《Dungeon Oasis》 Choices It was a clear day. Not a cloud in the sky. Which is why that bolt of lightning caught everyone by surprise. Especially me who survived just long enough to realize what had happened. The next thing I know I''m standing next to this vaguely female figure who somehow seems to be literally wearing light like an overcoat. She explained that my death was an accident and since they had technically caused it, albeit accidentally, they were going to let me pick my next life. She did warn me though that once the decision was made it could not be unmade. After confirming that I understood she walked me through the options. Option 1 is to be reborn as a demon lord. As a demon lord I would control a vast territory and command a mighty army. Option 2 is to be reborn as a human. I could go back to my old world or choose from billions of other worlds. Some of the worlds even contained actual magic. Looking through the list I discovered that earth was not the only world without magic. Though worlds without magic were exceedingly rare. Option 3 is to be reborn as a beastkin. There were all kinds of different types of beastkin I could be. Option 4 is to be reborn as a dragon. Surprisingly there were a large number of different types of dragons I can be. Some even existing in worlds without magic somehow. Option 5 is to be reborn as a dungeon. Not much information was given about this option. When asked she said it was because dungeons technically exist in their own pocket dimension. Also, dungeons don''t really have defined types. Apparently, being able to change everything about themselves makes them, by definition, undefinable. "Why is being reborn human option two?" That was my first question. She explained that the options were listed in order of popularity. Ok, I think we''ll just skip right past the fact that this apparently happens often enough that the options have a popularity ranking. I can see demon lord being a popular choice. Not one I''d ever make myself as it does by its very nature seem to come with some very serious strings attached. Option two is just boring. I''ve already lived as a human once. I can understand some people wanting to stick with the familiar but I''m ready for something new. Becoming a beastkin tempted me for a bit. The closer I looked though the less I saw that distinguished them from humans. Becoming a dragon was very tempting. Dragons were extremely powerful being after all. Unfortunately, they were also extremely large targets for people wanting to make a name for themselves. That just left one option. You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version. After talking with the strange being for a while I decided it was the right choice. Being a dungeon would have some serious drawbacks. Being stuck in one place. Not being able to interact with people. Being a literal inanimate object. It had one major benefit though. As a dungeon I would technically have an unlimited life span. The only way for a dungeon to die is for the core to be destroyed. There was also the fact that I could be as creative as I wanted. Literally becoming my own canvas. Honestly though it was the lifespan that did it. Who wouldn''t want to live forever? After making my selection I felt myself being enveloped in a warm blanket of light. The next thing I knew I was in the middle of a five-by-five-by-five-meter room. How I knew the exact dimensions of the room wasn''t immediately clear but somehow, I instinctively did. The next thing I knew there was a wall of floating text in my face.
Dimensional Anchor Established
You Have Been Granted 100 World Energy To Help You Get Established
Mana Can Be Exchanged For Additional World Energy
I''ve read enough stories to know what mana is. I''m guessing world energy is some kind of currency unique to dungeons. Why would a dungeon need currency though? As if to answer my question another wall of text appeared. This one containing a list of things that could be purchased with World energy. Some even appeared to have subcategories. In fact, all but one had subcategories.
5x5x5 Room 10 World Energy
Plants Various
Creatures Various
Themes Various
Traps Various
Skills Various
Rules Various
I can''t really call myself a dungeon without rooms, so I go ahead and spend 50 World Energy on 5 rooms. As for the rest, well If I''m going to be a dungeon I''m going to need creatures for delvers to fight. Selecting the creatures tab I''m presented with a list that just keeps growing. In exasperation I ask nobody in particular if the list can be sorted to only show the ones I can afford. As If in response to me the list suddenly changes. Now all the creatures being shown are ones I can afford. The list is still way too long though. I need to narrow it down further. "This could take a while." I sigh to myself as I roll up my metaphorical sleeves and prepare to dive in. Getting Started I''m not really sure how long it took as I may have lost track of time at some point. All I know is that looking outside my entrance I can see the sun coming up. It was mid-day when I started going through the list so I must have lost track of time at some point. For a few minutes I just sit back and enjoy the sunrise. I''m going to call that direction east until someone tells me different, I decide. As for what I chose. I spent 10 world energy on a simple rat blueprint for the basic monster. Not that I particularly wanted basic rats. Unfortunately, it looks like I need to work my way up to the really cool monsters like wyverns and basilisks. I also spent 15 World Energy for a dire rat blueprint so the first floor could have a proper boss. I do want to get plants at some point but for now because I needed stuff for rats to hide behind, I spent the last 25 world energy on an abandoned cabin theme. The earth mana skill that would have allowed me to sculpt hills and tunnels for them costs an outrageous 100 world energy. While the abandoned cabin theme does come with interior elements included. There were other themes I could have gone with, but I chose rats before I looked at the themes list. I ignored things like tables, chairs and beds for now. What I''m interested in and the reason I chose this theme is the supply crates. There were a few different types, and they could be stacked together however I choose. Ok now it''s time to start actually building the dungeon. First things first I place down my first room to the north of the current core room. To my surprise the core automatically moves to the new room. Also, surprisingly a hallway that is exactly one meter long appears between the rooms automatically. I do have the option to spend mana to increase its length or cause it to slope up or down. I''m not sure why I would need that last option but hey, more options are always better than fewer options. At any rate this does gives me a lot more options for room placement. For a moment I am bummed that I won''t be able to enjoy the sunrise anymore. It does appear however, that my consciousness can be wherever I want it to be. I briefly consider filling the first room with monsters and supply crates for them to hide behind. I make a conscious decision to leave the first room empty though. For one looking outside all I can see is sand. Seems like just reaching me would be enough of a challenge for some. Another thing is that while I don''t plan to actively avoid death, I do want to give people a chance. The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. The next room I place is to the east of the last room I placed. That strange lady did say dungeons exist in their own pocket dimension, and that got me curious about something. Once again, the core moves to the new room. Looking around even though this room pokes out past my entrance it looks identical to the others. Turning my attention back to the first room I actively placed, I start to fill it with stacks of supply crates almost to the ceiling leaving only a few paths some of which are dead ends. Did I go a little overboard? Maybe, but the supply crates are free to place since they are included in the abandoned cabin theme I purchased. For the moment I''m going for an abandoned bandit hideout sort of vibe. After the decorations I spend one mana to place a single level one rat. If this is what the system considers a basic rat, I can''t wait to see how big dire rats are. This basic rat is 40cm long and weighs in at 700 g. Not huge but definitely the biggest rat I ever saw. I technically could have made it a level five rat, but I don''t know how tough the people who make it to me will be. I do want some people to survive so they can spread word of my existence. The third room I place is to the south of the last room. This puts it directly behind my entrance. Seeing as I can''t see it when looking out through my entrance, I''d say that pretty well confirms that I exist in my own little pocket dimension. With my curiosity placated I go ahead and place the remaining two rooms to the east of the last room I placed. After that I begin filling every empty room except the first and last one with supply crates being careful to leave a not so straight forward path through them. After that come the rats, all level one for now. Because I want to give them a chance, I decide on a linear difficulty progression. So, I place two in the second room, three in the third, and four in the fourth. Not that I plan to make it a straight shot to the core chamber I just don''t really have the funds right now to do much different. It''s also around this time that I realize I forgot the boss chamber. Bosses can exceed the level cap of the floor by five levels, but they can only be placed in boss chambers. It costs 5 world energy to designate a room as the boss chamber. Something I admittedly should have thought of much sooner. It also occurs to me that people need a reason to risk their lives. So, I spend 200 mana to purchase two world energy. With those two world energy I purchase a copper coin blueprint and I change the rat blueprint to drop rat leather. Then I spend another 50 mana placing 50 copper coins randomly throughout my various rooms. Except for the first room and the core room that is. Now comes the boring part. Without delvers all I can do is wait for mana to trickle in at the rate of one mana every ten minutes. I''m hoping that delvers will somehow give me mana. Why else would a significant chunk of the purchase options in the shop be designed to attract delvers. Somethings Missing I am bored. It doesn''t help that I can''t really afford to do anything. Well Technically I have managed to save up enough mana to exchange for 10 world energy. The thing is though aside from an extra room that doesn''t really get me much. I do plan on adding more rooms to the first floor at some point. It''s just that as I watch the sun rise up over the sandy dunes yet again, I have this nagging feeling that I''m overlooking something very basic yet also very important. Like there is some big obvious ... thing that I just can''t see. Maybe if I just keep saving up my mana it will come to me eventually. Over the next 70 days I manages to save up enough mana to exchange for another 100 world energy. All the while that feeling that I''m missing something never goes away. So finally, I decide to look at the shop to see if something will just click. I decide to take my time going over each category looking for something I might have missed the first time. Well except the rooms category because it apparently only had the one option. I am kind of curious why it even has an entire category if there is just the one option. No, don''t get distracted, I chastise myself. As I look over the plant category, I notice that a lot of them are locked. They''re also rather expensive which is probably why I didn''t even see them before. Looking closer I see that certain prerequisites have to be meet in order to unlock them. Some of them feel important but I can''t really think about that too much until I can figure out how to unlock them. Not really seeing anything that jumps out at me, that''s actually unlocked. I decide to close this category and move on to the next one. The creatures category has a lot more options now. The creatures are still sorted based on what I can afford as were the plants but apparently, I can afford a lot of different blueprints now. There are some I plan on getting in the near future. Perhaps for my second floor. For now though, none of them strike me as particularly important. So, now it''s on to the themes category. The themes category is also greatly expanded. Well, technically not expanded because I suspect those options have always been there. The number of themes I can afford though is definitely increased. However, just like with the plants there are also quite a few that are locked for some reason. Looking at the ones that are locked and comparing them with the plants that are locked I start to wonder if it''s because of my location. I quickly dismiss that thought though because it says that they can be unlocked once prerequisites are met. I very much doubt that would be the case if it was a region or some other form of location lock. Stolen story; please report. Moving on I decide to skip over traps for now. I''ve already decided that there won''t be any traps on the first floor. The second floor is where I plan to start slowly introducing traps. The skills category though is where I finally get my answer. I almost instinctively reach out and grab the earth mana for 100 world energy. I have been wanting it from the beginning, but just at that moment something else catches my attention. Something that makes me metaphorically face palm so hard I nearly gave myself a concussion. Water mana, mother fucking water mana! I''m in a desert for crying out loud. How did I forget about something so basic to most forms of life? I guess it''s mainly because now that I think on it, I haven''t eaten or drank anything since that morning just before I was struck by lightning. Not that I''m hungry or thirsty. Which does make since if I''m a dungeon, I guess. Without further delay I reach out and spend 100 world energy to purchase water mana. Now I can directly convert 1 unit of mana into 1 cubic decimeter of water. Fortunately, according to the description it won''t evaporate unless acted upon by a set of dungeon rules designed to cause evaporation. Something I''m not worried about since I haven''t purchased any rules, and at this point in time I don''t see myself ever creating weather patterns. Which is the only reason I can think of for wanting water to evaporate. Now though I look back at the abandoned cabin theme I purchased earlier. There''s a lot more to it than just supply crates. I just hadn''t felt like anything else was all that useful at the time. Looking through some of the other options I pull out a wash tub and place it in the middle of the first room. Which I have taken to calling the entryway. The wash tub, as the system calls it, basically looks like just a giant metal bucket that someone stretched out to make it just big enough for an average adult human to soak comfortably. It''s not something you''d normally consider drinking from, but it suddenly occurs to me that anyone who actually makes it to me is probably not going to be all that concerned with the source of the water. It''s going to cost me a lot of mana to actually fill it so that''s going to be a long-term project. At least until I actually get delvers. I''m still kind of banking on the fact that there must be a reason why dungeons would want to attract delvers. Continuing to look through the stuff I got with the abandoned cabin theme I pull out some candles. There were some light emitting crystals but they cost 100 mana each to activate. So instead, I spend a little time to spread candles throughout my dungeon. Unlike with the coins though I''m a bit more strategic with the candle placement. Trying to strike a nice balance between providing light for delvers and shadows for ambience. It does cost me 1 mana to light each one but that''s still much cheaper than activating the crystals. I don''t bother putting any in the entryway though because I can see out which means light must be coming in. Thinking about what else a delver might need I spend 1 world energy to have meat added to the loot drop of the first 10 rats. I adjust the first rat to always drop meat. The 9 rats in the three rooms immediately after that are adjusted to have a 50/50 chance of dropping either meat or leather. Now I just need delvers to actually show up. A New Perspective It took me a while to fill the wash tub. After that, I continued to add rooms as I gained enough world energy. The next room was to the north of the previous room. Once the core moved out of the previous room, I again placed four rats only this time I made one of them a level 2 rat. Of course, I also continued to add the empty supply crates. Don''t want the room to feel too open. I continued this trend of replacing a level 1 rat with a level 2 rat in each room going north, east, then back south. Next up I planned to slowly replace them with level 3 rats as I added even more rooms. My plan was to continue this trend until I had a room with 4 level 5 rats with the room immediately after that being the boss room. I also decided to redistribute the coins and add a few more. I planned to add more rooms later using this same trend of slowly increasing the difficulty of each encounter making the path to the boss much less obvious. For now though, I felt like I should get the boss room established sooner rather than later. Clyde POV I had thought that it was easy money. After all, how hard could it be to cross the sand sea with a water mage that can summon water out of thin air. Just a leisurely stroll across the sand sea to collect a huge payout. People cross the sand sea all the time. It can''t be that much harder to cross it on foot. How arrogant I was. The others tried to warn me that there was a reason nobody had ever crossed the sand sea on foot. All I could see was the free money though. How was I supposed to know that there was hardly any mana in the sand sea. Now my arrogance has doomed us all. I''m barely standing, Darrel the water mage is having to use the staff that he just bought as a walking cane to keep himself upright. and Cole our tank has been literally carrying Lily our healer for over a day now. I honestly have no idea how he''s still going. What I do know is that if we don''t find a way out of the sand sea soon none of us will be going for much longer. Why did I have to choose something that is literally impossible as our first task. Honestly if I hadn''t let Darrel talk me into bringing so much water with us, we''d have died already. Suddenly, I saw something on the horizon. It looked like a tear in the air itself. I said nothing because what would be the point of discussing a mirage that only I can see. As we got closer though I heard Cole ask, "what is that?" while pointing directly at it. This got the attention of Darrel who like me said that he had assumed it was a mirage. As they described it, it became obvious that what we were seeing was likely not a mirage. After all what are the odds, we''d all see the exact same mirage. If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. With nothing better to do and no real reason not to we decide to head towards whatever it was. Whatever it was it was now our only hope. Lily had completely lost consciousness and the rest of us weren''t far behind. It took us another two hours to actually reach it. Once we did though we knew exactly what it was. Not that it was exactly hard to tell being the only real source of mana within several hundreds of kilometers. At this point though, we were too far gone to care about caution. If the huge wash tub in the center of the room was a trap, well then at least our suffering would be over. Thinking this I ordered Cole to set Lily down and begin filling our waterskins. Darrel on the other hand opted to drink from the wash tub directly. While that was happening, I began stripping Lily''s cloths off. Normally I wouldn''t even think of doing something like this. This was an emergency though. I intended to place her directly in the tub. She needed to drink some water, but I was afraid if I poured water in her mouth while she was unconscious it would just cause her to drown. Plus, even I could tell that we desperately needed to get her temperature down. This room was cool, at least compared to outside, but it wasn''t cooling us off fast enough. After removing the last of her clothing, I had Cole help me to lift her up and lower her gently into the water. After several minutes of being submerged up to her neck, during which time I feared she had already passed on, she finally began to come to. Seeing this I offered her a now full waterskin which she eagerly took and began gulping down water. Once she''d had her fill, she returned the waterskin to me and began to look around. No doubt wondering where we were. The realization that she was now naked came as quite a shock. Once she realized we were the only ones in the room she soon calmed down though. Not that she was exactly comfortable being naked around us. It''s just that having grown up together she trusted us. Still after soaking for a while she was glad to be back in her cloths. The rest of us opted to just splash water on our faces. After that we decided to take a nice long rest. Normally It wasn''t a good idea to lower your guard inside a dungeon. We had all agreed however that if the dungeon wanted us dead, we wouldn''t still be here. We might have just barely qualified as wood rank but even we knew that most dungeons would begin sending stuff to attack you as soon as you entered. This one however was different. We knew it had monsters because we could hear one of them in the next room, but for some reason it wasn''t coming to attack us. Once we were all good and rested, we decided to see how far we could get. With any luck maybe one of the monsters will actually drop some food. Visitors Dungeon POV After designating the boss room, a huge stone door appeared on either entrance. Once a party entered the boss chamber retreat was no longer an option. It seems like this is just a normal dungeon thing since I didn''t need to use any rules to set it up. If that''s the case, then I''m sure nobody would try the boss unless they were certain they could win. As for the boss itself naturally I place down a single level 10 dire rat. This thing is absolutely massive, at least as far as rats go. It''s 120 cm from its nose to the tip of its tail. I also discovered, after placing another room to start one of the branching paths, that the core stays behind the boss chamber once one has been designated. This room I placed to the east of the room with three level 5 rats and a level 4 rat. I put four level 5 rats in it. The plan being to have every branching path continue the pattern established by the main path so delvers can''t use the enemy''s strength to figure out which way to go. I also planned to have every room that doesn''t contain four level 5 rats branch off into at least one other path. At least until I realized that would create an infinitely repeating pattern and the first floor would never actually be finished. So instead, I decided to Just have every room of the main branch split off into side branches. With a few additional side branches within side branches to keep them guessing. After filling the room with storage crates and a few scattered coins, I prepared to set down another room to start yet another branching path. All of a sudden, my controls were greyed out. It took less than a second to figure out the reason though as four people who looked to be barely conscious came stumbling in. And I do mean stumbling, as they all looked to be on the verge of collapse. They looked around cautiously for a second. I think even in that state they somehow knew they were in a dungeon. Their caution didn''t last long though as one of them, a mage of some kind if I had to guess, practically ran full speed towards the wash tub and began drinking. The mage was around 176 cm with what I would describe as a bean pole body shape. If he stood still, he could probably hide behind the staff he was carrying. Speaking of the staff I''d think it was just a stick if it wasn''t for the mana I can see coursing through it. On his head sat the curliest short blond hair I''d ever seen Another one, at the command of the person I''m guessing is their leader, placed an unconscious young lady gently on the ground and went over to begin filling several containers that the system helpfully recognized as waterskins. He was large compared to the others at around 207.5 cm tall, with a shoulder width of nearly 77 cm. From what I could tell he was all muscle to. The guy was a walking mountain of a man. The top of his head was completely bald. Whether that was a cultural thing, a religious thing, or a personal thing I don''t know. The sword he carried was as basic as a sword can get. Yet despite him most likely carrying it in one hand, on account of him also having a shield, it would likely be a two-handed weapon for almost anyone else. The shield itself seemed to be just a flimsy piece of metal in the basic shape of a shield. While he was busy with that the leader began removing the woman''s clothing. she was very short compared to the others at only 122 cm. Besides that, she looked as though she barely weighed 45kg soaking wet. With straight blond hair that goes down to the small of her back. I was a little worried about what he might be planning if I''m being honest. Thankfully though it seems like he just wanted to ensure as much of her skin had direct contact with the water as possible. I''m not entirely sure removing her cloths was necessary, but I also doubt he was thinking clearly at that time. He was after all just as bad off as the rest of them. The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. He was around 165 cm. He was muscular for his size sporting another basic sword. He didn''t have a shield but whether that was from him not wanting one or just not being able to get one I couldn''t say. They were all wearing the most basic of clothing without any armor to speak of, except for the big guy''s shield. Which is what leads me to believe he simply couldn''t afford even a basic shield. I could see the vitality of the entire party going up after they''d had a good drink and began to cool off. Well, perhaps see isn''t the right word but I don''t know really how else to describe it. The others didn''t seem to know the young lady was recovering until she suddenly, at least from their perspective, regained consciousness. After she came to though she was offered water which she gulped down in a very unladylike way. To be honest though I was just impressed she could hold the waterskin in her condition. Especially given how large it was in comparison to her. As her health improved even more, she began to look around. After a while she apparently noticed that she was naked because she began to panic and look around worriedly while attempting to cover herself. She calmed down not long after though. A few minutes after that she seemed to have come to a decision and just laid back in the water as if nothing had happened. No longer even bothering to cover herself. After what seemed like hours she got out and got dressed quickly. After that the others splashed water on their faces and began discussing what to do next. It seems like most dungeons attack you as soon as you enter so they decided it was safe enough as long as they stayed in the first room. I''m not sure how much of that was logical reasoning skills and how much was them being too tired to really think. Either way they''re right. As long as they aren''t jerks, I won''t attack anyone in the first room of any floor. I will need to look into what kind of dungeon rules I can set up to keep people from exploiting that though. For now, I also kind of need someone to playtest my design. Which is another reason I''m giving them all the time in the world to recover. They slept for nearly a full day before one of them began to stir. The first to awaken was the young lady who began to examine the rest of them. The method she is using to examine them leads me to believe she is a healer. The rest of them slowly begin to stir one by one. After a while they begin discussing their options. The option to leave rather than press their luck was proposed and quickly dismissed. They seemed to come to the decision that I was likely the only source of food for kilometers. As much as they seemed to hate the idea of delving an unfamiliar dungeon on an empty stomach, said empty stomach also didn''t seem to leave them any choice. As they entered what I consider the first true dungeon room the rat stationed there leapt from one of the storage crates and bit the leaders ear. It tore off a chunk of the man''s ear lobe causing a stream of blood to begin pouring down onto the man''s neck and shoulder before his pained flailing sent the rat flying. Shortly after it landed a sword thrust from the other guy severed its front half from its back half sending blood splattering everywhere. As soon as the attack happened the healer came forward with an extremely weak healing spell. Likely the only one she knew. While she was doing that the other two were keeping an eye out for any more nasty surprises. I''m willing to bet if a level 1 rat was able to get the drop on them, they must be close to level 1 themselves. After a while she managed to at least stop the bleeding. It was only then that they noticed a chunk of rat meat where the rat had been. As he reached for it the young mage also noticed the coin nearby. After pointing it out the rest of the party, I''ve played enough RPGs to recognize an adventuring party when I see one, began to notice several more. This along with the meat seemed to be all it took to encourage them to keep going. They did however proceed with much more caution. The First Delve Clyde POV That was a stupid mistake. I let the first room convince me that this dungeon didn''t want to hurt us. As a result, none of us really had our guard up. I paid for that mistake with a piece of my ear. Now though, we know that only the first room is safe. Still after finding all those coins and especially the meat, I want to try and get as far as we can. The others seem to agree with me. I think they''re just hoping to not have to share that little bit of meat. The coins are nice don''t get me wrong but for right now the real prize is the meat. We eventually manage to make our way into the next room. This time I''m ready for the sneak attack and manage to catch the little critter midair with my sword slicing it in two and getting a shower of blood and guts for my trouble. That''s when I hear Lily cry out in pain. Turning around I can already see Lily casting healing magic on a bite sized gash in her leg. What I don''t see is the rat that did it. I had thought keeping Lily in the back would keep her safe. I guess it depends on the situation. Mostly I guess it depends on our opponent''s ability to get behind us. I don''t even really need to order the others to fall back and protect Lily. I can already see Cole and Darrel both heading that way. We don''t have to wait long for the second rat to make another move. This time the target seems to be Darrel, but he manages to slap it away using a bit of conjured water. Right towards Cole who is all too happy to introduce the menace to the sharp end of his sword. After waiting around for a few minutes just in case this room had other surprises, we gather up the loot we had earned. Another chunk of rat meat thankfully and a piece of low-quality leather. If I remember correctly, I believe they said the quality of things like meat, leather, horns, and similar loot you get is determined by the level of the creature. Which would make sense. This is just the first floor after all. Speaking of which I silently wonder how many floors this dungeon has. Aside from that we also gained and additional six copper coins. Maybe if we make it back to civilization, we can afford some actual gear. Going into the next room we''ve started to learn the pattern. I hope anyway. We decided that Lily and Darrel should be in the middle of the group. Given our opponents are so small the middle of the group isn''t much safer. We''ll take what we can get though. Besides this way as long as we have our guard up at least me or Cole should be able to see the attack coming. Almost on cue a rat suddenly leaps down from up above. It would have landed in Lily''s hair if Cole hadn''t shoved her rather unceremoniously to the side while simultaneously thrusting upward with his sword completely bisecting the poor thing. Unfortunately, this momentary distraction allowed another rat to jump down and bite me on the shoulder. at the same time a third rat ran up and bite Cole on the back of the leg. They managed to scurry away for now. Next time they wouldn''t be so lucky. A few seconds later one of them darted out from behind one of the supply crates but I managed to catch it just in time. The third rat jumped towards Darrel but was met by Cole''s blade instead. By now I was pretty sure based on the previous rooms that this room only had the three rats. I wasn''t going to take any chances though, so we still waited a minute before we began to collect our loot for this room. This time we got two chunks of meat and a piece of leather. That was great news as it meant we wouldn''t need to share. We also got another eight copper coins. If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. Before heading into the next room, we rested for a bit. This was mainly to give Lily time to heal all of our wounds as best she could. Being the leader, I insisted on being healed last. As we sat there Darrel suddenly asked, "so how old do you think this dungeon is?" "Hard to say." I responded. "Nobody has even tried to cross the sand sea in decades. It certainly shows signs of at least some level of intelligence." "What do you mean?" asked Cole. "Well," I replied holding up a coin, "This coin is clearly an attempt to lure delvers. There is also the water in the first room, and the fact that the first room has no monsters. This would indicate that it knows where it is, or at the very least understands it''s in a place delver don''t usually go." "Probably the only reason it doesn''t have more to throw at us is precisely because of the lack of delvers." Lily added, having finished the last of the healing treatments. With the treatments finished we headed into the next room. "Remember, this room likely has four rats." I reminded just as a rat leaped towards my face. I managed to get my sword up in time and was rewarded with rat guts spraying me in the face. At the same time Cole managed to thwart a sneak attack from behind, while Darrel swatted another one away with some more conjured water. Lily wasn''t so lucky though and received a nasty bite on her butt. The fabric of her clothing likely negated at least some of the damage. Still, I can''t imagine that felt very good. The other two rats seemed to sense weakness because this time they both targeted Lily at the same time. Between me and Cole they didn''t get very far, however. After that we pretty much had the pattern down, so we collected the loot while Lily tended to her wounds. We managed to get four more chunks of rat meat this time along with another eight coins. This was better than we could have hoped for. We now had enough food to actually get full. At the very least enough to stop being hungry anyway. I''m tempted to start a campfire right here and begin cooking the meat. I decide to at least wait until we are back in the first room though. For now, I decide that we should carry on. At least one more room. Then I''ll check to see how everyone is doing. While I do care about their safety I also want to get as far as we can. I also trust them to speak up if there''s a problem. The attack in this room is almost identical to the previous room. This time though Cole simply blocks the rat aimed at him while swinging at the one going after Lily. The one attacking me seem to be a higher level. It manages to dodge my first swing forcing me to sidestep its lunging attack and catch it midair where it couldn''t dodge. After that the other two were quickly dealt with. We all waited nervously for the fifth rat to appear. Eventually we decided that there wasn''t a fifth rat and went around collecting the loot. The loot this time consisted of four pieces of leather and another nine coins. By the next room we again had the pattern down, or so we thought. Once again, the rat dodged my first attack forcing me to sidestep and catch it as it lunged. Unfortunately, one of the other rats after being blocked by Cole turned and bit him in the back of the leg before scurrying away. The next attack I managed to catch one leaping right at me while Cole missed the one scurrying towards him. This caused him to take a step back bumping into Darrel. In the confusion that followed Cole was rewarded with a bite on his other leg. A few minutes later it came running towards Lily. This time we were all ready for it. Darrel used water magic to slow its movement while I stepped up and finished it off. We were rewarded with four more pieces of leather and seven more coins. As we rested, I was about to suggest we end the delve when I was suddenly interrupted by Lily celebrating. "I finally reached level 2!" She exclaimed excitedly. "I knew I was close since I had been using restoration to keep everyone going during the walk here." she explained as if that was the most common thing in the world. Suddenly something just clicked, and I realized that it was mana depletion that caused her to pass out. I didn''t say anything though so as not to ruin her celebration. After she finished healing Cole, we discussed the situation and decided it was best to end this delve here. Her mana was starting to run low from the constant healing. Not to mention the fact that her mana reserves still hadn''t fully recovered yet. I made sure to grab a few of the empty supply crates on the way back to the first room. We needed something to act as firewood after all. After The First Delve That was ... actually quite informative. For one thing I need to figure out how to get the rats to change up their attacks. They were getting very repetitive towards the end. I also learned that there is apparently much more of a gap between level 1 and level 2 than I would have though. Since the level 2 rats were actually able to dodge at least the first attack. I also felt that I gained about ten times the mana I spent on things when they killed or harvested them. I wouldn''t normally think of picking up a coin as ''harvesting'' it. I''m certainly not going to argue with the ten mana I get for each one they pick up though. After all that is the equivalent of one world energy. I didn''t get anything when the healer, Lily apparently, leveled up. It makes sense though because I already benefit from her being able to go deeper next time and kill or harvest even more. I am glad they were able to leave with full bellies and a large amount of water. I do hope they are able to come back. For now, it takes me several minutes to go through and replace everything. Fortunately, one of a dungeon''s innate skills is to eat anything that doesn''t belong. So, I didn''t really need to do anything to purify the water. After that I convert the mana I now have into 170 world energy. This time though before building some more I open the rules section of the world energy catalog. It turns out there are a lot of rules dungeons can have. It seems as though there are rules for literally everything. The one I''m interested in is the rule to automatically reset the floor to the way it was, assuming there is enough mana, after all delvers have left. Though with me getting ten times the mana I paid for everything why would there ever be a case where I don''t have enough mana. This one rule costs 50 world energy, but I think it''s well worth it to not have to manually reset every time. That leaves me with 120 world energy which I spend on 12 more rooms. I do plan to add a second floor at some point, but I want to make sure my first floor is set up exactly how I want it first. Only then will I be able to move on to the second floor. As for where to put the rooms. One of them goes on the north side of the room with the two level 4 and two level 5 rats. With another room going to the east of that one. I use one mana to create a hallway to connect this room to the room that already exists nearby. Only now do I see the option to not allow rooms to automatically connect to other nearby rooms. After taking a moment to think I decide to turn the option on. I did actually want to create a maze after all. I don''t add more connects the rooms I already placed because that would ruin the difficulty progression. For a moment I toy with the idea of searching for a rule that would randomize the location of the hallways while maintaining the difficulty curve. Only for a moment though. This is the first floor so I shouldn''t do anything too crazy. I do make a mental note to save that idea for later though. This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. As for the ten remaining rooms I use three of them to place a row of rooms starting at the unused wall in the room with the three level 4''s rats and one level 5 rat. Then I put four rooms in a row to the south of the room with the four level 4 rats. I also decide to allow them to automatically connect where they can. I now have three rooms left but I decide to wait until I can afford a few more rooms before continuing. For now, I spend a little time rearranging a few of the storage crates. I also add a bunch of storage crates to the rooms I just added. Then I add in the rats according to the previously established pattern. I also spend a bit of mana to add a few candles here and there. I even go back through previous rooms and make sure there is no more than five coins in each room. I don''t want to completely destabilize the economy after all. Eventually I''d like to get a rule that randomizes the number of coins in each room. Doing it manually it will never be truly random. Now all I can do is slowly wait for my mana to build up again. Hopefully that party survives and tells other people about me so that I can start getting a steady stream of delvers. Until then It''s back to the slow and steady climb up the world energy ladder. The fact that it takes a little over two full days to gather enough mana to exchange for just 3 world energy doesn''t help. Although I guess I should be thankful that I''m able to passively gather mana like this at all. It takes me another 49 days to gather enough mana to exchange for 70 world energy. This in turn allows me to finally get seven other rooms and add onto my first floor. This in turn lets me place five rooms in a row starting on the north end of the room with the three level 4 rats and one level 3 rat. After that I add in the storage crates. I then take a few minutes to add in the rats and coins according to the pattern I set earlier. That still leaves me with two more rooms to work with. This time I place them at the west and south side of the entryway respectively. I also take a few extra minutes to make sure they are identical to the first room I ever placed, at least from the perspective of someone standing in the entryway. The main reason being that I want people to understand that the room layout isn''t as straight forward as other dungeons might be. Not that I have any idea how other dungeon operate. I''m just assuming that most dungeons rush to get deeper as soon as possible since I technically only needed 10 small rooms and a boss chamber to unlock the chance to buy a second floor. Just as I''m starting to wonder how many years it''s going to take for me to actually finish the first floor to the point where I''m satisfied with it, my controls get greyed out again. This time I immediately understand what that means. Inspection It''s that first party again. They''re looking a bit better than the last time I saw them. For one thing the mage and healer have proper robes now. They''re still very basic but at least it''s something. The tank has a helmet which is little more than a metal bucket but at least it''s something. The leader also has a pair of leather arm guards. Thinking back, I guess they really didn''t go that deep last time they were here. It''s nice that they could all get at least one piece of proper equipment like they were wanting. This time they seem to have someone else with them though. He is a much higher level than the others. Not quite as short as the healer at 154 cm but much stockier. Despite this he walks with a sense of confidence that I''m inclined to believe he can back up. They never gave me the sense of powerlessness that this guy gives me. Oddly I don''t feel any sense of malice or threat from him. Still, I get the feeling he could walk through the dungeon like he owned the place if he wanted. He''s also much better equipped than the others, with a full set of leather armor and a pair of hand axes. I quickly settled in to listen as they began to talk amongst themselves. "You''re right" the newcomer said "It''s odd that it hasn''t attack us yet, but more than that it seems to be welcoming" he says while gesturing towards the wash tub. "Not just the fact that it keeps water at the entrance with no monsters to guard it, but the fact that water seems to be the first affinity it acquired. We aren''t sure how the process works exactly but what we do know is that most dungeons acquire earth or wood affinity first. With some never bothering to pick up water affinity until they already have several floors." "What does that mean for us?" asks the leader obviously trying to get to the point. The new guy just chuckles a bit and remarks "since I can confirm that this dungeon does exist and there is no prior record of any dungeon existing in this spot before ownership of it defaults to you as the leader of the party that found it." "Fat lot of good that does us. I doubt many will risk dying to the desert for a chance to fight in a dungeon." retorts the tank matter-of-factly. "Well, that''s up to you, but personally with the resources of an entire dungeon behind you I don''t think it will be too hard to figure something out." the stranger says with a smile. "If you manage to reach the core you can communicate with it by placing your hands directly on the core. If you''re lucky it may even bond with you allowing you to talk to it from anywhere as well as pull up a list of general stats." "Is that safe?" asks the healer. This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version. "It depends on the dungeon." he answers almost as if he expected the question. He then continues to explain "dungeons that are very young are more like wild animals lash out at anything that moves and acting on pure instinct. This dungeon though, does show signs of at least limited consciousness. How aware it is we likely won''t know until you can actually speak to it but it''s clearly no longer running on pure instinct." "Now if you don''t mind let''s get this delve started. I need to see the dungeon in action and record its temperament as best I can. This includes recording how it responds to delvers and the general layout of the rooms. Speaking of which" he pauses for a moment. "Let me know if you notice any changes since your first visit." "There are more rooms now!" they all say in unison. After that the leader speaks up for the group. "Ya, first time we were here there was just the one path" he says pointing to the path they took the first time. "Well let''s start with the new rooms then" he says while walking towards one of the other rooms. After clearing those two rooms and pocketing the loot the rest of the delve goes about the same as it did last time. The rats were more random in their attacks but there''s really only so much randomness you can add to such encounters. They did manage to make it all the way to the first level four rat before turning around this time. Likely the result of not being hungry combined with the new equipment. They were disappointed that I lowered the number of coins in each room. Something they were quick to point out to the new guy who for whatever reason never so much as unsheathed his axes the entire time. A little insulting honestly! I mean I get that he''s strong, but he could at least pretend to struggle. To be fair though, I guess he did say he was only here to observe. As they walked back to the entryway, they continued to discuss me. "I need to return to the guild hall and file my report. After that it''s up to you as the owner of this dungeon how much if any information is released." He explained with a rather bored expression. After they refilled their waterskins and left I watched as the first floor was instantly reset by the rule that I purchased earlier. I might want to set a timer on that to keep people from just spamming the first few rooms. That ironically requires its own dungeon rule though. As I check over what I actually got from that delve I already know how I''m going to spend it. First off, I start by converting the mana I have now into 202 world energy. After which I buy 20 rooms. Before continuing to fill out the first floor though I think it''s time to fill out the entryway a bit more. Literally the only thing in it right now is the Wash tub. Time to change that and hopefully make it feel a bit more lived in. I am going for an abandoned bandit camp kind of feel after all. Bandits would have had people stationed at the door to this hideout would they not. Redecorating The first thing I do is move the tub full of water to one of the corners. Not completely flush with the wall but close enough to where it''s no longer the focal point of the room. In the middle I set a series of six small tables. I plan to meld them together into a single table once I gain wood affinity but for now it''ll have to do. Then I set a series of chairs down facing all different direction with some even knocked over. On the table itself I place a few dozen scrolls. They are placed in such a way as to give the appearance of a meeting having been suddenly interrupted. Adding to the effect created by the chairs appearing as if their occupants left suddenly. On the scrolls themselves I plan to add cryptic hints about the dangers that lurk further in. Most of them are blank for now however as I only have the one floor and I don''t want to commit to anything having to do with other floors this early on. On one scroll I do make references to a rat king that is much larger than the normal rats that inhabit the rooms. Speaking of my rat boss I thought about adding rat minions into the boss encounter but jumping from level 5 to level 10 is already a big leap so I''m waiting to see how he does on his own. I still want the fight to be fair after all. As for the rest of the room I place a couple of beds. I would add more but the room is already starting to get cramped. Besides, it''s not like the bandits would all be sleeping at the same time. Now for the rooms I purchased. First, I place six in a line off the north wall of the room with the two level 3 rats and two level 4 rats. This time I did not allow them to connect to nearby rooms. Then I placed another seven rooms off the south wall of the room with the three level 3''s and one level 4 rat. The first five being in a straight line then the last two are in a line that goes east from that fifth room. Once again not allowing them to connect to the nearby rooms. The reason for the sudden turn being to keep them on their toes. That leaves seven rooms. With these I decide to expand the starting area. The more they kill the more world energy I get, which in turn means I can finish the floor faster. Honestly, I would have done this sooner, but I wanted to make the path to the boss much less straight forward. At any rate I use three of the rooms in a straight line off the west wall of the rooms to the west of the entryway and three more rooms in a straight line off the south wall of the room to the south of the entryway. This gives newbie little adventurers a total of 18 more level 1 rats they can fight. It also gives me a potential 18 more world energy plus the world energy from the coins each delve. I decide to just keep that last room in my inventory for now. Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author. After that I go about filling the various rooms with rats, coins and supply crates. I also take some time to rearranging a few of the supply crates to make the hallways that were formed accessible. Although the idea of hidden hallways is something I might play with later. Maybe I''ll even have entire secret areas. I miss the delvers already, more to the point I miss the world energy they gave me. I keep reminding myself that it''s only slow right now because nobody knows about me. One thing that worries me a little is the possibility that Clyde, yes, I did learn all their names while they were delving, decides to keep me all to himself. While the occasional delve is better than none at all I''d still like the delves to be a bit more frequent. That thought only worries me a little though because of what that one guy who is the uh ¡­ Dungeon inspector apparently? Or maybe his job is just confirming that the dungeon exists, I guess I''ll find out at some point. Anyway, like he said it would be silly for him to find a gold mine like me and not use it. Surprisingly this time it takes less than a month for them to return. Just like the time before it seems like they managed to acquire some better gear. I for one certainly hope they can make it further this time. After all, the further they make it the better it is for me. I was only able to save up 40 world energy these past 28 days. With them here though I have a feeling my total world energy is about to skyrocket. I watch as they look around in awe at the changes I''ve made. Listening to them talk amongst themselves it''s my turn to be surprised. Apparently, they brought enough supplies to stay here at least overnight. Maybe I should have added two more beds, though I really don''t know where I''d put them. It seems that they weren''t happy with only being able to delve once every month or two. It also seems that he wants to reach my core before revealing my existence to others. At their level though I fear that could take a while even if I intentionally hold off on adding a second floor. They''re barely making it to the level 3 rats and there are two more levels after that even if they go the right way. That''s not even mentioning the boss which they are not even close to being ready for. At any rate it looks like the question of my world energy has been solved, at least for the time being. Finishing The First Floor Clyde POV Immediately upon entering the dungeon it''s clear that it has not been idle. Again, it shows signs of at least some intelligence. Honestly If I didn''t know better, I''d think some other group found the dungeon. However, dungeons tend to dispose of anything that doesn''t belong as soon as you leave. That''s why one of the first things you''re taught about dungeons is to never set anything down and walk away lest you forget to pick it back up. They could be deeper in but that doesn''t make any sense though because listening closely I can still hear the lone rat scurrying around in each of the three rooms that branch off from this one. After allowing everyone a few minutes to look around I quickly gather their attention. "Alright listen" I begin "we only have enough rations to stay here one night. We might be able to stay here longer depending on the loot drops we get. That said based on the previous two delves it seems like only the level 1 rats have a chance to drop meat meaning that what rations we do get from loot are going to be extremely low quality." Everyone nods in agreement remembering how bad the rat meat was. I mean it was still food and likely did save our lives but still. I continue by revealing that I''m close to reaching level 2 and guessing the others are as well, which they say they are. Well except Lily who is already at level 2. We all agree that we will do our best to reach level 3 before leaving. "Remember everyone, according to the guild, the level cap for creatures on first floors is always 5. So, we likely haven''t even gotten close to the core yet." I say as we prepare to enter one of the newer rooms. "Are you really planning to try talking to the core" Lily asks after clearing the first room. "Well ya" I respond. "Dungeons are supposed to be living being." "Well technically the core is alive, everything else is just the shell it builds to feed and protect itself." "Ya I get that" she says trying to look stern. "But most dungeons have at least 50 floors before they''re capable of even the most basic dialog." After clearing another room and giving myself a minute to think I decide to just be honest. "I feel like this dungeon is older than it looks. Most dungeons begin to get a steady stream of delvers as soon as they are formed. This dungeon is so isolated though it could have been here for years possibly decades without anyone knowing. Hell, our second trip here it took us almost a day to find it and we already knew it was here. On top of that there is absolutely no research on how fast dungeons can develop without delvers. The point being I think this dungeon despite only having one floor may be smarter than dungeons with 50+ floors." "I feel like I should mention" Cole cuts in. "The idea that this dungeon only has one floor is still just an assumption until we actually reach the core." "Either way I''d like to reach the core and if possible, establish a bond with it before a stream of delvers start coming through" I say to answer the question that was on everyone''s mind. Dungeon POV I can already see remarkable improvement. They may still be level 1, mostly, but these are not the rookies that stumbled into my entrance so long ago. The fact that they have at least some decent equipment helps, I''m sure. They manage to complete two delves before nightfall. The first time they stayed outside for nearly an hour before coming back in for another delve. I guess to give me time to reset everything and expand. Although I''ve already decided to wait until they leave for good to expand. That way I can work in piece without worrying about my controls greying out when I''m in the middle of something. After the second delve though they stayed in the entryway for the rest of the night. Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation. Cole opts to sleep on the floor since he claims the bed is too small for him anyway. He''s not wrong honestly. Darrel takes one of the beds while Lily and Clyde share the other. They''re a couple apparently. I never would have guessed. At any rate they manage to complete another eight delves over the next two days. They manage to reach level 2 after only a few delves and by the end they are all level 3. Lily just gains general improvements to her healing and restoration spells. Darrel learns Ice missile. Cole learns the taunt skill. Clyde doesn''t seem to gain any skills or spells at least I haven''t heard him activate any yet. They may just be passive buffs though. The only thing checking their stats shows me is their level, how much health/mana they have left and any active buffs/debuffs. Passive buffs are invisible to me at the moment. As far as other skills I can only see them when they are used. The last two delves they even managed a full clear, except for the boss room. Now they are gone and it''s time to get to work. Counting up everything, including the water that was drank or collected in waterskins I gained enough mana to trade for 1988 world energy. I say drank or collected because apparently bathing in it doesn''t count as harvesting it. Disappointing but adding what I just got to what I already had that''s still 2030 world energy. I''m almost giddy with excitement as I begin to place down more rooms. Eight rooms branch off from the room with the four level 3 rats, with six of them going south in a straight line before I place the other two east of that last room. nine would extend north of the room with the three level 3''s and a level 2. With the first seven heading straight north and the last two going straight east of that seven room. I repeat this pattern for the room with the two level 3''s and two level 2 except the rooms go off to the east starting at the eighth room. Starting at the room with the three level 2 rats and one level 3 rat the rooms go straight south with the last four going off to the east instead of the last two. I Continue that pattern for the next three branching paths. Although in the case of the latter two the rooms went north initially instead of south. Starting in the room with the three level 1 rats and a level two rat I create A line of rooms going south nine rooms then turning and going east six rooms starting at the ninth room. for the rooms with just four level 1''s and three level 1''s respectively I just went straight south with the extra rooms, ironically to change things up a bit. For the room with just two level 1 rats, I decided to mix things up completely and have the rooms start from the eastern wall and go east, north, west, north, east, north and so on until we got enough rooms to place four level 5 rats following the established pattern. For the room with just the single level one rat I made a branching path that went north ten rooms west one room then south eight rooms. As for the two side paths that branched off directly from the entry way, I didn''t plan to do too much with them. It was just the first floor after all. I did however have the side branch that started along the west wall continue west another three rooms then north with the last room to the east that way delvers won''t see it unless they go all the way down that hall of rooms. I plan to add a treasure chest there later but for now I need to wait for my mana to build back up so I can exchange it for more world energy. Until then it''s back to placing rooms. Now I add my first side branch of a side branch starting from the west side branch. At the room with the two level 3 rats and the two level 4 rats I create a line of five rooms to the east. As for the path leading south from the entryway, I continue it south four another eight rooms. Then I set three rooms to the west and another five rooms to the north. For the finishing touch I placed three rooms to the east of the room with the three level 4 rats and one level 5 rat with two being in a straight line and the third facing north from the second room. The last two I place to the west of the room with the two level 4 and two level 5 rats. With that the first floor is officially done. I''ll probably do a bit of fine tuning and redecorating once I get more experienced at running a dungeon and get more things from the shop, but as far as rooms it''s as complete as I plan to make it. Big Plans I''m now ready to create my second floor. In spite of that I still hold off for a while. That one party seems to be the only ones who know about my existence, and they don''t seem to want to harm me. Sure, someone else might stumble in but anyone who can make it past the boss isn''t likely to be stopped by anything I put on the 2nd floor. I do plan to add traps to the second floor. Since it will the first set of traps in the dungeon though, I plan to make them easy enough to spot if you''re paying attention. Another reason I''m putting off buying a second floor is so I can hopefully buy a few more interesting things from the shop. I have a general idea of what I want the second floor to be, but more options can''t hurt. The main reason I''m putting off my second floor though is because I kinda do want to form a bond with the leader of that party. It''s boring having nobody to talk to but myself. Plus, the way that inspector person talked the bond must be accepted by both parties so I can back out if I decide not to go through with it. At least until after the bond is established anyway. Fortunately, it only takes about 30 days for them to return this time. If they do like last time, I should have a bunch of world energy to add to the 43 I got while waiting for them to return. This time they are wearing full sets of gear. Well except for Lily who looks the same as last time. Strange. mean I get that she''s the healer, but she should still have some means of self-defense for emergencies. Darrel on the other hand has a fancy new staff but that''s about it. Cole for his part is actually starting to look the part of a tank inside his heavy iron armor. He even has a proper shield this time as well. His sword while not new does appear to have at least been repaired and sharpened. Then again maybe it is new and just identical to the old one. As for Clyde he seems to have gone for a mix of protection and maneuverability with light iron armor. Still no mana or health potions so either they don''t exist, unlikely since one of my theme options is potion crafter, or they are super expensive in this world. Once again, they stay here for two nights. They manage six full clear runs in that time. Despite that they only manage to go up one more level to level 4. The thing is now that they know where the boss chamber is once they do reach level 5 will they just go straight for it. Not that it matters now because I''ll probably have to wait another 30 days or so for them to return. In the meantime, I have 303 world energy burning a hole in my metaphorical pocket. This means that there are a lot of options in the shop suddenly. First, I decide to try something I''ve actually been thinking about for a while. See there has to be a reason rooms are in their own category despite there only being the one option. So, I go ahead and spend 20 world energy to buy two rooms. Now I focus on trying to connect them together in my inventory. To my utter astonishment not only did it work but they actually snapped together like two magnets and fused into a single room. Not only that but the rooms category now has 10x5x5 rooms available for purchase directly at 20 world energy each. Buying one I try to connect the two together and I''m rewarded with a 10x10x5 rooms for 40 world energy in the shop. Again, I buy one but this time I try placing it on top of the other one. This time what I get is a 10x10x10 room that costs a whooping 80 world energy. Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings. I decide to stop with the experimenting for now as there doesn''t seem to be an upper limit and I don''t want to use up all my world energy on this. Next up it''s time to take a look at the plants category. Most of the plant options are still greyed out, but I think I know why. Comparing the ones that aren''t greyed out with the ones that are it seems they probably need to be planted in something. The reason they''re greyed out is because I don''t have access to anything they can be planted in. This causes me to skip down to the skills section. I had been planning to pick up earth eventually anyway. Going back to the plant category it seems I was right. There are still a few plants that are greyed out, but I have a bunch more options now. The first thing I decide to pick is three different types of grass for one world energy each. After all, why not start with the basics. Then I buy four berry bushes for 5 world energy each. Of course, I go with the classic blue and black, but I also get some miracle and chokeberries as well cause I kind of like the name. Now it''s time to decide on some monsters for the second floor. I still plan to wait for Clyde''s party to reach my core but why put everything off till the last minute. So, for the monsters I decide to mix it up a little. The main enemy on this floor will be wolves which cost me 10 world energy for the blueprint. I also spend another 20 world energy for the dire wolf blueprint because I''ve already decided that will be the boss. I also spend 10 world energy each on fighter, archer, and rogue skeletons which are each equipped with their own class specific weapons and armor. I plan to also get the rest of the skeleton types at some point but for now I go ahead and pick up the ranch theme for 50 world energy as well. This is mainly so that I can add some none monster creatures to the floor. Although oddly none combat animals, or animals not meant as an encounter, are listed as ''resources''. I want to teach them that not everything they encounter will be hostile. Though that doesn''t mean the creatures won''t defend themselves or try to get away. As for why skeleton, I figure they can represent what became of the bandits. I am trying to craft a compelling story here after all. The second floor will be a significant step up in difficulty but not unreasonably so. I still need to buy some traps but by the time they clear the second floor they should understand that the tutorial is over. Boss Fight If it wasn''t for the fact that I don''t think that party leader will let news of my existence get out until he reaches my core, I would have already started my second floor by now. If I were somewhere with more traffic, it wouldn''t be an issue. As it is though if I ever want to have more than just his party delving me, I''m kinda at his mercy. A weird thought from any angle but there doesn''t seem to be anything I can do about it short of relying on the pure dumb luck of other people just finding me on their own. Not likely seeing as according to what I overheard so far, I''m in the middle of the largest desert on this planet. According to them it also takes just over "a third" (whatever that is) to reach me on sand striders. That''s if you know where you''re going. Obviously, they measure time differently than people back on earth. I dare not speculate on how differently though. The length of each day is the same at least. Or close enough if the amount of mana I get each day is any indication. That said it still takes them nearly a month earth time to return. Half that because they had to get wherever this other place was before starting to return. Then subtract a few more days because I doubt they headed back out right away. With all that I''m starting to get a general idea of how long a third is but I still dare not assume. As they begin their delve I can practically feel the excitement in the air. The level 1 rats are barely even a speed bump anymore. After two complete full clears they are all at level 4 now. The last to level up was Darrel since there isn''t really a chance to use his water magic. After another four delves their still hadn''t been another level up among them. Normally this would be when they made plans to return to wherever they went when they weren''t here. From listening to their conversations though it was clear they didn''t plan to leave until defeating the boss. It took another two delves before they started reaching level 5 and another two delves before the last among them finally levelled up. After that they took longer than normal preparing for the next delve. In fact, as they reentered the dungeon, I learned that they had decided to skip the evening delve so they could be well rested for the boss fight tomorrow. The next days delve was different from the beginning. For starters they didn''t do a full clear like normal. Instead, they headed straight for the boss room. If it was me, I would have gotten at least one more level before attempting to fight an unknown boss, but realistically I only need one of them alive. Still, I''d rather not have them shatter the core ''me'' out of grief fueled anger. As they enter the boss chamber though I can see that they are all shocked by the size of the boss. Clyde POV I''m not sure what I was expecting but a rat the size of Lily is not it. "Stay behind me Lil" I shout while moving to keep myself between her and it. "And here I was gonna walk up and say hi" she retorts sarcastically. "I''m serious" I say. "This things as big as you are." "I''m aware of that" she says as the giant rat starts to charge. Fortunately, Cole had been doing his tanky duty of getting and keeping its attention. It was faster than any of us were expecting which made us finally start taking the fight seriously. As it struck Cole''s shield with enough force to cause him to take a few steps backward to regain his balance we suddenly remember how big the gap was between levels 5 and 10. Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. It used its superior speed to run around behind Cole. Jumping up on his back it started clawing and biting. Thank the gods he was wearing full plate armor. Fortunately, Darrel didn''t waste any time sending a few ice missiles at the giant rat. This did seem to hurt it causing it to let go of Cole. Unfortunately, its new target was Darrel who was much less protected. I Tried to get between them, but I wasn''t fast enough. He was able to adjust his body just in time so that it bites his shoulder instead of his neck. The momentum sending them both tumbling to the ground. The sheer amount of blood is alarming and I''m pretty sure I can see bone. The Thing released his shoulder, and I could already see it was about to try going for his neck again. However, I arrived just in time to force it to dodge instead. Lily despite her earlier sass stayed as close to my back as she could without hindering my movement. Once Cole managed to get its attention, she Immediately began healing Darrel. I was now torn. Do I go help Cole or stay and protect these two. On the one hand the plate armor Cole is wearing is just wood rank. Meaning that it''s very mundane, without even the simplest enchantment. On the other hand, the two beside me don''t have the luxury of armor at all. Sure, their robes offer some protection but nothing like actual armor. This is made all the more apparent buy the wound in Darrel''s shoulder. I decide to stay put. Waiting for Darrel to be healed enough to at least get back in the fight. It only takes a moment but, in that time, I am treated to a show of Cole desperately trying to fend of the giant rat by himself. At least he isn''t letting the thing get behind him anymore. It''s lightning quick speed no longer a surprise. This time I stay by Darrel so I can hopefully intercept the rat When it changes Targets again. This time Darrel takes his time I can see him working on something big. Just as the rat lunges at Cole yet again Darrel releases not one but five ice missiles all at once. Being in midair the giant rat has no chance to dodge and is pierced in several places. Despite the fact that it''s now losing blood that last attack seems to have just pissed it off. It once again changes its target. I''m not sure how it knows that Darrel was the one who attacked it, but it definitely knows. Fortunately, I am able to intercept it. At least long enough for Cole to run up behind it. All it cost me was my dignity as the momentum from the giant rat''s charge sends me flying backward almost a full meter. It gets ready to charge at me again when a barrage of ice missiles causes it to leap upward to dodge them. It just so happened that this put it within striking distance of Cole with no ability to dodge. Surprisingly the thing tries to get back up even after it was sent flying by that blow and now has a huge gash in its side. The amount of blood lose has caught up with it though and it soon collapses. Unfortunately, this boss doesn''t seem to have any boss loot. At least we''re all alive and more or less ok. As I look around it''s obvious that nobody is in any real shape to continue. Darrel''s shoulder needs to be looked at by someone with more healing magic than what Lily can offer. She tried her best, but her level is just too low. She was able to stop the bleeding at least. Cole is definitely going to need to get his armor repaired. Aside from that I can already feel bruises forming from just tanking a single charge from the giant rat. I shudder to think how Cole looks under that armor having tanked many charges. Sure, that''s his job but that rat was also twice his level and as big as a person. As the doors to the boss chamber open, we''re all relieved to see the core sitting in the next room. The Bond Dungeon POV Watching that fight provided a lot of useful information. For instance, I think I will add two level 5 rats. The boss fight seemed a bit too easy. Despite the fact that Lily, their healer, was the only one to come out of it unscathed none of them were seriously injured. The level gap was substantial, but it was also just a single enemy with no actual skills. All that can wait though as I can see the party approaching my core and start to panic in spite of myself. Dungeons it would seem have a strong Instinctual aversion to anything getting close to their core. I still don''t think they''ll hurt me but it''s also too late to do anything about it if they do. As the party leader reaches out to touch the core, I can feel our minds connect. Judging by the look on his face he feels it as well. "Hello dungeon" he says the same way you''d say hello to a stray cat. Clearly not really expecting me to be able to hold a conversation. For a fraction of a second I consider not responding at all. That would defeat the purpose of waiting for them to reach this point though, so I eventually do respond. "Hello Clyde, took Your Sweet Time Getting here I see." "Wait you know me?" he asks a little taken aback. "Of course, I know you" I respond, a little more dismissively than I actually intended. "You''re the only visitors I''ve had. Watching you delve has been quite entertaining." "I''m sure it is" he says hesitantly clearly not expecting that response. "You have no idea how boring it is to be alone with your own thoughts for years" I say taking advantage of the fact that they thought I might be way older than I actually am. "That certainly doesn''t sound like fun" he says. I can sense him trying to work out how he would have dealt with that and clearly not liking the results. "Watching your party come here once a month to delve is the only entertainment I get" I say doubling down on the guilt trip. I know it''s a dirty tactic, but this is a negotiation. Even if I''m the only one who realizes that. "That''s actually why I''m here" he says practically pouncing on the bait. "I''d like to form a bond with you if you''ll allow it." "A bond" I say questioningly while pretending to just now be considering the possibility. "What would I have to give up" I quickly add accusingly. "Nothing at all" he interjects. "In fact, you''d actually gain from it" he adds. This having the intended result of putting him in a position of trying to placate me. Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation. If he actually thought for a moment, he''d realize that I hear everything that happens inside the dungeon. How else would I know his name after all. So, I most likely heard his conversation with the inspector. I don''t give him that moment, however. Taking this opportunity, I send a small piece of my mind through the connect made by his direct contact with my core. He is startled for a moment. Soon enough though, he seems to realize what is happening and relaxes allowing that tiny piece of my mind to enter his, and just like that the connection is made. The bond in question is rather simple. It takes us both a few minutes to fully adjust to him having a tiny piece of my consciousness inside his mind. Due to that small bit of my consciousness inside his mind I now know everything he knows. I can''t directly control him. At the same time, he can''t lie to me anymore no matter how much he might want to. He could have limited how much of his mind I had access to. He could have even tried to gain access to my mind. I played my part well though and he was so busy feeling sorry for me that he didn''t do either of those things. I''m not proud of such a dirty trick. If he actually tried however, and his will was strong enough, he could have subjugated me. Forcing me to build the dungeon how he wanted. After a few minutes we decide to test the bond. He lets go of my core and we are still able to communicate. After that I can feel him trying to end our mental communication. I stop actively sending out telepathic messages at that time. Allowing him to believe he was successful. Soon they are making their way back through the boss chamber and heading for the surface. Now that that''s done, I''m ready to get started on the second floor. I have to admit though it was rather comical looking at the faces of the other party members. They were only able to hear Clyde and so could only imagine the other half of the conversation. I also have a lot of world energy to spend thanks to the last few days. After they leave, I go ahead and spend a single world energy to purchase a second floor. I can''t help but thank that it seems a little cheap but hey I''m not going to question it. What surprises me more than the price is what happens after I buy the second floor.
Congratulations To The Host For Acquiring A Second Floor Portals Now Available
New Category Now Available, Loot
Ability to Adjust Blueprints Now Available
Monster Skills Now Available For Purchase
It would seem the first floor was a sort of test for new dungeons. At least that''s how I interpret all this new stuff that didn''t even show up as one of the locked options finally becoming available. That certainly changes some things. While I don''t plan to let anyone who has beaten a boss skip that floor in the future, at least not right now. I do plan to make it so they can return to the surface without having to backtrack through previous floors. Mainly because the sooner they leave the sooner I can actually use the mana they gave me. It''s the last two unlocks that I''m most excited about though. Work On The Second Floor Officially Begins First things first. It''s time to lay out a few rooms. Right now, the only room on the second floor is the core room, and that simply will not do. The first room I place is a small room to act as the entryway. I thought about using the larger 80 world energy room, but I don''t want to spoil them. Although once I start making rooms so massive that they make that room seem small I might start using it as the entryway. That will be well into the future though as a 20x20x20 room will cost 640 world energy. The price of even larger rooms increases exponentially. My guess is that it''s to prevent dungeons from making floors so large they''re unwinnable. Either way I seem to have let my mind wonder a bit. Returning to what I was actually doing. Inside the second-floor entryway I set a portal and connect it to the dungeon''s main entrance portal. This way anyone attempting to return to the first floor will instead find themselves outside the dungeon. This will help them leave but it will also prevent boss camping. Speaking of bosses, the delvers did seem rather disappointed to not get any boss loot. Perhaps I should take a minute to adjust the first floor now that I have actual loot to give that doesn''t require purchasing a corresponding theme. Taking a break from the second floor I spend a few hundred world energy buying basic wooden chests and some extremely low-quality wood rank gear. I also splurge on a rule that is basically an add on to the first rule I bought. What this rule does is basically, before the floor resets, it checks to see if any of the chests are empty. If they are it replaces the loot that is in them with a random assortment of loot. I also buy a basic health potion and give it a 5% chance of appearing in one of the chests. Then I place chests in each of the dead ends. Hopefully encouraging delvers to do a full clear. I also change the boss to drop high quality dire rat leather. Back on the second floor I decide to leave the entryway barren. Anyone who can make it this far is obviously not simple. They don''t need me to hold their hand. I do put a light crystal on the ceiling. 100 mana simply isn''t as big a deal as it used to be. Across from the second-floor entrance I put the new 10x10x10 room. I make sure to raise the exit of the hall connecting it by 30 cm so that I can place I layer of soil on the ground. I plan to add soil to most rooms from now on. Inside this room I place two level 5 wolves. Besides that, I also place blueberry bushes for them to hide in. The bushes will also act as bonus loot for them and will hopefully distract new or inexperienced delvers. I personally doubt that anyone who makes it past the first floor would let their guard down that easily but any who do kind of deserve their fate for being so careless in a dungeon. The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. Directly on the other side of that I place another large room. In one side of this room, I place the abandoned cabin that I got from the first theme I ever bought. In this room I also place four level 5 skeletons. Somewhat sticking with the theme from the first floor I disguise them as dead bandits making one a fighter, two of them rogues, and one an archer. This will also be a hard stop for a lot of delvers as this may be their first time dealing with ranged attacks. I also give them class specific armor and weapons, as well as basic skills with said weapons. I don''t go too hard on the skills, but I do give each of them an active skill they can use once per fight. These skills basically just amount to the weapons hitting harder or with more penetration. Along with that I also add a small chance to drop one random piece of gear they are equipped with. As for their placement I put the fighter right out front and center. One of the rogues and the archer will be stationed in the abandoned cabin. the other rogue will be stationed at the other side of the room. The two in the cabin will wait for the party to be distracted before coming out, hopefully catching them off guard. I also place grass throughout both rooms for purely aesthetic purposes. Even though grass without sun doesn''t make any sense. The next room I place is a simple 10x5x5 rectangular room, but I turn it so that it runs lengthways from entrance to exit. In the middle of this room a place a few simple pit traps. Only 1.5 meters deep so not usually fatal but enough to let them know they need to look out for traps from now on. They are rather easy to spot if you know to look for them. I will make them deeper, harder to spot, and add spikes later but for now this is a good introduction to traps. I do still want to be somewhat fair after all. Of course, because a room without enemies would be suspicious, I also add two level 6 fighter skeletons in front of the trap. As well as three level 6 archer skeletons by the rooms exit. All of this took around 57 days to complete as I had to wait for mana to trickle in. I had plenty of mana from the delve but I spent all that on world energy. At any rate I''m about to place down my fourth room when I feel Clyde entering my dungeon. This time he is alone and just seems to be collecting water into various waterskins. This piques my interest, and I decide to just ask him what''s up. "Ah, well I hired some people to build a room around your entrance so that I can charge people to enter." He says in a way that indicates he''s hoping I won''t take offense. I don''t. So long as he does let people delve, I care not if he profits from it. I take a few minutes to inquire about his party and he tells me that they are here, but that they are busy at the moment. I then tell him about the changes to the dungeon and he seems excited to check it out. He just wants to finish building the room first. "There is another party here with us. They''re about the same as my party was when we first met." he says with a grin. "I doubt they''ll get very far. Certainly not far enough to grab a chest, but I will send them in." He says as he finishes collecting the water from the wash tub. The New Delvers It isn''t long after he leaves that the new party arrives. Emphases on the word new. Have they even graduated from the training academy yet. Not only are they younger than Clyde''s party but they don''t seem to even really know how to use their weapons. I ask Clyde about it, and he confirms that they haven''t. He then goes on to explain that while it is highly recommended graduating from the training academy is not mandatory for would be adventurers. That''s interesting, based on the way Clyde and his party talked about it I would have thought that graduating from the training academy was part of becoming an adventurer. Despite their inexperience they make it further than I would have thought. Mainly due to rats not having much inherent strength. Their luck ran out when they fought the four level 1 rats though. To be honest I thought they were going to return to the entrance earlier when the mage nearly had his finger bitten off. The party leader talked them all into continuing, however. Then it happened. One of the rats managed to bite the archer''s carotid artery. She yelped in pain as blood began to squirt like water from a fountain. "Fuck!" the leader yells after turning to see the situation. The healer begins treatment immediately but against such a wound there isn''t much an untrained level 1 healer can do. Not that I would expect her to know that without trying. Another rat takes advantage of the leader turning around to run up and bite his achilles tendon. While he doesn''t bite clean through it''s still enough to cause him to drop to the ground. The mage manages to cook the rat with a fireball shortly after. One of the rats had been killed earlier. So that only left two. One ran for the healer and was hit with a fireball from the mage. Well, it''s called a fireball but from what I could see it''s more like a concentrated ball of fire mana than a ball of actual fire. As he did that though the last rat jumped up and bite his ear. After getting knocked off the mage''s shoulder the rat then made his way towards the leader. During all this the leader tried to get back to his feet but was unable to put weight on his right foot. Seeing this he swung his sword ending the rat''s life. Unfortunately, before they have time to celebrate the healer announces that the archer is dead. The rat apparently having bitten clean through the carotid artery. "With only the most basic of healing spells there wasn''t anything I could do" she says through tears of guilt and grief. She manages to control her grief long enough to treat the others though. At least enough so they can make it back to the entrance. Their return to the entrance is truly a pathetic sight. The leader leaning on the healer for support while the mage carries the body of the archer. This seen is made all the worse by the knowledge that this could have been avoided if they had turned around when the archer suggested it. I sincerely hope he learns from this and becomes a better leader. The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement. Meanwhile as morbid as it might sound to others, I''m actually celebrating. Her death gave me a boatload of mana and I can''t help but wonder if I''d have gotten even more if she were a higher level. At this rate the second floor will be finished in no time. With no other distractions at the moment, I decide to use the mana I just got to continue my work on the second floor. The next room I place on the second floor is another large one. this time I create a large hill in the middle. The hill is just large enough so that it''s impossible to see the entire floor. On this floor I also place four level 6 wolves and two level 7 wolves. The reason for this is simple. Anyone who makes it this far I feel is ready for a little extra challenge. Up till now the enemies have more or less come at them one or two at a time. even if they had archers backing them up it was still just one or two melee units at a time. This will be the first time delvers encountered a large group charging them all at once. I also set them up so that the four wolves will engage the party first with the other two joining in shortly after. Delvers need to understand that fights are rarely fair. Even if I still do my best to never give them more than they can handle. After that I place another medium sized room. In this one I place two level 7 wolves flanked on either side by a Level 7 skeleton archer. The brilliants of it being that, after the last room this size, they will be expecting either traps or other enemies or possibly both. The next room is another large one. in this room I place a level 8 wolf and four level 7 wolves. I also place a few miracle berry shrubs in the middle of the room. According to the brief description I got before buying the blueprint they have healing properties when eaten and are used as an ingredient in healing potions. I added them to this room because anyone who makes it this far will probably need some help. While I have no intention of coddling them it''s not my intention to be completely heartless. I also don''t want to just give it away which is another reason I placed it here. Unfortunately, that''s all I can really do for the moment. Placing all that dirt costs a lot of mana. Sometime later, I have no idea how much later since I can''t see the sky anymore, Clyde''s party enters the dungeon for a proper delve. To my surprise although they do fully clear the first floor, they decide not to challenge the boss. As they head back to the entrance though I learn that part of their reason for coming was to see if I had increased the difficulty after the other party came out minus one member and another having a sever limp. It''s also why they waited for so long to come in. I tell him what happened, and he starts to get angry. Not at me but at the incompetence of the other party''s leader. Apparently, the way he described it I suddenly rushed them with an entire swarm of level 5 rats. His inability to take responsibility for his own poor decision making nearly caused my classification to be changed from cooperative to hostile. I guess I should pay more attention to our bond in the future. I don''t want him to know that our bond extends beyond the dungeon, but passive listening shouldn''t be noticed by him. Expanding The Second Floor The mana I got from Clyde''s delve wasn''t as much as I would have liked. The loot combined with the fact that I haven''t suddenly become a murder hole did encourage them to do several more delves though. Apparently, Clyde intends to sell the loot to people entering the dungeon. A bit underhanded in my opinion considering they can get the same thing just from delving me. Then again, they do have to actually survive long enough to get to the loot. Plus, I''m sure between the random coins and being able to sell back the loot they get not many will actually complain. As for me, I''ve been trying to work out exactly how I want to build the rest of the second floor. Right now, it''s basically a straight line. I''m not interested in making every floor a maze but I''m not sure I want the floor to be a straight shot either. For the next room I decide to add two exits. They will eventually lead to the same place, but delvers won''t know that. In this room I place eight skeletons. Two rogues near the entrance to attack the delvers just as they come in with two fighters on either side of the room that will charge towards the delvers soon after spotting them. Behind each pair of fighters, I also place an archer. Because there are so many I decide to make them all level 7 despite my usual pattern being to gradually increase the level of the creatures delvers face. If delvers are smart, they would have just healed so these skeletons shouldn''t pose to much of a challenge to any delvers that can make it this far. After that I keep it simple and just place four level 8 wolves in both the eastern and western rooms. That way I can guarantee that one way is not easier than the other. After that though they begin to diverge wildly. Although they do both have a path leading to the boss room and a path leading to treasure for those brave enough to explore. Of course, if a group of delvers stumbles upon the loot by going the wrong way I''m not going to complain. The western path I decide to make the wolf path. From here on out though the wolves will be more organized. Instead of a group of individuals it will be a pack lead by an alpha. The next room in both the north and south path will have a pack of four level 8 wolves lead by a level 9 alpha. The room after that in the southern path, leading to the loot, will also have a pack of four level 8 wolves lead by a level 9 alpha. It will include a few simple traps as well. These will be slightly harder to spot than the ones they faced earlier although still not fatal. At least not on their own. The wolves aren''t exactly going to sit back and let them climb out. This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source. The next room will contain a pack of four level 9 wolves lead by a level 10 alpha. The room after that though will be a pack of six level 9 wolves lead by a level 10 alpha. It is in this room that I decide to place the chest. This time though I spend the world energy on a bunch of high-quality gear patterns. Well, high-quality for wood rank gear anyway. I''m about to get started on the northern half of the western path when something catches my attention. Clyde''s group is making another run only this time they are once again challenging the boss. This time around though they are all level 8 so even with the extra helpers I gave him the boss is defeated rather quickly. They are rather pleasantly surprised to see the new loot drop. Even more so when they see how high quality it is. They don''t stop there though and decide to check out the second floor. Taking a moment to rest in the second-floor entry way. The first actual room is more of a hinderance than I would have thought. Despite only being level 5 wolves are just inherently stronger than rats. That''s part of why there are only two wolves in this first room. While Cole is busy with one of the wolves, the other wolf is able to sneak up and lunges towards Darrel. Clyde was ready for this though and steps between them. The wolf''s weight pushes him back a way, but he manages to not lose his footing. At the same time the first wolf manages to get around Cole and lunge at Clyde''s back. Fortunately, the armor holds up, so the injuries aren''t too severe. A few water spears and a sword slash soon end its life. Meanwhile Clyde having been distracted by the attack from behind faces another lunging attack from the second wolf. The wolf manages to take advantage of the distraction and clamp down on Clyde''s sword arm. Again though, thanks to the armor the injury isn''t nearly as severe as it could have been. Unfortunately, with his sword arm rather occupied he is unable to properly counterattack. If he were alone this would be bad. A water whip and sword slash combination soon end the fight though. Even though the injuries aren''t as severe as they could have been it still isn''t pleasant. The wolf''s bite force still did considerable damage. Even without actually puncturing the skin. It''s not too much for Lily to handle though and she soon has him patched up. After that they spend some time picking blueberries. Lily mentions that this will make a nice addition to the rat meat to which the others agree. Sure, they can have stuff shipped in from elsewhere but that takes time and costs money. Something I hadn''t really considered if I''m being honest. The blueberries were meant more as a distraction than anything. Still, I get mana from them ''harvesting'' the berries so I''m not going to complain. Soon enough they are ready to head to the next room. A Less-Than-Ideal Delve After gathering all of the berries into a small wooden box that should not be able to hold that many, they slowly approach the entrance to the next room. As soon as they''re in the room properly the skeleton fighter lunges at Cole with a vertical sword slash. Meanwhile the rogue, which was against the wall so it couldn''t be seen from the hallway, attempts a sneak attack on Darrel. Darrel and Clyde, both notice it but not in time to prevent Darrel from receiving a massive cut. Fortunately, Darrel was able to move just enough for the rogue skeletons daggers to miss their intended target. Clyde engages the rogue immediately. At the same time Lily rushes over to start healing Darrel. None of them notice the archer that has appeared and taken aim at Lily. This is exactly why I didn''t give it skills to increase accuracy. It wouldn''t be fair if the first archer they encountered had perfect aim. As it is they do eventually notice the archer when Lily hits the ground a moment later screaming in agony. An arrow sticking through her leg. Darrel throws up a water wall. It can''t stop the arrows. It can however slow them down and send them off course. To be fair though it probably could stop them if he made it thicker but then it wouldn''t be wide enough to protect the whole party. He can''t however do anything about the other rogue that is now running towards them. Not while maintaining the water wall anyway. As luck would have it Cole was already done with his opponent and was able to use his taunt skill to redirect the rogues attack onto himself. I was a little surprised by how fast Cole was able to win. He is three levels higher than the skeletons in this room though so it kind of made sense. Clyde took a bit longer to deal with his opponent simply because of the increased agility and speed of the rogue class. As all that was going on Lily, in a truly impressive display, pull the arrow out of her own leg and began healing the wound. Fortunately, although there is a lot of blood, I can see that the arrow didn''t hit anything vital. She has no idea how lucky she is as the arrow was millimeters away from one of the major arteries. I have no idea what the official name for it is but it''s the second largest artery in her left leg. Either way she manages to stop the bleeding and turn her attention to treating Darrel. She won''t be running any marathons any time soon, but she limps over to Darrel and begins casting a basic healing spell. With Clyde''s help Cole soon dispatches the other rogue. Now they just have the archer to deal with. Not that they know that. They start to make their way to the archer using Coles large shield as cover. All the while Clyde is scanning all around for anything they might have missed. Not having to maintain the water wall any more Darrell begins lobbing water spears at the archer to keep her from being able to nock another arrow. It is surprisingly successful as Darrel can send out water spears almost faster than the archer was able to react. This left the archer no time to return fire. Soon enough the pair reached the archer and ended the fight. Archers aren''t exactly known for close quarters fighting after all. This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. To their surprise the archer''s bow gets left behind when it vanishes. Clyde as the party leader picks it up to examine it. It turns out to be a mid-tier wood rank bow. They don''t have any archers in their party, so Clyde decides to sell it in the newly built equipment shop. After that they look around for any other loot. Not finding any they soon return to just resting. While resting Lily manages to finish healing both her and Darrel. Now they have a decision to make. Do they continue onward facing who knows what from a dungeon that''s had who knows how long to plan, or do they stop here barely past the entrance to the second floor. Sometime later they decide to press on after several assurances from both Lily and Darrel that they are fine. They''re not fine but they will be in a day or two. They aren''t going to spontaneously die though. Because of this I decide not to tell Clyde how they''re actually doing. This time though they''ve learned their lesson and Cole goes in first with his shield up. Clyde and Darrel go in immediately after checking the wall along both sides of the entrance. Not seeing anything they turn towards the front just in time for Clyde to block the attack from the second fighter in this room. Darrel then notices the archers on the other side of the room. He doesn''t quite get the water wall up in time. Due to his slow reaction time, he is rewarded with an arrow in the shoulder. A second arrow embeds itself in Cole''s shield. While a third arrow just barely manages to miss Clyde completely due to him moving at the last minute to counter the fighter''s attack. He does manage to get the water wall up a few minutes later though leaving Cole and Clyde free to focus on the fighters in front of them. At the same time Lily runs up and begins healing Darrel. Well, it''s more like a fast limp than a run but the intention is there. She manages to pull the arrow the rest of the way out and stop the bleeding rather quickly. The injury isn''t life threatening but like with her leg it will take a few days to recover completely. As for Cole and Clyde, well Clyde fakes a vertical slash causing his opponent to prepare to defend against it only to thrust it straight ahead just before their swords touch. Doing this he succeeds in stabbing the skeletons skull and ending the fight. Cole on the other hand just brute forced his way through the fight using his size and his shield to keep his opponent of balance. This time the fighter drops a piece of chest armor. It''s not as good as what he has on so Clyde puts it with the rest of the loot he intends to sale. Now though they have a problem. How do they move forward safely? There are still three archers to deal with after all. The Almost Perfect Plan POV Clyde I wasn''t sure how much mana Darrel and Lily had left but I wanted to at least make it to the next room. To do that we would need to get past these archers though. Unfortunately, Darrel was our only party member who could fight at range, and he would need to release the water wall in order to do that. It would be nice if he could fire a ranged attack through the water wall. There''s little hope of that I''m afraid. If he were obsidian rank or higher it wouldn''t be a big deal, but wood and stone rank mages simply don''t have the mana control for more than one spell at a time. Trying to think of a way to actually win I ask everyone how they''re doing. Lily assures me she''s fine. Darrel on the other hand admits that he is down to only a third of his mana from having to maintain the water wall so much in the last two rooms. I knew it would have a toll on him, but I didn''t realize how much. I finely get a bit of good news with Cole who says that his taunt skill is no longer on cooldown. Though he does warn me that he can only use it once more during this delve. This is my fault. I allowed them to get complacent in their training by staying on the first floor for so long. As party leader I should be pushing them to become better. At any rate knowing that we''ll only get one shot at this I start to formulate a plan. The plan is simple. As soon as Darrel lowers the water wall, he will start casting water spears instead. Meanwhile Cole will immediately cast taunt to get the archers focused on him. I will try to close the distance with Cole following as soon as he is done casting taunt. Lily will stay back and try not to get skewered again. After all, if the healer goes down there''s little hope for the rest of us. At least that''s what I tell everyone. In truth seeing an arrow sticking out of her leg made me want to try and talk her out of being an adventurer. I know that even if I was successful however, it would only cause her to despise me in the end. So, keeping her as far away from the fighting as possible is the next best thing. I know I shouldn''t let personal feelings get in the way but that''s one of those things that is far easier on parchment than in practice. Darrel dropping the water wall breaks me out of my thoughts a few minutes later, and I begin charging at the closest archer. A few seconds later a see arrows and water spears flying past me. I don''t get a chance to see the results though as just before I strike the ground suddenly opens up. My first thought was ''this is it, after all that I die to the first trap''. I wish I could say that I was a vision of stoic manliness during the next two second, but that would be a lie. In truth even though I had just defeated wolves and skeleton for about two heartbeats I was a little kid who just wanted his mommy. Even after I landed it took me half a second to realize I wasn''t dead. Fortunately, the rest of the plan went, well ... according to plan. Darrel managed to take out two of the archers with water spears before Cole''s taunt ability wore off. Shame it only lasts 30 seconds. Cole continued to charge the last archer while Darrel kept it distracted. Soon enough a horizontal slash from Cole ended the encounter. The celebration was cut short however by Darrel triggering the second trap as he was walking up. Cole just got lucky apparently. It turns out the traps were more annoying that fatal, but I get the impression that won''t always be the case. This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. One of the Archers this time dropped a leather helmet. I promptly collected it and added it to the other items in the storage box which was getting full. It was just one of the cheaper versions of a storage bag after all. Not only was it comparatively large and unwieldy, being a box instead of a bag. It also held much less stuff than a proper storage bag. I think we were all ready to leave at this point. We still decided to at least peak in and see what the next room was like. That way we would know what to prepare for next time. As soon as we enter the next room it doesn''t take long to spot the four wolves who immediately charge us. Without hesitation I order everyone back to the previous room. Luckily the wolves don''t follow us. We probably could have defeated the wolves. The reason I didn''t try though is because we already have Injuries that will take time to heal fully. I''d rather not add to them and prolong how much time we have to wait before delving again. Next time though we''ll be ready for the second floors tricks. As we make our way back out of the dungeon, I''m already making plans for the next delve. Now that we know what we''re dealing with I''m confident I can plan around it. Upon making it to the surface which didn''t take nearly as long as I expected thanks to not having to cross the first floor again, to be fair I knew about the instant teleportation to the surface but knowing about it and experiencing it are two entirely different things. On The surface once again, we split up with Cole and Darrel going off to our shared residence. Me and Lily on the other hand headed to one of the shops that opened up here. I still find it strange that they would want to set up shop in the middle of the dessert. They did offer to share 10% of their profit with me for allowing them to set up right outside the dungeon though. On top of that I got a 50% share of the sale price from whatever my party brought out of the dungeon. Naturally that was shared with the party, The shop manager was already familiar with the type and number of Items We usually bring out of the dungeon, so I shared all the low-quality gear first. He thanked me for the donations after taking note of what I had brought to donate and was about to turn and leave when he noticed I was still standing there. It was then that I pulled out the Mid-quality wood tier gear we had acquired. This caused his eyes to light up. It''s not that mid-quality wood tier gear is special or anything. It is however a significant step up from my usual offerings. It also meant that the shop now had more than just the lowest possible quality gear. After that We went to the leatherworker to drop of the rat leather. I had a similar deal with the leatherworking as with the adventurer''s gear shop. Just like before with the gear shop owner his eyes lit after seeing the high-quality dire rat leather. Unlike with gear that was already made the tier of gear that could be made depended more on the skill of the crafter than on the quality of the material. Though the quality of the material was also important. Having high quality material to practice with would help him improve his craft which in turn would improve the quality and possibly even tier level of everything he made. The whole thing took longer than normal on account of Lily''s leg, but she insisted on coming with me. We finished up by dropping the berries and rat meat in the food warehouse. Once news of the berries gets out, I suspect it will attract alchemists to set up shop here as well. As we make our way over to check on the construction of Cole and Darrel''s houses respectively, I can''t help but think how big this simple little outpost has gotten already. Finishing The Second Floor Dungeon POV Well, that was interesting. I would have put money on them making it further than they did. On the other hand, I guess adventurers don''t live long without a healthy amount of caution. The sudden realization that they needed to keep an eye out for traps while fighting probably contributed to them ending the delve early. It was rather comical seeing the look in his eyes when the ground under his feet was suddenly no longer there. I could just read his mind and know for sure why they stopped but so long as they plan to delve again, and I get the impression they plan to return as soon as possible, it doesn''t really matter why they stopped this time. Until then I can finally get back to building the second floor. One change I make right away is hiding a chest in the abandoned cabin the first archer hides in. It isn''t visible from outside so the only way to find it is to actually enter the abandoned cabin. Inside the chest along with the usual gear I raise the chances of a minor healing potion spawning to 100%. I realized watching Clyde''s fight that While the archer wouldn''t even be a speed bump for more seasoned adventurers, newer adventurers are almost guaranteed to have someone in their party be seriously injured at this point after reaching it for the first time. Even so I still want to encourage them to explore since I do get a small amount of mana from them just being here. More so than on the first floor. I suppose that is yet another reason whoever is in charge tried their best to make it so dungeons can''t just make an effectively endless floor. After that I go through and make sure every spot that should have a chest has a chest. Which for right now aside from the cabin is the dead end I had just finished when Clyde''s party decided to challenge the first-floor boss. Getting back to actually building the floor I create another room to the south of the room that is east of where the path splits. In this room I place a group of four level 8 fighters and two level 8 rogues. I place a few chokeberries around the edge of the room, but I leave the center mostly open. The reason being I suspect that fights at this level will start to be about more than just swinging your sword really hard. With that in mind I want to give them as much room as possible to really show off. The next room directly south of that is basically the same with the only difference being one of the rogues was replaced with an archer and they are all level 9. I also added a few shallow pit traps that just like with the traps on the wolf path are slightly harder to spot but not intended to be fatal. This time however I create one additional room to the south. I leave this room completely open with only grass being placed for the sake of it not looking ... like an empty room. Not that it helps much but it does help. In this room I plan to test the delvers. Aside from the various traps I also place four level 10 fighters. On top of that I add two level 10 rogues and two level 10 archers. To properly compensate anyone who manages to win, since this is a completely optional room, I place a chest with low quality stone tier gear instead of wood tier gear. Stone tier gear was a significant leap in cost from even high-quality wood tier gear which means it should net a healthy profit when looted. On top of that I also included a 50% chance for a normal health potion to spawn. Going back to where the path splits, I then place a room to the north of the room that is to the east of that room. In this room I place more chokeberries, but this time scattered around to provide cover. I specifically don''t put traps in this room because I feel like they are far less effective if they''re just in every room. I want delvers to wonder if the room they''re in has traps. As for encounters I place two level 8 fighters as well as a level 8 rogues and a level 8 archer. I''d love to just keep building but for the first time in a while I don''t have the mana. Fortunately, word has started to spread and about three or four different Parties have attempted the first floor. They all seem to be fresh young adventurers who are just getting started. Apparently one of the few things well known about me is that I only have one complete floor. I say three or four because one of the parties consisted of survivors from two other parties that let their egos get the best of them. I''m still not sure if that actually counts as a new party since they have all technically delved me before. Either way they have made several attempts and by now are actually starting to get pretty far. They may even be ready to challenge the boss in another month or two. Assuming they continue to delve every few weeks. Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel. It takes a while but eventually I''m able to create a room connecting the wolf and skeleton paths directly north of where the path originally split. In this room I create a small hill with blueberry bushes at the top of the hill. For the encounters I plan to use a combination of two level 10 skeleton fighters followed by a pack of five level 10 wolves. Now while I wait for more mana to come in, I''m debating about continuing the second floor or going ahead and placing the boss room. The reason is rather simple. A bunch of features unlocked when I got my second floor. So will I get something for moving to a third floor or was that a onetime thing. There is also the problem of the core being in the way as it tends to stay as far from the entrance as it can get which is usually the room I just built. Thankfully the core being there doesn''t affect my ability to place things in the room. The fact that I get more mana just for them being there the deeper they go may also play a role if I''m honest. It''s still not a lot. In fact, it wasn''t until they reached the second floor that I just barely began to notice it. After thinking it over for a while I decided to go ahead and place the boss chamber ... as soon as I get enough mana. It''s not like I can''t place more rooms later. Besides I do want to actually place the stuff that I have planned to put in the room connecting the wolf and skeleton areas just before what will be the boss room. I was also vaguely curious about Clyde''s party. It had been nearly two months at this point since there last delve. Perhaps that last delve shook them up worse than I thought it would. Just as I was considering whether to lower the difficulty of the second floor, I felt a brand-new party enter. The first man was way too high a level to be slumming it in little old me. What really caught my attention though was the party he was with. They seem to barely be capable of holding their weapons and didn''t seem to have a single experience point between them. I''m not sure experience points are even a thing, but levels exist so even if they aren''t called experience points, they must exist on some fundamental level. At any rate the gap in ability between the first guy and the other four is even wider than between the dungeon inspector and Clyde''s party. As they begin the delve and I listen in things start to become clear. "Alright everyone, remember what you''ve learned, and remember to keep your guard up. This isn''t the training hall, and you aren''t just sparing this time. While I doubt the dungeon can do anything I can''t heal, especially in the first few rooms, there is always that possibility. You are here to get practical experience in a real dungeon after all so while I will try to keep you safe your safety cannot be guaranteed." Hm, apparently they think I''m some kind of training dungeon. Not that I plan to dispute that it just feels like surely there is a dungeon much closer to whatever academy or training facility they came from. I''m in the middle of a desert after all. I''ll have to remember to ask Clyde about it later. It was interesting watching that guy lead one group after another into the dungeon. These groups made so many rookie mistakes that I started to feel bad for them. I refuse to go easy on them though because that would ultimately be a disservice. They are here to learn after all, and mistakes are inevitable. After watching him lead the fourth group through I finally have enough to create my boss room. I could have placed a small boss room earlier, but I wanted to give them room to maneuver during the fight. That goes for both the delvers and my boss. As for what the boss would be naturally, I planned this from the moment I started the second floor. After designating it as my boss room I place down the dire wolf pattern I purchased so long ago. For once it turned out exactly how I expected. The dire wolf is about three times the size of the normal wolf. On top of its size and being level 15, I felt like it needed more. It needed a skill, but which one. Looking through the various options a found one that seemed to fit perfectly. My new boss would have the skill terrorize. In other words, my new boss doesn''t just look scary. It can actually induce fear in the delvers. Actually, if the level of the delvers is too low it can induce full blown panic. Close Call I don''t start my third floor right away because I want to give the mana a bit of time to fill up. I plan to continue increasing the variety of monsters delvers face on each floor, at least for now. To do that I need world energy to buy the patterns. On top of that the rooms still fill rather small to me. Plus, there''s no real hurry because Clyde''s group is the only one to even attempt the second floor so far and they didn''t get anywhere near the boss. Thinking that I look towards the first-floor boss and realize that someone is attempting to fight it. It''s one of the first parties to start delving regularly aside from Clyde''s party. The party''s tank is trying to hold back the dire rat. The dire rat''s agility isn''t making that easy though. The fighter and mage, a fire mage this time, are trying to deal with the comparatively small helper. They keep getting distracted by having to dodge the dire rat''s attacks and as a result keep missing their target. Eventually, the moment comes when the dire rat manages to get past the tank at the same time the fighter and mage are dealing with the level 5 helper. They finally manage to kill the helper only to turn around just in time for the dire rat to tackle the mage. This is followed a few seconds later by the tank tackling the dire rat, or at least trying to. He does manage to succeed in pushing the dire rat off of her before it had a chance to bite down anywhere. Not that its claws hadn''t already done significant damage. The dire rat is momentarily dazed from being tackled allowing the tank and fighter to team up on it. It charges the tank upset that someone would dare attempt to dominate it like that. The tank for his part simply raises his shield and well ... tanks the hit. At the same time the fighter runs up behind the dire rat with a diagonal slash. The dire rat senses it and moves out of the way, though not entirely in time. There is now a huge gash in the dire rat''s shoulder drastically reducing its speed. The dire rat turns to fact the fighter allowing the tank to get a swing in. Once again, the dire rat attempts to dodge but being slowed down the dodge attempt is even less effective this time leading to another huge gash, this time in the dire rat''s side. Now having the clear upper hand, it doesn''t take them long to finish off the dire rat and claim the loot. Meanwhile the party''s healer is attempting to treat their mage. The trouble is that her insides are now partially on the outside. The bleeding has mostly been stopped. Putting her back together though, especially without losing any more blood is beyond what the healer can do. She''s already lost to much blood as it is. To make matters worse she can''t be moved since any unnecessary movement could rupture one of her internal organs which at the moment aren''t as internal as they should be. The one silver lining in all this is that I can see the experience points or promotion energy or whatever it''s called increasing within the healer at a rapid rate as he tries desperately to keep the mage alive and heal her. After what to them must feel like an eternity the fighter pipes up. "The monsters and boss shouldn''t respawn as long as we don''t leave this floor. I''m going to go out and see if any higher-level healers are willing to come help. With any luck maybe at least one of the instructors that have started to bring in rookies is in the outpost at this very moment." Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site. As he left the healer was still trying to gently put her insides back where they were supposed to be. Not really the best idea with his healing magic being as low as it was but I couldn''t exactly tell him that. Fortunately, she was smart enough to not panic even though it looked like she wanted to. Seeing your guts spilled out isn''t exactly a calming experience after all. Staying calm kept her heart rate down and kept any potential blood lose to a minimum. A few minutes later, though it probably felt like hours to them, the fighter returned with one of the instructors. Between the two healers they were able to get her put back together, and the instructor even used a high-level regeneration spell to close the wound and make sure the mages inside ... remained inside. With that little distraction over with I decide that my first-floor boss is exactly the right challenge level. I also noticed to my surprise that the effort he put into keeping the mage alive gave me a lot of mana. Specifically, it gave me a lot of whatever that energy is that gets automatically turned into mana. Not as much as I would have gotten if the mage died but that would be trading a lifetime of food for a single buffet. The good news is unlike the first group that actually lost a member they don''t seem to be blaming me. I do hope they return as I need people to delve deeper and they are just strong enough to do it. In the meantime, I have just enough mana saved up to exchange for enough world energy to set up my third-floor entryway and pick out a few interesting blueprints. I plan to use more wolves and skeletons on the third floor. On top of that I plan to introduce dire rats as an ordinary encounter. As for what new monster to add I briefly wonder what sapient races exist in this world. Wouldn''t want to create kobolds only for the sapient kobolds that exist in this world to take offense for example. To my shock the system actually replied in the form of a pop-up.
Sapient races in hosts current realm include Humans
Elves
Dwarves
Beast kin Subcategories Cat kin
Fox kin
Wolf kin
Rabbit kin
Raccoon kin
Squirrel Kin
I quickly closed the window once it started to go into sub-subcategories of beast kin. I got the information I needed though. From what I could tell all the beast kin were some type of mammal or another. That''s perfect because I do plan to introduce another dungeon crawling staple in the form of goblins. While I don''t plan to make all the rooms larger than the ones on the second floor there will be a few and I think a small goblin village would fit perfectly. I plan to limit their intelligence for now as I want them to be more bestial than sapient. I also pick up a few tree patterns including something called Jujube. The goblins need some place to hide their village after all not to mention the material to build it since I don''t have the goblin village blueprint. The New Girl Just as I''m about ready to place my first actual room on the third floor I sense that Clyde has returned to the dungeon. As soon as the rest of his party enters, I see why they were gone for so long. They now have a fifth member. I''m not sure why that surprised me. Obviously, there''s no rule that says parties are limited to four people. As evidenced by the fact that the instructors with their students are technically parties of five. Not to mention the fact that Clyde''s own party once delved with a fifth member in the form of the inspector. This realization makes me want to redo my first floor, or at least rethink the encounters. It''s set up for parties of four after all. After thinking it over for a minute I decide to leave it for now. Parties of four do still seem to be the norm. Focusing back on Clyde''s party I take a closer look at the new member. She''s not quite as short as Lily and not quite as well-endowed either. She also seems to have at least some muscle definition. I''m still curious about the new addition as I watch them begin their delve. Shortly after that my questions are answered. As soon as the new girl threw her first dagger, I knew what she was. It also explained why she was there. Apparently, their trip into the second floor was enough to convince Clyde the party needed a rogue. Also, she apparently just became a rogue. Aside from the throwing daggers she doesn''t really seem to have any skills I can detect. It''s also possible she just hasn''t used any skills. If she was recruited specifically to deal with traps, then she most likely won''t use her skills until the second floor. They know the first floor doesn''t have any traps after all. To my surprise after clearing the first floor they don''t fight the boss. That kind of confirms my suspicions. They seem to want to get her level up a bit before going to the second floor. Fair enough, I guess. If they do want to get her caught up to them as soon as possible they will most likely return soon. Besides they aren''t the only ones delving me anymore. Ignoring everything happening on the first floor for now I decide to get back to working on the third floor. The first thing I do is place down a 10x10x10 room This will be the first room of the third floor not counting the entry way, so I try to make it special. After throwing down some dirt and grass I intentionally go back and give the ground a few curves so that it''s not completely flat. Inside one of the hilly sections I hide a chest making sure to leave one corner poking out. It''s not obvious but it''s noticeable if you''re paying attention. Part of me wonders how long it will be before it''s found. I don''t think it''s very well hidden but then again, I know where it is and what to look for. Crucially, I also know that it isn''t a trap which now that I''m looking at it, it does look very trap-ish. Oh well, a reward for the brave and observant, I guess. As for what creature will inhabit this room. I decide on a group of four level 10 dire rats just like the first-floor boss. Yes, I know having a boss show up again later as an ordinary enemy is a bit clich¨¦ but it''s also a good way to let delvers know just how much stronger they have gotten. Besides I paid for the pattern it''d be a waste to only use it once. I even give them a 20% chance to drop high quality dire rat leather. I also place some non-hostile creatures from my ranch theme. That being rabbits and chickens. These I naturally give a 100% chance of dropping the appropriate meat. This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it. While I was busy with that something else surprised me. It seems that I am always aware of the entire dungeon whether I want to be or not. Despite not paying attention to the first floor and in fact having the entire second floor between us I knew with certainty that there had been five delves while I was working and one of them was Clyde''s team again. Nobody has challenged the first-floor boss since that last group though. I also confirmed my original theory about them wanting to get her level up. While the first floor hardly did anything for the other members of Clyde''s party anymore Chandra, her name apparently, had gained two levels in just two delves going from level 1 to level 3. I can''t wait for them to challenge the boss again so they can start delving the second floor regularly. The amount of mana the first floor provides while steady has become relatively small unless I want every floor to consist of nothing but small rooms. So now after creating the first real room of the third floor I''m back to waiting. Not that I''m worried since at this pace it''ll be at least a few months before anyone challenges the second-floor boss. Over the next few weeks, I slowly gathered enough mana to buy the world energy required for four of the largest rooms currently available. Fusing them together into a 20m x 20m x 20m room I am delighted to see another room type become available for purchase in the rooms tab. What I''m less excited about is the 640 world energy price tag for a single room. It''s big enough that I can start to do some interesting things even if it''s actually quite small still. For one thing it''s actually big enough that I can plant trees. First though I go through and place down a layer of dirt followed by some random grass seeds. Random because I want this place to feel wilder than previous rooms. Then I go back through and plant trees in the middle of the room doing my best to make sure that they''re not in any kind of pattern. Something that is surprisingly hard since true randomness is impossible to replicate. After that''s done, I throw in some Jujube trees here and there in as close to random locations as I can manage. Then I place the goblins they are still just level 10 because of the amount I plan to place. For the first time instead of just placing my monsters at random a specifically place down six male and four female goblins. I even briefly consider allowing them to reproduce naturally but the third floor is way too early for anything like that. No that would bring with it a whole host of issues that I''d rather not deal with at the moment. Besides the room isn''t near big enough to support a growing population. As a last bit of touch up I raise the earth in one corner so that I can carve it out and create a pond that is ruffly three and a half meters in diameter and about half a meter deep. Still though it feels like something is missing. The forest just doesn''t feel alive. After some deliberation I decide that it''ll have to do for now. I definitely plan to come back and make this place a bit livelier later though. For now, I''ve got the rest of the third floor to plan and build. As I''m waiting for enough world energy to place down another one of the new largest rooms I since that someone else is preparing to fight the first-floor boss for the first time. Working On The Third Floor As I watched them enter the boss room, I couldn''t help but notice it was an all-female party. They had full cleared the first floor a few times by now though they never attempted the boss room before. Not that they didn''t already know what to expect. It was inevitable that after a few people fought the boss word would get out about what the boss was and how it fought. They knew for example that the boss liked to target the weakest members if it could get past the front line. I didn''t specifically tell the boss to do that but I''m also not going to tell him to stop doing it. The fight itself was remarkable uneventful. It started with the boss charging the party''s tank while the helper went around the side to try and separate the mage and healer from the others. The mage began to conjure and throw stone spears so fast it was all the little helper could do to dodge them. Eventually his luck ran out and he was impaled. At the same time the tank had used a skill called shield bash to knock the boss backward, momentarily disorienting it. It was only disoriented for a second but that was all the fighter needed to slice its head clean off with her battle axe. I''d be lying if I said I wasn''t upset at how trivial they made the fight seem. I always knew that eventually the first-floor boss would become trivial, but I never expected it to happen so fast. Still, if they think the rest of the dungeon is going to be as easy, they''re in for a surprise. I decide to watch them for a bit long. At this point I''m genuinely curious if they''ll make it further than Clyde''s party. Just like Clyde''s party they pause in the entryway of the second floor to rest and discuss their strategy. "Now remember" the leader says getting their attention. Not that I have any way of knowing who the party leader is, but they all seem to listen to her so that works for me. "According to the only other group to make it this far this floor includes ranged attacks and traps as well as new mobs. That means everyone needs to stay alert at all times." The others simply nod in agreement eager to get on with the delve. Entering the first room they are surprised to be meet with a field of blueberries. The healer is tempted to begin collecting blueberries right away, but the party leader warns her to keep her guard up just as a wolf lunges at the mage. To her credit the mage is able to summon a spike just in time. The spike pierces the wolfs throat and causes a huge amount of blood and other things to come spilling out. She does receive a scratch across her chest. It''s not very deep thanks to the stone spike stopping the wolfs momentum. Certainly, nowhere near as deep as it could have been. It''s deep enough that it does require immediate healing though taking her and the healer out of the fight. The other wolf isn''t as lucky choosing the party''s tank as it''s victim it doesn''t even get a scratch in before the fighter and tank working together are able to dispatch it. They spend a few minutes looking for anything else that my try to sneak attack them. finding none they decide to finally relax a bit and pick some blueberries. They even indulge in a few handfuls each while picking them. Not that I can blame them. Had I a mouth that would let me taste them I would probably indulge myself even without actually needing to eat. Well, I guess technically you could argue that I eat mana but that''s not the point. This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report. As they enter the next room, they are immediately attacked by the skeletal fighter which their tank confronts head on. The skeletal rogue charges them half a beat later which the fighter turns to confront. Meanwhile the skeletal archer has let loose an arrow. the mage attempts to summon a stone wall to block it but is a hair too late. The arrow hits the healer in the neck killing her instantly. Honestly that was just an unfortunate shot since I intentionally made it so that the archers at this stage don''t have very good aim. Still even a blind mouse will sometimes get lucky. The moment the healer died the party leader ordered a retreat. The fighter and tank managed to kill their opponents while the mage stood at the entrance to the room. The fighter grabbed the healer''s body on the way past and they all headed for the exit. I''d rather nobody had to die for me to get a huge burst of mana but it''s not like they didn''t know the risk going in. Once again, I consider turning down the difficulty of the first archer encounter but decide against it. I intended for this to be a hard stop for most delvers after all. They need to understand that from this point on it only gets harder to stay alive. I want people to make it to and explore later floors, but I also want them to struggle since the more effort they exert and the higher-level skills and abilities they use the more mana I get from them simply existing inside me. That''s on top of the mana I get from the other sources such as harvesting and killing things. The deaths don''t seem to be hurting my popularity at least because there was already another team on the first floor shortly after they left. Deciding that I''ve let myself be distracted long enough I return to working on the third floor. Looking at the amount of mana I have to work with now I do briefly consider making an even larger room. I don''t want to blow all my mana on a single room though. Instead, I place another 20x20x20 room. In this room I place another forest similar to the other room. This time however instead of goblins I place a pack of six level 11 wolves. These wolves have a 20% chance to drop either high-quality pelts or leather. This is where I decide to start making the Branching paths. I also plan to give people the option to go straight to the boss. The reason being that people are opting to full clear the first floor despite knowing where the boss room is. That''s another thing, there are already maps of my first floor. Not that I mind I just find it fascinating that they still chose too fully clear it. First things first though, off to one side I place a 10x10x10 room and populate it with four level 12 skeletal fighters. I give the skeletons a chance to drop a random amount of coins from a single copper coin all the way up to a silver coin. Silver coins at least according to Clyde are worth 10 copper coins. The systems description was a little vague, stating only that it was "a form of currency comprised primarily of silver ore". The larger the amount the lower the chance of it dropping although they are guaranteed to drop some amount of coins. I still don''t want to completely disrupt the local economy. At least not yet. I also place a few pit traps that are deeper and harder to spot than the ones on the second floor. still not really deep enough to be fatal, though it is deep enough that it could cause a few broken bones if they fall wrong. Certainly, deep enough that they won''t be able to get out by themselves without a great deal of effort. It should only catch delvers who have let down their guard by now. This will teach them that they should always be on guard against traps. It''s also my subtle way of letting them know that the traps aren''t going to stay harmless. After that I make an identical room on the other side of the larger room. Same size, same mobs, same everything. I plan to continue expanding the side paths later but for now I decide to work on the path to the boss. Considering few have made it to the second floor and none have made it very far on the second floor I think I''m safe for now. Otherwise, I would be making the path to the boss last. After placing another large room directly in line with the other two large rooms I decide to fill it with miracle berry bushes. I also place four level 12 wolves and two level 12 archers. To have made it past the second floor the party will no doubt have a counter to archers at this point, but I still want to keep them on their toes. Besides not all of my traps are going to be pit traps. The Musings Of Clyde Clyde POV I have officially lost control of this whole thing. Well maybe not literally but this outpost is growing way faster than I thought it would. At first it was just going to be a guild hall and the building containing the dungeon entrance. Of course, if we wanted to sell the gear, we got from the dungeon we needed a stall. Of course, then we needed someone to work the stall. The person working the stall needed somewhere to live so the stall became a proper shop with a living area in the back. Then Lily declared she was tired of sleeping in a tent and I couldn''t blame her because truth be told so was I. So, I built a house for our party to stay in. Cole and Darrel each wanted their own house though. Then I decided instead of selling the leather at the shop as is I would hire a leatherworker to turn the leather, we get from the dungeon into something useable. I suspect that won''t be the last shop type either as already there is demand for professional chefs. Speaking of demand, demand for access to the dungeon has picked up lately. That''s probably due to the fact that this dungeon isn''t actively trying to kill people. People do still die but the progression is a lot more fair. Except maybe that second floor. Even then it doesn''t feel malicious. It''s still not throwing max level enemies at us from the start. It''s even allowing us to take a breather after defeating the boss. So far according to everyone I''ve spoken to no other dungeon has rooms completely devoid of threats. Then there are the academy students. They are able to get practical experience that would normally only come at great risk after they graduated. Once again thanks to the dungeon not throwing max level mobs at us from the start. Of course, with the academy students came the academy dorm. which increased the size of the outpost even more. That''s on top of the other parties who have expressed a desire to build houses nearby. The problem is that the area is still in the middle of a desert and while yes, the dungeon does provide water there is a very finite amount that can be harvested. Especially with so many people delving. Honestly everything that''s happening makes me glad I took the initiative to claim the land within five km of the dungeon. I was a little surprised to discover it was unowned despite it being in the middle of a desert. I''m not going to complain though, even if I''m now expected to pay taxes on the land. At first, I was just going to put in a listing for a roque with the local guild, but the more I thought about it the more worried I became about losing control of the dungeon. Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. Speaking of the rogue despite being fresh from the academy she has proven to be a valuable asset. At least she will be once we start encountering traps on the second floor. The important thing is that her personality meshes well with everyone else. Mostly thanks to her being fresh from the academy and therefore not having the reputation normally associated with rogues. In fact, Chandra and Cole can often be seen sparring together. In all honest I think we''ll be ready to head to the second floor soon. Chandra is already level 5 and making steady progress towards level 6. The rest of us haven''t leveled up in a while but with Chandra''s help will should soon be able to delve further much sooner than attempting to do it without her. Even considering the month it took to get her to her current level. I still can''t believe it''s been almost two years since we discovered the dungeon. Granted the first few times we could only delve for a day or two every month or so. Lily says that we should name the outpost, but I''ve never really been all that good at naming things. I can see her point though, the more this place grows the more it needs a name. We can''t just keep calling it the dungeon outpost ... or can we ... no that''s stupid we can''t do that. This place deserves a proper name. I just don''t feel like coming up with one at the moment. Still not very good at naming things. I''m abruptly pulled out of my thoughts by Darrell asking if I''m ready to go. "I''m good" I respond checking my gear one more time while reminding myself to get my head in the game. I can''t afford to be thinking about anything else right now. Even the first floor could still prove deadly if I allow myself to be distracted by what''s happening outside the dungeon. "Todays the day I finally get to see the second floor" Chandra remarks in a tone that is way to bubbly for her chosen profession. I briefly remind her not to discount the first-floor boss. This boss, based on the reports we''ve been getting as well as the few times we''ve fought it, seems to have a nasty habit of targeting the weakest party member. Once inside the dungeon I have everyone take a few minutes to fill up some waterskins. Might as well harvest more water for the outpost while we delve. Besides depending on how far we make it we might end up needing some of that water ourselves. As always, I intend for us to do a full clear. I''m hoping that by the time we get to the boss Chandra will be level 6. If not, we should still be able to make it past the boss, since we did it before without her helping us. I don''t think we''re ready to attempt the second-floor boss just yet. As long as we make it further than we did last time I''ll be happy though. Ideally, I''d like to do a full clear of the second floor. Chandra Steps Up Dungeon POV The worst part about making larger rooms is that they''re just so expensive. Even with people delving the first floor near constantly it still takes around four or five days to save up enough mana to exchange for the world energy just to buy one of the large rooms. Then I''ve got to fill it with stuff and populate it. Technically I could just throw down a small room plop a couple monsters in it and call it a day but that would be boring. Besides if I''m going to use pit falls, I need something for the pit to exist in. Which means at least a few meters of dirt and stone need to be added. Thankfully that is the easy part as I have learned that I can buy elements in bulk. I don''t get a discount for buying in bulk, but I also don''t need to wait for the floor to fill to the desired level gradually. As for the next room it is placed in line with the other large rooms. I had just finished filling it with dirt and stone when I sensed Clyde''s party entering the first floor once again. After a few seconds though I go back to what I was doing. It''s hardly the first time they have delved the first floor after all. They do seem oddly determined this time, so I make a mental note to keep an eye on their progress. As for what creatures and plants to put in the next room I''m kind of stumped. I don''t want to be so predictable, but I don''t really have a tone of options. Grass is a given, so I go ahead and lay down a blanket of grass. Part of me is tempted to look at the world energy shop to see what new things I can get since once I buy the blueprint; I can use it as many times as I want. Just as I''m about to take a look I sense that Clyde''s party has made it to the second floor. It''s still so rare to have delvers on the second floor that it immediately grabs my attention. They make quick work of the wolves in the first room and spend some time making sure to harvest the berries. Then comes the moment of truth. As they enter the next room it''s time to see if Chandra can pull her weight. So far, she''s been coasting by thanks to help from the others. Cole engages the fighter. Clyde soon intercepts the rogue attempting to ambush them from the side. At the same time Darrel gets his water wall up just in time to block the first shot from the archer. You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version. While Lily is getting ready to heal whoever needs it, I can sense Chandra do ... something. I can''t tell any difference, but I can also sense that my archer is having trouble focusing on her. The archer fires a shot at Chandra which misses by a large margin. Seeing this Darrel drops the water wall and begins launching ice spears at the archer. While that''s happening, Chandra engages the second rogue. Soon enough the second room is cleared, and Chandra has officially proven her worth if the smiles on the faces of the other party members is anything to go by. Oh, that could also be why they are smiling. Darrel just reached level 9. To be fair though he is a water mage in a desert area, so he probably gets a lot of experience outside the dungeon as well. Unsurprisingly after taking a moment to congratulate Darrel on his level up, they take a moment to look around. This means that they are the first to find the chest hidden inside the abandoned cabin. Clyde quickly pockets the coins and potion before storing the rest of the loot inside those storage boxes. Speaking of storage I did find those storage bags they kept talking about. Apparently, bags of holding are a real thing, but they are simply called infinite storage bags. They aren''t actually infinite. According to the description they contain exactly one cubic kilometer of internal space. which for an individual person makes them effectively infinite hence the name. I won''t be adding them to the loot table anytime soon though because they are insanely expensive. Costing more world energy than I''ve spent on my entire dungeon thus far. Clyde''s party is now ready to head into the next room. Having been here before Cole and Clyde quickly engage the two fighters. Chandra uses her ability to get close and take out the archers one at a time using her throwing knives. They look more like daggers to me, but the system calls them throwing knives so I''m not going to argue. After that she takes her time disarming the traps. Even I''m forced to admit Chandra inclusion in the party has almost made the second floor too easy. After picking up the loot that was dropped, they make their way to the next room. I''d be lying if I said I wasn''t excited. This is as far as they got last time. I have no doubt they will make it much further this time. Darrel uses a new skill he apparently just got to tie up two of the wolves using water vines. At the same time Cole and Clyde engage two more. A few seconds later the other two wolves come charging over the hill. Chandra uses her throwing knives to attack them but they swiftly dodge. Just as Chandra starts to get concerned Cole uses his taunt skill to force the wolves to change their target. Seeing this Chandra switches targets herself and runs up to end the two wolves Darrel has pinned down. I would complain about how easy they are making it seem if I didn''t know how high a level they were. Speaking of which it looks like Chandra just reached level 6. The free ride is over cause starting now the mobs will begin to equal them in level. At least I''m hoping that them being the same level will make the fights more difficult anyway. The Second Floor Delve Continues The next room does slow them down quite a bit. Mainly because Chandra is looking for traps that aren''t there. The archers manage to get off a few shots before Darrel could raise the water wall. One of them hits Cole in the shin, somehow managing to pass just under his shield. Luckily the shin guard keeps it from going too deep. Unfortunately for them, that was just before the wolves actually made it to them. The other arrow just misses Clyde by centimeters. Sadly, that bit of help didn''t accomplish much as far as actually helping the wolves. The wolves used their agility to their advantage forcing Clyde to use his movement skill to keep up. It was only a wood rank skill, so it didn''t boost his reaction speed that much, but it was more than enough. Meanwhile the wolf attacking Cole couldn''t seem to get past his shield. In the end the wolves weren''t able to actually accomplish anything aside from stalling them for a few minutes. Still the fact that they actually had to try to defeat the wolves that time gave me hope for the future. Chandra eventually figures out that there weren''t any traps and began focusing on the archers. She had apparently used her last level up to improve her stealth skill, because the archers had been completely ignoring her. Right up until they received a throwing knife between the eyes. I''m guessing there must be a range component to her stealth or she would wave just walked up behind them and taken them out. Note to self, gives mobs the ability to detect stealth on later floors. To be fair I''m reasonably certain the wolves could have sniffed her out if they weren''t preoccupied. The next few rooms should let me test that theory. Assuming Clyde''s party plans to continue and it looks like they do. Meanwhile another team just started a delve on my first floor marking my first time ever having two groups inside me at the same time. Well, I was hoping to put it off a bit longer. At least until I finished my third floor. It would seem however that I''m going to need to get that dungeon rule that prevents delvers from proceeding until the floor ahead of them is clear sooner rather than later. For now, Clyde''s team has just made it into the next room so I''m going to focus back on them. The other team is only level 3 to 4 anyway, so they probably won''t make it to the boss. If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. Clyde''s party is understandably on guard seeing the berry bushes. Clearly, they remember the last room with berry bushes having wolves hiding among the berries. I don''t think they were prepared for the number of wolves this time though. The last room like this did only have two wolves after all. Either way the second pair of wolves coming at them from either side manage to catch them of guard. One wolf lunges at Darrel who just barely manages to get his staff up in time to protect his throat. The wolf targeting Lily is intercepted by Chandra who manages to get between them. She is then able to stab it in the throat. Receiving a rather nasty bite on her forearm for her trouble. Darrel on the other hand has received several deep gashes in his abdomen from the wolf''s claws. Despite that he is still able to summon an ice spear which he begins using like a sword to stab the wolf. Lily rushes over to begin treating Darrel when a fifth wolf appears. Fortunately, by this point Clyde and Cole have finished with the wolves they were fighting. Cole immediately uses his taunt ability to get this new wolf to target him. The tank and fighter working together are able to overpower and eventually kill the wolf, but they can tell it''s stronger than the others. Chandra uses her one good arm to consume the healing potion they just got a few rooms ago while Lily uses a combination of healing potion and healing magic to stabilize Darrel. Thankfully they''re in a room full of healing items. A fact which Lily is happy to exploit. Not that I mind. They are more potent when used in a potion but eating them raw does have some limited healing potential. Harvesting them earns me mana either way so I don''t really care how their used. At this point Clyde decides to head back. Recalling the other high-level healers that often escort some low-level groups it''s easy to see why Clyde decided to end the delve here. Though I get the distinct impression he''ll be back on the second floor soon. Although she has improved since they started delving Lily''s talent as a healer is still only wood rank. I can tell she is close to leveling up now that I have seen enough level ups to know what to look for. Still wood rank, but one step closer to stone rank. Once they''re out I take a moment to check out what I got from that delve. It''s not possible to isolate what mana came from Clyde''s group with another group on the first floor. The fact that I get exponentially more mana for mobs being killed the more it costs to place them makes me kind of glad they are starting to get more expensive to place. It does make sense though seeing as I need ever more mana to build ever more expensive floors. Before getting back to working on the third floor I take a moment to search through the dungeon rules. The rule that essentially locks portals if the floor ahead is occupied by delvers is rather expensive. Which is why I wanted to put off getting it. At the same time, I''d rather have it before I actually need it. Having two groups inside me at the same time signals to me that I may need to have it very soon. A New Skill Back on the third floor I''m presented with the reality of that rule being so expensive. I can''t afford a large 20mx20mx20m room at the moment. I also don''t want to do nothing so instead I create two more branching paths on either side of the last room using the slightly smaller 10mx10mx10m rooms. I probably could have come up with another floor design that was somewhere between the two. I do still have around 110 world energy to play with after all. That''s not actually that much world energy though. Granted when I only had the one floor it felt like a lot. Now however it doesn''t seem like anything special. As for actually filling the two rooms I take my time. Mainly because I need to make sure there is enough mana left to reset the first floor once that party gives up. Which given their level should be happening pretty soon. At any rate I go ahead and put grass in both rooms. I then get the idea to search the shop to see if I can find anything interesting. Let me just check what the options are.
Rooms Various
Plants Various
Creatures Various
Loot Various
Themes Various
Traps Various
Skills Various
Creature Skill
Rules Various
It''s then that I notice something I had been overlooking until now. I can give myself skills. I think the last time I seriously looked at the options was when I was first starting out. I picked up the Water and earth skills and then never looked at the skills tab again. Since then, I''ve been just going right to the tab I wanted. Opening the skills tab, I notice that most of the skills are insanely expensive some costing billions or even trillions of world energy. Out of curiosity I ask what the difference between skills and rules are. To my surprise I actually get an answer despite not really asking anyone in particular. "The difference is twofold. First dungeon rules are automatic and once applied need no further input. Dungeon rules may consume mana in performing their task but as a general rule they do not require mana themselves. Skills require a certain level of mana to be used and maintained. Second dungeon rules apply specifically to the dungeon and only the dungeon. Skills apply to you and while the majority are meant to help you run the dungeon some are meant for other things." Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author. I don''t really like how the voice seemed to emphasize certain words. It almost sounded like it was trying to hint at something that it''s either not allowed to or is unable to tell me. Both of which are scary thoughts. They both suggest the presence of a being or beings more powerful than the voice. Either way there isn''t much I can do about it at the moment, so I chose to move on. Focusing on the list of skills once again, with a mental command I sort the list by price. The problem now is that none of them really jump out at me. I do briefly search for air and fire specifically. For some reason those cost a thousand world energy each. I''m not too upset as I would expect the really good skills to be a little expensive. One skill I do decide to get is simply called skills sense. According to the description it will allow me to see when a skill is used and which skill it is. Up till now I''ve been relying on context clues or them just shouting the name of the skill, for some reason, to know when a skill was being used. Only two teams have made it as far as the second floor so far so I''m not expecting my new skill to make much of a difference right away. As the team that was on my first-floor leaves, I get back to working on the third floor and mentally face palm. The reason I originally checked the options was to buy something to keep the rooms from being so monotonous. Instead, I spent most of the world energy I had on something completely unrelated. Ah well, looking closer the entire third floor seems to have taken on a nature theme all on its own. Granted I don''t actually have the nature theme, so I don''t get any discount on plants or nonhostile creatures. I decide to hold off for a bit and get a new creature I still need to populate the large room as well after all. I have an idea of the creature I want but it''s a bit expensive. In the meantime, I go ahead and throw down a small forest worth of trees in the center of the large room. As much as I can anyway. While the room is large compared to the others that I have right now it''s still relatively small. Luckily it doesn''t take as long as I thought it would to save up enough world energy. Finally, I can get back to populating the rooms. The first thing I do is set down a group of eight level 12 goblins. I don''t let them build a village because I want them to just attack delvers as soon as they enter. I keep them at level 12 because there are so many of them and because they are not the main enemy of this room. Up till now delvers will have gotten used to the idea that once an encounter ends the room is clear. I''m not that predictable. The real enemy will be three level 13 Skeleton mages. To keep things somewhat fair they will not attack the delvers until after the last goblin dies. Creature skills are much cheaper than the skills for me. So, I''m able to give two of them one offensive and one defensive spell. One will use fire and the other will use water. As for the third, he will be my ''healer'' and use a skill called mend undead. As well as a more potent ''healing'' spell that requires physical contact. The reason the skeleton mage is important is it allows me to do something I''ve been wanting to do for a while. Starting with two branching paths. In each of the smaller side rooms I place an entire skeleton party. In the room to the west, I place fighter, rogue, archer, and healer all level 13. In the room to the east, I place a fighter, rogue, fire mage, and healer once again all level 13. Adding More Rooms I do hope that people delve my second floor again soon. The first floor is still where the majority of my mana comes from. However, the mana I get from just the first three rooms of the second floor alone completely surpasses what I get from a full clear of the first floor. Makes me almost giddy thinking about how much mana I will get on the third, fourth, or even tenth floor. I''m getting ahead of myself though. I still need to finish the third floor. I wanted to use my new skills sense to observe the delvers but at level 5 and below the few skills they had were easy enough to observe without that skill. Still there were a few surprises. Such as when a dwarf used a skill called weighted tip to make his hammer hit with 5% more force than it otherwise would have. Over the next week I save up enough mana to buy the world energy for one of the large rooms. Once again, I place it directly in line with the others. In this one I scatter several pit traps around the room in as random an arrangement as I can manage. I also place a level 13 skeleton party. This one consists of a fighter, roque, water mage, and healer. Beyond that I make the decision to leave this room baren aside from the grass. After that I decide that there is one more monster type I need to get. Well, actually another skeleton type. I''ve noticed that the majority of the parties have a Tank. So, if they''re going to imitate the delvers it makes sense that my skeleton parties would have a tank as well. So instead of saving up for the next room I instead save up to get the final skeleton variant. Well, maybe not the last variant but the last one I have any interest in getting for the moment. The others such as the skeleton knight, peasant, noble, shop keeper, and so on don''t interest me at the moment. Now that I have what I want to use I slowly get to work on the next room. Because of the nature of this room, I decide against traps. I fill the room with a meter of dirt. After that I plant several trees. Then I''m about to start adding water when I suddenly remember to raise the entrance to prevent the water from leaving. Now they need a slight ramp to actually get down into the rooms but that''s easy enough to accomplish. After that I add enough water to conceal some skeletons. When that''s done, I add 16 level 11 skeletons of various types. I intentionally limit them to level 11 because of the sheer number of them. Also, because if everything goes right, the skeletons will seem to appear suddenly all around them. I already have the next room planned out just waiting for enough mana to actually create it when I am suddenly aware of Clyde''s party fighting the first-floor boss again. The first-floor boss barely poses any challenge anymore. Although Chandra does at least manage to reach level 7 during the fight. They take their time harvesting everything they can as they make their way back up to where they were forced to retreat last time. The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation. To my surprise Lily seems to have even picked up a foraging skill. I''m guessing it''s because it''s mainly her that is doing the harvesting while the others rest. Then again, she may have bought the skill somewhere. I''m still not entirely sure how skills work yet. I mean I can buy skills so I can''t be certain that they can''t. I can''t imagine how that would work but if buying skill is possible, I''m sure I''ll figure it out in time. In fact, why wait I have the ability to answer that question right now. Opening the world points shop I go to the loot section and search for skill. I don''t see anything that could be used to give people skills. So, I guess she actually did earn that foraging skill. It seems there is more to delvers acquiring skills than I previously thought. If that''s the case, then what purpose do levels serve. For mobs it''s just a generic stat boost. For delvers though I can''t help but feel like there has to be more to it than that. I''m starting to think that comparing this world to a game of D&D was being a bit narrow minded. I make up my mind to ask Clyde about it later. For now, I don''t want to interrupt their delve. I was so focused on figuring out how levels and skills actually work for delvers that I almost missed them making it back to the wolves that ended their delve last time. This time they are ready for the wolves'' tricks Chandra has a throwing knife ready while Darrel begins casting Ice spear before they even enter the room. Once again Clyde and Cole step forward to fight the two wolves directly ahead. This time however Darrel and Chandra look for and quickly find their targets. The two wolves don''t even have time to react. Not wanting to waste his mana Cole opts to charge directly at the fifth wolf instead of using his taunt ability. The poor thing doesn''t last long in a four vs one match. There is a lot to be said for knowing what to expect. Unfortunately, from here on out they no longer have that benefit. They spend some time resting while Lily harvests the berries but soon enough it''s time for them to continue. The lessons of the previous room aren''t so easily forgotten though. Darrel and Chandra are ready to strike before they even make it to the next room. upon entering the next room Clyde and Cole, being in the lead, are immediately attacked by two skeleton rogues in the center of the room. Meanwhile the real danger is off to either side. Darrel and Chandra were ready for something like this. Unfortunately, their attacks are blocked by the armor of the skeletal fighters. To make matters worse there are now arrows flying from two different directions. Seeing this Chandra uses her stealth ability to get past the fighters and target one of the archers. Cole realizing what''s happening uses his taunt skill to get the attention of the other fighters. I''m not sure even he can stand up to four fighters and a rogue even if he is higher level than they are. Still, he stands a much better chance than Darrel would have against the four fighters and an archer. In time I''m sure Darrel will have the ability to clear this entire floor by himself but for now it''s all he can do to protect himself and Lily from the archer who now doesn''t have to worry about friendly fire anymore. A Different Perspective Lily POV It''s amazing the twists and turns a life can take. I originally became an adventurer so I could travel and see the world. Sure, crossing the border isn''t a guarantee even for adventurers. The fact that adventurers are specifically forbidden to aid the military or engage in military actions does grant them a little leeway with the guards though. So, while it still isn''t a guarantee it''s pretty well accepted that adventurers can go wherever they want within reason. I have no doubt that Clyde thinks I became an adventurer because of him, and while that is not entirely true, I''d be lying if I said that didn''t factor into my decision at all. Then we had to go and find this dungeon. This dungeon turned out to be a huge boon to a kingdom that is over 60% desert. A kingdom so poor even the kings personal guard wears obsidian rank gear. True the crown can''t profit from the dungeon directly but already it''s attracting merchants and the like all of which have to pay taxes. On top of that Clyde went and claimed a huge swath of land around the dungeon which he must now pay taxes on. On top of that the dungeon''s location effectively links one of the most remote cities with the rest of the kingdom. Honestly, I think the only reason the kingdom hasn''t lost that city is that the nearby kingdom doesn''t want it. Not that I''m complaining. Most Adventurers get one, two, maybe three if they''re lucky levels a year meanwhile I''ve almost reached stone rank in less than two and a half years. Normally it would take at least another year to reach this point, but most likely 2, 3, or more years. So, while this isn''t the path I originally chose I wouldn''t change it. As an Ulgain citizen the fact that this dungeon will help to raise Ulgai from a tier 10 to a tier 9 possibly even tier 8 kingdom hasn''t escaped my notice either. I will admit to a certain level of national pride despite our kingdom being the laughingstock of the rest of the world. I''m pulled out of my thoughts by a pained cry from Clyde. His insistence on combining protection and maneuverability means that there are gaps in his armor. One such gap apparently having been found by one of the skeletons. This is the part of being a healer I hate the most. Having to fight against my instincts screaming at me to run up and begin healing right away. They''re still surrounded by three skeletons with swords and light armor though, so going up now would only make things worse. Meanwhile Chandra is gods know where. It''s only after I see an ice spear go flying towards one of the skeletons that I realize the archers aren''t firing at us anymore. A moment later I see Chandra stabbing one of the skeletons where an eye should be. Nothing I can do to help except wait for the last of the skeletons to fall so I can begin healing. It pains me to see the blood gushing out of the obvious whole in Clyde''s side. Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit. Fortunately, Cole, Chandra, And Darrel working together are able to make quick work of the last remaining skeletons. Watching the last skeleton fall my feet seem to have developed a mind of their own because I''m almost to Clyde before I even realize that I''ve started moving. I see him pop a minor health potion just as I start treating him. With the potions help I''m able to stop the bleeding and heal the wound enough for us to continue. Admittedly the potion did most of the work. Even advanced health potions can''t do everything though much less minor health potions. The question is which way Looking around we can spot two doors leading further into the dungeon. We all remember the insane number of dead ends on the first floor. Granted every dead-end lead to a treasure chest but still. None of us want to deal with another maze of rooms right now. We aren''t going to get deeper staying here though so we eventually decide on a path forward. In this room there are four wolves. Clyde and Cole naturally charge straight at the first two wolves. Darrel uses his water vines to ensnare one of the wolves. Meanwhile Chandra throws a knife at the other wolf and stars to turn her attention to the wolf ensnared by Darrel. At the last second though she realizes this wolf actually dodged the knife. I can see her start to panic a little as the wolf dodges yet another throwing knife. The wolf is almost upon us now. If it causes Darel to break his concentration, we are all dead. Well, maybe not dead but it won''t be pleasant regardless. At the last-minute Chandra throws another knife. The wolf predictably dodges this one but being in midair can''t dodge the one she throws next. This slows it down, but it takes a few more hits to kill it. Meanwhile Clyde and Cole managed to take down the two wolves they were facing. This leaves only the wolf being held down by Darrel which doesn''t survive much longer. As we wait for Chandra to collect her throwing knives, I check everyone''s health and heal what I can. One thing about adding Chandra to the team is it forces us to stop and rest after every room. While the others secretly complain about it, I''m of the mind that we will actually get further faster with me having time to apply a few healing spells between rooms. Plus, nobody would deny she is invaluable when dealing with archers and traps. As we sit here though it hasn''t escaped anyone''s notice that this room also has to ways to go from here. Once again, we eventually end up just picking a direction at random. This time we are meet with four wolves once again. These wolves seem more organized than the wolves we''ve faced until now. There certainly howling a lot more. Aside from that instead of just blindly fighting us head on they actually baited Clyde and Cole into chasing them. Meanwhile Darrel and Chandra took care of the other two which tried to sneak up behind us while the other two were drawing our attention. Fortunately, by this point we have long since learned to look for mobs in the corners of the room. Darrel then turns his attention to throwing ice spears. Which they dodge but it does slow them down enough for the others to catch up. Chandra then runs up and I think she is going to join them in taking down the wolves, but she instead runs past them. Towards a fifth wolf that I hadn''t even noticed. She does her best to keep its attention while the other two wolves are dealt with. Soon enough though they are all taken care of. Soon enough we are gathering a few bits of leather that fell. After that I once again take a moment to check over everyone. Aside from a few bruises where the wolves tried to bite through the armor, everyone seems to be fine. It doesn''t take us long to decide to keep going. Knowing Clyde, he probably wants to reach level 9 before calling it a day. Especially since Cole just reached level 9 making him the only member of our original group still at level 8. So Close, Yet So Far Dungeon POV Watching their progress it''s easy to see just how much they''ve improved since they last attempted the second floor. Then again it could just be that they''ve gotten good at fighting wolves. I silently promise myself to add more variety to the encounters on the fourth floor. Either way the next floor only trips them up for a second when Cole falls into one of the traps bringing his face within easy biting distance. In her defense Chandra was disarming another trap while trying to keep one of the wolfs at bay. As much as he wants to yell at her for not disarming this trap, especially while trying to keep his face from being bitten. He understands that Chandra can''t be everywhere, and it was his decision to run to the center of the room. Fortunately for the groups healer the alpha prefers to sit back and lead his troops. I wonder if that has to do with the intent I had when making them. I''m no expert but I don''t think that''s normal wolf behavior. Then again, I''m pretty sure neither is fighting to the death. If that''s the case I need to pay attention to my frame of mind and the intent with which mobs are made. The next floor is a lot more interesting. Due to the traps on the last floor, they are more cautious now. Also, I think they were expecting more of the same as far as strength. It doesn''t take long for them to figure out that the wolves in this room are of a higher level. Add to that the fact that they''re already starting to feel the effects of fight after fight, and this room was even tougher than it otherwise would have been. I''m excited though because this is the last room before the chest room, and I get a lot of mana when a chest is looted. Clyde and Cole are doing their best to go one on one against two of the wolves. Darrel has another wolf pinned down, but his mana is dangerously low. Chandra is barely able to stay out of striking range of yet another wolf. Being level 7 facing a level 9 wolf alone she is completely out classed by the wolf''s agility and speed leaving her no time to do anything but dodge and prey. Thankfully it still has the intelligence of a wolf, so Chandra is able to use her wits to outmaneuver it for now. It looks like Lily wants to help but as a healer there is nothing she can do. Then it happens. The wolf finally lands a blow on Chandra. Thankfully the lite leather armor was enough to keep the wound from being too serious. Unfortunately, the hit caused her to stumble landing face down on the ground. A position the wolf attacking her was not shy about taking advantage of. Pinning her down with its considerable weight it moved to take a bite out of the back of her skull. Only to receive two ice spears in the head and shoulder. Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. Those ice spears came at a cost though. In order to deliver them Darrel had to release the wolf he had pinned down. That wolf in turn wasn''t about to just sit there. Almost before Darrel could turn back around it had closed the gap. He barely had time to get his staff up to protect his throat before the wolf pounced on him. He managed to keep from being insta killed, if only just barely, but that doesn''t mean he was completely unharmed. The wolf began to claw at his mid-section while trying to bite through the staff giving me a weird sense of deja vu. Fortunately, his robes are made of a thicker material. Still though he does receive several nasty gashes. As if to add insult to injury the wolf also managed to bite through the staff. The magic potential in the staff although low is still enough to momentarily stun both the wolf and Darrel. A moment later the wolf receives two throwing knives in the head. With Lily''s help Chandra finally regained consciousness. Though neither her nor Darrel are in any condition to continue. The gashes on Darrel chest while not as deep as they would have been without the robes are still pretty substantial. Lily immediately runs over to begin checking on Darrel. Giving him the last of the groups healing potions I watch as she begins to work her healing magic. It''s different than I would have thought. Instead of continuous healing she is constantly recasting it every few seconds. Occasionally stopping to clean of the blood enough to see what she is doing. It''s a good thing she did to because the sheer amount of blood was able to completely hide some of the smaller gashes. At the same time while faring much better Clyde and Cole haven''t exactly been having it easy. Cole manages to kill his opponent only to then be confronted by the alpha. Clyde is soon able to finish off his opponent as well. This allows them to team up against the alpha. Even so the fight is tough at first. Eventually though they are able to get the wolf in between them. From there the ending was inevitable although the alpha still didn''t go down without a fight. After the fight they rather predictably decide to call it a day. Not that I blame them. Chandra and Darrel both need serious healing. Though Chandras''s injuries are more internal leading me to wonder if she''ll get the healing she needs. I am rather disappointed they didn''t make it to the chest but there is always next time. Thinking about it I can''t help but chuckle to myself thinking of the looks on their faces when they realize how close they were to a chest. Still, it''s not like they had any hope of claiming the chest if they had continued. As they make their way back to the entrance, I can see that there is another party ready to tackle the second floor. Surprisingly they seem to understand that not being able to pass through the portal meant there was already a party on the second floor. Makes sense that that would be a common dungeon rule among all dungeons. I don''t have much hope for them making it very far. One is level 6 while the other five are level 5. This party apparently consists of one of each type of adventurer including the first archer I''ve ever seen that wasn''t one of my skeleton archers. Adding The Boss Room To The Third-Floor I watched the other group attempt the second floor and was surprised to them actually make it to the fourth room before being forced to turn around. Obviously having an archer of their own helped a lot. What really helped though was the numbers advantage. Even that didn''t last though. I''m sure a few levels won''t make much difference later on but for now every level counts. Having lost their numerical advantage in the fourth room they were exhausted and eventually forced to retreat by the level 6 and 7 wolves. I''ll definitely be keeping an eye on this party. Between the two of them I certainly got a lot of mana. Now I think it''s finally time to get back to construction. The next room I place will be almost identical to the previous room minus the water. I also take the time to throw in a few orange trees. As for the mobs I add four level 14 skeletons including a fighter, tank, fire mage, and healer. This being the most common party configuration I see. I still don''t feel right being able to give my creatures fire magic when I don''t have it myself. The room after that I place to the east. This room consists of a few miracle berries with some apple trees here and there. as for monsters I place a level 15 skeletal party similar to the previous room but with a water mage instead of a fire mage. For a moment I''m tempted to throw in a rogue as well so that it resembles Clyde''s party. I decide against it though because if something happened to one of them this room would be a cruel reminder of what was lost. The next room is the last room before the boss. This one I also place to the east. As for mobs I place another level 15 Skeleton party but this time I swap out the mage for an archer. I also put in two level 15 dire wolves. I want to make sure that any party facing the boss has a chance of defeating it. It will be the first obsidian rank boss after all. Each increase in rank represents a dramatic increase in every measurable metric. Up till now the bosses have both been stone rank so delvers had no lower rank bosses to compare them to. The boss room itself is placed to the south of this room. As for what the boss will actually be I decide on a level 20 tank. More than just being level 20 though I also give him magic resistance as well as a full set of high-quality obsidian rank gear. each piece having its own enchantment as well as being made of a higher quality and all-around purer metal than wood or even stone rank gear. Most of the enchantments include basic defense buffs. The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. A few notable exceptions include the helmet which has an enchantment to let the wearer see through any illusion created by an obsidian rank or lower adventurer. The gauntlet which had a strength buff. The sabaton which had a speed buff. The sword, which was enchanted to be sharper than normal, and last but certainly not least the shield which was enchanted to subtly make opponents target the shield. On top of that I gave the boss the swift strike and shield bash skills. All that may seem like overkill but it''s precisely because of that the room before the boss is so tough. As a reward for defeating the boss I make it so that the boss will always drop a random piece of gear complete with the corresponding enchantment still attached. Unfortunately, all those enchantments, skills, and high-quality gear cost me what little world energy I had left. So, for now, it''s back to waiting. Fortunately, all I''ve got left to do in order to officially finish the third floor is the side paths. Since I plan to mostly use the smaller 10x10x10 rooms for the side paths they will be much cheaper. Meanwhile outside the dungeon. Clyde POV Walking around the outpost I can''t help but think about how big this place has gotten. It seems like there are more houses going up every day. Of course, since it''s technically my land they had to get permission to build. I just didn''t realize until now how much each new house added to the size and complexity of the outpost. Some people have said that I should just go ahead and found a town. The thing is though, I just want to delve. I don''t want to be in charge of a town. Never mind the fact that, as Lily keeps reminding me, I kind of already am even if it''s not an official town. As I approach the new academy that is currently under construction I can''t help wondering if maybe they''re right. Maybe I''m just being stubborn. Being an official town would surely attract more people. Most of those people I suspect would be delvers. This would increase the revenue from the entry fees. The fact that it''s in the middle of a desert being offset by having a dungeon in the middle of town. Being an official town will also allow me to hire guards to act as security and more importantly peacekeepers. It''s not too bad at the moment but as this place grows so too will crime. That''s just a fact of life. Made even worse by living in such an impoverished kingdom. Not that I think it''s possible for any kingdom to be 100% crime free. Generally speaking though, the more wealth a kingdom has the better trained, more skilled, and better equipped the guards are. The thing is, it would also mean a ton more paperwork every day. On top of that it would mean daily or near daily battles with the most ferocious, most relentless, and most feared monster in the entire world, bureaucracy. A monster that has defeated even the most seasoned adventurer. Still looking at the clinic going in right across from the academy I find myself reluctantly agreeing that maybe it is time after all. Now what should I name it. Every town needs a name after all. I don''t have any ideas at the moment but I''m certain I can do better than Dungeon Town. I''m also going to rule out any name with desert in it because I don''t want my towns name to be so clich¨¦. Unfortunately, as far as what to actually name it I''m drawing a blank. Perhaps It''s time I ask the others for suggestions. Third Floor Finished Dungeon POV Over the past few days, I''ve noticed more and more people making it to the first-floor boss. Most even manage to defeat the boss. Some going on to challenge the second floor. They usually don''t make it past the second room and so far, Clyde''s Party is the only one to make it past the fourth room. It surprises me that nobody thinks to check inside the little abandoned cabin in the second room. Then again, most dungeons use only the minimum number of mobs at the highest level possible as well as the fewest number of rooms for that floor. All in an effort to go as deep as possible as fast as possible. Only using chests with loot because they wouldn''t be able to lure in delvers otherwise. Trying to make yourself as unfriendly to delvers as possible and then trying to lure them in seems paradoxical to me. Then again this is all information from the perspective of delvers. I have no idea what those other dungeons are thinking. After all I''ve heard some wild theories about myself as well. Mostly about why the first floor is so big. Those theories run the gambit from not knowing I could go deeper to simply not feeling the need to go deeper since there were no delvers in the desert. While amusing I try not to dwell on such gossip. Instead choosing to finish fleshing out the third floor. Thanks partly to the mana I got from those who delved the second floor even a little bit. As for the first set of branching paths. I plan to continue making the two sides Identical. So, I choose to work on both sides simultaneously, something I''m only now realizing I can even do. First, I add a level 13 skeleton party. The party in question will consist of a tank a fighter and two mages. As always, I give them a chance to drop a random piece of gear. Then I add a few orange trees to the room. The trees are added mainly for decoration. I did however decide to make them orange trees as opposed to some other kind because for one they seem to enjoy having alternatives to rat meat. On top of that I feel like they would be getting tired of berries as well by now. There are a few nonhostile creatures scattered around but since they mostly hide rather than fighting, they need to be actively hunted. No such thing as a free meal. For the next room I decide on three more branching paths. For the northern path I place four level 14 wolves lead by a level 15 alpha. This is followed by six level 15 wolves. I don''t bother adding anything else to the rooms except for grass. Aside from the chest in the last room that is. As for said chest I give it a loot table consisting of potions and coins. Including minor health potions, minor mana potions, copper, and even silver coins. having only just recently acquired the mana potion pattern. Sadly, the mana potion doesn''t really work on me since it only restores what it costs to make the potion. I suppose if I ever have a surplus of mana, it could be used as a type of battery backup. The southern paths I give four level 14 skeletons in the first room consisting of a tank a fighter a rogue and a mage. I place an identical group of level 15 skeletons in the next room. As well as a chest containing a random assortment of high-quality stone rank gear. I would even consider enchanting some however below obsidian rank the quality is just too low to hold an enchantment. Well technically you could do it, but the effect would be like putting a new air intake on an old clunker. Sure, the performance might be slightly better but it''s still an old clunker. It''s never going to be able to fully utilize it. If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. For the paths that would be straight ahead relative to the direction towards the main path from here I chose goblins. Four level 14 goblins in one room and six level 15 goblins in the other room. as for the chest I have it contain a combination of gear, potions, and coins at random. I also set it up so that each chest contains at least twelve items. As for the next set of branching paths I decide not to go too crazy and just make them straight lines. For the next room in either path I include a party of four level 14 skeletons. For the eastern path it''s a tank, fighter, mage, and healer. For the western path it''s a tank, rogue, archer, and healer. along with various low-level skills for both groups. The next rooms will have an identical group of six level 15 skeletons including a tank, two fighters a rogue, an archer, and a mage. As for the chest I decide on some high-quality stone rank gear. With that the third floor is officially finished. Time to start on the fourth floor ... whenever I get enough mana that is. I plan to continue my pattern of doubling the room size for each floor. It wasn''t my original intention but somehow it just feels right. Before officially starting on the fourth floor however I plan to get a few things from the system shop. Seeing as nobody has even made it to the second-floor boss yet I''m not in any hurry. There are higher level delvers out there but from what I understand I still have to few floors to interest them. One thing I plan to finally grab system shop is the fire and air skills. I''m not sure what I''ll actually do with the air skill just yet, but I do have plans for the fire skill. Some other themes like the campsite theme and the volcano theme as well as many others require me to have the fire skill before I''m even allowed to purchase theme. The only one that I really want is the campsite theme. It comes with tents, bedrolls, a lite campfire, and cooking equipment. As well as an assortment of skins, meats, and trinkets. The trinkets won''t help them in battle, but it still might be a nice change from the normal loot. One other thing I plan to get now that the rooms will be big enough for it to matter is a dungeon rule that will automatically simulate the sky outside the dungeon. hopefully it only simulates the sky and not the dry heat. I don''t plan to recreate the desert in my dungeon. It''s enough that they must survive it to even get here. Though logically speaking some kind of permanent route will likely be established soon if it hasn''t already. It has taken longer than I care to admit to actually save up enough to get all that. During this time Clyde''s party made six more attempts on the second floor getting a little further each time. The main issue right now is that Darrel and Lily keep running low on mana. Come to think of it I haven''t seen Clyde''s party delve in a few weeks. ever since Clyde reached level 10 and officially became stone rank. Fortunately for me more and more teams are making it to the second floor. Some are starting to even push past the fourth room, though just barely. Otherwise, I don''t know how long it would have taken me to afford everything. As I begin to think about what I want to do for the fourth floor, I still want to get new mobs after all. I since Clyde return to the entryway of the first floor. He''s just collecting water this time. However, this does give him a chance to brag about being officially recognized as stone rank. According to him Chandra, who is currently level 8, must reach stone rank before they can be officially recognized as a stone rank party. The reason that is important is because once that happens, I will officially be recognized as a stone rank dungeon since I will have been able to completely nurture a stone rank party. Dungeon ranks are apparently different from delver ranks. Dungeon ranks are based on the highest rank that dungeon has nurtured. They don''t need to start at level 1 but everyone in the party must go up a rank while delving. Once I become officially recognized as a stone rank dungeon that will attract delvers of between levels 7 to 10. In other words, stone rank dungeons attract delvers who are close to stone rank. Right now, that won''t really help me much since almost every dungeon reaches at least stone rank eventually. combine that with the fact that I''m apparently extremely remote and I might see a handful of new delvers coming for the novelty of delving a new dungeon. It would seem the only reason I''m as popular as I am, is that while remote, I''m also the only dungeon in this kingdom. Planning The fourth Floor For the fourth floor I decide to get creative with the floor plan. While simply doubling the size still feels right, I believe I can do better. More to the point I believe I can be more creative than that. I can''t wait to see the look on delvers faces when they finish mapping it out and realize what I''ve done. First, I start with the entryway and make it bigger for the first time. Instead of just the usual 5x5x5 starting room I place down a 30x10x10 that I just crafted. I started to go for a room that was even 40 meters long, but I figured that might be a bit much for a starting area. I place it so that it would be running lengthways east to west. I fill this room with Miracle berries and jujube trees. Then create a small pond that is two meters at its deepest. I even throw down a campsite theme that I just bought, minus the bedrolls of course. I am curious if I get mana for them harvesting the supplies at the camp site since they came with the theme. I''ll admit it''s a bit fancy for a simple entryway, but it is the fourth-floor entryway. Besides I''m feeling a little generous. The fact that I miss camping has almost nothing to do with it. In fact, I kind of wish I had some fish to place in the pond. Then again, the idea is for them to rest not for them to actually camp out. I start to place down the next room when I suddenly realize I forgot to get new mobs. Goblins were rarely used in the last floor, but I feel like it''s still too early for a ''goblin floor''. As I''m looking through the creatures'' section of the system shop, I can feel Clyde''s party once again descend to the second floor. Looks like they might go pretty far this time seeing as they''re all wearing stone rank gear and carrying stone rank weapons. One of the perks of being officially recognized as a higher rank is getting access to higher rank gear and being allowed to actually wear it. It makes more sense to me to let people buy the most expensive thing they can afford, and under special circumstances such as equipping guards and the army that is indeed the case. The way Clyde explained it though is that a rich idiot with a heroic rank blade can do a lot of damage both to himself and those around him. Not to mention that levels come from being challenged and gear that is too high of a level either completely removes the challenge or forces the person to confront things they aren''t ready to face in order to gain experience. I make a mental note to check in on their progress later and go back to working on the fourth floor. Specifically looking at new creatures to buy. I thought about going with basic zombies, but I''d rather not be known as ''the undead dungeon'' thank you very much. Instead, I go with basic golems. Not alive per say but also not technically undead either. I go ahead and pick up a few different varieties as well. Including mud, wood, stone, plant, and bug golems. There are others but they get progressively more expensive as you go down the list. Besides I also bought giant scorpions. I soon spawn one just to check how giant it is. I don''t think any of my delvers are ready to fight a walking mountain. The giant scorpions are only about the size of a small car though so, while they are big, they aren''t overly huge. I think anyone around level 15 or higher should be able to handle them. I''m getting ready to place my first actual room on the fourth floor when I notice that Clyde''s group is now only one room away from the boss room. This isn''t the first time they''ve made it this far. It was quite amusing though watching them realize that they just went in a circle. Reluctantly Clyde has the party back track to clear the rooms they hadn''t gotten to yet while mumbling to himself about how he should have realized it back when they first started encountering rooms with no mobs. I''m inclined to agree he really should have.This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author''s work. It doesn''t take them very long to make it back through the skeleton path to the room they haven''t been in yet. I can see having to backtrack being really annoying when the rooms start to actually get big though. For now, they enter the room and are immediately greeted by four level 8 skeleton fighters which they quickly defeat, even the level 8 rogues don''t pose much of a challenge anymore. The food is a welcome site though and they do spend a fair amount of time harvesting. The next room does present more of a challenge if only because one of the rogues was replaced with an archer. Arrows are still deadly if they hit the right spot after all. Admittedly by this point they know how to handle archers so clearing this room still doesn''t take too long. When they enter the next room though things quickly change. Clyde barely manages to get out a simple "fuck" before finding himself fighting two on one against level 10 skeleton fighters. Cole for his part uses taunt to get the two rogues to focus on him on top of the two fighters he was already fighting. Tanking enemy attacks is kind of a tanks job though. That leaves Chandra to deal with the two archers while Darrel tries to keep himself and Lily safe until the archers are dealt with. Clyde is getting pretty good at parrying. Unfortunately, he doesn''t get the chance to capitalize on it while facing off against two level 10 opponents. You wouldn''t think there would be much difference between this and the level 9 fighters, but these are stone rank fighters now. Going up in rank represents a qualitative leap in all stats with the increase to class specific stats being even better. This also explains why Clyde''s party found the rest of the floor so much easier lately. Part of why I created this room was to give delvers that just reached stone rank a challenge that wasn''t the boss. Sure, there are a few other level 10 mobs but for the most part this is a wood rank floor. Cole isn''t fairing much better but at least he has a shield. Chandra on the other hand is finding it hard to get close to the archers. Their perception isn''t enough to break her stealth skill, but they can tell something is there. Even if they don''t know exactly where she is. They forced her to have to dodge a few times despite essentially blind firing. Still, she does eventually manage to take them out with a few throwing knives from a distance. These in turn frees up Darrel to start throwing ice spears to help Clyde while Chandra moves on to the two rogues attacking Cole. The ice spears catch one of the fighters off guard while the other just barely manages to dodge in time. Clyde is able to take a more aggressive stance now that he isn''t fighting two on one. this puts the skeleton fighter on the defensive for the first time during this entire exchange. Meanwhile Darrel quickly switches targets and begins helping Cole. Speaking of which it''s a good thing Cole got a full set of stone rank gear. It''s already showing a few dents despite being heavy armor designed to take abuse. Nothing too serious. However, I can imagine wood rank armor already having a few blade sized holes in it. Once again Darrel''s ice spears catch one of the fighters off guard although this one just loses an arm rather than being killed. The ice spike that comes out of the ground however does manage to kill the other skeleton fighter. Mainly because he was expecting another ice spear. Cole then turns to confront the one-armed fighter only for it to be stabbed in the back by Clyde who had already finished with the other fighter. At this point Chandra has already dealt with one of the rogues leaving just one more opponent who unsurprisingly doesn''t live much longer. They are a little surprised when they open the chest and find stone rank gear. The gear they have is better, but they actually had to pay for it. After that they take a little break while Lily checks over everyone. Chandra managed to reached level 9 while Cole and Darrel are both close to level 11. When they are done resting Clyde decides that they should head back claiming he wants to be at least level 12 before challenging the boss. Even though he doesn''t say it I can also feel that he wants Chandra to at least reach stone rank before attempting the boss. The Ladies Return. Well, that was interesting. The fight with the level 10 skeletons went more or less exactly how I thought it would. They were not however as excited about the loot as I thought they''d be. To be fair they do get coin both for delving and for letting others delve. So, it''s not like their lacking in resources. At least not like they were when they first entered the dungeon. I also like Clyde''s strategy of letting first time delvers pay on the way out or risk getting banned. After seeing the amount of copper coins on the first floor no one has refused to pay. At any rate I decide to wait and see how other people respond to the chest before making any rash decisions. Getting back to my work on the fourth I place down an 80x20x20 room aligned so that it is longer in the north-south direction. In this room I place stone all around to really give it that cave aesthetic. I also place a few medicinal mushrooms and moss. For once I don''t bother planting any grass since this room is supposed to be a cave tunnel. As for the mobs I place down eight level 15 giant scorpions. However, I stagger them throughout the room so that the party isn''t getting swarmed all at once. Of course, if the fight takes too long or ends up making too much noise there is a chance they could attract other nearby giant scorpions. After that I have just enough world energy left to place a 10x10x20 room. It would have been much cheaper to make the room only 10 meters in height, but I wanted to at least maintain a consistent height. I also place this room diagonally from every other room I''ve placed so far. After that I continue with the cave aesthetic. In this room I also place my first lethal trap. A rather basic pit fall trap with spikes at the bottom. Another reason I wanted to maintain a consistent height. I needed to make the pits deep enough for the spikes to actually be deadly. It''s not like I didn''t give delvers plenty of warning this was coming. As for mobs I place four level 15 moss golems. Technically they''re plant golems, but they''re made of moss so fuck it I''m calling them moss golems. Unfortunately, that''s it for now. That one big room was 2,560 world energy after all. Even with the second floor getting delved more frequently it no longer produces enough mana to keep up with my spending. It was barely keeping up when I was working on the third. Fortunately, I''m starting to get as much daily mana from the second floor as from the first. Once the second floor becomes as popular as the first floor is now my mana generation should pick up significantly.This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. For now, I do the only thing I really can do. Sit back and watch the delvers. At least I''m not staring at the wall waiting for my mana to ever so gradually increase. Surprisingly I''m not getting as many low level delvers as I used to. Low level being a relative term but it''s rare to see a party with an average level of less than three anymore. I do still get the occasional newbie party, but it''s certainly slowed way down. Most but not all of those are led by an instructor Out of curiosity I ask Clyde the next time he comes to collect water. You''d think he would have hired someone to do that by now. Anyway, he confirmed my suspicion that everyone in this region who can delve and wants to have already started and the newbie parties I get now are those that just recently came of age to start delving. I was wondering why there were no children. Not that I''m complaining, I doubt I could bring myself to harm a child even if they were worth a million mana. It''s just nice to get confirmation that a person has to be at least sixteen to register as an adventurer and most people spend a year or two training before they accept their first quest. You''d think they would gain a few levels while training but something about it not being life or death makes it not count towards experience. It seems even Clyde isn''t entirely sure how that works. Before he leaves, I let him know that I''m currently working on the fourth floor. He seems surprised but I can also sense a renewed drive to make it to the third floor. After he leaves, I get back to watching the delvers. That all female party is back on the second floor. I''m glad they didn''t give up after what happened last time. They even managed to find a new female healer who was apparently the only survivor of another unfortunate party. Fortunately, they are the same level. This time the mage immediately throws up a stone wall as soon as they enter the room without even waiting for the archer to appear. After that the fight goes much smoother, ending with the tank using her taunt skill, which seems to be both common among all tanks and one of the first skills tanks learn, to keep the archer''s attention on her. At least until they got within melee range. Ya, archers and melee are not a good combination if you happen to be the archer. After that they actually take the time to look around before continuing on. Eventually managing to find the chest inside the abandoned cabin. I''ve noticed that around 30% of delvers that make it to this point miss that particular chest. I mean I kind of get it. Up till now the chests were all out in the open, but as adventurers and more importantly delvers you''d think they would be a little more thorough about collecting loot. Then again teaching delvers to look for hidden loot is partly why that chest is there. Soon though they''ve rested enough that the leader decides it''s time for them to tackle the next room. The Ladies VS The Wolves In the next room the fighter and tank having been warned about this room by other groups don''t immediately run towards the two skeleton fighters. Instead allowing the skeletons to come to them meanwhile the mage creates a stone wall to protect them from the arrows. I can''t help but notice that the stone wall requires way more mana to create than the water wall. The tradeoff being that once it''s created it requires way less mana to upkeep. In fact, if you don''t care about repairing it there is no upkeep cost. This means that the mage is free to cast other spells. Before she can though, the two skeleton fighters need to be dealt with. Something the fighter and tank duo seem to be struggling with. To be fair though, at their level the first-floor boss is still a major problem, and they are exhausted. Another problem which I didn''t actually intend on is that skeletons don''t actually have internal organs so weapons like hammers and maces do way better against them than swords. Not that anyone seems to be complaining about it. Though now that I''m paying attention it would explain the uptick in the number of tanks with war hammers. Tanks tend to be big and burly, so I guess I just didn''t think much of them wanting to use big burly weapons. That''s not to say it''s impossible to win with a sword as the leader demonstrates by ducking a horizontal slash and then leaping up and slightly forward with a vertical thrust using her momentum to help send her blade through the skeleton''s skull. The second skeleton fighter is rather trivial after that. Now I will admit that I expected them to charge towards the archers. Which wouldn''t be the worst plan. Except for the traps. Clearly though they already know about the traps because they are staying back letting the mage hurl stone spears at the archers while taking cover behind the stone wall. It kind of reminds me of an old west shootout but with magic and arrows instead of guns. Eventually the archers are eliminated, and the party begins cautiously approaching the rooms exit. If I wasn''t sure they already knew about the traps, I am now because their eyes are glued to the ground looking for any hint of a trap. Whatever method they are using seems to work since they are able to make it to the next room without triggering any of the traps. They didn''t use any trap detecting skills is all I know but if it works it works. I did intentionally make them easy to spot after all.This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it Their luck runs out in the next room though. It started well enough with the leader and tank intercepting the two wolves that attacked from the front. The mage was even able to use a stone spike to deal with a wolf that attacked from the side. Unfortunately, she was too slow to do anything about the wolf that attacked from the other side. She managed to get her arms up in time but that did little aside from protecting her throat during the initial attack. The wolfs momentum caused her to stumble and fall backwards which to say the least did not help her situation. The wolf used its comparatively massive body to hold her down while it once again tried to bite at her throat or face. Fortunately, the mage wasn''t just lying there taking it as the wolf soon had a skull full of stone spears. Way more than was technically necessary in fact. The healer had lost her entire party a few months back and from the look on her face she thought it was happening all over again. Seeing the mage lying in a pool of blood the healer feared the worst, but the mage was not only still alive despite the huge gashes in her arm, but she was also actually still fighting. In spite of her injuries, she didn''t want to use the healing potion they just got on herself. She was apparently trying to save them for emergencies. The healer was insistent, however. For their part it wasn''t as if the other two didn''t realize what was happening. They simply had their hands full already. In fact, the tank used taunt to draw the other two wolves that just appeared towards her. At the mage''s insistence the healer soon turned her attention to helping their party leader and tank. The two melee fighters did end up getting bit a few times, but they at least had armor so it wasn''t as bad as it could have been. It doesn''t take long after that for them to decide to make their way back to the entrance. Hopefully they will use this as a learning experience. Time will tell though. I didn''t intent for the fourth room to be such a roadblock. Then again it is the first time groups are being charged at from multiple angles at once instead of one after another. The best part is that despite almost losing another member they are eager for their next delve. Even the healer which I find rather shocking given her reaction to the mage almost dying. Honestly even the mage wasn''t that upset by it. Not that I would blame her if she was, given that she almost died. It does surprise me that she now seemed so eager to go again. I''m not sure I could have kept going. On a more positive note, that delve went a long way towards giving me the mana I need to continue working on the fourth floor. It''s not just the size of the room or the fact that mobs cost way more to summon at the appropriate level. The rooms now need multiple light crystals. As well as several tons of both dirt and water if I chose to add them. All of which costs mana to create. I think it will still be at least a month though before anyone challenges the second-floor boss so it''s not like I''m in a rush. Luna At some point I notice that I''ve saved up enough to continue working on the fourth floor. This time I place down another long room in line with the last room I placed. Continuing with the cave aesthetic for now I add lots of stone carefully shaping it to fit the look I''m going for. As for mobs I add eight level 16 giant scorpions staggered throughout the room. I''m not done yet though. One of the reasons I waited this long was to get a dart trap. The dart traps I place in the ceiling. Doing this will serve two purposes. For one it will teach delvers that I don''t just have pit traps. Secondly, it will teach delvers to look up. I''m not sure why but none of them ever seem to look up. That may be partly my fault as everything I''ve attacked them with so far has been either on or in the ground. I plan to introduce fliers at some point. Though I''ll probably wait till the fifth floor so I can make the rooms big enough that they won''t be at a disadvantage. As for what type of ammo to use I choose sleeping darts. Since I''m just now introducing dart traps, I don''t want them to be immediately deadly. Although with the giant scorpions roaming around the traps not being deadly may just be a technicality. I do my best to try and place them in between where I think the battles will take place. Nothing is guaranteed though as I do allow the giant scorpions to roam. They are limited in where they can roam but their territories do overlap. The reason I limited where they can roam is just that I didn''t want them all congregating in one spot. That would create an encounter no party at that level could deal with. Once again size plays a factor in a creature''s overall strength. On top of that their carapace is comparable to some armors in terms of hardness. That''s not even mentioning the venom which if being impaled by the tail doesn''t kill them the venom surely will. At least until they start creating anti-venom potions. Perhaps they may even create a resistance potion. Thinking about that I go ahead and make it so that the venom gland and some portion of the carapace both have a chance to dop as loot. I set it so that there is a 25% chance for both of them. Though which one will drop is random. There is a very real chance that neither ends up dropping. On the flip side there is a very small chance both will. Of course, the problem is that now I''m back to waiting for my mana to fill up again. Luckily there is always delvers to watch. except at night which is the only reason I even know that it''s currently nighttime. One of the agreements that I made with Clyde was for the dungeon to be closed for a few hours each night in case I needed to do something on one of the early floors. It seemed like a good idea at the time. To be fair it probably will save me a ton of headache later on. For now, though all I can do is wait. Meanwhile outside the dungeon Clyde and Lily are discussing the future after just getting finished with activities best left to the imagination. "Have you at least decided on a name yet" she asks after getting comfortable. "Not yet" he admits. "There have been a few ideas, but nothing really seems to fit" he says while getting up, much to Lily''s annoyance. "And just where do you think you''re going" she says teasingly. While halfheartedly trying to grab him and drag him back to bed. "I''m going for a little walk to clear my head" he says before adding "and you still need to rest and recover. I plan for us to do a full clear of the second floor tomorrow. There was stone rank gear in that last chest and ideally, I''d like to have a stockpile of stone rank gear before people around here start to reach stone rank. The shop keeper certainly doesn''t mind being able to brag about having more than just wood rank gear now."If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. "That''s fair" she says while recalling the look in his eyes when they gave him the stone rank gear to sell. "But what about you, don''t you need to rest" she asks. "I''ll be back soon" he says while flashing a smile that she knows means he''s up to something. She trusts him though, so she decides it''s not worth leaving her comfy bed over. Besides whatever it is she''s confident she''ll find out eventually, Clyde is terrible at keeping secrets. Clyde heads straight for where the new arrives come in at. It''s just a small building near the outskirts that the outpost is using to receive new people. They can''t officially join the kingdom''s currier route until they officially become a town which is why there isn''t a set schedule yet. Today''s package is special though. He didn''t want to wait till tomorrow this time. Unfortunately, it doesn''t look like it''s arrived yet. He doesn''t have to wait long though before he sees the dust trail that indicates the package is on the way. Seeing this he can''t help but smile. As the carriage gets closer his smile gets wider until it''s almost jumping off his face. Soon enough it stops just outside the small building. After waiting for a few intense moments, the door finally opens. The first to walk out is a woman about Clyde''s height with shoulder length curly blond hair that seems out of place on her frame, and a truly impressive bosom. One has to wonder how she manages to keep her back straight. She soon walks over to give Clyde a huge hug and it becomes obvious that they know each other. As they''re hugging four other people also exit the carriage. Soon she turns and begins introducing them. "This is Cragle our tank" she says pointing to the dwarf who just looks annoyed. Then again, he can''t remember seeing a dwarf that didn''t look either annoyed or angry. The dwarf is almost the same height as Lily which is rather tall for a dwarf. "This is Silvia our healer" she says pointing to an elf. "She ran away from her community because she got tired of being treated like a child" she adds quickly. Elves are one of the longer-lived species so by their standards she actually was still a child. Clyde wisely decided not to bring that up though. Aside from the ears and the completely white hair that goes down to just past her shoulders she could be mistaken for an average human woman. "Next up is our fighter Fred" she says pointing to a rather ordinary looking human with a muscular physique about the same height as Clyde "And finally, there''s Jim the rogue" she says pointing to a slender young man who looks to be even shorter than Lily if Clyde had to guess. "I see you took my advice" he says to her after being introduced to Jim. "Now that introductions are out of the way how about we find a place to get some shut eye" grumbles Cragle. "Would it kill you to not be grumpy for like 5 minutes" Fred shoots back. "There must be a reason Luna bothered to introduce us." "To bore us to death most likely" retorts the elf earning a surprised look from everyone. "You might feel differently if it was someone you cared about, we were meeting." "Anyone I care about would have the decency to wait till morning." responds the elf and dwarf in unison. Meanwhile oblivious to the interactions behind them, or rather choosing to ignore them. the pair continue to reminisce. "What about Lily? does she suspect anything" Luna asks hesitantly. "Doesn''t have a clue" Clyde says smiling. "Great" she says "but how exactly are we going to do this" she adds while subtly motioning to the rest of her party. "I have already arranged some rooms; they should be ready for them" he says Which seems to perk everyone up. After some brief directions they are off to find their rooms leaving Clyde and Luna alone. "As for you" he says with a grin. "You''re coming with me. I''ve got a spare bedroom that I insist you use." "Perfect" she says smiling back. "I can''t wait to surprise my big sister!" The Intruder Lily POV I''m woken up by the sound of movement coming from the main living area. Damn Clyde it''s too early to be making all that racket I think to myself getting more annoyed by the second. Still half asleep myself I get to go drag Clyde back to bed and give him an earful for waking me up in the first place. However just as I turn to leave the bedroom, I notice something that stops me in my tracks. If Clyde is laying there, then who is that downstairs making all that racket. The sudden realization that it''s not Clyde momentarily causes me to freeze. I''m an adventurer yes but I''m also just a healer. I can''t fight. My next thought is to try and wake up Clyde without making too much noise. Although part of me does find it odd that he hasn''t woken up yet. As a fighter his spatial awareness and perception are second only to Chandra the rogue. There''s no way he should be able to sleep through someone breaking in. At first, I try nudging him a few times, but that just results in him swatting my hand away. This annoys me more than when I thought it was him making noise. I want to simply shove him off the bed, but my adventurer instincts remind me not to make too much noise. Eventually I get him woke up enough to mumble something that sounds like "don''t worry about it" in a dismissive tone before rolling over and going back to sleep. "Don''t worry about it! He did NOT just ... I''ll show him don''t worry about it" I say through gritted teeth. Grabbing the sword, he keeps against the wall. I make my way through the door now angrier than I was scared and suddenly feeling the need to hit something. Ordinarily I''d barely be able to even lift the sword but none of that matters at this moment. Seeing my target has their back to me I approach slowly and prepare for a decisive jab right through the chest. Just as I''m about to strike the intruder turns around and my anger instantly melts away. Once again, the sword becomes extremely heavy and falls to the floor with a thud as I run to embrace my sister. "How did you get here? When did you get here? Why are you here?" I fire off one question after another. Only to be meet with laughter from behind me. Turning around I''m greeted by the sight of Clyde with an amused grin on his face. "For a second there I thought you were going to have to heal your own sister" he says in a playfully mocking tone. With that my annoyance slowly starts to return thought the anger is long gone. Looking up at my sister though even my annoyance soon melts away again. To be honest I should have known something was up. It isn''t like him to be so dismissive even in a half sleep state. It was a pretty nasty trick, but I suppose I can forgive them this time. Especially seeing as it''s been years since I last saw my sister. Soon they are describing in great detail about how she graduated from the academy. She wanted to tell me right away, but Clyde talked her into coming here to delve. He even convinced her to wait until she got here to let me know she was now a fire mage. Not that it took much convincing, I''m sure. Luna just loves to scare the robes right off of me. Even when we were kids. She wasn''t about to miss a golden opportunity to surprise me.This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it. I used to find it annoying. Frankly I still do, but I suppose baby sisters are just naturally annoying. Soon enough Clyde is making some lame excuse about checking on the others and leaves the house. Not that either of us mind because we''ve got years'' worth of catching up to do. After what feels like only a few seconds Clyde returns with the rest of our party in tow. I guess he wasn''t lying when he said we had first delve this morning. I almost don''t want to go but I suppose if her party is going to stay here and delve as well, we have plenty of time to catch up. Dungeon POV I need a lot of mana because the next room is going to be one of the first really big 40m x 40m x 40m rooms of the fourth floor. Clyde''s party doing a full clear of both the first and second floors certainly helps, but even with other people reaching the second floor it still takes me a few days to save up the mana to exchange for the 5,120-world energy for the room itself. To say nothing of the mana it takes to actually make use of all that space. Filling a 40m x 40m area with 2m of dirt and stone isn''t cheap. After that I throw down a few trees. I''m not sure there even dense enough to count as a forest but this area should still count as a wooded area. In this area I place down about twenty level 17 wood golems. With a room this big twenty gives the woods a nice population density. Just like with my other mobs I allow them to wonder around within a set distance from where they were spawned. This way the encounters should feel more organic and way less predictable without the delvers getting overwhelmed. That''s the plan anyway. For the finishing touch I do something a little different. Using the dungeon rule I purchased a while back I set the illusionary sky to mimic the sky outside. At least I was going to. As soon as I tried, I got a strange pop up.
Unable to simulate exterior environment
Information on exterior conditions unavailable
Well, that''s certainly less than ideal. It seems the dungeon rule can''t magically know what the weather is like outside. Not without at least some information to go on at any rate. This problem needs to be solved otherwise it''s going to mess up the plans I have for later floors. With that in mind I begin slowly searching through the system shop looking for anything that might help. Sky View After searching for a while I finally find what I''m looking for. It''s fairly cheap as well. Cheap being a relative term as it does still cost 5000 world energy. So, about the same as the largest room I currently use. This skill allows me to extend my awareness into the dimension I''m attached to. The catch is that I can only extend my awareness not my influence. Also, and I''m not sure why this is important, but the skill warns that it only allows me to extend my awareness into the dimension my entrance is attached to. The warning is a little concerning. It was basically the same as the general description yet somehow way more ominous. I should probably look into that at some point. For now, I chose to continue building. Mainly because none of the skill I can afford in a relatively reasonable time frame have anything to do with things outside my pocket dimension. Which is the only other place I can think to extend my awareness. So, after saving up enough world energy I go ahead and buy the skill. I then spend the next month extending my awareness a little at a time until I can once again see the sky. I can also see around me as well the same as looking through my entrance. After admiring the view for a day or so I go ahead and extend upwards a few more times as futureproofing against further development by Clyde. It''s a surreal experience. Because I went straight up, when I bring my consciousness to the highest point it feels like I''m standing on top of a flagpole or something similar. I can look around, but I don''t have room to do anything else really. Still, it''s enough for my dungeon rule to mimic the day night cycle as well as the night sky itself which is all I really wanted. Now that that''s done, I can finally get back to building the fourth floor. Just as soon as my mana builds up enough that is. Why do I get the feeling this is going to be a never-ending issue no matter how big I get. Then again, I am two whole floors ahead of any delver. Though maybe not for long. Clyde''s party just entered the first floor again for the first time in a while. I''m guessing that they went to have their party registered as a stone rank party which according to a previous conversation I had with Clyde officially makes me a stone rank dungeon. This is just a guess though based on the fact that Chandra apparently reached level 10 during their last delve. It seems like having an entire party registered as stone rank is a lot more involved than just registering a single person. I''ll have to ask Clyde about it later. It did seem to take a lot longer though. Right now, I can''t wait to see if they make it to the third floor. I''ve got a good feeling about their chances. I''m pretty sure they were just waiting on Chandra to reach level 10. Eventually they make it to the second-floor boss room. It would seem Cole and Darrel even managed to reach level 12 along the way. Clyde POV Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator. This is it. Part of me wants to put it off a little more. I can feel that I''m close to level 12 after all. I can''t keep putting it off forever though. Fighting level 10 mobs is already starting to have diminishing returns as far as helping us gain levels. Mainly because we no longer need to try as hard. So, after a final check of our equipment and overall status we enter the boss room ready for anything. At least I thought we were. As soon as we entered the boss chamber I was hit with this overwhelming feeling of dread. Like somehow, I just knew. This is it. This is where I die. Looking around I can see that I''m not the only one who suddenly has the urge to run away. Just then the boss attacks. A massive Dire Wolf bigger than any wolf I''ve ever seen by far. I should fight back but I''m so scared that it''s all I can do to not run away in terror. I mean look at it, that thing is massive. Wait, what am I saying? Sure, it''s big but it''s not that big. Although, I mean just look at it. NO! THINK ABOUT IT! I mentally scream at myself trying to push past the fear. we fought rooms full of level 10 enemies. A single level 15 enemy shouldn''t be that scary. This has to be some kind of skill related to fear. I try to think back to my academy days. What did my instructor say I should do when this happened. I have to do something. I''m the leader after all. Everyone is counting on me. Wait that''s it. When this happens, I should focus on my role within the party. It''s going to be tricky to fight while focusing elsewhere but it''s the only way. "Focus on your role" I shout to the others as I lunge at the dire wolf who clearly was not expecting anyone to go on the offensive. My sword makes contact with the dire wolf''s shoulder creating a deep gash which instantly begins to gush blood. I receive a paw to my chest sending me flying a few meters to the side for my effort. Fortunately, it seems my words and actions had the desired effect on the rest of the party. Trying not to actively focus on the fight goes against everything we know about fighting. It''s really the only way to get through it without succumbing to the fear though. Lily rushes to me immediately while Cole to his credit steps between me and the giant dire wolf. I try to get back to my feet, but the pain is intense. That swipe from the wolf must have been a more solid hit than I originally thought. All I can do now is hope that Lily can heal me enough to get back in the fight. Darrel for his part is busy using his water vines to try and slow the wolf down. He doesn''t seem to be able to pin it down completely like he did with the other wolves. I''m guessing it has to do with the size of the dire wolf, but fear probably plays a factor as well. Still thanks to his efforts Cole is able to stay between it and me which I''m grateful for. Meanwhile Chandra is launching one throwing knife after another. She isn''t able to hit any vital spots, but each hit causes it to bleed a little more. Eventually she runs out of throwing knives though. After what feels like an eternity Lily says that she''s done as much as she can. As I try once again to get to my feet the pain is still there but at least I can move now. I''m definitely going to be sore tomorrow. Taking advantage of the fact that it can''t face in two directions at once I sneak around behind the dire wolf while Cole and Darrel are keeping its attention. Taking my time I wait for the perfect opening. When I finally see my opportunity, I lunge forward with a horizontal slash cutting through part of the dire wolf''s left hind leg and severely impacting its mobility. The dire wolf howls in pain and tries to turn and attack me. This in turn provides an opening for Cole who slices at the other hind leg completely crippling it. At this point it''s only a matter of time before its defeated. After the fight we spend a long time resting while we debate about whether we should attempt the third floor. I''m still sore from that hit I took but the injury isn''t life threatening. Seeing as nobody else seems to be injured at all we opt to continue on to the third floor after collecting the high-quality dire wolf leather that dropped. If the third floor is anything like the second, the next mob we face should be much closer to our current level. Tackling The Third Floor Clyde''s POV Going down into the third floor nothing really surprises us. We had long realized that there would not be any encounters in the first room of any floor. We used the time to get our bearings and prepare for the first actual third floor encounter. Nothing could have really prepared us for the first encounter though. It was the first-floor boss, except now there was four of them. Cole took on two of them by himself. Darrel tried his best to keep a third one tied up while I fought with one of my own. Chandra was off apparently searching for traps while the rest of us were fighting. It''s only now fighting the dire rat alone that I realize just how strong they are. It''s not that the first boss has gotten weak it''s that we have each individually gotten stronger than it. In a one-on-one fight though it''s not as one sided anymore. While I''d like for her to help us fight these dire rats first. I also don''t want to trigger a trap while I''m fighting so I chose not to say anything. Besides it usually doesn''t take too long for her to finish checking and disarming any traps she does find. The first one to score a kill is surprisingly Darrel. I didn''t see what happened, but he is now helping Cole deal with the other two. As for me I''m embarrassed to admit I might actually need some help. I''m still sore from the previous boss encounter and It''s all I can do to keep up with the dire rat. I''m not defeated yet though. Just as it lunges for towards me yet again it''s suddenly struck in the side by a throwing knife. This throws it off balance enough to give me an opening. Before it can reorient itself, I bring my sword down stabbing right through its skull. As soon as the dire rat dies, I can feel my level up coming. Finally, I''m level 12 as well. I don''t have time to celebrate right now though as I turn to go help Cole and Darrel only to see them finishing off the last dire rat. Ok then, I guess I do have time to celebrate after all. I tell the others about my level up as we recover and gather the loot. Going from 11 to 12 isn''t nearly as special as going from 9 to 10 but a level is still a level. Not only does it make me stronger which in turn makes the party stronger, but it also brings me one step closer to obsidian rank. Chandra and Darrel even managed to kill some rabbits and chickens that were wondering around. I don''t think they got any experience for it, but they did drop the appropriate types of meat which is nice. It will give folks on the surface more variety in their diet without needing to have as much stuff shipped in. It will be a long time before we can start farming the first few floors regularly. It''s nice to know that this is here all the same.Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. As we''re getting ready to leave Chandra points out a suspicious area in the ground that she spotted asking what she should do about it. After confirming several times that it''s not a trap I allow her to dig it up though I''m still not entirely convinced it isn''t a trap. To everyone''s surprise however it turns out to be a treasure chest. Opening it up we receive six silver coins, a potion of healing, four potions of minor healing, and two mana potions. After a brief discussion I decide that we will not be including this in the official information about the third floor. I''m not sure why the dungeon would create such a chest but it''s clear from the loot it''s not meant to be discovered every delve. Before heading into the next room, I take the healing potion. It''s far more potent than a normal healing potion and I can already feel my sores going away. Potions can''t cure exhaustion but other than that I''m back to peak health. It''s a good thing too because as we enter the next room the first think I notice is that it''s much bigger than any of the others. There''s even a forest in the middle of the room. Seeing a forest growing in an area that is clearly underground feel wrong in a way that''s hard to describe Sure the multiple light crystals do their best to give the illusion of a sky but it''s not the same. For one I can still clearly see the ceiling and for two theirs not even any real illusion magic involved. Putting the oddness of this room aside we enter the forest, and it doesn''t take long to run into a group of goblins. Goblins are kind of a dungeon staple so I figured it wouldn''t be long before we ran into them. It could be worse I suppose. I''ve heard rumors that in the kingdom of Morassmoor there is a dungeon that consists entirely of goblins. So, all things considered finding the little bug-eyed freaks of nature on the third floor isn''t that bad. Not that it makes their appearance any less disturbing. These things are surprisingly tough despite being half the size of Lily. The worst part is the sheer number of them. Our fight is attracting more and more. Already I count ten of them. All of whom despite not being anywhere close to sapient seem to be smarter than the average goblin. Eventually between Darrel ensnaring a few of them with his water vines and Chandra''s throwing knives starting to find their mark we start to gain the upper hand. Fortunately, there doesn''t seem to be any more. It still takes us far longer than I care to admit to deal with the remaining goblins. By the time the last goblin dies we''re all in need of some rest. After making sure that everyone''s fine Lily goes about harvesting some kind of fruit from the trees. It''s not any kind of fruit I''ve ever seen but Lily insists that it''s a good thing. I''m not sure how she knows that seeing as I''m almost positive she''s never seen it before today. She did get that foraging skill so I suppose it''s possible she can see details about it that the rest of us can''t. What I''m more interested in is another source of water. I''m already having to send people in between delves to collect water just to barely sustain the current population. Even with that I don''t think the current population would be sustainable without Darrel and a few other water mages helping out by conjuring water. So, this extra water came at the perfect time. I just need to remember to pack extra waterskins next time so I can actually collect it. While I''m thinking about it, it might be a good idea to pack an ax so we can chop down these trees for the lumber as well. Just One Last Room Clyde POV The next room is another large forest. Eerily similar to the room we just left. At least this time the enemies are more familiar. It looks like just wolves again. That''s good, we know how to deal with wolves. Without wasting time, I order Chandra to do a quick check of the immediate area. The rooms are getting too big for her to check the entire room prefight. After that I order the others to stick relatively close together. We''ve been letting ourselves get to spread out lately. Cole uses his taunt skill to get all the wolves focused on him. He does warn me however that he can''t use taunt anymore today. Not Ideal but I don''t see this delve lasting much longer anyway. I''m already feeling exhaustion starting to set in and although they won''t admit it, I suspect both Lily and Darrel are starting to run low on mana. We do have the mana potions we got earlier but unless it''s an emergency I''d rather they save those until we can get to the third floor with relatively little effort. The first floor has been a non-issue for a while, but the second floor still requires at least some effort to get through. Back to the fight I manage to decapitate one while it''s focused entirely on Cole. Unfortunately, this does make the others aware of my existence once again. Darrel manages to ensnare one of them with his water vines. It''s still weird watching water sprout up in the shape of a vine. Now though, there is only two each for me and Cole to deal with. Just then a knife suddenly appears in the forehead of one of the wolves facing me. Chandra is apparently done checking the area for traps. I don''t have time to thank her for the assist as the other wolf choses that exact time to lunge at me. I dodge the first few times but the third time I''m ready and stab my sword right where he was lunging. The result of which is the wolf involuntarily trying to swallow my sword. Not my intention but I''ll take it. Taking advantage of the situation, I try and do as much damage as possible while pulling my sword back out nearly slicing the wolf in two. Unfortunately, the wolf is still alive. I say unfortunately because watching the blood and other organs fall out of whatever opening they can find even I''m starting to feel sorry for it. A quick jab through the eye into the brain later and the wolf finally dies. Thankfully when the wolf despawns everything that was a part of that wolf despawns.This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it. I turn my attention, ready to help the others just in time to see Chandra and Cole working together to take out the last of the wolves. I''m both proud that they were able to get things done while I was occupied and also a little ashamed that it apparently took me longer than I thought to deal with a single wolf. After the fight we are pleasantly surprised to find that they dropped wolf pelts as well as the leather they normally drop. They''re even fairly high quality. Lily once again does her harvesting thing While Chandra checks for traps and apparently hidden goodies. After which we have a long talk while we rest about which way to go or if we should continue at all. Eventually we decide to try one more room before calling it quits for the day. The room we end up choosing is much smaller than the room we were just in. This time I only see four skeletons. The fact that there is only four does worry me given how this dungeon has started throwing larger groups at us lately. It also looks like they are all fighters. Another oddity since this dungeon normally likes to mix and match skeleton types. All of these seemingly tiny little incongruencies have me worried. I''m worried that maybe I don''t know this dungeon as well as I thought I did. I''m also worried that this fight will be tougher than it looks. As we engage the skeletons it becomes clear they''ve been given a few skills. They fight similar to how you would expect a level 12 fighter to fight. the difference is unlike me they aren''t nearing exhaustion. Fortunately, we do have two people who are able to fight at range. Darrel for his part is already lobbing ice spears as fast as he can conjure them. He even manages to score a few hits although he only manages to kill one of them. A few moments later one of the fighters I was facing manages to get by me and head straight for Darrel. To his credit instead of panicking Darrel just focuses his attacks on that one soon killing it as well. I however am not so lucky. The other skeleton I was fighting takes advantage of me letting myself be momentarily distracted to find a gap in my armor just big enough to fit a sword through. As I feel the blade bite into my abdomen, I scold myself for my momentary lapse in attention. This is exactly the kind of mistake I keep saying should not be allowed to happen. The skeleton then pulls it out and prepares to stab me again. I manage to deflect the attack this time but only barely. I can feel my strength leaving me. Already just remaining on my feet has become a challenge in itself. Readying my weapon I prepare for the skeletons next attack. If I am to die, I''ll die on my feet. The attack however does not come. Chandra has appeared behind the skeleton as if from out of nowhere and used one of her throwing knives to stab it in the eye. This does nothing but get Its attention. Another stab a few seconds later, this time in the back of the skull is apparently enough to end it. By this time Cole has apparently finished with the skeleton fighter he was facing because I suddenly realize that I''m surrounded by everyone. I also realize that I must have fallen down at some point because I''m laying down now. Adding To The Fourth Dungeon POV That was a nasty cut. Fortunately, they still had a few minor healing potions. It wasn''t enough to get him back up to full health, but it did get him healthy enough that Cole could carry him out after the loss of blood caused him to lose consciousness. Honestly, it''s a miracle nobody died as they were all nearly out of mana by that point. Still, they did make it far enough that I was able to receive a huge chunk of mana from their delve. Enough to once again confirm my theory that I get exponentially more mana per floor. It''s just too bad none of them picked up the coins that dropped. Under the circumstances I can see why but that''s still a lot of mana I didn''t get. My main source of mana at least right now comes from harvesting the fruit trees on the third floor. Of course, that''s probably because they only made it four rooms in and two of the first three rooms contain Jujube trees. Not that I ever plan to become a farm, I am a dungeon after all. It''s just smart to know what''s working so you can plan accordingly. Speaking of planning it''s time I got back to planning the fourth floor. I do miss being able to pace back and forth while I''m thinking. Because the room I just finished is so large I have plenty of room to make another hallway along the southern wall with another 80m x 20m x 20m room pointed diagonally from the perspective of most of my rooms. This is going to be one of the optional branching paths and as such I want delvers to earn the reward at the end. To that end I place down eight level 18 moss golems. They are of course scattered throughout the room, so delvers won''t get too overwhelmed. I also go back to using the cave theme even if I still don''t technically have an official cave theme. The next room I place is a tiny, relatively speaking, 10m x 10m x 20m room. In this room I place a level 18 giant scorpion and a level 18 moss golem. These two working together should be enough for any group that makes it this far. Besides that, I feel like placing more stuff in this room would make it unfair due to the size of the room. The next room though is another of the long rooms. In this room I place down eight level 19 scorpions scattered throughout the room. Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings. The next room though is where the real test comes in. This room is 30m x 10m x 10m same size as the fourth-floor entryway. Nowhere near as peaceful though. in this room I place four level 20 moss golems right as you first enter and two level 20 scorpions guarding the chest at the other end of the room. aside from that I make the room Identical to the entrance aside from the campsite. I want this chest to be one that they can''t claim shortly after entering the fourth floor even though it''s literally the closest to the entrance. As for what''s in the chest I make sure the chest always contains two health potions a mana potion and a random amount of between one and ten silver coins. I also make sure it contains at least one but a max of three low quality obsidian rank pieces of gear chosen at random. I also add a small chance for it to contain an enchanted obsidian rank weapon of high quality. The odds of the enchanted weapon appearing is only 2% but it should be high enough to get people trying for the chest. To ensure it does I make sure the chest contains an enchanted weapon the first time it''s opened to get people talking about it. Honestly, I think just the rumor that it might contain such a weapon is enough to get people scrambling for the chest but having proof that it does will rope in those few who might not otherwise risk it for a few extra coins and some potions. With that done I decide to hold off on building any more just yet. I have enough for the next room but just barely and on the off chance that someone makes it to the fourth floor I wouldn''t feel right having an empty room that''s just bare no matter how big it is. While I wait for my mana to build up, I look in on my delvers. More and more of them are making it past the halfway mark of the second floor though not very far past it. The fact that I now have two parties in my dungeon most of the time certainly helps with mana generation. Technically I could have up to four parties since I have four floors but sadly none of my adventurers except Clyde''s group are even close to fighting the second-floor boss. With the best performing among them still having just over a third of the second floor to go. If it wasn''t for the fact that subsequent parties would have nothing to loot or fight, I would let more parties on each floor. I also don''t want them grouping up and forming huge raid parties to get further than they should be able to. Nor do I want to see groups cheat by letting the party ahead kill everything, so they remain fresh and ready to go. One thing I have learned from eavesdropping on conversations is that the mortality rate for my dungeon, which hovers around 20%, is apparently extremely low. Based on what I''ve been able to overhear most dungeons have a mortality rate closer to 50%. I can certainly see why a dungeon would go that route. Killing delvers does give a boat load of mana. Though I suspect not taking the easy mana will result in more mana in the long run since more people will want to delve. My dream is to one day have twenty floors with a party on every floor. Not that I plan to stop there I just like the idea of having so many parties inside me at the same time. Who knows what I''ll be able to afford from the system shop by then. The Battlefield It took a while, but I finally have enough for the next room. In fact, I have enough mana for two more of the largest current rooms. The next room I place is a 40m x 40m x 40m room. In this room I try to randomize the elevation of the ground as much as possible so that it''s not all flat. After that I add a wooded area to half the room. I also throw in a good variety of every fruit tree I currently have as well as a few types of berry bushes. I top that off by adding a fair number of rabbits, chickens, and even sheep. as for the monster type I add a pack of twenty level 16 wolves lead by a level 17 alpha. The fact that I am letting them behave as a single pack is also the reason the majority of them are only level 16. To reach this area an adventuring party would have to be at least level 16 or higher. As for why wolves I wanted to change things up a bit. I still don''t have a huge variety of mobs but one or two mob types per floor has already gotten old. I also want to try and flex my creative muscles a little now that I have some stuff to work with. So, for the next room. I place down another 40m x 40m x 40m room. I use all three of my current themes to create the illusion of a battlefield. I may come back and change it if and when I get an actual battlefield theme but for now, I just plan to fake it. Thinking about that it occurs to me that most dungeons probably just fake a sky rather than try to simulate the actual sky. Anyway, before my mind wonders to far down that rabbit hole I go ahead and start placing tents all around. I use fences from my ranch theme to make it look like they were starting to build permanent defenses. I also use the abandoned cabin theme as well as the ranch house from the ranch theme to make it look like more permanent structures had been built. After that I spend some time slashing at everything with wind magic to add an aged look and to add believable tears in the fabric of the tents. I then went over the whole seen again ''painting'' it with both fire and water magic to really sell the idea that a huge battle took place here. I''d be lying if I said the whole process wasn''t a great way to release some stress, I didn''t even realize I was holding onto. The hard part was going back over it to make sure it looked like the battle ended a long time ago. I did this by using water and air magic in smaller amounts to add a more aged look to the scorch and burn marks I just added. It took me longer than I would have thought to get the look just right. Over a month in fact. A month I didn''t even realize had passed. Talk about getting lost in your work. To be fair though the only reason I even knew it had been that long was because I heard delvers mention that the town outside was a month old. Last I heard there wasn''t a town outside. There were plenty of buildings sure, but it wasn''t officially a town or anything as far as I was aware. Although from the number of repeat visitors I''ve been getting lately and the fact that I''m in the middle of a desert I should have guessed that it would turn into a town eventually. You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author. Another give away as to how long it''s been is Clyde''s party which is currently on the third floor. Even Chandra is level 11 now with everyone else being close to level 13. Darrel and Cole may even reach level 13 by the end of this delve. As much as I want to focus on their delve, I really should at least finish the current room. Returning to my work I add thirty level 17 skeletons. I use mostly fighters and tanks, but I also throw in fair bit of mages and even a few rogues. Naturally I spread them out so that they aren''t all gathered in one area. I also use the world energy I got from converting the mana gain from my month-long period of absentmindedness to buy a new dungeon rule. This one will cause every enemy in the room to target them if they get within a set distance of the rooms exit. In this case I choose twenty meters which will put them directly in the middle of the room. Aside from that they will be just laying around out in the open. Unlike the ''swamp'' room they won''t be hidden this time. That should be enough of a clue for the smart delvers. I also tweak their behavior so that they will stand up and begin attacking if a delver gets within five meters. This will give parties that are smart and don''t just rush to the exit a chance to ''thin the herd'' a little before the real battle starts. Before making my next room, I allow myself to take a little break and watch the delvers. There is a party on each floor, but I naturally focus on Clyde''s party as they are the furthest and so are the first to play test some of my rooms. They are currently just past the room that ended their run and nearly ended Clyde''s life the last time I paid attention to it. It looks as if they are just finishing up with that room. It also looks as if they are still struggling a bit if the empty potion bottles on the ground are any indication. After that they spend a fair amount of time harvesting oranges. Of course, by they I mean Lily. Probably something to do with the harvesting skill having benefits I''m not aware of. From here they choose to go south after resting for a bit. This in turn leads Clyde to the mistaken belief that this entire section is nothing but skeletons. Cole and Clyde are being completely suppressed by the skeleton tank and fighter respectively. Meanwhile it''s all Chandra can do to stay alive against the skeleton rogue. at the same time Darrel finds himself in a duel with the skeleton fire mage. It isn''t long before they are forced to retreat. The idea of running from an encounter more than a little humbling. To my surprise though they don''t call it quits. At least not right away. Instead, they try other paths. Eventually they manage to clear two of the branching paths on the other side of the main path albeit with a great deal of difficulty. Cole even managed to reach level 13 after that last fight. It''s only now after apparently running out of healing potions that they decide to end the delve. Expanding The Fourth That was certainly something. Maybe it''s just me but they seem to be pushing themselves harder than normal. It could also be the fact that I am seeing a few new faces that aren''t exactly level 1. This means that just as Clyde predict I''m starting to attract those wood ranks that are just a level or two from ranking up. This of course has led to people having to wait to enter the second floor which means people need to wait longer to enter the first. All of which is exacerbated by people coming in between delves to collect the water. Although on that note I have noticed it isn''t just Clyde collecting the water anymore. If I had to guess I''d say Clyde wants to make sure he is strong enough to remain in control of things outside. That''s just a guess though. I try not to pay too much attention to what''s happening outside. It is nice to be able to watch the sunset and sunrise again though. When I actually remember in time that is. At any rate I think it''s past time I got back to working on the dungeon. The question is what the theme of the next room should be. I''m tempted to do a desert theme, but I promised myself a long time ago that I wouldn''t do that. The last thing they need is to be reminded they are in a desert. I could do a rainforest or jungle, but weather manipulation is way too expensive at the moment. Besides I don''t have nearly enough, or any for that matter, of the right kinds of patterns to really sell the jungle or rainforest theme. I could see such a room becoming popular in the future though. I think I''ll just go with a simple wooded area. This time covering the entire floor. I also throw in a few berry bushes here and there not a lot, but they are there if delvers look for them. As for the mobs I use wood golems. Scattering twenty level 18 wood golems throughout the floor. With all these trees around it only makes sense to use wood golems. I also don''t bother with any kind of trigger for all of them so it''s possible for a party to get by without fighting all of them. They will remain dormant unless a delver gets within five meters. This is important because I plan to make two sets of branching paths so they will need to enter this room multiple times. I noticed that delvers tend to not enjoy having to cross empty rooms so this design should help with that. As for the branching paths I first put down another 80m x 20m x 20m room. Once again going with a cave aesthetic. In this room I place down twelve level 18 scorpions. This room will be a bit more crowded than other rooms, but I think delvers that reach this point can handle it. Besides they should have been able to make some potions related to scorpion venom or have some other means to counter it by this point.The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation. The next room will be a simply small room. Nothing in it but grass ... and two boulders that just so happen to be level 19 stone golems. I can''t wait to see the look on their faces when those random boulders that seem at first to be just an aesthetic choice start moving. To help sell the illusion of them being just ordinary boulders, and because a room without monsters this late in the floor would be suspicious, I also throw down a level 19 skeleton party consisting of a tank, a fighter, and two rogues. I thought about using an archer, but the room is too small for that. I do make it so that the delvers have a second or two to breath before the stone golems start attacking. They are stationed by the exit so it''s not like delvers can just slip by. The next room is another long one. this one is going to be more mud and dirt than stone. As such I''m also including eight level 19 mud golems. Despite their name the mud like consistency of their bodies make them the toughest golems I currently have access to. This is due to them being able to change the viscosity of the mud that makes up their bodies at will to land a hard blow or allow weapons to pass right through them. Making them almost immune to physical attacks. Worse yet the weapon can get stuck inside them. There is a limit though. The mud that makes up their body must remain mud, or they risk losing their essence of life. This means they can''t become completely solid or completely liquid. Making them highly susceptible to magic. Technically all golems have this weakness but it''s easier to exploit in mud golems. The next room is a 20m x 20m x 20m room with four level 20 dire wolves. This time without the fear effect. Mainly because it only works on lower-level targets, and delvers should be getting close to level 20 by now. I also give them a 15% chance of dropping high quality dire wolf pelts. I still want to use werewolves at some point but with wolf kin being a thing I''m a little hesitant. They are mindless killing machines so it should be similar to how zombies are for humans, but I''d rather wait till I can be sure. I don''t want to lose potential delvers after all. That thought aside I go ahead and place down a chest. This chest will contain a few silver coins some high-quality stone rank gear and assorted potions. As always, the exact contents will be randomized. On the other side of the wood golem room, I did the exact same thing as I was actually working on both paths at the same time. I''m actually surprised at how close I am to finishing the fourth floor. Granted I more or less had the layout planned from the start, but it still seems faster than the third floor. Either way I kind of have to take a break now because I don''t have the mana to continue. Confusing Dungeon Sense I don''t need to wait as long as I thought I would for my mana to build back up. Mainly due to the fact that there is usually always someone on my second floor now. In fact, according to Clyde there is sometimes a line just to get into the dungeon. It''s not a huge line usually only one or two groups but it''s definitely a sign of things to come. At any rate I quickly gather enough mana to exchange for enough world energy so that I can continue. The next room I place is another big one right in line with the others along the main path. When laying down the dirt and stone I''m careful to leave a few sheer cliffs. Nothing too crazy but enough for my creatures to hide behind for sure. Some even tall enough to cause serious injury or death if a delver is careless enough to just walk off the edge. Naturally I didn''t forget to make several paths through the room that don''t require climbing down the cliff. At the center of the room just before the sheer cliffs near the exit I placed a pond. This one actually deep enough for delvers to swim in or drown in if they''re careless. I''d like to create a stream that runs from one side of the room to the other ''feeding'' the pond in the process. I haven''t worked out how to do that without either flooding part of my dungeon or constantly reabsorbing the water. Neither of which I would consider viable options. I''m hoping that I made the incline shallow enough that they don''t notice they''re walking up hill from the moment they enter this room. That way the depth of the pond catches them by surprise if they do decide to take a swim while resting. The next thing I add aside from the grass which is a given at this point are rabbits, sheep, and pigs. It still seems strange to me that certain animals are listed as resources rather than creatures. I get that they need to be labelled something besides encounters since they aren''t placed there for combat. Calling them resources though makes them sound no different than the berries or fruits. I suppose they are technically a food source though seeing as the only loot they can apparently have is the appropriate meat type. I also throw up a nice skybox complete with a realistic sky. As for the monster type I decided on two packs of level 18 wolves with twelve wolves in each pack. I made it so that they would take turns guarding the pond and patrolling the floor. To add to the realism, I even created a few small caves in the sheer cliff with bones from the various resource animal scattered around near the mouth of the cave. Doing this gives me some ideas for hidden areas within a room that I''ll definitely have to implement at some point in the near future. Perhaps on the fifth floor, those rooms should be plenty big enough to house a few hidden areas. I''m getting ahead of myself though. As for the current room I add one last finishing touch by making the back wall appear to exit into a cave. in reality I just stuck some normal stone onto the dungeon stone and created a simulated cliff face. The skybox even adds to the illusion giving the impression that there is more to the room if only you could get over that cliff.Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon. This marks the first time I''ve actually tried to disguise the border of a room. Unless you count the cave aesthetic. In that case however it''s really more of a byproduct of making it appear as though you''re in a cave than any actual attempt to hide the boarder of the room. the reason for this is that the next room is going to be rather unique. It''s going to be an 80 by 10 by 20 room laid lengthways from east to west. This room will be designed like a giant canyon with a cliff face on either side. Unlike any other room I''ve created so far it will be possible to rush through to the north side. Of course, if you do that you will miss out on the treasure chests at either end of the room. These chests will contain both copper and silver coins as well as potions of various types. Important and possibly even lifesaving considering the boss will be coming up soon. As for what kind of creature to put in this room I choose twenty level 19 stone golems. This is the right population density I think, if not I can always change it later. Knowing that it''s possible to more or less skip 90% of this room I suspect that more than a few parties will do just that. Some might do it to avoid unnecessary fights, but I suspect that most of the people who opt to do it will be trying to save time. I haven''t seen anyone who seemed to be trying yet, but back on earth if there was an activity there would inevitably be people competing to see how fast they could do it. I can''t imagine the people of this world are that much different. Unfortunately, I''m once again forced to pause my construction of the fourth floor due to lack of mana. It shouldn''t take too long to gather the necessary mana considering Clyde''s party just entered the dungeon again today. They''re still pushing hard. Not that I''m complaining but it almost feels like they''re rushing levels or trying to anyway. As I focus in to watch them delve, I''m momentarily confused. Not by anything they''re doing but by my own dungeon sense. I can clearly see that there are only five people in their party, but my dungeon sense is insisting that that there are six people on the first floor. I spend an embarrassing amount of time looking for someone hiding on the first floor before it dawns on me what it is I''m actually sensing. When I do though I metaphorically face palm so hard I think my creatures actually felt it. The Sixth Party Member Whatever force prevents me from making changes to the floor while someone is on it won''t let me get close enough to really examine the situation closely. I do manage to pinpoint the extra person as being inside Lily. Makes sense, I guess. Her and Clyde have been a couple as long as I''ve known them. Still as much as I''m aware that they have lives outside the dungeon I''d kind of just assumed that it was mostly waiting around till they could delve again. A little self-centered I know but I really can''t imagine what else there is to do in a desert. Guess they managed to find a way to keep busy though. This does bring up more questions. Do they even know about Lily''s condition? If so, why would they continue to delve? Even though it wasn''t intentional, Injuries to the abdomen are the most common type of life-threatening injury. So why then would they take that risk? This leads me to believe they don''t know. That revelation brings with it a whole host of questions. Should I tell them? should I let them find out on their own? How would I even go about bringing up such a delicate topic? Eventually I decide to bring it up after the delve. In the meantime, I''m not going to pull any punches. I''m still a dungeon after all. The first floor is almost boring to them now with each fight, if you can really even call it a fight, lasting mere seconds. The second floor still isn''t a walk in the park but there are still only a few rooms that pose even the slightest actual challenge. Such is the deference between wood rank and stone rank that it''s only those mobs at level 10 that seriously threaten them anymore. Not that they can''t be injured or even killed by lower-level monsters if they relax too much. The boss of the second floor however still poses a significant threat. This fact is evident on their faces as for the first time this delve there''s no witty banter as they prepare for the fight. Admittedly, that could also be due to the skill of my dire wolf boss. While the fear effect does diminish with each passing level of the delver It will continue to have an effect until their levels are equal with that of the dire wolf. As the fight starts Cole runs forward to get the wolfs attention. doing a valiant job of fighting through the effects of the boss''s skill. Chandra then uses a skill to almost blend into the background. I can still see her clearly but then I''ve got more senses than any of my creatures will ever have. While Cole is doing his part to keep the wolfs attention Darrel begins casting a huge spell. He doesn''t target the boss directly but rather forms a wall of spikes all around it. Meanwhile Clyde is ready to defend against a surprise attack, should the boss decide to go on the offensive.The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there. A few moments later my boss realizes what''s happening and jumps clear of the ice encirclement. Guess they forgot he could jump. Then again maybe not. The moment the dire wolf leapt into the air a bunch of knives began sailing through the air. Being in midair there was nothing he could do. He died shortly after landing. I hate to say it, but they made that fight look embarrassingly easy. Although Cole might disagree since he was the one tanking all the dire wolf''s attacks throughout the fight. I am admittedly curious how long it took them to come up with that plan or if it just sort of happened. Either way they''re off to the third floor after taking a brief rest and collecting their loot. This time they actually managed to make it a little bit further than last time. Entering the room with the skeleton fighter that nearly ended his life last time Clyde is understandably shaken. If he wants to continue delving though he''s going to have to get past this and I think he realizes that. Once again Cole uses his taunt ability to get their attention. This time however Clyde doesn''t rush up to help him immediately. For a few seconds I think facing the mob that nearly killed him might be too much. It turns out he learned from his mistake and was just looking for an opening because a few moments later a vertical slash infused with a skill to increase weapon damage causes the skull of one of the fighters attacking Cole to seemingly explode. Shortly after that Chandra appears behind another one and stabs it in the back of the skull. By this time the effect of taunt has worn off and the skeleton fighters start to regain their senses. By that time, it was already too late though as Darrel had already made his move causing two ice spikes to appear under their feet successfully killing one. The other one managed to dodge in time and attempted a diagonal slash using a movement speed skill. this attack manages to make it past Cole''s shield. Fortunately, he has long had a full set of heavy armor. As the tank he sacrificed mobility for as much defense as he could get which paid off just now. His shoulder will be sore after that, very likely bruised even. Aside from that he is fine though. the skeleton however even with his movement speed skill can''t dodge three incoming attacks all from different angles. They are pleasantly surprised by the loot drop from the four skeleton fighters. I can see the visible relief in his eyes when Clyde realizes that he is unharmed. After gathering the loot and being extra careful to make sure they didn''t miss any. They make their way into the next room. this one has more than just fighters though. To make matters worse they are all stronger than the group they just fought. Although they made the last fight seem easy it was actually anything but easy. Especially for Cole who will be going into this fight with a sore shoulder, among other bumps and bruises he got from constantly tanking hits before that fight. Mana Sense As they make their way into the next room, I secretly estimate their chances of having to retreat at 62%. It would be higher, but Lily just leveled up after treating Cole''s shoulder. Ironically despite being a healer most of her experience seems to come from her foraging skill. Perhaps I''ve been a bit too generous with the food resources. Ah well, I''m not going to change anything either way. I''d rather look forward than backward. On top of Lily''s level up Darrel also leveled up fighting the second-floor boss. I have long suspected that he remains busy outside of my dungeon being a water mage in the desert so it makes sense he would level up sooner than the front liners. So having two people of the same level as the skeleton party does increase their odds of winning even if only one of them has offensive capabilities. They were cautious as they entered obviously aware that the fights were not going to get easier. Almost immediately upon spotting each other the two tanks charge forward as do the two fighters. this leaves Darrel to deal with the two skeletal mages. Fortunately, he is able to hold his own. Unfortunately defending is all he can do. Chandra as usual starts the encounter by searching for hidden traps in the room. The biggest surprise in this encounter is Lily. She is casting a defensive spell on Cole which seems to slightly increase his defense. So apparently healers can do more than just heal, good to know. Honestly Lily seems to have the most diverse skill set of the entire group. Her defensive spell seems rather weak though. Combined with the fact that this is the first time I''ve seen her cast it, I''m guessing she just learned it during her last level up. As I watch her casting her spell, I start to notice the mana flowing through her. I notice that part of her mana is getting diverted to the life growing within her. This mana feels different than the mana she uses to cast spells though. Puzzled by this I go ahead and move my perception down to the fourth floor for a minute. This allows me to open the system shop where I spend 5000 world energy on a skill that I had thought was pointless. The skill is called mana sense, and it allows those who have it to sense the flow of mana. Something dungeons can do by their very nature. The secondary effect of the skill is allowing people to distinguish between types of mana. As soon as I test out the skill it''s like opening my eyes for the first time. Every type of mana has a unique color and there are way more types than I would have thought. It seems mana is a broad term for any type of energy. At the very top is neutral mana which as the name suggests doesn''t have any properties and can become any type of mana. After that there are the two main types which are physical and magical. Everything else is derived from those two main types. Physical mana as the name suggests is used in skills that involve physically attacking and defending. It can be broken down into a few different types though the main one is kinetic mana, or the energy of movement itself. This can be used to increase the speed of your own attacks or dodges. Creating mobs or grass or anything else really is literally me turning mana into physical objects. Even the stuff that I didn''t think cost mana to place. It turns out that what I placed was just a concept. This concept then slowly begins absorbing part of the mana coming in until it becomes real. Seriously, the more I figure out the less I understand.This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. Magical mana on the other hand is way more interesting. From what I could tell it has seven main types. Which are. life, fire, water, earth, air, light, and dark. These in turn can be broken down into other types. Life mana for example can be converted into healing mana as one would expect but I''m certain it has other subtypes as well. Water mana on the other hand can be converted into ice as well as, I suspect, steam mana. though I''m not sure if Darrel will ever figure that out. Out of curiosity I convert some mana into world energy to watch what happens. It turns out everything I thought I knew about being a dungeon is wrong. Well sort of. It turns out that while we do consume mana by turning it into world energy, world energy itself doesn''t actually exist. It''s like digital currency that I earn by converting the mana back into neutral mana consuming a small fraction of it as I do. I''m literally a filter feeder that regurgitates 99% of what it consumes. Except that compared to the mana going in the mana coming out is in its most pure form. So now armed with both my skill sense which allows me to see past whatever magic protects them from my direct influence and my mana sense which now allows me to distinguish between types of mana I return my attention to Clyde''s party. Now instead of just watching them gather and release mana I can tell what type of mana it is. The interesting part is that while Cole and Clyde are both use melee combat, they couldn''t be more different in the type of physical mana they use. Cole uses what I can only describe as stillness mana to turn himself into an immovable wall. Clyde on the other hand uses kinetic mana to try and outmaneuver his opponent. As I continue to focus on the fight, I notice that Chandra seems to have gotten the attention of one of the mages. Thanks to this Darrel now has the upper hand in his fight. The skeleton mage attacks with a water spear which Darrel easily deflects with a simple water tentacle. At the same time no longer needing to worry about the other mage he is able to go on the offensive using that same water tentacle. The skeleton mage attempts to block using water wall, but Darrel just switches to ice spikes instead. The switch happens so fast the Skeleton mage doesn''t have time to react before being split in half. Another spike through the skulls ends that skeleton. Turning my attention back towards Lily I notice that she is casting her defensive spell on Clyde instead. Taking a closer look at her I notice the mana getting diverted by the new life is a combination of basic physical mana along with a type of mana that I still can''t identify. This other mana isn''t coming from Lily though. Nor is it coming from me or anything I can perceive. It doesn''t seem harmful at least. In fact, I get the distinct impression that it''s necessary. Not that I could block it even if I wanted to. Whatever the source is its beyond even me since I exist within my own pocket dimension, and it''s able to cut through the dimensional barrier as if I''m not even here. All other mana comes from my entrance or from the delvers themselves. My attention is suddenly diverted by Chandra who in the middle of dodging for her life through a knife not at her attacker but at the fighter. The skeleton fighter easily blocks it, but the momentary distraction is all the opening Clyde needs to thrust his sword forward decapitating the skeleton and ending the fight. Darrel in turn sends a few ice spears towards the mage chasing Chandra successfully getting its attention. Unfortunately going up against a fire mage when you''re starting to run low on mana isn''t the greatest idea. He is back to just defending while occasionally launching ice spears to keep the fire mages attention. Chandra on the other hand seeing the enemy tank now having to contend with both Cole and Clyde is able to sneak up on it. She isn''t dumb though, so she waits for the perfect opportunity to reveal herself. that time comes when Clyde and Cole attack simultaneously forcing the enemy tank to deflect with his sword while blocking with his shield at the same time. Chandra uses this chance to stab the skeleton tank, who currently has both arms busy, in the face. After that the fire mage doesn''t last much longer. I didn''t actually think they would win. Not that I''m complaining because the amount of effort that it took gave me a lot of mana. They do decide to call it quits here though. Which isn''t surprising considering they barely had the energy to collect the loot. The Ladies vs The Dire Wolf As they start to head back towards the exit I considered talking to Clyde about Lily''s condition. I eventually decided against it though just due to the fact that I couldn''t think of a way to bring it up without sounding creepy. Instead, I made up my mind to just have my mobs ignore Lily unless she is the last one left. She doesn''t gain experience through direct combat anyway. I know I said I wasn''t going to pull any punches but at the same time I also want to study that strange form of mana that seems to defy the laws of dimensional travel. Calling it mana doesn''t feel quite right though. It is a form of energy but also not energy. It''s very strange. Either way the only way for me to study it more seems to be keeping Lily''s baby alive. With that said I have the part of my awareness that seems to be ever-present on the first floor notify me whenever Clyde''s party reenters the dungeon. After that I am about to turn my attention back to finishing the fourth floor just as a new team enters the second-floor boss room. Surprisingly it''s the ladies again. They''ve been back several times since that run that almost took the healer''s life. I haven''t exactly been paying attention to them, but an all-female party is kind of hard not to notice. Come to think of it I don''t think there has been an all-male team yet. At any rate I don''t think they were ready for how intense my boss''s terrorize skill can be. They''re not completely panicking though they don''t seem to be that far from it. The boss wastes no time in getting this party started as he lunges for the tank, who just so happens to be the closest one to him. She manages to block his attack with her shield, but the momentum sends her flying backwards. That''s when the mage surprises me by gifting the boss a pair of stone socks. While she didn''t succeed in pinning him to the spot she does succeed in slowing his movement. The wolf is now faced with a dilemma. Should he continue trying to fight wearing what is essentially ankle weights, or should he divert his attention away from the fight to try and remove them. Not a bad plan from the earth mage considering she is in full panic mode right now and that spell was purely instinctual. The party isn''t going to give my boss any time to think about it. I can tell that they are all panicking but it seems their fight or flight response is really just a fight response. The tank gets back to her feat as the leader charges forward. just as the boss turns to face the attack from the fighter the mage sends earth spears flying towards him. He manages to dodge them all without giving the fighter an opening, though just barely. By this time the tank has made her way back up to where the fighter is. The fighter then begins to make her way around behind the wolf.Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation. My poor boss now has to defend from three different directions while essentially having his speed and agility cut in half. It''s a tense stand of but eventually the mage sends several more earth spears flying towards the wolf. The wolf surprisingly leaps towards the tank while trying to dodge the earth spears. Something nobody saw coming, least of all the tank. The tank manages to block the wolfs attack but is once again knocked to the ground. This time however the wolf manages to pin her to the ground with his massive body weight. The tank then tries to attack the wolfs legs but only succeeds in shattering the stone that encased one of the wolfs legs. I suspect that was the wolfs plan all along. The mage then sends more earth spears which the wolf dodges. It does however force the wolf to release the tank. Unfortunately, the wolf seems to have forgotten about the fighter who proceeds to send her sword right up the tail pipe. Instead of pulling it straight out though she pulls down on the sword so that when the wolf instinctively jumps away the sword ends up doing even more damage. Causing the wolf to leave a trail of blood and guts in his wake. Another round of earth spears then finds their mark. Followed by the tank running up and stabbing the wolf in the neck when he turned to face the fighter. Not exactly a graceful win, but a win is still a win. Aside from the tank having a few bruises which the healer has already started to treat nobody was even injured. I highly doubt they will make it very far into the third floor on their first attempt. So, while they collect their loot and prepare to tackle the third floor for the first time, I turn my attention back to working on the fourth floor. I''m just about finished with the fourth floor. I can''t wait to see the look on adventurers faces when they map out the fourth floor and realize what I''ve done. To start with I place down a 40x40x40 room. I then add the skybox before adding a forest in the center of the room. In this forest I place ten level 20 wolves. On top of that I also place twenty level 20 wood golems. To finish things off I add another ten level 20 skeletons of random types. Well, seemingly random anyway. In truth the only bit of randomness will be in where exactly they spawn. They can only spawn in one of the spots I''ve designated for skeletons. That should still be enough to make their placement feel random. These skeletons will patrol around the edge of the room to catch anyone trying to get by without fighting anything in this room. For the finishing touch I add a chest that will appear in one of four seemingly random locations. Hopefully it will take delvers a few years to realize there are only four locations it can show up, if they ever do realize it. Finishing The Fourth Floor The only thing left to do now is add the boss room. I like to keep the boss rooms rather small and contained but I also wanted to give the mages and archers room to do their thing. They''re going to need it with the boss I have in mind. It''s also going to be one of the most expensive rooms I''ve created just because of the stuff I need to buy in order to make it work the way I want it to. The room itself is a simple 10m x 10m x 10m room. The set dressing is what''s expensive. Well, that and the boss itself. First, I go ahead and add stone to make the room feel cavernous. In the center of the ceiling, I leave a giant hole to ''let the sun in''. It took a bit of work to get the beam of light shining down like I wanted, but it worked out in the end and gives the cave a magical feel. In reality it''s just a skybox behind that hole but the effect is impressive all the same. As for the expensive part well, I bought a couple of Iron nodes. The reason those are expensive. If I had to guess it would be the fact that they are able to grow iron ore by absorbing the ambient mana. I only bothered to get two of them because the room is so small I figured any more than that and the room would just end up filled with iron ore. As for what the fourth-floor boss will be I''ve decided on a level 25 iron golem. It''s a bit expensive, in fact I had to save up for a while after getting the two iron nodes just to afford it. As for abilities and skills there wasn''t much I needed to do. I did however make it slightly magic resistant just to keep mages from ending the fight quickly with a lucky shot. Archers would need at least two or three lucky shots, so it evens out. I still can''t do anything about the very obvious weak point. Then again, I don''t really want to. I do want these fights to be winnable after all. After that I decide to wait for a bit to let the mana build up. With more and more people able to clear the first-floor boss now there''s always someone in my first two floors. I do find it interesting that Archers make up less than 5% of the delvers. I would have thought the ability to deal damage from a distance without needing magic would be way more popular. perhaps the number of archers will pick up once my rooms get larger. After all the max range back on earth was close to 80 meters and in a world with magic and, more to the point, actual skills it could be much further. After putting it off for a few weeks while watching the delvers. I finally decide to place down a simple 10m x 10m x 10m room to act as the fifth-floor entryway. The moment I do though I start getting a bunch of messages from the system, whoever or whatever it is. Reading those messages makes me wish I had placed down the fifth-floor entryway much sooner.Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.
Congratulations on obtaining your fifth floor.
Unlocks Description Restriction
Instancing Allows for more delvers in the dungeon at once by creating multiple instances of the same floor. Five for the first floor. Four for the second floor. Three for the third floor. two for the fourth floor.
Pattern combination Can create new creatures by combining patterns. patterns are not guaranteed to be viable. Pattern must be able to move and react on its own without help from the dungeon to be deemed viable. Pattern must not consist of any patterns that are themselves the result of pattern combination.
Mini Boss A mob that can exceed the level cap of a given floor by two levels but does not require a boss room. Only one mini boss allowed per floor. There cannot be more than two other mobs in the same room as the mini boss
Well, this just makes things a lot more interesting. Before doing anything else I have to put those mini bosses to use. The fourth and third floors were easy I just picked a random dead end using the tried-and-true eny mini miny moe method. Of course, I did have to remove mobs to bring the total number down to three before slightly increasing the level of one of them. On the rare occasion that I had to remove more than one mob I gave my mini boss skills so that the overall difficulty of the room would be harder than it was. However, I also increased the amount of loot in the chests by 25% to compensate for the increased difficulty. As for the first and second floors, I had to wait until the dungeon was closed for the night. I''m suddenly very happy I thought ahead and got Clyde to agree to that. As for the instancing, that was relatively easy to set up after the dungeon was closed for the night. Technically I could have done that at any time, but I waited because I didn''t know what would happen and I didn''t want delvers to leave early because they got scared. Turns out I didn''t need to worry though as there was no visible signs that anything changed inside the dungeon. I now have multiple identical copies of the first four floors. As for which one is real, well they all are and also none of them. They are all identical to the original in every way. However, most of them are just copies of the original. Even I can''t tell which one is truly the original. Pattern combination is something I''m really looking forward to though. I might even consider completely redesigning the third-floor boss. I originally had another idea for it after all, but I lacked the ability to bring my idea to life. The Monster Maker Lab The first two floor bosses are fine, and the fourth-floor boss is as well. The third-floor boss though was limited by my abilities at the time it was created. I can''t afford to put this off as more and more people are starting to make it to the end of the second floor. Meaning that soon I won''t have much freedom to edit the third floor. So, without delay I bring up a copy of the third-floor boss inside of this blank room. It''s not an actual room, more like a space inside my head that also doubles as a factory, and test chamber all in one. I wonder if I''ll be able to save the new pattern or if I''ll need to create it Frankenstein style every time. I guess if that''s the case I could just store extras in my personal storage to be placed in the dungeon as needed. You''d think that after four years I''d have a better understanding of how to actually be a dungeon. Instead, I''m still figuring shit out as I go. Getting back to what I was doing. I first create three copies of the boss. Then I completely disassembled the original copy so I could get started making changes. First, I started by adding a second ribcage and spine between the skull and existing rib cage. Then I added arms to the upper rib cage as well. The idea was to make the skull harder to hit since the skull is a skeletons weak point. Once I add the skull back on and place it in the test chamber it doesn''t take long to figure out that something is wrong. It can''t bend over very far without either toppling over or just snapping in half completely. The problem is how to fix this issue without jeopardizing mobility. I tried several different options to fix the issue. The first was to just reinforce the failure point but that just moved the failure point somewhere else. Besides which it made the whole mob even more top-heavy meaning even if I got it to be stable it would be too wobbly to actually fight. The next idea was to change it so that it permanently leaned forward slightly then create a second ribcage and spinal column complete with skull on the back side. This turned out great actually. After some trial and error, the two skulls eventually figured out how to work together to keep themselves upright. I even threw teams of level 15 skeletons at it to simulate boss battles, and it performed better than I could have hoped. The problem however was that when I tried to place it in the boss chamber on the third floor. I found that because it had two skulls it technically counted as two separate creatures. I saved this pattern anyway because even if I can''t use it as a boss, I can still use it as a normal mob. Perhaps I''ll even introduce it on the fifth floor. Maybe guarding a chest.Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website. I''m getting ahead of myself again. First things first figure out how to make the double decker skeleton work as a boss. After several failed attempts I eventually realize that I''m going to have to sacrifice at least some mobility to make my idea work. The solution it turns out was to fuse another spine to the side of the existing spines near where they connect. This does reduce the boss''s range of motion though not nearly as much as I feared it would. The next problem is exactly what weapons to give it. I originally wanted to give both sets of arms a sword and shield. While it could work and in fact already did in the test chamber, I still decided against it in the end. I already had to buy the dual wielding skill just so that it could control multiple swords at once. So instead, I just gave all the hands swords except one. These swords also had the same sharpness enchantment as the first sword. The reason I did this is that with the enchantment on the shield forcing opponents to subconsciously target the shield there really wasn''t a need for a second shield. For now, I have the bottom arms using the sword and shield technic and the upper arms dual wielding swords. After putting all the armor back on, it looks just as intimidating as I had hoped. I did need to make a second chest plate for the upper ribcage and a few other gauntlets. The final result though was something that looks like it walked right out of someone''s nightmare. Satisfied with my creation I replaced the third-floor boss with this new and improved version. Now I just need to wait for an actual party to encounter it. Speaking of delvers, it didn''t take them long to figure out I had instances. Now the number of delvers I get each day has dramatically increased. This in turn gives me more mana faster. On top of that I''ve usually always got at least one instance on each floor not in use at the moment. I''m sure that won''t last long but the reason it''s significant is that I can make changes to any instance not currently in use. These changes will then be applied to other instances either instantly if that particular instance is not in use at the moment or upon the next refresh if the instance is in use when the changes are made. Now it''s time to work on the fifth floor. This time I think I''ll even add some flying mobs now that my rooms have the verticality to allow them to maneuver properly. I still can''t go too crazy with the size but there should still be plenty of deadly options. Aside from flying mobs I have a few other ideas for the fifth floor. Up till now I''ve just been placing rooms with no real rhyme or reason, but now I finally have enough space to really get creative. I''m still going to have separate rooms don''t get me wrong. It''s just that I plan for the rooms to have much more of a logical progression. Not just in terms of mob levels but also in terms of the overall look and feel of the room. If I do it correctly delvers will find it hard to tell where one room ends, and another begins unless they are paying attention. I can''t completely hide the hallway linking the rooms, but I will do my best to disguise them. Starting On The Fifth Floor After the entryway I create a giant 80m x 80m x 80m room. For my first official room on the fifth floor, I create a giant forest. I make sure to vairy the terrain such that it''s not all smooth grass. Going so far as to add broken tree limbs, fallen trees, and other detritus normally found in a forest. Then I add a bunch of rabbits, chickens, and squirrels to hunt. That should give them a good supply of meat. I don''t bother placing any traps in this room. Instead, I want delvers to progress past this room without spending literal days looking for traps. They probably will anyway because, at this point they''ve been trained to always be on guard for traps. After that I populate the floor with a thousand level 20 wood golems. With a floor this big that should be a population density just high enough to keep delvers from relaxing completely. Especially considering they should be obsidian rank by now. I disguise the walls as an impassable assortment of half fallen tree trunks and tree branches. It''s far from perfect but it''s better than a random wall in the middle of the forest for no reason. I also put in several species of birds and insects to bring the forest to life. One species I specifically make a point to add is the honeybee. For the finishing touches I add the skybox. The one big problem which is also the same old problem is cost. Along with a dramatic increase in size comes a dramatic increase in cost. Fortunately, it also takes a while to plan out and then fill each room. Especially when you''re trying to make sure encounters are spread out enough, so delvers never get bored while also never being overwhelmed. Sure, they still need to fight to make any progress but never more than two, maybe three, at a time. Even with the extra time it takes to build each room and even counting the fact that my mana generation on the first two floors has dramatically increased lately I still find myself having to wait sometimes weeks between rooms. The next room I place Is another giant room. This one however I decide to make into a giant grassland area. This is where I decide to finally add a few flyers. I still can''t afford dragons, which is fine because when I do introduce them, I want them to be worthy of the name dragon and obsidian rank isn''t nearly high enough to let them truly shine. Instead, I choose griffons. This may seem like an odd choice for my first flying mob. Admittedly it was a bit expensive though still leagues cheaper than a dragon. The main reason I chose it as my first flying mob is that while it does have the divebomb skill where it flies straight down from the sky onto an unsuspecting opponent, it primarily engages in combat while on or near the ground.If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. I don''t go overboard with the griffons. I spawn in one hundred level 21 griffons and give them each a sixty-four square meter area to patrol. The last room was an absolute slugfest, so I decided to take it easy on them in this room. Also, it''s the first time introducing flying enemies, so I don''t want to overwhelm them. Like with anything else I plan to slowly ease delvers into it. To add to the atmosphere, I even add a few crop fields. Making sure to make it seem as if the fields were abandoned years ago. I even splurge on a village ruins theme so that I can add a destroyed house aside from the farmhouse. As for the wall I disguise it as a normal rock wall built by whoever used to live here. The hard part was making it appear aged and weathered while also appearing sturdy enough that nobody tries to force their way through it. Not that they could I mean it is dungeon stone disguised as a normal stone wall after all. It''s just too bad that I''m required to put a hallway between each room that is at least a meter in length. Meanwhile outside the dungeon, Cole POV. "You can''t be serious? You still want to go delving even knowing that Lily is carrying your child?" "Not really." replies Clyde "But you try talking her out of it. Besides this dungeon has a much lower mortality rate than any other dungeon on record. Plus, it''s not like we don''t know what to expect. I do draw the line at facing the third-floor boss though. Especially given that is should be obsidian rank seeing as the dungeon has a tendency to push the bosses level as high as it can." "While the mortality rate is low it still isn''t zero. I suppose I should be grateful we aren''t going to be fighting the boss. At the same time, I have to point out that we can''t be everywhere, and all it takes is one attack getting through. You do realize that chest and abdomen wounds are the second most common aside from wounds to the arms, don''t you?" "I didn''t actually." He says for once looking like he is seriously reconsidering. "It makes sense though considering wolves make up a significant portion of the mobs so far." Darrel says while motioning towards something in the distance. Looking to see what he is point out we spot Lily coming towards us with Chandra and Luna in tow. Knowing Luna, she is trying, and apparently failing, to talk Lily out of delving. "I tried." She says while throwing her hands up in defeat and walking off towards the newly built guild hall. None of us really expected her to succeed in changing Lily''s mind but it was still worth a shot. to be honest I''m surprised we got her to agree to only three times a week. She is so stubborn sometimes that I''m seriously starting to wonder if she might actually be part dwarf. Despite the fact that she is a healer, and I know both her parents. Future Contemplations Clyde POV It''s been a few months since the healer told us Lily was pregnant. Lily has been determined to not let her pregnancy affect her daily life. How can it not though? I mean she is literally growing another person inside her. Perhaps she''s right and I shouldn''t worry so much. We''d certainly have made it a lot further in the dungeon if I could fully concentrate on delving. All it takes is one stray arrow or random spell though. Still, it''s not like we haven''t made any progress. Chandra reached level 12 over a month ago and me and Cole both reached level 13 during this most recent delve. We even made it far enough to realize the paths we were taking are a bunch of side paths that just lead to chests. Not that we''ve been able to kill the mobs in those rooms and claim the chests. We''ve gotten pretty good at clearing most of the floor though. It''s just those rooms with the level 15 mobs we can''t clear. To say nothing of the third-floor mini boss that most likely showed up randomly along with the mini bosses on the first two floors. It''s not like I can''t see Lily''s point either. Even if nobody says it out loud, we all know that after the baby is born there will be no more delving for at least half a year. Not until the child is old enough to be left with his or her aunty Luna. Each delve is already starting to take most of an entire day. Admittedly a significant amount of that time is still being spent collecting all of the chests on the first floor. I''d probably skip the first floor entirely if it wasn''t for the revenue the town gets every time the merchant sells a piece of wood rank gear to academy graduates or the occasional group of friends who decide to give delving a try because "how hard could it be". Dungeon POV I feel like if anything my progress might actually be slower than when I was first starting out. If you ignore the fact that my rooms are sixteen times larger than they were back then anyway. In the past two months I''ve only been able to create four new rooms. The first two are on either side of the very first room, not counting the entryway of course. Those two are identical to that first room with a few minor terrain changes to keep it from being too similar. Not that I think anyone would notice if it was. I did however raise the wood golems level to 21 in these rooms. The other two were placed on either side of the second room and were mostly identical to that room. I did alter the terrain slightly and change where the buildings ruins were located. Naturally I also increased the level of the griffons from 21 to 22 in those rooms. I even chose to allow travel between the rooms without needing to return to the main path.This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source. I will probably spend a little extra time on the fifth floor making way more rooms than is necessary. Not that I plan to go overboard like I did with the first floor. It''s just that I''ve noticed that each increase in rank represents a more exaggerated difference than the last rank increase. There is way more of a difference between level 19 and level 20 than there is between level 9 and level 10. So, it only stands to reason that the first tin rank boss would represent a significant difference in strength from even the mini boss on the fifth floor. Which is why I plan to give the delvers a few more rooms full of level 25 enemies so that they aren''t stuck fighting lower-level enemies. Speaking of fighting lower-level enemies I''m surprised my third floor has only seen a relatively small number of different parties so far. And of those only a few came back for a second turn. Two of those of course being Clyde''s group and the ladies. Most of my regulars are getting close to fighting the second-floor boss though. It''s just that those attracted by my increased rank don''t tend to stick around long after becoming stone rank. Even those that manage to fight the second-floor boss don''t usually bother continuing to the third floor. There are a few who eventually become regulars though. Bringing the average strength of my delvers to around level 8. It would be higher if not for the level 1 parties that show up from time to time. It won''t be long before the third floor becomes more popular. I suspect that by this time next year my third floor will be at least as popular as the second floor is now. To be honest there hasn''t been as many delvers attracted by my rank as I thought there would be. Not that I thought they''d come pouring in, but I did think I''d get more than one or two a month. Some months I don''t even get any delvers attracted by my rank. Still the instancing has allowed the delvers to start leveling up faster. There have even been a few times when four instances of the first floor were in use at once. Although those times are still rare, at least for now. Just as I''m pondering the future of my dungeon, I notice Clyde''s party enter my dungeon again. I wonder if today will be the day that they finally snag one of the third-floor chests. So far, they''ve managed to clear every room except the treasure rooms, which is apparently what the delvers are calling them, and the room just before the boss room. A few of them are close to leveling up again after repeatedly facing higher level enemies so we''ll see. Lily POV I''d like to make obsidian rank before the baby is born but I don''t think that will be possible. I''ve heard rumors that the higher level you are the higher the chance the baby will be born healthy. I also understand everyone else''s concern. I mean in order for a baby to be born healthy it first has to be born. Aside from that though there is the well-known fact that the higher your level the higher your pain tolerance and the quicker you recover. Meaning I won''t need to spend as long in bed after the baby is born. Though I''m more excited about the increased pain tolerance. Having recently become all too aware of the size difference between me and Clyde. Not that I was unaware of the fact that I''m smaller than some dwarves. It''s just never been an issue before. Failure To Analyze Dungeon POV As I watch them make their way through the first floor. Barely even noticing the rats at this point. I can''t help but wonder how much longer they''re going to be able to continue. Surely there must come a point where Lily''s condition will make delving impractical at best. It''s already beginning to subtly affect her mobility in ways she may not even be aware of. More importantly is that strange energy coming from apparently nowhere, or at least from a dimension that I can''t perceive. Whatever this strange energy is, which behaves like mana but also nothing like mana, it has increased as of late. Where once it was a slow trickle, it is now a steady, if still small, stream. As expected of a party of level 13 people the first floor is barely an inconvenience. With the second floor offering only slightly more resistance. Of course, by slightly more I mean that there were times they actually had to try a little. This was mainly in the treasure rooms and the boss room though. Sadly, during all this time I still haven''t made any progress in even understanding what that strange energy is. So far it ignores any attempt to manipulate it in any way. I''m not sure if it''s a dungeon thing or a me thing but the idea of something in my dungeon that I can''t affect in the slightest just irks me. The energy, or whatever it is, does seem to be getting more intense though so even if I can''t affect it now, I still might be able to in the future when I suspect there will be more of it to potentially effect. For now, I decide to concentrate on the fact that they are on the third floor again. This means that they will finally be able to start significantly increasing the amount of stored mana I have. I still don''t completely understand how the whole system works. Apparently, the build-up of any one type of mana is bad. Then again, too much neutral mana is also bad but then not enough mana is somehow even worse. All I know is the further they make it the more mana I get. The more mana I get the bigger I can make myself. I''m not sure why but there is this instinctual need to just keep getting bigger. The fact that doing this also somehow helps to regulate the worlds mana is a side effect really. At least as near as I can tell. The first three rooms offer barely any resistance although they did need to pay attention and actually try. It''s when they enter the first side room that they actually seem to take things seriously. Not that they were goofing off before. There''s just something different about facing opponents that are close to being your equal. Chandra takes off, immediately moving to the first trap to begin disarming it. One of the perks of having cleared this room multiple times is knowing exactly where the traps are. I could randomize their locations, and probably will later, but for now I decide against it. Perhaps on the copper or bronze rank floors I''ll start adding such elements. If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. While Chandra is busy with the traps Cole and Clyde run straight for the skeleton fighters. Darrel uses his water vines to hold two of them allowing Cole and Clyde to deal with the other two relatively easily. Clyde''s opponent thrusts his sword forward which he easily deflects before bringing his own sword back up slicing off the skeleton''s sword arm. followed by a horizontal swing that shattered its skull. Cole meantime focused on just defending while waiting for Clyde to get done with his opponent. A vertical slice to the back of the head made short work of it after Clyde got free. The two skeletons Darrel was holding were even easier to deal with since they were literally being held in place. The next room though is where they actually had to start trying hard. These enemies were on the same level after all. It didn''t help that the next room also contained both a fire and water mage. That is on top of the tank and fighter skeletons. Fortunately, they already knew from experience that it did not contain any traps. This means that Chandra, who has reached level 12 at this point, is able to instantly start drawing the fire mages attention. Meanwhile Darrel faces off against the enemy water mage. While that''s happening Clyde and Cole are facing off against the enemy''s melee units. For the first time this entire delve they actually need to use some skills. Cole uses a simple skill to increase his defense, while Clyde uses a skill to increase his reaction speed. Using this skill, he is able to easily block the skeleton fighter''s attacks using his own sword while waiting for the perfect opening to counterattack. Eventually he gets his chance when his opponent commits to a heavy vertical slash. instead of blocking it Clyde simply deflects it before bringing his own sword down on the skeleton fighter''s skull. Without stopping he then swings for the skeleton tank''s skull. The tank sees this in time to block the attack with his shield. However, this is just the opening Cole needed to thrust his own sword forward and straight through his opponent''s skull while blocking an attack with his own shield. Meanwhile Darrel has been trading blows with the water mage. Unfortunately, the best he can do is to cancel out the enemy''s spell with one of his own. Eventually Clyde is able to strike the water mage from behind while Cole simultaneously strikes the enemy fire mage. With that they manage to get through this fight unscathed but they''re still far from being able to clear the entire floor. After allowing Lily to harvest all the fruits, a slightly harder task than it normally would be, they decide to rest for a while before continuing. While retrieving her throwing knives Chandra is actually the first to spot one of the rabbits hiding in one of the bushes, they had thought was just for decoration. I think the reason she was able to spot it is due to her increased perception from being a rogue. Either way she quickly throws a knife at it startling the other members of the party. To her delight shortly after being hit right between the eyes it despawns leaving a chunk of rabbit meat behind. It''s not the first time they''ve seen rabbits in my dungeon. For some reason though they seemed to think it was just in that one room at the start of the third floor. She shows it to the others while explaining what happened and they all wonder why I would suddenly start adding rabbits to other rooms all of the sudden. Not realizing the rabbits have been part of this room from the beginning. Knowing what to look for now she eventually gets four more chunks of rabbit meat. They all agree that this alone was worth the delve with meat of any kind still being a rare treat. Hearing this I secretly give all my mobs that don''t currently drop meat a 5% chance of dropping the relevant meat. Well except skeletons because that would just be weird and wrong. After the break and with renewed excitement they head for the southern exit. Continuing The Third floor Delve Everyone visibly tenses up as they make their way through the hallway connecting the two rooms. They''ve defeated the skeletons in this room before but it''s never easy. Immediately upon entering the room Chandra starts throwing knives towards the skeleton rogue. At the same time Darrel, after trying and failing to grab the enemy earth mage with a water vine, starts throwing ice spears to try and keep the mages attention. They are at a disadvantage but they''re still able to keep those two occupied, even if just barely. Meanwhile Clyde hangs back a little and lets Cole charge in by himself. Cole then uses his taunt ability which seems to be more powerful than I remember. The skeleton fighter who was originally eyeing Clyde despite him hanging back turns his attention to Cole instead. With that Cole has successfully tied up both melee units. Though that success does come at a cost with both skeletons having skills that increase striking power and striking speed respectively. Clyde for his part doesn''t try to help Cole which surprises me. What he does do is turn his attention to the skeleton rogue instead while activating his own speed enhancement ability. With Clyde''s help Chandra is quickly able to get the upper hand. With the two of them working together in perfect sync They are able to easily keep the enemy off balance. As a result of their teamwork the enemy rogue is soon eliminated. They don''t spare even a moment to celebrate though because there''s still a lot of work to be done. Chandra turns her attention to the enemy mage while Clyde turns his attention to helping Cole. Cole for his part had switched from taunt to one of his defensive skills that somehow works by neutralizing some of the momentum of the enemies'' attack. The result is the skills the two skeletons are using being effectively cancelled. Although they''re still able to hit with quite a bit of force. Instead of moving straight towards them Clyde circled around the long way to avoid being noticed. The skeleton fighter never even saw the sword that shattered his skull. The skeleton Tank did however and with a horizontal slash from his own sword was able to send Clyde stumbling backwards. Though not in time to save his ally. This was the opening Cole was waiting for though as a quick vertical slash split the skeletons skull like a coconut. Thanks to the leather chest armor Clyde received only a superficial cut on his chest. He will probably need new chest armor but that hasn''t been an issue in a while. Meanwhile the skeleton mage is surprisingly able to defend itself from both Chandra and Darrel. Unfortunately for my skeleton defend is all it can do. That seems to be enough though as they can''t seem to land a solid hit on my skeleton mage. That is until Clyde and Cole join the attack. With the four of them working together the poor skeleton doesn''t stand a chance and is quickly defeated. Lily quickly rushes up soon after to begin treatment. Funny enough this time it''s Cole and not Darrel or Lily who is the first to reach the next level. Apparently being repeatedly left to defend against opponents that are higher level than him wasn''t all bad after all. Not to be outdone Lily soon follows up with her own level up a short time later. Not surprising considering how much she does outside of combat.Stolen novel; please report. The others aren''t too far away from gaining another level either. Well, except maybe Chandra who did just level up not long ago. It takes a while to treat Cole''s injuries. The armor can only do so much after all. Meanwhile Clyde and Darrel are going around gathering up the loot that dropped. At the same time Chandra is collecting and examining her knives. Eventually they reach a state where they''re ready to continue. Much to my disappointment they decide not to try the next room and head back the way they came. I had hoped that today would be the day somebody finally claimed one of those chests. It looks like I''ll have to wait until next time though. Once back in the last room they choose the path straight ahead from the initial entrance to the room. I would have thought they''d want to save the goblins for last. I guess they wanted to deal with the goblin''s intelligence, limited though it may be, before they got too exhausted fighting the wolves. They were only slightly more intelligent than the wolves, but that was enough to make them far more dangerous. Cole enters first trying to divert their attention away from the entrance. At first it appeared to be working. Clyde and Darrel came in a short time later followed by Lily and Chandra. Chandra already had her stealth skill active and managed to slip away moments before three of the goblins turned and suddenly pounced on Cole and Darrel. What Clyde''s party always seems to forget is that the goblins can smell them. Their noses aren''t as good as most animals but they''re certainly far better than human noses. Clyde blocked one while Darrel managed to get his staff up in time to block another one. Unfortunately, the third goblin made it past both of them. It was headed straight for Lily and there was nothing she could do about it. Being able to see everything meant that I was all too aware that there was no way anyone was going to be able to save her. Chandra was already tossing knives at the goblin facing off against Cole. Clyde and Darrel obviously had their own goblins to deal with. I don''t normally care about such things but since they were the first to delve me this group was my favorite. Plus, the part of me that was still human didn''t want to see a pregnant woman get hurt. It felt like the world slowed down as the goblin rapidly approached stone knife in hand. Then it struck and I got to watch the knife come closer and closer and closer until finally ... nothing. It just stood there frozen in time. The knife just millimeters away from Lily''s arm which she had brought up to protect her throat. What the fuck? Even I can''t manipulate time, at least not yet. On top of that I know for a fact that nobody in their party did it. For one thing I can sense when a skill is used. Besides that, for such a spell to be used I''m certain I would have sensed them building up mana with my mana sense. Don''t get me wrong I''m glad Lily is still alive but now I appear to have yet another mystery on my hands. Just when I''m starting to get over the shock of what just happened, I get a notification letting me know that as compensation I will get twice the mana I would have gotten if Lily had died. As if that clears anything up. More Questions Than Answers The goblin doesn''t stay frozen. It does however ignore Lily completely. Turning to charge at Clyde instead. Clyde is busy dealing with a goblin of his own. For a humanoid being without armor they''re surprising tough to deal with one on one. Fortunately, due to sheer dumb luck Clyde moved at the last minute causing the stone blade to lodge in his shoulder instead of the back of his neck. That''s not to say it wasn''t painful. Meanwhile Chandra was finally able to land a hit on the goblin attacking Cole. The knife buried itself in the goblins hip. This slowed it down enough for Cole''s next swing to decapitate it. So, the two of them were now coming to aid Darrel and Clyde. Thanks to the wound Clyde now had limited use of his left arm. This in turn limited his ability to swing his great sword. This leads to him getting cut a few more times despite now being aware of both goblins. Using his speed skill to increase his reaction time he''s able to keep them from landing any fatal blows. Suddenly it''s the goblins turn to get attacked from behind. A throwing knife from Chandra takes out one while a Vertical slice from Cole takes out the other one a few seconds later. After that dealing with the one Darrel has restrained requires hardly any effort. Lily though is still stunned by what just happened and so it takes her a minute to realize that the fight is over. None of the others witnessed the interaction between her and the goblin. So, while they are confused why she hesitated to start healing they don''t think much else of it. For some reason she opts not to explain anything that happened to them. Not that I blame her I mean how exactly would you explain something like that. Especially when so many people have died in my dungeon that everyone is aware that I have no problem taking lives. I''m also a little confused. I mean first off something has the ability to supersede my control over the space inside my dungeon. That alone would be bad enough and is definitely something I plan to look into. However, it can also apparently supersede both my control of my own mobs as well as their control over their own bodies, or maybe just their awareness since it seemed to be unaware of Lily afterwards. Despite the fact that it was centimeters from her. On top of that there is this mysterious system gifting me mana. From where exactly? Not from this world I know that much. Possibly not even from this dimension. Given how high a level she is, getting twice the mana I would have gotten for killing her suddenly sucked into my core should have definitely created ripples in the ambient mana and there was none. The question then becomes, why her? While I''m busy pondering that Clyde''s party has gathered their stuff and after downing a few health potions they decide to continue the delve. This time heading to the northern room. I guess it makes sense seeing as none of them actually noticed what happened, but I can''t help thinking what if it happens again. What if it keeps happening. Fortunately, the next room is just wolves. Even though they are mostly level 14 Clyde''s party has long since become an expert in dealing with the wolves.Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings. Immediately upon entering the room Cole uses taunt to get all the wolves to target him. Chandra meanwhile heads off to try and keep the alpha distracted. Darrel then throws an ice spear which takes out one of the wolves attacking Cole. This however gets the attention of two of those wolves. One of which just barely manages to dodge a diagonal slice from Clyde losing most of an ear in the process. Clyde immediately transitions into a vertical slice not wanting to give the wolf time to retaliate. Unfortunately, the wolf is easily able to dodge this and lunges at Clyde. At the same time Darrel throws another ice spear. this time to my shock instead of throwing it at the one coming towards him he throws it at the one still attacking Cole. He successfully killed that wolf but now he barely has time to raise his staff up to block his face and throat from getting bitten. Cole who is now free immediately runs over to help. Meanwhile Clyde has just stabbed another wolf in the neck after being thrown to the ground and having his arm used like a chew toy. He''s definitely going to need new chest armor after this delve. Before he can make it to his feet though Cole has already made it to Darrel. He had hoped to take out the wolf while it was distracted but Cole isn''t exactly stealthy, so the wolf heard him coming and managed to dodge in time. Clyde then stepped between the wolf and Darrel allowing Lily to come up and start healing. Fortunately, skills seem to get stronger the more they''re used so while it is still technically the same healing spell as before it is much stronger. Also fortunate is the fact that while there is a lot of blood none of the claw marks are deeper than three centimeters. Which while still bad could have been much worse. At least this time nobody needs their organs stuffed back inside. While all that is happening, Cole runs up to help Chandra with the level 15 alpha wolf. Once again Cole''s lack of stealth leads to the wolf hearing him coming. This time however that momentary distraction is exactly what Chandra needs for one of her knives to connect with the side of the wolf''s neck. Clyde on the other hand simply activated his heightened reflexes skill while goading the wolf to attack. Once it did, he side stepped with a vertical slice decapitating the wolf. This effectively ended the encounter. If it wasn''t for the fact that this floor hasn''t ''updated'' since I changed all mobs to include a chance to drop meat, they would probably have their first bit of wolf meat by now. As it is they did get some wolf pelts out of it though. Watching them fight I can''t help but think they definitely should have noticed something. That goblin literally ran right by Darrel after all. This means whatever it is, it''s somehow able to directly affect delvers as well. Something that I seem to instinctively know I''ll never be able to do no matter how powerful I become. This means I can''t even discuss it with Clyde for fear of angering whoever or whatever this entity is. A Premature End While they do still plan to continue with their delve, I think it''s a pretty safe bet they aren''t going to fully clear the floor during this delve. Still, it''s not like I have anything else to do at the moment. So, I continue to watch. The group makes their way back to the main room before clearing the side rooms on the other side. Well except the treasure rooms that is. Though I believe they definitely will during the next delve. Especially since Darrel managed to reach level 14. They did however manage to get a lot more loot and even some more rabbit meat. After making their way back to the main room yet again, they finally decide to continue along the main path. The next room offers very little resistance with all but one of the party members being higher level than the mobs. They did still have to be careful though because while their skin is tougher than normal, especially in the case of Clyde and Cole, it is not yet arrow proof. That''s not even counting the fact that level 12 archers have bows with a much higher draw strength and are slightly more accurate than the archers they meet at the start of the second floor. They took their time resting anyway so that Lily could pick the miracle berries without feeling rushed. The next room offered a little more resistance though not much. Granted when they first entered the floor this room was a lot tougher. Especially the mages that attack after a party would have normally let their guard down. I remember how they initially ignored the third mage since it didn''t seem to be doing anything. The look on Clyde''s face when they figured out that it was mending the other two was priceless. Now though the surprise is gone so they know not to lower their guard after defeating the goblins. After clearing that room, they continue straight ahead. I''m surprised at first but then I remember that they haven''t found the door to the boss room yet. So, naturally they wouldn''t know which are the side paths. It''s not like I made it hard to tell though, so I''m sure they''ll figure it out in no time. In the next room they face another skeleton party. They still haven''t completely gotten used to the idea of skeleton with the ability to imitate a healer''s abilities though. It''s the room after that when everything goes wrong. Having been in this room before Lily, Darrel, and Chandra stayed near the entrance while Clyde and Cole walked out to trigger the encounter. They still haven''t worked out that they can eliminate some skeleton early. The first few seconds after triggering the encounter went well enough. Swords were swinging, knives and ice spears were flying, and it looked as if they had the upper hand despite being outnumbered. Then it happened. Cole''s chest armor despite being heavy plate armor finally suffered enough damage to let a sword through. I''m sure the fact that he''s been wearing it for nearly a year has something to do with that. It could also be the fact that it''s only stone rank armor.This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience. The sword doesn''t penetrate very deep. It is However deep enough that Cole immediately starts to lose a lot of blood. He tries his best to keep fighting but his reaction speed has slowed significantly. He does manage to stay on his feet continuing to take some of the pressure off of the others. To be fair they do still have potions it''s just really hard to pop a potion in the middle of defending against multiple attackers. Eventual Clyde also gets stabbed. This time in the back and unlike Coles wound this time the sword goes all the way through. The way it pierced through Clyde''s stomach reminded me of that one scene from Alien. Fortunately, while the groups two heavy hitters could barely defend themselves at the moment Chandra and Darrel haven''t been idle. If anything, they have redoubled their efforts with knives and ice spikes flying continuously. At least until Chandra got down to what was apparently her last knife. I say this because she refused to throw it. I always wondered what it would take for her to run out. The pouch she uses holds way more throwing knives than a pouch three times that size should be able to hold. Thanks to everyone working together they do eventually manage to kill all sixteen skeletons. After which Cole and Clyde don''t hesitate to pop their potions. Thankful they managed to saved the potions till now. At the same time Lily runs over to immediately begin treating them. Despite being injured Clyde finally managed to reach level 14 as well. It takes a while before either of them is able to walk without clutching their stomachs. Eventually they are at least healed enough to continue. They decide not to press their luck though and vow instead to get all new gear before returning. Having learned the harsh truth that being sentimental about your gear can get you killed. In spite of all the weirdness that happened, and partly because of it, this delve gave me a lot of mana. Their time on the third floor alone gave me nearly three times as much mana as the first two floors combined. I can''t help wondering how much I would have gotten if the delve hadn''t been forced to end prematurely. I''m still a little concerned about the weirdness that happened during their delve. There''s not really much I can do about it though so instead I try to focus on the positive. Next time Clyde and his party come in here I''m certain they will do a full clear or at least try to. Imagining how much mana I will get from them looting those chests makes me almost giddy with excitement. As does imagining all three instances of the third floor being used at the same time. The new meat loot should grant me even more mana as well. I''m still not ok with goblin meat, due to how close they are to being sapient, so delvers are kind of stuck with wolf and scorpion meat in addition to the non-hostile creatures. At least for now. The Lost Town It still takes a while for me to build up enough mana for more rooms. Even with Clyde''s delve giving me so much mana. When I finally do get enough, the next room I place is along the central line. This room I plan to make into a village. So, after placing a solid layer of dirt I go back over it and place down houses in a way that I think makes logical sense. It makes sense to me at any rate. After that I go through and place down smooth stones to make something resembling streets. I make sure to give the streets an aged and weathered look. Then go back to the skeleton section of the system shop and buy a few of the none combat skeleton types. They''re still going to attack the delvers. They just won''t be as effective as a fighter or some other combat role. I plan for them to be cannon fodder. Which is why I fill this room with about two hundred of these ordinary skeletons with another hundred fighters mixed in randomly. Naturally I make them all level 22. The idea being that the fighters were the towns guards. It takes more time than I would have thought to lay out all the skeletons in a logic pattern. The baker goes in the bakery, merchants go inside their shops, and so on. Most of the normal (classless) zombies I place inside the houses although there are still quite a few on the streets, as well as in other buildings. I do my best to give the illusion that this was a thriving village before whatever happened. I also go back to the first floor after the dungeon is closed for the night and on one of the parchment scrolls, I make vague references to a lost kingdom that was destroyed by a sudden catastrophe. The scrolls remained amongst several other blank ones so that one might believe it was simply overlooked. One of the perks of not having to physically move or unravel the scroll to write on it. As a final touch I go back and add traps to some of the houses. While still not specifically meant to be deadly these traps could actually kill a careless delver. I don''t really expect any of the regulars to be careless. Especially not after making it to the fifth floor. The transition from the fourth to the fifth just so happens to be another one that requires a rank up though. This will no doubt result in higher level delvers coming to rank up. Some of whom will no doubt stay to farm the ''easy'' levels. Surprisingly over the next few weeks Clyde''s party delves the third floor several more times, but they don''t attempt any of the treasure rooms. This is unlike Clyde. Sure, he''s always been cautious, but this feels different. It could have something to do with the fact that Lily is really starting to show now. Then again it could be due to the randomly placed mini boss as well as the fact that treasure rooms after the first floor are a significant leap in difficulty. Not overwhelming but still significant. It could also be a combination of factors, and while I could read his mind to find out I don''t feel like it''s all that important. If he reaches level 15 and still doesn''t tackle the treasure rooms, I''ll simply ask him about it. During this time others have started making it to the third floor although they usually only make it a few rooms in for now. You''d think that would mean the 1st and 2nd floors have become even more popular but apparently, it''s been a while since any new delvers have arrived. Not that I''m complaining since the deeper floors give me more mana anyway. Besides, I have no doubt more delvers would come if they knew how deep I actually was. That said it has been about a year since the academy last lead a bunch of level 1 newbies through the first few rooms of my first floor. Which means I should be getting a fresh batch of newbies pretty soon. Eventually I do get enough mana to create two new rooms. These will be two more forest rooms placed on either side of the main path. The only real difference, aside from a few landscape changes to keep the rooms from being to uniform, is the fact that the wood golems are level 22. By the time I''m finished with the rooms Clyde''s party has returned yet again. Although they are much slower now with Lily''s walk being more of a waddle. I''m not so sure delving in her current state is wise. Then I remember that something more powerful than me seems to be protecting her. Still, I don''t think she''s realized that which makes her delving now either really brave or really stupid, I''m honestly not sure which.The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. On the plus side that stream of mana going into the child has grown large enough that I can tell that it''s not mana. Well not entirely. I don''t have any frame of reference for what that other energy is. Which is a little concerning to be honest, but I also don''t get any sense of malice from it or whatever is sending it either. To her credit Lily still manages to do everything she did before, just much slower. It took Clyde''s party almost twice as long to get to the third floor as it normally does. Once they defeat the level 14 skeletons in the side path, I expect them to do what they''ve always done but this time Clyde decides to press on. I was not expecting that at all. Fortunately, for them this is not the room with the mini boss. Also fortunate is the fact that I decided not to increase the number of enemies in this room compared to the last room. As the fight start Lily casts buff defense on Cole while Cole simultaneously uses his taunt ability to draw the two melee units towards himself. Suddenly it makes sense. They weren''t delaying because of Lily. They were waiting. Either for Cole to be able to use taunt a few more times per delve or for them to be strong enough to not need it as often. The fact that Lily''s buff defense ability can now increase a person''s defense by an easily perceptible amount is just a happy little bonus. While I still don''t think it''s possible, I am starting to think Clyde was serious about Lily wanting to continue pushing forward until the baby comes. I normally refrain from reading his mind since I trust him not to try and harm my core. When a single thought is so prevalent he is practically screaming it it''s hard not to notice, however. Though neither of us really get why she would push herself so much. At this moment Cole is fending of two attackers that are both higher level while Clyde circles around behind the skeletons. Meanwhile Chandra and Darrel are doing their best to keep the skeleton rogue and air mage occupied. Once behind them Clyde used a speed skill to quickly close the distance and slash at the skeleton''s skull. The skeleton managed to see the attack coming and moved to block it but was a hair to slow. It did manage to block the attack but unfortunately not before it had gone halfway through its skull. With one down you''d think the fight would be easy, but the skeleton tank was wearing pretty good armor on top of being one level higher. While Clyde and Cole were busy trying to find a way past the armor Chandra''s luck ran out. It wasn''t the first time that she had fought something a few levels higher than herself but All it takes is a single miscalculation or mistimed step. Before it could finish the job, an ice horn suddenly grew from its forehead. This move however did not come without a cost as a gust of wind suddenly sent Darrel flying backwards. Fortunately for Darrel the really fun air and wind-based attacks are locked behind level requirements because I really wanted to give this mage wind blades. Darrel''s still not out of the fight and manages to successfully block the next attack. Although I can''t help but notice he is no longer sending attacks of his own. Lily runs up to Chandra as fast as she can manage and begins healing. The other rogue somehow managed to stab Chandra''s underarm. The blade then exited through her chest before being forcefully pulled back through by the enemy rogue, a detail that was hidden by the leather armor. The inside of Chandras armor was drenched in her own blood, not that Lily could see it. While Lily treated Chandra and Darrel was just trying to stay alive, Cole and Clyde hadn''t exactly been idle. They had both managed to land some good solid hits, but they were having trouble getting past the armor. Eventually though they were able to win by attacking together they both started with a vertical slice but Clyde transition to a thrust by changing his grip at the last minute. A risky gambit seeing as it could have been easily countered. It was successful none the less. After that dealing with the mage was a simple matter. Chandra ended up needing two of the healing potions to stabilize her condition and Darrel had a cracked rib. All of this meant that this post fight rest was much longer than normal. As for the treasure well let''s just say Chandra, once she was back on her feet, was only too happy to change into the new leather armor they just got. Her old armor taking on a bit of an odor to say nothing of the fact that by this point the inside was now caked in partially dried blood. The rest of the gear went into the party''s storage box. Coles Epiphany I was excited about the mana that I got from that fight. More effort means more mana after all. Though the loot also gave me a lot of mana. It was just unfortunate that after the near lose they would be ending the delve early. At least I thought they would. After resting for a really long time though, as well as Lily making sure everyone was healed up. They didn''t immediately head for the exit like I expected. In fact, Chandra was one of the ones trying to convince the others to continue the delve. Not that it looked like it took much convincing after confirming that everyone was able to continue. Cole POV I have no idea what''s gotten into those girls. I''m mean Chandra has always been reckless despite her bubbly personality. In fact, her bubbly personality seems at times to completely contradict her mindset. The problem is that Lily has also started acting more recklessly. While I''m not blaming Chandra, I''d be a fool to think that she had no influence. Clyde on the other hand has always been a bit of a risk taker, that''s what lead to us finding this dungeon in the first place, but I wouldn''t exactly call him reckless. Brainless perhaps, he certainly isn''t the best at thinking things through, but not reckless. Darrel on the other hand has always been more of a follower. Always willing to go wherever the rest of us were going. Even as a kid. A little too agreeable if you ask me, but his water magic has saved our butts more than once so I can''t complain too much. I swear sometimes it feels like I''m the only one thinking about safety. I''ve got to get stronger so I can keep them all safe. Lily especially, Luna would never speak to me again if anything happened to her sister. The last think I need is a fireball in the back. Not that I even need the extra motivation to protect my friends. I wouldn''t mind a little sparing match with her though. I''m soon pulled out of that fantasy though as we prepare to enter the next room. This room is known to have some pretty tricky goblins so I can''t afford to be distracted. The first thing I do when we enter the room is sprint forward while activating taunt. I immediately notice two of them ugly bastards turn towards me. As I turn to face them head on, I can only trust that the rest of them are being dealt with by Clyde and the others. They''re extremely weak but their speed and agility more than makes up for that. They wouldn''t survive one hit. If only I could hit the damned things. I''m not sure how long I was fighting against those two goblins, but eventually Clyde and Chandra show up to take them out from behind.If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it. I did manage to maintain a vague sense of where everyone is in case we needed to retreat. Plus, I wouldn''t want to accidentally slash one of them. Aside from that though I find it far more helpful to stay focused on the enemy right in front of me. Turning around it doesn''t take but a second to realize the fight is over. Perhaps I should put a few points into speed. It doesn''t do any good to be super strong if you can''t land a hit. Then again maybe it would be better to get a speed-based skill instead. I''ve got another six levels to go before I get to actually choose a skill though. No, I think getting naturally faster is the best plan. At least fast enough that I don''t feel like a statue on the battlefield. Taunt forces them to come to me so I don''t need to get a lot faster. Hopefully I will earn another level up in the next room. Fortunately, Clyde is smart enough to let the cooldown on taunt expire before entering the next room. Once again, I activate taunt as soon as we enter the room. This time however instead of two I attract the attention of three goblins. Not a problem for me but it does make me wonder how many we''re fighting. The last time taunt attracted the attention of more than two we were fighting a huge group of them. This time looks to be no different as I''m vaguely aware that the others are each fighting their own goblin. Focusing back on the three in front of me I do my best to have my sword slice where they''re going to be instead of where they are. I''m too slow to hit them aiming at where they are so I figure maybe if I try to predict where they''re going to be I can actually land a hit. I wish I had paid more attention at the academy. Back then I was convinced that speed was only for running away. So obsessed was I in being the toughest I would zone out whenever they talked about strategy or battlefield awareness. I''m ashamed to say it took me this long to realize just attacking and defending isn''t enough. I actually come close to landing a hit a few times now that I''ve started to be more strategic about where and how I swing my sword. To think I was just criticizing Clyde for never thinking things through. Just then it occurs to me that this is what they meant when they said experience trumps raw strength. I thought they were just talking about levels, but I see now, it was more than that. I did always find it odd they felt the need to point out higher levels beat lower levels as if it wasn''t already common knowledge. All the levels in the world are going to be of little use if I continue to fight like I did at level 1. As if it had been waiting for that exact realization, I feel the level up wash over me even as I defend against two more thrusting attacks. I turn to counter the third attack when I notice that goblin has a new neck piercing. The other two are soon dealt with as well. As soon as I confirm that there are no more enemies, I waste no time in completing my level up just this once I pump most of my points into speed. Not something a tank should do normally, but I''ve been ignoring speed completely for far too long. A well Earned Reward Dungeon POV It seems like one of them finally managed to reach level 15. This is excellent news since it means that it''s only a matter of time before they fight the boss. Higher level delvers that can go even deeper mean so much more now that I rarely get new faces anymore. I knew it would happen eventually, but it seems like all the stone rank and below adventurers in the kingdom who want to delve are already here. Others did come from outside the kingdom but most of them ranked up from wood to stone and then left. Having had a few years to go over Clyde''s memories it makes sense why I''m having trouble getting people to delve. It took so long to sift through the memories because it''s like trying to do research in the world''s most disorganized library. I''m not sure how small this kingdom is, because even Clyde doesn''t know, but Clyde believes it to be the smallest nation in the world. What he does know is that a significant portion of the nation''s youth is here. Eventually I will be large enough to stand on my own regardless of where I am but for now, I just have to work with what I''ve been given. Focusing back on Clyde''s party they''re now well rested and are heading towards the rooms exit. I wasn''t sure at first, but it does seem like they''re going to try the wolf path now. It seems Cole''s level up gave them just the encouragement they needed. Cole doesn''t even bother using taunt this time as him and Clyde rush out to meet the wolves head on. Two of the wolves try to get around them but are soon confronted by Darrel and Chandra. Cole surprisingly is able to make quick work of the wolf attacking him. Just in time for the alpha wolf to lunge at him. While Cole was dealing with that Clyde was determined to win without getting bitten this time. Meanwhile in the back row Darrel had a water vine wrapped around a wolf''s throats. The outcome of this match clearly already decided. Chandra on the other hand was having a bit more trouble. She was no longer at a disadvantage but couldn''t seem to land any significant blows either. Fortunately, it didn''t take too long for Darrel to pop the other wolf''s head clean of and come to aid Chandra. with them working together that poor wolf didn''t stand a chance. At the same time Cole and Clyde managed to deal with their wolves. Unfortunately, not without getting bitten. Clyde''s armor absorbed most of the damage from the bites making this as close to a flawless victory as they''re ever likely to get fighting enemies of equal level. Besides which it''s the next room that''s really going to test them. That''s because they don''t know it yet, but this is the room with the mini boss. It''s just a normal wolf that I increased to level 17 but those two extra levels on top of the other five wolves should prove quite the challenge. Soon enough they''re rested and ready to go. As they enter the room Cole doesn''t hesitate to cast taunt this time. Three of the wolves immediately converge on Cole. Lily instantly begins casting the defense buff on Cole as two of the wolves make their way around to either side. Chandra and Darrel aren''t exactly idle though. As for the mini boss itself, it has chosen to attack Clyde. It''s clear that my mini boss has the upper hand in this fight with Cole not doing much better against the three level 15 wolves.Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. To an outside observer both sides would appear to be evenly matched despite the level difference. Possibly due to all the experience they''ve had fighting wolves specifically. This supposed stalemate is doomed to be short lived though. The turning point in this match actually came from Darrel who managed to nail the wolf he was fighting in the side. While that didn''t kill the wolf it was slowed down significantly. It seems Darrel has gotten really good at rapid firing those ice spears. These two factors allow Darrel to take down that wolf for good soon after. After this he wasted no time in going to help Chandra. He created a water vine that ensnared the wolfs back feet keeping it in place. Not only did this prevent the wolf from attacking, but it also allowed the throwing knife Chandra launched to actually hit its mark. This help came just in time as Chandra was about to run out of the throwing knives, she''d been using to keep the wolf at bay. A few more throwing knives and the wolf was put down. This left only four wolves including the level 17 alpha mini boss. Lily by this time is still casting the defense buff but has switched targets from Cole to Clyde. Despite this both of their armors are starting to resemble a used chew toy. Although I will say that Cole''s armor is faring better due to it being made of metal instead of leather. Soon enough Darrel sends a water vine to wrap around the waste of the level 17 wolf while Chandra simultaneously sends the last of her throwing knives towards the three wolves attacking Cole. The water vine isn''t able to hold it for long, but it does hold the wolf long enough for Clyde to actually land a hit on the wolf''s shoulder. Watching the wolf''s leg go from grey to a dull red thanks to all the blood Clyde knows this fight is over. He still doesn''t lower his guard though as he tries to approach from the wolfs wounded side. Meanwhile Cole watched as two knives struck one wolf killing it instantly while another wolf was struck by a third knife which severely wounded it, and two more knives missed completely. Chandra''s accuracy when throwing multiple knives is surprisingly high, but now she''s out of knives which is probably why she doesn''t normally do that. She isn''t completely defenseless however as she always keeps a dagger on her for just such an occasion. This one looks like a larger version of her throwing knives. I''m still unclear what the distinction is except maybe size. Cole uses the opportunity to launch a diagonal strike towards the injured wolf decapitating it before it has a chance to recover from the shock of suddenly being injured. After this Chandra wisely slips into the background knowing she''d only be in the way without her throwing knives. instead, she focuses on looking for traps something she hasn''t really had a chance to do in this room yet. With the other two wolves gone it doesn''t take much effort for Cole to deal with the remaining wolf. Darrel on the other hand sends an ice spear towards the mini boss. My mini boss dodges it even while being injured but that puts him in range of Clyde''s sword. This dance goes on a few more rounds with Darrel sometimes being the one to score a hit. Eventually though my mini boss is too injured to evade, and Clyde is able to land the killing blow. After this they spend a long time recovering. Lily was finally able to reach level 15 after healing Clyde and Cole as much as she could. After which they gathered all the wolf meat. When that was done, they finally decide to check on the treasure chest. Clearly liking what they find. They are all grateful for the potions. The coins don''t go unnoticed either but with the potions they can keep going. A Surprising Finish The group continued, tackling the identical set of side paths on the other side of the main path. They seemed to be having more trouble this time due to them being exhausted from fighting multiple level 15 groups. Fortunately, there was no mini boss this time. You''d think that two of them being level 15 would make things easier. The problem is all the fighting they had to do to get to this point. Most of which was done while they were still level 14. Though, Darrel did manage to reach level 15 in the last of the side rooms. Compared to those side paths, the next few rooms of the main path were almost easy. Considering all the injuries, some of which were close to being fatal, they sustained so far, I''m a little surprised that they''re still moving forward. Their next real challenge comes from one of the next two side paths. Specifically, the six level 15 skeletons in the last room. Cole instantly uses his taunt ability to get the tank and both fighters to target him. Meanwhile Chandra goes after the enemy rogue. This leaves Darrel to fight both the enemy mage and archer. While he does his best to keep their attention on him, he can only sling ice spears so fast. Especially since he has to stop and cast water wall every now and then due to his two opponents both having ranged attacks. As for Clyde, he''s busy helping Cole deal with the three skeletons attacking him. First blood, if skeletons had blood that is, goes to Clyde who successfully killed the enemy tank by first faking an attack on one of the enemy fighters. Just before his sword made contact with the fighter''s sword, he adjusted it so that it would just barely miss instead. This allowed him to carry his momentum through to attack the enemy tank. A risky move as it left him temporarily open to a counterattack. It happened so fast though that the skeleton tank was dead before the skeleton fighter even realized what had happened. Not a move I would have expected seeing as it would have ended much differently if the skeleton fighter had gone for anything but a simple block. With the tank now out of the way Cole and Clyde were both able to focus on one of the enemy fighters each. Chandra on the other hand was just barely managing to hold her own against the skeleton rogue. Instead of fighting the rogue directly Chandra seemed to be just keeping it busy. Not letting it focus on anyone else. The star of the show was Darrel fighting against the enemy mage while also defending against the archer. Though, he was rapidly burning through mana to do it.If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. For over a minute, Although I''m sure it felt like much longer to them, neither side seemed to be able to get the upper hand. The next big break came when Cole instead of blocking the vertical slash outright decided to turn his shield. Not much, but enough so that the skeleton fighter''s sword glanced off before continuing forward, instead of bouncing of the shield. The skeleton, clearly expecting the sword to be stopped by the opponent''s shield, put more power into the attack than it should have. The result of which being that it was caught off guard and stumbled forward. Only a single step, but it was enough. Before the skeleton had time to recover Cole brought his sword down across the back of its neck. That was the turning point as their fight was now two on one in favor of Clyde and Cole. The remaining skeleton fighter, not really being much of a strategic thinker, didn''t last much longer after that. Now I would have thought they would go to help Darrel seeing as he has been fighting two on one since the battle started. They instead went to help Chandra deal with the enemy rogue. This turned out to be the right call. With Cole and Clyde effectively limiting its movement Chandra was able to land the killing blow. After that the three of them turned their attention to the archer. The archer was quick to notice this and change its target. Without having to worry about stray arrows Darrel was able to concentrate on taking out the enemy mage. Cole used his reflexes to block the arrows with his shield allowing Chandra to use her concealment technic to get behind the skeleton. Before it even realized what was happening Chandra was able to drive a Knife into the back of its skull. Then there was one. I wish I could describe the skeleton mage''s valiant last stand. How it was holding out against overwhelming odds. The truth though is that the ending of this battle was rather anticlimactic. A few throwing knives by Chandra while it was focusing on Darrel brought it down. Just when I was starting to think they were going to do a full clear of the third floor they decided to return to the surface after gathering the loot and resting for a bit. I''m not going to pretend I wasn''t disappointed. In the end though I did understand why, and I have no doubt that next time they will do a full clear. I still don''t think they''ll be ready to face the boss but that''s alright considering the amount of mana I got from them making it as far as they did gives me more than enough mana for a large room. Especially when you combine it with the mana I already had. I once again find myself getting excited thinking about how much mana I will get once they start reaching the fifth floor and beyond. For now, I have to decide where to put the new room. I already have the entire floor planned out. The problem therefore is do I make the path to the boss room now or save it to last. After pondering for a few minutes, I decide that it would probably be best to save it till last. I should be getting a lot more mana a lot faster by then which will allow me to get a boss that truly fits the theme instead of just what I can afford. The Fifth Floor Is Taking Shape. As they make their way back through the third floor to the exit, I can''t help but wonder how long it will be before they are delving again. If it was up to Clyde, they would have put a pause on delving a long time ago. He seems convinced that Lily will probably try to do one last delve even while in labor. He doesn''t share these thoughts with anyone in his party, but through our connection I can practically feel the worry oozing off of him. As unrealistic as that scenario may be I can see his point. Not that they have anything to worry about, not that he knows that. Not like I''m going to point out that I don''t think I could kill her if I wanted to, at least for the moment, and actively trying might piss off a godlike being. As for where to place the new room I decide to hold off for a bit so that I can work on two rooms at once. Fortunately gathering the extra mana takes far less time than I would have thought. Mainly due to more and more people making it to the third floor. Most still can''t make it more than a few rooms in, but those few rooms make a world of difference as far as mana generation. It also helps that those same people usually do a full clear of the second floor just before that. As a result of all this I place two more forest rooms. They are placed on either side of the level 22 forest rooms. Keeping with the pattern the only change I make aside from some minor terrain changes is raising the wood golem from level 22 to 23. Naturally, I''m still doing my best to disguise the hallway between rooms. Perhaps I should have waited until I could fit everything in a single room. It certainly would have made things a lot easier. It wouldn''t help me stand out though, and I do need to attract more delvers. I did recently get a new batch of delvers from the academy, but it will be a while before they''re able to significantly help with my mana generation. To top it off I haven''t attracted any new delvers that weren''t fresh from the academy in almost a year. Even then it was a single party hoping to make stone rank so they could take on higher paying quests that are only available to stone rank and above. Hm, perhaps I should start offering quests, but then how would I go about that? Can I even do that? Is that even something dungeons can do? I quickly dismiss the idea though, deciding it would be more of a headache than it''s worth, at least for now. Over the next few months as the third floor becomes more and more popular the time between when I can put down a new room is cut significantly. In fact, I''m now able to place two rooms per month with some mana left over. The next two rooms I place are more farmland rooms. The griffons in these rooms will be level 23. One additional change I make is the introduction of wild potatoes. The idea being that this particular crop found a way to stick around even without farms helping them along. Whether or not the delvers will recognize it is another matter. The edible part is a root so if anyone notices it, they will likely be the ones with a high enough foraging skill.This narrative has been purloined without the author''s approval. Report any appearances on Amazon. Speaking of which foraging is the single most popular noncombat skill among my delvers. Harvesting being a close second. You would think the two would complement each other, and they kind of do, but delvers tend to only have one or the other. A short time later I decide to expand the abandoned town. Though perhaps since I''m trying to give the illusion that the inhabitants all died suddenly abandoned might not be the right word to describe it. Either way I take my time mapping out the streets and alleyways and such. Fortunately, it''s much easier to disguise the hallway between rooms when the nearby structures also look artificial. On a whim I decide to add a lot more residential buildings this time. I also decide to reduce the number of guards to just 50 replacing them with ordinary skeletons. All level 23 of course. This then becomes a rare example of effectively lowering the difficulty, or at the very least, reducing how much I increase it. A month after that I set down two more farm rooms this time however I place them beside the last two rooms I placed. the idea being to have the overall farmland wrap around the town as much as possible. As soon as I get everything set and throw down a few buildings. I go ahead and put in the griffons, being sure to raise them to level 24. It''s all still a bit to compact for my liking but I don''t want another floor with hundreds of rooms. Stepping back for a moment I take a look at the fifth floor as a whole. I got to say despite how compact it is, considering what it represents, I''m actually a little proud of how it''s turned out so far. Clyde POV I finally managed to convince Lily to give up delving. At least until after our child is born. It wasn''t easy but I think pointing out the number of times someone in our party has been impaled through the stomach helped to change her mind. Especially when I pointed out it doesn''t even need to be a particularly fatal blow. Her motherly instincts finally won out against her newfound obsession with delving. Well, that and the fact that I wasn''t the only one trying to convince her to take it easy for the last few months before the baby arrives. Thankfully I had Luna here to help me talk some sense into her. My thoughts are soon interrupted by a pained grimace from Lily. It''s not the first time this has happened, but I go ahead and fetch the midwife anyway. After helping Lily back to the bed and making sure she is as comfortable as I can make her. It only takes a few minutes for me to return expecting the midwife to tell me the same thing I''ve heard every time so far. Instead, she stays in the rooms with her for a lot longer, forcing me to accept that it might actually be happening this time. As I''m pacing the floor, for I don''t know how long, I suddenly hear a knock at the door. Opening it I''m greeted by Luna. Her party just got done with a delve and she came straight here to check on Lily. She shares my excitement when I tell her that she might actually be in labor this time. It''s nice to have someone to share the excitement with. If nothing else just so I don''t end up walking a hole in the floor. Our jubilation is cut short though when the midwife sticks her head out the bedroom and asks us to fetch a healer. Death Brings New Life Earth - approximately 9 months ago - POV Unknown "This was supposed to be a simple extraction. You know, get in grab the target and get out. So, what the fuck happened" "Somebody must''ve tipped them off that we were coming" answers I female soldier beside him. The whole fucking operation was tits up from the start." "Looks like It" calls a red-haired youth some feet away looking at blueprints for the building they are currently in. "According to our intel the target should be just below us in the basement. Of course, that was before we knew that they knew we were coming." "It doesn''t matter" yells the unknown soldier "we''ve never failed a mission before, and I don''t intend to start now. Besides if we give up now then Hightower will have died for nothing" "Aye Sir" they both say in unison. "Sir" Pipes up the redhaired soldier. "Even if they knew we were coming the basement is still the most secure place in the building so we can assume the target is still there. It''s just that the amount of security we need to fight our way through is a lot more than we planned for." "Well, what are we waiting around for" says the unknown soldier while motioning for the female soldier to toss out a few smoke grenades. She does just that and a moment later they exit the room firing at anything that moves. Soon enough they make their way to a set of stairs. The redhaired soldier then proceeds to toss a few flash grenades down the stairs. He would have preferred using frag grenades, but he couldn''t risk collateral damage. They then rapidly descend the stairs taking out any hostiles they see. Luckily it seems like the majority of them were guarding the only way into the basement. Unfortunately, not all of the enemy was caught off guard. One manages to get a few shots off before he is taken down. One of those shots manages to hit the unknown soldier square in the chest. Because of his bulletproof vest, he ignores it at first. Choosing instead to guard the stairs while the other two begin untying the children. "No wonder command said we know what the target was when we saw it" he thinks to himself. A small group of little kids ranging in age from six to ten was the last thing he would have guessed though. Fortunately, they were able to rescue them. As they start to ascend the stairs, he realizes that he is a lot more sluggish than he should be. Still, he decides not to say anything but by the time they reach the top of the stairs the others have noticed something isn''t right. He waves them off and radios in for a hot pickup knowing there''s no way they can make it to the extraction point. For the next few minutes, the night is surprisingly peaceful all things considered. Then the sound of a fire fight informs them that their ride is here. Wasting no time, they lead the children out towards the bird and the redhead starts helping them climb aboard while the female soldier and the unknown soldier lay down cover fire with help from the gunner on the bird.This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience. As soon as the last kid is loaded up the pilot yells back that they''re already over capacity, so they''ll need to either wait here for another ride or make their way to the original extraction point. As they watch the bird take flight, he orders the other two to head to the extraction point. "What about you" the female soldier protests. "I''m not gonna make it. That AP round went through my vest like it wasn''t even there" he says motioning to his chest. "Besides somebody has to stay behind and cover your asses and I''m not exactly feeling up to 5-kilometer hike. So. you two best get going, that''s an order." "But sir" the redhead starts to protest. "No buts, and if you even think about trying to carry me, I''ll shoot you myself" he says knowing that the extra weight of his dead body would only slow them down. "Aye Sir" he says while picking him up in a fireman''s carry position. "What do you think you''re doing" the soldier protests "Disobeying a direct order, Sir" he says as they make their way into the wilderness. He wants to protest but at this point he knows it''s pointless. Besides which he can already feel his consciousness slipping away. His last thought before the darkness claims him is one of gratitude. Both that they were able to free those children and that his family will have a body to properly mourn. At least they won''t have to wonder if I''m somehow still alive and being held prisoner somewhere he thinks to himself as the darkness claims him. A moment later he finds himself being squeezed through a dark tunnel. Odd there weren''t any dark tunnels along the route. Deciding to open his eyes and look around the first thing he notices is that everything appears blurry. Then he tries to stand up and notices his body isn''t responding the way it should. Forget standing he apparently can''t even sit up right now. he tries to protest, to demand answers but after several attempts but all he can manage is to cry out in frustration. With real tears no less. Ah well it''s time for a nap now anyway he decides. Clyde POV He and Luna have been waiting as patiently as they can manage for any news of what''s happening in the bedroom. It''s been hours now since they were told to fetch a healer. He''s even tempted to ask Chandra to sneak in and see what''s happening. That of course would require first locating Chandra, besides he doesn''t actually want to risk interrupting the healers just in case. After what feels like an eternity the midwife emerges carrying a baby boy. The fact that she is covered in blood doesn''t exactly feel him with confidence. As she hands over the baby, the first thing he notices is that the baby is much larger than he was expecting. He then looks over the baby much more thoroughly and decides that the baby appears completely healthy. He looks up questioningly at the midwife who, seeming to guess what''s on his mind, assures him that Lily will recover. "The babies size caused some issues during delivery, but everything should be fine now" she says before making her exit. A few minute later the healer comes out and tells him that she is fine, but she''ll need to rest and let the potion do its job. He then tells Clyde he should probably give her another potion in a few hours just to be safe. The Castle Time passes and I continue to fill out the fifth floor. The next two rooms I add are more forested areas. This time to the side of the farmland. The idea being to have the forest wrap around the farmland the same way the farmland wraps around the city. After adding level 24 wood golems to the room, I take a step back to look at the floor as a whole, and I have to admit this floor is coming along nicely. The forest being kept at the edge of the floor means that it''s an optional area. Well, except the first forest area right as they enter. This is exactly as I intended. Delvers have the option to power level in the forest. The next two rooms I place are two more forested areas. This time to the north of the ones I just recently placed. This room contains my first level 25 normal mobs. Other than that, there is absolutely nothing special about it. In fact, the room layout of the floor itself is simple, especially when compared to the fourth floor. As this time, it''s just a simple grid pattern. I don''t plan for there to be a single dead end on this entire floor. Something delvers by this point have come to expect. After that I decide to take a break for a bit. Watching the delvers it doesn''t take long to realize most of them are starting to challenge the third floor. Not all at the same time obviously but all three instances of the third floor are in near constant use. I always thought it would be the first floor to be ... well, the first floor to see every instance in use. Despite there being more instances of the first floor available that just seemed like the obvious progression. While there are fresh new level 1 delvers every year or so. Plus, the occasional party that for some reason decides to make me their first ever dungeon experience. It just isn''t enough, especially with the number of deaths. I really need to work out how to attract new delvers. Hopefully, once I get big enough, I won''t have to try. At a certain point my reputation alone should attract people to me. Then again, I do want more permanent delvers not just those looking for a quick rank up. It''s a problem that will need to be solved if I want a more constant flow of new delvers. It''s not however my only concern at the moment. In order to complete the look I''m going for with the fifth floor I need a castle. The trouble is finding one small enough to fit into the room without needing to make the room bigger. Ignoring the wall, or in some cases walls, around the castles some of them almost fit. The room surprisingly is plenty tall enough it''s just the actual footprint that''s the issue. I don''t know why so many kings and queens seem to think bigger is better. Eventually I do manage to find one that just barely fits. It sits at just 75m x 77m. To be fair there were a few others that were smaller, but I do want it to actually look like a castle. This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings. There isn''t a lot of room left for an outer courtyard. I do my best to give the impression the area just outside the castle was well maintained at one point. Even going so far as to plant various berry bushes in an obviously artificial pattern along the edge of the castle wall. There''s almost no room to work with so I can''t go to crazy. Perhaps later on when the rooms are much bigger, I can get more creative. For now, a few berry bushes will have to do. Besides inside the castle is where all the magic happens. I start by throwing in a bunch of skeletons. Fighters, tanks, and mages mainly. I do through in some skeleton nobles here and there wherever it makes sense. Mainly in bedchambers and the throne room. Speaking of the throne room, I''ve got a nasty surprise for delvers in there namely the four fighters posing as guards which are actually level 24 instead of 23 like the rest of the skeletons in the castle. Such a mean trick deserves an equally good treat though, So I also place a new type of chest in this room. Instead of the simple wooden chest this one is an ornately decorated iron chest that is even larger. I place it prominently between the two thrones. Inside the chest I place two full sets of tin rank gear. I also put in two health and two mana potions as well as four gold coins. I thought about adding enchantments to the gear but it''s way too early to be giving out enchanted tin rank gear. Besides I do still want the boss to actually be a challenge. I also go about putting some more simple wooden chests throughout the castle each containing a potion and a random number of silver coins. Not many but it should be enough to get people to explore the entire castle. Considering they could technically skip the castle entirely I had to do something. I didn''t forget about traps either. After making it through the traps in the town they should be on their guard so I can really cut loose with the traps. Mainly dart traps, though I do get creative with the placement. Some are placed on ceilings while others are placed on walls. As for what type of dart trap some will be sleeping darts others will be poison darts. Some, especially near the castles entrance, will just be regular darts. Lethal to wood and stone rank delvers but obsidian rank should be able to take a few darts without much trouble. Especially with obsidian rank gear. Granted they will still need healing afterward. I also get a new type of trap called a smoke trap. Just like with the dart trap there are several options as far as what to actually load it with. A few I load with a gas that causes mild hallucinations. Completely harmless on their own but in a castle full of traps and enemies it could prove fatal. The effect will wear off on its own eventually. Hopefully the snap back to reality won''t be to jarring for those who didn''t realize they were hallucinating. Aside from the hallucination smoke I also have a few with poison. It''s the slow acting kind, since I haven''t used poisons much yet and I do want to give them a chance to get it treated. Maybe give healers a little nudge that they should also pick up purification magic if they haven''t already. Playing Around With Traps The next two rooms I place are more town rooms. That''s what I''ve decided to call them anyway since the abandoned town is the only thing in those rooms aside from mobs and chests. These rooms go to the east and west of the castle room. I spend a long time getting the town to look natural while also doing my best to hide or disguise the wall that divides the rooms. After that I go back and make a few not-so-subtle changes to one of the rooms. Which includes swapping out certain buildings for others and changing the street layout a little just so that the two rooms aren''t exactly identical. Now that the town is set up in those to rooms, I go about populating them with ''normal'' skeletons. As well as skeleton merchants and skeleton fighters. I even add a mage here or there this time. All of which are level 24. After that I go about putting in some simple chests. Most of the chests I put in places where you would expect a chest to be. Namely in the back room of merchant shops or in some residential homes. In some of these I place a few coins each as well as a few weapons, armor, or potions. Depending on what that particular shop sold. The ''personal'' chests contain a random selection from every category. Well except gold coins, it''s too early to start handing those out all the time. I also place a few slightly hidden chests where most people wouldn''t expect anything to be. in these I place exactly five silver coins each. Then comes the traps. I don''t go crazy with the traps. Just some simple dart traps here and there. I take extra care to not create any kind of noticeable pattern with the trap placement, even putting a few outside of any building. One of the dart traps I''m particularly proud of. It fires poison darts, but it requires a delver to be standing in front of one of the chests to trigger. It''s a slow acting poison as I didn''t want to be too unfair just yet. Following that I place two more farm rooms. Once my mana has a chance to build back up. These rooms are to the east and west of the rooms I just placed. I don''t do anything special this time. This after all may not be the first of the level 25 rooms. It is however the start of a chain of level 25 rooms. That alone is special enough in my eyes. Especially since I plan for nearly half the rooms on this floor to be level 25 rooms. In fact, from this point on there won''t be a single mob lower than level 25. I do spend a little time placing the farmers house, or at least a random residential building I''m using as the farmers house, as well as the farmhouse. I could have just used the farmhouse but then the rooms felt off. It might be due to the farmhouse only being about the size of an average apartment back where I came from, but the room just felt like it needed more. Find this and other great novels on the author''s preferred platform. Support original creators! The next two rooms that I eventually end up placing are two forest rooms to the north of the previous forest rooms. As always, I make the forest room an absolute slugfest. these rooms are on the edge of the floor though so it''s not necessary to clear them or even really enter them at all. That said I imagine most people will anyway just to be thorough. That''s not even counting the ones who will practically stay in the forest just to farm levels. Once I get everything in the two forest rooms looking just right, I''m delighted to find that I already have enough mana for one more room. This one will be another town room placed to the north of the castle room. In this room I plan to change things up a bit. I place the houses and streets just like always. The abandoned town blueprint does come with a few buildings I haven''t used yet though. One of which is labeled as the guild hall. While I''m not entirely sure what function that building serves, I''m able to make an educated guess however just based on the fact that a guild hall was one of the first buildings built on the surface after I started gaining popularity. Not that I was ever really popular, but I digress. In this room I place a lot fewer citizens or ''normal'' skeletons, and a lot more guilder types. This includes fighters, tanks, mages, rogues, and even archers. I''m also still using fighters as stand ins for the town''s guards. Naturally this means far more fighters than anything else. Being level 25 also means the archers are a lot more accurate than they were on previous floors. This being the area where most guilders live also means I can get creative with the chests. For example, maybe the adventurers were paranoid and maybe as a result of that paranoia they booby trapped their person chests that they keep at home. A simple dart or smoke trap set off by someone approaching the chest is easy enough to set up. Still nothing instantly fatal though the poison is slightly more fast acting than in previous rooms. they should have encountered poison before so will likely have potions to treat poison or the healer will have acquired some type of purification spell. I also use a few sleep darts from time to time that by themselves are completely harmless. Mainly for my own amusement thinking about the party waking up and realizing they fell asleep in a dungeon. Sure, this isn''t the first time they''ve faced sleep dart traps, but the traps were a lot easier to spot then. It takes me a little while to save up enough mana after that. Especially since I like doing two rooms at once when I can. Eventually though I do save up enough, before I can place them however, I get a notification from the part of my awareness that I left on the third floor letting me know someone is about to attempt the third-floor boss. I turn my attention there and quickly realize that for once Clyde''s party won''t be the first ones challenging one of my bosses. It''s actually the ladies this time that are the first to challenge the boss. Which makes sense given that they were never too far behind Clyde''s party normally. Catching Up I''ll be honest it feels a little strange not seeing Clyde''s party reach the boss first. They are after all the ones who usually playtest the stuff before other delvers reach it. In hindsight this was bound to happen eventually, humans don''t live forever after all. Unlike dungeons who don''t really have to worry about old age. For now, I decide to just watch the boss fight. I can worry about why Clyde''s party hasn''t delved in well over half a year at some other time. At first, they tried to just rush the boss. Probably thinking "how hard could a skeleton with a few extra arms be to take down". After all they had reached level 16 by this point. They were brought back to reality real quick when the skeleton boss blocked the shield bash with its own shield. It then brought two swords down in simultaneous vertical slashes, forcing the tank and party leader to defend. It then leaped forward narrowly escaping an earth spike that appeared where it just was. The sudden leap caused both ladies to dodge to the side to avoid getting knocked over. This unfortunately ended up with one of them on either side of the boss. A worst-case scenario for my boss. It apparently decided to focus on the tank trusting in the enchantment on the shield to protect his other side. The nonstop barrage from two different swords left no time for the tank to counterattack. Meanwhile the party leader kept hitting the shield thanks in large part to the enchantment on it. The problem was that while the shield was turned towards the party leader the mage was free from the enchantment. This meant that on top of attacking and defending from both sides my boss also had to constantly dodge incoming attacks. It was able to use the third sword to deflect the stone spears. The enhanced speed and reflexes I gave it were really starting to show their worth. Still one or two stone spears would occasionally get through. Over time this added up. Turn out broken bones are actually worse for creatures that are nothing but bones. Especially when the magic animating it is apparently concentrated in the skull as opposed to throughout the skeleton. Thanks to a flaw in its armor''s creation, which was admittedly my own fault, there was a gap in the midsection. This gap is apparently wide enough for stone spears to get through, as a result the spine is snapped in half by repeated hits to roughly the same area. this brought its ability to dodge to effectively zero. Now it could have dropped the sword and shield in its bottom two hands and used them as makeshift feet. It could have except that it''s not self-aware and I never thought to program that behavior so instead it stubbornly clung to its weapon and shield. I make a mental note to fix that little flaw as a carefully aimed earth spike takes off its head. Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere. That''s not to say the fight went smoothly for them either. The tank looks like she was hit by a freight truck. The leader is nearly out of stamina from trying to keep the boss between her and the tank to divide its attention. At the same time the mage is glad that they still had mana potions. As the healer begins treating the tank they quickly decide to at least check out the first few rooms of the fourth floor. Reasoning that the enemies in those rooms will at least not be obsidian rank and instead will be at or near their level. The next day, outside the dungeon; Lily POV It''s been a rough six months. Don''t get me wrong I wouldn''t change it for the world, but this kid seems to be drawn to weapons like a bee to pollen. I''d say he takes after his father if it wasn''t for everything else. Being fascinated by weapons wouldn''t be so bad in itself, except he also seems to be a budding rogue. I swear no matter how I try to keep them from him he always finds a way to reach them. In a weird way it''s almost become a sort of game where I hide them, and he finds them. All be it a game, I can''t afford to lose. "So how is little Hector today" Chandra asks in way to bubbly of a mood for my liking, while letting herself in. My lack of sleep isn''t her fault, so I try my best not to take it out on her as I motion towards Hector. Not really trusting myself to hold my tongue while speaking. He is currently on the floor examining some wooden training weapons which seems to have sated his curiosity, for now at least. I dread the day he''s actually old enough to walk cause, I fear he''ll always be running towards danger. "Clyde''s waiting for you" she says drawing me back to reality. "I''ll be along as soon as Luna comes to take over babysitting duty but Cole and Darrel both agree that you two really need some time to unwind by yourself." She winks as she says unwind which I''ll admit caught me off guard. I can feel myself start to blush but before I can say anything I find myself being shooed out of my own house. I''d protest except she has a point; I have been couped up in this house to long. That''s partly why I agreed to meet up with the rest of the party. The other part being to decide when to start delving again. Probably not for another few months at least but talking about it is still a pretty good excuse to get out of the house for a while. Walking along the street I can''t help but notice the heat doesn''t feel as oppressive as it once did. Whether that''s my imagination or just a result of my being stone rank I''m not sure. Maybe I''ve just lived here long enough to get used to it. Either way I decide to let myself enjoy the walk. Making my way into the guild hall, I spot Clyde sitting at one of the reserved tables in a more secluded corner of the hall. I can''t help but notice that he is alone. "Where are the others" I ask while sitting down across from him. "They won''t be coming" he says with a half grin. Chandra''s not so subtle wink comes flooding back into my mind as I suddenly realize that he planned this whole thing. Only now does it occur to me that her remark about Darrel and Cole agree to give us alone time should have been my first clue. This is the kind of surprise I enjoy. "Is that so" I say as nonchalantly as I can manage while doing my best to not leap across the table into his lap. I''m momentarily saved from doing anything to impulsive by the wait staff bringing our food. "I hope you don''t mind" he says while motioning to my plate. "Apparently, someone actually made it to the fourth floor and brought back a new type of meat. Considering how slim the variety is around here I figured anything new would be a welcome change." Fifth Floor Getting Bossy Dungeon POV I was right. I had suspect it for a while now, but I finally had enough floors being delved to make actual comparisons. Each new floor represents a threefold increase in the amount of mana gained for the same task as compared to the floor just before it. Killing higher level mobs is still going to net me more mana regardless. So, those level 15 scorpions were worth more than if I had placed them on the third floor. Part of me wonders why that is but part of me also doesn''t care all that much. It''s just nice to finally be getting some answers. Even if they lead to more questions. The next few months are rather uneventful as I focus on finishing the fifth floor. The ladies return about once a week making it a little further each time. With the mana from them delving on the fourth floor I manage to Make significant progress on the fifth floor. First, I place the last two town ... districts, I guess. I meant for them all to be part of the same town, so it makes sense to me to refer to them as districts instead of town rooms. Part of it is also that I had an idea. That idea being to turn one of those rooms into the guard district. I even have a rather large building that would work as the guardhouse. While there will still be a few ''civilians'' most of the skeletons in this area will be ''guards''. All of them level 25 of course. I even set it up so that the guardhouse leads directly on top of the town''s wall, or at least it would if there actually was a town wall. I had to destroy part of the stairs to prevent delvers from trying to climb onto the wall and ruining the illusion. After that I place down another five farmland rooms. Followed by another five forest rooms. The farm area directly north of the town is where I decide to place the mini boss. This mini boss is a level 27 griffon. To keep things interesting, I give my new mini boss the wind blade ability. This lets him turn the air itself into a weapon by channeling mana into his wings as he flaps them. I also give it the ability to command the other three normal griffons in the room. As well as the intelligent to properly use that ability. Not enough to make them sapient or even sentient but smarter than anything else delvers have faced thus far, including the goblins. This alone should increase the difficulty by a large margin since they will be facing coordinated attacks by a competent leader. Find this and other great novels on the author''s preferred platform. Support original creators! The forest room directly north of the mini boss room is the actual boss room. For that reason, I decide to change up the layout of this room. I go around placing scorch marks everywhere. A few at first but they become more frequent as you get further in. In the middle of the room there will be a clearing that is a circle with a radius of 30 meters. This is where the boss fight will happen. At least that''s the plan anyway. The boss will emerge from the north as the delvers enter the clearing. As for what the boss will actually be I decided on a drake. Basically, a giant lizard with the only resemblance to drakes that I''m familiar with from my previous life being the breath attack, in this case fire. As for the ladies without whom I wouldn''t have made it nearly as far, I decided I should get to know them a little. While I didn''t really care to much at first, if they were going to be the strongest party in me for at least the foreseeable future I should at least learn their names. A much more challenging job than it might seem as while they are chatty, at least when they aren''t in combat, they rarely use names. Through searching my memories as well as listening to them speak I figured it out though. The leader is Cassandra, the tank is Kara, the earth mage is Toph, and the current healer is Sam. Though whether Sam is short for Samantha I couldn''t say. It makes sense to me, but I try to avoid making such assumptions. I''m sure at some point the title of strongest party will change again. Until then, I decide to start keeping an even closer eye on them least they make it to the fifth floor before I finish with it. Not that it''s very likely seeing as I''m just two rooms shy of being finished already. I would be done already but the new boss wasn''t cheap. In fact, there were several varieties but because of the cost I could only afford the one pattern. Still, it''s as close to an actual dragon as I can afford. So, while it would have been great to have a dragon be the reason that the castle and town are in ruin I''m still not quite there yet as far as mana income. At least if I want to keep building out my floors in a reasonable timeframe. While waiting for my mana to build up so that I can actually finish the fifth floor I suddenly sense a familiar presence enter my dungeon. Clyde''s party is back for the first time in almost a year. The first thing I notice is that the strange energy surrounding Lily is gone. So, I was right, it was related to her child and not her. While it would be nice to see if that energy is still hanging around the child, I guess it''ll have to wait at least a decade or so. Interestingly, while the first two floors still offer almost no challenge, even they seem to realize that they''ve gotten rusty. This is especially apparent on the third floor where they make several mistakes. Not fatal mistakes fortunately but they do end up using more potions than they should have while not making it as far as last time. Talking to Clyde on his way back out he said that they will probably need at least one more delve to get back to where they were both mentally and physically. He did however say that he fully intends to reclaim the title of strongest party in the dungeon. Fifth Floor Done True to his word Clyde''s party comes back every couple of days to delve. By the third delve they manage to make it as far as they ever did before and by the fourth delve it''s like they never stopped delving. They even managed a Full clear of the third floor. Instead of going for the boss though Clyde chose to continue delving the third floor. An understandable precaution considering the four-armed skeleton boss is obsidian rank. Eventually they all manage to reach level 16, except for Chandra who is level 15 now thanks to constantly being dragged into fights above her level. While they were busy doing that though I was busy putting the finishing touches on the fifth floor. Namely the last two farm rooms. I suspect that because they are so used to eventually reaching a dead end it will take them a long time to realize this floor has no dead ends. Of course, I still take a few weeks to look over the new floor. I want to make sure I haven''t missed any important detail. Everything looks to be in order though. The golems are spaced just short of six and a half meters apart. Enough space that they should be able to clear out an area to rest and recover. It won''t be easy and will require them to stay in one area, but by this point delvers have learned not to plow ahead recklessly or spread themselves to thin. The forest rooms of the fifth floor are designed to test a parties resolve. Forcing them to earn every meter of ground. Griffons on the other hand are each set to guard a 100 square meter area, so the number of griffons encountered at a time depends entirely on the party''s path. If they happen to enter an area where two or more territories meet, they will have to fight multiple griffons. Given their size I''d imagine griffons normally have much bigger territories, but my rooms simply don''t have that kind of space. At least not yet. Eventually though I do want to have entire ecosystems inside each room. The skeletons are another story entirely, they are set to attack on sight. Due to this I intentionally made most of them weak ''normal'' or merchant skeletons rather than any of the combat classes. Interestingly I could set the merchants to non-hostile. That would however require raising their intelligence to a level I''m not comfortable with and getting delvers to not kill them on sight. Not that I''m entirely against sapient mobs just not sapient skeletons. The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement. After looking everything over a few more time and finding nothing that needs fixing or changing, I decide to create the sixth floor. This time however I decide that starting from the sixth-floor delvers can skip the floors they''ve already cleared. This is partly because of how massive the floors are getting. Mainly though it''s because each floor they delve gives me exponentially more mana meaning it''s a waste to have really high-level delvers, specifically those strong enough to make it beyond the fifth floor, on the first few floors. I''m just about ready to start expanding and filling out the sixth-floor entryway when I get a notice from the part of my consciousness monitoring the third floor that Clyde''s party is about to attempt the third-floor boss. I must have been more distracted than I thought because I had intended to watch them clear the third floor. I can''t help it though. The size of the rooms I plan to make is 160m x 160m x 160m. Although just twice as big as far as the length of each side, it represents an increase in the overall surface area I have to work with of 19,200 square meters. I mean technically I could use the ceiling and walls too but that just splitting hairs. For now, I brush those thoughts aside and focus on the fight. I fixed a few of the most glaring flaws since my boss was defeated by the ladies. So, I''m eager to see how it performs. Cole gets things started by using his taunt ability to get the bosses attention. Meanwhile the others spread out encircling it. Normally it would work to leave the encirclement, but it is still vulnerable to taunt. I do want the boss to be beatable after all. So, instead it charges right for Cole and right into the trap. The boss brings two massive swords down on Cole''s shield while also defending from both Clyde and Chandra. To his credit Cole stands his ground but he''s definitely going to be feeling that in the morning. I can already see fractures forming along the bones in his forearm. So, while less impressive allowing himself to be pushed back would have probably been better. Clyde and Chandras attacks are both blocked but Darrel aiming, who is currently behind the boss manages to land a few ice spears in the boss''s torso. Aiming for the spot mention in the other party''s report. While originally an oversight on my part I decided to leave it in as an intentional weak point. After all the fight would be too unfair otherwise. Especially after seeing how much the enchantments on the boss''s gear increase his basic stats. Unfortunately, for both my boss and Cole, because of the taunt skill almost all of that power was focused on Cole. This meant that the boss continues to just absolutely hammer Coles shield like a drummer in a heavy metal band. Even with Lily increasing his defense he''s already had to down one potion, not easy considering he was also holding a sword in that hand. By now there are fractures throughout most of Cole''s skeleton. The good news is that Darrel has been busy pounding away at the same spot with ice spears and while it took much longer than using earth spears it eventually worked causing the skeleton to split in half. Sixth Floor Entryway Clyde POV It worked, finally now according to the other party the boss should be basically helpless. With a look I conveyed to Cole that we should move in and finish it off. But then it did something that it wasn''t supposed to be able to do, it got back up. It was using the lower two arms as makeshift legs. While this did require it to drop the shield and one of the three swords, I felt no relief from that knowledge. The main reason being there was almost no loss of mobility. There was some but not nearly as much as what the other party described. Then again according to the other party it never got back up after being cut in half. Fortunately, my attacks were no longer getting pulled off course by whatever enchantment had been affecting them before. Unfortunately, both mine and Cole''s attacks were still being blocked by the boss''s swords. If it had just been the two of us, we might have been in trouble. Darrell and Chandra weren''t exactly idle though. Darrel proceeded to use the largest water vine I had seen yet to wrap up the boss''s lower arms completely. Just as it became momentarily distracted trying to brute force it''s way free of the water vines, Chandra through a Knife into the helmets opening destroying the skull and ending the fight. The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. There was I time when I wouldn''t have known what had happened, but my battlefield awareness has been increasing steadily. It''s still not to the point of having total awareness but it''s no longer so bad I have to physically see my party to know where they are and have a general idea of what they''re doing. Part of that is no doubt because we''ve been a party for so long, but I doubt that''s the whole story. After all legends say that a heroic rank adventurer can sense other heroic rank adventurers even from two towns over. As I''m lost in thought pondering how far I''ve come, Lily begins treating everyone''s injuries. The only one that really need serious treatment though is Cole. After making sure everyone was healed up and grabbing the loot we decided to continue on to the fourth floor. I just hope their report about the fourth floor is more reliable than their report about the boss. Dungeon POV The look on their faces when the boss got back up was priceless. Honestly, I could have changed the boss''s behavior at any time, but I wanted Clyde''s party to be the first to experience it. A little cruel? Maybe, but I had faith they could handle it. As they descend to the fourth floor, I turn my attention to the sixth floor. More to the point I turn my attention to creating a sixth-floor entryway. I decide to make the room a 40m x 40m x 40m room lowered slightly so that the entrance is raised about four meters by comparison. In the center of the room, I put a pond that is about 20m x 20m wide and four meters deep at the lowest point. The deepest point being the exact center. Gaining Influence Aside from the pond which I tried to make as natural looking as possible I also laced a few berry bushes. Then I used another camping set to create a camping spot between the entrance and the pond. Before I would be worried about people spending to long but now, I have faith that by the time most divers get that far Clyde''s party will be able to forcefully evict them if they linger too long. Not that I''m in a hurry to reveal that ability. It''s just that I''ve come to realize I may need to be more open with Clyde in the future. Not because I want too but because Clyde''s mental stats will soon reach a point where he can start to sense my presence. Technically he already can but he needs to concentrate and most importantly actually have a reason to try and detect me. As far as he knows though, my influence does not extend beyond the dungeon sense I have yet to give him a reason to suspect otherwise. Speaking of my influence, I have started to notice single blades of grass here and there. Not a lot but enough for me to realize my presence has already had an effect. Looking closely, I can see lots of seeds of various different plants scattered around lying dormant. They seem to be waiting for something. There is both life and water mana gathered around the other plants. So, at first, I thought that was it. The only mana escaping the dungeon though is neutral mana. Looking even closer I realized the seeds themselves were taking in neutral mana and releasing life mana in a cycle similar to creating oxygen through photosynthesis. I thought they needed life mana just like everything else, but it seems the humble grass in all its various forms, despite being one of the smallest, least interesting, and most overlooked plant types Is the most essential. Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator. Those blades of grass aren''t growing there because of the life mana. The life mana is there because those plants combined my neutral mana with the little bit of excess water mana given off by Darrel and water mages like him keeping the town stocked with water. They then use that life mana to grow. Except they produce slightly more than they can actually consume. I guess that answers one question I had I mean mana doesn''t just create itself, so life mana had to come from somewhere. It''s pretty easy to understand the origins of the other mana types. It''s just neutral mana interacting with the environment. Life, death, and similar forms of mana have always been a true mystery to me though. Mysteries of mana aside. I have a brand-new floor to design, and they are starting to get big enough for me to let my creativity shine. They''re still relatively small even now but at 160m x 160m x 160m they''re not as cramped as they once were. Still the fact that I now need a whopping 327,680 world energy per room does present a bit of a challenge. Faux Sapiens After what feels like forever, I finally save up enough money to buy the first actual room of the sixth floor. Then I proceed to make a series of rolling hills. On the ground I plant a series of flowers along with the grass. The flowers are actually to help disguise the herbs I then proceed to plant in as close to random locations as I can manage. As for the enemies of this floor I decided that I would start adding multiple monster types to each room. The first thing I do after getting everything else settled is create a giant goblin village on top of one of the central hills. This time however I actually give them knowledge of traps and fortifications allowing them too properly defend their village. They''re still not sapient but delvers could be fooled into thinking they were. The key is that the types and possible locations of traps have been predetermined, so while it may seem like they have free will they''re actually just carrying out preprogrammed responses. I mean being sapient doesn''t guarantee free will, I''m still not sure how that would work with them being basically just extensions of my will, but I still wouldn''t feel right ordering a thinking rational creature to fight to the death. That''s part of the reason I''ve been hesitant to allow any mob to develop sapiens. This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. Along with the goblins I also create a pride of griffons to roam the air. This pride will consist of around thirty individuals. Then because the room still feels sparsely populated, I add around 500 plant golems throughout the rooms. Naturally, I make sure everything is level 25 of course. This room won''t be nearly as heavily a populated density as the forest room on the fifth as far as mobs per square meter but will have just as many total mobs. I also plan to make two, three, or even four hostile mob types per room the new normal. After all delvers that can reach this point are no longer amateurs. The one other decision I made was to decrease the number of chests per floor moving forward but have more loot in each one. To that end I plan to start adding more gold coins to the chests. I thought about getting the pattern for the infinite storage bags but even now they cost about three rooms worth of world energy. So, I decided to wait until the seventh floor to get the infinite storage bag pattern. In the meantime, it will still take a while to build up enough mana for my second room on the sixth floor, not counting the entryway that is. In this time, I watched the delvers slowly make progress. More and more of them are reaching the third floor now. To be honest it does feel a little odd to still be listed as a stone rank dungeon even though I''m currently working on my second obsidian rank floor. Add to that the fact that I already have a tin rank boss and will soon have tin rank mobs and the fact that I''m listed as stone rank makes even less sense. With Clyde and the ladies both becoming regulars on the fourth floor that should soon change though. Another Room Complete The next few months were rather uneventful. Clyde''s party did eventually catch up to and surpass the ladies, thanks mostly to the fact that the ladies only occasionally delve. In fact, the only reason they are so strong now is that they were among the first to start delving. As it stands now almost every member of Clyde''s party is level 19 with Chandra being close to level 19 herself, the difference in experience being almost negligible at this point. Proving that there is more of a difference between levels 17 and 19 than there is between levels 1 and 7 as far as raw experience. In all honesty I''m so excited about the possibility of being upgraded to obsidian rank thanks to Clyde''s party that I put off making the second room. Well, that and I still haven''t settled on a floor plan for the sixth floor as a whole. I had a few ideas, but I''d rather not use religious symbols, even if they''d be completely alien to the people of this dimension. Either way I can''t put it off forever, so I decide to start on the second room and hope something comes to me. I can always move rooms around if I really need to. So, with that I get started. I like the rolling hills design because it allows for more surface area as opposed to flat ground. So, I decide to go with that again. This time though I throw down a few trees here and there. Not enough in any one spot to constitute a wooded area much less a forest but enough to provide some shade from the fake sun. Naturally, I use various fruit trees. As for enemies I wanted to be cruel and throw down a pack of 100 dire rats, but I encountered a problem. Dire rats can only go up to level 25 which is one level lower than my plans for this room. To be fair I knew mobs had a max level I just hadn''t realized I had reached that point with some of them already. Of course, my most powerful mob was the first-floor boss back when I last thought about the max levels. The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. Luckily the dire wolfs max level is 45 so I can still use them for a while longer. I go ahead and place down a pack of 20 level 26 dire wolves. Feeling generous I also grant them a bit more autonomy allowing them to patrol as they see fit. It may seem like a daunting task given the 25.6 square kms, but even regular wolves back on earth normally patrol areas much bigger. Aside from the dire wolves I also purchase another flying unit. Something called a morning death, due to its tendency to hunt primarily at dawn. It does also hunt at dusk though not as often. Summoning one to check, I''m a bit surprised at first. At first glance it looks like a giant chicken, standing about as tall as a dwarf or human child. Looking closer though I can see both the wingspan and talons are even larger than would be normal for such a large chicken. On top of that the beak is clearly designed to rip flesh. Inspection over I summon another 99 to add to the one I summoned previously, making a flock of 100 level 26 morning deaths. to finish off the floor I also throw down 200 level 26 each of both wood and plant golems. I thought about adding some traps but there were already plenty of traps in the previous room. I also thought about throwing down a few herbs, but I didn''t want to make them too common. Then I was struck by inspiration. I decided to make this the start of branching paths. I decide right then that I would create two paths on either side of this room. One path would be a cave system, while the other wasn''t as certain however I am currently leaning towards a mountain trail. That would require a lot of illusion magic or some other shenanigans to hide the fact that the room isn''t nearly that big yet, certainly not big enough to house a mountain. Above Or Below Now that I''m finally on a roll I decide to just keep going. The next room however will be more of a cave system. I place it on the opposite side of the main room from the second room I created. It takes me a bit longer to create the actual terrain this time because I''m going for a cave system instead of just a cave. This inevitably means creating tunnel networks that lead to large open areas. I plan to have the majority of fights confined to these open areas, although I do plan to have a few monsters in the tunnels. If the 5th floor works out the way I hope it will delvers inside this cave system will start to question if they''ve passed through rooms or how many rooms they''ve passed through while being in the same room. The tunnel network I create has multiple converging and diverging paths making it a little maze like. Admittedly not my intention but I''m also not going to complain about it. The cave design also means that I can use more of the rooms actual volume instead of just a tiny fraction of it. Once I''m satisfied with the layout of the room, I stop adding stone. Then I go around and place a few dozen small puddles in as random an order as I can manage. None of them more than a few centimeters deep or a meter or two in diameter. In fact, the majority are around half a meter in diameter. After that I place some of the mushrooms I have around the puddles in a way that feels natural. I even grab a few more varieties of mushrooms from the shop. One has healing properties while another is simply edible. A third type is actually poisonous. The best part is that it looks identical to the first mushroom I got back when I was still a little worried about delvers leaving due to lack of resources. Well, almost identical. The main difference being that the colors of the poison mushrooms are actually much more vibrant and lively. The opposite of what I would have expected. The poison isn''t fatal. Like always I want them to get used to the idea that I would include something like this in my dungeon. It will however cause enough intestinal distress to put a quick end to the delve, as well as the dignity of any poor soul who tries to power through. A basic purification spell could ease the symptoms, though only slightly. Those with the foraging skill will start to distinguish between the two when gathering mushrooms in the future. Eventually leading to them being able to spot poisonous plants without needing a fellow delver to ''test'' it first. That''s my plan at least. Still not a hundred percent sure how skills actually work. Although I do know a lot more than I did six years ago. Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. Now that the mushroom situation is settled, I turn my attention to traps. This time I go all out, one hundred percent lethal and well-hidden enough that those without the skill for it aren''t going to spot them. I could hide them even better but again I don''t want to make it completely unfair. That said the spike traps have poison tipped spikes the dart traps have poison tipped darts and the poison gas trap is actual poison not just sleeping gas. Honestly the only reason the mushrooms aren''t fatal is because it was only after listening to those with the foraging skill complain about the lack of advancement in that skill that I realized the skill was more versatile than just ''picking berries in the woods''. After that comes the least time consuming yet most expensive part of the entire room, iron ore nodes. I place seven around the room in strategic locations. More than any one party can carry out in a single delve. At least I hope so because I plan to let them replenish themselves naturally over time. I could feed the nodes to speed up the process, but I''d rather spend that mana elsewhere. As for why I can''t just place iron like I do with everything else I have no idea. I suspect that spawning iron directly involves a related skill I don''t have which nodes are somehow able to bypass. Either way nodes are insanely expensive for the amount of Iron I get. I''m guessing at least. I have no idea if spawning the iron directly would be cheaper. As for the types of mobs I plan to use, of course you got to have giant scorpions in an underground cave. I even give them the swift strike skill allowing their stingers to move at a frankly insane speed. Anyone not paying attention is going to be in for a world of hurt. Anyone making it this far should naturally have excellent equipment and skills so they should be able to react in time to at least dodge. Aside from the giant scorpions there will also be stone golems, Giant spiders about the same size as the scorpions, and cave crawlers which are basically giant centipedes. All level 26 of course. After getting everything set up, I pull back and realize that I''ve spent way more time on this room than the first two rooms of this floor combined. While working though I was struck with a bit of inspiration. I''m going to create two paths, one above ground and the other below ground. Each path will have its own pros and cons with certain things only available on a specific path. For instance, while the cave path is arguably more dangerous it does contain iron ore. Whereas the above ground path will contain more food as well as varied scenery. Obsidian Rank POV Clyde Standing here Watching little Hector I can''t help but think there is something special about him. I know every parent thinks their child is special, but Hectar seems to have an almost unhealthy obsession with watching me and his mother train. Not to mention the fact that he''s been carrying around that wooden ''sword'' since before he could walk. According to Cragle Hectar is born for combat. I''m not so sure I believe that, but I prefer that over Lily thinking it''s somehow her fault for insisting we continue delving as long as possible while she was pregnant. Either way it does seem pretty obvious he''s destined to be a fighter like his old man. Turning my attention to Lily I catch the tell end of her lecture about not letting Hectar hold any actual weapons no matter how much he whines. Looking at Luna it''s clear she tuned out ages ago having heard this speech countless times before. Deciding to show mercy and spare her further lectors I remind Lily that the others are waiting for use. This causes the room to go quiet. Nobody says anything but we both know what the other is thinking. Even Luna knows though she doesn''t try to stop us. Becoming officially recognized as an obsidian rank party involved a lot less ceremony than I would have thought. I guess in the grand scheme of things obsidian rank isn''t all that rare after all. It''s rare in Ulgai sure but the dungeoneers guild has thousands if not tens or even hundreds of thousands of obsidian rank parties around the world. At least that was the impression I got from the person sent to verify our ranks. Today is the day we face the fourth-floor boss. While we are both certain of victory, we are also all too aware that nothing is guaranteed. I know that better than most having received between one and six death notices every day. Still a relatively small number considering all the people that delve every day. In fact, most of these deaths are from the people that arrived after the dungeon was officially recognized as obsidian rank. Even the kingdoms soldiers have started to delve whenever they get enough time off to make the trip here. Ideally, I''d like to gain another level before attempting the boss but the amount of experience you can get from fighting weaker enemies is miniscule. Especially when you consider the difference in rank. Enemies on the first two floor give almost no experience at all. Even on the fourth floor being a rank higher than almost everything else means we are getting significantly less experience than we were just two level ago. In fact, if it wasn''t for the number of enemies at level 20 thus obsidian rank themselves, we would probably still be stuck at level 20. While I''m sure we could eventually reach level 22 I''m also curious about the next floor. Besides every day we stay stuck on the fourth floor is another day closer to other parties catching up. Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings. After one last check of our gear, we leave the house trusting Luna to take care of Hectar while we''re in the dungeon. We can''t afford to let our guard down after all. Especially if we intend to make it to the boss with as little effort as possible. Lily is a little annoyed to see that the others were not in fact waiting for us at the dungeon entrance. It doesn''t take long for the others to begin arriving though. Darrel surprisingly is the first to arrive., followed closely by Chandra. A Few minutes later Cole arrives, and we head into the dungeon. As expected, the first two floors offer no challenge at all. We still do a full clear though because coin is coin. Even the gear is still selling quite well. At least according to the merchant. On the third floor we actually have to try, though only just a little. Finally, though we make it to the fourth floor. Most of the rooms offer very little resistance. We aren''t dumb enough to let our guard down though we aren''t exactly trying our best either. The treasure rooms do still offer a bit of actual challenge. Chandra even managed to level up making everyone in the party the same level for the first time ever, even if I''m sure that won''t last long. Now here we stand in front of the door leading to the boss chamber. Before we go in, I decide to do a quick check of our inventory. After all, once inside either the boss dies, or we do. That''s the assumption anyway based on the fact that the door closes behind you when you enter a boss chamber. It''s not like we''ve spoken to people that lost the boss fight. Even if people have died during boss fights the party technically won. So far, we''ve only used two minor health potions. Admittedly Lily could have healed them but as the party leader I decided that it would be best if Lily saves her mana for the boss fight and the floor after that. Not that we don''t have mana potions, but I want to be able to spend some time on the fifth floor. For now, I remind everyone to check their gear and make sure they''re ready for the boss. Once I''m certain that everyone is ready, I give the order, and we make our way into the boss chamber. I''m not really sure what I was expecting but a golem made of pure iron wasn''t it. Fortunately, we''ve had plenty of experience fighting golems. The fact that its metal presents a unique challenge. After all metal is much harder to pierce than stone. Even knowing where the weak point is doesn''t help much. We still have to actually get to the weak point to damage it. Stabbing At Iron Clyde Pov The first thing I noticed aside from the boss is what appears to be iron ore behind it. I can''t actually say for sure since I haven''t actually been in any other dungeon. It''s not like I have time right now to ponder whether it is or not anyway. The boss spots us almost immediately and charges at us with a speed that is frankly surprising given its size. Golems are typically slow lumbering things but apparently nobody told this guy. Cole steps forward and just barely has time to activate his skill before the golem strikes his shield. Fortunately, this skill is one of his strongest defensive skills essentially turning his body into a solid wall. I''m not sure how it works but right now that hardly matters. I''m not about to waste this opportunity so without hesitation I activate my own skill increasing my strike force and stab towards the golem''s chest. My attack is deflected but I can already see Chandra launching a few throwing knifes enhanced with a skill that increases their penetration ability. The good news is it worked, and the knives are able to pierce the golems iron hide. The bad news is that it''s still a relatively low-level spell so it''s only able to penetrate about 4cm into the iron golem''s hide. Enough to do significant damage ... if we were fighting almost any other creature. Golems however are almost entirely made of magic and as such don''t really have internal organs to damage. I guess technically the crystal containing the rune work and spell used to bring golems to life could count as an internal organ. That kind of thinking is better left to the academic types though. Cole uses taunt to keep it focused on him. I''m also using my skill to keep the pressure on him. I briefly wonder why Darrel hasn''t taken action, but he must have a reason. Looking over I see him doing something. I''m curious but at the same time it''s obvious he''s going for subtlety, so I decide to avoid drawing too much attention towards Darrel. Fortunately, the golem is still completely focused on Cole. Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation. Seeing a brief window of opportunity, I strike out with my sword once again. This time the Golem doesn''t block it in time and I''m able to stab almost 2cm into the golems body using only brute force and a skill that enhances brute force. It''s not much but it''s progress. Meanwhile Lily is using her skill to enhance Cole''s already formidable defense, at least judging by how hard she appears to be concentrating. While all that was happening Chandra somehow managed to retrieve her knives. I make a mental note to ask how she was able to casually retrieve her knives from the enemies back during combat. Right now, I barely have time to notice much less think much about it. Suddenly Darrel lets go of the spell he''s been working on as several ice shackles launch themselves out of the ground pinning the golem in place. Seems like an odd choice of spell to me. Especially given how long it took to conjure. At the same time Chandra launches another volley of throwing knives. This time they actually manage to get deep enough to puncture the golem crystal, and just like that the fight is over. It''s all thanks, surprisingly enough, to our two ranged support party members. We were all kind of bummed out that the iron golem didn''t drop any loot. Then I remembered the iron ore on the wall near the exit. Unfortunately, none of us had the gear nor the expertise to fully take advantage of it. Cole decided he''d give it a shot anyway and went to go hack at it with his sword. While he was doing that, I asked Darrel why he chose such a bizarre spell. Seems to me like it would have been much better to go with his signature ice spears. "Well, about that. Me and Chandra often train together so I know for a fact that those knives of hers should have gone much deeper than they did, even on the second throw. The only thing I knew that could cause that is if something was interfering with the penetration skill. I knew right then it was highly magic resistant." He said in a matter-of-fact tone. I decide not to press further since he is the magic expert among the five of us. At least compared to us he''s the expert. A few minutes later Cole come back with a surprising amount of iron ore. Not as much as he would have gotten with proper gear and training but an impressive amount none the less. So much in fact that our box of holding is now full. Next time we delve we''re going to have to start leaving loot behind as much as it pains me to say that. Fortunately, with the dungeon gaining popularity there are enough people delving that I doubt the shops will even notice the lack of wood and stone rank gear from our party. For now, it''s time to move forward, after checking to make sure we are all fully recovered and ready that is. Fighting A Forest Dungeon POV Going over the changes that have occurred while I was lost in my work, I am shocked to find Clyde''s group on the fifth floor. For the first time I missed one of my bosses first encounters with delvers. For some reason this makes me unexpectedly sad. Sure, I have the memory of the fight from the part of my consciousness left here to monitor the fourth floor, but it''s not the same. Looking closer I can see that Clyde''s party is a lot stronger than they use to be. Darrel is currently blasting Ice spears which seem denser than before while simultaneously maintaining the water wall spell. They''re currently fighting the wood golems in one of the side rooms just past the first official room. I wouldn''t have expected Darrel''s ice spears to become dense enough to pierce wood, especially considering my wood golems have bodies are pretty dense themselves. I did however fully expect most mages to have some kind of powerful area of effect type spell by the time they reached this point. Darrel''s ice spears aren''t exactly wide ranging, but they make up for it by being precise and hard to dodge due to the speed at which they are launched. Clyde and Cole on the other hand seem to have skills that increase their striking power and efficiency. Sure, some of it is them getting better at fighting in general but there are also actual skills involved. Lily is pouring more mana into her defense buff than ever before so obviously she has improved as well. She hasn''t improved as much as the others, but I suspect that has more to do with the sheer number of her spells and other skills than any shortcomings on her part. The most shocking improvement though is Chandra, her daggers now cut through the wood golems rather easily. You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story. I watch them for a while wanting to see just how far they''ve come since I got distracted building that last room. It soon becomes clear that they are almost at their limit. I don''t think they''ll clear this room, not that they completely cleared the first room either. Knowing this I shift my perspective up above the entry gate to get a good view of Mirage. Clyde apparently hates the name, but it was the most popular of the choices among his other party members. The town itself is still growing slowly but steadily. There aren''t any major changes that I can see though. I don''t stick around outside my dungeon to long though. After all Clyde''s party is already on the fifth which means I need to hurry up with the sixth floor. The good news is that them being on the fifth floor is netting me a lot of mana. Now that I''m actually paying attention it, the mana I get from them killing a single wood golem is worth almost as much as all the rats on the first floor combined. Ah well, the dungeon isn''t going to build itself. That said it was nice to poke my head up and take a metaphorical breath. Clyde POV Those damned wood golems are relentless. Fortunately, they aren''t too hard to deal with there''s just so many of them. My mana reserves are just about empty and I''m pretty sure I''m not the only one feeling the strain. I really don''t want to give up now after nearly clearing another room, but it''s better to play it safe. We''re going to need a lot more mana potions to conquer the fifth floor. "Alright let start making our way back to the entrance." I said reluctantly and judging by the relieved looks on their faces I''m confident I made the right call. We did have to fight a few more wood golems on the way out of the dungeon which I wasn''t counting on but apparently the first room wasn''t cleared completely. Once back out on the street we immediately began discussing the delve. "What was that?" Chandra asked. I started to make some joke about firewood the delivers itself but changed my mind. Darrel soon piped up "It was like the entire forest was attacking us. I doubt there is an infinite number of wood golems, but it sure felt like it." Sensing that we could use a mood booster I invite the party to a meal to celebrate making it to the fifth floor. This had the intended reaction of raising spirits. To be fair the food quality has improved since we started getting regular shipments of magically preserved food.