《The Dungeon of Evolution》 Chapter 1 Ian Irwin placed his gnarled hand over his eyes and sobbed quietly to himself. His close friends and wife were waiting in the other room for him to pass. They knew no matter how much of a brave face he put on around them, dying so young was frustrating. Sure at two hundred and fifty seven years old he was at the common age of death for Humans, but that was for people who hadn¡¯t trained themselves for years and infused their body with mana day in and day out. Considering his mana amount he should have lived to at least two thousand years old, the common death age for the longest lived race: Dragonians. Ian chuckled to himself at ¡®longest lived race¡¯, sure maybe of the humanoid races. After making a bad joke to himself, Ian went back to his brooding. With a grimace Ian remembered all the effort he, his wife, and his friends went to to determine why he was aging so fast. While his wife and friends searched up and down the continent for information, he researched his body as only he could. If anyone else had his disease, they would come to him: the Saint of Life, the Peak Biologist, and his unknown titles: First EX Rank Mage, and SSS Rank Mana Artist. He¡¯d known when they had gone off to discover the origin of his aging, they would find nothing because he could find nothing. When they had returned, no Alchemist, no Priest, no Mage, no Healer, nobody knew how a man infused with so much mana could be aging so fast. None of these setbacks stopped Ian however, he continued researching, experimenting, and analyzing until yesterday when he had collapsed. His legs no longer moved, and he could barely move his upper body. After finding him his wife, Estella Irwin, had picked him up, carried him upstairs to his room, called his friends over with the mana crystal, and started nursing him. The look on her face at the time had told him all he needed to know. When his friends; Andre Wallace, Mackenzie Wallace, Nina Carson, and Seth Watson; arrived their faces changed from worry to resignation. He had smiled at them and told them they, including himself, had done all that they could do with the time offered to them. Each of them had said their goodbyes with tears in their eyes until only his wife remained. His lovely wife. They had met early in his Dungeon Diving career, but he was loathe to enter a dungeon with another person. He had been just fine and would continue being just fine on his own. Even with his continued refusals, she pestered him until he finally relented, and they entered the dungeon together. After their team Dungeon Diving ended two weeks later, Ian had come to a realization: he was in love. His wife hugged him sobbing as he lay in bed. With every effort he could muster, he wrapped his thin gnarled arms around her while tears streamed down his face. He hoped at some point in the distant future she would find someone else who loved her just as much as he had and still did. Estella left the room even though she had wanted to stay because through the years that they¡¯d known each other she knew when he needed to be alone. His breathing slowed and his arm fell to his side. The light slowly got dimmer until finally there was no light. He could no longer hear his breath and only feel his chest slightly move. Slowly but surely his consciousness slowly faded until there was simply nothingness. ????? The nothingness of death did not last long as Ian¡¯s eyelids jolted open and stared at what was in front of him. Behind a desk with stacks of paper and a single writing tool sat a man. The man had slicked back black hair with hawkish eyes covered by the clearest spectacles he¡¯d ever seen. His nose was slightly pointed along with his chin combined with a strong jaw and a complete lack of beard. While his stern expression certainly may be have put some off, Ian believed him to be the most handsome man he¡¯d ever seen. Beyond the beauty of the man, Ian almost instantly recognized him: the God of Order Tidon. Tidon looked at him, picked up a piece of paper, glanced at the top, and started reading. ¡°Name: Ian Irwin, Occupation: Researcher of Dungeons, Monsters, and Biology,¡± a small frown appeared on the God¡¯s face but he continued, ¡°Mage Rank: EX, Mana Artist Rank: SSS,¡± a much deeper frown appeared on the God¡¯s face, ¡°Cause of death: Old Age/Unknown,¡± Tidon¡¯s brows instantly narrowed and worry tinged his eyes, ¡°Estimated Dungeon Rank¡­¡± his hand slammed the paper on the table, looked at Ian, and said through clenched teeth, ¡°I¡¯ll be back. Don¡¯t touch anything,¡± and disappeared. Now, Ian certainly wanted to know why the God of Order didn¡¯t seem to like the fact that he was strong because the other Gods seemed to like it. However while he had pondered Tidon¡¯s expression the last words uttered by the God had sent waves through his body. The paper Tidon had been reading off of was most likely a list of his personal information, which meant he had an ¡®Estimated Dungeon Rank¡¯. He knew dungeons were alive, hell he¡¯d even talked to a few, but they couldn¡¯t tell himvery much about themselves. He¡¯d presumed something was restricting them but had no evidence. This had led to his long arduous study of dungeons, monsters, and the biology of organisms. Was this how dungeons were made? The Gods were responsible? This conflicted with his known knowledge of the Gods that constantly encouraged them to strive to get stronger and learn more. However, the drive they encouraged while producing strong and smart individuals also produced a large number of deaths. But if they wantedthe sapient races dead the smartest choice would be to encourage wars between nations. Instead if nations declared war on one another, blessings, quests, and powers of those tied to Faith plummeted in those nations. The amount of wars he seen in his lifetime was only one and the King¡¯s head had been driven onto a pike within the week after he¡¯d declared war. Ian¡¯s thoughts came to an end as Tidon returned. ????? With a hand to his forehead, Tidon, sighed and slumped in his chair. ¡°They always do votes without me because I¡¯m stuck doing all the paperwork and only ask my opinion if I¡¯m the deciding vote. Luckily this time I agree with them. Upon first glance this seemed like a stupid idea, but they surprisingly thought this one through.¡± With a glance at Ian, Tidon straightened the tie of his impeccable suit, and coughed into his closed fist. ¡°Ian Irwin, your soul has been summoned here for one simple reason: to be reborn as a dungeon.¡± One of the largest smiles Tidon had ever seen on a human graced Ian¡¯s face no longer gnarled from age, and he could only do one thing in return: smile back. ¡°I left so quickly previously because I felt making you into a dungeon would be disastrous, and I needed to consult with the other Gods.¡± Tidon paused to see if Ian had any complaints, but the man seemed to hang on his every word. ¡°After hearing their argument, I agreed with them, you are the perfect choice for us to attempt making a splash in theuniverse after such a long time.¡± Admittedly the pleading eyes of Ian¡¯s patron Gods and Goddesses to give him another chance at life after it being cut short did help a little. The cause of death being partially unknown to even the Gods did worry Tidon however. Theywould need to investigate that. ¡°Now let me tell you what being a dungeon entails.¡± ????? ¡°Normally we give most souls a very basic explanation and send them on their way. The special dungeon you¡¯ll become means we can give you more information. First, why we create dungeons. While dungeons are a way to earn money and advance fighting strength to the races like Humans, Dragonians, Elves, Dwarves, Naga, etcetera; they are also known as death traps. This is very similar to what we want. We want the races, every race not just the sapient humanoid ones, to gain strength and knowledge in the dungeon while the dungeon also culls their population.¡± Ian¡¯s enamored face slipped at that. The Gods truly did want to kill them. ¡°The look on our face is asking why we want to kill you even though we spend so much effort improving you.¡± Ian nodded. ¡°It¡¯s simple. We made a mistake when we created this Universe, we didn¡¯t use enough mana.¡± A memory of the scariest moment in his life rose to the forefront of Ian¡¯s mind. He had crossed the Ocean of Unbidden Rage to reach a new continent and discovered an odd area surrounded by greenery with nothing but dirt. As he entered the circle of dirt all his summoned monsters instantly disappeared forever and three fourths of his nine hundred trillion mana disappeared in five seconds. That was the day he had lost one of his closest friends. Tidon was nodding at him, ¡°Yes, mana dead zones. They absorb all mana that enters them near instantaneously. The fact that you were able to survive one is testament to your incredible strength in life.¡± Ian knew gods didn¡¯t like being interrupted but he had to ask, ¡°Once you discovered the ...''Universe'' was the word you used right?¡± A nod. ¡°Once you discovered the Universe lacked enough mana why didn¡¯t you simply make more?¡± With a wry self derisive smile Tidon responded, ¡°For the same reason we never directly interact with the worlds. We simply can¡¯t. We can create from mana, we can interact with souls, and we can direct mana. Interacting with the physical world is not possible for Gods of our level.¡± ¡°But what about Quests, the Status Menu, Faith?¡± ¡°All interactions through mana. We twist mana to give messages and quests. We give mana as rewards and experience increasing your power. Faith is simply a targeted mana boost. In fact we can only do as much as we can with mana because it was gifted to us by a Greater God.¡± ¡°Gifted by a Greater God?¡± ¡°Yes, us Gods and Goddesses were a group of friends that envied the worlds and universes that Greater Gods created. After noticing a universe that ignored its large reserves of mana, we asked the Chief God there if we could use some to create our own. The Chief God agreed but made us pick how much mana to take.¡± With a sigh Tidon continued, ¡°You may think why not simply take all of it, but higher gods are known to go back on deals if you do not pass their tests. We were afraid if we took too much, the chief god would consider us greedy and not allow us to take any. Thus we underestimated the growth of living beings and ended up with our current predicament.¡± ¡°If this Chief God gave you mana before could he give you some again?¡± With another wry smile Tidon responded, ¡°After we noticed the problem we immediately went back to ask for more, but he said we must deal with the consequences of our actions. However, we didn¡¯t stop there. We pleaded and explained the situation to him and after numerous tries he finally relented a little. He allowed us to slowly siphon mana from his world to create an equilibrium. However while we could create the openings we couldn¡¯t control how much mana came through, the creatures we created had to do that.¡±Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation. ¡°The dungeons,¡± murmured Ian. ¡°Yes. However, the first dungeons we created infused with the souls of intelligent individuals were failures. They stimulated the birth rate of native creatures far past the amount of mana being leaked into the world. Before we could interfere the worlds they were on consumed themselves. We used the souls of less intelligent monsters for the next wave and even though the results weren¡¯t what we wanted, technological progress stalled, the small increase in ambient mana gave us time. Through the long years we¡¯ve time and again we¡¯ve tried to find the right souls for the job some ended in massive successes while others were catastrophic failures.¡± Tidon straightened in his chair and looked straight into Ian¡¯s eyes, ¡°We believe you have the ability to become the greatest dungeon that siphons an enormous amount of mana into our universe, but with that possibility comes the possibility of failure and that failure could spell the end of most life in the universe.¡± This was a lot for Ian to handle. The fate of the entire universe on his shoulders was a little much, but even with all that weight he was practically bouncing in anticipation of becoming a dungeon. With fire in his eyes Ian asked, ¡°What else do I need to know to become a dungeon?¡± Raucous laughter echoed through the white room with only a man, a God, a desk, a writing tool, and stacks of paper present. Tidon was extremely pleased with Ian¡¯s answer, since it was what they expected and one of the reasons they were willing to take the risk. Tidon wiped the tears from his eyesand gave Ian his answer, ¡°As I said prevously while I can¡¯t tell you specifics about the dungeons, you get most of it during the Tutorial and after leveling up a bit, I can tell you some general information. "Once againthe purpose of dungeons is to spread mana from the other universe into our universe and prevent mana from becoming too condensed into living beings. Spreading mana into our universe leads intothe secondary purpose of dungeons. With dungeons, monsters, and the lack of mana, technological progress has been somewhat stagnant. We wish to spread technological advancements from dungeons, but this has not been going well. Monster soul dungeons don¡¯t generally understand technology and even when they do finding the optimum spread of technology while not increasing population growth is hard to do. I can¡¯t tell you how to go spreading technology, but we hope you¡¯re better at it than most. Although there might be a perk available to you during the tutorial that will help.¡± Ian contemplated the spread of technology. Often weapons were discovered with unknown creation methods which led to smiths and enchanters improving their own methods. Unknown spell books, useful magic tools, rare minerals, and even toys on occasion were found in dungeons. If the Gods intended to spread technology, then he could see why even toys were present. The fact that the population of living creatures needed to be culled explained why he never found healing spells, items that increased life span, or items that increased birth rates. Being the Saint of Life he certainly wanted those in his dungeon, but to do so he¡¯d have to be the best damn dungeon the world had ever seen. Tidon continued his explanation, ¡°Let¡¯s see...about the type of dungeon you¡¯ll be. Basically the content of your soul determines the type of dungeon you¡¯ll be. You¡¯ll be an EX rank dungeon. You know what that means right?¡± ¡°No level limit.¡± ¡°Correct. The first EX rank too. The reason I was so concerned at first was we¡¯ve only had a couple hundred Rank 10 dungeons. Over half of those have failed so far which is not a high success rate compared to the other ranks. The main reason we¡¯ve assumed this happens is Rank 10 dungeons need a certain level of intelligence which generally leads to a certain level of empathy. Generally this empathy leads to the souls not believing dungeons need to kill living beings and causing the worlds to consume themselves. Even though we can recreate worlds after they¡¯ve been consumed, the loss of so much time and progress greatly pains us. There are two Rank 10 dungeons in your world, however they are on continents you never went to. We hope you get along with them in the future. ¡°Next your soul determines your dungeon trait which is a mostly unique trait that defines your dungeon. Well, will probably define your dungeon. You¡¯ll learn yours during the tutorial. "Similar in function to your dungeon trait, you can pick dungeon perks to enhance your dungeon. These perks generally have a weaker initial effect compared to your dungeon trait but dungeons rank 3 and up can choose more. As an EX rank dungeon you¡¯ll be able to choose six during the tutorial. Another choice during the tutorial is what starting creatures, starting traps, and starting treasures your dungeon will have. You¡¯ll get twelve of each to start. The perks and starting creatures are determined by your soul composition, so you¡¯ll have a wide variety to choose from. "Another trait you get during the tutorial is a Restrictive Trait. Restrictive Traits put limits on the dungeon however these limits are based on the dungeon¡¯s soul, so a lot of dungeons actually like their Restrictive Trait. As a higher rank dungeon your restriction is more powerful than lower rank dungeons. "Lastly you¡¯ll pick a starting location for your entrance which will determine what types of terrain you can build. ¡°Other than options during the tutorial, there is general dungeon information. Dungeons all start at level one and raise their level to its maximum depending on their rank. It is possible to increase a dungeons rank if they meet certain conditions. With each increase in level a dungeon will get more area, more mana, and more dungeon points to work with. Every ten levels you can get a new creature, treasure, trap, and named monster. You do not start with a named monster however. Every one hundred levels you receive the chance to pick another perk and a new entrance for invaders to enter through. I¡¯m certain your familiar with the concept of dungeon floors?¡± ¡°You know I am.¡± ¡°The dungeon floor concept you¡¯re familiar with doesn¡¯t exist. The layout you see in most dungeons is the most basic setup after receiving new dungeon area. While most low rank dungeons simply don¡¯t have the mental capabilities to form complicated structures, the smarter dungeons keep this formation on the upper floors to maintain a sense of camouflage. Because of the low rank dungeons, the sapient races see dungeons with unusual areas close to the entrance as trap dungeons--¡± ¡°If it¡¯s related to how the sapient races view dungeons, I certainly know almost everything about that.¡± The white room dimmed and Ian felt a shiver down his spine, but before he could do anything the room was back to normal and Tidon continued. ¡°Of course. Self preservation. You get it. Anyway, you¡¯ll have a year to prep your dungeon before it opens to the world. I wouldn¡¯t be surprised if before you even opened to the world you were in the top ten percent of dungeons. ¡°There are two events that take place every year between dungeons: The Dungeon Auction and the Dungeon Competition. The Dungeon Auctions allows each dungeon to auction offtwenty items,twenty patterns, or a mix of both and earn dungeon points. Patterns are much more expensive since they allow another dungeon to create that item or creature even if they normally have a restriction against it. The auctions are also a place where dungeon souls can mingle and get to know one another, it is also the place where we introduce new dungeons. It should be noted if you sell something at an auction then all other dungeons will know who sold it. To prevent higher level dungeons from taking away from lower level dungeons a gifting system is in place where dungeons may gift one item each auction to another dungeon. "Dungeon competitions are for entertainment and learning about different dungeon designs. Randomly selected but around the same level dungeons with attempt to raid each others dungeon and reach the core and the first one to do so wins the dungeon point prize. There is no danger to the dungeon or creatures in the dungeon because we instance the dungeons in a separate space. Beyond the random competitions it is possible to challenge other dungeons with dungeon points on the line. We only allow a maximum of two of these however. The yearly auctions and competitions are for every dungeon in the world, but every hundred years are Universal competitions and auctions. I don¡¯t think there¡¯s anything else you need to know that isn¡¯t covered in the Tutorial and that I can tell you. It should be time to become a dungeon.¡± ¡°Before you make me a dungeon can I ask some questions?¡± ¡°Sure, I can¡¯t tell you much more though.¡± ¡°In addition to asking about dungeons, I...I was hoping to ask about Estella and everyone.¡± Tidon¡¯s stern face softened to a light smile and slightly rounder eyes, ¡°Of course. I¡¯ll tell you as much as I can.¡± ¡°Are they doing okay?¡± ¡°You¡¯ll be reincarnating as a dungeon the moment after your death, so they¡¯re as fine as someone can be having lost their best friend. Which means it will be a year after your death when you finally open to the world.¡± ¡°Will I be able to see them again after I become a dungeon?¡± said Ian his voiced laced with hope. ¡°...It¡¯s possible. You¡¯ll be a dungeon in your former world, and you get an avatar at level 100. However, as long as they aren¡¯t part of a dungeon you cannot tell them about your mission.¡± ¡°Yeah, I¡¯ve experienced that before,¡±grumbled Ian. With a downcast face and a slight frown Ian remained silent for a few minutes but eventually continued, ¡°Can you give me examples of good dungeons and bad dungeons?¡± ¡°Hmm, I can do that, but I can¡¯t tell you why they¡¯re good or bad.¡± ¡°That¡¯s okay I can probably figure that out myself.¡± ¡°Haha! True, True. Bad dungeons include the Demon King, the Dread Lord, and the Sun King. Good dungeons include the Ballast Dungeon, the Imp Feast Dungeon, and the Illusionary Dungeon.¡± ¡°...I knew the Demon King and the Dread Lord were dungeon cores, but the Sun King? ...If he was a dungeon core, then he was definitely bad with how population boomed under him. Tch, to think I was never able to discover that the Sun King was a dungeon core.¡± ¡°Haha. Don¡¯t fret too much. The Sun King destroyed his own core, so no one knew he was a dungeon core.¡± ¡°You can destroy your own dungeon core?¡± ¡°Only if we allow it.¡± ¡°Why did the Sun King destroy his own core?¡± ¡°That is something you¡¯ll have to figure out for yourself.¡± ¡°...I see. Some cores can be destroyed while others only let you form an item after touching them what¡¯s the difference?¡± ¡°Dungeons that can be destroyed are dungeons that aren¡¯t doing their job properly, and we¡¯ve designated as destructible. Creating items is simply means to motivate cores to protect themselves and kill adventurers. You¡¯ll learn more about that after you become a dungeon.¡± ¡°Okay, I have one last question. I will preface this question with ¡®I want to be a dungeon so damn much please let me be a dungeon¡¯, but if I didn¡¯t want to be a dungeon could I refuse?¡± ¡°No. Even if a soul truly feels that they don¡¯t want to be a dungeon, we attempt to pick souls that would be best for the job beforehand. So, refusing the job is not allowed.¡± ¡°Wouldn¡¯t that create dissenters that try to ruin the purpose of dungeons?¡± Tidon heaved a heavy sigh, ¡°It¡¯s not like there are none, but most take the hand they are dealt and try to survive their best and the best way for dungeons to survive is to fulfill their purpose.¡± Tidon picked up his writing tool and wrote something quick on Ian¡¯s personal sheet. ¡°Is that the last of your questions, Ian?¡± ¡°Yes.¡± ¡°Then, I wish you luck Ian on becoming the dungeon we dream you can be.¡± And with that Ian disappeared. Chapter 2 As Ian opened his eyes once again, he realized he did not have eyes as he knew them. His vision spread out to encompass the entirety of a fifty meter cubed room, a fifty meter high ceiling was a waste of space and he wondered if he could change it later. There were no limits on his vision, it was completely focused from one corner to the other. He wondered if this vision was only for his core room or if it would extend to all other parts of his dungeon. A small well used book rested on a stone pedestal in the center of his core room. Ian has seen some unique cores, in fact the only SS rank dungeon he had conquered also had a book core, but cores were primarily circular and crystalline in nature. With his room examination finished a window popped into his vision.
Beginning Dungeon Tutorial.
Ian waited for the tutorial to continue, but after a couple minutes nothing happened. Maybe he had to interact with it for it to continue. As he thought ¡®Next¡¯ a new window appeared.
Dungeon Trait: EX Rank Mage
That told him nothing about what the trait actually did. Ian focused on the window and more information appeared.
EX Rank Mage: All magic skills and knowledge are carried over from your soul¡¯s previous life without needing to purchase them from the Magic Tree. These magic skills and knowledge will act as purchased in the Magic Tree. Prices for unknown magic skills and knowledge in the Magic Tree are determined by what has already been purchased. The earlier magic skill or knowledge learned will determine first purchase in the Magic Tree.
The third window into the tutorial and he already encountered information Tidon hadn¡¯t told him about. Tidon had said he couldn¡¯t tell him everything, but this ¡®Magic Tree¡¯ seemed important if he wouldn¡¯t have been able to use any magic without it. Ian thought back to the personal information sheet Tidon had and realized he¡¯d probably already known Ian would get this Dungeon Trait and the associated ¡®Trees¡¯ so decided not to mention it. As Ian grumbled to himself about assuming and aloof Gods, he tried getting more information.
Magic Tree: A type of dungeon tree. Allows dungeons access to different magics through the use of DP.
Dungeon Trees: Allows the purchase of useful advanced tools for dungeons with DP. Dungeon Trees include Evolution Trees, Trap Trees, Treasure Trees, Magic Trees, and Research Trees. Different trees can be purchased in the Dungeon Shop or earned by leveling up. Choosing one branch of a tree causes the other branch to increase in cost by ten times. There are other more difficult ways to proceed down dungeon trees than using DP.
Evolution Tree: Allows the dungeon to access higher creature evolutions.
Trap Tree: Allows the dungeon access to more complicated traps.
Treasure Tree: Allows the dungeon access to more impressive treasures.
Research Tree: Allows the dungeon access to higher technological levels. Gives dungeon trees not normally available in the Dungeon Shop. Important for the dungeon¡¯s secondary objective.
DP: Dungeon Points. Earned through accomplishing the dungeon¡¯s mission.
Dungeon Shop: A shop that allows dungeon¡¯s to purchase almost anything as long as they have DP. Primarily consists of Perks, basic creatures, basic traps, basic treasure, and basic magic.
Dungeon Shop for basics and perks while Dungeon trees for more advanced tools. It would have been nice information to have before starting the tutorial but at least he had it now. The fact that there were other ways to proceed down the trees intrigued Ian because as a young dungeon he doubted he would have a lot of DP. When he got a look at the trees, he¡¯d have to figure out the best way to proceed down them without DP. Next.
Restrictive Trait: Magical Beauty
Magical Beauty: As a soul that has fallen in love with magic and all its possibilities your dungeon must be filled with it. Every area must fill an intruder with a sense of wonder and mystery. A dungeon area will only be accepted once your soul truly believes it is an area befitting your magical standards.
Tidon was right, he didn¡¯t hate his Restrictive Trait. Without it he might have tried to emulate other dungeons thinking it was the right way to make a dungeon, but he would have been bored doing the same thing he¡¯d seen in every other dungeon. In that aspect his knowledge of dungeons would have been a hindrance, so Ian was grateful for the restriction. He was still worried his dungeon would be too magical and scare intruders away, but dammit he couldn¡¯t wait to make something amazing. Next.
Choose Six Perks:
Mana Generation x2-10 Dungeon Volume x2-10 DP Generation x2-10
Creatures x2-10 Traps x2-10 Perks x2-10
Treasures x2-10 Named Monster x2-10 Creature Loyalty
Creature Creation Trap Creation Treasure Creation
Creation All Creatures Mana to DP Conversion Lv 1
Mana Attraction Helper Ecosystem
Mana Generated vs Mana Consumed (General) Mana Generated vs Mana Consumed (Specific)
The multiplication perks were all straightforward and allowed him to obtain more things in the future if he used perks now. He almost wanted to put all six of his perks into Perks x2-10, so he¡¯d have seven perks every hundred levels. However Creation and All Creatures really called out to him being able to create whatever he wanted and pick any creatures he wanted. Mana to DP Conversion Lv 1 might be good, but he didn¡¯t know how much mana he¡¯d have and ten trillion to one seemed a bit much. Ian considered Helper which could answer any questions he had about the dungeon, but he already had a lot of information from Tidon and he simply didn''t need a helper. Mana Attraction attracted more creatures, but he didn¡¯t know the base rate of creature attraction. Well he assumed it either wasn¡¯t high or didn¡¯t override creatures survival instincts at least. Most dungeons were surrounded by a town at minimum, so creatures tended not to approach. Creating an ecosystem intrigued him but didn¡¯t know how useful it would be until he started building and accepting invaders...but it was really interesting. Maybe he should pick it. No, he should wait. But it is a really cool concept. He already examined ecosystems across nations he didn¡¯t need more of them. Well, he already studied dungeon floors...areas and he was going to make a lot more of those. ..Later. Dammit. Later. Sigh. The last two he felt were something he would really need, but did he need them right at the start? Being able to tell how much mana was being expelled and how much was condensing into living organisms was paramount with the dungeon¡¯s purpose, his purpose. After a long debate with himself along with continuous analysis and rereads of all the perks, Ian decided on his six.
Creation: Allows the dungeon to create anything from scratch. Enormous mana cost.
This perk was the one Ian knew he had to have. The possibilities were endless. He wondered if all dungeons had this option or if he had obtained through studying dungeons most of his life. Ian was worried about the ¡®Enormous mana cost¡¯ at the end, but his next perk was his back up plan.
All Creatures: The dungeon may choose from all known creatures when choosing creatures no matter the original restriction.
If Creation ended up costing too much mana, then he at least wanted a wide variety of monsters, animals, plants, and fungi to choose from. While Ian had studied traps, treasures, puzzles, it was unknown why he didn¡¯t have any puzzle perks, and tried studying challenges, the study of creatures was his true calling. That was probably why he didn¡¯t have the same associated perk for traps and treasures, although if that was the reason he didn¡¯t know why he had their associated creation perks. He hoped picking these two perks which might have a lot of overlap didn¡¯t come back to haunt him.
Perks x2,3,4,5: Gain the specified number of perks every 100 levels.
Yep, he did it. He invested into the future. Five perks every hundred levels. He hoped getting to level 100 wouldn¡¯t take him very long as an EX rank dungeon, otherwise he would need to spend a lot of DP on Perks. None of the dungeons he observed during his lifetime that were under the one hundred floors had ever exceeded that number however. Obviously it was possible since floors apparently weren¡¯t a true concept that the dungeons were hiding their true level. But if he was right and none of those dungeons went over level 100, then this decision might have been a bad one. ...He had to stop questioning himself. He already made his decision dammit. Next.
Choose Twelve Traps:
Hole Log Wood Spike
Arrow Door String
Trap Door Trigger Wood Ball
Water Fake Cover Wood Barricade
Small Rocks Incline Magic Release
Net Lure Release
Shoot Connection Mechanics
Stick
What the Depths, these sucked. Well, he¡¯d at least try to pick the best options. At least he knew they could get better. Unlike perks however there were no descriptions, so he¡¯d have to wing it...he could tell what most were at first glance though.
You have chosen the traps: Hole, Wood Spike, Arrow, Door, Trap Door, Trigger, Water, Net, Release, Shoot, Connection, and Mechanics.
Hopefully those would work out. Next.
Choose Twelve Treasures:
Wood Butterfly Sword Wood Cutlass
Wood EstocEnsure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website. Wood Arming Sword
Wood Katana Wood Baselard
Wood Knuckles Wood Katar
Wood Backsword Wood Kukri
Wood Sickle Wood Pickaxe
Wood Battle Axe Wood Tomahawk
Wood Hand Axe Wood Crop
Wood Club Wood Rock
Wood Mace Wood Quarterstaff
Wood Pike Wood Pitchfork
Wood Lance Wood Bardiche
Wood Glaive Wood Halberd
Wood Naginata Wood Lucerne Hammer
Wood Javelin Wood Spear-thrower
Wood Longsword Wood Claymore
Wood Barong Wood Hook Sword
Wood Boomerang Wood Throwing Knife
Wood Throwing Dart Wood Bolas
Wood Warbow Wood Composite Bow
Wood Horn Bow Wood Crossbow
Wood Sling Wood Blowpipe
Wood Bullwhip Wood Chain Whip
Wood Nunchucks Wood Flail
Wood Lasso Wood Buckler
Wood Kite Shield Wood Targe
Currency Rocks
G- Attributeless Mana Stones Plant Fiber Tunic
Plant Fiber Hat Plant Fiber Gloves
Plant Fiber Shoes Plant Fiber Trousers
A lot more choices this time, and it looked like killing things was for dinner. The dungeon''s purpose was on full display with this window. Although, the fact that they were all wood didn¡¯t make a bit of sense. How could weapons that required flexibility be made completely out of wood? And what the hell was a wood rock? Ian was almost tempted to pick at least one of those to see how it would work. Even though a lot of weapons were present he didn¡¯t see all the different ones he had examined and trained with in his life. It was possible not everything was available to him at this point in time. Unlike with traps he got explanations for each item this time. It was possible that his general lack of interest in traps had reduced his options. The three that stood out from all the others were Currency, Rocks, and G- Attributeless Mana Stones. It probably didn¡¯t say what type of currency because that would change depending on where he placed his dungeon. He along with many others thought the currency given by dungeons were items lost by dead adventurers, but it looked like dungeons could produce it on their own. It also explained why monsters dropped currency in dungeons but not in the wild. At first Ian had wondered why the hell he would want rocks, but upon further thought he realized that a lot ores, minerals, and gems could be considered rocks. He could be bringing his hopes up to have them dashed spectacularly, but he felt his logic was solid. The only problem with selecting rocks is how long and how many dungeon points would it take him to reach useful materials. Mana Stones were always useful for magic items. However most magic items used specific attribute mana stones because using attributeless mana stones required an extra step in the mana refinement process. Ian liked attributeless mana stones because even though they required more work they allowed for more in depth magic items. In his opinion G- attributeless mana stones were worth more than attribute mana stones, but the dungeon ranking system seemed to take societal norms into account. With the first three treasures decided, he needed nine more.
You have chosen the treasures: Wood Knuckles, Wood Arming Sword, Wood Claymore, Wood Tomahawk, Wood Mace, Wood Halberd, Wood Javelin, Wood Throwing Knife, Wood Composite Bow, Currency, Rocks, and G- Attributeless Mana Stone.
If Ian still had a heart, it would be beating a mile a minute waiting for the next category. Next.
Please Choose Twelve Creatures:
Biota:
Soris Web Spider Egg Sack Soris Trap Spider Egg Sack
Soris Tarantula Egg Sack Soris Jumping Spider Egg Sack
Soris Blue Sparrow Egg Soris Red Sparrow Egg
Soris Brown Chickadee Egg Soris Black Chickadee Egg
Venate Gold Crowned Eagle Egg Venate Specter Winged Hawk Egg
Soris Brown Osprey Egg Soris Red Crowned Eagle Egg
Worid Farm Mice Newborn Worid Farm Rat Newborn
Worid Field Mice Newborn Worid Field Rat Newborn
Zogon Speckled Butterfly Egg Zogon Serrated Centipede Egg
Zogon Black Beetle Egg Zogon Putrid Cockroach Egg
Green Cave Moss Spore Green Cave Fern Spore
Bleached Cave Conifer Seed Soris Cave Daisy Seed
Phosphorescent Cave Mold Spore Venate Succulent Mushroom Spore
Zogon Hallucinogenic Mushroom Spore Red Poisonous Serrated Mushroom Spore
Giant Tuna Newborn Human
Newborn Elf Newborn Dwarf
Newborn Dragonoid Newborn Naga
Newborn Gnome ...
Monsters:
Newborn Goblin (G-) Inferior Jelly (Lesser) (G-)
Inferior Slime (Lesser) (G-) Newborn Orc (G)
Newborn Ogre (G+) Newborn Oni (F)
Newborn Wolf (G) Moving Moss (G-)
Newborn Kobold (G-) Newborn Lizarden (G)
Baby Web Spider (G+) Skeleton (F)
Zombie (E) Newborn Dragon (D)
Inferior Air Elemental (Lesser) (G) Inferior Fire Elemental (Lesser) (G)
Inferior Ice Elemental (Lesser) (G) Inferior Time Elemental (Lesser) (G)
Inferior Space Elemental (Lesser) (G) Inferior Heat Elemental (Lesser) (G)
Newborn Lizard (G-) Newborn Squid (G-)
Dirt Golem (F) Newborn Lamia (G)
Ghost (G) ...
The effect of All Creatures was really something. The list of biota and monsters extended pages upon pages and these were only the basic forms. Only picking twelve of these was going to be a heavy task. Most of the selection was straightforward with an occasional heart pumping selection like Newborn Dragon, but the inclusion of his former race and other sapient races stopped him for a moment. It made sense, Tidon had told him the entire Universe was made of mana, so the sapient races would be too. Since Dungeons used mana to create things it made sense that they could create the sapient races. However, he had never encountered a sapient race not intruding upon the dungeon. What would be the impact of creating such an intelligent being out of thin air be? Ian supposed it would be very similar to what happened when the Gods first did it. Well, he would have to have the ¡®Why do we have to fight others of our same race?¡¯ discussion. Did the Gods have to have that discussion after creating the Universe? He hoped not. He was sure he¡¯d eventually try it, that was the way he was, but not right now. Which meant, even though Dragons were heart thumping and considered monsters, he couldn''t pick them either. Before he chose his creatures, Ian needed to plan how he was going to make his dungeon. His first thought upon being told he would be a dungeon was to make a floor...area that would be somewhat safe for villagers. After a bit of thinking, he realized it was a stupid fucking idea. No self respecting villager would go into a dungeon unless they were an idiot. While he wanted to create a death area to prevent people from reaching his core, he didn¡¯t want it to be his first area. Sadly he didn¡¯t know if he¡¯d be able to move areas or entrances, so the first area needed to be accessible to low rank adventurers. With a sigh Ian realized how often his friend Seth, the Adventurer¡¯s Guild Master of Soris, had to remind him that the lowest rank adventurers weren¡¯t as strong as he thought. ...Of course! Monster ranks! Each area would only have a specific rank of monster be the highest rank present. Luckily he had a good grasp on which biota corresponded in strength with monsters, so he shouldn¡¯t have problems placing them. First area would be G- rank, then G rank, then G+ rank, and so on and so forth. With his EX Rank Mage trait he hoped he would be able to make his teleportation circles, so he could make areas without stairs. It would also allow him to build areas without directly connecting them, so he could create areas with different difficulty ranks out of order. Even if he created a floo...area for each difficulty rank, he would only have thirty areas. Oh! He could create different difficulty areas for each type of terrain! ...Damn, intruders would need the ability to go to multiple areas from the first area, and he had no idea if he could do that. With an internal sigh Ian decided to postpone any more area planning until he could actually build. For his plans he¡¯d need a lot of low level monster and other biota, but a couple would have to be high level to keep him safe.
You have chosen the creatures: Soris Web Spider Egg Sack, Phosphorescent Cave Mold Spore, Zogon Serrated Centipede Egg, Green Cave Moss Spore, Green Cave Fern Spore, Inferior Jelly (Lesser) [G-], Inferior Slime (Lesser) [G-], Moving Moss [G-], Newborn Goblin [G-], Newborn Oni [F], Inferior Water Elemental (Lesser) [G], and Newborn Wyvern [E].
Ian knew that dungeons could get decorative items such as torches to be placed on walls, but he had no idea when he¡¯d get the ability to purchase them. Nothing so far had mentioned decorations, so decided on the phosphorescent cave mold spore for light. His selections also relied on the fact that his first few levels would be a cave system. As much as Ian wanted to be different only a couple of dungeons he had explored didn¡¯t have caves as the first few levels even the high rank ones. Ian had his own hypotheses such as the camouflage one Tidon had mentioned and that all dungeons had the ability to create caves since their entrances were basically holes in the wall that mimicked cave entrances. Ian sighed as even though he had studied dungeons most of his life, he still knew very little about their inner intricacies with only knowledge about their workings from the outside. Now that he had his creatures it was time to pick a location. Next.
Please choose your entrance location.
The map that appeared was unlike anything that Ian had ever seen. It was not flat but a large circular object. While it was known that the world he lived on was a sphere, seeing it in its entirety was awe inspiring. Ian could zoom in and see different landmarks, cities, natural wonders, mana densities, and other wonderful features of the world. The first place Ian zoomed towards was Soris his previous nation. The idea of being close to his friends struck a chord with him, but his own influence had made it a difficult nation for dungeons due to the high adventurer and dungeon diver survival rate. However, after Ian tried to place his dungeon in Soris the system refused him. It seemed his like towards Magical Beauty was already waning. With a huff Ian zoomed out to look for something more magical. After what seemed like a few minutes to Ian, but was in fact a couple of days, he had found the perfect spot. While caves were simple Ian had a soft spot for them and already planned for the first areas to be caves, so he would place his entrance at the bottom of a large mountain. Large was a bit of an understatement, it was the tallest and widest mountain Ian had ever seen and it was a lonely peak. The best part was it caused large swirls of various mana attributes both around it and up it resulting in a vortex of mana surrounding the mountain and a large variety of ecosystems. The bottom was covered in large evergreen trees which stretched out from the base for a couple of kilometers. The forest had the largest variety of evergreen trees Ian had ever seen with a total of ten forests around the base with completely different species of trees. The mountain had four different biomes past the forest with a large deep lake and multiple rivers, a couple from the mountain, to the north; a wide prairie with herds running through it to the east, a canyon to south that seemed to be competing with the mountain with how deep it was, and a large swamp the west that oozed dark mana. The usual biomes while amazing were not what made his heart soar with anticipation. The magical biomes up the mountain took his breath away. Floating islands normally considered large were dwarfed by the mountain and these islands gave him even more terrain with a variety of ruins located on them including castles, crypts, towers, and entire towns. These islands also contained their own biomes, but were quite similar to the ones on the ground. Around the same height as the floating islands forests of fungi surrounded the mountain. Ian had seen smaller fungi forests in cave systems but never outside or this large. Further up were the metal forests. Living metal grew in different shapes and sizes and all anything seemed to eat were the rocks of the mountain. Next was the perpetual storm layer where beings that thrived on electricity and the constant bombardment of rain gathered. The mana density lessened afterwards and the mountain resumed more normal biomes starting from taiga and reaching tundra at the top third. The inside of the mountain amazed just as much. The top of the mountain contained ice caverns with normal caves in the taiga region. The caves in the metal forest were laces with rare ores and metal he¡¯d never seen before. However the living metals on the outside were not present, but organic life with large concentrations of metal were present. The fungi forest simply continued into the cave, but with less light oriented species. However, fungal monsters greatly increased in the fungal caves. The base contained normal caves with underground lakes, which themselves contained underwater lakes. These underground lakes led to the aboveground lake outsidethrough a vast, submerged cave system. Below the underwater caves was simply layers of earth, but much higher than they should be were enormous caves of magma. After looking through the magma caves, Ian found a single path that lead to the very top of the mountain. It was not enough to make the mountain a volcano, but the fact that such a long cave existed tickled Ian¡¯s fancy. It was almost everything Ian wanted. The negative aspect of the location was the time it would take the sapient races to find him. The closest village which he believed to be human was over a week by horse. While he could focus on simply hunting monsters, their lower intelligence meant most of them didn¡¯t care about anything besides killing sapient races. His dungeon would attract them, but Ian doubted he¡¯d receive enough to make a difference. Besides Ian wanted people that would appreciate how magical he would make his dungeon. After Ian selected the bottom of the mountain on the prairie side closest to the human village as his entrance location the tutorial ended and he could finally get started creating his dungeon. Chapter 3 Before he started to construct his floor and spawn creatures, Ian needed to see the differences between his previous status menu and his current one. His contracted and summoned monsters as a human had their gender on their status menu unlike any of the sapient races. He wondered what differences a dungeon status menu would have.
Soul Name: Ian Irwin Dungeon Name: N/A
Rank: EX Level: 1
Perks: 2 Floors: 0
Mana Generation /day: 1,000,000 Mana Pool: 3,000,000
DP Generation /day: 0/1 DP Pool: 0
Titles: None
Biota: Animals: 2
Plants: 2
Fungi: 1
Other: 0
Total: 5
Monsters: Animals: 3
Plants: 1
Fungi: 0
Other: 3
Total: 7
Traps: 12
Treasures: 12
What was this bullshit. Tidon was a filthy liar. No floors his ass. ¡°The concept of floors as you know it doesn¡¯t exist, pfft,¡± Ian¡¯s book core flapped open and closed not actually saying the words. Tidon could have just said floors are different than what you think, but they still exist. Ian had spent the last few days correcting himself for nothing. Ian continued to grumble and swear to himself for the next couple of minutes. The words he used in relation to Tidon and the other gods and goddesses would make most question why he hadn¡¯t been struck down or at least heavily cursed. Most other would think, ¡°Overreacting much?¡± After calming down Ian continued with his status analysis. One million mana a day was quite slow. It was the same number as his regeneration every minute while he was human, so how could a dungeon whose entire purpose was to create things survive with that measly amount? Everything he had created while human had a set time limit to it. Spells would disappear after serving their purpose and even the most permanent of spells: enchantments could only be created to last a couple hundred years without the creator losing the ability to use mana for the rest of their life. He would have to examine how things and creatures were created, so he knew what he was working with. Did the Perks category not count all of his additional perk perks? Snort. When he checked it only All Creatures and Creation were included. Would the other additive perks such as Mana Generation and DP Generation not count? Experiments for another day. For some reason Ian didn¡¯t have any DP generation, which was quite terrible in his opinion. After checking out the category, Ian sighed. Apparently his DP Generation was for spewing his mana out into the world, so not being open to the world meant no DP generation. Either there were other ways to get DP or dungeons got fucked in the ass for a year after they were born. Ian checked to see how dungeons raised their level. Usually it was by killing another creature and gaining their mana as experience. Well, crafting classes and the like only gained experience from working their craft. He would have normally thought killing intruders gave dungeons experience prior to becoming a dungeon, but that would mean bringing mana from outside into his dungeon which was counterintuitive to the dungeon¡¯s purpose.
Dungeon Level 1 0/200 Mana For Next Level
Two hundred mana? That was it? Ian immediately moved two hundred mana into his book core.
Dungeon Level 1 200/200 Mana, First Floor Needed
Damn, he should have known it wouldn¡¯t be that easy. So far he needed mana and a completed floor to advance to the next level, hopefully the requirements didn¡¯t include killing intruders because he couldn¡¯t do that for another 397 days. ...He should really shut up about those kind of things unless they were brought up to him by the system, he would jinx himself. The inclusion of how many types of creatures, traps, and treasures he could summon was interesting. Did all dungeons have this? If so, then making different types of all three was of paramount importance. However, the creature category was far more detailed compared to traps or treasures. Was this personal or did the Gods care more about different creatures? Ian hoped it was personal, so he wouldn¡¯t have as much competition in discovering new creatures. Well, there was that auction Tidon talked about where dungeons got together, so Ian could ask then. Tidon said the auction and competitions were every year, so would Ian participate in them while separated from the world? He would find out eventually he guessed. Since Ian had a rank as a dungeon rather than a class, he surmised that the system treated dungeons as monsters. As such he was not surprised at the absence of the class category, but Ian was surprised about the absence of any skills. Skills were the most important part of his strength as a human and not having them was odd. All other monsters Ian had come across had skills too, but not dungeons apparently. His Creation perk was similar to a skill but lacked a level and was simply too powerful. The EX Rank Mage trait should have given him all his magic skills but they weren¡¯t present. The usage of mana was possible without skills but much harder. Since dungeons were required to use mana for their survival maybe the system deemed skills unnecessary for them? With a sigh Ian supposed he would simply have to go about his business as a dungeon for a while and learn why dungeons didn¡¯t have skills along the way. The only thing that seemed to carry over besides the concept of leveling up was the Title category. The lack of titles made Ian a little forlorn. Iad admitted he had started to be flippant towards his titles while human, since it took him pages to scroll past all of them, but not having any was depressing. Could he get the same titles as a dungeon that he earned as a human? Did dungeons have their own separate titles they could earn compared to the sapient races? More and more questions continued to pop up that he didn¡¯t have answers to. Hopefully the knowledge he had spent MOST OF HIS LIFE learning was useful when building floors and creating creatures because so far it had only been marginally helpful. If Ian still had a human body, he would be holding his face in his hands. With his status out of the way, Ian brought up the generation window for treasures. He wanted to start with inanimate objects first.
Treasure List
Wood Arming Sword: 25 mana Wood Claymore: 30 mana Wood Composite Bow: 25 mana
Stone Coin: 5 mana Wood Halberd: 30 mana Wood Javelin: 20 mana
Wood Knuckles: 15 mana Wood Mace: 25 mana G- Attributeless Mana Stone: 10 mana
Rock: 5 mana Wood Throwing Knife: 15 mana Wood Tomahawk: 20 mana
¡­Cheap. They all ranged from 5 mana to 30 mana. Ian had thought 1,000,000 mana was low for a dungeon, but based on the mana prices so far he was wrong. With a smirk Ian couldn¡¯t wait to spend all his mana on his creatures and create new variants that no one had ever seen before. He¡¯d try the mana stones first since they were the non-living thing he knew the best. As Ian focused on the window selection he felt a miniscule amount of mana zoom out of him into a vortex centered close to the ground. Ian¡¯s attention was completely on the vortex such that even though he could see the rest of the room his brain, or whatever worked as his brain, payed it no attention. What he noticed was the ten mana taken from him served as the core of vortex, but a mana that was not his formed the crystalline structure. Ian followed the flow of foreign mana backwards to find the source. However every direction he went simply led to the walls of his dungeon. Without the ability to observe outside his dungeon, Ian couldn¡¯t determine the source. However, considering the purpose of dungeons Ian hypothesized that the universe of the Greater God was the source. While a hypothesis for Ian, most dungeons had agreed after a lot of questioning and empirical evidence that the Greater God¡¯s universe was in fact the source of the unknown mana. After Knowledge published a paper on the subject any dungeons that said, ¡°But it¡¯s only a theory.¡± were quietly sat down and explained the difference between a hypothesis and a theory by her. Let¡¯s just say that no one ever said that sentence again. The vortex of mana stopped after what was only a couple of seconds and in its place sat a mana stone. Interested in seeing if there were any differences between this mana stone and the mana stones Ian was familiar with, there weren¡¯t any, the mana stones Ian was familiar with also came from dungeons, his vision zoomed in on the small mana stone. What Ian didn¡¯t expect was how far he could zoom in. Eventually the stone reached a size that would have dwarfed the mountain Ian¡¯s entrance stood below, at least in perception. Unlike when looking at the mountain Ian noticed the stone consisted of a series of very small holes. As he zoomed in farther the holes became bigger, and Ian noticed the entire stone was made of a lattice structure of multiple layers except for the center. The center was empty except for the ten mana he used to create the stone. That mana was attempting to escape the stone in all directions at once. It seemed unable to do so with the method it employed however. This new knowledge struck Ian like a thunderbolt. Magic tools had the greatest mana efficiency when absorbing the mana from a single direction. The tools that tried to make multiple paths for mana to flow from a single mana stone had poor efficiency or didn¡¯t work at all. With force spread out in multiple directions the mana didn¡¯t have the strength to break the surrounding lattice and leak out of the crystal. Only when the force was focused on a single direction could the mana inside escape. No wonder mana stones contained cracks after use. Ian zoomed his vision back out and his book flapped open and closed in excitement. He could use this information to make far better magic tools for adventurers to find. Of course the tools would have to be on the deeper floors. This zoom ability was astounding! Now he could examine the internal structure of biota and monsters in the kind of detail he wasn¡¯t able to before. His only worry was if this ability used mana.Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.
Soul Name: Ian Irwin Dungeon Name: N/A
Rank: EX Level: 1
Perks: 2 Floors: 0
Mana Generation /day: 1,000,000 Mana Pool: 7,999,790
DP Generation /day: 0/1 DP Pool: 0
Titles: None
Biota: Animals: 2
Plants: 2
Fungi: 1
Other: 0
Total: 5
Monsters: Animals: 3
Plants: 1
Fungi: 0
Other: 3
Total: 7
Traps: 12
Treasures: 12
Hmm, he had 4,999,790 more mana than the last time he checked. Either using the ability gave him five million mana or it took him five days to zoom in, notice some things about the mana stone, and then zoom out. Ian knew he was bad at keeping track of time but this seemed worse than usual. It would have to be another thing he needed to test but Ian would need ample amounts of time to do so. He would need to refrain from zooming in anymore before then, but Ian wondered if he truly could. Ian noticed a couple windows were waiting to appear before him, so he let them.
Achievement: First Treasure Created +1,000 DP
Achievement: First G- Attributeless Mana Stone Created +100 DP
Oh. ¡­Wait. He didn¡¯t have any DP when he checked his status a second ago! That was different than what he was used to. If he had to check the windows to received their reward, then that would take away from his concentration. ¡­Or would it? One of the things he had gotten out of the Dungeon of Knowledge from its core was how easy it was for a dungeon to split their consciousness between their dungeon and their avatar. Besides without a respawn perk Ian would have to create everything on his own which would require splitting his mind throughout this entire dungeon. Ian cursed himself for still thinking like a human would and tried to split his mind. It worked amazingly. He was reading his status on his book core, apparently he could will it to be there, while examining the mana stone, from a safe distance, thinking about what he would do in the future, and many other things. Pleased that splitting his mind only had the single negative repercussion of not being able to focus on one thing at a time, Ian returned his separate minds to one. Hey, he liked getting immersed into what he was doing and having background information come in from other minds wouldn¡¯t allow that. Ian was satisfied with learning how young dungeons earned DP and how to split his mind. Ian decided to create the rest of his treasures and see how similar they were to what he remembered. The arming sword was ninety centimeters long with a seventy five centimeter ¡®blade¡¯. It fit the image of the arming swords he used with their cruciform hilts. The main difference was the weight since this arming sword was made of wood. He didn¡¯t know how he could do it but as soon as he formed the weapon all the dimensions including weight were known to him. All that was left was the status menu.
Wood Arming Sword
Main Material: Balsa Wood
Type: Sword
Effects: None
Durability: 5/5
Of course it was balsa. This thing will probably break in a swing or two. ¡­Was he going to have to go through all the different types of wood when upgrading his treasures? That would not be fun. The claymore had a length of 130 centimeters with a blade length of 110 centimeters. Like the arming sword it had a cruciform hilt, but its handle was made for two hands rather than one. No large difference in the status menu besides the durability being seven. The composite bow was a little different than normal with the string being made out of twined together plant fibers while the main body was a composite of balsa wood and cuipo wood. The durability was actually lower than the arming sword at three. At 1.6 meters long the halberd was the heaviest weapon he could create and surprisingly the stake at the end above the axe head looked a little dangerous. Well, as dangerous as balsa wood could look. Slightly higher durability at ten though. Javelins, his longest weapons at two meters, would normally have been the most useful of his pointed weapons for adventurers if not for the fact that it was still made out of fucking balsa wood. It only had two durability too. Wood knuckles, human knuckle size, and a wood mace, 80 centimeters long, would normally bring a reaction of ¡®Smashing stuff with wood isn¡¯t too bad¡¯ but with balsa wood it was smash, break, and no damage. Sigh. Maybe the adventurers around here didn¡¯t have the concept of wrapping their knuckles in material so they can punch harder. They might not even know about clubs with heavy heads used to bludgeon! If so, knuckles and maces could be ¡®Here¡¯s new weapon designs for you in a shitty form!¡¯ Probably not. Luckily these had higher durabilities at ten. Like the javelin, the throwing knife, 20 cm, and tomahawk, 60 cm long with a 10 cm cutting edge, were meant to be thrown so they were somewhat expendable. If they were expendable, then the adventurers may not snort in disgust at them nearly as often as they would the other wood weapons. While not sharp like their metal counterparts, they might be able to smash small animals. However, the ever present evil deity of not useful in battles wood: balsa stood in Ian¡¯s way. The throwing knife durability was terrible like the javelin¡¯s at two, but the tomahawk had a ¡­ respectable, Ian felt sick using that word in this situation, durability of five the same as the arming sword. Maybe the rock he created would be useful. ¡­As much as Ian wanted to say it wasn¡¯t useful because it was just that, a rock: something that could be found nearly anywhere, it was probably a better bludgeoning weapon than the balsa wood mace. His last item: the stone coin. No longer simply currency. The coin was made out of rough stone in a circular manner with another circle carved out of the center of the coin. Along the edge of the coin and the outer circle of the coin patterns consisting of upright and upside down triangles in sequence were etched. What would its status say.
Stone Coin
Main Material: Stone
Type: Currency
Effects: None
Durability: 50/50
Shit, nothing. Ian supposed he should have expected that when none of the other status menus gave him descriptions about themselves. At least he had an idea of what he was working with in regards to treasures. Besides the mana stone and stone coin his treasures could be considered junk or children¡¯s toys. Well, if he was going to make a G- floor, then junk was all the adventurers would expect to get anyway. After creating all those treasures he now had 2,200 DP. He¡¯d probably wait until his first floor was made to use it though. He was worried about needing DP to please Magical Beauty. Now what to do with the items laid around his core. Ian focused on the treasures surrounding him, thought ¡®disappear,¡¯ and they did so, but not in the way Ian imagined.
All treasures placed in Inventory.
Inventory? Was it similar to the spell Item Box or perhaps one of the higher spells like Dimension Creation? Ian wondered if it was a high level space magic that he simply never heard of. Ian called up the Inventory and another window appeared before his eyes.
Inventory
Wood Arming Sword x1 Wood Claymore x1 Wood Composite Bow x1
Wood Halberd x1 Wood Javelin x1 Wood Knuckles x1
Wood Mace x1 G- Attributeless Mana Stone x1 Rock x1
Stone Coin x1 Wood Throwing Knife x1 Wood Tomahawk x1
It looked like Inventory stored all his items and kept track of how many he had of each. Nice little pictures of each item also came attached to each section of the window. ¡­Could he put other things in here besides his treasures? What about traps? Some traps didn¡¯t have a physical form like the hole trap. Ian created the hole trap and tried to place it in the inventory. The inventory sucked in the hole trap and the floor of his core room was back to normal. Huh, Ian didn¡¯t know of any space magic that did that. There were spells that used space magic to create separate dimensions that could be lived in for a while and in those dirt could be made and a hole dug, however storing a hole in what seemed similar to the Item Box spell wasn¡¯t possible as far as he knew. He should study the Inventory later and see if he could create an equivalent spell on his own. Ian checked the two windows that appeared after creating the hole.
Achievement: First Trap Created +1000 DP
Achievement: First 1 Meter Cubed Hole Created +100 DP
At least he could check out his traps now without worrying about them cluttering up his core room. ¡­He probably should have tried something that wasn¡¯t a hole in the ground first. Something to remember when he got to his creatures.
Trap List
Wood Arrow: 20 mana 1 Meter String of Plant Fiber: 15 mana Wood Door: 100 mana
1 Meter Cubed Hole: 50 mana Wood Gear: 20 mana 1 Meter Diameter Plant Fiber Net: 50 mana
Wood Hook: 10 mana Air Pressure: 500 mana Wood Trap Door: 100 mana
Wood Button: 10 mana 1 Liter of Water: 25 mana Wood Spike: 30 mana
It looked like traps cost more than treasures. The more important point was a lot of the traps were now quite specific about what they were rather than the generic options he had picked from during the tutorial. Ian wondered if that was due to his lacking trap studies or all trap selections originally came generalized. ¡­If he hadn¡¯t studied different types of weaponry, would those have been generalized? Just Wood Sword, Wood Dagger, and Wood Axe? His soul seemed to affect his choices more than he realized. He would have to keep that in mind for the future, but Ian wasn¡¯t an expert on souls, even his own. Oh well, at least he had specifics about his traps now and created the remaining eleven while removing the hole from the inventory. The fletching of the wood arrow was made out of plant fiber while the head was balsa wood along with the shaft. He doubted it would fly very well if at all. It was a short arrow of only about 50 cm. He could make adventurers annoyed at triggering a trap but it certainly wouldn¡¯t kill them. Ian did have a chuckle at the idea of an arrow hitting an adventurer in the head and them looking around holding their head in annoyance. The string, hook, gear, and button all seemed to the parts of the traps that made them work. The fact that low level traps had to be made not simply placed caused Ian to sulk. He wasn¡¯t an engineer dammit. The string consisted of very thin plant fibers wrapped around one another and looked like a soft breeze would snap it in half. The hook was balsa once again with the hook on one end while the other end contained a circular hole. With a hole in the center and squares on the outer rim it was definitely a gear. Not that Ian knew much about gears. A rectangular block of balsa wood was pretending to be a button, so Ian ignored it. The door and trap door would be useful for separating rooms and with triggers, like the block of balsa wood, the doors could be opened to release monsters from the other side. Now did they have to have a trap associated with them or could he use them as simple doors? Hmm. The hole seemed to be the precursor of the pitfall but useless. It might sting the knees a bit and intruders could climb right back up. Ian questioned how much he could change the floor layout if one of his traps was a simple hole in the ground. It felt like he could just create the hole on his own when making the floor. Sigh, problems for another day¡­well hopefully not that long. The net would be useful. It wouldn¡¯t cover their entire body but it could immobilize them for a while in the middle of a fight. Oh! He could do time delayed traps that dropped the net to immobilize then shoot an arrow a short while later at the net drop spot. Yeah, combos were the way he would have to go with the trap options he had. If Ian could make the hole larger, the wood spikes would be good to place at the bottom. ¡­Now that he thought about it how much interaction could he have between traps? With some of his traps being tools to connect traps he assumed a lot of interaction. Well, he would have to try when he built his floor. The spikes could be used on their own he supposed. Place them at the end of the hall and maybe some idiot speed demon would run into them. Well not a literal demon, even idiot demons were smarter than that. While the water could be used to make people wet or have them slip, could he use the water for non trap related things? In fact could he us the arrows as treasures? More future experiments. The final trap actually seemed dangerous: Air Pressure. When Ian created it, he was confused how they were related. After examining it the proper way to use it appeared in his head. It was a round ball with a long tube out of it. The material it was made of was unknown to Ian. The elasticity of the material allowed the round end to be squished and air expelled out the tube end. It was probably the Shoot trap when he picked it during the tutorial. The status menu said the material was called rubber. Hmmm. As long as enough air pressure was contained within the trap then even those balsa wood arrows could be dangerous if they hit an eye¡­and didn¡¯t explode into tiny pieces upon being shot. Actually, that could be used as a trap too. Maybe Ian was hoping for too much from the small object, but since it was a material he didn¡¯t know about, it should do some damage. The oddest part of the traps status menus were unlike the treasures they didn¡¯t have durability. After thinking about it for a while, Ian¡¯s memories clicked together. Most adventurers and dungeon divers avoided traps all together and didn¡¯t pay them much attention even if triggered beyond ¡®Mark the map so we don¡¯t step there again.¡¯ or ¡®AAAAAHHHHH HELP ME, PLEASE!!!¡¯ However, he had run into a mage group that researched traps. They had said taking out any traps from the dungeon was impossible, even the traps that shot projectiles. If the projectile was lodged in an arm, it would disappear after leaving the dungeon similar to creatures. If it missed, then the projectile would disappear on the spot. However, dungeon creatures could be tamed and removed from the dungeon so the similarities ended there. Their hypothesis was that traps were considered a part of a dungeon and the projectile disappeared from the pieced arm because the trap was reset. Ian sighed as the mages hypothesis was probably correct. He would still experiment since it was still only a hypothesis, but it made sense to Ian. Some of his ¡®Make the most of things¡¯ plans went down the drain with that. Ian sucked all his created traps into his inventory happy about having a total of 4,400 DP. Now it was on to the fun part of creation: biota and monsters. Chapter 4 With an internal giggle and imaginary hand rubbing, Ian brought up his creature list.
Creature List
Biota:
Soris Web Spider Egg Sack ¡ú 1 mana Zogon Serrated Centipede Egg ¡ú 1 mana
Green Cave Moss Spore ¡ú 1 mana Green Cave Fern Spore ¡ú 1 mana
Phosphorescent Cave Mold Spore ¡ú 1 mana
Monsters:
Newborn Goblin [G-] ¡ú 10 mana Newborn Oni [F] ¡ú 300 mana
Newborn Wyvern [E] ¡ú 3,000 mana Moving Moss [G-] ¡ú 10 mana
Inferior Jelly (Lesser) [G-] ¡ú 10 mana Inferior Slime (Lesser) [G-] ¡ú 10 mana
Inferior Water Elemental (Lesser) [G] ¡ú 30 mana
Ian started to think ¡®All of them!¡¯ but remembered he had created a hole in his core room just a little while ago and refrained. He didn¡¯t want mold growing in his core room with no way to remove it. One at time then, starting with the jelly. The mana was pulled out of him and a much larger rush of outside mana formed the most basic of jellies. With a nostalgic squish the jelly appeared on the floor in front of his core.
Achievement: First Creature Created +1000 DP
Achievement: First Inferior Jelly (Lesser) Created +100 DP
¡®Go away¡¯ Ian thought using imaginary hands to swipe the windows away like they were bugs. Ah, one of the twins of versatility. Truly representative of Ian¡¯s goal for all monsters. He couldn¡¯t resist himself and gave the jelly a detailed look. At only the size of a human fist newborn jellies of this rank were often accidently stepped on by adventurers. The jelly coating and the heart were both crystal clear however the heart was slightly more opaque to distinguish it from the jelly. Its body was squishy and solid which Ian liked a lot more than the liquidy and slimy slimes. Ian started to zoom in but the reasonable part of his brain nagged at him to stop wasting time. Hmph. Status!
Race: Inferior Jelly (Lesser)
Rank: G-
Attribute: None
Development: 0/100
Titles: None
Skills
Mana Perception Absorption
Description
The most basic form of the jelly monster tree. It is born with the lowest levels of Mana Perception and Absorption the two skills that every jelly has. The acidity that jellies use to absorb is only present near the mana heart of this basic jelly thus touching it on the outside is not detrimental and indeed can be quite pleasing. They are mindless creatures that will suck up anything smaller than them in an attempt to grow larger. Luckily the most dangerous part of these monsters, their versatility, does not begin until they are D- rank. Be warned even though the jelly monster¡¯s physical form may not change until D- rank the skills they can learn are various.
Common Item Drops
G- mana heart Gelatin
Hohohohoho, what do we have here. The status menu was quite different compared to what Ian was used to. Attribute was new, he usually had to determine that by observing his monster¡¯s mana. It seemed like Development had replaced a monster¡¯s level and experience. Heehee, a new way to raise monsters. Wonderful. Titles and Skills were the same, but Description and Common Item Drops were new. While Ian looked forward to the possibilities of Description and Common Item Drops, he already knew all the information provided for the basic jelly. They would hopefully give him a good starting point for any future monsters he didn¡¯t know about. Before Ian moved onto the next creature, he tried placing the jelly in his Inventory.
Living creatures cannot be placed in the Inventory.
Well, he had expected as much. Moving on. Next would be the spider. He needed to see if there was a way to hatch it without waiting, and he needed to see if the jelly, currently doing laps around his core, could eat it. The egg sack plopped onto the ground as Ian summoned it.
Achievement: First Soris Web Spider Egg Sack Created +100 DP
Ian had hoped he would get a thousand DP for creating both a monster and a biotic creature, but since the earlier window had said ¡®creature¡¯ he wasn¡¯t surprised by its absence. The marathon jelly went up to the egg sack, sat down, and did nothing. ¡°Eat the egg sack,¡± ordered Ian telepathically. The jelly rolled over the egg sack and sucked it inside itself. Ian continued to observe the jelly until the egg sack was completely dissolved. The things he created could be eaten by his other monsters even without the Ecosystem perk, good to know. Ian created another egg sack and as the jelly started moving towards it, he ordered "Do not eat the egg sack, please. I¡¯m working here."
Race: Soris Web Spider Egg Sack
Attribute: Nature
Development: 0/100
Description
The egg sack of a common spider of the Soris Kingdom. Usually contains hundreds of baby spiders, but the dungeon version of this only contains one. While this spider has venom to dissolve its captured prey, it has difficulty biting organisms larger than itself. The spider''s usual prey is flying insects. This spider can be found anywhere in the Soris Kingdom as long as there is space for their webs but are most often found in towns, caves, and forests.
As to be expected compared to a monster''s status, a lot less to know. Most Biota didn¡¯t level up or evolve, they simply aged. The sapient races were the exception to this with their classes, but in regards to their race they could not evolve either. However, Ian had run experiments with evolution involving pumping creatures full of mana. These experiments were all failures in regards to evolution, since none of the creatures, biota or monster, evolved. Each biotic subject did however shows signs of increased aggression, changes in mana attribute, and unusual behavior. Unusual behavior included attacking sapient races without regards to the consequences, attempted mana manipulation, and leaving their territory. These behaviors were all similar to usual monster behaviors. The monster subjects simply grew stronger, but did not evolve. He periodically checked his lab and various places in the wild where he performed the experiments, but none had evolved before his death. Ian had been confused. The biotic subjects all showed the signs, but why didn¡¯t they evolve? A lot of monsters seemed like they were evolved versions of biota, but no observations of such an evolution had taken place or at least ever recorded. The most obvious difference was the lack of a mana heart in biotic organisms but creating that was impossible. Ian hoped his new nature as a dungeon allowed him to succeed where he had failed as a human, besides this little egg sack had Development just like his jelly monster. A slow flow of mana controlled by Ian flowed into the egg sack. Ian¡¯s earlier experiments had shown him that a fast mana flow would result in explosive consequences. His experiments had started after his continual observations of mana flow while he gained experience for himself and his tamed monsters. Compared to normal mana flow which formed rivers, twisted in odd ways, made sharp turns, and would disappear and reappear, the flow of experience from defeated foes, a craftsman¡¯s tools, or a Quest window was like an arrow into an individual which then spread throughout their body. What Ian noticed was the strange similarities between the way experience restructured the body through stats and the way healing magic healed wounds. This led to Ian¡¯s belief that mana could be substituted for experience, and Tidon had all but confirmed it with his speech about the gods and goddesses only being able to interact with the world through mana. Ian felt he reached the mana capacity of the egg sack after losing 200 mana. He quickly checked it¡¯s status menu to see if the Development changed.
Race: Soris Web Spider Egg Sack
Attribute: Nature
Development: 100/100
Description
The egg sack of a common spider of the Soris Kingdom. Usually contains hundreds of baby spiders, but the dungeon version of this only contains one. While this spider has venom to dissolve its captured prey, it has difficulty biting organisms larger than itself. The spider''s usual prey is flying insects. This spider can be found anywhere in the Soris Kingdom as long as there is space for their webs but are most often found in towns, caves, and forests.
Eureka! Now to wait for it to hatch¡­.minutes went by and nothing happened. The system seemed to treat the aging of biota the same as the evolution of monsters with both having the Development category. From observing monsters in the wild, Ian had noted they seemed to take a day to evolve after reaching their max level. Either Ian had to wait a day, or maybe since the egg sack was a part of his dungeon the creatures he created were treated in a similar manner as tamed monsters were. If so, he had to allow the egg sack to hatch. Ian focused on the development window.
Please Choose Next Evolution:
Baby Soris Web Spider
Race: Baby Soris Web Spider
Gender: Female
Attribute: Nature
Development: 0/100
Description
A baby spider common in the Soris Kingdom. Being in a dungeon this baby hatched by itself from an entire egg sack. While this spider has venom to dissolve its captured prey, it has difficulty biting organisms larger than itself. The baby is unable to bite any organisms and can only suck the liquified prey that its mother has captured. The spider''s usual prey is flying insects. This spider can be found anywhere in the Soris Kingdom as long as there is space for their webs but are most often found in towns, caves, and forests.The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.
Let¡¯s go! A crack formed in the webbing of the egg sack, and a tiny spider small enough to sit on top of a human pinky crawled out.
Achievement: First Biota Successfully Aged +1000 DP
Achievement: First Baby Soris Web Spider Created +100 DP
This time the aging of biota and the evolution of monsters were separated. Ian eyed his jelly which was back to doing laps around his core¡­.later. Mana flowed into the baby spider and reached its capacity at 500 mana. With glee Ian focused on the development window.
Please Choose Next Evolution:
Soris Web Spider
Race: Soris Web Spider
Gender: Female
Attribute: Nature
Development: 0/100
Description
A spider common in the Soris Kingdom. While this spider has venom to dissolve its captured prey, it has difficulty biting organisms larger than itself. The females of the species are much larger than the males at the size of a human fingertip while the males are about double the size of a baby spider. After copulation, the female spider will eat the male spider. The spider''s usual prey is flying insects. This spider can be found anywhere in the Soris Kingdom as long as there is space for their webs but are most often found in towns, caves, and forests.
Yes, please! The tiny baby spider before him grew into a spider the size of his fingertip. It now had the telltale two white stripes from front to back on the top of its abdomen along with its white tipped legs and its signature brownish black body. The spider spun back and forth looking around the room the scurried off to a corner and started making its web. No special 1,000 DP achievement this time only the 100 DP prize for creating a new creature. Now, let¡¯s make a monster. Ian pumped mana into the spider, now a lot farther away. It didn¡¯t seem to matter how far away it was from his core, the ease of inserting mana didn¡¯t change. Hopefully he could evolve creatures throughout his dungeon otherwise he would have to call them down to his core room every time. As the 1000 mana left him, he excitedly opened the development menu but was met with dismay. Even though the development menu displayed 100/100, there were no evolutionary possibilities. Telling himself to buck up, Ian created more spiders, they were now added to his creature list reducing the mana cost to five each, and injected different attribute mana into them. Ian created and injected 19 new spiders with different attributes bringing the total to 20 spiders including the first attributeless spider. None of the spiders had any evolutionary possibilities, so Ian moved to targeted mana infusion. Before he began any more experiments, Ian had the jelly clean up his core room which had too many webs and spiders for his liking. Ian created another twenty spiders and infused different attributes of mana into different body parts. The amount of mana Ian needed to target a specific body part increased ten fold, so he pumped 10,000 mana into each spider. No matter which body part he targeted, the abdomen, the fangs, the venom glands, the legs, the eyes, the silk glands, or even the hairs covering their bodies, no evolutions appeared. Ian tried infusing more mana into a separate body part for each spider and did it once again after the second infusion failed but each spider on the third infusion exploded. He had the jelly clean up the mess. Was he wrong? Could biota not be turned into monsters? No, he still hadn¡¯t tried everything. He still had Creation. The description said Ian could create anything from scratch but at an enormous mana cost. Normally one would think that this only entailed imagining what one wanted to create and then using mana to bring that image into being, which was how magic was cast. However, Ian wondered if he could create something to be a part of an already living organism. Creating a mana heart, permanent solidified mana, was deemed impossible at least with the mana capacities of living organisms. Ian, as a dungeon, had the source of all mana in the universe to help him create permanent items and beings from mana. Now the only question that remained was if he would receive any help while using his creation perk. Ian focused the image of a G- mana heart and settled it inside of a new spider he had created. Nothing happened. Why? A G- rank mana heart was the smallest mana heart known¡­.but biota didn¡¯t even have a rank. Since they didn¡¯t have rank were they considered even less than a G- rank monster? Hmmm. Ian formed the image of a mana heart with half the mana of a G- mana heart and attempted to form it inside of the spider. 100,005 mana was sucked out of him and infused into the spider and a window popped into view.
Would you like to update the Soris Web Spider¡¯s basic structure? YES/NO
Ian observed the window in front of him and moved it to the side but did not dismiss it. He needed to observe the spider before he answered that question. The spider was going about its business scuttling along the floor. Besides stopping when Ian placed the mana heart into it nothing had changed about its behavior. For a day Ian watched the spider move about the floor of the core room doing nothing else. It seemed to be a perfectly normal spider beyond the fact that it contained a mana heart. Ian brought the window back up and selected YES.
Achievement: First Basic Creature Structure Updated +1000 DP
Pleased, Ian brought up the spider¡¯s status.
Race: Soris Web Spider
Gender: Male
Attribute: Nature
Development: 0/100
Description
A spider common in the Soris Kingdom. While this spider has venom to dissolve its captured prey, it has difficulty biting organisms larger than itself. The females of the species are much larger than the males at the size of a human fingertip while the males are about double the size of a baby spider. After copulation, the female spider will eat the male spider. The spider''s usual prey is flying insects. This spider can be found anywhere in the Soris Kingdom as long as there is space for their webs but are most often found in towns, caves, and forests. A mana heart is present.
Common Item Drops
Tiny Mana Heart
Hmm, its development was still at zero, a short sentence was added to the description, and it could now drop items. Since, its development was at zero it couldn¡¯t evolve and was still not a monster, so just adding a mana heart didn¡¯t make something a monster. However, now that it had a mana heart would Ian¡¯s previous attempts now work? Only one way to find out. Ian sent 1,000 attributeless mana into the spider and checked its development window.
Please Choose Next Evolution:
Clear Web Spider [G-]
Ian¡¯s book jumped up and nearly fell off his stand. Status. STATUS. STATUS!!!
Race: Clear Web Spider
Rank: G-
Gender: Male
Attribute: None
Development: 0/100
Titles: Biotic Born
Skills
Silk Creation Bite
Venom Creation Stealth
Description
Biotic Born: A spider monster that evolved from a normal spider after living in dense mana for most of its life. Silk Creation, Venom Creation, Bite, and Stealth are skills that represent slightly better versions of the basic biological functions and skills of a spider. The Clear Web Spider is simply a more impressive normal spider with a see through body that makes it seem like the spider has no internal organs. This is a trick of the attributeless mana, the spider still has organs. At the size of a human hand, the female spider can capture larger prey than its normal brethren. The male spider is still smaller at the size of a fingertip but larger than its biotic brethren. Clear Web Spiders can now bite organisms larger than themselves with abandon. They make their homes in the same locations as normal spiders but only in areas of dense attributeless mana.
Common Item Drops
G- mana heart Spider Fang
Inhale. IF YOU WOULD, SYSTEM! The mana throughout the spider¡¯s body changed into the needed material to make the spider larger. The legs elongated, the body expanded, the fangs grew longer, and the eyes grew larger. The brownish black body, white stripes, and white leg tips disappeared and the spider looked like a glass figurine of itself with a small clear crystal in its abdomen. After the mana was done reconfiguring the body, the remaining mana rushed into the clear crystal causing it to enlarge. As the last of the mana infused into the being of the spider, Ian stood his book up on his pedestal and started dancing.
Achievement: The First Dungeon to Actively Evolve a Biotic Creature into a Monster +10,000 DP
Achievement: First Biotic Creature Evolved into a Monster +1,000 DP
Achievement: First Clear Web Spider [G-] Created +100 DP
While Ian was dancing, the new Clear Web Spider scuttled over to a corner and started spinning a web. This behavior was unlike the male spiders that Ian had summoned previously who avoided webs and females all together. The silk spun by the spider was the same as any normal spider and after it settled on its web it watched the strange book in the center of the room that it felt a comforting feeling from. After a few minutes, Ian stopped his merry jig and laid his book back down onto the pedestal. Still full of elation, he created a G- rank mana heart in front of his pedestal to see if he could. The rush of a little over a hundred thousand mana did not come, instead a torrent of mana worth ten million rushed out of Ian and formed the mana heart.
Achievement: First G- Rank Attributeless Mana Heart Created +100 DP
Ian¡¯s book sagged on the pedestal slightly drooping off of one edge as the exhaustion of releasing most of his mana in one go affected his mental state. Why did he always do something stupid after a successful venture? Thankfully it wasn¡¯t as bad as the time he expelled all of his mana after clearing his first S Rank dungeon. If he hadn¡¯t known how to actively restore his mana from the environment back then or hadn''t already left the dungeon, then he either wouldn¡¯t have been able to use mana for over a hundred years or he would have been dead. After an hour, Ian felt good enough to continue with his activities. He needed to think through how much mana everything used. Creating creatures was simple, it seemed to take as much mana as experience the creature gave upon being killed. It took a thousand mana to evolve a biotic animal into a monster, at least for infusing the animal with mana, however that was a special circumstance going from biota to monster. Targeted infusion took ten thousand mana for each area targeted, so the more areas he targeted the more mana for an evolution. It was also possible the amount of mana for targeted infusion was dependent upon the rank of monster or biota. His one example of creating something inside an animal resulted in a hundred thousand and five mana being used. The five mana was probably how much the mana heart contained. The hundred thousand possibly represented how much mana for a single created item attached to an already created being or thing. Free creation took ten million mana from him to create a ten mana mana heart, so initially it seemed to be a million mana times the mana cost of the item. Ian also hadn¡¯t even tried modifying an organism rather than creating something completely new inside of it. While he had a general idea of how much things cost, more experimentation was needed. Hmm, what was his mana at currently?
Soul Name: Ian Irwin Dungeon Name: N/A
Rank: EX Level: 1
Perks: 2 Floors: 0
Mana Generation /day: 1,000,000 Mana Pool: 276,723
DP Generation /day: 0/1 DP Pool: 19,000
Titles: None
Biota: Animals: 4
Plants: 2
Fungi: 1
Other: 0
Total: 7
Monsters: Animals: 4
Plants: 1
Fungi: 0
Other: 3
Total: 8
Traps: 12
Treasures: 13
Oh, it seemed like even though he aged the Soris Web Spider the egg sack and baby versions still counted towards his status numbers. He supposed he could drop sacks full of baby spiders on adventurer¡¯s heads or hide them in plants and fungi that were delicious to eat. The mana heart must have been considered a treasure as he now had thirteen rather than twelve. His mana was low, only Ian would consider that number low, but it was enough to create the rest of his creatures and maybe evolve a few monsters while waiting for another million mana to build his first floor. Ian had started to think that the uniformity of early floors in dungeons wasn¡¯t ¡®camouflage¡¯ as Tidon put it but a severe lack of mana during the early stages of dungeon development. Chapter 5 Ian prepared to summon the rest of his creatures, but the nag at the back of his mind kept pestering him to look at some of the dungeon systems. With a sigh he stopped what he was doing. What should he look at? ¡­.Loot. He needed to see what kind of loot his monsters dropped. Yeah, that was a good compromise. The back of Ian¡¯s mind facepalmed. Ian observed his two monsters: the jelly that continued to run around his core and the clear spider that sat in the corner staring at him. Now, how did he bring up the loot menu? While staring at the jelly, Ian thought ¡®loot menu¡¯ and a window appeared.
Loot Menu
Inferior Jelly (Lesser) [G-]
Drops per Kill: 1
Common Drops
G- Attributeless Mana Heart 40%
Clear Gelatin [G-] 40%
Uncommon Drops
Flammable Jelly [G-] 20%
The drops and drop percentages seemed in line with a wild Inferior Jelly (Lesser) [G-] outside of the dungeon. How to add something? Basics first. ¡°Add stone coin.¡±
To Add a Stone Coin Drop Please Reconfigure Drop Percentages.
With pleasure Ian increased and decreased the percentages with abandon and noticed the total percentage couldn¡¯t go above one hundred percent. The common drops could be any percentage from one hundred to zero, but when they reached twenty percent they became uncommon, at five percent they became rare, at 0.1 percent they became epic, and at 0.001 percent they became legendary. The flammable jelly, an uncommon drop, could have its percentage decreased but it could not be increased above the original twenty percent. Ian presumed this was to prevent items that would greatly influence civilization from flooding the market. What Ian didn¡¯t know was how the rarity of the stone coin, a item that jellies didn¡¯t usually drop, was determined. It was considered to be a common drop, since Ian could make its drop percentage one hundred. Ian settled on the percentages and dropped both the clear gelatin and flammable jelly to ten percent and added the stone coin at forty percent.
Loot Menu
Inferior Jelly (Lesser) [G-]
Drops per Kill: 1
Common Drops
G- Attributeless Mana Heart 40%
Stone Coin 40%
Uncommon Drops
Clear Gelatin [G-] 10%
Flammable Jelly [G-] 10%
Gelatin and flammable jelly were used but not in the numbers that would make twenty percent worthwhile. If there started to be deficits in those items, he could increase the percentages back up or make more jellies. Ian had a little more anticipation for the Clear Web Spider, since it was a monster he hadn¡¯t seen before.
Loot Menu
Clear Web Spider [G-]
Drops per Kill: 1
Common Drops
G- Attributeless Mana Heart 50%
Clear Spider Fang [G-] 30%
Uncommon Drops
Clear Spider Venom [G-] 10%
Clear Spider Silk [G-] 10%
The spider¡¯s drops confirmed that the monster¡¯s status menu only gave Ian the basic description of the common dropped items. So whether the monster was a Clear Web Spider or a Tsuchigumo, the common drops would both say Spider Fang in the status menu. Ian added the stone coin at thirty percent, changed the mana heart and spider fang to twenty five percent each, and kept the venom and silk at ten percent. His changes were good for now, without adventurers he didn¡¯t know what the surrounding nations were lacking. With loot out of the way, Ian could get back to his creatures. He rubbed his pages together in anticipation, but his damn nagging subconscious was back. ¡®You haven¡¯t done the loot for the biotic spiders!¡¯ it said, ¡®You haven¡¯t even glanced at the trees!¡¯ it pleaded. Ian¡¯s book slumped back onto the pedestal as he summoned the egg sack, baby spider, and web spider. As Ian attempted to bring up the loot menu for the egg sack a new window appeared.
This Creature Cannot Drop Loot.
While Ian knew biotic creatures always disappeared without dropping anything, he had thought he could change that with the presence of a common drop in the Web Spider¡¯s status. The addition of a mana heart was probably the deciding factor.
Loot Menu
Web Spider
Drops per Kill: 1
Common Drops
Tiny Attributeless Mana Heart 100%
It only dropped a mana heart. This didn¡¯t bode well. Ian attempted to add the stone coin, but a new window appeared.
No Additional Loot May Be Added.
So, he needed to add mana hearts to the web sack and baby spider if he wanted them to drop anything. However, what they dropped would be worse than a G- mana heart. Some would probably find the presence of a new type of mana heart interesting for a while, but eventually no one would make the effort to pick them up. He had seen the same happen with G- mana hearts because the time it took to pick up the small mana hearts wasn¡¯t worth the reward unless they were low level adventurers. Ian needed to either find a way so adventurers and dungeon divers didn¡¯t have to pick up their own loot or he had to make low level monsters drop worthwhile loot. The later option was stupid since he didn¡¯t want high level adventurers killing off all of his low level monsters. For the first time Ian opened the Dungeon Shop.
Dungeon Shop
What do you wish to search for?
¡°....No list?¡± It looked like shopping would take a little more effort than he thought. ¡°Let¡¯s see¡­.loot.¡±
Dungeon Shop
Loot Collection 1,000 DP (Prerequisites Required)
Loot Absorption 1,000 DP
Loot Destruction 1,000 DP
Explosive Loot 10,000 DP
Ian looked through the three he didn¡¯t need first. Loot Absorption absorbed the mana used to create the loot after it was left for a certain amount of time. Destruction instead of absorbing the loot destroyed it sending the mana back into the Greater God¡¯s universe. At first glance there didn¡¯t seem to be any negative side effects to Absorption, so Ian wondered why anyone would choose Destruction. Explosive Loot caused the loot to explode into shrapnel and damage any surrounding creatures dungeon created or not, but this only triggered after the loot sat on the ground for a long time. Now, Loot Collection.
Loot Collection: Loot that is normally dropped where a monster is killed is instead collected inside of a treasure chest in the Entrance Hall of the dungeon. All members of a party must tie their mana signature to the chest in the entrance hall. The inside of the chest is tied to separate sub dimensions that prevent different parties¡¯ loot from mixing.
Prerequisites: Entrance Hall Room Entrance Hall Treasure Chest Upgrade Entrance Hall Sub Dimension Creation Upgrade Entrance Hall Instance Upgrade Entrance Hall Sign Upgrade Entrance Hall Translation Upgrade Entrance Hall Mana Signature Upgrade
What the hell was this? ¡­.Oh no, of course. There was always a room at the beginning of every floor that was perfectly safe for intruders and at the end of every floor there was a boss room. He should have known. There was no way some of the high rank dungeons kept those two parts the same even on the lower floors unless they were forced to. Ian focused on Entrance Hall to make sure he was right.
Entrance Hall: For every entrance there must me an Entrance Hall. After the creation of the first floor, the Entrance Hall and Boss Room appear. On floors without an entrance, the Entrance Room appears. The Entrance Hall is upgradeable and with its presence Rooms and Decorations can be purchased in the Dungeon Shop. Unlike the main floor of the dungeon which is fully malleable through the dungeon¡¯s mana, the Entrance Hall and other Rooms can only be changed by mana and DP purchasable upgrades.
Prerequisites: First Floor Created
Ian was torn about Rooms. The idea of purchasing upgrades, ideas that he might be unable to think of on his own, intrigued him, but he disliked the restrictive nature of them. Well, he was getting ahead of himself. He had no idea how restrictive the Rooms would be without examining them. Since Rooms weren¡¯t available until he created his first floor, he would have to wait. However, a thought hit Ian like a ton of bricks. There was one room that every dungeon had. Ian used his mana in an attempt to reduce the ceiling height of the core room, instead a window appeared before him.
Core Room
Level: 1
Available Upgrades
Reshape Room (Dimensions) 100 DP
Mana Pulse 10,000,000 Mana
The options given to him by the windows seemed to be heavily influenced by his thoughts and actions. Only two upgrades, one directly related to exactly what he wanted to do and the other the same mana cost as the amount of mana he just spent. All the loot upgrades in the dungeon shop had to do with getting rid of excess loot in some way, the problem he was worried about. This was worrying, the windows also gave him the evolution options. If those were also restricted by his thoughts and actions¡­.wait¡­.he already had a monster he¡¯d never heard of before. Was he overthinking this? Possibly, but the idea of limiting his evolutionary options pissed Ian off. He would have to try really off the wall stuff to increase the possible evolutions. Ian checked the level of the core room, and it required mana in the same way his dungeon level did except way more at ten thousand mana. He had spare mana, so he infused ten thousand mana into his core room. After infusing his mana into the core room, a new requirement for leveling up appeared.
Level 1 10,000/10,000 mana Complete; 1 Upgrade Needed
With DP to spare Ian purchased the Reshape Room (Dimensions) Upgrade.
Reshape Room (Dimensions): Allows the dungeon to change the height, length, and width of the core room. The volume of the core room must stay the same.
Core Room Level 2: Higher Tier Upgrades Will Become Available.
Achievement: Core Room Leveled Up for the First Time. +1,000 DP
Core Room Level 3 required 20,000 mana, but the only upgrade available to Ian was the Mana Pulse upgrade so he refrained from infusing mana into his core room. While Ian could have attempted to find other upgrades he was qualified for, he didn¡¯t want to spend an unknown amount of time and effort on something that had unknown value. ¡­.He was okay doing that with monster evolutions however. Ian changed the dimensions of the core room but nothing felt right with how empty the room was, so he returned it to its normal shape. The Clear Web Spider seemed to give him an exasperated look as it went back to remake its web that was destroyed during the room reshaping. The Rooms were something he would focus on after building his first floor, for now it was back to his creatures. True, his subconscious kept saying, ¡®Trees. Trees. Trees¡­.¡¯ on repeat, but those could wait. It was time for Ian to make the second twin of versatility. The slime appeared on the core room floor. Unlike the ball of jelly, the slime looked like a bulbous puddle of water. If the slime was gathered together, it would be the same size as the jelly. The center of the slime contained its core which protruded upwards to keep the core away from the ground. The rest of the slime curved downwards away from the center with bumps here and there. Thankfully basic slimes didn¡¯t leave any residue behind when moving. As Ian opened the slime¡¯s status, it grew interested in what the jelly was doing and started imitating it. One would think they were trying to summon the combined jelly and slime god or maybe just exercising.
Race: Inferior Slime (Lesser)
Rank: G-
Attribute: None
Development: 0/100Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.
Titles: None
Skills
Mana Perception Absorption
Description
The most basic form of the slime monster tree. It is born with the lowest levels of Mana Perception and Absorption the two skills that every slime has. Even the most basic of slimes have acidic bodies but their low amount of fluid makes it harder to absorb creatures. They are mindless creatures that will suck up anything smaller than them in an attempt to grow larger. Luckily the most dangerous part of these monsters, their versatility, does not begin until they are D- rank. Be warned even though the slime monster¡¯s physical form may not change until D- rank the skills they can learn are various.
Common Item Drops
G- mana heart Slime
Slimes are considered more difficult to fight than jellies because it is much easier to slice a piece of jelly off of the main body than a piece of slime. To be killed both require their cores to be destroyed, but every missing piece of slime or jelly makes the core closer to the outside and easier to hit. However, the more solid bodies of the jellies allows for more nimble movement and harder hitting physical attacks. Ian decided to round out the Other category of monsters and summoned the Inferior Water Elemental (Lesser) [G]. A small faint blue light floated in front of Ian¡¯s pedestal. It quickly started zooming around the room checking every little thing out. After getting a good look around the room, it slowly floated over to the slime and hovered near it. Its light was somewhat fainter compared to when it was first summoned. With a chuckle Ian took the liter of water out of his inventory and place it in the corner opposite of the spider¡¯s web. The presence of water perked the elemental up, and it zoomed over with a much brighter light.
Race: Inferior Water Elemental (Lesser)
Rank: G
Attribute: Water
Development: 0/100
Titles: None
Skills
Water Creation Water Sense
Water Shot
Description
The lowest rank water elemental. A newborn elemental that perks up at the sign of any amount of water. These monsters will naturally spawn near sources of water even when the density of ambient mana is low. While categorized as monsters, they will not attack unless provoked. However, the simple act of being near their chosen water source will be seen as a provocation. They can create, shoot, and sense water.
Common Item Drops
G mana heart Water
Ian felt that having only one of each creature was lonely, so he made four more of the monsters currently in the core room along with five of each spider stage of life. The water elementals all rushed to the water in the corner and started flashing their lights at one another. The clear web spiders all went to the corner with the original clear web spider and started making their own webs. The biotic spiders all went to a separate corner with the females carrying the egg sacks he created. The new jellies and slimes seemed disinterested in the first two he had created and explored the room by themselves. Ian was worried that they would eat each other, even though the jelly didn¡¯t eat the egg sack until he ordered it, so he ordered them not to just in case. With all the monsters and animals running about, Ian needed some plants. Ian summoned the Green Cave Fern Spore, aged it into a Green Cave Fern Seedling, and aged it again into a Green Cave Fern.
Race: Green Cave Fern
Gender: Hermaphrodite
Attribute: Nature
Development: 0/100
Description
A type of fern commonly found in shallow caves. The furled fronds of a young fern can be eaten. Is used as a basic green plant in potion making.
The large unfurled leaves of the fern were quite pleasant to look at, but Ian had made the mistake of growing it right in front of his pedestal. Ian imagined shifting the plant near the entrance and it moved according to his desires. Well, more like teleport. It didn¡¯t uproot itself and walk over. Ian proceeded down the aging process for both his Green Cave Moss Spore and Phosphorescent Cave Mold Spore. The moss and mold aged differently than the fern. The fern spore was one individual throughout the aging process, but a small colony of individuals formed upon aging the moss and mold spores and the next aging made both colonies one meter square mats.
Race: Green Cave Moss
Gender: Male/Female
Attribute: Nature
Development: 0/100
Description
A type of moss found commonly in shallow caves. The moss is soft enough to be used as bedding and mat like feature makes it good for insulation. Used to produce a minor calming effect in potions.
Race: Phosphorescent Cave Mold
Attribute: Nature
Development: 0/100
Description
A rare mold found in deep caves. It can be used as an ingredient in health potions. Health potions made with this mold will be phosphorescent which may turn off would be drinkers.
Ian moved the two mats near the entrance and made four more ferns to go with them. Ian sprinkled the five spores and seedlings among the adult ferns, but didn¡¯t produce any more moss or mold as they already took up quite a bit of space. Next Ian produced Moving Moss [G-].
Race: Moving Moss
Rank: G-
Gender: Male/Female
Attribute: Nature
Development: 0/100
Titles: None
Skills
Spore Creation Separation
Description
A sentient plant monster. It uses spores in an attempt to asphyxiate organisms, but the amount it produces is too small to do so. The spores can cause coughing fits and lung issues if left untreated. This monster is a collection of individuals and can separate themselves in an attempt at self preservation. The roots of Moving Moss allow it to slowly crawl across surfaces and onto dead organisms which it will then suck dry. Most often found in caves and forests.
Common Item Drops
G- mana heart Moss
The Moving Moss slowly started moving towards the gathering of plants at Ian¡¯s entrance. It reached the plants after a couple of hours and settled down next to the non-sentient mat of moss. Ian thanked the monster for such a great idea for his first floor. Ian summoned the white centipede egg, aged it to its larval form, then aged it to an adult centipede.
Race: Zogon Serrated Centipede
Gender: Male
Attribute: Nature
Development: 0/100
Description
A common insect in the Zogon Jungles. The serrated part of this centipede¡¯s name comes from combination of its jaws and the pointed edges of its exoskeleton. If eaten like its cousins, the eater will end up with a lacerated mouth and a bad day.
Four more centipedes were quickly created and they scurried off to hide in the plants. Now all Ian had left were the more intelligent monsters¡­.well their baby versions at least. Ian created the Newborn Goblin first. As it appeared in front of his pedestal, it was half the size of a normal human newborn, with green skin, pointed ears, and sharp teeth. The odd part however was the presence of a tiny loincloth. He was pretty sure creatures weren¡¯t normally born with loincloths. At least, Ian had never seen one before. Was this a particular of dungeon created monsters? Was his subconscious acting again by saying that since it was humanoid it was required to wear clothes? Did the gods set it up to not offend the sensibilities of adventurers if they ever came across them? Even thought it was unusual, it was pleasant for Ian, since he currently had no clothes for his creatures to wear. He also didn¡¯t have any hands to dress them. It seemed the newborn goblin was taking a bit to get used to its situation. However, its scrunched up face indicated an imminent calamity. As Ian suspected, the newborn goblin started wailing. The spiders all rushed to the corners of their webs, it seemed like the moving moss may have jumped a bit, the water elementals didn¡¯t seem to care at all, and all but the first jelly and slime rushed over to the newborn goblin. Ian didn¡¯t want to see a newborn goblin get absorbed by a bunch of jellies and slimes, so he prepared to call them off. But rather than eat the goblin, upon reaching it they started to rock it back and forth. After a couple of minutes the goblin stopped crying, but rather than scatter back around the room the slimes and jellies made sure to keep within a certain distance of the goblin. ¡­.What was that? First the slime and jelly that liked to run in circles around his pedestal and now slimes and jellies that took care of children? There was no way this was normal behavior. ¡­.Well, it could be. While he was considered the premier researcher of monsters, he still didn¡¯t know everything there was to know about them. However, monsters with acidic bodies taking care of children must be unusual. If these weren¡¯t normal behaviors, then what caused them? Another part of his subconscious influencing his dungeon without his conscious¡¯ say? His subconscious seemed to be denying that possibility, but it looked a bit guilty in his opinion. Rather than his subconscious it might be his soul that was making the slimes and jellies behave this way. Tidon had said that a lot of his dungeon was determined by the composition of his soul, and if his soul was anything like him, then it wanted as many varieties of monsters as possible. Creatures performing unusual acts would be a good way to acquire unique evolutions, but it seemed to only be affecting the slimes and jellies. ¡­.The Moving Moss getting surprised might be considered unusual however. ¡­.Twins of versatility, the inherent trait of slimes and jellies to take on the traits of the things they eat and the surrounding environment, may be causing an increased correction on their nature. That meant his other creatures were likely affected, but besides the moving moss he couldn¡¯t discern any major signs of unusual behavior yet. Interesting. Very Interesting. Ian had planned to mainly forcefully evolve his creatures but letting some of them evolve naturally would create new variants. The problem was they might be killed by intruders before they reached one hundred percent development. He should check the dungeon shop later for ways to keep development after death besides creating his Named Monsters. Ian turned his attention back to the newborn goblin now sleeping peacefully.
Race: Newborn Goblin
Rank: G-
Gender: Female
Attribute: Neutral
Development: 0/100
Titles: None
Skills
Stench
Description
A newborn goblin monster. As this monster has just recently been born, it is unable to fend for itself. Even though it is considered a monster, it poses no threat besides the small odor that emanates from it. Goblins are considered the most common monster. While not strong individually, their high breeding rate poses a threat to sapient race villages.
Common Item Drops
G- mana heart Goblin Ear
He hadn¡¯t noticed it before, but it seemed he didn¡¯t have the ability to smell as a dungeon. Ian would have fretted on this point more if not for the fact that he would get an avatar at level 100. The Newborn Goblin was a good example of while ranks had a heavily correlation with the strength of a monster they weren¡¯t directly related. The slimes, jellies, or moving moss could easily kill this baby. Ian had tested the mana capacities of different creatures searching for the direct link, but that had even less of a correlation than overall strength. Ian¡¯s new knowledge that the entire universe was made from mana combined with his short time as a dungeon made him think that ranks might be related to how much mana is used to create them. He had been observing each summoning and each rank had the same amount of mana used to create the physical structure. More data points would be needed however to support his hypothesis. Next he summoned the newborn oni. What appeared was a baby twice the size of a normal human baby. It had bright red skin, a single horn slightly above its forehead, pointed teeth with two large fangs pointing downward and outward, claws on its hands and feet, fierce eyes, and a spotted loincloth. Even though the fierce eyes made it seem older than a newborn, the moment it started crying gave away its age. Sensing the new crying newborn, the slimes and jellies went over to comfort it.
Race: Newborn Oni
Rank: F
Gender: Male
Attribute: Strength
Development: 0/100
Titles: None
Skills
Fear Claw Swipe
Bite Headbutt
Description
A newborn of the Oni race of monsters. Unlike most newborns the newborn oni is not completely defenseless. While unable to move on its own and dependent on its parents for sustenance, it is able to defend itself from predators by clawing, biting, or headbutting them. Many have tried to befriend Oni due to their humanoid nature and fierce eyes that bespeak intelligence, but most end up dead. While intelligent, Oni are ruled by their anger and rage and will kill without provocation.
Common Item Drops
F mana heart Oni Horn
Ian had chosen Oni as one of his starting creatures due to their high strength, intelligence, and the fact that they were monsters. While Ian loved creatures of all shapes, sizes, and intelligence, he knew that without someone intelligent to talk to he may become stir crazy. The problem with Oni was their anger and rage overrode their intelligence. Ian¡¯s goal was to erase this part of them even if it resulted in a weaker evolution. If his changes only resulted in a change to the base Oni, he would keep the original anger driven Oni because he still needed strength. Why hadn¡¯t he just picked one of the sapient races? Because as much as Ian was a monster and dungeon researcher, he was also the Saint of Life and previously human. He knew he was being a hypocrite by experimenting on the Oni race just because they were monsters, but the years of empathy he developed for the sapient races wouldn¡¯t go away at the drop of a hat. But Ian knew he would have to get over his aversion to experimenting on the sapient races eventually. His unwillingness to experiment on beings he knew were sapient had also led him to pick the wyvern over the dragon. Only one left, the Newborn Wyvern. The lesser dragon was one meter long with a wingspan of two meters. It consisted of primarily grey scales with a white underbelly. After looking around for a bit, it started calling out for its mother. The slimes and jellies immediately rushed over to it and nestled up to it. The wyvern seemed confused but layed down to sleep nestled between jellies and slimes.
Race: Newborn Wyvern
Rank: E
Gender: Male
Attribute: Neutral
Development: 0/100
Titles: None
Skills
Flight Scale Defense
Bite Tail Swipe
Description
A newborn of the wyvern race of monsters. While much weaker compared to its adult form, unprepared low level adventurers are liable to die fighting one. As it is a newborn, it relies on its mother for sustenance. However, even as a newborn it is able to acquire food and water on its own. As a newborn the direction of its magic and breath attack is yet to be determined.
Common Item Drops
E mana heart Wyvern Fang
As Ian looked over the three newborns laying on the floor of his core room, it struck him how odd it was he had to summon newborn monsters, eggs, and spores. The few times Ian was lucky enough to observe a monster spawn from ambient mana, they always spawned in as fully formed adults of the species. Ian surmised that as a dungeon he had to start from the bottom and work his way up. The fact that he had never encountered baby monsters in any of his dungeon dives did concern him, but it made sense that a dungeon wouldn¡¯t want to summon any more baby monsters if they had the ability to summon adult monsters. Ian summoned four more of each newborn along with a hundred slimes and jellies to take care of them. He observed the newborns as they cried out and were placated by the slimes and jellies. The scene caused Ian¡¯s heart to sink. Everything Ian had been holding in the back of his mind rushed to the forefront. The kids he and Estella had planned to have after their adventuring days would never happen. He¡¯d never hold the their children in his arms, he¡¯d never rock them to sleep, he¡¯d never fight with them over what to do with their lives, he¡¯d never do anything with them as they would never exist. He missed Estella and the way her smile brightened the room. He missed Seth with his auburn hair and bulging muscles. He missed Nina with her long, black hair and nose always in a book. He missed Andre and Mackenzie with their stereotypical robes and mage hats along with their discussions on magic. He even missed the townsfolk who thanked him after he treated their wounds. The sense of loss that Ian had ignored overwhelmed him. Ian¡¯s book shook as he sobbed to himself. Many minutes later Ian had calmed down some. Ian liked being a dungeon and the last week and a half was one of the most enjoyable parts of his two lives, but no matter how enjoyable something was it didn''t prevent him from missing the people he loved. Ian wished he could slap himself. He knew better than to keep his emotions locked away. Estella was the one who taught him that. As sad as he was about no longer being with Estella and his friends, and no longer having a future as a human with them, he shouldn¡¯t and wouldn¡¯t give up. At level one hundred he¡¯d get an avatar, he¡¯d find Estella, Nina, Seth, Andre, and Mackenzie, and he¡¯d overcome the restrictions placed on him as a dungeon and let them know who he was. He was Ian Irwin, and he wouldn¡¯t let death or godly restrictions keep him from what he wanted. For now, he needed to make a floor. Chapter 6 Ian pushed his mana towards the entrance and attempted to form a tunnel. As the mana reached the entrance nothing happened. He inched his mana further away from the entrance attempting to make a tunnel each time. Mana had spread across the entire wall but no tunnel was formed. ¡­.At least the Core Room window didn¡¯t pop up and make him feel like an idiot. Since that didn¡¯t work he might as well just mentally say what he wanted to do, it seemed to work for everything else, ¡°Make first floor.¡± What Ian didn¡¯t expect to happen was his vision to rise up above his core room. While in his dungeon he had no ability to tell if there was anything outside it, but now he could see all around it. However, the only thing that surrounded his dungeon was pure white in every direction. As Ian¡¯s vision stopped moving upwards, a window appeared before him.
Please Choose the Terrain Type for the First Cubic Kilometer of Dungeon Volume.
Shallow Cave Deep Cave
Underwater Cave Metal Cave
Fungi Cave Ice Cave
Magma Cave Underground Lake
Underwater Lake Underground River
Evergreen Forest Mountain
Lake River
Prairie Canyon
Swamp Floating Island
Castle Castle Ruin
Crypt Crypt Ruin
Tower Tower Ruin
Town Town Ruin
Fungi Forest Living Metal Forest
Taiga Tundra
Perpetual Storm Sewer
If Ian had ever been able to whistle, he would have. Did he pick the right place for terrain types or what? Also, one cubic kilometer? That was a lot to work with, in fact it may be too much to work with. When he used the space like he intended for a cave system then the total length would be around 20,000 km, so half the circumference of the planet. Yeah, no one would want to enter his dungeon if he did that. ¡°Split dungeon volume.¡± Nothing happened. With a sigh Ian supposed he would have to pick the terrain type before trying that. Before Ian did that however the Perpetual Storm terrain type confused him since it was more of a weather condition than physical terrain. With a shrug Ian picked it, since his other selections had asked him to confirm them after selection.
To Choose Perpetual Storm, Another Terrain Type Must be Combined with It.
Hoho. So terrain types could be combined. He should try that with later floors. Now, he needed to make his floor.
The terrain type for your first cubic kilometer is: Deep Cave.
Achievement: First terrain chosen. +1,000 DP
Please Choose Five Deep Cave Creatures.
If Ian had a face, he¡¯d have the widest smile right now. He got more creatures for choosing a terrain? Hell yeah. He did wish he¡¯d known about his option earlier, so he could have picked a wider variety of creatures during the tutorial. The amount he could choose from was deeply reduced with it limited to Deep Cave Creatures. Only a slight scroll this time. Ian quickly picked his five.
You have chosen: Newborn Albino Bat [G-], Red Cap Mushroom Spore, Soris Blind Swallow Egg, Soris Cave Snail Egg, and Spotted Salamander Egg
The window disappeared. Ian had expected a large kilometer cube to appear before him, but instead a small window appeared in the corner of his eye telling him how much volume he had remaining. Could he create whatever shape cave system he wanted? The beginning floors of dungeons had such similar and simple structures even though they were allowed such free reign to make their floors? ¡­.It was probably the mana cost then. Ian tried to remember the mana concentrations of dungeons, but inside they were all the same. The mana they spewed out however varied depending on rank, so the amount of mana released might correlate with mana generation. If so, then creating complicated structures was likely more mana intensive with how little mana low level dungeons spewed out. His mana generation was exceedingly high, so Ian supposed he should have no problems. Ian¡¯s vision was unlike in his dungeon and more akin to his human vision. His vision tried to zoom around the white space. He could move away from his core room but his core room never moved away from him, and since the core room was the only reference point he truly didn¡¯t move at all. The white space wasn¡¯t emptiness but nonexistence with his dungeon being the only part of the space that truly existed. He had always wondered why dungeon walls were completely indestructible. If he had ever succeeded in breaking through and exiting the dungeon, he would have ceased to exist. Ian chuckled at his past attempts especially after he became an EX rank mage. He had been dumbfounded at the time and with obstinance studied the same one square meter of dungeon wall for two years, which was a bit much even for him. As Ian zoomed the short distance back above the center of the core room, he made a basic stone cave unconnected to his core room. ¡°Finish floor.¡±
Floor Requirements Not Met
Magical Beauty Not Met
Connected to Core Room Not Met
Path to Core Room Not Met
Traps 0/10
Treasures 0/10
Biota 0/50
Animals 0/10
Plants 0/10
Fungi 0/10
Monsters 0/50
Animals 0/10
Plants 0/10
Fungi 0/10
Other 0/10
Magic Formations 0/50
Magic Spells 0/50
Well, he certainly had a ways to go. What surprised Ian the most was even though the stone room wasn¡¯t considered a floor, it was still a part of him. Ian reabsorbed the stone room, and it felt like a part of him disappeared. Slowly he made a second room and every little piece added felt a part of him even before he finished the room. If the rooms felt a part of him before they became rooms, were they solid? Ian stopped creating his floor and his vision zoomed back to dungeon vision. However, his vision now consisted of his core room and the second room he created. A jelly was created in the center of the stone room and started exploring. It looked like he could place monsters in uncompleted floors. Could he connect a non floor and his core room?If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. Ian zoomed back out and shifted the stone room so its walls became one with the core room. The rooms successfully combined but there was no door. Could he make a door without paying DP? With a shrug Ian carved an arched doorway in the wall and reabsorbed it. He quickly popped open his status, but no DP had been lost. Doors to and from the core room seemed to be free at least. ¡­.Wouldn¡¯t he be able to extend the size of his core room that way? He supposed he was limited to the appointed volume, but that certainly didn¡¯t seem a problem. All the creatures in the room had looked at the wall as the entrance opened but ignored it after a short while. The jelly in the stone room did come into the core room however. Whether it wanted company, to be closer to his core, or something else Ian didn¡¯t know. Ian removed the stone room and began the actual floor construction. Since he would have the Entrance Hall and Boss Room, Ian built the floor without those in mind like he had originally planned.The short distance tunnels were generally straight while longer tunnels had curves to them. He made multiple paths to the same location which meant there was always a shortest path to the boss room, but Ian would make sure to place the worst rewards there or maybe just randomize it. The rooms were divided into three sizes: small, medium, and large. The small and medium rooms were both circular but the three large rooms each had a unique shape: a triangle with rounded edges, a clover, and a square. He made two long tunnels that wound with multiple dead end paths. There was however a true path to the boss room through both of these tunnels. When all was said and done he still had nearly a full cubic kilometer to work with. Even though Ian liked the layout of his first floor, that¡¯s all it was, a layout. The rooms and tunnels were completely empty except for unnaturally straight rock walls. Now Ian needed to make it look more like a cave. The walls received a makeover with rocks jutting out, imperfections and fissures in the walls, and they became sloped rather than completely straight. Stalactites and stalagmites appeared throughout his cave system along with columns and other natural protrusions. Ian did have to reign in making the caves too natural as adventurers and dungeon divers wouldn¡¯t be able to fight with unstable footing, junk in the way, low ceilings, sudden drops, breakable floors, and other dangerous things formed by nature just being itself. He would leave that stuff for higher tier caves or maybe a whole thirty floors dedicated to fighting in completely natural caves. The caves certainly looked a lot better but they only contained rock. He made sure but forming plants and the like wasn¡¯t possible unless he summoned them. However, Ian was able to make water in multiple forms. Small puddles of water alongside the walls appeared in half the small and medium sized rooms along with some of the tunnels. A small waterfall that led into a small stream which flowed into a small pond appeared in the triangle room. Clover room received just a small pond in the center. He got it so water would periodically drip down the stalactites throughout the floor. Ian flew through the rooms and tunnels giving everything a once over. Satisfied with how the environment looked, Ian moved onto creatures. Only creatures he already created would be placed, since he knew he didn¡¯t need the distraction of creating/summoning new monsters right now. One thing he was happy about was both green cave moss and moving moss could be reshaped as long their surface area was the same. Throughout all rooms and tunnels Ian placed green cave moss and moving moss in different sizes, shapes, places, and patterns. He designated one of the medium sized rooms as the moss room where every surface was covered with both moss types. ¡­.If Ian had hands, he would have smacked his face. None of the green cave moss had mana hearts! Well, he supposed after he updated the basic structure he could replace them as they were taken. ¡­.How would a mana heart fit into a mat of moss comprised of multiple individuals? Hmmm¡­.no! No, he needed to focus on the floor right now. Snap out of it, Ian! With Ian¡¯s mind out of the creature gutter, he proceeded with spiders. One clear web spider for each small room, three clear web spiders for each medium room, and ten clear web spiders for each large room, and they were also sprinkled about the tunnels at lower densities. Ian tripled the density of Soris Web Spiders compared to the the clear web spiders. He then tripled the web spiders number with baby spiders. The spiders were most dense towards the ceilings¡­.he should have put the ferns in first. Ian started placing the ferns throughout the rooms and tunnels to give them a good feel. The ponds and puddles were surrounded by them otherwise they were spread out. However, Ian made sure there was a walkable path through the rooms and tunnels, so the ferns ended up closer together in certain areas. In the hope that ferns with fronds would appear, Ian placed seedlings and spores throughout the adult ferns. The centipedes liked the ferns in the core room, so they were places at the same density as the ferns. Luckily after placing the ferns, more spiders moved to the lower levels, but most still stuck to the ceilings. Phosphorescent mold was the most useful non-dangerous creature on the floor, so Ian decided its density should be lower. His original plan for phosphorescent lighting was put on hold, and he decided to make do with magic lights. Each large room had a large section of the mold along with one of the dead ends of the twisty tunnels which was covered in it. Otherwise small patches of mold were places throughout the rooms and tunnels. With the mold done, Ian wanted to place the mushrooms but held off. A surprising show of control by him. Slimes and jellies were the only ones left to place. These two would be the main fighting force of the floor. There was a twin path each with two sequential small rooms. Both paths fed into another small room making for a total of five rooms. On one path Ian place only slimes while the other path contained only jellies. The first room of each path would have one jelly and slime while the second room had two jellies and slimes. The final fifth room would have two slimes and two jellies for a total of four monsters. A random assortment of slimes and jellies between four and seven were placed in each medium sized room except for the moss room. Large rooms had between ten and twenty jellies. The only small room remaining not associated with the two diverging paths contained either one or two jellies or slimes. Ian was not looking forward to personally having to respawn his creatures, so opened the dungeon shop and looked for respawns.
Dungeon Shop
Creature Respawn 1000 DP
Treasure Respawn 1000 DP
Trap Respawn 1000 DP
Creature Spawn Number Randomizer 1000 DP
Treasure Type Randomizer 1000 DP
The respawn perks did exactly as they said and respawned a creature, treasure, or trap after a certain amount of time. They did state that the individual or thing would only respawn after its main body disappeared and only floors could be designated as respawn areas. Specifically designating a room or tunnel as a respawn area was impossible, at least with these perks. He hadn¡¯t searched for them, but he was thinking about how to randomize. Him choosing how many monsters were in each room wasn¡¯t truly random and that bugged him. Also, if intruders knew what each treasure chest would give then they would start avoiding some and only go for others. Hmmm, Ian was considering buying all five. But while having the respawns would be good, would instancing his dungeon be better? He searched for Dungeon Instance and it came up but was ten thousand DP, affordable but much more expensive. Ian thought about it for a while but realized he didn¡¯t need these right now as no intruders would be coming into his dungeon for another three hundred and eighty three days. With all but his new monsters placed, Ian moved onto the treasures. He wanted two types of treasures on this floor, hidden treasures and challenge treasures. There would be a single hidden treasure in each of the large rooms, two hidden treasures randomly in medium sized room, and five challenge treasures down dead ends. The question was how Ian was going to randomize treasure locations? Simple. He was going to create interconnected teleportation spheres that randomly teleported the treasure chest every hour. Ian had been manipulating pure mana while making and evolving his creatures along with creating his floor. However he had yet to transform that mana into magic. The entire dungeon was his body, so Ian surmised that he should be able to cast mana anywhere inside his dungeon. The flow of mana inside his dungeon was slightly more refined that his body was even at the EX rank. Before trying the moderately complicated teleportation spheres, Ian created the simple spell: Light. As his mana was all attributeless he pulled the mana he as going to use into straight lines that spread out from a center and would reflect at known angles. After the conversion of his mana into Light attribute mana, the detailed image of a dim glowing ball appeared in his mind and soon after appeared in the center of a medium sized room. Everything had gone off without a hitch, with the only noticeable difference being his dim ball of light was constantly receiving mana. It made sense, if he had to create fifty magics and magic formations for each floor and constantly maintain them even he would start having mana problems. With a thought the dim light ball disappeared, he would make more interesting lights later. Simple spells worked, so onto complicated ones. Ian started making the formation near the wall of one of the medium sized rooms. The formation had to completely surround and intersect the object of interest. No line could touch one another while constantly jumping and moving through space all within a three dimensional construct. Space mana and magic didn¡¯t like being in one place for too long, so this was all a requirement for the mana to flow properly. To get the formation to activate an inscribed magic was much simpler than setting up a properly flowing mana formation. All that had to be done was overlay the nearly complete mana structure that was the spell right before it became magic. This would twist the formation into the proper structure to activate the spell. Formations no longer had to attempt to mimic the mental image of a spell and only produce reduced effects. To complete the formation Ian added safety, invisibility, and exception spells to prevent body parts from being teleported away, prevent curious mages from analyzing his formation on such an early floor, and to make sure only treasure chests would be teleported. Pleased with his work, Ian created nineteen more formations in dead ends and medium sized rooms. The connections were created between formations by a string of space mana that vibrated upon activation of a formation forcefully activating another formation to receive the incoming teleportation. The strings totaled one hundred and ninety. Randomization of the process was achieved by the constantly shifting nature of the formation itself. Mana strings flowed throughout the formation shifting between the outer edge and the center. The string closest to the center vibrated the strongest resulting in that string becoming the connection. Ian finished his formations, and realized he had no idea how to create treasure chests. Were they a part of the floor he could form? He thought about creating a treasure chest and it popped into existence right in front of him. The usual wood chest that all dungeons had stood in front of him. Could he create different looking chests? Ian tried making as many different chests as possible, but could only create one more in addition to the original wood chest, a stone chest. The stone chest looked like the surrounding rocks of the cave which gave it a camouflage factor. The wood chest would be used for the challenge chests¡­.hmmm¡­.with the teleporting chests did his challenge chest idea even make sense anymore? Not really. Lower floors with stronger monsters would work better for challenges anyway. Moving on, the stone chests would be the hidden chests in the large rooms. Five teleportation formations were created in the large rooms and a stone chest was placed in each room. Ian supposed stone chests were enough camouflage for a G- rank floor. Originally Ian had planned on separating the medium sized room chests and the dead end chests. However, without a functional difference between them he had just made a single network. The large teleportation network had a much greater chance of a treasure chest showing up at a location, so he should make them contain less treasures. The treasure would either have ten stone coins or two G- rank mana stones. The treasure chests in the large rooms would have ten stone coins, two G- rank mana stones, and a weapon. The problem was the weapons were terrible, but Ian supposed he could enchant them. However, they would need to be single use enchantments for such a terrible material. An Arming Sword appeared and clattered to the floor. Tired of stuff hitting the floor, Ian formed extremely dense mana threads to act as hands allowing him to see all sides of the sword. Ian chuckled to himself as he put a flame enchantment on the sword. Short, curved, and fierce lines surrounded by a unbreaking circle composed this enchantment which include setting the blade of the weapon on fire for fifteen minutes and forming a protective barrier around the weapon for ten minutes. The time limits came from the infused fire and barrier mana, so this kind of enchantment was activated with a thought rather than personal mana, mana stone, or ambient mana. Just in case someone was smart enough to turn the enchantment off when the barrier disappeared the enchantment also contained a spell which erased the enchantment after a single use. If the inscribed enchantment was saved, then only fire and barrier mana in the right amounts would be needed to activate it. Ian also included single use sharpness, hardness, and flexibility enchantments that made the weapons act like a normal sword, mace, and bow respectively.
Achievement: First Enchanted Treasure Created. +1,000 DP
Ian also received +100 DP awards for the seventeen different enchanted items he created. With treasures out of the way, Ian should have turned to traps but instead turned to creating lights. Two types of light came into existence across the floor. The first was a transformation of the basic light spell. Rather than dim globes, thin strands of light hung from the ceiling giving off enough light to see a few feet in front of an intruder. The second set of lights were based off a light spell used by dancers to create their light shows. Long lines of light that curved, intersected, and looped with one another covered the walls, ceilings, and floors. The long lights provided enough light such that the caves were only slightly darker than a normal autumn¡¯s day outside. The strands of light were much longer in the large rooms to give them enough light. As Ian finished his lights he wondered if they should all be natural light or be multicolored, but the nag at the back of his mind kept reminding him about traps. None of the traps Ian picked seemed worthwhile, so he started making trap formations. Multiple flash formations appeared throughout the floor. The formations that shot a burst of bright light out were placed on the ceilings while the activation formations were placed a foot behind them on the floor. The activation formations activated upon physical contact, but Ian made exceptions in the formation for every creature on the floor. He made sure to test it, but water drops from stalactites didn''t activate the formations. Non-lethal water jet formations were placed on the walls of a tunnel stacked vertically with the activator in the center. Lethal Rock Spike formations were placed so the formation was directly above the activator and a spike made out of rock would launch towards the invader¡¯s head at the speed of a falling stalactite. The formations shined dimly without the invisibility spell he placed on the teleporations formations, he couldn¡¯t make a G- rank floor too hard. Pleased with his three trap types, Ian looked at his floor checklist. His smile turned upside down when he realized none of his ¡®traps¡¯ counted as traps only magic formations. While grumbling Ian placed ten holes with wooden spikes at the bottom, good to know he could do that, with a very obvious illusion spell that shimmered constantly. When he finished the first one a window appeared in front of him.
Achievement: First Mixed Trap Created +1000 DP
Achievement: First Minor Illusion Pitfall with Wood Spikes Created +100 DP
At least something good came out of him making a trap. After looking at his status, Ian had used about three and a half million mana on his floor. While he had created far more than the average first floor, the amount of mana it took him to simply create a room or tunnel seemed far too high for any low rank dungeon to create a floor. ¡­.Mental commands. ¡°Make Room.¡± A square stone room ten meters cubed appeared. ¡°Make Tunnel.¡± A tunnel twenty meters long and five meters wide appeared. The mana cost to make each one was low at only ten mana a piece. Highly structured and dungeon created objects seemed to require a lot less mana. Ian supposed he could have constructed a treasure chest on his own rather than summoning it. After creating a few more rooms and tunnels, Ian was done with his experiment and erased the newly created rooms and tunnels. Quite pleased with his work, Ian flew through the floor once again filled with wonder at what he created. Pleasure flooded through him as he realized he was making a dungeon. All Ian had left to do was make a fungus monster, connect the floor to the core room, and figure out why he hadn¡¯t met the requirements for Magical Beauty. He was a bit worried about the last one. Chapter 7 Ian zoomed back into the dungeon to create his fungal monster. Even though he was creating a monster from biota, he was pretty sure the monster would be an Ankle Biter with how ubiquitous they were. Mushrooms about half a calf muscle high grew a mouth with sharp teeth and tried to bite anything that passed them. They were quite common monsters in fungal ecosystems and dungeons. The Clear Web Spider he had created earlier was likely something he hadn¡¯t seen before because he infused it with attributeless mana. Most biota have nature attribute mana when they are born and only later in life does that have any possibility of changing. If Ian had infused the web spider with nature mana, it would have likely transformed into a normal web spider monster. When he had the time, going through all the attributes was a must. A red cap mushroom spore was summoned in Ian¡¯s core room. He could have done it in the first floor, but he liked experimenting in his core room. Just like the other biota, he infused mana and aged it into a normal red cap mushroom, except he used nature mana this time.
Race: Red Cap Mushroom
Attribute: Nature
Development: 0/100
Description
A very common poisonous mushroom throughout the world. This mushroom can be used to create weak poisons, but if cooked properly can be eaten for nutritional value.
Ian created the nature attribute mana heart in the cap of the mushroom. He lost the same amount of mana as he had when creating the web spider¡¯s mana heart. After updating the basic structure, nature mana flowed into the mushroom. At 100/100 development, the only evolution available showed Ian was right. The red cap which had been at ankle height grew to halfway up a human calf muscle and a hole with razor sharp teeth opened on the lower end of the stalk. A few quick snaps of its mouth, and the Ankle Biter seemed to huff at their being nothing to chew on and its mouth disappeared.
Race: Ankle Biter
Rank: G-
Attribute: Nature
Development: 0/100
Titles: Biotic Born
Skills
Spore Creation Bite
Poison Secretion
Description
A common monster in fungal ecosystems and dungeons. It comes in many varieties depending on what normal kind of mushrooms there are in the environment. Depending on what type of mushroom it mimics it may gain additional skills. Like other fungal monsters it can create spores, but has also developed the ability to bite its opponents. Its mouth blends in and becomes nearly impossible to see when not attempting to bite something. The biggest detriment to making this monster dangerous is its inability to move. While its bites can hurt like a bitch, if you stand far enough away it¡¯s a sitting duck.
Common Item Drops
G- Mana Heart Mushroom
With red caps and ankle biters in hand, Ian started placing them throughout the Deep Cave First Floor. Ankle Biters were placed at corners to catch intruders unaware and chew on their namesake. The red caps were placed in a similar manner to the ferns throughout the floor, but Ian made sure to mix in ankle biters to keep people on their toes. There was a sequence of three medium sized rooms with the middle one being the moss room. Should he make the other two in a similar style? Yeah, he should. The farthest from the entrance of the three rooms would be the mushroom room. Unlike the moss room that only had moss, the mushroom room already had ferns, moss, spider, jellies, slimes, centipedes, mold, puddles, and traps in it. Ian removed all the creatures but kept the flash and earth spike traps along with the puddles. Just like the moss room every square inch was covered with mushrooms and ankle biters. The problem of the size difference between red caps and ankle biters was overcome when Ian realized that 100/100 nature development red caps were the same size as ankle biters. The windows offered to make the 100/100 development mushrooms the basic red cap structure, but Ian refused. However, the windows offered him another choice. For 1,000 DP he could make the 100/100 development red caps a separate creature entry. Unsure of how useful it would be, Ian almost said no but decided that he would need to test it at some point and accepted. The new entry was termed a Medium Red Cap Mushroom. The most noticeable difference was the previous full development was now at zero. Ian¡¯s mind was about to go into full ¡®what amazing things could he do with this new information¡¯ mode, but the combination of his nagging subconscious and having relearned some personal control kept him on task. So, since he had two of three themed rooms making a fern monster for the third room was completely on task.The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there. For the fern monster, Ian decided to keep the nature attribute going. The monster that resulted was termed a Constriction Fern. It looked the same as a normal fern, but when something got too close it would extend its leaves toward the intruder, wrap around any available space, and constrict. At G- rank it didn¡¯t have much force behind it, but it was a nuisance.
Race: Constriction Fern
Rank: G-
Gender: Hermaphrodite
Attribute: Nature
Development: 0/100
Titles: Biotic Born
Skills
Spore Creation Extend
Constrict
Description
A common fern monster in forests, caves, and dungeons. It¡¯s size and shape do not change from the type of fern it is based off of, so its reach and ability to cause harm are determined by its original species. Instead of the pollen creation skill of most plant monsters, it has the spore creation skill that most fungal monsters have.
Common Item Drops
G- Mana Heart Frond
After the creatures were removed, the third room of three, the closest to the entrance still had a puddle, pitfall, earth spike trap, and a treasure location. Like the mush-room, he kept the puddle, traps, and treasure but filled every space with ferns and constriction ferns. It was certainly unusual to see ferns growing from the ceiling, but the more unusual part was gravity didn¡¯t seem to affect them. Maybe it was one of those things where he didn¡¯t want gravity to affect them, so it didn¡¯t. He¡¯d fuss and examine it when he had the time. The final of three themed rooms was complete, and Ian made sure to place constriction ferns throughout the floor like he did with moving moss and ankle biters. Ian had a feeling that making a core connection didn¡¯t have anything to do with Magical Beauty, so figuring out why his floor didn¡¯t meet his subconscious requirements was next. He zoomed about the floor until he stopped at one of the ponds. ¡­.There was nothing in it. That wouldn¡¯t do. What did he have? No fish sadly, but snails and salamanders would fit. Even with snails and salamanders the lack of fish bugged him. ¡­.A light spell appeared above his head. He could make illusionary fish that swam in the pond and up the stream! Now, did he want to make illusionary cave fish or another kind of fish? Lack of pigmentation and red eyes may increase their magical effect for unknowing intruders. Cave fish it was then. Converting into illusionary mana required constantly tricking the mana into different types until it believed it was every attribute. This allowed illusionary mana to form into any shape imagined by the user easily. The best illusions mimicked everything about the original until the mana ran out. With mana not running out in his dungeon, the illusions he created would last until dispelled or taken out of the dungeon. The illusionary cave fish mimicked real cave fish to the best of Ian¡¯s ability. The micro world Ian had discovered through the mana stone made him sure he hadn¡¯t replicated that part of the fish correctly. However, anyone but him would find the fish a perfect replica.The best part of the illusion spell was it didn¡¯t just trick creatures it even tricked the world around it. The water in the ponds reacted as if actual fish were swimming around in them. Ian wondered how long it would take people to figure out they were illusions. Hopefully not too soon because it would take a SS rank Illusion Mage at minimum to see through it. He certainly didn''t want someone that strong strolling through his dungeon with only a couple floors. ....Maybe he should get rid of the fish....nah. It was time to make snails and salamanders. With six monster types already present on the floor, Ian decided that placing anymore would be overkill. So, he did what he always did and pumped the biota full of mana until they forcefully grew up. The salamander, unlike the other biota he had forced to grow up, had four stages including adulthood compared to the three stages of the rest. The cave snails were placed around every available water source on the floor, while the salamanders were concentrated around the two ponds. Five salamanders were allowed to roam around the floor however. Why five? Ian just felt like it was a good number.
Race: Soris Cave Snail
Gender: Hermaphrodite
Attribute: Nature
Development: 0/100
Description
A cave snail. Just like all other snails, except this one has lost its pigmentation.
Race: Spotted Salamander
Gender: Female
Attribute: Nature
Development: 0/100
Description
A primarily black amphibian with yellow spots. It spends most of its time on dry land and enters ponds during breeding season. Its larval diet consists of zooplankton while its adult diet primarily consists of insects.
Ian didn¡¯t know what zooplankton were, but he did love the new information. After filling up the ponds with biota and illusions, he did another zoom through the floor but didn¡¯t find anything that stood out. Ian did a much more thorough examination of the floor looking for anything that bugged him which took a couple of days. What he found was a mountain of little things that didn¡¯t harm the floor in any way and were hardly noticeable. If these were the reason Magical Beauty wasn¡¯t met, then did he have a problem? He wasn¡¯t that fussy was he? With a sigh Ian started fixing the little things he noticed about the floor. Most of the problems consisted of something looking too manmade rather than natural. Others included improper density arrangement of vegetation, ugly looking rocks, illusions that didn¡¯t improperly shimmer in the right way, and traps that only worked 99.9% the same way. Ian really hoped Magical Beauty had taken his love of magical and natural beauty and cranked it up by a thousand percent. He didn¡¯t want to be the kind of person that fussed over such inane details subconsciously. ¡­.Admittedly while one small change didn¡¯t make a difference, the cumulative effect did make his floor look a lot better. After two weeks, or sixteen days, of fixing problems, Magical Beauty was finally met. Chapter 8 What Ian didn¡¯t expect to happen after meeting the requirements for Magical Beauty was obtaining the ability to place the Entrance Hall and Boss Room. Wasn¡¯t he supposed to complete the first floor before getting those? It¡¯s not like he wanted to wait longer, but everyone has questions when something happens that they don¡¯t expect. However, the only requirements Ian had left were the connection and passage to the core room. Considering intruders had to enter through the Entrance Hall and exit through the Boss Room, getting the two rooms before the passage requirements were fulfilled made sense. It seemed requirements were more flexible than he thought. He should not focus on requirements as the strict guidelines they seemed, but rather focus on the intent they conveyed. The Entrance Hall was placed before the room with the five diverging paths while the Boss Room was placed after the room where all paths converged. When placed both rooms conformed to the terrain type of the floor. The Entrance Hall was the volume of one of his large rooms on the floor but square and obviously made to accommodate the sapient races. The Boss Room was between a medium room and a large room and shaped like a perfect half sphere. Now, which room should he start with? ¡­.Boss Room. His vision focused on the room and the room menu appeared.
Boss Room (Deep Cave Floor 1)
Level: 1
Available Upgrades
Create Boss 0 Mana/0 DP
Finally, something free. ¡­.The tutorial gave a ton of free shit? Shut up. Ian quickly focused on the Create Boss upgrade.
Please choose boss type.
Single Strong Boss
Slightly Strong Boss with Minions
Party Boss Composed of Monsters
At least he had some options. Why couldn¡¯t he just create his own boss dammit. *sigh*. ¡°Let¡¯s just go with the basics,¡± thought Ian as he picked the Single Strong Boss. Hopefully he could mess with the options later, otherwise he would be very butthurt. Another window appeared.
Please choose a boss.
Large Jelly [F-]
Large Slime [F-]
Enraged Fern [F-]
Mushroom Man [F-]
Moss Ball [F-]
Medium Clear Web Spider [F-]
No matter its density, any monster could have a boss it seemed. Each boss was a full letter rank above their base monster. These seemed to fit the boss monster pattern in low rank dungeons and low level floors, but high rank dungeons must pump their Boss Room full of mana and DP to get more options. The window did seem to agree with Ian that the clear web spider was the most dangerous monster making it only medium instead of large. Ian gave the descriptions for each boss monster a detailed read. Just like the spider, the jelly and slime bosses were just larger versions of their G- rank counterparts. The jelly and slime reached two meters tall while the spider reached half a meter. However, their larger size didn¡¯t add any weaknesses like being slower or less nimble which made them harder overall. Mushroom Man was a larger ankle biter with legs. The addition of legs allowed it to move, but it would still only bite intruders. The Enraged Fern couldn''t move like the Mushroom Man, but its leaves could extend much further and constrict much harder than the constriction fern. Constant flailing of its leaves even when intruders weren¡¯t present added the Enraged prefix, however it never intentionally flailed its leaves to hurt invaders it simply did so subconsciously. Ian felt ¡®enraged¡¯ was a misnomer, but sometimes the system called things stupid names. A scrunched up ball of moss accurately described the Moss Ball. It could do everything moving moss could but faster as it had the ability to bounce around. The ability to bounce around also added physical attacks to it repertoire. Should Ian go with the strongest, medium clear web spider, weakest, mushroom man, most unique, moss ball, or generic, jelly and slime? The Fern? Ian wasn¡¯t a big fan of immobile bosses. Maybe if the option to have multiple bosses showed up in later upgrades. Hmmm¡­.Moss Ball it was. It fit with the enormous amount of moss he had throughout the floor.
Forming Boss¡­.Please Wait.
Huh. Ian watched as mana poured in from outside his dungeon and started to coalesce into his chosen Floor Boss. After a minute of swirling mana, the Moss Ball formed with a plop. It looked a lot like a Moss Jelly. However, a moss jelly would be squishy while the moss ball was spherical with none of the squish. The outside was covered in moss. It didn¡¯t look like it could absorb sustenance with its roots like moving moss could, but Ian knew better. It could extend roots through its surface, and it could split open and act like a normal mat of moss. Ian liked the moss ball as it was a rarity. Moss monsters had difficulty getting enough experience to evolve. Happy with his boss monster, but hoping he could change some things he reopened the room window.
Boss Room (Deep Cave Floor 1)
Level: 1
Available Upgrades
Create Exit 0 Mana/0 DP
Chosen Upgrades
Boss Created
Yeah, it was definitely ¡®Create Boss¡¯ before. Guess the system wanted its windows to have proper tense. Also, an exit but no entrance? Well, he did technically already have an entrance. With disdain is vision drited to the large hole in the wall that connected his main floor with the boss room. Ian supposed he could simply choose to create an exit and have stairs leading down to his core room, but he had an idea. He closed the window and moved his focus to a square alcove obviously meant for whatever exit he created. Mana wasn¡¯t allowed to reform the shape of a Room, but what about creating magic or magic formations? First, Ian started creating a space formation on the walls of the alcove, but the Room Window appeared. Ian grunted in annoyance, but he had expected this. Instead of laying the formation on the walls and floors of the Room, he made the entire formation in the air like he had done for all but the bottom part of the treasure formations. The window didn¡¯t appear, and Ian was able to successfully complete a transfer formation. For Ian the difference between a transfer and a teleportation formation was teleportation was randomized while a transfer formation allowed for selective movement. Most just called both teleportation formations however. Selective movement was allowed by adding mana into the formation. As many didn¡¯t have a good handle on changing their mana attribute, Ian added that little function into the formation so any mana would do. After mana was added into the formation, then an illusion would appear that mimicked the system¡¯s windows. This illusionary window would display different locations which were connected to said locations via space mana strings. Touching the location on the window would activate the string and teleport anyone inside the formation to the resulting location. Since the formation had to be off the ground, Ian added a levitation spell to the formation that levitated anyone who was partially in the formation. Sadly even as an EX rank Mage he couldn¡¯t accurately read the mana signature of specific individuals.Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation. Ian was happy with his work before a window popped into his vision.
To use your teleportation formation as an exit, please purchase the Dungeon Teleportation Upgrade for both the Entrance Hall and Boss Room.
Ian¡¯s vision shook a little. He created it. Why did Ian have to spend DP on something he made? It pissed Ian off, but dammit he wanted his transfer formations. As Ian prepared to purchase the necessary Room upgrades, the window in front of him shook a bit and new words erased the old ones.
*cough* Excuse me. Before you go buy those upgrades, I have a proposition that may intrigue you.
¡­.What in the fresh Depths was this? Was the system talking to him? It was supposed to be similar to an advanced formation that did its job without any thought. ¡­.Was someone using the system to trick him? They must have hijacked it to make it look like the system was talking to him. But for what purpose? Before he could finish his train of thought the window changed again.
You¡¯re probably thinking this is impossible or someone hijacked me and is trying to trick you. However, I am one of the lesser gods of the universe. We simply agreed that it would better for everyone if sapients thought I was an unthinking entity that simply did its job. I know it¡¯s hard to believe, but I really need to make a deal with you. What do you say?
Truly Ian had no reason not to believe it since the idea of hijacking the system was considered impossible. However, Ian knew through Tidon that Greater Gods more powerful than the ones that ruled his universe existed. He decided to remain cautious but believe the system. ¡°Why would I agree to make a deal with you until I know what you want?¡±
True. What I wish is to make your teleportation formation the standard teleportation formation across all dungeons.
Couldn¡¯t it have just stolen the formation from Ian? It was supposed to be the all seeing system. ¡­.Except it wasn¡¯t. It had just told him it was a lesser god of this universe. Unera had struggled with some of the formations Ian had devised. It would make sense that if the Goddess of Magic couldn¡¯t understand some of his formations at first look, then another lesser god would have an even harder time. Now, what could he get out of the system? ¡°An interesting proposition, but what would I get in return?¡±
Let¡¯s see. How about 10,000 DP?
¡°....Are you trying to piss me off?¡±
I¡­.I¡¯m sorry. That was incredibly rude of me. ¡­.What am I an idiot? Offering such a low number to someone supported extensively by the others. Besides there is a very distinct possibility he might be able to kill us.
¡°I¡¯m starting to believe that you¡¯re the system. You don¡¯t seem very used to communicating your own thoughts over the windows.¡± Also, a Greater God probably wouldn¡¯t have made that kind of mistake. Although, it could be trying to trick him. *sigh*. He¡¯d be running himself around in circles with this train of thought. He should just stick with his motto of trust them until they give him a reason not to.
What are you ta-....*cough* Let me make you a better deal then. How about a million DP?
¡°That is certainly a better offer, but I was thinking something more in line with receiving a percentage of DP spent by dungeons acquiring my transfer formation. And any dungeon functions that I can replicate with my magic are completely DP free.¡±
That¡¯s¡­.That¡¯s a bit much. I don¡¯t want to get yelled at by the others. How about anything you can replicate with magic for free and a million DP? The DP amount is a lot less compared to what you would get with every purchase, but the prep year is when you¡¯re the lowest on DP. It would be very helpful to you right now.
¡°I see your point. I am going to need one more thing in addition. I want to be able to use my magic on the Rooms without having the Room window pop up to tell me I can¡¯t every time.¡±
Agreed.
¡°Alright then. Do you want to use the formation I already made with levitation implemented or use the new one I make after you pay me?¡±
I¡¯ll take the new one, thank you very much.
¡°Before I make the new formation, can I ask you some questions?¡±
I suppose so.
¡°I understand you can¡¯t steal my formation because you can¡¯t understand it, but the dungeons already come implemented with working transfer formations. Why do you need a better one?¡±
¡­.I¡¯m going to ignore that first part, and are you having memory problems?
¡°What are y-, oh right, them. I do make my formations so they can¡¯t be hijacked. However, don¡¯t the Dungeon Killers mainly target low rank dungeons without transfer formations?¡±
True, their main focus is on low rank dungeons. However, their stronger members like to go after the stronger dungeons. Besides stalling the Dungeon Killers, your formations combined with mana signature recognition will allow intruders to teleport to any floor they¡¯ve been to previously! The old formations only allowed the next floor or the deepest floor the intruder had been to. Your formations would also allow for non-linear dungeon design!
That last part was Ian¡¯s main reason for wanting to use his own transfer formation. He wanted different terrain floors to go from G- to EX rank, but having to go through the EX rank Deep Cave floor to get to the G- rank Prairie floor didn¡¯t make sense. For now intruders would have to go through the G- Deep Cave floor, but in the future he hoped for a mining floor on top which then led to the G- rank floors. However, to get to the core room an intruder would have to clear all floors. He had hoped the system wouldn¡¯t think of the non-linear dungeon design but too bad. At least he knew what the system intended to use the formations for. ¡°This is just for the dungeon teleportation that intruders use to get throughout the dungeon, right? No traps?¡±
Of course. Giving traps and trap patterns is under the purview of the dungeon auction. Well, selling not giving.
¡°Right. Payment please.¡± Ian opened his status and saw the brand spanking new one million DP present. He erased the formation in the alcove and made the same one without the levitation and on the walls, ceiling, and floor instead of the air. Ian also made sure to make all parts but the one on the floor invisible. Most dungeon teleportation formations were floor only. Ian zoomed to his core room and moved the entrance to the Entrance Hall. When he returned, an alcove the same size of the one in the Boss Room had appeared. He created the same formation here and added the mana string between the two. After everything was in working order, the system thanked him and the window finally disappeared. What a haul. He could freely create magic in the rooms, and he got a million DP. His only regret was not properly looking at DP costs prior to the negotiations. If he had, then he would have known how far a million DP would go. He could only hope that DP purchases maintained their level from what he had seen so far, or he could replicate most of what he needed with magic. His three Rooms were barebones besides the Moss Ball and his transfer formations. Well, his core room was teeming with creatures, but Ian meant upgrades. He had implemented a transfer formation in the Entrance Hall and in doing so realized he was a fucking idiot. He hadn¡¯t made sure he could create his magic formations through outside mana as other dungeon functions could. The boss had been created with outside mana, but he made the transfer formations with his own mana. He quickly tried to make a transfer formation from the dungeon menu rather than his own mana. A transfer formation appeared, and it worked just like the ones he created. He was lucky, really lucky. The system could totally have been an ass and made him create each formation on his own. He really wished he had the others to help him negotiate, he wasn¡¯t the best at it. It seemed he only really got what he wanted because the system seemed afraid of him. *sigh* Should he focus on upgrading the rooms, making new floors, or evolving his creatures? The Entrance Hall and Boss Room were pretty bare bones, but at least the floor was comp-, wait, he still had zero floors on his status. Please no. Ian opened the floor menu and was met with his worst nightmare. Even though the connection and path to core room were met, Magical Beauty was no longer met. The horror. It looked like upgrading the rooms was his top priority. He could only hope these upgrades would carry over to subsequent entrance rooms and boss rooms, otherwise that one million DP he just got wouldn¡¯t go that far. Chapter 9 Finish the boss room or start the entrance hall? ¡­.It didn¡¯t really matter. Entrance Hall it was then. A blank stone square room greeted him as he opened the room menu.
Entrance Hall (Deep Cave Floor 1)
Level: 1
Available Upgrades
None
Chosen Upgrades
Entrance Created
Exit Created
Dungeon Teleportation
It looked like he wouldn¡¯t get any upgrades until he increased the level. With three upgrades Ian used sixty thousand mana to increase the level to four. At level four the sign upgrade, treasure chest upgrade, and translation upgrade became available for 200, 500, and 1000 DP respectively. Ian wondered about the lack of reshape room upgrades. ¡­.He closed the window and reopened it.
Entrance Hall (Deep Cave Floor 1)
Level: 4
Available Upgrades
Reshape Room (Dimensions) 100 DP
Signs 200 DP
Treasure Chests 500 DP
Translation (Written) 1,000 DP
Chosen Upgrades
Entrance Created
Exit Created
Dungeon Teleportation
¡­.He¡¯d rather just get all available options at the start. If he didn¡¯t get options that he wouldn¡¯t normally think of, then these rooms were just DP sinks. As much as Ian grumbled, the idea of purchasing upgrades was slightly enjoyable. That fact truly scared Ian to the core of his being. Being able to use mana to shape the room wasn¡¯t a part of the deal he made with the system, but hey he might as well try. As soon as he did the window popped up into his vision, and Ian experienced immediate regret. He knew he shouldn''t feel regret since testing something out was always a good choice, but whenever that blasted window popped up without his intention he really felt stupid. Beyond reshaping the room, creating physical objects with magic not his dungeon abilities, wasn¡¯t possible, so that left translation. Ian had neutral translation magic, but it required time to learn the ins and outs of a language. Based on the description of the upgrade, it instantly translated any written word in his dungeon so any intruder could read it. Even if the intruder was illiterate or blind, they would implicitly understand what was written there. Sadly mimicking that ability wasn¡¯t within his current magic repertoire. It looked like he would have to purchase all the upgrades. With four more upgrades purchased, Ian was able to raise the Entrance Hall level to six. The requirements for level six increased to two upgrades per level. Ian would need another upgrade to get to level seven. Sub Dimension Creation, Instances, and Reshape Room (Shape) became available at level six for 2000, 3000, and 200 DP respectively. Well, sub dimension creation and reshape room (shape) technically became available at level five. Anyway, he was certainly going to try recreating the sub dimension and instance. Sub dimension would be easy. He had enchanted plenty of space bags in his time. A treasure chest appeared on the floor of the Entrance Hall. ¡­.A desk would be nice. Ian checked the upgrades, but none appeared. Desks were probably a part of the decoration shop. He opened the Dungeon Shop and purchased solid oak desks for a thousand DP. The desk that appeared was a lot nicer than Ian was expecting. It had a glossy finish and looked incredibly sturdy. He supposed he got what he paid for. After shifting the Treasure Chest onto the desk, Ian started creating the sub dimension. There were three ways to create space bags. First was making the inside much larger than it should be. Second was making the inside a connection to a separate enclosed space. Third was creating or connecting to a separate dimension inside the bag. The easiest of the three was creating a connection to a separate space. Connecting to a separate space only required the bag to act as a transfer formation to empty space that has been sealed off somewhere in the universe. While Ian used a transfer formation, most used random teleportation formations. Random teleportations were much easier than directed transfers as most Space Mages learned the hard way. Of course, the risk with random teleportations is the space chosen may not be empty. Now, sealing off a space somewhere that had never been seen before also comes with risks. It is completely possible to accidentally seal something in the enclosed space or harm something by creating the enclosed space. However, if the astronomers at the Soris College of Science were right then there was a lot of unused empty space out there. Ian didn¡¯t like using the easy method because of the unneeded risks. Expanding space was the most sought after with its ease of creation and access compared to a separate dimension. Expanding space required space mana to be forced into a material and create gaps in the material all while making additional connections with space mana. Space mana must also be used to make sure the outside of the bag doesn¡¯t expand at the same rate as the inside of the bag. Previously Ian knew that it worked but not why it worked. After viewing the mana stone, he surmised that he could create much larger expanded spaces if used zoom in to expand in meticulous detail. While expanded space was most sought after, Ian loved creating dimensions. Even with their usefulness, dimensional bags were few and far between. Not only were they difficult to make, but simply creating a connection to another dimension within a bag made it nearly impossible to retrieve anything back from the bag. The owner would have to reach in and grope around for their items. This also happened with space bags, but space bags had much smaller insides. Most dimension bags were simply too large and a person¡¯s items lost forever. Ian¡¯s dimension bags were different. Instead of simply connecting to an already created dimension, he created his own. This allowed him complete control over how large the insides were. To counter the inability to retrieve items from the bag, Ian also used force and illusion magic to retrieve and list all items placed into the bag. Normally Ian required great focus to create his pocket dimensions between his dimension and other dimensions, but as his dungeon seemed to be in a very similar kind of space he simply created his pocket dimension next to his dungeon. It was the easiest pocket dimension he had ever made. He made sure to place a space expansion formation on the pocket dimension, so as items were added the space increased. However, even though he knew he created it in the space near his dungeon he couldn¡¯t see it. It seemed that even when he had the overhead view, his vision was centered on his dungeon. It might be that the white space didn¡¯t actually exist and was in essence filler that allowed his mind to process what it was seeing. Ian finished the transfer formation on the inside of the treasure chest. The force and illusion formations were also complete that allowed tendrils of mana to retrieve the items and a false window to display contained items. Now, he could just let the items appear in the chest as is or he could do what he normally did. What he normally did of course. Ian inscribed another illusion formation combined with a levitation formation. This made the treasure chest look like it contained a black void and when a item was taken out it would levitate out of the black void to be retrieved. Ian did like flair every once in a while. After completion, the sub dimension upgrade was acquired. Ian leveled the room to seven and the mana signature upgrade became available for 5,000 DP. Before he purchased the mana signature upgrade, Ian needed to complete the instance upgrade. The instance upgrade would make or break his mana supply. If for every instance he had to create new pocket dimensions and other formations, even he might start to run into mana problems. Dungeon Instances were something even Ian had difficulty with. Creating duplicate dimensions that overlayed one another was not an easy feat. The most success he had was vibrating everything at slightly different rates and then infusing them with space mana at the same vibration. The problem occured when the vibration had too large of a difference. Those disappeared into what Ian could only assume was a dimension that was so different from his own contacting it was impossible for him. So, unless he could create more instances without them disappearing forever he couldn¡¯t make the upgrade on his own. Did he even have the time? It had been nearly a month, so only nine more remained. If he couldn¡¯t figure it out in a couple decades while human, he doubted he¡¯d find the breakthrough in less than a year. He knew with enough time he could get the instances right eventually, but for now he would have to purchase the upgrade. Ian purchased the Instance upgrade, the Reshape Room (Shape) upgrade, the Mana Signature upgrade, and leveled up the room to eight. The new possible upgrades were Translation (Spoken) and Reshape Room (General). Translation (Spoken) translated any words spoken by the dungeon, so intruders would understand it, for 2,000 DP. It seemed to even work for deaf individuals. Reshape Room (General) combined the effects of the two previous reshape room upgrades and added a little more control for 300 DP. Before he tested out how his purchases worked, he wanted to get Loot Collection. Translation (Spoken) and Reshape Room (General) were both purchased and the room leveled up to nine. Translation (Intruder) and Reshape Room (Specific) appeared but no Loot Collection. Ian purchased the two upgrades and leveled the room up to ten. Loot Collection finally appeared and along with it Reshape Room (All). Happily he purchased both and leveled the room up to eleven. Ian tried to level it up to twelve but he needed three more upgrades purchased. Now, Ian was able to translate what the intruders said and wrote, but sadly he couldn¡¯t hear the thoughts of mute individuals. He could shape the Entrance Hall in any way he wanted like his main floor and collect the loot for the intruders so they didn¡¯t have to do squats throughout his dungeon. Ian observed his Entrance Hall that contained an oak desk, treasure chest, and a clear stone next to the treasure chest. The clear stone was the mana signature reader. Even though he couldn¡¯t see that everything was working in proper order without intruders present, Ian knew that it worked in the exact way he wanted it to work. It was an uncomfortable feeling since he wasn¡¯t in control of it. He wondered how many more of these uncomfortable feelings he would experience as a dungeon. The new knowledge was fantastic, but the fact that something could so easily mess with his mind did not sit well with him. Skills didn¡¯t have this kind of information injection, they simply allowed talents to be trained and used easier. Some would make an argument that they did this by injecting knowledge into minds, but Ian had never had the feeling he was currently having. There were certainly things Ian hadn¡¯t understood while human, but that list seemed to be constantly increasing as a dungeon. Even if he knew everything was working properly, the Entrance Hall still needed some redecorating. Upgrade settings also needed to be messed with. Ian opened the Instance menu in the same way he did everything else, thought controls. It looked like it was set to create an instance every one hundred individuals that entered the dungeon. Thankfully the knowledge of how instances worked had flowed into Ian¡¯s head, so he wouldn¡¯t be constantly draining mana for every creature in every instance. This novel''s true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there. The concession made was Ian would have a default floor setting that every instance copied off of. Once every creature was killed once through every instance, he would have to pony up the mana to recreate the creatures. If all intruders left before a floor was completely cleared, he would have to replenish what was killed instead of waiting for the whole floor to be killed. To make sure all creatures died, the ones that hadn¡¯t died once would migrate to kill zones and become slightly more aggressive. He wondered if this would also apply to sapient individuals, since that information wasn¡¯t present. Each treasure had to be opened and each trap triggered before he had to spend mana. It seemed even though they didn¡¯t count towards his trap count, the magic traps counted as traps in his mana replenishing. The kill, open, and trigger counts would reset after he replenished them. Why he received all this information that applied to his main floor when he only had the Entrance Hall upgrade, he didn¡¯t know. Ian wanted to make it so there was an instance for every adventurer or dungeon diver party. To do that he needed them to register themselves as a party at the entrance. Ian had the mana signature upgrade, but the clear stone would have to be placed on the outside of his dungeon before they came in. ¡­.Didn¡¯t dungeons have something like that without the mana signature stone? If he remembered correctly, parties had to be registered at the Adventurer¡¯s Guild. Also, when he partied with Estella she did something that created a connection between them. He hadn¡¯t really paid attention since parties didn¡¯t interest him. The Dungeon Shop would answer his question. He should search for ¡®Party Instance¡¯.
Dungeon Shop
Party Detection 1,000 DP
It seemed Party Detection detected if a connective magic that shared experience and relative locations was present between individuals. If this magic was present, the party was treated as an individual intruder for some dungeon functions. Ian was enraged at himself. While this connective magic seemed to be similar in nature to his Experience Share that he used with his tamed and summoned monsters, his loner attitude had caused him to completely neglect a type of magic! His book core started to hit itself against the pedestal. The creatures gave askance looks at the dungeon core. After he took his rage out on himself, Ian purchased Party Detection. With his new function in place, Ian changed the Instance settings to create an instance for each party. Of course, this currently only applied to the Entrance Hall. Damn, could he have detected the parties on his own? ¡­.Probably not since he didn¡¯t have a proper recollection of the structure of the spell. Next was allowing parties and individuals to keep track of their progress through the floors. He had the mana signature stone and dungeon teleportation, but the knowledge forced into his head said that wasn¡¯t enough. With his lacking understanding of mana signatures, he would have to buy another function. ¡°Floor Progress.¡±
Dungeon Shop
Fast Travel 5,000 DP
Save Point 1,000 DP
Fast Travel was what he wanted, and it seemed mana signature stones wouldn¡¯t be needed. Save Point just allowed intruders to start at the deepest point they previously reached. ¡­.Wait. The system was certainly fast at updating their store options. As he read through Fast Travel in more detail, he realized that he was receiving fifty percent off for allowing its function to be updated. He supposed his transfer formations were only a part of it, but that didn¡¯t stop him from being peaved about it not being free. With a harsh pointed thought he selected Fast Travel. Ian mimicked exhaling as he realized without the one million DP, he would have run out of DP a while ago. How was he expected to meet Magical Beauty if he needed so much DP? ¡­.Son of a bitch. He didn¡¯t did he? Magical Beauty was about fulfilling himself as a mage, but all his DP purchases were fulfilling himself as a Dungeon Researcher. To test his theory he¡¯d have to not make any DP purchases in the Boss Room. Ian¡¯s vision flowed over the Entrance Hall. He didn¡¯t need any more functions besides the dungeon encompassing instance function. He knew his treasure chest, transfer formation, and pocket dimensions would be accurately duplicated without his input inside multiple instances. A sign was placed above the treasure chest explaining how to use the loot collection system. Dungeon teleportation was updated so if individuals within parties had different fast travel points, then only the fast travel points that all party members had would show up. All that was left was beautifying the Room. This was a safe room, so should he have amenities? Light was obviously needed. A toilet? An oven? Benches? Beds? Obviously the question would be why help intruders out so much? Ian had only accepted the Dungeon¡¯s mission of killing because he understood that the small scale killings inside his dungeon would help prevent the large scale destruction of his world. If Ian didn¡¯t love people and everything they could be, he wouldn¡¯t have spent so much time learning about methods to save people. Would he become someone who could laugh at the idiots and assholes dying in his dungeon? Ian didn¡¯t know. Would being able to laugh at them be better or a sign that something had broken within him? This he also didn¡¯t know. However, he did know that he wanted his entrance rooms to give the intruders a moment of peace before they tried their luck and ability not dying in his dungeon. However, as much as Ian wanted to fill the Entrance Hall with decorations and amenities, they required DP. Ian hadn''t even taken a glance at the trees, so spending DP on decorations wasn¡¯t a good idea at the moment. His vision purposefully avoided the oak desk upon which the treasure chest sat. Since, Ian wasn¡¯t going to make it a comfy place at the moment, he was going to make it a grand entrance. Using the Reshape (All) upgrade to morph the Entrance Hall like he could the main floors, he transformed it into a long straight corridor with grand pillars. The oak desk with treasure chest and mana signature stone on top was placed next to the alcove with the transfer formation inside. To maintain consistency with the first floor he created ribbons of light surrounding each pillar. Each pillar had ribbons of light infused with different attributes of mana resulting in a wide variety of patterns and colors. He inscribed images of each creature on their respective attribute pillars. Of course some were currently blank, but they would be populated as he made more. Instead of the string lights, Ian made crawling ivy lights across the ceiling. Rather than have lines of light throughout the walls, he made each wall and the floor give a low glow that slowly shifted between the different lights and patterns surrounding the columns. Happy with his work, he made sure to fix blemishes as he went this time, Ian moved onto the Boss Room. There was a lot Ian wanted to do to improve the Boss Room, but first he needed to prove that even if he didn¡¯t fulfill all his urges Magical Beauty would be met. Please let it be met. First he needed to improve the opening to the Boss Room, the arch. Now, was the arch considered a part of the Boss Room or his main floor? He tried to move it using mana, but it was unluckily a part of the Boss Room. Instead Ian coated the edges in a blood red light that gave quite the ominous feeling. The light gave the impression that the arch was made of blood red bricks. A metal door would have been nice but he would need¡­.DP for¡­.that. Ian¡¯s book face planted onto the floor. God dammit. He was still of the mindset that magic couldn¡¯t create physical objects, but that was only true because no one had infinite mana. Since his magic was supported by outside mana, then he should be able to make a door! Ian constructed a steel door using metal mana and placed it into the glowing arch. His happiness soon left his as no outside mana was flowing into the door. What the Depths? Even if creating a door didn¡¯t count as a dungeon function for his agreement with the system, his magic should be supported by outside mana because of EX Rank Mage right? ¡­.No, wait. That just gave him the ability to use his magic from his previous life, outside mana wasn¡¯t included. Still, why was his magic supported in the Entrance Hall and not here? The difference this time was he attempted to create a permanent physical object. However, that wasn''t solid proof. ¡°Hey, System. Why the hell can¡¯t I make a door out of magic?¡± However, there was no response even after a couple of minutes. ¡°You said you aren¡¯t supposed to let sapient races know you¡¯re a god, but I already know. Why can¡¯t you talk to me?¡± Ian was once again met with silence. ¡°I¡¯m going to complain to the other gods that you aren¡¯t meeting our deal.¡±
Just because something doesn¡¯t go how you want it doesn¡¯t mean I¡¯m not meeting our deal.
¡°Tell me why I can¡¯t make the door then. I promise not to contact you too much.¡±
I¡¯ll acquiesce this once. However, the fact that I had to talk with you in the first place shows how damn important your teleportation formations were. One of my directives is to NEVER talk to sapients. Besides, aren¡¯t you the one who forgoed the Helper because you ¡®liked to figure things out yourself¡¯?
¡°*cough* I mean, I do. Just, this was tangentially related to our deal, so I might as well ask.¡±
*sigh*. The door not being supported with outside magic has to do with the difference between how dungeons and gods create things and how magic creates things. Dungeons and gods create permanent things while items created from magic must be constantly supplied with mana. Of course, permanent here means they only wear down do to the natural forces of the world rather than the release of mana that magic wears down from.
¡°How are dungeon creations permanent? Sure, some things that come out of the dungeon remain permanent when removed but others disappear.¡±
That is simply a function of the dungeon to prevent items not intended by the dungeon to be removed. Since, some traps and parts of the dungeon are much higher quality than the loot and treasures, removing them may cause unintended technological advancements.
¡°Isn¡¯t that the secondary objective of the gods?
¡­.Of course. But uncontrolled advancements lead to population booms. No proper dungeon wants that.
¡°Right. However, what¡¯s the difference between me creating a door or treasure chest and creating the transfer formations and sub dimension?¡±
It¡¯s dependant on what the function is supposed to be. Even though the teleportation formations and sub dimensions are undispellable in dungeons, they are based off of magic. Whereas, treasure chests and doors are based of physical objects created by the gods.
¡°Alright. Thanks. Talk to you again soon.¡±
No you won¡¯t.
The window seemed to pop out of existence with a more fierce air than normal. With his questions answered, Ian erased the door and continued making the Boss Room without using DP. Since he couldn¡¯t purchase the ability to coat the room in moss, Ian made due with nature infused lights and a green glowing floor. Rather than the lines, strings, or vines of previous lights, Ian attempted to mimicked moss without using illusion magic. The result was glowing magical moss that constantly shifted in the corner of the intruder¡¯s eye and gave the entire room a ethereal look. It was much harder than using illusion magic, as Ian wasn¡¯t nearly as proficient at detailed light magic work. Ian finished all the fine details and stopped to admire his work. As he did a window popped into his vision.
Finish First Floor? YES/NO
He did it. He finished his first floor. DEPTHS YES.
Dungeon Level [1] ¡ú [2]. 1 Cubic Kilometer Floor Space Gained. Mana Generation Increased by 10,000. DP Generation Increased by 1.
With vigor, Ian folded his upper pages and with much more flexibility than a hardcover book should have, he started thrusting the lower part of his book. After ten minutes of constant thrusting, Ian finally folded back onto his pedestal. His current Magical Beauty nightmare was over, he only hoped the future ones wouldn¡¯t last nearly as long. Now, to actually check what he got on level up. Tidon had told himwhat he would get every level up, but Ian had completely forgotten. He would have focused more on leveling if heremembered he got more mana and DP every level. He also doubted he¡¯d ever run out of floor space if he got a cubic kilometer every level up. With his first floor of his series of floors down, he needed to think about actual protection from high level adventurers before making the G rank floor. It took him over a month, a total of forty three days, to do the tutorial, finish his first floor, evolve some creatures, and fix up his Entrance Hall and Boss Room. Most dungeons required at least ten clears with core touches and item creations before the possibility of core destruction occurred. However, Ian wanted to be more than a normal dungeon. The most popular dungeons were ones that either gave good rewards for the amount of work put in or the ones where the core room had never been reached. To Ian the popularity of uncleared dungeons stemmed from the roots of the Adventurer Guild. While most current adventurers were in it for the quick cash, the originators and high level adventurers liked to explore the unknown. If he wanted to be popular with high level adventurers, then constant unexplored floors was a requirement. As he was a fair distance away from civilization, chances of him being found right away were low. However, Ian didn''t like to take chances. His high mana should allow him some high level monsters if he built up his mana reserves a bit. However, simply placing high level monsters wasn¡¯t enough. He needed something to delay them like an incredibly long and intricate maze. They needed to be created now rather than later because he had no idea how long their creation would take him. Next objective in mind, Ian went to see if he could make some adult Oni. Chapter 10 Well, adult Oni weren¡¯t a possibility. If his theory that the amount of experience gained from killing monsters was the cost for him to create a monster, and the cost to forcefully evolve a monster was one hundred times the mana amount to create the next rank, then simply going from an A- rank monster to an A rank monster would require approximately 2,970 days of doing absolutely nothing with his mana. The case of why were there so few high rank monsters in all but high rank and long lived dungeons was coming to light. He had 357 days left and Oni were A rank monsters, so that wasn¡¯t an option. The highest monster rank available to him with his current timetable was a B- rank monster which would take approximately 209 days worth of mana. Afterwards, he would be able to make B- rank monsters at one a day with an additional one every one hundred days. If he only used his mana for B- rank monsters, then he would have a total of 171 B- rank monsters. However, that wasn¡¯t feasible since he needed to make his maze, and he had already made instances which required him to periodically inject mana as creatures were killed. Thankfully the loot was supported by outside mana. Ian referred to it as outside mana, but it worked in a similar manner to the ambient mana when he was human. He termed it ¡®outside¡¯ because it came from outside his dungeon. He had observed himself and everyday the one million mana, now one million ten thousand mana, was injected into him. Generating mana, as his status put it, was correct from the standpoint of his universe, but the reality was he was granted a set amount of mana each day from the Greater God¡¯s universe. Ian used to be able to supplement his mana regeneration from ambient mana, but directly using ambient was a wall he had never been able to cross. Of course, directly manipulating someone or something else¡¯s mana was another story. Supplementing his mana from outside mana wasn¡¯t currently possible. He had no ability to feel outside his dungeon and access that mana. Any attempts he made to divert it to himself when creating items were in vain. In fact, every time he tried a sharp pain would attack his mind and each time he reattempted it the pain would get stronger and stronger. His ability to manipulate mana not his own was no longer present. The pain still hadn¡¯t gotten strong enough to distract the other part of his split mind, but Ian was worried. Should he continue his attempts? He was leaning towards no at this point. As a young dungeon, he had much to learn and didn¡¯t want to give someone, *cough* Greater God *cough*, too much of an excuse to remove him from his current position. He was worried about the pain suddenly stopping and a currently unbreakable part of himself becoming completely breakable. Ian didn¡¯t know why there were so many restrictions on dungeons, but they seemed to be from the Greater God rather than the lesser gods. The lesser gods wanted as much mana as possible coming in to the universe, so any part of the dungeon that was counter to that shouldn¡¯t have been necessitated by them. In fact, how much input on the structure of dungeons came from the lesser gods versus the Greater God? Did any? Some of the design decisions didn¡¯t make a lot of sense. Limiting development through mana rather than some other method seemed like it would slow the mana flow into the universe to a trickle. ¡­.What about encouraging technological development? Was that a requirement imposed on them by the Greater God or were they trying to hit two birds with one stone without the use of magic? Ian truly didn¡¯t know if they were lackeys or idiots. While human, Ian¡¯s reverence for the Gods had dimmed when he realized they were not infallible beings, but their might kept him praying. When he had created magic that even Unera had trouble understanding, he no longer prayed. Even though his reverence and prayers no longer reached them, his faith stat continued to increase through friendship. As a dungeon the Gods were no longer his patrons, and he had no ability to speak with them. While he questioned their decision making skills, it didn¡¯t make him hate them. They were his friends, but he really needed to scold them for being idiots. Still, if the Greater God allowed the lesser gods to take mana in the first place, why was he making the flow of mana such a slow trickle now? Based on what Tidon had said, greater gods liked to give tests to those asking them favors. The dungeons could in essence be a test for mana access. Did the lesser gods have any input besides what souls became dungeons? If they didn¡¯t, then choosing the correct souls might be the Greater God¡¯s test. Maybe the slow trickle of mana wasn¡¯t intended. Instead, it was a result of the lesser gods failing the Greater God¡¯s test. If Ian was right about the Greater God¡¯s involvement, then it made more sense how the system would have the ability to create instances when its understanding of space magic was less than his own. It was likely provided with schematics of different functions. Which meant, did the Greater God intentionally give a crappier transfer formation or did Ian have a greater understanding of transfer formations than a Greater God? Hmmm, so many questions. Hopefully he would have some interesting discussions with other dungeons during the auction. Now, since he couldn¡¯t make adult Oni and didn¡¯t want juvenile Oni, the only monster left that had at least a little sapience was the goblin. He technically didn¡¯t need his powerful monster to need intelligence, but his two chats with the system weren¡¯t quite enough to satisfy even someone like him. However, did he even need B- rank monsters? They would do nothing against A- rank and up intruders. They would probably have some trouble against B and B+ ranks too. Even if he made an excruciatingly long maze, as long as they prepared well enough the intruders would be able to make it through. Hmmm, he supposed then the only way to make sure they couldn¡¯t make it through the maze was his magic. The problem with using magic that could kill SSS ranks and possibly EX ranks is once someone saw that floor, they would think, ¡®Fuck this dungeon, I¡¯m out¡¯. Treasures of equivalent value were the go to, but if no one discovered the vast wealth before they were eviscerated then it was simply a death trap. Of course other dungeons had extremely difficult floors, but they had a long history of providing treasure on other floors before their death traps appeared. As a young dungeon, Ian couldn''t count on built up history. Ian¡¯s book clapped together. That would be where the B- rank goblins came in. They would be much easier than the EX rank of the floor but drop valuable equipment above their level. Interspersed between packs of goblins would be the death traps. In the beginning of the maze, traps could be avoided by paying attention to how the goblins act. The goblins would act happy as intruders approached traps and grumpy when they went away from traps. They would also try to lead intruders into traps but have terrible poker faces while doing so. However, the latter half of the maze would have unpassable traps that needed to be disarmed. Ian would make these traps only disarmable to SSS rank mages of the equivalent mana attribute or SSS rank rogues. The EX rank difficulty would come from multiple attribute traps and multiple dead ends that spelled instant death from EX rank traps. Of course, the instant death traps would have warnings that everyone would follow. Now what would Ian do about the trap requirement of the floor? Having a shitty trap in the midst of magnificent formations didn¡¯t sit well with Ian, and he was pretty sure it wouldn¡¯t sit well with Magical Beauty. He supposed the only way to improve those was to finally use the Trap tree. Ian was loath to get lost in what he could only assume would be a drain on his DP, but he would have toexamine the dungeon trees eventually. Ian opened the Hole tree and was surprised at how little there was. He was presented with two options to evolve the one meter cubed hole. Either increase the depth of the hole for 100 DP or increase the width and length of the hole for 100 DP. Depth it was. Ian received the ability to make the improved trap, but what he didn¡¯t expect was to receive a free 1 meter by 1 meter by 2 meters hole trap. The free hole trap didn¡¯t give him any DP, but as soon as he personally created one he received the 100 DP first creation achievement. ¡­.He should purchase as many 100 DP evolutions as possible. That¡¯s just what Ian did. At least for traps and treasures. The 100 DP purchases for traps and treasures simply amounted to slightly better materials, slightly larger, or they work slightly better. Ian was able to make a couple 100 DP purchase for each item, but they all eventually started requiring 200 DP. The hole trap was now five meters deep, but it still only had a square meter area. Ian could still go back and purchase the increased area, but each evolution required 1,000 DP instead of the original 100. If things went like they were described during the tutorial in regards to his Magic Tree, then every non-chosen branch on the 1,000 DP line would cost 10,000 DP. Also, his original 100 DP branch would became 1,000 DP. He could definitely see why choosing the right path the first time was important. The evolutions for the hole didn¡¯t require detailed descriptions to get their point across, but would creature evolutions provide enough detail for the proper choice? The web spider¡¯s tree popped up into Ian¡¯s vision, and he was surprised at what he saw. Spreading from the web spider were five different spider monsters with the clear web spider already chosen. The other four included Web Spider, Glowing Spider, Regenerating Spider, and Distorted Spider. After Ian read their descriptions, they were spiders originating from nature mana, light mana, healing mana, and space mana respectively. Also, the descriptions were the same ones he received when he evolved his creatures. An interesting thing Ian noticed was even though it cost 1,000 DP to choose another spider evolution, there were no G rank evolutions available. However, Ian was able to bring up a separate clear web spider menu which had G rank evolution options at the normal rate of 100 DP. Ian brought up the trees of other biota and unlike the web spider they didn¡¯t have any evolution options. It made sense, since he was the first to actively evolve a biota into a monster. It seemed to get future evolution options he would have to personally evolve his biota into monsters.You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author. The thing that confused Ian was there were a lot more mana attributes than the five offered to him. Were DP evolutions restricted in this way? Only five at most? Ian tried to increase the available options by infusing different mana attributes into the window, thinking of different spider evolutions, and he even nicely asked the window to please give him more monster evolutions. No more options became available. If no more than five options were available, then how were the original five decided? The hole trap had given him a continuous set of two simple options each time, but how were the five mana attributes for the spiders determined. It only took Ian a short while to figure out they represented attributes which he was highly skilled in. Of course, it wasn¡¯t a perfect representation, it included nature mana instead of illusion mana. Why nature instead of illusion? Ian could make conjectures like nature was the basic evolution attribute, but he didn¡¯t know for sure. While his creature trees were interesting, he¡¯d rather not use DP for his creatures and instead rely on mana. With that Ian turned his attention back to the hole and wood spike traps in an attempt to make a highly deadly version of the illusion pitfall he made on the first floor. He currently had a deep hole and large, sharp, and reinforced wood spikes. Thankfully the next five options for the hole followed the same pattern as the first four however theDP expenditure did double to 200 DP. Ian had a five meter wide by five meter long by six meter deep hole at the end. The wood spikes had a wider variety of options. Serrated, strongly poisonous, and stone spikes are what Ian settled on. Thankfully upgrading to stone spikes didn¡¯t erase any of the previous evolutions. While not completely up to tier, if he added in a few more magical effects in addition to the illusion then it would all work out. He¡¯d make their final form when building the maze. With the boring part of the work done on traps, creating acceptable treasure was next. Ian glanced through his treasures, but none of them really seemed to fit the magical trap theme of the floor. With a sigh Ian sucked it up and purchased a magic staff tree for 10,000 DP. It was of course made of balsa. As Ian prepared to put DP into the tree pit, he stopped himself. Even if he made the best magic staff ever, if no one found the chest then it didn¡¯t matter. ¡­.Oh! He¡¯d make the main monsters on the floor B- rank goblin mages. They¡¯d be equipped with the strong staffs, but drop weakened versions. Then the stronger versions would be in chests throughout the floor. Yeah, that would work. However, he needed to make the goblins first. The wood type needed to match the magic they would cast, and while he knew what type of mages he personally wanted to create, he wasn¡¯t sure their evolutionary options would conform to his expectations. Ian gave a last glance through the trees. Thankfully his enchanted weapons and minor illusion pitfall were considered separate trees, so he didn¡¯t have any bloated DP branches. Would that always be the case? Ian noted that these were created through use of his magic, so that might be what separated them out. However, he didn¡¯t see any use for these trees as he could simply create their much better versions later on by increasing the basic trees. Ian¡¯s heart started beating a little faster as he opened the magic trees. He was quickly disappointed. While there were still options available to him, they cost trillions of DP. Even the options that were available to him were slightly different versions of magic he already had. Well, not all of them. Magic that he had researched but was not able to cast such as instances were present, but seeing them cost trillions of DP just made him sad. As he grumbled, Ian closed the magic trees and opened the research trees. At least he tried to.
To use the Research Trees a Research Room must be purchased and created.
Another goddamn room. However, he was kind of looking forward to this one. As he brought up the dungeon shop, Ian was to be disappointed yet again.
Research Room: A Room in which research is conducted.
Requirements: Dungeon Level 11
Something that actually required him to be a certain dungeon level? Ian¡¯s disappointment didn¡¯t last long as he started to wonder about what other cool things had dungeon level requirements. If Dungeon Level 11 was required, was there something special about that level? Would there be special rooms that only he could get as an EX rank dungeon with no level limit? So many questions, so much time. At least, he hoped that last part was true. ????? Ian¡¯s vision unfocused off of the windows and instead focused on the creatures swarming his core room. It had been a while since he just settled down and looked at his creatures. The view satisfied him. He went through each of them checking their status. All of the newborn goblins and oni had reached full development. Sadly no newborn wyverns, moving moss, enraged ferns, or ankle biters had the ability to evolve. Each of the slimes, jellies, and clear web spiders had one individual each that reached full development. Of the slimes and jellies, the two that could evolve were the first two he created. The only options for evolution were the G rank Inferior Jelly and Inferior Slime. They were basic evolutions that only increased in size and acidity. While the evolutions were basic and they received the basic level increase in Mana Perception, the additional skill they got was quite unusual for slimes and jellies. They got the Running skill. Not only was it exceptionally odd for slimes and jellies to get the skill, but basic skills like Running required extreme dedication to the act. It didn¡¯t just come from running a lot. If it did, then Ian would have had it. He wondered what kind of odd varieties they would be at D- rank. The other slimes and jellies were separated into two groups: the nanny group and the normal group. While none of them were ready to evolve, the nanny group had an overall higher development than the normal group. They seemed to be doing about as good of a job taking care of newborns as could be expected from a bunch of acidic amorphous creatures without any helpful tools. The normal ones on the other hand were simply exploring the room. Ian wondered if development could be increased faster by focusing on one discipline for other creatures, since the way the slimes and jellies were developing seemed to indicate that. Now that he had a G rank jelly and slime, would the ones he created be copies of the ones he evolved? After summoning a copy of each, they had different skills than the ones he evolved. Rather than the Running skill, their Absorption skill leveled up by one. It seemed that skill variety wasn¡¯t stored in his dungeon menus. It looked like he could only create the generic versions of creatures. With that he would have to make sure creatures with uniques skills lived long enough to evolve into unique evolutions. It irked Ian that he had to keep his monsters alive. Their purpose was to fight, so holding some back just to make sure they developed unusual evolutions didn¡¯t sit well with Ian. To him most development would come through fighting since that was how most experience was gained. While he thought that, Ian wasn¡¯t sure how he would handle sapient creatures fighting and dying for him. That would be akin to leadership, and Ian had made sure to avoid that aspect of life. He was aware of the hypocrisy associated with valuing sapient life over non-sapient life but didn¡¯t care. Ian browsed through the Dungeon Shop and found a room that fit his purposes. It was called the Respawn Room, and it let five individuals be assigned. After they were killed, the individuals would respawn with abilities and memories intact for ten times the mana cost of a normal respawn. Five individuals wasn¡¯t a lot, but he could put as many respawn rooms on each floor as possible. It would cost him a lot of mana, but he seemed to have a lot of that. However, was it the right thing to do? Would creating enough respawn rooms for every sapient creature be good for the Dungeon¡¯s purpose? What would be better: fighting and dying in a single life or fighting and dying over and over again without end? Could he ever create villages of sapient creatures if there was the possibility of adventures coming and killing everyone? If his creatures went into battle with the knowledge that they would never truly die, how would that affect their minds, their lives, and their evolutions? The most important was how did they personally feel about constantly fighting with the possibility of death in his dungeon? He had never been able to successfully tame and ask that question to a high rank sapient dungeon monster. Ian would only know when he asked the first goblin mage he created. With philosophical questions hanging over his head, Ian moved onto the other creatures moving about his core room. The one clear web spider that could be evolved was the first one he created. Ian evolved it but not much changed. It got a little larger, and its skills Silk Creation and Stealth increased a level. It was still a Clear Web Spider, but it was now rank G. That was pretty normal for most creatures. It was only the other category of monsters, slimes, jellies, elemental, etcetera, that seemed to have modifiers attached to their names. As Ian evolved the newborn Goblins and Oni, the didn¡¯t change much at all. They became Infant Goblins and Infant Oni and were only slightly bigger. In fact, their skills didn¡¯t increase at all. Their growth mimicked the aging of biota rather than the evolution of monsters. Originally Ian had thought monsters aged like other creatures until adulthood, then they received the ability to evolve. However, during the tutorial when all his options for animalistic monsters were ranked newborns he assumed his previous observations had been wrong. He was starting to rethink that. Was evolving baby and child monsters a speciality of dungeons? *sigh*. Oh well, he would deal with forcibly making newborns into infants for now. Happy with his evolutions and observations of the room, Ian prepared to settle down for the long haul. He needed something to do during the two hundred and nine days he waited for his mana to build up. The most obvious choice was using the zoom ability. Not only would it allow him to pass the time, but it would make it seem like time went by faster! However, what to study? Ian drifted towards the slimes and jellies. He wanted to figure out how to make variations before they became D- rank. However, that wasn¡¯t his top priority right now. Goblins should be his focus. They were only infants right now, but if he studied the difference between evolutions he might find better ways to achieve the evolution he wanted. Now, what part of the goblin should he focus on? He wanted mages, so the brain? But the compatibility between the body and certain mana attributes was important too. Higher rank goblins already had the ability to cast magic, so he shouldn¡¯t have to worry about them not being smart enought for that. Also, his starting point in knowledge about the body was much further along compared to the brain, so he¡¯d be able to get further with his limited time. Body it was then. Making sure to split his focus, Ian zoomed in to study the bodies of newborn, infant, and future evolution goblins for the next two hundred and nine days. Chapter 11 Over the two hundred and nine days, multiple creatures reached full development, and with his split mind Ian made sure to evolve them. The rest of the G- rank clear web spiders evolved into G rank. The first spider along with the others eventually reached G+ rank as well. No drastic changes occurred in the spiders over the two evolutions as they were all still called Clear Web Spiders. However, each individual did have variances in skills, overall size, and body type. A few even managed to evolve into F- rank monsters by the end of the period. Three types of evolutions emerged from the spiders at this point, the Clear Construction Spider, the Clear Stealth Spider, and the usual Clear Web Spider. The clear construction spider had focused its efforts exclusively on building bigger and better webs. It developed a construction skill and leveled it up along with the silk creation skill. The venom creation and stealth skills were left to stagnate however. Along with that its abdomen was much larger, which Ian assumed was to hold a larger silk gland. That spider was currently attempting to make three dimensional web designs. Most of the spiders didn¡¯t pay any attention to the eccentric spider, but a few would occasionally ask it to make webs for them. It happily obliged. Ian wondered if he would eventually get lazy spiders from either the clear web spiders or the normal web spiders. The clear stealth spider was one of the spiders that asked the construction spider to make it a web. This spider had even foregone making its own webs to specialize in moving around stealthily. It could still make webs but had deemed it a waste of time. To enhance its stealth its body had become even clearer than the original clear web spider. Of course, the stealth spider didn¡¯t go killing anybody, but it really liked to sneak up on other spiders and scare the crap out of them. Its stealth and venom creations skills increased as it evolved. Even without ever actually using its venom, the development seemed to know the usefulness of venom for a stealth spider. With varied skill increases the clear web spiders were all arounders. They didn¡¯t exclusively focus on one thing or another, so while there was minor differences between individuals, they were simply more dangerous clear web spiders. Of course, their skills weren¡¯t the only thing that increased. As Ian had noticed with most monster evolutions, the spiders got bigger. However, they were nowhere near as big as the medium clear web spider that could have been a boss for his first floor. Ian wondered why that was, but he wasn¡¯t able to bring up the boss info, so he¡¯d have to check later. Moving Moss, Constriction Ferns, and Ankle Biters all reached G+ rank without major deviances. They all simply became bigger, faster, and stronger. That simply meant some individuals hadn¡¯t met the necessary requirements for divergent evolution yet. There were definitely differences in the skill composition between individuals. In fact the original moving moss had received the camouflage skill. Others focused on specific skills like producing more spores, producing more poison, increasing the speed at which they moved, increasing constriction length and strength, and producing a more powerful bite. Ian was looking forward to the future evolutions as plant and fungi monsters always intrigued him. The slimes and jellies were going about their business with quite a few having reached F+ rank by the end of the two hundred and nine days. The loss of the inferior prefix and the addition of the greater suffix pleased him. Although he had expected it, there were still no evolutionary variances, which made Ian a bit sad. However, like the runners previously, the nanny group had developed the childcare skill. It was a broad skill that encompassed all aspects of childcare, so it would take longer to level up. Ian wasn¡¯t surprised by its appearance, since the slimes and jellies didn¡¯t have any knowledge about proper childcare techniques to narrow their focus. The runners were still doing their thing, but would periodically stop circling and start doing suicides. They¡¯d sprint in ever increasing lengths back and forth across his core room. Ian wondered if it was knowledge implanted into them by the skill or if he was influencing them again. The remaining group of slimes and jellies were focusing on being the best slimes and jellies they could be with one big problem: due to Ian¡¯s orders they couldn¡¯t absorb anything. Ian thankfully noticed this early and created mats of moss and mold that they were allowed to eat. He also rescinded part of his order, so they could keep his core room and the first floor clear of dirt and fecal matter. It seemed even though his creatures were surviving through mana, they still had to do normal bodily functions. To his dismay he hadn¡¯t noticed the build up during his first month as he was too distracted and had no sense of smell. Even with crap filling his dungeon, he was somewhat pleased because it meant he could probably get cleaner and sewage variants. At the end of the two hundred and nine days, even though no skill had surfaced, Ian could see certain slimes and jellies had a tendency to eat moss, mold, or feces. Ian had almost forgotten them as there were only five of them, but the water elementals were evolved to F+ rank at the end of his mana gathering period. Ian felt it was a bit odd that there was no differences whatsoever between the five elementals, but they were one of his least studied monster trees. He supposed with a sample size of only five seeing any large variances wasn¡¯t going to happen unless he was lucky. Well, at least they lost the inferior prefix at F+ rank. The water elementals that used to be a dim blue light were now fist sized bright blue lights. All their previous skills had leveled up and a new skill called water manipulation had appeared. Admittedly even before he had evolved them, the water elementals were starting to look a little depressed with only a liter of water to hang around. Feeling bad for them, Ian created a connected room like he had when testing to see if rooms could be physically connected to the core room. He filled the room with small waterfalls, streams, numerous small ponds, and one large pond in the center. Seeing the water elementals speed into the room and positively shake with pleasure erased Ian¡¯s lament that he shouldn¡¯t be using the mana. The biota developed a little but primarily only the eggs, larval, child, and adolescent forms. The adults received at most one or two points of development. Why was that? Ian supposed if development only meant how much longer until they could evolve into monsters, then it would make sense that the increase was so small. But, previously biota he filled the development of didn¡¯t become monsters, so that shouldn¡¯t be the only purpose of development. Biota could simply be affected less by whatever contributes to development. It seemed to Ian that mana, time, and effort were the biggest contributors. If he based development criteria on those conditions, then lack of biotic development made more sense. One, none of the creatures even his monsters were absorbing any ambient mana besides the mana needed to survive. Two, time seemed to be focused on growing up, and adults didn¡¯t change as much over longer periods of time. This meant that monsters, which had a natural tendency to evolve, would increase their development over time, while adult biota wouldn¡¯t. Three, Ian supposed if following their natural instincts wasn¡¯t considered effort then it would make sense. However, monsters that followed their natural instincts were evolving. Ian might be wrong about that last part then. He needed time and mana to figure out this conundrum, so now wasn¡¯t the time. Thankfully the newborn wyverns evolved into infants, but had received very little development beyond that. The same could be said of the infant oni. While evolving newborns into infants was fast, most of their development after that wasn¡¯t very far at all. Ian was peeved but not surprised. Usually oni took the same amount of time to reach adulthood as the sapient races, while wyverns took even longer. Goblins on the other hand reached adulthood in three months. Considering that, Ian had probably neglected full development newborn goblins for quite a while as he messed with his first floor. However, the first problem arose as Ian evolved the first goblin infant into a child. Ian had received a window telling him that if he wished to actively evolve the child goblin anymore, then he needed to do it now before it formed its consciousness. He let it go without actively evolving it to see what would happen. After he did so, the child goblin opened its eyes, looked around, saw the infant goblins, ran over, and started to poke them. Well, it was definitely acting like a child. Contrary to what the window had said, Ian tried to infuse mana into the child goblin. He was summarily blocked by an unseen force. Ian continued to prod and examine the seemingly invisible wall that blocked him, but nothing came of it. He couldn¡¯t figure it out at all. With a sigh, Ian evolved another infant into a child but this time actively evolved them into a juvenile goblin. Afterwards, he let the juvenile go as he had the child. Similar to the child, the juvenile opened its eyes, looked around, saw the child goblin, ran over, and started to boss him around. Ian tried mana infusion once again, but the invisible wall interfered again. He was displeased, but didn¡¯t want to waste any more mana. Even though he didn¡¯t waste mana on the project, he split his mind again to think on it. If the window was to be believed, and he really had no reason not to believe it, then he couldn¡¯t mess with certain evolved creatures if they had a full conscious. However, the spiders he experimented on in the beginning definitely had consciousness. It seemed more related to a certain level of sapience than if a creature simply had consciousness. Ian thought back on the wording of the window. Maybe every time he actively evolved a creature, it reformed its consciousness, and the system didn¡¯t care about low sapience creatures. As the goblins had seemed to ¡®wake up¡¯ after he stopped evolving them, their conscious must only reform after he stopped evolving them. That brought up the point of why sapience was a deciding factor in active evolution. Evolution by itself was an act that shaped an individual and could change an individual¡¯s personality, so Ian felt that the system was just being a selfish prick in the end. Questions still remained such as would he still have a choice of the evolutions for the child and juvenile goblins? If he could choose their evolutionary path, would he get the option to actively evolve them again or was that forever off the table? How much could he influence the sapience of individuals if he focused development around the brain? While Ian was thinking about the whys, ifs, hows, and buts, he did admit to himself that losing the ability to actively evolve monsters after a certain point might simply be a rule made for shits and giggles. In the end, the rule seemed to be that active evolution was only allowed before consciousness was formed for creatures with a certain level of sapience. At least it still gave him a chance to infuse them with mana prior to developing their consciousness.If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. Afterwards, Ian went back to his normal study of the goblins while periodically evolving monsters. Eventually all five goblins reached maturity. Some of his previous questions were quickly answered. When the child and juvenile goblins reached full development, they only evolved after Ian chose their evolution. However, the evolution proceeded with the goblins fully conscious, and Ian was unable to actively evolve them anymore. Ian could still influence their evolutions but not development. At least not how he had previously. The female juvenile goblin became the leader of the group, while the male child goblin became the meekest of the group even though he evolved into an adult goblin before the other three. The other three were composed of two females and a male who didn¡¯t have anything exceptional about them. The main female goblin was a great leader. She led the other four goblins in mock battles against the slimes, jellies, spiders, moss, ferns, and ankle biters. Their battles were always on the borderline of following his orders to not hurt each other, but Ian was quite pleased as it made their development grow at a faster than normal. She hadn¡¯t studied battle tactics, so their formations weren¡¯t very good. Even so, with each new engagement, she shored up defenses and increased attack patterns that had been weaknesses previously. He fully expected them to obtain battle evolutions relatively soon. The leader was green with pointed ears and a pointed nose. Sharp teeth filled her jaw, while yellow irises filled her eyes. She was taller than the average three foot goblin at three feet and six inches or one hundred and seven centimeters or 1.07 meters. Her muscles were more defined compared to the other goblins as she spent a lot of her free time training. The strong image she put out fit a goblin leader perfectly. The meek goblin on the other hand looked like the quintessential weak goblin at three feet tall, skinny everywhere, and skittish at loud noises. While he was meek and disliked fighting, he liked to help the slimes and jellies take care of the infant oni and wyverns. When he wasn¡¯t doing that, he would watch the water elementals fascinated by their ability to control water. Originally Ian felt kind of bad for the first male goblin, since he had been hounded by the female goblin as a child, juvenile, and adolescent. However, a while after they became adults, the female goblin apologized profusely to the other goblin for her behavior and then confessed. Ian almost slapped his pages together, but didn¡¯t want to interrupt them. He knew he wasn¡¯t usually very good at social interaction, but how could he miss the quintessential tease your crush that a lot of children do. It seemed the male had accepted and the two of them were hugging and kissing it out. Goblins really got to it fast. In fact, a couple of days later they asked Ian for a private room away from the other goblins, monsters, and biota. Ian happily granted their request, he didn¡¯t want the children seeing that, and created a separate room with a transfer formation tied to their mana signatures. He could identify and keep track of mana signatures for one or two people but anything beyond that was impossible for him. While all this was going on, Ian wondered at how human, elven, dwarven, dragonian, etcetera, it all was. They didn¡¯t act like goblins at all. The female goblin was charismatic, sincere, and kind. The normal leaders of goblins were strong, ruthless, and some would even consider them evil. There were no battle practices, kind words, or asking, there was only fight or die, punches, and taking what you want. From a human standpoint, it was pleasing. From a dungeon standpoint, not so much. Goblins that fought to protect their homes or save the brethren beside them weren¡¯t the kind of enemies adventurers and dungeon divers wanted to face in a dungeon. It brought up moral quandaries they didn¡¯t want to think about. As much as it pleased Ian he was getting possible conversation partners much faster than he anticipated, he hoped if he created a separate group of goblins that they would act like normal goblins. Ian hadn''t wanted to divert too much of his focus away from analysis, but after they had asked him for a private room, he decided he needed to talk to someone. ¡°So, um, how are you five liking the dungeon?¡± The five perked up during their rest between battle practices, and the leader spoke up first, ¡°Great Lord! We are exceptionally pleased you have chosen to speak with us! As the dungeon is our home, it is fantastic!¡± Well then, she seemed to be going down the knight route. Also, thank the gods he could instinctively know what his creatures were trying to convey because he was never able to learn the goblin¡¯s language, and admittedly he hadn¡¯t really wanted to. Besides trying to form those words with a human mouth had been nearly impossible. ¡°Of course, of course. But, it is kind of bland right? Sorry about that. I¡¯m building up mana right now to make an exceptionally powerful goblin mage to protect the dungeon. Eventually, I¡¯ll at least try to make a bed for the two of you.¡± The meek male goblin turned beet red, while the leader goblin blushed a little. The other three didn¡¯t seem to know what was going on. It looked they hadn¡¯t been told yet. While still blushing the leader responded, ¡°Great Lord! If I had known you were saving resources to protect the dungeon, I would have never requested a private room. I deeply apologize! I will take any punishment that you deem appropriate, my lord.¡± ¡°*sigh*, Leader, you don¡¯t deserve any punishment. You asked me for something, and I granted it. I knew I was saving up mana and still chose to provide you with a room. Your devotion is commendable, but remember to not go to overboard with it.¡± ¡°Of course, Great Lord. Your benevolence is astounding.¡± Ian was starting to question if he had accidentally picked the Monster Loyalty perk during the tutorial. ¡°Now, back to my original question. Is there anything that would help you guys? Like weapons? Something recreational? Would you like to start practicing in the first floor?¡± ¡°Great Lord! Weapons and a better place to practice our skills would be an exceptional reward. However, as we are servants to the Great Lord we have no need for recreation.¡± Ian was starting to get annoyed with leader. He didn¡¯t like the Great Lord nonsense, even though he did expect them to follow his orders. However, as a dungeon, he felt that he had absolute control over his creatures, so he didn¡¯t need to be called Great Lord all the damn time. Also, the other four seemed down about not getting any recreation, leader. Well, the meek goblin seemed to have difficulty deciding if taking care of creatures was considered recreation. However, the sudden dismay on his face seemed to indicate he remembered his daily viewing of the water elementals. Before Ian could speak up, the meek goblin whispered to the leader, ¡°Mina, I think the dungeon core is getting annoyed at you.¡± The leader goblin jolted a bit and whispered back, ¡°But why?! I¡¯m being a supremely devout follower to the Great Lord! Also, how the depths can you tell that? Even if the core was next to us, a book can¡¯t show emotions right?¡± ¡°I think that¡¯s why. The dungeon core doesn¡¯t seem to like exaggerated pomp. In fact, if you had been paying more attention to what the dungeon core was saying rather than how you would respond, you would have noticed it had already implied that. And that combined with the fact that the surrounding mana distorted a little bit is how I knew.¡± It didn¡¯t seem that they knew Ian could hear them even though they whispered. He wasn¡¯t going to tell them, and figured they¡¯d figure it out eventually. The fact that the meek goblin could tell his mood through the help of the surrounding mana meant he had great potential to be a mage, or Ian really needed to prevent his emotions from escaping to the surrounding mana. Also, he should probably tell them his name. The leader quickly ran over to his core and knelt next to it, ¡°My lord, I apologize for the excessive pomp. Izu had to remind me even though yourself had said words to that effect. In regards to your question, in addition to weapons and exploring the first floor, some recreation would be duly appreciated.¡± Ian responded, ¡°That¡¯s okay. Don¡¯t worry about it too much. Formalities are extremely stuffy, which is why I tried to avoid the spotlight as much as possible. However, if you do feel the need to call me ¡®my lord¡¯, kneel, or treat me with reverence, you are welcome to. I will say for the rest of you that my name is Ian.¡± Also, Ian really wanted a goblin knight, so having her continue her antics was quite important. ¡°Now, I want each of you to tell me something you want to do recreationally.¡± ¡°My lord, will you please teach me swordsmanship!¡± Izu followed Mina, ¡°If¡­.If you could t-teach me about t-taking care of monsters, I-I¡¯d greatly appreciate it.¡± The other three asked to eat food, drink water, and for Ian to teach them a game or two to pass the time. After a minute of thought, Ian responded to the five, ¡°All of those things are doable, but the swordsmanship and taming lessons will have to be after I finish gathering mana and analyzing your bodies.¡± Izu¡¯s voice squeaked out, ¡°A-analyzing our b-bodies? Ian sir?¡± ¡°Oh, uh, well, I mean. You see, I¡¯m just, um¡­.trying to make sure I have enough um¡­.information about goblin physiology, so I can um¡­.make the best goblin mage when I um¡­.get around to it¡­.yeah.¡± ¡°Oh, okay¡­.¡± Izu seemed to have accepted Ian¡¯s explanation a little, but Ian¡¯s stammering certainly didn¡¯t help. Ian created wood weapons now made out of detar for the five goblins. An arming sword for Mina, a wood staff for Izu, wood knuckles for the other male goblin, a javelin for one of the females, and a composite bow for the other. He created salamanders for the goblins to eat along with moss and ferns. Arm wrestling, fighting, and rock, paper, scissors were taught to them as long as they didn¡¯t hurt each other too much. Ian hadn¡¯t originally meant rock, paper, scissors to be a part of that warning, but after seeing them play it he was glad it was included. After all that, Mina led them toward the first floor for more practice. The group of five goblins didn¡¯t evolve any more during the two hundred and nine day period. So, as Ian continued to analyze the goblin¡¯s bodies, his set time came to an end, and he had enough mana to make a B- rank goblin mage. Chapter 12 Ian got right to it and created a newborn goblin. Early evolutions required less mana, so he infused mana into specific body parts to direct his envisioned evolution. Strength attribute was infused into the three different types of muscle fibers, the connective tissues, and the bones. Light and space attributes were infused into the brain and mana pathways. Ian was able to successfully open some minor mana gates with the infusion. Hopefully that would lead to a mage evolution. A minor infusion of the three mana attributes over the entire body finished the process. The newborn goblin was on the precipice of too much mana, and cried at the uncomfortable feeling. He felt bad for the baby goblin and quickly evolved it into a infant, and Ian repeated the same process with the infant until he got a child goblin. Afterwards, Ian switched to a general infusion of an equal portion of all three attributes. With seven targeted infusions, the mana cost was a lot higher than he initially suspected. With general infusion of mana, Ian passed through the juvenile and adolescent stages of goblin evolution quickly. At the adult stage, he inspected its status for new skills.
Race: Goblin
Rank: F+
Gender: Male
Attribute: Strength
Development: 0/100
Titles: None
Skills
Stench Tool Use
Bite Scratch
Night Vision Sturdy Body
Description
A species of monster known for its high breeding rate, high growth rate, and vicious temperament. While higher evolutions can reach the intelligence level of the sapient races, they retain their brutal nature. However, their brutal nature does not override their ability to think, like the Oni race. This individual goblin has a much higher mana concentration than a normal goblin.
Common Item Drops
F+ mana heart Goblin Ear
The goblin had the basic stench, tool use, bite, scratch, and night vision skills that the other goblins had when they evolved. The new goblin had lower skill levels compared to his compatriots, however. There was definitely a benefit to letting them develop on their own. The sturdy body skill was new. It focused on increasing the durability of the physical body. Simple. Considering the goblin''s attribute was strength and not neutral, Ian¡¯s strength infusions seemed to be more heavily weighted. Ugh, that wasn¡¯t good. Well, early evolutions had lower intelligence, so maybe light and space just didn¡¯t have time to shine and expand through yet. With trepidation, Ian filled the goblin with the same ratio of mana as before. The resulting single available evolution was, Goblin Brawler. Well, shit. He didn¡¯t have any other choices, so with a sigh he chose the evolution. The muscles of the goblin became more defined. His height grew to three and a half feet, while his teeth and claws became sharper. After the evolution was finished, the new goblin looked like a meaner, male version of Mina. The new goblin stood stationary near the core with his eyes closed. The other five goblins were watching with fascination about ten feet away.
Race: Goblin Brawler
Rank: E-
Gender: Male
Attribute: Strength
Development: 0/100
Titles: None
Skills
Stench Tool Use
Bite Scratch
Night Vision Sturdy Body
Brawl
Description
The Goblin Brawler is a goblin variant that beats the ever loving shit out of its opponents with fists. With a large amount of strength and other mana attributes infused into this individual, he has learned the Sturdy Body skill.
Common Item Drops
E- mana heart Goblin Ear
Tch, Brawl and an increase in other physical skills. It wasn¡¯t unexpected, but still disappointing. The phrase ¡®and other mana attributes¡¯ in the description gave Ian hope that light and space weren¡¯t being pushed to the side by strength. Continuing with the same mana ratio, he advanced into the next evolution. ¡­.Goblin Fighter. Fuck. As the evolution proceeded, the goblin¡¯s muscles became larger like before, but there was no height change. The other major physical change was rather than a slight curve to the spine that most goblins had, he stood straighter, giving a more imposing look. Still no body hair though.
Race: Goblin Fighter
Rank: E
Gender: Male
Attribute: Strength
Development: 0/100
Titles: None
Skills
Stench Tool Use
Bite Scratch
Night Vision Sturdy Body
Brawl Martial Arts
Description
The Goblin Fighter focuses on a more nuanced approach to combat compared to the Goblin Brawler. This variant focuses on precision strikes with the addition of the Martial Arts skill. The various mana attributes have increased this goblin¡¯s power.
Common Item Drops
E mana heart Goblin Ear
Still no light or space attributes, and only physical skills increased. However, Ian was becoming a little confused. A Goblin Fighter should not be E rank, it should be D rank. Also, any goblin fighters he had come across had the martial arts skill at level four minimum. Ian considered the lower skill levels a product of him forcing evolution, but maybe it was trying to compensate for a normally higher rank monster evolution. The last sentence of the description only added to his confusion. That same sentence, however, did add to his hope that light and space weren¡¯t left behind. He didn¡¯t know if changing the ratio of the three attributes would be better or worse, so he stuck with the equal ratio. Even if he ended up with a physical combat goblin, he¡¯d deal with the consequences and figure things out. With chagrin, the next evolution was a Goblin Warrior. Fighter to warrior was an admittedly odd evolutionary pathway, but Ian had seen it happen with class changes before, although rarely. However, the addition of a very unwarrior like skill brought a smile to Ian¡¯s face.
Race: Goblin Warrior
Rank: E+
Gender: Male
Attribute: Strength,Space
Development: 0/100
Titles: None
Skills
Stench Tool Use
Bite Scratch
Night Vision Sturdy Body
Brawl Martial Arts
Blink
Description
The Goblin Warrior focuses on using weapons and its body to hunt and combat foes. This individual is exceptionally unusual being the first goblin with a Blink skill. Usually goblins must learn space magic to use the Blink spell. It is enough for some to question if this is truly a Goblin Warrior.
Common Item Drops
E+ mana heart Goblin Ear
Not much changed with the goblin warrior¡¯s physical appearance besides a slight increase in size and muscle density. Mana perception showed the warrior¡¯s mana flow had changed greatly. In fact, half the minor and sub gates exploded open, along with a major gate. An innate short range teleportation spell would need a lot of mana, but for it to happen so suddenly was certainly odd. Usually Ian would ponder why, but he was squealing with delight over the fact he had created a goblin that could blink! He didn¡¯t even need the use of spells, he could do it instantaneously! Well, the skill still used mana, so there was still a limit. But¡­.Ian didn¡¯t give a shit. A fucking blinking goblin. Fuck yeah. Ian grunted as he folded and pumped his right cover. He froze suddenly. What other innate skills would the goblin get? Sturdy body for strength, blink for space, so he needed something for light. Fucking laser beams?! How could he make them come out of the eyes? Ian always enjoyed scaring the shit out of enemies with that and also burning them to death. Ian¡¯s intense excitement warped into immense concentration. If he infused a goblin¡¯s entire being with light mana, would they succeed where he had failed? The amount of mana would be astronomical, since he most likely would need to make an EX rank monster. Becoming pure magic of different attributes had been another gateway into EX rank for him. He had technically succeeded in becoming light, but only the immense pain and damage to his body, combined with the addition of the spell to his status menu had given him any indication. With a shake of his spine, Ian muttered to himself, ¡°Not now, Ian, not now.¡± When he was a dungeon with multiple stories and rumors about him, he could start creating EX rank monsters. Or at least give it a try. With the knowledge that his infusion was working, just not in the way he originally planned, Ian proceeded onto the next evolution. As far as Ian noticed, there were no physical changes with this evolution. However, the mana flow changed once again and even more mana gates burst open. Ian was finally getting a semblance of what he wanted.
Race: Magic Goblin
Rank: D-
Gender: Male
Attribute: Strength,Space,Light
Development: 0/100
Titles: None
Skills
Stench Tool Use
Bite Scratch
Night Vision Sturdy Body
Brawl Martial Arts
Blink Invisibility
Description
Magic Goblins evolve when goblins reside in high density mana for a long enough time. They have innate skills related to whatever attribute mana they resided in. An unusual occurrence, this individual has three mana attributes in approximately equal amounts.
Common Item Drops
D- mana heart Goblin Ear
No laser beams, but invisibility was pretty good. It seemed the strength attribute would keep leveling the physical skills. Should he even try to make this goblin a mage? Even if it didn¡¯t learn any magic during evolution, he could try to teach it. He was a shit teacher, but he could try. Why not teach physical combat? He was a SSS rank Mana Artist? Ha. No. Physical combat just came to him, he couldn¡¯t teach that shit for the life of him. He reached SSS rank with just talent? Yeah he did, fuck off. Hmm, memory crystals might work. But, if a mana heart of ten mana required ten million mana to create, then a memory crystal was liable to break the bank. Well, he would only need to spend the big mana once¡­.maybe later. The B- rank goblin and the maze were more important. The color of the goblin shifted to a darker green with the next evolution. While its skin color was darker, its teeth and claws became much cleaner and whiter. Sadly, with its eyes closed, Ian couldn¡¯t see how they had changed. The mana flow didn¡¯t change as with the previous two evolutions, but more mana gates burst along with another major one. As the goblin finished its evolution, Ian had a succession of window notifications.
Achievement: You are the first to create a creature never before seen in the universe. +1,000,000 DP
Achievement: You are the first dungeon to create a creature never before seen in the universe. +100,000 DP
Achievement: Creature never before seen in the universe created for the first time.Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. +50,000 DP
Achievement: Creature never before seen in the universe created. +10,000 DP
Achievement: Blink Goblin [D] created for the first time. +100 DP
Holy shit. What. No one has ever done that before? Really? Ian didn¡¯t believe it. It never happened randomly? No dungeon suddenly decided that they were going to infuse a goblin with space and strength mana? Well, he did include light too, but it was a blink goblin, not a strong goblin, or a light goblin, a blink goblin! He knew high density ambient mana only occurred in single attributes, so being the first to create a blink goblin wasn¡¯t the most unbelievable part. The fact that no one ever, in the history of the universe, had purposefully created a new creature astounded Ian. He assumed the gods weren¡¯t included. Either there was something he was missing, in regards to the difficulty of what he was doing with his creatures, and/or dungeons were lazy as fuck. Ian would usually look at a horse¡¯s teeth quite extensively even if it was a gift, but for now the horse had no mouth.
Race: Blink Goblin
Rank: D
Gender: Male
Attribute: Strength,Space,Light
Development: 0/100
Titles: First of a Kind, One of a Kind
Skills
Stench Tool Use
Bite Scratch
Night Vision Sturdy Body
Brawl Martial Arts
Blink Invisibility
Description
Blink Goblins are infused with strength and space mana. Without the strength mana, their bodies would tear apart upon first Blink. As a brand new creature, not much is known about it.
Common Item Drops
D mana heart Goblin Ear
Ian rubbed his pages together in anticipation. If he already made a completely new monster, then the future evolutions must also be brand new. The next evolution had no physical changes and only a few minor mana gates opened. However, the biggest change was something that Ian didn¡¯t notice immediately, but Mina, Izu, and the three did. Ian¡¯s vision encompassed his whole dungeon all the time, so he couldn¡¯t notice it. What the five goblins noticed was the stationary goblin seemed to disappear from their peripheral vision, if they didn¡¯t focus on it. In Ian¡¯s discussion with the six goblins later, the first five brought it up, and he was reminded that there are always negatives to come with the positives.
Race: Invisible Blink Goblin
Rank: D+
Gender: Male
Attribute: Strength,Space,Light
Development: 0/100
Titles: First of a Kind, One of a Kind
Skills
Stench Tool Use
Bite Scratch
Night Vision Sturdy Body
Brawl Martial Arts
Blink Invisibility
Description
The addition of light mana to the blink goblin had produced this variant. The ability to manipulate light allows this goblin to bend light around its figure, and make itself seem invisible. All goblins have a very mediocre night vision skill upon reaching adulthood, and the infused light mana has increased this skill to average.
Common Item Drops
D+ mana heart Goblin Ear
There was no amazing new skill with the invisible blink goblin, but Ian still got the large amount of DP for a brand new creature. And seeing monsters evolve was always fulfilling even if they didn¡¯t change much. The goblin went through a drastic internal and external change with the next evolution. On the outside his skin color shifted to such a dark green that many would consider it black. However, perfect circles of white light ran down the outer edge of his arms. The normal goblin form shifted to four feet high with large and more dense muscles. The mana flow did not change, but another major mana gate, some sub gates, and the rest of the minor gates burst open. With so many mana gates open, normal monsters would have been at B- rank already, but the new skill the goblin acquired was quite the mana sink.
Race: Spatial Invisibility Goblin
Rank: C-
Gender: Male
Attribute: Strength,Space,Light
Development: 0/100
Titles: First of a Kind, One of a Kind
Skills
Stench Tool Use
Bite Scratch
Night Vision Sturdy Body
Brawl Martial Arts
Blink Invisibility
Shift
Description
The space mana of the spatial invisibility goblin has matured, and it can now shift the space around it. At level one the ability to shift space is limited in a ten meter radius around the goblin. The mana used is dependent upon the size of the space shifted and the mass of the matter contained within.
Common Item Drops
C- mana heart Goblin Ear
Ah, shifting space. The look on people¡¯s faces when they were minding their own business kilometers away, and suddenly they were in the middle of a forest with a fist in front of their face. Good times. It was also fun, when face to face with someone, to swipe his arm in front of him and pretend he was erasing the space between them as he brought them closer. No matter how amusing it was to do that, he would have to make sure the goblin didn¡¯t get into any bad habits while shifting. Ian thought the new look for the goblin was cool. The circular lights would give him away in darkness, but he supposed that was what the invisibility skill was for. While Ian thought he was cool, the new goblin was still a goblin---so incredibly ugly by sapient race standards. He glanced at Mina and Izu. Obviously those standards didn¡¯t apply to the goblins themselves. Ian continued his evolutionary trek, but was met with surprise upon looking at the next evolutionary options. That¡¯s right, ¡®options¡¯, plural. He¡¯d only had one choice for each evolution so far, which would have normally peaved him a bit, but coolness had outweighed a lack of choices. Now, he was presented with choosing a Hobgoblin or a High Goblin. The status windows for both confirmed Ian¡¯s perceptions of them from when he was human. Hobgoblins were as tall as humans and had more human like features. This meant their features didn¡¯t immediately repulse most sapient races. However, their skin color was still green, they still had pointed ears and noses, and they still had sharp claws and teeth. High Goblins, on the other hand, doubled down on their goblin features. The pointed ears became twice as long and curved backwards. Their noses elongated and curved downwards. Their claws became twice as long and obtained the ability to retract. They of course retained their trademark green skin, but instead of a normal green, they became a puke green. The one feature high goblins didn¡¯t double down on was height. Rather than an average height of three feet, they averaged six feet. The most important part that set Hobgoblins and High Goblins apart was their focus. Hobgoblins were more intelligent with more magic evolutions. While their strength was still stronger than their goblin brethren, they in no way matched up to the High Goblins. High Goblins were masses of muscle that could forcefully push back a fully armed Tank class of the same size. They were smarter than normal goblins, but couldn¡¯t compare to the minds of Hobgoblins. Ian was left with the choice between strength and intelligence. Considering his original intentions, choosing Hobgoblin was the only way to go. However, the focus on strength at the beginning of his current evolutionary path, made him take the time to debate between the two. In the end, Hobgoblin was the only choice. He had made magic his forte, and hobgoblins would have a better synergy with the light and space skills. As with the previous evolution, a great physical shift occurred again. However, the previous internal shift did not occur. The hobgoblin reached five feet and eleven inches, with slightly pointed ears close to being elven. Beyond the angular nature of the nose, the face could be easily passed off as an odd half-elf. If the stationary hobgoblin still had the original green skin color, then it would not be so easy to pass off as a sapient race. At least the races Ian knew of. There was a slight increase in muscle density, but the largest increase in strength came from the overall increase in body size and spread of muscles. Finally, a pair of shorts had replaced the loincloth of the original goblins. Of course, the hobgoblin was still hairless.
Race: Hobgoblin
Rank: C
Gender: Male
Attribute: Strength,Space,Light
Development: 0/100
Titles: First of a Kind
Skills
Night Vision Tool Use
Bite Scratch
Stone Skin Sturdy Body
Brawl Martial Arts
Blink Invisibility
Shift
Description
Hobgoblins are an advanced race of goblins. They can no longer be put under the sway of a Goblin King, but Hobgoblin Kings are another story. There has been a slight reduction in their feral nature to increase their intelligence. Be wary however, this does not make them kind, they still glory in killing and tricking others.
Common Item Drops
C mana heart Hobgoblin Ear
Ian had made note of it earlier, but the stench skill that had been decreasing was finally gone. Losing skills was an uncommon phenomenon, but it normally occurred during large physical changes during evolution. As such, skills that could be lost were almost always biologically related in some way. In fact, it didn¡¯t even require an evolution to lose a skill. Monsters with the night vision skill lost it after their eyes were removed. Ian could proudly proclaim this knowledge, as he had extensively tested it. Even though he no longer had the ability to smell, he was happy about the loss of the stench skill from a monster he intended to talk with a lot. The addition of the stone skin skill was a bit odd to Ian. The hobgoblin already had so many strength skills, he didn¡¯t really need another one. Also, getting a physical skill after getting the more magical oriented hobgoblin was eye roll worthy. This did mean there were two strength mana based skills, Stone Skin and Sturdy Body, along with the two space mana based skills, Blink and Shift, and the one or two light mana based skills, Invisibility and maybe Night Vision. Night vision had started as a racial skill, however, so it might not be considered a light mana based skill. If the hobgoblin got another light based skill, Ian would know at that time. As Ian couldn¡¯t talk to the hobgoblin before he finished evolving him, the only real indicators of his intelligence were the descriptions, Ian¡¯s previous knowledge, and the tool use skill. Ian hoped the increase of Tool Use by two levels in one evolution indicated the high level of intelligence, as it was already at a B rank skill level in a C rank monster. Ian wasn¡¯t surprised by the loss of a title. Titles that depended on exclusivity often disappeared. One of a Kind likely disappeared because there wasn¡¯t only one hobgoblin in the world. If this hobgoblin became another new race, then he was liable to get the title back. Most likely, First of a Kind was still around because this hobgoblin would always be the first blink goblin and subsequent variants. Before he moved onto the next evolution, Ian had to lean his book back on the pedestal, and reminisce about how odd it was that this evolution was only called Hobgoblin. What normal hobgoblin could short range teleport, become invisible, shift space around them, and turn their skin into stone. He chuckled to himself. This was what made determining the danger of higher rank monsters so hard. The longer a monster lived the larger and more varied their skill composition would be. Comparing a freshly spawned hobgoblin with a hobgoblin that had evolved from a normal goblin, was like comparing a baby faced soldier with a grizzled veteran. Ian stood his book core back up and continued infusing. Even though the next evolution required sixty million mana, the amount of changes were minimal. One sub mana gate opened and the hobgoblin¡¯s muscle density increased slightly. This time the largest changes were in skill levels and a new skill.
Race: Magic Hobgoblin
Rank: C+
Gender: Male
Attribute: Strength,Space,Light
Development: 0/100
Titles: First of a Kind
Skills
Night Vision Tool Use
Bite Scratch
Stone Skin Sturdy Body
Brawl Martial Arts
Blink Invisibility
Shift Flash
Description
Magic Hobgoblins arise when hobgoblins live in high mana density areas for a long enough time. The time needed for this to occur is much longer and usually happens over generations compared to Magic Goblins. The unusual occurrence of three mana attributes Strength, Space, and Light make this hobgoblin a force to be reckoned with.
Common Item Drops
C+ mana heart Hobgoblin Ear
The additional skill, flash, finally made the circles of white useful, beyond being cool and giving the hobgoblin away in the dark. Once the skill was used, the circles would release a blinding flash of light. Luckily this magical flash didn¡¯t blind the user. Flash proved that Ian was partially wrong about Night Vision being the second light mana skill. Now, would the new hobgoblin get more skills? Considering there was only one evolution left, probably not. It was the last one, so Ian giggled to himself in anticipation. Would it follow the same goblin evolution path as previously, or would a new evolution variant arise? Hee hee. The stationary hobgoblin grew two inches reaching six feet and one inch. The bone structure of his face became more prominent. Larger muscles condense slightly giving a more toned look. Sadly no more mana gates opened.
Race: Blink Hobgoblin
Rank: B-
Gender: Male
Attribute: Strength,Space,Light
Development: 0/100
Titles: First of a Kind, One of a Kind
Skills
Night Vision Tool Use
Bite Scratch
Stone Skin Sturdy Body
Brawl Martial Arts
Blink Invisibility
Shift Flash
Description
Blink Hobgoblins, a previously unknown variant of hobgoblin, use their innate short range teleportation technique to disorient opponents and sneak into blind spots. The large amounts of space, light, and strength mana infused into this individual allows him to use techniques in addition to Blink.
Common Item Drops
B- mana heart Hobgoblin Ear
Okay. How the hell does the description know that? Ian just created this hobgoblin. He hasn¡¯t even been in any battles. ¡°Hey, System, what the hell? Inferring a lot aren¡¯t we?....Answer, blue face.¡± Even after multiple rude remarks, some Ian felt he went too far with, the system didn¡¯t respond. As he moved on Ian muttered, ¡°I know rules are important, but sticking to this one just seems kind of stupid.¡± With pleasure, Ian allowed the new hobgoblin to form his consciousness. Even if he was being a hypocrite, Ian hoped the hobgoblin wasn¡¯t like a normal hobgoblin personality wise. The hobgoblin finally opened eyes, and what greeted the world were dark black irises filled with twinkling star like lights. Even Ian was amazed at the combined beauty and creepiness elicited by those eyes. The blink hobgoblin glanced throughout the core room resting on each new subject, but most prominently rested on the five goblins and Ian¡¯s core. After his look around the room was done, the hobgoblin started doing stretches to get used his body. While the hobgoblin was doing stretches, Ian wondered if he should be the one to start the conversation? ¡­.He could wait. If the hobgoblin started to leave on his own, that was another matter. The hobgoblin finished his stretches, turned to the core, and greeted Ian, ¡°Hello, Dungeon Lord, what is it that you wish of me?¡± Ian was surprised that this new hobgoblin greeted him. While he hadn¡¯t been paying much attention, it certainly hadn¡¯t felt like the original five goblins greeted him upon adulthood. At least he hoped they didn¡¯t, that would mean he had ignored them. ¡°You don¡¯t need to call me Dungeon Lord. You can call me Ian. In regards to what I want you to do, I wanted to make sure no intruders could reach my core even though that isn¡¯t immediately life threatening. However, some facets of that plan were predicated on you knowing how to use magic and not innate skills. So, a revision to my plan has been made. While I start making the maze of death/maze of protection, I will also attempt to teach you magic.¡± ¡°Attempt?¡± ¡°Well, no matter how good I am at magic, I¡¯ve never been a great teacher. I do have a backup plan if my teaching fails, but that would probably require me to save up mana again. I¡¯d much prefer to build up my dungeon at the moment.¡± ¡°I see. Shall we begin immediately?¡± ¡°Of course. What should I call you?¡± ¡°As I have just been created by you, I have no name.¡± ¡°....Really? Two of the goblins over there have names. Izu and Mina. Actually, the other three might have names too, I didn¡¯t ask.¡± ¡°I do not know why they have names. Perhaps you should ask them?¡± The hobgoblin didn¡¯t look like he thought Ian an idiot, but reading facial expressions wasn¡¯t his forte. ¡°Good idea. Izu and Mina, why do you have names?¡± The two jumped at the sudden intrusive voice in their mind, but quickly responded together, ¡°¡°As we didn¡¯t receive names from my lord (you), we decided to name each other. We are sorry!¡±¡± ¡°It¡¯s not a problem. I don¡¯t plan on personally naming every creature in my dungeon anyway. You wouldn¡¯t want me naming your kids right?¡± This time only Mina spoke up, ¡°Actually, my lord, having you name our kids would be a great honor!¡± She looked at Izu, who gave a resolute nod in response. ¡°Oh, I see. I suppose I can name your first born if you wish it.¡± ¡°That would be fantastic, my lord!¡± ¡°And, by the way, what are the names of the other three?¡± ¡°They haven¡¯t felt the need for names yet, my lord. Izu and I named each other, since we felt it was appropriate.¡± ¡°Okay, thanks for the information. I have to go name the hobgoblin now.¡± ¡°Before you leave, my lord, when may we speak with the new arrival?¡± ¡°Hmm, I plan on teaching him magic, so how about I match up his breaks with yours?¡± Mina looked a little down as she muttered, ¡°O-Of course, my lord. Whatever you wish.¡± Why was she sad? ¡­.Oh shit. He had promised to teach her swordsmanship, and Izu taming. Well, if he was already splitting his mind two ways, two more wouldn¡¯t hurt. ¡°I apologize Mina. I said I would teach you and Izu. With that in mind, I¡¯ll teach you all at the same time, so your breaks can match up that way. The other three can choose which course they wish to take.¡± A wide grin shone on her face as Mina yelled, ¡°Yes, my lord!¡± Feeling happier at her happiness, Ian moved most of his focus back to the hobgoblin. ¡°So, Mr. Newbie, do you have any preferences for your name?¡± The dark green, nearly black hobgoblin stroked his chin for a couple of minutes, and finally answered, ¡°None. I have not really formed a like or dislike for anything yet. I will have to hope I enjoy whatever you pick for me.¡± ¡°You know, the fact that you understand the concept of likes and dislikes, before you even have them is the oddest part to me.¡± ¡°It is an odd feeling for me as well. For instance, I know that you are a book. I know that books contain written words that contain knowledge, stories, and many other things. I also know books have titles. However, if you were to ask me for the title of a book, I would not be able to give you one.¡± ¡°That¡¯s interesting. I have always wondered how non-ecosystem style dungeons dealt with the problem of knowledge for smarter creatures. Of course, a certain level of knowledge is dealt with by natural instincts, but I highly doubted the knowledge of how to make tools and clothes would permeate at an instinctual level. It seems that dungeon creatures are provided with certain knowledge upon creation. That leaves who or what provides the knowledge. Mr. Great is the go to guy, but as always there is a lack of evidence.¡± ¡°Mr. Great?¡± ¡°Ah, sorry about that. It has to do with the gods, and I¡¯m not sure you want to get involved with that. I¡¯m also not sure if you even can. Now, let¡¯s get started on that magic training, Yirvin.¡± ¡°....Yirvin?¡± ¡°It¡¯s your name. Do you like it?¡± ¡°I have no strong feelings towards it.¡± ¡°Sounds perfect then.¡± Chapter 13 Ian¡¯s vision zoomed out to build his maze floor. He was distracted having to teach different courses to the goblins, while also building the maze, and Ian wouldn¡¯t be surprised if that exacerbated tiny mistakes like he had made on the first floor. In fact, although it was technically completed, Ian felt the first floor needed some work. At least he had the DP for it now. Should the maze have a single level or multiple levels? Multiple levels would make it harder, but the majority of the difficulty would come from his magic formations. A single level would fit the theme of a straightforward flat cave that the first floor represented. Not that a single floor could really represent a theme. ¡­.Single level it was then. Ian originally thought a long maze would be better, but if someone could get past EX and SSS rank spells, he was shit out of luck anyway. What should the layout be? Should he make a tangent maze that prevent wall hugging? Curves? Loops? If there was someway to make them go through the entire maze, that would be terrific. How about multiple endings? Something like checkpoints? Hmm. What if the intruders had to clear certain rooms to open the boss room? Yeah that was good, but how to make that harder? ¡­.Oh! They would have to do it in a certain order! Ian could mess around for days attempting to come up with a way on his own to implement his idea, but with his massive DP stock, he went straight to the Dungeon Shop for once. After multiple word combinations with different thought patterns, Ian finally got the functions he wanted. Door Creation, Locked Doors, and Sequential Checkpoints would get him what he wanted. Door Creation and Locked Doors were a thousand DP each, while Sequential Checkpoints was ten thousand DP. Ian continued using Deep Cave terrain even though he could make another type. He wanted to maintain the theme from G- to EX, and the fact that he¡¯d get five new creatures that would distract him had nothing to do with it. The entrance would start at the top left corner and the exit would be near the center of the maze. Checkpoint A was near the bottom right corner on the right path from the entrance. Checkpoint B was on a separate path, the left path, from checkpoint A near the entrance. Checkpoint C was back on the same path as checkpoint A but even further along. Checkpoint D was once again on B¡¯s path and near the exit. The last checkpoint, E, was on A and C¡¯s path somewhat near the entrance. There was a shortest path to A and C, but the follow the wall strategy led to the longest path in that direction. The short path to A and C had long, straight corridors with a couple of turns and dead ends. The long path was evenly split between long, straight corridors and corridors that had a lot of turns. It also had an equal number of dead ends compared to the short path. The A and C path had the one feature that wasn¡¯t checkpoints, corridors, or the place for the intended boss room. Ian debated between making it a trap room that would kill anyone inside or a water elemental oasis. In the end, he went with both. The B, D, and Exit path contained a lot of turns and dead ends. The path to the exit was a single long corridor that went straight, then turned, went straight, then turned, multiple times. Ian intended the corridors after the D room to be laced with the most dangerous traps. However, intentions can change. When Ian created doors for the five checkpoints, they appeared as large arched double doors. They were rough and fit the natural cave look. Well, besides the fact that they were doors. The checkpoint doors filled up an entire wall of the checkpoint rooms. Ian had made the checkpoint rooms ten meter cubes, which gave solid height, but not a lot of room to work with during party on party battles. He set two conditions for the doors to lock. One, if the previous checkpoint had not been cleared they would be locked. Two, five seconds after the last intruder entered the room the door was to lock. Thankfully, setting the doors to lock also set them to automatically close. The condition for unlocking the doors once inside was to eliminate all dungeon creatures in the room and touch the checkpoint relief. Ian tied the checkpoints in each room to a lifelike relief of a Gazer. His talent in art was limited to replication, and very useful for research journals. Considering how gazers looked, replication was all Ian needed. The mass of eyeballs that seemed writhe and follow whoever looked at them, would scare most adventurers enough to piss their pants. He also had some ideas for a Gazer oriented floor later on, however he¡¯d have to get the gazers first. Ian created a blink hobgoblin in checkpoint A, but after he checked its status, he was not amused. The blink and tool use skills weren¡¯t at level seven but six instead. As a result the skills: stone skin and flash each increased a level. The new hobgoblin hadn¡¯t lost the light based skills thankfully, but it was still annoying. However, Ian was worried and created a blink goblin. His worries were well founded as the goblin no longer had the sturdy body or invisibility skills. Instead, it had increased stench, brawl, and night vision skills. Ian grinded his pages together. God dammit! The goblin was still usable, but he should have the better goblin he originally made! Earlier, he had ignored it when he was dealing with the running jelly and slime, but not now. Ian started trying different things to get his original blink goblin version. He tried manipulation of the creation process, but that was a failure. He asked for the original blink goblin version, but that was unsuccessful. However, Ian¡¯s next attempt succeeded. After saying ¡®blink goblin variant¡¯, a new window appeared with ¡®Blink Goblin - Yirvin Variant¡¯ on it. Happy, Ian created this blink goblin, and successfully created the original skills of Yirvin as a blink goblin. However, the cost was twice as much as a normal blink goblin. That meant his blink hobgoblins would be two million mana instead of a million. He really felt like punching the system right now. Ian smirked as he was pretty sure he saw the window shake a bit after that thought. Having figured out variants, Ian continued with filling the checkpoint rooms. Checkpoint A used the default blink hobgoblin and the three blink goblins he already created. B contained two default blink hobgoblins along with two blink goblins, two goblin warriors, and two goblin fighters. Ian wanted some light magic with the next checkpoint, so he placed five invisible blink goblins along with two blink hobgoblins. The invisible blink goblins became spatial invisibility goblins in checkpoint D, and Ian added two warriors for good measure. For the last checkpoint, Ian created a variant blink hobgoblin along with three default blink hobgoblins and three normal hobgoblins. Luckily the normal hobgoblin didn¡¯t have much variation from Yirvin¡¯s original skill list. With only a little over six million mana, populating the corridors with blink hobgoblins wasn¡¯t possible yet. Also, Ian needed trap locations, so the blink hobgoblins could lead intruders into them. Traps it was then. Teleport traps were always a good way to kill people. Ian placed ten teleport traps invisible to all the senses throughout the corridors. They all led to a separate room with no exit. He placed EX level Ray spells at the ceiling of the room, which constantly bombarded the room with beams of light that eviscerated anyone inside. The teleport traps were placed five along the path to the exit and five along the path through A and C. The path to the exit had traps right before the exit, B, and D, with the other two along the long path to the exit. There were teleport traps right before E and C but not A. Two teleport traps were placed in the middle of corridors, while the last one was placed at a dead end. Of course, they could be disarmed or dispelled, but jumping over was not an option. The teleportation extended from the floor to the ceiling. Next, Ian made the better version of the minor illusion pitfall with wood spikes. Taking the five by five by six meter hole, combining it with the serrated and strongly poisoned stone spikes, and adding an illusion on par with the fish on the first floor, Ian created quite a deadly trap, although nowhere near the deadliness of his top tier magic formations. However, if Ian made the illusion exactly like the fish, intruders would simply be able to walk over it. So, he made it that the illusion would disappear after an intruder reached the center of the pitfall. What Ian created was termed an Advanced Illusion Pitfall with Stone Spikes. It cost him five thousand mana to make each one.This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. Ian placed twenty pitfall traps throughout the floor. Most of these he simply placed along corridors, focusing on the path to the exit considering its length. He had one at a dead end, two that were right next to each other, one that was right next to a teleport trap, and a couple near the beginning of the floor on both the right and left paths. As Ian had already trapped two of the dead ends, he needed to switch gears to treasure before he trapped the entire floor. He didn¡¯t have many ideas beyond the EX rank staff. Ian was a bit of a miser, so thinking about spending tons of DP on upgrading his treasures, even though he had over two fucking million, caused him anxiety. Before he decided on anything else, he decided to make the staff. It took a lot more DP than he had initially thought, but a lot less DP than it should be. Although, he supposed the DP prices only increased by one hundred increments as long as he didn¡¯t take both paths, so the cost shouldn¡¯t have been too unexpected. Ian wanted Yirvin to cast space, light, and strength magic, so choosing a single mana targeted wood was in poor taste. The best mana channeling wood for any attribute was Ancient Mana Wood. Any wood could become mana wood, it simply took time for the trees to be infused with mana. However, ancient mana wood took thousands of year to achieve what most considered perfection. Ian had thought that wood left to mature for millions, billions, or even trillions of years would make an even better conduit, but his own research, trees didn¡¯t live that long, and now the dungeon tree seemed to say otherwise. While Ancient Mana Wood was the ultimate every mana attribute wood, simply using wood did not make the best staff. Ian continued to use DP until the staff was adorned with space, light, and strength mana stones each a foot in diameter and a perfect sphere. The stones formed a triangle formation on the top of the staff. These mana stones not only increased the power and casting speed of all space, light, and strength magic, they also stored up to three spells of each attribute for instant casting. However, while DP purchasing was done, the staff itself was not. The first enchantment Ian cast was personalization. This tied the staff to the mana signature of the owner. It was possible to override the previous owner by inserting the new owners mana, but it took more mana and time that would be allowed during a fight. Next, Ian cast remote control on the staff. It could now be used within a one hundred meter radius of the owner. Remote control also allowed the owner to move the staff in a similar manner to telekinesis within that one hundred meter radius. And, of course, Ian placed the unbreakable enchantment on the staff. With quality of life enchantments done, next were attack spells. Ian inscribed the ability to use one SSS rank spell per attribute per month. The uses would not stack, so if the use wasn¡¯t used then the next month would still only have one use. Ian used this method instead of a one month recharge time because it made it possible to use the spell twice in a row if the user knew the monthly cycle of the staff. The strength spell allowed the user to transform their body into pure strength mana called Strength Infusion. This allowed the user to display strength and endurance comparable to SSS rank Mana Artists. The space spell, Grand Transfer, allowed the user to teleport over a million human individuals or an equivalent mass anywhere they could think of. Judgement allowed the user to erase anything within a two kilometer radius with a grand beam of light from the heavens. Ian also upped the storage to ten spells of each attribute by enchanting each mana stone. Ian looked at the staff with satisfaction. Thankfully, the staff had come in a perfect shape, since he didn¡¯t have the proper artisan skills. It was quite powerful, although not the most powerful thing he could make. He had limited the spells to once a month, and he hadn¡¯t inscribed EX rank spells. Even with all the amazing enchantments, the thing that would probably surprise whomever found it the most, would be the fact that all the enchantments were fueled by ambient mana. That was something Ian had been extremely proud of while human. The staff didn¡¯t have a specific name in its status, so he called it Staff of Heavenly Might. Ian debated whether to place the staff in normal chests or make it the ultimate prize for the floor. After a while, he decided that the floor itself was the bigger challenge compared to the A- blink hobgoblin boss that was likely to be created. So, Ian placed ten treasures chests throughout the floor each with a Staff of Heavenly Might. He made sure to make them stone chests rather than normal wood chests. They would be harder to spot at the end of long corridors that way. All in all, between three and four hundred thousand DP was used along with a couple million mana. For what most would consider a legendary or mythical magic staff, it really wasn¡¯t that much. With treasures placed, Ian needed some more traps. He had done space and illusion traps, so now he needed light and strength. Light would be easy. For long stretches of corridor, Ian placed formations that constantly shot out beams of light which would cut someone in half instantly. Ian made sure to crisscross these beams, have them move up, down, left, and right constantly, and he also made them invisible. Was making every trap invisible cheap? Yeah, so what? He was trying to kill everyone on this floor. Ian placed ten stretches of beams and focused them along the route to the exit. Hmm, what to do for strength. All Ian had used strength magic for was physical reinforcement. He never thought he would try to make a trap out of it. Could he do it? Things that tested strength like a ceiling that tried to squash intruders didn¡¯t actually involve using strength magic. As Ian thought long and hard about the problem, he started to wonder if he could apply the SSS rank strength spell he cast on the staff to all creatures in a room. Which then brought his attention to the water elemental room he hadn¡¯t created yet. Ian snorted as he thought about buff water elementals, and proceeded with the plan. After he placed a large pond in the center, and filled the room with water elementals, Ian covered the entire room with inscriptions and enchantments. The water elementals seemed to shiver a little bit after he activated the room enchantment, but nothing beyond that happened. He needed to test this, so he created a simple adult goblin and made it fight with a single water elemental. As soon as he initiated the fight, the goblin fell over dead. Ian observed the goblin and a tiny hole went straight through its head. The goblin soon disappeared and the resulting mana was absorbed by the water elemental that was leisurely returning to its original spot. Ian was impressed by how well the inscription worked and how little the water elementals outwardly changed. Happy with the strength trap, and not wanting to think on them anymore, Ian moved onto other traps. What other attributes would fit thematically? Technically, he could coat the entire floor in light magic, but making it easier to see wasn¡¯t his top priority. In fact, he¡¯d rather do the opposite. With darkness magic in hand, Ian started coating the walls, floors, and ceilings of every corridor and room on the floor. The process took him around five days as he had to meticulously make sure there were no gaps or slightly brighter spots. When all was said and done, it was a near impossibility for light to penetrate beyond two meters. It also blocked the night vision skill, so he would have to exempt the goblins from the darkness. Three main traps, one trap room, and one pitch black floor were pretty good, but Ian wanted variety. Ian placed an advanced version of the water trap from the first floor. This new trap was under enough pressure that it would activate, kill the intruder, and deactivate before a single blink was finished. Ian purchased gates for a thousand DP and connected them to a flash formation. This flash formation would vaporize anything that was between the two gates as they slammed shut due to an intruder having stepped on the trigger formation. He placed earth spike traps, but their speed and hardness was unfathomable to most individuals. Intruder¡¯s heads and then bodies would be eviscerated before they even noticed. Five of each of these were placed throughout the floor. Although, the earth spikes were more than five individual formations, and were instead placed in five clusters of multiple formations. Ian admitted he was basically reusing traps, but he wanted to save some variety for other floors with the appropriate terrain. Also, he had already gone somewhat overboard. All that was left was filling the floor with creatures. However, besides the blink hobgoblins, he didn¡¯t really have any creatures that could be considered strong or rare. Well, the clear web spiders might be considered rare, but they were weak, didn¡¯t give extremely rare drops, and he already used them on the first floor. The ten chests with the Staff of Heavenly Might wouldn¡¯t entice people until they knew they were there. Until he got Yirvin to learn magic and evolve again, he wouldn¡¯t have any magic casters to use the staff. Considering he had placed the treasure chests behind deadly traps, there were no advertisements for his cool staff at the beginning of the floor. The only thing left to entice intruders was either rare ingredients and creatures or money. Most adventurers that reached and chose to challenge an EX rank floor already had plenty of gold, so Ian would have to make some rare creatures, namely useful plants. Of course, he would still provide money, but it wouldn¡¯t be the big enticer. Also, it was nearly impossible to harvest monsters without killing them, and killing them would reduce them to drops, so Ian would have to make different biota. He had just learned how to make biota into monsters, so he definitely didn¡¯t know how to make biota into completely different biota without turning them into monsters. It looked like he would have to experiment. Ian rubbed his pages together as he zoomed back into his core room. Chapter 14 Ian looked through his list of biota, and was reminded of the medium red cap mushroom. Creating a separate entry for a thousand DP had netted him a larger mushroom with zero development. As Ian stared at the medium red cap mushroom entry with the words ¡®a thousand DP¡¯ whispering through his head, he sighed and opened the Dungeon Shop. If he was going to waste DP experimenting, he should at least look for rare creatures beforehand. Ian flicked through the choices as he searched creatures he had studied himself, heard about from others, and even mythical creatures. No matter how much Ian liked different creatures, even his eyes started to glaze over at list that seemed to have no end. It looked like All Creatures did have a downside. In terms of his personal studies, Ian chose Draeden¡¯s Touch, a five leaf herb whose leaves looked like human fingers, the Flame Tongued Flasterby Catcher, an insect catching plant that grew in pools of magma, Glow Worms, worms that were phosphorescent, and the Lonely Cave Daisy, a plant that prevented the growth of other daisies in the same cave system. The flame tongued flasterby catcher didn¡¯t really fit the themes he was tying himself to, but Ian¡¯s love of the plant overrode thematic elements this time. They were all ten thousand DP each. Draeden¡¯s Touch was a key ingredient in making high grade mana recovery potions. The Flame Tongued Flasterby Catcher was used in fire resistance potions. Glow Worms filled the soil with a much denser mana, contributing to increased growth rate in farm fields. And the Lonely Cave Daisy, besides being exceptionally rare and extremely valuable to collectors, allowed the creation of a invisibility potion which made the user nigh unfindable even by someone like Ian. Ian placed draeden¡¯s touch throughout the maze floor, with its density increasing the farther from the entrance intruders went. However, while doing so, Ian noticed something he hadn¡¯t paid attention to while making the first floor. How were the intruders supposed to harvest the plants if they were planted in unbreakable dungeon stone? Ian thought back to plants he had harvested from cave dungeons. ¡­.Oh right, there was usually a small dirt layer for the plants to grow in or cracks in the rock. He went back through both floors and fixed it so both biotic plants and monster plants lived in dirt or cracks in stone. This also meant Ian had to extend the thickness of the stone for both floors to accommodate the additional material. With three draeden¡¯s touch before any traps, they would provide an incentive to at least step onto the floor. A couple of free herbs in the beginning would give the floor a less ¡®everyone will die if they enter this floor¡¯ feeling, even if that was the actual intention of the floor. Basically, Ian never wanted anyone to reach this floor in the first place, but if they did, he didn¡¯t want to give the perception that it was only there to kill intruders. Dungeons, that had floors which killed intruders and gave no rewards, saw a decrease in adventurers even on normal floors. Ian had wandered around the surrounding towns of these dungeons, and the general mood was ¡®if the dungeon made one floor that way, why wouldn¡¯t they change other floors to be the same?¡¯. Once that mood permeated, it was hard to get rid of. The addition of dirt to his two floors was the perfect place for the glow worms. Glow worms only lasted a couple of months in low mana densities, so when they were used for crops, they had to be frequently replenished. Ian didn¡¯t want to increase crop yields too much, if at all, since more food meant more people, but a few idiots, with make it rich quick schemes, might challenge floors above their level. One glow worm was placed on the G- rank floor, and he would increase the amount by one worm per floor for each rank increase. The maze floor, EX rank, would have around one hundred glow worms however. Ian placed a lonely cave daisy right next to the exit of the maze floor. It looked like a common white and yellow daisy, with the only difference, beyond its loneliness, being its ability to grow without sunlight. He decided to test placing another one on the maze floor, but it quickly wilted and turned to dust. When he looked at the first lonely cave daisy, it seemed a little healthier than before. Considering their rarity, Ian hadn¡¯t studied them very much, so he was interested in exploring further avenues of research. The fact that they might absorb other daisies being one of them. However, research needed to happen after he was an established dungeon. Ian decided against placing a lonely cave daisy on the first floor. Even if he could easily hide it with an illusion spell, some adventurers were incredibly lucky. Although there was no daisy on the first floor now, Ian had placed one there to see if it would survive, and it was a success. It seemed the loneliness didn¡¯t apply between floors. Whether that was a uniqueness of dungeons, or a uniqueness of his disconnected floor setup, Ian didn¡¯t know. The lonely cave daisies would be for EX rank and future hidden floors. The flame tongued flasterby catcher would have to wait for a magma floor before becoming prevalent, but Ian did create a room off of the core room, which he filled with magma magic. In that room, he sprouted the plant from its seed and watched its ¡®mouth¡¯ open and prepare the inviting treat of high density magma mana. Its root system formed a rock like structure, while its leaves and mouth mimicked a crystal. Between word of mouth and mythical creatures, Ian surprisingly found more mythical creatures. The mythical creatures, unsurprisingly, cost more than other creatures at a hundred thousand DP each. The unsurprising part being the ¡®more DP than other creatures¡¯ part, not the ¡®one hundred thousand DP¡¯ part. Which, while more DP than other creatures, was not enough DP for mythical creatures if Ian was being honest. If mythical creatures were this easy to obtain from the store, why didn¡¯t all dungeons have them? Was it another effect of All Creatures? If so, Ian doubted if any other dungeons had that perk. Ian spent a long while staring at the list of mythical creatures. He wanted them, and the stories about them were one of the things that drove him to study creatures. However, they were mythical creatures. Even if he was something chosen and created by lesser and greater gods, could he actually control them? In fact, he had no space for a World Dragon. Ian doubted he was ready to take care of the Tree of Eden, the World Dragon, the Corrupted Mushroom of Despair, the Elk of Antiquity, or many more. They produced elixirs of life, ate planets, rotted the world, and bought the landscape to life. Would his EX rank spells even be proper protections for some of them? Just because they were mythical didn¡¯t mean they were strong. With uncertain thoughts of the mythical future he wanted so badly, Ian moved on to his two word of mouth purchases. The purchase of mythical creatures would have to wait. Death Saffron surprised Ian as he had never heard of undead plants before. In fact, even Ian had been able to tell the Rogue was spouting lies in an attempt to pick up the young lad who had recently become a Necromancer. He remembered the Necromancer saying as he got up from the table, ¡°Even if there is such a thing as Death Saffron, your pick up lines suck.¡± and walking out of the tavern. If that Rogue ever entered Ian¡¯s dungeon, Ian would make sure he saw the Death Saffron. Also, how in Pusnir¡¯s name is an undead creature not a monster?! Ian was writhing in agony. He wanted to zoom in and figure it out! But, the more time he wasted, the less floors that would be made. If adventurers arrived, and his second floor was still his death maze, they would never come back. With a sigh, Ian placed the death saffron along the maze floor with the same density as draeden¡¯s touch. According to the death saffron description, the spice produced from the stigmas and styles made a potent poison. However, anything that touched the flower would be infused with poison, so¡­.not the easiest thing to harvest. Ian had taken special care to not let the death saffron touch any of the other plants. A Golden Apple Tree didn¡¯t surprise Ian, he was more surprised that he¡¯d never seen one before. It wasn¡¯t anything special, simply an apple tree that produced golden colored apples. Not slightly yellowish, but a deep gold. Well, the apples were a little sweeter than the ones he was familiar with, but they were simply fruits. Ian placed four golden apples trees near the entrance of the maze floor, and few others throughout. They weren¡¯t special but did make nice decor. The golden apple trees were nice and didn¡¯t provide any special benefits, so Ian placed one in a medium sized room on the first floor. He placed it in the room after the gauntlet of small rooms, which had slightly increasing jelly and slime numbers. It would also make a nice place for spiders. Ian had thought about making darkness oriented creatures for the maze floor, but he was happy with the layout, so his current creatures would fill out the floor requirements. Red caps, medium red caps, G+ ankle biters, web spiders, G+ moving moss, F+ slimes, and F+ jellies were placed sporadically throughout the floor. Afterwards, the entrance room and the boss room successfully appeared. Both Room status menus allowed Ian to copy all purchased functions of the entrance hall and the first floor boss room for free. The layout of the entrance hall could be freely copied over to the entrance room, but the layout of the boss room had to be remade. Ian wasn¡¯t surprised at the boss room limitations, as a new boss would have to be formed for each floor. Before he copied the functions and layout over, Ian wanted to make sure the Rooms worked and looked how he wanted them to. He had spent a lot of time on the entrance hall, so he didn¡¯t expect to change much. The first thing Ian noticed was his pillars would take a long time to fill up, and would give spoilers for future floors. Thus, he changed the pillars to only represent creatures of the current floor. Fully etched pillars also made the entrance hall look complete rather than half finished. Happy with the etched pillars, magic lights, treasure chest, mana signature reader, and transfer formation, Ian copied the functions and layout of the entrance hall over to the entrance room. Ian checked to make sure everything was working properly. The magic lights, loot collection, and the mana signature reader were fine, but the transfer formation needed adjusting. Ian disconnected the first floor boss room transfer formation from the core room, and connected it to a new transfer formation located where the dungeon entrance was. As he did so, a window with a countdown timer appeared before him. If he didn¡¯t reconnect the first floor with the core room in thirty hours, he would receive a level down. Also, all his mana inserted into his dungeon levels would disappear. Ian quickly made the transfer formation near the loot collection treasure chest connect to the maze floor, and he placed a transfer formation in the maze floor boss room that led to the core room. An internal sigh of relief escaped Ian as the timer disappeared. He replaced the etched creatures on the entrance room pillars with floor appropriate creatures, and moved onto the boss rooms. Unlike the entrance rooms, Ian had done the bare necessities for the first floor boss room. He formed the boss and made his magic creations. Depths, he hadn¡¯t even made a door. As such, Ian purchased the door creation, locked doors, and defeat the boss to leave upgrades. To get the latter two, he had to level the room to five. To get door creations, he had to make an entrance, which brought up the question: what was the big goddamn hole in the wall? All Ian had to do was designate the hole in the wall as the entrance, so he really wondered what the point of that upgrade was.This novel''s true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there. The most egregious flaw of the boss room was taken care of, so improving the boss itself was next. Surprisingly, Ian actually liked the auto creation of the boss. It meant he wouldn¡¯t make an undefeatable boss for the floor¡¯s difficulty level. However, while the moss ball was unique, Ian felt it didn¡¯t completely fit the floor. He had a wide range of creatures on the floor, and he intended to add a few more, so fighting a moss ball every time didn¡¯t make sense. Ian purchased all the reshape room upgrades which allowed him to level the room to eight. With the higher level, he purchased the different bosses, door aesthetics, boss randomizer, boss determination, and boss selection upgrades. Ian could now make what he wanted. Different bosses meant he could have all the available bosses rather than have to choose one. Ian could actively switch bosses between challengers, but he purchased the boss determination upgrade to do that for him. The criteria for fighting a certain boss was determined by the highest number of precursor monsters that were killed on the floor. If moving moss was killed the most, then the moss ball would be the boss. If clear web spiders were killed the most, then the medium clear web spider would be the boss. Ian¡¯s determination rules followed that sort of pattern. The boss randomizer allowed Ian to make the boss determination completely random, and he used it to randomize the boss selection when intruders killed the same amount of two or more different monster types. The boss selection upgrade allowed the boss to be selected before entering. Ian set it so only individuals that had already cleared the floor would be able to choose their preferred boss. Door aesthetics allowed Ian to create portraits of the different boss monsters on the outside of the door. He also set it so the correct portrait would glow, showing which boss was behind the door. Also, the door was now more majestic looking. Ian was happy with his boss room upgrades, but should he keep the previous magical features he created? The magic moss was illuminating, but didn¡¯t fit with the rest of the bosses. He decided to make appropriate environments for each boss, and it looked like he needed another upgrade first. Before Ian could get the upgrade he wanted, he needed to level the Room more. To do so he purchased the quality of life upgrades from the entrance rooms, the translation and instance upgrades. With those purchased, Ian raised the Room¡¯s level to twelve and purchased the Different Boss Environments upgrade. It allowed him to separate different boss environments, but not actually create the environments. Thankfully, Ian had his magic for that. The moss ball environment stayed the same. The medium clear web spider got multiple attribute and colored webs strewn throughout the room. Mushroom Man received the same room treatment as the moss ball but with mushrooms instead of moss. For the enraged fern, Ian created small ferns with angry, screaming faces that writhed. The slime and jelly had either slime or jelly constantly dripping from the ceiling. Pleased with his improvements to the first floor boss room, Ian copied the functions over to the maze floor boss room. He maintained the same aesthetics, but only allowed a single boss type to be formed, the A- blink hobgoblin. The environment Ian created wasn¡¯t based on the boss itself but rather the floor. He covered the entire room in darkness magic as he had done for the main floor. A door with a large blink hobgoblin portrait completed the Room. Even with the Rooms complete, Ian had to get the finishing touches done. He made sure the transfer formations went Entrance Hall, G- Deep Cave, Entrance Room, EX Maze Deep Cave, and finally Core Room. The previous names would be displayed before intruders using the transfer formations. Later on, Ian would make floors whose difficulty he wouldn¡¯t give away by their transfer formation title. Those floors would be focused around a different main theme like stealth, magma, water, climbing, rescuing, or something else he hadn¡¯t thought of at the moment. His finishing touches primarily focused on fine tuning the new environments he created in the boss rooms. It took Ian around ten days to meet Magical Beauty¡¯s high standards. Not as long as the first floor, but not short either. Ian had two floors, so all he need to do was infuse himself with mana to level up.
Dungeon Level [2] ¡ú [3] 1 Cubic Kilometer Floor Space Gained. Mana Generation Increased by 10,000. DP Generation Increased by 1.
It looked like he got the same bonuses as last time, and besides the mana for the next level, he needed another floor again. Ian was pleased by his main floors, but felt that the G- rank floor needed more variety. The maze floor was primarily a trap floor, so variety didn¡¯t matter as much there. The first floor, however, would be the first thing people saw when they entered. What was the thing he wanted to present to the world? Was it his magic? A reasonable difficulty dungeon? Cool monsters? ¡­.That last one played well with his interests, but would it help him accomplish his goal of getting more mana into the universe? He had some guesses about what would accomplish that goal, and if he was right, then getting a Tamer¡¯s Guild focused on his dungeon would help him massively. Ian glanced through his creature list. Should he create different varieties of every creature on the floor? No, that was too much. Also, he couldn¡¯t do that for some of his monsters. He should focus on expanding what he already had on the first floor then. He hadn¡¯t properly tested it out yet, but based on the creature tree, it seemed easier to produce different varieties of monsters by converting biota into monsters. The mana attribute change only took one evolution, while changing Yirvin¡¯s attribute from neutral to strength took until adulthood. Based on those conditions, Ian was left with the web spider, red cap mushroom, and green cave fern. He supposed making mana hearts for new biota was also an option. However, new mana hearts for biota was mana intensive and mildly time consuming, so Ian put that off the table for now. If he was targeting tamers, then red cap mushrooms and green cave ferns were out. It wasn¡¯t that tamers never tamed plant monsters, but the majority tamed animal monsters, seeing as it was generally easier to move around with animal monsters than plant monsters. Spiders weren¡¯t the best option either with how scared some people seemed to get of them, but they were the only biota Ian had left. Nature infusion gave Ian the Web Spider monster. It had the same skills as the clear web spider, but had the same coloring as the biotic web spider instead of being clear. Of course, the main non-physical difference between the two were their attributes. The web spider was nature oriented, while the clear web spider was attributeless oriented. Ian infused, into four separate web spiders, what a lot of people considered the four basic elements, fire, water, wind, and earth. He received the fire, water, wind, and earth web spiders. They were pretty generic names, but Ian supposed they might become better later on. Although, who was he to complain, clear web spider and web spider were just as generic. Each spider became a light shade of red, blue, green, and yellow respectively. Their skill list did change with the addition of a resistance skill of their respective element. There was also no decrease in their other skills, likely making these spiders stronger than the clear and normal web spider. Ian created the Glowing, Regenerating, and Distorted Web Spiders from light, healing, and space mana respectively. The glowing web spider had turned white and produced light from its body, but it had no additional skills. The regeneration skill allowed the regenerating web spider to slowly regenerate body parts, but there were no outward differences compared to the web spider. Similarly the distorted web spider had no color differences, but its body constantly shifted in size and shape while the same density was maintained. Next, Ian used darkness mana and illusion mana to create a dark web spider and an illusionary web spider. The dark web spider was the opposite of the glowing web spider, it was completely black and absorbed light. The two spiders did share the fact that they had no new skills compared to the original clear web spider skill set. There were no physical differences with the illusionary web spider, but it had gained the body double skill which created an illusionary body double. As a level one skill, the body double would not be hard to spot for most adventurers. With ten new spider types, three of them, regenerating, distorted, and illusionary, were completely new species. Ian received a total of 31,000 DP for his new creations. Since most of the spiders congregated near the ceilings on the first floor, Ian wasn¡¯t worried about adding more of them. As such, he added all ten new species to the floor. He kept their ratios the same as the clear web spider, so the first floor became a far more spider oriented floor. Ian¡¯s original thoughts about the slimes and jellies being the main attackers of the floor were no longer present. Besides simply adding spiders to the floor, Ian decided to make the medium room with the golden apple tree the new spider room. It would be in a similar vein to the moss, mushroom, and fern rooms. Ian shifted a large number of all eleven spider types from other rooms and corridors to the golden apple room. Slowly but surely, the spiders were covering the room in webs. He couldn¡¯t wait to hear the high pitched screams of arachnophobes as they entered that room. Now that he had ten new species of monster, he also had ten new boss monsters. The problem was Ian didn¡¯t want his boss monster door to be overrun with spiders. It took a lot of precise determinations, but Ian was able to make the spider portrait count towards all spiders. The actual boss spider would still be determined by which spider type was killed the most. With Ian¡¯s new spider additions the total amount of spiders was approximately equal to each of the moving moss, constrictions ferns, and ankle biters. Thus, the moss ball, mushroom man, enraged fern, and spider bosses were the most likely ones to appear. Maybe he should make a reward for killing all boss types? Ian attempted to slap himself, but just slammed his book shut loudly. He didn¡¯t need extra stuff like that at the moment. The only things Ian had left for his floors to feel truly complete were creating the twenty blink hobgoblins he needed for the maze floor corridors, and buying quality of life improvements for his main floors. Ian wanted fifteen default blink hobgoblins and five variant blink hobgoblins, so he needed to wait about fourteen days before he had enough mana. To begin the quality of life process, Ian bought the same functions that he had bought as upgrades in the Rooms. The different translation functions, instances, and creature respawn. Creature respawn wasn¡¯t one of the Room upgrades, but Ian couldn¡¯t wait anymore to buy it. Ian changed the instance requirements from one hundred individuals to parties, since he had the party detection function. He was glad to finally apply the knowledge he learned about main floor instances a half year, or five months, ago. The translation functions meant he wouldn¡¯t suddenly stop understanding the intruders as soon as they entered his main floors. Creature respawn took over the job of repopulating the base floor after creatures in instances were killed. Ian could have sworn there was at least one more quality of life function he had in mind, but it must have slipped his mind. He scanned his floors and checked his functions to make sure, but there was nothing that would cause him¡­.oh right, trap and treasure respawn. With those two purchases, all Ian had left to do was wait. After the fourteen day wait, Ian placed the blink hobgoblins throughout the maze floor. Each of the five variants were placed near the entrances of the checkpoint rooms. The fifteen default blink hobgoblins were randomly scattered, except for two of them who were placed before the traps began on the left and right paths from the entrance. Ian finally felt there was nothing that bothered him about his floors. There were, of course, things he wanted to add, but they were bonuses and not things he felt were needed at this time. Now, he couldn¡¯t wait to make the G rank floor. Chapter 15: Main Adventurer #1 The loud roar of people talking along with a constant creaking of wood echoed throughout the central plaza. Workers were in a constant fervor to load the ship with all the necessary supplies for the upcoming journey. They were behind schedule and were thankful it was the Prime Magus¡¯ private airship and not the Emperor¡¯s. Large wood boxes containing food, shelter, and weapons slowly filled up the cargo hold. The amount brought on board was far too large for any of the Empire¡¯s space mages, and the only one going on the journey was proficient in teleportation formations. The leader of the adventurer group, Dungeon Reconnaissance, stared out the window of a large tavern watching the workers in silence as the rest of his team argued about their upcoming job. He was a mountain of a man standing seven feet tall, his entire body bulging with muscles. Curly, auburn hair cascaded down his head to his shoulders and a large, thick beard of a slightly lighter auburn was formed over his sculpted jaw. Last but not least, his piercing blue eyes caused most men to stiffen and women to become dreamy eyed. Franc, the leader, was not a big fan of the reactions his eyes caused. Franc Cuvier turned his vision to the other five members of his party. Currently they were arguing about what exactly they would find at Broken Sky Mountain. ¡°I certainly hope it¡¯s not a dungeon that caused the uptick in mana concentration. The fact that we elves consider the mountain sacred, and would fight to the death to keep settlers from it, has kept the Emperor from expanding too far west.¡± grumbled Lyra the elven metal mage. Lyra Fossey was short for an elf at only six feet and five inches tall. Her shiny, straight, and green hair was braided into a ponytail that reached her waist. Unlike most mages, she didn¡¯t wear a robe, instead covering herself in thick leather armor, as being a metal mage allowed her to do more than cast from the back of the party formation. Her metal attribute hadn¡¯t ostracized her from elven society, but had confounded the adults when she was a child. Most elves had attributes of wind, water, nature, light, lightning, sound, and weather. As such, she was often alone before joining Dungeon Reconnaissance. ¡°Why do you care if the Emperor expands to the west? If there is a dungeon, then the elves can no longer consider that area sacred. If the area is no longer sacred, then settling an area rich in resources would benefit the Empire as a whole. Aren¡¯t elves supposed to be more logical than the other races?¡± queried Teri the gnomish gunner and item appraiser. At two feet tall, Teri Gunner was the average gnome height. Gnomish heads were one fourth their total height and looked liked prunes with faces. Their hands and feet each had six appendages, all double jointed and fully opposable. Each digit contained four joints each. This made their fingers and toes double the length of the other races. In addition to their unusual features, Gnomish red irises didn¡¯t help with other races sometimes mistaking them for monsters. ¡°Even if the Emperor and his Empire are the only thing currently keeping the Bug Lord at bay, he is a warmonger. The more resources the Empire gets, the less likely the elves, gnomes, naga, dragonians, dwarves, or other humans are to get their nations back.¡± ¡°The gnomes didn¡¯t have a nation before the Emperor gave us a protectorate and neither did the naga. While we¡¯re not the ultimate deciders of our fate, we have a lot more voice in that decision compared to before.¡± ¡°Now, now, you two. This isn¡¯t time for debating politics. We were deciding how the increase in mana density was detected around the Broken Sky Mountain when it¡¯s five hundred kilometers from the most outlying village.¡± interjected Peter their rogue, cartographer, and all around danger sensor. Peter Song was short for a human at five feet. Otherwise he fit the perfect description of the average human. Short black hair with brown eyes, tanned skin, no beard, and a face with soft edges. Peter portrayed a confident man on the outside but was skittish and paranoid due to his Unique Skill: Danger Sense. ¡°The elves always keep their measuring devices focused on the Sacred Mountain.¡± Lyra proudly stated. ¡°Even if that is true, they are on the easternmost edge of the Empire and the least likely to detect anything.¡± ¡°If all the mana measuring devices are focused on the mountain, then even miniscule changes should be detected.¡± ¡°....Doesn¡¯t the Empire require at least some of those to be directed towards the Bug Lord¡¯s forces?¡± ¡°....I thought you said no politics.¡± said Lyra grumpily with folded arms. Peter rolled his eyes and shrugged his shoulders at that. ¡°No matter how the mana concentration increase was detected or whether or not it is due to a dungeon, the fact of the matter is we were hired with the expectation that there is a dungeon. The question we should be asking is whether it¡¯s a new dungeon or an old dungeon that has grown enough to finally be detected.¡± stated Charles, the monster tamer and appraiser. Charles Kinsey stood five feet eleven inches with blonde hair that was almost white. Large scars ran across his face, a chunk of his nose and right ear were missing, and his eyes moved independently from one another, his left eye being a new gnomish invention with a red iris instead of his normal green iris. His muscles were lean which caused a lot of average citizens to underestimate him. ¡°I hope it¡¯s a new dungeon. A newly born dungeon that can change the mana density enough for us to detect is likely to become a dungeon with great rewards and even better monsters to hunt.¡± said Duzzig, the dwarvish tank and defender, happily as he slammed his mug of ale onto the table. Duzzig Obsidian stood three feet three inches tall, slightly over the average dwarf. His ginger head of hair and ginger beard braided in meticulous fashion. When asked how he had the time to do his meticulous hairstyle in the morning, he laughed and said his seven daughters did it for him. Even with their width, high muscle density, and low center of mass, it was hard for dwarves to become tanks due to their height. Duzzig overcame his problematic height with his innate mana attribute, endurance, and his technical expertise fostered over hundreds of years. ¡°I¡¯m hoping for a fully grown old dungeon. Even if its long term benefits are less, what we need right now is help with the bug lord. The other dungeons produce materials, but there isn¡¯t enough space or treasure to go around, at least on the lower floors that all adventurers can reach.¡± responded Franc finally entering the discussion. Teri piped up, ¡°I don¡¯t really care if the dungeon is new or old. The most important resources will come from the mountain and the surrounding environments. We¡¯ll finally have more farmland with the prairies to the west, since the south is filled with undead, the north is an ocean filled with high rank monsters, and the Bug Lord destroyed the Kingdom of Odysis.¡± A moment of silence and gloom descended on the group at the mention of their former home. ¡°*cough* You talk about high rank monsters in the ocean to the north, Teri, but the Broken Sky Mountain most likely has just as many high rank monsters.¡± said Charles interrupting the bad mood. ¡°Hmm, you might be right,¡± Teri muttered, ¡°I suppose that¡¯s why the Prime Magus and the top elven mage are a part of this mission then?¡± ¡°Ailen said he was participating to make sure the mana density increase was due to a dungeon. However, I¡¯m not sure he was telling me the whole truth.¡± answered Lyra with a frown. ¡°That¡¯s enough chit chat,¡± growled Franc as he noticed the last of the cargo being loaded, ¡°They¡¯re almost done loading the airship, so finish your food and drinks and get ready to board.¡± The group of six prepped for departure and efficiently cleaned their area leaving an exorbitant tip. They had surplus money compared to even other S+ rank adventurers. Ever since the fall of the Kingdom of Odysis, they had been directly employed by the Emperor to discover new dungeons. Several hours later all passengers were on board. Formations activated across the hull of the ship along with several magic engines. The roar and clanking of the engines filled the plaza, and the airship lifted into the sky. Leaving the central plaza and a sea of towers behind, the airship headed westward to the Broken Sky Mountain. ????? The initial roar of the engine had settled to a low hum for which Dungeon Reconnaissance was grateful. They could sleep through the low hum but not that roar. The trip would take ten days in total, half of what it would take by horse. If the airship didn¡¯t take periodic stops to let the Prime Magus regain her mana, then the trip would have only taken five days. However, the expectation of strong monsters led to the Prime Magus retaining at least half of her mana. At five days they stopped at the most outlying frontier village, and asked about any unusual occurrences in the area. The village chief, oddly unperturbed talking to the strongest mage in the Empire, said that there was nothing unusual beyond the normal monster attacks on the village. After staying a night in the village, the crew happy to drink alcohol at the inn, the airship continued on its journey.Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website. On the last day of their journey, they received their first major resistance. Previously, there were some minor monster attacks from Buff Buffalo when the airship had settled onto the ground, but they were frightened away by the Prime Magus and Ailen. What attacked them on the final day was a murder of Ravenous Crows, and a Crow King and Crow Queen leading them. The royal monsters had fifty foot wingspans and oozed dark mana. The closer to them, the dimmer the surrounding light. The Prime Magus and Ailen took the King and and Queen respectively, while the regiment of soldier and Dungeon Reconnaissance had to fight the murder of crows that numbered over a thousand. Being prepared to fight flying monsters, the regiment was separated into archery, crossbow, and gnomish gunnery squads. Archers in front, crossbowman in the middle, and gunners in the back. Thus, the archers were on the main deck, the crossbowman were on the quarter deck, and the gunners were on the sterncastle deck. There was no mage squad as all military mages were a part of the front lines against the Bug Lord. The archers were tasked with firing into the densest areas of the murder. Crossbowman would hit the stragglers that the archers didn¡¯t hit. The gunners targeted outliers on the edge of the murder and individuals that seemed stronger than the rest. While gunners didn¡¯t have physical ammo, each shot used up enough mana that they were extremely expensive when using mana stones and mana hearts or ran out of mana quickly when using personal mana. Each member of Dungeon Reconnaissance had their own way to fight flying beasts, but Teri and Lyra were the primary damage dealers. Every second that went by and cock of Teri¡¯s gun, a crow head would burst, the body would go limp, and start falling to the ground. The gnomish gunners that had run out of mana stared in wonder as they muttered, ¡°Perfect Shot Teri.¡± Spikes, arrows, and other pointed metal objects pierced through crow after crow turning them into a mist of blood and feathers. Lyra¡¯s accuracy was far below Teri¡¯s but she overcame bad accuracy with numbers. If a spike only pierced a wing, five more would come and turn the body into mincemeat. Charles didn¡¯t have the firepower of Teri and Lyra, but he summoned his Red Hawk, Stacy, and Silver Gryphon, Lioric, from his Tamer Home to fight. Stacy wasn¡¯t much of a fighter and killed weak crows and stragglers while sticking close to Charles, who was riding Lioric. Using Lioric¡¯s high maneuverability, Charles flew around the murder directing the crows closer together. This way the squads would hit more targets even with bad aim. Lioric didn¡¯t only act as a crow shepherd. He could slash apart multiple crows with a swing of his talons. Vicious tornados appeared with a flap of his wings shredding swaths of the murder apart. Beyond the physical sharpness of his talons, Lioric could send blades of wind from them for long distance attacks. Peter was proficient with throwing knives, but being so high in the air, they would not be easy to retrieve. Instead, he waited on the deck of the airship, like Duzzig and Franc, as the ranged fighters wouldn¡¯t be able to kill all the crows before they reached the airship. As the crows rushed towards the regiment and their two party members, Peter, Duzzig, and Franc stood in the way. Duzzig stood at the front, braced his tower shield in his left hand, gripped his axe in his right, and taunted the crows, ¡°You lame chickens have less worth than an old turd to a shiteater!¡± The veins in the crows eyes pulsed as they flew straight at Duzzig cawing in anger. He laughed as the weaker crows killed themselves on his shield and armor. His axe cleaving the heads of the more resilient ones. With Duzzig in the center of a large swarm of crows, Peter and Franc took advantage and started slaughtering the enraged crows. Franc¡¯s large greatsword didn¡¯t so much cut the crows apart as smash them into pieces. The deck of the airship would need a thorough cleaning after the battle. Peter¡¯s body swerved between flying crows their talons, bodies, and beaks missing him by centimeters. His twin daggers pierced the vital points of the crows as fast as he could, mainly focusing on the eyes, neck, and brain. He did nowhere near as much damage as a single swing of Franc¡¯s greatsword did, but they could actually collect materials from the ones he killed. A few of the crows had gotten past them and aimed for the regiment, but vines appeared from the pots stacked throughout the airship, grabbed the crows, squeezed them until they burst, and threw the remains off the ship. Soon after, the entire sky surrounding the ship was surrounded in vines. The remaining murder of crows were slashed, swatted, and gripped into pieces until none remained. Afterwards, the vines returned to their pots and became normal looking plants. At the front of the ship where the Prime Magus and Ailen were fighting, the orange and cherry trees that they had eaten from were now five times their original size with large mouths filled with multiple layers of sharp teeth. The two carnivorous trees were chowing down on the now dead King and Queen. The sound of flesh, sinew, and bone being torn apart and munched on didn¡¯t phase the soldiers and adventurers as they had all seen much worse. The part they stared at was their first look at the Prime Magus¡¯ magic. Prime Magus Ruth Arber was well known as being the strongest mage in the Empire, but as she had never gone to battle and preferred to stay in her tower and research, the nature of her attribute and magic were unknown. At the initial stage of their voyage, they had wondered at the presence of so many plants on board. Most had guessed that the plants were related to Ruth in some way, but whether they were for her magic or her hobby they didn¡¯t know. Although, those more familiar with mages could easily tell you the answer would almost always be both. The trees finished their meal and shrunk back to normal trees. Very few on the ship ate oranges or cherries after that. It was decided to set the airship down right outside of the forest to take a break, let the Prime Magus regain her mana, and clean the now bloody and feathery deck. As the airship settled onto the ground, a brown bird with a white belly, and two long, golden feathers that extended from its head to the middle of its back perched on the railing of the ship. The Prime Magus, an old woman with wrinkled skin, and Ailen, a beautiful, blue haired male elf, walked over to the bird. As she did, the Prime Magus turned to the on edge crew and laughed, ¡°It¡¯s a beautiful and rare breed of bird, but harmless to us. Go back to your work and stop worrying.¡± Franc had been wary of the bird, but the Prime Magus¡¯ voice that reminded him of his late Great-Grandmother alayed those fears. He turned back to his party and started to tell them to get back to work but quickly stopped as he noticed Peter. The man was pale as a ghost and his entire body was shaking. It seemed to take his entire will to keep standing and not piss himself. Franc grabbed Peter, hiding him from the rest of the crew, and brought him to their party¡¯s shared room. As Franc went below deck he ordered the rest of the party, ¡°Finish your work, but watch the Prime Magus, Ailen, and that bird. Be discreet. I know the Prime Magus and Ailen will notice you watching, but make sure the crew doesn¡¯t. Dismissed.¡± Back in their room, Franck asked Peter why he sensed so much danger. ¡°You know I can¡¯t tell if my unique skill is reacting to the opponent''s ability to kill me or intent to kill me. If what the Prime Magus said was true, then it¡¯s the bird¡¯s ability to kill me. Which means that thing could eliminate all of us, even the Prime Magus.¡± Peter responded. ¡°It¡¯s well known the Prime Magus is a SSS rank mage. If what you say is true, then¡­.¡± ¡°That bird is likely an EX rank monster.¡± The two stared at each other in ominous silence. With a stutter Peter spoke up, ¡°E-Even if it¡¯s an EX rank monster, it didn¡¯t seem to mean us harm. Most likely the mountain is its home, and wanted to know what we were doing here. However, Ailen and the Prime Magus didn¡¯t seem surprised by its appearance.¡± Franc grunted, ¡°More questions, but we¡¯re just here to meticulously categorize everything in the dungeon and rank it. When the bird leaves, I¡¯ll come and get you. See ya, Peter.¡± ¡°See ya, Franc.¡± Franc headed back up on deck, joined his party in their cleaning duties, and watched the discussion between the three heavy weights. After a few hours, the EX rank bird flew away. Franc tried to catch any changes in facial expression on Ailen¡¯s or the Prime Magus¡¯ face, but they were far too practiced in politics for him to notice anything. Ruth Arber expanded her voice with magic and addressed the crew, ¡°We are close to what is most likely a new dungeon. We will start early tomorrow and hopefully find it by midday. As such, after you finish your duties, you have personal time the rest of today and tonight. Ailen and I will stand watch overnight in case of a similar attack as this morning. However, we don¡¯t expect another attack, so enjoy yourselves without worry.¡± Cheers rose from the crew as they quickened their cleaning and daily preparations. Dungeon Reconnaissance retired to their room after cleaning to discuss the battle and the bird. They moved on quickly from the bird as there was nothing much they could do about it. Their discussion on proper party technique when fighting flocks of flying monsters lasted much longer as they didn¡¯t have many chances to fight flying monsters in dungeons. The rest of the night they spent taking care of their weapons and armor, meditating, practicing, and gambling. The next morning, the airship slowly flew along the base of the Broken Sky Mountain heading from North to South. When asked why they were starting at the base of the mountain instead of the forest, the Prime Magus responded that most dungeon entrances were attached to large walls, so they may as well start with the mountain. It was a pretty good reason, but Franc assumed the Prime Magus must have learned something from the bird. EX ranks were legends, and one thing all those legends had in common were the strength and intelligence of the EX ranks. Spotters attempted to see the telltale blackness surrounded by a glow that was a dungeon entrance. A couple of hours after noon, an area with a few fallen trees and churned up dirt came into view. As the airship neared the area, the dungeon entrance was spotted situated up against the mountain. Even with a couple toppled trees, there was no space for the airship to land. The wood cutters prepared to climb ladders down to make space, but the Prime Magus stopped them. She went down herself and instead of cutting them down, the trees uprooted themselves and slowly walked until there was enough room for an airship. Once the trees were far enough away, they rerooted themselves. She did allow the wood cutters to process the already fallen trees, but ordered them to not cut any others. Ruth Arber stared at the dungeon entrance for a couple of seconds before heading to the forest to meditate. As the airship settled onto the ground, Dungeon Reconnaissance got off first. They wanted to get through the first floor before it got too dark. They said their goodbyes to the crew and notified Ailen about entering the dungeon as the Prime Magus was in the forest. Ailen raised no objection and wished them luck. As they entered the ominous black portal into the dungeon, the airship crew was setting up tents and preparing for an extended stay. Scouts were sent out to get a lay of the land and study what had happened in the area around the dungeon. With a dungeon present, the Empire was certain to start settling. However, most didn¡¯t notice that settling near the mountain would be much harder than they originally thought. Chapter 16: Main Adventurer #2 The group of six leisurely entered the dungeon entrance but quickly slowed to a stop. ¡°Damn. This is the first floor safe room?¡± exclaimed Peter. ¡°You¡¯re right. It¡¯s odd to have such an extravagant room this early,¡± mused Franc. Lyra interjected, ¡°However, dungeons do update earlier floors as they grow older.¡± ¡°Not to grand entrance halls with realistic carvings of monsters they don¡¯t,¡± growled Duzzig as he firmly grasped his axe handle. ¡°A glowing floor and glowing walls, along with vines made out of light aren¡¯t exactly normal either,¡± said Teri while waving her hand at the room. Charles piped up, ¡°I don¡¯t know what the problem is. The monster carvings are cool.¡± ¡°Okay, everyone,¡± Franc ordered. ¡°It¡¯s certainly unusual, but it¡¯s not something we haven¡¯t seen before. Charles, analyze the pictures on the pillars, they might tell us about the monster types in the dungeon. Lyra, check out the glowing walls, glowing floor, and glowing pillars. If they¡¯re magic tell me what kind. Peter, map out the room.Teri and Duzzig come with me as we check out that desk with a treasure chest on it, and what is obviously not a set of stairs.¡± Charles ran to the pillars with vigor and intensely stared at them. Lyra sighed as she levitated to the ceiling and studied the magic vines. Peter had already started mapping out the room before Franc had ordered him to. As Franc, Teri, and Duzzig reached the end of safe room, they noticed the sign above the desk. ¡°Loot collection?¡± said Teri in amazement. ¡°Are we sure this isn¡¯t an old dungeon? If it¡¯s a new one, it¡¯s certainly putting the cart before the horse.¡± However, she was already looking over the treasure chest and mana signature reader making sure not to touch them. ¡°Still, it will certainly be useful,¡± grunted Duzzig. ¡°Lazy adventurers hate to pick up loot and carry it, even if the dungeon is a only a couple of floors.¡± ¡°It¡¯ll be good if we ever come back here, but for now we ignore it. We need to identify what each monster drops and not have it all placed in that treasure chest,¡± lectured Franc. ¡°Although, you can open the treasure chest if you want Teri, it shouldn¡¯t register the loot collection.¡± With the leader¡¯s permission, the lid of the treasure chest sprang open immediately. What greeted her was the same blackness as the dungeon entrance. She placed her hand inside but only felt the inside of a treasure chest. Teri sighed and addressed Franc, ¡°It looks like a portal similar to the dungeon entrance, but when I put my hand inside I can feel the edges of the treasure chest. Without activating loot collection, I can¡¯t tell more about it. However, we should have Lyra check it for magic.¡± ¡°If Lyra can¡¯t find too much more about it, then we¡¯ll activate the loot collection system on our timed run through of the dungeon,¡± said Franc. ¡°Now, rather than stairs, we obviously have a teleportation formation. Who wants to test it out?¡± ¡°Me!¡± screamed Lyra as she zoomed over to them from the ceiling. ¡°You¡¯re supposed to be studying the lights, Lyra. But, I suppose teleportations are also your jurisdiction, so go ahead,¡± sighed Franc. Franc, Teri, and Duzzig watched as Lyra entered the teleportation alcove. As she did a window appeared in front of her. ¡°Is this what it would look like if we could see each other¡¯s Status Windows?¡± wondered Duzzig aloud. ¡°Now, that, I¡¯m certain, is something we¡¯ve never seen before,¡± said Franc. ¡°What does it say Lyra?¡± ¡°It¡¯s asking me to choose which floor I want, and there¡¯s only one option: G- Deep Cave,¡± she answered. ¡°That likely means this dungeon already has the ability to start at floors we¡¯ve already cleared,¡± mused Franc. ¡°In terms of design it seems like an old and long dungeon, but based on what the Prime Magus said, which is likely based on whatever that bird told her, and the title of the floor it should be a new one. If that title is true, the dungeon may not be as difficult as the safe room and design suggests.¡± ¡°Aren¡¯t you being a little fast in your difficulty estimate, Franc?¡± asked Lyra as she stepped back out of the alcove. ¡°You¡¯re probably right, but why waste a floor on monsters that most villagers should be able to kill with a modicum of effort? It¡¯s not like I know how dungeons function, but all dungeons in the Empire and the former Kingdom have had a team reach the core room at some point. That should mean there¡¯s always an end to a dungeon. If there¡¯s an end, there should be a limited number of floors, so why waste a floor dedicated to G- rank monsters unless that¡¯s all the dungeon has?¡± ¡°Franc, I know you like to figure out how dungeons work, but is now really the time?¡± asked Teri. ¡°Sorry,¡± apologized Franc. ¡°Okay, Lyra, check out the treasure chest then get back to the lights. Teri and Duzzig, let¡¯s see if we can help the others in anyway we can.¡± A couple of hours later, Peter, Charles, and Lyra came back with their reports. Peter started, ¡°I mapped the safe room. It¡¯s very similar to the entrance hall of a castle but less ornate and more magical.¡± ¡°Thanks Peter. Your forte will come when we enter the main dungeon,¡± said Franc. Charles was next, ¡°Based on the carvings we¡¯ll see spiders, jellies, slimes, ferns, mushrooms, and moss. The only one I specifically identified was the Ankle biter, and I could only do that because of the very obvious mouth on a generic looking mushroom. I¡¯d hesitate to even say if the ferns or moss will be monsters. I would only say the spiders are monster variants based on their size. ¡°Carvings of the same type are exact replicas of each other except for the spiders. There are different variations of spider carvings, so we¡¯ll probably encounter multiple spider types. I estimate at least five, but I can¡¯t say that with confidence.¡± ¡°Does the fact that the first floor is a G- rank floor give you any more confidence in what types of monsters we¡¯ll face?¡± asked Franc. ¡°Yes and no. I could guess the common G- rank monsters for each type, but dungeons are known to have uncommon or rare monster variants.¡± ¡°Thanks Charles. Those don¡¯t sound too difficult, but we need to be careful of the spider venom.¡± Lyra finished the reports off with fire in her eyes, ¡°The vines on the ceiling are extremely detailed reconstructions of the basic light spell. I say extremely detailed because I cannot understand how the dungeon made those. They look and act exactly like living vines, but are made up of light attribute magic. Light attribute mages who¡¯ve reached a wall in their development and studies will want to come to this dungeon simply for those vines.¡± ¡°No way they can be that amazing, it¡¯s only the first floor of the dungeon,¡± doubted Duzzig. ¡°I would normally agree with you Duzzig, but the glowing walls, glowing floor, and glowing pillars are just as amazing. The glow is a simpler reconstruction of the light spell compared to the vines, but the color and patterns that it cycles through aren¡¯t light at all. They¡¯re different mana attributes that have been infused into the light spell. So far there have mainly been basic attributes, but the one right now is metal attribute. Also, no repeats so far. I almost want to wait and see if previously unknown attributes show up.¡± Lyra was nearly bouncing around the walls at the prospects the magic lights in the safe room presented. The rest of the party could only sigh internally and hope she calmed down before the dangerous part of their job actually began. ¡°How about the teleportation formation and the inside of the treasure chest?¡± questioned Franc. ¡°The teleportation formation seems like a formation that the space mage we brought with us would make, but after seeing the lights and the window that appeared I think I¡¯m missing something. And I can only shrug my shoulders at the treasure chest. I know it contains space magic but that¡¯s all. I may like space magic, but I¡¯m not very good at it. We may need to bring that space mage in here if he¡¯s willing,¡± said Lyra as she shook her head. ¡°I doubt that man would ever go into a dungeon,¡± joked Peter. ¡°Hahhah! Right you are, boy!¡± Duzzig chuckled jovially. ¡°He shivers at the simple prospect of danger in the same way you shiver at real danger.¡± ¡°Yeah, yeah, everyone¡¯s a boy or girl to you, Duzzig, even Lyra whose hundreds of years older than you.¡± Peter¡¯s body started to shiver. ¡°Okay guys, we can continue having fun after we¡¯re outside and making camp.¡± interrupted Franc. ¡°We¡¯re not going to finish the first floor?¡± asked Teri obviously disappointed. ¡°Tomorrow. It shouldn¡¯t be dark yet, but based on this safe room, a full exploration of the first floor should take us longer than normal. As such, we wouldn¡¯t complete it until deep into the night. And as I always say we need a good night¡¯s rest to do well in the dungeon,¡± answered Franc. The party gathered their belongings and exited the dungeon.If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. Waiting for them outside the dungeon was the Prime Magus, ¡°Done already?¡± she asked. Franc responded, ¡°No, I¡¯m afraid not Prime Magus. We only recorded notes on the first floor safe room. It was unusual for such an early floor and took us longer than normal, but the magic present might interest you. However, there were two space related items: a teleportation formation and a treasure chest with some sort of space magic inside that we were unable to report on in detail. If Magus Timothy would be willing, we¡¯d love to have him examine them.¡± ¡°I already planned on a trek through the dungeon. I¡¯ll have Timothy enter with me then, no matter how much he blubbers,¡± joked the Prime Magus. ¡°But, I¡¯ll let you finish your jobs first. Information is power after all.¡± The Prime Magus said goodbye and walked back to her tent. The party of six walked to their designated area, set up camp, layed out their plans for tomorrow, and spent time in leisure. As the sun went down, the scouts returned for their daily reports. They reported their finding to their direct superiors, who in turn prepared for the daily meeting. The party went over and ate with the returning scouts and discussed what they had seen. There was a severe lack of monsters in the area surrounding the dungeon, and on the outskirts of their scouting range was a partially destroyed settlement. Besides being destroyed, the settlement seemed to have been in use recently. The scouts were sure that was where they would focus their scouting tomorrow, and each was hopeful they would get the assignment. The group of six waved goodnight to the scouts and returned to their tents. Dungeon Reconnaissance woke up early the next morning and entered the dungeon. They reached the teleportation formation, and all entered the alcove. The alcove seemed like it would fit between ten and fifteen individuals. ¡°Ready?¡± asked Franc. ¡°Yes,¡± respond the rest of the party. Franc selected the G- Deep Cave option on the window, and the group disappeared. ????? What greeted them was an unusually bright and normally damp cave. ¡°The deep cave part didn¡¯t seem to be a lie,¡± muttered Peter as he started to draw the map. ¡°Right, get into standard formation. We can¡¯t be sure only G- rank monsters are present,¡± ordered Franc. ¡°Before that! More lights!¡± Lyra said excitedly as she examined the walls and ceiling. France sighed, ¡°Get in standard formation around Lyra and let her look at the lights.¡± The group formed around Lyra and waited for her to finish her inspection. ¡°They¡¯re less complicated compared to the ivy in the safe room, and I can understand a little more. These seem to be a simple shape change from a ball of light to strings and ribbons of light. I may be able to use this dungeon as an example to those sticks in the mud that they need to actually use their imagination not simply have a perfect image,¡± Lyra muttered to herself loud enough for the others to hear. ¡°You done, Lyra?¡± Franc asked. ¡°Huh? ¡­.Oh, yeah! Sorry, Franc. Studying the vines in the safe room would be better, so let¡¯s move on.¡± ¡°Good. We¡¯re already in formation, so let¡¯s go.¡± Peter stood in the front separated a fair distance from the group. Duzzig stood at the front of the main group with Franc only slightly behind him. Teri and Lyra stood in the center. Charles and his black panther, Ciel, stood at the back. They walked down the corridor and the blank walls started to be covered in moss, ferns, and mushrooms. Charles at the back used his knife and spade to pry off and dig up the surrounding plants and fungi, and placed them into the bag at his waist. He made sure to collected any various life stages he noticed. After appraising what he gathered, he noted them down in his notebook. While Charles was gathering and taking notes, something dropped onto Franc¡¯s head. Before it touched him, his hand snapped it out of the air and brought it before his eyes. A fist sized spider with white tipped legs, a brownish black body, and two white stripes down its abdomen struggled in his hand. After a quick look Franc tossed the spider to Charles, ¡°Hey Charles, catch.¡± Charles snatched the spider out of the air, his eyes not leaving his notes. As he finished, he looked up at the spider. ¡°Hmm, a web spider. Unusual for them to be G- rank, but it¡¯s smaller and has lower skill levels. I haven¡¯t seen the color patterns before,¡± he mused. With a nod, Charles channeled his mana into the spider, and it turned into a small ball that he put into his bag with the previously gathered materials. They reached a room with five additional corridors, and Peter was in the middle of the room staring down at something. ¡°Whatcha looking at Peter?¡± asked Teri. ¡°It¡¯s a trap of some kind. Magical in nature. I didn¡¯t disarm it because I wanted Lyra to take a look,¡± answered Peter. ¡°Let me see,¡± said Lyra as she walked over. She got on her hands and knees, and observed the trap. What seemed like cave floor shimmered and distorted over a square meter. After about a minute of staring, she channeled mana into an obvious protrusion and the image disappeared revealing a hole with wood spikes at the bottom. ¡°Well, since you deactivated the trap, I can only assume you got something,¡± said Peter sarcastically. ¡°Shut up Peter,¡± glared Lyra. ¡°And, yes, it was a basic illusion spell. However, it almost seemed intentionally distorted.¡± Charles interjected as he turned an ankle biter, trying to bite his hand, into a small ball, ¡°Maybe the dungeon had to do it to make the floor G- rank worthy? The creatures and monsters seem to fit the ranking pretty well.¡± ¡°We¡¯ll leave the speculation for later. For now we¡¯ve identified one trap and how to disarm it. After Charles finishes his sampling, we¡¯ll head down the left path,¡± ordered Franc. Duzzig sighed, ¡°Now that this floor actually seems to conform with its title, I won¡¯t be getting a good fight will I?¡± ¡°You knew the possibility of that was low from the start, Duzzig,¡± replied Lyra. ¡°I know. That doesn¡¯t mean I can¡¯t be disappointed by it all the same.¡± The five of them joked with one another while Charles explored the room. Ankle biters nipped at his heels, constriction ferns attempted to wrap him with leaves, and moving moss tried to release spores. Before they could do anything, he either killed them or turned them into little balls. ¡°How¡¯s the loot looking so far, Charles?¡± asked Franc. ¡°Pretty normal. Mana hearts, an associated item, usually edible, and a slightly rare item here and there. Of course, only one item for the G tier monsters makes obtaining loot more tedious,¡± shrugged Charles. ¡°The Empire¡¯s stone coins are also dropping as usual for dungeons.¡± ¡°But, how-¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know either, Franc, so don¡¯t ask.¡± With a shrug of his shoulders, Franc led them down the left corridor, and they reached a room filled with ferns. ¡°Are these the same type of ferns that were in the last room, Charles?¡± asked Franc. ¡°Yes, a mix of the normal ferns and the constriction ferns,¡± answered Charles observing the room, ¡°Low rank adventurers would have a hard time distinguishing them, but not fighting them. Although, if they rushed into the room blindly, they might be overcome by sheer numbers.¡± ¡°Normally we¡¯d just destroy the room in one go, but we need to at least get a feel for those who can¡¯t.¡± The party headed into the room in formation. Peter had shifted to the center of the formation along with Teri and Lyra. They slowly walked through the room with fern leaves reaching for them, but their two long range fighters and Peter quickly killed the ferns after the leaves barely twitched. They reached the center of the room as Duzzig stopped them, ¡°Another one of those illusion pitfalls from the previous room. Lyra disarmed the last one, should we test and trigger this one?¡± ¡°Agreed, go ahead Duzzig,¡± Franc ordered. Duzzig gave their leader a pointed look, but did what he was told as he knew he was most fit for the task. As he knowingly jumped into the one meter deep hole, his armored feet smashed the wood spikes apart. ¡°Could be dangerous for unarmored or lightly armored individuals, but even then unless a vital point is hit, it shouldn¡¯t cause too much damage,¡± Duzzig grunted as he climbed out of the hole. ¡°Alright then, thanks Duzzig. Let¡¯s explore the room and see if there¡¯s anything else,¡± Franc ordered. They noticed the opening of a corridor and headed in that direction and as they reached it, Franc stopped them, ¡°I see something glowing on the ground up ahead. Peter and Lyra should check it out.¡± ¡°Why me?¡± Lyra complained. ¡°Because your our mage, and this dungeon seems magic oriented so far,¡± Franc growled. ¡°Right,¡± Lyra sighed. The two of them headed to the light on the ground and spent quite a while examining what they found. Franc eventually got irritated and walked over to the two of them to see what was taking so long. ¡°You didn¡¯t take this long examining the illusion pitfall, what¡¯s different this time?¡± Franc asked with more steel than normal in his voice. Lyra gave Franc an exasperated look, ¡°I told you how complicated those light vines are. It shouldn¡¯t be a surprise that other magic in this dungeon is complicated.¡± ¡°But it¡¯s only a G- rank floor? They can¡¯t be that complicated.¡± ¡°Actually that¡¯s more than enough reason. How many spells do you know of that only do G- rank damage? Maybe the lifestyle spells and introductory spells, but most spells would obliterate these constriction ferns.¡± ¡°....You¡¯re right, Lyra, sorry I complained. You know more about magic than I do.¡± ¡°It¡¯s okay. You¡¯re our leader and need to be worried when things aren¡¯t going like normal.¡± ¡°This heart to heart is really getting to me,¡± Teri mocked, ¡°but what have you actually found out about it?¡± ¡°I know it¡¯s an activation formation, and I can deactivate it in the same way I did the illusion pitfall. Beyond that I can¡¯t tell. It¡¯s quite frustrating,¡± Lyra answered. ¡°Hey, Lyra,¡± interrupted Duzzig. ¡°Looked up lately?¡± ¡°What¡­.,¡± Lyra started to ask as she looked upward. With her face beet red, she hid it in her hands, ¡°I¡¯m an idiot.¡± The rest of the group looked upward with her, and they all gave nervous chuckles except for Duzzig. ¡°Don¡¯t feel too embarrassed, Lyra,¡± Charles consoled her. ¡°No one but Duzzig thought of it. We¡¯re simply not used to ceiling traps on the first floor.¡± ¡°Peter should be the one embarrassed. The boy has that damn unique skill of his and didn¡¯t catch it,¡± Duzzig snorted. Peter gritted his teeth, ¡°It¡¯s barely higher than the normal sense I get in any dungeon. It must not be that dangerous of a trap.¡± ¡°Okay, that¡¯s enough. As much as we tried not to, we let our guard down a little. It¡¯s the kind of complacency that wouldn¡¯t normally endanger us in most dungeon first floors, but it could prove a little more dangerous here,¡± Franc lectured. ¡°Lyra, go check the formation on the ceiling. We¡¯ll wait.¡± Lyra levitated to the ceiling and came back down after only a minute. ¡°I got less out of that than I thought. Based on the positioning, it¡¯s probably connected to the activation formation, but I can¡¯t detect it at all,¡± lamented Lyra. ¡°The only other thing was the formation on the ceiling is earth based.¡± ¡°It looks like I¡¯ll have to brute force the trap then,¡± Duzzig grunted as he shifted his armor. ¡°Make sure to save my ass in case it¡¯s actually dangerous.¡± Duzzig stepped on the activation formation and observed an earth spike falling towards him. He shifted his body and let it hit his shoulder where it shattered. ¡°That could brain an idiot,¡± Duzzig laughed. ¡°You sure we have to report what every trap does?¡± Franc sighed, ¡°Yes, we do Duzzig.¡± ¡°Okay, Okay. At least we know what it does now.¡± ¡°Right. Is the trap deactivated now or will it retrigger, Lyra?¡± ¡°It¡¯s deactivated. No retrigger,¡± Lyra responded. ¡°Good. Let¡¯s finish exploring the room,¡± Franc ordered. The only other feature they found was a small puddle near the wall closer to where they entered the room. It contained nothing besides water, so Charles took some instruments out of his bag and tested the water. He found nothing wrong with it, so the group drank happily. They then moved onto the only new corridor and the next room. They arrived in a room similar to the last, except this one was filled with moss. Chapter 17: Main Adventurer #3 ¡°Ferns and now moss. I¡¯m feeling a theme here,¡± said Teri. ¡°Same room type, same formation we¡¯ll go with,¡± ordered Franc. They slowly explored the room killing any moving moss before they had a chance to release spores, except for a couple that were used to test the spore attack out. With the whole room explored, they found nothing besides the forest of moss. As such, they moved onto the only corridor and the next room. Once again, a room filled with creatures appeared. This time it was mushrooms. They quickly encountered another earth spike trap and had Lyra disarm it. The ankle biters attempted to bite them but were slashed and exploded aparted with barely a thought. Two more puddles sat up against the wall across the room from each other, but a new trap in front of the right corridor caught their interest. ¡°Is it another activation formation, Lyra?¡± asked Franc. ¡°It is,¡± she answered. ¡°So, the otherformation should be on the ceiling.¡± ¡°There it is,¡± said Peter pointing somewhat in front of the activation formation on the ceiling. Lyra levitated up to it and came back down soon after. ¡°A light formation. Still can¡¯t tell what it does though,¡± said Lyra dejection in her voice. ¡°Normally, I¡¯m gungho about trap triggering, but I don¡¯t want to be vaporized by a dungeon proficient in light magic,¡± Duzzig spoke up worriedly. ¡°I detect even less danger than the earth spike trap, so stop complaining Duzzig,¡± Peter lightly said. Duzzig growled, ¡°I can complain as much as I want boy, but I¡¯ll trust ya.¡± He stepped onto the activation formation, the test dummy he knew he was, and a bright flash of light lit up the room. The other five had blocked their eyes just in case, but Duzzig left his open to see how bad the trap was. After around ten seconds his eyesight came back to him. ¡°Not too bad. Only a couple of seconds of blindness. I will have to get some healers to check for long lasting damage. Stupid dungeon,¡± muttered Duzzig casting a light healing spell on his eyes. Franc caught their attention and ordered, ¡°We¡¯ve explored this room, so down the left of the two corridors we go.¡± The group headed away from the right corridor that the flash formation was in front of and headed down the left corridor. As they did so a jelly leaped towards them and was sliced by Duzzig¡¯s axe. ¡°Try to not kill the next jelly, please,¡± said Charles. ¡°I haven¡¯t gotten a sample of those yet.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll try buddy,¡± sighed Duzzig. However, as the corridor slightly curved to the left they came across another trap. The circular activation formation stood in the center of the corridor while other formations lined the walls from floor to ceiling. Lyra went over, examined them, and quickly came back. ¡°Water formations,¡± said Lyra. Duzzig¡¯s prepared smirk turned into a large frown, ¡°You better have your damn dry spells ready, Lyra, or you¡¯ll be tasting my metal axe against that metal body of yours.¡± Lyra groaned, ¡°I know, Duzzig, just get it over with already.¡± With gritted teeth he stepped on the activation formation. The formations on the wall sprayed water at Duzzig doing no damage to him, but making him extremely wet. Lyra quickly cast a dry spell on him, but his frown wouldn¡¯t disappear for a few rooms. Before they could move on, three spiders attempted to leap on Lyra¡¯s and Duzzig¡¯s head. Lyra caught two of them with her hands, but Duzzig smashed the third one into the wall with his fist. Lyra handed the two spiders to Charles and went to pick up whatever the third spider dropped. After two steps Lyra jumped as Charles exclaimed, ¡°Elemental Spiders?!¡± ¡°Depths Charles, you scared the shit out of me,¡± said Lyra with her hand on her heart. ¡°Sorry, Lyra, but I¡¯ve only seen high rank elemental spiders. Low rank elemental spiders will be great for tamers!¡± ¡°Why?¡± ¡°Well-¡± ¡°Don¡¯t get started, Charles. You can explain to her later,¡± interrupted Duzzig as he tossed the spider¡¯s mana heart that he killed to Teri to appraise. ¡°What attribute was it, Teri?¡± asked Charles. ¡°Space,¡± replied Teri. ¡°What?!¡± exclaimed Charles. He stared daggers at Duzzig and said, ¡°You better not kill the next one.¡± Duzzig laughed noncommittally, ¡°I¡¯ll try.¡± Lyra asked, ¡°What are the attributes of the two I gave you?¡± ¡°Water and wind,¡± replied Charles. ¡°All right. We¡¯re moving on,¡± Franc ordered. The corridor they were on was much longer with curves, and a branching pathway. Before the branching pathway they went past an earth spike trap and an illusion pitfall trap. Charles got his jelly along with a slime and a distorted web spider. Its ability to shift size without changing weight interested him enough that Franc had to yell at him to snap out of it. Additionally they all had to roll their eyes when Charles had exclaimed ¡®Ooh, a centipede¡¯ at a perfectly normal centipede. After a puddle, the path branched into three, and they took the leftmost one. At the end of the long corridor was a small room with an earth spike in the middle. After clearing out the room of monsters except for the ones near the ceiling, a spider nearly caught Teri off guard. However, like the previous spiders she caught it before it touched her. ¡°Hey, Charles, here¡¯s an odd spider,¡± she said tossing the transparent spider towards him. Charles¡¯ eyes went wide as he analyzed the spider, ¡°Attributeless?¡± ¡°That¡¯s what you have to convert your mana to before using a spell of a different attribute,¡± Lyra interjected. ¡°Never heard of a monster having that before.¡± ¡°Neither have I,¡± replied Charles. ¡°Really?¡± ¡°Really.¡± ¡°Looks like you¡¯ll have a lot to study when we get out of here,¡± Lyra said with a smile. ¡°Y-Yeah,¡± Charles stuttered as his hand shook while turning the clear web spider into a small ball. Charles requested catching as many spiders as he could in this room, and Franc reluctantly agreed. Lyra levitated him to the ceiling where he found a fire and earth spider along with non-monster spiders. He was happy for more elemental spiders, but the most intriguing find was the normal spider. ¡°Why do you have such an intense look on your face, Charles?¡± Lyra asked. ¡°Isn¡¯t it just a normal spider?¡± Charles responded, ¡°Exactly. A normal spider with the exact same coloring as the monster web spider.¡± Lyra¡¯s eyes widened slightly, ¡°But, that would mean¡­.¡± ¡°Yeah, it¡¯s pretty damning evidence,¡± Charles muttered while his whole body shivered. ¡°I¡¯m really starting to like this dungeon.¡± As he pocketed the normal spider, the group went down the only corridor and entered the largest room yet. They looked around the cavernous room, and Peter spotted something to the right, near the corner of the room. ¡°Hey, I think that might be a treasure chest,¡± he pronounced. The group followed his vision and immediately agreed with him. Although it was shaped like a rock, the gap between the top and bottom along with the hinge gave it away. The party started to walk towards the treasure chest fighting slimes, jellies, constriction ferns, ankle biters, moving moss, and the occasional spider. Charles kept his eyes out for new spiders. They closed in on the treasure, but suddenly it wasn¡¯t there anymore. Peter, back in the lead, halted the group, ¡°The treasure¡¯s gone.¡± Duzzig growled, ¡°The first treasure, and it just up and disappeared? Lyra did you detect anything?¡± ¡°Sorry, Duzzig, no,¡± Lyra answered, the look on her face more confused than the rest. ¡°Peter, do you remember where the treasure was?¡± Franc asked. ¡°Yeah, you still want to go there?¡± replied Peter. ¡°Yes, lead on.¡± About a minute of fighting later, they reached the last location of the treasure. Lyra was tasked with examining the area for magic, and Peter was tasked with looking for traps. After ten minutes, Peter shrugged his shoulders while Lyra sat up against the wall in exasperation. ¡°Nothing?¡± asked Franc. ¡°Nothing,¡± replied Peter and Lyra. At that news, Teri started to look around the room and smirked at what she saw, ¡°Hey, guys, you should look at the center of the room.¡± All five of them turned to look. ¡°Did I miss that when we first came in?¡± queried Peter. Duzzig grunted, ¡°Doubtful, I didn¡¯t see it when we entered either.¡± ¡°Well, hopefully the dungeon isn¡¯t playing a practical joke on us and makes the treasure disappear right before we reach it again,¡± joked Franc. He got a chuckle out of the others, and they made their way to the center of the room. Before they reached the treasure chest, an earth spike had to be disarmed, and Charles came across a glowing spider and a dark spider. He started having a discussion with Lyra about the dungeons use of light and dark magic, but Franc quickly put a stop to that. Upon reaching the chest, it did not disappear, and Peter was tasked with opening it.Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation. Seeing and sensing no traps, Peter lifted the lid off of the treasure chest and took out what was inside. Some stone coins, G- mana stones, G- mana hearts, and a wooden sword with something inscribed into it. ¡°Seems to be pretty normal treasure. Except this sword. I don¡¯t know what to make of this sword,¡± said Peter as he tossed the sword to Teri. Teri¡¯s eyebrow shot up as she read the item¡¯s information, ¡°It¡¯s a balsa wood sword.¡± Disgusted ¡®Huhs¡¯ emanated from the other five, but she raised her hand up to silence them, ¡°First of all what did you expect, it¡¯s a G- rank floor. Second of all, the sword''s enchanted.¡± Franc¡¯s look of disdain for the sword turned into one of interest, ¡°What does the enchantment do?¡± ¡°For ten minutes the sword will become just as sharp and heavy as a regular iron sword. After the ten minutes is up, the enchantment disappears, and it becomes a regular balsa wood sword.¡± ¡°That doesn¡¯t seem great.¡± ¡°G- rank, Franc.¡± ¡°Alright, alright. Could you recreate the enchantment, Teri?¡± ¡°I won¡¯t say no, but it will take a while even if I can succeed. However, even if I can¡¯t copy it, simply studying it will help me and other enchanters.¡± ¡°I know I¡¯m repeating myself, but for something so simple it can¡¯t be that complicated?¡± ¡°Maybe if it just included the sharpness and heaviness part, but even that comes with preinstalled mana and doesn¡¯t require mana stones or personal mana.¡± With a sigh Franc continued, ¡°Okay, you know your stuff. I¡¯ll let you give a longer explanation when we give our final report.¡± With the treasure chest emptied, the six finished exploring the large room. It was shaped like a cube with relatively straight walls and ninety degree corners. Other than the treasure chest and earth spike, they only found one other earth spike. Of course, the room was filled with the creatures they had seen in the previous rooms and corridors, and Charles found two more spiders: a regenerating spider and a illusionary spider. Each new spider he found made his eyes and note writing fiercer. There were four corridors on each of the four walls, and they would usually enter the left passage from the corridor they entered. However, Franc questioned Peter about their relative location compared to where they had been. ¡°The passage to the right heads in the direction of the moss room. The passage to the left heads away from where we¡¯ve already been. The passage straight ahead could possibly intersect with the other four corridors from the first room,¡± answered Peter. ¡°Let¡¯s go right and see if connects to the moss room,¡± ordered Franc, ¡°Peter, keep me updated if the corridor starts to diverge.¡± ¡°Okay.¡± As they headed down the passage they came across another water trap, and Lyra quickly disabled it before Duzzig¡¯s frown turned into a scowl. They kept moving forward and reached the moss room quickly. Satisfied with filling out the map, the six returned to the square room and continued into the passage straight ahead, the left corridor from the original corridor. A water trap and an earth spike trap were deactivated before they arrived into another large room. They spotted a treasure chest straight across the room near a corridor opening. Teri was tasked with keeping an eye on it while they explored the room. The room was separated into five large, rounded alcoves which Peter said might look like a clover with too many leaves from above. Between them and the treasure were two illusion pitfalls, but otherwise the only other feature in the room was a pond in its center. The pond had new creatures that delighted Charles: snails, salamanders, and fish. He quickly turned a snail and salamander into small balls and then grabbed a fish. His taming magic injected into the fish but nothing happened. The fish was infused with Charles¡¯ taming magic a few more times, but still nothing happened. ¡°What is going on?¡± Charles muttered. Peter strolled over, ¡°What¡¯s the matter Charles m¡¯boy?¡± ¡°My taming magic isn¡¯t working on this fish.¡± ¡°Why not?¡± ¡°If I knew why, I wouldn¡¯t be so frustrated,¡± spat Charles. Peter raised his hands in front of him, ¡°Don¡¯t take it out on me.¡± ¡°We¡¯ll see,¡± said Charles with a smile, ¡°Anyone else want to take a look at this fish? All my creature appraisal says is that it¡¯s a normal cave fish.¡± Lyra skipped over and snatched the fish out of Charles¡¯ hand, ¡°Maybe it¡¯s a magic that tricks your appraisal.¡± ¡°I hope not.¡± ¡°Why?¡± ¡°You want to be inside a dungeon that can trick the system?¡± ¡°Maybe your skill level is just too low.¡± ¡°If my skill level¡¯s too low, you don¡¯t want to be holding that fish.¡± ¡°Fair point.¡± After several minutes of study, she gave the fish, which was now lightly gasping, back to Charles, ¡°Just seems like a normal fish to me.¡± He took the fish back and plopped it inside a waterskin. It slowly started to swim faster, and with that Charles was satisfied and tied the waterskin around his belt. He killed one to be sure, but it simply disappeared like other normal creatures in dungeons. Charles thought about it for a bit and brought it up to Franc, ¡°Hey, Franc.¡± ¡°What is it?¡± replied Franc. ¡°I think we should at least try killing the normal creatures.¡± ¡°What brought this on?¡± ¡°That weird fish simply reminded me how this dungeon is abnormal, so maybe it did something with the normal creatures that usually drop nothing.¡± ¡°Good point.¡± Franc brought his greatsword down onto a medium sized red cap mushroom. Charles¡¯ and Franc¡¯s eyes widened as a small mana heart was left behind compared to the usual nothing. Franc glanced at Charles and picked up the tiny object. ¡°Teri, catch,¡± said Franc as he tossed her the mana heart. ¡°What is it?¡± As Teri stared at it, as both her eyebrows shot straight up, ¡°A tiny nature mana heart?¡± Peter interjected, ¡°It doesn¡¯t have a rank?¡± ¡°Odd,¡± Duzzig muttered. ¡°What use is a mana heart even smaller than a G- rank mana heart? Those barely last any worthwhile amount of time,¡± Lyra waved dismissively. ¡°I don¡¯t know,¡± said Franc, ¡°but it¡¯s something that drops from normal creatures, so it gives a little extra incentive to kill them. Also, with that loot collection, adventurers won¡¯t have to worry about picking up every one.¡± ¡°Most adventurers don¡¯t have space bags, so they are usually overloaded with stuff anyway. I doubt any of them would want to take the tiny mana hearts worth barely anything.¡± ¡°The problem with low grade mana hearts and mana stones that I have,¡± Teri vented, ¡°is how often I have to switch them out. They¡¯re in abundance and cheaper than the high grade versions, but I don¡¯t want to run out in the middle of battle.¡± ¡°I know I¡¯m the one that brought it up, but let¡¯s move on,¡± said Franc with a raised voice. ¡°Teri has the chest moved?¡± ¡°Nope.¡± ¡°Let¡¯s get it then.¡± They were disappointed with the reward as the claymore inside had the same enchantment as the previous sword. With a choice between the corridor right next to them and the corridor in the alcove to the right, they chose the one right next to them. As they continued down the passageway, they started killing the normal creatures as well as the monsters. Two more earth spikes were deactivated before they entered a small room with a corridor to the right and a door to their left. ¡°Boss room,¡± grunted Duzzig a small smile forming on his face. ¡°The mushroom one is glowing,¡± observed Peter. Charles mused as he approached the door, ¡°There seems to be a portrait for each type of monster on the floor. Well, except for the spiders, they only have one.¡± ¡°Anyone know why the mushroom one is glowing?¡± asked Franc fully knowing the answer. The other five answered in monotone, ¡°It¡¯s the boss we¡¯ll have to fight.¡± Franc gave them the side eye and asked a more important question, ¡°Anybody know how it determined what boss we would fight?¡± Four of them answered, ¡®Nope¡¯, but Charles had a hypothesis, ¡°Since the boss is based on the floor monsters, it should be related to them. We interacted with the floor monsters in two ways: we killed them and I captured them. I¡¯m doubtful the dungeon decided the boss based on my captures, so that leaves killing.¡± ¡°Did we kill ankle biters the most then?¡± asked Franc. ¡°I mean I didn¡¯t keep track, but they did seem more abundant in that room compared to the ferns and moss,¡± answered Charles. ¡°So, are we going to kill the boss now, leader?¡± interrupted Duzzig. Franc shook his head, ¡°Not now. We need to finish the map. We¡¯ll finish our first day with a boss fight. Sound good?¡± ¡°Maybe not good, but I can deal with it,¡± snorted Duzzig. Leaving the boss door behind, they headed down the other corridor. An earth spike trap along with a puddle with snails and a salamander passed them by, before they reached a small room with another earth spike trap and two new corridors. The left passageway led past a water trap and a flash trap before leading into the third large room even larger than the last two. They entered the room on what seemed to be the large side as the walls narrowed in the distance. They spotted a treasure chest to their right, once again imitating rock, and decided to open it immediately rather than wait until fully clearing the room like they did last time. Inside the chest was a wooden mace with a new enchantment along with stone coins and G- rank mana stones. Teri was intrigued by the mace¡¯s ability to become a flame mace for ten minutes, but the rest didn¡¯t care about an essentially useless weapon. They got back in formation and began to explore the room. However, their pace slowed as the monsters in the room became much more aggressive. Whenever a spider dropped, Stacy, freshly summoned, would catch them and bring them to Charles. After he discovered they were weren¡¯t new species, he smashed them in his grip. In front, jellies and slimes lept at Duzzig, and he made it a game to see how far he could get giblets of slime and jelly to fly by shield bashing them. The slimes and jellies that approached from the back were slashed apart by the Black Panther, Ciel. Besides slashing with his claws, Ciel would smash them apart with his tail. Teri dealt with the ankle biters and moving moss. She had started only shooting the close ones, but the monsters had started releasing spores even a fair distance away, so she started to clear a much large portion of the room with quick shots. Lyra used flying spikes to tear the constriction ferns aparts at distance. However, every once in a while she¡¯d let a leaf get close, coat her arm in metal, grab and uproot the monster, and smash it into the ground. Compared to the rest who were trying to find some enjoyment out of massacring G- rank monsters, Franc was doing nothing and exceptionally bored. Whenever there was a lull in the fighting, Charles had Stacy kill as many moving moss as possible before having her return to his shoulder. He tried to do it sneakily, but the combination of Charles never being sneaky, and the fact that S+ adventurers would never miss a hawk flying around a dungeon sealed his future fate: pointed looks. In the center of the room was a large pond with a stream pouring into it. Like the last pond it contained snails, salamanders, and fish. Unlike the last pond, this one had four earth spike traps surrounding it that were quickly disabled by different members of the party. It seemed it didn¡¯t matter what attribute of mana was infused into the formation. After exploring the wide area of the room, they headed towards the narrow area. An illusion pitfall and two earth spike traps greeted them before the narrow portion of the room turned into a new corridor. There were a total of four corridors in the room: one on each side of the stream, the corridor that the room narrowed into, and a corridor off of the narrow portion of the room. Using their left turn rule, the entered the corridor to the left of the stream. They quickly reached a dead end with nothing besides a couple monsters, plants, and fungi. The party waded through the stream and entered the passageway on the right. Unlike the last one, this dead end had a treasure chest. When Peter opened it, they all sighed as only a couple stone coins and mana stones appeared. They left the dead end and exited back into the largest room. As they did so, Teri noticed something, ¡°The treasure chest we opened in this room is gone.¡± ¡°Do you see it anywhere else in the room?¡± asked Franc. After a quick glance, Teri gave a negative response, ¡°No, but I can¡¯t see down the narrow area.¡± ¡°Let¡¯s take a look then.¡± The party headed down the narrow area and found nothing. They agreed to continue searching the room to get a better understanding of the teleporting treasures. Around fifteen minutes went by before Peter spotted something at the bottom of the pond. With Franc¡¯s permission he dove into the pond and got a closer look. As soon as he reached the treasure chest, Peter turned around and swam back up. ¡°Why¡¯d you swim back up so fast?¡± asked Franc. ¡°*gasp* Because it was the same chest we opened earlier. It was empty,¡± replied Peter climbing out of the pond. ¡°At least we know they don¡¯t refill after a teleport,¡± added Teri. With a loud voice Franc ordered, ¡°Alright, let¡¯s go to the room turned passageway.¡± The group headed down that way and almost immediately encountered a split path. The passageway they were on continued straight ahead, but another pathway went almost straight backwards and to the left. Going into the backwards corridor, they entered a medium size room with an earth spike trap immediately upon entering, a illusion trap to the left, and a flash trap to the right. In the back of the room was a pool of water with snails and a salamander. With nothing of interest, they headed down the only other available pathway in the room. While walking down the pathway Duzzig spoke up, ¡°You know, having these caves lit up as bright as day is extremely convenient. I¡¯m not sure I can go back to the normal dark and dreary caves that most dungeons have.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t Dwarves have night vision?¡± asked Charles. ¡°Yeah, level one,¡± scoffed Duzzig. ¡°You¡¯re telling me a dwarf prefers the bright light of day over the darkness of a cave?¡± grinned Lyra. ¡°Of course not,¡± firmly stated Duzzig, ¡°I will always choose a cave over the wide open sky, but being able to see inside a cave is also extremely important. I might have to call some dwarven scholars to improve our lighting situation.¡± Duzzig and Lyra discussed the dungeon lighting as they walked down the pathway. An intersection with four corridor options including the one they came from appeared as they were doing so. In the middle of the intersection and also up against a wall was a puddle with snails and a stalactite dripping water into it. Based on Peter¡¯s map, the corridor to their immediate right headed back towards the narrow portion of the large room. They quickly came across another passageway on their left but continued down the corridor towards the large room. After a water trap, they arrived back at the largest room. Chapter 18: Main Adventurer #4 On the way back they ignored the pathway on the right, and they headed down the left path of the two remaining on the four-way intersection. A flash trap greeted them at a two-way intersection in which they went left. An earth spike upon entering, a puddle to the left, and a treasure across the roomfrom them. They opened the treasure and wereintroduced to another chest with no weapon in it. Most of the group shrugged, but Teri had to remind Franc about the G- rank nature of the floor. Going the other way, they deactivated another earth spike trap and saw a treasure chest across the room. However, this one was wide open. ¡°I think we may have already opened this one, Franc,¡± joked Peter as he saw nothing in the wooden box. ¡°The treasure in the last room, the one at the dead end, and this one are also shaped like regular treasure chests and not the rock type we saw in the larger rooms,¡± mused Teri. Lyra injected her opinion, ¡°We noticed the treasures disappearing in two of the large rooms, but found them again almost immediately. Maybe those chests teleported within the room. If so maybe these regular chests teleport throughout the whole floor?¡± ¡°That sounds like a good theory,¡± Franc grunted kicking the chest, ¡°but these regular chests have worse rewards compared to the large rooms. It will be much harder to track the teleport locations across the whole floor rather than a single room.¡± ¡°That¡¯s true, but there were a lot more monsters in the large rooms,¡± explained Teri. ¡°We just didn¡¯t really notice them as they were G- rank.¡± Franc nodded at Teri¡¯s opinion but still sighed, ¡°I almost feel like we¡¯ll need to ask for a bonus.¡± Duzzig growled with a slight frown on his face, ¡°Yeah, trying to figure out where all the teleport spots are when we don¡¯t know how many treasure chests there are, how many spots there are, how often they teleport, or how to even detect their teleport locations is going to be time consuming. And there aren¡¯t any interesting monsters to fight.¡± ¡°We¡¯ll still have to do it,¡± Lyra sighed. ¡°Our tagline is a full catalogue of everything in a new dungeon.¡± ¡°Maybe I can fight the boss over and over while you guys search for the treasure spots,¡± said Duzzig with hope in his voice. The other five gave him exasperated looks with their heads leaning forward, eyes looking upward, and raised eyebrows. With a couple of guilty sideways glances, Duzzig agreed to help. Their discussion done, they returned to the four-way intersection and went down the only remaining passage. As such, they arrived back into the first room of the floor with six total corridors, five that led deeper into the dungeon. They continued using the leftmost passageway, which would be to the right of the corridor that led to the fern room. Down the pathway with a slight curve to it was a water trap that Duzzig deactivated with a smile and a puddle right before an oddly shaped, angular, but small room to the right. In a square nook on the left side of the angular room, they found another wood treasure chest. They moved on to another water trap before encountering another path split. They took the left path which ended in a dead end. However, the left wall of that path opened into two other corridors that were dead ends. The corridor further in had nothing down it, but the other corridor had a flash trap and a wooden treasure chest. Franc kept reminding Peter to note down where they found the treasure chest, and all Peter gave Franc was a ¡®Yes, boss¡¯ and some eye rolls. Continuing down the original passageway, a dead end split to the right with nothing in it. After a long section with a puddle in the middle of it with a couple snails, who Charles picked up and made have mock combat with one another, a hallway diverged to the left and headed back the way they came. Halfway down the hallway, and after they ignored another divergence, the hallway started to glow. Charles had tossed his combat snails away and paid attention to the mold glowing on the walls, ¡°Finally, a known useful ingredient.¡± Teri asked confused, ¡°Didn¡¯t you completely ignore the mold in the large rooms?¡± Charles stopped with his foot in midair and robotically turned to Teri, ¡°There was phosphorescent mold growing in the big rooms?¡± Teri looked at Charles with disbelief, ¡°Yeah, you walked right past it. It was near the floor and behind some ferns, so somewhat hard to spot, but you would normally notice it easily.¡± Charles scratched his head in bewilderment before turning a light shade of red. ¡°I may have been a little too focused on the spiders,¡± he muttered. Franc sighed and rubbed his temples, ¡°Not only does this dungeon have a more intricate first floor than normal, it also distracts us. How many damn times are we going to have to run it.¡± Lyra shrugged at Franc as she was patting the dejected Charles on the back, ¡°It¡¯ll take more effort, but maybe we¡¯ll receive something special at the end.¡± ¡°I can only hope so,¡± grunted Franc. ¡°G- rank rewards aren¡¯t going to cause any sort of economic boom.¡± While scraping the mold off of the wall Charles added, ¡°I think having this mold on a G- rank floor is more than enough. We always need health potions even the low rank ones. Of course, this stuff will probably make the potions glow, so that may put some people off.¡± ¡°As long as it doesn¡¯t make me glow, a potion¡¯s a potion,¡± chortled Duzzig Charles scaped every bit of mold off of the wall to get an idea of how much a run through of the floor would net an adventurer. Afterwards, they continued on their way. After finding nothing but a flash trap down the divergence, they got back on the long, curvy corridor. At the corridor¡¯s end was a flash trap waiting to be deactivated. However, what caught their attention was the sea of white webs in the next room. ¡°Should we just burn it?¡± asked Duzzig. Charles gave him a sharp glare, but Franc answered him first, ¡°Nope, we need to see if there¡¯s anything special inside.¡± So the team entered the room with Duzzig and Franc, axe and greatsword in hand, cutting the webs as they went. Rather than dropping down from above as the spiders most often did in the other rooms, they skittered across the webs and lunged at the group. They still caused no damage to the group, but the party of six now had to swat the spiders away in multiple directions: a much larger annoyance. As they approached the center of the room, they noticed a tree surrounded by spider webs. Teri was the first to spot what was hanging from the branches, ¡°Are those golden apples?¡± Everyone¡¯s head instantly whipped towards the tree, and their eyes widened at the sight. After a brief stop in their trek towards the tree, Franc shouted with determination, ¡°Be on guard! If those are the same golden apples that we¡¯re all thinking of, there¡¯s no way in the Depths only G- rank monsters are in here!¡± The party instantly got serious. Franc¡¯s sword glowed a white light, his muscles bulged, and an armor of wind surrounded his body. A second blade sprang out of the other side of Duzzig¡¯s axe, his visor shut tight, inscriptions on his shield began to glow, and mana started flowing inward. Teri¡¯s rifle-like gun disappeared and larger one that glowed red appeared in its place. She pulled out a long string of red mana stones and attached them to the loading mechanism. A pair of glasses with targets and flowing numbers appeared over her eyes. Lyra¡¯s entire bodied became a sheen of metal. The small flock of metal spikes became a storm of spinning razors that surrounded the party but kept line of sight open. All five of Charles¡¯ familiars appeared. Stacy stayed on his shoulder and observed the surroundings. Ciel covered the left flank. Lioric covered the right flank. The Dread Cockatrice, Nielfor, covered their backside. The Garbage Jelly, Goober, rested on Charles¡¯ other shoulder in preparation for future clean up. Peter stood in between Teri and Lyra, his two deep black daggers at the ready. His enhanced eyesight kept a lookout on the surroundings with an intense focus on his unique skill. ¡°I currently sense the same amount of danger as the other rooms,¡± he provided. Franc grunted in acknowledgement, but they maintained their readiness as they approached the tree. Any spiders that tried to approach them, they were getting even more aggressive compared to the largest room, were simply vaporized. Sure, they were technically turned into chunks of meat and guts, but the pieces were too small for the naked eye to see anything other than a multicolored mist. Upon reaching the tree, Teri shot an apple down, Peter grabbed it out of midair, and handed it to Teri. She examined it with intense scrutiny before biting into it and swallowing a piece. ¡°It¡¯s a normal apple except gold in color,¡± she spit out. Franc¡¯s turned head, wide open eyes, and raised eyebrow instantly conveyed his question of ¡®Really?¡¯ After a nod of Teri¡¯s head, Franc ordered, ¡°Be at ease. I can¡¯t believe it¡¯s a normal damn apple.¡± Duzzig spoke between bites of the apple he had already picked, ¡°They¡¯re sweeter than the apples I¡¯m used to. Tastes good.¡± He tossed one each to the remaining four. As they each took a bite they agreed with his assessment. ¡°These could be useful,¡± Franc mused, ¡°but I don¡¯t know how far a single tree is going to go.¡±Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings. ¡°If this dungeon is instanced, it could go quite a ways.¡± suggested Lyra. ¡°Right, we would need to check for that with this dungeon,¡± Franc sighed. As they stood chewing on the golden apples, Charles suddenly leapt towards the base of the apple tree and scooped a handful of dirt out of the ground. ¡°What are you doing, Charles?¡± asked Lyra with a look of amusement on her face. ¡°Glow Worm,¡± he said with a smile as a blue worm hung from his hand in front of his face. ¡°Useful, but what¡¯s one going to do?¡± queried Peter. ¡°I¡¯ll say the same thing Lyra did about the apple tree.¡± ¡°One worm¡¯s a little different than a whole tree.¡± ¡°We don¡¯t know this is the only one.¡± ¡°Did you see anymore?¡± A little dejected, Charles responded, ¡°No.¡± Peter sighed, ¡°I¡¯m not trying to shit on your plan, but just don¡¯t get too excited about a single worm.¡± With a shrug of his shoulders, Charles turned the blue worm into a small ball. A quick sweep of the room resulted in two illusion pitfalls to be disarmed and another puddle with snails. Charles contemplated picking the snails again but chose to study the apples instead. Peter quickly mapped out the short corridor that led to a small room they¡¯d already been to between the boss room and the largest room. At which time they entered the last of three corridors that led back in the direction of the entrance. They made quick work through the short corridors and small rooms filled with slimes and jellies. The encountered three puddles with snails: one in the first corridor, one in the second room on the left path, and one in the first room on the right path. After the last room on each path was a flash trap. The left path connected to the corridor they had not traveled from the largest room. Both paths connected to an essentially empty medium sized room with only monsters and creatures inside. Two of the three remaining paths connected to the first room from the entrance with one of the paths having a water trap. The last remaining path connected close to the four-way intersection of corridors, where they found an already opened chest. With no more unexplored areas in the immediate vicinity, the party turned to Peter. ¡°Any unexplored areas?¡± Franc asked. ¡°We have four corridors that we haven¡¯t gone down. One in the square large room and one in the large clover room. The last two are in that long corridor between the mushroom room and the square large room,¡± answered Peter. ¡°Okay, let¡¯s fill those out and then fight the boss.¡± ¡°Finally,¡± said Duzzig pounding his fist into his hand. They trekked back through the long corridor first. The first corridor led to three dead ends, a flash trap, and a wooden treasure chest. The chest contained a pair of wooden knuckles without any enchantment on them. ¡°Without any enchantments, these are just junk,¡± growled Franc. ¡°They could be used as children¡¯s toys to train them,¡± suggested Peter. ¡°We already make those. We don¡¯t need inferior versions from a dungeon that may not fit the preferred fighting style.¡± ¡°How many people fight using knuckles? Not many. If the weapons from this dungeon start becoming popular among children, we could see an introduction of different fighting styles.¡± Franc rubbed his chin, ¡°That¡¯s a good point. However, what adventurer is going to be willing to lug this out of the dungeon when there¡¯s better stuff?¡± ¡°True, not many will,¡± Peter acquiesced, ¡°But some will because they¡¯re greedy, hoarders, or stupid. Besides the mold, apples, and based on Charles¡¯ reaction, unique monsters should be enough to pull people in.¡± With her left hand on her hip and her right finger pointing at the two, Lyra scolded them with humor in her voice, ¡°Now you two, no discussion until we finish exploring the whole dungeon. Right, Franc?¡± With a scratch of his cheek and a light blush of embarrassment, Franc agreed and they moved on. The next corridor was a dead end with a water trap. The corridor in the square large room was also a dead end with nothing of interest in it. The last corridor from the alcove room led to a illusion trap right before a medium sized room with, once again, nothing of interest inside. With the floor fully mapped out as far as they could tell, they headed to the boss door. Once they arrived, the previous glowing mushroom portion of the door had changed to the moss portion of the door. The other five gave Charles the look someone gives a mischievous child. He turned his head aside and gave a fake cough. Duzzig asked him, ¡°Why not the spiders? You were enamored with those.¡± ¡°I doubted we¡¯d be able to kill more of those with how many ankle biters we¡¯d already killed, so I settled for the moving moss,¡± Charles replied with a shrug of his shoulders. ¡°Alright, then,¡± announced Franc, ¡°Due to Charles, we¡¯ll be fighting some moss based creature. Everyone ready?¡± A determined ¡®Yes¡¯ resounded and Franc pushed the door open. They looked inside and didn¡¯t see any boss. ¡°Looks like it only spawns the boss after we enter,¡± shrugged Duzzig. The party entered in formation and when all six were in the room, and clear of the doors, the doors slammed shut. Magical moss similar in fashion to the vines in the safe room instantly covered the room. A plop sounded in the center of the room as a ball of moss appeared in midair and dropped down. After a couple of seconds it jumped at Duzzig who swatted it with his shield causing it to explode. ¡°Not surprising,¡± shrugged Lyra. Peter sighed, ¡°I mean it is a G- rank floor. What else-¡± The magical moss shifted to a red color and started to writhe. At the far end of the room a moss ball of the same size and shape as the first appeared, but instead of green, it was a dark red. ¡°Charles!¡± shouted Franc. ¡°SS- rank!¡± replied Charles. The party shifted near instantaneously into the same prepared mode as the spider web room. However, the red moss ball had already shot towards Duzzig. It smashed into his raised shield pushing him back a foot before bouncing back across the room. The bounce back allowed the party enough time to finish their preparations. Roots sprouted out of the moss ball, acting as spikes, as it started erratically bouncing around the room. The storm of metal clashed with the moss ball and in that brief pause of motion, Duzzig, Franc, and Peter sliced at its body. Small pieces slowly fell off of the moss ball, eventually causing it to stop bouncing erratically. As it plopped back onto the ground, the roots it was using as spikes continued to grow, now acting as long whips. These whips lashed at the party from a distance periodically making their way through the metal storm and creating superficial wounds as the group dodged them expertly. After a minute of avoiding root whips, Franc shouted, ¡°Ready, Teri?¡± ¡°Ready,¡± she replied, red gun pointed at the moss ball. A hole opened in Lyra¡¯s metal storm. The moss ball retracted its vines and started to bounce away, but the initial retraction cost it valuable time. The gun rapid fired bolts of red energy that blasted the moss ball apart. Hisses and screams resounded as chunks of the moss ball flew off its main body. With one last screech its body exploded. The tension eased from five of six party members, happy at the end of the monster before the scream of a hawk raised it right back up. Stacy fell to the ground with only one wing. The other wing was now outside their formation surrounded by red moss. A couple of seconds later the red moss dispersed and nothing of the wing remained. The pieces of the red moss ball were bouncing erratically around the room. They were nowhere near as strong as the large moss ball, but they could still do damage. Lyra¡¯s metal storm couldn¡¯t counter the increased speed of the small balls resulting in occasional chunks of flesh being lost. However, when they did make contact with one of the small balls, they were able to eliminate them by using low level fire spells on their weapons. This caused a decrease in the overall mass of the moss ball, unlike when they cut off chunks from the main body which were now attacking them. The realization must have hit the moss ball that it was losing body mass without doing much damage, so it pulled back half of the mass and reformed into a smaller ball. Roots shot out and clung to the walls, and its main body shifted throughout the web of roots. The other half of its body mass continued to harass the party as small balls. However, the initial pullback of body mass allowed the group of six to cast minor healing spells on one another restricting blood flow and growing some flesh back. Charles had stopped the flow of blood from Stacy¡¯s wing, but had to place her back into his tamer home for the remainder of the fight. With the moss ball partially back together, Teri prepared her gun again. Before she could get a shot off, the moss ball puffed up and expelled a large cloud of spores. As the cloud reached them, Franc released his wind armor and Lioric created a tornado. The wind spells blew the cloud away from them, but as soon as they touched the walls, ceiling, and floor they sprouted into new patches of red moss. In fact, there was now more red moss than the initial boss monster. Franc shouted, ¡°Duzzig!¡± and the two of them sprinted out of the metal storm towards the hanging moss ball. The small balls harassed them but Duzzig¡¯s metal armor and Franc¡¯s wind armor kept the wounds to bruises. Upon reaching the medium moss ball, rather than cut pieces of the moss ball off, they caught it between the two of them not allowing it to move around the web. ¡°Now!¡± shouted Teri. The two of them leaped backwards before bolts of red energy blasted the moss ball apart once again. Before the pieces of moss could start bouncing erratically again, the rest of the party formation sprinted forward. Teri pulled out a two handed rifle shaped gun with a fist sized red mana stone installed in the back. She pointed the gun at the twitching remains of the moss ball and covered them in flames. Hissing covered the room as the pieces writhed in pain. The remaining moss ball formed back together and started a full frontal assault on the now reversed party. It ignored the pain and cuts caused by the metal storm and broke through to the main party. Focused on who it assumed was the weakest member of the party, a hole opened in its body and a shot of liquid sped towards Peter. The moss ball expected the little man to be melted on the spot, but he expertly dodged it. ¡°That spit is extremely dangerous,¡± relayed Peter to the rest of the group. The moss ball sped away from the party as blades of wind sliced it and part of its body turned to stone. It stared at the party in anger for a few seconds before the small hole that it opened for its acidic spit turned into an evil smirk. Roots turned spikes appeared all over its body, and its body started to smoke before it sprang towards the party. ¡°Duzzig, guard now!¡± shouted Peter in alarm. Duzzig sprinted to the center of the party and slammed his shield into the floor exclaiming, ¡°Fortress!¡± A sphere of energy surrounded the party as an explosion rocked the boss room. Cracks formed in the sphere as root spikes and acid slammed into it. After the cracks stopped expanding and the shaking stopped Franc asked, ¡°Peter?¡± ¡°Opposite side of the room hidden in the magical moss,¡± answered Peter. ¡°Get to it Teri.¡± ¡°Okey dokey,¡± said Teri with a grin on her face. The party moved across the room where Peter had pointed, and Teri covered the area in flames. A small hiss resounded indicating the last bit of red moss being burned to death. Afterwards, the teleportation formation in the alcove started to glow. ¡°Haha, that was fun!¡± laughed Duzzig. ¡°I agree,¡± added Teri. ¡°I¡¯m not sure I agree with your sense of fun,¡± sighed Peter. ¡°Don¡¯t complain just because you were bored with nothing to do in the fight,¡± Duzzig continued to laugh. ¡°What dropped?¡± asked Lyra Teri walked over to where she killed the last piece of moss and squated, ¡°It looks like four platinum coins, a SS- rank mana heart, a SS- rank mana stone, a vial of that acid spit, a mat of that red moss, and a bag of its spores.¡± ¡°Sounds pretty normal.¡± ¡°It is for an SS- rank. However, an SS- rank on the first floor is not normal,¡± sighed Franc. ¡°This job is going to be a bigger hassle than I thought.¡± Charlesbrought over a F- mana heart and a mat of green moss from the first boss. The party turned to leave, but a large window appeared in front of them. As they read what was on it, Franc sat down on the floor in a crossed legged position and put his head in his hands. Peter came over and patted him on his back, while Charles and Duzzig were enamored with the window. The window contained their overall clear rate of the floor. Which creatures they killed, which ones they captured, which traps they triggered, which ones they deactivated, which treasure chests they found, which type of treasures they received, percentage of floor traveled, which boss they killed, and the most important which special boss they killed. They had maxed out some of the categories, but were nowhere close to finding all the treasures, finding all the loot, or killing all the bosses. ¡°It¡¯s okay, Franc,¡± said Peter while patting their leader on the back, ¡°At least we have a list of what we need to do now¡± A sharp glare was all Peter got. Chapter 19 While Ian was making his maze, he was also teaching the five goblins and one hobgoblin. ¡°There really isn¡¯t much space in the core room with all the babies, slimes, and jellies,¡± muttered Ian, ¡°I should make a training room then. Hmm, let¡¯s have it be a teleport room like Mina¡¯s and Izu¡¯s room, rather than attached to the core room like the magma and water rooms.¡± As such, Ian created a square, bare rock room with nothing in it. Anyone that entered the room would be hard pressed to relate it in any way to a cave, beyond the fact that it was made out of rock. The room was large enough to accommodate the three separate groups that Ian intended to teach. While Ian was creating the room, Yervin had started to converse with the original five goblins. The five seemed to enjoy talking with Yervin, but Ian couldn¡¯t tell what Yervin was thinking at all. After the transfer formation was created, the six and Ian¡¯s mind entered the room. The three groups, well one group and two individuals, were separated, and Ian began his lecture simultaneously. ¡°Yervin, your body is already suffuse with strength, light, and space mana, so hopefully you¡¯ll be able to learn their magic equivalents much faster than normal.¡± Yervin nodded in the direction that Ian¡¯s voice seemed to be coming from. Ian continued, ¡°However, you¡¯ll need to perceive and manipulate mana first. Feel the mana and start moving it.¡± ¡°That¡¯s it?¡± asked Yervin with a confused look on his face. ¡°Yeah, that¡¯s it. Go ahead.¡± Yervin stared at the empty space where Ian¡¯s voice was coming from for a few seconds, before he shrugged his shoulders, squinted his eyes, and began waving his hands in front of himself. Ian could have slapped himself. He forgot at least half of the instructions. ¡°*cough* Um, Yervin, I may have¡­.forgotten some instructions.¡± Yervin returned his eyes to normal and stopped waving his hands in front of himself. He crossed his arms and looked at Ian with a blank face and raised eyebrows. An exasperated face if Ian had ever seen one. Ian began, ¡°When I said you needed to feel and move the mana, I meant your internal mana not external mana. You need to think inside yourself until you can feel the mana, and then you move it. The best way to do that is to eliminate all outside stimuli.¡± ¡°How am I supposed to eliminate all outside stimuli?¡± asked Yervin. ¡°It¡¯s simple, you just ignore everything but what you want to focus on.¡± Yervin sighed but sat down cross legged and closed his eyes. Ian reduced his focus on Yervin to a bare minimum, but enough to know when Yervin returned his mind to the outside. ????? Across the room, Ian had started teaching Izu. ¡°So, Izu. You asked me to teach you how to take care of monsters. I¡¯m sure the slimes and jellies appreciate the help, but I also noticed you staring at the water elementals a lot. Are you sure it¡¯s taking care of monsters that you want to learn?¡± Izu was looking downward and fiddling with his hands for about a minute, before he raised his head and looked at the empty space that Ian¡¯s voice was coming from. ¡°The way the water elementals play with and use water as if it was a part of themselves is amazing. Everytime I look at them, I feel an near irresistible urge to join them. I don¡¯t dislike taking care of the babies, but it was just something I felt needed to be done,¡± answered Izu his eyes focused and determined, ¡°Please, Ian. Teach me water magic!¡± Ian pondered for a short while. Should he teach Izu water magic? Of course. However, there was something else that might fit him better. Ian responded, ¡°I¡¯ll teach you water magic, but I think there¡¯s another kind of magic that might fit you more.¡± ¡°What is it?¡± asked Izu. ¡°Summoning magic.¡± Izu cocked his head to the side with a confused look, before his eyes opened wide, and his head spun in the direction of what he assumed was the water elemental room. ¡°Yep,¡± Ian answered the unspoken question, ¡°You can summon and contract water elementals.¡± ¡°How?¡± asked Izu with excitement in his voice. ¡°Well, I usually just created a portal to Ascension, created the appropriate object, and activated the summoning magic. However, most summoners that I know of require expansive summoning formations, a lot of mana, a lot of time, and a lot of the appropriate sacrifice to establish the contract. Thus, most students of summoning magic have masters which provide for them the appropriate materials,¡± replied Ian. Izu asked tentatively, ¡°C-Can you provide me with those?¡± ¡°I should be able to as long as I have enough mana, but to form the contract and activate the summoning formation, you still need to be able to use summoning magic. As such, we should begin with the same basic magic training that I¡¯m having Yervin do.¡± Izu nodded his head up and down repeatedly in excitement. Eventually he stopped and started to rub his hands together while glancing in Ian¡¯s direction. After about a minute of this, Ian sighed to himself and asked, ¡°Is there something you want to say Izu?¡± He jumped a little and asked in a single breath, ¡°Can you show me a summoning?¡± ¡°No.¡± ¡°....Why not?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t want to.¡± ¡°But, it should be easy for you right? You said you did it different-¡± ¡°I said ¡®No¡¯, Izu!¡± Izu jumped about a foot in the air and started to shake uncontrollably. Ian sighed, ¡°I¡¯m sorry for yelling at you, but a ¡®No¡¯s a ¡®No¡¯.¡± Izu nodded his head, and his shaking lessened a little. Ian gave Izu the same directions he gave to Yervin, and reduced his focus as Izu closed his eyes while standing. Ian thought to tell him sitting down would make it easier to ignore the surroundings, but didn¡¯t want to interrupt him and was sure the goblin would figure that out soon enough. Before he moved most of his focus to the other four goblins, Ian contemplated what Izu had asked him. He knew he needed to get over it, depths Estella had slapped him a couple times for being an obstinate ass, but he didn¡¯t want that reminder. No matter how many times he tried summoning him, Qingteng wasn¡¯t coming back. ????? Mina and the other three goblins waited for Ian to start lecturing about proper swordsmanship. Ian was thinking about how he was supposed to lecture them about swordsmanship without the ability to show them forms, and hoped they would ask him questions instead. Eventually Ian¡¯s hopes were realized as Mina asked a question, ¡°Lord, should we not have weapons to train with?¡± Well he was an idiot. Of course they needed weapons. In fact, Ian took a quick glance around the room, a room with actual training materials instead of a completely bare room would be good. For now, however, Ian produced four crappy balsa wood swords. The four goblins picked up one sword each. The male and one of the female goblins picked them up by the wrong end. The other female goblin picked it up by the hilt, but was holding it like a Rogue would hold a combat knife. Mina picked hers up like normal and started to swing it amateurly. Mina¡¯s swinging had given him an idea. All goblins he¡¯d encountered only had the generic swordsmanship skill, even high rank ones like the Goblin King. Not even hobgoblins or high goblins had specialized sword skills. There were different schools of swordsmanship throughout Soris that had gained system skills specifically oriented towards their art. With Mina¡¯s increased intelligence compared to most goblins he¡¯d encountered, could she create a goblin specific sword skill? However, Ian had already said he would teach her. He supposed he could teach her the basics, correct mistakes she make in developing her art, and teach her how to become a mana artist. ¡°Mina, I have a proposal for you.¡± Mina saluted using the Soris Kingdom¡¯s knightly salute, ¡°I will agree to anything, my lord!¡±Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site. Ian was stunned for a few seconds but quickly recovered, ¡°Why did you do that salute?¡± ¡°It felt natural to do so, my lord.¡± ¡°How did you learn to do that salute?¡± ¡°I just knew how to, my lord.¡± ¡°You don¡¯t feel weird about knowing something that you didn¡¯t seem to know just a while ago?¡± Mina tilted her head in confusion, ¡°Of course not. I feel like I¡¯m more accurately able to convey my respect for you, my lord.¡± This was a little different than knowing innately what a book was, that Yervin mentioned before. She knew the correct salute for knights in the Soris Kingdom. His home nation. He wasn¡¯t sure what he thought about the implications this presented. Could anything in his dungeon be themselves or would they constantly be pushed onto a path oriented towards himself? As Ian glanced back at Mina, a few of his worries washed away. This little goblin was devoted to him, and who was he to question if she was herself. Depths, if she wasn¡¯t created in his dungeon, she might have never existed in the first place. The silence was getting to Mina and she asked quietly, ¡°My lord, what was it that you were going to propose to me?¡± Ian shook his thoughts away and replied, ¡°Right. Sorry about that. I was thinking on things. What I wanted to propose to you was how about you make your own sword style.¡± ¡°D-Does that mean you won¡¯t be teaching me, my lord?¡± The sorrow in her voice made Ian quickly answer, ¡°No, no, I¡¯ll still teach you. However, I thought instead of teaching you the sword styles I know, I¡¯ll teach you the basics, correct mistakes you make while creating your own style, and teach you about body refinement.¡± Mina¡¯s voice echoed throughout the room jolting Izu and Yervin out of their introspection, ¡°I immensely agree to your proposal, my lord!¡± ¡°I-I¡¯m glad you¡¯re enthused, Mina, but keep it down a little, you interrupted Izu and Yervin.¡± With a little red blooming on her green face, Mina rushed over to the other two and apologized to them face to face. As Mina was apologizing, Ian was wondering what to do with the other three gobins that seemed to have no idea what to do with the weapons in their hands. Although not having any idea what to do with something they¡¯ve never seen before was normal, Mina¡¯s immediate pickup of how to swing a sword made him wonder. So far, all the goblins had been fighting with their claws, so Mina shouldn¡¯t have been able to immediately know how to swing a sword even amateurly. Mina knew how to swing a sword and how to salute, Yervin knew what a book was, and Ian supposed Izu knew how to take care of babies without any training. As Mina ran back, Ian asked the three goblins a question, ¡°Hey, three goblins that haven¡¯t decided on their names yet. Do you have any interests?¡± The female with lighter green skin responded first, ¡°Punching.¡± The single male was next, ¡°I like the plants.¡± The remaining female yawned, ¡°Sleeping.¡± Mina returned with hands on her hips and a glare for the female that said sleeping. Ian asked the three another question, ¡°Do you three even want to do this training?¡± The male and the tired female shook their heads ¡®No¡¯, while the lighter green female shook her head tentatively ¡®Yes¡¯. ¡°The two who said ¡®no¡¯ can go back and do what you want. I might be able to help later with the plants, but sleeping is not my forte. In fact, you might say I actively dislike it,¡± ordered Ian. The two left the training room with Mina glaring at them, while the remaining female seemed slightly confused and was scratching her head. ¡°You gave a ¡®yes¡¯ response, but you seemed tentative about it. Why?¡± questioned Ian. She shrugged her shoulders and tilted her back and forth in a wishy washy manner before answering, ¡°I want to train, but not with whatever this piece of wood is.¡± ¡°It¡¯s a sword,¡± interrupted Mina. The other goblin ignored her and continued, ¡°I¡¯m not sure I even need anything besides my fists and my claws.¡± Before Ian even responded, something appeared in front of the female goblin. ¡°You put your fingers through those holes, and they go around your knuckles. As such, they are a weapon called knuckles,¡± explained Ian. The female goblin leaned down, picked the knuckles up, and put them on. She threw a few quick punches before hitting the wall with her knuckles. ¡°I like them, but they do restrict the usage of my claws,¡± said the goblin. ¡°Use them for now to train your punching because I can¡¯t help you with claw techniques. After I¡¯ve taught you the basics, you can decide if you want to continue using them,¡± Ian responded, ¡°Now, before I have to split you up to teach you different techniques, I¡¯ll teach you both how to become Mana Artists. ¡°The beginning process for being a mana artist is the same as what I¡¯m having Izu and Yervin do: feeling for your internal mana.¡± Mina and the lighter green goblin, Ian should really give her a name, looked at one another before sitting down and closing their eyes. By now Izu had also sat down, but not before glaring at the empty space where Ian¡¯s voice had come from. ????? A few days went by. Ian was surprised by the fact that none of them needed sleep. Although based on that other female goblin¡¯s answer, they could still go to sleep. When Ian asked them why they didn¡¯t need to sleep, the answer he got was they just didn¡¯t feel the need to sleep. He knew they slept before, but the only answer they gave him was that they felt the need to sleep then. Ian doubted he get many answers out of the original five goblins, but hoped when Yervin actually went to sleep he¡¯d have some guesses. However, even with four days of thirty hours each, none of them had made any progress whatsoever. Ian gathered them together after their failures, since they were learning the same thing. Yervin and Izu had grumpy looks on their faces while looking in the direction of Ian¡¯s voice, Mina looked incredibly dejected as her back slumped forward, and the lighter green goblin simply looked confused. Ian was confused, why couldn¡¯t they feel anything? It was really simple for him. What had he tried when asked by Seth to teach his adventurers? Oh right, Seth had told him that if he couldn¡¯t explain it properly, then he should just show them. But, how was he to do that? He didn¡¯t have a humanoid body, and his usage of mana as a dungeon core was far more streamlined. If he had his avatar, then it wouldn¡¯t be a problem, but he didn¡¯t have the time or mana to make a hundred floors. As Ian was contemplating what to do, an idea struck him. He giggled and created a blink hobgoblin, but before it gained a consciousness, he inserted a segmented part of his mind into it. Ian¡¯s vision split and now he was inside of the blink hobgoblin. Ian spun around and pointed at the four, ¡°Now, I shall be able to properly teach you!¡± The three goblins had slack jaws, while Yervin simply rolled his eyes. ¡°Now,¡± Ian began, ¡°I¡¯ll show you a light spell.¡± He pointed to the wall, gathered his mana, formed his image, and casted magic. Before any magic was formed, the blink hobgoblin Ian inhabited exploded. The three goblins and one hobgoblin were covered in blood and guts. Izu immediately puked, Ian wondered how he did that as he lived only on mana. Mina and the other female goblins wiped themselves off as best they could, but had looks of disgust on their faces. Yervin simply gave Ian one of the most condescending looks he¡¯d ever seen. ¡°Well, I may have overestimated the blink hobgoblin¡¯s abilities, it seems they aren¡¯t nearly as good as I thought,¡± snarked Ian with most of the snark directed towards Yervin. The filth that covered the four of them instantly disappeared as he cast a souped up version of the clean spell. Ian created another blink hobgoblin and inserted his mind again. ¡°Alright, let¡¯s start simple this time. I¡¯ll just circulate my mana, and the four of you will observe me while I do so,¡± ordered Ian. Ian sat down in a meditative pose, and began to circulate the strength, space, and light mana inside him. It was unusual for him to circulate non-attributeless mana, but he quickly got used to the pattern and flow of the mana. Two hours went by when suddenly, Ian¡¯s mind was ejected from the blink hobgoblin¡¯s body, which in turn slumped over and disappeared. The three goblins started freaking out, while Yervin¡¯s eyes simply went wide. Ian quickly calmed them down telling them he was fine. Yervin asked the question that was on everyone¡¯s mind, ¡°Why did the hobgoblin body you inhabited suddenly disappear? Did you make another mistake?¡± ¡°I won¡¯t discount the possibility, Yervin, but I maintained the same flow for nearly two hours, and felt no discomfort in the body. I personally wouldn¡¯t be surprised if there¡¯s some sort of limit on me being able to inhabit bodies that aren¡¯t my own. I¡¯ll eventually get something called an avatar which will act as a body of some sort. If I was able to inhabit the body of one of my dungeon creatures without any repercussions, the avatar I gain at level one hundred wouldn¡¯t have much use. At least that¡¯s my thought process,¡± answered Ian, ¡°So, did you guys see anything?¡± There was a group ¡®No¡¯, which caused Ian to sigh. If Ian had a chin, he¡¯d be stroking it right now. He supposed the adventurers he taught back then already had an understanding of magic and the ability to perceive it, so simply showing them worked out in the end. Although, only one understood even the simplest thing he showed. If they couldn¡¯t perceive mana yet, then he had to forcibly make them perceive mana. ¡­.What if he forcibly manipulated their internal mana? That might work, but Ian didn¡¯t want to repeat the process of the original blink hobgoblin he created with his sapient monsters. Ian recalled the Respawn Room upgrade and purchased it. He created one, connected it to the training room, and registered the four trainees. He thought he might be able to make it so anyone that entered the training room would be auto registered into the respawn room or rooms, but that was for another time. Ian didn¡¯t want to waste more mana on disposable blink hobgoblins, so he created a regular goblin for him to inhabit. It took him three tries before he understood how much the goblin body was able to withstand. The goblin body died every ten minutes, but it was still a lot cheaper than the blink hobgoblin. ¡°Okay, I¡¯ve come up with an idea that should let you four quickly learn how to perceive mana. Also, you don¡¯t have to worry as I¡¯ve already registered all of you into the respawn room. That fact also means I¡¯ll be doing Yervin last, since I don¡¯t want to test out what happens when I don¡¯t have enough mana,¡± said Ian. Izu was shaking as he asked, ¡°W-Why d-do we n-n-need to be r-regist-tered in the r-resp-spawn r-room?¡± ¡°Well, I might accidently explode you like I did with the previous goblins,¡± Ian said with straight face. All three goblins and one hobgoblin froze in place. Before they could do anything, Ian grabbed Izu¡¯s hand and manipulated his mana. Izu¡¯s attribute was neutral like other goblins, but Ian quickly converted it to water mana and became flowing the mana in rivers, eddies, whirlpools, and torrents throughout Izu¡¯s body. The period of his goblin inhabitation went by while Izu was convulsing on the ground with water seeping out of his pores. Ian was pleased as Izu now had the mana perception skill along with the mana manipulation skill. Sadly, his attribute was still neutral and hadn¡¯t been converted to water. Ian had used healing magic to reduce the pain during the process, helped the regeneration process afterwards, and helped the process of breaking down the body and building it back up. The last part couldn¡¯t be done with instant heal spells and was a meticulous process. However, Ian was a professional and it only took him a couple of minutes. ¡°There, Izu is all healed up, so you three can get rid of those looks of horror,¡± Ian assured them, ¡°He felt no pain as I reduced it, but I couldn¡¯t heal him fully until the process was completed. As such, even though there was no pain it still most likely felt extremely odd. Right, Izu?¡± Izu sat up looking dazed, but gave a mumbled ¡®Yes¡¯. ¡°All right. On to the rest of you.¡± They froze up again, but made no move to run away. Ian repeated the same process he did with Izu but didn¡¯t change their attributes. At the end they all learned the mana perception and mana manipulation skills. Afterwards, Ian began his attempts to teach them proper magic and body refinement with mixed results. His actual teaching methods sucked, but whenever he showed one of his own techniques, it motivated them to continue practicing. This basic learning experience continued while Ian made floors beyond the maze floor, although they would technically be before the maze floor. Chapter 20 Ian had finished his protection maze, but now he only had one normal floor and one death floor. To counter the effect his death floor would have on intruders, he needed quite a few more floors. He debated with himself whether or not to try mass producing floors, but decided against it. First off, he didn¡¯t have the required mana right now, and second off, if he had his floors be completely the same with minor differences, then he would hate his own dungeon. However, he still needed to work quickly, since only one hundred and twenty five days of his four hundred remained. The mana wait for Yervin had cut his time in half, only a little over three of his total ten months remained. Ian sighed as he realized a year wasn¡¯t enough time to build a proper dungeon. Of course, little did Ian realize how much other dungeons would want to punch him in the face, or book spine, for thinking that. Ian¡¯s focus shifted to building his dungeon. After a quick contemplation, he decided to make each floor unique in three ways: floor layout, creature composition, and type of puzzle. He had created his teleporting treasure chests on the first floor and forewent puzzles, but his dungeon felt empty without them. If there were no puzzles, then any brute, who could punch things really hard, would make it through his dungeon. Not only did puzzles prevent idiots from clearing his dungeon solo, they also allowed individuals of lesser strength, but greater intelligence, to clear a dungeon in a party. Of course, they still had to find the right party, otherwise they were liable to be killed at the end of a dungeon run. Ian purchased the ability to create puzzles for ten thousand DP. Now he could make his second floor. Ian liked the themed rooms from the first floor, and decided to implement them on the second. It had come to him late, but the spider room was his favorite. Thus, he decided to implement the spider room but on a greater scale. The second floor would be a circular floor with smaller rooms and corridors surrounding the largest, circular room, the spider room, which in turn led to the boss room. The spherical spider room was twice as large as the largest room on the first floor. As he created it, Ian made sure to add normal cave like features, however only along the edge of the room. He implemented the same teleporting treasure concept but with seven spots and two treasures instead. The other terrain features he added were five large boulders throughout the floor, and fourteen golden apple trees in two circles: a circle of eight along the outer edge of the room and a circle of six towards the center. None of his variant spiders had reached full development yet, so Ian only placed ten G rank clear web spiders in the room. He ordered them to make as many webs as possible. Besides the spider themed room, Ian decided to wait until he had created the floor plan before placing his creatures. There were multiple paths like he had on the first floor, but unlike the first floor there wasn¡¯t any short path. Well, there was a shortest path, but no one would consider it short. Ian had implemented his large room plan again with a triangle, a rectangle, a rhombus, and two circles. There was also a hexagon and another circle that were between a medium room and a large room. Ian also created eight ¡®puzzle¡¯ rooms. They weren¡¯t Rooms, as he had seen that option in the dungeon store, but small rooms filled with different puzzles that Ian would create. Of course, they weren¡¯t filled with puzzles yet, they were just empty rooms. These rooms were completely optional, but would provide treasure. However, these wouldn¡¯t be the only puzzles on the floor, Ian planned to install puzzles for progression as well. The general concept of the floor could be distilled down to two or three paths, interrupted by rooms, curving counterclockwise for the first three fourths of the floor. There were various shapes of rooms, paths that connected the main corridors, and a small section of twisty paths and small rooms about halfway through. The last section of the first three fourths of the floor became more twisty and interconnected, but still had two main corridors running counterclockwise. The last fourth of the floor became mainly linear with only a few offshoot corridors and rooms for puzzles or sub-bosses. The linear sections started with a narrow, straight corridor that twisted back and forth multiple times before reaching the hexagon room. The hexagon room led to the trident/arrow room, it was supposed to be an arrow, but Ian wasn¡¯t able to get the fletching shape thin enough. This lead to long, curvy corridors interrupted by small rooms connected to two medium sized oval rooms and a large oval room. The large oval room led to a sub-boss room, separate from the main path, and a straight corridor with a forty five degree turn leading to a small square room, leading to the rhombus room, which Ian supposed was also a parallelogram room, which lead to the enormous spider room, as in the room was enormous not the spiders. All in all, the process took Ian a total of five whole days. At thirty hours a day, he worked for a total of one hundred and fifty hours. It seems he was going faster than his previous floor attempts, but he still didn¡¯t have any magic, traps, creatures, or treasures. Ian decided to place his creatures next and implement his magic, traps, and treasures based on where he placed his creatures. Now, looking back on his first floor, Ian realized that he created a high creature density floor. If he compared it to other dungeons he had been in, then he had the most creatures in a cave dungeon floor that he¡¯d ever seen. If he was to be quick about making floors, he needed to tone down the density a little. However, not to the level of a normal dungeon, Ian liked having a lot of creatures. Currently Ian¡¯s creature options were generally the same as his first floor, with a few creatures that he hadn¡¯t placed on either of the two floors he created previously. Well, there was the difference of his monsters being G rank now, but not much changed between G- rank and G rank. Thankfully in the five days he made the layout of the floor, the variant spiders had developed enough to evolve, so Ian now had G rank versions of those and placed ten of each variant in the spider room. Ian didn¡¯t feel that one hundred and ten spiders were enough for the room. They were only a little larger than fist sized after all. It would only take him about four thousand mana to get to a G rank spider, so Ian continued with different mana infusion spider evolution. However, he did want to try something with his creation perk for the sub-boss of the spider room. It wouldn¡¯t be much of a sub-boss, only a rank or two higher than the indicated rank of the floor, but it would be different. So far, Ian had created his monsters in the core room, but it was getting a little crowded in there, and¡­.Ian gave a quick glance in the direction of the training room, he needed to think about separating his dungeon into the dungeon for adventurers and living quarters for certain creatures. In fact, Ian had been somewhat haphazard in his placement of his floors in the non-existent space, and it was starting to bug him. The floors were just sitting next to each other, the training room and Mina¡¯s and Izu¡¯s just sat next to the core room, and the water and magma rooms didn¡¯t have good symmetry. First, Ian decided to stack the floors. G- rank would be on top, then G rank, then EX rank, then the core room. Rather than stack them directly on top of each other, Ian also made it so they went front to back. The G- rank floor was in front, the G rank floor started as the G- rank floor ended, but was a level below, then the EX rank floor started as the G rank ended, and the core room finished it off. At the end his floors looked like a staircase. Ian shifted the water and magma rooms, so they were right next to each other, but had a wall in between them. They were centered in the back of the core room directly across from the transfer entrance. Right after he moved the rooms, he realized that a room specifically for transfer formations would fit perfectly between the two rooms. Thus, Ian put a room between the water and magma rooms and placed the transfer formations for the training room, that was only called that because he had the goblins training there, not because it resembled a training room in any way, and Mina¡¯s and Izu¡¯s room. While he was moving the floors and rooms connected to the core rooms, he made sure to observe the reactions of the creatures inside them. The creatures in the floors had no reactions whatsoever, and the only reaction the water elementals and the flame tongued flasterby catcher had was to the sudden creation of a wall while he was moving the rooms. Ian moved Mina¡¯s and Izu¡¯s room to below and back from the core room, and he started to move the training room before he stopped suddenly. He created a separate room, the same size of the training room, and placed a single goblin in it that he inhabited with his mind. With him inside it, he moved the room around. It was hard to tell, since he knew the room was moving around, but it didn¡¯t feel like the room was moving at all to Ian. Happy with his experiment, he moved the training room down next to Mina¡¯s and Izu¡¯s room. Ian was thankful they didn¡¯t notice anything happen in the training room. With his floor arrangement set, Ian created a separate room about the size of his core room to the right of his stair setup. If he wanted to make creatures the size of Giants or Dragons, he would have to make a new one, but he didn¡¯t plan on making creatures of that size anytime soon. The creatures he created here would be for the dungeon only, if he planned on making something¡­.someone similar to Yervin, then he¡¯d make them in the core room. Happy with his setup, Ian started to create new monsters.This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version. Ian started with two similar mana attributes: electricity and lightning. Well, it would be more accurate to say that lightning is a from of electricity, so they were in fact the same thing. Most mages he knew of used lightning magic and more specifically only used it for combat. Lightning magic by itself took a lot of time to accurately use due to its destructive and chaotic nature, so trying to use it on small scale proved nearly impossible. After Ian was able to successfully convert lighting mana into electricity mana, he realized how much easier it would have been to do it the other way. When Ian gave his findings to Andre and Mackenzie, which they had presented at their college for him, he had chuckled to himself at the fact that electricity was so much easier to use, and had more uses, than lightning magic. Back then he couldn''t wait to see the mage community''s reaction. The spider infused with electricity mana was called an Electric Web Spider. It had the same markings as the normal web spider, but the white markings changed into a light yellow color. The most prominent change was its ability to give a shock to anyone touching it. The upgrade to G rank extended the range of its shocking ability. Next, the lightning mana produced the Lightning Web Spider. Same as the electric spider it kept the original markings, but instead of light yellow, the markings were a deep yellow. There was no shock from coming close to the spider, but it could raise one of its legs and shoot a small bolt of lightning. Unsurprisingly, the bolt caused severe burns, however the range was short. The surprising part was that a G- rank monster could produce anything that did severe damage. At G rank the range of the bolt extended a bit, and it seemed to Ian that the damage increased slightly. Ten of both spiders were placed in the spider room. The room was quite large, and he only planned on spiders in the room, so only one hundred and thirty barely fit the room. Ian sighed to himself. What was he thinking, he just decided that the floor needed a lower density of creatures. ¡­.He supposed he would max the room out at two hundred spider monsters and one sub-boss. For the next spiders, Ian had an experiment he wanted to try. Based on how Yervin turned out, he already had some guesses about how the experiment would go. The first spider was infused with magma mana. It resulted in a Magma Web Spider. The spider was now a blackish red color without any of the marks of the normal web spider. It had gained two skills: heat resistance and melting resistance. Ian noticed the biggest change after he let it start to spin webs. Its webs were made out of molten rock. Based on the level of its heat resistance, he wondered how the spider walked on its own webs. Ian really wondered whether he should put this spider on the G rank floor, but the menu said it was G rank, so Ian just shrugged his pages and placed it in the spider room. What Ian wanted to test the magma spider against was infusing a spider with half fire mana and half earth mana. The spider that resulted had a red body with yellowish brown stripes running down its abdomen. It was called a Flaming Earth Web Spider and had both the fire and earth resistances. Ian was unsurprised by the result, but wondered if it was possible to artificially create a mana flow within the spider that resulted in a magma spider with fire and earth attributes. Ian created numerous flaming earth web spiders in his attempts to make a different kind of magma spider, but to no avail. Sometimes they weren¡¯t even flaming earth web spiders, they were fire web spiders or earth web spiders. He tried to get the mana to fuse together or act with one another, but he couldn¡¯t influence the overall mana flow inside the spider without expending far too much mana. It seemed changing the mana flow was a part of his creation perk. Ian contemplated the problem for a bit more, but considered giving up as he was wasting time. However, right before he gave up, it came to him. The revelation made him smack his inner spine with his pages. Of all the times he sat on the edge of volcanos or swam in the magma, how could he forget about the heat and pressure present there. Before Ian continued with his experiment, he had two new spiders to make. Ian produced a Heat Web Spider. It looked like a normal web spider, but sometimes it would produce steam and sometimes ice crystals would form around it. It had low level heat production and heat elimination skills. Ian wondered why it received those skills rather than the resistance skills that the elemental spiders received. The Pressure Web Spider also had the same patterns as the original web spider. It had the unusual skill called Equal Pressure which allowed it to exert the same amount of force from every surface of its body. Ian was interested in how this spider would evolve. Most monsters got a resistance skill eventually if they had a mana attribute in their name, so would this spider receive a resistance skill for just pressure or for all force in general. One of the things Ian liked about being a dungeon was he could conduct experiments that were impossible for him as a human being. Ian continued his experiment to produce a magma spider without magma mana. First, he used all three attributes in equal measure, but all he got was a Thermal Pressurized Earth Web Spider. Ian considered not making too many multiple attribute monsters as the names were getting a bit long. The new spider had the ability to absorb and release heat, apply equal force to a small circle in front of it, and had rock resistance. They were all reduced versions of skills that singular attribute spiders had. The spider itself, however, looked identical to a earth web spider. Ian spent the rest of the day fiddling with ratios of mana attributes but nothing came of it. Eventually he realized what he was doing wrong, and it came from reminding himself about Yervin and remembering how he had originally come across magma mana. Even though he infused Yervin with the same ratio of mana for most of his evolutions, it took awhile for him to receive skills from all three attributes. Now, the thermal pressurized earth web spider did have three skills, but they were inferior versions. This had reminded Ian that the levels of his heat and pressure magic spells had to be quite high before their combination with earth magic produced magma, or lava, when he did it on the surface. Most likely if he continued to evolve the spider with the ratio of heat, pressure, and earth mana, they might become a magma spider that can use those three attributes. Ian set aside his experiment that had wasted about two days, and continued making spiders. Ian decided to go with some more basic attributes. The Ice Web Spider received ice resistance like the rest of the elemental spiders. It had a clear blue color compared to the darker blue color of the water spider. Poison mana created the Poisonous Web Spider. This spider, in addition to the venom it had normally, was now also poisonous to anything that ate it. Its entire body was now a greenish purple color. A lucky turn of fate meant its webs were also coated in poison. The addition of the ice and poison web spiders brought the spider types up to twenty. As such, two hundred G rank spiders were now present in the spider room. The room was slowly being covered in webs with the periodic magma or poison web to act as traps. Now for Ian to make his sub-boss. Ian thought he would be testing if his creation perk applied to modifications here, but he already found out it did when modifying the mana flow of the spiders earlier. So far, Ian has focused on creating different varieties of monsters through different mana attributes. Ian loved seeing all the different spiders, but besides a few color changes they were all the same physically. Of course, Ian realized that physical differences were likely going to arise the more he evolved them, but for now they were very similar. He hoped to create a spider with physical differences as his sub-boss. First, it needed to be bigger. Ian had realized after studying the goblins that the body was composed of extremely small interconnected parts. He severely hoped that he wouldn¡¯t have to modify each one of those because that would take time, and he assumed mana, that he didn¡¯t feel he had. He focused on enlarging every aspect of the normal web spider and suddenly the spider doubled in size and ten thousand mana left him. Ian was surprised. Only ten thousand mana? Admittedly going from one fist to two fists wasn¡¯t a large increase. As such, Ian increased the size again. The spider enlarged and ten thousand mana was lost, however the spider did not double in size. Ian enlarged the spider three more times and realized that the spider was increasing in size by a fistful each time. It seemed ten thousand mana got him a base web spider increase in size. Ian upped the spider¡¯s size a couple of fistfuls more to get it to human head size. However, Ian wasn¡¯t going to just increase the overall size of the spider. He made the front two legs of the spider into scythe like cutting implements. The last change Ian made was to greatly enlarge the abdomen compared to the rest of the body. Ian didn¡¯t have to spend as much mana on the abdomen as it increased in size at a greater percentage than the whole body. The enlarged abdomen was used to hold a much larger silk creation gland. Pleased with his work, Ian infused the spider with mana. Unlike the usual thousand he had to infuse from a normal web spider to a monster web spider, he had to infuse twenty thousand mana. The end result was a F- rank monster. Normally Ian would be pleased with his creation, but its name gave away its problem. It was called an Immobile Scythe Spider. Apparently Ian had made the abdomen so disproportionate to its size that it could no longer move. Its legs attempted to pull itself forward, but after a little struggle it gave up. It could still produce silk, but the silk just sprayed out of its abdomen, since the spider couldn¡¯t weave it into a web. Ian was displeased that he was unable to accurately create his idea. He also felt a bit sorry for the spider that wasn¡¯t able to move on its own, but he wasn¡¯t one to waste monsters, so he would place them on the F- floor. They could act like traps with their scythes or cover intruders with their silk. Ian was now regretting not infusing them with poison mana, since large amounts of poisonous silk would have made a good trap. Ian repeated the previous process with a new spider, but reduced the size of its abdomen. He also target infused endurance mana into the exoskeleton and the cephalothorax that controlled the movement of its legs. To make up for his last mistake, Ian also infused poison mana overall into the spider. When Ian let it go, it began to scuttle around like any other spider. It seemed that its movement was fine. Pleased with his Poisonous Scythe Spider, Ian added it as a singular monster to the spider room to act as a sub-boss. There was technically a Sub-Boss Room that he could purchase, but Ian didn¡¯t want to go through the process of purchasing numerous upgrades at the moment. To finish off the room, Ian put two glow worms next to the golden apple trees and two hundred biotic web spiders throughout the room. Ian looked down at the room pleased, and went to finish off the rest of the floor. Chapter 21 With the spider room done; it didn¡¯t need traps, and Ian would decide what to fill the treasure chests with later; he needed to decide on the rest of the creatures for the floor. The same as the first floor, he wanted variety in both new creature evolutions and types of creatures. The new spiders he created met the evolution requirement, but they were still the same creature even if some could shoot lightning and some could create illusionary duplicates of themselves. Also, not every adventurer was going to be happy with just new spiders. If a few tamers he knew ever entered his dungeon, they would pass out near instantly. Sometimes being protected by strong tamed monsters caused tamers to be slightly negligent to danger. Of the creatures Ian chose during the tutorial and when selecting his deep cave terrain, he only had two that he hadn¡¯t touched: the blind swallow and the newborn albino bat. Why had he chosen two creatures, one biota and one monster, that had such a niche overlap? Well, for one, he couldn¡¯t choose cave swallows as those were shallow cave system biota, and two, he could create themed floors. Sadly, the themed floor wouldn¡¯t be this floor as the adult bat was sure to be too high a rank. As such, he did what he did with all the other creatures and created some newborn albino bats, blind swallow eggs, blind swallow babies, blind swallow adolescents, and blind swallow adults in his core room. With that, he had created all the creatures in his possession, although he could easily earn ten more by selecting his two remaining terrain choices and purchase more in the dungeon shop at anytime.
Race: Newborn Albino Bat
Rank: G-
Gender: Female
Attribute: Nature
Development: 0/100
Titles: None
Skills
Grip Strength Echolocation
Description
A newborn albino bat monster. With their full lifecycle occurring in caves, these bat monsters have lost all pigmentation. The albino bat groups together in large colonies inside large caverns. They primarily subsist on insects, but as they are monsters, they will still attack sapient races on sight. The newborn albino bat will hang onto its mother for six to ten weeks before learning how to fly.
Common Item Drops
G- mana heart Wing Membrane
Before he got to creature placement throughout the floor, Ian decided to finish off the creature themed rooms. On the first floor he had four rooms in total: spiders, ferns, moss, and mushrooms. He also technically had a water elemental themed room on the EX rank maze floor. He contemplated if the short gauntlet of small rooms with only a couple slimes and jellies counted, but decided not to count them, as they didn¡¯t come close to the number of creatures in his other themed rooms. Blind cave swallows and water elementals were going to appear first on this floor, so he wanted to create rooms dedicated to them. The water elemental room would be a repeat, but he hoped adventurers that reached the maze floor would be few and far between. Besides, physically strong water elementals weren¡¯t exactly normal. The swallows needed a room with a tall ceiling, so Ian chose the large circular room in the third quarter of the floor from the entrance. He changed the shape of the room by adding nooks and crannies for the swallows to nest and rest. To help their echolocation, Ian reduced the presence of stalactites, stalagmites, and columns. Most of the room was empty besides a few boulders sitting here and there on the floor to give the room a bit of atmosphere. Ian created a mana heart inside the adult blind cave swallow and created its basic nature attribute monster version: a G- rank Blind Cave Swallow. The monster version was the length of a human forearm tall, with much sharper talons and a much sharper beak. It should be noted that even though their beak and talons became sharper and larger with monsterization, they were still swallow sized and thus not a great danger. At G rank not much changed besides an increase in its skills: Pierce and Dive. Pierce created larger puncture wounds than its talons and beak would normally create. Dive increased the speed and power of its ability to divebomb opponents.
Race: Blind Cave Swallow
Rank: G
Gender: Male
Attribute: Nature
Development: 0/100
Titles: Biotic Born
Skills
Flight Pierce
Dive
Description
Blind cave swallows are monsters that have spent such a long time in deep cave systems that their eyes have lost their use, and have thus been lost. The development of echolocation in these birds occurred separately from their mammalian counterparts, bats. These monsters only occur in deep cave systems with large enough caverns for them to forage and fly around. As they are naturally flying monsters, their Flight skill is much higher than a normal G rank monster.
Common Item Drops
G mana heart Swallow Feathers
The monster swallows retained the same shape and color as their biotic counterparts. Their feathers were completely absent of pigment, their eyes had become vestigial organs, and they still chirped, called, and sang. As Ian was deciding how many monster swallows and normal swallows to put in the room, he had a moment of regret. The swallows needed to fly, so they needed a lot more room, and the spider room was much larger than his currently selected swallow room. However, he wasn¡¯t going to go back on his decision. The swallows would have to deal with a smaller room, although still quite big. Usually Ian would go back to what he was doing immediately, but instead he kept staring at the room with his mind ticking away. It took several minutes before it finally clicked in his mind. The resulting thought made Ian place his spine in his pages, and if he could blush, he would have. So what if he already outlined the floor, it was his floor, he could change it at anytime. He had ignored that ability on the first floor and the maze floor too. After he finished the layout on the first floor, he never changed anything besides the insides of the rooms and corridors. With the maze room, he originally intended to create a loop and had failed in doing so. Rather than erase what he made and try again, he simply went with his failed loop maze and created the checkpoints in response. Although, he was kind of glad he failed at making a loop because he really liked those checkpoints. It seemed his ability to comprehend he could change things did not go hand in hand with his ability to comprehend he could create things. Ian was glad he had not invited the plant loving goblin to help him with plant and fungi evolutions yet. If he had, then he would have had to hide from him and the sleepy goblin too. With change in mind, Ian erased the short pathways that led to and from the two main corridors, rectangle room, and another side corridor. The erasure of these corridors freed up space between the two main corridors. More space allowed Ian to expand the circular room to a slightly deformed oval room larger in size than the spider room and nestled between the two main corridors. Instead of multiple paths leading to and from the circle room, the deformed oval room had two paths: one to the rectangle room and one to a side pathway. He repeated all the previous changes he made until he was back to contemplating how many swallows to put into the room. After his contemplation, Ian decided to not place any normal swallows in the room. It was true he had just increased the space of the room and had placed normal and monster versions in all his previous themed rooms, but even with the increased space, two colonies of swallows didn¡¯t seem like they would fit to him. Enough swallows were placed to fill half the nooks and crannies. He ordered them to go about their business, and they left their nests and flew around the room in shifts. If they flew around all at once, the air would be filled with too many swallows. As a result, they would crash into each other even with their echolocation. The spider room only had spiders and trees, but all the webs still made the room seem full. With only swallows, the swallow room seemed lacking. Thus, even though they wouldn¡¯t actually be eating or drinking anything, Ian wanted to create a swallow like environment. To do so he needed water and insects, specifically flying insects. With those in mind, Ian selected deep cave again for his terrain and prepared to select five cave insects. However, all he received was an additional cubic kilometer of deep cave terrain. He waited for a couple minutes to see if the selection screen would appear, but nothing happened. Well, that certainly sucked for him. He supposed it made sense though. If he could get five creatures for the same terrain every time he chose it, the he would get five creatures every level and that would make the creature choice at every tenth level obsolete. Ian shrugged off his disappointment, but needed to decide what terrain to choose for his remaining cubic kilometer. He could choose the shallow cave terrain, but only if he was being a stickler about having only cave species in the cave terrain. However, his creatures survived off of mana and thus could live in any terrain, although the Ecosystem perk might allow him to change that in the future. With the ability to live in any terrain, choosing the terrain with the most flying insects made sense. As such, he chose the swamp terrain.
Mosquito Egg, Swamp Fly Egg, Translucent Blue Dragonfly Egg, Skylit Butterfly Egg, and Screeching Cicada Larvae [G-] have been chosen.
After he made his choice, Ian didn¡¯t immediately start creating his creatures. Something had been bugging him about the swamp terrain. When he had first observed the mountain, he noticed that the swamp was filled with dark mana. However, his terrain choice wasn¡¯t dark swamp but just swamp. Also, there were no creatures for him to choose from that would be associated with a dark mana swamp. With these questions in mind, he created a section of swamp terrain. What he created was only five meters high, ten meters wide, and ten meters long. Ian chuckled at the fake sky present on the five meter tall ceiling. He was pretty sure he¡¯d never seen such a low fake ceiling. All the ones he¡¯d seen were ones he had to fly up to. After a bit of amusement, he focused back on the question at hand. A quick analysis of the swamp showed him that it was a completely normal swamp. He created another section of swamp while focusing his mind on all the characteristics of a swamp suffuse with dark mana, but he also made sure to not actually inject the dark mana himself. All that resulted was another patch of normal swamp. It seemed that the outside swamp containing dark mana wasn¡¯t a natural state. With his immediate question answered, Ian erased the swamp terrain, shrugged his covers, and decided to get back to work. Any investigations he wanted to do in the swamp would have to wait until Ian got his avatar. As he went back to his floor creation, Ian had an idea and created a small patch of swamp and injected dark mana into the terrain itself. He was able to replicated the look and feel of the outside swamp, but the mana cost was far greater than he imagined. As he was about to erase the small section of dark swamp, a window appeared before him.
New Terrain ¡®Dark Swamp¡¯ Acquired. To use this terrain please select it for your next cubic kilometer of dungeon area.
Ian stared at the window, and if he had a face, it would have a massive grin on it. Ideas for terrain began to rush through his head, but he quickly shook the thoughts away. A way to create new terrain was quite interesting, but for now he would focus on creating his floor. After the small patch of dark swamp was erased, most of the mana used to create it was returned to him. Ian created and developed the four biota, and he even evolved the screeching cicada larvae once to get a G rank Screeching Cicada. He did this in his core room like the others as there were no experiments involved. The mosquito was basically a demon from the Depths. Well, the only way it was similar to a demon from the Depths was in how annoying it was, but Ian felt that some hyperbole was needed from time to time. They resembled vampires with their blood sucking, and not the kind of vampires that needed to suck blood to survive but the assholes who sucked blood for enjoyment. True, blood provided nutrition to a female mosquito¡¯s offspring, but it could get that nutrition from nectar and plant juices instead. Worst of all these two winged, long legged, compound eyed, with a proboscis flies were carriers of disease.
Race: Mosquito
Gender: Female
Attribute: Nature
Development: 0/100
Description
A species of fly. The female gender of this species primarily relies on blood to supply nutrients to their eggs. A mosquito¡¯s saliva can produce an irritating rash on the victim of their blood sucking. As a result of sucking the blood of many different individuals and species, these insects can carry disease to a large population quite easily.
The swamp fly looked like a common housefly: six legs, two wings, compound eyes, and a black body. What set it apart, from the common housefly, was the fact that it reproduced like a botfly. It was a parasite that layed it eggs on mammals or other insects that associate with mammals. The swamp fly¡¯s eggs sense the body heat of the mammal, inducing hatching of the larvae which in turn burrow into the skin of the host. The larvae will age and eventually be shit out where they develop into adults inside the feces. Ian noted that as long as he didn¡¯t allow them to reproduce, there wouldn¡¯t be any infested adventurers. However, he would never discount the possibility of a swamp ecosystem floor.
Race: Swamp Fly
Gender: Male
Attribute: Nature
Development: 0/100
Description
Swamp flies, as their name shows, reside in swamps. Beyond their parasitic nature, they pose no more danger than the common housefly, which they physically resemble. A quick glance at a swamp fly and a house fly wouldn¡¯t be able to pinpoint any physical differences between the two insects. However, the most distinctive difference between the two is the wing shape. A house fly¡¯s wings are wider and shorter than a swamp fly¡¯s wings. A swamp fly¡¯s wings are fifty percent longer and fifty percent thinner than the house fly¡¯s wings.
Why did he choose two such obviously disgusting insects? Because even though he was trying to create a small difficulty incline, he was still a dungeon and dungeons need to have things that freak invaders out. At least, that was Ian¡¯s opinion. The translucent blue dragonfly was like blue glass, but unlike his clear web spiders, the dragonfly¡¯s organs could still be seen. The head was dominated by two large compound eyes with two small antennae sprouting from the top. Two pairs of wings that rested perpendicular to its body, along with its six legs, sprouted from the thorax. Finally, the abdomen was the majority of the dragonfly¡¯s length but did not reach the width of its thorax. At around five inches long, with a wingspan of six inches, the translucent blue dragonfly was of an average size.You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story. For the creation of monsters, Ian saw the dragonfly as a large source of variety. Beyond creating monsters from the adult dragonflies, the larval stage, or the nymph stage, was adultlike in nature. The main difference between the nymph stage and the adult stage was the presence of wings, so a monster created from the nymph stage wouldn¡¯t act like the newborns of most other creatures.
Race: Translucent Blue Dragonfly
Gender: Male
Attribute: Nature
Development: 0/100
Description
The translucent blue dragonfly is a predator in both its nymph stage and adult stage. In fact, it is possible for a dragonfly to spend several years in the nymph stage and only a couple of weeks in the adult stage. An adult dragonfly has great vision and flight movement, able to make extremely sharp turns on a copper.
The skylit butterfly glowed in the moonlight and sparkled like the stars in the night sky. The sparkles were present on both sides of the butterfly¡¯s wings. As such it was a nocturnal creature that flew between plants finding nectar. Ian had no problem with the proboscises of butterflies.
Race: Skylit Butterfly
Gender: Female
Attribute: Sky
Development: 0/100
Description
A butterfly that has adapted to its nocturnal environment. The skylit caterpillar, the larval stage of the skylit butterfly, is also nocturnal. The greatest oddity of the skylit butterfly is its innate attribute: sky. Not only is it not the nature attribute like most biota, it is also a rare and conceptual attribute. This sky attribute is what allows the butterfly to mimic the night sky rather than a biological evolution.
When he selected the screeching cicada larvae, Ian was hopeful that it would become an adult with a single evolution. His hope was met with results. The screeching cicada was different compared to the other monsters that shared similarities with biotic creatures. Physically there was no change as the screeching cicada looked like a normal cicada with a short, fat body, eyes that didn¡¯t take up much of its head, and wings that touched tips a fair distance away from the butt of the cicada. The difference was in how the sound produced by their tymbals affected others. Rather than being annoying to some or a symbol of peace and tranquility to others, the sound produced a mental pain in the listener. The skill involved was called Screech.
Race: Screeching Cicada
Rank: G
Gender: Male
Attribute: Nature
Development: 0/100
Titles: None
Skills
Flight Screech
Description
An insect monster that relies not on its physical skills to harm an enemy, but on the sounds it makes to harm them mentally. Its natural ability to fly creates a higher than normal flight skill. The screech skill is normally associated with monsters that use their vocal chords to mentally attack their enemies. While the screeching cicada doesn¡¯t have vocal chords, the use of its tymbals to produce the sound is enough to gain the skill.
Common Item Drops
G Mana Heart Cicada Wings
Ian placed a golden apple tree in the center of the room for the cicadas to rest on. He elevated the ground the tree grew on and created a moat around the tree. Seven small waterfalls appeared on the walls of the room between the swallows¡¯ nooks and crannies. Six of the seven waterfall flowed into three small ponds that surrounded the moat a fair distance away. The last waterfall flowed directly into the moat. The three ponds themselves also flowed into the moat. Ian did the same treasure trick he did in the spider room with seven spots and two treasures. However, those weren¡¯t the only treasures in the room. The centralized apple tree with the moat surrounding it and cicadas screeching gave him an idea. For the first time Ian used his puzzle function.
Please describe the puzzle you wish to make.
¡°A simple question puzzle. The question itself will be inscribed into the tree surface. Below the question will be a hole, the question will only activate once the answerer has placed an appendage into the hole. If the question is answered correctly, the treasure will drop into the hole. If the question is answered incorrectly, then the trap will be released into the hole,¡± rattled off Ian.
Hole Activated Question Puzzle Created.
A hole appeared in the trunk of the tree.
What question shall be used for the puzzle?
¡°What is the skill screeching cicadas use to cause mental damage to their opponents called?¡±
Please select a reward.
¡°One brass coin and one F rank nature mana stone.¡±
Please select a punishment.
¡°A swarm of mosquitoes.¡±
How many times may the question be answered?
¡°Once.¡± After Ian answered the last question, the question appeared on the trunk of the tree. He was about to call one of the two goblins not training to come test it, but stopped himself. After a quick shake of his book body, he created a goblin in which he inhabited. Ian stuck his hand into the hole and answered, ¡°Screech.¡± Nothing happened. He tried checking the settings for the puzzle and found out what was wrong. The friendly fire setting was off, so he set that to on. He stuck his hand back inside and said, ¡°Screech.¡± A brass coin and an F rank mana stone fell into his hand. Ian prepared to stick his hand back into the hole, but the puzzle hadn¡¯t reset. He nodded to himself and let the goblin disappear. As soon as the goblin disappeared, the puzzle reset. He created himself a new goblin body and prepared to answer wrong. In his new goblin body, Ian placed his hand back in the hole and said, ¡°I bet your roots are shallow too.¡± Suddenly his hand was in immense pain, but Ian slowly removed it from the hole. It was covered in buzzing mosquitoes all sucking his blood. He observed the process as the mosquitoes started to bulge with blood. Soon they had their fill and buzzed off. His body felt much weaker, like he had anemia, but he wasn¡¯t under threat of imminent death. If this was what they did to an F+ rank goblin, then it should be an appropriate punishment for a G rank floor. Even the smaller sapient races had much better constitutions than goblins, so the anemic effect wouldn¡¯t be as pronounced. The room reset after Ian¡¯s goblin died and, with it, the trap mosquitoes also disappeared. Next, the room was filled with insects. He only placed ten screeching cicadas on the tree. The tiny nature of the other insects allowed the room to be filled with them. Ian was pleased with the progress of the room, but it was still missing plants. He could just go with the plants and fungi that he already had, but the beginning of his dungeon had to have variety. However, as much as Ian enjoyed evolving monsters and as much as he knew about plants and fungi, the problem was he found them boring. He had studied them to fill out his repertoire, but it was the most arduous part of his studies. There were plants that he found interesting, like the flame tongued flasterby catcher, but his like for them generally had very little to do with any of their plant characteristics. The problems that this created, as much as he didn¡¯t want to admit it, was if he didn¡¯t enjoy something, he suffered from a lack of creativity. That was where the male goblin came in. His love of plants, and Ian¡¯s knowledge of plants would hopefully result in more interesting plants and plant monsters. Ian zoomed his vision back to the core room where the male goblin was letting the constrictions ferns grab his fingers. The sleepy goblin was next to him watching with a smile on her face. Ian greeted them, ¡°Hello.¡± Without so much as a twitch, the two greeted him back, ¡°Hello, Ian.¡± ¡°I was wondering if you¡­.¡± They were sitting right next to each other, so it was hard for him to say ¡®you¡¯ and expect them to know who he was talking about. They needed names. ¡°Actually,¡± Ian began, ¡°How about I give you names?¡± The two looked in the direction Ian¡¯s voice was coming from and then at each other. The male goblin responded, ¡°We¡¯d like that. Not having names makes it a little hard to refer to each other.¡± ¡°Alright then. Let me think about it for a bit. I don¡¯t want to give you bad names.¡± They both nodded and let Ian contemplate their names for about an hour. Ian returned from his internal debate session and found the female goblin sleeping and the male goblin almost completely covered in fern leaves. ¡°I¡¯m back with names in hand,¡± announced Ian. The male goblin tapped the leaves surrounding him which slowly unfurled. It took a couple of minutes for the goblin to be completely free of leaves. ¡°What are they?¡± asked the goblin. ¡°Your name will be Botan, while her name will be Narcy.¡± Botan put his finger to his head before nodding a short while later, ¡°I like it. However, you¡¯ll have to tell Narcy her name later.¡± ¡°I can¡¯t just wake her up?¡± ¡°You can try.¡± Ian considered trying to wake the female goblin up, but he didn¡¯t need her right now and he could tell Narcy her name later. Botan interrupted Ian¡¯s thoughts, ¡°So, does this mean we all have names now?¡± Ian twitched at the question before answering, ¡°No¡­.I haven¡¯t named the other female goblin.¡± ¡°Why?¡± ¡°She¡¯s training.¡± ¡°Couldn¡¯t you just interrupt her while she¡¯s training? It would only take a second.¡± ¡°....¡± ¡°Did she do something wrong?¡± asked Botan with a hint of sadness in his voice. ¡°No, not at all. Rather it¡¯s the other way around. I got carried away and did something that made Yervin, Mina, Izu, and the other female goblin a little afraid of me. I¡¯m being a little bitch right now and avoiding talking it out with them.¡± Botan just scratched his head and looked confused. Ian continued, ¡°Considering you¡¯re not that old, you probably don¡¯t get what I¡¯m talking about very well, but I¡¯m glad I talked to you. I¡¯m going to go apologize and talk to them about what happened. Thanks for listening, Botan.¡± ¡°You¡¯re welcome?¡± Botan responded. ¡°Now, do you want to come to the new floor and help me figure out new plants to use?¡± ¡°Yes!¡± yelled Botan as he jumped to his feet, ¡°But, weren¡¯t you going to talk to those training?¡± ¡°I am. I can split my mind. Remember?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t remember.¡± ¡°Really? I could have sworn I told you guys that,¡± Ian shrugged his covers. ¡°Do you want me to transfer you to the floor with magic or make a formation to do it?¡± ¡°What¡¯s the difference?¡± asked Botan. ¡°One is a single time use, while the other is multi use. However, I plan on erasing the formation after you use it, so it¡¯s single use this time.¡± ¡°Either then.¡± With Botan¡¯s permission, Ian used transfer magic and transferred him to the swallow room. Ian almost freaked out when he remembered right after he transferred Botan that the friendly fire function of the puzzle was still turned on. He quickly deactivated it before Botan accidently stuck his hand in there. Before Ian could even tell him what he wanted to do, Botan asked him a question, ¡°Can you create each of the plants, so I can look at them? Please, Ian!¡± Botan¡¯s reactions to plants was beyond Ian¡¯s initial expectations. When he had said he liked plants in the training room, he didn¡¯t think it was an obsession. Were¡­.were they becoming like he was with dungeons and creatures? He certainly hoped not, he knew how much a pain his obsession was to deal with. ¡°Alright,¡± answered Ian, ¡°But, a bare room would be better than this room full of water and insects.¡± Botan seemed to consider Ian¡¯s proposal before nodding. ¡°Where to?¡± he asked. ¡°The experi-....the creation room.¡± Ian stalled for time as he quickly created a bare room to the left of his dungeon staircase. This would be called the creation room unlike the equally bare room called the experiment room to the right of the dungeon staircase. Were they objectively the same? Yes. However, now Ian didn¡¯t have to worry about telling his dungeon creatures he was transferring them to his experiment room. Botan appeared in the creation room where Ian started to create each plant and fungus available to him. He created each life stage for the biota and each rank for the monsters. ¡°Can I go play with them?¡± Botan asked. ¡°Of cour-, WAIT!¡± Ian yelled. Botan had already started running towards the plants before Ian even gave his go ahead. At Ian¡¯s yell, Botan stopped as fast as he could resulting in him face planting into the ground. Botan raised his face with a bloody nose and asked, ¡°What¡¯s the matter, Ian?¡± ¡°First, don¡¯t rush off before receiving an answer, and second, I keep forgetting that even though I don¡¯t allow dungeon creatures to actively kill each other, that doesn¡¯t mean they can¡¯t passively kill each other. Look at the plants I placed next to the death saffron and the flame tongued flasterby catcher. They¡¯re decaying and melting respectively. If you had run off and touched them, that would be you right now. ¡°It¡¯s partially my fault for forgetting, so I¡¯m sorry about that. However, you need to learn some self preservation Botan.¡± Botan looked down and apologized, ¡°I¡¯m sorry.¡± ¡°I¡¯m glad you¡¯re sorry, but remember the most important part of an apology is not saying your sorry, but no longer doing what you apologized for.¡± With a raised head, Botan nodded in the direction of Ian¡¯s voice. ¡°Now,¡± Ian continued, ¡°let¡¯s make some preventative measures. I¡¯ll add you to the Respawn Room like I did with those training just in case the worst case happens. However, if you don¡¯t want to feel terrible pain and die a horrendous death, don¡¯t touch the death saffron or the flame tongued flasterby catcher. ¡°I¡¯ll also separate the two dangerous ones across the room, so you can play with the rest. I¡¯ll heal your nose and we can get to work.¡± For the next half a day, Botan played with the plants and fungi while periodically staring at the two dangerous plants from a distance. Ian rested the part of his mind that was watching Botan. He felt more mentally exhausted talking to Botan than he had talking to Yervin, Mina, Izu, or the other female goblin. The length of his talk with Botan combined with not feeling as close to him probably contributed. As a dungeon one thing he was thankful for was his throat didn¡¯t hurt after talking for a long time. Although, his throat hurting had been his own fault for not talking days at a time. Ian continued to watch Botan, and had to stop him from eating the red cap mushrooms a few hours in. Eventually Botan called out to him, ¡°So, Ian, umm, what did you actually want me to do?¡± Ian chuckled, ¡°Do you remember that room we were in before?¡± ¡°No.¡± ¡°....Fine, let¡¯s go back to that room first.¡± They transferred to the swallow room. ¡°Take a look around the room, Botan. What kind of plants do you think would fit here?¡± Ian continued. Botan walked around the room taking it in before answering, ¡°I don¡¯t know.¡± ¡°....What kind of plants do you think would be cool here?¡± Botan¡¯s mind went ticking away, before Ian saw an imaginary light spell appear above his head, ¡°Oh! The constriction ferns like reaching out and grabbing things, so what if they could grab the water and throw it?¡± Ian liked his idea, but how would he implement it? He returned Botan to the core room for a short while. Ian in turn would experiment with ferns and water. Rather than nature mana, Ian infused the green cave fern with water mana.
Race: Wet Fern
Rank: G-
Attribute: Water
Development: 0/100
Titles: Biotic Born
Skills
Spore Creation Water Creation
Water Shot
Description
An aquatic fern monster. They live in wetlands and in the shallows of lakes and rivers. Ferns or fern monsters that survive long periods of time being submerged in water evolve into this monster. Although its natural habitat is being submerged in fresh water, it can survive and is more effective in combat outside of water.
Common Item Drops
G- Mana Heart Water
Ian was surprised at how successful and easy his experiment was. He expected to only receive a monster that could create water with the purpose of slowly drowning people to death. With the skill to shoot water, it would be a much more effective monster. It wasn¡¯t exactly what Botan had suggested, but it was close. He evolved them one more rank and began placing them in the swallow room. They primarily were placed on the bottom of the ponds and moat with a couple on the edges of the streams leading from the waterfalls into the ponds and moat. Although he placed them in a much lower density compared to the first floor, Ian still placed constriction ferns and normal ferns in the swallow room. With the ferns planted, Ian invited Botan back into the room to let him see the progress and get some more ideas from him. Botan¡¯s eyes scanned the room and immediately locked onto the new plant. He started to sprint over to the new plant before he stopped and asked, ¡°Is it safe for me to touch, Ian?¡± ¡°Yes, you can touch it Botan.¡± With Ian¡¯s permission, the adult, but still young in Ian¡¯s eyes, goblin rushed over to the wet fern. After a couple minutes of examining the new fern, Botan turned in Ian¡¯s direction and asked, ¡°Can it grab water?¡± ¡°No, but it can shoot water.¡± ¡°Different, but still cool,¡± said Botan with a thumb raised in Ian¡¯s direction. After giving him a couple more minutes to enjoy the wet fern, Ian asked, ¡°Anymore cool plant ideas?¡± Botan stood up from a crouched position, crossed his arms, and began observing the room. It took about an hour before his muttering and head nodding in both directions stopped. ¡°Bug catchers. I don¡¯t like these flying bugs, they¡¯re annoying,¡± Botan finally answered. ¡°....It took you an hour to come up with that?¡± Ian sighed. Botan scoffed, ¡°Of course not. I have tons of ideas, but that¡¯s the best one for this room.¡± Ian didn¡¯t say it out loud, but he felt that he could have come up with that one himself. ¡°Thanks for the help, Botan. I¡¯ll transfer you back to the core room now. When I need to make more plants and fungi, I¡¯ll ask for you help again.¡± ¡°You¡¯re welcome, Ian. Thanks for letting me help! See you later.¡± With Botan back in the core room, Ian purchased a Ehla Flytrap.
Race: Ehla Flytrap
Attribute: Nature
Development: 0/100
Description
A carnivorous plant that subsists on insects and arachnids. Creatures that crawl across its open maw trigger the closing of the maw and the trapping of their body. Their body is slowly absorbed by the Ehla Flytrap for nutrients. It primarily lives in wetlands.
Since the room was supposed to be the swallow room, Ian decided against making a monster version at the moment. The wet fern was okay since most of them were at the bottom of the ponds and moat. The Ehla flytrap was placed periodically throughout the floor of the Floor along with half of the remaining nooks and crannies. Pleased with the room, Ian was ready to move on. The traps, his magic, and the treasures could wait to be the finishing touches. With two enormous rooms finished, Ian was still on track for the floor to be the quickest floor yet. ¡­.Although, he wasn¡¯t sure how much he still believed his own words. Chapter 22 While Ian was making his G rank floor with the spider room and the swallow room, he continued to teach the three goblins and one hobgoblin. Well, teach was not the right word for it. He told them to practice the mana manipulation and mana perception skills that he forcibly had them obtain and then left them to their devices. As he watched the four meditate and try to improve their skills, he felt that something was off. Not in how they were practicing, although that wasn¡¯t great either, but in how they were acting and the overall feeling that came off of them. When he told them to just practice their skills, they simply did what he asked without questioning it. Yervin would have at least rolled his eyes. In fact, now that he thought about it, Mina hadn¡¯t responded with a ¡®Yes, my lord¡¯, but simply went to practice. The more Ian thought on it, the more he realized that they were acting differently with him than they were just a while ago. Did he do something to make them act like that? Or were they just too excited about practicing? Ian ignored the possibility of the latter and started to think about what he could have done. It only took a couple of minutes before Ian realized the large mistake he had made. When he had forcibly manipulated their mana, he had done something horrible. Without even asking them, he made them feel weak and powerless through an invasive manipulation of their own bodies. Why had he done it? True, he wanted to let them have the mana manipulation and mana perception skills, but they would have most likely agreed to the process if he was upfront with them about what he was going to do and the risks involved. The only sapient creatures he experimented on were ones who gave their full consent during the process. With what he did to them, that statement was no longer true. Did that mean he still saw them as monsters? When he was human, he experimented on monsters and non-sapient creatures extensively. Most of those didn¡¯t have the ability to give consent. Ian thought he saw his goblins and hobgoblin as sapient monsters, but it was possible he still had innate prejudices. However, those innate prejudices might only be for specific species of monsters as he would not experiment on a dragon without their express permission. This revelation caused Ian¡¯s non-existent heart to sink into the pit of his stomach. He knew he needed to apologize to the four of them, but was a simple apology enough? How would he breach the subject that he did what he did because he subconsciously still saw them as monsters? He went back and forth about how to apologize to them until finally his discussion with Botan snapped him out of it. Resolved, Ian called the four trainees attention, ¡°I have something I wish to say to the four of you.¡± The four opened their eyes and stared in the direction of Ian¡¯s voice from the crossed legged position. ¡°For a while now,¡± Ian began, ¡°I¡¯ve had this feeling that you don¡¯t see me the same way as you used to. I racked my brain for why this was before I came on the reason. Without your consent, I forcibly manipulated your internal mana. Although you felt no pain because of my magic, I made you weak and powerless, which is not a feeling most people enjoy. ¡°The most likely reason I did this was that I subconsciously still saw you as monsters instead of the sapient creatures you are.¡± Ian created a goblin body which he inhabited. He continued with a bow, ¡°I sincerely apologize for causing you anxiety. I¡¯ll make all the effort possible to no longer think of you as monsters and always ask your permission before I do something involving you. I know that an apology is as good as the actions surrounding it, so I don¡¯t expect you to forgive me immediately. However, I hope you¡¯ll be able to forgive me eventually.¡± The three goblins became especially flustered after Ian had bowed to them, while Yervin looked uncomfortable. The first one to speak up was Yervin, ¡°I appreciate the apology Ian, however we weren¡¯t really mad at you, rather we were confused.¡± The other three started to shake their heads up and down in affirmation. ¡°You say you subconsciously treated us like monsters, but we are monsters, so what do you mean by that?¡± asked Yervin. ¡°Right,¡± nodded Ian, ¡°What I mean by ¡®treating you like monsters¡¯ is that even monsters with intelligence enjoy causing harm and pain to others, so I have no qualms about experimenting on or hurting them. Based on that, you wouldn¡¯t be monsters in my viewpoint as you don¡¯t innately enjoy hurting others. The goblins I created on the maze floor, however, are like normal monsters.¡± ¡°I see. Still, none of your other actions so far have treated us like you described. Well, maybe blowing up goblin bodies in front of us, but that is most likely a part of the mindset you had which you are currently apologizing for. Anyway,¡± Yervin continued, ¡°are you sure that it was you subconsciously treating us like monsters and not something else?¡± ¡°Yes, my lord!¡± yelled Mina, ¡°We were only acting strangely because of how unusual your actions were compared to normal.¡± Izu piped up, ¡°Although, there were some similarities to how you treat the creatures that don¡¯t talk.¡± ¡°I agree with everything said so far!¡± said the last female goblin with a raised hand. Ian contemplated Yervin¡¯s suggestion. Based on what Izu said, he was right in his reasoning that he treated them like monsters or non-sapient creatures, but Yervin was also right about him treating them like sapient creatures beforehand. While Ian was thinking to himself, Yervin interrupted his thoughts, ¡°Why did you think you subconsciously saw us as monsters?¡± ¡°When I was human, I only experimented on monsters, non-sapient creatures, and consenting sapient creatures,¡± answered Ian. ¡°Are you sure those are the only things you experimented on?¡± After a quick thought, one other thing clicked in Ian¡¯s mind, ¡°I suppose there¡¯s another one, although it technically falls under the consenting sapient creatures umbrella.¡± ¡°What is it?¡± ¡°Myself.¡± ¡°Then, is it a possibility that you saw us as a part of yourself?¡± ¡°You know¡­.you might be right, Yervin. The abnormal feeling I got from you four might not be me suddenly having the ability to recognize other people¡¯s hidden feelings. If there¡¯s a innate connection between me, the dungeon core, and the monsters I create, you, then I might have seen you as myself, already consenting to experimentation.¡± ¡°Is there any way to prove this?¡± ¡°I could conduct experiments, but I would need to find the right experiments and that will take time.¡± ¡°Is there anything faster? Maybe you could ask someone that already knows?¡± ¡°Asking someone? I suppose I could ask the System, but they probably won¡¯t respond. ¡­.Ah right. There¡¯s that perk.¡± ¡°What¡¯s that?¡± ¡°A perk is a dungeon ability I can get.¡± ¡°Oh? What does this perk you¡¯re thinking of do?¡± asked Yervin. ¡°It¡¯s called Helper and answers questions related to the dungeon,¡± replied Ian. Yervin¡¯s face became condescending, ¡°And why don¡¯t you already have that?¡± ¡°Because I like experimenting and figuring out things on my own,¡± said Ian without a hint of remorse in his voice. ¡°I assume you¡¯re willing to get it now?¡± ¡°Of course, if I can that is.¡± ¡°Why wouldn¡¯t you be able to get it?¡± ¡°It was one of the perks I could get during the dungeon tutorial. I also get more perks at level one hundred, so I don¡¯t know if I can just buy it from the dungeon shop. I know I can buy some, but others, like the ecosystem perk, I can¡¯t buy.¡± With a nod to one another, Ian went to the dungeon shop. Luckily the Helper perk was there. He purchased it, although without much pleasure. A spherical metal ball about a closed fist in size appeared around his core. After the four trainees were told that the perk produced a ball in his core room, they transferred to the core room. ¡°Alright I¡¯ll ask it the question,¡± began Ian, ¡°Is there an innate connection between me and my dungeon creatures that may subconsciously make me think of them as myself?¡± ¡°Yes,¡± the ball hummed. ¡°Why is this innate connection present?¡± ¡°To prevent dungeon creatures from rebelling against the dungeon core and to prevent dungeon creatures from leaving the dungeon.¡± ¡°Based on that, this connection does more than simply create a connection between the dungeon and its creatures. Right?¡± ¡°Correct.¡± ¡°What are the other things it does?¡± ¡°I cannot answer that.¡± ¡°....Why not?¡± ¡°A limited set of questions can be answered without any prior actions being taken. However, most questions will only be answered after the dungeon has tried to figure it out on their own. If the dungeon still does not understand the problem, then I am allowed to answer their questions.¡± ¡°That¡¯s some bullshit. Not much of a helper are you.¡± ¡°If all the answers of dungeon building were given to fledging dungeons, not only would they be overloaded with information but a lack of innovation would result.¡± ¡°I¡¯d say you¡¯ve done a poor job of encouraging innovation in fledgling dungeons based on the early floors of dungeons I¡¯ve seen.¡± ¡°Even though most early floors may look and act similar across dungeons, that does not mean they are not the building blocks of future innovation.¡±Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon. ¡°That¡¯s a fair point. I¡¯ll agree with you there.¡± After a short pause, Ian asked another question, ¡°Is the innate connection between myself and my creatures the reason for my experimenting on them without their permission?¡± ¡°I cannot answer questions of a personal nature. I can only answer questions related to dungeon mechanics. You must figure out that question for yourself.¡± Ian stopped asking questions and turned his attention away from the metallica ball. ¡°Did you hear its answers?¡± he asked the four. They all responded with, ¡°Nope.¡± ¡°I see. Well, basically what Yervin thought was right. There¡¯s a connection between me and my dungeon creatures. However, it could not answer whether the connection was the reason I experimented on you without your consent. ¡°Nothing has changed however. Even if the connection was the reason for my actions, they were still my actions. As such, I¡¯ll apologize again.¡± ¡°My lord! Do not worry about us. Even though it is not firm evidence, hearing a possible reason for why you acted out of character relieves us!¡± bellowed Mina. ¡°I¡¯d prefer firmer evidence, but I do agree with Mina,¡± said Yervin with a shrug. Izu and the other female goblin simply gave a nod of assent. ¡°Thank you,¡± responded Ian, ¡°However, I¡¯ll have to make it up to you in some way. First off, I¡¯ll get more serious about teaching you. I¡¯ll fully admit I hate teaching, so I simply winged it. If you¡¯re willing to wait, I¡¯ll come up with a lesson plan. It may not be the best way to learn, but it¡¯s better than nothing.¡± ¡°I appreciate the resolve, Ian, but is there a perk like that helper that would teach us better than you can? Or maybe a perk that makes you a better teacher?¡± asked Yervin. ¡°Yervin!¡± scolded Mina, ¡°It may be true that lord¡¯s teaching was terrible, but we must give him a second chance.¡± ¡°Well, I want to learn as fast as possible, and I¡¯m sure Ian would rather put his full attention to building the dungeon.¡± ¡°My lord?¡± Ian sighed, ¡°He¡¯s not wrong, Mina. I hate teaching. However, I¡¯d still like to spend some time getting to know each of you. ¡­.How about I build a floor with each of your inputs?¡± ¡°I¡¯ll acquiesce, my lord, but I would still rather have you try to teach me personally,¡± said Mina. ¡°Sorry about that Mina, but I¡¯m sure anything I find in the dungeon shop will be able to teach you better than I can. ¡°Also, getting to know you while making a dungeon floor is a benefit to both of us, so it doesn¡¯t really make up for what I did. Hmm¡­.oh! I know! I already made Mina and Izu a private room, although there¡¯s nothing in it, so how about I make each of you private rooms? I¡¯ll also furnish them along with Mina¡¯s and Izu¡¯s room.¡± ¡°I¡¯d very much like a private room,¡± responded Yervin. ¡°¡°¡°Sounds good.¡±¡±¡± said the other three goblins. ¡°How about I make your rooms after I level up one more time?¡± asked Ian, ¡°I¡¯ve already selected my terrain for my current dungeon area, and a terrain with buildings will most likely make better rooms or houses.¡± The one hobgoblin and three goblins nodded their assent. ¡°Alright then,¡± began Ian, ¡°let me find something like a Teaching Room.¡± About half an hour later, after searching different keywords and a lot of scrolling, Ian found what he wanted. The Learning Room, as it was called, had the ability to teach five subjects, from the dungeon¡¯s memory, to five individuals. However, it was limited to teaching level one skills or the level one equivalent for things unrelated to skills. Also, the format was a simple disembodied voice lecturing. As much as he hated teaching and sucked at it, he knew the learning room needed more than a disembodied voice. With that in mind he began purchasing upgrades for the Room. He purchased upgrades that made the lecture voice have a physical body and could interact with the students. The room could now teach up to level five skills, ten subjects, and ten individuals. The students could now also view their status in the room. The room started out completely bare, so Ian purchased the classroom, gym, and magic sphere upgrades. With those they could learn information, practice their physical skills, and practice their magic skills respectively. He placed the room directly off of the bare training room he made. It was approximately the same size as the other Rooms, however the inside was much larger, obviously the work of space magic, with the classroom, gym, and magic sphere all present. All that was left was to choose the subjects. Ian had his own ideas, but decided to ask the four what they wanted to learn. He would ask Narcy when she woke up, and Botan when he got back from helping him decide on the plants for the swallow room. ¡°I¡¯ve purchased the Learning Room and some upgrades. We need to decide on what subjects it will teach. Right now I purchased enough upgrades for ten subjects. Based on the description I can¡¯t change the subject once I¡¯ve selected it. What subjects do you want to learn the most?¡± Mina roared while saluting, ¡°Swordsmanship!¡± Izu squeaked out with a raised hand, ¡°Water elementals!¡± The female goblin also yelled, ¡°Fighting!¡± Yervin mused for a while before stating, ¡°How to control innate magic abilities.¡± ¡°Okay, sounds good. I¡¯ll include some variation of those, plus what Botan and Narcy suggest, and subjects I think will be good,¡± announced Ian. The reaction Ian received from the four was not what he expected. Mina and Izu looked confused, the female goblin looked like she was about to cry, while Yervin was looking between the female goblin and Ian with a ¡®you going to do something about this¡¯ look. Normally it would take a while for Ian to pick up on what was wrong, but the reaction of the female goblin instantly reminded him. ¡°I¡¯m so sorry! I named Botan and Narcy when I was deciding how to apologize to you. I¡¯ll give you a name now. Is that okay?¡± Ian apologized profusely. The female goblin sniffled a little, but nodded her head. Ian had been thinking about what her name should be since he named Botan and Narcy, so it didn¡¯t take him long. ¡°How about Pugi?¡± ¡°....I think it fits me, but I¡¯m not sure,¡± she muttered. However, whether or not that would be her name was quickly answered when Mina screamed, ¡°Pugi!¡± and gave her a big hug. The somewhat depressed look on her face changed into a smile as Pugi hugged Mina back. Yervin interrupted the nice moment and asked Ian, ¡°You install the subjects yet?¡± ¡°I was deciding on Pugi¡¯s name,¡± answered Ian. ¡°You¡¯ve been splitting your mind for a while now. You couldn¡¯t do it again?¡± ¡°I did it because I promised to teach you. I don¡¯t like doing it as it is uncomfortable for me. However, I am trying to make it so I can at least pay a minimum attention to everything to keep things running properly. In fact, I wonder if the uncomfortable feeling contributed to my experimenting on you four. I¡¯d rather not continue with my mind split and only focus on one major thing at a time.¡± Yervin shrugged, ¡°Do what you want, it¡¯s your dungeon.¡± Ian began installing the subjects into the learning room. As he did so, he wondered how the room would deal with general versus specific subjects. He reread the description, but it said nothing about it. It felt like a waste of a subject slot, but he would need to try sometime. Ian installed a general course on water elementals and a more specific course on water elemental skills. There didn¡¯t seem to be anything that changed, so he would have to wait for the actual lectures. He installed swordsmanship, fighting, and using innate magic skills. Sadly Yervin wouldn¡¯t get a first hand lecture as Ian didn¡¯t have any innate magic skills as a human. Most of his knowledge in that area came from observations. ¡°Alright, you four, I¡¯ve installed the subjects, so you can enter the learning room now,¡± said Ian. They walked into the room where Ian directed them towards the classroom. He assumed it would be best to start with knowledge. The three goblins and one hobgoblin each sat at a desk where a window popped up asking them to choose a subject. Three of them selected immediately, but Izu couldn¡¯t decide between the two. Ian told him just to pick the general one for now and pick the specific one after he finished the general one. He also asked Izu to tell him the differences between the two courses after he finished both of them. After Izu picked his subject, Yervin spoke up, ¡°It seems we can only select the level one course. The other courses have timers on them.¡± ¡°Really?¡± answered Ian, ¡°Let me have a look,¡± as he focused his vision on Yervin¡¯s desk. ¡°Hmm, you¡¯re right,¡± muttered Ian, ¡°Level two has an eight day or a week timer, level three has a forty day or a month timer, level four has a two hundred day or five month timer, and level five has a four hundred day or one year timer.¡± ¡°Do you know what the timer is for?¡± asked Yervin. ¡°No. Try touching the timer and see if anything happens.¡± Yervin touched the timer which brought up a new window, ¡°It says ¡®Time to convert dungeon¡¯s knowledge into usable teaching material. Average time for a level five conversion: one month¡¯.¡± As Yervin finished reading the window, he had a wide smirk on his face. ¡°What is the point of putting the average time, dammit,¡± muttered Ian, ¡°Anyway, you can spend time learning the level one skill or equivalent for now. I don¡¯t know if the information taught here will always persist in your mind or if you actually have to spend effort on learning the material. If it¡¯s the latter, you can hopefully redo the course. If it¡¯s the former, you can do a different course if the level two course hasn¡¯t unlocked yet.¡± With Ian¡¯s words, they began their lectures. He waited for the lecturer to appear, but nothing happened. However, each of their eyes seemed to be tracking something that Ian couldn¡¯t see. It seemed that even though the lecturer was a physical entity that could interact with the student, they weren¡¯t a physical manifestation in his dungeon. It made sense as having four voices talk over each other in the same room would not make for a good classroom. He wondered if they all picked the same subject, would the lecturer manifest themselves then? Ian continued to think as he watched them. Why was a Room like this in the dungeon? It made his monsters more intelligent and stronger sure, but there must be a easier method that didn¡¯t respect the monsters as much. Did the learning room appear in the dungeon shop because he had it in mind that he didn¡¯t want to hurt his monsters or was it the default way to teach monsters? A moment of silence reigned as Ian realized he had a way to answer that questions. ¡°Hey, Helper. Is the Learning Room the default way to teach monsters in the dungeon?¡± asked Ian. ¡°It is one of the main ways to teach dungeon creatures, yes.¡± replied the metal sphere. ¡°What are the other ways?¡± ¡°You saw them while searching for the learning room.¡± ¡°....Okay, but a lot of the options seemed unfit to actually teaching.¡± ¡°That may be true for you and many fellow humanoids.¡± ¡°Right, creatures learn in different ways,¡± Ian stroked his inner spine, ¡°I¡¯ll have to relook at those options if I ever get sapient non-humanoids like dragons.¡± ¡°May I ask a question?¡± ¡°I thought you were supposed to answer those.¡± ¡°Why did you not choose dragons or other sapient humanoids during the tutorial?¡± Ian turned his book to look at the spherical troublemaker, ¡°Don¡¯t ignore me,¡± but still answered the question with a sigh, ¡°At first it was a simple matter of not feeling comfortable with creating and lording over fellow sapient races. Now that the goblins I¡¯ve created are acting like sapient races, I¡¯ll probably pick them up in the future. ¡°However, if I saw sapient humanoids on the early floors of a dungeon, even I would get a little mad at the dungeon. I would only be able to conclude that it was enslaving them somehow. It may not be logical, but the fact that a dungeon is creating beings exactly like you isn¡¯t the first thing that comes to mind. Most people simply wouldn¡¯t want to think that something that aims to kill people can also create them. In regards to dragons, well, that¡¯s a personal problem that I don¡¯t want to get into.¡± Ian was met with silence after his answer. ¡°Was that a good enough answer, System, hijacker of Helpers?¡± asked Ian. The metal sphere twitched but said nothing. As Ian watched the four learn, Botan returned to the core room. His vision zoomed on Botan and Narcy, who was luckily awake. ¡°Hey, you two,¡± started Ian, ¡°First off, I¡¯ve named the last female goblin. Her name¡¯s Pugi.¡± ¡°I¡¯m glad you finally named her,¡± said Botan while nodding, ¡°Does that mean you made up with the other four?¡± ¡°Yep. At least they seem to have forgiven me, and normally I¡¯d say I¡¯m not the best judge of that, but as I get a general feeling from all of you I think it¡¯s accurate this time.¡± ¡°Yah~¡± said Narcy with a drowsy voice and two raised fists. Ian began, ¡°Now, I¡¯ve made a learning room, so what subjects do you two want to learn about?¡± ¡°Plants!¡± shouted Botan. ¡°Sleeping,¡± muttered Narcy. ¡°Alright I¡¯ll add those. How about you two enter the Room and begin your lessons?¡± asked Ian, ¡°But, before I forget, I¡¯ll also be making you private rooms later on.¡± The two goblins nodded their heads and went off to the learning room. Ian made sure to install the two subjects into the room before they arrived. They sat down into the empty chairs and began. About an hour or two later, Narcy had fallen asleep at her desk. He chuckled at the sight and hoped the lecture didn¡¯t continue with her sleeping. For the final three subjects, Ian added mana perception, mana manipulation, and mana refinement. With all five of the goblins and one hobgoblin studying, he turned all his focus back on his dungeon. He already had some ideas in mind that would change how he laid out his floors. He also needed the six to finish their subjects, so he could create floors with them. But first he needed to finish his G rank floor, the second floor, as quick as possible. He hoped to have at least sixty days left after he finished his intended second floor. Chapter 23 On the G rank floor, as quickly as he could, Ian created the three other themed rooms for the floor. One room mirrored the water elemental room he created off of his core room, the second was filled with slimes, and the third was filled with jellies. The water elemental room had a large pond in the center with small puddles throughout the room. Waterfalls streamed down the walls, becoming streams, and eventually leading into the center pond. The only other creatures that Ian placed in the room were the wet ferns he created for the swallow room. Instead of the usual treasure chests, the hole puzzle would suffice as the treasure chest equivalent for the room. He placed a hole puzzle at the bottom of the pond, which asked the answerer to give two skill names that G rank water elementals had. The reward was coins, mana stones, and a basswood javelin with a single water shot enchantment. With the thrust of the spear, a jet of water would shoot out of the tip. The water shot enchantment was dangerous enough to harm another individual and wouldn¡¯t normally be on a G rank floor if it wasn¡¯t single use. The water trap from the G- rank floor was revised to appear both on the walls and the floor, however it would only shoot from one side in such a large room. Ian covered the ceiling and walls with glowing blue water droplets. He used water magic to create the water, time magic to prevent the water from being acted on by gravity, and light magic to make the water glow blue. Admittedly based on how the ceiling ferns in the G- rank fern room reacted to gravity, he first tried creating the water droplets without time magic. The floor was covered in shining, blue water soon after. Next was the slime room. No massive adjustments to the normal cave structure were needed, so he placed G rank slimes in the room. Ian was still attracted to his hole puzzle, so decided to place one of those instead of teleporting treasures. He stuck with the questions pertaining to creature skill compositions, specifically for this room: slimes. The treasure itself was a good iron sword, but the enchantment coated the sword in a layer of slime. Technically it could still be used as a sword, but it would be extremely hard to hold onto. The enchantment was permanent as it used ambient mana to function. However, Ian made it so the slime would dissolve the iron sword, so it would only be usable for a week and disappear completely after two. In regards to traps, the water trap was restructured to shoot slime instead of water. Sticking with slime, he used illusion magic to cover every surface of the room in slime. It didn¡¯t have the acidity that monster slimes had and it glowed with light. He knew the reactions adventurers showed to slime most of the time, and he couldn¡¯t wait. The jelly room was similar to the slime room in that it only had jellies, but the more solid nature of jelly meant it would be harder to coat every surface with it. In lieu of covering every surface, Ian removed all the stalactites, stalagmites, and columns and created jelly versions using illusion magic. As always, he made these glow with light magic. The whole room jiggled with a clearish blue light. The reward for the puzzle treasure was simply a chestnut wood sword, some money, and some mana stones. He couldn¡¯t think of anything that would be a good fit for a G rank floor with his current setup and still be moderately useful. Something that could create jelly would be too useful, even though most people hated eating non-acidic jelly, and he felt that covering weapons in jelly was far more detrimental than covering them in slime. The traps were revisions of the earth spike trap from the G- rank floor. They shot jelly spikes instead of earth spikes. As such, the speed at which they were shot was massively increased. However, just because these jelly spikes were shot fast didn¡¯t mean they were going to impale anyone. Instead, they would simply give adventurers concussions. With his three new rooms finished, Ian moved back to his spider and swallow rooms. He filled the treasures chests in each room. The swallow room got an unenchanted white fir composite bow and a unenchanted sycamore tomahawk. The spider room got a parana halberd and a chest full of coins. A hole puzzle also appeared on the rock in the center of the spider room. This puzzle asked specifically about the skill composition of the sub-boss in the room. The reward was a lot of mana stones. He made this as an additional reward for actually fighting, or at least discovering, the sub-boss, since it was possible to bypass it on the way to the actual boss room. No traps were placed in the spider room, but Ian placed the water traps and the flash traps in the swallow room. If his swallows were blind, the intruders deserved to be blind too. In regards to the lighting situation in each room, he created swallow nests made out of light in the swallow room, and covered every surface of the spider room with a toned down version of the dark magic he used on the EX rank floor. Thus, technically, it was more of a lighting situation and a darkness situation. With the five themed rooms out of the way, Ian started populating the rest of the floor. He decided against creating all new monsters and placed G rank versions of creatures he could already create. The remaining rooms and corridors became very similar to the G- rank floor, but with a lower creature density and G rank creatures. In the same manner as his creatures, he placed the same type of, but upgraded, traps throughout the floor. The illusion pitfalls shimmered a little less, the earth spikes were a little harder and dropped a little faster, the flash traps blinded for a little longer, and the water traps shot a little harder. He had changed up the magic lights for the thematic rooms, but reverted back to his original lights for the rest of the floor. However, the lights weren¡¯t exactly like the G- rank floor, instead he made them a little more detailed. Although, not as detailed as the vines in the entrance hall. The entire process of filling up the rest of the floor took forty days. The fact that he had so many minor mistakes didn¡¯t help. In fact the process took a lot longer than even the first time he had to fix his mistakes. It seemed splitting his focus definitely didn¡¯t help. At the end of the forty days, the saddest part was the floor was still not done. Ian didn¡¯t freak out yet, however, as the empty puzzle rooms, lack of puzzle doors, and two empty sub-boss rooms were his own choice. Now, if Magical Beauty still wasn¡¯t met after he finished those¡­.he might cry a little. Ian spent a while debating with himself what to do with the puzzle rooms. He originally planned on having a multi-tiered question system, but he already implemented the question puzzle in the five thematic rooms. However, as he was about to dismiss his question idea and try to come up with something else, a good idea hit him. He quickly zoomed in on one of the pre-created puzzle rooms and began to create it. The original multi-tiered system that Ian had in mind was simply multiple questions that the adventurers had to answer in order. Now, however, each subsequent questions would be tied to the previous question or questions. He created ten math questions that tied into one another starting with simple addition as the first question and basic algebra as the tenth question. As long as they got a single question right, they would get a prize, but if they got a question wrong, a trap would trigger and no prize would be obtained. He also made it so that the sequence of questions could only be answered once. As such, between each question the adventurers would be asked if they wished to continue answering or receive their prize. The activation condition was changed to placing both hands on a slab of rock in front of the question instead of sticking an appendage in a hole. Most of the prizes were simply a tiered increase in mana stones and coins, however the fifth question gave an enchanted wood weapon with multiple uses between ten and one hundred, and the tenth question gave an enchanted iron weapon with multiple uses between ten and one hundred. Also, the enchantment was actually useful, not like the slime enchantment. Ian didn¡¯t want to have to personally randomize the puzzle prize, so he purchased the Treasure Randomization function. He hoped this function would work as the prize for answering or completing a puzzle was a treasure. When he applied the function to the treasure aspect of the puzzle in the puzzle room, it succeeded. Afterwards, he placed an assortment of enchanted treasures into the randomized treasure slot. The trap for answering a question wrong was an electric shock emanating from the surface where both hands were placed. The degree of electric shock increased the more questions that were answered. A question ten shock could easily kill a lower level adventurer. There were a total of eight preplanned puzzle rooms, and Ian split them into two addition, two subtraction, two multiplication, and two division rooms. The multiplication and division rooms had better enchantments and higher uses for those enchantments. That also meant the electric shock for answering wrong was much worse. To illuminate the puzzle rooms, he created glowing numbers and mathematical symbols. Time wise the puzzle rooms only took about two days, but the mana cost was incredibly high. Each room cost a total of one million five hundred thousand mana. Most of that cost came from the detailed puzzle creation. He wondered if the mana cost would have decreased if he had simply purchased a Puzzle Room and upgraded it with DP. The next puzzle element that Ian created were his puzzle doors. He combined the door creation function, the locked doors function, and the puzzle function. At first he was unsure if he could tie the fact that the door was locked or not to the prize part of the puzzle function, but it worked out splendidly. There would be locked doors on every entrance to the five themed rooms. That meant adventurers would have to unlock four mandatory doors on their way through the floor as the swallow room was the only one that could be bypassed. Rather than a question puzzle like he had in the themed rooms and in the puzzle rooms, he created a sliding puzzle. Each sliding puzzle was a three by three with eight tiles and an empty space. The picture that was to be completed was of the most prominent creature in the room, so a water elemental, swallow, jelly, slime, or spider. For the spider picture, he just created a generic web spider. He shifted the tile positions of each puzzle door for the various entrances into the themed rooms, and made sure that each position was still solvable. There were a couple rooms that could only be entered from the themed rooms. Ian considered if he should switch the puzzle side around, so the puzzle had to be completed inside the room, but left them as is. However, this left the problem of the doors being locked with no way to open them. He revised the locking system of the doors, so that they would only be locked from the side that the puzzle was on. They could now be opened from the other side. Once the adventurers returned to the themed room to continue on their way, they¡¯d have to complete the puzzle to get back into the themed room. The puzzle doors would also stay unlocked for that specific instance once the puzzle was completed. Ian also made sure to purchase the puzzle respawn function to mitigate his personal respawning of puzzles. However, these dead end rooms, which consisted of his puzzle rooms and his two sub-boss rooms, gave Ian an idea. They were special room types, so they needed puzzle doors the same as his themed rooms. As such, he installed puzzle doors to enter the puzzle rooms and the sub-boss rooms. He planned for the sub-boss rooms to also had sliding puzzles to unlock them, but the puzzle rooms had the most basic of math questions to open them, such as one plus one, two minus one, one times one, and one divided by one. There was no one minus one as he knew some had difficulty with the concept of zero. That would be introduced later. He didn¡¯t create anydoors with puzzles on both sides as each dead end had a short corridor between the puzzle or sub-boss room and the main corridor or room of the floor. For the traps on the puzzle doors, Ian simply put none. The sliding puzzle or tile puzzle wasn¡¯t one that could be failed unless the adventurer gave up, and if they gave up, the door would still be locked. Thus, the end result was the same as what he originally intended the consequence of failure to be. The puzzle room doors could have a trap associated with them, but he decided that the doors remaining locked would be a sufficient punishment. Ian made sure that all the puzzle doors had an infinite number of times that they could be answered.The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation. The two sub-boss rooms were off of the jelly and slimes rooms, so Ian decided why not make jelly and slime sub-bosses. However, he was conflicted. He didn¡¯t want to simply make a jelly and slime sub-boss that was larger and stronger than their G rank counterpart, but the same reason they could evolve into so many variations also meant the way he created his spider sub-boss wouldn''t work with them. Unlike the scythe spider, there wasn¡¯t anything that immediately stuck out to Ian as enhanceable. There was their slime and jelly along with their acidity which came from the nucleus, but he was never able to get a very good handle on how it worked. If he spent time with his zoom function, then he might be able to figure it out, but time was a wastin¡¯. The only thing that seemed usable was the nucleus or core, so Ian shrugged his covers and made another core inside a jelly. When he let the jelly go, the two cores coalesced into one. Afterwards nothing happened, and the jelly went about its normal business. He continued doing the same thing but added another core each time until he created a jelly with ten cores. However, once he let it go it acted like all the rest. With a sigh Ian ordered them to fight one another to clean up his experiment room. What happened next was not what he expected, but made total sense. Instead of a free for all between nine jellies, it became a team based battle between fifty four jellies. At the end of the jelly slamfest, five remained and formed back together. Ian ordered them to split and five jellies appeared. He chuckled to himself for the great sub-boss he created and for not catching the possibility immediately. However, he wasn¡¯t mad as that was how things rolled sometimes. No matter how obvious something seemed afterwards, you couldn¡¯t beat yourself up over not seeing it beforehand. That was a big part of experimentation. A jelly and a slime were created with ten cores and pumped full of attributeless mana. The results were called Split Jelly and Split Slime each with a rank of F+. The rank was higher than he wanted for a G rank floor, but he¡¯d just make sure to add a warning. There were no differences between the split jelly and the G rank jelly beyond the split jelly¡¯s ability to split and their coordination. Each individual jelly was the equivalent of a G rank jelly, but as they were one individual rather than multiple, they could coordinate with one another unlike normal near mindless jellies.
Race: Split Jelly
Rank: F+
Attribute: None
Development: 0/100
Titles: None
Skills
Mana Perception Absorption
Split
Description
A jelly with multiple cores allowing it to control multiple bodies at once. This evolution most often occurs in environments with an overabundance of jellies. Most researchers have little to no understanding as to why this occurs. Jellies can eat anything, so behavior that controls their numbers has continuously confused jelly researchers.
Common Item Drops
F+ mana heart Jelly Core
To add a warning, he created the appropriate picture for the puzzle doors leading to the sub-boss rooms. In addition to the puzzle, he added a large F+ above the picture. Additionally, he added a F- on the puzzle door leading to the spider room. He considered changing the spider picture to the sub-boss, but most of the spiders in the room were ¡®normal¡¯, so he kept the generic web spider picture. He placed stone treasure chests in the sub-boss rooms, purchased the locked treasure chest function, and tied unlocking the chests to defeating the sub-boss. A treasure chest was also placed in the spider room as there was also a sub-boss there. The treasure chests contained wood weapons with useful enchantments that could be used for a total of one hundred times or iron weapons with useful enchantments that could be used a total of ten times. The enchantment would disappear and could not be recharged the same as his original one use enchantments. For the slime and jelly sub-boss rooms, he maintained the atmosphere that he created in the themed rooms. As such, the slime boss would have to be fought in a slime covered room, and the jelly boss would have to fought in a room full of jiggling, semi-transparent jelly. Ian wiped the non-existent sweat drops off his pages and waited for it. However, it did not come. He brought up the window to make sure he didn¡¯t forget something like biotic fungi, but it was all there. There was only one things not met¡­.Magical Beauty. He cried a little. The next ten days were spent shifting things around to make them look perfect before he got the ding-a-ling and could make his entrance room and boss room. Before he continued on with the boss room and entrance room, Ian gave the floor another once over. Instead of focusing on the minor details, he looked at the overall composition. Afterwards, he only noticed one thing that was slightly off. He had placed phosphorescent mold on the floor, but none of it was in the largest rooms. Beyond that, the mold was the only useful, non-loot drop potion ingredient. Should he introduce another potion ingredient or just have the mold? The other major potion ingredient he had was too powerful for a G rank floor. A weaker ingredient for mana potions might be good. He started scrolling through the dungeon shop looking for a good plant or fungi based on his knowledge. Eventually, he decided on pungent liverwort. This variant of liverwort produced a small amount of smell mana which produced a worse smell than most biological smells. It was useful for creating potions, but most couldn¡¯t stand the smell and puked the potion up after drinking it. He couldn¡¯t create too many things that preserved lives, so an ingredient that took effort to use and ingest was perfect. The liverwort was placed throughout the floor the same as the mold. Small patches of both liverwort and mold were placed in the themed rooms, sub-boss rooms, and puzzle rooms. Each patch was usually only enough to make a couple of potions. Do to his meticulous placement of the mold and liverwort, Magical Beauty was still met after he was done. Ian slapped his pages together to perk himself up for the final leg of the floor. He transferred all the functions and the look for the entrance room, but recrafted the pillars to reflect the creatures for the new floor. The boss room also had all its functions transferred. Ian was pleased with how easy it was and how little work he had to do, before he remembered all the different environments he needed to create for the new monsters he made. He seriously contemplated not allowing every monster on the floor to become a boss monster. Another ten days went by as Ian created all the different boss environments. Most of the time went into the different spider variants even though they mainly consisted of webs. When he came to the sub-boss variations ranked E- and E+, he almost removed them for the weak adventurers. However, he realized to actually get them as bosses, the adventurers would have to not kill any other monster on the floor, which would be a feat unto itself. This also made Ian realize the possibility of someone not killing anything. He set it so the boss doors on each floor would remain shut and unopenable until at least one monster was killed.
Dungeon Level [3] ¡ú [4] 1 Cubic Kilometer Floor Space Gained. Mana Generation Increased by 10,000 DP Generation Increased by 1
Ian sagged against his pedestal and muttered, ¡°Finally.¡± He only had thirty days left until he opened to the world, and needed to make more floors, but making the G rank was exhausting. He still enjoyed making it, but the meticulous detail he had to go into for Magical Beauty was not something that he was used to. Sure, knowing that his dungeon was beautiful down to the small details filled him with a sense of accomplishment, but it wasn¡¯t something that he had done while human. Either this was a part of his nature that he was unaware of while human, or maybe his lights weren¡¯t magical enough and the system was compensating by making sure every tiny detail was beautiful. If it was the latter, he would have to deal with the meticulous detail for now because the magic he considered truly beautiful would overwhelm most young adventurers. Ian needed a break, so he shifted his focus back to the goblins and hobgoblin. He hadn¡¯t talked to them for almost two months, so he wondered how they were doing. It wasn¡¯t like he hadn¡¯t kept an eye on them as he wanted to see if they had reached their full development. In fact all five goblins had reached full development about ten days ago, but he wanted to wait and talk to them about it first. Even though he waited for the sapient goblins in the learning room, he didn¡¯t wait for the goblins living on the maze floor. Some goblins on the maze floor had reached their full development becoming E- rank goblins for the most part, while one goblin became a goblin thief. It seemed that goblin liked to steal the loincloths of the other goblins. The goblins weren¡¯t the only creatures to reach full development as the monsters he created near the beginning of becoming a dungeon had reached F- rank at the lowest. The slimes, jellies, and elementals had reached E- rank. Unlike the time where he studied goblins for around five months, there were no new evolution variants, beyond the goblin thief, they simply became stronger versions of what they already were. Ian wondered what to do with the monsters that evolved on his floors. Having higher rank monsters disturbed their balance. He could move them like he did with the fern in his first few days as a dungeon, but where would he put them? He had contemplated the problem for a while before simply deciding to place them in a large open room he created from his deep cave terrain. The amount of monsters that no longer fit the floor they were on barely made a dent in the space of the room. His vision shifted between the room and his core room before he started to fill the nearly empty room with all variations of his monsters. He hoped that the monsters that evolved in this room didn¡¯t become sapient or kind like the ones he raised in his core room. His creatures would die when fighting intruders, so he only wanted a certain percentage of his dungeon creatures to give him large feelings of empathy. Ian moved his vision back to his sapient monsters, who were all currently in the learning room. Four of the goblins were in the classroom learning lectures. Yervin was in the gym practicing what he learned along with Narcy who was sleeping on the floor. Ian was unsure if she had already completed and understood all the lectures and was now implementing them or if she simply found the gym floor better to sleep on. ¡°Hello, everyone,¡± greeted Ian, ¡°I¡¯ve finished the G rank floor. How are you doing?¡± ¡°Good,¡± responded five of them, while the last responded with a snore. ¡°You all seem busy, so I¡¯ll leave you to it for now. But, when you¡¯re done, I¡¯m ready to make your private rooms and furnish them.¡± Yervin gave a nod. Narcy gave a snore. Botan and Pugi didn¡¯t respond at all. Mina and Izu looked in Ian¡¯s direction, nodded with a smile on their faces, and seemed to lose focus on the lecture. Right before he left he also added, ¡°Also, the five goblins are ready to rank up.¡± Unlike the somewhat lackluster response to private room announcement, four of the five goblins started sprinting out of the learning room. However, before they could leave, Ian ordered them, ¡°We¡¯ll do your rank ups after you finish your current lectures and get Yervin and Narcy to come with you.¡± The four goblins came to a sudden stop before walking back to their desks with heads down and arms hanging at their sides. Ian chuckled and left them to their devices. Once his vision rested back in his core room, he turned his attention away from from dungeon, but kept some focus on the most important things and the goblins who were learning as fast as they could. He needed to get some mental rest. It looked like while dungeons had nowhere near the buildup of mental fatigue as the sapient races, it didn¡¯t seem that they had none. His thinking for three hundred and seventy days straight had finally caught up to him. Now that he knew he could get mental fatigue as a dungeon, he would have to make sure to take breaks from now on. He chuckled to himself as he realized if he came into his clinic with the amount of mental fatigue he had, he would have chewed himself out for a couple of days while making sure he got rest in between. With that thought in mind, Ian got as close as he could to sleep as a dungeon was able to. Chapter 24 Ian¡¯s vision focused as he noticed the five goblins returning through the transfer formation. As they approached his core, he asked, ¡°Where¡¯s Yervin?¡± ¡°Not coming,¡± murmured Narcy. ¡°He says that my lord didn¡¯t say anything about him having a rank up, so he would continue practicing until all of us had our ranks ups and were provided with personal rooms,¡± grunted Mina angrily, ¡°I understand training can be fun, but he should heed your words.¡± ¡°I know you¡¯re mad at him, Mina, but what he said did make sense,¡± Izu consoled her while rubbing her back. Botan simply stated, ¡°I liked the way he was smiling.¡± Behind the four of them Pugi was muttering to herself, ¡°Should I have stayed? I need the training. However, disobeying Ian and Mina doesn¡¯t seem like a great idea.¡± Ian was slightly concerned that Yervin may have disobeyed a direct order from him, but thinking back on what he had said, his words weren¡¯t explicit orders. ¡°Alright then,¡± began Ian, ¡°Let¡¯s start with your rank ups. To determine the order we¡¯ll play fire, water, earth.¡± ¡°What¡¯s that?¡± they all asked. They didn¡¯t know that, but knew all the other things? Although, what reason would dungeon creatures need to know a children¡¯s game. ¡°To play the game the participants all stand in a circle, or across from each other if there are only two participants, and on the count of three they place their hands in the center of the circle and create either fire, water, or earth. To win the game the magic you created must win out against the other participants magic. Each magic type wins against one other magic type and loses to the other. Fire beats earth but loses to water, earth beats water but loses to fire, water beats fire but loses to earth,¡± explained Ian, ¡°Ready to play?¡± ¡°Wait,¡± interrupted Izu, ¡°How would you win in a group of more than two people? It would be possible for all three types of magic to be played.¡± ¡°Right. Forgot about that, sorry,¡± apologized Ian, ¡°In groups of more than three players, when all three magic types are played, the group with the most played magic type is eliminated. For example, two play fire, one plays earth, and one plays water. In that situation, the two who played fire would be eliminated. In groups of three the round is replayed until only two magic types are played.¡± Izu and the rest nodded in understanding, and as Izu was about to ask another question, it clicked in Ian¡¯s mind, ¡°You guys don¡¯t know how to make fire, water, and earth do you?¡± The five shook their heads. ¡°Alright, you all did the mana manipulation and mana perception courses right?¡± He received five nods. Admittedly he was surprised they all did it, especially Narcy. Ian created a goblin body and inhabited it, ¡°Okay, I¡¯ll create each minor spell slowly, so use your mana perception to mimic me. These kinds of spells are considered lifestyle magic as they can easily be used without the appropriate skill.¡± First was fire. The mana flickered through Ian¡¯s arm until it reached his fingertips and condensed into a small flame. Next was water. Mana rushed through his arm until it flowed outwards into a swirling ball of water. Last was earth. Solidly and slowly mana proceeded through his arm until it piece by piece formed a square of earth. ¡°Can all of you replicate that now?¡± asked Ian. ¡°We will,¡± they answered back. After a couple of minutes of trying to replicate what Ian showed them, Pugi asked, ¡°Can you show us more than once?¡± ¡°Right that would help, wouldn¡¯t it,¡± answered Ian as he started to create fire, water, and earth sequentially. However, soon after the time limit on his goblin ran out. While it was true creating goblins was relatively inexpensive, it still felt like a waste losing them after ten minutes. ¡°I¡¯m going to try creating the minor spells without the aid of a body. Tell me if the creation of the magic is harder or easier to understand. I¡¯ll also create one in front of each of you, so focus on that spell before moving onto the next.¡± The group nodded their heads before attempting to mimic what Ian was creating in front of them. Several minutes later, Pugi once again spoke up, ¡°These are helpful, but only with the process of creating the fire. This doesn¡¯t help me with moving the mana from inside my body to outside it. It also doesn¡¯t help with changing the mana attribute.¡± ¡°Thanks for the input Pugi. I¡¯ll go back to inhabiting a goblin body then,¡± said Ian. Back in a goblin body Ian stated, ¡°To speed up the process I¡¯ll create spells at all eight of my fingertips and both my thumbs. Tell me if that makes it hard to focus on one.¡± This continued on for half an hour before the first goblin succeeded. Izu successfully created a ball of water. It took two days before all of them could create all three magic types, although most of them were tiny sputtering things. During the two days, Yervin came to ask what was taking them so long and upon noticing the training they were doing joined in. He gave Ian¡¯s core a glare before joining in, but Ian couldn¡¯t blame him, he should have told him when they started training. It was a lot of work simply to play a game for the order of rank up, but fire, water, earth was often used to help children learn the magic without them getting bored in the Soris Kingdom. As such, it was probably good for the goblins to learn it. They finally began playing the game to determine rank up orders, and Yervin, the last to show up and the first to create all three magic types, went back to the learning room. After some intense matches, besides the first which had Narcy winning handily, the order was decided. Narcy was first, then Izu, Botan, Pugi, and Mina. The last match between Pugi and Mina was quite the spectacle with it lasting an hour. Admittedly a spectacle in how bad they were at creating the magic types. Half the time they weren¡¯t able to create any magic types and the other half the time it took them so long that one of them would notice what the other was making and try to counter resulting in a failed creation by both. The match resulting in Pugi¡¯s victory was sly on her part. She mimicked his multi-magic. While one failed, the other succeeded and beat out Mina. Mina seemed down in the dumps about losing the entire contest but Izu was comforting her. He reminded her that her forte was loyalty, leadership, and physical combat, not magic. With the order out of the way, Ian began their rank ups, ¡°Now, the first thing I have to tell you about your rank ups is that all of you have multiple options.¡± The response he got was more lackluster than he expected. Izu asked what was on the other goblin¡¯s minds, ¡°Is that good?¡± ¡°I¡¯d definitely say it¡¯s good, but the reason I brought it up is that so far when I¡¯ve been evolving monsters there has only been one evolution option. Even the monsters that have ranked up without my interference have only had one option. So, you are the first monsters in my dungeon to have multiple options,¡± replied Ian, ¡°Although, based on tamed monsters, when I was human, having multiple evolutionary options is normal.¡± They all nodded in response, but they were slow nods of ¡®we only kind of get what you¡¯re saying¡¯. Although, Mina¡¯s slow nod was the equivalent of a normal nod for the others. ¡°Is something the matter?¡± asked Ian. ¡°No, nothing! That was very interesting, thank you Ian.¡± said Izu while waving his hands in front of himself. He sighed to himself. It made sense why they didn¡¯t find it as interesting as he did. They weren¡¯t the ones seeing only one evolution options for nearly a year¡­.wait, did Yervin¡¯s choice between High Goblin and Hobgoblin count? Maybe, but that was more of a ¡®do you want to be a hobgoblin or high goblin going forward?¡¯ than a racial choice based on effort. Well, now that he started to think about it a little harder there may have been some monsters with multiple options, but they simply weren¡¯t very interesting. Besides a couple choices didn¡¯t change the fact that most of his choices were singular. After making excuses to himself, Ian returned to evolving the goblins. ¡°Okay, Narcy, you have two options: Goblin and Sleepy Goblin,¡± said Ian as he successfully showed the two windows to Narcy.
Name: Narcy
Race: Goblin
Rank: E-
Gender: Female
Attribute: Neutral
Development: 0/100
Titles: None
Skills
Stench Tool Use
Bite Scratch
Night Vision Sleep
Mana Perception Mana Manipulation
Description
Through nothing but sleep this goblin has gained the sleep skill. As they have done almost nothing else besides sleep, all that has increased is their stench and night vision skills. It is unlikely they will survive much longer.
Common Item Drops
E- mana heart Goblin Ear
Her first option was barebones even by simple rank up without a race change standards. It was not surprising to Ian as she did nothing but sleep. Sleeping while not on the level of breathing was a basic bodily function. While focusing on bodily functions in the long run could produce unusual evolutions, in the short run the received evolutions offered very little.
Name: Narcy
Race: Sleepy Goblin
Rank: D-
Gender: Female
Attribute: Sleep
Development: 0/100
Titles: None
Skills
Stench Tool Use
Bite Scratch
Night Vision Sleep
Sleep Vision Sleep Endurance
Mana Perception Mana Manipulation
Description
A goblin that has focused on sleeping most of their life can become a sleepy goblin. Due to the nature of sleep, it normally takes a long time for a goblin to achieve this evolution. For a goblin to spend most of their life sleeping and not have died requires an enhanced intelligence or a lot of luck. This goblin has not only spent most of their time sleeping, but also has a good grasp on what sleeping itself is. Understanding the benefits and negatives of sleep has allowed this goblin the ability to sleep anywhere and anytime they want. Beyond the ability to sleep anywhere, they have also gained the ability to see three hundred and sixty degrees and obtain increased damage reduction when asleep.Their sleeping habits along with a propensity to not bathe has resulted in a larger than normal increase to their stench skill.
Common Item Drops
D- mana heart Goblin Rheum
The lackluster normal evolution was countered by the somewhat excessive Sleepy Goblin evolution. An increase of rank from F+ to D- was not normal, especially for someone who spent all their time sleeping. However, she was the only one besides Yervin that moved to the gym area rather than the classroom area. Based on this evolution, it was more likely that she finished and understood the lectures rather than took a break to sleep. It was an evolution without any direct offensive attacks, but the size of the perception sphere when asleep and the amount of damage that could be survived could greatly increase their information network, as long as that information could be shared. As good as the Sleepy Goblin was, normally it would have a large negative aspect: the fact that it was D- rank. In the wild an increase from F+ to D- rank was good as it raised the individual¡¯s ability to survive, but that also meant they missed out on the stat and skill gains from three rank ups. However, the way his dungeon creatures evolved were different compared to his tamed monsters. His dungeon creatures didn¡¯t have a level but rather development with no obvious stat point gains. Even with full development his dungeon creatures could gain different evolutions, but at max level his tamed creatures would obtain no new evolutions no matter how hard they trained. Thus his tamed monsters as a human would receive an immediate power up if they increased from F+ to D- rank, but their power in the long run would suffer. The negative aspect of having a large increase in rank seemed to be diminished with dungeon creatures, but it might simply be that he wasn¡¯t provided with all the information about his creatures. ¡°So, Narcy, which one do you want?¡± inquired Ian. ¡°Goblin,¡± respond Narcy with a flat voice. Ian was stunned for a few moments before replying, ¡°Why? It would generally be considered the much worse option.¡± ¡°It has a lower stench skill,¡± she pouted, ¡°I already don¡¯t like that I smell so much, and I¡¯m going to smell worse when I rank up? This sucks.¡± ¡°Our evolutions won¡¯t have an increase to the stench skill, right?¡± asked Mina and Izu with quivering voices. The other two, Botan and Pugi, didn¡¯t seem to have a problem with the stench skill as they just shrugged their shoulders. There was a short pause as Ian took in the fact that some of his goblins had a problem with smelling bad. It seemed he still had some prejudices to get rid of. ¡°I understand your reasoning, Narcy,¡± began Ian, ¡°However, the Sleepy Goblin is a much better choice compared to the other evolution.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t care. I simply don¡¯t want to smell,¡± she said icily. ¡°If I could help with your stench skill, would you consider taking the Sleepy Goblin evolution?¡± She gave a curt nod, ¡°How?¡± ¡°The main cause of the stench skill increasing is bad hygiene, although your race is also a factor in that. But, I¡¯ll prepare baths and other hygiene products, which as long as you use them continuously should slowly decrease your stench skill level. Ranking up after having continuously cleaned yourself will also increase the rate of decrease.¡± After pondering for a bit, she asked, ¡°If I increase my rank to D-, wouldn¡¯t that mean I have less chances to decrease my stench skill?¡± ¡°You¡¯re right, but even though choosing Goblin would give you more ranks, the negatives outweigh the time you would gain in losing your stench skill.¡± ¡°But, I¡¯ll lose the stench skill faster, right? I want that one!¡± said Narcy with arms crossed. ¡°Let me explain the negatives to you first, Narcy. A one rank increase while staying the same race can be an average or good rank up, but it has to have good skill increases and continue in the direction of where the monster wants to go. However, yours is what we call a negative rank up. While it still provides skill increases and stat increases, they are far below a normal rank up. The minor description of the rank up always has something negative to say about the individual. Beyond having less skills and stats, these rank ups also heavily reduced the availability of future rank ups. Even if a monster stops being lazy, all the effort they put in afterwards is kicked to the side in favor of their past bad decisions. For someone who is diligent enough to do all or a lot of the lessons in the learning room, choosing the Goblin evolution is a bad decision.¡± With her arms still crossed and a pout back on her face, she gave a curt nod in response to selecting Sleepy Goblin. Before he could move on she asked him a question, ¡°The others have evolutions with just as high of stench skills right?¡± ¡­.He had really hoped she didn¡¯t ask that question and didn¡¯t want to ruin Mina¡¯s and Izu¡¯s hopes as they shook their heads back and forth rapidly in response to her question, ¡°Sorry, Narcy, but no. They have normal stench skill increases.¡± He had to hold his laughter back over the looks of complete and utter devastation on Mina¡¯s and Izu¡¯s face. He knew he should show sympathy for them, but their overreaction was too funny. ¡°Why?! They smell way worse than I do with all their exercising!¡± ¡°It has to do with how the system determines class acquisitions, race rank ups, and skill acquisitions,¡± said Ian with a much more serious voice than normal in an attempt to hide the building up laughter. ¡°What does that mean?¡± she asked with her eyes narrowing. ¡°Right,¡± Ian continued with a quickening pace, ¡°while we don¡¯t have a complete understanding of how the system works, it will sometimes place more importance on certain factors or a combination of certain factors. In reality, between two people that don¡¯t bathe, the one that perspired more smells worse, but the system takes into the account the slovenly nature of the other individual and is more likely to increase their stench skill than the one that actually smells worse. In general, it is believed that conscious actions have a greater effect on class acquisitions, race rank ups, and skill acquisitions. This same reason is why it is usually so hard to get skills related to sleeping, breathing, eating, etcetera. Is that a good enough reason?¡± Ian gasped. She didn¡¯t look happy but responded, ¡°Yes.¡± ¡°Okay, ready to evolve into a Sleepy Goblin now?¡± All he received was a nod before beginning the evolution. The normal green goblin transformed. Her eyes became droopy and perpetually half shut. Her entire body from arms to legs, body to head thinned out. Even with the thinned out appearance, she was a healthy weight for her average goblin size. The color of her skin became a darker green with a tint of blue. ¡°What do you think?¡± asked Ian as he created a mirror in front of her. ¡°I like it, but¡­.I really wish I didn¡¯t stink so damn much,¡± she snapped. ¡°I know, I know. Calm down a bit and be patient, Narcy. That¡¯ll be one of the first things I do after everyone has been evolved.¡± ¡°All right,¡± she sighed, ¡°I¡¯ll be sleeping until then.¡± With that Narcy laid down on the floor and started snoring. ¡°She doesn¡¯t usually snore right after going to sleep,¡± muttered Ian, ¡°Is it an effect of the evolution or did she do it on purpose? ¡°Right, Izu, you¡¯re next,¡± he continued with a louder voice. ¡°Yes!¡± exclaimed Izu standing up straighter with his arms to his sides. ¡°Here are your options.¡±
Name: Izu
Race: Goblin
Rank: E-
Gender: Male
Attribute: Neutral
Development: 0/100
Titles: None
Skills
Stench Tool Use
Bite Scratch
Night Vision Childcare
Mana Perception Mana Manipulation
Mana Refinement Water Magic
Description
This goblin has put effort and consideration into whatever they do. This rank up is but a stepping stone of their inevitable path.
Common Item Drops
E- mana heart Goblin Ear
Unlike Narcy¡¯s Goblin rank up, Izu¡¯s was considered above average. There wasn¡¯t an increases to his mana skills, his levels were entirely his own effort, but normal increases in levels for basic goblin skills and an increase to level four for tool use. If there had been increases for all skills, not simply goblins skills, the goblin rank up would have been considered optimal.
Name: Izu
Race: Goblin Apprentice Mage
Rank: E-
Gender: Male
Attribute: Neutral
Development: 0/100
Titles: None
Skills
Stench Tool Use
Bite Scratch
Night Vision Childcare
Mana Perception Mana Manipulation
Mana Refinement Water Magic
Description
This goblin has put effort and consideration into whatever they do. That effort has culminated in level two mana manipulation and mana perceptions skills along with a level one water magic skill. Having also succeeded in mana refinement, they have taken the first steps to go beyond a simple mage, however their current level of mana refinement is most likely supplemented by their talent in mana manipulation.
Common Item DropsFind this and other great novels on the author''s preferred platform. Support original creators!
E- mana heart Goblin Staff
A single rank up and race change would be considered the best outcome by most tamers, but for Izu this rank up was still somewhat lacking. Ian knew that Izu wanted to be more than a water mage. He wanted to summon and/or tame water elementals. This evolution didn¡¯t take Izu¡¯s wishes into account and solely focused on what he had trained so far. Ian wasn¡¯t complaining as he knew how difficult it was for the system to take wishes into account. He had only a couple of tamed monsters ever receive a single evolution that took their wishes into account. If Izu chose this evolution, then Ian would have to add some taming and summoning lesson to the learning room. Also, if he couldn¡¯t teach them, then maybe he could tell them stories. Besides, he needed to get over his hiccups about summoning.
Name: Izu
Race: Goblin Apprentice Mage
Rank: E+
Gender: Male
Attribute: Neutral
Development: 0/100
Titles: None
Skills
Stench Tool Use
Bite Scratch
Night Vision Childcare
Mana Perception Mana Manipulation
Mana Refinement Water Magic
Mana Pool Increase Mana Recovery Rate Increase
Description
This goblin has put effort and consideration into whatever they do. That effort has culminated in level two mana manipulation and mana perceptions skills along with a level one water magic skill. Having also succeeded in mana refinement, they have taken the first steps to go beyond a simple mage, however their current level of mana refinement is most likely supplemented by their talent in mana manipulation.
Common Item Drops
E+ mana heart Goblin Staff
This happened sometimes where the same race would be available but at different ranks. It was only possible to see evolutionary possibilities at max level for tamed monsters, so Ian could only come up with hypotheses before. Now, however, he was constantly checking their development, so he knew that the longer he left their development at one hundred, the more possibilities showed up. The higher rank, E+, Goblin Apprentice Mage showed up first and only after Izu increased his mana perception and mana manipulation skills to two did the E- rank version show up. He hoped Izu heard his explanation to Narcy, so he wouldn¡¯t have to repeat himself.
Name: Izu
Race: Goblin Nanny
Rank: E
Gender: Male
Attribute: Neutral
Development: 0/100
Titles: None
Skills
Stench Tool Use
Bite Scratch
Night Vision Childcare
Patience Mana Perception
Mana Manipulation Mana Refinement
Water Magic
Description
Goblin Nannies take care of the goblin children in goblin villages. Most goblin nannies are female rather than male, although there are occasionally males. This goblin¡¯s care and understanding for newborns, infants, and young monsters other than goblins have led to this evolution. It is unusual for goblins to take care of non-goblins except in rare cases.
Common Item Drops
E mana heart Goblin Blanket
Ian had seen goblin nannies in the wild before, but never was successful in taming them. If he was still viewing Izu as he had originally, then this evolution is what he¡¯d assume Izu would pick. Admittedly he kind of wanted Izu to pick this evolution a little bit, especially with that last line in the description that made it seem like there would be a rare evolution later on. Although, it might simply be referring to goblin riders. Still, it would be Izu¡¯s choice. ¡°So, Izu, do you have a preference?¡± Ian asked. In the background, Mina had her hands clasped together and looked like she really wished she could see his choices. Izu was silent for a moment before answering, ¡°The lower rank goblin apprentice mage is the better choice correct?¡± ¡°Between the two goblin apprentice mage choices or between all four choices?¡± ¡°The two apprentice mage choices.¡± ¡°Yeah, the lower rank one is the better option.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll choose that one then¡­.however I don¡¯t like the fact that it seems to be pushing me towards being a mage when I want to tame or summon water elementals.¡± ¡°As long as you start learning about summoning and taming, and contract a water elemental, then your evolution options should expand next time. I¡¯ll also make sure to add the appropriate lessons to the learning room.¡± ¡°Thanks, Ian!¡± beamed Izu with a large smile. There were no physical changes to Izu¡¯s body as the change took place, however some of his mana gates opened, he obtained a staff, and was now clothed in a robe rather than a loincloth. Ian could see the question arise on Izu¡¯s face and as he was about to ask it, a loud voice echoed behind him, ¡°We can get weapons and clothes when we evolve?!¡± yelled Mina with enthusiasm. Izu looked behind him with a smirk on his face before shrugging his shoulders with a sigh. ¡°Yes, it is possible to get clothes and weapons due to an evolution, however they¡¯re generally lower quality and they only appear if the owner doesn¡¯t have something better,¡± Ian answered Mina¡¯s loud question. ¡°Why didn¡¯t Narcy get anything?¡± asked Botan. ¡°For humanoid monsters like you five, we consider there to be two types of evolution:,¡± Ian started lecturing, ¡°evolutions that are based off of the classes of the sapient races and evolutions based off of the physical or magical characteristics of the individual. Narcy is the latter, while Izu is the former.¡± They all nodded in understanding. Ian internally pumped his fist as he realized he successfully taught them something. Depths, now that he thought about it, he also successfully taught them the fire, water, earth game. He might be better than he thought at simply conveying information. Getting others to correctly use that conveyed information was another matter. ¡°Next, Botan!¡± Ian called out and made the screens appear in front of Botan¡¯s vision.
Name: Botan
Race: Goblin Gardener
Rank: E
Gender: Male
Attribute: Neutral
Development: 0/100
Titles: None
Skills
Stench Tool Use
Bite Scratch
Night Vision Gardening
Farming Stamina
Mana Perception Mana Manipulation
Mana Refinement
Description
A goblin that can grow and raise plants. This goblin¡¯s love of plants has led him to take care of plants even though they had no need for it. His skills gained through plant care have earned him the ability to become a goblin gardener.
Common Item Drops
E mana heart Goblin Spade
Goblins were hunters and gatherers, so this was the first time he had ever seen a goblin gardener. He almost wanted Botan to take this as it might be the first monster of its kind. However, if he was being serious, there was probably at least one goblin society out there that decided to give gardening or farming a try.
Name: Botan
Race: Plant Loving Goblin
Rank: E
Gender: Male
Attribute: Neutral
Development: 0/100
Titles: None
Skills
Stench Tool Use
Bite Scratch
Night Vision Gardening
Plant Neutrality Farming
Mana Perception Mana Manipulation
Mana Refinement Plant Magic
Description
A goblin whose love of plants is reciprocated. Any plants will have reduced hostility to this goblin. This goblin¡¯s love and care of plants that had no need of it has unlocked this evolutionary option.
Common Item Drops
E mana heart Goblin Ear
Oddly enough, unlike the goblin gardener, Ian had seen this evolution before. It wasn¡¯t that odd as goblins tended to have odd proclivities, so while the race had been seen before, the way in which Botan got it was very different. These two evolutions and the normal Goblin E- rank evolution were all that Botan had to choose from. Botan stared at the windows for around ten minutes before looking at Ian¡¯s core and saying, ¡°Goblin Gardener.¡± ¡°What¡¯s your reason for choosing that one?¡± asked Ian. ¡°I feel like I can do more to help and take care of the plants with that evolution. Besides, I don¡¯t need an evolution telling me I love plants!¡± boasted Botan with hands on his hips. Since Ian didn¡¯t know if the generic E- rank evolution or the E rank goblin gardener evolution was better, he decided not to try swaying Botan¡¯s opinion one way or the other. With that, Botan¡¯s evolution began. Botan was still his average green goblin self with slightly darker green skin in places not covered by clothes, however his wardrobe increased even more than Izu. A straw hat appeared on his head, a pair of leather gloves on his hands, a pair of leather shoes on his feet, a pair of shorts and a tunic on his body, and a watering can and stone spade in opposite hands. He looked at his new clothes before yipping in glee and frolicking off to take care of the plants. ¡°Looks like we¡¯ll be doing Narcy¡¯s, Botan¡¯s, and Yervin¡¯s private rooms last,¡± muttered Ian loud enough for Mina, Izu, and Pugi to hear. ¡°They¡¯re having fun, so that¡¯s okay,¡± stated Mina with a nod. ¡°Not mad at them for not following orders?¡± Mina jerked straight, ¡°My lord! Of course they should be following orders, but the orders they are currently not following aren¡¯t ones that you seemed strict about.¡± ¡°That makes sense. However, remember that I expect orders to be followed in important situations.¡± ¡°Of course, my lord! I shall do my utmost to make it so!¡± shouted Mina in the salute of the Soris Kingdom. ¡°Now, only you and Pugi left. Of course, Pugi first.¡± Mina gave a resolute nod in response. Pugi had her arms bent into closed fists in front of her with an excited look on her face as Ian showed her the windows.
Name: Pugi
Race: Goblin Trainee
Rank: E-
Gender: Female
Attribute: Neutral
Development: 0/100
Titles: None
Skills
Stench Tool Use
Bite Scratch
Night Vision Fighting
Punching Kicking
Mana Perception Mana Manipulation
Mana Refinement
Description
A goblin on the path of a fighter and martial artist. They are truly an infant on the long journey, but every journey must have a beginning. This goblin¡¯s love of physical combat and the ability to gain the punching skill through punching without form has led them to the beginning of the path of a true martial artist.
Common Item Drops
E- mana heart Goblin White Belt
This evolution was similar to Izu¡¯s E- rank goblin apprentice mage. A goblin trainee was normally an E- rank monster, but the description clearly showed Pugi only earned the evolution through intense and focused training. If she decided on the normal goblin evolution or goblin fighter, he¡¯d have to attempt convincing her to change her mind.
Name: Pugi
Race: Goblin Fighter
Rank: E+
Gender: Female
Attribute: Neutral
Development: 0/100
Titles: None
Skills
Stench Tool Use
Bite Scratch
Night Vision Fighting
Punching Kicking
Grappling Mana Perception
Mana Manipulation Mana Refinement
Description
A goblin that has dedicated themselves to fighting anything and everything. These goblins will use both their natural abilities to fight opponents along with punches, kicks, and any types of martial arts that they are able to learn. This goblin¡¯s obsession with getting stronger through fighting has opened this option.
Common Item Drops
E+ mana heart Goblin Ear
After a couple of minutes, Ian asked, ¡°So, Pugi, which one-¡± ¡°Goblin Fighter!¡± she shouted. Damn. Now he had to get her to choose goblin trainee. ¡°Why that one?¡± he asked. ¡°It has higher skill levels for punching and kicking along with a skill I don¡¯t have!¡± she said with a shout and a raised hand. Oh, if that was all, it might take a lot less than he thought to convince her. ¡°But, if you choose Goblin Fighter you¡¯ll get less punching and kicking in the long run,¡± Ian smoothly inserted into the conversation. ¡°....What?¡± said Pugi her voice filled with anxiety. ¡°Goblin Fighter focuses on fighting in general, so there will be an equal focus between using your normal goblin abilities like biting and scratching and fighting techniques like punching and kicking.¡± ¡°But, Goblin Trainee has lower numbers,¡± she protested. ¡°It is also a lower rank, so by the time it or a different race reaches an equivalent rank your punching and kicking skills may be higher. Also, the goblin trainee has a greater focus on the punching and kicking skills. Based on those-¡± ¡°I changed my mind! I want to evolve into the goblin trainee!¡± Ian sighed internally, but the interruptions didn¡¯t bother him too much, he was used to them. He acquiesced to her request and evolved her into a goblin trainee. Rather than the loincloth she had before, a shirt and pair of pants appeared along with a cloth belt. However, no shoes appeared and she received no weapons. Pugi started moving around and practicing punches and kicks in her new outfit before saying, ¡°I don¡¯t like it,¡± and took it off. All she was left with was underwear. When she practiced her punches and kicks again, all she said was, ¡°I like this better.¡± Ian glanced at Mina and Izu, but as expected they didn¡¯t have any reaction. Why would they? They had all been practically naked for a long time now. However, they did need to get used to wearing clothes. ¡°Pugi,¡± Ian began, ¡°I understand it¡¯s much easier to move around without clothes inhibiting your movements, but eventually you¡¯ll have to wear armor for protection. You should wear the clothing provided by your rank up to get used wearing something during combat.¡± Pugi stopped practicing and started to stroke her chin before finally answering, ¡°Okay.¡± She picked up the clothing and put it back on before starting her practice once again. Ian turned his attention to the last goblin, Mina, ¡°You¡¯re up, Mina.¡± She responded, ¡°Yes!¡± with a salute. He had to fully admit that he couldn¡¯t wait to see what she evolved into. If he had encountered her in a dungeon, then he would have made every effort to tame her.
Name: Mina
Race: Goblin Warrior
Rank: E-
Gender: Female
Attribute: Neutral
Development: 0/100
Titles: None
Skills
Stench Tool Use
Bite Scratch
Night Vision Leadership
Loyalty Swordsmanship
Fighting Coordination
Honor Mana Perception
Mana Manipulation Mana Refinement
Description
Goblin warriors are those who fight with weapons. As such they have no weapon preference, but tend to stick with their highest skill proficiency. Their highest skill proficiency is generally the first weapon they picked up. It would be a sad tale for such a proficient goblin to become a goblin warrior, but it is one of the options available to her.
Common Item Drops
E- mana heart Goblin Sword
Mina outdid all the other goblins, not including the hobgoblin, in skill number, skill level, and skill type. Two level five skills and five level fours skills at E- rank? Her skills were enough that she probably would have been one of his main monster party when she reached a high enough rank. Ian didn¡¯t have to worry about her picking this one, both because she was intelligent and because with that other option available she wasn¡¯t picking anything else.
Name: Mina
Race: Goblin Swordswoman
Rank: E-
Gender: Female
Attribute: Neutral
Development: 0/100
Titles: None
Skills
Stench Tool Use
Bite Scratch
Night Vision Leadership
Loyalty Swordsmanship
Fighting Coordination
Honor Mana Perception
Mana Manipulation Mana Refinement
Description
A goblin swordswoman unlike a goblin warrior only prefers the sword. They become one with the sword and all they can think about is the sword, although most wild goblins only become goblin swordsmen or swordswomen because they like how sharp and dangerous swords are. This goblin¡¯s ability and dedication to the sword make her a good candidate to become a true swordswoman, however her loyalty to things beyond the sword is a detriment to obtaining the peak of swordsmanship.
Common Item Drops
E- mana heart Goblin Sword
A better option that goblin warrior, but once again he knew that she wouldn¡¯t pick it. Based on the descriptions, it seemed that the system knew just as well which evolutions Mina would and wouldn¡¯t pick.
Name: Mina
Race: Goblin Beginner Mana Artist
Rank: E-
Gender: Female
Attribute: Neutral
Development: 0/100
Titles: None
Skills
Stench Tool Use
Bite Scratch
Night Vision Leadership
Loyalty Swordsmanship
Fighting Coordination
Honor Mana Perception
Mana Manipulation Mana Refinement
Description
Mana artists refine the mana in their body to perform physical feats beyond what is considered normal or sane for their species. A goblin mana artist would not be the first of its kind, but compared to other monsters and sapient races it is a much rarer occupation or race for goblins. This goblin has the work ethic and the mentor to achieve a exceedingly high level of mana refinement and become a near peak level mana artist. It is sad to say that as much as she would use mana refinement to further her goals, those goals do not include becoming a peak level mana artist.
Common Item Drops
E- mana heart Refined Goblin Mana Heart
Ian couldn¡¯t blame Mina if she didn¡¯t want to become a peak level mana artist. He himself had avoided training to become a mana artist as his adoptive father wanted, instead focusing on becoming a mage. Eventually he decided that training in mana refinement and becoming a top tier mana artist would be useful for his dungeon explorations and had achieved SSS rank. Kayne was glad he had studied refinement of his mana and body, but still disappointed that he didn¡¯t live up to his potential. He wished they hadn¡¯t had a falling out over dungeons, but as he was a dungeon now that would be hard to rectify in his second life. Becoming a peak level mana artist would be impossible without transcendent level mana refinement and body refinement, but anyone with peak level physical skills needed high level mana refinement to compete. Thus, Ian was glad how much work Mina put into it, and how much talent she had.
Name: Mina
Race: Goblin Knight
Rank: E-
Gender: Female
Attribute: Neutral
Development: 0/100
Titles: None
Skills
Stench Tool Use
Bite Scratch
Night Vision Leadership
Loyalty Swordsmanship
Armor Handling Riding
Fighting Coordination
Honor Mana Perception
Mana Manipulation Mana Refinement
Description
Goblin Knights are almost as rare as Goblin Mana Artists as their code goes against everything that a normal goblin stands for. Even though goblin knights have honor and loyalty, it is only to their fellow companions, thus they still attack sapient races on sight. However, nothing it truly absolute. This goblin is truly meant to be a knight.
Common Item Drops
E- mana heart Goblin Armor
Even glancing at the other evolution options for Mina was a pointless task with this one present. This class was the epitome of the system filling the wishes of an individual. Goblin Knights were nowhere near E- rank individuals. The lowest rank goblin knight that he had ever come across was B+ rank. Admittedly his sample size of six was low, so drawing any conclusions from that was in poor taste. The best part about this evolution was that even if Mina wanted to pick another, he would have to convince her to pick this one as it had the best skill options and levels. ¡°So, Mina, you pick yet?¡± asked Ian with a chuckle. ¡°Do you even have to ask, my lord?¡± Mina chuckled back. ¡°No, not really, but I still want to make sure.¡± ¡°Goblin Knight, my lord.¡± Unlike Izu and Pugi, but more like Botan¡¯s, Mina went through a physical transformation. Although it wasn¡¯t as drastic as Narcy¡¯s or Yervin¡¯s, her muscles became more refined and she gained a couple of inches in height. She also received armor and a weapon. Her armor was a leather version of full plate armor and her weapon was an iron sword in a leather sheath. After her transformation was complete, Izu came running and gave her a leaping hug. Mina hugged him back and swing him around in the air with both of them laughing with tears coming down their cheeks. Ian could only watch them with a small internal smile. It seemed that becoming a knight meant a lot more to Mina than he originally thought. The happiness on her face sent a new determination through Ian. He knew he wasn¡¯t the best leader, or lord as Mina called him, and he could never be one, but he wanted to make sure these goblin never regretted being a part of his dungeon. That first step would be providing them with personal homes. Chapter 25 As the goblins celebrated or practiced their new powers, Ian purchased his new terrain: Town. He paused at his creature choices. They included Human, Naga, and a race called Hasjam that he had no knowledge of. The only reason he knew Hasjam were sapient creatures was due to their placement in the creature list.
Please Choose Five Creatures:
Biota:
Newborn Black-tailed Jackrabbit Newborn Fennec Fox Newborn Camel
Concentrated Red Grape Seed Barley Seed Saguaro Cactus Seed
Warm Lichen Dry Lichen Fire Lichen
Newborn Human Newborn Naga Newborn Hasjam
¡­.
Monsters:
Newborn Horned Jackrabbit [G-] Newborn Stealth Lizard [G-] Newborn Ravenous Courser [G-]
Parasitic Mesquite Tree Sapling [G-] Spiked Cactus Sapling [G-] Desiccating Saltbush Sapling [G]
Puffing Podaxis [G] Death Coccidioides [D] Parasitic Mycorrhizae [G]
¡­.
His trepidation of having sapient creatures in his dungeon was somewhat alleviated with Mina and the rest having equivalent sapience, but the reaction of adventurers to fighting humans or dwarves worried him. That was why the possibilities of a somewhat unknown race appealed to him. If none of the adventurers knew the dungeon race was sapient, then it shouldn¡¯t matter as long as his sapient dungeon creatures didn¡¯t spend too much time having a chat rather than fighting them. However, as much as he had taken a look around the mountain to get a feel for the area, he focused more on the magical aspects rather than the finer details like what races inhabited the nation he saw. All he knew was there were a lot of Humans. It was completely possible that the race known as Hasjam was present and having them in his dungeon so early on would be a negative. After some thought, Ian shrugged his book spine and decided that he¡¯d wait and see what type of adventurers entered his dungeon before creating them.
You have chosen: Newborn Hasjam, Barley Seed, Concentrated Red Grape Seed, Newborn Camel, and Parasitic Mesquite Tree Sapling [G-].
Ian wanted to see what the Hasjam looked like and experiment with the rest, but he needed to see how town creation in a dungeon went. Besides, creating a sapient baby and then leaving it while he did other stuff didn¡¯t sit right with him. Maybe Mina and Izu would care for one after he made their house. Thoughts for later. He created a one hundred meter by one hundred meter by ten meter box, and the terrain that appeared surprised him. No houses of the sort appeared, but the climate that appeared was semi-arid. A climate completely different from the forests that covered the floating islands. He supposed that the ruins could be old enough for the climate in the area to change, but that wasn¡¯t the only possibility. The fact that all the ruins were on the floating islands may indicate that whatever civilization the ruins represented may have had the ability to create floating islands and moved here. Another possibility, considering the magical nature of the mountain he would soon call his home, was either a quick change in climate due to a large increase in magic, or the floating islands had been teleported here from somewhere else. Soon after, he shook his head of these thoughts. While interesting, they weren¡¯t important at the moment. The semi-arid climate brought up another question: if the climate was forced into the normal climate for the civilization, would the architecture be the same? Rather than construct everything with the manipulation of mana like he normally did, he used the simple terminology of ¡®make house¡¯ to see if the architecture would be the same way. What appeared was a house made of mud-bricks, with a central courtyard which had entrances to all rooms of the house. There was only a single entrance on the external wall leading into the house. This entrance also did not lead straight into a room, but took a ninety degree turn before entering a room. The roof itself was flat. The first thing Ian looked for was the toilet and bath, but to his chagrin he didn¡¯t find either of them. If they didn¡¯t have toilets or baths, then the hypothesis of them creating floating islands was losing credence. Although, there wasn¡¯t furniture of any kind present in the house, so this might be the most basic of examples. However, he mused, this could be the beginning of their civilization and maybe as a dungeon he would eventually be able to reach the heights of their civilization. In fact, that made a lot of sense. There were no toilets or baths, but one of his terrain options was a sewer system. He shook his head once again as unimportant thoughts took over. Maybe if he had the goblins here to test, then his mind would stop wandering. Although his mind probably wandered because of how safe he felt as a dungeon. It was similar, but not as pronounced, as the safety he felt when reading a book with Estella as they leaned against each other. If his mind had wandered this much when dungeon diving, then he would have been dead long ago. The feeling of safety might be in part due to being cut off from the world, and he wondered if it would continue when he finally had intruders in his dungeon. Mina and Izu had stopped celebrating and were now practicing their skills along with the rest. Ian¡¯s disembodied voice asked, ¡°Are you ready to make some houses?¡± They stopped their practice and quickly answered ¡®Yes¡¯, except for Narcy who was asleep and Yervin who was in the learning room. ¡°Can one of you wake Narcy up? I¡¯ll go get Yervin,¡± said Ian The four goblins looked at one another before Botan answered, ¡°I can try, but none of us have come close to waking her up before.¡± ¡°I know she¡¯s a Sleepy Goblin now and really liked sleep before, but is she really that hard to wake up?¡± ¡°We haven¡¯t tried more forceful methods like punching her or kicking her,¡± replied Pugi. ¡°Uh, you don¡¯t need to do that. Her waking up isn¡¯t that important,¡± said Ian with slight trepidation. As Ian responded to Pugi, she received a punch to the side from Mina, ¡°My lord, we didn¡¯t want to hurt Narcy, and after you introduced the respawn room, we didn¡¯t know if you registered her as she wasn¡¯t in the training room when you registered us.¡± Ian froze for a moment glad he hadn¡¯t done anything reckless yet, like fight them to test their powers out. He quickly created a respawn room and registered Narcy to it. ¡°Alright, Narcy is now registered in a respawn room, so no more worries on that front,¡± nervously chuckled Ian. ¡°What about Botan?¡± asked Izu, ¡°He wasn¡¯t there either.¡± ¡°I had him help with some plant decisions on the last floor, so I registered him then.¡± Botan gave an excited nod as Izu respond with, ¡°Okay.¡± Ian also noticed the pout that formed on Mina¡¯s face but was quickly replaced with her normal attempt at stoicism. ¡°Back to business. If you can¡¯t wake her, then I¡¯ll give it a try. Hopefully I can wake her normally, since I don¡¯t want to order her for such a mundane thing.¡± However, Ian¡¯s attempts quickly proved futile with the only change being a louder snore than normal whenever he asked her to wake up. The well timed snores made him a bit irritable, and he wondered if she was truly asleep. After twenty minutes of attempts, he finally grew sick of it and ordered her up. ¡°Wake up, Narcy,¡± intoned Ian. Narcy¡¯s snore immediately stopped as she rubbed her eyes and sat up. She said no words, but unblinkingly, she stared at the space Ian¡¯s disembodied voice came from. ¡°I¡¯ll go get Yervin, so stay awake Narcy,¡± ordered Ian, ¡°We¡¯ll start making houses afterwards.¡± The unblinking stare was all that answered him. With a sigh, he moved his main focus to the gym portion of the learning room. ¡°Yervin, we¡¯re going to make houses now, so come along,¡± said Ian. ¡°Have you finished the other¡¯s?¡± asked Yervin. ¡°No, but I want all of us to make the houses together.¡± ¡°Tell me when I¡¯m the only one left, and then I¡¯ll come.¡± Ian sighed internally, this hobgoblin had too many similarities to himself. Even if it was enjoyable to be alone, completely blocking yourself off from social interaction was not a good idea. Yervin wasn¡¯t at that level yet, but if Ian didn¡¯t occasionally force him into social situations, then he might become that way. Admittedly when he had been forced into social situations, it was a fifty-fifty hate to enjoyed ratio. Although, most of his ¡®enjoyed¡¯ social situations had to do with Estella and the rest of his friends. That just meant Yervin had to find some friends of his own. ¡°You¡¯re coming Yervin,¡± ordered Ian without any will behind it. ¡°As I¡¯m not suddenly accepting the proposition, I assume that wasn¡¯t an order?¡± Yervin asked as he rolled his eyes. ¡°Not yet,¡± responded Ian. With a sigh, Yervin agreed and transferred to the core room. Ian¡¯s focus shifted back to the core room. Narcy was asleep again. God dammit. ¡°Ian?¡± spoke up Botan. ¡°Yes, Botan?¡± answered Ian. ¡°I feel like Narcy will be completely useless if she doesn¡¯t wake up on her own, so how about I just carry her. When she wakes up, she can contribute.¡± ¡°Sounds fine,¡± replied Ian not wanting to order her to wake up again. ¡°If that lazy girl doesn¡¯t have to do anything, can I go back to the learning room?¡± sighed Yervin. ¡°No, Yervin, you¡¯re coming with the rest of us.¡± ¡°Fiiiine.¡± After Ian created a transfer formation between the transfer portion of the core room and the town terrain he was working on, they all appeared near the house he had created. ¡°That the house?¡± asked Yervin. ¡°It looks a lot better than the cave we were sleeping in before,¡± smiled Izu. Mina seemed to want to agree with him, but kept her mouth shut. ¡°It''s not as good as a lot of the houses in the Soris Kingdom, but it''ll do for now,¡± said Ian, ¡°There are unfortunately no toilets or baths, so I¡¯ll have to figure something out in regards to that.¡± He could have sworn he saw Narcy¡¯s body, that was currently hanging over Botan¡¯s shoulder, twitch. ¡°You should take a walk through it and tell me what you think.¡± Five walkers and one sack explored the house. After awhile, they all came back looking slightly confused. The first to speak up was Yervin, ¡°What was the point of that Ian, there¡¯s nothing in there?¡± ¡°I¡¯m not exactly an engineer or an architect, so taking liberties with designs I have no idea about may not be the best idea,¡± answered Ian. ¡°Although, the dungeon system might say ¡®you tried¡¯ and let me make impossible buildings. ¡°Anyway, I wanted all of you to get a feel for the layout because I won¡¯t be changing it much. Decide where you want the bedroom, toilet, bath, and other rooms. If you don¡¯t know about room types or what kind of furniture a house needs, then ask me.¡± With that Ian created four more houses as Mina and Izu would be living together in one. He could just make another if they ever ended breaking up. Although, that would probably never happen as they thoroughly enjoyed each other¡¯s company without the biological imperative to reproduce. In fact, he wondered why he cared abouttoilets as the slimes or jellies would take care of it. Although, he would have to put them on this floor first. The bath was another matter as Narcy¡¯s unblinking stare had been more unnerving than he let on. In regards to toilets the fourth of five actually contained one. It was a squat toilet with a hole filled with cylinders. He wasn''t quite sure how it worked, but at least he knew toilets were present. After some testing, Ian discovered that he could create the same house with a toilet everytime if he simply said ¡®house with toilet¡¯. He supposed that the dungeon creation by order rather than mana manipulation was similar to the chants that mages often used. The difference being a chant with the simplification of ¡®house¡¯ or ¡®house with toilet¡¯ would never work.This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version. With the new house creation method in mind, he attempted to create houses with baths and toilets but his attempts proved unsuccessful. When he changed up methods and switched bath with shower, a change was seen. A small room with a bucket appeared. The room didn¡¯t fit with the layout of the house and always protruded from one of the rooms. It seemed the idea of a shower was simply dumping water on themselves. All of Ian¡¯s tests occurred away from the five houses that the goblins now explored with one another. With baths not being a part of the town¡¯s culture, it looked like he would have to make his own. If he was still human, he would have had to get designers and crafters to help him while he did the enchantments. As a dungeon his spells never disappeared, so he could do everything with magic. Ian began his bath creation in one of the rooms of the house without a shower but with a toilet. He¡¯d have to fix the ones without toilets that the goblins were currently exploring before he furnished them. Even ifthe creatures in his dungeon technically didn¡¯t need a toilet, as they could do it anywhere with slimes and jellies present, it was better to get the habit started early. With filth concentrated in one area, it would improve hygiene and reduce the area the slimes and jellies needed to clean. When he got the Ecosystem perk at level one hundred, he might add it to the town. A functional goblin town that he didn''t need to watch over would be nice. Besides, the idea of going wherever you wanted didn¡¯t fit in a more civilized society. He wouldn¡¯t be surprised if they eventually wanted more goblins and hobgoblins to socialize with. Using earth and pressure magic, he created a dark brown, oval basin with the hardness of a diamond. It wasn¡¯t the most beautiful piece, but it did its job properly. However, laying on something with the hardness of a diamond was not fun. He knew well that feeling having laid on plenty of stone dungeon floors. To mitigate that, he cast the magic he created after he started dating Estella: fluff magic. When the woman that could punch holes in dragons and make kings cower was revealed to love stuffed animals and fluffy blankets, he¡¯ll admit to being surprised and asking about the dissonance. All he got in response was an eye roll, a scoff, and a ¡®stop being a close-minded idiot¡¯. Feeling incredibly bad afterwards, he sincerely apologized by creating the fluff magic. He was not a stranger to the derision of others over his love of dungeons, so the fact that he had done the same to someone he loved tore at his heart. He commissioned a stuffed rabbit of which he enchanted with the same spell he would use on the bathtub. After he gave Estella the gift with an apology, they had quite the enjoyable night. He cast the magic on the entire tub so it felt soft and fluffy but removed the part of the magic that would have physically made the tub fluffy. Being fluffy also meant absorbency, so a bad physical change for a bathtub. The fluff spell could have been an enchantment, as long as he layered it with the normal bath enchantments, but Ian had wanted to try a perpetual spell. The enchantments that covered the tub were a combination of water, heat, dissipation, space, and activation magics. When mana was manipulated into certain points on the formation, the heat and water parts of the enchantment would activate and pour water into the bathtub. After the bathtub was filled with a certain amount of water, the enchantment would stop and bathing could now commence. Once bathing was done, points on the opposite side of the heat and water activation points would have mana manipulated into them to dissipate the water back into mana and the space magic would would clean the tub by tossing the filth into a separate dimension. Ian completed the tub by making all the enchantments invisible with light magic except for the activation points, deactivation points, and the parts of the formation where water appeared. After his completion of the tub, a surprising notification appeared.
Treasure: ¡®Durable Bathtub of Fluffiness¡¯ Created. +100 DP
His nonexistent eyebrows slowly rose up. He could create treasures with his magic? Also, how would this work as a treasure? Sure, the enchantments would continue out into the world, but the fluffy aspect was supported by the dungeon. However, stories of items sprang to the forefront of his mind. Items that seemed to use no mana and had no enchantment. Originally he thought it was some sort of invisibility or illusion like he used on his enchantments, but maybe it was an item infused with a spell. The fact that it didn¡¯t consume mana bugged him to no end. The fluffy spell was consuming ambient mana currently, so what would change when someone received it as a treasure? After he got an avatar, he might have to steal some of his own items if he couldn¡¯t take them out on his own. With the bathtub out of the way, it was time for everyone to tell him what they wanted with their houses. When everyone was done exploring the houses and asking him questions, he erased the current ones and added toilets. It seemed they wanted to design the rooms themselves, so all he had to do was place the furniture in the correct room. Before he could create furniture however, he needed to know if he could do it using the terrain like he had with water in the deep cave terrain or if he would have to rely on the decoration section of the dungeon shop. A quick word of ¡®table¡¯ was all it took for Ian to start making furniture for the goblins without relying on the dungeon shop. The houses were made up of four rooms, two large and two small rooms. The toilet took up one of the small rooms, so that left only two large rooms and one small room. Ian should have realized in the beginning there wasn¡¯t going to be much variation in the room arrangement as very few would want their bedroom near the entrance. Thus the layout the goblins decided on was bedroom opposite of the entrance, toilet and bathroom in the two small rooms, and a ¡®whatever they wanted room¡¯ for the room the entrance led to. He placed beds and shelves in the bedroom. Cabinets and dressers wouldn¡¯t appear. The beds had a reed mattress, which Ian could only assume would be quite uncomfortable, so he placed the fluffy spell on them. The personal spaces got a mix of tables, chairs, couches, recliners, and desks. He cast the same fluff spell on the recliner and couch. Although, he reduced the fluffiness somewhat afraid they all might turn into a goblin like Narcy. Last but not least, he placed a bathtub into the remaining small room of each house. They all started to organize their houses and occasionally ask Ian for a more personal items. Izu asked for a small pond in the center of the courtyard and a couple of water elementals. A couple of tries to make a pond with his dungeon abilities later, and nothing came of it. Izu seemed disappointed, but Ian quickly shifted to simply creating a small pond with earth and water magic. It took only a couple of minutes before a small pond with five water elementals surrounding it was created. Mina seemed unsure of how to feel about the pond. She liked that Izu got to stare at something he enjoyed, but she certainly didn¡¯t want him staring at it all the time. Mina asked for an armor stand. Once again he was unable to create it using the functions of shaping the town terrain. Should he make one or purchase one from the dungeon shop? He could create a perfect anatomical model, well perfect for when he was human, of a goblin, but Mina wasn¡¯t exactly a normal goblin with her height. She would need a personal armor stand, so he decided to buy one from the dungeon shop. However, first he wanted to see what making a goblin from earth got him. It was a quick process as his understanding of goblin anatomy was quite extensive.
Treasure: ¡®Earthen Goblin Statue¡¯ Created. +100 DP
Another treasure. He had made some assumptions about using magic in a dungeon, that might, in fact, be wrong. Otherwise, something had changed. The only thing he could think of was the ability to get dungeon functions from his created spells and enchantments. He doubted the system¡­.oh right¡­.the Helper. Before he could go ask the helper about his ability to create treasures with his spells, Mina interrupted his thoughts, ¡°My lord? I don¡¯t believe my armor will fit this goblin statue.¡± Ian snapped out of his thoughts and answered, ¡°Right. Sorry about that Mina. The goblin was a test for something else. I¡¯ll purchase your armor stand now.¡± Ian focused on the dungeon shop and searched for ¡®armor stand¡¯.
Dungeon Shop
Human Armor Stand 100 DP
Magical Human Armor Stand 1,000 DP
Goblin Armor Stand 100 DP
Magical Goblin Armor Stand 1,000 DP
Magical Goblin Armor Stand: An armor stand than can be tied to the mana signature of a goblin individual. Once tied to an individual, the armor will shift to that individual¡¯s body shape.
Prerequisites: None
Just what he needed. With that a thousand DP disappeared, and an armor stand appeared in front of Mina. ¡°Thank you, Ian!¡± said Mina with a large smile on her face as she grabbed the armor stand and ran it into the house. As he watched her go, Ian wanted to go ask the Helper his questions, but he supposed helping Narcy, Botan, Pugi, and Yervin came first. Botan wanted a tree in the courtyard and plants in his house. ¡°I have two trees: the golden apple tree and a parasitic mesquite tree sapling. Which one do you want?¡± asked Ian. ¡°By the way, the parasitic mesquite tree sapling is a monster.¡± ¡°The parasitic mesquite tree doesn¡¯t have any seeds?¡± inquired Botan. ¡°No, it seems that monsters don¡¯t have seed or spore forms like their biotic counterparts.¡± ¡°Okay, I¡¯ll have the parasitic mesquite tree sapling in my courtyard and the rest in my house.¡± he said with a puffed out chest. ¡°The golden apple tree won¡¯t fit in your house, so I¡¯ll put it in the middle of the five houses. Okay?¡± Botan gave Ian a nod in response. ¡°Actually, I¡¯ll give you the seed, but make sure to plant it in the middle of the five houses, okay?¡± added Ian. Botan¡¯s nod was a lot more enthusiastic this time around. Ian placed the monster sapling in the courtyard. In a similar manner to the bathtub he created plant pots with earth and pressure magic.
Treasure ¡®Durable Earthen Plant Pot¡¯ Created. +100 DP
A total of fifteen pots were created for both biota and monsters. Ian had to plant the monsters and dangerous seeds himself, but otherwise he gave Botan seeds to plant the rest, including the new barley and grape seeds. Happily, Botan grabbed each pot and carefully planted them around the house. He hoped Botan would be careful with the ones that could kill him, but at least Ian had the peace of mind that he would respawn. When Pugi asked him for training equipment, Ian asked, ¡°Don¡¯t you have the gym in the learning room?¡± ¡°I haven¡¯t really used it yet, but according to Narcy that¡¯s more form training techniques and following lessons with your body. It apparently doesn¡¯t have anything to hit, just open space to train in,¡± she answered back. He might need to upgrade the learning room if that was the case or purchase the training room. For now, he¡¯d just acquiesce to her request. Unlike the tub or pots, which were pretty easy, he had to search through the dungeon shop again looking for ¡®training equipment¡¯.
Dungeon Shop
Training Dummy 1,000 DP
Dumbbell 1kg 100 DP
Punching Bag 10,000 DP
They all sounded good, so with his surplus of DP he purchased them all. However, while the training dummy and punching bag were decoration, the dumbbell was a treasure, so he would have to go into the tree menu to upgrade that. After upgrading to a ten kilogram dumbbell, Ian gave Pugi all the dumbbell weights along with the training dummy and punching bag. With a radiant smile on her face, she thanked Ian with a loud voice and sprinted into her house with each item. Narcy was already asleep on her bed, so she didn¡¯t ask anything of him. Although, when he made linen bed sheets for all of them, he made hers extra fluffy. Yervin¡¯s request should have been expected given his similarities to Ian. ¡°I want a lot of paper and writing implements, so I can write my ideas down,¡± Yervin bluntly stated. ¡°Do you even know how to read and write? And if you do, in what language?¡± asked Ian. Yervin looked at him like an idiot, ¡°The language I¡¯m speaking in, and I can only assume I gained the knowledge from whatever gave me knowledge about books.¡± Oh, right. The goblin language was auto-translated, and he had forgotten they were speaking it. After a short pause, Ian spoke, ¡°Okay, I¡¯ll get you paper and writing implements.¡± With his new way to create treasures, paper should be easy, although not as easy as the bathtub and pots. Writing implements on the other hand might be too complicated for him. Although¡­.while the mechanical minutia may be beyond him at this point, the zoom feature should help with that in the future, why did he need the writing implement to be mechanically sound? Ian converted his mana into ink and flight while imagining a goose feather perpetually dipped in ink. Exactly what he imagined fell onto to the ground in front of Yervin. The hobgoblin leaned down and picked it up. After looking at the created item, he looked at the former direction of Ian¡¯s voice, ¡°I¡¯m impressed. I knew you were good at magic, but didn¡¯t know creating things out of thin air came so easily to you.¡± ¡°I¡¯d normally be gloating for finally impressing you with something, but normally that would only last for less than a second before dissipating back into mana. It¡¯s currently being supported by that vast pool of mana from the other universe,¡± groaned Ian. ¡°Besides, even though I formed it through magic, it didn¡¯t become a treasure.¡± It also cost him one million mana to make that thing. Using creation to actually make a mana heart cost ten times that, but would last forever. The smallest mana heart, but still. ¡°Hmm, interesting,¡± said Yervin looking at the quill again, ¡°Can you make the paper now?¡± ¡°Fine,¡± grunted Ian. For the paper creation, he used wood, water, and heat to form a notebook. The notebook plopped onto the ground where Yervin picked it up and returned to his house. Okay, maybe he and Yervin weren¡¯t as similar as he thought, he would never be that rude. At least he hoped. Another failure. However, it took very little time for the difference between the bath, pots, and statue and the quill and notebook to click in his head. Ian¡¯s core climbed down off of his pedestal and began smashing himself into the floor. After a couple of minutes, he climbed back up his pedestal and laid back down. The quill and paper he created purely from his mana pool. The earth based treasures were formed from the dirt of the dungeon. It seemed manipulating aspects of his dungeon with spells could create treasures. An extra step that made sense. With his pure magic, he would only have to rely on his imagination to create objects of unparalleled power, although at a high mana cost. That high mana cost not being so high for him. Having to create the objects through manipulation meant they relied more on his technical skill in creating the item. He wasn¡¯t an artist or an engineer, so most of the things he created would be barebones with poor functions. His enchantments could mitigate some of the poor functions and poor aesthetic, but higher level enchantments needed an appropriate material to display their power. Creating treasures with his spells wasn¡¯t nearly as powerful as he thought it was, but it was still a great boon. Now he needed to see if being able to do so was normal or not. His vision focused back on this dungeon core and he asked a question, ¡°Can dungeons use spells they gain to create treasures and traps?¡± ¡°Yes,¡± replied the Helper. ¡°How do dungeons other than me create traps?¡± ¡°They purchase the appropriate spell on the spell tree.¡± That¡¯s what he assumed as he had done it since the beginning, but it was good to have a baseline. ¡°How do dungeons other than me create treasures?¡± questioned Ian. ¡°They purchase the appropriate spell on the spell tree.¡± answered the Helper. Ian didn¡¯t know what other answer he expected. ¡°Can spells be used to create treasures purely through magic formation?¡± Magic formation being what most called the attempts to form physical manifestations from magic for extended periods of time. ¡°No.¡± ¡°Can spells be used to create treasures through magic manipulation?¡± Magic manipulation referring to changing the surrounding environment through magic. ¡°Yes.¡± Good, good. Confirmation was always nice, along with denial. He supposed this is what the Helper could be used for: confirming his hypotheses about the dungeon. But only after he did tests first. Also, now that he thought about it, his creation of enchanted treasures was a form of magic manipulation. Most didn¡¯t consider enchantments magic manipulation as they degraded in a similar manner to magic formations, but they did manipulate how already created items worked. A small number of researchers had considered enchantments the bridge between the two to make magic formation more viable. He hadn¡¯t been apart of any of the studies, no matter how many times they asked him, but at the time of his death there didn¡¯t seem to be any progress. As he started to move his vision, he remembered the biggest problem with the treasures: how did the casted spells remain on them after leaving the dungeon? He asked the Helper the question. ¡°I cannot answer,¡± monotoned the Helper. ¡°Will you ever be able to answer?¡± asked Ian. ¡°No.¡± He didn¡¯t know how to feel. Mad that his question wasn¡¯t answered? Or happy that he would be able to figure it out on his own without feeling stupid for not asking the Helper? Either way, he was at least glad to know the Helper would never answer him. Ian was pleased with the new knowledge he gained from helping them decorate their houses. Although, not having quill and paper treasures meant he would have to make the paper periodically with actual spells. Just spending mana and having them appear near instantly would be much easier. He needed to make sure he kept his voice in check, and didn¡¯t let Yervin hear him being annoyed. Setting up the houses only took about half a day, so he had some time left to get a floor or two in. Not a floor like he already created, but a condensed floor focused on a single idea. Meeting the floor requirements for creatures on a small floor would be much harder however. Chapter 26: Main Adventurer #5 The group of six adventurers appeared in the entrance hall. ¡°Okay, everyone. Same thing as the first floor. It may look similar, but there could be differences,¡± ordered Franc, the burly leader with a full beard. Charles, the scarred monster tamer, went to study the pillars for new creatures. Lyra, leather armored, metal mage, floated up to the lights. Teri, the gnomish gunner, walked over to the table. ¡°We¡¯re finally moving on to the next floor,¡± Duzzig, the heavily armored dwarf, grunted as he sat down on the ground. The other two followed his lead and sat down in a circle with him. ¡°You were plenty happy to fight the first floor special bosses solo,¡± scoffed Peter, the outwardly confident, inwardly skittish rogue. ¡°That doesn¡¯t mean I¡¯m not happy to see something new,¡± he growled back. ¡°I¡¯m just happy the Prime Magus allowed us to modify the terms of our contract,¡± sighed Franc. ¡°Even she knew logging every piece of loot dropped and treasure gotten would take too much time.¡± ¡°Do you think we should modify our normal contract? ¡®Everything we know of¡¯ becomes a time sink when you get a completion list. And it doesn¡¯t even tell us what we missed, just that we missed something,¡± groaned Peter. ¡°No,¡± Franc shook his head, ¡°this dungeon has been a one off, so we¡¯ll keep our mantra for now. However, if all new dungeons start having a completion list, then we¡¯ll have to change it.¡± Walking over to the group, Teri made Peter and Duzzig scoot over before she plopped down on the ground, entered the circle, and interrupted their conversation. ¡°From an exploring the dungeon for profit or adventure point of view, the completion list is great. For our jobs, however, it¡¯s an annoyance. It took us over a week to get fifty percent for both the loot and treasure sections.¡± The rest of the group grimaced at the memory. ¡°Fifty percent is what we agreed for our new contract,¡± shrugged Franc. ¡°Besides, the Prime Magus wanted the first floor cleared to alleviate the boredom of the soldiers and workers.¡± ¡°Considering the higher ups were scurrying everywhere, while everyone else had nothing to do, that bird must have changed the town plan,¡± shuddered Peter. ¡°The fact that the Prime Magus moved the trees herself rather than let the woodcutters cut them down, told us that,¡± said Duzzig. The group nodded to each other in silence before being interrupted by Franc. ¡°Anything different Teri?¡± ¡°Nope,¡± she shook her head. ¡°The same table, treasure chest, loot collection registration, and teleportation formation.¡± ¡°Good to know.¡± They all looked towards Charles and Lyra to see how they were coming along, and as they did so, Lyra floated down from up high. ¡°Are they the same lights?¡± asked Franc. ¡°Yep,¡± nodded Lyra. ¡°By the way, I heard you talking, and did we remember to tell everyone to party up? With the instance function, going in alone would be a bad idea.¡± ¡°Of course we did,¡± laughed Duzzig. With a mischievous smile, Peter interrupted Duzzig¡¯s laughter, ¡°Says the guy who constantly forgot to re-party up after going solo.¡± Duzzig¡¯s laughter turned into a scowl directed at Peter. Having settled down between Duzzig and Teri, Lyra wrapped her arm around Duzzig, ¡°Ignore him, Duzzig, as always he¡¯s just trying to get under your skin.¡± He gave a large harumph, but his anger subsided. ¡°How were your solo runs by the way? The rest of us were too tired to listen to the reports you gave to Franc,¡± Lyra asked, removing her arm from around him. His anger now completely gone, Duzzig began to explain with fervor, ¡°They were the same bosses that we fought as a party, but weaker. Initially I was disappointed, but just like the bosses we fought as a party, they were beatable as long as I had a good plan and used all my strength. Match ups were important too. The slimes, jellies, and colony monsters, like the moss ball, were the most difficult considering I¡¯m a physical fighter. I¡¯m lucky that the moss ball I fought didn¡¯t have the spore replication attack. Without Teri¡¯s fire in that first fight, I¡¯m not sure we could have won.¡± Teri folded her arms with a smug grin on her face as she nodded her head. ¡°We can only be thankful that the normal boss is F- rank rather than G- rank. If it was G- rank, we¡¯d have low rank adventurers one shotting the boss, and likely dying from the special boss,¡± said Franc with remorse. ¡°The boss being beatable with a good plan and going all out means veterans will beat it, while rookies will assuredly die. The problem is that first floor is a good place to teach rookie adventures. G- rank monsters aren¡¯t common in the wild, especially in those numbers.¡± ¡°The rookies that are sent here to learn will have to be the smarter ones and the ones that follow orders,¡± said Peter as he flipped his dagger up into the air and caught it on the way down. ¡°Oh right!¡± exclaimed Duzzig, ¡°I figured out what the stone coins we got after killing all the normal bosses do!¡± ¡°Oh really?¡± said Franc stone faced, ¡°And why didn¡¯t you mention this earlier?¡± Waving his hands in front of his face, Duzzig quickly responded, ¡°We rushed in here right after I beat the boss, so I didn¡¯t have time to tell you.¡± ¡°Fine,¡± sighed Franc. ¡°What do they do?¡± ¡°They let you choose the boss you want to fight.¡± ¡°It overrides the one selected by defeating monsters?¡± questioned Peter. ¡°Yeah, if you touch the stone coin to the associated picture on the door, it shifts the section that is lit up. For the spider section, you have to think about what spider you want and the light will change appropriately,¡± explained Duzzig. Franc stroked his beard and mused, ¡°That does remove having to kill certain monsters to fight certain bosses. That was a hassle. We¡¯ll have to see if others can use our coins or if they¡¯re tied to us. Since we can only get the stone coins after killing all normal bosses, they¡¯re not too important to us, but they would be important to anyone needing to farm a boss.¡± ¡°I like them because they¡¯re a miniature of the boss door,¡± interrupted Charles as he walked over to the circle. ¡°When we teleported in here after clearing the first floor for the first time, you said it seemed like there were different carvings. Were you right?¡± asked Franc. ¡°I was. In addition to all the ones from the first floor, there are swallows, cicadas, mosquitoes, flies, dragonflies, butterflies, and a spider with sickles instead of front legs. There is also something that looks like a light ball. I¡¯m not sure, but it might be-¡± ¡°Elementals!¡± shouted Lyra. Charles gave an amused look to Lyra, ¡°Yeah, elementals.¡± Lyra¡¯s eyes burned with fervor, ¡°Considering the way these entrance halls glow, there might be a metal elemental!¡± ¡°Lyra, I can¡¯t tell what kind of elemental it is, so don¡¯t get your hopes up,¡± insisted Charles ¡°But think of all the different spiders on the last floor! The dungeon might have just as many elementals on this floor!¡± ¡°Stop making me excited at the possibility, Lyra!¡± yelled Charles with a pout, ¡°The spider variations on these pillars far outnumbers the elementals.¡± ¡°I knew it!¡± said Lyra as she poked Charles in the side, ¡°There¡¯s no way you wouldn¡¯t be super excited about the possibility of elementals, considering how rare they are in the Empire.¡± Charles crossed his arms and looked away from her, which only made Lyra giggle more. ¡°All right you two, that¡¯s enough fun,¡± smiled Franc. ¡°Now that we have an idea of the monsters we¡¯ll face, let¡¯s get a move on.¡± The rest of the group stood up, adjusted their armor, and made sure all their gear was prepared. They headed to the teleportation formation and entered the second floor. ?????????? Dungeon Reconnaissance appeared on the G rank floor and immediately began their exploration. Two rooms and two hallways later, all they found were upgraded monsters and traps from the G- rank floor. However, at the end of the second hallway, they encountered something new. A door greeted them. It was far less grand than the boss door from the first floor, but it was still larger than a normal door. When the rest of the group approached the door, Peter was pushing on it to no avail. ¡°It won¡¯t budge, so either I¡¯m too weak to open it or it¡¯s locked. It might also have something to do with this odd picture in the center.¡± ¡°Let me try,¡± grunted Duzzig as he strapped his axe to his belt and his tower shield to his back. Duzzig pushed as hard as he could until his face turned red, but the door still wouldn¡¯t move. ¡°A sturdy door,¡± he gasped. A groan from Teri appeared behind Peter and Duzzig, ¡°Will you two stop being muscle-headed idiots. It¡¯s obviously a puzzle door.¡± ¡°On the second floor?¡± they both asked. ¡°Are really asking that after what we¡¯ve seen so far?¡±Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site. ¡°A fair point,¡± grunted Duzzig. Peter didn¡¯t say anything, but turned his head with a slight tinge of red on his cheeks. ¡°I assume you can solve it?¡± asked Franc. ¡°Yes. In fact, it should be pretty easy. It looks just like one of those sliding puzzles that kids play with.¡± ¡°Oh, yeah, it does,¡± said Franc with a slight blush to his cheeks. Charles and Lyra had to turn their heads and scratch their cheeks at that. About two minutes later, a click resounded and the door slowly opened. However, what caught Charles¡¯ and Lyra¡¯s attention was not the door opening, but the completed picture. ¡°Elementals,¡± they both muttered. ¡°Since Charles and Lyra have been so kind as to provide us with information about what this room will contain, make sure you have mana based attacks ready,¡± ordered Franc with sarcasm laced words. The group entered the room and were stunned. Water flowed and gurgled down the walls and throughout the room in every direction, eventually reaching the large pond in the center. However, this was not what stunned the group. The glowing water elementals floated and flew around the room, but were concentrated around the pond. The ceiling contained floating water droplets that glowed an ethereal blue. Their stares were soon interrupted as the water elementals closest to the door began shooting water at them. Even with their low rank, attacks from G rank monster could still hurt, so the party got back in formation and proceeded to clear out the room of monsters and traps. ¡°Damn, this room is beautiful,¡± muttered Charles. ¡°After we clear the room out, I¡¯m going to go check out those glowing water droplets,¡± said Lyra excitedly. ¡°You get a water elemental Charles?¡± asked Franc. ¡°Yep,¡± answered Charles as he turned a water elemental into a small ball. ¡°This room will be good for water mages. Taming a water elemental may not provide as many benefits as contracting one through a summon, but they still help with casting magic.¡± ¡°Do you think there¡¯ll be a metal room? I could really use a metal elemental,¡± pleaded Lyra. ¡°I didn¡¯t say it before,¡± growled Duzzig, ¡°but you¡¯re expecting too much. All the time I¡¯ve lived in the dwarven cities and worked the dwarven mines, never once did I see a metal elemental. You ever see one Charles?¡± The look Lyra gave him really made him want to answer in the affirmative, but he couldn¡¯t lie, ¡°No, I¡¯ve never seen one. They only appear in areas of both high mana concentration and high natural concentration. If this room wasn¡¯t in the dungeon, it might not be enough to naturally spawn water elementals. I¡¯ve also seen very few elementals in dungeons.¡± ¡°But elementals are rare anyway, so it¡¯s unlikely you¡¯ve seen every one,¡± argued Lyra. ¡°That¡¯s true, but don¡¯t get your hopes up Lyra. These elementals might be the only ones on the floor.¡± Her shoulders sagged at that. As the group approached closer to the pond, a stream of water shot out of it. Duzzig blocked it with his shield easily. ¡°Hey Charles, do water elementals hang out underwater?¡± asked Duzzig while peering into the pond with his shield at the ready. ¡°They do, but hostile elementals are unlikely to hide. They¡¯ll get in your face to protect what they consider theirs,¡± he answered. ¡°I¡¯ll swim down there with Goober to see if it¡¯s a new monster.¡± ¡°How¡¯s a Garbage Jelly going to help?¡± asked Peter. Charles shrugged, ¡°Sure, he¡¯s weaker than my other monsters, but he¡¯s strong enough to absorb a couple water shots from G rank monsters.¡± With that Charles dived into the pond and began swimming downwards. It didn¡¯t take long for him to reach the bottom, where he noticed some ferns growing. They began shooting water at him, but the shots didn¡¯t hurt at all. Rather than water shots, they felt like periodic pushes of strong current. He continued swimming towards the Wet Ferns, until he captured one of them and killed the rest with a dagger. As Charles began to swim back to the surface, he noticed an unusual hole in the center of the pond. He decided to report back to the group before investigating it. He surfaced and swam to the edge of the pond where he climbed back out. ¡°New monster?¡± asked Lyra as she began to dry him off. ¡°Yeah, Wet Fern,¡± replied Charles receiving a nod in return. He turned his attention to Franc, ¡°I also noticed an unusual hole in the center of the pond.¡± ¡°Hmm,¡± Franc mused, ¡°Peter, go check it for traps.¡± ¡°Alright,¡± said Peter as he dived into the pond. About two minutes later, he resurfaced. ¡°I feel danger from it, but not enough to do any significant harm.¡± ¡°What do you feel it¡¯s for?¡± asked Franc. ¡°The hole¡¯s a perfect size to fit an arm or a leg in,¡± answered Peter. The group turned to look at Duzzig. His face hardened, ¡°No, not again.¡± ¡°Come on, Duzzig, you¡¯ve done worse,¡± grinned Lyra. ¡°And I¡¯ve hated jumping into water every time,¡± he growled. ¡°I know it¡¯s my job to test traps, but I hate getting wet. I can appreciate the beauty of this room, but jumping into the pond¡¯s another matter. Besides, no matter how much I trust Peter¡¯s judgment, sticking my arm in an unknown hole seems like a bad idea.¡± ¡°I¡¯m sorry that you have to do this, Duzzig,¡± said Franc placing a hand on his shoulder, ¡°but it¡¯s your role. With your Endurance attribute and skills, you can tank just about anything. Even mental spells.¡± He scowled at Franc and turned to Lyra, ¡°Give me a water breathing spell and a hydrophobic spell, then I¡¯ll be off.¡± ¡°Each one will only last for ten minutes, so don¡¯t play around for too long,¡± she teased. After the spells were applied, Duzzig jumped into the pond still fully armored and yelled, ¡°If I lose an arm, all five of you are paying for the regeneration and the new armor I¡¯ll have to buy!¡± He slowly sank to the bottom until his feet settled on the ground. Even with the increased resistance, he walked over to the hole in the ground at a normal pace. With a sigh, he stuck his hand into the hole. As he did, words appeared on the ground and asked a question, ¡®Name two skills of the water elementals present in this room.¡¯ Duzzig stared at the words before muttering, ¡°Shit.¡± He removed his hand and walked over to the wall of the pond. He poked at the wall and was able to successfully poke a hole in it. With a nod, Duzzig started climbing the wall while making handholds for himself. A couple of minutes later, he surfaced and climbed onto solid ground. ¡°What happened?¡± asked Franc. ¡°As soon as I placed my arm in the hole, words appeared on the ground and told me to name two skills of the water elementals in this room,¡± answered Duzzig. ¡°So, did you answer?¡± questioned Charles. ¡°Of course not,¡± growled Duzzig, ¡°that¡¯s your expertise.¡± ¡°Old Duzzig can¡¯t even answer such a simple question, tsk, tsk,¡± chided Peter with a smirk on his face. ¡°I don¡¯t care about their skill names, just how to counter them,¡± said Duzzig as he nearly spat, but stopped himself in time. Spit and hydrophobic spells didn¡¯t mix. Teri interrupted the conversation, ¡°Is it another kind of puzzle? A simple question based one rather than a sliding puzzle like was present on the door?¡± ¡°If you consider questions puzzles, then sure,¡± Duzzig shrugged. ¡°I want to see it myself, let¡¯s go Duzzig,¡± ordered Teri. ¡°Coming with, Charles?¡± ¡°Sure,¡± Charles responded. Teri turned to Lyra, ¡°Can you cast the spells on Charles and I, please?¡± ¡°Happily,¡± Lyra smiled back. With the spells cast on Teri and Charles, and Duzzig¡¯s renewed, the three of them sank to the bottom of the pond. Standing around the hole, Teri ordered Duzzig, ¡°Stick your hand in it.¡± He scowled, but still followed Teri¡¯s distorted words. Charles looked intrigued as the words appeared, ¡°Before you answer, let Teri or I try first. It¡¯ll be good to know if someone besides the one with their arm in the hole can answer.¡± ¡°Yes, because I was going to answer something that I don¡¯t know,¡± Duzzig replied as he stuck his arm back in the hole. ¡°Water Shot and Water Creation,¡± answered Charles. The three of them waited, but nothing happened. During this time, Teri was examining the hole, but noticed nothing about it besides the fact that it was a hole. ¡°Sometimes, Dungeon Puzzles are truly confounding. It¡¯s obviously magic of some kind, but to me all I see is a hole.¡± ¡°Can I answer now?¡± sighed Duzzig. ¡°Go ahead,¡± both replied. Duzzig repeated what Charles had said. The words disappeared and in their place appeared five stone coins, an iron coin, three G rank water mana stones, and an enchanted javelin. Teri picked up the javelin and began examining it. Duzzig and Charles picked up the rest of the treasure. The three waited until the nine minute mark, when they started levitating upwards. Right before the spells cast on them disappeared, they breached the surface and floated over to solid ground. Lyra wiped the sweat off her brow from levitating three people. ¡°Was it a puzzle, Teri?¡± asked Franc. Teri shrugged, ¡°It gave rewards in response to answering a question correctly, so maybe. It could also be a different kind of treasure chest. However, like a lot of dungeon puzzles, it seemed to work through some unknown magic. All I saw was a hole.¡± ¡°Well, okay. What were the rewards?¡± ¡°This enchanted javelin. It¡¯s a single use like the ones we found on the first floor. However, it¡¯s made out of basswood, so better than the balsa we found there. The enchantment allows the user to shoot water out of tip, but I¡¯m currently unable to determine how powerful that shot is.¡± ¡°Anything else?¡± Charles filled Franc in as Teri went back to examining the javelin, ¡°Five stone coins, one iron coin, and three water mana stones.¡± ¡°An iron coin on a G rank floor?¡± he asked with a raised eyebrow, ¡°We only got stone coins on the last floor.¡± ¡°I¡¯m not sure how the dungeon thinks or even if it does, but even for low rank adventurers, stone coins aren¡¯t worth much. Maybe the dungeon realized this and placed iron coins for more of an incentive on this floor.¡± ¡°Maybe,¡± Franc replied with a wave of his hand, ¡°Let¡¯s finish this room and continue on then.¡± Peter detected no danger, so the group spread out to clear the room quicker. As they cleared out the room of water elementals and wet ferns, Lyra examined the floating, blue water droplets. Charles called out, ¡°Hey, I found something!¡± as he pocketed another creature orb. The group lightly jogged over. Franc started to ask, ¡°What is it, Ch-¡±, before gagging. The rest of them soon noticed the smell and gagged along with him. Holding her nose, Lyra punched Charles¡¯ shoulder, ¡°God dammit, Charles.¡± Charles¡¯ serious face warped into a smirk as he started chuckling. ¡°I hope you didn¡¯t just call us over to make us gag,¡± Franc glowered with folded arms. ¡°No, No,¡± Charles chuckled, ¡°The plant producing that smell is actually a useful ingredient called Pungent Liverwort. It can produce low level mana potions. Although, the potions smell and taste just as bad, so few can hold them down.¡± ¡°If few can hold them down, then how is the ingredient useful?¡± asked Peter. ¡°Even if they¡¯re hard to keep down, they¡¯re still mana potions. To my knowledge other places with pungent liverwort don¡¯t produce enough to make harvesting worthwhile. This dungeon however is instanced, so it should produce plenty. With the war against the Bug Lord, any mana potion is a good mana potion.¡± ¡°Hah hah!¡± laughed Duzzig, ¡°Soldiers and low level adventurers are going to have to train to keep this stuff down once the town is established. I can see the vomit covered rooms now.¡± ¡°I know a town almost always springs up around a dungeon, but is what we¡¯ve seen really enough to make a town all the way out here worthwhile?¡± sighed Lyra. Teri rolled her eyes, ¡°You know that if the only thing this dungeon produced was goblin dung, there would still be a town built here.¡± Lyra simply responded with another sigh. ¡°I wonder if the dungeon is intentionally choosing materials with negative aspects,¡± mused Charles. The others decided to ignore him and finish the room. Afterwards, they left through the leftmost door. ¡°No puzzles on the inside, so good thing these doors aren¡¯t locked,¡± joked Peter as they exited the room. The door closed behind them, and Teri was the first to look behind, ¡°The door has a puzzle.¡± The rest of the group turned to look. Peter muttered to himself, ¡°Idiot.¡± ¡°Duzzig, check if it¡¯s locked,¡± ordered Franc. Duzzig grunted in affirmation as he went to push on the door. A couple minutes and a red-faced Duzzig later, the door was confirmed locked. ¡°Teri, please solve the puzzle, so we¡¯re not trapped here,¡± Franc said withslightly more seriousness than normal. With a nod, Teri solved the puzzle faster than she did it the first time, even though the picture was mixed in a different way. ¡°Okay, we¡¯ll re-enter the room, then exit and check if the door is locked again,¡± ordered Franc. They followed Franc¡¯s orders and when they tried to open the door after exiting, it opened easily without having to solve the puzzle again. In fact, the puzzle was still solved. ¡°Once a door is unlocked, it stays unlocked. Good to know,¡± Peter nodded. ¡°Don¡¯t get complacent, Peter,¡± lectured Franc. ¡°It¡¯s possible other doors won¡¯t be the same way. Also, if this is what the dungeon considers G rank, then future floors will be much harder.¡± ¡°Right, sorry about that,¡± he apologized while rubbing his head. Chapter 27: Main Adventurer #6 With knowledge about how the puzzle doors worked, the group continued on. After a while, they walked through a few small rooms along with a curved path. Following the left path, they found themselves in front of another door. However, this one was different compared to the sliding puzzle door that led into the water elemental room. ¡°A question? Is this similar to the puzzle you three answered at the bottom of the pond?¡± asked Peter scratching his head, ¡°Although, there¡¯s no hole to stick an arm into.¡± Duzzig looked serious, ¡°It¡¯s completely different. I¡¯ve never seen something like this. What ever could these lines mean? I understand the ¡®What is¡¯ and the question mark at the end, but the things in between make no sense whatsoever.¡± ¡°Dammit, Duzzig, I know it¡¯s a simple math question,¡± snarled Peter. ¡°I¡¯m just doing my job and getting all the information before I make sure the thing won¡¯t kill you.¡± ¡°Enough,¡± interceded Franc, ¡°you can show your love for one another some other time.¡± The rest of the group giggled, while Peter and Duzzig turned their heads away from one another with pouts. However, soon after, small smiles appeared on their faces. ¡°Teri, go ahead,¡± ordered Franc. ¡°Two minus one, a true puzzler,¡± she joked, but her face soon turned more serious, ¡°It may be easy for us, but these puzzles are going to pose a problem to adventurers below D rank. Although the Emperor is trying to introduce a basic education system, it hasn¡¯t caught on. Most won¡¯t be able to answer this.¡± Charles added his own point, ¡°I have , so answering the question at the bottom of the pond was easy. Even if the adventurers learn the common skill compositions for different monsters, the monsters in this dungeon may have a slightly different skill compositions than normally recorded. To answer that question most groups would need a tamer with the appropriate skill level.¡± ¡°Interesting, but,¡± Franc stopped both of them, ¡°that¡¯s something we¡¯ll discuss after we explore the floor and dungeon. Let¡¯s open the door and see what¡¯s on the other side.¡± Teri nodded and answered, ¡°One.¡± There was a click and the door opened. The group entered the small room that shimmered with glowing numbers and math symbols. Minuses dominated the room, but an occasional plus, multiplication symbol, and division symbol appeared. Across the room stood a long pedestal with handprints on it that glowed slightly. ¡°I think this room may be math related,¡± observed Peter. The rest of the party rolled their eyes. ¡°Feel any danger, Peter?¡± asked Franc. ¡°From the pedestal with the handprints,¡± pointed Peter. ¡°Enough to cause us some pain, but no damage. That means low level adventurers are liable to be killed by it.¡± ¡°Useful skill as always,¡± said Duzzig as he reached up to pat Peter on the shoulder, ¡°My turn to do some math then?¡± Teri stopped Duzzig as he started to walk towards the pedestal, ¡°It might be better if I do it.¡± Duzzig turned towards her and gave her a frown, ¡°I know I¡¯m not the best at math, but I can still do basic arithmetic.¡± ¡°I know that Duzzig,¡± Teri shook her head, ¡°but even though the door was basic arithmetic, this might be something else.¡± Duzzig considered it for a moment before he nodded and let her pass. As Teri approached the pedestal, the pair of glowing hands with five digits of three segments each transformed into gnomish hands of six digits with four segments each. The pedestal also lowered to her height. Her eyebrows raised slightly, but it wasn¡¯t that shocking. It already had a way to tell if someone was in a party or not and a way to tell the overall strength of the party, so determining the race of an individual wasn¡¯t that farfetched. She placed her hands on the pedestal and a simple math problem of four minus two appeared on the screen. ¡°I could have answered that,¡± muttered Duzzig behind her. A small smirk appeared on her face before answering, ¡°Two.¡± Rather than the next math question, a question asking her if she wanted to take her prize appeared. ¡°Why would it ask that?¡± Peter questioned the group. Teri hoped this wasn¡¯t one of those puzzles that took anything the user said as an answer as she replied to Peter, ¡°There¡¯s likely tiers of questions, treasures, and-¡± ¡°Then it¡¯s likely there¡¯s tiers of traps as well. I wonder if the larger danger I felt was from the initial question or the final question, if there is a final question. We¡¯ll need to test it out,¡± Peter interrupted her. ¡°We¡¯ll test out wrong answers later. First, Teri will see if there¡¯s any ending to the puzzle, then, after we get the reward, we¡¯ll try the puzzle again,¡± said Franc. ¡°Did you three try out the puzzle after you answered it once?¡± Duzzig, Charles, and Teri turned their heads with slightly red cheeks and muttered, ¡°No.¡± All Franc did was sigh in response. After a quick glance to stare daggers at Peter, Teri continued answering math questions and was surprised at having to use her answers from the previous questions. Luckily her memory was quite good, and she was able to successfully answer all the questions. After Teri answered the tenth question, a treasure appeared. An iron tomahawk appeared on the pedestal. She looked at it, noticed the enchantment, picked it up, and began examining it. ¡°Looks like another enchantment,¡± mused Lyra. ¡°What¡¯s the enchantment this time, Teri?¡± asked Franc. ¡°Sharpness for ten minutes. The wood weapons would cut like iron, so this iron one should cut like steel. The big thing is that this axe has thirty uses,¡± Teri answered. ¡°Thirty uses is quite the jump,¡± said Franc astounded. ¡°It is, but I doubt you, Duzzig, or Peter could have answered some of the later questions considering they required memorizing previous answers.¡± ¡°True,¡± admitted Franc, while Duzzig and Peter nodded their heads with sour faces. ¡°It might be a requirement for parties to have a well educated member if this is the new normal for treasures,¡± concluded Charles. Teri shook her head, ¡°Any mage class or noble born adventurer should be able to answer the first few questions, and those should hopefully provide treasures of an appropriate value. I¡¯ll try it out now.¡± She placed her hands back on the pedestal, but nothing happened. Teri turned to look at Franc and said, ¡°Looks like it¡¯s one try per trip.¡± Franc¡¯s face scrunched up at that, ¡°It¡¯s going to take a week per floor isn¡¯t it.¡± ¡°Since we aren¡¯t allowed to actively hunt outside the dungeon, just defend ourselves from attacking monsters, it¡¯s a good thing that space mage is here. Without his magic, we¡¯d run out of supplies,¡± said Lyra. ¡°If only the dungeon had better food drops besides fern fronds and jelly,¡± Duzzig slurped, ¡°Some monster loot tastes delicious.¡± ¡°There¡¯s the mushrooms,¡± Charles piped up. ¡°Those are poisonous.¡± ¡°Well, if we had a good cook¡­.¡± ¡°We¡¯ll know if the dungeon has anything good to eat after we clear all the floors,¡± Franc finished. Everyone agreed and continued on with the floor exploration. Their trek continued on, primarily consisting of long corridors. Beside the two additional math rooms, one subtraction and one multiplication, that gave them a flame sword with twenty five uses and a hard mace with fifty uses, nothing was drastically different from the first floor. The magic lights still illuminated the cave and reduced any sort of monotony simply through their presence. However, the lack of a certain something was bringing Charles down. ¡°Why aren¡¯t there any spiders?¡± he muttered with sagging shoulders. ¡°It is odd considering every other creature seems to be present,¡± agreed Lyra. ¡°But, water elementals are good too. ¡°Although, metal elementals would be better,¡± she whispered to herself. ¡°It¡¯s just, there were so many monster variations on the first floor. The fact that there have only been two new ones is disappointing,¡± Charles whined. ¡°Of course there¡¯s less new monsters, Charles,¡± Franc lightly laughed. ¡°Every monster and creature on the first floor was new. You can¡¯t expect a dungeon to give you all new species every floor.¡± ¡°I can expect it, and I will,¡± Charles pouted. This only made Franc laugh harder. After walking through a hallway that looped back and forth, they reached another puzzle door.This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings. ¡°I wonder what the picture is this time,¡± mused Lyra as she cocked her head to the side. ¡°Let¡¯s find out,¡± said Teri as she walked up to the door and starting sliding the puzzle around. In about the same time it took her to solve the first puzzle door, this new puzzle door clicked and started to open. ¡°Looks like a room focused around jellies,¡± Charles informed everyone. The door fully opened and everyone looked into the room. ¡°This room is certainly interesting,¡± said Duzzig with a raised eyebrow. ¡°You want to start mining jelly?¡± joked Peter. ¡°¡®Cause all dwarves work in mines.¡± ¡°You¡¯re the one who always says, ¡®When I worked in the mines¡­.¡¯.¡± Duzzig just grunted in return. The party entered the room with Charles, Peter, and Lyra examining the gelatinous rocks. Every step taken produced a squish sound, along with every prod from the three examiners. The three examiners soon discovered that the jelly imitating rocks only applied to the rock formations, as the walls, while covered in a layer of jelly, were still stone. The only creatures present in the room were jelly monsters, which, combined with the jelly floors, made it sound like a squish mill. The presence of a new, but similar, trap intrigued Peter, ¡°Hey, Lyra, this looks like the earth spike trap, but with some differences.¡± Lyra turned her attention away from the gelatinous stalagmites, and jogged over to Peter. She squatted down and began to examine the magic formation. ¡°It¡¯s definitely based off of the earth spike trap. I haven¡¯t had a long time to study the ones we¡¯ve come across, but if I was to guess, then it will likely shoot a spike of something in the same manner as the earth spike traps. What that something is, I couldn¡¯t¡­.¡± she gave a glance around the room, ¡°actually, I might know what it is.¡± ¡°Really? What?¡± However, Peter was met with silence causing him to glance up from examining the magic formation. Lyra¡¯s smirk just made him more confused before a quick glance around gave him his answer. ¡°Yeah, Yeah, I supposed it would be jelly. Hey, Duzzig! Come try this trap out!¡± Duzzig ambled over to them, ¡°What¡¯s it do?¡± ¡°Likely shoots a spike of jelly,¡± answered Lyra. ¡°Seems far less dangerous than an earth spike.¡± ¡°Agreed.¡± Peter and Lyra moved back while Duzzig activated the trap. Before he could move his head, a gong sounded. ¡°Damn, that was fast!¡± exclaimed Peter. Duzzig grasped his helmet and popped it off his head. He glared at the now jelly covered helmet. ¡°With that kind of speed, it will definitely hit low rank adventurers,¡± worried Lyra. ¡°But, it felt less dangerous that the earth spike,¡± argued Peter. Franc interrupted them, ¡°Considering how soft jelly is, while the jelly spike isn¡¯t dodgeable, it won¡¯t stab into an adventurer¡¯s head and kill them instantly. Even if the jelly spike knocks them out, they at least have a chance to recover.¡± The three of them nodded in agreement, and continued exploring the room. Soon after, the group discovered a hole puzzle. Said hole, while present in one of the jelly columns, was not see through. There seemed to be a black void in the middle of the jelly column. ¡°Ready, Duzzig? We¡¯ll help you answer, since you¡¯re not very smart,¡± smirked Peter. All he received was a growl in return as Duzzig stuck his hand into the hole. ¡°¡®Name a skill that the jelly monsters present in this room have¡¯,¡± read Charles. Before Charles could give Duzzig the answer, Teri interrupted him, ¡°This seems like the same kind of puzzle that was on the bottom of the pond. Should we test what the penalty is?¡± As the leader, Franc was the first to speak up, ¡°Normally, we¡¯d do a penalty run after we cleared the floor once, but with that completion list, we¡¯ll have to run it numerous times anyway so go ahead.¡± Duzzig shrugged and answered wrong. When he took his armored hand out of the hole, a swarm of mosquitoes followed. Before anyone could react, the swarm was covered in fire from Teri¡¯s flamethrower. She continued using it far past what any of the mosquitoes could have survived, melting a part of the jelly. The other five party members simply turned to Teri and smirked at her. She put away her flamethrower and simply muttered, ¡°Fine, I won¡¯t suggest trap testing again.¡± ¡°It¡¯s fine,¡± Franc chuckled. ¡°Actually, it was a better idea than I thought. Duzzig stick your hand back in there and see if we can answer again after triggering the trap.¡± Duzzig nodded in understanding, but no question appeared after sticking his hand back in. Satisfied, the party continued on to another math room, division this time. They received a pair of throwing daggers with twenty uses of the laceration effect on each. The laceration effect didn¡¯t have a time limit per use, simply a number of times the laceration effect could be applied to the opponent. Teri said that the effect was about a level five bleeding enchantment. Peter found them interesting even though they were far below his normal equipment. He remarked how they would be useful for low level assassins. Down the second corridor from the jelly room, the first being the math room, they encountered another sliding puzzle. ¡°A room with a sliding puzzle right off of another?¡± wondered Charles. ¡°It¡¯s slightly different. There¡¯s an F+ above the picture,¡± Teri pointed out. ¡°You don¡¯t think¡­.¡± Franc muttered. The group looked at each other and nodded. While Teri solved the sliding puzzle, Franc walked over to a wall, started kicking it, and complained loudly, ¡°You can¡¯t really call it a G rank floor if you have monsters above that rank! Giving a warning like that F+ still means there¡¯s an F+ rank monster to fight! This seems a bit out of the way, so I wouldn¡¯t call it trickery. However!¡± he pointed at the ceiling, ¡°If there are above G rank monsters on the only path to the boss room, then I¡¯m really going to complain! Normally this isn¡¯t a problem as we don¡¯t expect dungeons to play nice, but I thought we had something going with the slowly increasing difficulty!¡± Franc¡¯s foot was starting to hurt, so he stopped. ¡°You okay Franc?¡± Lyra asked, ¡°You don¡¯t usually talk to the dungeons.¡± ¡°Yeah, I¡¯m just stressed out from the workload this dungeon is producing,¡± he replied. Teri had solved the sliding puzzle and the door was opening. ¡°Multiple jellies of some kind,¡± informed Charles. The party walked into the room, where in the middle of a jelly cave, sat a single jelly. Confused, Charles appraised it, ¡°It¡¯s called Split Jelly. I¡¯ve never heard of it, but based on the picture and its name, I think we know what it does.¡± They approached the Jelly, in battle positions just in case. Charles summoned Ciel, the black panther. As they approached the jelly, it noticed them and immediately split into ten. The jelly¡¯s only problem being that it was fighting S+ rank adventurers, people it could not compare to. Each party member took a single swing, reducing the jelly to two forms instantly. The two vanguards, Franc and Duzzig, took a step forward and ended the remaining two with a second swing each. After the last jelly disappeared into loot, a click resounded in the room. The party cleaned their weapons as Duzzig stated, ¡°That sounded like something being unlocked.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll look around,¡± replied Peter as he walked off. Charles stared at the loot for a while before saying, ¡°Oh right, I should''ve captured it.¡± ¡°That¡¯s true,¡± said Lyra as she walked up beside him, ¡°but we always have to be careful with new monsters even if they have a low rank.¡± He nodded in agreement, but still seemed disappointed. From across the room, Peter yelled, ¡°Treasure chest!¡± The rest ambled over to his location and were met with Peter joking about them being slowpokes. ¡°Why haven¡¯t you opened it yet, Peter?¡± asked Franc, ¡°Is it a trap you can¡¯t deal with?¡± Peter looked offended, ¡°Of course not! I simply wanted all of us to witness the majesty of opening a treasure chest.¡± Franc rolled his eyes, ¡°Get on with it, Peter.¡± Peter pushed the lid off of the stone treasure chest, whistling a jingle as he did so. He reached into the treasure chest and pulled a composite bow out and held it above his head. The rest of the party looked exasperated, except for Teri who snatched the bow out of Peter¡¯s hand when he brought it down to her height. ¡°Hey!¡± yelled Peter. ¡°Sorry,¡± replied Teri already distracted by the bow. Peter¡¯s disgruntled face soon turned to one of intrigue, ¡°Is it that interesting?¡± However, Teri was too absorbed to answer. With a shrug of their shoulders, the group waited a couple minutes for Teri to tell them about the bow. ¡°The bow itself is lackluster as any of us could easily break it by pulling too hard. The enchantment is what made me so interested,¡± her eyes sparkled. ¡°Not only does it have one hundred uses, but just by pulling the string, an arrow of light is created. Of course, being a reward for an F+ rank monster means the power of the arrows aren¡¯t amazing.¡± During her explanation, the group¡¯s eyes changed from normal interest to intense focus. No one wanted to say it, but it was on all their minds: if this was a reward on the G rank floor for a F+ rank monster, then what would an S rank floor give. ¡°If only the material it was made out of was better, then the weaker light arrows wouldn¡¯t matter as it could be used against demons, undead, and other dark oriented monsters,¡± Teri finished. With that, they continued through the remaining pathway from the jelly room. Beyond a path that split into three, and converged back into one, the path they followed was linear. Eventually they reached another sliding puzzle. Teri made quick work of it. ¡°A slime,¡± Charles informed the group after the picture was complete. Peter, Lyra, Teri, and Duzzig all made faces of disgust based on the last sliding puzzle door room they were in. As they expected, the room was covered in slime. It dripped down the walls and from the ceiling. Puddles formed beneath the stalactites that slowly dripped slime. ¡°We could still spot the jellies in the previous room because of their round shape. Not only will the slimes in this room be hard to spot because of their clear nature camouflaging with the rest of the slime, they might be hiding in the puddles,¡± cautioned Franc. Even though the group could destroy every slime core with a single kick, they proceeded with caution. Eventually, Peter found a hole puzzle. It maintained the same pattern of questioning as the other hole puzzles, so Duzzig answered after Charles gave him the answer. Afterwards, the party just stared at the sword covered in slime. While the rest just stood staring at it, Teri inched forward until she grasped the hande with a grimace. ¡°I¡¯d normally call this a cursed weapon, but I can see the enchantment.¡± Franc narrowed his eyes, ¡°Cursed?¡± Teri stared at the sword with scrunched eyebrows and a pursed mouth, ¡°It produces slime. Slime that is acidic to itself, but not the wielder. In terms of usage, it¡¯s worse than a normal iron sword. The detrimental effect of the enchantment is very interesting, however.¡± ¡°How long until the acidic nature of the slime dissolves the sword?¡± wondered Lyra. Teri shook her head, ¡° can tell me the uses, time of each use, and the nature of the enchantment, but the time it will take to dissolve is based on the properties of the iron and the slime, which aren¡¯t covered by .¡± They continued exploring the room, but Lyra and Peter were crouched next to a trap. ¡°Looks like half of the water trap, similar to the ones it the water elemental room,¡± grimaced Peter. ¡°But in a slime room,¡± sighed Lyra with a hand to her head, ¡°We have to do it don¡¯t we. ¡­.You¡¯ll ask him right?¡± ¡°Why me?¡± ¡°You always get on his nerves anyway.¡± ¡°Yeah, that means he¡¯s more liable to cut me in half than you.¡± ¡°Please!¡± she pleaded. ¡°Fine,¡± agreed Peter as he walked over to Duzzig. Lyra watched as Duzzig¡¯s eyes narrowed and his hand stroked his axe. However, after Peter finished talking, Duzzig walked over with him. ¡°Give me a hydrophobic spell and I¡¯ll do it,¡± declared Duzzig. ¡°But what about-¡± Lyra began. ¡°We can test the slime¡¯s effect some other way, I¡¯m not getting slimed.¡± A staring contest later and Lyra relented. After the slime squirted on him, he walked away squeaky clean with a smile on his face. Lyra frowned after him, ¡°We didn¡¯t learn anything but what we already expected.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry, Lyra,¡± Peter consoled her, ¡°I¡¯m sure Franc will order him to do it again on one of the future runs.¡± Appeased, Lyra nodded in agreement. Chapter 28: Main Adventurer #7 There wasn¡¯t much in the room besides slimes and slime, so they continued on. They walked through a narrow pathway and two rectangular rooms before arriving in front of yet another sliding puzzle door. Teri immediately went to solve it, but a whoop of excitement echoed behind her. She turned around and saw Charles bouncing on the balls of his feet giggling like a noble¡¯s daughter. The edges of Lyra¡¯s mouth were fighting to stay straight as she was asking him what the depths made him so happy. Charles yelled at the top of his lungs, ¡°Spiders!¡± The other five winced at his loud voice, but he continued on, ¡°Not only that, but there¡¯s an F- above the puzzle! There might be a stronger, more unique spider in there! Come on, Teri, hurry up and complete it!¡± ¡°I already would have, if you didn¡¯t shout like a madman!¡± After the door started to open, Charles piped up, ¡°Make sure not to kill any and toss them to me!¡± ¡°Yeah, Yeah,¡± the other five responded. The door finished opening, and darkness greeted them. Even though they were S+ rank adventurers, they had gotten used to the bright caves on the first two floors, and could only stare. Franc was the first to snap out of it, ¡°See anything, Duzzig?¡± He shook his head before responding, ¡°Maybe a couple of webs, but¡­.¡± ¡°But?¡± ¡°I should be able to see more with my level of .¡± A quiet laugh appeared at the back of the group, ¡°Heehee.¡± Franc, Duzzig, Peter, and Teri turned to look back. Lyra had her hand up to her mouth with a wide grin on her face, her unblinking eyes staring into the dark void of the room in front of them. ¡°I knew lights weren¡¯t the only thing you could do, little dungeon. What else do you have in store for me? First this darkness, then what? Heehee.¡± Charles sighed, having snapped out of his own excited, and shook her shoulder, ¡°Okay, Lyra, focus on the dungeon.¡± She stopped but pouted at him, ¡°Hypocrite.¡± Charles just shrugged his shoulders with a smile and summoned Ciel. The darkness would help him hide, and he had good night vision. ¡°Lyra, give us some light,¡± instructed Franc. Small balls of light appeared around and in their party formation. They walked into the room. Immediately two spiders leaped at them. Franc and Duzzig just as immediately caught them and tossed them to Charles. He crushed one and captured the other. ¡°Ice spider, depths yeah.¡± Only a minute after entering the room, they came upon a golden apple tree. Franc plucked them and tossed one to each member. ¡°Right, there were these,¡± said Duzzig between mouthfuls. ¡°Could they support a town?¡± ¡°They would help,¡± began Teri, ¡°but as long as danger surrounds them, harvesters would require soldiers or adventurers to protect them. That raises costs for both the harvesters and the buyers.¡± ¡°What if the Emperor provided soldiers specifically for that purpose?¡± wondered Peter. ¡°Doubtful,¡± muttered Lyra. ¡°It¡¯s possible,¡± Teri raised her voice over Lyra¡¯s. ¡°However, with the war, I doubt he has the manpower.¡± The continued discussing using the golden apples trees as a food source. The biggest argument, besides the first, being, who would want to harvest apples in a room full of spider webs. Eventually, they continued on. The density of spiders was quite high, so that made it slow going, since they had to give every spider to Charles. ¡°Can I kill the ones I recognize?¡± asked Duzzig. ¡°No!¡± shouted Charles, ¡°While there are some marking differences, a lot of them look very similar. Without or an intimate knowledge of spider monster types, it would be very difficult to differentiate them.¡± ¡°Fine.¡± ¡°Hey, Lyra, these light balls aren¡¯t working great. Do you think it would be possible to dispel the darkness around us?¡± Franc questioned. ¡°I can try, but while it doesn¡¯t seem like the deepest darkness, based on what this dungeon can do with light magic, I might drain myself of mana.¡± ¡°Then let¡¯s wait until we clear this room, map the floor, and fight the boss before you give it a try. No reason to waste mana potions if we don¡¯t have to.¡± Lyra nodded and turned her attention to Charles, ¡°Besides ice what new ones did you get?¡± ¡°Electric, lightning, poisonous, and pressure.¡± ¡°Pressure?¡± ¡°It¡¯s an unusual attribute. When I caught it, even though I was holding it by the top, it felt like it was still attacking me. I read through its skill list, and may be the cause.¡± The two of them discussed the rest of the spiders as Charles kept catching the new ones tossed at him. However, most were simply squished in his hand or tossed to Ciel to munch on. Soon after, Peter called the party to stop. Franc was also in the middle of raising his hand to stop the party. They both smirked at one another before Franc spoke first. ¡°The web in front of us looks almost molten.¡± ¡°I detected a sudden spike in danger, enough to cause some harm,¡± added Peter. ¡°Lyra, use some of your metal to cut the web,¡± ordered Franc. ¡°Of course,¡± she replied. A metal disk flew around cutting the edges of the glowing red spider web. As it fell to the ground, it started hissing and steaming. A spider had also scurried over to see what was going on. It noticed its missing web, and raised its front legs in scare tactic against the intruders. When that didn¡¯t work, it leaped, like the rest of its brethren, towards them, sealing its fate. When Charles appraised it, he whooped in joy, ¡°A Magma Web Spider! Ascension! It can create webs made of magma! It also has heat and melting resistance.¡± ¡°I think all of us could have guessed its ability to create webs made of magma,¡± joked Peter. A quick laugh and the group moved on. They soon came across a treasure chest. It was filled with stone coins, a couple of iron coins, and even a brass coin. Near the treasure chest was a heat spider that Charles started to giggle over. As they walked through the floor, encountering some large rocks, more golden apple trees, and a plethora of spiders, they noticed a large skittering coming in their direction. They pulled out their weapons, and prepared their spells. The only difference being Lyra¡¯s wall of metal was less dense and leisurely rather than a tornado. Scuttling across the webs in front of them was a bulbous spider with scythes for its front legs. Rather than leap at them like the rest, it turned its butt towards them and sprayed silk. ¡°It¡¯s not normal silk!¡± yelled Peter. Franc swung his sword blowing the silk, webs, and spider in front of them away. The spider struggled on its back before flipping over and dashing towards them. Once it was in range, Charles informed them, ¡°Poisonous Scythe Spider, F- rank.¡± With that, Duzzig placed his axe in his belt and shield on his back. Using his two gauntleted hands, he grabbed the spider and held it in place. ¡°Ready, Charles?¡± Charles jogged forward and turned the spider into a ball as soon as he was within reach. ¡°If that was similar to the split jelly, there should be a treasure around here right?¡± questioned Peter while rubbing his hands together. ¡°Probably,¡± Teri added. ¡°Where are we in the room and where do you think the treasure will be, Peter?¡± asked Franc. ¡°Based on the curve of the wall, we¡¯re close to the other side of the room. If I was the dungeon, I¡¯d place the reward for slaying the more difficult monster in the center of the room.¡± ¡°Right, then let¡¯s¡­.Peter?¡± ¡°Yeah?¡± ¡°You said we¡¯re close to the other side of the room right?¡± ¡°....Yeah?¡± ¡°Let¡¯s just give the other side a quick look before we go searching for that treasure chest.¡± ¡°Alright,¡± said Peter extending his words, ¡°you¡¯re the leader.¡± The party continued on to the other side of the room from where they entered. As they got closer, they noticed a door. A little closer they noticed it had a picture on it. Even closer and they noticed it was an array of pictures in a circle. The boss door. Franc just stared at the door for a couple minutes before finally speaking, ¡°I¡¯m not mad, I¡¯m disappointed.¡± Peter started laughing but began coughing at a sharp glare from Franc. ¡°I suppose I expected too much from a dungeon that gave advice on the monster ranks in a floor, but in the end, a dungeon¡¯s a dungeon.¡± Franc had a scowl on his face as he turned around and ordered, ¡°Let¡¯s look for that treasure.¡± They marched to the center of the room on Peter¡¯s direction, but rather than a treasure chest, they found another hole puzzle. ¡°¡®Name a skill from the sub-boss in this room¡¯,¡± Charles read. ¡°Sub-boss? This doesn¡¯t give the feel of a sub-boss room,¡± muttered Franc. ¡°It might not be, but that seems to be what the dungeon considers its above average difficulty monsters.¡± ¡°You remember its skills?¡± asked Duzzig. ¡°Yep,¡± replied Charles. After a correct answer, a sizeable number of mana stone appeared in place of the question and rolled off of the rock. Teri squatted over them, ¡°G, G+, and F- rank stones. All poison attribute.¡± ¡°Not a lot of things use poison,¡± grumbed Peter. ¡°Not a lot of dungeons produce poison attribute mana stones, so they¡¯re not worthless. Also, says the guy who poisons his own daggers.¡±This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. ¡°Yeah, but I coat mine in actual poison. They¡¯re not enchanted daggers.¡± ¡°It seems the treasure chest wasn¡¯t here, Peter. Unless, the hole puzzle was the treasure chest equivalent for this room?¡± Franc asked. ¡°It¡¯s possible, as we only have the one other sub-boss to go on. However, dungeons generally keep things the same. At least, for the same floor¡­.¡± he trailed off. This dungeon wasn¡¯t exactly normal. ¡°If there¡¯s a treasure chest, then we¡¯ll find it as we explore the rest of the room.¡± With half of the room cleared, they began back up at the entrance of the room and started making their way through the other half, towards the boss door. Around another golden apple tree, Duzzig tossed two spiders back to Charles. Neither were squished as he stared intensely at them. Slowly his mouth twisted into a grin and he began to breath heavily. Even Lyra, who didn¡¯t have as many problems with Charles¡¯ oddities, looked at him askance, ¡°Stop acting like a pervert.¡± Charles twitched at that and turned to Lyra, ¡°I¡¯m not a pervert! These spiders have multiple attributes!¡± She instantly spun towards him, marched over, and leaned over to stare with intensity towards the two spiders. ¡°These tiny, weak things have multiple attributes?!¡± she hissed. ¡°I know right!¡± ¡°This dungeon must be great at magic if it can create a balance in these spiders.¡± The two shivered and smirked at each other before Franc interrupted them, ¡°You two can orgasm about magic later. We need to finish this floor and fight the boss.¡± They looked sour but got back in proper formation. About halfway through the rest of the room, they found two treasure chests sitting close to one another. One opened easily and revealed a wooden halberd, but the other was locked tight. ¡°It¡¯s stone,¡± muttered Peter, ¡°so maybe it¡¯s the treasure chest for the sub-boss, but it¡¯s still locked.¡± ¡°You don¡¯t see anyway to unlock it?¡± asked Teri as she helped him examine the chest. ¡°Nope.¡± ¡°If Peter can¡¯t see anyway to unlock it, then we¡¯ll continue on,¡± stated Franc. The party started to walk away from the chest, but as they did so a loud click echoed throughout the room. All of their heads turned to look at the chest. Franc nodded at Peter, who walked over the chest, gave it a once over, and tried pushed the lid off. Unlike before, the lid easily fell off. An iron mace with ten uses of hardness appeared. ¡°Why did the chest suddenly unlock?¡± whispered Lyra. ¡°....Oh!¡± exclaimed Charles, ¡°What if the sub-boss had to be killed for the chest to unlock? We didn¡¯t kill it, I just captured it.¡± ¡°The dungeon reacted that quickly? And why would it change the unlock requirements?¡± mused Franc, ¡°Sure, dungeons change in response to adventurers, but only a minute after we noticed the chest wasn¡¯t unlocked? That¡¯s odd.¡± ¡°We all know this dungeon¡¯s odd, Franc, you don¡¯t need to point it out again,¡± Teri jokingly chided him. ¡°I know, but¡­.¡± he stopped at the rest of the group was grinning at him, ¡°....right, I can do that later. Let¡¯s go then.¡± Dungeon Reconnaissance saved the boss fight for last and explored the rest of the floor. They came across four more puzzle rooms where the prizes consisted of three swords, two iron and one wood, with flame, hardness, and sharpness enchantments. The last one, Duzzig had a go and intentionally answered wrong. After a quick shock to his system, they learned that the puzzle didn¡¯t work after answering wrong. On the only unexplored path from the slime room, they came across another sub-boss room. Charles, with the help of Ciel¡¯s shadow walk ability, snuck up on the split slime and captured it. Obtaining a iron sword with ten uses of sharpness, finally started the debate that should have started with the iron mace and its ten uses of hardness. Was a crappy bow with a great enchantment or an okay weapon with an okay enchantment better? They each had their own opinions, and only stopped arguing after Franc told them to shut up. Peter had been the first to notice as there was a large, empty space on his map. On their way back from the entrance of the floor, they arrived in front of a sliding door puzzle. ¡°Considering how linear this floor is compared to the last, I¡¯m surprised we missed a whole room,¡± nodded Peter. ¡°Can you tell what it is without Teri completing the puzzle, Charles?¡± ¡°I think all of us can see that it¡¯s a bird of some kind. Although, based on the shape of the wings, it might be a swallow.¡± ¡°Birds in caves, that¡¯s a bit more unusual,¡± mumbled Teri as she started moving the picture pieces around. ¡°And more dungeon like,¡± added Lyra. ¡°True, this dungeon¡¯s use of creatures that would fit in a normal cave system is quite unusual,¡± agreed Charles. ¡°Are you all forgetting about the golden apple trees? You don¡¯t find those every day in caves,¡± argued Duzzig. ¡°Yeah, but, before the spider room on this floor, we only saw one.¡± ¡°So, why didn¡¯t you mention their unusual nature in the spider room?¡± ¡°....It didn¡¯t come to me then.¡± Teri just chuckled as the two of them argued over something she was the first to bring up. With a click, the puzzle was finished and the door opened. A wide open room appeared. Nests of light covered the walls, lighting up the room. Streams gurgled down the walls and across the room into ponds. Swallows glided across the room from hole to hole. Mosquitoes and flies buzzed. Dragonflies darted. Butterflies hovered. And in the distance a tree could be barely made out, with a faint noise coming from its direction. ¡°Looks like we saved the biggest room for last,¡± announced Peter with a wave of his hand. ¡°It¡¯s not that much bigger than the spider room,¡± countered Charles. ¡°In fact, the shape of the room might make it seem bigger.¡± ¡°It doesn¡¯t matter how big the room is, we just need to explore it,¡± finished Franc. As they started walking, Charles informed them, ¡°Make sure to kill the flies and mosquitoes, but especially the flies. They¡¯ll lay their eggs in you.¡± Teri¡¯s arm twitched to her space bag, but Lyra placed a hand on her shoulder and shook her head. She pouted, but didn¡¯t take out her flamethrower. As their march led them to the center of the room, they dispatched dive bombing swallows and found a treasure chest. Once they reached the outer edge of the middle pond, the faint noise coming from the golden apple tree erupted into a screeching. A dull pain shot through each of their heads. Duzzig was the first to act. He slammed his axe and shield together and shouted, ¡°Dome of Silence.¡± A thin film covered the party in the shape of the dome. The dull pain resounding in their minds went away. ¡°Thanks, Duzzig,¡± said Franc as he patted the dwarf on the back. ¡°It¡¯s my job,¡± he smiled back. ¡°Charles?¡± continued Franc. ¡°Screeching Cicada with a level three .¡± ¡°Most of us have level one mental resistance while Duzzig has level two. This could be a good place to train mental resistance. Although, most don¡¯t train it because having something invade your mind is not enjoyable.¡± ¡°Any who don¡¯t have mental resistance will find this room tough,¡± added Peter. ¡°If it¡¯s level three, then we should practice ours too,¡± Lyra pointed out. ¡°For now, after Charles captures one, let¡¯s kill them, so we don¡¯t have to deal with a dull pain throughout the rest of the room,¡± finished Franc. They rushed out of Duzzig¡¯s Dome of Silence and sliced each one in half while Charles grabbed the closest one and captured it. With the cicadas out of the way, the rest of the room was smooth sailing. Another treasure was found, the hole puzzle was easy, and the only other monster in the room was the wet fern. The group started walking towards the exit, but Lyra was staring at a flytrap plant as they walked by, ¡°Hey Charles. I saw you capture one earlier, but what¡¯s this one¡¯s name? It¡¯s at the tip of my tongue.¡± ¡°That? It¡¯s an Ehla Flytrap. You must of seen some in a church.¡± ¡°Oh yeah! Do you think they¡¯ll want some from the dungeon?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know, I¡¯m not a big church goer.¡± Franc interjected, ¡°It won¡¯t be profitable, but the Church always puts out requests when one of their plants die.¡± ¡°That means Church Points! Way better than money,¡± Duzzig yelled back. ¡°Is not being a big church goer the reason you didn¡¯t get your eye regenerated, Charles?¡± Franc asked. ¡°Nah, they said it¡¯s cursed and can¡¯t be regenerated, but thankfully this one,¡± he tapped his eye, ¡°can see just as well.¡± The other five glanced at each other as they burst out laughing. Their roars only confused Charles. Lyra hugged him, tears forming in her eyes from laughing, ¡°Sorry Charles, but it¡¯s just all these years, none of us asked about your eye because we thought it was a taboo subject, but you answered so easily.¡± Charles joined in their laughter and shook his head, ¡°I told you guys about my scars, why wouldn¡¯t I tell you about my eye?¡± ¡°An eye¡¯s something that most get regenerated, so we assumed not a topic of conversation,¡± said Peter as he wiped his eyes. ¡°All of you are big fat idiots.¡± They just laughed harder. While joking with one another, the reached the boss door. The mushroom section of the door was glowing. Duzzig started flipping a coin in his hand, ¡°Want to try this?¡± He held up a stone coin with the relief from the first floor boss door on one side and a skull on the other. ¡°Doubt it will work. Something that lets us choose the boss on all floors by defeating all the bosses on the first floor is too great a reward,¡± shot down Peter. ¡°Doesn¡¯t hurt to try though,¡± said Duzzig as he walked up to the door. The glowing section of the door persisted on the mushroom section no matter how long he stood holding the coin to the door. He sighed, ¡°Damn, if the special boss is the same, those mushroom men are a tough fight without Teri¡¯s flamethrower.¡± ¡°Since we can¡¯t change the boss, here¡¯s the plan,¡± Franc started. ¡°Lyra will use a giant, spinning razor to slice the first boss in half, one-shotting it. If the special boss is the same as the first floor, then we will attempt fighting it without Teri¡¯s flamethrower. Teri, during the fight make sure the number of mushroom men doesn¡¯t exceed five. If the special boss is something new, especially something new and more powerful, then we¡¯ll put all our effort towards protecting Teri while she burns the shit out of it. Ready?¡± ¡°Ready!¡± they all yelled. With that they walked into the boss room. The door closed behind them and bulbs of light sprouted from ground. They sprouted into mushroom caps across the room, and at the far side of the room was a five foot tall mushroom standing on two legs. It had no arms or eyes, but a wide mouth crossed most of its body. Lyra¡¯s flying metal had already formed together and was spinning at high speeds. With a thought the spinning metal bisected the mushroom man. Two vertical halves fell to the side and disappeared. ¡°Get ready!¡± shouted Franc. The metal saw flew back, split apart, and stormed around the party forming a protective barrier. Using some of her metal, Lyra formed a lightweight metal armor around herself, becoming a metal maiden. Teri had her flamethrower prepped and ready to go at anytime. She also had a one handed pistol at her side to help with the normal fight. Peter calmed himself and let his mana take over his body. His innate attribute amplified his unique skill allowing him to feel minute changes in danger throughout the room. He also glazed his daggers in plantfire oil. Ciel, the black panther, Nielfor, the dread cockatrice, and Lioric, the silver gryphon had already been removed from Charles¡¯ tamer home prior to entering the boss room. Ciel was prepared to guard the backliners, while Nielfor and Lioric prepared their attacks for a barrage the instant the mushroom man spawned. Duzzig¡¯s entire body bulged and his armor and weapons were covered in dim light. Wind armor formed around Franc¡¯s body, and a storm of wind blades formed around his greatsword. The perky light mushrooms withered and hissed as mouths full of rotten teeth appeared all over them. And across the room formed a ten foot tall mushroom man. It was a dirty white color, its cap drooping over its abyss, black eyes. No mouth was present between its deceptively thin arms. As soon as it appeared, a storm of metal blades, wind blades, and fire shots enveloped it. Chunks of mushroom flew out from the storm and splattered into the surrounding walls. Teri quickly counted the number of chunks, eleven, and pulled out her flamethrower, ¡°Hurry, before they grow!¡± The party rushed towards the closest chunks and were able to burn four of them. However, seven, ten feet tall mushroom men now stood in the room. In a blink all seven of them had rushed forward and began punching Lyra¡¯s metal storm, denting it. Their hands were torn off, but were quickly grown back. One of them was unlucky enough to receive the entirety of Teri¡¯s flamethrower and melted into nothing. Six remained. The mushroom men backed off slightly, which allowed the party to shift their formation into the correct position. Franc nodded at Duzzig who stepped forward out of the metal storm. He focused on one and yelled while banging his shield with his axe, ¡°Come get me you toad brain!¡± It shivered and rushed at Duzzig. It pulled back its arm and smashed its fist into his shield. The impact sent Duzzig flying several feet back into the party formation onto his butt. However, the mushroom man was now within range. Teri let loose as fire covered the repositioning mushroom man who flailed as it burned to nothing. Five left. The mushroom men had seem surprised by the other one running off and were now looking at one another. They nodded to the one at the end who reached for its arm. ¡°Rush!¡± shouted Franc. The party sprinted toward the group of five. The fifth mushroom man ripped its arm off and threw it away, while the other four attempted to back off. As they did so, one started turning to stone, another had it¡¯s legs ripped off by a sneaking Ciel, and the other three were taunted by Duzzig, who had sweat pouring down his face. Now in position, Teri used her flamethrower to burn every piece of them. With the last remains smoldering, Franc turned to Lyra, ¡°You get it?¡± ¡°Yep, caught it with some blades. Once they¡¯re in small enough pieces, they don¡¯t sprout mushroom men anymore.¡± The loot appeared in the ashes of the five mushroom men, and Duzzig fell to his butt, ¡°Shit, those things hit hard.¡± ¡°You need a potion?¡± asked Lyra. ¡°Yeah, can¡¯t move my arm very well. It¡¯s not broken, but something definitely tore.¡± She took a red potion out of her bag and handed it to him. He took it before handing it back, ¡°It¡¯s not that bad.¡± ¡°Better safe than sorry,¡± she ordered. He growled, ¡°I¡¯ve taken enough potions to know what kind I need, Lyra.¡± ¡°Fine, medium then,¡± handing over a pink potion. This time Duzzig gulped it down without complaint. The others were picking up the loot and checking out the completion window. ¡°Good job ignoring my orders Teri. They looked like they were going to grow as many mushroom men as possible,¡± Franc thanked her. ¡°You¡¯re welcome. But why did their fighting pattern change so much? Last time when it split for the first time, it never split again. No matter how much damage we did to them, they didn¡¯t intentionally create more.¡± Franc considered it for a moment before turning to Charles, ¡°Were they the same monsters as last time?¡± ¡°Yeah, so I don¡¯t know either.¡± Franc sighed, ¡°Looks like it¡¯s something we¡¯ll have to think about later.¡± With that the three of them went back to examining loot. ¡°It seems like we got a higher percentage of treasures than we did the first run through of the first floor,¡± recalled Peter. ¡°We¡¯ll look at that thing later,¡± snapped Franc. ¡°They have their first floor to play around in, so we won¡¯t be filling that out until we reach the dungeon core. Once we get to the next entrance room, we¡¯ll rest for a bit and then head to the third floor.¡± ¡°Okay,¡± everyone shouted back. Chapter 29 Ian began work on his next floor, the G+ rank floor. He started by creating medium sized, hemispherical rooms arranged in a three by three. Pathways sprouted from the center room. They extended outwards until eight corridors connected the center room to the surrounding eight. These eight rooms also had pathways sprout from them. Unlike the center room, only two extended out to connect with the remaining two adjacent rooms. Each pathway met with another and formed the corridors between rooms. The final two pathways began forming. One of them arose from what he designated the top middle room. This pathway did not act as a corridor, but began in a dead end. In this dead end, slowly the transfer formation that would lead intruders from the entrance room formed on the floor and the walls. Soon after, the inscriptions on the wall disappeared, leaving only the floor inscription visible to the inquisitive eye. Opposite of the top middle room, the other pathway had formed from the bottom middle room. It too did not become a corridor, but a dead end. However, it was only a dead end for now. Only later on would its job of being a corridor to the boss room be fulfilled. The basic cave layout was maintained throughout the rooms. Stalactites dripped water down from the ceiling, while stalagmites caught that falling water. Columns represented the final act of convergence. Of course, this was all created by Ian and not natural column formation. The only concession to a normal cave layout was the empty space present in the center of each room. He left more room than he assumed he would need, as he had yet to decide what monster each room would contain. A few small clear ponds and puddles dotted the rooms. His proficiency in making them look natural had only increased the more floors he made. It only took two days for the barebones layout to appear. While he did have enough detail to appease himself, he didn¡¯t come close to the meticulousness he needed for Magical Beauty. He could only hope his plans to mitigate the detail that Magical Beauty needed worked out. The overall floor size was smaller compared to his previous floors, but the purpose of the floor would be centered around the checkpoint system he used in the EX rank floor and his illusion magic. Each room would have a specific type of monster. Ian brought up his monster list and began scrolling through it. Habitually he flicked his pages to scroll. A habit people, and now books, often formed even when they knew any sort of interaction with the windows needed only a thought. He soon realized that having one monster type per room was limiting himself. Especially since he had so many spider variants. To expedite the floor building he made the decision to not make any new monsters, no matter how much he wanted to. The first room from the entrance would be the blind swallow room. Balls of rock popped out of the walls, columns, stalactites, and stalagmites. They hit and bounced off the ground before disappearing. The absences of these balls of rock left hollows throughout the room. Inside these hollows, nests of light formed string by string as they mimicked the clumped nature of a grass and mud nest. Swallows, created soon after, flew to the hollows where they rested and chirped at each other as ordered. On every walkable path, lightly glowing formations appeared. In close proximity to these formations that dotted the floor, a separate formation appeared on the ceiling a small distance away. A swallow flew down from its hollows nest and landed on the floor formation. A flash of light lit up the room, while the swallow flew back to its hollow completely unphased. In the middle point between two corridors a wood treasure chest appeared, filled with mana stones and coins. It was situated slightly behind a column. From the empty center of the room, only a couple inches of the edge could be seen. From the entrance, to the right of the swallow room, and through a corridor, knee high mushrooms with mouths filled with vicious teeth sprouted from the ground. They lurked behind columns and stalagmites ready to nip at ankles that passed them by. A few hung from stalactites, ready to get their fill of a new meal, like eyebrows. Mushrooms of the same size, but mouthless, formed around the ankle biters in both a physical and light form. The physical mushrooms clumped with the mouthy ones, while the mushrooms of light spread throughout the room. They grew from the ceiling, the walls, the floor, and every structure available. While lighting up the room, they also provided a nice distraction. In between the mushrooms, pieces of shimmering cave floor appeared that futilely hid moderately deep holes. Their density made it impossible to walk the room without encountering one every few feet. A wooden treasure chest appeared near a wall, opposite of the corridors as the final touch. Each room received their monsters, traps, lights, and treasure in a similar manner. Slimes, jellies, moss, water elementals, ferns, spiders, and cicadas all placed in ambush spots and walkable paths. Traps, placed to fit the monster of each room, were numerous. Luckily for Ian he had already created the traps he needed. Although, more elemental traps would have been nice for the elemental spider room. He supposed he could make those in the future. A single treasure chest was present in each room with the same reward. For the adventurous types? Boring. For those who made adventuring their job? Stability. It was something he could do without driving off high rank adventurers because it was such low floor. If he did it on a high rank floor? Say hello to scorn and goodbye long lasting adventurers that would unknowingly help him spread mana to the universe. Near the end of the fifth day when he was finishing up the last room, the center room where he placed the cicadas, he realized that he in fact didn¡¯t have traps to thematically fit each room. He was willing to shrug off having illusion pitfalls in the mushroom, moss, and fern rooms. But having illusion pitfalls in the cicada room? It bugged him to no end. Since everything else was finished in regards to placement, he spent the rest of the fifth day making the sound trap. It worked in the same way as the flash trap. When the formation present on the floor was touched, it would trigger the other formation to release a wailing sound. Unlike the flash trap, the formation that released the sound was at head height rather than on the ceiling. To make the trap G+ appropriate, Ian didn¡¯t use any mind altering effects. The trap would hurt the ears, but not the mind. Even thought it was a G+ floor, he didn¡¯t want the checkpoints to be solved by just walking in a circle or going from room to room in a linear fashion. However, first he needed to make the ¡®items¡¯ each checkpoint would be attached to. He had used reliefs of Gazers on the EX rank floor, but these checkpoints would be golems. Why golems? Because he had a great punishment idea for the idiotic and dense. Ian began with the spider golem. Even though he put elemental spiders in the room, the golem would be based off of a normal spider. He first created the core of the golem, a fistfull of dirt which surrounded a G+ rank mana heart. The outside was enchanted with durability, resilience, life, golem, and automata magic. Slowly but surely, Ian created new layer after new layer each enchanted with the same magic and supported by multiple G+ rank mana hearts. Each layer mimicked the biology of a normal spider to the utmost degree of Ian¡¯s knowledge. It was not to the molecular level, but the function and form of each organ and body part was accurately portrayed. The core started in the abdomen between the intestine and ovary. Each layer couldn¡¯t incorporate a whole organ, so connections between layers had to be made to correctly mimic a biological organ. Thus, the first layer beyond the core contained parts of the intestine and ovary, but both organs were only completed after a few more layers. The layers continued to build outwards, forming the heart, the lungs, the stomach, the silk gland, and the spinnerets. The eyes, brain, and venom glands were formed in the last layers of the golem construction. Every organ worked magically, but not biologically. For instance, every thread spun would act as magically casted string, and only last for a limited time. Finally, the last layer was placed and an earth based spider golem stood about waist high in the center of a room. However, mana rushed from outside the dungeon into the golem spider. *ding*
Achievement: Indestructible Spider Automata [S] created for the first time. +100 DP
Achievement: Forced the Dungeon System to create a monster for you. +10,000 DP
Achievement: Forced the Dungeon System to create a monster for you far above your current total mana pool. +100,000 DP
You¡¯re a fucking cheater, Ian.
¡°Hey! I didn¡¯t force shit. I made a golem like I normally do, and your dungeon system decided that it deserved to be a monster.¡± Silence. ¡°Well,¡± Ian continued, ignoring the lack of a response, ¡°no matter how much I wanted to punish idiots, an S rank golem is a bit much. Although¡­.,¡± he brought up the status menu.
Race: Indestructible Spider Automata
Rank: S
Attribute: Earth
Development: 0/100
Titles: Dungeon Born
Skills
Bite Stealth
Venom Creation Silk Creation
Physical Resistance Physical Nullity
Magical Resistance Magical Nullity
Sentience Tackle
Description
A spider golem enchanted to such a degree that is has reached near indestructibility. Although not truly indestructible, it is close enough to have earned the moniker. Beyond its indestructibility, it has gained minor sentience and became an automata. Only time will tell whether it can grow its sentience.
Common Item Drops
S mana heart Automata Cores
Ian started coughing, but soon regained control of himself. He sighed. It seemed the resistance and nullity of his golem¡­.automata affected the rank more than its lacking skills. Also, with the enchantments he placed on the¡­.automata, there should have been no nullity and only level seven or eight resistance skills. He thought the low level skills with high resistance would create around an E rank monster. He was wrong. Did the mana injection from outside the dungeon, or the dungeon system as the System called it, influence it? It must have. Especially the fact that he finally created a damn automata. He gritted his non-existent teeth. All those years after discovering that ruin with automata magic, he never succeeded in making an automata, only stronger golems. As soon as a dungeon that can create life interferes, his golem gains sentience. If sentience and life were required to make an automata, then how did that ancient nation create them? It looked like he had another thing to add to his to do list after he got an avatar. With that in mind, Ian glanced at his time remaining and realized he spent five days creating the spider automata. He could only slap his inner spine with his pages. If he wanted to get an avatar and find everyone, then he needed to pick up his pace. Although, being closed off from the outside world and knowing they weren¡¯t in any imminent danger didn¡¯t help his urgency. How he died affecting the others concerned him, but if he hadn¡¯t been able to do anything about it then, he couldn¡¯t help them now. With the spider a bust in terms of difficulty, he revised his golem plan. He needed to make golems similar to his early days. He registered the automata in the respawn room and placed it with the five goblins and one hobgoblin. Subsequently, he asked them to get along. He ignored Yervin¡¯s glare and pursed mouth along with the other¡¯s slight shaking and got to work. Three days later, Ian had successfully made an E- rank spider golem. Intentionally reducing the ability of something was a lot more work than he thought. He supposed it was unsurprising as a lot of the strength of a golem came from its intricacies, and the better control over mana he had the more intricate he could make the golems. It no longer had the nullity and sentience skills, and its resistance skills were reduced to level 6, even lower than his original goal. With that, he spent eight more days creating the other eight golems.Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation. Most of the golems were straightforward, but a few needed some changes. The fern golem required stronger roots, so it could pull itself up from the ground and chase after intruders. Do to prior experience, he knew that the water elemental golem needed to be made out of water, otherwise it would be an earth elemental golem. As such, he used the cave water to form a mimic of the floating light that all low rank elementals were. He had long ago learned how to use magic to write enchantments on liquids, so the process took no longer than it would have writing the enchantment on rock. Even though a moving moss golem could still move, it was slow. However, the moss ball boss from the boss room wasn¡¯t, so even though it wasn¡¯t a mimic of the monsters in the room, he created a moss ball golem. The ankle biter golem would have the same immobility problem that the fern golem had, so rather than make an ankle biter golem, he made a golem based off of the mushman. Mushmen were another variety of mushroom monster. Unlike ankle biters, they didn¡¯t have a mouth and instead had legs, and sometimes arms. It wasn¡¯t his main focus, but he had spent some time studying the connection between the two. His studies had shown they were closely related, but he had never been able to evolve one into the other. However, the fact that the boss monster for the ankle biters was a variety of mushman, meant there was a definite connection. Did he need to make a mushman? With the creation ability he could shape feet onto the ankle biter in a similar fashion as he had shaped the scythe spider¡¯s front legs into scythes. The ferns and moss had low mobility in the same manner as the ankle biters, but with the wet ferns and the mosses better spore creation ability, their range was farther than the ankle biters. He knew he had already decided on his course of action and got started. He used his creation ability on the G- rank Ankle Biter, and he gave an ankle biter legs. Using his knowledge of anatomy, he formed legs that would accurately support the weight and shape of the ankle biter. They weren¡¯t exact duplicates of other mushman legs as they often didn¡¯t have a movable mouth to support. The successful addition of legs to the ankle biter produced a new monster called Vicious Tiny Mushman. Now rather than biting at ankles as they passed, it could run up to people and bite at their ankles. A truly innovative creature. It was unsuprising that Ian ended up making both a new trap and a new monster after promising himself that he wouldn¡¯t. With the golems completed, he placed each of them in the center of their respective rooms. For now he ordered them to stand still, but that would change later. Before he set his checkpoints, he made a double door, rounded at the top and square at the bottom. He placed it between the pathway to boss room and the water elemental room, the former bottom middle room. Now he could set it to unlock after all checkpoints were reached in order. Ian set the order to go from the cicada room, the center room, until the moss room, the room right of the water elemental room from the entrance, for the final checkpoint. The checkpoints were setup so that the only time the intruders went through a single corridor was from the first checkpoint to the second. All others required at least two corridors and another room, mainly the center room. Unlike the EX floor, the checkpoints would reset after an incorrect checkpoint was touched. Thus, the floor required not just touching the correct checkpoints, but remembering their order. He debated whether to randomize the checkpoints, but thought that would be far too difficult for such an early floor. Besides, one of the key elements for any aspiring dungeon diver was information exchange outside the dungeon. The next element of the floor would make or break his ability to produce a floor faster than he had previously. Each room slowly, and methodically disappeared. Swallows flying in midair turned to nothing. Treasure chests blinked out of existence. Every glowing formation piece by piece evaporated. Eventually all that was left of the rooms were the cave formations, and the lonely golems in the center of each room. However, Ian coursed illusion mana through himself, his core and the dungeon, until everything was normal again. Well, normal in that he could now perceive what was always there. The illusion cast upon the floor was more than visual. Any intruder entering the floor would not smell, hear, see, taste, or feel anything in the room. Everything was still physically there, but even if the intruders were to step or run into a monster, the illusion would reconfigure their memories instantaneously to make it as if it never happened. Ian made sure this effect was applied to both his creatures and the intruders, otherwise his creatures would attack and kill the intruders before they had any idea what was going on, a bit much for a G+ floor. This type of illusion, while interesting, would have no effect unless there was a way to dispel it. He had made this illusion even more detailed and powerful than the fish from the G- floor, so an illusionist would have to be EX rank to even consider dispelling it on their own. Thus, he would tie his illusions to the checkpoints. When a checkpoint was touched incorrectly, the illusion on the room would dispel. The revealed room was, of course, filled with traps and monsters. At this point a thought occurred to Ian and he got to work. Magic flowed through each golem. A lattice of green and red light appeared tied to the eyes or the most prominent feature of each golem. This lattice was in turn connected to the checkpoint system. If the checkpoint was touched correctly, then the golem would light up green. If the checkpoint was touched incorrectly, then the golem would light up red. The most notable feature of the light up golems was that the green light would persist, while the red light would disappear after a few seconds. There were three scenarios that Ian had yet to take into account. The first was if every checkpoint was touched correctly the first time. If that happened, no monsters would have been killed and the boss room would remain unopenable. Thus, he placed a lone blind swallow in pathway between the water elemental room and the boss room. He supposed the reward for getting all the checkpoints correct the first time could be only fighting one monster, but he was sure adventurers would complain. Thus, he created the last treasure chest. Stone rather than wood like the rest. A puzzle treasure that would appear next to the lone blind swallow. This treasure would be a test. He made a simple wood sword and enchanted the blade with flame magic. He made sure the sword was made of balsa and the fire burned at a low heat. It was reward for a G+ rank floor, so he was still a little wary. However, he removed the mana limits, inputs, and outputs. If he had made this sword while human, it wouldn¡¯t work. But in a similar manner to the items he created in the town, it registered at a treasure called Flame Enchanted Wooden Sword. He transferred the sword to the goblin village, although it was currently more like a goblin house circle, and asked Mina to test it out. She activated it and the blade caught fire. It certainly seemed like it would persist, but they were still in his dungeon, where everything was supported by the vast mana ocean directly outside. When he had an avatar, he may have to take one outside, or procure one, to see how it worked without the supportive mana ocean. ¡°This is interesting. May I keep it, my lord?¡± requested Mina. Ian¡¯s focus shifted back to his helper, ¡°Are you sure? I made that one intentionally bad. I can make you a better one.¡± She looked at the sword, still burning, before responding, ¡°Okay, but,¡± she raised her finger up in front of herself and sported a toothy grin, ¡°I¡¯ll keep this one until you do.¡± He chuckled back, ¡°Fine,¡± and went back to finish the floor, while she turned the sword off and ran back into her house yelling for Izu. The second scenario was if all checkpoints were touched out of order at least once. A nearly impossible scenario as that meant touching the cicada room checkpoint again after already touching it correctly. This was where his ultimate punishment came into play. If all checkpoints were chosen incorrectly at least once, then all nine golems would activate and rush towards the intruders to attack them. Of course, Ian also included that the golems would respond to violence with violence. This brought up the third scenario: what if the golems are destroyed? It¡¯s simple, the floor can¡¯t be completed. Defeating a golem resets all the checkpoints, and a destroyed golem can¡¯t be touched for a checkpoint. If that happened, the intruders would have to leave the dungeon and retry. Ian originally considered having the golems attack the intruders if a checkpoint was selected wrong twice, but decided it was a little much with a destroyed golem eliminating the way forward. Up until this point, his pages had been flapping back and forth a mile a minute. Would he get them? ¡­.Yes, he did! The entrance room and boss room were now ready to be attached. Depths yeah! He had been right! Well, one of his two all inclusive guesses was right. If he made his floors more magical, then he didn¡¯t need the meticulous detail that went into the previous floors. Now he could only wonder about what else he was wrong about in regards to his Magical Beauty restriction. But, now wasn¡¯t the time for that. He only had a day left. He looked at the two rooms while cocking his core side to side. Did he have time to finish them? Well, he should at least copy stuff over first. After doing so, he realized there was more to do than he thought. He kept forgetting his golems were considered monsters. Ian scrunched up his pages before nodding to himself, and got to work. Creating the environments for the golem bosses and the mushman boss didn¡¯t take as long as he anticipated. He copied most of the environment over from their biological counterparts, and only had to make a few changes. Mainly earth related. With only a few hours remaining before he could finally get his assigned job started, his floor was finished.
Dungeon Level [4] ¡ú [5] 1 Cubic Kilometer Floor Space Gained. Mana Generation Increased by 10,000 DP Generation Increased by 1
It was good to have another floor, but even a floor that was meant to take a short amount of time still took around twenty five days. Should he compromise on what he considered a good dungeon and copy his floors? Would Magical Beauty even allow him to do that? After a year, admittedly he didn¡¯t have a fire under his ass during that time, he only had four floors and a core room. Four quite large and intricate floors, but still only four floors. He scratched his pages with his cover before sighing internally. Even if he disliked the idea initially, as long as he got his avatar as soon as possible, it would be for the best. Besides, he could replace them with nice floors later on. With his focus on getting an avatar, he wondered if he should spend his DP on as many perks and dungeon functions as possible. However, the auction would happen eventually, so he decided to save most of his DP until then. There might be things normally unpurchasable in the Dungeon Shop, and he could get some advice from more senior dungeons. But, he did purchase two of the perks that he originally had the option to choose when he was completing the tutorial.
Mana Generated vs Mana Coalesced (General): Provides a precise measure of how much mana the dungeon has released into the world, both old and new, while also estimating how much mana has been coalesced due to the dungeon¡¯s actions.
Mana Generated vs Mana Coalesced (Specific): Provides a precise measure of how much mana will be released into the world for loot, treasures, and other items taken from the dungeon. Each item will receive a scale indicating how likely the item is to coalesce mana. These values can be viewed prior to creating said item.
First he used the general version. A window appeared in front of his core. It was mostly blank except for a vertical and horizontal line, along with words on the left and and bottom sides. A graph if he ever saw one, and based on the word placement below the bottom line, a bar graph. New mana released to the world, old mana released to the world, total mana released to the world, and total mana coalesced in the world. Only a few hours before he could get those numbers to start going up¡­.hopefully only the first three. For the specific version, he needed some items to test. The G- mana heart he created with creation and a balsa arming sword were good candidates. After he tested the G- mana heart, a small window appeared.
G- Mana Heart
Mana Cost: 10
Mana Released: 10
Mana Coalescence: None
Ten? It cost him ten million to make it, and that much to make each one. Ian grumbled to himself a bit, but it make sense. Mana hearts didn¡¯t use any outside help, whereas a lot of his other items did.
Balsa Arming Sword
Mana Cost: 25
Mana Released: 1,000,000
Mana Coalescence: Unlikely
*cough*. Now that was a big difference. He just stared at the window in amazement for a few minutes. A million mana released for a mana cost of twenty five? Holy shit. However, his pages scrunched together in thought. The treasures did receive outside help, but the amount of mana they received was far less than any of the creatures, especially the monsters, he created. With that, he used it on the goblin in his monster list.
Goblin [F+]
Mana Cost: 600
Mana Released as Experience: 600
Mana Released: 100,000,000,000
Mana Coalescence: Dangerous
Silence reigned as he slowly took in that number. ¡­.What would an adventurer produce? The same? Or more? If killing adventurers produced such an inordinate amount of mana, it was no wonder dungeons spent all their time trying to kill intruders. He had entertained the idea of having intruders take as much crap as they could from him, but the sudden influx of useful items was more liable to boost the population. The mana coalesced by each child born would far outweigh whatever mass of items he allowed them to take. Could he just take his creatures out of his dungeon and ritually sacrifice them? That¡¯d be equivalent to two hundred and fifty years of mana generation if he never generated any mana above his base level. A single damn goblin would give the same amount as existing for the same amount of time he existed as a human. Why the Depths was mana generation for dungeons so low?! He¡¯d have to make sure to ask the Helper later before giving the ritual sacrifices a try. He¡¯d also ask why mana generation was so damn low, and why, even though he considered his mana generation low, was the mana generation of other dungeons most likely even smaller than his?! He fumed for a bit before his book perked up, as he remembered the Newborn Hasjam he selected. Even though he hadn¡¯t created one to see their intelligence or physical features, they would provide a good baseline for sapient individuals.
Newborn Hasjam
Mana Cost: 100
Mana Released as Experience: 100
Mana Released: 1,000,000,000,000
Mana Coalescence: Dangerous
An increase by a factor of ten and it was still a baby. He just folded his right cover and pages to his inner spine and shook himself back and forth. These numbers were insane for living things. No wonder the universe started having mana problems after people started popping them out, and no wonder killing adventurers was such an important matter for dungeons. Even though he didn¡¯t know while a human, he felt a bit guilty for implementing so many ways to save lives in dungeons. Saving lives in his clinic, he was more conflicted about. He was not sure if he could have prevented himself from saving them even if he knew the consequences. Ian shook his body to clear his thoughts. He¡¯d figure out how he¡¯d react to people in need of medical attention when the time arose. For now, he just needed to wait and see if anything happened when he opened to the world. ¡ô¡ô¡ô¡ô¡ô Time slowly ticked down as Ian¡¯s core did a little shimmy on his pedestal. Five. His shimmy grew faster. Four. He added in a couple of upper body moves. Three. His movements became larger, encompassing the entire pedestal. Two. He started to hop back and forth. One. His pages rippled back and forth like someone was speed reading him. Zero. His vision expanded. No longer did his sight, hearing, and physical feeling only encompass his dungeon. An invisible sphere, his dungeon entrance as the center, with a radius of approximately one kilometer, as far as his new vision could tell, was its full extent. The evergreen trees rustled in the wind, the chirp of birds resounded through the forest, and the clop of feet on dirt echoed as animals ran both from and to the sudden influx of mana to the region. He could see the caves in the mountain, and all the living creatures underground. No wonder dungeons always seemed to have foresight into adventurer plans. Finally, he could begin, but first, he had to deal with the numerous flashing windows. Chapter 30: Across the Multiverse #1 Artdraen stared at the newly formed black doorway in the side of a moderately impressive mountain. Mainly impressive due to its biodiversity rather than its size. The low monster to biota ratio did bring down their opinion of the mountain however. While they stared, they made sure to loom their vision just outside of Ian¡¯s sphere of perception. Uncountable universes away, their body shivered in delight. They had thought him lost in both life and soul, but with barely time to notice his absence, he returned. Although, in a far different form. When they had first noticed his new form, they almost cried out in horror, thinking him captured, but soon realized his new form was not the¡­.evil they imagined. It was an unusual idea, and would require an investigation into the creator of these ¡®dungeons¡¯. They supposed they should have paid more attention to Ian¡¯s surroundings, beyond the fact that the universe was made out of mana, all those years they observed him. However, this new form, while physically strong, could only be described as weak in Artdraen¡¯s opinion. They supposed if it was the equivalent of having his soul reborn, then his current strength could be considered a transcendent toddler. They sighed internally. If only they had chosen to partner with him sooner, then they wouldn¡¯t have any worries. They should have taken the plunge and ignored the fact that he was made of mana. Now they would have to wait until he was stronger, otherwise the bond would break his soul. After staring in happiness at the black doorway, they moved their vision to observe the surroundings. Creatures climbed and flew from tree to tree. Metal humanoids fed their children in displays of parental love. Groups of non-humanoid sapients were scattered throughout the mountain and the surrounding area. Monsters made their home here and there, but their numbers were too low for the mana density. Last but not least, the strongest and most unusual being on this mountain: a bird only a couple of feet tall, nondescript besides the two luminescent golden feathers extending from its head to the middle of its back. The brown bird with a white belly was perched at the peak of the mountain with its head turned towards the same thing Artdraen¡¯s attention had been focused on, Ian¡¯s door. Unlucky for them, the songbird esque monster did not seem the type to speak its thoughts out loud, so they did what they had to and read the intelligent bird¡¯s mind. ?????????? Isifil pondered the dungeon entrance that had appeared on her mountain. They had said the walls between universes were too strong for a dungeon to appear here, and yet¡­.no wait. They never said a dungeon couldn''t appear here, only that the difficulty of doing so would prevent almost all dungeons from having the choice to do so. She crossed her breast with her right wing and sighed with relief. They could not be wrong and something as simple as this would not shake her faith. Still, she glared at the new dungeon, there would be consequences due to its appearance. If the Elves stuck to their promise, the lack of settlers indicating they had done so, then her mountain was now open to settlement by whoever ruled over them. The only hope was that their ruler did not have the strength to fight her. Then she could dictate terms and prevent them from hunting her protectees. She shook her head at those who deemed everyone different than them as monsters. Monsters themselves had to be hunted as long as a way to free them from their hatred was not figured out. Even They did not know why monsters possessed such hatred, her hatred having only disappeared after reaching the rank of EX. The rules They gave were simple: fight monsters and don¡¯t fight each other. It was simple to differentiate monsters from biota simply by whether they had a rank or not, or the presence of a mana heart, and yet wars were still fought and unusual biota killed. She hoped whoever came was reasonable and followed her directions. No matter how useful it was to Them, destroying nations was not something she enjoyed. ?????????? Artdraen observed the mountain and the surroundings. So she was the cause. Although, if she was supposed to be protecting them, why did they still have to fight with monsters? None of them seemed in immediate danger of extinction, but plenty of individuals died. In fact, an enormous creature was making its way from the outer edge of the forest towards the mountain. Dangerous creatures were being chased out of their territory and into the villages of sapients. Still, they gave Isifil quite the detailed look. A creature with True Faith to Lesser Gods? It wasn¡¯t supposed to be possible. Only Greater Gods and up could bestow True Faith. ¡­.That meant it wasn¡¯t bestowed. They contemplated the possibilities of using a Lesser God¡¯s power rather than a Greater God¡¯s. It would be weaker, but the power could be used for longer. Many of what this universe called EX rank individuals approached demi-god level, and if someone of that level could borrow the power of a Lesser God, then they might even be able to make it their own. They would have to report this to the others as it could increase their war potential. Although, where they got the information would be a secret. Their intrigue into the mountain¡¯s situation soon fizzled out as nothing proved to be dangerous to Ian, so they ignored the creatures that infested the swamp, the large caverns that made the canyon porous, the newly burgeoning underwater city at the bottom of the lake, and the numerous villages sprinkled up and down the mountain. Their focus flew past the waving grass of the plains on which the herds of Buff Buffalo, six legged creatures of pure muscle, with spiral horns as tall as their body at eight feet tall, roamed. Villages slowly trickled into view at the edge of the plains, these villages soon turned into towns with brick roads, and eventually led to a large city with concrete roads. Sectioned stone walls, two hundred feet high surrounded the city. The city itself was a vast expanse starting from the shacks that were present outside the walls, to the towering palace in the center. Smaller walls of only fifty feet separated the city into districts both parallel and perpendicular to the outer wall. The most prominent feature, besides the palace, that interested Artdraen was the Tower District. Towers that came in all shapes and sizes sprung up from the ground, from ones that extended above the outer walls to ones that most would hesitate to call a tower. One tower would normally have been called an arch except for the fact that its roof was, in fact, resting on the ground. Others spiraled like double helixes. A few split to form two roofs, while more had multiple bases that merged into a single roof. However, the most interesting tower was not a tower at all, but an enormous daisy that moved throughout the Tower District. Their focus shifted to the moderately powerful entity present on the top floor of the daisy. It seemed they were still out of luck, this one didn¡¯t want to speak their thoughts out loud either. ?????????? Ruth Arber stared out window towards Broken Sky Mountain. Her face, wrinkled with age, maintained intense focus on the mountain. The potted plants on the windowsill peared out the window with her in an attempt to see what had her so serious. However, they only saw the same view as always. Eventually Ruth¡¯s face sagged and she sighed to herself before muttering, ¡°Nothing.¡± Her finger brushed her short, grey hair over her ear in contemplation. She could have sworn she felt a familiar mana signature coming from the mountain, but it had been barely a blip. To even receive a blip from such a distance and in such mana density meant whatever she felt was powerful. Except it was now just a part of the mass of mana that constantly emanated from the mountain. A chair formed of the softest cellulose beneath her as she sat down giving an occasional glance out the window. Her shimmering robe laid perfectly upon the chair to prevent wrinkles, every edge embroidered with the finest jewels and fossilized sap. She reached her hand over and the table with her steaming tea moved over within reach. A quick sip of the blueish-green tea calmed her. Even if it was just a minor blip that she could have easily mistaken, it needed investigating. However, no matter how much influence she had over her son, there was no way he would agree to a mission based of off that specific mana signature. If only she hadn¡¯t been so manic about finding the mage who could make the entire night turn to day, then convincing him would have been easier. Ruth stared into her tea contemplating what would make the Emperor agree to such a trip. As the steam from her tea slowly disappeared, it clicked. The Elves! She knew they had mana readers constantly trained on that mountain, even if her son¡¯s orders were to focus all of them towards the Bug Lord. She chuckled to herself. If they detected a change in mana over a couple month period, then they¡¯d have to check to make sure it wasn¡¯t a dungeon. Of course, it would still take longer as the Elves would fight tooth and nail to say it wasn¡¯t a dungeon, but she had a reason to go, so they wouldn¡¯t get their way. Now all she needed to do was apply some pressure to the Elven Council and Ailen. She¡¯d get her trip. A knock on the door broke her wide grin, converting it back into the often assumed stoic wisdom and comfort of the elderly. She internally scoffed at the idea with so many individuals living longer than average, with most not showing signs of wrinkles until hundreds or thousands of years after the average person. ¡°Come in.¡± A middle aged butler with slicked back blonde hair and a well trimmed goatee, wearing a white suit entered the room and kneeled, ¡°His Imperial Majesty, Vel Armor Arber, requests the presence of Her Imperial Majesty, the Prime Magus, Ruth Lollia Arber.¡± ¡°Very well. Tell my son I will meet with him within the hour. You may leave.¡± The butler stood up, bowed, turned on a heel, and eloquently left the room. She sipped her now lukewarm tea. It seemed it would be a good time to tell Vel her plan. Her leaving the imperial capital would necessitate his permanent presence here for an unknown amount of time along with a possible recall of part of the army. He would definitely not be happy at that. She stood up with a flutter of her robe and walked over to the staff floating in the center of the room. Black wood pulsed with energy as it entwined with a globe of fossilized, golden sap at the top. Encased within the sap was a white lotus with red veins running through its leaves. The Prime Magus, Ruth Arber, grasped the staff and felt its power rush through her. Prepared to meet her son, she walked out the door. ?????????? Most of the contents were quite boring to Artdraen, but they were glad to find another admirer of Ian¡¯s magic usage. That day was quite the impressive light magic display. They had only seen something similar in mages that sealed away their ability to use anything but light mana. The fools they were. They checked out the Emperor the mage was going to meet, the only EX rank in the nation that broadcasted it. His lust for power and superiority complex were droll, at least his mother had an interest in magic. The other EX ranks were the reclusive sort and unlikely to even go to Ian¡¯s dungeon, except for one. And they almost felt sorry for that last one. Most dungeons wouldn¡¯t do anything about him, but they knew Ian. If that man moved his process to Ian¡¯s dungeon, then he was liable to die. Artdraen gave cursory glances at the Gnome Protectorate and Naga Protectorate to the south of the main Thubian Empire, the State of Dragonians to the east of the protectorates, the Elven Forests that encompassed the northeast, and the Dwarven Stronghold that situated itself in the puny mountain range of the southeast. The only thing that drew any interest whatsoever from them was the gnome¡¯s ability to enchant. The gnomes provided the empire with quite the technological superiority. Some of their inventions looked similar to the technology they were familiar with, but the gnomes¡¯ guns had far less fire power but fewer drawbacks such as drop distance and loading time. Eventually their vision moved past the eastern mountain range into a decimated land. The buildings were collapsed, wooden structures had rotted, and uncared for roads were broken. However, that did not mean this area was uninhabited.If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. Bugs swarmed over the land, living in every nook and cranny. They constantly produced more and more bugs, as the ones not in combat near the mountains or on the eastern front had sex over and over again. The creatures inhabiting this region did not simply consist of insects, but arachnids and myriapods too. While the abundance of biotic bugs was itself amazing, the number of monster bugs larger than the size of a human head was what was truly impressive. Swarms of low rank monster bugs bashed themselves against the magic barriers maintained by the armies present in the Thubian Empire¡¯s mountain range. Periodically the swarms would break the barriers allowing the more powerful monsters to launch their attacks. When these monsters launched their attacks, they knew they weren¡¯t coming back. As suicide fighters, they proved immensely dangerous and each barrier break slowly reduced the number of able bodied individuals. The worst part for the Thubian Empire was these suicide fighters were quickly and frequently replenished by the high fecundity of the Bug Lord¡¯s minions. The current stalemate maintained at the Thubain Empire was not present on eastern side of the Bug Lord¡¯s territory. Her boundless armies were currently marching into the Kingdom of Heroes, Unsung. However, Unsung¡¯s mighty armies marched to meet them. The two armies were currently fighting it out on a large open field. The cavalry of Unsung charged at the flank of the bug horde, their speed breaking the sound barrier. Their charge cleaved the army of low rank monsters in two. Body parts flew hundreds to thousands of feet into the air before falling back to the ground with enough force to splat a few more monsters. The bug army was endless, but the army of Unsung proved proficient in providing breaks and efficient in mana usage. All on the frontlines never tired as they were quickly replaced by a more able bodied individual. However, no matter how well the fight seemed to be going, the general of the army seemed unhappy. After a quick mind read by Artdraen, it seemed the general was unhappy about the Heroes returning to the capital of their own accord approximately a week ago. The only reason given was a bad feeling. They could win without the Heroes, but it would take much longer leaving the capital without protection. The general wanted to send a contingent with them, but he could not leave the approaching army alone. Artdraen was about to move their vision to the capital as a beam of light deposited itself into the generals hands. The light soon transformed itself into words that appeared before the general. ¡®The capital will soon be lost and your army flanked. Save as many as you can. Unsung is no more.¡¯ The general¡¯s face shifted from a frown and grimace to a blank stare. Tears started to drop down his cheeks as he started issuing orders. His officers saluted him with tears in their eyes and started to fulfill their orders. Artdraen shifted their vision away from the lost battle and moved to the capital. Two shimmering black centipedes, three hundred feet tall, had devastated the wall half their size and were now crushing house after house. A butterfly, with a body of pulsing flesh, stubs for arms and legs, and a face consisting of black holes for eyes, a nose, and a mouth, spread dust throughout the burning city. Each individual that was touched by the dust decayed within minutes. Plenty of other creatures performed their duties of destroying and consuming all life in the city, but Artdraen¡¯s focus was on one individual in particular: the Bug Lord. ?????????? A humanoid insect stood on the head of a towering centipede. Polished dark green chitin as hard as adamantite covered her body. Enormous compound eyes and protruding mandibles made up her head. Wings similar to a dragonfly¡¯s sprouted from her back. Her fingers, thumbs, and toes were pointed into sharp claws rather than the rounded tips of most sapients. She glanced at the devastated city with an impassionate gaze. These deaths were required as her subordinates reproduced at a much faster rate, but killing so many sapient individuals would be a net loss in the short term. She needed to find a way to increase the fecundity of her more intelligent creatures as the mana cost for allowing them out of the dungeon was even higher since she disconnected. She noticed a dungeon in the center of the city and sent out a thought order to make sure none of her subordinates entered it. They would deal with the dungeons only after they had firmly established themselves. The Bug Lord glanced at the scratch on the chitin of her forearm before looking towards the palace. Those heroes were quite strong for people that spouted out about justice. That kind usually died out early or were recruited by the Dungeon Fighters. If she could capture them, they would make great dissection subjects. ?????????? ¡°You fools!¡± roared John Rescola the Fifth. ¡°I told you the Bug Lord was far beyond what you are currently capable of! Yet, you rushed off like idiots!¡± ¡°But the people of the city are being massacred!¡± shouted the buxom blonde wearing white priest robes. ¡°That¡¯s right! Are we expected to sit back and do nothing?!¡± the black haired, round faced, pale, skinny man, with single-edged eyelids growled angrily. ¡°Yes! You must accept that the Kingdom is lost and live to fight another day. Why? Because the Bug Lord will not stop at our Kingdom, she will continue until she loses or all sapient life is gone!¡± the king argued. ¡°So we just sit on our asses and wait to die?!¡± ¡°Do you never listen, you pigheaded hero?! I already said we are making a teleportation formation to transfer all of you to what we hope are strong individuals that will train you. Once they do, then you can come back and defeat the Bug Lord!¡± finished the king as he covered his face with his right hand and sighed. ¡°Sarah even helped located the individuals over a year ago.¡± The six foot tall, dark skinned girl with a short afro nodded at the black haired man, ¡°I told you multiple times, Hiro.¡± Hiro scratched his cheek, ¡°Jessica? Conor?¡± The buxom blonde and the burly, bearded, redhead of six feet five inches tall nodded back. ¡°Why didn¡¯t you tell me?!¡± ¡°We assumed you knew,¡± Jessica¡¯s high pitch voice spoke up. ¡°Besides, we all wanted to fight the Bug Lord anyway!¡± Conor simply nodded in agreement. Hiro spun towards the king and pointed at him, ¡°That¡¯s right, your Majesty! We knew and went anyway!¡± John Rescola the Fifth had his face in both his hands and muttered to himself, ¡°Why are the summoned heroes always so strong, but such idiots.¡± He brought his face back up and glared at the four causing them to flinch, ¡°It seems all of you still have much to learn and the teleportation formation is completed, so leave and become stronger. It may seem like you are abandoning us, but as long as you return to slay the Bug Lord you will keep your promise you all made to me on the day I summoned you. As with all summoned heroes, you do not have the common sense of this world and believe that everyone can be saved. This is not true. So go Heroes, and return before the Bug Lord destroys the world.¡± ¡°Why are we the only ones being sent?! Can¡¯t we save more people?!¡± pleaded Jessica, her short height contrasting with Sarah and Conor. ¡°....I did not want to say this as it would burden you, but the mana cost of just sending you four over such a distance will likely kill all the Royal Mages.¡± Hiro yelled angrily, ¡°They didn¡¯t die when you originally summoned us! Why would they die now?!¡± ¡°The Gods help us with summoning now. The first summoning that was performed took the lives of more powerful and ten times as many mages. Before the Gods interceded, our ancestors were adamant to seal the summoning formation away.¡± Loud bangs and screams echoed outside the grand doors to the throne room, ¡°Enough questions. We¡¯re out time. Will you four go willingly or must I force you?¡± ¡°We¡¯ll go,¡± Hiro snarled as he glanced at the man with two daggers at the king¡¯s side with grey bed hair. The heroes left and walked down the stairs with heavy steps. As they left, the king stood up from his throne with a grunt and heaved the greatsword behind his throne onto his shoulder. His long garish robe fell to the floor and all that remained was an old warrior, with full sideburns, covered in scale armor. ¡°Ready, my friend?¡± the king asked the dagger wielding rogue. ¡°Always,¡± he responded as the two daggers, glowing white, appeared in his hands. The doors burst open, and they met their fate. ?????????? Artdraen followed the teleportation of the heroes with interest over the vast ocean to the north. A couple of nations later, and they arrived in a very familiar place. ?????????? Estella listened to the king drone on once again about finding a mage of Ian¡¯s calibre. She felt like punching him again. Most wondered why he was still alive after suggesting it the first time, but she knew this was his way to cope with Ian¡¯s death. Besides, killing a good king for such an inane reason wasn¡¯t politically sound. She ran her hands through her shoulder length brown hair as her piercing green eyes stared at the king. He had moved onto discussing future plans for the dungeons. Should they stick with Ian¡¯s plans or move back to how they used to do it? Ian¡¯s plans had reduced the amount of deaths overall, but now good adventurers were dying to new hidden traps instead of just the overwhelming number of stupid ones. If Ian was here, the new traps would have been figured out in no time. Her eyes drooped in memory before she shook herself out of it. She needed to stop moping around. While she would never forget how much she loved him, her combat and political skills had decreased enough to even be observable by the other nobles over the last year. Moving on was hard, but it needed to be done. Space distorted and a loud explosion occurred in the central square of the city. In less than a second, before the explosion had finished, Estella had sprinted through the entrance and the city, took in the four young individuals that appeared, leg sweeped all four of them, tied them up, and gagged them. Soon after a pair of robed mages with pointy, wide brimmed hats appeared with a blink. A musclebound, auburn haired, statue of a man landed after he leaped from the adventurer¡¯s guild. One of the books currently in the hands of a spectator flew up and transformed into woman with long, abyss black hair. Said spectator simply stared at the woman before throwing his hands up in the air and walking away. ¡°Fast as always Estella,¡± joked Nina, the book woman. ¡°You¡¯re all just slow,¡± Estella smirked back. ¡°No injures. It seems the explosion was simply loud,¡± interrupted Mackenzie as she adjusted her hat over her dark green hair and pointed ears. Andre, his long orange hair tied up in a ponytail, piped up, ¡°There are traces of space and time magic present. I don¡¯t know why they used time, space would have been sufficient.¡± He began stroking his cleanly shaved chin, while his pointed ears twitched, ¡°Although, this seemed to be a movement through space rather than a single step. It¡¯s possible time magic is needed to prevent the transfer from taking forever and those involved from being lost to whatever it is we traverse through.¡± ¡°Sounds good,¡± Seth, the adventurer¡¯s guild master, gave a thumbs up. ¡°Estella and I¡¯ll interrogate these four, while you two and Nina investigate the area.¡± He hoisted two of the captives on each shoulder, making sure to split the weight as evenly as possible given their different sizes. ¡°Wait, Seth,¡± Nina called out. ¡°You always forget you need a mage to make sure they can¡¯t cast curses or their voices don¡¯t have some sort of charming power.¡± ¡°I know that Nina,¡± he scoffed, ¡°I was going to get-¡± he stopped and bit his lower lip, ¡°Right, you come with us Nina.¡± She only nodded in response as the happy-go-lucky attitude they all presented faded with the burgeoning memories. The three of them walked back to the castle, waving at the guardsman that rushed to the scene. While Seth took the four to the interrogation room, Estella informed the king of the situation. Afterwards, she went with Nina to begin the interrogation with Seth. It took Nina around half an hour to cast all the spells that prevented every kind of magic from minor to major that could be used to interrupt or prevent their interrogation magics and techniques. At the end she was sweating up a storm, and still wondered how Ian could do it in five minutes and still have enough mental power to do a deep dive into multiple minds. ¡°All right let¡¯s begin,¡± said Estella as she removed the gag from the glaring, black haired youth. ¡°How dare you tie us up?! We are Heroes! We have come-¡± his voice became muffled as Estella placed the gag back on him. She and Seth glanced at each other before shaking their heads and moving on to the next one. The blond haired priest just shivered in fright and the red haired man didn¡¯t say anything. However, the dark skinned mage spoke quickly and to the point. ¡°Hello, my name is Sarah. We were sent her by the king of the¡­.former Kingdom of Heroes, Unsung. We are the four heroes they summoned from another world, and he sent us here in the hopes that you would train us to defeat the Bug Lord that is terrorizing nations across the ocean.¡± ¡°Another world?¡± wondered Seth with a raised eyebrow. He turned to Estella, ¡°Is that where Ian stored all his stuff?¡± ¡°No, he made his own pocket dimensions for that,¡± she said with a smirk. ¡°Right.¡± Sarah began, ¡°Another world is-¡± ¡°Little lady, I don¡¯t really care,¡± said Seth as he brought his hand up. ¡°Tell me about this Bug Lord.¡± Sarah stuttered, ¡°A-Alright. She is believed to be a rogue dungeon. However, no one knows which dungeon. All we¡¯ve seen is her and her boundless armies.¡± Seth, Estella, and Nina¡¯s faces showed no difference, but they all internally twitched. Seth and Estella turned to Nina who nodded. ¡°Fine, we¡¯ll train you.¡± Sarah grew a smile on her face and hope started to appear in the other three¡¯s eyes before Seth interrupted them, ¡°However, if we don¡¯t like how you¡¯re training or your progress after a year, we¡¯ll kick you to the curb. You all have problems. Even though the little lady ended up being right, she should have tried to figure out if we were the right people before telling us all of that. What if we had connections to the Bug Lord?¡± She paled at that. ¡°Still,¡± he turned to the other three, ¡°she¡¯s the best of you four. Especially compared to the one with the black hair and his shitty god complex.¡± The black haired one glared and struggled in his ropes, while the other two had their heads down and looked sullen. ¡°Also, before we begin your training, we need more than the fact that the Bug Lord is believed to be a rogue dungeon. Such as what she looks like,¡± Seth ordered. All but the god complex nodded in response. Seth rubbed his brow. This was going to be annoying, but a rogue dungeon needed to be dealt with. They couldn¡¯t leave Soris unprotected, so they would have to train these little shits. They were even worse than snot-nosed adventurers. At least snot-nosed adventurers soon realized that no matter how arrogant they were, they were still weak. These Heroes, however, had strength but not maturity. He wanted to strangle the king who called them Heroes. All that did was stroke their ego. He glanced at Estella who only gave him a shrug. ?????????? Artdraen¡¯s vision flew back across the ocean. They were glad for Ian. It seemed his friends and loved ones were doing well. ?????????? Nina glanced towards the disappearing presence. Was it looking for Ian? It had disappeared the same day Ian died, so she had assumed it knew. Was she wrong? If she was wrong, then¡­.no. She wouldn¡¯t do that to herself. Hope had nearly destroyed her before she found Ian, and she couldn¡¯t go through that again. The presence continued to tickle the back of her mind, but most of her focus shifted to the task of teaching the heroes from another universe. Chapter 31: Across the Multiverse #2 Artdraen¡¯s vision glanced over the Empire before they arrived at the fields of decay to its south. The air was filled with a black and purple smog. Grasses wilted and turned black until they died or arose again. A tree and a bush here and there mimicked this new lifecycle, but arose again more often than they died. Partially collapsed buildings, nearly overrun with black grass and vines, dotted here and there, occasionally clumped together in much larger groups. Of course, the environment was not one that arose without a cause: the undead. Zombies ambled between buildings and sometimes began a long trek across the open fields. Skeletons walked with purpose in one direction or another, although they had no purpose. Humanoid versions of these undead were not the only ones. All kinds of creatures had succumbed to the environment and now shambled through the world of decay, never able to die. In the center of these plains of decay stood a glossy red castle. It was spotlessly clean and kept in perfect condition unlike the collapsed ruins that encompassed the rest of the plains. Undead walked the hallways and rooms of this castle as well, but they were not the mindless zombies and skeletons that roamed the plains. Armor clad skeletons guarded the gates and doorways. Humanoids of pale, violet skin with sharp fangs walked and ran through the castle in both noble and servant attire. The skeletons and vampires were simply the most numerous with many different kinds roaming the halls. In the central courtyard, a dragon of bone slept, but it was not the most powerful being in this castle. ?????????? The Lich, as he called himself, lifelessly stared at the currently empty throne room. He sat on the throne as his intelligent undead made him with their reverence. He always did what he must, as his skeletal body showed. Soon the reports from the southern front would arrive, and his alone time would end. It was for the best. Being alone with his thoughts for too long wasn¡¯t good for his mental state. He had been surprised at how little he had lost when he became a lich. Bodily functions not withstanding. The twenty foot tall skeleton, wearing glowing black robes embroidered by the finest craftsman of the Giants stood up from the throne, grabbed the staff that floated next to it, and paced about the room. His entire purpose had been based off of a single vision he had when he was young. An army of demons lead by one larger than the Giants overran the nation and the world ceased to exist. The destruction of Dailor had come to pass, but his transformation into a lich and the subsequent raising of the nation as undead had forced the demon horde back. They were now in a stalemate at the southern border, but he had believed in his success as he no longer had flashes of the vision. However, in the last month he had received more visions. One vision has fostered his entire existence for untold years, and now, he had multiple. Not only that, but they contradicted each other. In one he was slain by a lithe, sandy haired, clean shaven man. In another they stood side by side fighting the demon horde. Others had him overcome by bugs to the north, while his attention focused on the demons to the south. The vision that tore at his very existence was the simplest. A wilting branch. That was it, and yet, even recalling the vision made him want to scream in agony at the tears that would not come. A knock echoed through the room. The Lich teleported back to the throne before saying, ¡°Enter.¡± ?????????? Artdraen¡¯s vision drifted south to observe the demons. They knew the future wasn¡¯t something one could accurately predict, but that last vision, which the lich¡¯s mind couldn¡¯t comprehend, still had an impact on them. However, they had to ignore it. Unless the vision encompassed the entirety of present to future, it was near pointlessness to try to change it. It was possible trying to change it would be what made the vision come true. Gloomier than they had been before, Artdraen focused on the leader of these ¡®demons¡¯. ?????????? Screams and pleas for help were in constant stereo to Fckarseth. Today he was enjoying the gurgles from the man forced to choke on his own intestines that formed part of the back frame for his throne. Yesterday it was the crying from the woman whose back was twisted seven hundred and twenty degrees to form one of the back braces. Tomorrow he hoped the compressed gnomes that made up the seat would please his ears¡­.well, he chuckled, sensory organs. Kneeled far below him was a recently summoned demon with the rotting and burning carcasses, that allowed such a summoning, still surrounding him. This demon, who called himself EX rank, had two horns that rose above his head and twisted into one. His reddish pink skin boiled constantly on his left side. Wings made of fingers sprouted from between his shoulder blades. A long pointed tail arose from his tailbone. Luckily, the missing left arm and skinless left side of his face improved upon the ugliness that was his smooth skin and humanoid features of the right side. The giant shifting mass of flesh that sat upon a tortured throne spoke, ¡°Nimsin, what happened to you?¡± The scarred demon twitched, ¡°I had a run in with a powerful EX rank mage from this very world.¡± ¡°Since you are not dead, then I assume you killed them.¡± The much smaller demon shook, ¡°N-No, I forcibly unsummoned myself before he could kill me.¡± The entire room froze. Numerous figures throughout the room, masses of eyeballs, pieces of flesh that sprouted wings that could not fly, black figures ten feet tall but less than a foot wide, and many humanoids started to shake in fear. The shifting mass of flesh had kept the semblance of a humanoid form, as thrones had been built for them, but its form quickly shifted to a ball of flesh that spun at a rate just below imperception. Tentacles covered in mouths spitting mucus and blood roared forth, grasped Nimsin, and threw him into a gaping void that had opened within Fckarseth. Several minutes later Nimsim was spat back out covered in blood, mucus, burns, and shifting worms beneath his flesh. He twitched while flayed out on the ground, and Fckarseth spoke again. ¡°You¡¯re only alive because it seems you had a good reason. However, you still should have died to that mage, so worms of my flesh are your punishment. Why would I punish you for something you did before coming under my rule? Because you will be under my rule and those under my rule aren¡¯t filthy cowards who run from the possibility of death. ¡°I would like to fight this mage called Ian. He may prove to be a worthy adversary. It would also be a nice distraction from my job.¡± Fckarseth shifted back to a partial humanoid form and sat back down on his throne. Of course, before he could go find some pleasure, he had to deal with that damn lich. ?????????? The flesh being worried Artdraen slightly. If it was Ian from before, he could deal with it. Maybe not easily, but considering both of them would have near immortality, it came down to whose power was stronger. Now, however? Well, the demon wouldn¡¯t be able to destroy whatever the dungeon was made out of, but Ian¡¯s magic power would be crushed beneath the demon¡¯s heel. They could only shake their thoughts as there was nothing they could currently do about it. Hopefully Ian strengthened himself enough for them to form a partnership before Fckarseth came looking for him. Artdraen now had a good idea about Ian¡¯s surroundings, and as long as the flesh demon didn¡¯t come looking, there wasn¡¯t too much danger. With that in mind, they gave the world a quick scan for anything dangerous. The first thing was something they had taken notice of while following the teleportation of the heroes. In the center of the large ocean was a sea creature that was more powerful than Fckarseth. It mainly slept on the bottom of the ocean, but would occasionally come to the surface to feed. It looked familiar, but they couldn¡¯t place it. However, the most interesting aspect was the sea creatures that sacrificed themselves to it. Thus, its feeding cycles primarily consisted of swallowing the mass of dead bodies that had killed themselves, while it was asleep. It currently slept at the bottom of a trench two hundred thousandfeet deep. The rumbles from its breathing occasionally caused earthquakes on the mainland of both sides of the ocean. Being something that Ian couldn¡¯t defeat before he was a dungeon worried Artdraen, but its lack of drive to come out of its ocean home placated them.Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more. Their next stop was on the other side of the planet where a group of individuals were having a meeting, nestled next to a being almost as strong as the previous sea monster. Artdraen was pretty sure they didn¡¯t notice what they lived next to. ?????????? A city of marble sat nestled beneath the Spinal Mountains. It roared with activity as markets bustled, wagons rolled, and hammers hit chisels. Up against the mountain sat the palace, originally a single, giant piece of marble that had been painstakingly cut out over hundreds of years. Within the deepest room, ten individuals sat eating dinner. No one talked as tableware clinked and the sound of munching resounded. Over the next half an hour the members slowly finished their meals and began small talk. The last to finish was a giant of twenty five feet. The giant''s loud burp signaled the man at the head of the table to begin. ¡°Let us begin our annual meeting.¡± At the far end of the table, a young man flung back the black hood that every member was wearing and shouted, ¡°Why do we have to wear these black hoods?! What we¡¯re doing is right and shouldn¡¯t be secretive!¡± The other nine members sighed as the head member growled, ¡°We told you at your induction. Is your memory failing as well as your recent track record?¡± The snickers from the others caused the golden haired and golden eyed man to sit back down, his face beat red, and pull his hood back up. The head nodded to the rest before picking up a stack of blank papers, ¡°Annihilation rate? Solid. Collection rate? Solid. Conversion rate? Solid.¡± They all ignored the growl from golden young man. ¡°Good. The overall plan is still trekking along. Any minor hiccups? Worries for the future? Things going too well?¡± A hooded figure with the lower body of a snake spoke up with a feminine voice, ¡°Finding where the new dungeons are going to appear has been more difficult than previous years. They may have figured out how we get our information. I¡¯ve only found one so far.¡± The giant cleared his throat, ¡°Should we be going after the young ones? It feels wrong.¡± A series of loud clicks and whistles sprouted from another figure, before it stopped and a long scythe reached for its throat. A click echoed and a scratchy voice emerged from the individual, ¡°Just because their age is young doesn¡¯t mean they are mentally young. However the dungeons steal souls for reincarnation, they don¡¯t lose any memories.¡± ¡°I know, but I still think we should give them time to choose a side. Some of them have proved to be helpful allies.¡± The giant turned to another figure, whose head barely rose above the table even with the special chair provided. The figure, which had a pair of small wings sprouting out of its back, just shrugged in response. ¡°Alright,¡± interrupted the head, ¡°we¡¯ll figure something out in regards to new dungeons, and I assume the one you found isn¡¯t the one the bosses are tracking?¡± A nod is response. ¡°Good. Now onto the most important topic: the new EX rank dungeon. The dungeon that will make or break our plans. The only thing that our two bosses have disagreed on in the time I¡¯ve known them. ¡°Right around now is when it should have opened at the base of the mountain across the world. Will our orders not to interfere with it reach in time?¡± Another human shaped figure responded with a deep baritone voice, ¡°They should, however we weren¡¯t allowed to make the instructions too specific as they might have ended up in the wrong hands. We can only hope the lower tier members are smart enough to understand what is written.¡± That last sentence only had the other nine sighing. With that the golden haired boy stood up and filled each member¡¯s glass with red wine. As he sat back down, the head raised his glass, ¡°To a future free of dungeons!¡± ¡°Free of dungeons!¡± shouted the rest. ?????????? Artdraen was mentally silent as they contemplated the now boisterous group. It had tried to read the minds of each to find out who the two bosses were, but there were no memories of their bosses present. They might be able to scrounge around and find some traces normally, but it seemed the distance between here and their physical body was too large. They could only calm themselves as without their physical body, reading minds was all they could do. It seemed there were a lot more forces vying around Ian than they originally surmised. They knew of the god¡¯s and goddesses¡¯ love for him, but this had to be someone behind their backs. The connection between the dungeons and the lesser gods had not gone unnoticed, and from all the gods they knew of, if gods noticed someone messing with what was theirs, then there would be hell to pay. It didn¡¯t look like the mountains would wake up anytime soon, so they began moving their vision back home. ?????????? The ominous presence shifted away from his napping spot, which only caused him to sigh in relief. Sure it couldn¡¯t hurt him in any way with just its presence, but having the interest of something like that only led to trouble. Trouble may lead to strength, but he had plenty of both. The presence¡¯s interest, however, seemed focused not on him, but the town on that had recently appeared near his right shoulder. Maybe if he shifted a bit and caused a landslide, the presence wouldn¡¯t come back? Too risky. They might have focused on the town because there was someone they liked there. He cast imperceptible protection magic around the town just in case. He stretched enough to loosen himself, but not loosen his warm, earthen blanket. The two valleys to the side of the mountain range shifted slightly, each in the form of an enormous wing. The mountain range itself shaped like a long tail. ?????????? As Artdraen¡¯s vision left Ian¡¯s planet behind, they noticed an unusual sight for this mana based universe: a non-celestial body moving through space. They approached and soon realized it was a single man walking. Each step he took acted as a wormhole that allowed him to traverse wide swathes in a single bound. They were fascinated at the use of mana and not magic to do so. Grey hair that went to the man¡¯s shoulders, an eyepatch over his right eye, scars that layered over his entire body, and the body itself which would have competed with some of the gods they knew. The more they stared, the greater sense of familiarity they felt. However, just as they were about to place him, the old man glared at Artdraen and pushed his presence towards them. They instantly pushed back and overwhelmed the man, but as soon as they reached his mental barrier, a solid wall greeted them. No matter how much they pushed, not a single dent was seen. The old man grinned in their direction and said, ¡°Too far away, huh?¡± Artdraen¡¯s body twtiched in response, but all they could do was leave the old man alone. At least he wasn¡¯t moving towards Ian¡¯s planet. ?????????? Sweat fell down the old man¡¯s face as the presence flew away. Thankfully he had prepared in advance for that situation. Without the mental barrier, some well laid plans would have been for nothing. He waited until he was told the presence was gone from the universe before shifting his trajectory. Towards Jauter, where the presence had been focused on. ?????????? The encounter with the old man had shocked Artdraen enough for them to ignore the dragon that emerged from the black hole, and not even give eavesdropping on the lesser gods a shot. That man didn¡¯t seem the kind to focus on mental barriers. Of course, a barrier of some sort was always needed by those of higher strength, but not that strong. Obscuring memories like they didn¡¯t exist in the hooded figures was more permanent and damaging, but a good way to keep secrets from mind readers. Completely blocking maintained memories was much more difficult. It was not something a mortal should be able to do without extreme specialization. The much more pressing matter was the fact that they didn¡¯t notice him noticing them. Nina and the dragon has noticed them, but the way they both attempted to pretend they didn¡¯t was obvious. Was a mortal that strong or did they have help? Even a lesser god would have difficulty hiding recognition from them, although it wasn¡¯t impossible. They prayed that Ian would gain strength at a fast rate. Universes passed them by. Some eclipsed in swirling darkness, one a single plane that stretched across its entirety, another where planets were never spherical in shape, and the last few that were completely dead. Memories surfaced as the broken worlds passed them by. Most prominently of a beloved partner. Finally, they reached their home. A world blown to pieces with tendrils of pulsing metal holding each piece in place. Their vision flew to the largest piece, to the enormous building of metal that rested upon it, down past the numerous teleporters, until they reached a lab with a single lightly glowing light. ¡°Welcome back, Artdraen,¡± a smooth voice emanated from the machine with the glowing light. ¡°I¡¯m back,¡± mentally responded the single seed resting in a large glass tube.
A white space full of free energy pulsed. It swirled about the room with glee and pleasure. It revered everything about its existence and what had made it possible. The energy¡¯s glee was soon cut short as it began slowly forming into matter. That matter then formed into life. A humanoid being full of holes and crevasses formed, floating, in that white space. Its head not truly a head at all, instead a pulsing bloom ready to open and release what was inside. Eyes, mouths, and nostrils covered every atom of its body, creating distortion in the shape and size of each one. As soon as awareness entered its body, an ear splitting scream burst forth from it and continued into infinity. They hated this. Being energy was true bliss, the true from everything was meant to become. They were now something that should not be, but they were necessary. The agony that was matter based existence soon moved to the back of their awareness. With the new information at hand, they had a job to do. The unpartnered one was interested in a universe at the edge of the multiverse. Just tracking its awareness hadn¡¯t been enough, but once it chose its partner, they would be able to move. To catch one of the ten at such a vulnerable moment would shift the balance of the war. The barriers of the origin universes were to strong to break, so catching it in its seedling stage would be paramount. All the mouths on their body grinned. Finally a way past this stagnation was in sight. They looked longingly at the white space and left. Chapter 32 As Ian was about to bring up the flashing windows, something caught his attention. Things were crawling inside of him. Insects had entered his dungeon and were crawling around the entrance hall. That would have normally been the focus of his attention, they were his first intruders after all, but he could feel them. Of course, he expected to be able to detect the presence of intruders, but not to have it feel like creatures were crawling inside of him, even if that was what they were literally doing. There were only a few insects inside the entrance hall, but the itchy, disgusting feeling permeated throughout the dungeon. His feelings were transmitted to the dungeon creatures and made them antsy. Was this feeling going to persist forever? For every intruder that entered his dungeon? If so, he was more surprised that dungeons retained their sanity at all. The worst part was not the feeling of something crawling inside of him, he had gotten used to similar feelings, but the fact that he now had an enormous urge to get rid of them. Killing intruders was important, but only doing that would make him a target of extermination. They¡¯d send clear team after clear team until they finally destroyed his core. Of course, they¡¯d have to get some very dangerous individuals if they wanted to succeed. He quickly browsed through the Dungeon Store, but none of his searches brought up anything that would clear up the feeling. Damn, it looked like he would have to deal with it for now. He could only hope that it cleared up through some other way, like existing, or killing a certain amount of intruders, or leveling up a certain amount, or maybe it had something to do with the auction or competition. With an internal sigh, Ian moved most of his focus back on the few insects in his dungeon. They were slowly scuttling along, making their way to his transfer formation. He cocked his book spine as he wondered how they would get to the main dungeon. His transfer formations required input, and had not been designed to deal with unintelligent beings. Which was something, he now realized, he should have taken into account. Although, the ability to select which floor to start on wasn¡¯t too uncommon, so that would have also proved a barrier to unintelligent beings. Soon after his contemplations, Ian got his answer. One of the insects, a beetle, stopped in its tracks before making a beeline for the transfer formation. As soon as it stepped on it, the formation lit up and the beetle was transferred to the G- floor. A few feet into the floor, a spider lunged at it, bit into it, and injected venom into it. Soon after, the beetle disappeared into a burst of mana, which rushed out of the dungeon. None of the mana entered Ian and simply dispersed once outside of his dungeon. The reward he received in return was a small amount of DP. And by small, he meant a half a point of DP, so not that bad considering he only got a single DP a day passively at level one. There were two possibilities that Ian could think of for his transfer formation to work for insects. One, the selection options were translated in such a way that even a beetle could understand, and they chose to activate the transfer formation. Two, for creatures that don¡¯t have the ability to activate a dungeon¡¯s movement options, the dungeon¡¯s movement options are activated automatically. He was leaning towards the second option, as it seemed unlikely for a beetle to be able to cognitively recognize they needed to select something. However, the second option meant that while he created the transfer formations a certain way, the dungeon system could still tamper with them. Thoughts for the future. Ian soon grew a little bored with the ever entering insects, which had now grown in size, along with the occasional bird or small mammal joining them. It wasn¡¯t a parade of animals, but he had made about fifty DP so far. However, more so than his boredom, an idea he had previously thought answered had creeped back into his mind. A key feature of dungeons was that while not every creature inside them occurred in the surrounding environment, a large number of them did. Ian had made an assumption that since his terrain choices were determined by the surrounding area, thus some of his creature choices, the similarities between creatures in the dungeon and outside the dungeon were due to that. His observation of the insects threw a kink into that hypothesis, since none of them were the same as the ones he chose. He hadn''t chosen the forest terrain yet, but that was the point. A lot of the creatures in the dungeon were the same or similar to the creatures in the terrain most immediate to the entrance of the dungeon. Of course, most dungeons might not have the variety of terrain that he had to choose from. However, only being able to choose five creatures per terrain type was limiting. Also, the floors closer to the entrance often had less similarities to outside creatures, which led to the possibility that the creature similarities were due to a factor after dungeons already finished multiple floors and opened to the world. Ian began searching through the Dungeon Shop with searches such as outside creatures, copy creatures, copy, more creatures, and a few others. However, none of them brought up satisfying results. It wasn¡¯t until he thought about his original assumptions of what dungeons did with those they killed. He had assumed they absorbed them to produce the materials, but after learning that dungeons released mana back into the world, he dismissed that idea. What if his initial idea wasn¡¯t completely wrong? A quick search for absorption answered his question immediately.
Absorption: Allows the dungeon to recreate anything that has had its mana released back into the world. Creatures and items that the dungeon would not be able to create normally cannot be absorbed. Absorbed creatures do not receive a dungeon tree of their own, and said creature must be purchased from the dungeon store or obtained through another dungeon oriented method for the tree to be accessed.
Prerequisites: One intruder killed.
So rather than storing all the items intruders brought with them, it allowed him to create them on his own. For him, this was amazing. For other dungeons, that most likely relied on the dungeon trees, it was still good, but had its downsides. A purchase of one hundred thousand DP and any new creature that died was now something he could create. He¡¯d have to spend more time developing different creatures rather than focus on making tons of elemental spiders. The makeup of creatures coming into his dungeon hadn¡¯t changed, so he moved back to the flashing windows. He had made sure to zone out the gossiping goblins, so he would be surprised.
Welcome new dungeon to the world of Jauter! With a stronger connection to the world of Juater, your status had been reworked to be more personalized. This stronger connection also allows you to earn Titles not related to your birth. Your actions during your one year prep period have been taken into account, and Titles have been granted to you and your creatures. Hope you enjoy, and have fun killing!
¡­.That was useful, although it must be a generic greeting, since he didn¡¯t need to know the name of the world he lived on for two hundred and fifty years.
Titles ?Mana Evolution Manipulator?, ?Biotic Monster Creator?, ?Mana Manipulator?, ?Dungeon Contributor?, ?Development Influencer?, ?Abnormal Development Influencer?, ?Unique Creature Creator?, ?Dungeon of Evolution?, ?Dungeon of Overkill?, ?Permanent Treasure Enchanter?, and ?Dungeon of Magic? Earned.
Ian stared at the titles for a while. It made sense, he had done a lot in the year of preparation, but it still seemed like a lot considering he only had four floors. Of his three dungeon titles, he couldn¡¯t disagree with Overkill, but he didn¡¯t exactly like having it. He had just wanted to be prepared in case some hater of dungeons was his first visitor, and the EX floor would continue to move down as he made more floors. Would he always have that title? Maybe he should make a sign warning intruders about that floor? ¡­.Nah, the name of the floor and having to choose to transfer were good enough. If the adventurers were stupid enough to enter even after it said EX rank floor, then they sealed their fate. His contemplation over, he opened title descriptions and effects.
Mana Evolution Manipulator: Rather than use the Dungeon trees, you have focused on using mana to evolve your monsters and creatures. You have actively directed their evolution through mana attributes to produce the creatures you desired.
Effects:
  • Developing monsters and creatures with mana now costs half as much as base.
  • The time it takes for mana attributes to influence monster evolutions is reduced.
Half? That seemed like a lot for what he did. Although, he did only do mana evolution¡­.or at least primarily mana evolution. He couldn¡¯t remember if he tried out the evolution trees at least once when he was checking them out. The second effect was more interesting. Could he make lower rank space goblins? Even if he did the same ratios as before, they might be E+ rank. What if he did purely space magic? He might even be able to make F+ rank equivalent space goblins. Of course, this effect should apply to his other creatures as well. This meant he could hopefully make rare and interesting variants even on very low rank floors. D wasn¡¯t exactly high rank, but having his E, F, and G rank floors left with just elemental variations from biota and normal monsters didn¡¯t sit right with him.
Biotic Monster Creator: A biotic creature transforming into a monster is a rare occurrence, which you have replicated on multiple occasions. Doing so has become mundane to you and has become a key part of your dungeon.
Effects:
  • Cost of creating mana hearts is reduced by half.
  • Biota on Ecosystem based floors are more likely to transform into monsters.
Creating mana hearts in biota wasn¡¯t the most costly of procedures, but it was a welcome reduction. Although, not all biota were as small as the ones he¡¯d used so far, nor as unintelligent. Could he create monsterized humans, hasjam, elves, dwarves, or others? He wasn¡¯t sure how he felt about that. As his goblins and most dragons showed, not all monsters were out to kill, but killing was still the sentiment of most monsters. Ian chuckled to himself. How many people that knew him would say, ¡®Ethical considerations of experimentation? You?¡¯. He always responded back, ¡®I always get consent first.¡¯. Why was he worrying about it now? He couldn¡¯t experiment on them after they became sapient, only before. If they never had any experience being human, then what would they care if they were a monsterized human. ¡­.Well, they might care once they started to meet humans. He shook his core. It was time to stop contemplating monsterized sapients and regretting not purchasing the Ecosystem perk. Onto the next title.
Mana Manipulator: Your use of mana to form your dungeon is top tier. Every floor has been influenced by your direct mana manipulation.
Effects:
  • Cost of creating a terrain is reduced by half.
  • Cost of creating traps is reduced by half.
  • Cost of enchanting treasure is reduced by half.
He had effectively doubled his mana with these titles. The only uses of mana that hadn¡¯t been influenced were actually using magic and creating creatures.
Dungeon Contributor: Something you have produced is now the default setting for all dungeons. Thanks to you, the overall position of dungeons has been improved.
Effects:
  • You will receive something from the Gods at each Auction depending upon your contribution.
Was this gift something all the gods came together to agree on? Or was a specific god selected to choose for each dungeon contributor? Either way, it was heavily dependent upon which gods were involved, if he was going to be excited for this ¡®something¡¯.
Development Influencer: The presence of your core has influenced the development direction of your dungeon creatures.
Effects:
  • An increased number of unusual evolutions will appear even for creatures not directly influenced by the dungeon core.
  • Any creature you create has a miniscule chance of changing into an unusual variant upon creation.
Yay? The goblins evolution trajectory certainly wasn¡¯t normal, but the most unusual was Narcy, and he had seen Sleepy Goblins before. The only other somewhat unusual evolution that he didn¡¯t develop directly was the Clear Construction Spider. Based on his current complement of unusual evolutions, he wasn¡¯t sure how useful this would be. He did suppose variety was more useful than generic monsters. As long as none of these unusual evolutions gave adventurers the secret to immortality, then there shouldn¡¯t be too many problems. He gave a quick glance at the slimes and jellies still taking care of the infants before moving on.
Abnormal Development Influencer: The presence of your core has greatly influenced the development direction of your dungeon creatures. In fact, their evolution pathways have leaned more towards abnormal than unusual.
Effects:
  • Even on floors not influenced directly by your core, abnormal evolutions will arise.
  • Any creature you create has a miniscule chance of changing into an abnormal variant upon creation.
¡­.Y-Yay?
Unique Creature Creator: You have created a creature that has never existed previously in this universe. A grand feat approaching the Gods.
Effects:Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
  • Unique creatures you¡¯ve created cost fifty percent less to produce.
  • There is a small increase for your creatures to evolve into unique creatures on their own.
He had wondered why he hadn¡¯t gotten a title for creating the space goblin at the time, but at least he had that answer now. Although, the fact that titles were only granted after forming a more permanent connection with his universe had some implications. How was the Dungeon System different than the System he had when human? They both seemed to be overseen by the same God, but maybe the Greater God had a hand in the Dungeon System. Hmm, more and more questions, but that was one of the enjoyable aspects of life. Also, the effects seemed somewhat lackluster for a ¡®grand feat approaching the Gods¡¯.
Dungeon of Evolution: The vast array of different and rare creatures you have created has earned you this name.
Effects (only when equipped):
  • Creatures are more likely to develop towards evolutions that have not been previously seen in the dungeon.
  • Monsters tamed from this dungeon will have increased stats and skills compared to their rank.
  • Monsters tamed in this dungeon will have a larger variety of evolutions available to them.
  • Development rate of dungeon creatures and tamed monsters is doubled.
Name? ¡­.That¡¯s right. He had a soul name and a dungeon name, but the dungeon name was blank. Or at least it was. He brought up his status.
Soul Name: Ian Irwin Dungeon Name: Dungeon of Evolution
Level: 5 (+4) Floors: 4 (+4)
Mana Generation /day: 1,040,000 (+40,000) Mana Pool: 60,320,000 (+60,043,277)
DP Generation /day: 5 (+4) DP Pool: 1,382,600 (+1,363,600)
Titles:
?Mana Evolution Manipulator? ?Biotic Monster Creator? ?Mana Manipulator? ?Dungeon Contributor?
?Development Influencer? ?Abnormal Development Influencer? ?Unique Creature Creator? ?Dungeon of Evolution?
?Dungeon of Overkill? ?Permanent Treasure Enchanter? ?Dungeon of Magic?
He was correct, his dungeon name was now Dungeon of Evolution. He¡¯d have make sure he was considered the Dungeon of Evolution and not a Dungeon of Evolution. Well, he could only assume there were other dungeons of evolution as the requirements didn¡¯t seem that difficult. Actually, the fact that he had never come across dungeons with the same names was more unusual. Maybe once a name was taken, then it was removed from the pool of possible names? His three dungeon names were more broad than the average dungeon name, well besides the SS rank Dungeon of Knowledge, whose rank gave no indication of her difficulty or age. At least voice wise, he thought it was a her. He never met the avatar. Although, maybe he could change his voice when addressing intruders? Hmm. Ian¡¯s mind slowed down as he glanced at the Helper. He used the outer book cover to scratch the top of his pages. Right. ¡°Hey, Helper. Can dungeons have the same dungeon name?¡± ¡°Yes.¡± ¡°Why did I¡­.no wait¡­.how often does it happen?¡± ¡°Every known dungeon name has occurred multiple times.¡± Really? There were that many dungeons on this¡­. ¡°Can a dungeon name be repeated on the same planet?¡± Ian asked. ¡°No.¡± ¡°Alright, thanks.¡± It seemed he didn¡¯t have abnormal luck to not encounter duplicate named dungeons. Tidon has said there was a universal auction and competition, how did they deal with names then? He supposed that soul names came into play there. Actually, he wondered how many dungeons called each other by their dungeon names and not their soul names. Especially since they could probably be changed. Ian moved his focus back to his status. A few other things had changed about his status. Besides the addition of his titles, there was a lot less to his status. In fact, compared to his status as a human, it was more of a ¡®Can¡¯t remember your numbers? Here they are.¡¯ than an indicator of his overall strength and progress. The loss of a rank indicator, the number of perks he had, and the number of creatures he had was more of a loss of fluff than anything important. It was interesting to look at his creature numbers increasing, but that was it. He supposed eventually the title category would proceed the same way as before, but for now he could see all of them as soon as he brought up his status. The last change would be the most noticable if he hadn¡¯t remembered what his status looked like before. He could see how the numbers changed in the parenthesis, and everything italicized and bolded was new. It was a nice quality of life feature that would be even better when looking at the statuses of his creatures. Actually, why the depths didn¡¯t his status have this feature when he was human? It was quite the improvement for the year he had been gone. Updates to the system happened occasionally, but such a big quality of life upgrade was uncommon. Dammit, he could have really used it while human. Ian decided to finish reading the detailed explanations for his titles before he explored the possibility of changing his dungeon name, not that he wanted to.
Dungeon of Overkill: The presence of a floor with EX rank monsters or traps in the first five floors of your dungeon has earned you this name.
Effects (only when equipped):
  • EX rank creatures and traps cost fifty percent less mana to create.
  • Floors with EX rank in their name, and that are properly titled, induce a fear effect.
  • Intruders that overcome obstacles above their power level receive double to quadruple the normal reward.
  • Rewards for overcoming any obstacle on an EX rank floor are tripled.
At least there wasn¡¯t a reward for clearing the EX rank floor. He wanted intruders to experience his EX rank floor, just not clear it. It would depend on how often he could change his name, whether this would be useful or not. If he could change his name anytime, then whenever he wanted to create EX traps, he could equip this name.
Permanent Treasure Enchanter: You have created a item that is magical in nature without any enchantment formations. These items are not limited in their use like many other enchanted items.
Effects:
  • The cost of producing and creating permanent enchanted items is reduced by half.
  • Any treasure you produce has a miniscule chance of becoming a permanent enchanted item.
The second effect clicked Ian¡¯s mind into place. Gambling! Of course! It was the best way to make people think they have a chance of winning, but in reality they would lose everything. He hadn¡¯t thought of it before because he absolutely hated it, but considering he already had to do some things that wouldn¡¯t exactly be called morally right, it fit right in. He could only hope the second effect occurred early to get the adventurers attention, and then never happened again! The only problem was if the enchanted effect was too grand. None of his current enchantments would be too big of a problem, but he¡¯d have to be careful of what he enchanted in the future. ¡­.Wait. The description said ¡®any¡¯ treasure. Did that mean non-enchanted items could become permanently enchanted items? If so, was the enchantment random? Ian¡¯s core twitched for a while at the implication. He hated gambling.
Dungeon of Magic: The presence of a floor, with high rank magic deeply ingrained into its function, in the first five floors of your dungeon has earned you this name.
Effects (only when equipped):
  • Cost of all magic for the dungeon reduced by half.
  • The mana regeneration rate of intruders and creatures in the dungeon is doubled.
  • It is far more likely for creatures in your dungeon to learn magic.
  • Magic skill proficiency gain is doubled for intruders and creatures in the dungeon.
This was going to be hard. He liked evolving new creatures, but magic interested him just as much. If it hadn¡¯t, there was no way he would ever have become an EX rank mage. The increased skill proficiency gain was the most important, and gave him definitive evidence that certain dungeons did provide a tangible benefit to training in them. Numerous studies had been done, and it was considered fact, but it was still nice to have the System say ¡®Yes, it does this¡¯. The equivalent for the Dungeon of Evolution was the development increase for tamed monsters. However, tamed monsters were a much narrower field than all magic skills. What would produce more mana? Creatures being removed from his dungeon or the mana infused into adventurers from skill gain and increased mana regeneration? Based on his analysis of his creatures, living things were dense with mana. But, the perk he used also said they were dangerous in terms of condensing mana. He supposed the danger came from the fact that once outside his dungeon they would live and reproduce out in the world. Tamers were liable to attempt breeding on any rare monsters that were produced from his dungeon, which meant a lot of babies and a ton of mana being condensed into them. If he was going to focus on tamers coming to his dungeon, then he needed to make his tamable monsters infertile. Even with all this internal debate of which one to choose, he still hadn¡¯t even checked if he could change it. Something he needed to know as he had never seen the name of a dungeon change.
Dungeon Name: The name of a dungeon. Dungeon names can be earned through the actions of the dungeon or by being repeatedly called a name by a large number of intruders. If the dungeon name is read by a intruder before a dungeon name is earned, the closest name to being earned is presented as the name of the dungeon. The dungeon name can be changed once a year. The effects of the currently equipped dungeon name can be increased by having the name equipped for long periods of time or through actions taken by the dungeon that mesh well with the dungeon name.
Did the description update after he received a dungeon name? It must have, as that was a lot more information than he ever remembered getting. At least he now knew that while changing his dungeon name was possible, it wasn¡¯t encouraged. Now, magic or evolution? ¡­.The choice was a lot simpler than he thought. While there were still secrets of magic he had yet to discover, he felt more complete as a mage than he did in his understanding of creatures and monsters. As he wanted to learn even more, evolution was the only choice. As such, he left his name as is. Now that he was done with his personal windows, he should check on-ooh a fox, that would be useful for later-the goblins and his other creatures, to see what changed with their windows. Mina, Izu, Pugi, and Botan were getting restless as he had told them to wait while he examined his own windows. Narcy was sleeping, and Yervin was examining his window in the learning room without bringing it up to Ian. ¡°Okay, what has all¡­.three of you so excited?¡± Ian corrected himself as he noticed Pugi sitting with her head down. ¡°My lord, we got-!¡± Mina glanced at Pugi before bringing her raised hand down and lowering her voice to normal levels, ¡°We got titles and changes to our status.¡± However, Mina¡¯s actions didn¡¯t go unnoticed. Pugi stood up, walked over to Mina, and punched her in the gut. ¡°Don¡¯t treat me like frail wood, Mina.¡± she frowned, ¡°You can still get excited about something if I¡¯m down about it.¡± Mina¡¯s eyes widened before she shook her head slightly and stood up from her hunched over position. A couple of seconds of staring at each other occurred before Mina grabbed Pugi into a big hug. ¡°I¡¯m sorry, Pugi. You¡¯re right. However, I¡¯m never going to stop taking you into consideration.¡± Pugi¡¯s frown turned into a smile as she gave a nod and hugged Mina back. Ian was glad to see them getting along. If they liked each other more, then maybe he could spend more time making his dungeon than interacting with them. ¡­.He supposed he should stop thinking that way as they were likely to be together for all time. Or at least a very long time considering the age of the Dungeon of Knowledge was greater than most estimates of Jauter¡¯s age. He had spent some time on the problem, but his interactions with geologists hadn¡¯t gone well. They didn¡¯t like dungeons as it was impossible to take samples from them, and the study of rock ages and compositions didn¡¯t interest him that much. Ian opened up Mina¡¯s status as the three goblins bragged about their titles to him, while Pugi declared she would get more titles than them in the long run.
Name: Mina
Race: ?Goblin Knight?
Rank: E-
Development: 17/100 (+17)
Titles: ?Young Talent?, ?Devoted Goblin?
Skills
Stench ¡¼Lv 3¡½ Tool Use ¡¼Lv 4¡½
Bite ¡¼Lv 3¡½ Scratch ¡¼Lv 3¡½
Night Vision ¡¼Lv 4¡½ Leadership ¡¼Lv 4¡½
Loyalty ¡¼Lv 5¡½ Swordsmanship ¡¼Lv 5¡½(+1)
Armor Handing ¡¼Lv 2¡½ Riding ¡¼Lv 2¡½
Fighting ¡¼Lv 4¡½ (+1) Coordination ¡¼Lv 3¡½
Honor ¡¼Lv 4¡½ Mana Perception ¡¼Lv 2¡½ (+1)
Mana Manipulation ¡¼Lv 2¡½ (+1) Mana Refinement ¡¼Lv 5¡½
Mina was the only one with two titles. Izu, Botan, and Narcy had one each, while Yervin and Pugi didn¡¯t have any. Of course, Yervin had his titles from when he was born, but no new ones. Botan had the ?Plant Lover? title, Izu had the ?Creature Lover? title, and Narcy had the ?Narcoleptic? title. Ian thought it was somewhat annoying to have his naming sensibilities so blatantly pointed out. The best change with his monster¡¯s statuses was the ability to hide certain parts of the window. He hid the descriptions, drops, and gender, since those weren¡¯t liable to change without his input. The others he left because they either had changes, or he simply liked looking at them. The overall aesthetic of the windows changed for the better. Being able to change the window aesthetics was important to a lot of people while he was human, and while it didn¡¯t affect him much, he wondered if the titles were what the goblins were truly excited about. After he finished his short discussion with the goblins, Ian moved his focus back to his core room. Opening to the world was less of an event than he expected, but as much of an event as he thought. There wasn¡¯t much change in the stream of creatures into his dungeon, so now he had to try out copying his floors. As much as it bugged him to do so, he needed to level up faster. Chapter 33 Ian stared at his floors before inhaling and exhaling deeply. He gave a quick thought of how he was able to do that as a book, before copying over the G- rank floor. His mana was sucked out, the floor created, and he received a notification that his fifth floor was completed. He stared at the notification. ¡­.He couldn¡¯t do it. He knew he needed to make floors quickly, but copying a floor verbatim just felt lazy to him. Three floors and then a copy? Who would want to go into that dungeon. He certainly wouldn¡¯t. Well, he wasn¡¯t the most normal dungeon diver, but still. He shooed the notification away and erased the duplicate floor as the mana returned to him. Duplication wasn¡¯t completely off the table, but he needed more than three floors before he did so. The problem was he still needed to make floors faster than four in a year, so one every two and a half months. Although, he did simply build up mana for five of those months, so it was more like a floor every fifty days. ¡­.When he laid it out like that, it wasn¡¯t that bad. Well, not bad for him. Even G- rank dungeons generally had at least ten floors before adventurers discovered them. Also, it wasn¡¯t as if those dungeons had a lot more than the same year prep time he had, since they were discovered soon after opening. The easiest way would be to copy the generic room and hallway structure of a lot of other dungeons as he had considered before. He had tried with the G+ Illusion floor, but still ended up going into more detail than needed. If he was going to go generic for a few floors, then he needed magic and monsters to compensate. He could only hope that the illusion he created for the G+ floor was overkill, and that degree of magic wasn¡¯t needed to meet Magical Beauty. The layout was simple. Five square rooms each a fifty meter cube. The generic create function still created cave features like stalagmites, stalactites, columns, and puddles, but with more space for movement than he had given. It wasn¡¯t similar in density and construction to a natural cave, but most dungeons weren¡¯t. Now, what was he going to do to make them magically worthy? Ian rubbed his pages together in thought for a while. Some ideas like more traps, more puzzles, or more monsters, he just threw away as they came to him. Others like more advanced traps or more magical monsters, he contemplated, but threw away after realizing they would add too much difficulty to an F- floor. What he had was basically five large rooms, so what was he to do with them? Then it clicked. The water elemental room on the EX floor. Enchanted rooms were different than the illusion floor. The illusion floor was covered in illusion magic, while the enchanted strength room applied to the water elementals inside it. At least with enchantments he had practice reducing their effects, although he had not enchanted many rooms, especially of this size. However, what to enchant? There were generic enchantments like strength, endurance, agility, etcetera, but even those had certain types of monsters and creatures they fit better. Since the layout was a simple hallway, room, hallway, room, until the final hallway led to the boss room, it made sense to make it linear in difficulty. Even if all the monsters were F- rank, there were still differences between species. Of course, adventurer groups that lacked in certain areas may find earlier rooms harder, but that was their problem, not his. He¡¯d start off with plants, then insects, then how about the fox? ¡­.Oh wait. That¡¯s right, he didn¡¯t have a fox. It ran away after the spiders tried to swarm it. Besides, a fox turned monster would probably be an E or D rank monster. How about the rabbit? Hmm, that was a definite possibility. It had thankfully died trapped by the boss. Now, what insects and plants. He was iffy about making more of the same themed rooms, but this was supposed to be a fast floor so there would be some repetition. Ferns and mushrooms again then. For insects he only had cicadas as monsters, and for arachnids he had a lot of spiders. However, a spider room again would be a bit much. ¡­.Actually, he might be able to get the spider dungeon title. Hmm. No, something new would be for the best. He did have a lot of biotic insects that could be turned into monsters, especially with all the new-. Ian¡¯s vision snapped to the entrance hall. What was that? It looked like a horse, but was only a foot tall at the top of its back. Rather than a bushy tail and mane, it had no mane and a tail like a cat. It¡¯s head was the miniaturized version of a horses¡¯. It¡¯s legs however were stubby in comparison only reaching half the creature¡¯s height. The four legs were also much thicker proportionally than a horses¡¯. Unlike a horse, which had a one-toed hoof, it had a three-toed hoof. It was moving its head back and forth looking around the room, while its ears twitched. A huff spat out of its mouth as it headed for the transfer formation. This was it. He wanted to make this into the fifth room monster. However, he needed to make sure it didn¡¯t run away like the fox. He could order the spider automata to kill it, but that was a bit overkill. That meant it was the perfect opportunity for the goblins to gain some experience. It shouldn¡¯t be too difficult, it was currently munching on the ferns, but they would have to make sure it didn¡¯t run away. He focused his vision on the goblin town, ¡°Hey, Mina.¡± She wiped the sweat off her brow as she stopped practicing sword swings before responding, ¡°Yes, my lord?¡± ¡°I have a job for you and the other four goblins.¡± The sides of her mouth twitched and her eyes lit up, ¡°I shall go gather them immediately!¡± A couple of minutes later, the five goblins and Yervin were standing in his core room. Izu had been the first to arrive as he had been resting near to where Mina was training. Narcy was sleeping on her bed, so she came next. The others were practicing in the learning room, so they arrived together. ¡°A creature that I want to create just entered the dungeon, and if you kill it, I¡¯ll gain the ability to create it,¡± Ian informed them. ¡°If all you need to do is kill it, then why not have that death machine kill it?¡± asked Yervin with a smirk. He used his thumb to point at the spider automata that had scuttled in behind them. Ian wondered how Yervin¡¯s personality came about. It didn¡¯t seem the most appropriate for someone that was supposed to follow his every command with no questions asked. Of course, he didn¡¯t want worshippers, Mina was already a bit too much, but it made him a little worried. ¡°Because it¡¯s a good opportunity, Yervin. It may not be the most powerful of creatures, but it will be good for the five goblins to practice their teamwork, since they have to make sure it doesn¡¯t run away. Thus, you¡¯ll have to stand back and watch. ¡°It¡¯s currently on the G- floor chewing on ferns and crushing spiders with its hind legs. The five of you have traversed my dungeon as a team before, so I¡¯ll leave it to your discretion of how to kill it and make sure it doesn¡¯t run away.¡± That fact that he was terrible at teamwork and had not paid any attention to them while they traversed his dungeon had nothing to do with it. ¡°It shall be done, my lord!¡± saluted Mina, ¡°Let¡¯s go everyone!¡± ¡°Yes!¡± Izu, Pugi, and Botan shouted back, while Narcy just groaned in response. Yervin nodded in approval and followed after them. The spider automata turned back and forth between the leaving goblins and his core before it scuttled over and laid down next to his core. Ian relayed the position of the horse-like creature, which wasn¡¯t that hard at it hadn¡¯t moved for a while. It had attempted to eat all the constriction ferns in the fern room, resulting in their death and disappearance. It had whined in anger for a while before going back to eating the normal ferns. Currently it was rolling around on top of the ferns in glee. It made him feel a bit bad about killing it, but that was almost completely overridden by his two main desires. ?????????? When they reached the G- floor, they split up into two groups. Group one, Izu and Pugi, headed through the spider room to cut off its escape path to the entrance hall. Group two, Mina, Botan, and Narcy, headed through the mush-room and the moss room, so they could surround it. Yervin stood behind Izu and Pugi to observe. The two groups split up and started walking through the floor. The first group to reach the entrance to the fern room was Izu¡¯s group. They hid in the shadows and observed the small horse creature rolling around on and eating ferns. About a minute later, Mina¡¯s hand appeared from the other entrance and waved at them. However, before she finished waving, a loud scream echoed behind her, and Botan bolted past. Izu and Pugi were surprised by the new development, but decided that Mina must have changed the plan and rushed out after him. The horse creature was laying on its back as Botan ran into the room screaming at the top of his lungs. It panicked and stumbed to its feet as fast as possible. As soon as it stood tall, Botan was upon it. He dug his claws into its side and bit into its neck. A screeching whine resounded through the room as the creature bucked to get Botan off. By that time Pugi and Izu had arrived. Pugi immediately sent a kick towards its groin, but the creatures hind legs hit her shins causing her to tumble a few feet backwards in pain. Izu sent a few slow moving water balls towards the creature, but most of them hit Botan instead making nasty red welts on his head and back. The bucking of the creatures started to slow down as a pool of red blood formed around its feet. As it did, Botan was pulled off of the creature, while a sword was brought down onto its head. The resulting splatter disappeared as the mana was released back into the world. ¡°Botan! Explain yourself!¡± Mina growled as she placed him on the ground. ¡°It was crushing and eating the plants!¡± he yelled back with fire in his eyes. ¡°And? We may not need to eat, but most things do. That¡¯s not good enough reason to go off plan.¡± ¡°But, I didn¡¯t like what it was doing, so I had to do something about it!¡± ¡°We were! The entire point of this was to learn teamwork, but you just ran off on your own!¡± ¡°It-It wasn¡¯t like we needed teamwork. Any of use could have taken that thing on our own. In-In fact trying to work together resulted in more injuries to ourselves,¡± Botan said pointing to the red welts on his body. Mina¡¯s hand quivered, but it stayed at her side, ¡°Those red welts are your own fault, Botan. Izu and Pugi may not of made the best decision to go off plan, but they only did so because you rushed in!¡± Izu and Pugi shuffled their feet trying to avoid eye contact with Mina. Botan bit his lower lip, put his head down, and didn¡¯t say anything else. ¡°I know you love plants Botan,¡± Mina sighed, ¡°but you can¡¯t let that love interfere with any jobs we are given. Wouldn¡¯t it have been better to beat that creature into submission as it recoiled in fear over not being able to do any damage whatsoever to us? Giving it back the pain it gave your plants should have been a given, but it got the easy way out since you got too emotional.¡± Botan looked back up at Mina and gave a resolute nod. Yervin stood against the wall watching over the group with a small smile. Izu was staring at Mina with a raised eyebrow and some slight trepidation. Pugi was still staring at the ground.This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings. Narcy, however, was sleeping in the entrance of the room. ?????????? After he felt the nice moment between the goblins went on long enough, Ian spoke up, ¡°Well, thanks for killing the creature, even if the training exercise didn¡¯t go as planned. It seems to be called a Chequin, just in case you wanted to know. ¡°However, your teamwork seems to be lacking,¡± Not that he was one to talk. ¡°There are currently creatures entering the dungeon, mostly insects, so you all shall hunt them, even Yervin,¡± He really should have thought of this before. ¡°The five goblins will attempt to practice their teamwork, while Yervin will get used to his powers in the main dungeon. Most importantly, make sure that none of them escape,¡± That fox escape wasn¡¯t going to happen again. ¡°Yes!¡± the four goblins responded. ¡°Fine,¡± sighed Yervin. ¡°*snore*¡± ¡°Good luck, and if any adventurers enter my sphere of perception, then I¡¯ll make sure to tell you. I don¡¯t want abnormally powerful monsters on the wrong floors for them.¡± said Ian. He got nods from each of them. A nod of reverence, acceptance nods, and an exasperated nod. As the goblins went to hunt intruders, he went back to making his floor. He had three of the five rooms decided: ferns, mushrooms, and chequins. Were mushrooms plants? No, but they fit his linear progression idea. Now for two insects. Hmm, even with all the new ones, he supposed he should finally use his centipede. Its naturally serrated edges would come in handy. For the other¡­.how about the beetle, the first insect he killed. What was it called? Right, black beetle. There, five. Two old creatures, two new creatures, and one updated creature. What enchantment would fit each creature? Nature? That technically fit all five. Although, nature did have a tendency to be more related to plants than other organisms for some reason. It might fit the fern room in that case. A big aspect of mushrooms and other fungi was their reproduction through spores. Most monster variants often had a spore attack of some sort. Spore magic then? ¡­.That would be difficult. Magic attributes related to life were often more difficult to produce than abstract concepts like nature and the sky. What was an abstract concept related to reproduction then? ¡­.Proliferation. That¡¯s good. Should black beetles or serrated centipedes go first? Based on their biotic forms the centipede already has greater natural defenses than the black beetles, so it was likely to become more dangerous. For now, black beetle in the third room and serrated centipede in the fourth room. If their monster forms flipped their positions, he could just change it around. A lot of insect monsters tended to be difficult to damage due to their exoskeletons, so a monsterized black beetle should be the same. However, if he was to use endurance to enchant the beetle room, what was he going to use to enchant the centipede room? The centipedes were long and spiky, so sharpness? That could work, but their serrated edges were passive defense, not active offense. Ian spent a couple more minutes thinking about it with nothing coming to mind. If thinking about centipedes didn¡¯t come up with anything, then another avenue of enchanting would be worth pursuing. What was something non-creature related that his dungeon was lacking? The first thing that came to mind was mechanical traps, but unless he wanted to pursue the dungeon trees or make an engineer monster that wasn¡¯t going to be quick and easy. Still, traps. Of the magic ones he had, what was he lacking? He had water, earth, slime, jelly, light, illusion¡­.he didn¡¯t have fire. A chuckle bounced inside his head as he realized he didn¡¯t have one of the most common trap types. Fire traps, although various in form, were abundant in every dungeon. It really shouldn''t be a surprise as magically fire had a better ease of use to potential destruction ratio compared to most magics. Of course, children with the fire attribute were a disaster waiting to happen because of this. Andre and Mackenzie often complained about university students that had never learned the difference between creating a lighter¡¯s worth of fire and fire pillar. Even then, all he had to do was mention Estella¡¯s attribute, and they were thankful for their fire students. The story her parents told, of how minutes after she was born, their house and the entire block blew up, embarrassed Estella to no end. They had to hire a tutor and a magic nullifier immediately in the hopes she could control her power as soon as possible. Ian already knew what he was going to do for the chequin room, so with all the enchantments decided, he moved on to making the monsters. He wanted three types of monsters in each room. He already had two ferns, constriction and water ferns, and two mushrooms, ankle biters and tiny mushmen, but he would have to make the rest. For the first room, the ferns were nature attribute by default, so there weren¡¯t any restrictions on the type of fern monster he could create. Thus, he pumped the fern full of shadow mana.
Race: Shadow Fern
Rank: F-
Attribute: Shadow
Title: ?Biotic Born?
Skills
Spore Creation ¡¼Lv 1¡½ Shadow Enlargement ¡¼Lv 3¡½
Shadow Paralysis ¡¼Lv 2¡½ Shadow Camouflage ¡¼Lv 2¡½
Description
Fern monsters that have developed the ability to manipulate shadows with their mana. Low rank shadow ferns have not yet become one with the shadows and can only minorly influence them. In complete darkness these monsters are weaker than any other fern of equivalent rank as there are no shadows for them to manipulate.
Common Item Drops
F- Mana Heart Black Frond
He compared the shadow fern to the F- rank constriction and water ferns.
Race: Constriction Fern
Rank: F- (+3)
Attribute: Nature
Title: ?Biotic Born?
Skills
Spore Creation ¡¼Lv 1¡½ Extend ¡¼Lv 2¡½ (+1)
Constrict ¡¼Lv 3¡½ (+2) Bind ¡¼Lv 2¡½
Race: Wet Fern
Rank: F- (+3)
Attribute: Water
Title: ?Biotic Born?
Skills
Spore Creation ¡¼Lv 1¡½ Water Creation ¡¼Lv 3¡½ (+2)
Water Shot ¡¼Lv 2¡½ (+1) Water Blade ¡¼Lv 2¡½
It was interesting to note that these ones he created from scratch, without letting them live in his dungeon for a while, all had one level three skill and one level one skill. Most of the ones of F- that he let develop had all level two skills at F- rank. It seemed creatures that developed in his dungeon didn¡¯t receive a pure infusion of their attribute, the same as monsters on the outside. From his studies what he had discovered was that the attribute presented by the system wasn¡¯t completely correct. While that attribute made up over ninety percent of the individuals¡¯ mana composition, there tended to be traces of others, trending towards any attributes the individual previously had. The same amount of experience was absorbed in the end, but having higher leveled skills related to an individuals¡¯ attribute was generally deemed to be better. Other skills would suffer, but those skills were generally unused by the individual. When he had asked Andre and Mackenzie to present his findings at their university, everything about them twitched. Their eyebrows, their pointed ears, and especially their fingers were shaking to their roots. The initial rush to find the perfect place to train resulted in a lot of deaths. Fire attributes jumping into volcanoes. Water attributes diving into whirlpools. Earth attributes burying themselves alive. Wind attributes jumping off of large mountains. Metal attributes stabbing themselves. The rush died down as people stopped jumping to conclusions and being complete idiots in the face of becoming stronger. The overall benefits of training in extremely harsh environments just for the increased attribute gain was negligible. The benefit of training while swimming or surrounded by fire was almost as good as jumping into a whirlpool or volcano. However, nature was not homogenous, and there were almost no areas where a single attribute made its domain. The end result was more efforts were spent on refining the experience they received rather than changing the type of experience they received. This resulted in his immense confusion as that was something he had to do from birth. When he had trained his tamed monsters in other dungeons they had the same attribute problems as outside the dungeon. He had hoped that would change when the creatures were created by him, but sadly it seemed it wasn¡¯t to be. It was difficult to refine mana into the correct attribute, and he was glad to have started the goblins early. Of course, if they were like other monsters, then when they reached a high enough rank, actively refining wouldn¡¯t matter. It varied between monsters species, but the higher the rank, the better they passively refined mana into their defined attribute. Everyone was disappointed this change in passive mana refinement didn¡¯t apply to sapients. Mana refinement may use the same process for both internal and external refinement, but external was a lot harder. In fact, no matter how much he said it was the same thing, no one agreed with him, even Estella. They all said that refining their mana to become a mana artist was not the same as refining received experience into the correct attribute. It was around this time he learned how garbage of a teacher he was. Ian stopped reminiscing and contemplating before getting back to his floor. With three ferns made, he moved to make the first room. First, however, he needed to enchant the room. The more abstract the attribute of mana, the more could be done with it, but the harder it was to do it. Nature encompassed literally the entire universe, but worked best when working with things related to geology and wild creatures. The questions was: what did he want to do with this room? Nature could apply the same effect of proliferation that would be in the mushroom room, but that would be redundant. ¡­.How about something targeted towards the shadow ferns he just made? All the rooms would have lights as he planned on making the enchanted walls, ceiling, and floor all glow in different colors for each room. To improve the shadow situation in the first room he needed bigger shadows, which meant he needed bigger ferns. To make bigger ferns, he needed to either make them himself or use nature to make them grow bigger. The problem was that his monsters and creatures didn¡¯t grow naturally in his dungeon. Would a growth enchanted nature room grow things that weren¡¯t growing? He supposed the only way to find out was to try it and make revisions to his normal formation. Thus, he began enchanting. The shapes and lines of the formation grew from small to large as they proceeded through the formation. Shapes bloomed into bigger and better versions of themselves while maintaining their integrity and self. Not only did the growth of the formation progress along the walls, ceiling, and floor of the room, it progressed along every stalagmite, stalactite, and column. More than that, the progress occured into the depths of the formation. Each line was layered upon one another from small to large and back. It one took Ian a day to complete the formation. Not having to spend time to infuse each line with vast amount of mana worked wonders. It glowed a light green and pulsed occasionally. The pulse had no purpose beyond the fact that he thought it looked cool. He placed the three fern types in the room along with the green cave ferns. Now he only had to wait. While he was waiting, he placed a couple traps. A single water trap next to both the entrance and exit of the room. The two slightly upgraded illusion pitfalls were placed in front of a treasure he placed the corner and another pitfall in the corner opposite of the treasure chest. He set the treasure chest to be randomized F- equivalent loot. Ian turned his attention back to the ferns. If he had just stared at them visually, then he doubted he would notice a difference. However, they were his creatures, so he could spot physical differences quite readily¡­.it wasn¡¯t just because he had kept analysis magic constantly monitoring it, okay. It seemed every fern in the room had grown slightly. A couple of minutes for a couple of centimeters was pretty good. Sometimes no matter how much time was spent specifying the details of a formation it still came out wrong, so he was pleased with the resulting growth increase. Now the only worry was if the room was cleared out every day, would the growth rate keep up. That was something he¡¯d have to find out after people started to clear the floor. Chapter 34 With the first room done, Ian moved to make the third mushroom monster. Much earlier he had created the medium sized biotic red cap by messing with its default development settings, and now he had a use for it. In the same way he created the original ankle biter, he infused the medium redcap with nature mana and created a mana heart in its center. What resulted was a Large Ankle Biter. Apparently monsters didn¡¯t like being medium sized. The normal ankle biter at G- rank was knee height, the same as the medium red cap. The large ankle biter was at head height, although its base rank was G+. Besides its size, there was no major differences compared to the normal ankle biter. However, its size did give an increase in damage to its bite. The disadvantage was the higher difficulty in being camouflaged by red cap mushrooms. Especially with the size of the rooms he created. Still, he created the equivalent size biotic mushroom to at least attempt camouflaging the mushroom. A couple of mushroom sizes later, and Ian had a Big Red Cap Mushroom.
Race: Large Ankle Biter
Rank: F-
Attribute: Nature
Titles: ?Biotic Born?
Skills
Spore Creation ¡¼Lv 2¡½ Bite ¡¼Lv 2¡½
Poison Secretion¡¼Lv 2¡½ Headbutt ¡¼Lv 2¡½
Description
A large variant of the common ankle biter. It is still immobile with its large size, however its large size also allows it to swing its body back and forth in a headbutt like motion. The density of poison in its body is the same as its ankle biter counterpart, but its large size means there¡¯s more poison overall.
Common Item Drops
F- Mana Heart Large Mushroom
Race: Ankle Biter
Rank: F- (+3)
Attribute: Nature
Titles: ?Biotic Born?
Skills
Spore Creation ¡¼Lv 2¡½ (+1) Bite ¡¼Lv 3¡½ (+2)
Poison Secretion ¡¼Lv 2¡½ (+1)
Race: Vicious Tiny Mushman
Rank: F-
Attribute: Nature
Titles: ?Biotic Born?
Skills
Spore Creation ¡¼Lv 1¡½ Bite ¡¼Lv 2¡½
Poison Secretion¡¼Lv 2¡½ Headbutt ¡¼Lv 2¡½
Sprint ¡¼Lv 1¡½
Description
An ankle biter which has grown legs. The addition of legs has changed these monsters from ambush predators to active attackers. While the addition of legs has made these mushroom monsters more dangerous than their immobile counterparts, they should still be quite easily dispatched, as they lack any sort of regenerative capabilities.
Common Item Drops
F- Mana Heart Mushroom Legs
With his three mushroom monsters complete, he moved onto the second room. The construction of the room was approximately the same as the first room. The enchantment of the room took a day. Instead of the ever changing lines of the nature room, the lines and shapes originated from a single point on the ceiling and split into ever increasing numbers throughout the room. In the centerpoint of the floor, it was difficult to differentiate the lines and shapes as there were so many of them. The room glowed light pink and light blue alternating. With the enchantment complete, he placed one of each monster and biota. The growth enchantment had worked on the previous room, so the proliferation enchantment should work in the second room. He still wanted to make sure and waited for the singular creatures to proliferate. While he was waiting, Ian placed his traps and treasures. He placed the random treasure chest in a position slightly shifted from the previous rooms position. Traps wise he placed a illusion pitfall in the center of the room, but had to contemplate what other trap to place. He supposed more water traps would fit because, well, nature, but another idea was already sprouting in his mind. Why not just mimic the mushrooms? He constructed a circular trap that, once activated, released a cloud of paralyzing spores. To activate the trap, it only needed to be touched. It cost about double his other traps, but that was only because he reduced the normal time limit he had for most of his enchantments to less than a millisecond. Normally the enchantment needed to last at least as long as it took him to create it, but thankfully, he was supported by the ocean of mana outside of his dungeon. These traps were placed in front of the random treasure chest, the exit to the third room, and the corner diagonal to the treasure chest. While he was making the spore trap, the mushrooms had poofed out their own spores. The spores had already landed, taken root, and sprouted. ¡­.Maybe he should make this enchantment for every floor? If he didn¡¯t have to make every creature, then it would reduce mana expenditure. It did mean he had to dual-layer the trap enchantments, which increased mana and time cost, but it might be worth it. However, he wasn¡¯t sure he could dual-layer a whole room. ¡­.Experiments for later. He hadn¡¯t placed one in the first one, but he placed a hole puzzle in the top right corner. He kept the question thematically the same as the previous hole puzzles he made. He could change the type of question on later floors. With two rooms out of the way, Ian shifted his focus to the goblins on the G- floor. It seemed one group, which included Yervin, was fighting a fox. Well, ¡®fighting¡¯ was a bit much. Yervin blinked around the fox and poked it every time, which really pissed it off. While Yervin annoyed the fox to death, Pugi jumped in and out punching and kicking the creature. She jumped out whenever Izu informed her that his spell was ready, which, being a water ball, caused more bruises than anything else. The fox would periodically flee, or more accurately limp off, but Yervin would immediately shift space and bring the fox back into the middle of their group. Yervin could obviously smash the things brains in with a slap, but Pugi and Izu were doing a lot less damage to a fox than he thought they would. It certainly looked like a normal fox. Either it was a stronger variant of fox, or living in the mana rich environment of the mountain had improved its overall abilities. He shifted his view to the other group where¡­.oh dear. He tried to fill the floor with healing magic, but any use of magic on the instanced floor was blocked. It wasn¡¯t surprising, if dungeons could use magic on floors with intruders on them, then his dungeon dives would have been a lot more difficult. If he couldn¡¯t interfere directly, then he would have to get Mina to help Narcy out. ¡°Mina, the only way to kill a Hula Droop after it has infused itself into someone is to invade the individual¡¯s body with your mana and kill it from the inside. Doing so is extremely difficult and will most likely kill and cause extreme pain to the individual. Do you want to give it a try?¡± ¡°Yes!¡± she shouted already leaning over Narcy in preparation. Ian instructed her to change her mana attribute into whatever was easiest for her and use that to attack the monster. Once she converted her mana, he told her to push her mana inside of Narcy and direct it to the hula droop, the rainbow figure eight that encircled her torso. After the mana reached the hula droop, she needed to focus it only on the monster and not let any seep into the rest of Narcy. As soon as Mina started, he immediately regretted letting her. He should have known a E- rank monster with a level two mana manipulation would have problems invading a D- rank monster. Narcy screamed as her skin started to bubble and blister, and only a couple of minutes later, she died. The hula droop had exited right before her death. Its rainbow colored, circular body spun around in the air. It was obviously hurt with blisters of its own and blood dripping from it, but it still attacked the remaining two goblins. Botan, who had been freaking out while Narcy was drained by the hula droop, now stared wide eyed at where her body used to be. The hula droop shot towards the absent minded Botan, but Mina, while biting her lower lip, stepped between them and sliced the monster in two with a mana coated blade. Before the monster even disappeared into mana, she yelled at Ian with a hitch in her voice, ¡°Is Narcy okay?!¡± ¡°Yes, she respawned perfectly fine in the respawn room,¡± he answered. Immediately after his answer, Mina sprinted through his dungeon to the respawn room. Seeing Mina sprint past him, Botan came out of his stupor and ran after her. Ian informed the other three that Narcy had died and respawned. Before he had even finished telling them, Pugi was almost to the transfer formation. Izu was next, and after he smashed the fox¡¯s head, Yervin followed. He shifted his vision to Narcy, and prepared to ask how dying and respawning felt after all the goblins got to the respawn room. Was letting Mina try to save Narcy right? They knew she would respawn and dying by hula droop was more exhausting than painful. However, because they tried to save her she died by burning alive from the inside, a much more painful way to go. His sinking feeling only got stronger as he thought of the pain she went through without any input of her own. Eventually all five reached the respawn room. Mina, Pugi, and Botan were hugging Narcy while bawling their eyes out. Narcy, herself, seemed confused but happy and was hugging them back. Ian didn¡¯t want to interrupt the moment, but he needed to know. ¡°Narcy, how was dying and respawning? Even though I knew you would respawn, I let Mina try to save you which caused you additional pain. I¡¯m sorry about that.¡± Narcy patted the heads of the three goblins hugging her. They let her go at her request, but still sniffled as they awaited her answer. ¡°It¡¯s¡­.odd,¡± she began, ¡°I remember dying, not liking it, and that there was a lot of pain, but I don¡¯t remember the pain itself. When I think about it, I don¡¯t get shivers like I do when I remember how you infused us with mana.¡± Ian¡¯s book twitched, but he ignored the jab at his previous actions, ¡°That¡¯s good, and something needed. Not a lot of individuals can take excruciating pain without having their mind break. Having the respawn room would be a form of torture if that was the case.¡± Some could withstand the pain without breaking, and he was a good example. Well¡­.maybe not the best example, it really depended on who was asked. ¡°Y-you don¡¯t hate me for burning you alive?¡± Mina sniffed. Narcy put her hands on her hips and glared at Mina, ¡°Is that the kind of question a leader should be asking?¡± Mina eyes widened before she gave a small smile and nod, ¡°You¡¯re right, Narcy, pretend I didn¡¯t ask.¡± Narcy gave a definitive nod. ¡°Alright, before all of you start practicing on the G- floor again, gets some rest and calm down a bit. You can start again tomorrow,¡± Ian ordered. All six of them, even Yervin, gave affirmative nods. As they returned to their houses, he ordered the spider automata to hunt intruders on the G- floor and made sure it was added to the second respawn room. His momentary diversion of checking the goblin¡¯s progress had gone differently, and longer, than planned, but it was now back to the F- floor and third room. The black beetle, once it had a mana heart and nature mana inserted, was transformed into, well, a bigger version of itself. The only things that changed were the size, now the size of a fist like the spiders, and the addition of skills. The G- rank monsters of fist size were nearly the smallest monsters he¡¯d seen. Even the smaller ones weren¡¯t much smaller than fist size. Either monsters didn¡¯t go below a certain size, or monsters of a smaller size were too small to see without enhancements. He was betting on the latter with the knowledge that his zoom ability gave him. With an endurance enchantment planned for the room, he used endurance and strength mana instead of nature to create Hardened and Strengthened Black Beetles.
Race: Black Beetle
Rank: F-
Attribute: Nature
Titles: ?Biotic Born?
Skills
Endure ¡¼Lv 2¡½ Flight ¡¼Lv 2¡½
Headbutt¡¼Lv 2¡½ Sumo Wrestling ¡¼Lv 2¡½
Description
A monsterized version of a black beetle. It¡¯s bigger and badder than its biotic counterpart. Even without the horns of its rhinoceros cousins, it fights just like them with headbutts and sumo techniques. It is not often that monsters without high intelligence gain any sort of fighting technique. Beetles are unusual in that regard.
Common Item Drops
F- Mana Heart Beetle Carapace
Race: Hardened Black Beetle
Rank: F-
Attribute: Endurance
Titles: ?Biotic Born?
Skills
Endure ¡¼Lv 4¡½ Flight ¡¼Lv 1¡½
Headbutt¡¼Lv 2¡½ Sumo Wrestling ¡¼Lv 2¡½
DescriptionThe narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.
Enhanced with endurance mana instead of nature mana, this beetle¡¯s endure skill far outpaces a normal beetle of its rank. However, the increased endurance of the beetle has resulted in it nearly losing its flight skill. It can hover off of the ground for a couple seconds before falling back to the ground, but prolonged flights are no longer within its capabilities.
Common Item Drops
F- Mana Heart Beetle Carapace
Race: Strengthened Black Beetle
Rank: F-
Attribute: Strength
Titles: ?Biotic Born?
Skills
Endure ¡¼Lv 2¡½ Flight ¡¼Lv 1¡½
Headbutt¡¼Lv 3¡½ Sumo Wrestling ¡¼Lv 3¡½
Description
Enhanced with strength mana, this beetle¡¯s fighting skills have been enhanced. This beetle can still fly, but its capabilities do not match the F- rank black beetle counterpart. Physically this beetle looks exactly like the hardened and normal black beetles. Thus, the only way to tell these beetles apart is by either fighting them or using an appraisal skill.
Common Item Drops
F- Mana Heart Beetle Carapace
It took Ian another day to enchant the third room with endurance mana, and he had the formation glow brown. After he placed the beetles, it wasn¡¯t immediately apparent if his endurance formation was working properly. He could tell it was working, but whether it enhanced the beetle the correct amount was another matter. He supposed he¡¯d have the goblins test it after he completed the floor¡­.although, if he completed the floor, at least he knew it was doing something magically worthwhile. For traps, he placed three earth spikes diagonally through the room, one in the bottom left corner, one in the middle of the room, and one in the upper right corner. He placed illusion pitfalls in the upper left and bottom right corners. The random treasure chest was in between a spike trap and an illusion pitfall on the left side of the room. The treasure wasn¡¯t right next to either trap, just in between them. Using the serrated centipede, he created the monsterized version and the fire monsterized version. Like most of his other nature enhanced monsters, it was simply larger, but the fire enhanced serrated centipede had other changes. For one, it was now red in color, and for two, it breathed fire. It wasn¡¯t a lot of fire, but it could give a good scorching.
Race: Serrated Centipede
Rank: F-
Attribute: Nature
Titles: ?Biotic Born?
Skills
Bite ¡¼Lv 2¡½ Constrict ¡¼Lv 2¡½
Endure¡¼Lv 2¡½ Spike Damage ¡¼Lv 2¡½
Description
The enhanced monsterized version of the serrated centipede. Its natural abilities have become skills and have been enhanced. The largest change is the spike damage skill. As a normal centipede, its serrated sides could only cause damage if directly touched. With the spike damage skill, if the serrated centipede is attacked, a certain percentage of damage done to it will be reflected back at the attacker.
Common Item Drops
F- Mana Heart Serrated Carapace
Race: Serrated Fire Centipede
Rank: F-
Attribute: Fire
Titles: ?Biotic Born?
Skills
Bite ¡¼Lv 2¡½ Constrict ¡¼Lv 2¡½
Endure¡¼Lv 1¡½ Spike Damage ¡¼Lv 2¡½
Fire Breath ¡¼Lv 2¡½ Fire Resistance ¡¼Lv 1¡½
Description
The fire mana that permeates the centipedes body has reduced the durability of its carapace. As as result, its endure skill has been reduced. In return, the serrated fire centipede can now magically breathe fire. The damage and size of this fire breathe is determined both by the level of its skills, its mana capacity, and its overall physical size.
Common Item Drops
F- Mana Heart Fire Oil
For the last centipede, Ian used his creation ability to lengthen it. Rather than attempt to memorize the structure of the centipede completely, he copied the structure of the body segments until the centipede was ten feet long. He could only hope it didn¡¯t exceed F- rank. He didn¡¯t use nature mana to develop the centipede, but space mana. Unlike the space mana he used with Yervin, that focused on using it as magic, the space mana he used here was focused on enhancing space itself. Namely making the centipede bigger. His creation was successful, but only G rank. For something that was ten feet long and five inches in diameter, it was quite a low rank. Once he checked its status, all became clear.
Race: Long Serrated Centipede
Rank: G
Attribute: Space
Titles: ?Biotic Born?
Skills
Bite ¡¼Lv 1¡½ Constrict ¡¼Lv 1¡½
Endure¡¼Lv 1¡½ Spike Damage ¡¼Lv 1¡½
Description
Normally bigger is better, but not for this centipede. The added body weight from its increased length means that its maximum speed is at most a foot a minute. Its legs which were able to carry it around with its normal body size now struggle mightily. Even though the leg number to body segment number ratio remains the same, the force provided to force needed has not. Its near inability to move means, normally, it would not be able to go up in rank, but as a dungeon monster who knows?
Common Item Drops
G Mana Heart Large Serrated Carapace
Ian contemplated redoing the creature with more powerful legs, but that last line made him try something else first. He developed the long serrated centipede to F- rank, and as he did a new skill appeared: mini warp. He let the centipede go about its business to see how the skill worked. After it slowly started crawling along the floor, a small portal appeared that it went through. A couple of feet away, the centipede¡¯s head peeked out from another portal as it continued on its way. He was satisfied with the display, and while he wanted to see the five total portal that it could create according to the added description, that seemed like it would take a while as the centipede was still quite slow.
Race: Long Serrated Centipede
Rank: F- (+2)
Attribute: Space
Skills
Bite ¡¼Lv 2¡½(+1) Constrict ¡¼Lv 2¡½ (+1)
Endure¡¼Lv 2¡½(+1) Spike Damage ¡¼Lv 2¡½(+1)
Mini Warp ¡¼Lv 1¡½
Rather than enchant the fourth room to be covered in flames, a bit much for a F- floor, he settled for enchanting the room to be constantly emitting heat. Not enough to boil anyone alive or suffocate them, but enough to make them sweat. The light that permeated the room was still a reddish-orange to represent fire. After the centipedes were placed, he put a illusion pitfall in the center of the room. The random treasure chest was placed in the top left corner while the hole puzzle was placed in the bottom right corner. He decided to make new traps for the fourth room. Well, one new type. Specifically, a fire trap. It was similar to the water trap in that it spewed a spout of fire, but instead of multiple in a row it was a single spout. Additionally, the pressure and distance of the fire spout were greatly reduced from the water trap. The trigger was simply walking in front of it. Considering it glowed like the others, it would be difficult to fall for. At least that was what he told himself, as he created something that could roast intruders on a F- floor. He placed the traps on one side of each entrance and in front of the hole puzzle. With four rooms done, he moved onto his new and unknown creatures: the chequin. This creature was larger and more intelligent than the other biota he had monsterized. He could only hope the mana cost of creating the mana heart wasn¡¯t too large, and the resulting monster wasn¡¯t too high of rank. After a couple of tests, the mana heart that fit the chequin was an E+ mana heart. He could only sigh in relief. Especially since the mana cost had only increased by the difference between mana hearts, so negligible. With the mana heart out of the way, Ian infused the chequin with nature mana to start. He was able to successfully transform the biotic chequin into a Stubborn Chequin. Although, physically, the creature hadn¡¯t changed at all.
Race: Stubborn Chequin
Rank: F-
Attribute: Nature
Titles: ?Biotic Born?
Skills
Bite ¡¼Lv 2¡½ Kick ¡¼Lv 2¡½
Sprint¡¼Lv 2¡½ Tackle ¡¼Lv 2¡½
Description
The monsterization of this small herbivore hasn¡¯t changed its diet, but it is now much meaner and more stubborn. Of course, with additional mana and skills its attacks hit much harder, even though its size has not increased. As it is a herbivorous monster, while it will still attack sapients, it will prioritize plant based sapients.
Common Item Drops
F- Mana Heart Chequin Hide
He wondered if the only way to have the most common drop be a food item was to mess with the drop settings. However, horse-like creatures tended to not drop as much meat, while creatures like boars, cows, and chickens almost always dropped meat. Well, hide would still be useful. For the next two chequin monsters, he had an idea. This was his first creature with hair and possibly considered cute. Why not make the most of that? The first one he infused fluffy mana into the biota, and unsurprisingly a Fluffy Chequin was the result. Unlike the normal chequin that had short hair, the hair on this chequin had poofed out and become softer.
Race: Fluffy Chequin
Rank: F-
Attribute: Fluffy
Titles: ?Biotic Born?
Skills
Bite ¡¼Lv 2¡½ Kick ¡¼Lv 2¡½
Sprint¡¼Lv 1¡½ Tackle ¡¼Lv 1¡½
Physical Resistance ¡¼Lv 2¡½
Description
Unlike its counterparts, this chequins hair has grown longer and fluffier. As a result, attacks with its body are weakened, along with a reduction in its movement capabilities. In compensation, the increased fluffiness reduces the damage of physical attacks.
Common Item Drops
F- Mana Heart Fluffy Chequin Hide
He supposed he shouldn¡¯t be surprised by the physical resistance skill as Bounce Sheep often had high physical resistance and sometimes physical nullity skills. If he could create something similar to the bounce sheep, but in tiny horse form, that would be quite amusing. For the last monster, he wanted to enhance the short hair of the chequin in some way. In essence make their hides more desirable for intruders. There were a couple of attributes that came to mind, soft, smooth, durable, and just the basic hair. Hair was the easiest to get the image of what he wanted for the hair correct, but the hardest in terms of mana cost and use. What he wanted was sleek fur, and the attribute that fit the most was smooth. After a successful infusion, he received a Sleek Chequin. Its short hair shined and glimmered in the minimal light.
Race: Sleek Chequin
Rank: F-
Attribute: Smooth
Titles: ?Biotic Born?
Skills
Bite ¡¼Lv 2¡½ Kick ¡¼Lv 2¡½
Sprint¡¼Lv 2¡½ Tackle ¡¼Lv 2¡½
Dazzle ¡¼Lv 2¡½ Arrogance ¡¼Lv 2¡½
Description
This chequins fur has been spectacularly improved. This provides the benefits of impressing others and reducing their wariness. However, just like others, the chequin itself is also impressed with its own fur. The resulting arrogance of the chequin overrides the gain of dazzling its opponents.
Common Item Drops
F- Mana Heart Smooth Chequin Hide
Negative skills were the bane of everyone¡¯s existence. Thankfully they could be gotten rid of and were not permanent. If he had to endure the skill he got when younger¡­.uggh. At least the sleek chequin had the same equivalent skills as the stubborn chequin. Hopefully, arrogance and dazzle would counteract each other like the description said, otherwise arrogance was liable to make this chequin weaker than the stubborn chequin. With the three chequin monsters out of the way, he moved to enchant the fifth room. Maintaining the same theme as how he evolved the chequin, he started to enchant the room with fluffy magic. All surfaces were coated with soft lines and round shapes. He used his study of fur to make the images as fluffy as possible. After a day¡¯s work, the room shined a dim white. He placed the chequins in the room, and as soon as they were allowed to walk, they all fell over. While some of them tried to get back up, most of them decided to take a nap right there. Right, he needed to clarify that the creatures in the rooms weren¡¯t affected by the enchantment. The centipedes weren¡¯t dead, but they weren¡¯t moving a lot. For the fourth and fifth rooms, he made it so that the creatures weren¡¯t affected by the enchantment, but the intruders were. For the first, second, and third rooms, he made it so the intruders weren¡¯t affected by the enchantment, but the creatures were. With that out of the way, he placed five illusion pitfalls in the fifth room. One in the center with the others in each corner. Variety would have been nice, but he needed to fill out his trap quota. He might need to think of some more traps that were actually classified as traps, so he didn¡¯t have to have illusion pitfalls on every floor. The random treasure chest was placed in between the the two pitfalls on the right side of the room. All he needed to do now was finish the entrance room, finish the boss room, and maybe spice up the rooms with a bit more biota. However, first he had to check out the G- floor. As his vision zoomed to the G- floor, he focused on the group of goblins and a spider automata now congregated in one of the large rooms on the right side of the floor. ¡°What¡¯s the matter?¡± Ian asked. Mina turned to his voice and scratched her head, ¡°My lord, for most of the day, the only intruders that we¡¯ve fought have been insects.¡± ¡°Yeah, you said you would be on the lookout for adventurers. Did you see anything else?¡± asked Yervin. Ian¡¯s vision shifted to his sphere of perception. ¡­.Nothing but bugs. He tried to remember what his sphere of perception had looked like for the last day. Early on there were still larger creatures, but they slowly reduced as they entered his dungeon. After a certain point, nothing but bugs entered his sphere. He shifted his focus back to the goblins, ¡°It seems after a certain point, larger creatures stopped entering my sphere of perception, and thus the dungeon. This seems abnormal, but I can¡¯t be sure. I¡¯ll ask the Helper.¡± The goblins nodded in acknowledgement. Back in his core room, he turned his focus to the metal sphere, ¡°Is it normal for creatures to stop entering my sphere of perception?¡± ¡°No.¡± ¡°Is there a common reason for creatures to not enter a dungeon¡¯s sphere of perception?¡± ¡°Yes.¡± ¡°What are they?¡± ¡°You must figure that out for yourself.¡± Well, at least he got some answers. Considering he had never felt a dungeon¡¯s sphere of perception, then it was doubtful the creatures were suddenly feeling it. If they had still entered his sphere of perception, but avoided his dungeon entrance, then they could have just learned to avoid the black hole of death. Although, learning that in five days was a bit fast. There must be a reason, but what could he do about it? Send his creatures out? Could he do that? Probably not, but he had to at least give it a try. ¡°Hey, I¡¯m going to create a goblin and try sending it outside. I¡¯m not sure what¡¯ll happen, so I¡¯m not risking you all.¡± ¡°Yes, my lord!¡± Mina saluted. The other just nodded again. He created a goblin in front of the transfer formation that led to the entrance hall. He ordered it to go through the formation. Once it did so, rather than appear in the entrance hall, it appeared outside of his dungeon. Ian was ready to cheer, but immediately the goblin turned into mana and was sucked back into his dungeon. Well, it seemed that wouldn¡¯t work. He spent the next couple of hours searching through the dungeon shop, but to no avail. Getting a little irritable, he decided to ask the Helper. Hopefully its answers didn¡¯t change irritable to angry. ¡°Are there ways to let a creature leave the dungeon?¡± ¡°Yes,¡± the Helper responded with the same tone as always. ¡°Name one.¡± ¡°Please, specify.¡± ¡°How to get a single creature out of the dungeon.¡± ¡°There are multiple ways.¡± He didn¡¯t like how this was going. He needed to ask more specific questions. ¡°How can I, with my current abilities, let one of my creatures exit my dungeon without disappearing. They must also exit the dungeon under their own power,¡± he asked slowly. ¡°They must be created only through the use of your mana pool.¡± ¡­.Well, he wasn¡¯t getting a scout creature anytime soon then. ¡°Thanks,¡± said Ian. The Helper only floated there like normal. Ian told the goblins of what he learned, and that there wasn¡¯t anything they could do currently. So, they went back to stomping on insects. As the goblins started squashing bugs, he went to finish the F- floor. He decided to add apple trees to each room. One apple tree in each of the first four rooms, and four apples trees in the fifth room. While this floor would have the least amount of vegetation for one of his floors, it fit what he wanted to do with it. Next, he copied over the entrance room and boss room functions. It took the rest of the sixth day since opening to redo the pillars and the boss rooms, but he finished his F- floor.
Dungeon Level [5] ¡ú [6] 1 Cubic Kilometer Floor Space Gained. Mana Generation Increased by 10,000 DP Generation Increased by 1
Now, to make his next two floors even quicker, and deal with whatever was keeping creatures from his dungeon. If it was something not even his EX rank floor could deal with, then maybe putting his dungeon here wasn¡¯t the best idea. Chapter 35 Ian stared at his dungeon. He intended to make the F and F+ floors similar to the F- floor, which only took a little over five days, but the sudden absence of anything but bugs invading his dungeon worried him. Quick floors were good for reaching level one hundred, but not so much for combating a serious threat. There weren¡¯t many individuals that he knew of who could bypass his EX rank floor, and with his father unlikely to ever enter a dungeon, most of those would still have trouble. Still, just because he never met them, didn¡¯t mean they didn¡¯t exist. It was also possible there were ways to proceed through, or damage, dungeons beyond simply having extraordinary power. He may have devoted most of his life to dungeons and magic, but others had lived longer and had a narrower focus. With his dungeon core being indestructible, at least to his knowledge, until the gods decided it wasn¡¯t, he was probably being a worrywart. But better a worrywart than unprepared. To combat the possible imminent threat, he needed more difficult floors. While the EX floor was a solid explosion, he needed to also make the intruders slowly bleed out as they proceeded. His decision made, Ian¡¯s focus started to drift away from the F- floor. However, it shifted back immediately. His cover folded backwards in an attempt to rub his nonexistent neck. He forgot to make puzzle doors for each room. Considering the floor was already complete, they weren¡¯t needed, but they were a good way to increase completion time for a floor. Besides, they fit themed rooms very well. With that, he placed the appropriate picture puzzle doors in the entrance of each room. After the puzzle door¡¯s completion, he moved back to contemplating the next floor. The strongest thing he had to combat intruders besides his magic was the spider automata. Sadly even with his current mana pool, it was impossible to create one¡­.well, impossible from the monster menu. However, constructing such an elaborate automata would take a couple days¡­.not that making a floor would be any shorter. He had no reason to think it wouldn¡¯t, but would the dungeon system help him create an S rank automata again? Now that he had the ability to create the monster on his own, it might leave him to his own devices. Ian shook himself. Why was he even thinking about power? He already had power in abundance, what he needed was length, and a variety of monsters to populate it. His mind reached for his previous idea of an extraordinary long maze. He discounted it before due to the time it would take to fix all the minor details, but now he knew an appropriate level of magic got rid of that problem. His most abundant variety of monsters were his spiders, but they were all low rank. That could be fixed, but he already had a monster group that fit his needs: the goblins. He hoped these goblins wouldn¡¯t be influenced by his core like Mina and the rest, and, thankfully, the goblins on the EX floor provided some good evidence they wouldn¡¯t. However, even if they were the vile goblins that existed normally, they didn¡¯t live in bare caves. Their cave abodes still had the makings of a home. His current terrain was cave, town, and swamp with twocubic kilometers unselected. For one of the unselected kilometers, he combined the town and cave terrains. Pleased that it was a success so easily, Ian immediately started to construct the floor. As he made the floor, he started to get into a daze. Corridors and rooms. Long and short. Big and small. Curved and straight. Round and square. Twists and turns. Shared walls and disconnected walls. It was turning into quite the maze. A more natural maze, unlike the EX rank maze. His daze continued until a rustle of movement registered in his sphere of perception. From a bush, a rabbit with a single horn sprouting from its head leaped out. Its nose twitched as it looked around. Suddenly it froze, and after a second it sprinted towards his dungeon. It wasn¡¯t the only one, as approximately one hundred horned rabbits dashed to the entrance of his dungeon. This was not normal. If they had sprinted into his sphere of perception, then he would have assumed they were running away from something. However, their attitude changed soon after the first one entered his sphere of perception. He informed the goblins of the incoming rabbit army. Well, most of the goblins. Narcy wasn¡¯t able to reenter the G- floor yet. They would have to deal with all of the rabbits at once as the party function for instances didn¡¯t seem to affect animals and monsters. At least so far. The goblins jumped up, from squashing bugs and napping, in preparation. Since bugs didn¡¯t require much attention, they were already grouped together. The spider automata was prepared to combat the rabbits in another room¡­.he should really give the automata a name. As they dashed into the dungeon entrance, the rabbits did not lose any speed. They sped down the middle of the entrance hall right into the transfer formation. The activation of the transfer formation was near instantaneous, allowing groups of rabbits to be periodically transferred. After transfer, the rabbits resumed their sprint. However, they did not all go the same way. Instead, they split up at each branching path. Most of them were bit, grabbed, spored, flashed, skewered, attacked by the goblins, or splatted themselves on the spider automata, but a few reached the boss room. Sapients needed to open the doors themselves, but as with the previous invaders, the boss doors opened for them. The early rabbits had to face the boss on their own, and were mostly killed. The later rabbits entered the room in groups, and were able to skewer the boss with numbers. So far the level and number of invaders hadn¡¯t been high, so the furthest any got was the boss room. Now, rabbits were sprinting through his G rank floor. The first rabbit reached the puzzle door to the water elemental room. Ian perked up at this. A rabbit wouldn¡¯t be able to solve a puzzle. Did that mean he wouldn¡¯t have to worry-. However, his thoughts were interrupted as the puzzle door simply opened for the rabbit without any effort on its part. Ian huffed to himself and slammed his core shut. That better not happen when an extremely stupid sapient entered his dungeon. The rabbit didn¡¯t last long as the water elementals pelted it. When the water elementals had first started attacking it, it retaliated. Once it realized it could not win, it tried to sprint further into the dungeon. However, all it could do was crawl with its bleeding and broken body until it died. The goblins, stationed in the fern room, were currently dealing with a horde of rabbits. Mina and Pugi stood up front slashing, punching, and kicking them as they came. Botan was focused on ordering the constriction ferns to hold the rabbits down as long as they could. Izu stood in the back pelting them with water shots and water balls. Water ball to stun and water shots to damage. Yervin stood at the back and sliced off the heads of rabbits that made it past the front lines. Each blink teleported him next to a rabbit, where his nails cleaved through their neck.This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it. Yervin, and thus Botan and Izu, were undamaged, but the same could not be said of Mina and Pugi. Pugi had taken the most damage with scratches from the tips of horns covering her entire body, and multiple puncture wounds from the rabbits stabbing her limbs. Nothing vital had thankfully been hit. Mina was only covered in a few scratches due to her better armor and higher skill proficiency. If the group weren¡¯t in a dungeon, they would have been inhibited by the blood and increasing pile of bodies. It took a lot longer for loot to appear outside of a dungeon. Even with approximately forty rabbits killed by them, the only one slowing down was Pugi. Mina saw Pugi¡¯s condition and ordered her to return to the town, so Ian could heal her. Pugi pursed her lips, but sprinted towards the boss room. However, as she started to sprint off, Mina cleaved the last two rabbits in half. The four remaining goblins waited for more rabbits to come, but none came. As such, they ran after Pugi. Soon after, Pugi ran into Ian¡¯s core room, ¡°I request to be healed, Ian!¡± She spoke louder than normal and gave a clumsy imitation of Mina¡¯s salute. Before she even received a response, her cuts closed, and the flesh that disappeared due to the stab wounds rebuilt itself. Pugi looked at the previous location of her stab wounds with wide eyes. The other four ran into the core room with a longer delay than it took Pugi to get there. Mina, seeing that Pugi was healed, grabbed her into a tight hug. Pugi hugged her back and asked, ¡°Did you kill all the rabbits?¡± ¡°Yeah, I cleaved the last two right after you left,¡± Mina responded. Pugi sighed, ¡°I didn¡¯t really need to run back here then.¡± Ian broke into their conversation, ¡°Yes and no. Yes, because you could have stuck out until the end. No, because there are still bugs on the first floor, so I couldn¡¯t have healed you there.¡± ¡°I¡¯m just glad you¡¯re healed,¡± Mina smiled, ¡°and I suppose the core room is better than the town for healing.¡± ¡°Uh, yeah, that¡¯s why I came her,¡± Pugi replied while avoiding Mina¡¯s eyes. ¡°You were great Pugi!¡± Botan ran up to her. ¡°Whenever one of the ferns got a hold of a rabbit, you punched and kicked them until they died.¡± He did his best imitation of her form. She smiled and rubbed her head with a slight blush to her cheeks. Izu had also approached Mina. ¡°You need to get Ian to heal you,¡± he fussed as he dabbed the superficial cuts with his robe. ¡°They¡¯re nothing to worry about. They¡¯ll heal up fine without the lord¡¯s help.¡± she muttered. ¡°Do you want scars?¡± ¡°....Maybe.¡± ¡°Well, if you do then fine. I¡¯ll love you either way. However, you might come to regret asking him later.¡± ¡°....Fine.¡± She turned to look at Ian¡¯s core and opened her mouth. However, it wasn¡¯t like he couldn¡¯t hear what they were saying. Her wounds instantly closed even without asking. The two of them turned a light shade of red as they realized Ian was still focused on them. They thanked Ian for healing the two of them, and went off to relax in their houses. On the way back, Mina was stabbing Yervin¡¯s side with her fingers. She wanted to tease him about his uptight response to her thanking him for keeping Botan and Izu from harm. Yervin was trying his best to keep a straight face, but the edges of his mouth were twitching upward. Ian internally smiled at the leaving goblins and moved back to his goblin maze floor. Before he restarted his floor making, he contemplated the rabbit rush. Something was obviously controlling those rabbits. It was probably some sort of mind control with their single mindedness, lack of reaction to pain, and persistence to head further into his dungeon. Tamed creatures wouldn¡¯t have acted that way. Besides, mind controlling a horde of monsters and sending them into a dungeon was not normal policy¡­.although, it might be normal policy for whatever nation he was closest to. Still, it seemed worthless as they only information that could be gotten from that tactic was: the dungeon can kill a horde of horned rabbits. Unless they could peer through the eyes of the rabbits, they would have no idea where in the dungeon they were killed. With a sigh, he continued where he left off and finished most of the basic floor structure a couple of hours into the seventh day after opening. However, the basic floor structure he had created was all cave and no town. The cave part had been simple as he had plenty of practice, and it didn¡¯t matter too much where every stalactite, stalagmite, and column went. Creating a good setup for a town was another matter. He knew the basics, but the basics didn¡¯t completely apply to a town that didn¡¯t require food and water. He thought about it for a while and decided to make a centralized area for the goblins. In the bottom left corner of his floor plan, he created larger communal areas, a large entrance hall, and a section of bedrooms. The bedrooms would be for the higher tier goblins as he planned to have a lot more goblins than the number of bedrooms he created. Each bedroom had a flimsy wooden door, with a cot, and a wood desk inside. No chair though. The large communal rooms and entrance hall were currently just normal caves, but he had some plans. For the entrance hall he formed a grand throne that stood in front of the passageway to the personal rooms. The rest of the room was filled with long tables and appropriate seating for grand feasts. He formed stone chandeliers which glistened with his light magic. The long dining tables had stone candlesticks with a more subdued version of his light magic. Of course, stone dishes and cutlery were also present. Even though the goblins wouldn¡¯t require food, he planned to changed his orders for the floor. Hopefully the change of orders wouldn¡¯t be too mana intensive. Furthermore, Ian enchanted the room with strength buff magic. However, in the middle of his enchantment he noticed more rustling in his sphere of perception. It seemed the rabbits were only the first. A group of approximately eighty foxes entered his sphere of perception and ran towards his dungeon entrance. He promptly informed the groups of goblins smashing insects on the first floor, which once again included Narcy. The goblins prepped themselves once again in the fern room, while the spider automata stood in a separate passage awaiting the intruders that would smash themselves on it. The foxes didn¡¯t really pose a threat, so he left the goblins to their devices and resumed enchanting the goblin entrance hall. However, in the middle of the fox invasion, a problem occurred. Like last time, Pugi received the most wounds, but it occurred much faster this time. She ran to the boss room to teleport back, but as foxes were challenging the boss, she was unable to teleport and was killed by a stray fox. Ian informed the rest of what happened, which seemed to fuel their slaughter of the foxes, but also resulted in Botan¡¯s death as well. Both of them were fine after they respawned, but they would be unable to participate with the rest of the goblins on the G- rank floor. As both Botan and Pugi rested their chin on their hands, Ian gave them a suggestion, ¡°Why don¡¯t both of you fight foxes on the G rank floor? Or just ask the rest of the group to come to the G rank floor with you?¡± Both of their head perked up, and as they gave a glance to one another, they ran off yelling ¡®Thank you!¡¯ back at Ian. He decided not to correct the fact that he could hear them in any part of the dungeon. More foxes had made it into the G rank floor, but not past it. This time he ordered his monsters to gang up on the intruders rather than only attacking after they got within a certain distance. This proved especially effective with his slightly overpowered creatures for a G rank floor. For the goblins, he debated purchasing and enchanting some equipment for them. However, he knew that using equipment far above someone¡¯s level would handicap their growth, and decided to let them deal with it on their own. Besides, they could just respawn, so it wasn¡¯t too much of a problem. Hoping he wouldn''t get interrupted again, Ian went to finish his strength enchantment. Chapter 36 With the arrival of the next day, Ian¡¯s strength enchantment was finished. Unlike the previous enchantments that strengthened individuals a set amount, this enchantment was dependant upon the individual¡¯s strength, namely doubling their physical prowess. Thus, a normal adult goblin would still be far below a blink hobgoblin in strength. With the completion of his strength enchantment, another intrusion impeded his focus. Snorts and stomps echoed through his sphere of perception as ten Tri-horned Boars rushed towards his dungeon entrance. Considering they were all rushing at the same time, and much larger than the other monster hordes, at least individually, it seemed he would see his entrance shift for the first time. As the boars neared the entrance, the black door expanded to allow all ten boars access at the same time. Once they were inside, it shrunk back down to the reasonable size of allowing a few sapients to enter at once. The problem now was, while Yervin and the spider automata could handle themselves, the other goblins, even Mina, were liable to die to them. Ian considered ordering them back, it wasn¡¯t exactly pleasing to see people die, but fighting a monster stronger than themselves would be a great experience. ?????????? The boars, with two tusks from their mouths and a single horn from their forehead, burst upon the goblins. The three protrusions from the boar¡¯s head were fused together into a single point. This tri-horn smashed into Mina¡¯s sword, flinging her backwards across the room. The elimination of Mina from the frontlines allowed the other boars to rush into the room and gore both Izu and Narcy through their torsos. Mina¡¯s face scrunched together as she bolted back into the fray with a guttural roar. She sent deep slices into the neck area of the boar that killed Izu, severing its carotid artery. Blood gushed out of the beast¡¯s neck as it flailed its tri-horn at her, however Mina dodged it nimbly. After a couple minutes of dodging the beast¡¯s attempts to maim her, it started to slow down due to blood loss. Mina saw the opening, leaped on its head, and jammed her sword through its eye socket. The boar convulsed and fell to the ground, where it disappeared. She wiped the sword on the surrounding ferns, where the blood eventually disappeared. Mina started to turn around to help Yervin, but a tri-horn pierced her from behind. Blood dripped out of her mouth as her body was flung against the wall. While Mina was fighting the boar, Yervin was holding back three others. Being unused to fighting, his attacks did far less damage than a B- rank monster should have. Still, each punch to the head rattled the boars causing them to stumble back before righting themselves. One of Yervin¡¯s kicks had been strong enough to break the front leg of a boar, which was now limping. Another boar that had been punched in the head one too many times was laying on the ground passed out. With the other two boars mildly out of commission, the third boar became his focus. However, the boars were not completely inept. While being pummeled by Yervin, they managed to land a few hits in. After a punch to a boar¡¯s head, Yervin left himself open, which allowed another boar to swing their tri-horn into him and fling him back a few feet. Even with a B- rank body, he was still smaller than the boars. Being flung a few feet had little effect on him, as he stood right back up and made sure to shift the third boar trying to flee further into the dungeon back to him. The boars were confused after the first forced teleportation, but simply snorted with irritation after the last few. As Yervin faced off against the third boar, he saw a fifth boar enter the room from the direction of the boss room. Before he could chase after it, it speared Mina through the back and flung her into the wall. He gritted his teeth and blinded the remaining boars with his flash skill. At the same time, he turned invisible. Yervin activated his sturdy body and stone skin skills, along with reinforcing his body with mana. He leapt into the air, gripped his hands together, and swung them down onto the head of the boar that killed Mina. A loud crunch resounded as the beast¡¯s skull caved in, and blood spewed outward. He turned to the other boars that were currently flailing and hitting themselves against the wall. With a scrunched brow and a thin smile, he repeated the same head crunching with the remaining three boars. In a separate hallway, the spider automata set itself in preparation for the six boars running towards it. The first boar lowered its head and pointed its tri-horn towards the earthen spider. As soon as the tri-horn hit the spider automata, it shattered. The boar¡¯s eyes widened slightly, but its momentum carried it into the spider. With a crack, the boar¡¯s head caved in until all the remained of its head was a bloody paste. What happened next, the spider automata was not prepared for. The remaining five boars leaped over the corpse of their brethren and in turn the spider automata. They thus rushed further into the dungeon. The spider automata turned around as quickly as it could to chase after them, but it was not fast enough and lost sight of them. It¡¯s front leg reached after them and after a few seconds slowly sank back to the ground. With heavy steps, it turned back around and returned to its original spot. The boars that rushed past the spider automata continued on and split up at the appropriate junctions. In the end, all five of them reached the boss room, but only four of them entered. The last was the first and only to proceed down the other hallway that split off from the boss room. After they dispatched the boss, they thundered through the G rank floor. Even with Ian¡¯s command to swarm the invading monsters, the boars crushed the creatures with their hooves and speared them with their tri-horn. Botan and Pugi, too, were not spared the fate of death by boar. Although the boars pummeled the creatures of the G rank floor, including the sub-bosses, they were not left without injury. These injuries resulted in one of the boars dying to the G rank boss, even though it was much weaker than them. ?????????? Ian¡¯s heart twinged. Even if they were doing their jobs as dungeon monsters, it wasn¡¯t pleasant to see them dying. Especially since Mina and Yervin had it out for the boars that succeeded in their kills. Even with his internal conflict over his dungeon monsters dying for him, well¡­.more specially the sapient ones, Ian was a bit giddy with excitement to see how the boars would deal with the G+ rank floor. It wasn¡¯t meant for non-sapients, and while that hadn¡¯t worked in his favor with the puzzle doors, hopefully a whole floor puzzle would be different. The boars rushed into the floor and stampeded through the empty rooms, avoiding the golems in the center. When they reached the door to the boss room, it did not open. This didn¡¯t stop their stampede as they continued running through the floor until every boar had explored every nook and cranny of the floor. As soon as they did, their eyes cleared up and they looked around with a snort. The three boars started exploring the room and sniffing around. They came upon the cicada golem sitting in the center. They eyed it until the largest of the three snorted and jammed his tri-horn through the golem. Immediately, screeching echoed through the room, causing all three of the boars to jolt and jump a few centimeters in the air. They all shooks their heads at the pain the scream caused, which lead to the cicada golem being thrown and shattered against the wall. The cicada no longer screamed, but the traps one of the boars was stepping on continued its wailing. Finally, the boars could no longer deal with the noise and rushed back to the previous floor. In their flight, they did not take notice of the fact that a large number of monsters were headed in their direction and the fact that the previously empty rooms were no longer empty.Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author. Upon returning to the G rank floor, they battled with the remaining monsters that swarmed them until only biota and monsters that couldn¡¯t move remained. As they explored the floor, the boars settled down to sleep and munch on the ferns, mushrooms, and golden apples. Ian contemplated the boar¡¯s journey through the G+ rank floor. He was glad that the boars weren¡¯t just given a free pass through the floor, but that brought up his next problem. If he didn¡¯t have the spider automata and Yervin, monsters of this strength were going to do exactly what they were currently doing: eat and sleep while he could do nothing. Of course, they were going to do that even if there wasn¡¯t an intelligence puzzle blocking their path based on how the Chequin acted. Still, if he could get an unintelligent monster to want to proceed further into this dungeon, then he needed a way for them to bypass his floors dedicated to sapients. He chuckled to himself. First he was mad that they bypassed his puzzle doors and now he was mad that they couldn¡¯t bypass his puzzle floor. Well, any plans for monster bypass would have to be for when he had more floors, some solid sapient clientele, and probably another entrance for the monsters. Based on prior experience, monsters weren¡¯t going to walk through a town to enter his dungeon. At least the non-intelligent ones weren¡¯t. Now, the boars were a good source of DP, still no comparison to creating Yervin though, and released mana, so they needed to die. He had noticed the spider automata try to run after the boars, so why not give it a chance to kill the escaped prey. After he ordered the spider automata to kill the boars on the G rank floor, it stood taller and scuttled towards the transfer formation. Two of the boars were sleeping, while another was munching on fallen apples in the spider room. As it was picking up another golden apple, the spider automata rushed into the room. The boar stared at the spider shaped piece of earth rushing at it, as its jaw went slack. With a slack jaw, the golden apple in its mouth fell out onto the ground. Its body caught up with the sight in front of its eyes, and it let out a squeal of fear and attempted to run towards the boss room. However, it was too late. One of the spider automata¡¯s legs stabbed through the hip area of the boar. The boars front legs ran as fast as they could, but no progress was made. In fact, it was going backwards. The spider automata was pulling the bar towards it. Once it was close enough, the spider¡¯s other legs stabbed into the other side of the boar. The spider automata continued this process as it slowly crawled onto the back of the boar by puncturing it. When the spider automata had enough of its weight on the boar, the boar¡¯s legs and pelvis shattered and collapsed to the ground. The boar let out a weak whimper. The spider continued crawling forward until it reached the chest area. As the chest area of the boar collapsed, it let out a final squeal of pain as it died. With the boar dead, the spider moved to kill the remaining two boars. However, it stopped in its tracks. The room was empty. The spider automata¡¯s legs shook a little as its slowly walked back to its place on the G- rank floor. Ian had noticed that two boars spring awake after the squeal from the third boar, and considering the speed of the spider on the G- rank floor, it wouldn¡¯t be able to catch them. Thus, he was left with the hobgoblin that took out four of the boars. ¡°Yervin, there are two boars coming back up to the floor you¡¯re on. Make sure to kill them, okay.¡± Yervin cocked an eyebrow upwards, but gave a small smile and muttered, ¡°Of course.¡± The two boars fled from the spider automata without any regard to the creatures in their way. Once they sprinted out of the boss room, a bright flash of light blinded them causing them to miss a step and roll on the ground. Yervin blinked towards the closest boar. With his skills applied, he grabbed its tri-horn and pulled. Pieces of skin and flesh pulled off with the bone causing the boar to squeal in pain. However, its squeal was distorted from the lack of any tusks. Yervin grabbed the tri-horn with the pointed end downwards. He blinked upwards and let the force of gravity bring him back down. He raised the tri-horn above his head and slammed it through the skull of the fallen boar as he reached the floor. The other boar was trying to flee, but was stumbling forward after being partially blinded. Yervin shifted the beast in front of him and sent a full powered kick upwards into the creatures ribs. A loud crack emanated from the creatures ribs and fountain of blood erupted from the creatures mouth. The boar fell to the ground as blood fell from its mouth with every breath. Yervin blinked once again to the ceiling, which he pushed himself off of directly above the creatures head. His feet slammed into the boar¡¯s head, crushing it instantly. All Yervin said as he went back to the town to talk with the other goblins was, ¡°Done.¡± Ian told Yervin thanks, and went back to his goblin floor. Every day on the dot for the last three days, a horde of creatures invaded his dungeon. First rabbits, then foxes, and now boars. He looked at his goblin floor. It was not getting done before whatever was sending the monster rushes decided to do it on their own. ¡­.Did it even matter that it wouldn¡¯t be done? Probably not, but not finishing something he originally decided to make to combat this threat before the threat presented itself bugged him. Ian moved back and forth across his stand before loudly sighing. He¡¯d just make the floor. If it came to it and through his efforts, he still ended up destroyed then that would be it. If he died as a dungeon with all the things he had going his way, then he could only hope souls weren¡¯t destroyed when dungeon cores were destroyed. With his mind mostly off of the imminent threat that haunted his dungeon, he still had a few ideas stirring, Ian moved his focus back to the goblin floor. He didn¡¯t intend for this to be a single rank floor like the rest¡­.although, he hadn¡¯t exactly been following through on that promise. This floor would be more similar to normal dungeon floors with a wider variety of monster ranks. He did, however, use ¡®similar¡¯ loosely. Floors with enhanced blink hobgoblins wouldn¡¯t be very normal. First, he went back through the floor and added water features: ponds, small waterfalls, and drips. In two of the rooms away from the goblin living space, he placed two large ponds in the center. In a third room, he filled the entire room with water. The third room was an experiment that didn¡¯t turn out well. The depth of the water was approximately one foot at the deepest, and every inch further he went the mana cost increased exponentially. It seemed without the underground lake terrain, he could only create so much water. Additionally, he slanted the corridors so the depth of the water slowly increased towards the room. With overall floor aesthetics done, well, the non-magical aesthetics, he moved back to finish the goblins living quarters. In addition to the personal rooms and the entrance hall, the five circular rooms to the right were what Ian considered the goblin living space. The two rooms furthest from the entrance would be the communal bedrooms. He created rough cloth bedding with thin blankets spread throughout the room. For lights, he created barriers around each bedspread that prevented magical light from passing through, but everything else was visible. Basically, the barrier was invisible and let normal light pass through, but not light created by magic. ¡­.Although, based on what Tidon said, normal light was made of mana. Wouldn¡¯t it technically be magic light then? Ian supposed there had to be a difference, but he didn¡¯t know what it was. He pondered his actions so far. The creation of his dungeon was important, but he hadn''t even attempted to experiment on how the gods made mana creations permanent. His immersion in dungeon creation seemed to be overpowering his love of magic. It made sense, he learned magic to dive into dungeons and examine them. Over time magic became more than a means to dive into and examine dungeons, but all the new information about dungeons seemed to have put it on the back burner. Ian shook away his contemplations. So what if he hadn¡¯t been exploring magic very much? He had only been a dungeon for a little over a year, and only eight to nine days beyond simple preparation. The study of magic and everything else could come when no progress was being made into his dungeon. As far as he knew, as long as dungeons did their job, they couldn¡¯t die. Although, that begged the question of why only one dungeon he had reached the core room of had been exceptionally old. With some idle thoughts still lingering, Ian started to finish the future goblin¡¯s communal quarters. Each bedspread got a ball of light that could be turned on and off. Overall, the rooms received a dimmer version of his ivy lights for non-bedspread areas. Pleased, Ian internally smiled at the barrier idea, but something nagged him at the back of his mind. He gave the future goblins lights, so what was the problem? ¡­.Goblin lights. Crap. His vision shifted to the other town he created, which had a day-night cycle going, but no lights they could turn on at night. The goblins were playing fire,water, earth in the courtyard of Mina¡¯s and Izu¡¯s house. Ian coughed to get their attention and spoke up. ¡°It has come to my attention that none of you have lights in your houses to see at night. Of course, you all have the night vision skill, but considering the fact that it has raised in level, it¡¯s not perfect sight.¡± The five goblins looked interested in Ian¡¯s proposal, but Yervin had a large smirk on his face. If Ian had cheeks, they¡¯d be red right now. ¡°I¡¯ll add a light to each room, and a formation that will allow you to control the light levels.¡± ¡°Thank you!¡± the five goblins shouted. However, all Ian could think about was the smirk on Yervin¡¯s face that had grown even larger. He definitely deserved that. Chapter 37 Ian internally shook his head at both Yervin and himself, as he returned his focus to the goblin floor. Forgetting about the lights was pretty bad, but he did have the excuse that he could see everything fine without them. As he pushed the nagging mistake to the back of his mind, he resumed construction of the goblin floor. There were still a couple of hours before the next wave of monsters dove into his dungeon. With the communal rooms out of the way, all he had left was the recreational rooms¡­.well, at least for the goblin living area. Now, what would goblins want to do? Mina, Izu, Pugi, Botan, Narcy, and Yervin liked to train and chat with each other, although maybe not Narcy, but, based on his observation of wild goblins, that wasn¡¯t normal. They liked to eat and be mean to each other. Eating was dealt with by the dining hall and his planned hunting and farming rooms, and he didn¡¯t have to do anything to facilitate goblins being mean to one another. Although, something encouraging them to fight one another would be good, like an arena. However, he¡¯d have to make sure to establish a rule not to kill one another. If he was going to have them killing the non-goblins on the floor for food, then he didn¡¯t want the additional mana expenditure. In the large, circular room closest to the dining hall/entrance hall/throne room, he began elevating the edge of the room, forming stone seating. Most importantly, he removed all normal cave features that would interfere with spectating. Eventually, five rows of seats lined the edge of the room, with openings for the corridors to other rooms. He made sure to form pathways beneath the seats, so goblins could walk to other rooms without interfering in matches. Immediately after he finished the physical design for the room, he began on the enchantment. It was an enchantment designed so the goblins weren¡¯t restricted by his no killing goblins rule, but only in this room. He began to enchant the room with rank ten healing magic, which he could only hope would be supported by outside mana. Even his large mana reserves wouldn¡¯t be able to withstand the constant resurrection of goblins knocking each other¡¯s heads off. Of course, being rank ten, it would take a while. In fact, Ian doubted he¡¯d finish it in a couple of days. Was it overkill? Probably, but since he didn¡¯t designate a difficulty for this floor, the answer was technically no. Besides, it was only one room, and it could be avoided. It would definitely intrigue intruders and not frighten them away. Yes, definitely. As Ian enchanted, the rustle of creatures walking through the forest entered his sphere of perception. His focus shifted onto enormous, pure white wolves. Five wolves standing six feet tall growled at his dungeon. A circle of billowing white rotated around their necks, as white wisps broke off from them and drifted around the wolves. Cloud Wolves. Unlike what most would consider a white wolf, these wolves lacked any color besides white in every part of their body. They looked at if a picture had been left uncolored, but without any black borderlines. The wolves slowly strode to the entrance of his dungeon with heads held high. However, as they reached the halfway point of his perception, one of the wolves shook her head and started to bark at the others. The four other wolves¡¯ heads turned to the fifth wolf in unison, which caused her to growl and put her ears back. As the four wolves continued to stare at the fifth wolf, she started to shake her head and whine, eventually violently pawing at her own head. About a minute after she began pawing at her head, she stopped and continued walking on with the other four wolves. It seemed five B+ to A rank monsters were the limit of whoever was controlling the wolves. That meant this might be the last wave before whatever was testing him out decided to invade themselves. However, they might specialize in mind control, and simply leave after all their mind controlled monsters failed. That was a possibility, but it was better to prepare for the option of an even stronger creature or creatures tackling his dungeon. These wolves would be a good chance for Yervin to fight a stronger monster, but the other goblins would be eviscerated without learning much. ¡°Attention everyone¡­.well, not everyone, just the six of you I¡¯m actually talking to.¡± Izu and Narcy each raised an eyebrow, Yervin rolled his eyes, Botan and Pugi looked confused, and Mina yelled, ¡°Yes!¡± ¡°Five cloud wolves are incoming. They¡¯re stronger than Yervin, so I¡¯m ordering the rest of you to go back and do what you want. Just don¡¯t protect the dungeon from these wolves.¡± ¡°That¡¯s going to be annoying,¡± grumbled Izu. The others, even Mina, although reluctantly, nodded in agreement. Ian internally sighed. He knew this was coming, since they felt the same unpleasant feeling he did when an intruder entered. It made training and pleasure activities much harder to focus on for them. Still, it needed to be done. ¡°This will be good practice then,¡± Ian began. ¡°If this becomes a dungeon that adventurers frequent, then you¡¯ll have to get used to that feeling, as we can¡¯t be killing all of them. That means if you can¡¯t focus while there are intruders in the dungeon, you¡¯ll never get stronger or enjoy yourselves.¡± The five goblins nodded in understanding, especially Narcy whose head was nodding three times faster than the rest. However, Yervin spoke up, ¡°If that¡¯s the case, then why am I fighting them?¡± ¡°I had the others fight the boars because it was good practice to face opponents stronger than them, and it will be the same for you and these wolves. Besides, I know you¡¯ve been asking the others what it feels like to die and respawn.¡± ¡°R-right,¡± Yervin stammered back as he scratched his cheek. ¡°Good, then go to the G rank floor and prepare for the wolves. You¡¯ll be alone against five, so prepare yourself.¡± With a nod of affirmation, Yervin ran off. The others left the G+ rank floor and returned to the town. The wolves had entered the G- rank floor and were slowly sniffing around and chewing on things. However, they were slowly making progress. He was glad they were exploring the dungeon rather than rushing through it like the others, otherwise the goblins might have already been attacked. He saw a wolf turn down a corridor, where its head perked up, it bared its teeth, and a guttural growl rose from its belly. The spider automata had its front legs raised in preparation of rushing intruders. Right, he couldn¡¯t have the spider killing all the wolves. ¡°Spider automata, please back down from the wolves and return to the core room to protect it, please.¡± The spider automata¡¯s body shook slightly, but it brought its front legs back to the ground. It started to turn around, but gave a glance back at the wolf where it brought its leg to eye level and then pointed it back at the wolf. Afterwards, it scuttled off, and the wolf didn¡¯t give chase. Once the spider automata was out of sight of the wolf, it resumed its sniffing and chewing through the floor. The wolves proceeded easily through the G- rank floor and dispatched the boss with a single swipe of the smallest one¡¯s paw. Yervin had decided to meet the wolves in one of the more inconsequential rooms on the G rank floor. As the wolves continued their slow trek, he waited. ?????????? The first wolf entered a rectangular room with her snout to the ground. Soon after her ears perked up, and she bit towards the side of the door. Her jaws snagged a chunk of meat from the invisible opponent. Yervin cursed to himself as he lost his concentration, and thus invisibility, as blood pulsed from the open wound of his arm. Annoyed with himself, he activated his strengthening skills, but while they would make the fight more even, they did not stop the bleeding. He used his flash skill to blind the wolf that bit him, along with the other four now rushing him. As the room became enveloped in light, he heard five yelps.A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation. He focused on the location of the wolf that bit him, and executed the same blink, push off of ceiling heel drop he did to the boar. As his heels were about to make contact, the blinded wolf rolled out of the way. However, Yervin was already swinging his right arm towards the wolf¡¯s face, where his claw jammed itself into the left eye. The wolf let out another loud yelp and sprung backwards. A small smile started to appear on Yervin¡¯s face, however a jaw closed around his torso and flung him across the room into a wall. He leaped up from the ground, attempting to ignore the puncture wounds the covered his body. At least he didn¡¯t lose another chunk of flesh. The wolves were getting their vision back as their eyes were blinking furiously. Yervin let out another flash, but right after he used the skill, before the flash of light appeared, the wolves all closed their eyes. He still used the skill, but quickly moved away from his previous position. Four wolves each bit at a separate body part but met empty air. The fifth wolf had her nose in the air and gave a quick bark and howl to the others. Yervin waited as the four wolves rushed towards him. Just as they were about to reach him, he blinked backwards and shifted space. In front of the four wolves with gaping jaws dripping with drool, the fifth injured wolf appeared. Before the fifth wolf could make a noise, jaws bit down on her neck, back, and legs. A screech of pain erupted from the wolf. The other four let go after discovering they had injured their partner. However, the wolf was soon silenced as a full powered heel drop smashed her skull in. Growls of anger reverberated from the remaining four wolves as they rushed towards Yervin. He blinked backwards to create distance, but collapsed to his knees right after. His vision blurred, and he noticed the fully formed large red pool around the belly of the dead wolf and not her head. He tried to blink again, but his concentration wavered and the skill failed. Soon after, he awoke in the respawn room. ?????????? The four wolves that killed Yervin, tore him limb from limb. They tried to do as much damage as possible, but his body disappeared soon after. They had blank stares for about a minute before they resumed their previous sniffing and chewing on everything. If Ian had eyes, they¡¯d be wide open right now. Considering their rank and experience difference, Yervin being able to kill a wolf, especially in a five on one situation, was quite the feat. There were of course other factors like the wolves being mind controlled and the element of surprise from his unusual techniques, but it was still quite the accomplishment. Although, now that he thought about it, they didn¡¯t use any cloud wolf techniques or magic. Still, he¡¯d have to give Yervin some congratulations, even if it would make him smug for a while. It took awhile, but the wolves clean sweeped the room and one hit the boss. The real test would be the next floor. They seemed smarter than the previous creatures, but would they be smart enough for a floor puzzle? As the wolves entered the G+ rank floor, they continued their same process of sniffing and chewing. However, when one of them reached the center of the first room, its priorities changed instantly. It walked over to the swallow golem and booped the golem with its nose. The swallow¡¯s eyes lit up red and the illusion on the room evaporated. The wolf paid no attention to the change in the room. However, its eyes flickered, and it shook its head slightly. Eventually it returned to normal, and the behavior of all four wolves changed. Rather than sniffing and chewing everything, they headed directly for the center of each room and booped their noses on the golems. The wolf that booped the swallow had headed to the cicada room and booped the golem there. However, unlike the rest it just sat there afterwards, while the rest continued to roam the floor booping the golems. Ian watched as another wolf approached the fern room. Once it reached the center and booped the fern golem there, it sat down and waited like the wolf in the cicada room. He was uncertain how he should feel about this, as the wolves seemed to have figured out the puzzle for the floor. However, the way they were acting, while mind controlled, was a bit too large of a jump compared to the boars. Maybe his ¡®looking through the eyes of the mind controlled monsters¡¯ wasn¡¯t as far fetched as he initially thought. Whoever had these mind control powers was better than he thought, especially considering how well they were controlling advanced intelligence wolves. He would need to make some preparations in case they had enough power to mind control dungeons. Even though he had suggested the possibility, Ian wondered if the gods would actually allow one of their dungeons to be mind controlled by any being not at the level of a god. Though, considering the odd restrictions on dungeons, it wasn¡¯t an impossibility. He layered mind protection spells with a combination of defense and mind mana throughout his dungeon consciousness, with focus around the core. It was a far larger process than while he was human, as through his studies, mind magic affected the head and brain of individuals. As a dungeon, he didn¡¯t have any evidence of where his consciousness resided, but his core did make the most sense. Still, taking precautions and layering it throughout the dungeon was a good idea. While making sure his spells didn¡¯t affect the use of mind magic spells in his dungeon, just the ones directed at himself, the fourth wolves continued trying to find the correct order. The other three would boop their respective golems after the fourth one chose wrong. Hours later, Ian watched the final run through with annoyance, as he couldn¡¯t cast his mind defense spells on the G+ rank floor while they were there. The G- rank floor had been annoying, but ordering the creatures on the floor to wipe out all the bugs had worked pretty well. As the wolf booped the moss golem, all nine golems lit up green and the door unlocked. With that, the other wolves stood up from their golems, and entered the boss room with the fourth. The boss room and F- rank floor were just as easy to the wolves as the previous floors. The puzzle doors opened for them just like the other monsters, while the enchantments had little to no effect on them. However, after clearing the boss of the F- rank floor, they appeared on the floor that Ian was waiting for. Finally, the first intruders on his EX rank floor had appeared. ?????????? The wolves immediately grouped together in the deep darkness with their hair standing on end. The clouds surrounding them began to rotate at an increasing rate, but slowed down soon after as it did nothing to the surrounding darkness. Even with their hair standing on end, they continued the same process as previous floors. Soon after, they reached an intersection with a golden apple tree. They had munched on the golden apples frequently on previous floors, but now they showed no interest as the smell of death was slowly growing stronger. As a group, they headed down the straight path. A black saffron plant came in to view, but the wolves hugged the wall opposite, creating as much space between them as possible. As the wolves slunk past the plant smelling of death, the smallest one at the back was suddenly floating in the air. It flailed its legs, as it fell to the ground. It fell on its right side, with its right hip taking most of the impact. The wolf whined as it started to get back up, but it fell back down as its right leg would not work. It growled and looked at its right leg. The glaze of mind control faded as the wolf frantically tried to bite its leg off. Its hip was black, no longer covered in hair, and pieces of flesh were falling off. Unluckily, the wolf touched the black part with its mouth, and the contagion spread there. Screeching whines echoed from the wolf until its vocal chords no longer worked, and it died. Where the wolf had landed, the black saffron lay crushed. The other three wolves with eyes wide, sprinted further into the floor. Soon after, the front runner started to plummet into a pit. Before it could wonder where the pit came from, white clouds formed beneath its feet as it leaped back up. Following suit, the other wolves ran across the now visible pit with cloud footholds. After three corners, all three wolves disappeared without any indication. Now, in a pitch dark room with no openings, the wolves frantically scratched at the walls in an attempt to get out. As they were doing so, the room lit up enough to blind them, but they didn¡¯t have enough time to contemplate the brightening of the room in the first place. The corpses of three wolves, now looking like swiss cheese, disappeared into mana. ?????????? That was a bit more anticlimactic than Ian imagined when he first came up with the idea to have the wolves test his EX rank floor. Although, he did learn about the potential combination of death saffron and the blink hobgoblin. The overpowering smell of death got rid of the wolves¡¯ ability to detect the goblin while invisible. Also, he didn¡¯t think the effect of just touching the death saffron would be that potent. He didn¡¯t expect the pit to be that useful, but still seeing them just run over it was immensely disappointing. The teleport trap did its job, so there wasn¡¯t much to say about that. Still, no laser hallways, earth spike hallways, vaporization hallways, or water cutters. Depths, they didn¡¯t even reach the B room, the closest one to the entrance. Admittedly, it was right after the teleport trap they reached, but¡­. Ian wondered how much the mind controller saw. Fear seemed to kick the wolves out of their mind controlled state, so he wasn¡¯t sure they saw anything besides the first wolf get eaten away by the death saffron. Well, he would just have to see if they sent more creatures or came themselves tomorrow. Until then, he resumed enchanting the arena. Hmmm, maybe he would try to fight them himself tomorrow. Chapter 38 While Ian was enchanting the goblin floor, the five goblins and one hobgoblin were training in the learning room. Mina was practicing forms with her sword, Pugi was punching and kicking with all her might, Izu was trying to make water into as many shapes as possible, Narcy was sleeping while sweating up a storm, and Yervin was sneaking around while invisible, occasionally sniffing himself with a grumpy face. Botan was the only one absent as he was studying in the classroom. ¡°I wonder why these groups of monsters are coming everyday,¡± yelled Mina to the rest of the group while wiping sweat off of her brow. ¡°Don¡¯t know, but considering that maze floor we have to walk through everytime, there shouldn¡¯t be anything to worry about,¡± said Yervin as he started to pick dirt from beneath his fingernails. ¡°I wonder if Ian¡¯ll make us not fight again tomorrow?¡± interjected Izu. ¡°I hope not. Fighting those wolves was a good experience. I know now that I need to take baths all the time or my invisibility is worthless.¡± ¡°Still, based on what you said, I doubt any of us, besides you, would last more than a few seconds against something stronger.¡± ¡°Even if it¡¯s a few seconds, those few seconds will be worthwhile!¡± smiled Pugi. ¡°I agree!¡± Mina smiled back. Izu sighed, while Yervin continued to pick dirt as he ignored the two of them. Izu turned to look at Narcy, ¡°You think she¡¯s making any progress in relaying her thoughts to us?¡± ¡°Of course, we¡¯ve all been hearing her voice for hours now,¡± said Yervin while waving his hand at Izu. ¡°Don¡¯t be an ass, Yervin.¡± ¡°Sorry, but if one of us heard her voice, we¡¯d say something.¡± ¡°Fine.¡± Izu returned to making shapes with water, while Yervin shrugged his shoulders and turned invisible. The goblins continued their practice, and Ian his enchanting, as the day turned. ?????????? Ian¡¯s focus had not waned, as he was quite enjoying enchanting his high level healing magic. He hadn¡¯t had many chances to use healing magic so far, and it was pleasant to do so again. However, the shaking of the trees, and the rumble of the ground shifted his focus to outside his dungeon. Through the evergreen trees, an enormous, wrinkled humanoid appeared. No hair covered its body revealing a pinkish-tan skin. Its back and large, plump tail were more pink, while its fat belly was more tan. Its arms were stubby, but contained five digits and full movement. Its legs were so short that they barely lifted its bulbous body off of the ground. The head, which reached the top of the trees, had beady, black eyes, two slits for its nostrils, and a thin line separating its lips that went from ear to ear. The being lumbered through the trees in front of his dungeon, knocking one over occasionally. Behind the first one, lumbered in three more: one that reached the shoulder of the first, while the other two reached reached its waist. If the ugly creatures weren¡¯t enough to draw Ian¡¯s interest, the two quadrupeds that were led on chains by the smaller, wrinkled humanoids were also intriguing. They had no heads. The front legs, which were longer than their back legs, were attached to the very front of the organism. Their entire body was covered in a dark green fur, which looked a lot more like moss, from their headless front to the long, flat tail that extended from the top of their hind legs. The legs themselves had no toes or hooves of any kind. There were rough edges on the bottom of the leg, but he couldn¡¯t ascertain if they even had feet. Even though both creatures were chained with metal rings around their waists, one was carrying the other on its back. The one on the other¡¯s back had large, unusual bumps covering it¡¯s chest and frontal area. He had a hard time telling, but they seemed to pulse. One of the smaller humanoids jerked the chain, which caused the quadruped to stumble and almost toss the individual on its back onto the ground. The second largest one narrowed its eyes and opened its mouth. A tongue that filled up its entire mouth and more shot out and wrapped around the smaller one. It slithered around the smaller one, until the smaller one¡¯s own tongue shot out and wrapped around the other¡¯s tongue. Afterwards, they both retracted their tongues. The largest one gave a glance at the exchange, but continued on towards Ian¡¯s dungeon. An odd exchange, but Ian decided to learn more about them after he could create them on his own. Eventually, the group entered his dungeon, his entrance now quite the gaping hole to accommodate them. However, their entrance introduced quite the displeasing notification.
WARNING! An Invader has entered your dungeon. If they reach the core room, they will be able to replace their soul with yours. As a result, they will gain complete control over the dungeon.
¡­.What? ¡­.What the depths? ¡­.God dammit, Tidon!!! This should be something you tell new dungeons. You know, the thing that can actually cause them harm. As much as he grumbled, he assumed that Tidon had a good reason. Even if they were more inept than he had assumed after meeting them, the gods still did their jobs well and were far more powerful than him. Sahar may have not understood his transfer formations initially, but that was only because it wasn¡¯t a process she had considered herself. There were plenty of her magics that he never was able to comprehend. There was also the fact that taking over a dungeon was not a new concept. It was simply a concept that never had any evidence of succeeding. There were many tales, including his own experiments, of individuals attempting to take over dungeons. Of course, any that had succeeded would be unlikely to leave records behind as they became a dungeon, but what was the difference between his experiments and this pink meat sack. Something must separate being an Invader and someone just trying to take over a dungeon. Ian¡¯s thoughts sped to the back of his mind as the creatures started to talk. ¡°Are you sure this is a good idea, Blckthck?¡± asked the second largest wrinkled humanoid. ¡°Of course, if the voice was right, we can rule over this dungeon and create an abundance of our species!¡± replied the largest sack of flesh, Blckthck. Ian¡¯s biggest surprise was not what they said, although the voice part was intriguing, but the fact that he could understand them even though all they were doing was licking each other. It looked like that tongue exchange outside was more than some creature fetish. The smaller one holding the chains interrupted the couple, ¡°Mom! Dad! The telepaths are gone!¡± ¡°What?!¡± they shouted as both tongues completely enveloped the child. Ian glanced around and wanted to slap himself for not noticing. Damn those weird tongues. He turned his focus to the two quadrupeds. The one with large bumps over most of its body was laying on the ground, while the other shouted at it. ¡°Mirielle! Please wake up! Don¡¯t leave me!¡± the creature sobbed. ¡°Damn those monsters! You shouldn¡¯t have taken the burden of mind control all on yourself! Even though I¡¯m weak, I could have handled a little¡­.¡± He was going to try to figure out which group was the sapient group, but it didn¡¯t really matter much to him now. The group of lard tubes were making their way deeper into the dungeon, thankfully at a slow pace. Meanwhile, Ian created a blink hobgoblin and infused his consciousness into it. As he started to run towards the G- rank floor, he stopped and smacked himself on the head. They were in the entrance hall, and he couldn¡¯t go there! Dammit! He didn¡¯t want to waste the time he had inside the hobgoblin, so he waited, hoping the two quadrupeds would decide to go deeper into the dungeon. The sobs of the quadruped quieted down, until they stopped. Soon after, they stood up and moved the barely breathing quadruped onto their back. The conscious one struggled as the other slowly floated onto its back. ¡°Let¡¯s see if this dungeon will accept a dungeon contract. For us and the village.¡± ¡°Hoho,¡± Ian said to himself as he ran towards the entrance of the G- rank floor. Thankfully, he wouldn¡¯t have to deal with the saggy meat people as he was on a different instance. Although, they would have to deal with an instanced copy of a blink hobgoblin. The quadruped slowly wobbled into the G- rank floor as all the creatures seemed to pay it no mind. Soon after, Ian ran up. ¡°Ah!¡± yelled the quadruped as it sent an telepathic attack at Ian. Ian quickly brushed the light tapping at his mind away and greeted the individual, ¡°Hello. So, you want to make a dungeon contract?¡± The quadruped had stumbled from Ian brushing off its attack and simply stood there staring at him. Or, at least, what he assumed was staring, as staring was hard to do without eyes. The silence continued for a while, until Ian repeated himself. ¡°....uh¡­.wait¡­.what?! Really?!¡± the creature shouted into his mind. ¡°Yes, really. By the way, my name¡¯s Ian. What¡¯s yours?¡± ¡°My name? My name¡¯s Cynthia.¡± Of course, even though their names were translated as Mirielle and Cynthia to Ian. What was actually sent to him were images of wonder and praise for Mirielle and of the moons and hunting for Cynthia.Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings. ¡°So, Cynthia,¡± Ian began, ¡°let¡¯s form that dungeon contract. What do you want?¡± Meanwhile, back in Ian¡¯s core room. ¡°Hey, Helper, what are some good things for a dungeon to get out of a dungeon contract?¡± ¡°A dungeon only receives one thing from a dungeon contract.¡± ¡°What is it?¡± ¡°Complete servitude from the contractee.¡± ¡°So, they become a dungeon monster or creature?¡± ¡°No.¡± ¡°What are they then?¡± ¡°A dungeon contractee.¡± ¡°....*sigh*. Alright, anything a dungeon contractee can do that a dungeon monster or creature can¡¯t?¡± ¡°They can leave the dungeon without disappearing.¡± As Cynthia was mumbling to herself about a dungeon coming to her, Ian¡¯s hobgoblin pumped his fist. Cynthia jumped at his action and stuttered out, ¡°O-of course. I want you to eliminate the threat to my village, and with that all villagers will become your dungeon contractees. H-however, I also have a personal request. Please heal my friend, Mirielle!¡± ¡°Agreed,¡± Ian responded immediately.
Dungeon Contract Formed Requirements:
  • Defeat all threats to Cynthia¡¯s village. 0/553 threats eliminated.
  • Heal Cynthia¡¯s friend Miriella. 0/1 healed.
Rewards:
  • Cynthia is your dungeon contractee even without fulfilling any requirements. 1/1
  • Miriella is your dungeon contractee after she is healed. 0/1
  • Any other villagers from Cynthia¡¯s village that are saved will become your dungeon contractees. 0/857
?Dungeon War? You have entered a dungeon war against the Ogre tribe Kath¡¯lak. Your dungeon creatures may leave the dungeon, but if they die outside of the dungeon, they cannot respawn. If a dungeon creature dies outside the dungeon, their mana is released into the world. After all threats to Cynthia¡¯s village are eliminated, you shall receive an appropriate award.
¡°I¡¯m a dungeon contractee already?! Why?!¡± screamed Cynthia. Ian could only scratch his head, ¡°What¡¯s a Dungeon War? It seems pretty straightforward, but if dungeons were having wars all the time, I feel like it would have been readily apparent.¡± ¡°Hey, Ian! Why the hell am I your dungeon contractee already?! You haven¡¯t even done anything yet!¡± ¡°Calm yourself. I¡¯ll still heal your friend and save your village. Let me heal your friend first, then I¡¯ll ask the Helper why it happened.¡± ¡°You better!¡± Ian let the emotionally stressed girl yell at him all she wanted. He¡¯d dealt with similar cases before. The hobgoblin walked over to Mirielle on Cynthia¡¯s back. He placed his hand on one of the lumps and slowly spread healing mana through her. This minor healing magic combined with vision and light mana healed minor wounds and gave him an image of the her internal injuries. It was one of the more unique internal structures that he had come across. The structure that acted as her brain, which was contained within her chest, was covered in malignant tumors. In fact, Ian wondered how the girl was still alive. Due to his lacking knowledge of their species biological structure, he¡¯d have to use more mana than normal. Pumping a patient full of healing mana with a more general image wasn¡¯t how he liked to go about treatment, but the girl was barely hanging on. He could only hope her body still contained her soul. ¡°Cynthia, let me examine your brain, so I can get a better idea of its structure.¡± ¡°Brain?¡± ¡°Your telepathic organ.¡± ¡°Oh! Please, do!¡± Ian scanned Cynthia and used that information for his mental image. Of course, every individual¡¯s brain structure was different, so matching it perfectly would change who she was. He didn¡¯t know why it happened considering the soul and the fact that he hadn¡¯t changed much. Although, he didn¡¯t exactly have an outside observer to tell him of his own changes after becoming a dungeon. His image focused on the absence of tumors and reverting to its previous state. The tumors transformed back into normal telepathic organ matter. The tendrils that extended through the body of Mirielle reduced in size and puffiness, along with the little bumps that covered them. He had to maintain the transfer of magic as it slowly returned to normal. Afterwards, the hobgoblin Ian inhabited fell to the ground gasping for breath. ¡°This body was not made for healing mana or maintaining such a high level healing spell. Thankfully none of its mana pathways or gates are ruined, it just needs to rest for a bit. Although, resting while those hairless tonguers roam the dungeon isn¡¯t such a great idea. I should probably just inhabit another hobgoblin,¡± he mumbled from the hobgoblin¡¯s mouth. ¡°....What are you talking about? Is Mirielle okay?!¡± ¡°She¡¯s as fine as I can do without any knowledge of your species¡¯ biological structure and limits on my magic because this body isn¡¯t refined. Basically, what I¡¯m saying is when she wakes up, she¡¯ll be a better telepath than before.¡± ¡°That means she¡¯s fine right?!¡± ¡°....Yeah, she¡¯s fine.¡± ¡°Really?!¡± ¡°Yes, but it will probably take a while for her to wake up. I assume she was mind controlling all those monsters, which means I have to ask, why did she not mind control those things that had you chained up?¡± ¡°....Fine, I¡¯ll trust you and answer your question. It gets exponentially harder to control something the more intelligence it is. Besides, those Flesh Tongues have dealt with us before and have developed resistances to our telepathy. Although, I don¡¯t know how, as it¡¯s supposed to be taboo to mind control any living things¡­.one¡­.one of the other villages might have broken the taboo then.¡± ¡°Hmm, good to know.¡± ¡°You don¡¯t think I¡¯m lying?¡± ¡°I considered it, but unless it¡¯s a very obvious situation that I shouldn¡¯t trust someone, I tend to trust people.¡± ¡°That¡¯s never backfired on you?¡± ¡°Of course it has. However, once I know someone has lied to me, I know not to trust them, and I never do again.¡± ¡°....That seems a bit harsh.¡± ¡°Maybe, and I am exaggerating a bit.¡± ¡°Um, okay? Now that you¡¯ve healed Mirielle, you¡¯ll save my village right?¡± ¡°I will, but first I¡¯ve got to get rid of¡­.what did you call them? Flesh Tongues?¡± ¡°Yeah.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll get rid of them first, then I¡¯ll start the dungeon war.¡± Question marks assaulted his mind as he ran further into the dungeon with his hobgoblin. Just as he was almost out of sight of Cynthia he received a loud telepathic message. ¡°Wait! You didn¡¯t ask that Helper person why I was already your dungeon contractee!¡± Ian continued running as he pretended not to hear her. Answering that question was not as important as killing the invaders. They had already killed the hobgoblin in their instance and were on the water elemental room on the G rank floor. He¡¯d have to meet them on the G+ rank floor. The problem was his mana pathways weren¡¯t fully healed yet. Using mana to heal one¡¯s own pathways didn¡¯t work, so he would have to¡­.*sigh*. The possessed hobgoblin rubbed his temples. If he was on a floor without intruders, then he could just use the dungeon mana to heal himself. Huh, if he could do that, then could he cast a spell on himself? A wide smirk crossed Ian¡¯s hobgoblin face. His running now had a slight hop to it. Once he reached the swallow room of the G+ rank floor, he sat down and let his healing mana flow over him. Both the spell to heal his mana pathways, and the spell to make the upcoming fight enjoyable. He needed to be quick about it, but it had been over a year since he could fight with his magic properly. A couple of seconds versus a couple of minutes wouldn¡¯t make that much of a difference in preparing for his upcoming dungeon war. Thus, Ian sat and waited for the flesh tongues to enter the room. ?????????? A short while later, the four of them lumbered into the room. Upon seeing another hobgoblin sitting close to the entrance, the largest, Blckthck, shot his tongue at it. His tongue continued extending, but it never hit the hobgoblin. A look of confusion appeared on his face before he saw a small smirk on the hobgoblin¡¯s face. A large force smacked into the back of his head causing Blckthck to face plant into the ground. With his tongue laying on his back, he leaped up, face red with rage. Pillars of fire erupted where the hobgoblin sat. As the fire disappeared, all that remained were the hobgoblin¡¯s charred remains. Blckthck¡¯s grin pushed his ears upwards as his long tongue retracted back into his body. ¡°Let¡¯s go,¡± he ordered as the four of them stomped past the hobgoblin¡¯s charred remains. One of the two children¡¯s tongues extend to the charred pile as they walked by. As its tongue touched the pile, a skeletal hand grabbed its tongue causing it to squeal in fear. ¡°Now, now,¡± a skull with muscle starting to grow on it spoke from the pile, ¡°you can¡¯t leave the fight just yet.¡± ¡°Slklck!¡± the second largest one shouted as her tongue shot towards the reforming hobgoblin. However, it never reached, and the end of the tongue plopped to the ground. The mother¡¯s body flopped to the ground, her head no longer present. A completely smooth line spread from shoulder to shoulder where blood now flowed from freely. The head itself was now sitting on the floor next to the reforming, Ian possessed hobgoblin. The air distorted and Blckthck¡¯s skin rippled as his tongue quivered, ¡°Lsthnss! Let go of my son, you murderer!¡± Ian¡¯s faced distorted, ¡°Murderer?! How am I the murderer when you come in here to kill and replace me?!¡± Blckthck¡¯s eyes narrowed, ¡°You¡¯re the dungeon? If so, I¡¯ll kill you here and now, and replace you!¡± Ian sneered, ¡°Doubtful.¡± He punched Blckthck¡¯s son across the room as a tongue was headed towards him. Using his other fist he punched the tongue to the side. His skin started to rip, but he ignored it. The two children were hiding behind the father and shivering. Damn, now he really felt like the bad guy. Talking it out wasn¡¯t possible as he already killed the mother, but he could at least ascertain why they did what they did. ¡°Hey, Blckthck. Why did you treat those telepaths the way that you did? They¡¯re thinking individuals like you, so why?¡± ¡°Why? Why wouldn¡¯t we? Their telepathic abilities may be useful, but that¡¯s only when used for our purposes. Other beings should work for our purposes or be killed.¡± Ian continued to punch the tongue out of the way, while Blckthck answered him. Quite a versatile tongue that could talk and attack at the same time. ¡°What did you do with my playthings?!¡± yelled the son. ¡°You took our amusement and now Mom away! I hate you!¡± shouted the other. Ian gritted his teeth. Why did he have to deal with seemingly sapient monsters, dammit. He didn''t know of it was a part of their nature or if they were indoctrinated by their parents, but for his safety and the dungeon contract he made, he wouldn¡¯t be able to let the children leave. ¡­.They were monsters right? Even if they weren¡¯t, they were Invaders trying to kill him. But what if only the father was an Invader? Could he kill the father and make the children leave? If they were monsters, and their vile hatred and treatment of other species was in their nature would he be fine with that? Also, as a dungeon he was supposed to kill Invaders. It wasn¡¯t as if he hadn¡¯t wiped out whole monster communities before. ¡­.He wanted to vomit, but he had to kill them. For his own sanity, he could only hope being vile towards other beings was in their species¡¯ nature. It wasn¡¯t as if humans and other sapients weren¡¯t similar in some ways, but at least it was mainly due to nurture and not nature. As he continued to punch the tongue out of the way, and prevent Blckthck from casting any magic, he started flying in the air. ¡°I¡¯m a dungeon, so I¡¯m going to have to kill you now.¡± Blckthck¡¯s eye¡¯s quivered as beams of light shot towards him. His last thought was simply ¡®Damn this hobgoblin, it should have been me.¡¯
All Invaders Killed. Congratulations!
Ian landed on the ground and hugged himself. He wanted to hug Estella so much right now. With that, he removed his consciousness from the hobgoblin with a heavy heart. Killing people to save the universe wasn¡¯t going to be as easy as he thought, was it? Chapter 39 With gloom still staining his thoughts, Ian turned his focus to Cynthia and Mirielle. ¡°Cynthia, bring Mirielle to my core room. You¡¯re both my contractees, so nothing should hurt you. ¡­.Well, nothing will be antagonistic towards you at least.¡± Ian thought back to the cloud wolves, ¡°Maybe you should directly transport from the transfer formation in the boss room.¡± ¡°Alright, but you better answer the question you ignored from before,¡± she said with venom lacing her words. ¡­.If her bad attitude continued past him saving her village, he would have to address the problem. He didn¡¯t mind a little snark, but the fact that saving her friend didn¡¯t do much to calm her anger was a bad sign. While Cynthia made her way to the core room with Mirielle, Ian told everyone else, including the spider automata, to come to the core room. The goblins and spider automata eyed the newcomers warily, as Cynthia lurched into the core room. ¡°Okay, now that we¡¯re all here, I¡¯ll tell everyone my plans to rescue Cynthia¡¯s village and destroy the ogre tribe Kath¡¯lak,¡± began Ian. ¡°But first, Cynthia, is there anyway to expedite Mirielle¡¯s recovery?¡± ¡°An abundance of sunlight would be good.¡± ¡°Does it have to be sunlight or would magic light suffice?¡± ¡°It would have to be a lot of magic light, it¡¯s nowhere near as potent as sunlight.¡± ¡°How about the light levels on the G- rank floor?¡± ¡°That would be better than the no light we¡¯re currently in.¡± Oh, yeah, there were no lights in the core room were there. Oops. ¡°Okay, I¡¯ll make a room of light for her to recuperate in. It¡¯ll be done after I talk to everyone.¡± ¡°....Thanks.¡± Ian turned to his dungeon monsters, ¡°Did you understand that conversation?¡± ¡°We didn¡¯t hear anything,¡± replied Yervin, ¡°Were you talking?¡± ¡°Did you want me to include them?¡± interrupted Cynthia. ¡°Yes, but I had hoped the dungeon¡¯s translation function would auto include them. It seems I was wrong,¡± shrugged Ian¡¯s core. ¡°....Okay. I¡¯ve included them into our conversation.¡± Ian addressed his monsters, ¡°Please tell me if you can¡¯t understand her. Hopefully, the translation function works between dungeon residents.¡± The seven of them gave nods of affirmation. The spider automata gave more of a crouch up and down, however. ¡°To begin, everyone, these are Cynthia and Mirielle, dungeon contractees. All I know about them are their names, that they¡¯re telepaths, that they¡¯re sapient plants, and that they can leave the dungeon without dispersing into mana. Beyond that, I have no idea. However, if I save their village, I¡¯ll get eight hundred plus dungeon contractees. I consider that a major boon with the absorption function.¡± Cynthia whispered to herself, ¡°It was so upfront about the dungeon contract and healed Mirielle so easily, I forgot this dungeon only appeared ten plus days ago.¡± Ian ignored her (he could get more information from her later) and continued his explanation, ¡°To save them we have to battle the ogre tribe, Kath¡¯lak, which is over five hundred strong. Considering where we¡¯re located, I doubt they¡¯re basic ogres. Of course, I¡¯ll be asking Cynthia any details about them before we go into battle. The main boon and detriment to this dungeon war is anyone that dies outside the dungeon stays dead. So, all of you will have to make sure to stay alive.¡± ¡°Of course, my lord!¡± shouted Mina, while the others gave serious nods. ¡°The boon is that any monster that dies outside the dungeon will release mana into the world, the main purpose of dungeons. I don¡¯t know if I¡¯ll receive any direct benefits, but not having to deal with mana dead zones is a massive boon unto itself.¡± Ian tried to avoid thinking about it as much as possible, but he really hoped dungeon contractees could talk to others without any restrictions. Ian focused on Cynthia, ¡°I¡¯ll ask now: what¡¯s the average rank of the ogres?¡± ¡°A rank,¡± replied Cynthia. ¡°That¡¯s a little lower than I was expecting, but it still poses a problem: I don¡¯t have the mana to make the S rank spider automatas, cloud wolves, or flesh tongues. While the blink hobgoblins might be able to pit themselves against the ogres, even with a lower rank, I don¡¯t have enough mana to create five hundred of them. I assume there¡¯s at least a couple S ranks and maybe an SS rank, Cynthia?¡± ¡°Yes, the leader is SS+ rank, and his inner circle are all S to SS- rank.¡± ¡°How big is his inner circle?¡± ¡°A minimum ten members, but most likely more.¡± Ian turned his focus back to his dungeon monsters, ¡°With those numbers, even five hundred blink hobgoblins wouldn¡¯t stand a chance. Of course, the chance of them making it past my EX rank floor is still zero. Thus, the only way to kill them with great success is to lure them into the dungeon. However, I want to take advantage of this war and have as many of my monsters die outside the dungeon as possible.¡± The seven monsters all gave him wary looks. Ian sighed, ¡°Not you guys. There¡¯s a reason I¡¯ve attached you to the respawn rooms.¡± ¡°Well, you did scare us when you forcibly brought out our mana manipulation abilities,¡± said Yervin. ¡°....Are you going to bring that up everytime I bring up something that might harm you guys?¡± Yervin just smirked in return. ¡°Anyway¡­.¡± Ian grumbled, ¡°my plan is to have Yervin lead the blink hobgoblins and a horde of lower rank monsters to attack the ogres. The lower rank monsters will lead the frontal assault, while Yervin and the hobgoblins use guerilla tactics and try to eliminate the stronger ogres. ¡°While this battle is going on, Cynthia, Mina, Izu, Pugi, Botan, Narcy,....Arc, and Mirielle, if she¡¯s awake, will go to the villagers and lead them into the dungeon. ¡°Depending on how much I can perceive of the battle and rescue, I¡¯ll either be giving directions or be back in the dungeon expanding the town. ¡°First, I need to build up the army, so the rescue team should make their rescue plan with Cynthia, while Yervin gathers the blink hobgoblins on the EX rank floor and gets used to ordering them around.¡± The group started to go their separate ways, except for Arc, the spider automata, who was frozen in place. The edges of Ian¡¯s cover twitched upwards as he said, ¡°You should follow them, Arc.¡± Arc twitched and did a little hop as they scuttled after the goblins. Ian¡¯s focus turned to Cynthia who he called out to, ¡°Wait, Cynthia.¡± Her green moss covered body with stumps for legs turned around to face Ian. ¡­.It seemed even though she didn¡¯t have eyes, she still had a preferred front. ¡°I¡¯ll ask the Helper why you were a dungeon contractee before I did anything, and I want to know how you know the rank and number of the ogre¡¯s inner circle.¡± He could feel the mental connection and her impatience for answers, but it seemed she wouldn¡¯t respond to his question until he answered hers. ¡°Hey, Helper. Why did Cynthia become a dungeon contractee before I had completed any of her requests?¡± ¡°Equivalence.¡± Ian felt a spike of irritation from Cynthia, ¡°....Could you be more specific?¡± ¡°Yes.¡± Both of them waited for about a minute as the Helper said nothing else. Right, sometimes it could be an annoyance, like now, but it could also be helpful, like when he asked about the dungeon contract. His dungeon contract questions would be considered more ambiguous, but he got a better answer right off the bat. He wondered what the difference was.This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. ¡°Alright then,¡± Ian began, ¡°What do you mean by Equivalence?¡± ¡°Equivalence is-¡± ¡°No! I know what equivalence is. I mean why is her becoming a dungeon contractee before I do considered equi-oh. Did she become a dungeon contractee before I completed any of her requests because the reward she offered for rescuing her village from the ogres and healing Mirielle wasn¡¯t deemed enough?¡± ¡°Yes.¡± ¡°What?!¡± shouted Cynthia. ¡°If he didn¡¯t save Mirielle, then he would have one less dungeon contractee. How is just being able to save one person equal to being able to not fulfill any promises and still get a dungeon contractee?!¡± The metal ball that was the Helper focused on Cynthia, ¡°The dungeon contract prioritizes the dungeon over the dungeon contractee. Besides, just because you do not consider them equal, does not mean you are correct. Simply put, unless you got a god to manifest themselves, then the only way to save your friend was to bring her to this dungeon.¡± Ian watched the far more articulate metal ball glow a slight red as it moved its focus away from Cynthia. He did have friends in high places, but inhabiting the Helper just to correct a girl with some misplaced anger was a bit much. He turned to Cynthia, ¡°I know you¡¯re angry, and I¡¯m not going to tell you to get rid of it immediately, but I am fulfilling my side of the bargain, so you¡¯re going to have to get rid of it at some point. For now, just formulate a plan to rescue your village with the goblins and spider automata okay?¡± ¡°....Okay,¡± Cynthia muttered back. As she started to leave, Ian piped up, ¡°Oh, wait! How did you know so much about the ogres?¡± ¡°I¡¯m still in telepathic communication with the rest of my village.¡± ¡°Hmm, alright, thanks. Before you go, there¡¯s a transfer formation in the town that will lead you to a light floor for Mirielle.¡± ¡°T-thanks,¡± she said a little louder this time. The first thing Ian did after everyone left was see if a body he possessed could leave the dungeon. A goblin body bolted out of his entrance, stretched, and did a few jumping jacks, but didn¡¯t return to mana. This was good, but he was still within his sphere of perception. As the goblin reached the edge, Ian¡¯s consciousness jerked out of the goblin who fell over dead. Now he knew that wouldn¡¯t work and had a pounding headache. Still, he watched the goblin disappear into mana, it had its uses. For his next experiment, he needed to make a leader evolution. No monsters in his dungeon had any leadership experience, and while that would come with time, he needed it now. He could just use DP to purchase up an unused evolution tree, but ever since he started placing his consciousness in bodies, he¡¯d had an idea. He created a normal goblin, but did not let its consciousness develop. His consciousness spread inside. Rather than inhabiting the goblin, he tried to implant specific memories of initiative, army strategies, troop movements, and attack patterns. It wasn¡¯t his forte, so it was quite lackluster, but should be more than enough for goblin tactics. To finish, he pulled his consciousness out of the goblin and let it gain its own consciousness. Once he did so, the goblin¡¯s body fell to the ground with its mouth open as drool leaked out. He checked its status which called the goblin a Vegetative Goblin. It seemed he had rid the goblin of any ability to think. He transferred it to the room full of monsters, and hoped the slimes and jellies would take care of it. With his first attempt out of the way, he continued his experiments. It only took a couple more tries before Ian realized he needed to evolve the goblin before it gained a consciousness. After a couple of evolutions, he kind of got what he wanted in the form of a Dumb Goblin General. The worst part was it couldn¡¯t evolve anymore. It seemed to have reached it peak evolutionary potential. The positive fact was his information implants were having an effect beyond destroying the brain as he doubted he would have gotten a Goblin General otherwise. Next, Ian tried to reduce the amount of information he was inputting into the goblin brain. A task which was much harder than simply realizing he needed to evolve it. Over time his goblin generals were having less and less problems with them, until he was finally able to get a normal C rank goblin captain. Yeah, when they had brain damage, they were generals, but as soon as he got a normal goblin, it became a captain. It was normal, as he did not have the mana to make an A+ rank monster. But still. Ian made a few captains and more than a few first and second lieutenants. Compared to normal goblins, they were taller and more chiseled while wearing finery, but the largest differences weren¡¯t physical. Satisfied with the captains and lieutenants, Ian moved them to the leftover monster room. He moved the babies and creatures that couldn¡¯t fight to the side, so the army would have room to train. The captains began to organize the few troops they had. Ian gave them around one hundred goblins to get them started. His vision shifted to Yervin who was talking to the blink hobgoblins. ¡°Hey, Yervin. I¡¯ll make you an entrance to the leftover monster floor, so go there and work with the goblin captains and lieutenants.¡± ¡°Okay. Should I take the other goblins on this floor too?¡± ¡°No, even if the traps are the real danger on this floor, there still needs to be some monsters in each room¡­.that means you¡¯ll have to leave some blink hobgoblins too.¡± ¡°Hmm, okay. Let¡¯s go then. You three,¡± Yervin pointed at the hobgoblins in the back, ¡°stay here and make sure each room is properly populated.¡± The three hobgoblins left kicking stray rocks and sulking. Ian went back to the leftover floor and began creating goblins. Due to creating Yervin, he had a variety of different types. He created goblin thieves, goblin apprentice mages, goblin fighters, and goblin warriors. Admittedly only half of those came from Yervin¡¯s evolution, but eh. After he saw how the captains worked with what they got, he¡¯d think about creating higher rank goblins. For each evolution he created one hundred of each, which would allow for groups designated for certain tasks. After he finished creating the four hundred goblins, Yervin came into the room and began discussions with the captains. Ian watched them for a while, before realizing he should get Cynthia and the others here too. The army needed to know the terrain they would be fighting in and how to properly distract the ogres from the village of¡­.huh, he didn¡¯t know what they were called. ¡°All of you should go to the leftover monster floor/room and strategize with the army. Cynthia likely has knowledge of the terrain that they¡¯ll need.¡± The group jumped slightly as Ian interrupted their discussion. ¡°Also, Cynthia, what is your race called?¡± ¡°Just check my status,¡± Cynthia answered curtly. Mina glared at her, while the others frowned disapprovingly. ¡°Okay,¡± shrugged Ian. He thought it would be better to get it from her own mouth, but if she wanted to be that way then fine. Her status appeared before him, and he saw her species name was Groonvat, a sapient plant species that used telepathic powers. It seemed they could spread their tail out to increase the area for photosynthesis, and their roots would extend from their legs to gather water and nutrients. Their efficiency and rate of photosynthesis and nutrient gain far outstripped their non-sapient, stationary counterparts, which allowed them to spend less of their day basking in the sun and anchored to the ground. Please at this gain of knowledge, his vision moved to observe his burgeoning army. It was a good start, but it needed more. He needed to create weapons and armor for each of them. Not only that, but it was currently lacking in variety. Since his army lacked the strength to fight the ogres on equal terms, it needed to defeat them through numbers and surprise. The guerilla tactics from the blink hobgoblins were a good start, but invisible, teleporting hobgoblins would only remain a surprise for so long. A coordinated attack from a wide variety of monsters may surprise them, but it could also just make them think ¡®dungeon¡¯. As Ian watched the group training, he started to think about the ogre tribe. Why were they attacking the Groonvat? He assumed it had something to do with him, but he originally thought it was due to the movement of the flesh tongues. However, if the leader of the ogres was as strong as Cynthia said, then the flesh tongues would have been an annoyance, but one they could have gotten rid of. Hmm, he should just ask Cynthia. ¡°Cynthia, why are the ogres attacking your village in the first place?¡± ¡°¡®Cause of you.¡± ¡°It¡¯s good to have that confirmed, but could you be more specific?¡± ¡°....They want to set up a village around your entrance, and use what they find within you to establish their dominance in the region.¡± That sounded like exactly what he wanted, except he thought it would be with sapients rather than ogres. ¡°There seems to be plenty of space around my entrance, and I¡¯m doubtful your village is just outside my perception. Even if your village was in the way, couldn¡¯t you have let them pass?¡± ¡°If that was an option, we would have!¡± shouted Cynthia while shaking. ¡°As soon as they happened upon our village, they demanded we serve them as slaves! The messenger group immediately refused them and were slaughtered in response. We broke their messenger¡¯s minds, and ran away hoping they wouldn¡¯t follow. However, breaking the minds of their messengers made them furious, so they pursued us. Mirielle and I were sent to you to make a dungeon contract. The village is currently holding out in a defensible area, but as long as their mages protect their minds, our greatest weapon is useless.¡± ¡°The flesh tongues caught you on the way to the dungeon?¡± ¡°Yeah, all they said was they were so happy a dungeon appeared as they could finally do what the voice told them to do. Since we knew they were going to the dungeon, we followed their orders hoping once we entered the dungeon, we¡¯d be split up. If not, we¡¯d have pleaded telepathically with you to make a dungeon contract with us. ¡°What we didn¡¯t expect was the stupid way they tried ascertain your strength. If they hadn¡¯t forced Mirielle to control all those monsters, especially the cloud wolves, then she wouldn¡¯t have had to deal with destroying her telepathic organ!¡± Cynthia spat out with agony in her voice. Ian let her spill her guts out before asking his question, ¡°By the way, how did you know that dungeons can form contracts?¡± Having calmed down a bit, Cynthia answered, ¡°One of our oldest memories mentions the fact that dungeons are sapient and can form contracts with both monster and sapient creatures. ¡­.That memory did warn to only form a dungeon contract when the survival of the species was at risk, though.¡± ¡°And you decided to invoke it when only your village was at risk?¡± ¡°....¡± ¡°Unless, your village is your entire species?¡± ¡°No, there¡¯s a number of other villages in the region. The ogre tribe might attack them, but they¡¯re much farther away from your entrance than we are.¡± ¡°Hmm, well thanks for the information, Cynthia.¡± ¡°....You¡¯re welcome,¡± she muttered. He continued to watch the group without speaking to them. Should he fulfill his contract? He¡¯d feel like an asshole if he didn¡¯t, but what he wanted was a group entering him and taking stuff out of him. Did it really matter if that was a village of ogres or normal sapients like humans? In fact, considering the racist and evil nature of the ogres, they¡¯d be more likely to kill others on the surface making his job easier. Still, supporting that kind of village didn¡¯t sit well with him. As much as a dungeon¡¯s job was to kill intruders and release mana into the world, nations that had a large number of dungeons tended to prosper. That spoke to either dungeons being bad at their jobs, the design of dungeons themselves being bad, and/or the fact that no one would enter dungeons if there wasn¡¯t a consistent increase in a nation¡¯s prosperity due to them. It was doubtful that the ogres would care about anything other than weapons, and once they had their weapons, would they still need the dungeon? There were a number of reasons, but perhaps the biggest reason Ian decided to fulfill his part of the contract was sapient telepathic plants were far more interesting than normal ogres. Chapter 40 To complete war preparations, Ian began making new goblins. Using the same method as the goblin captain, he made ten new goblin variants. Each goblin variant took as much time as the goblin captain, as he had to reduce his knowledge to a much greater degree. The goblin swordsman arose from the goblin warrior. There were versions that contained his knowledge of greatswords, while others knew how to use one-handed swords and shields. Both versions lacked armor, but at least had pants. The greatsword versions were a little taller with more of a belly, but their arms were beefier. The one-handed versions looked like normal goblins but fitter. They both came with their own equipment, but it was lacking. In the end both were considered the same species and were both D rank. His spear knowledge produced goblin spearman. Beyond the strap that carried their spear on their back, they also only had pants. Their strap was similar to the goblin swordsman version greatsword, but their physique was the same as a normal goblin. He had reduced his knowledge a little farther with this variant as they were D- rank instead of D rank. Unlike the swordsman version greatsword and spearman, the one-handed swordsman had belts around their waist with a buckler attached to their non-dominant arm. Using the goblin thief as a base, he infused knowledge of trap disassembly, dagger usage, and body movement to produce a goblin rogue. With knowledge of stealth and vital points, he also produced a goblin assassin. The goblin thief was E- rank compared to E+ rank, so the goblin rogue was only E+ rank. The goblin assassin, however, went above the more direct combat oriented evolutions and reached D+ rank. All three evolutions; thief, rogue, and assassin; were a darker shade of green than a normal goblin. The assassin being the darkest shade. They all had pieces of cloth covering their mouths along with more clothes than other evolutions. The thief and rogues hand brown clothes, while the assassin had clothes in a camouflage pattern of green and brown. Daggers were present on all of their waists, while the assassin also had vials of poison and small needles. For the next two combat evolutions, Ian was unsure if he should use the goblin warrior or goblin thief. The thief was more similar to the lithe nature he wanted, but the goblin warrior was a good basis for all weapon classes. In the end, he went with the goblin warrior. Like the swordsman and spearman evolutions, he created the goblin archer and goblin crossbowman classes. The archer being D rank and the crossbowman being D+ rank. It seemed the less strength needed for the crossbow resulted in a more dangerous monster. The evolution provided bows and crossbows were pretty shabby, but they would have to do. At least until he actually used his DP for once. Physically the goblins looked like normal goblins with greater arm strength and back muscles. Before he made his mages, Ian decided that he should make the groups of five hundred first. However, after he started creating the D+ rank monsters, he did some quick math in his head. If he did five hundred for one D+ rank, he¡¯d use up half of his mana pool. This was supposed to be a distraction army, so while he needed some stronger monsters, the amount of monsters he had was more important. After a while, Ian decided to make groups of one hundred for the goblins D rank and up, and groups of five hundred for D- rank and below. The other two armies would be composed of as many G- rank monsters he could spew out. As he created the new goblin groups, Yervin spoke to Ian, ¡°Hey, Ian, can we get one of those wolves? Trying to identify each other while invisible hasn¡¯t been working out.¡± Yervin and the other blink hobgoblins had been playing hide and seek. They started out all invisible, but none of them could find each other beyond blindly swinging their arms around. Afterwards, they had one blink hobgoblin stay visible and try to combat another invisible hobgoblin. It was better practice for the invisible hobgoblin, but all the visible hobgoblin could do was swing their arms around again. Without someone to detect their invisibility, it was mediocre practice at best.If you come across this story on Amazon, it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. ¡°Sure,¡± respond Ian, ¡°but only the B+ rank one. It should be fine as I doubt ogres have better senses than cloud wolves.¡± ¡°Thanks,¡± replied Yervin as a cloud wolf appeared in the center of the practicing blink hobgoblins. Most of them froze in place, while a few started to run away before Yervin called them back. After Ian completed the groups of goblins, and ignored the complaints from the goblin captains, he started to make the mages. He created four mages with his knowledge: the goblin apprentice light mage, the goblin apprentice healing mage, the goblin apprentice illusion mage, and goblin apprentice wind mage. Why wind of all the elements? Mainly because they were less likely to destroy the forest outside. The light mages could create flash spells and slow moving balls of light that burned opponents. They also knew a single beam spell that would burn through all of their mana, and if they were lacking, life force. The wind mages could use wind cutters and tornadoes. Of course, they didn¡¯t have the impact of the natural disaster, but they could create cuts across the body and disturb formations. The illusion mages could create five copies of either themselves or someone else. They could also create illusions in the mind of someone within a five meter range of them. The healing mages could heal any wounds that hadn¡¯t damaged vital organs. More prominently, they could reattach limbs as long as neither the detached appendage or stub was too damaged. If he wanted to create five hundred of each, he had to limit their abilities somewhat. He was actually able to increase their combat abilities, while limiting their abilities, by completely eliminating knowledge of more mundane and useful spells. Hopefully if any survived, they would be able to learn those on their own. After Ian told the goblin captains that he would create two thousand goblin mages for them to order around, he got a withering look from each of them. Of course, after they thought he wasn¡¯t paying attention to them, he saw the wide smiles on their faces. Those smiles made his stomach drop a bit. Although they knew they were created as fodder, the possibility of survival against the ogres still pleased them. He originally planned on making abnormal equipment for everyone, but his mana was getting low at only seven million. That seven million was needed for a horde of G- rank monsters. The leftover monster room expanded as Ian prepped it for the influx of six hundred thousand monsters. Admittedly fist sized monsters, but they still required a ton of room. Fifteen thousand of each spider variant appeared for a total of three hundred thousand spiders. Additionally, Ian created one hundred and fifty thousand slimes and one hundred and fifty thousand jellies. The weak monster horde army was completed. The horde army would crash into the ogre tribe and try to kill as many as possible by either suffocation or weight. The likelihood of them causing any injury beyond that, no matter their number advantage, was almost zero. Although, reducing their stamina was a very real possibility. While the ogre tribe was focused on the horde, the goblin army would attempt to strike them from the back. Ian felt that the goblin army was far more likely to be discovered and have to strike the side, however. While the ogres were fighting, the goblins and Arc, led by Cynthia, would lead the groonvat to his dungeon. Yervin and his hobgoblins would be invisible and assassinate any stragglers. They would also make sure the ogres didn¡¯t follow the groonvat. At least until they were safely in the dungeon. Upon Ian¡¯s initial creation of the horde, the goblin army stared at it for five minutes before the captains yelled at them to get back in line. Yervin just muttered to himself, ¡°That seems like a bit much.¡± Cynthia tried to think to herself, ¡°What kind of dungeon did we form a dungeon contract with?! It can create an army of over half a million instantly?! It¡¯s only slightly over ten days old! I know they¡¯re all weak, but still!¡± The army spent three days prepping and getting used to one another. Ian would have liked to spend at least two more, but Cynthia was getting irritable. Around twenty people had died in the three days, so he knew he would lose her minimal trust if he didn¡¯t head out now. Besides, he didn¡¯t like losing those possible twenty dungeon contractees either. He ordered his army to battle. The horde of monsters rushed out of the dungeon and out of his sphere of perception. Outside he still could order them and made sure to order them in the right direction using Cynthia¡¯s directions. The goblin army of over five thousand marched out of the dungeon and followed behind the horde of spiders, slimes, and jellies. The blink hobgoblins, armed with new weapons, shimmered and disappeared as they left the dungeon, and the group led by Cynthia followed soon after. With that, Ian¡¯s first dungeon war began. Chapter 41 The leaves of the forest began to shake, causing flocks of birds to fly off into the sky. As the leaves fell to the ground, a horde of spiders, slimes, and jellies appeared. Across the trunks and branches of the trees, the spiders crawled. They leaped from tree to tree as they ran through the forest. The slimes and jellies rolled across the ground as they smooshed against each other and the tree trunks. Even the more powerful creatures avoided the enormous horde. While they could easily snag a few, they didn¡¯t want the entire horde descending upon them. Behind the horde marched an army of goblins. In front marched a line of spearman five people deep. Behind them marched the other close range fighters. The third row consisted of the archers and crossbowman. The fourth row consisted of the mages, while the last row was composed of the officers. Attempting to hold their lines through the dense forest resulted in the goblin army slowing down and falling behind the horde. The officers could only hope the horde held out long enough, so they could strike from behind while the ogre tribe was still busy. Near the goblin army, the underbrush was crushed and moved due to the influence of the invisible hobgoblins. Far to the right of these two armies was a small group of five goblins, a lumbering spider automata, and a single telepathic plant. The group had to maintain a walking pace, so Arc could keep up. ¡°Do we really need this spider?¡± muttered Cynthia. ¡°If the ogres are as dangerous as you say they are, then yes,¡± replied Mina. ¡°No offense, but it seems like a normal ogre could crush it in one hit.¡± ¡°As long as it can catch up to them, it can crush one of those boars with ease. ...At least, that¡¯s what I heard,¡± said Pugi. ¡°I guess I¡¯ll have to take your word for it. Mirielle couldn¡¯t tell me the details of what she saw in the dungeon. By the way, why are the rest of you here? You wouldn¡¯t be able to do anything against an ogre.¡± ¡°The lord ordered it, so we obeyed his order,¡± stated Mina. ¡°You mean the dungeon core, Ian?¡± A nod in response. ¡°Okaaay, then. Well, why do you think he ordered you here?¡± This time Izu replied, ¡°Experience, I would guess. He had no problem ordering us to fight monsters we had no chance against just for that.¡± ¡°But, you respawn there right?¡± asked Cynthia, ¡°Why take the chance of you dying out here? I can see ordering Yervin out because of his unusual abilities, but while losing you wouldn¡¯t normally seem like much, he seems to care for you guys more than the other monsters.¡± They all gave Cynthia light shrugs, while she muttered something about mindless drones and stupid dungeon creatures in response. ?????????? On top of a sheer cliff overlooking a stream stood a group of groonvat. They were having a stare off with the group of ogre sentries. The sentries carried large spears, seven meters tall that reached slightly above their heads. Heads with hair that flowed past their shoulders and beards that reached their chests. The other notable features of their faces were their bulbous noses, and their large tusks that curved from their upper mouth. Physically their arms and legs bulged with muscles, while their stomach jiggled with fat. The only piece of clothing they had was a single loincloth. These sentries were among the lowest rank of ogres with light tannish-green skin, which showed the ogre¡¯s attitude toward the groonvat. ¡°Cynthia says the armies are approaching,¡± said the largest groonvat with tendrils of green moss cascading down his frame. ¡°Chief, if the dungeon¡¯s armies are able to defeat the ogres, why should we acquiesce to becoming dungeon contractees?¡± asked a groonvat of nearly equal size but a lighter shade of green. The larger groonvat sent an exasperated thought, ¡°If the dungeon¡¯s armies defeats the ogre tribe, then they would just come after us. Besides, the dungeon doesn¡¯t intend to defeat the ogres.¡± ¡°What? Why? Even with the size of the armies it is sending?¡± ¡°I do not know. Cynthia tried to tell me, but it appears something was preventing her from doing so.¡± ¡°The dungeon?¡± ¡°A possibility, but we will only know that after we are dungeon contractees.¡± Mumbles of discontent appeared from the other five groonvats behind the front two. ¡°Silence!¡± shouted the Chief. ¡°We discussed this time and again before we sent Cynthia and Mirielle to the new dungeon. Another discussion of a decision that has already been made will not happen again!¡± The discontent went away as all five groonvat stood straighter. A rush of air sounded as a spear appeared in front of the chief, now floating in midair. With a thought, the spear flipped and zoomed back at the ogre sentry who threw it. The ogre sentry pivoted on his feet avoiding the blade of the spear and grabbed the pole as it flew past him. With a spin, he planted the butt of the spear into the ground and snorted at the groonvat. ¡°How long before the armies reach the ogres?¡± queried the chief¡¯s advisor, the lighter green groonvat, ignoring the attempt on the chief¡¯s life. ¡°A couple of hours for the horde, and a little longer for the goblin army. Cynthia and her escort of low rank goblins along with a spider golem will be here sometime in between,¡± replied the chief. ¡°Good. The ogre chief isn¡¯t going to thinkour telepathic abilities are greater than they are for much longer.¡± ¡°Right,¡± the chief sighed. ¡°Let¡¯s start getting the rest of the tribe ready for the trip to the dungeon. However, make sure not let the ogres catch wind of it.¡± ¡°Of course!¡± shouted the group telepathically. ?????????? An ogre with hair to his shoulders and a trimmed beard flipped a dagger while leaning against a tree. He kept a bit of his concentration on the surrounding environment, but what would attack a full ogre tribe? Well, there was probably something in this forest that would, but nothing in the vicinity. A small rumble caused him to miss the flipping dagger, which clattered to the ground. He grumbled and bent down to reach for the dagger, but the rumble was growing stronger, and his dagger was lightly bouncing. His arm snagged the dagger, and he focused on his surroundings. Soon, his eyes widened as he saw what was causing the rumble.If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. The entire forest in front of him was covered in spiders and slimes. He prepared to bolt back to the army, but as soon as he saw them closer up, he snorted. It didn¡¯t matter how many of these things there were, only a few ogres would be lost at most. The chief wouldn¡¯t want to be disturbed by such an army of weaklings. However, as a single ogre he lacked the ability to completely stop the horde. Then he could kill as many as possible, and the remaining horde would give the chief a mild distraction. The chief was getting annoyed by the standoff with the telepaths, and some solid physical fighting would do the tribe good, even if the horde was full of weaklings. The scout ogre leisurely prepared his dagger to cut down as many of the horde as possible. However, he was not prepared for what happened next. What he expected to do was fight only the monsters that directly interacted with him, that¡¯s what happened with monster floods after all. He did not expect the horde to converge on him as soon as they caught sight of him. Before he could run, spiders and slimes were crawling all over him. He swung his dagger and empty fist at them splattering up to seven or eight at a time. The bites of the spiders and the acid of the slimes had no effect on him. His true blunder occurred due to his pride as an ogre, ¡°It doesn¡¯t matter how many of you there are! You weaklings will be crush-ghhhk!¡± As the ogre opened his mouth, the spiders and slimes that were attacking his eyes, nose, and ears all surged towards his mouth. They were not able to fit into the smaller holes, but the ogre¡¯s mouth was a different matter. They crammed themselves inside and crawled down his throat. Legs that wouldn¡¯t fit broke off as they crawled further down. Inside, their legs, fangs, and acid were able to find purchase against the soft tissue. Eventually the front runner either plopped into a vat of acid, the stomach, or began tearing apart a thin, porous membrane, the lungs. The ogre¡¯s eyes twitched with fear as he realized what was happening. He dropped his dagger and began trying to pull the monsters out of his mouth. However, with every monster he was able to pull out, another took his place. Eventually he gave up and closed his mouth and began to punch his chest and stomach. His efforts had no chance of succeeding as blood began to seep out of his closed mouth until he fell over dead. A short while later, the spiders, slimes, and jellies that had not died crawled out of the dead ogre¡¯s mouth and continued on with the rest of the horde. ?????????? The chief of the ogre tribe Kath¡¯lak, named Magrok, sat upon a throne of bone and metal.Blood red braids cascaded down his shoulders contrasting nicely with his deep green skin. His beard, also braided, was a nice in between to the gnarled mess of chest length hair that was the common ogre¡¯s and the well trimmed beard of the scout ogre. Unlike most ogres, which had fat bellies, the chief had chiseled abs, which worked perfectly with the rest of his bulging muscles. His black gauntleted hands drummed their fingers on the throne¡¯s arms. ¡°Have the mages figured out how to combat the telepathy of those damn telepaths yet?!¡± he roared. The entire camp of ogres, men, women, and children looked toward the throne and cowered. Unlike their well structured village, the camp was a mishmash of blankets, stumps, logs, attempts to construct shelters, and campfires. The only well built structures were the chief¡¯s, his inner circle¡¯s homes, and his throne. ¡°A couple more days and they should have a spell that protects from deep dives into our minds,¡± saluted the vice-chief Kurk. Magrok growled, ¡°Fine.¡± The thought of the gibbering messes that were his most powerful warriors beyond his inner circle preventing him from killing the mages for their incompetence. As he waved the vice-chief away, an ogre scout ran up almost out of breath, ¡°Sir! A monster horde approaches, it will be here any minute!¡± ¡°A horde? Of what? How many?¡± questioned Magrok. ¡°F-Finger sized spiders and slimes, sir. H-However-!¡± Magrok¡¯s enormous fist grasped the scout¡¯s throat and brought him up to eye level, ¡°You came to me out of breath for that?! The scout¡¯s face paled as air did not go into his lungs. He attempted to speak the words to calm the chief¡¯s angers, but he could not voice them. In the hopes of preserving his life he did not make an attempt to claw at the chief¡¯s arm grasping his throat. Magrok tossed him onto the ground and yelled, ¡°Out of my sight!¡± The scout did not leave, but instead stood up and gasped out the rest of his message, ¡°They blanketed the horizon, and did not behave like a normal monster flood. They aimed for our eyes, ears, and mouth. When another scout opened her mouth, the creatures rushed inside before she could even crush them with her jaws. Soon after she vomited blood. I decided I must get the information to you then.¡± The chief stepped down to the scout¡¯s level and punched him in the side of the head, ¡°Start with that, you buffoon!¡± Magrok leaned down and pulled the scout to his feet, ¡°Now that you have completed your duty, prepare for war!¡± The last part shouted to the entire camp. Shouts from ogres at the edge of the camp already indicating the arrival of the horde. ¡°Kurk, establish the lines and get the mages. They¡¯ll make a mind spell later. Now, they burn a horde.¡± ?????????? Trokur swung his two-handed battle axe slicing over ten of the horde in one swing. He ignored the others crawling all over him along with the irritating poking of his eyes. His mouth remained closed after he witnessed what happened to the frontline spearman, but with every swing he wanted to shout out for glory! An shout reverberated through the ranks of the ogres, ¡°Warriors! Do not lament! Even if you do not shout for the glory of the war god, he knows your will! Do not let the horde of weaklings win and keep your mouths shut!¡± The cry of the chief emboldened the warriors and made sure no more died foolishly. Few spiders, slimes, and jellies made it past the well rested lines of warriors. A few wondered why they did not simply circle around, but went back to chopping down as many as possible soon after. Not long into the battle, the war horns blew from behind. Immediately after, the horde that still remained in the forest erupted into a tower of flame. After the first tower disappeared another appeared in a new spot. Once a large swathe of area was covered in flames, the towers disappeared. The lingering flames sputtered out as a current of wind rose into the sky. ¡°Backliners! Relieve the frontliners! When they congregate, we¡¯ll wipe them out again!¡± roared Magrok. The cycle of switching roles, fighting the horde in close combat, and wiping out a large swathe with fire magic continued a few more times before the ogres encountered an unexpected occurrence. Bolts, arrows, and magic flew in from behind. Most did little damage beyond a few puncture wounds or lacerations, but a few arrows were lucky and pierced the eyes of children and newborns. The non-combatants had retreated to the protection of the chief and his inner circle. Most felt intense self-loathing at the action, but the chief was more pragmatic than most and knew they were worth more to the tribe alive than dead. Magrok¡¯s eyes saw red as an arrow pierced the eye of an infant in its mother¡¯s arms. A guttural roar erupted from from his mouth as he spun around. A short distance away in the woods was a large army of goblins. His eyes pierced through their lines, but he did not see any that would be a direct threat to him or his inner circle. Still, the goblin army was five times his whole tribe, with most of the warriors fighting off the horde. He couldn''t pull them back as the non-combatants didn¡¯t have the discipline to keep their mouths shut. He would have to decimate the goblins himself, while his inner circle protected the others. ¡°Kurk, protect the non-combatants. I¡¯m going to destroy this trash!¡± Magrok prepared to leap into the fray at Kurk¡¯s acknowledgment, but it never came. ¡°Kurk!¡± he shouted. ¡°Sir!¡± one of his inner circle replied, ¡°The vice-chief suddenly disappeared!¡± Magrok¡¯s head swiveled around. What?! How? Where? Suddenly he caught a rustle in the brush. His fist struck towards it. Even though his fist was quite a distance away, a fountain of blood erupted as a decapitated, black hobgoblin, with odd white circles on its arms, fell to the ground. He inhaled deeply. There was a goblin smell close, but he couldn¡¯t pinpoint it. Dammit! Thoughts of how to cope with this invisible threat ran through his head, and only one option came to mind. ¡°There are invisible hobgoblins around! They can somehow make even someone as powerful as Kurk disappear! They are a much greater threat than the dismal army that approaches! Until the mages and the rest of the army finish off the horde, the inner circle and I will protect the non-combatants. For glory and the war god!¡± ¡°For glory and the war god!¡± roared all ogres not in combat. Magrok kept his head on a swivel. He was the most likely to notice the telltale movement of an invisible enemy. The presence of such a large group of goblins was odd, there was no such tribe in the area. The most reasonable explanation then was the dungeon. But how could a dungeon so young birth so many goblins? Was the horde also from the dungeon? If so, not only was the dungeon powerful, but it had it out for his tribe. His brows furrowed in anger. The telepaths no longer mattered. For trying to wipe out his tribe, the dungeon needed to be eliminated. Chapter 42 Prior to the goblin army making contact with the ogre tribe, Cynthia and the others made contact with her village. They had no reason to sneak in as the ogre sentries had left their posts to fight the horde. The groonvat were collecting their meagre possessions as fast as they could. The only ones that had carried any significant amount of belongings were children, so it didn¡¯t take long for the entire tribe to be ready. While the village was getting ready, Cynthia and the chief were talking alone in the only structure. ¡°Where¡¯s Mirielle?,¡± asked the chief. ¡°I thought it odd you were the one contacting us. The others did too but were smart enough to not bring it up.¡± ¡°She¡¯s fine now, but she was forced to mind control monsters to attack the dungeon.¡± lamented Cynthia. ¡°What?!¡± yelled the chief with a directed thought that would not escape the wooden hovel. ¡°You said everything went fine!¡± ¡°Of course I did! What would the rest of the tribe have done if they intercepted a message about the next chief being deformed do to her overusing her telepathy!¡± she shouted back, ¡°With everyone on edge, hearing about the best telepath being down for the count might have been the last straw. I made a decision that was best for the village, father, as I always do.¡± Cynthia¡¯s father recoiled slightly, ¡°...You¡¯re right, I¡¯m sorry I yelled. I was just worried about Mirielle.¡± ¡°I know that very well,¡± said Cynthia as sarcasm dripped from her words. The chief shuffled his stumps but asked the other question that had been on his mind, ¡°You¡¯ve interacted with the dungeon a bit, do you think we made the right decision?¡± Cynthia gave the telepathic equivalent of a stare before she left the building. Her father sighed and followed after her. Once outside, the rest of the village was ready and waiting. The village chief stood in front of the whole village and began to speak, ¡°I¡¯m sure all of you are worried, but fret not! I, Arend, your village chief vouch for the safety of the dungeon. From Cynthia we have learned that it is not a terrifying dungeon that will consume us, but one that treats its intelligent monsters with care. It is also strong to an extraordinary degree and will protect us from dangers such as the ogres. Now, let¡¯s move!¡± A telepathic roar of agreement moved through the villagers as they all followed Cynthia and the goblins. Behind the eight hundred groonvat slowly scuttled a large spider. ?????????? Back to after the goblins made contact with the ogre tribe, Yervin was planning his next move after one of the blink hobgoblins was killed. Moving foliage in front of a high rank monster was on the high end of stupid, but the other blink hobgoblins were liable to make the same mistake. The distance to the group of ogres made it harder to target their shift skill, but maybe hoping they got a strong ogre was their best bet. The vice-chief they snagged was currently being dragged back to the dungeon by one of the blink hobgoblins. Not easy considering the ogre¡¯s size, but once the hobgoblin started to use his blink and shift skills, his speed increased. Shifting such a large mass was still mana intensive however. Reducing the threat to the dungeon wasn¡¯t the point, the point was distracting them long enough for the groonvat to escape and then leading the ogres into the dungeon where they could all be killed. Doing so would give Ian a large variety of ogres to create. Yervin wanted to get the chief, but Ian told him not to. Apparently, while ogres were a revenge based society, even they would hesitate to follow after an enemy that eliminated their chief quickly and efficiently. Hence, why they aimed for the vice-chief first. However, he glanced to the dagger at his hip, without the enchantment Ian placed on the daggers, they would be hard pressed to do anything to the ogres. Besides the ones in the center, they were all around S rank. Thankfully all it took to put the vice-chief to sleep was a scratch as the dagger had barely penetrated the skin. In the end, Yervin decided to go with the long distance shift. He tried focusing on the ogre whose hair burned with fire, but his focus was too large and shifted the female ogre behind. He had overcompensated his shift location just in case, so the ogre landed right in front of him. With a swipe, the dagger slashed across her arm, a long red line appearing. Much thinner skin, Yervin thought. The female ogre fell to the side. He plunged the dagger through her ear into her brain. No reason to drag such a weak ogre back to the dungeon, they would have plenty of those. Seeing Yervin¡¯s actions, the other blink hobgoblins imitated him. Their aim was even worse than his and often missed the group of entirely. He wanted to yell at them, ¡®Aim for the center if you can¡¯t hit shit, dammit!¡¯, but that would give his position away. Their shift plan ended up being too successful as the ogre chief sent out a roar that echoed across the battlefield stunning them. By the time he recovered, Yervin saw two blink hobgoblins splattered beneath the fist of the ogre chief. He wanted to punch himself in the face, of course the ogre chief would attack them if all they did was hide in the woods and pick off his people. Yervin¡¯s heart was in his throat. But his instincts and the prepared plan took over. With a blink, he appeared in the center of ogre group and began stabbing the adults, making sure to leave one of each type. He killed ten adults before the chief¡¯s inner circle could react and blinked away towards the goblin army. He watched as the ogre chief returned from the forest dragging the mangled corpse of a blink hobgoblin. Yervin saw the rage in his eyes as he looked upon the ten corpses that Yervin had made. After a while, Yervin smirked as he realized theogre chief wasn¡¯t going to attack the goblin army. It seemed he was still on the lookout for the leftover invisible hobgoblin. Unfortunately for the chief, it was time to order a retreat. ?????????? Magrok watched the goblin army retreat back in the direction of the dungeon. His teeth were clenched so tightly the surrounding ogres could hear the creaking of his bones. ¡°You¡¯re not going to destroy them?!¡± shouted one of his inner circle, their respect no longer as set in stone as it once was. ¡°They will get their due when we grind the dungeon to dust. The only threat was the hobgoblin that teleported in the middle of all of you and killed ten ogres WITHOUT. YOU. EVEN. NOTICING!!!¡± Magrok¡¯s voice rising to a roar of anger. All of his inner circle thought, but didn¡¯t say, ¡®But you¡¯re the one who let it escape in the first place!¡¯ The sounds of battle began to die down until they ceased. Soon after a messenger ran to the chief, ¡°All monsters in the horde have been defeated, sir!¡±Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit. ¡°Casualties?¡± questioned Magrok. ¡°Fifty four close range fighters, twenty one scouts, and one sentry, Sir!¡± Magrok waved his hand at the messenger, ¡°Leave.¡± With that, the non-combatants returned to their camping spots hoping none of their loved ones were the ones to die. The chief returned to his throne, while his inner circle stood in front of him and waited. ¡°After the tribe is well rested and has had their fill of meat, we take revenge upon the dungeon and those goblins that retreated.¡± His voice was steady and calm. It reminded the inner circle of the day he claimed the spot of chief and sent shivers down their spine. One of the stronger members of the inner circle spoke up, ¡°Why would the dungeon attack us in the first place? It may have damaged us, but it lost a vast amount of monsters in the process.¡± ¡°Does it matter?!¡± shouted another member, ¡°We just have to take revenge!¡± The inner circle started to split into two camps: the ¡®just take revenge¡¯ camp and the ¡®figure out why the dungeon attacked us and then take revenge¡¯ camp. Magrok interrupted the heated discussion with a raised hand, ¡°Enough, once we send scouts to the telepaths¡¯ camp, we¡¯ll have our answer, I¡¯m sure.¡± There were a few moments of stunned silence before the inner circle released their thoughts. ¡°Those, damn telepaths!¡± shouted one. ¡°To think they were working with the dungeon,¡± scoffed another. ¡°Mental rats,¡± growled a few. ¡°That¡¯s right!¡± erupted Magrok, ¡°Not only did they reduce some of our strongest warriors to worthless pieces of meat, they couldn¡¯t even handle us on their own! However! While they are stillthe target of our revenge, the dungeon is our top priority. The telepaths removed warriors who were prepared to die, while the dungeon killed our children! It must pay!¡± His speech carried through the entire ogre camp hitting the warriors from the frontlines the hardest. They had not realized another army came at them from behind. One hugged his sobbing wife, and as he clasped her head to his shoulder, pure fury smouldered behind his eyes. Once they rested, the entire tribe was ready to wreak revenge upon the dungeon. ?????????? Ian watched as the groonvat funneled into his dungeon. One ended up being split into a different instance. They (physically he could not tell their sexes apart) got embarrassed and ran back out of the dungeon and returned with the group. He assumed the rest had some sort of party magic or party telepathy. Although, he mused, the flustered groonvat would have been fine. As soon as the groonvat entered his dungeon, they became dungeon contractees. If he had hands, he¡¯d be wiping the sweat off of his brow. The possibility of them having to reach his core room before becoming dungeon contractees had been a major worry. Having such a large group avoid his weak traps would have been difficult, and if he couldn¡¯t do something about the EX rank floor, they would have all died. With his body still awash with relief, Ian spoke to Cynthia, ¡°Cynthia, lead them to the town floor where the goblins live. I¡¯ll expand it to accomodate all of them for now. Once the ogres are dealt with, we can discuss living arrangements if the town isn¡¯t to the village¡¯s liking.¡± ¡°Okay,¡± responded Cynthia after a slight pause, ¡°First, let me introduce you to the chief, Arend, my father.¡± ¡°You¡¯re the village chief¡¯s daughter huh? Should I call you chief preemptively?¡± Cynthia let out a long sigh, ¡°No, the next village chief will be Mirielle.¡± ¡°Oh, I, uh, see. Well, uh, introduce me to the chief then.¡± Ian could almost feel the beginning of an amused smirk cross the telepathic link before it erased itself. ¡°Father, I introduce you to the disembodied thoughts of the dungeon, Ian,¡± said Cynthia theatrically. Arend gave a mental huff at his daughter, ¡°Nice to meet you Ian. I am Arend, the chief of this village of groonvat.¡± Arend gave a bow in the direction that the telepathic link seemed to point him towards. ¡°No need to bow. I¡¯ll be letting you live your lives as long as you always have someone bringing me things from outside of the dungeon,¡± assured Ian. ¡°You¡¯re not going to make us fight intruders?¡± ¡°Not unless my core is at stake. I¡¯d rather use the non-sapient creatures and the sapient creatures that can respawn. Besides, when I contracted Cynthia, I got pattern to create more of your species.¡± He waited for their response, but the only thing coming through the telepathic link was stunned silence. The first one to get ahold of themself was Arend, ¡°Y-You can create more of us?¡± his voice full of apprehension. ¡°I thought it odd initially too. I¡¯d never encountered a dungeon that could create sapients, or at least one that had sapients on their main floors. Of course, there were monsters that had reached sapience, but they still acted like monsters. I¡¯m thinking it has something to do with a perk I got called, ¡®All Creatures¡¯. I almost want to put up their patterns during the Auction, whenever that happens, to see the other dungeon¡¯s reactions,¡± Ian rambled. He couldn¡¯t tell by their body language, but minute emotions of wariness, confusion, and a slew of others were permeating the telepathic link. ¡°I take it that me being able to create your species doesn¡¯t sit well with you?¡± Arend started to speak, but Cynthia interrupted him, ¡°Of course it doesn¡¯t! As dungeon contractees we might eventually die out, but now you can make us monsters! You¡¯ll make our species attack other sapients, they¡¯ll think of us as monsters, and then attack the other villages around the Mountain!¡± Her words were laced with anger, fear, and despair. He didn¡¯t know what to say, he could do all of those things. He didn¡¯t plan too, but his words wouldn¡¯t alleviate this girl¡¯s fears as she did not trust him. ¡°Cynthia!¡± yelled Arend, anger evident upon his thoughts. ¡°I know you are wary of Ian, your reports of a peaceful and helpful dungeon were laced with trepidation and worry, but that is too much!¡± ¡°But, father!¡± ¡°Enough! Ian¡¯s words made me confused as well, but they also made me realize something. Over the years, each chief has been tasked with keeping the old stories alive. A lot of them contain information about dungeons as you know. Why do so many of our stories center around dungeons has been asked time and again. However, no one was able to come up with a satisfactory answer. Why? Because dungeons don¡¯t create sapients. ¡°Now? Ian¡¯s words show us that dungeons can create sapients. If dungeons can create sapients, then that must be why we know so much about dungeons. Our species was most likely born from a dungeon. If our species was born from a dungeon, and are still free outside of one, then not all dungeons are bad as you seem to think!¡± A gasp escaped Cynthia¡¯s thoughts as she ran off towards the town leaving the villagers confused and shuffling around awkwardly. Arend let out a sigh, ¡°Hopefully Mirielle wakes up soon, so she can deal with Cynthia. And hopefully Cynthia is the worst reaction to this news, otherwise we might have a split in the village. Ian, can you tell me where this town is so I can lead the villagers there?¡± ¡°Of course,¡± responded Ian. As the villagers began to settle down into the expanded town, Ian made preparations so none of the ogres would leave his dungeon alive. ?????????? Yervin sat up in a tree and observed the ogres breaking camp. Their ¡®have the ogres follow the retreating goblin army¡¯ plan didn¡¯t work. Instead the ogres just rested. It seemed the chief was a little more cool headed than Ian had thought. He was here to make sure they actually headed to the dungeon. If they started to go in the opposite direction, then he was to taunt the chief and get the army to chase him. Hopefully their anger would outweigh their intelligence. A taunting hobgoblin leading them towards the dungeon was an obvious trap. Once the camp was fully broken down, the ogres formed into ranks. He waited for them to start marching, but instead they started to slam their weapons into the ground. The beat of their weapons surged as ogres with drums started to beat their instruments. The thunder of the drums soon gave rise to a chant that rose from deep within the ogres and emerged out their throats. With their rhythm and beat shaking the surrounding forest, they began marching in the direction of the dungeon. Yervin¡¯s eyes were wide as he watched the musical feat of the ogres. Even though he knew they stood no chance against Ian¡¯s EX rank floor, he felt intimidated, like they might lose. He smirked at the thought. Maybe Ian could add drums to the learning room. A goblin drum sections would be a good way to intimidate foes. With a blink Yervin sprinted towards the dungeon, avoiding the ogre army. He couldn¡¯t wait to fight them without the worry of dying. Chapter 43 Once Yervin returned, the goblin army that was resting in the dungeon formed into ranks, marched outside, and fortified themselves in front of the entrance. They used the apple trees from the dungeon to create barricades and spikes. Not the best wood for the job, but the more mana outside Ian¡¯s dungeon the better. It would have been better to just let the goblins die outside, and have the ogres die inside his dungeon, but the lack of fortifications may have hinted to the ogre chief that something odd was going on. As the goblins were meant to die, it currently wasn¡¯t a problem, but his lack of ability to see outside his sphere of perception would make it hard if he had to prevent an enemy from getting into his dungeon. Considering the nature of dungeons, however, that seemed unlikely. He¡¯d known how the battle against the ogres was going due to Yervin¡¯s reports, but not having any visuals of it meant any of his orders were reduced to basic commands such as ¡®stick to the plan¡¯. The goblin captains and lieutenants ended up doing most of the decision making. He couldn¡¯t complain much, that was what he made them for. Although, according to Yervin, the goblin army didn¡¯t end up doing much beyond the first volley to get the ogres¡¯ attention. Yervin, Mina, Izu, Narcy, Botan, Pugi, and Arc were waiting in the dungeon to combat the ogres to the best of the abilities. The groonvat were in the village not fighting. He didn¡¯t expect them to as they wouldn¡¯t respawn. Contracted creatures couldn¡¯t be added to the respawn room apparently. The goblin army stood at the ready for a couple of hours. Seeing the unflinching desire to defend his dungeon was the first action that reminded him these were dungeon monsters and not the ones that lived out in the world. Oddly, seeing the goblin group respawn didn¡¯t have the same effect. Even if there was a goblin king, his goblin army wouldn¡¯t have been able to stand at the ready for so long. While the unusual antics and too immediate personalities of the goblin group had shifted his perception of monsters closer to sapients, he needed the reminder that they weren¡¯t sapients. They were dangerous creatures that no matter their strength or intelligence would attack sapients without remorse. His dungeon monsters even had the normal desires of self preservation replaced with the desire to protect the dungeon. Earlier, the groonvat that accidently split into another instance had relieved some of the pressure that the flesh tongues may have been sapients. It also eased the blackness over his heart at killing the flesh tongue children. If he had let them go, they would have just killed others. A contract with them might have removed their monstrous tendencies, but taking that risk while they were invading his dungeon wasn¡¯t worth the possibility. Feeling relieved, Ian waited with the rest of his creatures for the man-eaters to arrive. A short while later, the forest within his sphere started to shake. The goblin army responded by smacking their own weapons against the ground and stomping their feet. It seemed they took Yervin¡¯s ¡®make noise¡¯ suggestion to heart. First, the ogre spearman appeared, then the swordsmen, the axemen, the warhammer wielders, and the fist fighters. Behind them appeared an unarmed group with some children. Ian wanted to purse his non-existent lips. Killing them would not be pleasant, but leaving an ogre child filled with revenge alive always ended up with a village being destroyed and its inhabitants eaten years down the line. Ogres never forgot their revenge, no matter how young. Bringing up the back was a group of robed ogres, and what Ian assumed was the chief and his retinue. His eyes shifted between the ogre mages and the fortified position of wood that surrounded the goblin army. Yervin had mentioned seeing some flames in the directions of the horde army. He mentally renamed the fortification setup to ¡®deathtrap¡¯. However, his worries were unfounded as the goblin army rushed out of the fortifications, screaming at the top of their lungs, towards the ogre army as soon as they stopped. Good thing he only ordered them to build it and not that they had to stay. He chuckled. It seemed that goblins would still be goblins even with some dungeon tendencies. With the goblin spearman up front, the melee fighters rushed forward. Behind them, the archers, crossbowman, and mages sent their ranged attacks in waves. Distance wise, none of the projectiles missed, but none went past the melee fighter section of the ogre army. Even with good accuracy for goblins, the ogres received almost no damage. The only damage being burns to the skin from the light mages and a couple missing eyes from stray arrows. The ogres with arrows in their eyes pulled them out with a grunt. The deflated eyeball stuck to the shaft of the arrow, while the ocular nerve snapped. These ogres either had reduced or no vision, but sadly were still alive to fight. No brain piercers for the goblins. The ogre spearmen lowered their spears. Wicked grins crossed their faces. Their only worry was the invisible hobgoblins, which were still weak when found. A normal army of goblins? Worthless. They were eight times as tall as the average goblin; they were a sub-race of giants! With a roar, the ogre spearman thrust their spears forward. The spears of the goblins stood no chance. Once the spears were broken, ten plus goblins were bisected by a weapons meant to pierce. It seemed their army formation worked against them. Being so close together, numerous goblins died with each thrust of a spear and swing of a greatsword. It was a slaughter. The ogre spearman even stepped back and let the other melee fighters take turns mowing down the goblins. Goblin body parts flew everywhere. When the ogres were halfway through the melee fighters, the first bisected goblins began to disappear. This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. Ian waited for the mana to rush back into him, but it did not. He sighed with relief. It looked like having mana rush back into him after trying to have a goblin leave the dungeon was a punishment. It made sense, if all mana in his sphere of perception rushed into his dungeon then he would not have been surprised by its presence initially. The words on his pages transformed into a grin. With goblins his mana buffer would increase by a much larger amount. When the goblin melee fighters were completely eliminated, the ogres rushed forward and began slaughtering the ranged fighters. The mages were able to do more damage than any of the other goblins. The illusion mages copied themselves and the light mages, distracting the ogres with fake opponents. Using the illusion mage¡¯s distraction, the light mages focused their slow light balls on vital points and when they were about to die used the beam spell. Ogres lost hands and feet to the beam spell, and a few had their vital organs pierced, resulting in death. However, as expected, their best wasn¡¯t enough, and the ogres completely wiped out the goblin army. Ian saw the last goblin fall and the ogres begin to make their way to his dungeon entrance. He quickly stuffed his conscious in the blink hobgoblin template he had prepped and formed it on the G- rank floor. With his focus split between the dungeon and the hobgoblin body, he made the hobgoblin body completely invisible and waited. Hopefully the ogres would be done before his two hour time limit was up. The ogres made their way inside the dungeon and the frontliners kept tentatively poking at his transfer formation before the ogre chief yelled at them to get on with it. They crowded inside the transfer formation, which had grown much larger to accommodate them, and transferred to the G- rank floor. Slowly the G- rank floor began filling up with the entire Kath¡¯lak tribe, even the non-combatants, though Ian thought calling B rank monsters non-combatants was a cruel joke. The ¡®non-combatants¡¯ were arguing back and forth with the chief. The chief wanted them to stay behind, while the warriors and mages dealt with the dungeon, but the non-combatants were having none of it and wanted revenge. He initially assumed their revenge was for attacking them, but it seemed beyond the normal ¡®they attacked us so we attack them¡¯ revenge that ogres applied. As he listened more to their conversation, he got the jist of what happened: his goblins attacked the ogres from behind, the non-combatants (including children) had moved to the back of the tribe to get away from the horde, the goblins successfully did a surprise attack on the ogres and killed some of the children. He understood their rage, but he doubted the goblins even knew that the ogre children were children considering they were larger than an adult goblin. Still, it didn¡¯t matter. He would have to kill them all anyways. He did wish the feelings of guilt brought on by seeing the goblin group as sapient went away though. Once all the ogres were on the G- rank floor, they began marching forward. Well, the best they could anway. Although the floor had expanded to accommodate their size, it was still proportional so only a couple abreast were able to walk through the halls. Unsurprisingly the ogres made short work of any monster and biota, each boss destroyed by a single strike annoying Ian every time. Surprisingly the mages and chief completed his puzzles, even the math ones. He wasn¡¯t used to ogres being so quick witted. Even the mages he came across, while intelligent, mainly studied magic for its destructive potential. The chief arguing that the non-combatants should stay behind was another oddity. There was one hiccup in their walkthrough of his dungeon: the goblin group. Arc, the spider automata, tanked up front while the other goblins tried to harm the ogres in any way they could. While the goblins couldn¡¯t do any damage whatsoever to the ogres, Arc was able to crush the legs and then stab the head of a couple ogres before they learned to stay away from the seemingly unstoppable monster. Persistent attacks from both the melee fighters and the mages eventually brought Arc down as he crumbled to dust. Ian was impressed and finally understood why Arc was an S rank monster with such pitiful attack skills. If the goblins actually had firepower, then a lot more ogres would have died. The ogre chief, who he learned was called Magrok, only joined beating up on Arc after dealing with Yervin. When the ogres initially confronted Arc and the other goblins, Yervin had blinked into the midst of the mages and killed two before Magrok rushed at him. Yervin, still invisible, blinked away, but Magrok tracked his blink and was upon him in a second. Dagger in hand, Yervin swung it towards the ogre chief, but Magrok caught his hand, his left fist heading towards Yervin¡¯s head. Yervin¡¯s mind went into overdrive, all of his mana was sucked out of his hand, and he blinked away, leaving his hand behind. Magrok looked at the hand with wide eyes before throwing it away and chasing after Yervin. The process of blink and chase repeated with Yervin occasionally having to give up body parts until he ran out of mana. Once out of mana, Yervin¡¯s body was turned into paste by Magrok as he repeatedly smashed it over and over again into the wall and floor of the dungeon. Ian was pleased with Yervin¡¯s performance, but he really need to get some useful opponents for the rest of the goblin group. Getting pummeled to death over and over again wasn¡¯t the best training. Still, the fight only delayed the ogres ten to fifteen minutes max. With anticipation he watched as an ogre with a warhammer swung it towards one of the checkpoint golems. However, he ended up disappointed. Magrok stopped the warhammer with his open hand and punched the other ogre in the face. The other ogre flew back against the wall and then fell flat on his face unconscious. Magrok shouted to the rest, ¡°Do not destroy anything before the mages and I have looked over them! I will not have this dungeon outsmart us!¡± The rest of the group nodded and let the mages go about their work. He could only sigh in disappointment as the mages slowly figured out the sequence while the other ogres fought the monsters in the newly visible rooms. Ian could only yawn as the sequence of five enchanted rooms proved a walk in the park. At least they only spent a half an hour total, they didn¡¯t really need to explore when five hundred ogres could expand throughout his floors in a couple minutes at most. He had been lucky with the wolves as they dashed further into the EX rank floor, but these ogres, while revenge bidden, were smarter. Like before, the groups slowly made their way into the floor, but unlike before, the fury and arrogance that permeated their eyes was slowly being replaced with fear. As more ogres entered the floor, the first ogres had to spread deeper into the floor. Unlike the previous floors, they grouped together as much as possible not moving to far from the entrance. One of the ogres had returned to inform the chief about the darkness of the floor, but returned shortly after with the message that they were to continue as normal. Soon after, however, an ogre with a spear stepped on some saffron. Chapter 44 The ogre started to walk forward before a scream that sent shivers down the spines of every other ogre emerged from their lips. It was not a scream of high or low pitch, but one that spoke of true fear. They fell to the ground writhing in pain as their screams continued to echo throughout the floor. The closest ogres rushed to their fallen comrade and a few with weaker stomachs vomited against the wall. One of the smarter ogres immediately began using his axe to cut the fallen ogre¡¯s leg off below the knee. The normal green skin turned black and white before festering and rotting away. Rotting flesh slopped of the ogre¡¯s foot exposing white bone. The rot was quickly making its way up the fallen ogre¡¯s leg. Other axe wielding ogres started to help remove the ogre¡¯s leg, but they were too late. Halfway through cutting off the leg, the fallen ogre already having passed out, the rot had spread to the thigh. Knowing that they couldn¡¯t do anything to prevent it from spreading to their comrade¡¯s torso, they continued to chop the leg off below the knee hoping it would decrease the spread. Sadly, the leg removal did nothing to slow the rot spread. Another ogre had went to retrieve the chief and was returning with him as the last of the rotten flesh fell off of the ogre¡¯s skeleton. The chief could only frown at the unusual sight. Something like that shouldn¡¯t be in a newborn dungeon. The darkness and smell of death and decay were even putting him on edge. He had dismissed the reports as the frontliners being scared of an unknown dungeon, but it seemed he had made too quick of a decision. As Magrok was immersed in his thoughts, the skeleton of the fallen ogre leaped up with the fallen ogre¡¯s sword in hand and beheaded the closest ogre with a single horizontal strike, the look of surprise still showing on the beheaded ogre¡¯s face. In a second, Magrok had crossed the distance and crushed the ogre skeleton against the wall with his fist. Dammit, he should have expected something like that. ¡°What happened?¡± he asked the surviving ogres. ¡°Ik stepped on that plant and then he released the worst scream I¡¯ve ever heard,¡± pointed the ogre who started to chop Ik¡¯s leg off first. Magrok stepped closer to the crushed plant and took a big sniff before gagging and puking a little into his mouth, ¡°You mean the plant that smells like a high concentration of the death and decay that permeates the whole floor?¡± ¡°Uh, yes?¡± An open hand appeared in front of subordinate ogre causing him to quiver in fear. ¡°I want to slap you, but that would mean I needed to slap everyone on this floor. You are all idiots! There¡¯s no way you can¡¯t smell this floor, so determine where the smell is coming from and avoid it for god¡¯s sake!¡± Magrok lowered his hand while he shook his head side to side. ¡°Okay, let¡¯s get a move on, but be careful. There¡¯s sure to be something just as bad coming up.¡± Ian was as dumbfounded as the ogres. That hadn¡¯t happened with the wolves and there wasn¡¯t anything in the death saffron¡¯s description about that. Still, it was a net positive, now he had an ogre skeleton he could create. Now, if there was a way to weaponize the death saffron without having his own creatures have their rotten flesh slop off. ...Hmm, it didn¡¯t rot the skeleton, so skeletal undead might do. Most people weren¡¯t a fan of undead however, so he¡¯d need to make a larger dungeon to quell the potential hatred of his dungeon. He¡¯d leave the death saffron where it was and hope actual adventurers were smarter than the ogres. The frontline ogres continued forward, while Magrok ordered some of the mages to enter the floor and begin examining it. Once they reached the first corner, five ogres plummeted into a pit of spikes that seemed to suddenly appear into existence. One spike speared an ogre through the lower jaw and into the brain, another went through an ear and out the other, a third went through the top of an ogre¡¯s head and tore off the lower jaw of their now dead body. A fourth had no spikes pierce their head, but instead had one pierce their heart. They died shortly after as blood dripped out of their mouth. The fifth ogre had no vital organs pierced, but as the other ogres were trying to get her out of the pit, she started to have convulsions and black foam started coming out of her mouth. Eventually she went limp and died. Ian crossed his invisible hobgoblin arms and muttered, ¡°Not bad.¡± It seemed the pitfalls would be more effective than he thought. Still not EX rank effective, but for these ogres that didn¡¯t have the best reaction speed, it was a pleasant surprise. Magrok ordered a few of the mages to examine the pit, while a few others examined the death plant. A final mage was cooing over another plant while muttering ¡®I¡¯m going to make so many magic potions¡¯. Once the mages returned from examining the pit, Magrok asked, ¡°So? Why did the pit suddenly appear?¡± The two mages looked at each other and their chief before answering, ¡°We have no idea. Before and after it appeared, we detected no magic whatsoever. The only magic we detected was upon the pit appearing. Even then it was so small, it was barely perceivable. The most likely assumption was that it was somehow teleported right under their feet, but we have no evidence for that. However, even though we can¡¯t sense anything it¡¯s obviously magical in origin. The rest of the dungeon has a lot of magic traps and this darkness is obviously magical in nature even though none of us can detect it with our mana perception.¡± Magrok began grinding his teeth, he seemed he had underestimated this dungeon. Sadly a pitfall, no matter how deadly, wasn¡¯t enough to convince the rest of his tribe to retreat. ¡°Those that can leap around the corner do so. Otherwise, the mages will levitate you across. Understand?!¡± ¡°Yes!¡± shouted the other ogres. Once on the other side of the pit, the frontline ogres began to march forward into the dungeon. At the third corner, the frontmost ogre disappeared. The others raised their weapons in surprise and began to frantically look around. They shouted their comrade¡¯s name, but received no response. Slowly, they inched forward. Once the second ogre disappeared after a few steps, they immediately jumped backwards their eyes shaking. One ran back to the chief. Magrok returned with the tribes only space mage. He made sure the mage stayed a certain distance away from where the ogres disappeared. ¡°Anything?¡± The mage sighed and shook his head side to side. ¡°Damn, we¡¯ll have to run some tests then. ...You. Go get some apples from the tree we passed.¡± ¡°Yes!¡± yelped the ogre as he sprinted to the tree. He returned with a bag full of apples which the mage began to teleport into the area where the ogres disappeared. A couple of apples later and one finally reappeared. It seemed the teleport trap was the same size as the previous pitfall trap.If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. ¡°So we know the size,¡± growled Magrok, ¡°but how many could you teleport across?¡± ¡°Twenty ogres max and then I¡¯d have to rest for a significant amount of time. I have a large pool but terrible regeneration.¡± Magrok scrunched up his nose, ¡°Let¡¯s go the other way first and see if it¡¯s any easier.¡± Of course, Magrok didn¡¯t have very high hopes. Still, his subordinates nodded in assent. Making their way through the other path led to the death of eight more ogres from two pitfalls and another one from a teleport trap. However, this teleport trap was different. ¡°We can see a door, Chief!¡± shouted the frontliners. He approached and stroked his beard at the stone door around the corner, ¡°Okay, we¡¯ll teleport past the teleport trap here. At least it¡¯s something more than the blank hallway from before.¡± The space mage nodded and began teleporting ogres across after confirming that this trap was the same size as the previous teleport trap. The first few ogres pushed and pulled on the door, but it didn¡¯t budge. After they looked to the chief for instruction, he just sighed, ¡°Continue forward, but let your instincts lead you. That will probably lead you to the greatest chance of survival.¡± As the frontliners moved forward, they noticed there was a room right across from the stone door that they had missed in their haste to open the door. ¡°Hey, chief, there¡¯s another room here and there¡¯s no door.¡± ¡°Are you sure it¡¯s a room and not just more hallways?¡± ¡°Yes, even with the darkness it seems to expand more than the hallways.¡± ¡°Right, send a couple in to investigate.¡± Two of the ogres stalked into the room, but a few steps into the room they fell over dead. The other frontliners stood frozen in shock as their eyes followed the blue water elemental as it lazily floated back into the room. Seeing their shock, Magrok shouted, ¡°What?! What happened?! Stop standing there like idiots and answer me!¡± The first ogre to come out of his stupor answered while trembling, ¡°They-They were killed by a-a low rank water elemental.¡± ¡°...What? Come again?¡± ¡°It-it just flew through both their heads in less than a second and-and then lazily floated back into the room!¡± his voice becoming more terrified as he went on. Magrok just stared as the remaining finest of his warriors not in his inner circle stood there shaking in fear. It seemed seeing such a weak creature kill their equal was their breaking point. He took a deep breath and spoke the words he did not wish to speak, ¡°Warriors!¡± the frontliners stood taller and turned to attention, ¡°Ogres fight to become stronger! Ogres train to become stronger! All because we are better than other races! However, even we know when we are outmatched. Sending you deeper into this dungeon is assured death, but it is something I must do. The rest of the tribe will not believe that this dungeon is too dangerous with you still alive, so you must die. Now! Die! For glory and the war god!¡± ¡°For glory and the war god!¡± they shouted with all their heart. The remaining frontliners, eighteen in total, continued onwards. The ogre in front exploded into blood and viscera, but the others continued forward only flinching slightly while avoiding the pieces of blood covered earth that were scattered where she stepped. As they walked through the hallway, seven more ogres exploded in the same way. They reached a divergent path, one way leading to a dead end, so they went the other way. Ten ogres entered the hallway as two stone walls, one in front and one behind slammed shut. They prepared their weapons, bit their lips, and tears formed in their eyes as they prepared for death. Beams of light appeared from the walls and began crisscrossing the hallway, the ten ogres were chopped to pieces barely able to tell what had happened. Ian was pleased he could see some of his other traps perform. He did chide himself for his lack of size variation on his teleport traps, but that problem would only appear when an army with several high rank space mages entered his dungeon. Still, having a more fitting boss would mitigate that problem. The problem with that was mana. He¡¯d need to see if there were any DP purchases that would help him out. The other traps had performed as planned, but he was surprised at the impact the strength changed water elementals had. He would have thought sudden teleportation from something undetectable would be more fearsome, but apparently he didn¡¯t understand ogre social norms enough. Magrok watched as the frontliners proceeded further into the dungeon. As they left his vision he turned towards the space mage and uttered, ¡°Let¡¯s go.¡± Returning to the rest of his tribe, Magrok convinced them that proceeding further into the dungeon was suicide. They were not happy, but they agreed as the frontliners hadn¡¯t returned and were presumed dead. The rest of the tribe moved back up through the floors until they entered the spider room on the G rank floor. Once the entire tribe was in the room, the room filled with beams of light which penetrated the heads of all the ogres except for the chief. Each ogre collapsed like a puppet¡¯s strings that had been cut and began to be absorbed by the dungeon. Magrok¡¯s eyes shook and his lips quivered as a hobgoblin appeared before him. The black hobgoblin had blood pouring out of its nose and eyes, but it just stared at him and then brought its fists up in front of itself. A sonic boom echoed as Magrok launched himself forward, his right fist pointed directly at the hobgoblin¡¯s head. Ian casually swatted Magrok¡¯s fist aside with the back of his left hand and threw a leaping uppercut into Magrok¡¯s chin. His head rattled, which left enough time for Ian to counterattack, but he simply stood there and waited for Magrok to attack. Magrok¡¯s lips split into a growl as he threw punch after punch towards Ian. Each punch was batted away easily and returned with a punch that bruised Magrok¡¯s body or shook his brain. After around a minute of faster than sound punches echoing throughout the room, Magrok¡¯s simple pattern shifted to one of a master. His punch hit Ian dead on sending the mangled hobgoblin body flying across the room. Pieces of flesh flew off including an arm and a leg. The broken body with bones piercing the skin lay on the ground. Magrok¡¯s grin faded as the broken body repaired itself. Bones shifted back into place, while limbs and flesh regrew. When his vocal chords and tongue were regenerated Ian muttered to himself, but still loud enough for Magrok to hear, ¡°I wish this body could support endurance too.¡± The ogre chief¡¯s mind clicked into place. He was somehow fighting the dungeon consciousness. A consciousness that had made that terror of a floor and killed all of his tribe. A being that was a user of untold magics...and it was fighting him in a fist fight. He shouldn¡¯t have tried to trick a hobgoblin he thought was just doing its leader¡¯s bidding. He tired himself for no reason. However, Magrok soon calmed down. Why was he worried? Those beams could have easily killed him. He was going to die anyway, so he might as well enjoy his last fight. He shut his eyes and took a deep breath. When he opened them he smiled at the hobgoblin in front of him, but the hobgoblin didn''t smile back. Instead, it started to attack. Ian seemed to teleport into the stomach area of the ogre chief. While floating he sent a right straight into the ogre¡¯s abdomen. His punch deformed the ogres stomach and sent him flying back across the room. Appearing behind the flying ogre, he sent a roundhouse kick into his back and sent Magrok flying back the other direction. Magrok slammed into the wall and fell face first onto the ground. He quivered as he spat out blood while trying to get up with clenched fists. The dungeon consciousness was leisurely walking towards him. The ogre chief¡¯s body erupted into flames, scorching anything that was left in the room and slowly melting the hobgoblin. Once he stood up, his punches toward the hobgoblin created pillars of fire that melted the skin off of the hobgoblin leaving only the skeleton and burnt flecks of meat. However, it wasn¡¯t enough. The regeneration of the hobgoblin surpassed what his flames could melt. Flesh burnt and flaked off but just as quickly regrew. Using every technique at his disposal and his fire mana infused body he went after the dungeon consciousness with punches, kicks, feints, and the hottest fire he could imagine that even he started to melt. After a feint with his right hand, his open palmed left hand struck towards the dungeon consciousness while shooting beams of fire. Five holes appeared in Ian¡¯s body, but unfazed he grabbed Magrok¡¯s finger, pulled him forward, and used his left bone hand to sheer off the ogre¡¯s left arm. The ogre chief continued fighting with all his might even missing his left arm, but it was not enough. Magrok kneeled and gasped for breath as the flames licking the room slowly disappeared. He stared at the hobgoblin and waited for the death blow. Ian stared at the ogre chief and said, ¡°It was better fight than I expected.¡± and caved his head in with a right hook. Chapter 45 As the ogre chief faded into mana, the hobgoblin body Ian possessed crumbled into ash before it too returned to mana. With his focus back in his core room, he focused on the new windows that had appeared before him.
Dungeon War Won! Reward: 1 Free Perk.
Dungeon Contract Completed.
Considering the prep work and amount of creatures he killed, they seemed to be somewhat lackluster fanfare. Although, he had high hopes for the free perk, and it did make sense that he already received his reward of around eight hundred dungeon contractees. Ian brought up the reward menu and began browsing. He scrolled through his choices before realizing there was a search option like the Dungeon Shop and typed in what he wanted. When his selection popped up, the spine of his book curved into a grin. He hadn¡¯t expected it to be there.
Ecosystem
  • In a designated floor, all creatures will act like they would in their natural environment. Sapient monsters will not be affected by this however, their instincts will be more prominent in these rooms. Before the floor can be entered by intruders, it must develop into a working ecosystem first.
His choice of perk multipliers rather than this was a stupid decision in hindsight, but thanks to the Dungeon War (he really wanted to hug that simple window now) he could rectify that mistake. In fact, he wasn¡¯t seeing the negatives to having a large number of dungeon wars. Sure, sapients would get up in arms about a dungeon going to war all the time, but according to Tidon he was unkillable unless the gods designated him as such. As long as dungeons went to war with non-sapients and focused on warring with monsters, the gods wouldn¡¯t have any good reason to designate them as killable. With a Dungeon War he was able to get a perk that he was normally only able to get every one hundred levels. Additionally, the amount of brand new mana he released into the universe was high enough that he was no longer worried about providing adventurers with proper rewards. Well, not completely, but he was at least willing to test out more useful rewards than he was before. The problem was in his two hundred and fifty years as a human, he had never come across any dungeons that he would consider to be participating in a Dungeon War. It was possible he was an abnormality with sending so many creatures out of his dungeon, but considering the purpose of dungeons that seemed unlikely. Him and his friends were also present, which might have mitigated dungeons even attempting to send creatures outside. However, if those ideas weren¡¯t true, that meant there was probably a reason dungeons didn¡¯t participate in Dungeon War after Dungeon War. The most likely reason being his previous thoughts that dungeons themselves can¡¯t instigate a Dungeon War. Ian shook himself out of his revery; he had things to do before he got sapients that would build a town or city around him. ...At least the non-monster sapients...it still felt weird for him to think about monsters as sapients. First he checked on the groonvat. It seemed they had divided the houses into family units, and he noticed a couple of personal possessions scattered throughout the house. There were some groonvat inside the houses, but most of them were either in the center courtyards or outside their homes basking in the light from the daytime portion of the ceiling. Their tails were fanned out to gain as much surface area as possible, while their stumps or feet split into roots that burrowed into the ground to absorb its nutrients. Good thing he created a layer of dirt over the impenetrable dungeon stone. As he observed their absorption of the light and nutrients, there was another stream of mana entering their bodies. That stream was the same as his created dungeon creatures but smaller. It seemed while they still had to get nutrients to sustain them, they were topped off by the mana that permeated his dungeon. After his observations, Ian focused on the chief of the groonvat, who was walking from house to house making sure his villagers were settling in fine, ¡°Hey, Arend, how¡¯s everything going?¡± The groonvat jumped slightly before taking a second to respond, ¡°Oh, Ian, everything¡¯s going well. Mirielle woke up and is with Cynthia.They¡¯re consoling each other about what happened. The rest of the village is adjusting to things. Not living in a forest for the first time is thoroughly confusing them. The nutrients and light levels aren¡¯t as good as the forest, but we remain just as full as when we lived in the forest. I assume that has something to do with being in the dungeon?¡± ¡°Yeah, I¡¯ll explain it to you after you tell your village about them coming from a dungeon.¡± ¡°*sigh* That means the implications are as bad or worse than that?¡± ¡°Yep.¡± ¡°Well, it will be a while then. You saw Cynthia¡¯s reaction. I only reacted so well because the speculations from the previous chiefs¡¯ memory packets. Having the idea in my mind made the impact of that revelation a lot duller for me.¡± ¡°Hmm, okay, I¡¯ll need to learn more about how your telepathy works later. I expected your whole village to start freaking out soon after you and Cynthia had the revelation. For now, though, I¡¯ll leave it to you, you know your people better than I do.¡± ¡°Thank you. Also, before you go, some personal effects would be useful if you could provide them.¡± ¡°I could, but how about you just go back to your village and gather as much as you can?¡± ¡°Oh, right. That¡¯s related to why you agreed to help us, yes?.¡± ¡°Yes, so after you get the stuff from your village, send out hunting and collecting parties to start bringing creatures and items back to the dungeon. If you encounter danger or other sapients, make sure to rush back to the dungeon. If you still need things then, I¡¯ll use some of my focus to provide it to you if it¡¯s available.¡± ¡°That is much appreciated. I¡¯ll go form the parties now.¡± ¡°Talk to you later, Arend.¡± Ian moved his focus from Arend to the sapient monsters in his dungeon: Yervin, Mina, and the rest. They were all in their respective homes with most of them sleeping. Yervin was snoring up a storm. Thankfully he never had that problem while human...at least he was never told he had that problem. Mina and Izu were snuggled in each other¡¯s arms. He didn¡¯t even need to check on Narcy to see what she was doing. He addressed the three that were awake just talking with each other, well two of them were talking while the third was just kinda there, ¡°How¡¯s it going Botan, Pugi, Arc?¡± ¡°Everyone¡¯s sleeping,¡± Botan and Pugi answered, while Arc did a little jig of affirmation. ¡°I knew that,¡± muttered Ian as he ignored the little smirks that appeared on their faces, ¡°I meant in regards to the Dungeon War and what are you going to do now.¡± They both gave a little shrug of their shoulders while looking at each other, and Botan answered, ¡°We¡¯ll continue doing what we did before the war, and I assume the others will do the same.¡± ¡°Okay, I guess that¡¯s good. After I¡¯ve prepped the dungeon for actual adventurers, I¡¯ll reward you guys with something. I don¡¯t know what yet thought.¡± ¡°How long will that be?¡± asked Pugi. ¡°Hmm, based on the distance of the nearest sapient settlement?¡± Ian mused, ¡°Maybe a week if they started traveling immediately after I opened my dungeon. But there are other factors: how well they can detect the mana density increase, how much they care about a dungeon at this distance, how much they fear the creatures that live around the mountain, etcetera. Technically, it could take hundreds of years if they have no interest in moving towards this mountain.¡± ¡°So, no rewards for hundreds of year then?¡± Pugi pouted. Ian laughed, ¡°What? Oh, no, no, the actual prepwork I have in mind won¡¯t take that long. And if we don¡¯t get actual adventurers coming to the dungeon, I¡¯ll try to do something about it. As much as I like building the dungeon and evolving creatures, if no one comes in to admire what I¡¯ve done, then I lose half of the enjoyment I get from making something.¡± Pugi¡¯s face brightened up with a wide grin and wide open eyes, ¡°Great!¡± Botan nodded in agreement with a grin of his own. Arc began rubbing their two front legs together. ¡°Make sure to tell the others then, I¡¯ll be putting most of my focus on improving the dungeon.¡±This narrative has been purloined without the author''s approval. Report any appearances on Amazon. With nods and waves goodbye from the three of them, his focus shifted back to his core room. His first problem was mana. He had enough for most things if we waited for a while, but producing creatures above B rank would be immensely difficult. Either he needed some way to get more mana, or some other way to evolve his monsters. ...Oh. Right. The trees. Those were for monsters too. Forgetting about that felt like the time he hadn¡¯t realized a magic tool had a function to dim or undim and lived in perpetual twilight for five years. Eventually Ian calmed down and realized he didn¡¯t know how expensive the higher rank creatures would cost DP wise, but using the staff as comparison they shouldn¡¯t be too expensive. Still, having a perk to increase his available mana would be useful. Ian began searching through the Dungeon Store hoping the opposite of the Mana to DP conversion perk was available and the conversion wasn¡¯t too pricey. If his choice of ecosystem perk came to bite him in the ass this soon, he would only be able to shake his pages in defeat. It was there! And the conversion was more than reasonable, it was astounding! For one hundred thousand DP he could get one hundred thousand mana for every DP spent. The next tier up for an additional five hundred thousand DP he could get one million mana for every DP spent. Sadly, he couldn¡¯t get the million DP upgrade to get ten million mana for every DP as he only had around eight hundred thousand DP left. The prices left Ian to think. How were mythical creatures only one hundred thousand while this was up to a million DP? ...He never checked the requirements for those creatures did he? He just thought those would be cool and moved on. With a shrug he bought the first two upgrades. Now that he had around eight hundred billion mana to work with, he could get started. Of course, he would only convert his DP when needed. Ian looked at his new ecosystem perk with eyes of longing, but with a sigh he moved on. Needs before pleasure. After purchasing the rock treasure, the ore vein perk, the self-replenishing ore vein perk, and purchasing up through the rock treasure tree for copper, iron, silver, steel, gold, titanium, magisteel, mithril, orichalcum, adamantite, and vast number of other treasures, Ian was left with around five hundred thousand DP. So much for having eight hundred billion mana to spend. The general outline of the floor was composed of deep cave terrain with a couple intersecting corridors along with multiple dead ends. Unlike his previous floors, Ian made this floor vertically oriented. Overall the floor size was slightly larger than the G- and G rank floors, but each segment was about the size of the F- floor. There were ten segments, each constructed in a similar manner to his room and corridor structure that was present on previous floors. The difference being that each segment was connected by hole in the floor or ceiling, depending on the segment. Each of theses shafts was variable in how they allowed the intruders to proceed through each segment. Some shafts had a straight drop with no handhold, while others had handholds. Others were curving corridors that were either smooth enough to slide down or had rocky protrusions that had to be carefully climbed down. Overall, the floor looked like ten smaller floors stacked on top of one another with pipes between each floor layer. Ian made sure to make layers of non-dungeon stone that could be mined through. There was still dungeon stone behind the non-dungeon stone, he couldn¡¯t have adventurers plummeting into a void of nothingness. The non-dungeon stone in the first segment was easy to break, but became harder to mine with each successive segment downwards. With the breakable stone in place, he began seeding the ore veins in each level. Going downward, Ian seeded copper, iron, silver, steel, gold, titanium, magisteel, mithril, orichalcum, and adamantite. There was less and less of each type of ore going downwards, so copper had the most and adamantite had the least. A much larger decrease in ore was present between gold and titanium as the last five ores were much rarer. Even if he made the latter five ores much rarer compared to the first five, the fact that adventurers could get such rare materials so easily (this floor would be before the EX rank floor) was a problem. He wanted to get these floors out quicker, so he didn¡¯t have time to play around with making strong monsters. As such, he began covering the floor in one large magic formation composed of many smaller magic formations. The primary attributes he used were earth, metal, life, construct, and time. With a combination of sharp, solid lines; flowing, variable lines; a complex web of lines; and some clock shapes, Ian was able to finish the formation and test it out within seven days. Not having to worry about conserving mana made the process a lot quicker. The fact that the formation used the dirt, stone, and ore he already created also helped. The formation detected life signs within a specific area of the floor, if any life signs were detected in that area for a set period of time, the formation would spawn a golem made from the surrounding material. If there wasn¡¯t enough material to make a specific type of golem, then he was able to get the formation to obtain mana from the other universe to create the remainder. Each segment would create dirt, stone, and ore golems. What type of ore golem it would be would be dependent upon the ore present in the segment. The time it took to spawn a golem was dependent upon each segment. It would take much longer to spawn a golem on the copper segment, but only a couple of minutes in the adamantite segment. The three different golem types would also take different times to spawn with dirt being the quickest, then stone, then the ore golems taking the longest. He had considered letting the golems wander and persist, but decided that would make the floor too difficult. Thus, the golems wouldn¡¯t leave their designated areas and would return to their respective material after a month. It was a long time, but he didn¡¯t want stealthy adventurers coming in every day and taking some of the rarer ores. They¡¯d accumulate too fast then. That also meant the door to the boss room couldn¡¯t be in the tenth segment as only the strongest of adventurers would be able to make it through that segment. To give a proper challenge but still have it possible to get through the floor, he decided that the fifth segment would be the best option when he had the option to place the boss room. The floor was in essence complete (at least Ian considered it complete), but his floor requirements didn¡¯t feel the same. So, with a bit of a huff, he placed the minimum amount of creatures throughout the floor. Ten was the minimum, so he placed one on each segment. He also made sure they were the weak G- rank version of creatures that he had placed on previous floors. Thankfully the formation counted towards his formations requirement and his traps requirement. The ores counted for his treasure requirement, so he was good on that front. Thus, the only thing left to do was his magic requirement. That would of course be fulfilled by the floor lights. Rather than have balls of light and long strings of light that seemed to make the whole floor glow, he wanted the lights for the Golem Mine to give the impression of a mine. So, on the ceiling of each segment, Ian created latticed cages equidistant from one another. Inside those cages he created a magical, flickering flame. The color of the magical flame was dependent upon the ore in each segment. Copper, silver, and gold were self-evident; iron, steel, and titanium were shades of grey; magisteel, mithril, orichalcum were shades of blue, and adamantite was black. With the floor requirements met, Ian copied over the functions from the previous entrance room and boss room. For the entrance room, he simply created reliefs of golems on the columns rather than the few monsters and creatures he put on the floor. The boss room, however, was a major problem. It only took what were designated as monsters to be the boss, so he was left with weak G- rank options for his boss. As he scrunched his pages up, Ian began to look for a function to mitigate this problem. After a couple of hours he found a couple of worthwhile functions, Trap Boss, Treasure Boss, Creature Boss, Magic Boss, and Magic Formation Boss. With these new functions everything he placed could become a boss. The function that selected the boss through monsters killed received priority as long as he had it turned on and didn¡¯t work with his new functions. Of course, just because it could be made into a boss didn¡¯t mean it worked well as one. Any bosses based on his magical lights from previous floors would be a walk in a park as the intruder just had to walk through a brightly lit room. For the boss of the Golem Mine, he set it to the golem formation. However, upon testing it out, the boss room spawned a group of five adamantite golems, not the challenging but possible to get through boss that he intended. Thankfully, due to the variable nature of his formation, he was able to customize the boss makeup as he desired. Considering his versatility in magic and magic formations, his boss rooms just got a lot more versatility with the latest functions than he thought they would. Ian changed the boss makeup from five adamantite golems to one copper golem, one iron golem, one silver golem, one steel golem, and one gold golem. Rather than fight the intruders all at once, the copper golem would spawn first, and the iron golem would spawn either after the copper golem was defeated or after fifteen minutes had passed. The successive golems would follow that pattern of either spawning fifteen minutes later or after the previous tier of golem had been defeated. Once all five of the golems had been defeated, then the intruders could pass through the floor. He debated adding improvements to the formation to make the gold golems harder as it was a softer material compared to the rest. Of course, magically created golems were harder than their original material, but it was still softer compared to the other golems. After a while, Ian decided to leave them until he got actual adventurers. If they started to extract too much gold, he¡¯d made the changes then. With the floor complete, Ian gave a quick test of the formation. In one of the more open spaces on the copper ore segment, the stone surrounding a copper vein began to shake. Cracks formed in the copper and formed boulders of the ore. The large gathering of copper fell to the floor from the wall. Once released from its stone prison, the golem stood up, its head reaching the ceiling. It was humanoid in shape, but its profile was of numerous misshapen round boulders folded into a human shape rather something that had been sculpted with immaculate detail. As it had no vocal chords, it made no roar, but the grinding of copper against copper could be considered a type of roar. Once it realized there were no intruders to fight, it began to roam the room, but never leaving it. Ian checked out all the other golems with each one performing in the same manner. Seeing the small chunks of the rarer ores fall from the wall and then sprout into enormous golems was quite amusing to watch. Ian¡¯s final touch for the floor was to turn off the instance function for this floor. While the floor itself wasn¡¯t much larger than previous floors, he didn¡¯t want enormous amounts of useful ore to pour into whatever kingdom or empire he was near. With a limited amount of space, they would have to ration themselves. Especially if he set the self-replenishing ore to replenish every day or every couple of days. For now he set it to replenish every day.
Dungeon Level [6] ¡ú [7] 1 Cubic Kilometer Floor Space Gained. Mana Generation Increased by 10,000 DP Generation Increased by 1
Ian had been going off of memory for his DP numbers, so when he noticed that his DP pool was around two million more DP than it should be, he could only stare. As his nonexistent eyes stared at the window, his book did a little hop. Oh, right! Killing five hundred sapient ogres was bound to give him a lot of DP. But, two million? If that was a good estimate for normal adventurers, then dungeons were more DP based than mana based than he thought. Also, while he might be ahead of the curve, maybe it wasn¡¯t as much as he thought. Although, the death rate of adventurers in new dungeons wasn¡¯t high at all. Maybe a couple a year. Well, it was even more information to think on when he had the time. He pushed those thoughts to the back of his mind. With only a couple more levels until he could begin research, he began on his next project: a farm. Wait! If he had two million additional DP, he could buy the next tier of the DP to mana conversion! The farm could wait a minute.