《Dungeon Sect》 Chapter 0 When Jade was born, there was no changes in the world leading to a special sign or destiny. As a child Jade was intelligent. The secret to his intelligence was that he had been reincarnated. Jade¡¯s previous life was a 26 year old manager of a small shop. He died, not from a car accident or saving another person¡¯s life. Jade died from carbon dioxide poisoning. His roommate left on the oven and it started a small fire and the smoke killed him. When Jade was 12, his spirit roots were tested. Jade¡¯s spirit roots were there but were the worst, 5 elemental yin yang roots. Luckily Jade¡¯s father was the only male son of a YuanYing elder. However, Jade¡¯s father was just a xiantian (foundation establishment) cultivator, with two hundred years to live he spent most his time as a playboy, but Jade¡¯s father had one lucky streak and found a lost garden for the sect, granting him a life extension pill expanding his lifespan to about 500 years. Jade was born when his father was 350 years old, and into a second grade sect called the Flaming Yang Sect. Due to his spirit roots he was left alone by the family. The only luck that Jade had with his family was a he had access to hundreds of cultivation techniques. Jade for a year read all the Gathering Qi cultivation techniques before selecting 10, two for each phase of his spirit roots, a yin and yang. The first cultivation technique was called Divine Jade Body, a yin earth cultivation method. Divine Jade body was the slowest cultivation technique but had a guarantee to move onto the foundation realm and could be used with any cultivation techniques. It was never picked by any other cultivators because it was so slow. The other cultivation methods were, yin metal method shadow puppet control, yin fire method subtle flame hand, yin water method ice mind eyes, yin wood method mind blood syphon, yang metal method sculpted array bones, yang fire method exploding molten Qi, yang water method blood whirlpool, yang wood method longevity life, yang earth method mountain weight. After reaching the age of 86 Jade broke through to the foundation establishment stage, with a lifespan of 200 years, Jade found more and more utility techniques and methods to use to survive while his Divine Jade body continued to improve his cultivation. At the age of 120 the sect had Jade take over teaching the new recruits. Jade excelled at his job due to having experience with all sorts of cultivation techniques. The next 20 years, the sect¡¯s younger generation was able to put pressure on even geniuses of the first grade sects. It was when Jade was 145 years old that he was summoned to the sect elders, becausethe sect was forced to rent him out to other sects. This was no surprise. At one time there had been rumors passing through the cultivation world that some third grade sects were planning to kidnap him. The reason for the summons was to ask for his conditions to go to each sect for 6 months at a time. Jade¡¯s only conditions were only that all students of the sect that wanted to listen to him could, and that he had unconditional rights to read all the jade slips in the sect he was visiting even the Flaming Yang Sect¡¯s. There was a auction set up a month later to determine which sect would get the first tutoring, the winner wasn¡¯t a first or a second sect, but a third grade sect with unstable roots. Jade quickly stabilized the sect¡¯s younger generation improving them to the standard of a weaker first rate sect. During that time Jade had read all of the sects jade slips using puppets to read multiple jade slips and books at the same time. The next auction was more intense among those with a weak younger generation. This continued for 15 years. Then Jade took a year off of teaching. Using this time Jade decided to explore. During his teaching he had reached the peak of the foundation establishment, and needed to look for enlightenment to move to Jindan. Using puppets, Jade was able to find information on several ruins, the first two were cleared out. The last one however was a nest for devil cultivators. Jade was barely able to avoid capture and possible death, on his way out his eyes were drawn to a torch. Taking the torch Jade ran away with his spoils. Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings. When Jade came back to the sect he was greeted with new brother. Jade wasn¡¯t able to spend a lot of time with his family, but he had enough time to help them set their foundation to be able to excel. It was 6 years later when Jade found the enlightenment to get to Jindan. Afterwards he decided to go out into the world as an elder of the sect. Six years afterwards there was news from the family that the younger brother Maze, had superior fire spirit roots. It reminded Jade of the torch he took from the ruins. The torch had on it a cultivation method that had strict requirement of superior fire spirit roots. So Jade gifted the cultivation method to Maze. A year later their father died. This started family struggle, Maze was against the other children of the family, which weakened the family even with Maze winning. The next year there was an intersect competition which caused tensions. Maze was able to win the newcomers section, but it isolated the family. The sect¡¯s younger generation was to compete against several sects. Sadly the sect had not received any teaching from Jade, and started to decline fromtheoveruse oftheresources,which he was auctioned for those years ago and now. During the competition Maze crippled the arrogant son of an elder from a first grade sect. This caused the sect to go to war and it was quickly lost. The sect was broken up and sold and Jade and Maze¡¯s family was hunted down. Jade learned of this from a former student and was able to go into hiding, Maze being hunted and heaven¡¯s luck found an untouched ruin. Using the resources he managed to reach the peak of Jindan in only a few years. Jade eventually reunited with his brother Maze, a peak YuanYing after 30 years since their clan was destroyed. After travelling across world and conquering beauties and destroying sects and wiping out clans, Maze found the only family he had left. Jade in the last 30 years had to dwell amongst the rogue cultivators. Demonic cultivators would hire Jade to teach their offspring, while Devish cultivators would have him teach heirs, sacrifices, and new bodies. Jade had collected hundreds of techniques from the rogue, demonic and devilish cultivators and had mastered many of those cultivation methods for their special abilities. Maze was happy to see his older brother alive and well, for many reasons. Jade was asked by Maze to organize his army. Maze was gifted in fighting, cultivation, and inspiration. Organization of people and allotment of resources were not part of Maze¡¯s strong points. Jade began doing so. Maze in the meantime took revenge for the family. The True Sun Sect grew into a super powerhouse with Maze as leader and Jade as vice leader. Maze passed the opposition tribulation and became a Dacheng cultivator. For a thousand years, Maze and his beauties cultivated quickly and Jade worked hard to stabilize the True Sun Sect. During that time Jade became a YuanYing and towards the end of a thousand years of life, a Dacheng cultivator. After a thousand years, Maze and his beauties ascended to the next realm. Jade defended the attacks from other sects shortly after. Using arrays and great weapons made by Jade and Maze. For ten thousand years Jade led the True Sun Sect into controlling over 50 percent of the world. After selecting a successor to run the sect, Jade retreated into close door cultivation to ascend. Jade ascended after 600 years of closed door cultivation. In the next world, cultivation methods were only to consolidate the ascended body, afterwards it depended on the dao. Luckily Maze, with his beauties had fought and won against many clans, sects and other evils. Again Jade was asked to organize the True Sun Sect here in this Immortal world. Jade accepted. About 100 thousand years passed. Jade had read all the jade slips and murals, as he consolidate his dao to ascend to the divine realm. 10 thousand years after Jade had first ascended to the immoral world, Maze and his beauties ascended into the divine realm. The Immortal world had less masters caring about organizations so after Maze had broken apart many of them, there was little opposition that oppose the True Sun Sect in the Immortal world. Jade after ascending was greeted by Maze and a Grand feast was prepared. Maze had struggled and fought. Eventually earning himself the title of True Sun Divine. As Jade again organized Maze¡¯s supporters and territory. As Jade grew stronger, Jade became know as the Jade Library, because of his obsession for jade slips. Truth be told, Maze spread that name as a joke, but it stuck. Maze had given his older brother all the jade slips on every technique he ever got. In the Divine Realm, Maze the True Sun Divine, was unstoppable, there was only three other True divines, the Beast Divine, Lost Soul Divine and the Ice Cage Divine that could compare to him. Those three Divines however choose to live their existences in the lower realms, or alone isolated with few to no disciples. There were many lesser Divines that were envious of the power, wealth and fame of the True Sun Sect in the Divine Realm. They knew that they were no match for Maze a true divine, so they plotted against Jade. Jade usually had puppets he created and given life handle most of the day to day activities of the Sect. As The True sun sect gained control of a territory, they would spread to the lower realms. Creating True Sun sect branches in different immortal realms and then down to the mortals realms. Jade spent his time exploring, learning, and researching more techniques from these realms. On one of the trips to a ruin, Jade was ambushed. Jade was forced to run into the ruins. Running for his life, Jade took a risky gamble and entered a secret passageway. At the end of the passageway was a giant crystal. Jade although injured took a look at the crystal. There looked to be an ever changing jade slip inside. As he began to use his spirit sense on the jade slip, Jade was broken apart, by the assassins. Unbeknownst to them Jade¡¯s soul was already gone, far from that body. chapter 1 Jade opened his eyes, there was just darkness. He was alive, but not much else was known. Trying to move Jade realized he couldn¡¯t. Thinking back to the his circumstances before he past out, it was a painful blur. Jade shook of the pain and began to meditate the Divine Jade Body, his technique without it he would probably have died as a mortal or low level cultivator. Following the steps to change the mind, heart and body. Jade¡¯s mind flowed throughout the body, he then realized he was a stone, this almost caused his to stop cultivating, but he was experienced enough to not stop. Jade felt an orb of energy come towards him. Instead of being pure and gentle Qi, it was violent and ever changing. As the violent energy comes into his stone body a pinging sound came to his mind. Dungeon, you need to grow and mature. Gather mana to grow, use points to learn how to make powerful creatures and survive. Watch out for outer races they desire your core. Beware your creatures as they may seek to control you. Devour all that seek your power. Like a transfer technique, a flow of information enter Jade¡¯s mind. It was a simple way to gather an energy called mana. Trying out the technique, it was a simple mental focus with a weird breathing, or rather a resonance to gather mana. Jade thought to himself before trying out the technique. Jade focused keeping up the technique, for what Jade counted out to be seven days and nights the technique was used, until one orb of violent energy entered his body. If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. ¡®Mana!¡¯ Jade now knew the energies name. From again experience Jade had made a guess, but didn¡¯t assume. Skill Gained: Basic Dungeon Mana Gathering Level 1 Simple mana gathering for Dungeons It was exhausting. Jade was mentally drained from counting out the time and keeping the mind set and resonance going. So as any ancient cultivator would do, he meditated in his main meditation technique. While resting, another orb of mana entered his body. Jade keeps going and another 7 orbs of mana enters his body. A Ping and a Ding sound came out. Skill Gained: Unknown Mana Gathering Level ??? An unknown mana gathering skill, will need to be evaluated later. Level 2 100 mana for level 3 Skills learned Dungeon Mana Manipulation Can change the layout of the dungeon with mana Mana absorption Can absorb materials and items into mana. Another flow of information occurs. This time Jade was ready for it. Jade learned how to move stone with mana, and how to turn matter into mana. Jade likened the Dungeon Mana Manipulation to immortal sense in a more limited way. Immortal sense has also been called divine sense or spirit sense. Immortal sense was the ability to use soul energy, Qi or some other energy type to examine, manipulate and power things basically. There was other uses but that is the basic uses. The Mana absorption was similar to some cultivation techniques to take Qi and other energies out of resources, but mana absorption was more powerful. Trying out the absorption on the nearby rocks, Jade felt the rock almost like a skin melt down into orbs of mana. There was only 3 or so orbs of mana for 15 cubes of stone and dirt. The space was now open. Jade had an epiphany. He was a dungeon core. He knew the word dungeon and that he was a stone but it just hit him about what that meant together. He played some games with dungeons, but not many had dungeon cores. With that thought ending he knew had to continue leveling. chapter 2 Jade is in his dark cave, cultivating when a blue orb of mana enters his core. A ding sound occurs. Level 3 250 mana for level 4 Mana creation Level 1 Can create items and materials that have been previously absorbed Dungeon expansion Can expand territory of the dungeon. Jade tries to spend some mana and claim some territory only to realize that there is no mana. Looking inside himself. A flushing sound occurred. Dungeon Status Level 3 Dungeon Type: N/A Name: N/A Titles: N/A Achievements: N/A Mana: 0/100 Points: 20 Floors: 1 Skills: Basic Dungeon Mana Gathering Level 1, Unknown Mana Gathering, Dungeon Mana Manipulation, Mana absorption, Mana creation Level 1, Dungeon expansion Jade studies the menu. He can review the skills at anytime from the menu, the points have an unknown use, floor is number of floors in the dungeon, level is the level he was at. Dungeon type, name, titles and achievements are unlocked through actions that Jade will need to complete later. Moving on Jade cultivates for a day. He then uses the Dungeon expansion skill with all his mana. The dungeon territory was 15 meters in diameter was now 30 meters in diameter. Jade decides to focus on that later and focus on improving his cultivation. Readjusting the Divine Jade Body to cause a resonance instead of breathing. This would normally not be possible, but with a stone body it doesn¡¯t make sense to breath as a stone and a resonance could to act as a breath. It was a minor adjustment but it did increase the cultivation speed by 25%. Ding. Level 4 500 mana for level 5 ¡®Nothing new¡¯ Jade noted as he began to meditate more. Ding Level 5 1000 mana for level 6 Store unlocked Skills learned Summon Monsters Can summon monsters, buy monsters from the store or kill them in your dungeon Summon life Can summon plants, insects and animals. Buy different lifeforms from the store or kill them in your dungeon ¡®The store. I wonder what is there?¡¯ Jade asks himself as he opens the store. Albino Dragon Blooded Snake 40 pointsThis story has been unlawfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. Twin Flame Water spider 45 points Void Bird 50 points ¡­. A Flash of red light burns the store menu and a new menu appears. Goblinoids Insects Birds Mammals Trolls Undead Jade looks at the list and sublist of the offered choices. Seeing nothing worthy of note right now, Jade reviews the skills he gained. The only point of interest is that animals summoned, given enough time will mutate into monsters. There is also a note that animal, plant life and monsters that die in the dungeon will automatically be added to the list of summonable life and monsters, materials left in the dungeon will be able to be absorbed and can be created. Jade after reviewing the store with a renewed interest keeps cultivating again. Level 6 1500 mana for level 7 Level 7 2000 mana for level 8 Skill unlocked Monster imbuement Chance for monsters to learn skills from enemies slain, cost will depend on skill level and rank Level 8 5000 mana for level 9 Skill unlocked Monster Naming Can name new monster types and special monsters that have earned some type of achievement Level 9 10000 mana for level 10 Skill unlocked Environmental Controls Can modify the dungeon¡¯s floor environment. Temperature, wind patterns, humidity and more can be change for a small upkeep of mana. It took a long time for Jade to get to level 9. However as he is perfecting the Divine Jade Body, Dungeon core edition it has doubled his cultivation speed. Continuing for a while he reached a bottleneck in his cultivation at 5000 mana. Not wanting to waste the mana Jade expanded his territory. At 2400 meters there is another bottleneck, still using all his mana from his bottleneck to expand. Feeling a little frustrated he expands the dungeon vertically, and again another bottleneck at 37.5 meters, there was some resistance to expanding upwards but at the 37.5 mark it is 10 times worse. ¡®Time to focus on one side. Damn, no coins to toss, or sticks to drop. Let¡¯s go in bottleneck reverse¡¯ Jade quickly rationalized. Spending all his cultivation over and over to move the 37.5 meters to 40 meters, to 41, to ¡­ 49.999 to 50 meters. It was the limit, Jade could feel it as no more mana would cause the dungeon to grow more vertically. Beep Achievement Minor Perfectionist complete (1/3) Points + 125 Small increased in quality in creation Can only earn this achievement for an unopened dungeon ¡®Success. HAHAHAHAHA!!!!!¡¯ Jade laughs in his mind. Many mortals wonder why immortals sometimes act like children. There are a variety of reasons, like they never growing up mentally, living with the chance your enemies will kill and wanting to live to the fullest, and mortals live closest to the dao of the universe and to be like them is to be closer to the dao while going against the heavens are a few reasons. There are others but they follow the same principles. Jade follows his plan reverse bottleneck plan and attacks the horizontally limit. Slowly the limit is reached. 2600. 2925. 3000. 3180. 3199.99. 3200. Beep Achievement Major Perfectionist complete (2/3) Points + 250 Major increase of creation quality Minor increase in summoned life/monster evolution Minor and Major can be switched Can only earn this achievement for an unopened dungeon ¡®2 out of 3 complete and now for level 10.¡¯ Jade refocuses on meditating the Divine Jade Body. Jade¡¯s core if another person saw it would say that it is a light shade of green. When Jade was human, his skin would changing depending on his mood and the cultivation methods he was using, but always with the clarity of jade. After 100 years of meditation Jade has gotten to 7500 of 10000 mana. Even with the improvement to the Divine Jade Body, Dungeon Core edition it is only rising 1 point of mana a month. ¡®What to do. I have no idea how long dungeon cores live for but the divine jade body takes around 70 to 80 years for a human with the lifespan of 100 to 120 years to reach foundation establishment. If a dungeon can live for say a thousand years it would take 580 to 800 years. To bad Divine Jade Body speed is average at all the levels till the very end where it begins to take decades to improve. Since I practiced the Divine Jade Body I can¡¯t switch my main cultivation method¡­ I can supplement it. If I gather enough pure mana I can burn that to speed up my cultivation method. Normally this would not be possible, the amount of Qi that would be burned up would kill a cultivator below Jindan.However I am a dungeon core, it would only be 70 to 80 years of cultivation for a human, but it would a challenge for me in my current form to retain sanity for that long. I will go for it.¡¯ Jade started to absorb all the stone, dirt and earth around him when a tremor of fear raced through his mind. ¡®If I absorb too much and something gets in I am dead. I can do something else to protect me.¡¯ The plan changed. Instead of starting to absorb all the stone and dirt around. He would set up a natural confusion formation to protect his core. It took only a little while to get the dimensions right so the formation would absorb the mana in the dungeon to protect the core room, with illusions and mental attacks. Then continued to rapidly absorb all the material in the dungeon except for a skin layer for the dungeon. Mana rapidly was sucked and burned, 1000, 3000, 6000 12500, 60000, 100,000 thousand mana had been burned from rock which had absorbed so much that it had crystallized with mana. While mana was continually burned Jade worked the Divine Jade body to complete the foundation. Slowly the Dungeon floor grew hollow as mana was smashed together and used to complete the foundation of the Divine Jade Body. Crack, Ding, Beep Dungeon Type gained: Jade dungeon Unknown effects Level 10 25000 mana for level 11 Store extended Includes traps and skills Skill unlocked Floor creation Can create a new floor. New floors can be different from previous floor in every way. The subsequent floors increase in cost. Achievement reached! Perfect Perfectionist (3/3) Points + 500 Double increase in creation quality Double increase in summoned life evolution Dungeon territory maximum range increased by 50% Mana density in dungeon doubled Double increase of loyalty of summoned life Double Increase in fame gained Can only earn this achievement for an unopened dungeon. Dungeon will automatically be increased in territory to maximum. Congratulation dungeon, you have done what only a handful of dungeon have done. Dungeon Status Level 10 Dungeon Type: Jade Name: N/A Titles: N/A Achievements: Perfect Perfection Mana: 0/25000 Points: 1075 Floors: 1 Skills: Basic Dungeon Mana Gathering Level 1, Unknown Mana Gathering Level ???, Dungeon Mana Manipulation, Mana absorption, Mana creation Level 1, Dungeon expansion, Summon Monsters, Summon life, Monster imbuement, Monster Naming, Environmental Controls, Floor creation chapter 3 Dungeons. A dungeon unless of specific circumstances cannot lay claim on on the surface. On average the dungeon starts a foot below the surface. Dungeon can claim the surface when creating an entrance. Just to give the most common example of surface claiming. In the land above Jade¡¯s dungeon was a virgin forest, untouched for several hundred years, full of life and death in a balanced cycle. However, in the time since Jade¡¯s birth/rebirth? It has grown to an ancient forest and surpassed that to a relic forest. The average forest is 1 to 5 times the average density of mana. A old forest is 5 to 10 times the average mana density. A virgin forest is 10 to 20 times, while an ancient forest is 20 to 30 times. A relic forest is 40 to 50 times the average density. With this change of mana density the trees have changed with all the life in the woods. In the center of the forest, on top or close to the edge of the dungeon, the trees have grown to 1600 meters in height. With the trees growing smaller as the mana density lowers. Over a hundred and fifty miles away there is a small village, in the southwest. The village was founded over 150 years ago. They have seen the large virgin forest grow to ancient forest to the now relic forest. There are many stories they tell their children about the woods towering over mountains in the distance. There is an ancient treasure from the gods left in the woods. There is an ancient elf village. Some ancient mages tomb is in the center of the woods and only recently uncovered in the last 100 years. Never go into those woods. Rare herbs and maybe legendary treasures might be found but so are man eating monsters in those woods who know the place better than any man could ever. Today in the woods is a portly man walking. He had been walking for over a week. Standing at somewhat shy of 2 meters tall, what was once fine clothes are near rags, and his large belly is rapidly shrinking. ¡°FUCK THESE WOODS. FUCK THOSE ASSHOLES THAT LEFT ME IN THE WOODS!!!¡± the portly man screamed in a mildly deep voice. He had joined an adventuring party to gather some rare herbs in the mountains to the west, but was ditched for various reasons, like highborn attitude, lecherous comments to the female party members and poor combat skills. As he got ready to go set up camp for the night, he cast a wind blade at a squirrel on a nearby tree. The wind blade was stronger and quicker than yesterday. Not paying mind to that, thinking it was his ability. He collected the squirrel head and body. Casting an alarm spell again quicker than normal. It was again him thinking that this was just his ability getting better after being in the woods and practicing for so long, and it was to a point. One flame touch and waterball later with a cleaned squirrel and wild herbs dinner was served. If there was one good thing to say about the portly mage it was that he knew his herbs. The man began to meditate and attune to mana and the elements after eating. ¡®I knew I was close to an increase in skill level. I can feel the mana much clearer today. Even in these old woods I am great¡­ No it is just the mana that is easier to gather, the elements are not gathering quickly, instead gathering normally. Am I in an old forest? An old forest!¡¯ The man got out of meditation and began casting a spell. The spell was just a low level mana density spell. It would use black for under average, blue for average going to teal, green, yellow green to yellow to orange to red. It was a bright red. ¡°10 times the average mana density! This forest must have some rare herbs. Damn it I don¡¯t have the supplies¡± the portly mage laments. A week past, the portly mage almost not so portly anymore was walking up a hill. At the top of the hill he found a logging trail. ¡°I¡¯m saved. Civilization. I can use money and live like a human again!¡± the mage cried out.If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. It was another two days trekking the logging trails to get to the village that made them. The village had the population of 300 people. It had been growing with the fields being abnormally fertile for the region. Still many villager¡¯s children would go to the cities or look for other places to begin a farm. The forest was a blight, every year foolish children would challenge each other to go to the woods and never return. Even hunters would often come back injured or not at all. The portly mage was quite the sight in the small village. Covered in rags coming from the forest. Some grieving families were hoping it was their long lost child only to be disappointed. The portly man went to the only inn in the village. Opening the door to the inn, there was a bar section while the rooms looked to be upstairs. Walking up to the waitress on duty the portly mage asked ¡°Hello, I am in need of a room and some food and wine.¡± ¡°We do not serve beggars here¡± the Waitress replied ¡°What the F¡­¡± the portly mage looked at his sleeves to see them cut up and dirty. Shamefully the mage suppressed his anger, grinding his teeth and said to her pulling out a small silver coin ¡°I can pay.¡± ¡°Well you can. I will get you a room on the second floor, one bed. Bath will be extra. If you want I can get you a seamstress to get you some new cloths, breakfast comes with the room, anything else will cost extra.¡± The waitress said looking at the small silver coin. Currency was between small and large coins. 5 small copper coins for 1 large copper coin. 25 large copper coins for 1 small silver coins. 10 small silver coins for 1 large silver coin. 45 large silver coins for 1 small gold coin. 8 small gold coins for 1 large gold coin. The inn made less that a large silver coin a year and maybe 1 large and 5 small silver coins their best year, before taxes and after paying their bills. A family in the city could live off a large copper coin a day for food and another for shelter. ¡°Lead me to my room please and knock when you can get my bath ready. After my bath I will need something to eat¡± the portly mage told her ¡°Understood sir¡± the waitress said, leading him up to the upper floor. Sometime later, a knock occurred and the waitress came in with a man carrying a barrel of hot water. ¡°Your bath water sir. Your food is cooking and will be ready in a half hour.¡± the waitress told him, getting ready to leave him to his bath ¡°Excellent. Can you tell me about the woods up north?¡± The mage asked ¡°Only the stories that parents tell the children of the village to keep them out. If you want a real answer you would have to talk to the hunters.¡± the waitress tells him. The night passes, the portly mage eat like a king. The next morning was taken to the seamstress to get some clothes. The clothes a great deal rougher than he would have liked, but had no choice but to choose rags or rough clothes. In his rough clothes he went to the hunter¡¯s hall. A man approached him as he enter the hall. ¡°You managed to go into those woods and come out. What do you want here?¡± ¡°I want to know more about them¡± the mage told him ¡°Then I will take you to the current champion hunter of the village, his family was the first hunter family in this village and know more about those woods than anyone else in this hall. Not that there is many of us left.¡± the man said Looking around it was true. There looked to be 8 men in the hall that could fit easily 50 to 60. The man took him over to one of those men. It was a young man only 25 years old. ¡°What can I help you with. Name is Greg.¡± the young man Greg gave his hand to shake. ¡°The name is Martin Von Huttese¡± the portly mage gave his name. ¡°Well sir Huttese what do you need help with? And thanks for escorting him to me Bruce¡± Greg told the man ¡°I need to know more about those woods.¡± Martin told him ¡°What can I say. The woods were there since my great great great grandfather¡¯s time. According to my grandfather before he went and died in the woods, his grandfather saw the woods grow from old trees to abnormal trees, 800 meters tall, and in his time he saw them reach their current height.¡± Greg tells him ¡°What they are that tall?¡± Martin exclaims ¡°You didn¡¯t take a look back at the woods you left?¡± Greg asked ¡°I didn¡¯t I was just happy to get out of the woods¡± Martin tells him honestly. ¡°Let''s go outside, we can see the Multan mountains in the distance.¡± Greg said and led them to the roof. On the roof was a platform, where one could see the forest and the nearby farms. Martin looked out. The trees towered past the hill and the Multan mountains in the east. Martin realized why no one ever saw the trees, because the Multan mountains blocked the view and on the other side you would be in the Jares woods. Not that there was much past the Multan mountains with three dungeons. A life dungeon focusing on fire, a normal dungeon with goblinoids, and lastly a abnormal dungeon with ice. The east was filled with monsters and little materials was the normal and correct assumption. ¡°So any more questions about the cursed woods?¡± Greg asked Martin looked Greg in the eyes and said ¡°I want to hire you to take me to the center of the forest.¡± chapter 4 ¡°HA. No¡± Greg told Martin straight up. ¡°I can pay.¡± Martin tells him ¡°Then 5 gold up front and 5 gold when we get back.¡± Greg names his price ¡°I umm¡­¡± Martin started to try and speak but. ¡°It is a death sentence, the odds are neither of us are going to even get there alive and back. So I need money for my wife and child. Don¡¯t try and undersell me and my life.¡± Greg stares at Martin ¡®The mana density is so high there must be a rare resource there, and there might me some legendary herbs that can help me break through the next level.¡¯ Martin tried to justify the spending. ¡°Agreed¡± Martin pulled out his coin purse, his eyes bulged realizing that he only had 12 large gold coins, and not enough silver to make 5 small silver gold coins. Gritting his teeth he pulled out the 5 large gold coins. He hesitantly put them into Greg¡¯s hand. ¡°5 large gold coins! I only wanted 5 small gold coins.¡± Greg said looking at the gold coins with some greed and fear in his eyes. ¡°Take it if we die, then there is no use for the gold.¡± Martin said but his mind raced with the thoughts of ¡°I took them out I am not going to humble myself and take them back.¡¯ ¡°Alright then there is no need for the payment when we get back.¡± Greg compromised. With deal made, they stared at the woods that could possible be their tomb for a moment and left to enjoy themselves and plan. The next two days Martin ate and enjoyed food that he knew he wouldn¡¯t be having for a long time or ever again. Greg set up gathering supplies and other things that they need for the trip. After those two days they met up near the edge of town. Greg was carrying a large pack and wearing green and brown leather clothes. Martin was just wearing his simple clothes. ¡°Here is your pack. It holds part our rations and tools.¡± Greg told him and help Martin get the pack on his back ¡°That is heavy.¡± ¡°We are going to the deep woods. There are many dangerous animals. Some of the wildlife have magic abilities. I saw at wolf the color of brown, large wolf almost as tall as me. It sank into the ground and when a rabbit pass it shot out of the ground with dirt and stone coming with it. Normal wolves aren''t supposed to do that. It is the reason so many of us hunters are leaving.¡± ¡°What is the lord of the land doing?¡± ¡°What is he willing to do? His land ends at the top of the hill and the monstrous beast don''t leave the forest.¡± ¡°Really¡­¡± Martin went into a deep thought about what he could do. They reached the logging trails and just as Martin was about to go in, Greg stopped him,¡±This is the last place to safely camp without a chance of getting attacked in the night.¡± Martin was about to protest but a loud howl rang out of the woods and not far from from the bottom of the hill on the forested side. ¡°Good idea¡± Martin said before helping set up camp. Camp was set up and only once throughout the night death screech sounded out waking and startling Martin for some time. The next morning they left the hill and went into the cursed forest. The forest was overgrown, but had plentiful trails that animals used. Following those Greg led Martin deeper into the forest. Camp was simple, but no fire was lit. When protesting about why, Greg told him ¡°It is dangerous and in the deep woods we won''t be able to so it is important to get used to the cold nights.¡± Martin replied with ¡°I was in the forest and I was fine.¡± Greg responded with a low chuckle ¡°You were probably on the edge. In the outer layer of the forest is where I saw that magic wolf. If you were in the other layer with a fire I would have never known you.¡± Martin stopped realizing that his woodsman skills were non existent compared to his guide¡¯s. So he dropped the subject. Another two days past before Greg announced that they were now in the outer layer of the forest. It would be be a harder journey now. Martin did a mana density test, but only showed bright red. The orb of bright red was larger, if the previous was the size of a thumb, the orb was now the size of the big toe. Of course Martin did this in secret when setting up the alarm spells, worried about the animals he kept hearing at night. Over three months of trekking through the woods, with vast overgrowth near death encounters with wolf packs, large bears and stalking cats. Martin and Greg were closer, not perfect friends as they came from different worlds and had different interest. Greg would hunt once every 6 days and start a smokeless fire to cook the meat and store for the trek. This added to their time but kept them strong. One day Greg laughed, Martin a little worried for his guides sanity asked ¡°You alright?¡± ¡°I am good. We just crossed into the inner part of the forest. No hunter has gone here and lived probably in the last 80 years.¡± Greg explained. Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator. Martin nodded with understanding, the trek had earned him the tracking skill and the forestry skills, no idea what level they were at but he knew he had them. The stories he could tell when he got back. The was once a wolf pack as fast as light fighting a bear 8 meters tall and covered with stone. The fight lasted hours before the wolves left slightly bloody and the bear near the same. Delaying the pair a day. The pair took a different approach to camping after that and slept in the trees. In case that if those fast wolves found them they would be safe enough to react. The new sleeping method took longer to prepare each night as they set up rope lines to lay on. Martin was no longer portly he looked muscular, instead of a mage he looked to be a soldier. Not that he ever shared the secret that he was a mage with Greg. Greg looked tired but excited. He knew he was doing something he had dreamed about as a child but was so deadly he would never try it without being old and waiting for death. His wife and child were taken care of leaving him to do this without worry. When Martin slept the first night in the inner layer of the forest he casted the mana density spell. From the big toe it had changed to a child''s fist. About to sleep for the night he noticed a purplish glow on the ground, about to wake Greg who was already sleeping, Martin noticed that it was a Purple Murdock. This herb was worth easily 50 small gold and to the right buyer upwards to 75. Then thinking back on it, he had seen lots of herbs in the outer layer worth large silver to small gold in prices. ¡®This is only the beginning of the inner forest excitement flashed before his eyes, before he began to meditate and practice his mana gathering skill, not wasting time. The trekking was tougher from the inner layer, they were maybe trekking 1500 meters a day, even with all their practice and experience up until now. Rare herbs were almost like weeds and Martin would only collect the rarest in reach or those that could be directly eaten. Of course he shared the body and sense strengthening herbs with Greg. It was 4 months of trekking when the pair reached the center of the forest. Trees were think, some were over 30 to 40 meters in diameter. The trekking had gotten easier from the help of the herbs. One night of camping in the center of the forest and the pair believed that they could get to the very middle of the forest. The next day they travelled quickly from first light in the dark woods to the center. It was around midday when they reached it. The center. In the center was a giant tree over 50 meters in diameter with giant branches seemingly holding up the sky. Greg was shocked at the sight. So was Martin but he could not find the reason for the growth of this forest. ¡®If not above, or on the surface, there must be something underground¡¯ he reasoned and began to get out a shovel to dig. A loud pounding sound occurred, Greg turned to see a giant bear of violet and black fur standing up watching the pair. Martin kept digging knowing that Greg would warn him if danger was near. A foot down he struck something hard. Removing the dirt, it was mana crystal and it was a deep blue color, the highest quality. Greg watched the bear, then the bear looked up and went down and left. Greg felt there was a problem and notched an arrow pointing upwards. There was a large spider with 3 meters of body and longer legs. On the bottom of the spider was the face of a woman. The face was looking at Martin ¡°Martin get over here!¡± Greg screamed launching an arrow at the spider slowly descending towards them. The arrow shit into the leg joint. Martin snapped out of his greed and plans. Rolling towards Greg Martin saw the monster. Quickly he casted a fireball. The fireball smacked the spider causing it to wobble backwards. The face screeched as the spider lifted up. Greg shot out another arrow and Martin launched wind blade and a fireball. The spider dodge the fireball, but couldn''t dodge the arrow and the wind blade. A leg was removed. The screeching grew louder and the spider retreated. Quickly the pair ran away. It was only towards the middle of the night that the group were willing to talk. ¡°Holy shit of Rusha¡± Greg said naming the god of the wilds. ¡°A man faced spider. Good thing it thought we were not worth the effort after we took a leg¡± Martin agreed. ¡°Your a wizard. You could have shared that with me.¡± Greg said smiling happy to be alive. ¡°I am just a high rank apprentice. Lets get some sleep we have a half years journey back to the village.¡± Martin said proud of what he did to the monster ¡°Your right.¡± Greg agreed The pair went to sleep. What the pair didn¡¯t know that this wasn''t a man face spider but a two faced spider. The former was a B ranked monster while the later was an A rank beast known for torturing its enemies by killing their families for years. As the pair managed to return to the village in only 5 months, they had no idea they were being followed. The whole time they would gather herbs to eat to increase their strength. The day they returned the whole village was abuzz as the assumed dead pair returned alive and looking stronger than ever. There was a merchant caravan going to the capital leaving at noon so the pair was forced to split up. The spider watched the two prey go to their nest. There was a group splitting of the nest, but the spider thought that the two would rest before leaving the nest if they would at all. It waited to night until it climbed to the walls and began to spread webbing around the town. It remembered when it did this to a wolf pack that stole some prey. They all suffered and it was greatly fattened. The next morning the residents began to awaken, the first to awaken was the village sweeper cleaning the streets. Not looking up he swept the streets like always, when something grabbed him. ¡°Awwwwwwwww!¡± the sweeper only had a short chance to scream before being injected with venom. Many of the village looked for the sound noticing the webbing around the village. They began to scream too, because they knew it must be a monster from the cursed forest. Some tried to run but were hunted down. A hunter screamed that everyone needs to stay inside and that all those you are fast to run to the earl¡¯s outpost. Greg woke up late today after a long night with his wife. He awoke to a screaming and fearful wife. She knew about the man faced spider. Greg calmed her down. ¡°Go into the basement, there is plenty of food, just bring water. I am going to run to the outpost. I am fast and have grown a lot stronger. I will make it back safely. Please believe me.¡± Greg told her before getting dressed, grabbing his bow and arrows. Greg ran out the house. Webbing was everywhere, a simple touch would the send the man faced spider sprinting towards the new food. It took an hour to get past the webs, 18 more screams came out in that hour. Greg felt guilty for everyone of them and the more that would follow. Greg ran down the road it would be a day''s run to get to the outpost, he had no idea how many more that would die. Greg ran as fast as he could. The men of the outpost were getting ready for rest after patrolling and checking the caravan that came an hour before. One soldier was on the last 15 minutes of his shift when a man was seen in the distance running like his life depending on it. ¡°Halt, what''s your story?¡± the soldier cried out. ¡°A monster attacking my village.¡± Greg screamed out. ¡°What!¡± the soldier called ¡°Giant monster spider is killing my fucking friends please help us!¡± Greg screamed out still running towards the outpost guard. The soldier raised the alarm. Soldiers started to get their gear on, and those that had it on began to look outside. ¡°What in the hell is going on?¡± a the captain of the outpost cried out to the guards on duty. ¡°Monster attack at one of the villages!¡± loud enough for everyone in the outpost to hear. ¡°Which village?¡± the captain responded sober from the words ¡°Unknown, but a survivor is right there.¡± the soldier on duty pointed out Greg almost at the guard. The captain went up and caught Greg who looked to be falling over just running. ¡°What village are you from?¡± the captain asked ¡°Lusaw¡± Greg said passing out from overexertion. The soldiers sent out a messenger to the fortress in the area for reinforcements while 130 of the 150 soldiers were sent to go to the village. When they arrive the village was covered in webs. Of the 300 inhabitants 75 had been eaten, with 10 more in the webs waiting their turns to die. The soldiers attacked the webbing and the spider pulled in soldiers who got stuck in the webbing. There were some that suggested fire but the village¡¯s buildings were made of wood. They kept hacking until they opened up a path into the middle of town. The man eating spider then left the town. The soldiers settled and set up patrols and tasks to cut up the rest of the web. The man eating spider watched and waited for the right moment returned to the village and attack the soldiers. By the time reinforcements got to the village only 40 soldiers remained. But with 500 soldiers as reinforcement they surround the village and managed to break the webbing trapping the spider forcing into combat. The battle was tough, with the man face spider spew venom and toxic webbing. The body of the man face spider was examined by adventurers part of the reinforcements. It was learned that this was a two man faced, an A rank monster. The body, webbing, venom and anything else of value from the spider was sent to the earl¡¯s manor to be sold off. The event shed light to the dangerous forest, 400 miles from the capital. The earl had the village removed and a fortress set up in case of other monster attacks in the future. Greg was able to go home, a day after the spider was killed. Due to an illness his wife, Greg took his life to the capital to get a high level healer. She died in childbirth 4 years later, succeeded by her husband Greg, first son Isaac and second son Jonathan. chapter 5 While Greg and Martin were battling the man faced spider and then on their way to leave the forest. Jade was trying to figure out what to do next when Martin knocked on Jade¡¯s ¡°Skin¡± layer. ¡®Right I am a dungeon. I need to create an entrance, and make some monsters and floors.¡¯ Jade organized his thoughts. Before being woken up Jade had been in a slight state of enlightenment. Quickly Jade opened up the dungeon. As he did a familiar said occurred. Beep Achievement Ancient Presence complete (1/1) Points + 75 Elemental Beings can be summoned Survive as a dungeon for more than 100 years. *Special* must have dungeon open to the outside world to unlock achievement Jade looked at his life list. The elements were not on the list. On the monster list had fire, water, air and earth. Jade summoned 10 of each just to look them over. Each elemental was either a small humanoid shape or an animal shape. Air was birds, fire was dogs, water was a snake, and earth was in the shape of a bear. ¡®This is a good start for a dungeon¡¯ Jade recognized. He sent all but the fire elementals to go and scout around for 3 minutes. After the three minutes were over the elementals all return. Jade then realized that he couldn''t get any information from them. Jade had the earth elementals go and gather any plant life, roots and everything included that could fit in the entrance hole. The earth elementals each went out and brought back several types of plants, out of the 10, 4 brought the same type of grass, 3 brought the same type of vine, and the other 3 plants were different. Jade absorbed the plants. A flow of information about their uses, habitats, and life cycle. The grass was rated as common, the vine was uncommon and each of the plants was rated as rare. The only place these plants would wind up together was in the forest. Jade created 26 more entrance holes. Summoning more earth elementals, 10 for each hole. 3 of the elementals were sent to gather different plants, the rest were sent to capture animals alive and drop them down the holes with broken legs. Thinking about it, Jade sent out 5 air elementals for any birds or flying animals. Then Jade decided he might want water animals in his dungeon at some point, and sent out 5 water elements per entrance to gather aquatic plants and animals. It wasn''t long when a brown rabbit with broken legs was dropped down the dungeon, falling 75 meters to it¡¯s death. The earth elementals brought squirrels of different colors, hundreds of insects, more rabbits, deer, a puma, some wolves, more and more plants, and mushrooms. The wind elements brought insects, several bird species, and flying squirrels. Water elementals brought back frogs, fish, salamanders, algaes, and plenty of other water plants. Jade was interested in the strength of the elementals, they were in the system as a tier 4 monster. Jade kept the elementals out for a few weeks, when they couldn''t bring anything new back. The last new creature was a bear, which barely got through the entrance before dying to internal injuries, from being stuffed into a small hole. It was time to set up the first floor. Jade had space a plenty. After some thoughts about his old worlds dungeons. Caves stood out about what to do. The dungeon ended up in three sections. The first was 1600 meters long in the outermost 1600 meters of the dungeon, dubbed the tunnels. The second 1600 meters was dubbed the mushroom domain. The last 1600 meters radius was the cavern. The tunnels were 3 meter to 5 meter diameter tunnels that flowed in circles up and down around the second layer. There were sub tunnels, of varied sizes to let animals pass through. The tunnels were at least 10 cm away from each other and less than 25 cm from another tunnel. This made a massive maze with no set path to travel. The mushroom domain was equally divided into 4 parts, the North had toxic mushrooms, the East had aphrodisiac mushrooms, the South medical mushrooms and the West edible mushrooms. The mushroom domain was set up as tunnels with no sub tunnels connecting occasionally. Each tunnel was 4 to 7 meters in diameter, with intersections around 10 meters. Wind patterns were set up to keep all mushroom spores in the mushroom domain and not let any spread outside. The cavern was set up to act as an underground forest. There were layers, with tunnels of various sizes leading up and down. In the center was the natural confusion formation to protect Jade¡¯s core. Using seeds from trees there was a small forest already growing shrouding out viability. The last thing to do was set up a grand entrance and populate the dungeon with animals, as Jade thought that the elementals would be to much of a challenge for a first floor, because the large bear was a tier 3. The population of animals came first. Jade summoned 100 herbivore variety, North, East, South and West in the tunnels and the mushroom domain, while in the cavern only a single group of 100 was summoned. The tunnels and the cavern had no trouble, half of the mushroom domain was a complete mess. The animals in the North died almost instantly and the ones in the East fucked themselves to death. Jade decided to let the animals travel as they needed. Next Jade summoned insects and omnivores. Jade finished off the population with the carnivores. This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. Leaving the floor of animals settle, Jade thought about the entrance. In games it would be staircases or cracks in a rock wall. Those were one time dungeons that had some loot and rarely would you come back. Jade wanted to make a commons, a small market for selling loot and buying things. Next he wanted to be able to trade for things. Jade had no idea if that was normal for a dungeon, but he wanted to be able to do that anyways. Also a healing area was necessary, for those that managed to get back alive but injured. There was also the problem that Jade had 4800 meter radius of land to work with. It was easy to rationalize the need for more than one entrance. Jade decided to make 8, North, Northeast, East, Southeast, South, Southwest, West, and lastly Northwest. With all the other entrances closed Jade got to work designing in his head a commons area to discuss things, a food market, a stall market, a trading post for him and a healers lounge. As he finished creating the first rough build he heard a ding. Skill learnt Architecture level: 1 + 1% to durability Looking at his first building made him a little proud, but he quickly absorbed the entrance and redid it. Jade noticed it was underground and no way to the surface. There was no instructions about what an area was for or any place for clerical services. It was 4 more remakes before Jade was happy with his work. Now it was the waiting game. Jade went to focus on pumping more animals into the dead zones of the mushroom domain. -------------------------- Martin was extremely happy. As soon as he got to the capital he reached out to his family and shared his discovery. While his family was not a wealthy noble family by any means they could afford to buy up undeveloped land like the cursed forest. Martin spent his own money from some of the herbs he gathered to buy up the land. Other members of his family were concerned about the monsters, and the size of the mana crystal deposit. They suggested a formal expedition to fully explore the deposit and any other resources that could be acquired. This took about a year to get contracts with 6 different adventuring guilds for 20 C rank parties, 13 B rank parties and 3 A rank parties. There was also the supplies to feed the expedition, locating and hiring a high level surveyor and making making a potential road to ease the needed labor to mine the mana crystal. All of which came from Martin''s pockets. The expedition launched quickly. There was little trouble for the adventurers cutting down any beasts that got in the way. The overgrowth caused more problems, but as a mage skilled in fire, and some water Martin was able to help carve out a path. In two months the expedition made it to the center of the forest. Just Martin Was about to celebrate a job half over news came in about a structure of mana crystal in the woods. Escorted by an A rank team, Martin was staring out at flawless built building in the ground made completely of the highest grade mana crystal. ¡°Has anyone been inside?¡± Martin asked ¡°No. We know the contract, protect and report¡± the leader of the party report. Martin nodded before walking down the ramp inside the building. Inside were chairs, lanes for carriages, a few cooking stations, and a stairway downwards. There were two doors. A large one with a picture of a man giving chickens, weapons and plants to a chest for what looked to be coins. The other door was a cross, a man cutting off another man''s leg and a man looking to be using magic to heal. The cooking areas were unique. There was a basin with two levers and a long tunnel tube. Ovens were burning without wood and had large buttons which he had no idea what purpose they had. There was cupboards with different mana crystal pots and pans. Turning a lever, water came out of the tunnel. The water was hot to the touch. Looking at the lever, there was a flame. On the other lever was a snow flake. Martin moved past this part and into the area with the chairs. The party was following but watching and interested in the strange things. The stairway downwards was of some importance. ¡®Was this a city of something else?¡¯ Martin wondered walking forward. A familiar feeling washed over him. This was a dungeon. A life dungeon. Life dungeons were the most dangerous of dungeons but also tended to be the most valuable. Dungeons an era ago were considered, intelligent rocks with massive amounts of mana. Then came the first life dungeons, and the theory was changed. The most common type of dungeon was an animal soul running on some instinct created by a log forgotten god, and that life dungeons were the souls of people turned into dungeon cores. The party saw the stair and walking forward they knew what this was as well. The stealthiest member of the party went over to the chest trading room. He pulled out a dagger and put it in the chest. ------------------ Jade was focusing on the mushroom domain when he noticed the first people enter his entrance. They walked around not understanding the cooking area. They stood at the stairs to the real part of the dungeon. Jade watched them, until a chest was opened. He didn''t notice the man leave the group. The man put in a dagger. ¡®Shit¡¯ Jade thought realizing that he had nothing to pay the man. Jade absorbed the dagger and placed two more in the rewards chest. The man opened it looking disappointed, but then took out a copper coin and put it in the chest. Feeling bad about the first reward, Jade gave a hundred copper coins as repayment. The man was smiling from the coins and put in a large copper coin. Jade payed with 100 times the reward again. The man put in two silver coins, one small and one large. Jade gave 50 times each coin. The mana to create silver was 3 times harder than copper. The man smiled more and let out a small laugh and placed a small gold coin. Jade repaid him with 25 gold coins. The man was almost dancing for joy when he picked up the coins calling over the other members of his party. They each put in some things. Jade gave out either silver or gold depending on if he thought it was worth something. He had never been a mortal that dealt with silver and gold so he had no idea what to pay. However it looked like he was paying well and was getting some uncommon weapons and miscellaneous things. There was one man not interested in trading instead he went to the large crystal in the middle of the chair section. Jade was trying to think about what do get to get more information from these people. When it hit him, his old cultivation methods. Yin wood method Mind Blood Syphon. Jade¡¯s cultivation was too low to attempt many of the best utility cultivation methods or he did not have the right resources. Mind Blood Syphon only needed targets to absorb Qi from and would also copy information from a target. Quickly Jade spent a few seconds getting in the mindset and using mana complete a minor path of completion. As the man touched the crystal, Jade copied everything of value. Language, fighting abilities, magical abilities, history, maps all were taken and more. Jade knew that he was a life dungeon now, and that his life was still at risk, but no one would try and use old magics to try and control him. That left a sigh of relief from some his instincts. He was in some unnamed forest, the map was incomplete, the man didn''t fight hand to hand he was a mage that use fire, water and wind. History of the nation was interesting. The kingdom of Gihread was created by refugees of three different kingdoms after the start of the demon wars era (current era). There was no information about the coming of the demons only that they came after the first life dungeons. Jade began to use Ice Mind Eyes, on Martin. Dungeon Status Level 10 Dungeon Type: Jade Name: N/A Titles: N/A Achievements: Perfect Perfection, Ancient Presence Mana: 4014/25000 Points: 1150 Floors: 1 Skills: Basic Dungeon Mana Gathering Level 1, Unknown Mana Gathering Level ???, Dungeon Mana Manipulation, Mana absorption, Mana creation Level 2, Dungeon expansion, Summon Monsters, Summon life, Monster imbuement, Monster Naming, Environmental Controls, Floor creation, Architecture Level 3 Chapter 6 Martin stood there stunned. Until on of the adventurers walked over and touched him. ¡°You still with us, boss?¡± the adventurer asked. Martin snapped out of the daze ¡°Yeah, just thinking about my change of plans. A life dungeon like this is an interesting development.¡± he stated. The adventurers didn''t look too convinced about him being okay but what were they to do. Martin ordered everyone back to camp. At camp the 36 parties of adventurers were excited about the herbs and monsters they had found, along with the news that this place was a dungeon and not some mine deposit they needed to guard. Martin addressed the crowd, ¡°As most of you know, this forest was caused by a dungeon, a life dungeon. By kingdom law we have to report this to the crown. Before we leave however we are going to survey the land for 25 km and completely map the land for 6 km.¡± A short nodding and whispers hit the crowd. ¡°Now thankfully we have the high rank surveyor Sir William Hill with us, with his ability we will be done in a month or two at most. Dungeon raids rights will be given to those who gather the most herbs and kill the most monsters. We will be moving camp into the dungeon entrance. Do not go into the dungeon without permission. We have a contract and I have already put down the down payment and the herbs the we have already gather will complete the payment. So everyone let''s do our jobs.¡± with that Martin clapped his hands. Camp was easily moved to the entrance and for the labors the cooking area was the most impressive. Those large buttons were to adjust the heat. Allowing the chefs to cook wonder meals. Martin had many thoughts about the dungeon. His thoughts were changed from thinking that he could mine out 1 cube meter of high quality mana crystal for 1 large gold, to how to settle the land. There was also the disturbing thoughts that went into his mind. He knew it must have been the life dungeon communicating. It was no matter, he would be rich and at least made an earl by the king. The only problems were the vague rewards promised by the dungeon and how to get people to move to the city surrounded by forest and monsters. Time would solve the problems as high level farmer could produce plentiful amounts of food. Refugees from other countries could be used for the labor in return for promises of land, low taxes and less competition. The mapping would be down first and would be finished within two weeks as the more extensive part of the assignment needing to be down. ------------------ Two weeks past since the Jade had Martin go and complete the task. His goal was two parts. First check for resources he could use to become stronger. The second was to set up a city formation. The city formation needed precise measurements. Of the things he received, bones and metals were the most important factors. Mortal iron, copper, silver and gold couldn''t be used. Jade needed to go back to his roots and refine massive amounts to get, 1000 year cold iron, profound copper, 100 year sharp silver and purple gold. With those Jade could complete a proper city formation. The bones were needed as a supplement for the formation and the refining process. These last two weeks, Jade was able to create the profound copper and 1000 year cold iron. If Jade could find the right bones, the 100 year sharp silver and purple gold would be a walk in the sky, umm park. If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. A few adventurers had come into the dungeon, but upon seeing the tunnels.decided it was not worth it to go explore at this time. Martin came in the next day with a map of the entire area that Jade¡¯s dungeon was over and a little extra. The less defined map would be coming in a few weeks. It was enough for what Jade had planned. That night the right set of bones were collected and set up to create the 100 year sharp silver. As the next three weeks passed Jade barely found a combination of bones that let him complete the purple gold. Jade had tried creating the needed bones, but the created bones didn''t have the resentment that was needed in this type of refining. Jade just took the bones that Martin brought from the adventurers and gave generously in coin for them. With the final map showing the flow of the land. It was time to create the city formation. Jade had been saving up his mana for this. ----------- The night after Martin had delivered the second less defined map, he felt a little betrayed. The dungeon promised him a reward yet all he had gotten although in a large amount, was just coin. He wanted something more. It troubled his night making him have trouble getting to sleep. Then the roar came. The ground broke up, trees fell. The roaring sound scared everyone awake and they watched outside as the an abyss was shallowing the trees. The shaking stopped but the ground remained opened. Then a bluish glow came out of the ground. It was mana crystal. Buildings of mana crystal cane out of the ground. Roadways, towers, and unknown things were everywhere. ¡®This is the reward!¡¯ Martin¡¯s worries faded instantly, he had a city! There was then a blue light coming behind him. It was a mana crystal key. As Martin picked it up it drained his mana. Almost screeching at what happened, he felt a voice enter his mind. ¡®The key controls the city.¡¯ Not understanding, but knowing the value, Martin held the key close to his chest. No one left the campsite until the next day. They were amazed at the city and its wonders. Everything was labelled. Some sections said to be developed, others said housing with how many rooms and baths. Things were almost too much when Martin cried out ¡°Everyone gather. We are leaving today to go back to the capital. Do not wander off or you get be lost. We do not have the time to go search for you.¡± This those word they were reminded in purpose and got to work. They said goodbye to the campsite and the wonderful water and cooking places, the bathrooms were great too. As they walked out the path they came, they found a giant wall hundreds of meters tall thicker than 5 meters of pure mana crystal blocking their way. There were doors and staircases all over. Eventually a gate was located at the on the main street. The gate needed at key to open. Martin now knew what the key meant, it was the key to the city. Trekking back to the capital the group was determined to share their stories with their guilds and get a location in the city for themselves. As they shared the story with fellow travelers out of the forest on the kingdom''s roads, it quickly became the most talked about thing in the kingdom. A magical city made of mana crystal and with a dungeon underneath in the middle of a monster infested forest. The story of a crystal key controlling the gates was also told to a lesser extent. Those with greedy eyes sought to make it theirs. The king heard these stories before the expedition returned. He had a banquet set and a special force sent out to go to the city and validate the stories. Martin was given a seat of honor and showed off the key with pride. The special force was given magical steeds, speed enhancements and long range communication devices and they confirmed the city wall only a week after the expedition returned. Martin was made an earl by the king. Drunk and enjoying himself, he went out and hid himself as an average man to the whore houses. On the way back home, a thief took the crystal key along with this coin purse. The next day Martin woke up and learning about the key informed the king who created a 10 large gold bounty on the return of the key. The thief scared of what he had stole tried to pawn it only to be chased down and died in a ditch, the key wasn''t with him. For in the chase he tossed it in a rubbish pile. To get rid of it. 9 years had past and no one had found it until one boy playing in the capital landfill discovered it. Dungeon Status Level 10 Dungeon Type: Jade Name: N/A Titles: N/A Achievements: Perfect Perfection, Ancient Presence Mana: 200/25000 Points: 1150 Floors: 1 Skills: Basic Dungeon Mana Gathering Level 1, Unknown Mana Gathering Level ???, Dungeon Mana Manipulation, Mana absorption, Mana creation Level 6, Dungeon expansion, Summon Monsters, Summon life, Monster imbuement, Monster Naming, Environmental Controls, Floor creation, Architecture Level 3 chapter 7 Jade waiting for Martin to come back, practiced his old cultivation methods that were improved to near perfection all that time ago in the mortal realm. Most importantly for Jade was the Yin Metal Shadow Puppet Control. Before it was refined, it would allow one to control 5 puppets per level with 5 Gather Qi levels until foundation establishment. After improving the Shadow Puppet Control technique it grew to 10 puppets per level. Using dead animal bones from his first floor, Jade crafted a few rough puppets to start mining out his second floor as he claimed the new territory on the second floor. Jade was waiting for the first floor to be pressured before opening up the second floor. Jade was happy with his city he had developed and was continually refining. The wall now the full height of 1.6 kilometers was the most visually impressive but also the most functional. Inside was a combination of hundreds of Qi gathering formations, life promoting formations, hardening formations, repairing formations, defensive formations and attack formations. The city was huge with towering housing complexes filled with hundreds of more formations, from lighting to heating/cooling, and cleaning formations. This was one of the greatest city formations if he did say so for a mortal world. Jade¡¯s city formations in the divine realm spread across hundreds of planets worth of land and were more detailed and powerful than what he did here, but that was there with more power and better resources. Jade was pleased with his work. There also the fact that only 3 years ago, Jade learned that he could summon baby animals. With that knowledge was bent on have life live in the north and east parts of the mushroom domain. The young adapted and flourished with no predators. Jade was happy to examine them with mana. Name: N/A Species: Poison Rabbit Skills: Poison resistance level 8 Poisoned skin level 4 Making Jade happy that he could examine the animals more closely for other mutations. In the last 9 years Jade had finished the creation of the city. His architecture had reached level 66. Architecture level: 10 + 1% to durability per level, level 10 and under + 2% to durability per level, over level 10 Unlocked due to Perfect Perfectionist all bonuses are doubled Architecture level: 25 + 1% to durability per level, level 10 and under + 2% to durability per level, over level 10 + 1% chance of improving quality of buildings functions. Unlocked due to Perfect Perfectionist all bonuses are doubled At level 50 the perk tree was unlocked, Jade learned about how perk points worked. Depending on the individual''s ability they were given the ranks of below average, average, above average, and genius, the perk points earned for each was 5, 10, 15, and 20 for each level above 50. Jade as a dungeon therefore classified as a genius. The first three perks were improved durability 1,2,3 costing 5, 10, and 15 points for 5% increase per perk level. The next perks were for age resistance 1 and improved function 1, which Jade brought to the max for 15, 20, and 30 points. The next perks were unique dungeon buildings 1, unique monster homes 1, fortifications 1, and magical buildings 1. When Jade reached this point there was a cracking and beeping sound. Dungeon type potentially unlocked: City Dungeon If accepted Jade dungeon core will change to Jade city core. Specials from Jade core unknown Specials from City core: Can summon monster guardians, Core can go above ground, can claim land above ground, gains mana passively from inhabitants, loses ability to build any floor below 5, gains no mana from inhabitations death outside of dungeon. Achievement Dungeon City complete (3/???) +200 points Can claim 16km as surface territory, at least 2/5 must be farmland. Improved health of inhabitants. Improved food production. Due to not being a city core effects are cut in half It is rare for dungeons to build cities for monsters, it is weirder for dungeons to build cities above the ground for anyone. Jade decided not to go with becoming a city dungeon and got the message Can change to a city dungeon at anytime as long as the city is 1 not destroyed to nothing, and 2 not corrupted. If you change to a city dungeon in the future and have more that 5 floors, the floors passed the first 5 will be destroyed. Jade took one point in each for 30 points per level leaving him with 40. Jade decided to wait for inspiration, leaving him with 40 points remaining. Jade using the new land build an outer wall at 1.2 km tall. The rest of the land between the walls was set up as farmland for herbs and other plants he had gathered. Jade was worried about people trying to force themselves into the city, so he set up rules about the crystal key by each gate. Of course after reaching this far he absorbed the wall and rebuilt it, for the third time. He watched many people study the words by the gates and heard their curses. All he wrote down was that, if the key is freely given the trade no penalties. If the old owner dies a year must pass before the key would work again. Finally if someone kills the key owner, torturers the owner, or extorts the owner, the gate will remained locked for 100 years, The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. Jade wanted order in his city, but was really curious about why the hell Martin had not shown up with the key. With the key he could tell what happened. The key had two formations. One recording formation and the other was a Qi marking formation. Just as he was running out of patience. A group came to the outer gates, with the key. --------------------------- Jonathan was running around with his friends. They were going to the marketplace to steal some bread. While Jonathan wasn¡¯t an orphan he might as well have been. His dad was a dead beat drunk. When he drank he sometimes beat him and his brother. Amazingly his dad was not a whorer too. The group of children quickly past grabbing any food they could and then scattering. Jonathan would met up with his friends again in a few hours, he could already hear the stall owners calling out thieves and the guards. Jonathan took his usual route to the capital dump in the southeastern part of the town. There was no problems. As Jonathan ate his ill gotten gains, a man was seen watching him. As soon as Jonathan saw the man, he dropped his food and ran into the dump. The man was part of the dagger rat gang. That archrival of the street goblin gang his brother was in. His brother was a scout for the street goblins and had gotten a few dozen dagger rats pinched selling them out to the guards for a later favor with a guard captain, with the street goblins blessings of course. Now they were out for blood and his brother was trained by his father before he hit the bottle to hard, so finding him without him wanting to be found was hard. Finding Jonathan was easy though. Young and untrained. Jonathan quickly sprinted deep into the rubbish pile, farther than even the poorest of scavengers would go to find food. After looking to see he was alone, he dove into a pile of trash. A half hour passed he was temoted many times to leave, but it was a blessing he didn''t, for 3 dagger rats came by not 5 seconds later. ¡°Where is the fucker?¡± dagger rat 1 ¡°Who knows? Keep searching, the boss wants his head to give to his older brother¡± dagger rat 2 ¡°This shit is going to take a week to wash off¡± dagger rat 3 ¡°Like you wash at all¡± dagger rat 2 ¡°No he has started to wash since he found the brothels.¡± dagger rat 1 ¡°Shut it you¡­ Wait what''s over there.¡± dagger rat 3 The dagger rats ran away. Jonathan started to climb out of the garbage when his hand grabbed hold of something hard. A draining feeling occurred and he past out. The sky was dark when Jonathan woke up. Quickly he scouted his way out of the dump and too his home. His brother would be there. As he was running he realized he was holding onto a brown lump of garbage. As he left he found some water and cleaned it off. It was a deep blue key. Looking around there was two or three men looking at the him. Seeing the key, greed shined in their eyes. Jonathan was a step ahead and hiding the key in his clothes ran away. One man did not see greed for the key but for the reward. He ran to the nearest guard post. ¡°Hey there old man. What is troubling you¡± guard 1 asked seeing the out of death older man. ¡°Key. The key¡± the older man said ¡°What''s this about a key?¡± Guard 2 ¡°I saw a boy with the crystal key¡± the older man told them clearer. ¡°What crystal key? Wait the crystal key. Crystal key!¡± guard 2 shouted out, turning to his companion said ¡°get the captain and tell him The Crystal Key has been found. I am going with this guy and going to attempt to locate it. Led on old man¡± guard 2 finished. ¡°Reward first¡± the older man said with his palm outwards. Guard 2 took out his own coin purse ¡°This is a down payment, when we find the boy I''ll get you the official reward.¡± The old man hesitated for a moment and accepted. The man led the guard to the street where he saw the down and the alley he ran down. Looking around the old man looked for tracks. Jonathan kept running until he got to street goblin territory. Here he could get help and meet his brother. As he approached, several members looked weary at his but upon recognizing him let him pass with no issue. Jonathan ran to his brother''s secret hiding spot looking for him. ¡°Isaac¡± Jonathan called out. Hearing no response he moved to the next spot and called out again ¡°Isaac¡± Jonathan went to the third hideout and was about to call out when ¡°Jonathan¡± a voice called out behind him. ¡°Isaac¡± Jonathan turned around to see his brother. ¡°What are you doing? You went to my hideout and and now I have to change them again.¡± Isaac emphasized again. ¡°I was being chased by some dagger rats in the dump when¡­¡± Jonathan was speaking then was cut off ¡°Don''t go out of our territory. The dagger rats will be out for blood for weeks.¡± Isaac tild him with worry in his eyes ¡°I found this in the dump¡± Jonathan said pulling out the crystal key ¡°maybe we can sell it for a lot of money and get a new house¡± Isaac stared at the key for a while, then said ¡°No this is the legendary crystal key to the crystal city in the cursed forest. By the gods. This something that was related to dad and mom.¡± Jonathan¡¯s jaw dropped for a second ¡°That fairy tale, the crystal city. What does it have to do with mom and dad.¡± ¡°Before dad and mom moved to the capital. They lived in the village of Lusaw¡± Isaac explained ¡°Then let''s go there and find mom¡¯s family¡± Jonathan said excited about the prospect ¡°We can''t¡± Isaac said with disappointment in his voice ¡°The village was destroyed by a monster. The monster was following dad and a man named Martin after they fought it in the cursed forest. Dad mentioned it in a drunk moment before.¡± A scream rang out in in the distance. Another few screams shot out getting closer. The last shout was ¡°Black Tail¡±. The Black Tail Mercenaries, were the most evil merc gang in the kingdom. They always used fronts to set up deals. They also left their jobs with ever increasing bounties on their members. Rapes, killings and looting after defending a village against monster, destroying family tombs after being hired to clear out pests, are the two most recent incidents. As Isaac and Jonathan got ready to run, a black tail spotted them and shot off a flare. ¡°Run¡± Isaac said leading Jonathan away. The black tail member chased after them. As the two ran, as more members of black tail were gathering chasing them. The two kept running to the main streets. When Black Hand the main killer of Black Tail blacked their way. ¡°Kids come with me and I won''t kill you. All I want is to buy the key.¡± Black hand told the siblings, but his eyes and hands told a different story. ¡°Go to the guards I will hold him off¡± Isaac told his brother and pulled out a knife. ¡°Isaac I wo...¡± Jonathan started to speak. ¡°Go¡± Isaac stated launching himself at Black Hand. As Isaac tried to attack Black Hand, Jonathan was able to slip past. On the way to the guard outpost a old man pointed at him. ¡°That is the kid with the key.¡± the old man told a guard. ¡°Kid stop I am hear to protect you.¡± guard 2. ¡°Can you help my brother? He is fighting Black Hand¡± Jonathan asked starting to cry. ¡°Black Hand! Don''t worry my companions be here soon. I will send them to help your brother. Come with me, if black tail is after you we have to get you to the guard station.¡± guard to said as a dozen guards turned the corner. ¡°Is this the child with the key?¡± a guard captain asked. ¡°Yes he is. There is a problem his brother is fighting Black Hand and maybe more of black tail, he needs help.¡± guard 2. ¡°I''ll head over there. Just get to the outpost safely, there was a messenger already sent to the king.¡± the captain said. Dungeon Status Level 10 Dungeon Type: Jade Name: N/A Titles: N/A Achievements: Perfect Perfection, Ancient Presence, Dungeon City Mana: 7865/25000 Points: 1350 Floors: 2 Skills: Basic Dungeon Mana Gathering Level 1, Unknown Mana Gathering Level ???, Dungeon Mana Manipulation, Mana absorption, Mana creation Level 15, Dungeon expansion, Summon Monsters, Summon life, Monster imbuement, Monster Naming, Environmental Controls, Floor creation, Architecture Level 66 Perks: Architecture: 40 points Improved Durability 1,2,3 for 15% increase in Durability Age regression 1,2,3, for 30% increase in lifespan of buildings Improved function 1,2,3, for 7.5% increase in functionality of buildings Unique - monster homes 1, Increases monsters by 2.5% healing, 2.5% growth, 2.5% improvement Unique - dungeon buildings 1, small: safe rooms/breeding rooms Fortifications 1, improved defense of buildings 7.5% Magical buildings 1, 7.5% magically ability of buildings Chapter 8 Jonathan cried the whole way to the guard station. A guard station was the main center for the guards in this section of the city. Once he got to the guard station he was given some food. Jonathan cried the whole time he ate. It was a sad sight. An hour later the guard captain returned. The guards that return were cut up and injured. Only out of the 8 guards that went with him, two returned. Isaac wasn''t with him. ¡°What happened to Isaac?¡± Jonathan ask seeing the guard captain ¡°That bastard Black Hand knocked him out and took him away. We tried to fight the black tail mercenaries, but they ran away. We kill a dozen but they killed a few of ours.¡± the captain sighed ¡°Let me see the key.¡± Jonathan almost forgot about the key and was hesitant about showing it. However the captain had tried to help him. The key was taken out of his shirt. ¡°Beautiful.¡± the guard captain stared his hands itching to touch it when. Bam ¡°Captain, there are soldiers here to escort the boy and the key to to palace.¡± the vice captain came in. The guard captain regained his composure, ¡°Aw yes. Come on I will escort you to them.¡± leading Jonathan to the soldiers. The soldiers took Jonathan and placed him in a carriage. In the carriage were two knights and a man with scribes robes. The ride was easy with no trouble of any sort. The ride ended at the palace. When Jonathan got out, the palace guards took the place of bodyguards. Most of the palace servants had just woken up and noticed the dirty and smelly boy being escorted to the king''s chambers. ¡°My king the boy is here.¡± a palace guard said after knocking and opening the door. ¡°Bring him in¡± an older voice came from the room. Jonathan was put inside. The guards saluted and then left Jonathan with the king. The king, George Gihread, an older man at the age of 45. Standing at 2 meters call, physically his glory years were behind him, his intelligent and political mind are sharp but hampered. When he was a prince he fought the demons instead of being with the nobles in the kingdom. His own 5 sons are out fighting the demons as he did leaving him with little support amongst the nobles limiting his powers. Jonathan stared at the king, having never seen him before, reeling in the aura his highest projected. ¡°Have you eaten? I will have some roasted ham be brought up with some bread and soup.¡± George Gihread said and rang a bell ¡°I already ate some bread at the guard station.¡± Jonathan reported ¡°Then you will need a bath when you are presented as the mayor of the crystal city.¡± George Gihread told him as the servant knock and then came into the room ¡°Give this young man a bath please. Also leave the key here, I will protect it until you are down with your bath.¡± the king finished ¡°Alright¡± Jonathan took out the key and gave it to the key and the servant then escorted Jonathan to the baths. When the door closed ¡°Pity that a kid got the key.¡± George said to the empty room No it was not empty, two figures came out of the darkness. One tall and thin, the other fat and short. ¡°Look at it as an investment. Use the kid as a front and when he gets old enough give him drugs, alcohol and women and he will be a plaything on your fingers.¡± the tall thin man told the king ¡°There is a young princess, use her as a tool and get the crown an ally. We are already being pressured to accept more refugees from the front lines. Give it a few years and the city could be a formidable recruitment location for domestic and foreign.¡± the short fat man finished after the thin tall man. ¡°Which path would you two choose?¡± George Gihread asked ¡°That''s easy, we wait and judge when the child is older. If he is worthy as a friend or puppet.¡± they responded in unison.Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author''s preferred platform and support their work! ¡°Creeps me out when you two do that. Then again that is why your my advisors. You don''t care and just give your piece of mind.¡± George said shaking his head, then asking ¡°What should I do with the previous earl whose family now owns the land.¡± The short fat man spoke first ¡°Kill them all and say it was for treason. Then take the land for yourself.¡± ¡°Or you could marry the child into the earl¡¯s family. Potentially buying the family onto your side while you still having control over the child.¡± the thin tall man told the king ¡°Personally I believe that I will have to go with the second choice. The nobles are pushing me for lower nobility taxes. With most of the army at the front lines a month away after the use of the gates, I don''t have the power to say no without some allies.¡± King George lamented. King George stared at the key until Jonathan was sent back cleaner and with new clothes. King George promptly handed back the key over to Jonathan. ¡°Before I forget. What is your name young man?¡± King George asked seeing an almost completely different youth in front of him ¡°It is Jonathan.¡± Jonathan gave his name ¡°Well Jonathan, we will have an official welcoming ceremony in two day and in five days you will be sent your city.¡± King George explained ¡°What about my brother?¡± Jonathan wondered still concerned ¡°Your brother? Yes your brother. We will do our best to track him down and save him from the black tail mercenaries¡± King George gave his word ------------ Jonathan was on a speeding carriage in the woods. The massive amount of distance covered was amazing. Jonathan felt that he was seeing the world for the first time and in away he was, having never been out of the capital. The welcoming ceremony was quick and for Jonathan painless. King George announced the new key bearer had been found, and was sending him to unlock the crystal city. There were many nobles in the city who attended, but none talked to Jonathan, just to Nathaniel, Jonathan¡¯s regent. Today was the day that Jonathan was going to reach the crystal gates. There was much debate about who got to go in with Jonathan. Many of the kingdom''s scholars and erratic wizards wanted to explore the city and discover it''s secrets. The more conservative and obedient ones were chosen, but the others were allowed to come in when the city was formally opened when the road would be done in only a year. Earth mages had been working on it for the last 9 years when the city was first discovered. The forest now renamed from the cursed forest to the crystal forest, was still dangerous with animals mutated from the high mana density, being common. Mages and scholars were debating what came first the dungeon or the mana density, because of the strange buildings recorded by the first expedition and the fact the dungeon was a life dungeon it was favored in the dungeon being there first. As the carriage reached the tall walls, Jonathan looked in awe. The blue crystal walls were beautiful like sapphires. Jonathan was taken out of the carriage and brought to the gate. On the side of the gate was a keyhole. Jonathan pulled out the crystal key and placed it in the keyhole. A voice entered Jonathan¡¯s mind ¡®What happened to Martin?¡¯ ¡°He died two years ago from overdrinking¡± Jonathan said aloud ¡®Come in then¡¯ ¡°What were you saying?¡± one of the king¡¯s knights Sir Pierre ¡°There was a voice asking about Earl Martin¡± Jonathan told him A few whispers from the mages and scholars before one asked ¡°What did the voice sound like?¡± Jonathan responded with ¡°I-¡± Clank Clank Clank The gate rose up. Scholars had tried to break the gates before but the iron used was magical in nature and couldn¡¯t be broken. Any small chipping done to the iron gates would in mere minutes be repaired. The same with the walls. Trying to fly over the wall was a folly that no one wanted to try. As the gates opened up, the younger of the scholars tried rushing ahead, but the knights held them back and had Jonathan go first. 5 meters of crystal from one side to the other. On the other side of the gate were fields of plants some houses and an even larger wall in the distance. The scholars and mages followed closely and when reached the they fields they started to grab the herbs. The knights rushed to stop them. ¡°This is Red belly lilly worth 5 small gold. This one is larger than the ones in the market, I need this to improve my abilities!¡± A young mage called out ¡°You can have it, after you buy it from the city. We will give you a discount.¡± Nathaniel That shut the mages and scholars up. Moving forward travelling the road. The inner gate needed to be opened like the outer gate but with no voices. As they past the gate they all were stunned. Towers as tall as the wall were everywhere. Trees taller than the wall were seen in the distance. Staring looking around for some time, they noticed a map. On the map there was a you are here arrow. The city was divided into the commoner¡¯s district, nobleman district, military district, trades district, the red light district, gardens district, schooling district and the coliseums. In the center of the city was the mayor¡¯s house. By each of the gates were the Dungeon halls, and by the Dungeon halls were the Adventurer¡¯s guild halls. Nathaniel led the group to the Mayor''s house. Rather than a house it was, several meeting halls, an auction hall, housing complex and garden. It towered around the largest tree of the forest, once 1.7 km now 3km tall and still growing. There were other trees growing above 2km in the parks and gardens. In the center of the main hall of the Mayor¡¯s house was a giant crystal, with another keyhole. Jonathan was directed to open up the keyhole. As the key was placed in a transfer of information was passed to his brain. ¡°Jonathan. Jonathan! Hey what happened?¡± Nathaniel sounded worried ¡°Sorry. I was thinking¡± Jonathan apolgized ¡°Thinking about what?¡± Nathaniel asked ¡°This crystal and several others are key holders for other crystal keys for the other buildings¡± Jonathan explained ¡°Oh. Is there a key that works for me as a regent?¡± ¡°Ummm¡­ I don¡¯t remember a key like that. There are manager keys, military keys, and master servant keys. The manager keys for buildings which are above individual housing keys. Military keys for the military district for authority to use the magic in the walls. Servant and master keys for noble estates and guild houses.¡± Jonathan listed off the top of his head ¡°What does your key do then?¡± Nathaniel asked a little annoyed ¡°It is the city key. It can overwrite any key and lock. It can do anything that the other keys can do, plus extra stuff but the extra stuff wasn¡¯t explained.¡± Jonathan honestly replied ¡°What is the second best key?¡± Nathaniel wondered ¡°There is the head secretary key which controls most of the functions of the Mayor¡¯s house¡± ¡°That will have to do. Pierre, do you need a key? What about you Tim and you Kyle?¡± Pierre spoke up ¡°The king will probably need a master key for an estate and military key.¡± ¡°We scholars will need keys for everything in the city¡± Tim said Kyle walked forward straightening his robes ¡°We will need keys that allow us everything dealing with magic. ¡°I will see what I can get¡± Jonathan told them. After a few minutes the crystal glowed and for the twenty people 21 keys came out. ¡°This is the head secretary key, this one is for the king and has the best estate and has a general''s functions, the other 19 are keys for city servants. Don¡¯t touch a key that isn''t yours the key imprints on your mana¡± Jonathan explained Chapter 9 King George opened a box. In the box was a letter and key. George decided to read the letter before touching the key. ¡°My liege, we have reached the crystal city safely. The key in the package is the key to the estate for the royal estate in the crystal city and has the military permissions of a general in the city. Be warned that it will drain some mana when it binds to you. Exploration of the city is going splendidly. The city is beautiful so much so that I am afraid that the capital is not a comparison. The gardens reach into the sky like the rest of the city. There are eight districts in the city I will explain what we have found out about each of them later in the letter. The Dungeon under the city has 8 entrances. Next each entrance or dungeon hall there are 3 adventurer guild halls available. I am planning to later in the year when the city officially opens auction off all the noble estates and guild halls. Management of the rest of the city will be done with employees of the city as managers of the housing towers. Stores will be sold at a small price and will increase as the number of shops lowers. First we have the commoner¡¯s district, in the east. The whole district is giant towers a theme in the city. The gardens are simple and ready for children to play. The only concern is that the edges of the garden have fences that a child could climb over and fall to their deaths. The gardens have plenty of streams that fall from the higher levels down to the lower levels. A few trees on every level have long strong branches and there are fields of grass. The housing in these towers are simple with a main room, kitchen, bathroom, and bedrooms. The bathroom includes a tub which can be filled with water hot and cold. There is also a knob which changes the water from filling the tub from the rim to the height of a man. There are sinks and toilets in every bathroom. The sinks have hot and cold water as well. The toilet after using has a level which flushes shit and piss to god knows where. We have tried to figure it out, but to no avail. The nobleman district, in the north, is more spacious with larger towers as estates with estate gardens as well as larger and more elegant gardens. The larger estates feel more open and pleasing to the eye. Multiple main rooms, bedrooms, clothing rooms, bathrooms. Each estate has large stall for horses and could fit some larger beast as well. The personal gardens offer privacy and refreshing site to the blue all around the city. The noble gardens have fish and beautiful flowers, it is beyond peaceful. There are places to be active, but the gardens are not meant for an extreme amount of rough play. The military district, in the west is all about war and fighting. For those above common soldiers they have small private quarters. There are map rooms, armories, training fields, dueling rooms, and healing rooms. The healing rooms are the most unique, muscle pain recedes and minor injuries heal. In the Dueling rooms, sound is almost non-existent and for those watching it is crystal clear. Trades districts, in the south, are a mix of homes and shops. Shops are on the lower level with housing above. The housing is in the style of the nobleman district but smaller. The shops are currently empty, but according to Jonathan the dungeon will supply what is needed once the shop has been bought and the materials needed have been given to the dungeon. I have already made the orders for almost every profession. There are gardens, but they instead of playing or elegant gardens, these gardens are for the sights and relaxation. Fountains, grass beds in the shade, flower lined up in displays. The red light district, in the northwest of the city, is plainly put where the whores and drunkards go. It is a place of brothels and pubs. There are levels to the whorehouses however. The simplest is like the ones in the capital, simple and whorish. The next level is elegant and in the style of a party. The highest level is that of free woman servant helping a nobleman. There are gardens, but they are set as stages for musicians to play and dance. The pubs follow that thought pattern as well. The garden¡¯s district is in the southwest, and is large gardens with plentiful amounts of trees and water. The levels flow from high to low, beautiful waterfalls with the blue crystal make for an amazing view. Berry bushes and edible nut trees are common. I personally try and walk the gardens there at least once every three days. The schooling district, in the southeast is for schooling of course. Pardon my joke. The schools are for everyone of the ages 4 to the age of 16, with another zone for specialized classes. The schools are divided by age and then academic level and not class. This will be a disaster but Jonathan assured me the dungeon set it up this way because it works. Lastly is the coliseums in the northeast. The coliseums are towers for combat. Audiences sit up in the tower with better seats above. There are round tubes, that if you look through can see the stage at the bottom of the tower as though were you right there. The highest levels have large lobbies with giant tubes that let the whole room see the combat at once. We accidently had some combat while exploring this section. A scholar following directions had the dungeon create a bear that was unleashed onto the stage. On the stage were a mage and scholar looking for how to move in monsters, believing the dungeon wouldn¡¯t create them. The bear mauled the scholar¡¯s arm but the mage was able to slay it. The creation explaination won. After sometime the dungeon absorbed the body of the bear leading the mages and scholars to agree that the coliseums¡¯ combat stages are part of the dungeon. The dungeon halls are inns, a small market and exploration centers all in one. We plan on having city workers control the halls. The dungeon hall¡¯s inn reaches up into the sky like the rest of the city. The guild halls are a mix of a noble tower estate and the military towers. The inside of the wall are tunnels with sightings out. There are restrooms and dining halls for those on guard. Watch towers grow around giant trees the dungeon has left inside the walls.. Outside the inner walls are farmland currently filled with rare herbs. As soon as we can we plan to switch the herbs to wheat. This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. There have been several incidents with trespassers. Some adventurers looking to go into the dungeon and some thieves looking to steal while the city is new. The adventurers have been pardoned and sent off with the news about the guild halls after a light tour. As for the thieves we plan on using them for the grand opening of the coliseums fighting monsters until they die. Your humble cousin Nathaniel¡± King George finished reading and reread it. Then gave it to his advisors who after reading it gave it to the generals in attendance and a few trusted nobles with ties to the crown. After they had all read the letter, King George addressed them ¡°What do you think?¡± ¡°No matter what, when Jonathan dies, make sure your family holds onto the key.¡± the short fat advisor told him ¡°That I need to save up to buy an estate after I send one of my children to inspect the city.¡± the nobleman Yahoo laughed out ¡°The military will be able to heavily recruit from the citizens once the city is up and running.¡± a retired old general, Adders said ¡°¡±That and move as many refugees into the city as possible. With them in a few years we will have a bunch of youths looking for revenge on the demons.¡± a slightly younger General Smithson responded. ¡°We need to claim farmland around the city to speed up the growth of the city and lower food cost in general¡± the thin tall advisor finished. There were other murmurs from those that choose not to voice their words to the king. ¡°How much military presence will we need to add to the new city?¡± King George asked Adders spoke up ¡°At least a thousand, probably 3 thousand to be safe protecting the refugees coming to the city, protecting the new farmland and patrolling the city.¡± ¡°Can we afford it?¡± King George asked ¡°Yes and by using adventurers to clear out mutated animals before hand and by hunting monsters nearby periodically. That will let us protect the refugees with less soldiers and the farmland. Then if we recruit from the city guards we won¡¯t need as many soldiers to patrol the streets. We can cut these few corners that will keep the treasury full and us from noble pressure.¡± the advisors said ¡°Then we have our solution¡± King George stated before touching the key and feeling the mana drain. ------------------------------ The city was bustling. Over 5 thousand refugees had been moved into the city and today the city founding day. There were cheers as King George himself was visiting for this event. After the first part of the festival the auction of the noble estates and guild halls. Leaders from every Adventurer''s guild was there. Initial test on the dungeon showed a high density of mana, around 75 times the average. In the city the average was even higher at 150 times the density. There was concern about this leading to mutations, but was dispelled by further testing. The secondary test results were that the mana in the city actually promoted good health and killed mutations. For the actual exploration four C ranked teams were presumed dead from getting lost. A B rank team was called in to explore the dungeon just in case and they brought a surveyor to help map the dungeon. The first exploration discovered an area filled with mushrooms and mushroom covered animals. It was a good first exploration and the party retreated. The second exploration almost lead to the entire party dying from their lust as they went into the mushroom area, aphrodisiac section. An actually death occurred from a scout going too far in the northern section of the mushrooms, filled with toxic mushrooms. The southern and western sections had no such dangers and were filled with medical and edible mushrooms. The party found the dungeon incredibly easy other than the tunnels and potentially deadly mushrooms. The first floor was given the rank of F to E, because although it was mostly small animals there were some large animals throughout the first floor. The low difficulty from the initial reports led to some concern about the profits that could be gain. The final judgement on the dungeons worth waited until the party returned to the capital with the spoils. Returning to the capital with only mushrooms and rare herbs was quite the let down compared to other life dungeons, until they were evaluated. The aphrodisiac mushrooms or lustmushrooms, caused some stir amongst the noble community. The lustshrooms improved longevity of sex and increased chances of getting with child. Plus it was fun for both parties, but some had plans for a more nefarious use in mind. Medical mushrooms increased development of muscle and brain growth, making a stir in both the military and magic circles of the kingdom. The edible mushrooms were plain delicious for everyone. Deadly mushrooms were useful for some potions. With the rare herbs the dungeon as it, was evaluated as a small gold mine with potential for more as the dungeon grew. With there being no second floor yet, it was not enough of a challenge for the higher rank parties of adventurers, but the forest was. Most guilds sent over a party to check out the guild halls from the stories that were being spread and the news surpassed them. All these factors made every one of 67 guilds in the kingdom want a guild hall. The noble estates were something the large noble families wanted to show off the wealth. Before the auction began everyone was invited to go to the coliseums and watch a show. The fights were tragic the thieves were slaughtered by bears and wolves. At first everyone was appealed but as the fights got more interesting they cheered. Commoners sometimes got close enough for blood to go up to the rows of people. Nobles were enjoying the private boxes taking small bets. It was a grand success. Afterwards free food was served in the Garden¡¯s sections showing off more of the beauty of the city. Man smaller nobles now wanted a piece of the city and were ready to compete. The auction started with the guild halls. The cheapest went for 200 large gold and the most expensive went for 4000 large gold. The estates went from 500 large gold to 7000 for the second best estate as the best estate was taken by the king. Many of the guilds cursed their ill preparedness and the large nobles were stunned at the pressure from the lower nobles. ------------------------------ ¡°It was a grand success.¡± Nathaniel told his secretaries, friends and Jonathan While the rest of the small party was drinking, Jonathan was resting in the corner. He was tired and not into the events. He missed his simple life in the lower levels of the capital, and more importantly he miss his brother. He wasn¡¯t allowed out without at least four bodyguards. There was plenty to eat and water to drink but life was boring. To add to the misery, the Black Tail Mercenaries left the kingdom and Isaac was nowhere to be found. As the party kept going on a servant came into the room with a message for Nathaniel ¡°My lord, the Lady of the land is here¡± ¡°What? Send them in. Who the hell is saying they are the lords of the land¡± Nathaniel spoke aloud A girl of 8 years of age came into the room with an elderly man and a fat man. The girl with red hair down to her waist and green dress to her ankles. The elderly man was wearing a simple suit of black and white. The fat man had red hair and was wearing a large suit of white and brown. ¡°Who are you?¡± Nathaniel asked coming up to the group ¡°I am Whitney Stormheart, daughter of Earl Martin Stormheart and the ruler of these lands. These are my grandfathers. Baron Leon Stormheart and President of the White Horse trading company Mr. Walton Redmane.¡± the girl Whitney Stormheart stated ¡°Why are you here?¡± Nathaniel asked, stunned that the king hadn¡¯t taken the land for himself ¡°Simple. You owe taxes. A simple 40% will do. We will also be needing a set of rooms no less than 10 in the ¡®Mayor¡¯s house¡¯, a dozen store towers and a dozen housing towers. Tomorrow we can discuss the sales that legally should have been done with my approval.¡± Whitney said Jonathan stared at her. To him it was a light in the world Chapter 10 Jade was ecstatic. The last year had been so interesting. The first explorers of the city watching their expressions. Having other enjoy one¡¯s art is of the two great pleasures of an artist, the other being able to create such a piece. The joys of watching them try and figure out what he did to create the city. The deaths of the explorers. Jade had never been blood thirsty even when practicing devil arts, it had been a slight thirst. Being a dungeon had changed his soul, that just changing universes didn¡¯t or using cultivating technique you train by drinking blood. The need to kill the invaders, instincts termed was annoying. The few teams that got lost in the dungeon had no hope. They had no mapping skills, cooking skills or any survival skills. It was a pleasure to remove them from the dungeon using Blood Mind Syphon, weakening them for the animals to enjoy and Jade to keep the bones for arrays. Jade was glad to see that you could earn points from invaders deaths. There was a flood of information every time someone died and it was up to Jade to learn as much as he could before a timer was released and the unlearned information left. The second and third teams had survival skills but couldn¡¯t map to save their lives. Their deaths came from the north and east mushroom areas, still Jade drained them as they died to further his cultivation. The fourth team could amazingly map, but had no skills in cooking and eating most types of mushrooms raw is never a good idea. The B ranked team had all the skills, still it didn¡¯t help the scout who walked into a mushroom spore cloud. Their exploration ended at the caverns. They tried to figure out the secret of the confusion formation but after repeated failures and mental exhaustion they left. Good thing too. Jade was heavily pressured by his new instincts to attack them for trying to attack the shell protecting his core. In all the invaders gave him 19 points The second floor was being slowly excavated. The deaths really boosted free mana Jade had to use for expanding the second floor. The dungeon produced 523 mana a day and there was for being level 10, there was 200 points of mana naturally entering his core, still his cultivation method brought in the most mana at around 3000 a day. Sadly his cultivation would drastically slow down the mana that Jade could absorb after reaching the halfway mark. There was a pleasant surprise when Jade opened the store, skills and traps. The traps weren¡¯t good at all, Jade could make those and heavily improved versions now. Skills! Jade found mana attribute skills for 100 to 10,000 points. There were also a rating of skills. Necessary, common, uncommon, rare, mythical, legendary. The necessary skills were monster drop rate, auto monster creation and dungeon ore deposits. From what Jade learned from the adventurer''s, life dungeons like himself only used drop rate and ore deposits. This was because in life dungeons monsters lived, reproduced, and died in a rapid cycle. Jade noticed that the animals in his dungeon did go through a life cycle quicker than natural wildlife. Jade took the monster drop rate (for 150 points) and dungeon ore deposit (for 50 points) skills. Monster drop rate Animals and monsters will drop a random preassigned item Dungeon ore deposits The ability to create ore veins. Ore veins (deposits) can be assigned based on materials consumed. Ore deposits will slowly consume mana to grow. Higher quality ores cost more mana to grow. The only good news was that other than Blood Mind Syphon the rest of his cultivation methods had reached the halfway mark. Jade now could split his mind into 50 equal sections. Each cultivation method gave Jade the ability to attribute mana. From what little he had gotten from the adventurers, most dungeons either use one type of element. Using the ore veins from the dungeon ore deposit skill Jade was able to use the cultivation method of sculpted array bones. Jade had a wonderful idea of using the profound copper veins he was using for his sculpted array bones as traps. Sculpted array bones used the bones as a storage of energy. Normally this provides a burst of power for combat. The Dungeon edition of sculpted array bones, uses the profound copper veins as bones to gather energy. When something triggers the sculpted array bones, a burst of energy damages everything around the profound copper vein. There were normal copper veins mixed in just to throw people off. Normally there would be 206 bones, the dungeon edition has 618 bones with room to grow. Almost ready for the grand opening of the dungeon Jade kept looking at the store¡¯s skills list. One skill stood out. Skill book creation Using your information can create new skill books. You can create already consumed skill books without it. This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. It was in the rare ranking but that was because only a few dungeons used it. For 250 points Jade picked it up. As he did. Skill book creation Using your information can create new skill books. You can create already consumed skill books without it. Synergizes with Monster Imbuement to transfer skills from dungeon to monster. Synergizes with Monster naming to create monster bloodlines that give skills to other generations. Synergizes with Architecture perk unique - monster buildings to create the new building of training room. Jade reread the new information. Monster imbuement was never used before because the monster had to make a kill before the skill could be used. Monster bloodlines was something Jade was familiar with, it was similar to the cultivation universe of animals passing along special cultivation methods and traits to their offspring they got through cultivation or legendary herbs. The training rooms could speed up intelligent monsters training in skills but Jade had no intelligent monsters to give. Of the many things Jade had received from people trading for coin in the dungeon hall there had been no animals, not even a rat. Jade knew the reasons. Life dungeons tended to have higher animal mutants than other dungeons, therefore adventurer guilds never gave animals to dungeons. The tools were mundane, but Jade now had several types of clay. He also gave everyone the best bedding possible. Updated shops with elemental spirits powering the new improved tools. For the event over 50 thieves were killed. As the thieves died, Jade watched the formations activate building up a frenzy of excitement to those watching. Originally Jade just wanted to let the inhabitants of his city have something to watch, but now each person that died was free points. They didn¡¯t even attempt to clean up the bodies leaving Jade with more bones. Jade quickly became bored of watching the humans, the inhabitants chat, sing, and play. Some were praising the new fences around the edges of the buildings and parks. Now at 3 meters tall with a shocking array keeping anyone from trying to climb over. Which he was forced to do because one child nearly fell to their deaths while the parents were chatting away not paying attention. Jade looked at the party where the new key holder Jonathan was sitting in a pit of self absorbed sorrow. Losing his brother with nothing to do but wallow. This kind of thing is common but it up to the person to get past it. If he could then Jonathan would be a worthy student in the cultivation world. Here? Jade ultimately only had a natural formation protecting him. A student may turn on the master if one is not careful. He could make a higher rank formation and teach but that would be a waste because not even a B rank party could attempt to understand it and Jonathan was not at that point. As the party kept going it was boring but Jade was learning a lot about the landscape and politics. The kingdom was quite large for such an academic level. Even with magic the kingdom should have had enemy kingdoms putting pressure on the kingdom, but there was none of that leaving the kingdom to fester internally with nobles and kings. From the Lower third of the Multan Mountains in the west to the desert in the south there was about 1200 Km between the two points of the kingdom, then now east to west nearly a 1000 Km in distance. Jade when he first came to the world thought it was a minor world. Then from what he learnt from the dead and from Martin all he knew was the kingdom with several kingdoms nearby. He thought it might be a Pangea world, but the from the stories that mothers told their children there were oceans with other continents in the west he knew that he was wrong. Nobles talked sometimes of a demon war several kingdoms away that he had not heard of before. There were talk of gods, but no mortal ascending to immortality unless they were a hero that had slain a monster and were brought up by the gods to the gods realm as a reward. With how mana had acted from Jade¡¯s experience, it was violent but could be used to promote longevity. The king wasn''t some ancient being nor were the nobles. Jade kept listening in to all the nobles in city to catch some words that can answer his questions, Jade caught sight of someone going to the party with Jonathan. A child, with two elders. One elder was definitely older than the other and looked to be a warrior, a knight from earth would be an aft description. The other reminded him of clerks in the mortal world sects he would visit. The child was the most interesting of all. As they introduced themselves, it made since. Why the two elders gave off those feelings. The child however was something else. Looking closer, the system did not give him an description, another limit to not being a city core. Jade used ice mind eyes. It was confirmed. Jade made his move, he had the key shake awaking Jonathan from his child like lust. A key hole appeared in front of him. Slowly he put in the key. The two elders asked what he was doing. When he was shuttering to reply, Jade made his move. In front of Whitney he created a panel with a skill book. The skill book was icy phoenix''s thunder roar. It took 7000 mana to create. The icy phoenix was a rare physique for woman and extremely rare for men. Thunder roar physique was extremely rare for anyone. Together they only occurred in a minor world¡¯s 2 or 3 times. In major world''s no more that 20 times. This was a shock to meet it here. He had to teach, even if he wasn¡¯t ready to defend himself. As she touched the skill book, the elder¡¯s tried to stop her, but a child¡¯s curiosity is hard to stop in the moment. The book turned to dust and a swirl of energy entered her mind teaching her the skill. Still she would have to wait for her body to develop before she could train in the technique. Dungeon Status Level 10 Dungeon Type: Jade Name: N/A Titles: N/A Achievements: Perfect Perfection, Ancient Presence, Dungeon City Mana: 3004/25000 Points: 972 Floors: 2 Skills: Basic Dungeon Mana Gathering Level 1, Unknown Mana Gathering Level ???, Dungeon Mana Manipulation, Mana absorption, Mana creation Level 16, Dungeon expansion, Summon Monsters, Summon life, Monster imbuement, Monster Naming, Environmental Controls, Floor creation, Architecture Level 66, Monster drop rate, Dungeon ore deposits, Skill book creation, Perks: Architecture: 40 points Improved Durability 1,2,3 for 15% increase in Durability Age regression 1,2,3, for 30% increase in lifespan of buildings Improved function 1,2,3, for 7.5% increase in functionality of buildings Unique - monster homes 1, Increases monsters by 2.5% healing, 2.5% growth, 2.5% improvement Unique - dungeon buildings 1, small: safe rooms/breeding rooms/training rooms Fortifications 1, improved defense of buildings 7.5% Magical buildings 1, 7.5% magically ability of buildings chapter 11 Jonathan watched as the energy swirled around her. Leon Stormheart gabbed Jonathan lifted him off the ground. ¡°What did you do?¡± Leon shouted ¡°I... the dungeon sent...¡± Jonathan tried to speak but was getting cut off ¡°Baron Stormheart drop him or I''ll have you hanged!¡± Nathaniel stated after being shocked at Leon¡¯s sudden grabbing of Jonathan Leon stared at Nathaniel and the other nobles, Walton and Whitney ¡°IF anything happens to her I will kill you myself!¡± Finishing Leon dropped Jonthan Jonathan dropped to the ground falling on his butt, heavily breathing, with bruises already forming around his neck. He started to try and crawl away. Whitney began blinking, and saw Jonathan almost crying, her grandfather with fury in his eyes. ¡°What is going on here?¡± Whitney asked her grandfather ¡°I was just disciplining the new mayor.¡± Leon told his granddaughter ¡°Why?¡± Whitney questioned ¡°Well you¡­¡± Leon started ¡°Well I what? The dungeon is a life dungeon. It gave me a gift. It was my choice to accept it. Now why did you attack my mayor?¡± Whitney asked ¡°I have no excuse¡± Leon said after some time ¡°We will take this into account when settling the problem with the auction. We will need our rooms. Sir Nathaniel Gihread please come with us. Also send someone to check on the mayor.¡± Whitney directed leaving the room. Jonathan with water his eyes looked at Whitney¡¯s figure leaving making her more beautiful. A healer was called in and helped heal Jonathan¡¯s bruises, the psychological damage of almost being choked to death couldn¡¯t be healed through most magics. That night Jonathan couldn¡¯t sleep. Thoughts of Whitney¡¯s figure haunted his dreams, as well as being choked. He decided he was going to be stronger. Going to a key hole, he slid the key in ¡°Hello?¡± Jonathan asked the room A bit of time passed before ¡®Hello¡¯ the dungeon responded ¡°Can you help me?¡± Jonathan asked ¡®Maybe. What do you need help with?¡¯ the dungeon reply ¡°I want to become stronger¡± Jonathan stated ¡®Why?¡¯ the dungeon askedHelp support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site. ¡°I want to marry Whitney¡± Jonathan blushed a little when sharing this ¡®Awe that child yes. She is a rare talent and potentially a beauty¡¯ the dungeon told him ¡°No! I like her¡± Jonathan told the dungeon ¡®You don¡¯t know her¡¯ The dungeon struck a pin in his heart ¡°I still want to be stronger¡± Jonathan made up his mind ¡®Well I will tell you a method to get stronger. It will be hard¡¯ the dungeon shared what it would do ¡°Can¡¯t you give me a skill book like you did Whitney?¡± Jonathan questioned ¡®Wanting to take the easy way? I guess you don¡¯t want my help¡¯ The dungeon answered ¡°No I do. Please tell me¡± Jonathan said ¡®Fine I will share, but it will be up too you to continue your training every day.¡¯ The dungeon began to share how to breath, train and grow ¡°Is that it?¡± Jonathan wondered ¡®If you don¡¯t believe me then don¡¯t try. Talk to you later Jonathan¡¯ ¡°No wait!¡± Jonathan tried to stop the dungeon but the dungeon had left. After getting no response Jonathan followed the dungeons training. The next day Jonathan met with Whitney, Walton, Leon, Nathaniel, and King George and his advisors in a special barrier. ¡°We are making the case your highness that yesterday¡¯s auction was illegal. As the lady of the land, the auction of land should have been done through me. However, because we were late in showing up we were not able to achieve my family''s goals. We are not going to revoke a noble family and earn their ire, instead we are going to heavily tax everything the city earns. Originally it was going to be 40% but after last night I am going to lower it to 35%. With the amount of potential money more citizens from the kingdom and some commoners from beyond the kingdom will come to settle. We understand that because the city is young that the city may not be able to pay for the growth of necessary personnel to run the cities facilities. So we have set up a loan that the city can use. We need 10 rooms and a dozen housing towers and shop towers is two part. First is for noble guests that we have. Secondly I am an heir for the White Horse trading company and as such need places for business and to let employees sleep. The White Horse trading company is planning on shipping out a few hundred pounds of dried mushrooms to nearby kingdoms which will bring more power to the kingdom, in the next few months. With this your majesty my argument will end.¡± Whitney finished her argument ¡°I see no problem with most of what you said. However, 4 of the housing and shop towers, that you want are already in use. I believe that moving the residents will lead to disruption. At the moment just go with 8 housing and 8 shop towers in the area you want. As for the auction that was lead by my mistake so I have no say, no matter how much my cousin complains.¡± George looked at Nathaniel whose argument was that it given permission from the king and that taking prime real estate will lead to lower taxes in the future. ¡°I can compromise on the housing, as you said we only have a small operation, but later today our convoy will be coming with a few hundred animals, monsters and plants.¡± The king looked alarmed ¡°The kingdom¡¯s alliance against the demons prevented taking of animals and monsters to a dungeon.¡± ¡°¡±My liege that was correct until a month ago. This city was made an exception due to the heavy characteristics to the mythical city dungeons in the far far west, seen before the demon war. Adventurer guilds have began adding humanoid monsters to dungeons 10 years ago to better prepare for combat against the demons. Plus we play on buying ¡®lustshrooms¡¯ 25% above market price. Then there is the most recent news from the frontlines. They destroyed the demon nest Ocras¡± ¡°That deadly demon nest on the front lines. That is great news. How did you get the news before me?¡± King George asked ¡°The White Horse merchant houses all use long range communication crystals. The news was given over a new extreme long range communication crystal not yet fully tested.¡± Whitney explained ¡°Was there more to this news?¡± The king asked ¡°They secured the demon¡¯s nest heart and sealed it. At a heavy cost of 2 million C rank soldiers, and over a half million higher ranked soldiers. The demons scattered and a large amount went east destroying a major city in our defensive lines. There are now over 8 million refugees being shipped east. The kingdoms¡¯ alliance is going to pull another draft and our kingdom is on the list plus we will have to accept the some of refugees.¡± Whitney told the King ¡°Then¡­¡± king George started then stopped ¡°Yes, we will accept all the refugees into the city. We are planning on setting up a teleportation gate a dozen miles away from the outer gates. It will be ready in 6 months, but the cost to create and maintain a teleportation gate is expensive. Even the capital wouldn¡¯t have one if it wasn¡¯t created before the teleportation gate was developed.¡± Whitney finished ¡°....You held all the cards from the start. I can only accept what you are going to do in your territory anyways. I will need support against those who seek to break away or name themselves king¡± King George said with conviction ¡°You will have it¡± Whitney gave her word ¡°To be played by an eight year old. I miss the days on the front lines¡± the king said standing up to leave the meeting room ¡°Won¡¯t you become my daughter in law?¡± Jonathan felt his heart drop ¡°If there is someone worthy I will marry them. I am an earl, and a major trading partner in the top 10 trading companies in the known world.¡± Whitney said with a smile ¡°Damn if only I was 10 again¡± King George laughed ¡°you can take down the barrier¡± with a nod a mage cancelled the barrier ¡°If you excuse us milady¡± Nathaniel jestered for Jonathan to get up and follow and follow ¡°You are excused.¡± Whitney said before leaving herself