the manager for the newly planned underwater town.

I slowly glanced over the monsters standing in front of me. Most of them were classified as first-generation monsters.

“I’ve completed the summoning!”

“Merino, step aside and stand next to me.”

“Yay!”

With Merino by my side, I turned my gaze back to the monsters.

Kinogine Aracne.
Blood Jellyfish Princess.
Black Magma Slime.

First, I decided to leave these three at the headquarters again, as they’ve been with me since the beginning.

“Kinogine, Princess, and Black Magma Slime, please move to the side.”

[Yes, Father.]
[Okay!]
[Umm!]

Next up.

Medical Mushroom.
Melody Fox.
Artpega Unibicon.

I had no plans to send this trio elsewhere either.

Medical handles healing.
Melody is in charge of buffs.
Artpega takes care of the encyclopedia and various odd jobs.

“Medical, Melody, Artpega, you all move to the side with the ones who just left.”

[Beep!]
[Nyah!]
[Understood.]

“Oh, and Iris, you guys are to stay out too.”

[Confirmed.]
[Staying out.]
[Pouting.]

Six monsters and numerous Iriases stepped out of the lineup.

Now, five monsters remained.

Hedgehog Summoner.
Japan.
Bastet Daong.
Azelas.
Necro Puppetmaster.

That was it.

I didn’t include the puppets of Necro in the numbers since they were meant to stay with him. Unless we’re talking about Niarah Nepensys, of course.

Anyway, I decided to leave the Hedgehog Summoner and Japan at headquarters as well. They’re still S-Class monsters, so it’s good to keep them close for Melody’s buffs.

“Japan and Hedgehog, step aside too.”

[Ja-paan!]
[Doom Bar, Doo Doom Bar! I’ll dance my bum while I move!]

And as for Bastet Daong…
“You can step aside too, Daong.”
[Got it, meow.]

Honestly, I wanted to send her off as the manager of another town. She doesn’t play a particularly important role at the headquarters, and with an SS-Class danger level, she was well-suited to manage a town.

But I had to keep her there because of Solorb. She acts as Solorb’s eye, after all. To increase my closeness with Solorb, it’s best to have Bastet around.

“Well, now only two remain…”

Azelas.
And the Necro Puppetmaster with his puppets.

It felt a bit untrustworthy to appoint a puppet as a manager, so I had to appoint one of either Azelas or Necro as the manager of the underwater town.

I communicated my intentions to them. After a moment of thought, Azelas spoke first.

“I don’t mind taking on the role of the town manager. However, if I’m to take it, I’d prefer to manage the Celestial Realm side.”

“There are no plans to create a town on the Celestial Realm just yet… Is the underwater town not to your liking?”

“Sorry. I like the Celestial Realm.”

“…Well, I guess there’s no helping it.”

It seemed Azelas was not fond of the underwater town. If I end up building a town in the Celestial Realm, I would need to appoint Azelas as the manager there.

Having relinquished the idea with Azelas, I shifted my gaze to Necro.
[Hmm. Since Azelas doesn’t want it, I’ll take the role. I’d planned to create a puppet town and take on the role of manager at some point anyway.]

Fortunately, Necro readily accepted becoming the manager of the underwater town.
“Thanks.”
[In exchange, Niarah Nepensys will be staying at the headquarters. It would be better to sacrifice myself than to be separated from you, Gauntlet.]
[This mama can’t live away from her son.]

…I nodded.
I never intended to send Niarah away anyway, as she was a puppet of Necro and followed me more than Necro himself.

“Oh, Necro. And when you become the manager, you can let the co-manager handle the actual management and drop by for fun like Omega from the Machine Factory or the Desert Town folks.”

[Of course, that’s my plan. There will be plenty of times I’ll need Mind Control, so I’ll be visiting headquarters regularly.]

So, this was settled.

Necro’s puppets.
Curse Devil Gentleman.
Neo Hyeong-seok.
Jellyfish Queen.
Ignis Ashbringer.
Lilith Morphea.
Dune Strider…
Oh, wasn’t he a resident of the Desert Town?

Excluding Dune Strider, and excluding Niarah, a total of five puppets decided to migrate with Necro to the underwater town.

Afterwards.

After having lunch, Necro and his puppets were sent to Omega regarding the construction of the underwater town, and I gathered the remaining monsters to form an exploration team to explore the Celestial Realm.

The total members were eight.
Aracne, Princess, Black Magma Slime, Medical.
Niarah, Azelas, Artpega.
And finally, including myself.
I didn’t bother counting the number of Iriases.

【Pururu】─Looks like Gun is going out for exploration after a long time. Haha!
【Mysticism】─ Is it that long?
【Rize Nova】─The recent expedition was for recruiting residents for the Desert Town.

“What’s up, when did you all come?”

【Mysticism】─Just now!
【Rize Nova】─I just arrived too.
【Pururu】─I’ve been here since you turned on the broadcast earlier…

I forgot I turned on the broadcast today.
Since I can’t recall, I must have done it out of habit while in an unconscious state.

Well, regardless.
The reason I’m personally participating in this expedition is simple.
Niarah said she could demonstrate her stronger powers in the Celestial Realm.

And she mentioned that if her powers were enhanced, she could attempt to lift my seal by another stage.
Of course, this newly established Celestial Realm in the Labyrinth is distinctly different from the real Celestial Realm.

Still, just in case, I figured it was worth exploring together.

‘I could send Niarah first to confirm, but… she hasn’t been moving around lately, so I feel like her body is stiffening up. It’s better for her to remain active sometimes.’

Naturally, I planned to avoid dangerous situations this time as well, since my life isn’t just mine alone.

Therefore, I took along the healing monster Medical Mushroom and all the SS-Class monsters for safety.

Oh, just for reference.
I left the Hedgehog, Melody, and Merino in the Desert Town.
Even though I installed doors at every passage, leaving just those three at headquarters felt a bit insecure.
It was much better to leave the headquarters completely vacant.

─“Gauntlet! Can you see me? I’m doing well!”
─[Meow! Meow!]
─[Doom Bar! Have a safe trip! I’ll be here teaching the cats my dance while I wait!]

On the screen of Iris.
The faces of the ones left in the Desert Town appeared, their voices flowing out.
I lightly waved my hand toward Iris.

“Alright, everyone. Let’s set off soon.”

And so, I headed towards the Celestial Realm of the Ancient Labyrinth with the exploration team of supreme strength.

---