《The Dead Dungeon》 Ch. 1 Shattered [You have died.] ''Wait... WHAT?!...'' The tinkling sound of shards of RJ''s core was all he could hear. His majestic green and yellow core, which had been nearly the size of a basketball, was now shattered and lying all around his core room. Where had these humans come from?! why didn''t he sense them? All moot questions now. RJ felt his soul flicker as the mana leaked out of the shards. The humans were gathering up the pieces of his body, bits of him were vanishing into magical bags of holding even as his consciousness faded. ''I''ll get you... for this... you bastards.'' RJ didn''t know how much time had passed. He could barely concentrate on anything, and it felt like almost no time at all when a tiny dribble of mana reached him. He woke up to find his dungeon sense only reached a few inches away, around him he felt the granite and limestone his dungeon used to be made of. Examining himself RJ found that all that remained of his once beautiful core was a tiny sliver of blackish purple crystal, no bigger then a childs thumbnail. ''Ha!... didn''t get all of me!.. ha ha... i''m fucked aren''t i?'' he tried to stretch his dungeon sense out and failed. The tiny trickle of mana was gone now. Taking a moment to gather his courage he opened his dungeon menu and nearly cried.
Dungeon Menu Dungeon name: Dead Dungeon Core Name: RJ Dungeon type: Dead Mana: 1/10 (necrotic) Rooms:0 Monsters:0
''What the crap is a dead dungeon?'' Rj looked over the menu and noticed all of his tabs were missing, no list of achievements, no titles and one mesely mana. Worst of all, it was a necrotic mana. He had smartly stayed away from undead, not wanting to deal with churches of any kind. He sighed in resignation. ''Well... if it''s what i got, its what i got. If i don''t at least build a core room i''m never going to get any more mana of ANY type.'' [Would you like to create your core room? Warning, mana used to create the core room will set the theme for the dungeon. Y/N] ''Oh... well crap, thats not good. uh.... '' RJ thought for a moment and then winced. There was no telling how long it would take for any other kind of mana to seep down as deep as he was. He could be here for years waiting for even a hint of mana, and then it could be something worse. like Water. RJ shuddered at the thought of a water dungeon. He''d always used to have nightmares about sharks and fish as a child, the thought of those things swiming around his core made him ill. ''Nope! nope nope nope, not waiting. Necrotic dungeon it is! just call me bone daddy from now on.'' Rj shuddered one last time before hitting the Y with a mental tap.Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site. RJ''s dungeon sense spread out around him, consuming the fallen debris and stone. He immediately noticed that he got no mana from the stone. ''oh, right, not an earth dungeon anymore. Lovely.'' He found his tiny sliver of a core sitting on a stone pedestal seemingly carved into a pile of skulls, the stone walls around his now ten by ten room were lined with what looked like rib bones as supports, and the ceiling has a faux spine running along it. It almost seemed like the room flexed, as in how a creature breathing in would look from the inside, if it lacked all organs. ''o...k... that was creepy. Please don''t do that again.'' RJ felt his dungeon sense all around the room, finding a small dead mouse near where his core has been. ''ah, so you''re the reason i''m like this. Well little one, looks like you''re going to have to be my starter.'' RJ wrapped his dungeon sense around the tiny mouse corpse and absorbed it. [Creature absorbed! A new monster has been added to your bestiary. Due to the type of mana your dungeon uses, your monster pattern will be altered.] ''oooof course it will. Well, let see. maybe i''ll get lucky and it''ll be giant rats.'' he thought about the mouse. ''i''m not that lucky, am i?'' he sighed. [Bestiary entry: Ghost mouse, These spectral vermin often haunt ruins over flowing with necrotic energy. Ghost mice are not considered individually dangerous, but in large swarms their necrotic infused bodies can leech strength from adventurers.] ''That... is not utterly useless. At least they aren''t skeletal mice, i''d have to make thousands to kill even an F ranked adventurer.'' he spawned his first ghost mouse, the small translucent creature appeared sitting in front of his core pillar, it''s tiny nose twitching. ''oh my god, they''re adorable. I''m going to be the laughing stock of the dungeon world.'' He sighed to himself and ordered the ghost mouse to patrol the room, not that there was going to be anything coming in, he still needed to tunnel back to the surface. ''wait, how far down AM i? i hope i''m not actually at the bottom of my dungeon, one hundred floors of rubble is going to take me years to dig through.'' He looked at the tiny ghost mouse and then around his core room. ''Well, at least i have a core room, i''ll get my five mana per twenty four hours with this.'' He took in the core room again and started to modify it while he waited, boredom was his worst enemy now, luckily he had a lot of stone from creating the core room. He began to carve out designs and runes on the rib like pillars around his room. They were all meaningless nonsense but it gave the otherwise bare room an arcane feel. his pillar of skulls became three stone skeletons, arms uplifted to hold a stone pedestal. After a few minutes of thought he modified the skeletons until they were each of a different race, human, elf and dwarf. The next person who dared enter his core room would know what he thought of the sentient races. While Rj worked the ghost mouse explored his new home, his tiny nose twitching even though he couldn''t ''smell'' any more. After the pillar changed the little mouse crawled in between the skeletons and claimed the open area between them as its nest. Satisfied it curled up, only to realize it shared a similar problem with its master. Neither of them slept any more. Ch. 2 The Grind [Ding! you have gained five mana!] ''Yes! Time to get to work!'' RJ turned to slowly look around his core room until he felt the subtle tug of his dungeon sense. All dungeons know how to tunnel to the surface, their purpose being to convert living mana into pure mana. His old dungeon had been earth and plant, causing the area surrounding his dungeon entrance to grow excessively larger and healthier plants. The ore and stone that lined his old walls were mana enriched and highly sought after. Unfortunately what that meant for RJ now, was that he had a lot of dense, mana enriched stone that he no longer had the ability to siphon mana from, between him and the surface. It was like being surrounded by prime rib cooked perfectly, only to find out you were a herbivore. ''Just don''t think about it, new life! new chance. It was probably all that amazing mana rich ore that got me into this mess. At least i won''t have to worry about that horrible clinking sound of picks on my walls anymore.'' Rj began the process of tunneling towards the surface. Each tunnel was twenty-five ft. long, five ft. wide, and ten ft. tall, with the option to add angles and curves. For now though, he was more worried about reaching the surface then making an elaborate or even safe first floor. Each tunnel cost him one mana, and he couldn''t bring himself to not put a room in after each tunnel. Rooms were fifteen ft. long, ten ft. tall and fifteen ft. wide, He''d need bigger rooms then that, but it was a good comprimise towards getting up to the surface. ''And... i''m out. Great, well feels like i''m about a third of the way up. I picked up some iron ore and copper from the debris, so thats nice. Oh, i wonder what my dungeon lights look like now.'' RJ began to fashion crude braziers along the walls, willing them to light purple flames burst to life. The room went from pure darkness to flickering, dancing shadows. The skeletons holding up his pedestal seems to twitch and sway under the baleful light. The walls even seemed to breath again and RJ shuddered. ''Well... guess i figured out why necrotic dungeons are always so creepy.'' RJ felt for a moment and then sighed inwardly. ''Lovely, that only took twelve hours, now what am i going to do?'' He began to watch the tiny ghost mouse as it explored the new sections of the dungeon. The flickering purple lights seemed to make the already translucent mouse harder to see. After a few minutes RJ figured out that the lights made the glowing outline of the mouse less obvious. ''Alright, i''m tired of talking to myself. I''m going to name you and you will be my new conversation partner.''Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings. The mouse sat up and looked in the direction of his core, it''s tiny nose twitching. RJ pondered for a few moments and then said. ''How about Soul Destroyer?'' The mouse cringed at the name, its tail curling around it unhappily. ''No? Bob the mighty?'' The mouse flicked an ear back and then forward again, as if to say ''are you kidding?'' Rj chuckled. ''Just a joke, how about... Bruce?'' The mouse hopped up and began to run in circles, obviously glad to take a normal name and afraid his master would come up with something even more wierd if he said no. ''Alright Bruce, since you''re all i''ve got, I think i should add in some tunnels so you and your soon to be brethren can easily get from room to room. Oh, and maybe add in some trap doors into the ceiling so we can drop a bunch of you down on adventurers?'' He began to giggle maniaclly, but coughed and then continued. ''I think the necrotic mana is going to my head, Bruce, first order of business. If i start turning into a cackling villian, come look dissapointed at me or something.'' Bruce for his part, hadn''t paid a bit of attention to anything RJ had said since his name was decided, more interested in exploring the rest of the dungeon. After a while of the rambling conversation his master was having with himself, Bruce started to attempt to scratch marks into the walls. Being a ghost, and the walls being made of dungeon stone, all this managed to do was leave a bit of ectoplasmic residue on the stone, but that would serve the same purpose. ''... Every dungeon should have his own evil laugh, but manic giggling is way too far. Wait, what are you doing? Oh! marking out the spots you think would be good for tunnels hm? Excellent, i''ll start drilling a mouse maze for you.'' RJ concentrated and began creating mouse sized tunnels from each of the holes, combining them just outside the walls into one main ''highway'' for the ghost mice. As this was considered a modification to the existing room, it didn''t cost him any mana, and was something they could both do to distract themselves. Sadly he could not make the trap doors he wanted in the ceiling, but instead he drilled holes in, making it look as though every part of the ceiling was a spike trap waiting to happen. Or in this case, a mouse trap. Rj began to giggle again before a dissapointed look from Bruce put a stop to it. ''I won''t subject you to that terrible joke. Thats how much i respect you Bruce.'' The mouse turned away from him, secretly relieved but outwardly indifferent. Rj continued to add braziers along the walls, lighting his mostly empty rooms with purple flickering light. ''I can''t wait to get something besides iron stone and copper to decorate with, the ''stone bones'' theme is really boring and kind of ghastly. What do you think Bruce? Should we go with a Crypt?'' Bruce ignored him, exploring the warren of tunnels he had made. ''No... not a crypt, too obvious, actually, i have a better idea.'' Ch. 3 End of the Tunnel The next three days were probably the most mind numbingly boring days of RJ''s lives, both before he became a dungeon core and after. Each morning the dungeon menu would ding, informing him he had gained mana, he''d spend it on tunnels, and then the next twenty hours he sat there. After the first four hours he began to put Bruce through his paces, seeing how tightly he could control the little ghost mouse. Eight hours later, they were both bored of that. He then taught Bruce how to play tic-tac-toe. Which amused them both for the rest of that day, and about half of the next. Unfortunately they eventually got to the point that the entity that went first always won. Half way through the third day, RJ came up with a new game. scavenger hunt, dungeon core style, RJ created a tiny stone statue of himself and hid it somewhere in the tunnels and warrens of the dungeon. Bruce would then search it out, and RJ would time him. This actually ended up earning them an achievement that RJ had never seen before. [Achievement Earned - The Great Mouse Detective: Vermin are often used as scouts and spys by dungeons, you have trained your vermin to search out and find specific items. Bonus to perception when searching, Bonus to critical thinking for all vermin dungeon mobs.] ''Thats... good? Hey bruce, you feeling any smarter?'' Rj focused his attention down on the little ghost mouse who seemed to be shadow-fighting with the statue he had just successfully found. Bruce sat back on his hunchs and looked around, his tiny round ears twitched back and forth before he went back to lunging and jumping through the statues. ''Yeah... that''s... not helpful buddy. Whatever, it''s not like i expected you to suddenly start talking or anything'' RJ''s voice was tinged with a bit of loneliness, Bruce was a great dungeon monster, but not the best conversationalist. ---- The fourth day was when they finally had a break through, instead of his tunnel leading up into a dead end, RJ ran into an already existing structure. He felt his influence spread out into the collapsed remains of a basement or cellar of some sort. Immediately, RJ began to absorb and add the new materials inside. Oak wood, Bronze, Glass, and Oil became available to him as he cleared out the ''free'' room. ''Excellent! you know what this means, right bruce?'' The ghost mouse ran in a tight circle excitedly. ''Yup! we''re at the surface, just gotta spend a bit more mana and...'' A rush of air blasted through the halls as the stagnant dead air of the dungeon whooshed out. RJ was careful to open the dungeon entrance in a way that resembled a caved in building. ''Now... Time to set my plans in motion! muhahaha!...'' A glare from Bruce ended the evil cackling early but RJ didn''t mind. He quickly reshaped the cellar into what it once must have looked like, beer barrels along the walls, rows of shelves for storage making a small maze with empty and broken glass containers littered about. He then slowly aged everything in the cellar, covering it in dust and cobwebs, creating rubble in one corner so as to appear as though the ceiling had collapsed. he added a few half empty or broken oil lamps as well.This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. ''Looks good, i doubt any adventurer who comes poking around will believe any of this is attached to a dungeon.'' He smiled to himself, his tiny core glowing a malevolent purple. Next he roughened up the tunnel attached to the cellar, half collapsing some of the tunnel, make the supports look old and damaged. ''No dungeon here... just some ruins of a once prosperous dungeon town. hehehe.'' He reached his first room at the end of the tunnel and sighed. ''Well, thats all the mana i have for today.'' he tsked and checked the time. ''Ah... only eight more hours... lovely. Bruce! go check out the Mock Cellar, oh, let me add some mouse warrens for you. Now that we''re open for business i''ll make you some friends when the mana resets.'' --- Later that night, while playing scavenger hunt, RJ felt something on the edge of his dungeon sense. ''Bruce!! incoming!... it''s... not sapient. oh thank god. what is that... ah!'' down the steps of the cellar a snake slowly slithered, its tongue flicking out curiously. The serpent was a black and brown, with a tan diamond pattern. RJ had seen the skin of this particular creature used for sheathes, belts, and boots on some of the low ranked adventurers. The snake did not seem to be bothered by the dungeon mana in the air, on the contrary it seemed to be heading straight for RJ''s tunnel, picking up speed as though it scented something it liked. ''Bruuuce... it''s coming.... Do something!'' RJ was not a huge fan of snakes, nevermind that there really wasn''t anything a snake could do to harm him. Bruce watched the snake slither by from his mouse hole and slowly walked out to follow it. All of Bruce''s instincts were screaming for him to run, snakes ate mice after all, but his dungeon needed him! After only a moment of indecision Bruce lunged forward, pouncing on the snake''s tail, and passing right through it. --- The snake had tasted something amazing on the air, it had been living off the mice and rats infesting the ruined dungeon town for awhile, but nothing had tasted this good before. Following the scent down a set of stairs the snake continued to flick its tongue over and over, the taste was deffinitely down here! Beginning to slither faster as the taste got stronger, the snake suddenly felt a chill run up its body from its tail. Turning its head to look back the snakes tongue flicked out rapidly in confusion. Its eyes saw a blurry shape, but it couldn''t taste anything, it''s heat sensing pits didn''t pick up any warmth. The blur passed through its tail again and the snake convulsed as it''s body tried to shiver. Normally cold would just make the snake sleepy and slow, but this cold came with a sense of dread that the simple creature couldn''t understand. In a half hearted attempt to defend itself the snake lunged at the shape, fangs popping out to sink into.... nothing. Then the horrifying cold was in its head, mouth and throat. The snake convulsed again, twitching and squirming, then the light left its eyes. Lore (part 1) The Rule of 3 In the world RJ is sent to, three is a recurring number that will show up constantly. When Adventurers gain a class, it will be a choice of three, when RJ''s monsters evolve he''ll have a choice of three. I can''t go to into detail because of spoilers, but there will be a lot of three options. For these options i will do a poll, and let the readers vote on which one we should choose. I''m going to try to avoid letting that cause me to do shorter chapters, but i''m new to this writing thing so forgive me please. Adventurer ranks Has not come up yet, but as i think it''s unlikely for adventurers to be talking about it in a dungeon, and i don''t really want to do an exposition chapter from an adventurers point of view, i''ll explain it here. Adventurers are broken down into ranks F,D,C,B,A, S, SS, SSS, etc. F rank adventurer - an applicant, they are put through rigurous physical training, taught basic survival skills and given what gear they are able to use in the hopes they''ll survive long enough to gain a class.Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author. D rank adventurer - one who has gained their class, they''re given training by the most similar class available, and access to the adventurer''s guilds stores, bunkhouse, and bank. Crank adventurer - one who as evolved one of their class skills. They are usually set as leaders of D rank teams as a safety measure. B rank adventurer - one who as evolved All of their class skills. B ranks are often grouped together to face large threats to mankind. A rank adventurer - one who has evolved their class. A rank adventurers are rare, most classes have esoteric and difficult requirements to meet to evolve. A rank adventurers tend to run guilds, stand as the last line of defense for cities and act as a deterrent to wars. S rank adventurer - one who has evolved one of their evolved classes skils. Each S indicates an additional evolved skill. It is hard to measure the strength difference between S ranks as what the skills evolve to can vary wildly in power. An S rank Adventurer who evolves all of their skills disappears, no one knows what happens to them, some believe they ascend to godhood. some believe they are teleported to another plane to continue their improvement. No one knows, but many S ranks tend to retire rather then evolve their last skill and face the unknown. Classes Each class gains three skills. (aye? see that three thing coming up again?) These skills can be a multitude of different things, including but not limited to, attacks, buffs, healing, spells, movement, defense. These skills can be active or passive, though very few classes have more then one passive ability. upon evolving their class adventurers gain a fourth skill, which is more powerful and often exhaustive to use. Evolving the class usually modifies the three original skills as well. Ch. 4 Variety [Creature absorbed! A new monster has been added to your bestiary. Due to the type of mana your dungeon uses, your monster pattern will be altered.] ''Yes! way to go Bruce! MVM most valuable mouse!'' RJ cheered as the snake died and was absorbed into the dungeon. ''Alright, lets see what we got, come on giant anaconda'' [Beastiary entry: Bone serpent, These skeletal undead are often found in plagued deserts. The necrotic energy that infuses their bones allows them to stalk prey just as they did in life, Only now they are far more deadly. The serpents ribs, spine and jaws are reinforced, able to wrap and pierce a targets body without risk of the thin bones breaking.] ''Oh.... well. Thats... yeah. guess... guess i should create one?'' RJ focused and spawned his new monster. Hundreds of thin rib bones clicked softly on the stone as a skeletal snake, a little more then four feet long came into existence. The head with it empty eye sockets turned left and then right before it focused in on RJs core. Looking closely one might notice that it''s lower jaw was actually two seperate mandible like jaw bones with long serated teeth. It slowly began to slither forward, the ribs making a very soft staccato clicking that was very unique. ''HOLY.... Ok... good snake, what are you doing? nooo. NO!... don''t you DARE!'' The rest of RJs thoughts were drowned out in a long piercing wail as the skeletal snake climbed up his pedestal and happily curled around his core. the Bone serpent cuddled up tight to the core circling it repeatedly with its coils as if it were a heating rock. --- A few hours later, RJ finally managed to calm down enough to check his other notifications. ''Oh... Achievement.'' [Achievement earned - Paradigm Shift: Your monster defeated a creature that would have been its predator in nature. Prey type monsters gain a bonus against predator type monsters. ] ''Huh, well i was totally expecting some revenge of the ghost mouse type thing, but that is pretty useful. Especially if i''m going to have to keep working my way up the food chain.'' RJ sighed and once again tried to shoo the bone serpent off his pedestal. It ignored him. [Ding! you have gained 7 mana!] ''Oh good, i was beginning to worry i was going to have a straight tunnel from my entrance to my core room when i was discovered. Now lets continue my theme.'' He began to cackle evilly, but the slithering clicks of the serpent tightening around him caused him to squeel in fear instead. ''eh gods... got to get over this fear of snakes.''This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. Checking his costs he realized that each mana point would summon him either five ghost mice, or two bone serpents. He went ahead and placed a pack of mice in the faux cellar, they would make for a good early warning system and he doubted people would be wary enough to spot them in the first room. Next he spent a mana to add a bend to the tunnel coming down from the cellar, the ninety degree turn leading into another room which he spent a mana to expand into a thirty ft. long, fifteen ft wide, ten ft high hallway like room. Here he started to put his plan into action. The room appeared to be a traditional dungeon hallway, except that it appeared to be defunct. Pressure plates on the floor were broken and sticking up noticeably, rubble lined one wall, a battering ram trap hung uselessly and the walls were covered in spear holes that were mostly full of rubble or caved in. for every ten holes that were defunct decoration, one was an actual passage into the warrens running around the outside of the room. here he spawned four bone serpents, two to hide under the fake pressure plates, and two to hide in the fake spear slots. Any one checking to make sure the traps were really broken was going to get a nasty suprise. As a final thought he dug out a ten ft deep pit trap infront of the exit of the faux-trap hallway. Over it he created another fake pressure plate with a large rock sitting in the center looking to have fallen and cracked it in two. He was very careful to make sure that any more weight on the pressure plate would cause it to collapse, sending shards of stone and the boulder itself down into the hole with who ever was foolish enough to step on it. At the bottom of the pit trap he placed another pack of ghost mice, adding in small mouse holes and attaching them to the warrens so they ghost mice could explore when no one was in the dungeon. With that, all seven mana was spent, and he had another day of waiting, at least now with the entrance open some new creatures could be attracted. Maybe he''d get really lucky and a bear might try to make his cellar its new home! RJ happily day dreamed about what other creatures he could turn into necrotic horrors. The bone serpent moving around him brought him literally screaming back into the present. ''ACK! jeez... ah i should name you, maybe that''ll help with the fear. Well, i already have a Bruce. How about we name you Alfred. If that sounds good, then please go introduce yourself to Bruce and get OFF MY PEDESTAL. If not i''m naming you Slinky'' Alfred the bone serpent slowly uncoiled and slithered down the pedestal, seeming not dignifying RJ''s threats with a response. He was off to meet this Bruce, they had much planning to do if they were going to keep their silly dungeon core safe. Bruce, for his part, was vastily relieved to not be the sole line of defense for his master. What if that snake had been magic and cut actually kill him? what would have happened to the core? Bruce shuddered at the thought and then turned around to see a skeletal snake head right behind him, nearly touching his back! Bruce whirled and brought a mouse paw down on the bone snakes skull. To his suprise the little punch connected cause the snake to flinch in shock. The looked at each other for a moment, before the most epic snake vs mouse wrestling match ever commenced. Lore (part 2) Dungeon Mechanics Dungeons gain mana from a number of different sources. the Core room give 5 mana per floor. Each Boss rooms give 3 mana. (maximum 1 per floor) Entances give a variable amount of mana depending on the environment outside of the dungeon, because the outside of RJs dungeon is a ruin, it is only 2 mana, the more ''life'' that exists outside the dungeon the more mana seeps in through the doorway. Absorbing sentient being and magical beasts gives mana dependent ont their tier(F=1,D=10,C=25,B=50, A=100, S=200 +100 per additional S). Animals of significant size and strength give a small amount of mana ( at most 10, as no non-magical animal is considered higher then a D tier challenge). vermin and small animals only provide enough mana for their master copy. (with the exception of extremely rare or deadly vermin/animals who give mana like larger animals) Absorbing magical items provides mana dependant on the rarity of the item. --- Dungeon monsters Dungeon monsters can be gained by absorbing a new species, evolving a current species, binding a monster to the dungeon, or occasionally they can be spawned randomly from a saturation of dungeon mana. This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. Each time a new species is absorbed, the first one evolves, or the first one spawns, It spawns/becomes a master copy. All other dungeon monsters of its type mirror its intelligence, form, and base abilities. They also share achievements, though only the master copy gets the effects of its titles. Boss monsters cannot have copys of themselves on the same floor as their boss room, but later floors can use them as base monsters. their are common, uncommon, and rare forms of each kind of dungeon monster, and the kind attained is random. (depending on story needs i pick, or i roll a percentage) Dungeon cores are not aware of the exact chances of getting a particular type of monster, and RJ wouldn''t know if his monsters are rare because he has never been or spoken to a necrotic dungeon before. (they are often destroyed quickly when found) Dungeon monsters can evolve from a number of different conditions. Kill count, killing a vastly stronger opponent, certain achievements, certain titles, being exposed to certain mana types, or even just force of will. All of these things can contribute to an evolution. Becoming a Boss monster also causes an evolution, it adds an extra factor on top of all of the previously mentioned contributions. Dungeon cores tend to make their most veteran creatures Boss monsters in the hope of getting a particularly strong one Master copys and boss monsters are immortal, they revive from the ambient dungeon mana after a set time based on their strength. copys must be resummoned every time they are slain. --- Dungeon loot is determined by creature type, mana type, and random chance. All creatures have at least an uncommon drop. Though rarer monster types have rarer drops. (this is another way dungeons can learn of their creatures rarity). Dungeon can create loot in chests based off the things they absorb, but have no control over the items their monsters drop. Ch. 5 The Wait Bruce sat atop Alfreds skull as his body flopped around impotently. RJ wasn''t sure how the mouse was doing this until he checked the dungeon monster sheet. [Dungen monster sheet] [Name: Bruce] [Type: Undead Vermin] [Tier: D] [Power: - ] [Magic: C ] [Body: D ] [Spells: Ghostly Telekinesis ] [Achieve: Great mouse detective, Paradigm shift] ''Holy crap Bruce! when did you get a spell? ... wait did you always have that? why didn''t you tell me?!...oh. right.'' RJ watched as Alfred flopped helplessly under Bruce. ''Alright, time to let him up buddy, i think he''s learned not to sneak up on you anymore. How would you two feel about doing some reconnaissance for me?'' Bruce took his time hoping off the skull of the serpent. He flicked an ear at Alfred dismissively before nodding at RJ and taking off towards the entrance. Alfred righted himself, looked around obviously a little embarrassed and then followed after bruce. The staccato clicking of his rib bones as he slithered away giving RJ the creeps. RJ attached his dungeon sense to bruce, so that he could see through the monsters eyes as it climbed up through the faux cellar, Alfred now right behind him. As the ghost mouse crossed the threshold to the outside world his form flickered and thinned, turning more translucent before firming back up. Alfred seemed less bothered as he crossed the threshold, only slowing for a moment before speeding back up. Outside of the faux cellar, they found a collapsed inn. The roof over head was mostly gone, beams and some random shingles are all thats left. The sky over head is grey and cloudy, a blessing for the undead, though this close to the dungeon they would''ve been alright anyway. RJ squirmed a little as he watched through Bruces eyes, technically sending his monsters out of his dungeon was a sign of corruption. Necrotic dungeons had an easier time then most, and even their low tier monsters could spread undeath creating uncontrolled mobs to ravage the country side. He''d just have to make sure that neither Bruce or Alfred killed anything outside of the dungeon.This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there. Meanwhile, Bruce and Alfred had made it out of the collapsed inn, looking around the desolate dungeon town. RJ began to point out certain things he wanted the two to drag back into the dungeon, particularly any cloth they could find. A few swatches of rotten linen, and what remained of a noble womans silk night gown were quickly dragged out of the debris of the inn and pulled into the dungeon entrance. RJ ordered them to continue exploring while he began to work on another room for the dungeon. After a few moments thought he requested feathers if they could find any. Goose would be preferably but any would probably work. He had noticed that next to the inn was a brothel, and from his dungeon senses he could tell if he expanded that way he could take over the buildings basement as well. It wouldn''t be of much use right now, but later on when he had some humanoid undead? RJ began to cackle madly while his two dungeon monsters were too far away to glare him into silence. --- Bruce and Alfred had a problem. The only feathers they could find were attached to a particularly ornery looking crow perched on the roof of the brothel. The bird fluffed its self up and cawed angrily at them. He was just out of Bruces range. Alfred nudged Bruce, and then scrunched itself up and lunged forward, pointing at the mouse with it''s tail, then itself then the bird. Bruce rubbed his nose as ears as he thought, staring at the snake. After a moment he nodded, the plan might just work. Bruces ear twitched as he turned to look at the bird. Alfred scrunched back up, coiling itself to lunge forward, and at the flick of Bruces ear it did just that. Bruce, using his ghostly telekinesis spell hurled the lunging snake up into the air at the bird. The crow was completely unprepared for this. He was an old one, and had seen many undead in his day, but never had he had a bone snake thrown at him. He quickly spred his wings, cawing in alarm but wasn''t fast enough to avoid the snake. which sank it''s fangs into the crows chest, wrapping itself around the bird and pulling it back off the ledge. The snake and bird plummeted the twenty or so feet to the ground and Bruce winced at the sound of bones popping. Alfred uncoiled himself from the stunned bird to pop his spine and ribs back into place. ''Wait!'' RJ shouted in their heads. ''Don''t kill it! oh crap, quickly drag it into the dungeon, ALIVE!'' Rj was cursing profusely at his distracted cackling. This was what happened when he didn''t have someone to keep him on track. He sighed as the two dragged the crow into the dungeon entrance. ''What the hell am i going to do with a Crow in a dungeon?'' He quickly considered raising his ceilings, maybe to make room for some dive bombing undead birds. Bruce and Alfred played a quick game of tic-tac-toe to see who would get to finish off the bird. Bruce won handily since Alfred barely knew how to play. Lunging forward the mouse snapped his jaws through the crows body. The crow let out a wet and pained caw, and then died. RJs attention was brought back to Bruce as he started to glow softly, the ghost mouse began to clean its ears as if it didn''t have a care in the world, but his eyes were wide and excited. ''Heck yeah, i knew you would be the first one to evolve Bruce! Now, i can''t wait to find out what you''ll be'' Alfred watched the birds body disolve into the dungeon then watched his boss begin to glow. The bone serpent sighed inwardly, now he''d NEVER win a wrestling match. Ch. 6 New faces RJ watched as the glow around Bruce faded away. The first thing he noticed was that the mouse was much bigger now, nearly the size of a full grown rabbit. The next thing was that the pale translucence was gone, the mouse was now inky black, though still see-through. Clouds of inky black mist swirled around Bruce now, seemingly coming off his body like steam. His eyes were the other big change, now glowing red spots of hellish light. The shadowy mouse continues to sit on his haunches, rubbing his ears and twitching nose. ''Wow... well on the plus side, still kindof adorable. Also on the plus side, Very creepy. So, what can you do?'' Rj asked as he pulled up Bruces new dungeon monster sheet. [Dungen monster sheet] [Name: Bruce] [Type: Wraith Vermin] [Tier: C] [Power: - ] [Magic: C+ ] [Body: C ] [Spells: Ghostly Telekinesis, Ethereal Jaunt ] [Achieve: Great mouse detective, Paradigm shift, Fast ball special (pitcher edition)] ''oooh, what does Ethereal Jaunt do?'' RJ began to ask but Bruce was way ahead of him. The not-so-little mouse suddenly seemed to explode into a puff of black smoke, only to reappear in less then a second behind Alfred. Bruce jumped around excitedly and began to disappear and reappear all over the faux cellar. Alfred watched with dismay as the now much larger mouse teleported all over the room. Yup, deffinitely not winning any future wrestling matches. ''Hmm... an achievement, let''s see what that does.'' RJ focused in on the achievement in Bruces dungeon sheet. [Achievement earned! - Fast ball special (pitcher edition), You have used power or magic to hurl a willing ally at an enemy. Bonus to power of ghostly telekensis on willing targets, Bonus to accuracy when throwing allys.] ''wow... wait does that mean?'' RJ checked Alfred achievements and did indeed find the matching achievement on the snakes list. [Achievement earned! - Fast ball special (Fastball edition), You have willing been thrown using power or magic at an enemy by an ally. Bonus to damage when being thrown at enemies, No longer take damage from impact when being thrown at enemies.] ''hmmm, both seem oddly specific. Ah well, might mean some interesting evolutions down the line.'' He turned to another screen waiting for him, this one for the crow he had absorbed. ''I wonder... wait... WHAT?''Stolen story; please report. [Creature absorbed! A new monster has been added to your bestiary. Due to Divine interference the creature type has been modified. "Karasu is watching you, dungeon"] Rj got a chill, he''d never had divine intervention in his dungeon before, and it was unheard of in very weak dungeons like his own. ''well... lets see what i''ve been given..'' [Bestiary entry: Karasu-Tengu, These beings are sometimes thought to be the mischevious spirits of dead crows, but in truth they areY¨­kai, Mischevious monsters of far eastern myth. Karasu-Tengu appear humanoid other then their black feathered wings and crow like feet. They are often depicted with long beak like noses, or sometimes actual beaks.] For awhile, RJ just sat their, and read the entry a few times. Even Bruce and Alfred were quiet as they waited for their masters response. ''well... maybe i''ll have somebody to talk to!'' RJ decided to go with the flow and spawned his first Tengu. Even before it was fully formed he knew he wasn''t going to have many of these, they took a huge chunk of mana, he doubted he could summon one at full mana if not for the absorption bonus and the divine interference. The Karasu-Tengu appeared before his crystal, standing at just under five feet tall, She had long flowing white hair trimmed with black tips, her bangs were cut short just above her pale eyebrows cleanly framing her face. Long black-tipped white feathers appeared to grow interspersed in her hair. She wore a simple White Yukata with a black cherry blossom pattern. Hugging her back were Black-feathered wings with white tips. She stood on pale white crows feet and her tiny porcelain color hands were flung out ward for balance. She blinked open pale pinkish red eyes and then seeing the dungeon core on its pedestal infront of her she fell to her knees, prostarting herself before him. "Master! I live to serve you!" RJ sat silently for a few moments, shocked beyond all words at the beautiful humanoid creature he had gotten instead of what he figured would be a zombie crow. ''Ah... Ahem... Rise. I shall name you Yuki, welcome to my dungeon.'' He quickly checked her dungeon sheet. [Dungen monster sheet] [Name: Yuki] [Type: Tengu Yokai] [Tier: D] [Power: D ] [Magic: C ] [Body: F ] [Spells: Misfortune, Lesser Invisibility ] ''Hmmm, i wonder what Misfortune does.'' RJ was muttering to himself as he read, but Yuki piped up in response. "I can use Misfortune to curse your enemies with bad luck, it can be very disruptive over time. Though it normally doesn''t have much immediate effect." She pouted just a bit, as though she was afraid of disappointing him. ''Ah.. excellent, just the kindof spell for my theme. I look forward to working together Yuki, Why don''t you go up to the Faux-brothel for now, i have a bunch of beds up there that you can use to sleep, You can meet Bruce and Alfred, my other master-copies a little later.'' Yuki had sat up on her knees at his greeting, but upon his orders she placed her hands on the dungeon floor and bowed once more. "Yes master, as you wish." She flapped her wings to help her rise and then left gracefully. RJ watched one of her wing feathers drift slowly to the floor, he absorbed it and then examined its information. [Albino Tengu Feather (Rare) - Normal tengu feathers are prized for their use in illusion and mind magic, albino feathers are almost always used in curse or luck magic. For example, using a tengu feather as part of a vodun ritual can cause lingering effects not normally possible.] ''Wow... talk about divine interference. Thanks i guess, hope she doesn''t need to eat much, damn necrotic energy.'' RJ huffed in irritation. Lore (part 3) Gods and Goddesses The gods and goddesses of this world are not direct actors, but more backseat drivers. They make their wishes known through communion with their clergy and almost entirely act through mortal agents. Dungeons and the Divine have a very special relationship. As dungeons spawn beings out of ambient mana, deities are inclined to ''create'' new monsters/creatures via dungeons. They simply grant a dungeon a ''boon'' by giving them a new monster that is at least loosely related to what the dungeon absorbs, and then hope the dungeon proliferates the species. New Monsters Dungeon monsters often survive the destruction of their dungeon, and that is one of the primary reasons sapient races don''t destroy non-corrupted dungeons. The monsters that plague the rest of the world are almost universally descended from dungeon monsters. Outside of a dungeon, monsters rarely evolve. Usually only when they live in an are of concentrated mana, which often are the places new dungeons form anyway. Where almost all other types of monster simply breed after being released on to the world, necrotic monsters do not, instead they infect those they kill like a virus. Not only that, but if the infector is still attached to an active dungeon, all of its infected count as dungeon monsters for their kills as well. This leads to necrotic dungeons quickly becoming corrupted and spewing out undead into the over world, as quick and cheap mana. (luckily our protaganist isn''t interested in the kindof attention that would draw to him, because he''s fresh out of ''give a crap'' about the sapient races.) Dungeon Mana Types The different mana types are as follows. Elemental - Earth, Fire, Wind and Water fall into this category, these dungeons often pick two friendly elements and then slowly work in the others as they become more powerful. They tend to spawn elementals and outsiders of their chosen elements. ( ex. Wind sprites, Salamanders, Oreads)The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings. Nature - Beast, Plant, and Decay are all nature dungeons. Nature dungeons tend to have living ecosystems through out their layers, they breed and cultivate powerful monsters through a quick and brutal circle of life. Nature dungeons have the quickest and most radical evolutions. Decay dungeons are considered to be the most dangerous by sapient races, as they focus on fungus and insects that can lead to deadly diseases or parasites. Many have walked out of a decay dungeon, only to find something eating its way out of their stomache days later. Divine - Infernal, Demonic, Angellic, and Celestial dungeons fall under this category. These dungeons are almost always the site of a holy war. The followers of the dungeons type fight to defend and cultivate the dungeon, while the others attempt to corrupt or cleanse the dungeon. Divine dungeons can gain mana quickly through their specific forms of faith. Contracts for infernal, Acts of selfish evil for demonic, Prayer for angellic, and Good deeds for celestial. These dungeons are suprisingly the least likely to be corrupted, as sending their monsters out gives them little to no benefit compared to bringing worshipers in. Necrotic - Undead, Spirit, and Abberant dungeons fall under necrotic. These dungeons are considered the most likely to become corrupt, as almost all of their monsters can spread out of the dungeon and create new monsters by infecting others for free. The world is a necrotic dungeons oyster, and they tend to live short terrifying lives. The Far southern continent of this world Fell to an undead dungeon, it''s virus like spread was sudden and explosive, and by the time other nations attempted to intervene, the entire continent was dead and animated. Undead dungeons spread their monsters like a virus, infecting and creating new undead, spirit dungeons create possessing spirits and trickster creatures that act as sleeper agents, hiding inside communitys and slowly spreading until entire cities are nothing but possessed or mind controlled thralls. while spirit and undead dungeons can be dealt with via exorcism and faith protections, Abberant dungeons are considered one of the most terrifying. Consisting of Shapeshifters like mimics and dopplegangers, as well as animated and sentient objects, the spread of an abberant dungeon is insidious, and almost impossible to detect. Incase you were wondering, Yokai are a spirit type, though they have physical bodies, they are creatures made of mana. Bruce as a ghostly mouse, and now a wraith mouse is an undead type, but if he had evolved into a possessive vermin, he would''ve become a spirit type. Bonus chapter - Before The Fall The Dungeon of Living Stone was a hundred floors of stone halls, rooms and caves. Sparkling gems glowed softly producing light for the adventurers to see. Rich veins of iron and mithril peaked for the walls in the more cavernous rooms. RJ was watching a particular group of adventurers he had lovingly nicknamed ''the chuckleheads.'' So far they had barely reached the twentieth floor a hand full of times, and never defeated his Gateway boss. For that matter, he was pretty sure the only way they were killing his tenth floor Gateway boss was consumables. The mana they expended during that fight tasted different each time. And their tank, a male elf paladin by the name of Tirandel, was incessantly complaining about the ''wasted resources.'' The elf enchantress that followed behind him hummed in sympathy patting his metal clad shoulder as if to comfort the whiney paladin. RJ hated paladins, they were total cheaters. Cool poison trap? divine health makes them immune. A new earth creature that uses sonic attacks? paladin cures everyones deafness. Finally got that preachy cleric with a falling rock trap? paladin to the rescue with a timely lay on hands. BLAH! Clerics were bad enough, but at least supporting was their role. Paladin stand in the front as defenders, making them very hard to seriously hurt, and then they throw around all this support utility. The cleric of the party, a decrepit old elf that had probably been alive before the forest around his dungeon ever existed, was ignoring the paladin as usual, chatting with the Archer, his grand son. RJ normally avidly listened in on adventurers in his dungeon, but the clerics constant prattle about this or that that happened in his life, and the fawning looks his grand son gave him as he told the same stories, over and over, drove RJ away. The last member of the five man band was a sorcerer, and honestly personality wise, he prefered the whiney paladin. The sorcerer seemed to think that fighting was beneath him, that being in a dungeon was beneath him, that the entire experience, even though it was the only way his sorry ass could eat, was beneath him. Any time any of the other party members asked him for anything, he would rant about his superiority, and RJ had almost dropped a rock on him just to shut him up. Today RJ was going to finally rid himself of these annoying adventurers. Since their last attempt he had worked avidly on his twentieth floor boss. The Gem Worm, a behemoth of nearly forty feet with crystal teeth and glittering hide was normally a simple boss meant to test adventurers ability to burn down a large health pool. The Worm would burrow into the floor and shake the room causing stalactites to fall randomly every time his health dropped by a quarter. Now though, the Gem Worm had a new component. After much testing RJ had discovered that eating certain gems caused his regular worms to gain a magic reflective quality. His boss was now new and improved! if they tried to use any of that flashy bought magic, they were going to be in for a deadly suprise! RJ cackled to himself until his personal attendant, a Arch-dryad swatted his gem. "Stop that... it scares the new monsters." She said, before going back to shaping a piece of living wood from her tree. RJ himself sat inbedded in the trunk of the tree, a huge glowing emerald colored crystal. With a bit of will he had one of the trees branches bend down and swat her on the ass. She jumped and glared at him, her cheeks flushing a dark green. RJ chuckled and went back to watching the chuckleheads. They managed to fight their way through the floors, eleven through nineteen were a series of gem-encrusted caves. A lot of adventurers made their money by escorting and guarding miners against the large worm monsters that roamed these levels. The party seemed to be in a hurry though, hellbent on downing the boss that thwarted them. They finally reached floor twenty, a little worse for wear since the worms liked to tunnel up beneath the back lines. When the party entered the arena, the Gem Worm exploded out of the floor in the center, its body covered in a rainbow hue of gem stones. RJ noticed that the new reflective gems had a whitish glow to them. An obvious sign that they were imporant, RJ was pretty sure it was a suggestion for the adventurers to smash the gems so their spell casters would be free to attack. He hoped that the party didn''t decide to back out just because of a change in the appearance of the boss, though if they did, he wouldn''t blame them. The paladin glared at the rainbow colored worm with glowing white spots. "Waaait... did it look like that last time?" He asked, his eyes squinting alittle at the light reflecting off of it. The cleric stopped mid-story and looked the worm over, his voice was raspy, probably from his constant talking. "I don''t remember it looking like that... but i also haven''t heard of anyone mentioning a change." The enchantress hummed softly, her hands still looking for any excuse to touch the paladin. her fingers ran through his long hair, and she finally spoke in a gushing tone. "I''m sure we can do it, you''re so strong and manly. You''ll pound that stupid worm into dust and we''ll finally get past here!"Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation. The paladin stood a little taller at her attention, the sorcerer rolled his eyes. "With my powerful magic we will easily defeat this boss! i will crush him with my arcane might!" The archer looked across the group and then back to the cleric. "You''ve beaten the worm before right grand da? you told me about it before." The cleric harumphed and looked a bit sheepish. "Ah.. well, yes... it was a long time ago though, back when the dungeon only had thirty floors!." RJ would''ve rolled his eyes if he had them. Back when he had thirty floors he didn''t even have the Gem Worm pattern, he didn''t discover them until he was digging out his fiftieth floor. "I knew that old man was going senile." the paladin, now pumped up from the enchantresses praise, turned to the party. "Buff up! make sure to use that Mass Cat''s Grace scroll too! we''re gonna need the help to dodge those stupid stalactites." The sorcerer pulled out the scroll with a flourish even as the cleric began to chant his prayers, causing white light to shine down on the party. The Gem Worm just watched the adventurers, it was not allowed to attack unless they came in reach or attacked it. Finally the paladin turned and drew his sword, pointing at the worm. "CHARGE!" he shouted, and then did, running full tilt with his shield up as an arrow from the archer went whistling over his head to slam in to the worms chest. The worm roared in anger and rushed forward to meet the paladin, its large maw snapping forward only to run into the paladins shield. The sorcerer pulled out another scroll, checking to make sure it was the proper one, he waited. The paladin needed to have the worms full attention or this powerful spell would turn it''s gaze on him. After watching the paladins sword flash in three different times, the sorcerer began to read off the scroll. The spell was called razor winds, and was supposed to be especially effective against earth type monsters. the chant was a long one, and required all his concentration. The enchantress was watching the paladin with a starstruck expression, but a near miss snapped her out of her revere. She began to cast one of her staple spells. a glittering enchantment that would dazzle the worm, making it more likely to miss. When she finished the chant she flung her fingers at the creature and one of the white gems flashed. The world become scintilating sparkles and she nearly fell as she stumbled back, worried the worm had cast a spell on her. It took her a few precious moments to realize that the spell was one of her own reflected back at her, she turned, shouting a warning to the sorcerer, but he didn''t seem to hear. The paladin was having a rough time, normally the enchantress would''ve dazzled the thing by now, and he wouldn''t have to worry about so many close calls. He chanted a short prayer and white energy covered his shield, nearly at the same time, he heard the priests words as he finished a healing spell, closing the few wounds the paladin had. The enchantresses shout distracted him and he almost lost an arm, he didn''t dare look back. The Archer fired arrow after arrow into the big worm, he knew he wasn''t doing a lot of damage but every little bit helped, and it kept the worm a little distracted with the pain. He watched the cleric chant and wished for the thousandth time that he could''ve been a cleric, but he just didn''t hear the call of the gods like his grand dad. The Sorcerer finished his long and complicated chant, revelling in the power that flowed from the scroll through him and out as his words reached their climax. He threw the powerful wind spell at the Worm with a resounding "HA!" There was a bright flash of white, and the roaring razor winds come spinning back. The sorcerer barely had time to gasp a weak.. "What?" before he was ripped to pieces. Watching the sorcerer torn apart the enchantress screamed, truelly distracting the paladin this time, he half turned to see what was wrong and with a crunch, his shield arm was gone. He looked back in shock at the bloody stump where his arm used to be before the worms maw came down on his head, and he saw no more. The Cleric began to chant desperately as the sorcerer fell, hoping to revive him with his "Breath of life" spell. He didn''t even see the paladin disappear into the worms maw, though he did hear his grand sons shout of warning in time to watch as the worm smashed its upper body down crushing the enchantress. The cleric choked off his spell and turned to his grandson. "RUN BOY!... RUN!" The archer shouted a warning at the enchantress but she was in shock from the death of the sorcerer, he watched her crushed into a fine paste and then his grandfather was shouting at him. "What?.." he turned and began to run before he even fully comprehended the old mans words. He was so used to following his orders, he did it subconciously. He blasted through the entrance of the arena turning to check that the old cleric was behind him. The cleric watched his grandson run and turned back to the monster, calling up one of his more powerful spell he called down a divine flame strike on the beast. Unlike when the arcane magic reflected, holy magic burned through, cracking a few of the white gems turning them dull. "Ahhh.. so we were supposed to damage the gems first... clever." The worm roared in rage, distracted from the sight of the running archer by the pain of the clerics spell, it slithered forward and lunged down, its giant maw snapping up the cleric as the archer screamed in pain and rage. The archer ran on, tears streaming down his face at the loss of his party. He had to warn the adventurers guild, the dungeon had changed again. RJ cheered as the party was destroyed, Finally no more of them. He sighed happily as the mana from their deaths flooded him and turned to his next set of floors. ''Now... what to change here...'' The dryad sighed to herself as her master began cackling maniacly again, she walked over and swatted him. Being a mad dungeons caretaker was a full time job. Ch. 7 Jailhouse Rock The next few days fell into a simple pattern. RJ would regain mana, then tunnel his way around searching for more underground rooms. His theme needed plausible underground structures, and the best way to come of with those, was to find some existing ones, and convert them! This had the upside of giving him access to the kind of materials that sort of place should have. The first space he came across was the city jail, beneath the sheriffs office, he found a fairly large stone hallway lined with cells. There was very little in these, but RJ had a few ideas on making them work as a trap hallway. He quickly absorbed the metal bars of the cells, they were made of iron and had been engraved for magic, though it was long since dead. After carefully examining them he began to replace the bars with old rusty iron bars. He left the cell doors ajar, and inside of a few he placed piles of bones, one of the cells was half filled with rubble, as though the ceiling had collapsed. Through out the cells he carved mouse holes for the ghostly mice. and then spawned in two packs of five. ''Alright, listening carefully. Any time someone comes into any of the cells, i want you to slam the door shut on them. I made them extra rusty so it add an ear-splitting screech as the hinges swing. Should be good for scaring the crap out of people, and while the bars look like they''re rusted through, they''ve still got a solid core, and the lock mechanism works. I doubt anyone over a D is going to be actually trapped in one of these cells, especially if they have a party to help them out, but it should freak''em out.'' RJ chuckled evilly. In the final cell, opposite of the side his tunnel came in, he continued his tunnels forcing them to go into at least one cell to continue down into the dungeon. He found he was mostly out of mana now, so it was a good time to check some things. He opened up his spawn menu and noticed an irregularity. [Dungeon spawn list] [Ghostly Mouse (5 pack) - 1 mana] [Bone serpent (2 pack) - 1 mana] [Wraith Mouse (singular) - 5 mana] [Karasu-Tengu (singular) - 5 mana] [Albino Karasu-Tengu (singular) - 25 mana] RJ stared at the list for a few minutes. ''wow... i''m guessing the regular tengu only have the invisibility and not the misfortune. I''m A little shocked that misfortune is worth twenty additional mana.'' He brought his attention to Yuki who was in the faux brothel. She was singing softly to herself as she carefully folded one of the extra sets of sheets.Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. ''Yuki, why are you different from the base monster? you''re supposed to be a Master-copy.'' RJ asked after listening for a few minutes. Yuki perked up at his words and smiled shyly, "Master... I don''t know why I am different. The first thing i remember is the sight of you." RJ sighed, of course she wouldn''t know how or why she was different. ''Thats alright Yuki, for now why don''t you use your invisibilty. I''d like to see how strong it is.'' Yuki hopped up off the bed and smiled again, her eyes downcast. As RJ watched she shimmered and disappeared. His dungeon sense could still find her, but she produced no sound, reflected no light, and there was no scent that he could tell. For lesser invisibility, it was quite strong. ''That is very good Yuki, tell me, why is your invisibility considered lesser?'' Yuki faded back into view as she spoke. "Master, it is because i cannot make any aggressive action nor can i speak without breaking the effect. Once i get stronger and gain greater invisibility, i will be able to cast offensive magic, or even attack without becoming visible. I will truelly be dangerous to your foes." Her smile this time was sharp and deadly. ''Hmmm, makes sense. How strong can misfortune get?'' RJ asked curiously, plans already forming. Yuki beamed happily, her voice coming out in a gush. "It becomes very strong! if i attain the greater version, it can cause my targets to accidentally harm themselves or others and it greatly increases the chance of a spell misfiring!" Her smile fell suddenly. "Unfortunately i can only work on increasing one at a time... would you prefer i practice my invisibility more or my misfortune?" RJ didn''t even have to think about that. "Misfortune for sure, i have access to regular tengu, they will have invisibility. You however are the only one with misfortune, i think with a bit of work, you''ll make an excellent floor boss.'' Yukis eyes grew wide and excited, her feathers fluffed up as her wings spread. "Yes master! I will do it! no one will every harm you as long as i draw breath!" RJ flinched and sighed, he missed his old dungeon, none of his veteran monsters were this... enamored... with him. ''Yes Yuki, I''ll be entrusting you, please calm down though? the most dangerous thing the dungeon has even seen so far is a snake.'' Of course, right as RJ attempted to reassure his boss to be, he felt the touch of foreign mana near the entrance of his dungeon. ''Damn the luck, i''m not ready yet. Yuki, go invisible, i want you to pour so much misfortune on any intruders you see that tying up their boots could be a fatal experience.'' RJ turned his attention to his other dungeon minions. ''Bruce! take charge of the Faux-cellar mice. if you get a chance to suck away some lifeforce when who ever this is isn''t looking, do it. Alfred! you''re in charge of the faux-trap hall. Coordinate the bone serpents there." RJ turned and began to build up a new room just outside his core room, refunding a bit of the hall and shrinking his core room for the extra mana. he widened the room and then cursed. ''i don''t even have a boss monster. Luckily with that third room i''ve got the option now. lets see a jail, a cellar, and a brothel... i can''t even imagine what kind of boss i''m going to get.'' Normally RJ prefered to promote a seasoned monster to floor boss, but sometimes, especially in the beginning, none of them had enough experience or the right power. In those cases you could flood a pre-built boss room with mana, and let the dungeon itself create an appropriate boss. ''Alright system, don''t fail me now!'' He focused on filling the boss room with his mana, his core beginning to flicker and dim as he spent himself in the endeavor.