《World of Dungeons (Cancelled.)》 Chapter 1 - What am i? {RE} Third persons P.O.V:- *Clink* *Clank* *Clink* The heavy sound of metal striking metal was ringing everywhere. Countless brave warriors with disheveled hair and bloody bodies were fighting everywhere with beasts that looked more like abominations or monster from dreams than naturally created disasters. No matter how strong the strikes from their sharp and fine blade seemed, their blades always ended up repelled after colliding with the bodies of those damnations and the strike and rebound of their weapons is also always followed by a trail of sparks and screams. Lights of different colors and explosions ranging from small to huge were flying everywhere time after time, impacting those freaks, creating giant craters and devastation on an environment devastating level, but most of those bastards always stood up again like nothing happened and continued their massacre, spreading scenes of gore and pillage everywhere. Shurrrruuuuuu¡­¡­. *splash* splash*splash*splash* Sounds of movement through water reverberated amidst the falling rain. The Confluence of water and blood gave the whole scene an artistic touch, but with a feeling of sadness. Every drop of falling rain was evenly matched by drops of blood and sweat falling from the bodies of warriors and soldiers fighting with the monsters. BOOM BOOOMMM BOOOOMMMM¡­ Majestic Noises of battle exploded, while mournful voices and cries of desperation and wails broken willed soldiers ringed through the whole battlefield. The soldiers who had been fighting, killing the monster again and again, were so fatigued that the only thing holding their bodies standing was not some magical powers, but their will to fight; Their will to protect their families, their lands and to protect their women from being ravaged and killed by the horde of vicious monsters. While most of them believed for a miracle to happen, that would somehow turn the situation around, bringing the never ending massacre to an end, but the reality ate their hopes as destiny had its own plans. The only thing that their desperation resulted in was to make their hotheaded and frenzied adversaries surge with a massive increase in killing intent, which made the situation even worse, worse than it already was. While the beasts of horrible visages and shape were getting killed in tens; their comrades were getting played around and eaten alive for brandishing their swords against the monsters. For every monster that was killed, hundreds if not thousands of the soldier were eaten alive or crushed to a meat patty. But no matter how many of them died no one alive retreated or ran away. There was not a single coward amidst their ranks, and every one of them stood straight in the face of death. When one died another took his place, moving forward without a shred of fear. They believed in their commanders, their supervisor, and their king. They believed that no matter who or how many died, their protectors would never let anything happen to their families, to their homes and to their country. That until they gave it their all, and did their part, there was no way anyone would be able to destroy their legacy. But they were not blind with faith, neither were they hypnotized to sacrifice their lives for a single persons ambition, but were together facing a villain like one they had never seen before. But even if their souls and wills were not dwindling in front of death, the also knew that no matter how many common soldiers like them stayed true to their roots and followed every given order to their deaths, for their pride, for the pride and trust of their people, there was still no way for them to change the situation. No matter how many of their comrades died while killing a little bit of the enemy forces, the difference between their numbers and strength was indescribable. There was no way for them to put even a single dent in the enemies hearts as they were just mindless puppets sent to kill and destroy everything in their path. While the soldiers were desperately trying to fight with their nemesis, one of their leading commanders broke under the pressure. With his mind driven to insanity and thoughts of killing rampaging through his head, he cried out¡­ ¡°No no no oooooooo¡­.!¡± ¡°Why god! Why? What did we do wrong to deserve this humiliation and pillage? For what mistake thy want to destroy our land and our happiness? ¡°For what reason is this damnation, trying to lay waste to our thousands of years of history? Why is this devil not letting go of our legs, even though there is no way for us to retaliate against it anymore?¡± ¡°I can¡¯t take this anymore! You fucking bastard, if you really have the guts, then show yourself! Do you really fucking enjoy laughing at our miserable states, looking from behind the scenes? You fucking bitch of a leader. I''ll kill you, kill you uu ¡­¡­¡­¡± Guguaahh¡­¡­ *Thud* Everyone of their strongest warrior paled in front of the enemy generals. No matter how powerful they were once in their life, only death awaited them at the end. He heard no voice to his anger filled question, but he was still answered by the axe of a rampaging Minotaur like monster. He looked up and gave a long shout and declared to kill the impersonator, but all of his tenacity and anger came to naught when a Minotaur slashed his axe on his poorly defended neck. Without giving him any time to act or defend the axe fell on his neck, cutting his head cleanly from the neck. His crimson red blood created a fountain, and the blood splashing everywhere, while the falling rain washed away all of his grievances and sourness. His shocked and wide opened eyes still couldn¡¯t see the one who had ended his life. His confused and rapidly deteriorating mind tried to contemplate what had really perspired, but everything for him came to an end, when his eyes lost all light and he died. The axe had been swung with such a force that his head was flown away. It revolved twice in the air, before falling on the ground. It rolled away to some distance before it was stomped by a group of charging monsters. It was crushed so cruelly that all of his brain matter, fluids and muscles mixed together to a form, which can only be described as a paste. ¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­.. P.O.V King:- There¡­. another one died. The strong really don¡¯t care about the weak, huh. When we were strong and our prey was weak, we played with them and enjoyed hunting them at our leisure. Now that we are weak and our prey is strong¡­ It can¡¯t even be called hunting. *Sigh* I don¡¯t know anything anymore. Prey? Were we even considered a prey by IT? We might have bellowed our bugles louder at the start, but time really showed how laughable and disgraceful, our forces and strategies really were. No amount of strategies and number of soldiers can hold a candle in front of absolute strength. Were our Advisers and ministers really right about the foreboding that they had perceived? If their views and notions were really adapted, could we have saved our entire race¡­ no, our entire world from the mouth of devastation? *Sigh* Regrets really make life sad, if we really had considered the views and wisdom of our ministers and cabinet then maybe this had not been the end, maybe we would have developed even further. If we had evolved and developed our technology for another thousand no just a few centuries then maybe¡­ *sigh* Regret really makes life sad. An arrow which is already leaving the bow, really never returns before striking the target. But the only difference is that, this time, our arrow struck the wrong target. Who could we have known that the chance we sought to save ourselves would end up haunting our very own lives? How could we have known that our greed would one day end up making us face an adversary, who holds no meaning to life, no care for emotions, and has no heart? *Sigh* Should I blame myself, for trying to find life on other planets? Or Should I blame our army! Whose undisciplined and greedy nature devoured our whole civilization? Or Should I blame our gods! Who turned their heads away, when we needed them the most? *sigh* Did we really get so high on our success and enjoyment, that we forgot that are not almighty? That there might be something¡¯s in this world, which should not be provoked? Who would have thought that even our majestic force which counted to a total number of staggering 35 Billion, would face devastation on such a grand level that not even a million would be left? The war? It has only been a little over a Year, from the start of this bloody massacre. Yes, more than 79 Billion People died during this year. Casualties which arise when a worldwide attack by barbaric monsters happen is really uncountable. Most of the people who died were normal civilians, kids and elderly, people like farmers. Even though we still have some major cities intact and some places which are not normally available were also not attacked, but everything else was¡­ evaporated. The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. Our fighting force which no one could put a dent in, has been broken and disfigured into a state that our former glory from just a year ago, seems like a thing of the far past. When we first found that place I thought we would be able to protect our land, our life, our home. We would be able to free ourselves from the disaster, which we could not help but create because of our own negligence. I thought that god had finally given us another chance to show him our value That we are not trash; we are not just depleting our resources, but are evolving. Yes¡­!! That is what really happened, that we could start our lives again, but * Drip*drip*drip* Even these tears can¡¯t help me forget my sorrow, this pain, and this anger. Wish I could go back in time and reverse everything and stop them from enraging it. I still think every day about the time when our soldiers brought that devilish thing back from their outer space skirmish. How wrong were we to think it would help us, but.......*sigh*. Nothing can stop IT now. I¡¯m sorry father. I could not help our kind. I could not help our planet, our world, but at least I did send that ominous bracelet away, at least it will not pester our world anymore¡­ at least after some time life will flourish here again, even if I will not be there to see the triumph and evolution of a new species and their evolution. Even if I am going to die today, but at least there is still hope, hope that it would not haunt the future of our coming generation, like it destroyed ours. Ah! Mother, looks like I am finally going to meet you. ¡­¡­ The king looked up and saw a giant disk floating and hovering high up in the sky. The disk floated and it came directly over his head and stopped. He saw it charging energy in one of its main cannons and when the sound of it getting powered up echoed in his surrounding, everyone stopped fighting with their enemies and looked up to see the cause of such unnatural phenomenon. The king closed his eyes as if surrendering his life to fate and then the beam fell. BBbbOOoOOmMM And then everything returned to serenity. The place that was once the most flourishing and advanced, crumbled like blocks. Mountains were flattened, rivers dried, oceans evaporated, and life became extinct. ¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­ Meanwhile the wheel of time kept on rotating and centuries and millenniums passed away in the blink of an eye. While the destruction of the king and his whole civilization surely rocked the planet and the celestial bodies around it, but oblivious to all of this on the other side of the universe, millions of light years away somewhere someplace on a planet name Seiza a light fluctuation of energy took place. With the vibration and movement of soil and the stones around it; a crystal definitely different than any other, but also similar to many started shining and emitting high energy fluctuations in its surrounding. ¡°Ea¡­T¡­ Hun¡­gr¡­¡± ¡°Po¡­e..R¡± The crystal after being forged by hundreds of years of mana finally gained will, a will that only demanded destruction to eat and devour everything. But unfortunately, this will of his lead it to release all of its mana in a standard small time explosion. The explosion evaporated some, but removed most of the dirt and sand creating a hole, connecting him who was buried deep underground with the surface. But as it has lost most of its mana its connection to conscious became dim as itno went into hibernation to recover and replenish its lost mana. His dwindling conscious finally faded as it heard a broken voice of its head. *Ding* ¡­you ¡­ha,v E¡­ A chie¡­v¡­.. It took it a day to make a full recovery of its mana before it woke back up from his first slumber. ¡°Where am I?¡± ¡°Who am I?¡± ¡°What happened?¡± ¡°I remember waking up and then, and then¡­ I don¡¯t remember anything.¡± ¡°Why is there a blank in my memory? It¡¯s like I was forced to forget everything!¡± ¡°Forget it, this doesn¡¯t matter. What I should really focus on right now is to know what and who I am and also where I am.¡± ¡°But the thing is. Why is everything so black? Is it because I can¡¯t see?¡± ¡°Ahem¡­ seems to me like neither can I hear. Can I move?¡± To test his hypothesis the crystal which had now suddenly and miraculously gained wisdom and intelligence tried to move its body, but it easily found out after trying for a bit that its body was a dud. He couldn¡¯t¡¯ see, hear, smell, taste or even move. ¡°Fuck, Fuck, FUCK!!¡± It cursed and cursed till the word started echoing inside its mind and he started losing his bearing and confidence over his not so good and supposedly dead body. He also tried to open his mouth, his eyes or get some kind of movement from its muscles, but he also quickly found out that he couldn¡¯t open his eye lids and mouth because he actually didn¡¯t have them. Then he noticed that he also didn¡¯t have a heart beat or even¡­ a heart. ¡°Am I actually an undead?¡± Such thoughts started pestering and invading his mind making his not so good mood immersed into a sea of sadness. ¡°Or am I A stone?¡± He thought the only possibility that he could muster the courage to believe in, even though it sounded quite unbelievable. *Sigh* But then he sighed, ¡°Let¡¯s just, let it be. If my life has a path, then I will eventually walk on it otherwise,¡± He looked inside his black world or his mind and mustered the courage to ask himself, ¡°why was I born if the only thing I can do in this life is to talk to myself?¡± He waited, waited and hoped that maybe somebody would suddenly call him and talk to him, but his waiting only lead to his anguish and agony. His anger and rage increased to new heights, but his rising temperature became calm as he started losing hope to ever get the chance to see, no, even talk to anybody in his life again. He was going to leave his life to destiny, but before that, he prayed. ¡°Please, if there is a god somewhere and he is listening to me, then I¡¯m sorry. I don¡¯t know what wrongs I have committed or what my sins were, but please at least tell me what I am!¡± But nothing happened. His courage flattened and his already slimming hope crumbled, as his soul started drifting towards the river of delusions and sadness, but then he heard something. *Ding* ¡®Huh? What is this?¡± He was already confused from the sudden sound that echoed inside his empty and dark world, but then he saw¡­ Light. A blue colored box message came in front of him and bewildered him. ¡°What is happening that is impossible, am I not blind?¡¯ He thought so, but destiny already had something planned for him. Establishing connection. *Ding* Procedure complete. *Ding* Connection established. After the show of the blue boxes and their notification sound ended, something amazing happened. HE heard sound, no, actually he heard someone speaking, and from their conversation he understood that maybe they were talking about him. ¡°Hey, come here! We found him¡­¡± ¡°Is it the newest one?¡± If the first voice contained the liveliness of youth, then the second one was full of experience and had the tenacity of an adult. ¡°Okay, so you go and try to talk to him, I have pending work to do and also t¡­¡± From conversation it looked like they were there for him, so he decided to greet them politely, but it made the situation a bit awkward. ¡°Um¡­ hello?¡± His simple greeting left them dazed and the shock was enough to create a kind of serenity which he couldn¡¯t even appreciate when he was alone. ¡°Oh! This one has sentience, huh. Well, that is quite a shock. Good for you, newbie, It¡¯s quite some luck you have got. Well, go on, talk to him then.¡± The heavier and experienced one faded away into the void and the younger voice took over her. ¡°Yes? Oh! Sorry about that, but tell me can you hear me?¡± And to the auspiciously suspicious voice the crystal excitingly said, ¡°Yes I can, yes, I can hear you. But who are you?¡± ¡°Oh! Let me introduce myself, my name is ¡®Minie feefee the 955¡¯ and I''m your caretaker.¡± When he heard the voice say that it was there for him, he couldn¡¯t help but cry in joy and mumble about his sadness, as he even forgot to ask some important questions, like why he needed a caretaker. ¡°Ah! Some is here I am not alone, I¡¯m not alone. God saved me.¡± ¡°Excuse me? What happened?¡± ¡°I¡¯m sorry you know I have been stuck in this dark world of mine without anyone to talk to. I can¡¯t feel anything, I can¡¯t breathe, can¡¯t walk, hear, smell¡± *sob*. ¡°I can¡¯t even move! I have been stuck here, in the same place for I don¡¯t know long. So could you please, please! Tell me what I am? ¡± His tone of voice and the sadness it contained was enough to take the other party on an emotional tour, as the noise of whining and sobs filled its ears. But then the calm attacked again and the voice again spoke. ¡°Oh! You poor thing; It must have been very hard on you, huh. Don¡¯t worry I¡¯m here now and I¡¯ll never leave you alone, I¡¯ll always be there for you. As to what you are? You my friend are a¡­ ¡­Dungeon core.¡± Chapter 2 - Title and Tribulations {RE} Author''s note:- This is a rewritten chapter for new readers. Old reader unless you want to help me by commenting about the changes, don''t read. There is no plot change, nothing added, nothing emitted, no hole filled and no new information given. I did what i could to improve it. Help me, if you think this is not enough. . Enjoy. ............................................................................................................ Mc''s P.O.V:- Does this mean, now I am a government approved and certified conscious who has rock as his species and neutral as his gender? About neutral gender I don¡¯t think that I¡¯m neutral I can feel something yelling inside me saying that I¡¯m 100% male. Well, enough of that. I should get serious now, but still a dungeon core. Actually what is a dungeon core? Ah she is still speaking; I got so absorbed in my own monologue that I forgot about her, just hope she won¡¯t mind. Now where was I, Ah! Yes, so like I was thinking I really am a rock. Well a crystal, but technically still a rock. But how can a rock gain conscious. Over that I¡¯m also feeling hungry, is that even possible. Well, whatever, not like thinking so much about something that I don¡¯t understand right now would solve anything! (Miniefeefee 955): ¡°Ano! Are you all right? Is anything of the matter? Please come back from the land of depression!¡± Is she mad! No, although her face looks kind of red, but she looks more worried than angry. It¡¯s okay, let¡¯s try talking to her. Even though she¡¯s a loud mouth; she seems nice. ¡°Don¡¯t worry everything is alright. I was just thinking about something.¡± Did that work? ¡°If you say so, then if it¡¯s okay with you can I ask some questions?¡± [Rock]: ¡°What kind of questions are you talking about?¡± ¡°Ah! Don¡¯t worry sir, it¡¯s just a normal procedure to be followed, you can refuse to answer if you want to. Okay?¡± ¡°Okay.¡± ¡°Well then, firstly, Could you tell me how you came to be? I mean no offence, but it¡¯s really important that I ask you this to determine what kind of a conscious you are? And please try to answer with as much detail as you can.¡± Type of conscious! Are there like different types of conscious¡¯s out there. Should I really tell her? What will I do if she tries to harm me? I think I¡¯m being paranoid without any reason. Let¡¯s trust her for now. Even though I can¡¯t see her, but her voice is really nice. Well at least she seems friendly enough and I also need to know some answers too. (Rock): ¡°Umm¡­ I- don¡¯t know what to say.¡± ¡°It¡¯s okay, but please try a little. I am sure every little thing would help.¡± ¡°Well, when I woke up, everything was black. I couldn¡¯t see anything and couldn¡¯t understand anything either, then I felt a burst of energy leaving me. After that I lost conscious cause of my aching head. And when I came to be, I could understand stuff like taking and words, which I didn¡¯t know before.¡± ¡°Humm¡­ do you remember anything else about yourself I mean things like your past or a different life?¡± ¡°What?¡± ¡°Please think for a moment on that.¡± Is she talking about reincarnation? Am I someone who reincarnated after death, moreover as a stone? NO, it is actually more absurd than it sounds. Well, do I have any memory about something which I don¡¯t understand? To that the answer is¡­ ¡°No. Sorry, but I have no such memories. I don¡¯t remember anything about any other life.¡± ¡°Oh! So you are not a reincarnated one huh. I thought you were, cause of the ease with which you can talk, but still not understanding anything for one minute, loosing conscious and then gaining knowledge¡­ you mister 955 might be one of them more rare kind of core out there..heehee.¡± (Rocky): ¡°Say, why do you call me mister 955? Isn¡¯t that kind of racist? Like I¡¯m some slave with a number on my back. ¡± ¡°Oh! You are right I¡¯m sorry for my negligence it won¡¯t happen again. As for me calling you ¡®955¡¯ it¡¯s because you are the 955 dungeon to have taken birth here in this world¡± *Phew* ¡°Then that¡¯s alright I guess, but please call me Rock or Rocky and can I call you Minie, if you don¡¯t mind that is. I don¡¯t want to be rude, but it¡¯s such a long name you know. I mean, does feefee even mean anything?¡± When she heard me calling her with a nick name she blushed and slightly nodded her head bashfully. I waited, but her head never came up and I noticed her murmuring something. ¡°I got my own name... my very own name. Mistress said, cores don¡¯t easily accept any helper, but he did and he even gave me a nick name too.¡± She continued like that for a minute I wanted t interrupt her **** behavior, but I hesitated and decided against it. I waited for two more minutes¡¯ when she suddenly lifted her small little head and spoke to me. ¡°You see, I¡¯m of the rare fairy race and the fee in my name means fairy and umm¡­ ¡° ¡®What is she doing twisting and curling like that¡­ Giggling like a kid?!¡¯ I thought. But a fairy seems legit, although she¡¯s small, but her small oval face and that green petal dress looks cute on her, but her real charm lies in her shining emerald green eyes and her glittery wings. ¡®Ah! She looks so adorable.¡¯ I don¡¯t think that I should look too much in her eyes, I might get hypnotized¡­ Actually I have a question? It is important and is of grave concern. The thing is, I don¡¯t understand, why can I suddenly see her?? (Minie): ¡°Thank you¡­rocky¡± *Ding*
All conditions Fulfilled.
Establishing connection with helper Minie
*Ding*
All the necessary conditions for the Achievement "Let''s be Partner''s" fulfilled
Title:- Named Helper acquired
Little helper can now help you in your understanding of this world. There are no secrets between you and Minie, now contacted to each other mentally
Bonus Reward:- 1000 Dc
Huh¡­¡­¡­ What happened!!! What is this box, it said achievement unlocked and title, what title? What the hell is this? Was this even supposed to happen? How can I even see this thing? Oh! It¡¯s not like I can see it with my eyes, but like, it¡¯s being projected straight to my soul. This is some creepy shit. Being born alone in the dark, feeling almost lifeless, and now this! Man! What kind of a world is this? Even Minie is not talking. Did something happen? Is it me or what?! But I don¡¯t think there¡¯s anything wrong with me? I mean I still can¡¯t move or feel anything. Well that is a problem in itself and I sure as hell can see?? WTF! I can see really see her now! Nononono¡­ I can feel her like she is connected to me or some shit, like we are one together. Man this is scary! Is this what that title named helper meant, but why is she not saying anything? ¡°Hey! Minie, what happened? What are these boxes? These achievements and titles what do they mean? HEY! Are you even listening to me?¡± ¡°Ahaaha¡­ This is the best day of my life. You are the best rocky. Do you know how long other cores take to establish link with their partners?¡± I don¡¯t know about that, but your laugh really is something else. Ah! She started speaking again before letting me answer. (Minie):Fufuf. Half a year to two or three years! They take so long just to form a simple connection with their helpers! And I am not including those who took centuries for that, but looking at them now, it feels like they are toddlers trying to learn running without knowing the difference between their arms and legs.¡± ¡°What connection are you talking about?¡± ¡°Can¡¯t you feel right this connection we are sharing. This is our bond, the start of our new partnership. And you achieved it in half a day! Marvelous, you are too brilliant!¡± ¡°Is that fast? But why are other cores so slow? I mean I only just gave you a nick name and nothing else!¡± ¡°You are very intelligent and I mean it, but not everyone is as intelligent as you. I mean, most cores only speak words like ¡®Hungry¡¯ or ¡®eat¡¯ or ¡®sleep¡¯ and nothing else. They don¡¯t have intelligence for it and so some dum¡­ I mean, some not so sharp cores take centuries to gain that much knowledge and wisdom. ¡° ¡°Really? So this me who can talk to you normally must be quite special, right?¡± ¡°Yes, yes. Very special, very special.¡± Looks like even though I am a rock, but I still have some charm, for her to be calling me special; It¡¯s irresistible. ¡°Haha, Ok, I understand. So, could you tell me something about these achievements and titles? I mean, I unlocked one and acquired another, but why did this happen? Are they good?¡± ¡°You are good. Don¡¯t worry about them, they are not a necessity, but are also not a burden either. But instead of going straight to your other questions, can I tell you about the world first?¡± ¡°Please, be my guest. Ops! Actually you are.¡± ¡°Haha, Okay let¡¯s start with the basics then. You see this world is made up of minute particles of energy more widely known as mana. This mana is in everything. From my body, to your soul and even your crystalline structure contains mana.¡± ¡°Really there is such a thing? But why don¡¯t I see anything?¡± ¡°Oh! Don¡¯t worry it only means that you don¡¯t have enough control on the energies. You can start trying to feel your surroundings from onwards and if practice hard, you will one day be able to feel it in the environment and even in your core.¡± ¡°Really, then I¡¯ll be able to see something other than this darkness?¡± ¡°Yeah. You see everything has mana or energy particles running around inside their bodies. And an objects ability to store mana depends on their affinity, place, time and their original composition.¡± This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.¡°You mean stones can also store mana?¡± Won¡¯t that mean I can also store this mana. ¡°Yes, even stones can store mana, but because their affinities and ability is very poor, moreover because they have no will to collect mana, therefore even the little mana which naturally enters their body leaves at exactly the same time it enters¡± ¡°Not so fun being a stone, huh!¡± And she giggled at my depressed mood. ¡°Well, Yeah. If you remember the information boxes, then let me tell you, even they are made up of mana. Mana is flowing everywhere. It¡¯s in the air, in living being, in water and even artificially created artifacts contain mana.¡± ¡°Everywhere?¡± ¡°Yes, everywhere.¡± *Sigh* if what she says is correct then, this mana is a very magical thing. ¡°Well, enough about that, tell me about the achievements and titles!¡± ¡°Umm¡­ Achievements, that¡¯s a tough one. Achievements are like motivation from god. A pat on the back and a medal to keep doing better and to keep getting stronger and titles are the rewards for these achievements or for doing something others couldn¡¯t do. Titles can also be gained normally by doing something extraordinary, like slaying dragon or by grinding like crazy, but achievements are one per person.¡± *Gulp* Dragon slaying, huh. Don¡¯t ask me how, but I know what dragons are and they are the second name of terror. This place is crazy scary. I think being a stone and living for all eternity is better than setting a foot in this world. Who knows when a crazy fucker might get the wrong idea of assault me? I won¡¯t even be able to slap him with my non existing hands. ¡°Hey! Minie, Are there any living beings in the world who would try to attack me? I mean, I don¡¯t feel any confident about that.¡± ¡°Ano! I don¡¯t know if I should say this or not, but almost everyone will come to take your heart in the near future.¡± ¡°Myy Heartt?!¡± ¡°Yes, your heart.¡± ¡°Why?¡± ¡°Do you know how rare it is for a crystal to start gathering mana and then convert into a core?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know, about that!¡± ¡°Okay, okay. Try to calm down a little you are scaring the kids.¡± ¡°Kids, what kids?¡± ¡°Me¡± She said and I am sure her cheeks must be died red cause of it, but her little play helped me calm down. ¡°Did that help?¡± ¡°Yes it did, thank you. Well, then tell me about dungeons of this world. We have a lot of time after all and I don¡¯t have anything to do.¡± ¡°Dungeons of this world? Ah! Okay. Let¡¯s talk about that, for now. So what do you want to know?¡± ¡°The difficulty!¡± ¡°It has been very difficult for dungeons to survive. Well, it is so difficult that from advent of life till now, there have only been 955 dungeon births and you are the youngest one. Sadly, because of how dangerous some dungeons get their place of birth and due to other people¡¯s greed; dungeons were wildly hunted and now there are only 59 dungeons left in this entire world including you.¡± Huh¡­¡­ Fufufu¡­.haaha. I get it, I get it entirely. I have only two choices, it¡¯s either getting strong enough to be able to defend myself or to stay sitting like this here for all eternity. But I don¡¯t even know where I am and who my predators are. Let¡¯s try asking that maybe we are in some uninhabited island or something. Then I¡¯ll be able to live freely. ¡°Minie, Do you know who my predato-¡­nono¡­..I mean, who will I have to fight and will I even fight anyone?¡± ¡°For how you will fight, you won¡¯t fight. You can¡¯t fight. As for why, cause you are a crystal, if you still remember and you also can¡¯t move. So, instead of fighting yourself you¡¯ll have to learn to control monsters, increase your mana capacity, level up and then level your dungeon.¡± ¡°I can control monsters, real monsters?¡± ¡°Well not real monsters, but monsters made up of mana. You know why most people comes to a dungeons, even though they are dangerous places? It is to get stronger.¡± ¡°How can they get stronger¡­ by killing me or my monsters made of magic, I mean mana?¡± ¡°Correcto! Yes, in this world there exists something like levels and skills. And higher the level of a person is, the stronger they are. These persons I¡¯m about are called humans. Well, mostly humans, but there are other races to like dwarfs elf¡¯s, beast men, monsters, demons, and some other alien races that you don¡¯t need to know right now. When they defeat a monster, some of its life energy enters their system, they get experience from it and then they level up.¡± ¡°Right now your most difficult enemy might even be you, yourself. You don¡¯t eat so every sec that you are not asleep you are wasting your ambient mana. Moreover you can¡¯t even replenish your reserves yet, but we¡¯ll get to that. So, the area we are in is a mountain range. It¡¯s a barren land with n life around it.¡± ¡°Then that¡¯s good, that¡¯s good. Everything is okay, until there are no humans.¡± ¡°Ahem¡­¡± ¡°Huh, what was that? Why did you do that? What¡¯s wrong?¡± ¡°Nothing¡¯s wrong, everything is fine. Though there is a little problem.¡± ¡°Problem what problem? Problem related to me?¡± ¡°Yes, the thing is though there are no humans in this mountain region, but we are at he very end of it and¡­¡± ¡°And¡­!¡± ¡°After just a day¡¯s worth of travelling, there is a town where lives thousands of those humans. This mountain ranges name is ¡®The Devils Pass¡¯ and we are located on the boundary between ¡®Arya Empire¡¯ of humans and savage lands of ¡®The Devil¡¯. ¡®The savage lands¡¯ has some very powerful monsters living, but they are not united and hence named so. But Humans are cunning and greedy beings. They are also savages, but more united and abundant.¡± ¡°Actually Minie, how abundant are we talking about?¡± ¡°About a billion of them, maybe more and I¡¯m not even talking about the whole world yet.¡± *shot*¡­..*thud* I¡¯m dead ¡®fin¡¯. ¡°Please, if any of them comes here tell them that I¡¯m not at home. So that could go on with¡± I Gulped before saying the rest of the sentence, ¡°So, that they could go on with their Dragons slaying and not glance at my tiny ass zero lv core.¡± ¡°Hahaa. Sorry, though I don¡¯t want to laugh at you or anything but that skit was¡­ Funny.¡± ¡°Okay, enough with that. Tell me, if I want to get stronger, then will I also have to kill other people. I mean can we only kill those who come to harm me.¡± She giggled and called me silly for asking that question. ¡°Why would we want to unnecessarily harm others? It will only bring death to our doors and nothing more.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t wanna die!¡± ¡°And I don¡¯t want you to get killed so, early in the game.¡± ¡°So, what do we do?¡± ¡°To do this, we¡¯ll have to prove to these humans that we are not a hostile party and that we can achieve harmony and work together.¡± ¡°Now how will we achieve that?¡± ¡°That is what we need to find out.¡± Wait a minute! Don¡¯t I have an excellent plan to get this done? I mean then I won¡¯t even have to kill anyone or get stronger or anything like that. Let¡¯s get her views on it. ¡°I think I have a way that will make sure that we won¡¯t die anytime soon.¡± ¡°Really, what is it? Tell me, tell me spill out the beans, open your mouth and blabber them out. Don¡¯t keep me waiting, say it now. Hey, don¡¯t keep it to yourself. Rock, hey, Rock!¡± *sigh* Well, here she goes again and here I thought her tendency to go on craze mode was a first time thing, but turns into something like that sometimes, huh. Thinking about the humans, if a single race already has billions of their kind, then I don¡¯t even wanna know what kind of a dangerous environment I¡¯ve been thrown into. As for her, I don¡¯t have any choice. ¡°OKAY, listen! My plan is¡­¡± ¡°Yes, yes.¡± ¡°I mean, can¡¯t I just stay here without moving, like other stones? I mean, if I don¡¯t try to get stronger, then I can probably live my life in seclusion, right? Then there will be no one going after my life. I mean, it¡¯s not like I want to become master of the universe or anything.¡± ¡°A very fine idea sir, very good sir, marvelous¡­¡± She said that, but I didn¡¯t feel anything good about it. How would anyone take her seriously if they heard her talking like that. I felt like she was making fun of me. ¡°What happened? What¡¯s wrong with my idea?¡± It was clear to me that something was wrong and I wanted to know about it, but the information provided was above my pay scale or my ability to handle. ¡°Nothing¡¯s is wrong with it. Actually most ordinary core live I seclusion for centuries before showing their presence to the world, but¡­¡± I think she is real good with her mouth and wordings. The charm and mystery her sentence hold is something which I would have loved if it was a happening to someone else, but I had to bear it. ¡°But what? Please stop with the mysteriousness and give me the shock already.¡± ¡°Well, maybe you don¡¯t remember the cause of your headaches, but sometime ago you released all of your stored mana, which created a big blast in the ground and it blasted away all the dirt between you and the surface away.¡± ¡°That happened?¡± ¡°Yeah, we heard that explosion from our hometown. It created a very loud sound and a sand storm.¡± ¡°Okay, then. What has that got to do with my situation?¡± ¡°So, if we heard it, then it¡¯s possible that the humans heard it too. They might be come to investigate the reason for the noise anytime. So I don¡¯t think that you can play it safe anymore¡± Ahhah¡­¡­ This shitty life it¡¯s going to ki¡­ll¡­m¡­e
Mana reserves depleted
HUH¡­
Automatic Hibernation in, 3...2...1
Wha¡­
*Shuts off*
¡°Hey, what happened? Oh! Sleeping cause of low mana reserve! I actually forgot to teach him how to replenish his mana reserve in excitement. Sorry for my incompetency. let¡¯s meet up when you wake up again. Kay.¡± Chapter 3 - And i died {RE} Author''s note:- This chapter went up and beyond me. I feel like i have suddenly become the master of exaggeration after writing this chapter. . Enjoy. I hope you do. ...................................................................................................................................... Rocky''s P.O.V:- I am awake now. I am right? Well I think so¡­ It still feels the same like waking up for the first time. Though I still can¡¯t hear, see or feel anything, but my surroundings are different somehow. I am very eager to see the world. Though I don¡¯t know what waits for me outside; other than this emptiness, but I understand that there are some very beautiful things in the world like; colors, sun and sky. I know; the sky is blue, sun is red, plants are green, but my life¡­ *sigh* My life is colorless. Every time I see this dull and never ending blackness; I end up imagining, how vivid the colors of this world would be. Imagining a clear blue sky, a beet red sun shining over my head, clouds flowing like dragons: endless and overwhelming. Just like that dancing light some distance away¡­ Wait, wait, wait! What is that? I think I can see something faraway, well not really. Even though it¡¯s a little fuzzy and too far away for me to see clearly, there actually is something out there! There really is something out there; other than the darkness of this world. It¡¯s a glowing light, which is pulsating in a very strange manner: forming patterns and stuff. It looks like its dancing, and enjoying the freedom, which allows it to move about in the sky. I don¡¯t understand this feeling. I am happy that, that I am not alone in this world. That there is also something else that I here to share my gloom, but I am also a bit sad because it is a little too far away. Too far away for me to praise its beauty and to engrave it in my heart, before its fades away and the world of darkness takes over again. How I wish I could see it more clearly. I don¡¯t know how I am seeing it, but from this faraway it¡¯s seems; contracting and expanding, stretching and trying to engulf the space, sky and the world inside it. Though I say it¡¯s trying to cover everything, but it seems more likely to be in the process of finding something; while distorting and scattering all around. Too me it looks like a blob of light; dancing and furiously stomping on the ground, while scattering dust all over the place. I don¡¯t know why, though I should feel a bit of dread and fear from the destruction it has caused all around himself, but I¡¯m feeling happy looking at it. Maybe it has something to do with the thing called phobias. Am I scared of being left alone in the world? I don¡¯t know. Yeah, it feels good to know that there is something else here in my world, in the world around me, other than ink black void and a seemingly infinite space. I kept on looking and it kept on changing shapes. It kept on frowning and keeping me entertained. How I wish every second that could I move. Even if it¡¯s just enough, enough to allow me to cover the distance and decrease this gap between us, then I¡¯ll be a happy soul. I wish I could cover the distance separating me from meeting with it, and ask it the thing that it is looking for alone in this lonely black world. Or maybe move toward it just enough, enough to let me enjoy its form clearly. ¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­.. Time passed by days, while I kept on sitting in the same place looking at the same spectacle. It¡¯s getting boring now. I kind of understand now, why they say that, ¡®no matter how much fun something seems, it gets boring if you keep on doing it again and again¡¯ cause the same thing was happening with me. Even though the light show still holds the same attraction of ever changing lights, but after looking at it for who knows how many day, I¡¯m mentally tired. ¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­.. Today, I tried to speak with Minie through our mental connection, but nothing, I felt nothing. The day when she we first met and when we got connected thanks to the title, I was able to feel her presence every time; even when I didn¡¯t try to talk to her. But now, there is nothing. Though if feel our minds to be still connected to each other, but it¡¯s like something is stopping me from getting hold of her and every time I put my spirit into it and try to connect with her, I feel that thing looking toward me. At first I thought that it was a coincidence, but when it happened again on my next try, then again and then again, then how could I have brushed it off as a coincidence? His cold gaze and prickling feeling of worms biting were enough to scare the living shit out of me. The feeling of his adverted gaze is like a bug crawling on my back, spitting all over me. Every time that he looks towards me, I feel a hungry vicious pit forming somewhere deep inside me, trying to swallow my soul. I feel waves upon waves of hunger from something inside me, ordering me to bring it something to eat or that something would end up being me. Because I got paranoid and felt it looking at me every time I tried to connect with Minie, I stopped trying. And because I had nothing to do at this lonely place, I thought of trying to feel that natural energy which is everywhere around us. I don¡¯t know why, but I keep forgetting what it¡¯s called. According to minie it¡¯s omnipresent, so I tried to feel it, but I couldn¡¯t. I tried again and again, but I still could not feel anything around me and then, It happened. A wave of pressure and chillness came, it engulfed me whole and the after lingering over me for a moment it passed by. During that time I felt something trying to forcibly bind me and not letting freeze my emotions. The feeling of going emotionless was very unique in a very wrong way. The wave froze my soul to the very core. I felt like my surroundings had changed somehow and I was not alone anymore. I swear I could feel something breathing down my neck, and I don¡¯t have a neck. The horror of feeling a presence in a place where there is nothing but darkness; is beyond describable. I had to try very hard to not lose my sense, not to lose my bearing. It felt like I was sitting in an empty casket buried deep underground. While it was also keeping me safe from whatever was out there, the source of the disturbance. But I also understood that the moment it broke, would become a moment; that would decide my whole destiny. The feelings, the dread and fear, these all were still fine until they were nothing but my delusions, but the situation turned when my illusions became real. I understood that maybe instead of the advent of an apocalypse, it was just its premonition. Instead of being the destruction itself, my feelings were just a warning for the future Because while I was trying to find the gravity of my situation, a clue out of that uncanny situation; those glowing and blazing lights moved and came a bit closer to me. ¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­. This is bad¡­ real bad .This is not the time to think whether to ''be paranoid'' or ''not be paranoid'', because it is really happening. Moreover, it¡¯s happening right now. I know it¡¯s him, that thing, whatever it is, is the reason for all the changes and the unprecedented horror which I have felt until now; while trying to feel the nature or trying to establish contact with Minie. I need to do something, I need to hide. Because last time when it looked towards me, I felt that it was only checking everywhere and not especially me. But his undisciplined, inattentive gaze was enough to cover my back with sweat. But now its openly close eye on me, I can feel it. Though I don¡¯t feel its gaze piercing through my soul, but I know he is happy. Happy because it¡¯s not distorting or scattering anymore and it¡¯s also not shining like it used to. It¡¯s just standing there, just standing there looking towards me while a keep hearing a low grumbling sound. It¡¯s like it is contemplating, thinking about something very hard, thinking about some decision! I can only hope that it¡¯s not a decision¡­ That decides whether it will come to look for me or not¡­! HOLY SHIT! What will I do if does come here?! The fear disturbed my state of mind and my calmness flew away; whereas anxiety and stress took over my body. My calm and collected self went away on holidays and my speaking tone turned hurried. Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation. I need to do something, I need to hide away from here, move away from its line of sight. What should I do, where should I go¡­! Fuck, I forgot! I can¡¯t move. ¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­ According to my knowledge of time, it looked at me for two straight weeks, before its movements started changing. Remember I said that I think it¡¯s trying to find something? Well it started moving towards me yesterday. And I think the thing that it was trying to find was me and now that it has found me, it¡¯s very happy. Hahaa¡­ *sob* It¡¯s coming closer and closer with each passing day and I am drowning deeper and deeper in despair with each of its movements. I don¡¯t feel so good from it being happy, I think it¡¯s probably singing something like a ceremonial song. A song for my funeral! ¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­. It¡¯s been several months now and it¡¯s almost upon me. And I don¡¯t know what to do. I can feel its eyes checking me out like a predator stalking its prey, but instead of ending the hunt, it wants to play. I can only hope that it will change direction to somewhere else along the way because it is already far too scary for my soft heart to handle and I don¡¯t know what will happen if it reached me. ¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­. Yes, again. Another of my wishes has come true. I wanted to see, I saw him. I wanted to see him clearly, to move near it; so to fulfill my wish it started moving towards me. Now, does that makes me lucky or not. Such a lucky spirit I am, right¡­ [Anger took over me, Fear went away. My mind broke after all, When I saw that light coming my way.] WRONG!! SO, FUCKING WRONG. *sobs* Why I¡¯m throwing tantrum like a little girl? Well, it¡¯s because I can see it clearly now. Yes, it¡¯s here. *slowly* It¡¯s here and I don¡¯t think its intentions are any good towards me. It¡¯s is like a grim reaper bringing not only my death, but apocalypse with itself. Destruction to all and everywhere it passes by. I can see it. I can finally fucking see this thi¡­ng, but now, how I wish that I could not. I think dying while being blind is much better, than to have a look at something this grotesque. Yes, it is disgusting. It¡¯s like looking at the god of damnation. The keeper of purgatory, the sewers of hell. Its horror is so despicable and true that I don¡¯t have any words to explain it. It has no body, just a figure of pure gore and terror. It is a squishy, slimy blob, but not gelatinous. To look in its eyes is so difficult that a single stare from it made me drenched with cold sweat. It¡¯s figure¡­ No actually it has no figure; just a mix of everything that is sliding unhurriedly towards me. I¡¯m sweating bullets here. Please, somebody do something or I WILL DIE! Shit, I forgot! I¡¯m alone. Its pitch black mouth is opening, while also enlightening me by showing scenes of mass destruction and flood of darkness and the unprecedented horrors that it must have committed. Its aura¡¯s so cold, that my spirit which was shivering from just its gaze is about to freeze up. But now that I can clearly see it coming towards me with its open mouth, well, I don¡¯t want to see anything anymore. There are so many beautiful things out there in the world, but the first thing I got to see is¡­ Well, never mind. How should I describe this thing! It¡¯s a has mass of dark Violet and black aura which is bigger than even a mountain, swirling around dead and decomposing bodies of monster of varied shape and sizes. Hell, I could even see some maggots crawling around all over and inside its mangled and decomposing body, happily devouring those puss filled shells. They are devouring everything to quench their centuries old hunger. It bodily flesh, which it might have had at some time in its life, is protruding puss all over the area and like an acid it melting even the ground. Even the word gross falls short in front of its visage. A mist of evaporated blood is leaving its body joining all the clouds up above, Covering all and everything, blocking and not letting even a single speck of light to shine on this death struck world. Oh! I see. Maybe this place was not originally so dark and devoid of life. Maybe this place was also once colorful, but has turned into such a desperate and lifeless state after being stained by this thing for days, years, decades or maybe centuries. The horror of its figure is already so unnatural, but the thing that¡¯s making me want to vomit out even my innards and spray all of my organs on the ground to get an easy death, is its heaven encompassing and out of this world stench. I don¡¯t think it can even be registered as a smell; it has already passed that realm and has turned into something spiritual. It¡¯s so disgustingly bad that all the vegetation thousands of miles around it has withered to something completely black and vicious. And this disintegrated black stuff is rolling and running around eagerly towards it in order to join it. These masses of horrible contrast are now fighting between themselves, competing over the order in which they would get to join it. These things look more like the fanatics of some religion than some lifeless grub because of the way they are crazily behaving trying to join it, to create something that is even more horrible than it already is. With its open mouth it bites toward me, its mouth so enormous that even mountains shy away in front of it. I think it will probably take it some time to completely open its mouth. But I¡¯m still sitting here in front of it without moving. I am not running away. Am I scared? Yes I am. Then why am I not running away in the face of death? Am I a brute? No. Am I a masochist? NO. Am I a rebel? No. It¡¯s because I can¡¯t move. While I was thinking of what to do to save my life; it started closing its gigantic mouth. The scene felt like the sky was shattering and his teeth felt like meteors were coming down, falling from the sky, bring gods fury and judgment along with it. I felt like it could chomp down the whole world in a single bite. ¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­. I don¡¯t know what will happen once its mouth completely closes, engulfing me and everything around. I¡¯ll die, probably. Yeah, dying on the second day after my birth. Haha, it¡¯s pretty laughable really. I am already dying, before I even got to learning anything. I still have to create my dungeon, learn to tame monsters, fight humans, get strong, talk to Minie¡­ Yeah, there is also Minie, out there somewhere. Even though I can¡¯t connect to her right now, but she must be worried sick, I have not talked with her for so long after all. I have so many things to do and so many things to achieve, but no time. I wish I had the chance to grow strong, though I don¡¯t think anyone can ever be strong enough to fight something like this thing. But still, just strong enough to stand properly in front of it without pissing myself. Strong enough, so that I could at least tell Minie how sorry I¡¯m for not letting her enjoy administrating a dungeon. *Roar*Roar* My thoughts of becoming strong were still going on, when I a felt a wave of its horrible stench and blasts upon blasts of distorting noises move past me. The noise is so loud enough that even sound of a volcanic eruption pales in front of it. It comes in waves and break¡¯s my spirit and body bit by bit, on its own leisure. I was still trying to find my bearing and hold on in front of this damnation, when I heard it mumbling something. Even between all the noises, stench and cries; I could hear a sentence almost reaching me, but disintegrating right before touching me. I poured all my sense, all of my spirit into trying to figure out what it was all about. But before I could make some shit of whatever death song it was singing, it closed its mouth. It swallowed everything without giving me even a single second to understand anything. And before I could utter even a single word, my surroundings turned silent and everything turned black. Its open mouth closed and I died. Chapter 4 - He woke up {RE} Somewhere in ¡®Aryan Empire¡¯. ¡°So you came, Huh. You are a bit late, though. Did anything unexpected happen? ¡° A shadowy figure slowly solidified in a corner of the room. It walked out from the shadow of the curtains and courtly bowed in front of the person sitting on the chair. "Good evening my liege. How are you today? It¡¯s such an exceptionally bright day, but you are still not enjoying yourself. You need to give sometime to yourself and enjoy living a bit." "You know how it is and still ask me those useless questions! If you have so much free time then use some of it and find out the one who tried to assassinate me.¡± "Ah, my liege about that, you shouldn¡¯t concern yourself with such trifling matters, we have already caught the perpetrator and it seems like it is the usual play of ¡®kill the king to gain the kingdom¡¯. So, please don¡¯t worry over such trifling matters. I will soon make their heads roll in your feet." "I believe you Meredith, I believe you. So, what happened to that other matter? Did you find out anything?" The shadowy figure muttered an, ¡¯Oh!¡¯ when he hard is master asking him about that, but he also swiftly answered and gave his reason. "You also know my liege, the commotion which ¡®that¡¯ incident created. All the great powers are trying to get hold of thing that caused it or to at least find the reason.¡± ¡±So, you couldn¡¯t find out anything?¡± ¡°No, my liege, we managed to find out everything that is needed to know." ¡°Hahahha. Good Meredith, very good. So, what caused it? Any good news for me to partake¡± ¡°Yes, my lord there is. We found the site where the explosion occurred. It was surreal; destruction everywhere. I am sure even the highest tier spell that magicians can use could not have done that.¡± Meredith told the news with an excited face. ¡°Ho! Then what lead to such said destruction? Do you have any clue?¡± ¡°It was a meteorite my liege, but not a simple or regular one. It destroyed 3 villages, destroyed 10es of acres of fields and mutilated 10 miles of our land in its rage.¡± ¡°So, a simple rock it was; must have been a bit bigger than the previous ones to create destruction of such range and magnitude. Huh, nothing note worthy it is then. ¡± he said while sighing. When Meredith saw his liege¡¯s face becoming expressionless and his excitement dwindling, he added, ¡°If it was only a rock, then I guess it really wouldn¡¯t have been worth mentioning, but we found something, something that even I could not identify!¡± ¡°What is it? Do you have it with you? You are getting better at keeping surprises huh Meredith. Something that even you the greatest spy of our empire couldn¡¯t identify! It must be a ¡®legendary grade¡¯ item or maybe even ¡®Ancient¡¯ one! GO on, don¡¯t keep it to yourself, tell me, don¡¯t keep me waiting¡± he got so excited that he was almost screaming. ¡°Please sire, control your excitement it is not good for you health. You already have so many enemies don¡¯t add another one in the list. And about the item it is a bracelet.¡± ¡°Show me.¡± ¡°I¡¯m sorry my liege but I don¡¯t have it with me. I didn¡¯t actually visit the site. It was informed to me by my underlings and I was also informed that one of them is bringing it here.¡± ¡°Oh! So you don¡¯t have it with you. Forget that, you didn¡¯t even go there and now you are telling me someone else is bringing it here!¡± The atmosphere got heavy and a heart churning silence took the place of their ongoing normal conversation. But Meredith didn¡¯t look away and stare straight into his eyes and finally spoke, ¡°Don¡¯t worry my liege! He¡¯ll be here. I was informed that he is coming via the barren lands near ¡®The Devil pass¡¯ mountains. Nothing resides there, so there is no way any mishap would happen.¡± ¡°You better be right Meredith! You better be.¡± ------------------------------------------------------------------ (Minie¡¯s P.O.V :----) When living beings ends up depleting all of their mana, they suffer a backlash from it. Some people blacks out completely, but wake back up after some time like nothing happened. Some need¡¯s immediate attention, while some really die. There are cases where people with very spirit or strong mana restoration ability only acts tired and suffer no backlashes from their extensive mana usage. In case of dungeon cores, they just sleep it off. But it¡¯s not like they don¡¯t face any backlash from rapidly or completely depleting their mana. They don¡¯t die like poor humans, but they still go into a deep slumber. And during this time they siege to function properly. And most need some kind of stimulation to wake back up. Well, most of the time this is done by their dungeons fairy guides. But in some cases where the core don¡¯t wake up after being In hibernation for a long time it becomes dangerous for dungeon fairies to continue living because hibernating cores don¡¯t release any mana their dungeon also goes off to sleep mode. Well, that is the term given to unresponsive dungeons. Fairies can¡¯t break their contract with dungeon cores. So they get stronger and die with their dungeons. But there is also a cache where fairies get a little control over the dungeons, by losing their freedom. I mean it¡¯s not like we can actively change any room and grow monsters, but we atleast have some bind over the monsters, so they don¡¯t end up eating us considering we are also a monster race. Gaining this ability is only so much fun because when a core in sleeping, the mana that is stored in the dungeon starts to seep out into the world. So we fairies have to Control this mana and help protect the surroundings. If fairies become negligent in their work and the surroundings changes, then it mostly ends up angering intelligent life forms living in the area near the dungeon. As any danger to one¡¯s habitat can endanger their survival. Therefore most of the dungeons are hunted down frivolously without giving them any time to get stronger. Because the stronger a dungeon is, the stronger becomes its monsters. Therefore when people die in a dungeon they make the core stronger, monsters get stronger, and this continuous cycle of people dying and dungeon absorbing their power make the situation very dangerous. Well, dangerous for them and a haven for us. Because Dungeons are considered as abominations, they are condemned everywhere. Even in savage lands where demons live. The number of dungeons left in the world is already in single digits. The only dungeons that have not been destroyed yet are those, which are either very strong or those which are considered as child¡¯s play and are treated as treasure troves by most of the intelligent life forms. Those dungeons which are not considered dangerous end up having towns and cities established near them. These cities develop over time, becoming centre of trade and a hub for people of different kingdoms to meet. These dungeons then get a free permit to develop and get stronger while being protected from destruction, as no one want to destroy a whole city with it. So we have to try not to become like some other corrupted one¡¯s and also need to become friendly with our neighbors. Even though they are present in the billions, but they are cowards. A little poke in the wrong place and they hunt down everything that could hurt their species using their always increasing number advantage. But Worrying about things that are yet to occur is not good. I can talk about it with rock, when he wakes up and we¡¯ll come up with some kind of a solution for it. But why is he still not waking up it has already been 2 days a. He is slumbering so hard that I can¡¯t even connect to him mentally. I know it takes a lot of time for depleted mana reserves to recover on their own without user influence, but still, it¡¯s been a little too long. What if he never wakes up again! I¡¯ll never be allowed to become partner with another sentient dungeon. Should I use my fairy dust on him, but it takes a lot of time for it to recover and I¡¯ll be too weak to do anything during that time. *sighs* What should I do then! Ok! I have decided. If he doesn¡¯t wake up in a day, *Gulp* then I¡¯ll use fairy dust on him. But if he still didn¡¯t wake up! Then what?? Then I¡¯ll ask mistress for her help. She might get mad at me, but it¡¯s still better than breaking my connection with such an unusual core so easily. While I was thinking about what to do, a human walked dangerously close to the dungeon. He walked with caution, trying not to disturb his surroundings. But the way he was moving, and cautiously taking steps, it was clear that he was not just passing by, but was here clearly to investigate. Probably about the commotion rock created with his mana burst. Ah! What should I do?? This is the worst possible outcome we could have hoped for. Rock is still unconscious. We don¡¯t have any monsters for protection¡­ Scratch that!! This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.It¡¯s not even a proper dungeon yet! OH! That¡¯s it! This place is still not considered a dungeon. There are so many unusual things happening in the world that something like an explosion near ¡®Devils Pass¡¯ is not impossible. Yes, so let¡¯s make it look like an explosion. Like someone fought with something here. Now that I think about it, there¡¯s nothing I need to do. I just need to bury Rocky deep underground and hope that this scout is not a high leveled one or he would probably find out my tinkering and that won¡¯t be good. So I prayed and got to work. It became a race with time. I had to bury him deep, clean all the clues and I also needed to find a place to hide. Burying him was easy. I used Earth magic and moved him deep and covered him properly with dust. I removed all the traces, but just as I was going to hide myself, the scout came in. ------------------------------------- (Scout¡¯s P.O.V):----- My name is ******* and I¡¯m a scout. Because of recession there are no jobs available in the imperial city anymore, and even if there are, they are all taken by them more dignified scumba... I mean noble people. I also want to work in the imperial corps but¡­ *sigh*... It¡¯s not easy. Why I want to work in the imperial corps you ask? Well, for most people it¡¯s about dignity, pride and whatnot, but for me¡­ It¡¯s about money. I have been an adventurer all my life, and it¡¯s a poor line of work. Especially for those who are not strong enough for Monster hunting, most of us E, F and D ranker. Well most paid jobs are all related to monsters or those which demands you to fight with your life on the line. There is always the danger of dying while fighting monsters, and even if you don¡¯t die from monster attack, there is also the danger of being back stabbed by your own colleagues over some stupid loot. Then there are wars, protests and all the shit dragging low level adventurers into it, making their life nothing less than misery and nothing more than a mess. An Adventurers life is like a magnet, a magnet attracting all of the shit toward itself. Today, my luck shined. I saw a job for scouting an area somewhere near ¡®The Devil¡¯s Pass¡¯. Well, it looked quite easy, so I picked it. I mean, no fighting with monsters, no spying, no dangerous work, just need to scout the area and give the information back to the guild. And if someway or somehow I come in contact with a monster, I just need to run away and inform the guild about the monster for a little extra on the reward. Though this area is a bit dangerous, but the danger here does not come from the monsters, but from the name of this place itself. ¡®The Devils Pass¡¯ it sounds literally like the entrance to hell after all. Climbing these mountains is dangerous, and nowadays no one tries to cross this gate to hell anymore. There are many myths connected with the other side. Like, how there is an ancient dungeon on the other side of the mountains and like a dragon ancestor is the dungeon guardian protecting its core. Well, all heresy and whatnot. But the place I am going to is not that dangerous, as there are no monsters here. According to rumors, it used to be a lush green place, but some calamity destroyed everything and made It barren. No greenery, no monsters, and also no profit. *Sigh* I¡¯m here to investigate, find anomalies, run back and inform the guild. See, not dangerous at all. The story for this job goes something like this, Some days ago a giant explosion occurred somewhere here. Although it caused no commotion or disturbance, but still, one should know what grows in his backyard. Now the thing, don¡¯t just blow up for no reason. I know this job might not be as easy as I am making it to be, but it¡¯s still better than having to fight monsters for some petty silvers. At the very least that I will get out of this job is a gold coin and I just need to provide some information for it. ******** I can see it. It¡¯s in front of me; the aftermath of that explosion. Well, I don¡¯t see any crater, though there are Dirt and stones everywhere. ¡®Oh! Maybe, it got covered by all the debris and stuff, though it sounds a bit impossible. Let¡¯s move a bit closer, maybe I¡¯ll find something to show off with after going back.¡¯ I thought. Slowly but surely I walked closer to the area of impact, then I understood why I could not see the crater. It really is hidden behind a shit load of dirt and stones covering it like a crown and in the center, there is a wide and black hole, going who knows how deep into the land. I might not know how deep or what is inside it, but I know that I don¡¯t want to go inside there without anyone protecting my arse. It¡¯s like an ant mound, an opening at the center and sand and stones everywhere around it. If this really is an ant mound then I don¡¯t think I have any work left here, because if I went down there then it will only result in a quick death for me. I think it¡¯s an ant mound, but I don¡¯t see any signs indicating ants walking out from there or even anyone moving at all. Also ants don¡¯t create explosions to open a hole to the surface, they just work it out quietly and live happily, enjoying their hunt, eating their prey and increasing population. They are not free like us humans; they have got work to do. Ants are strong. How strong? They are an adversary given ¡®F rank¡¯ by our leaders. Hahaa¡­ Ok, an alone ant is not strong. Alone, it is one of the lowest ¡®F rank¡¯ monsters, but in their home, where there are thousands, if not millions of them, it becomes another story altogether. I their home they become a ¡®C Rank¡¯ level threat, not so easy then. But if there is a fire mage in your party, then it¡¯s a done deal. After all fire is the bane of most if not all the insect type monsters. Well, my job here is done. Even if there is something down there in the tunnels, it¡¯s not the work of a single low level scout. Okay, then, let¡¯s go back to guild and enjoy the gold earned after such hard work. ********* (Minie¡¯s P.O.V):- He didn¡¯t come in. And went back just after looking inside for a bit. *Rage Monster* WHY DID I HAVE TO WORK SO HARD, IF THAT HUMAN WAS NOT EVEN GOING TO COME IN!! Ahhhh. I need to calm down. This is frustrating. Here I was thinking up ideas to handle him and there he returned just after taking a cursory glance. What the hell kind of an adventurer is he? He didn¡¯t even have the guts to jump down into a tunnel. Now, I don¡¯t know what I am angry about; for him coming here or for him to not enter¡­Ahhh. Whatever, I should probably bring rocky out of his coffin before he wakes up inside and create another explosion. Half an hour latter¡­¡­ Phew, it was more tiring than I thought it would be. I ended up using more mana then I thought I would. ¡®But still, getting so tired only after using earth magic, which I have affinity with... It¡¯s really embarrassing. I need to work hard from now onwards or they will laugh at me agai¡­¡¯ While I was thinking to myself, the whole cave started vibrating. Huh? Wh.a¡­..t is. .ha¡­p.pen...i.ng¡­ h.ere. I started looking everywhere to see what was going on, but then my vision fell on Rock. His core was vibrating like it was going to burst, and just when I was about to move near him to see what was wrong with him, A blackish, purple aura seeped out from inside the core. An aura so baleful that shivers ran down my spine. My heart started pounding like it was the end of the world. I mentally tried to call him, but nothing happened. I couldn¡¯t get a hold of him. The aura seeping out of him started moving around, touching everywhere. I had never seen anything like that before. It formed tentacles and started pushing into the walls, drilling holes like it was in some kind of prison trying to break free and just when that happened, some of the tentacle started moving towards me. It was so scary that I could not help but close my eyes, my terror stricken heart started pumping blood like a madman, shooting all my senses to a whole another level. I could clearly hear them coming toward me with a speed so fast that I knew, even if my eyes were not closed I wouldn¡¯t have been able to see them coming. I don¡¯t know why but I called out to Rocky with all my power and spirit, like my only hope lied with him. And I knew that he would be able to save me from my current predicament. Just when those tentacle were about to touch me, they stopped. That menacing aura redressed back into the core. Those tentacles vanished into thin air, all the vibrations stopped and¡­ He woke up. Chapter 5 - Sharing Memories {RE} ??????Rocky¡¯s P.O.V:- Hah, Hah, Hah. *Silence* I- I- I am alive? Hmm¡­ What happened? Where am I? Am I¡­ inside that thing? NO, it doesn¡¯t feel like that. But why can¡¯t I see anymore? Is it because I am inside it or something? But if that thing really ate me, then why am not dead yet? Or am I already dead? No, I don¡¯t want to die, so early in the game. I have so many things that I want to do, I haven¡¯t even started yet. I hope I am not dead yet. ¡°Roccc¡­k!!¡± Hmm¡­ did I hear correctly? Though the sound seems to be travelling through a metal container or something, but I am sure I heard something, right? Please, voices speak again. Let me hear you! ¡°Roc¡­ can you hear me?¡± ¡°Yes, yes. I can hear you. Where are you? Ah! I am alive. I am alive.¡± ¡°Ah! Thank god you are alive; I thought you were going to go corrupt on the second day.¡± ¡°Hmm¡­ what corrupt? What are you talking about? Wait, how do you know my name? Who are you?¡± ¡°Huh, what are you talking about? It¡¯s me¡­ Minie.¡± ¡°Minie¡­ Minie, MINIE!! You are alive, you are alive. I thought you were dead. How are you alive? Where were you for so long, I thought he killed you? Ah, my blindness, how I wish I could see you right now!¡± "Ahhaa a *sob* *suu* leavim...me alobe *suu* not wakig ...up...*su*... you know how worrieb...i waj...." Her crying and pain filled voice sounded directly inside my head. (Leaving me alone and not waking up, you know how worried I was?) "You kkow¡­..*sob* ..i .thogt¡­.*hick*. ju wold die¡­.*hick* and then¡­.*sniff* i woulb¡­. alcho ..die....*suu*¡­..buv then how woulb i ¡­¡­.*suu*¡­..enboy treaking worlbs bescht dungeon ¡®waaa¡¯ wib ju"Minie said with watery eyes, rolling around on the floor. (You know, I thought you would die and then, I would also die, but then how would I enjoy creating world¡¯s best dungeon with you.) Yes, I am not. I can see that she is worried for me. Although so many months have passed away, she is still here, waiting for me. But how should I console her? Even though I can see that I am not dead yet, but It¡¯s still hard to think that someone could survive ¡®That¡¯. Though I can hear her voice, but it¡¯s not clear. Maybe mental connection depends on user¡¯s state of mind. "Minie I¡¯m sorry, I¡¯m a bad partner. I did not talk to you for such a long time. Please, believe me. I tried and I tried, again and again for the first some months, but then it got dangerous. And every time that I tried to establish a connection with you, I don¡¯t know why, but that blob started keeping watch on me. So, I had to stop at some point. At first I thought that because I couldn¡¯t move and because you couldn¡¯t get hold of me you must have gotten scared and went back to your home. Then I thought that, maybe you got eaten by it. I know you must be frustrated and angry at me, but I promise it will never happen again...." Huh? Now that I think about it where is that slimy piece of shit what happened to it?? ¡°Ah, Minnie! Tell me, where is that slimy blob now? What happened to it? I don''t feel it anywhere. It must have spread destruction everywhere and went somewhere else. Do you know which way it went? No forget it. It¡¯s not like I can do anything about it. Ah, I completely forgot; are you hurt anywhere, nothing bad hap¡­¡­¡± "You, stop for a minute.¡± Huh, what happened? She looks kind of confused. Why is she confused? But then I got to know that the confusion was not hers, but mine. ¡°Months!! What months? You have only been sleeping for two days. And what blob? Who died? What are you talking about?! Did you hit your head while sleeping? You are not making any sense at all." What the hell! I have been sleeping... That was sleep. SLEEPING FOR ONLY TWO DAYS. For real! How is this possible? I am sure I saw that thing and it ate me too. I still feel the terror, the, the,¡­ Damm, this is embarrassing. So that was a dream, huh... but how the fuck is this possible? A nightmare! It was just me and my mind acting crazy and nothing more? *ARGH* No, no. How could that kind of thing be a just dream? How can a normal person have such dangerous dreams? It was real, all real, but how could Minie not see something that disgusting. Ah, now that I see I can¡¯t feel it¡¯s aura at all. Shit, shit, shit. It was the first time that I went into hibernation and I''m already having these kinds of shitty dreams. Moreover, it only lasted for two days in the real world, but I still had to go through so much. What will happen if I someday slept for more than a month or some¡­¡­.??? Damm, I am never going to sleep again. This shit is very scary. I don''t ever want this to happen to me again. My inner monologue and discussions were still going on when I heard a scared, shaking voice asking me, "What are you mumbling about? Are you alright? Well, it''s good that you woke up, but please be sane. You are making me scared.¡± ¡°AH! Minie, I¡¯m sorry I got a bit lost inside the jungle of my own ideas and illusions.¡± ¡°Whoa, that was creative. Did something happen that I don''t know about? I can hear your thoughts you know. ¡± with a confused and perplexed face Minie asked me. I looked at Minnie. She looked kind of bewildered and soft, like she was looking at a, nut case. That hurt me a bit. Well, I don¡¯t mind the faces which she¡¯s making, because I am happy. She''s safe and nothing happened to her. I am safe and alive. Now,, I can keep my promise and help her create the strongest dungeon in the world. Those things are good and all, but I think we need to make a rule to not eavesdrop on each other¡¯s thoughts. It¡¯s not because of her read my mind, but because I can¡¯t spy back on her. "Hey, Minie, you can hear me thinking right?¡± ¡°Yes, I can. So you don¡¯t want me to do that?¡± ¡°NO, actually, Can only fairies do the mind hearing thing? Can like others also do that?¡± (Rock) ¡°oh! So do you want to try it too?¡± ¡°Not really. But if you are going to teach me then why not.¡± "Ahaa. Just say if you want me to teach you something, I am here for that you know and yes others can also talk telepathically.¡± If what she said is true then I should also be able to do it, but why can¡¯t I?¡± ¡°Oh! It¡¯s not that you can''t, you just don''t know how to. Oh, and more thing ¡­ I¡¯m also blocking you from entering my mind.¡± Minie replied sheepishly "Hey, I heard that. It¡¯s rude, you know. You can see my ¡®Everything¡¯, but I can¡¯t ever hear a squeak from you. It¡¯s, it¡¯s¡­ SEXISM." I screamed the last part in her mind, emphasizing it to create a self reflecting effect on her, but the result didn¡¯t turn out quite like I wanted it to. ¡°Ha-ha. Sexism, do you even know what that means?¡± She was laughing so hard that her smile was almost touching her eyes. I couldn¡¯t refute her. I really don¡¯t know what it means. I just said what came into my mind. "No, I don¡¯t, but this doesn''t mean that I''m wrong. Forget about it and tell me, did something happen while I was sleeping? I mean whenever you talk it feels like you are not telling me something, moreover you don¡¯t seem your usual self today. Can you tell me why I feel so?¡± When she saw how serious I was, she stopped laughing and returned to her usual calm self, but to me her behavior still felt a little, forced. ¡°I- I don¡¯t know what to say.¡± Seems like whatever that happened while I was sleeping wasn¡¯t as simple as I thought it to be. ¡°I mean, I know now that ¡®That¡¯ wasn¡¯t you. All the things you have been saying don¡¯t make any sense, and that thing also didn¡¯t. I just don¡¯t know whether it was you or something else.¡± Her voice told me exactly what she was thinking and how she was feeling. I don¡¯t know what kind of a thing that I did while I was sleeping, but her tone is already explaining the situation to me. ¡°Minie, you believe me right.¡± I asked her and my voice showed unwavering confidence. She looked at my fine chiseled¡­ahem, crystal body before nodding her head once. Though I can¡¯t read her mind, but it is easy to distinguish between positive and negative signals which she releases unconsciously. Actually, her control over her brain waves is not as great as she thinks it is. It slips her emotions out automatically and my mind also perceives them automatically. ¡°Have faith in me and tell me what happened while I was sleeping. I believe you so please believe me too.¡± I heard a *suu* sound, she cleared her running nose and replied with, ¡°Hu¡± to me in a very cute and soft voice. Then she answered my prayers and told me everything and her experience left me senseless. ******** I don¡¯t know what to make of this. According to her, I released tentacles and attacked her. Moreover this happened exactly when I got eaten up by that thing. I am not sure of it, but are these things somehow related to each other or something? I don¡¯t know, but let¡¯s confirm it with Minie. "Minie, I have something I want to confirm with you." "Huh, Okay.¡± Her mind seemed a bit perplexed, but she was alright otherwise. "I want to know what exactly happened to you, and I also want to show you what I went through. So tell me, is there any way for us to accomplish that. I mean can we project our thoughts into each other minds or something?" ¡°Umm, yes, there is a way. Actually its exactly like how you said. We can transfer thoughts, voices, and images to each others minds, but it is a bit dangerous.¡± ¡°Oh really, then lets do it.¡± Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation. ¡°But it¡¯s dangerous for you you know!¡± A scared, shaky and concerned voice came out of her throat. It was enough. Her concern is enough. I want to know what actually happened, so I am not going to stop this ¡®Experiment¡¯, but it¡¯s good to know that she feels concerned about me. ¡°To me? Means It¡¯s not harmful to you? Then it¡¯s alright. If it wouldn¡¯t harm you then it¡¯s alright. So what should I do?¡± "Yeah, it is possible, but it will take its toll on your mind. So we need to improve your mental capacity first.¡± ¡°And to do that¡­¡±She blushed when I asked her that. ¡±You have to learn how to read thoughts first!" Minie replied, smiling a little cheerfully. "Well, then let''s do it, you will teach me how and I''ll practice hard until I become able to do it properly, then let''s start now." Yes, we need to hurry these things up and get ready before apocalypse falls on our heads. "Huh, Ah, okay, let''s start.¡± She started with being confused at m sudden suggestion, but then her eyes got sharp and her timidness faded away like it was just my delusion. A solid and calm voice welcomed me and then she seriously started explaining to me the intricacies of mind reading. ¡°It''s actually really simple, if you actually get to do it once, but it is also very hard, if you don''t get the hang of it. You need to believe in our bond, believe that we are really connected, and believe like we are one mind and one soul. If you could do that, then it will become as easy as reading paper, but if you couldn¡¯t, then it''s like trekking in a desert. So, I have provided you access to my mind for now, it''s not easy it''ll take some time, but don''t worry one day or another you will get the hang of it. So, until then kee........" "Hey, Minnie I think I got it, I just read your mind. It¡¯s quite easy to do. Who told you anything about not succeeding in a single try? Reading your mind is like reading paper, just like you said." *___* This is how her state of mind turned into, when I told her that I have already learned it. Actually, it really is very easy to do, but it looks like my instant learning came as quite a shock to her. "Huh, really? You really learned it on your first try? I took me two years to learn this you know.¡± Yeah, maybe the shock was a little too much, but it really is easy. How should I explain it? I followed what she said and ¡®Boom¡¯ I heard her talking, though she was only thinking to herself, but she didn¡¯t believe me. ¡°Don¡¯t jock okay, its very dangerous. You might get brain hemorrhage if you don''t do it right, so concentrate and..." ¡°Minie, I really have already learned it. Your teaching was so out of the world that I learned it in a second. Ah! How should I make you believe me? Let me read your mind.¡± Yeah if I don¡¯t end it here then she is going to keep sulking about it. "Really, my teaching¡­Heee. Okay then, try to prove it? Try to tell me what I''m thinking." "My teaching, it¡¯s because of my teaching. Fuuu, It¡¯s because¡­" *Ahem* maybe, I served the dish a little too hot, because when she heard what I had to say, her face turned red and she hurriedly stopped me from saying anything more. "Okay, okay. I understand...monster¡± And I also stopped when her burning face turned tomato red. "So, can we try it now? I think I''m ready." I voiced my opinion on the situation. "Yeah, okay. Why not? Let''s give it a go." ¡°So what are we going to do?¡± ¡°Nothing I am going to think about what happened to me. You try and read them like you read my thoughts. Though it might induce a headache, but please try to go through all of it, okay.¡± "Okay...." I replied to her and then it started. The view was not complete; it was like bits and pieces, something from here something from there. At the start, everything went alright. She was normally passing her day. Because I could also feel her emotions, her sadness didn¡¯t escape my radar and I understood looking at the scene that she was sad because I was not waking up. The scene changed and fear overcame sadness and then a scout came. Huh, I remember she went on and on about tentacles and stuff, but she didn¡¯t tell me anything about someone visiting us. Don¡¯t know, maybe she forgot about it. Oh! I saw her burying me deep underground. I know magic is very formidable but it turned out more invisible than I thought it was. Now I wanna learn it too. Just when I started feeling scared that he might have come inside, I saw him turning and running away. He didn''t come in... ha-ha. I can feel her getting frustrated, she buried me deep to protect me, but turned out it wasn¡¯t needed. I can even see her getting tired little by little from using magic, while she tried to bring me out of my¡­coffin. Maybe magic has its own limitations. Is this why she was scared and said I almost killed her? Maybe I should ask forgiveness from her for this. But this is still not so bad. Comparing this with what I went through inside my dream, it was like meh... Then everything went black. So this was all huh. Well, little girls and their tantrums¡­ And just when I thought that everything was over, I was projected with another set of memories and these were much-much clear. Like everything was happening right in front of me. I felt her fear, her agitation and nervousness which were beyond ordinary. She was so scared that I felt like sky had started falling. She dug me out of my tomb and just when she was about to leave, everything started shaking. Then a deep blacking purple aura seeped out of me. I felt Goosebumps looking at that thing, because I think I know where it came from. The only thing which had the same kind of aura with the same disgusting felling to it was that Blob. Although its intensity wasn''t quite the same as it was in my dream, but otherwise it was the same no matter how I looked at. I know one thing, that aura weren¡¯t my doing. I don''t remember anything about having an aura and going on a rampage inside my own fucking cave and trying to hurt Minie. While the aura thingy was scary in itself, tentacle started forming out of it and they started bombarding everywhere. While most were attracted to walls like ants to sugar, some of them went towards Minnie. The fear I felt coming from her right at that moment is beyond describable. I could see that she was on the verge of losing conscious and just when they were going to touch her, something happened. The ground¡¯s trembling stopped and the aura and them tentacles, they all vanished into thin air like they were never even present. I know, if she is looking at my face right now, then she is probably laughing while looking at my expressions. But I really didn''t imagine that she went through such a thing, all because of me. That last part of them memories made me numb. Phew, at least it¡¯s over. Maybe the terror of having to face such a thing alone had some way or somehow rooted me deep inside her heart. Why do I think so, because when that aura vanished, she came running to me to check whether I was fine or not, instead of thinking of me as a stranger who got her into such a dangerous situation and leaving me behind. Even behind all her timid character and fear and everything, I can feel that she cares for me. It makes me happy to know that there is someone who cares for me too, but also makes me afraid that maybe someday she might end up getting hurt because of me and I don''t want that to happen. Everyone wants their dreams to become reality, but here a nightmare turned real. Can magic make that happen too? Is this kind of thing also possible? For a monster from dream world to come into reality and create havoc. This is some supernatural shit that is out of my league. After watching what Minie had to go through cause of me I am having second thoughts about my intelligent idea of sharing memories. I don¡¯t think that I should let Minnie see my dream, although those tentacles were a bit scary, but they hold no candle to, to ¡®That¡¯. I don''t know how she will react to it, but I need answers, answers to questions which are already very confusing. "So, how was it? It was scary right? How could you do that to m¡­ Ah! Sorry, I know it wasn¡¯t you, but I can¡¯t help but shiver whenever I think about it. So, now that you know, could you tell me how or what really happened? I know you don¡¯t have answer to all of my questions, but¡­¡­¡± Now, I¡¯m perplexed. I can¡¯t decide whether I should show her my dream or not. "I don¡¯t know what to say, your experience was, surreal. I didn''t even imagine that something like that happened to you. But I have a question, do you think you can help me it? " "Ah, ask away. Anything you ask will probably help me too" "Do you think aura can take shape I mean do you think it is possible for such a thing to become reality, it feels kind of fictitious. I mean I don''t know what kind of word this is? So, tell me is such a thing possible in this world?¡± Minie got serious for a bit, but then her mind relaxed and she answered with another kind of energy and emotions. "This world is too amazing for people like us to point fingers at what is possible and what is not. Maybe something that is impossible for us is as easy as breathing to someone else. So, let''s not talk about what is possible and what is not, it won¡¯t do us any good." She shook her head once and said while looking at me, "It¡¯s my turn now. Let''s do this. You don''t need to project anything to me. Just think about what happened to you and I¡¯ll do the rest of the work." Should I do this I don''t know she really did her side of the work, so now it''s my turn and I don¡¯t think that I can back down from it now? At the very most she would stop talking to me, but it doesn''t matter; now that I can also read her thoughts. "Okay, let''s do this" Then I started thinking about all that happened to me in my dream. She remained unfazed from the start of it to the end. She didn''t even wince once. No frowning, no face making, no nothing and here I thought she would create a fuzz about all that, but nothing. Turns out she is a lot braver than me. Forget that, she didn¡¯t even move. Maybe I was thinking too hard about her being in danger and that clouded my thought processing. All the while I was thinking how wrong I was to think that she''s a weak minded little fairy with loose spirit, my memory projection ended. My projection ended and I looked for Minie and her signal, then I noticed that it was a blank. Firstly, I thought that maybe she was pondering about what that blob probably is and the connection of it with my aura thingy. But it was all my misunderstanding, She wasn¡¯t pondering about anything. I noticed that, she was just unconscious. Chapter 6 - Learning Mana control {RE} Rocky''s P.O.V:- ?????I found Minie unconscious and unresponsive after she went through my dream. I wanted to check whether she was alright and connect with her mind to do so, but when my mind scan resulted in a duck, I decided to do what a sage would have done. I waited for her to wake back up. She slept for two hours. Many times I wanted to scream in her head to wake her up, but I decided not to do so, after all her current condition was a result of my ¡®Experiment¡¯. ********* And after remaining unresponsive and stoned for so long she finally opened her eyes. I connected with her mind to see what was going inside, but nothing. She looked at me for a second, squinted her eyes, frowned and then started daydreaming. I know, I know this is the result of my irregular interference, but I still think this is kind of annoying. Because she was not responding to my voice, I decided to use the only option that I was left with. I again started projecting my memories into her mind and not even a minute had passed when she woke up and started screaming and crying. I know I acted a bit too cruel for my own good, but who knows how long she would have taken otherwise. ************ She''s awake I think, but what I need do to calm her down, about that I don''t know anything. Maybe, she will come to be her usual self after she tiers herself up completely. I was just thinking about this when the screaming stopped. I couldn''t help but look her way because this startled me greatly. If I could walk, then I would have run to her as fast as I could, while screaming apologies on her face, but I can''t walk. So instead, I am screaming apologies in her head, but her response left me speechless. "I''m sorry...." she murmured. I don''t know what she was sorry about. I should be the one saying sorry to her. Well, I could have at least warned her about the thing that she would face inside my dream, but still "That was not real right. I mean how could something like that be a real living being? You said it was your dream, but its aura and pressure was the same as of those tentacles.¡± About that she''s right this thing is also bugging me. "And also at the time when that thing ate you at almost the same time that aura¡­¡± ¡°What?¡± ¡°That aura came out of you at the same time.¡± *Shit* its real, the hyp¡­ No, the danger is real. If what she said is really right, then what she is implying is the worst case scenario. I don¡¯t even want to imagine something like that. "Rock, tell me is that thing real? How, Why are you not saying anything? Tell me, how could a monster from your dreams influence reality?¡± "What do you want me to say? My guess is as good as your. I don''t think I can add anything new to the things that you already know. Moreover, you also saw that thing and lived my dream so there is nothing that I know more than you. Normal people don¡¯t have such dream, dreams about blobs eating them and aura¡¯s trying to run away.¡± But the real question is, do I need to be scared of it? I mean it was just a dream after all and nothing more. Well, let¡¯s ask her. ¡°Minie, do you think it is dangerous for us?¡± "I don¡¯t know about that, but you know what, no more mind reading. I''m banning you from reading my mind. No more mind reading for both of us. I don''t want to see or dream something like that again, no more, no more." Well, let¡¯s end this here for now. But I did notice that her temper has been flaring from the time that after she woke up. Is this also the result of making her go through something like that? Let¡¯s forget it. She will get back to her normal self in time. "It¡¯s okay Minie, don¡¯t worry about it. You don''t need to burden yourself with things like not reading minds. I know you like reading my thoughts, but I think we might have to face some opposition within a week of time.¡± ¡°Huh, Why? Did you accidentally explode something again? Are you sure?¡± Am I sure? Did she already forget about the human who came to gather information?! Is she that? ¡°Firstly, you didn''t tell me about the scout and because of that we ended up wasting our precious time on this not so important stuff. Well, it''s not important for now. Anyways, we need to stack our defenses and gain some attack power. He must have told other humans about all the supernatural stuff that happened in the cave by now. So, I want you to teach me how to control my mana, and all that I need to become stronger, cause if you don''t¡­ Hey, stop staring at me and be attentive.¡± Seriously she is daydreaming in the middle of such an important conversation, what the hell is wrong with her or is she still not over that? Well, if I think about it clearly then I really did a big mistake by showing her my dream, didn¡¯t I? Forget it, let¡¯s continue. ¡°Nothing has changed, like we decided, all we need to do is to create a dungeon that those humans don¡¯t find any reason to destroy; for that is." ¡°Ah, I completely forgot that you are a dead stone sitting on a hot pan. I mean, you are a dungeon core who doesn¡¯t know a thing about dungeons.¡± Haha, I want to give a chop to her dull brain, but her reactions are kind of amusing to hear. *¡­¡­¡­¡­..* ¡°Right, so tell me. That is your job after all.¡± She coughed once to my emotionless reply to her nonsensical blabber, and then she politely provided me my task. ¡°Okay, let''s start with mana control"(Minie) Her expressions turned serious like before, but looking at her face, I couldn¡¯t help but ask, "Is it also difficult like mind reading or is it even more ..." "Stop, Just stop, let''s not get to conclusions without trying, okay. Mana control is easy. No it''s super easy, even a child can do it. All that varies from person to person is their ability and degree of control over their attributes or simply mana." When most people use their mana one way or another they always end up leaking some of it to the surroundings and only a little of it is used in the spell. On the other hand a sage can use almost every speck of their mana." "I know what you mean. Ah, I''m sorry. I couldn''t stop myself from listening to your thoughts. Well, having large mana capacity is a necessity, but what¡¯s more important is a person''s ability to control that said amount of mana. You know a person who has more mana than his body can handle always ends up, Exploding.¡±(Minie) *Gulp*I gulped hard when I heard the word explode. ¡°So, what do I need to do to feel the mana because I can''t even do that?" ¡®Yeah let¡¯s see how easy this thing really is.¡¯ Is what I thought, but my delusions broke when she finally started explaining the correct way to influence and feel mana in the surroundings. "Feel you surrounding, feel the air, the pressure it creates, its velocity, its composition. What it constitutes of, how it moving, it¡¯s flow... " "What Are You Saying? Didn''t you say it''s as simple as breathing? Then what is with all of these compositions and flows? What the hell happened to it being easy?!" And turns out she was just playing with me. Should I be angry? Nah, I let her have a little fun. She¡¯s a little kid after all. ¡°Sorry, Rocky, but I had to do something about your overconfidence or you might have ended up, exploding." ¡°Fufuu, Ha-ha, yeah right. So tell me, what is the real way of feeling mana?" I thought she would continue and again tell me a lie or some mumbo jumbo gibberish, but instead, she explained the process to me like a good girl. Seems like she really only just wanted me to come down from my high horse and study properly. "For others; it''s starts with feeling the environment, then to try and find mana particles with their affinity and absorb it, as simple as that. After they practice this for some days, they gain a passive skill of mana regeneration, which helps with the automatic absorption of mana from the environment.¡± ¡°That method is for normal people, but what about me? I am not normal. I am a crystal, a stone!¡± Yes, I gave her the finishing blow with my non-existent puppy eyes. ¡°As for you, because you are a crystal and you don¡¯t have any kind of sensitivity; you need to take all of your mana from the inside and through it all outside. Don''t worry I am not asking you to create another explosion. Haaha.¡± ¡°Then, what should I do with this mana?¡±(Rocky) ¡°You need to cover yourself with it¡­¡­¡±(Minie) ¡°Excuse me, cover myself?¡± ¡°Yes cover it.¡± ¡°Are you sure?¡± ¡°Yes, I am.¡± *¡­¡­¡­¡­* Damm, my instructor is senile. ¡°Don¡¯t get me wrong, but if you did this properly and got skilled at doing it, then you can also get the ability to see. Well, not properly, but temporarily. I am saying temporarily because you won''t need such a crude ability to see after creating a room. Well, you''ll know more about it when the time comes." ¡°I¡¯m getting anxious here¡­¡­¡± "Okay, let¡¯s do this. So, try to cover yourself with a layer of mana, but try not to overdo it cause you only have that much mana. After you reach this point, then use the mana covering your body to feel the environment. It will seem difficult to do at first, but will get easy once you get the hang of it. Start trying now; we are already short on Time and have a lot on our plate. Only talk to me again after you gain mana regeneration skill. OKAY" I nodded my head and got immersed in my first official training session on the path to get stronger. Phew, such a big lesson. My head is hurting a bit, ah, but let''s do this. So, first is to cover myself with mana. *¡­¡­¡­* but where in my body is this mana? "Minie, where is my mana? Does it flow through my whole body or is it concentrated in some specific place?¡± "And here I told you not to¡­ well, whatever. It''s inside you. Oh sorry! I''m wrong. You are it. Every inch of you is mana. No, that¡¯s also not right. Every inch of you has mana stored in it. All the mana that your body absorbs, gets stored in your crystal core. It acts as nutrition for you, it is what keeping you alive and it is also the reason as to why you lose conscious whenever you drain it completely. Okay, so try to think this way...¡± "So, I am mana and mana is me. Let¡¯s work on it. I am mana and mana is me. I am mana and mana is me¡­ I absorb and store it inside me¡­.¡± Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.Nothing I can only feel a tiny shit ass black flame, burning inside me. Well, it¡¯s more like a spark than a flame but I don¡¯t feel anything else. No mana no nothing. So, it is actually not as easy as I thought it to be. "Minie, I still don''t feel any mana inside me just a teeny tiny flame (spark). What should I do? Help me!¡± She is going to blow. No, not explode. She is going to fry me with questions. How oi sknow this? Well, her face is a readable book after all. "What? A flame , A FLAME... what the hell are you saying? How can your mana have any element? a dungeons mana is of neutral nature, you know. WHAT THE HELL?¡± ¡°Is this a bad thing? I don¡¯t understand, why do you react like that every time something unexpected happens?¡± ¡°YOU ARE A FUCKING DUNGEN CORE¡± ¡°Minie, its okay, but please stop screaming.¡± ¡°Ah! Sorry. A dungeon core with an elemental affinity.¡± ¡°So, what? If you have nothing significant to say, then I am going back to my practice.¡± ¡°You are superb a genius you know. Let me tell you. In this world from the old times there has only been 59 dungeon cores who were born with an elemental affinity.¡± ¡°Really? There is such a thing?¡± ¡°Yeah, you are unbelievable. Firstly, you acted like a possessed core then you broke every record of the speed at which normal cores gain skills and now this.¡± ¡°It¡¯s a good thing¡­ right?¡± ¡°We will only know if this is a fortune or a disease once those humans invade. You being an elemental dungeon is like a double edged sword. Once your monsters evolve it will get easy for you to defend your dungeon from invaders, but if you went berserk and started killing everyone who came then we¡¯ll both incur there wraith. So yeah, a double edged sword it is. Such luck I have.¡± So, will it be alright if I didn¡¯t kill those humans and lived like a vegetarian lion, huh. Not that I have any grudge against them. Well, we see what happens in the future, in the future. ¡°This also explains why you couldn¡¯t control your mana. Repeat the same routine, but these times try moving your flame. The more control you get the better and once it start moving the way you want it to, you can try covering your body with it and try to absorb mana from the world. So get your mana regeneration skill as fast as you can and get back to me ASAP. Okay" So see the flame and move it, make it bigger and raise it. Well, seems easy to do. Let''s try moving the flame. Move, move, move! Ah, it moved...not really, but still I saw it vibrating a bit. * **** * I kept on trying to move it and after spending, I don''t know maybe half a day, I can now will it every way I want. Well, I wish that I could do so, but I can only get it to vibrate somewhat. Like she said although I can move it somewhat it get out of my control rather easily. I think it''s enough control for now. I need to make my flame bigger, hotter and make it burn for all eternity. So, I moved on and tried to cover my body with the flame, but because my control was not good I lost most of my mana to the surroundings, leaving me with a rapidly decreasing source to practice. I willed it and poured all of my spirit into making it work. Although I couldn''t make the mana cover my whole body, but after trying again and again I succeeded. I succeeded in covering the tip of my crystal body with the flame. And just as it happened an explosion of lights occurred and lights of different colors started floating in front of me. I asked Minie about them and according to her these balls of different colors are what we call energies. These are the energies of this world and every color represents a different element. Like those orange lights are fire energy, blue for water, yellow for earth, black for dark elements and cyan for wind. All these elements have their own grade from one to nine, from basic to godly elements. Then there are also some special elements like lightening, life and death energy and chaos. It is said that everyone who are detected with chaos element are killed before they get time to grow up because this element is the bringer of chaos. It corrupts its users mind and spirit making them a destruction machine. Such people are called chaos bringers. Well, let''s talk about it some other time because now, I''m going to absorb world energy. Because I have affinity with fire element, I can only absorb fire energy and not any other. Well, it¡¯s not because she said that I''m saying this, but I also tried to absorb energies from other elements, but it was to no avail. I couldn¡¯t do it. So, I am left with no choice other than to eat fire as much as I can and try to increase the size of this flame burning inside me. Sounds kind of cheeky right, well it is how it is. The absorption¡¯s going okay. My mana is recovering, although it feels a bit slow, but Minie says it¡¯s still a lot faster than the time when my body was trying to replenish my mana automatically. I asked her about the possibilities and advantages of having fire affinity. Then she told me that having affinity with an element means that there will be a chance for the monsters that I create to have interrelated abilities. And also the monsters that I create can only have elemental affinity the same as me, their master. So, it means, while most of the monsters in my dungeon will have affinity with fire element, other dungeon core can have variation with their monster. Well, their fire power will be a lot weaker than mine, but still, I can only have fire breathing monsters or those which somehow get influenced by the environment and ends up evolving into something different, while they enjoy a wide variety of pets...I mean monsters. So, that is the deal and here I am trying to gain the mana regeneration passive skill. The only way that anyone can increase their mana capacity is either by leveling up or by interacting with worldly energies and doing this continuous process of emptying and filling it their mana reserves, over and over again. This process is like stretching the reservoir. The more I stretch my flame, the bigger it will get and greater becomes my mana storing capacity. Well, because I can¡¯t do anything else, I practiced mana control while absorb fire energy. Because I have no control¡­ ¡±Don¡¯t laugh Minie. It is how it is.¡± And my ''mana clad'' yeah, that ability of covering my body with mana is called ¡®mana clad¡¯. It¡¯s another skill if mastered to protection can help me ward off physical and magical damage to some ability, but it¡¯s very difficult to master. It needs perfect control over mana, high mana reserves and also grinding, a lot of grinding. By mastery I don¡¯t mean to just gain the skill, but mastering it to its highest level, which in this case is the grand master level. Well, the levels goes something like; ApprenticeConditions required to gain skill mana regeneration has been fulfilled.
(active/Passive) Mana regeneration lv(1) EXP - 0% Automatically regenerates mana even without users influence. Mana regeneration doubles if user actively tries to absorb mana from the world
*Smiles* Ah, my hard work paid off better than I expected and after spending half day in gruesome meditation, I finally acquired the mana regeneration skill. But is 2mp regeneration per sec good enough. Well, let¡¯s tell Minie. ¡°Hey, Minie I did it. I have acquired the mana regeneration skill, so what now?¡± I wasn¡¯t expected it, but her reaction came suddenly and like a tide it washed away all of my tiredness. *Puuuff* ¡°What! Why! How? Are you kidding me? It¡¯s still the same day. How can anyone gain a skill within a day?¡± Even though it was her who said that it is east to gain this skill and its again her who is behaving like a puzzled cow. NO matter what or how I do it, It always ends up being something unbelievable. It¡¯s like I am creating miracle here. ¡°Hey, we don¡¯t have time for this. Right now, we are tight on time. So, what now? What do I need do? Can we start with creating dungeon and choosing monsters now?¡± (Rocky) ¡°yo- you are a genius. No a monster. Yes, you are a monster. *Sigh* only if I had skills like you. Well, forget it. You want to create monsters right?¡± I got excited and ferociously roared when I heard her say, ¡®create monsters¡¯. ¡°Good, then let¡¯s do this. Like you said we don¡¯t have much time left before adventurers start invading our home, but we can¡¯t go straight to dungeon building. We have some work to do before that. So, firstly, let¡¯s open your¡­ status window.¡± Chapter 7 - Status {RE} Adventurer¡¯s guild town Ragnar?k¡­ ¡°The scout is back sir.¡± (Assistant) ¡°What about the information! Anything worth my time?¡±(Guild Master) ¡°He taking to the receptionist right now, but he looks kind of shaken off. Maybe something unexpected happened while he was scouting.¡±(Assistant) ¡°Oh, don¡¯t worry about such things he is an adventurer. And if he thinks he can¡¯t take this kind of work anymore than he can leave, not like anyone¡¯s stopping him. There will be one less dead to out account for, if nothing more.¡± (Master) ¡°You shouldn¡¯t say such things grandpa! He is also a human. So what if he is not skilled or high leveled or brave¡­¡± (Assistant) ¡°It means, he has no redeeming qualities. It¡¯s not like I don¡¯t care, but Adventuring is not for everybody. People need power, courage and the will to live in this line of work. It is¡­¡± ¡°Humph¡± ¡°*sigh*¡­You are too soft, my dear. That¡¯s why I said this line of work is not for you. But you¡­¡± ¡°I don¡¯t want to hear anything about this! You also know why I don¡¯t want to leave you alone. Who knows what kind of destruction you will create in my absence?¡± While they were arguing with each other, a knock rang on the door. *Knock, knock* ¡°May I come in sir?¡±(???) ¡°Who is it? ¡° ¡°It¡¯s Jade, hime ¨C sama.¡± ¡°Looks like the receptionist is here, Come in.¡± The door opened and a neatly dressed, but pale looking girl entered. Her big eyes as the moon scanned the whole room which. The room looked more like a Floristry. It had pots upon pots of flowers and herbs stacked and lined neatly. Rows upon rows of such pots were covering the whole room and only a small alley was left at the center for anyone entering in to go from the center to the open space which was adorned by a mahogany desk and two chairs. She was still checking interior of the room when she noticed an old grizzly bear and a pretty coyote looking at her. Every time she comes here, she is always presented with such a view. Oh, don¡¯t get it wrong, it¡¯s not because they are actually beasts, but because she has a skill which lets her see the true nature of person. This is also the reason why she was given the responsibility as a receptionist. She came in and bowed respectfully lifting the corners of her frilly dress, and then she attentively stood up and told them the news which she had bought. ¡°Pardon me sir. but I have come to inform you¡­.¡± ¡°Just speak already! What did that incompetent rascal say? Is it worth giving others a job and him a reward?¡± ¡°Yes sir, according to the scout at the place of the explosion there is a deep dark hole going straight into the ground. It somehow looked like an ant mound, but because of his low level, he got scared and he didn¡¯t go in.¡° Her master stared at her for a second before he finally spoke, ¡°So an ant mound, huh. They are not dangerous. Let I¡­.¡± He was going to say that he would go on his own and finish it, but he was stopped in the middle by his beautiful and controlling granddaughter. ¡°Grandpa, an ant might only be a ¡®F rank¡¯ monster individually, but in their mound they are present in hundreds if not thousands.¡± ¡°So what I can k¡­¡± He wanted to discuss and give a reason but his lovely child flared. ¡°IT¡¯S NOT ABOUT YOU GRANDPA. You are the guild master now. you are not an adventurer anymore.¡± ¡°So what do you do think needs to be done.¡± ¡°A single ant holds no threat to anyone, but their threat level lies with their numbers. Because not much time has passed from the day when that explosion occurred, I think it will be enough if we send a C Rank party to the site. They will be able to take care of the mess on their own.¡± He gave no reaction and agreed silently. Why? because like he is only the guild master in name. Though his strength used to be a cut above others, but his old age took most of it away and his glory became a thing of the past, and all the important decisions are taken by her after all. ¡°Okay. We¡¯ll do as you say. Jade go and place an Ant extermination job of ¡®Rank C¡¯ and let the reward be 15.¡± ¡°There is one more thing sir.¡± ¡°What is it now..?¡± ¡°Yes sir. According to the scout, when he was coming back from the site of explosion he felt the ground vibrate and then he felt a dreadful aura emitting from that direction, seeping out of the cave. He said that maybe whatever was in the cave got enraged because he was roaming around near its home.¡± Hearing this Arnold started laughing out loudly. His laugh shook the whole building. Adventurers started running outside the guild, fuming and cursing at the guild master because they know that he has a tendency to laugh. He laughs like this whenever something interesting happens and his interests always end up becoming their headache. ¡°Ha-ha. Jade go and put a job for ant subjugation as a ¡®B rank¡¯ threat. Let the reward be 30 gold coins and whoever finds anything out of the ordinary will be rewarded with another 30 gold coins. Let¡¯s see what you are.¡± * * * * *Back in the Cave* * * * *
Status Window
NameNoneRaceCrystal core
Level2AffinityFire, Dark, Life
Rank0JobDungeon core
NatureNeutral(-1)ClassNone
TitlesBorn Killer, Named Helper.
--------
Health85Health Reg.1.1/min
Mana425Mana Reg.1.3/min
Vitality8Knowledge32
Resistance10Intelligence18
----
Skills (Passive) :Mana Control lv(3), Mana Regeneration Lv(2)
Skills (Active) :Outburst(Special), *Locked*, *Locked
----
Skill Points6
Well, this is how it is. This is what my status window looks like. I am Lv 2 dungeon core. Whose knowledge and wisdom stat are very high, even though I was born just a few days ago and am only on the second level. Knowledge in the 30¡¯5 and intelligence in 20¡¯s what else would I need. When I told Minie about my status she was left shocked beyond measures with her eyes wide open and her jaw almost touching the floor. When I asked her about it she told me that the status window she was talking about is related to the dungeon, but the one I opened is for me. one that shows my very own status. She told me that every Dungeon has a control Interface, which is used to control all the aspects of a dungeon and the dungeons status is one of its functions. Minie also told me that all the status windows and the information windows are made up of mana. So without having any mana control, I wouldn¡¯t have been able to see them. Oh! About mana control, I got another skill called ¡®Mana control¡¯. Just like its name says, it is a skill that helps me to control my mana. According to Minie, I would be able to directly control nature¡¯s mana once my mastery over it reaches the sage level. But the goal is a little too far away. For now I can only attract it towards me to absorb it and nothing more. I wanted to move on and do something productive when I noticed that I had another title other than ¡®Named Friend¡¯. ¡®When did I get it? I don¡¯t remember receiving any notification informing me about it.¡¯ When self pondering didn¡¯t bring me any result, I consulted with Minie about it. ¡°Minie, I have something to tell you. It¡¯s about the title I hav¡­¡° ¡°Huh! What, anything wrong with your title?¡± ¡°No just that I noticed another title besides Named friends in my status window.¡± I asked her about it but I was answered with silence. I thought maybe she was thinking about its possibilities and such, but no she was mesmerized. ¡°What! How is this possible? When did you get it? Why didn¡¯t you tell me about it!¡± she was almost screaming by the end of it. ¡°I¡¯m sorry Minie, please calm down. It¡¯s not that I didn¡¯t tell you. It¡¯s just that I didn¡¯t know. I just came to know about it after looking at my status. So don¡¯t get mad. Okay. ¡° ¡°Ah! Sorry. You need to stop with your surprises or I might die one day cause of them. So tell me, what does it say?¡±
Title: Born A Killer
Given to those who kill someone within Minutes after taking birth.
Effects: Gain Intelligence and Knowledge of subject killed Gain Skills at twice the speed for half the effort. Reward: *Locked* *Locked*
Bonus Reward:1st Dungeon floor unlocked
*--------* *____* She looked at me and I looked at her and we both continued the staring game for sometime before Minie sighed and said to me. This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings. ¡°Well, lucky aren¡¯t you. Seems to me like while exploding all of our mana out, you somehow ended up killing a poor being. Well, this at least explains your knowledge and fast skill gaining ability. Good for you, good for me. No, it¡¯s good for both of us.¡± And then she smiled. ¡°This is a good thing, is it not? I mean, I can get stronger faster and the stronger I get, the stronger our dungeon will be.¡± Gaining skills at twice the speed for half the effort, is this not the stuff from legends. So that¡¯s why I could gain those skills so easily. But this scares me a little. If I didn¡¯t have this title, then wouldn¡¯t I have also wasted a lot of time trying to gain Mana control and regeneration? Talking about the ¡®Title¡¯, on the status window I can see that I really have affinity with dark element. ¡®So those dark particles weren¡¯t getting absorbed for nothing, huh.¡¯ I think that I should tell her about this before she finds out on her own because that would be a disaster. I know, I know I said that I would give her a surprise, but I think she¡¯ll feel more shocked than surprised if she came to know about it on a later date. I think it¡¯s better for my health if I give her all the shocks at the same time. So, the shocks don¡¯t come to shock my ass too. So I politely and romantically called out to her, ¡°Minie!¡± ¡°Yes? Do you want to ask anything about it or should we move on and start the next thing?¡± ¡°No, actually I have something to tell you.¡± I couldn¡¯t help but fell agitated and nervous. It felt like I was confessing to her. ¡°Ahaha.¡± She blushed and a little laugh escaped her mouth when she heard that I had something to tell her. Her face and neck reddened and she sheepishly nodded. *¡­¡­.* And i couldn¡¯t understand what she was behaving so bashful for. Oh shit! I think she heard that. ¡°Oh I am sorry miss for my rude behavior! But the thing I want to say is important so let¡¯s skip onto it.¡± She looked at me like she was getting ready to fly high up in the sky. I don¡¯t understand, I really don¡¯t know what she is thinking. When I said ¡®It¡¯s important¡¯ the redness of her face increased and its color got deepen. But me who was color blind could not see the change and I carried on with my plan of breaking her heart. ¡°Anyways, what I wanted to tell you so bad is that I think I have got affinity with another two elements. It¡¯s dark and life actually. Actually I have known about it from the time when I first did meditation. I wanted to keep it a surprise, but now I think I shouldn¡¯t keep things from you.¡± But once again I was greeted by silence. I waited and waited for her voice to each my mind so that I could feel her emotions and decide what to do next but no nothing came. Only silence rang in my silent world. ¡°Minie?¡± I called her, but nothing again. I was going to scream loudly in her mind when I heard her mumbling something. ¡°Suu, and hear I thought that he¡­ idiot, I am such an idiot. Why would a dungeon, why would anyone like me!¡± She was talking so low and so slow that if I was listening with my ears then I wouldn¡¯t have been able to hear her at all, but because of our mental connection I heard everything crispy and clear. And her fluctuating emotions were enough to remind me that maybe I said something, or maybe the way I said it gave her the wrong idea and now it is hurting her. ¡°No, Minie, I like you. Why wouldn¡¯t I like someone who left her home to take care of me? Tell me, what comes after my name?¡± She looked up and looked at my crystal body. She wiped the streaking drop of water leaking from her eyes and replied in a shaking but happy voice. ¡°What come after it? I don¡¯t know.¡± ¡°It¡¯s your name.¡± Her eyes opened wide when she heard me say that and finally her smile devoid face started shining like the first ray of a glowing sun. She laughed a little and we went onward with our conversation. ¡°Haha. You are actually quite sly, like a fox. But still Dark, fire and life affinity. It¡¯s seems strange, but also feels, nice. Heehe.¡± ¡°Umm, don¡¯t get sad okay. Its not because I was keeping things from you, but¡­¡± ¡°No, I understand. Even if you hadn¡¯t told me it wouldn¡¯t have mattered. After all, you are not obliged or bound to tell me everything.¡± ¡°No! i maybe not be contract bound or whatever but don¡¯t say that I am not obliged to do that. Don¡¯t forget that we are partners, certified by the system. So, don¡¯t say that!¡± ¡°Thank you.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry actually I have one more thing to share. It is not surprising like the affinities, but Is actually more mysterious.¡± ¡°Huh, something much more mysterious than having triple affinity! What is it?¡± Her small mouth opened and her sweet voice refreshed the atmosphere. The life devoid cave returned to its former demeanor and I was able to get my only friend to laugh again. ¡°It¡¯s the title. My first bloody title ¡®Born killers¡¯ not only gave me the double skill gaining speed, but also two locked skills.¡± ¡°Locked skills?¡± ¡°Yes, locked skills. Can you tell me anything about them, because the system is not telling me anything about them?¡± ¡°Well, if we are going to talk about all of the stuff, then let¡¯s start with your affinities.¡± ¡°Umm, Okay. I have got no problem with that.¡± ¡°Well, Firstly dark element. Dark element as its name says is the element of darkness and actually is also my element. Mostly that whose profession is associated with stealth and the like has this affinity.¡± ¡°Ah! Okay. So, thieves and the like, but why do you have dark elemental affinity?¡± ¡°Oh! We are fairies; we are not included in the category created to define human standards.¡± ¡°Okay, seems legit. You are a guardian after all. So, what about life element?¡± ¡°Yes, life energy contains the power to heal. Well most of its abilities lie with controlling plants and stuff, but you also get boosted healing capabilities and some healing spells. It is a very rare element to have and is actually in great demand. A kingdom that has a high level nature/life mage will never have food shortage after all.¡± ¡°Oh, so can I also grow plants and trees inside our dungeon?¡± ¡°You can but you will have to master it, otherwise no.¡± ¡°Ah! That will take a very long time. It¡¯s such a shame, well, what about the locked skills. Do they also have conditions which need to be fulfilled before I could use them?¡± ¡°Yes you cant use them.¡±(Minie) ¡°What the¡­¡± ¡°I didn¡¯t mean to say that you will never be able to use them, but that you won¡¯t be able to properly use them without becoming a mage or something and about those locked skills, I don¡¯t know anything. Maybe like you said there are some conditions, which need to be fulfilled before you get to use them.¡± Shit, affinities which need to be devolved and skills that I can¡¯t use. This is just great, so how¡­.. ¡°Ah, but there is one good thing that happened...¡± ¡°What is it¡­¡° I couldn¡¯t help but get excited when I heard her say that. Maybe something good had finally come to wet my feet and help me traverse this hot and tearful desert called life. ¡°Your title unlocked your first floor. Now, you won¡¯t have to work for that. Now, that is good news, isn¡¯t it?¡± She replied cheerfully. ¡°Floors! What are floors? Why do I need to work to create new floors?¡± I couldn¡¯t help but jump when I heard that got something for free. ¡°Aiyo! ...you see, for a dungeon to grow it need to expand. Now you can either expand horizontally or downwards, but you can¡¯t grow upwards. To grow horizontally you need to create rooms. That is the place where common monsters take birth, monsters which will help defend your castle.¡± ¡°So, can I create as many rooms as I want?¡± Rooms, Monsters, Caste, Floor. Room, Monster, floor¡­ I repeated it until she didn¡¯t reply. ¡°Hah¡­ As many as you can¡± she said that and I felt bliss. I couldn¡¯t believe when I heard her say that I could create any amount of floors. ¡°Really?¡± came as my reaction. ¡±No¡± (Minie) Damm, this is irritating. It¡¯s like being promised a three room villa and being given a three room shack. ¡°Well, you can only create rooms according to your mana capacity. As the rooms and floors are created from your own mana, so if you went overboard and created more than you could handle, then your dungeon might collapse, destroy everything, fall down on you and kill you. So don¡¯t do that okay.¡±(Minie) So there¡¯s also such a thing. Shit! Being a dungeon is hard work. If I didn¡¯t know then I would have really created a one second monster dungeon. Why one second? Because it would have collapsed after that one second. My concerns deepened with her one sentence, so I couldn¡¯t help but ask her something which concerns not mine, but also her life. ¡°What about monsters? Are monsters also dependent on my mana? And can I only create a limited number of them too?¡± ¡°Intelligent aren¡¯t you Rocky. Yes, again the number of monsters are also dependent on you mana capacity. But there is a cache here and about it, you will know when the time comes.¡± I asked Minie, if she could see my status and the answer was a no. She said some people have skill to appraise others and a high level appraisal skill can help check out almost anything including other peoples status, but there are also limitations. This appraisal skill sounded so great that I couldn¡¯t help but ask Minie to help me acquire it, but I was refused without mercy. As for the reason I don¡¯t need it, was what she said. ¡°You are a dungeon core. You don¡¯t need something like an appraisal skill, you have your own dungeon control panel where you can see everything about everyone who will enter your dungeon.¡± is what she said. What is a Control panel? I asked her that, but she is still a little sad and said that she was going to sleep. I don¡¯t even know why she needs something like sleep? I don¡¯t sleep, but she does. Well, I don¡¯t need sleep, not until I go into my intense mana recovery mode and have dreams about scary and disgusting blobs. It is all good and well, but, what am I even going to do while she sleeps? Chapter 8 - Betrayal {RE} Minie¡¯s P.O.V:- I shouldn¡¯t have gotten my hopes up. Who told me to think that he would be¡­ Ah! This is bad I don¡¯t want to think about it, but I can¡¯t stop thinking about him and about the things he says, about the ways he talks. No! Don¡¯t, don¡¯t, don¡¯t. He is a dungeon core, my master. I can¡¯t show him such a disgraceful side of mine. I hope he didn¡¯t get offended because of my crude and selfish behavior. Should I apologize to him? No! No, he¡¯s already taking advantages of my nature from time to time and if I showed him how timid I am then he will try to eat me for real. *Blush* No, No, not that way. I mean, literally eat me. But he doesn¡¯t behave atrociously and also does not ask me to serve him or anything, even though he has the right to order me around. He really does believe me as his partner; someone with the same status as him. I couldn¡¯t help but blush when I thought about sharing the same room and the same status with him. Yeah, he is great¡­ He is great for a crystal. No, he is even better than those humans. They kidnap fairies and kill other beings. Moreover, they do the killing for their amusement and not for their needs. They are actually the worst. No, there are also them Demons and those of Evil¡­ No, stop, don¡¯t think, don¡¯t think, don¡¯t think about them. We are already in a heap of problems and I don¡¯t want to add another to them. But those humans their greed has no end. I don¡¯t want to please them, if could I would kill them all, but¡­ *sigh* it¡¯s not possible. With how weak we are right now, we can only survive if we could somehow convince them that there is profit to be made by not killing us. It¡¯s the only way to stop them from thinking of us as dangerous and destroying our dungeon. Let¡¯s forget them for now. I know their raid is going to come, but I just hope that they don¡¯t send someone too formidable for us to handle. I don¡¯t want knights or someone above them rank roaming around inside my¡­ no our dungeon, our home. Ah! I don¡¯t know why but my face turns red every time I think about him. Is it because of that? But there should also be no reason for them to send someone great and powerful. I mean, as we are now we don¡¯t even have the power to hurt ants, so forget about humans. They have their own means of protection after all. We are just trying to live here, keeping ourselves safe from the danger that others emit towards us and make a living while doing it and also getting stronger. I mean, evolving and stuff. We just need to become dangerous, powerful, and then we¡¯ll kill them all! Ahem,¡­ I got a little carried away there. Oh! I forgot the matter about getting rich. Money! We don¡¯t need it, because rock will probably be able to make it in the future. Well, it also holds no value for a dungeon. What we need are dungeon points or dungeon credits. Yes, the more we have the merrier our life will turn. But there is actually a little problem here. The only way of collecting credits and getting rich is by killing humans or by, torturing them. If I think hard and don¡¯t strain my brain, I think I can come out with a way to get a rich without killing anyone, probably. Oh! Yeah, If we could kill half of those who will come to invade on us and maybe also make them stay inside our dungeon for a day or two, then maybe we will get enough Dungeon points (DP)for some modifications. What is the rate of gaining ¡®DC¡¯ from humans again? Oh yeah, it differs for every dungeon, but if I still remember than, a scared person gives much more DP than a strong willed one. *_____* Looking at this from another angle, it seems like even gods are telling us to torture those humans as much as we can before killing them. But we can¡¯t expect to keep on capturing humans and torturing them because one day or another, the cat will get out of the bag and the dead will start haunting us. Now, I don¡¯t want their brethren to come and ask us for their dues. They will want blood and we can¡¯t bleed. Even though those humans keeps on waging wars between themselves, killing Millions of their kin and spreading chaos everywhere, but if they got wind of us torturing humans, then they will get angry. No, they will probably sanction a kill order to our names. But do they even know our names. Well, not right now, but they probably will. We are going to get famous after all. From name I remember, we have not given our dungeon a name yet (she is forgetting that it¡¯s still a cave). Well, I¡¯ll discuss with ¡®Rock¡¯ about this, but I really need to think about, how to make our dungeon (cave) popular, that is. But Rock, he is amazing isn¡¯t he? I mean he has elemental affinity with one of the strongest elements; Fire. Moreover, He is the first dungeon that I know of to have triple elemental affinity. And this is not all, he also has a soul, but it¡¯s still not ending because he even has a Title that makes his skill gaining ability four times the normal. I mean twice the result for half the effort means four times, right. Is this what being a heavenly talent means? No, even heavenly talent is not enough to explain how great my rocky really is. Well forget it, because normal beings won¡¯t ever understand his greatness. I mean there are only a handful of elemental dungeons and all of them are ancient history now. But Rocky has fire element for firepower, dark for scarring the shit out of all those pesky little humans and life for growing vegetable¡­ *_____* I don¡¯t believe it. He actually have only a single element that is of some us!. I mean WTF are we going to do with plants. Shit, so that Rocky is not so great after all. He is not great, is overconfident and grows tentacles to attack me¡­ HELL, HOW DID I FORGET ABOUT THAT!! But, have there not been a lot of crazy things happening around here and one way or another all of them are related to him? I think I need to tell Mistress about this. Well, it is in our code to inform all of the unusual things which happens in our Dungeons to the headquarters, but should I really tell them everything? I mean although it is time for me to report my weekly status, but what if they try to take him away from me? I mean, he is a bit eccentric, makes fun of me from time to time, keep things hidden from me, and creates tentacles and assault me¡­ that pervert. * Blush* but he is still my partner, isn¡¯t he? Or Should I leave him before something bad happens? *sigh* Silly me, still thinks that I can run away from him, but now that we are partners; acknowledged by the gods, I don¡¯t think that I can go anywhere away from him. ¡°Minie what are control panels how I can use them would you teach me¡± (Rock) Really, am I just a teacher for him! The day will come when I¡¯ll have nothing more to teach him, what will happen then? Will he abandon me or maybe eat¡­ me! No, no. That is not possible. Rocky is not like those selfish imbeciles, like those crude mongrels that killed so many of my friends. How happy they were when they joined those dungeons, but all killed because of a myth. If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. I believe in rocky he won¡¯t let anything like that happen to me, but¡­ what about that thing! What if it again came out? What will I do then? It was like terror had taken physical form and had come to obliterate all and everything. If it¡¯s that thing, then I don¡¯t know what kind of troubles future hold for us! *Sigh*¡­ I should really tell Mistress about it and there is also the matter about his locked skills and the raid, which I need to consult with her. But firstly, I need to handle Rocky. I don¡¯t think I can teach him anything right now. Let¡¯s make him wait. He also needs to learn patience. ¡°I¡¯m going to sleep¡± (Minie) ¡°Okay.¡± Well, I didn¡¯t think that he would agree with me so easily. I thought that he would create some noise, and then I would need to get angry at him, but It ended; silently? Well, whatever I think he also understands that I need some space right now. Then I walked to a corner of the cave a bit away from him so that at least he won¡¯t be able to see, that I¡¯m not sleeping. Well, I really do need to sleep, but reporting to headquarters is also important.¡¯ Oh, I almost forgot to block our mind connection. It¡¯s not like he invades my privacy by reading my thoughts or something, but still it¡¯s better to be safe now than to be sorry later. What about me I have all the right to read his mind, we are partners after all. I guess stalking runs in my blood¡­ NO, NO. I mean talking, over talking runs in my blood. So let¡¯s do this... * * * * * * * * * * Third Person P.O.V:-
Establishing connection
*Ding!*
Connection with Fairy Mistress ******FeeFee established.
Ah, these information boxes, always interrupting by telling me things that I already know. Who did ev¡­ ¡°Still, hot headed as always huh, Minie FeeFee.¡± (Mistress) ¡°Greetings, Mistress. How are you doing?¡± ¡°Its fine child, everything is the same as you left three days ago. You remember right? It has only been three days since you left.¡± ¡°What! Only three days! How is this possible? I thought it has already been a week, so I conne¡­.¡± ¡°Oh, don¡¯t fret about useless things. I understand where you are coming from. So, are you having fun? How is he? If he¡¯s acting any funny then you can tell me, we could still change him before you make your contract with him.¡± ¡°About that, he is alright, and I don¡¯t think I can come home now.¡± ¡°Why! What happened? Did you get captured by humans or something or did he cage you? Don¡¯t worry my dear we¡¯ll come to your rescue; if it¡¯s that dungeon we are against. No mercy for those who hurt one of ou¡­¡± ¡°No, it¡¯s not what you are thinking. It¡¯s just that we have already formed the contract. And our bond has also strengthened. So, I can¡¯t come back home anymore.¡± ¡°Okay¡± ¡°Okay?¡± ¡°Yeah, he is a sentient one so it is understandable. Well, most reincarnated people are born with their knowledge and intelligence intact so it¡¯s ¡­¡± ¡°Ano! Rocky is not someone reincarnated. He just got a weird title and it made him intelligent. He also has affinity with Fire element. I mean isn¡¯t he amazing, he¡¯s so¡­¡± ¡°What?? ELEMENTAL AFFINITY! ARE you serious? And also is there really such a title? We never knew. Quickly tell me what that title is and how to receive it. Remember that you are doing a great service to your brothers and sisters who would also be able to become partners with sentient dungeons and not just a machine that only knows how to kill or eat. I never thought such a thing would happen by sending you there.¡± Minie could feel the excitement from her Mistress¡¯s voice. ¡¯This is unexpected¡¯ she thought, but instead of getting happy she felt fear. Fear like a lioness had just found her prey. Although the words her Mistress uttered were all said with good intention but Minie felt like she was being mentally pressured. Although the words were connected to hope and welfare of their community, but her mistresses¡¯ intentions were not. ¡®Why do her words feel so hollow? Like she is only saying them to get me to tell her everything, but her heart is not into them.¡¯ Minie thought while cold sweat drenched her clothes. For the first time in her life she felt fear. Not fear from monsters and the like, but fear from the thought of being betrayed by her own family. Fear that made her think that if she told her Mistress all and everything about Rock them a disaster bigger and far worse than humans would explode onto their heads. First time in her life she understood, how greedy people really are. Forget about humans, even her mistress was trying to pressure her to make her spill the beans. She decided to tell her the truth about that title, but to keep everything else to herself. ¡°The title he received is ¡­¡± Minie told her about the title and how he received it, the skills advantage and conditions required. Her Mistress sighed like she was regretting sending her to the dungeon, but Minie felt that sigh chilling her very soul. ¡°So tell me, how he fulfilled the conditions, if one needs to kill someone just minutes after being born to gain this title, then how did he get it?¡± (Mistress) Minie might have not knows why her mistress had turned into an entirely different person just minutes after listening about the title and Rocky¡¯s triple elemental affinity, but she knew that whatever the reason was; it wasn¡¯t anything good for her. ¡°It seems that when Rocky woke up for the first time in this world, he somehow released all of his stored mana and blasted it toward the surface; killing some unlucky fellow in the fallout and that way he gained his knowledge and ending up maturing in a single day.¡±(Minie) ¡°So that¡¯s how it is huh. Well, if there¡¯s nothing more to say then you can go, for now.¡± (Mistress) ¡°Huh¡­ ah, okay. Well, then see you mistress.¡± Minie said that while smiling cutely, but her smile froze when her mistress replied back. ¡°Yeah, keep me informed. Okay, Bye-bye.¡± Minie hurriedly broke the connection. She knew she did or said something, which she shouldn¡¯t have and now it was going to come bite her in her tiny petite ass. She woke up and started running towards Rock. She felt like all her relations just broke and she was left in the world alone. Her family was already nothing more than a thing of the past and her mistress who she believed in more than her anyone else had decided to abandon her for something illusionary and this way she got left in the world with only one person to depend on. When she saw Rocky, hovering still in the same place where she had left him, her heart started beating faster, her breathing stopped and tears started falling. One by one her tears rolled down her face making creases and then dropping on the ground, getting lost in the dust, while she thought how lucky she was for having someone like Rocky as her Partner. Chapter 9 - Dungeons and Myths {RE} Rock¡¯s P.O.V:- She went sleeping and because I had nothing better to do I started meditating. Cycling mana inside my body, emptying my reserves and filling them again, this is one hard, long and boring process. Mana regeneration is great and all, but to increase my limits, I need to complete the whole process on my own, without using any abilities and the like. I need to feel the mana in my surroundings, absorb it and slowly, but surely increase its quantity and quality inside my body. So, instead of depending on automatic recovery I have to meditate. After talking with Minie, I found out that I need to increase my mana to large amounts, because mana is what I¡¯ll be using to control everything in my dungeon. I know that my knowledge and intelligence need work too, but I can increase them if I start studying now. Nah¡­ No need to be so hard on myself. After all, I¡¯m still only three days old. A toddler who needs to watch out for invaders, who need to get stronger because there is no one to protect him and don¡¯t forget about that¡­ Yeah, nothing good will come out by imagining things, which I don¡¯t have any answers to. It takes a long time to meditate and it¡¯s already the fourth day now. I think we really need to start increasing our defenses, but Minie is still sleeping. Is there anything that I can do without her? Well, I can open my status window or meditate (that is what I am currently doing) or¡­ nothing! Really nothing else? *Sigh* This is bad very bad, but I should at least think about what I need to do to make my dungeon dangerous, but worth the risk. Well, humans won¡¯t find any value in keeping me alive just to kill some monsters and get stronger. There should be something else to. I remember Minie told me that, they are very greedy. They could even kill their partners (Friends) if the reward is hefty. So, a reward, I need a reward to excite their hunger. Something which is only available in our dungeon, our specialty. I¡¯ll talk with Minie about it, but for now let¡¯s continue to meditate. And like that another Half of the day passed by and evening came. I have been meditating for half a day now, but Minie is still sleeping. Nothing much happened, but my maximum mana increased by 2. Is this a large increase or small one, I don¡¯t know? But at least my continuous practice is making me stronger, even though the amount is almost miniscule. Well, little drops of water can make a mighty ocean. I was just thinking about this when Minie woke up and ran towards me. She scared the heck out of me. She looked perplexed and under the weather. Her clothes were drenched in sweat, but without caring about that she ran towards me, but instead of covering the gap between us, she stopped some distance away. I don¡¯t know what she is thinking. The way she is looking at me I don¡¯t know why, but I find her a little lonely. She is not smiling like she always does and neither are there any other emotions on her face. At this moment to me she like looked someone who had lost something which she treasured more than her life. Is she scared, scared of me. Why? Did something happen while she was sleeping? I think I need to say something to her. ¡°If something happened then let me tell you, it wasn¡¯t me. I have been meditating here for the past half day¡± I voiced my thoughts into her head, but she gave me no reaction. ¡®Oh, maybe she¡¯s blocking my connection. Yeah, it¡¯s something she does. What now?¡¯ I was thinking so, when water started dropping from her eyes. ¡®Is she leaking?¡¯ I thought to myself. ¡®Is something wrong with her?¡¯ such questions littered my mind, but my limited knowledge and zero life experience were of no help. I could only wait for her to drop her mental guard and then ask her. Then after some time when her tears stopped, she walked towards me and placed her hand on my crystal body. I felt warmth being emitted from her palms. Not like the heat from a fire, but warmth one feels when they finally finds their other half. I felt at peace. All of my thoughts stopped in that moment and for the first time after my birth, I experienced peace. ¡°Rocky, you¡¯ll never abandon me right?¡± ¡°Never¡± was the only word that I could utter because the peace I was feeling turned into a warm cozy coat of never ending happiness and love that covered me completely. Time stopped, my thoughts also stopped and I experienced ¡®Moksh¡¯. Why I felt so? I don¡¯t know. The only thing that I do know is that at that moment the gap between us diminished a little and I felt something budding in my soul. Well, It is hard to explain. What happened to her while she was sleeping? Only she could tell. It is not my place to ask her about thing that she don¡¯t want anyone to know. So, I¡¯ll wait. Wait until she gets ready to open her heart to me. ¡°Ok then, firstly let me tell you what it means to be a dungeon.¡± (Minie) ¡°Can¡¯t we skip this part and move onto the more important stuff; like really building ourselves a dungeon instead of living in a cave.¡± Yes! I know, no more distances between us etc, etc. But these topics are too boring. She doesn¡¯t know how difficult it is for me to keep myself awake, while she talks about this useless information¡¯s. Ah, how I wish I could just skip them to the more important parts like¡­ ah, forget it. ¡°No! Rocky, this is important and don¡¯t worry it will only take an hour at most. Okay.¡± ¡°Yeah, fine I guess. Alright, let¡¯s do this.¡± ¡°Firstly let me tell you about your mana core.¡± ¡°Okay, shoot.¡± ¡°You know, there are veins of mana flowing deep underground. These veins are a source of pure energy. But the thing is it is not easy to notice them. Forget about noticing them, only a few people in this world even know about their existence. Now, the place where these veins pass through turns into a hotspot of mana activity, but because all of this happens deep underground, no one notices.¡± ¡°But what will happen if these veins of natural energy somehow ended up entering surface from the ground?¡± ¡°Nothing, It¡¯s mana after all. It will increase mana concentration in the surrounding area and that would only lead to growth of strong monsters.¡± ¡°Oh, so monsters roaming in the world are also made up of mana?¡± ¡°Yeah, like I told you before, everything is made up of mana. While things like monsters, plants and almost everything evolved to better move about in their surroundings. Some still retained their original makeover like the remaining remnants of our civilizations past. ¡®Overlord¡¯ is what people call them.¡± Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. ¡°So, you mean to say everything was born from mana and like my core they gained power and evolved into what they are now?¡± ¡°Yes, correct. Everything, No, sorry, almost everything is the result of millions upon millions of times of evolution from their first state which was dirt holding mana.¡± (Minie) ¡°So, all the plants, humans and monster are brothers and sisters.¡± ¡°Ah, now this is getting out of hand. Don¡¯t end up straining your head thinking about useless matters and tell me, Where was I?¡± ¡°You were telling me how everything evolved and¡­¡± ¡°Not that, about the cores. Oh yes, stone can¡¯t hold mana for longer duration of time, but after getting bombarded with natural energy for a long time, they start to change and starts absorbing that natural energy. The change is slow, but it happens. As those rocks evolves and turns from something invaluable to something very rare and unaffordable by most people a ¡®Mana Stone¡¯.¡± (Minie) ¡°A mana stone! Why do I feel like I have heard about it before?¡± ¡°Well, a mana stone is stone with the capacity to store mana. They have many uses like powering spells, utilities etc.¡± ¡°But why are they so valuable, after all a mana stone is still just a stone that can hold mana. Moreover, I don¡¯t think that a vein of energy, which could turn a whole area into monster infested lands, can only produce a handful of these mana stones.¡± ¡°Intelligent, you are way too intelligent. You are right, but listen to this. When a stones turn into mana stone its makeup changes. It keeps on absorbing mana from the vein and keeps on growing; not in size but quality. After some time when the vain dries up and there is no more mana to absorb most of those mana stones stops absorbing energy.¡± ¡°Huh, So what?¡± ¡°I said, most of them, not all of them.¡± Oh! Yeah, looks like the formation of these mana stones in not as easy as I think of them to be. ¡°So, some of them keep on absorbing mana, but the vein dries and their source of mana dwindle, they change their target and start absorbing mana from the stones near them.¡± (Minie) ¡°What! Is such a thing even possible?¡± ¡°Keep on listening and don¡¯t disturb me because there is much more to come. Now after absorbing all the energy from every source around them most of these rocks turn into high quality mana stones or pure mana crystals and stop their absorption, but sometime and only sometimes one of such pure crystal does not stop its behavior to absorb, and that behavior slowly turns into a will. A will to eat and absorb everything.¡± (Minie) ¡°Damm. So, a stone not only needs luck, but also has to go through such a lengthy process before turning into a Mana crystal. But stealing from an open source is not enough and when their source dries up they need to steal from its brothers and sisters to keep growing! And this is still not enough because they also need to gain a will, will to devour everything. Only then do they turn into a core. Man this is really unreasonable. Everything is associated with luck.¡± ¡°Yes, this is also the reason why mana stones are very valuable and expensive. I mean they are formed after thousands of years of mana absorption, but most are never found or are killed as a dungeon core.¡± ¡°But this is ridiculous. I mean, long would a stone take to convert into a fully fledged core, if there is not enough mana in its surroundings? ¡± ¡°Heehe, which is why I said, only a very lucky stone can turn into a core in thousand years, but others, don¡¯t even ask.¡± Fuck, how lucky am I? Not only did I become a dungeon core from a stone, but I also gained knowledge and wisdom. If this is not luck then what is! Damm¡­ ¡°Minie so where do these mana or energy veins originates from? I mean, they must also have a starting point somewhere, right?¡± ¡°About this there are only myths and no information. Even those myths vary from each other.¡± ¡°Tell me please I¡¯m begging you. Don¡¯t stop now that you have made me excited.¡± She blushed when she heard that. Why? I don¡¯t know. She coughed once and after shaking her head once she started explaining the myths. ¡°Ahem, Some say there is a very strong, no formidable being who has been living from the ancient times and the mana that leaks out of him is where all the mana originates from and some says that it¡¯s the work of gods, while other says that there are springs of highly concentrated mana under the surface and sometimes the springs evaporates and turns into these mana veins.¡± (Minie) ¡°Really there are such Myths, Formidable and ancient giants and springs of mana! What is wrong with this world? How can something like a creature whose single breath could change the whole world even exist?¡± ¡°Oh, I forgot about one, the least popular one actually. It¡¯s a myth that no one believe in.¡± (Minie) ¡°Tell me; tell me. What is it? It doesn¡¯t matter what other say, isn¡¯t it best to know about everything?¡± ¡°Although no one believes in this one, but it is the oldest ongoing myth that survived the passage of time and basic methods of sharing information. According to It this world that we live in is not just an empty shell of rocks, sand and dirt, but is a living being that has a soul. According to it, this world is monster which also has a core and we are just pests who are infesting him. The Monsters which roam around in the world are its defense mechanism, while humans and the like are foreign beings.¡± ¡°What?!¡± I couldn¡¯t believe her. If the myths before were the epitome of madness, then this one is their father. I mean, who was that great person who wrote and passed such information from the ancient times. But what Minie said after that left me numb, it was too supernatural to be true. ¡°Listen there is more to it, something even more absurd. They say that deep underground, deeper than even our wildest imaginations, there is a palace. A palace where its heart, a core is kept. A core, so big that even moon pales in front of it. And the veins of energy are its veins, which provide nutrients to its body and sustain this world.¡± Chapter 10 - The Cave Of Misery {RE} Rocky''s P.O.V:- ¡°Okay, your time is up. Now, we need to do some intense remodeling of our home. So, are you ready?¡± Well, that is Minie and she is telling me that the time she had given me to get my mind straight after hearing about myths and what not¡¯s is over and that I should get ready for some fu¡­ I mean work. ¡°Oh, I am ready as an ox. Just tell me the things you want from me and, I¡­ will¡­ Do¡­ Them¡­ all.¡± ¡°Oh, acting like a spoiled brat now, are we? Well, that¡¯s something new from you. So tell me, what do you want to learn first?¡± (Minie) I mean, does she even need to ask me that. ¡°Dungeon interface. Tell me how to interact with it! You know I have been trying hard to get it to work, but my efforts bore no fruit.¡± ¡°Well, your efforts depend on your methods and not on your hard work. Now tell me, did you follow the same procedure as you did when you activated your status panel?¡± (Minie) ¡°Yeah, aren¡¯t both of them just different pages of the same book, but with different information¡¯s. So, shouldn¡¯t the concept to invoke them also be the same?¡± ¡°Not bad your theory is correct but there is a fundamental difference between both of them. The status window you opened let you see your own stats and powers. It has nothing to do with the dungeon itself, Whereas Dungeon interface is related to the whole dungeon and not just your crystal body.¡± Oh! I see where my thoughts went wrong. It¡¯s not that my theory wasn¡¯t right from the start, but that the fundamentals were actually completely different from each other. So, that¡¯s why it didn¡¯t work. ¡°So what should I do to open the interface?¡± ¡°It¡¯s simple just a little bit tricky.¡± ¡°Oh so this thing is actually simple!¡± ¡°Hah, to open the dungeon interface you need to try and think of your crystal body as a heart, and this cave as your body. Then feel the dungeon and look for the status of your whole body. Rest of the procedure is the same as when you interacted with your status window.¡± Well, this really is a bit tricky, but her theory seems legit. After all, this cave really is my dungeons body and my core is this cave¡¯s heart. Well, her advice and my luck... I mean hard work and there is nothing that I can¡¯t do. I had not even started to act on the principles when god¡¯s music rang in my head. *Ding!*
Specific Action performed
Conditions for activation fulfilled
Activation in progress 0%. 1%.. 2%... 3%...
¡°I did it Minie, I did it. You said it is tricky, well, at first I couldn¡¯t get around, to see this cave as my body, but after I thought of my crystal as a heart, I felt mana leaving my body as then¡­¡± ¡°Okay, this step is over. No need to get so excited over nothing. Be attentive!¡± (Minie) Forget about being attentive, if everything is as easy as these initial steps then I don¡¯t think anyone would be able to kill me. ¡°Okay. So what¡¯s next?¡± ¡°Now, we wait for the interface to activate.¡± (Minie) After my initial yell of excitement, we played a boring game of waiting. Well, why boring because this thing is still activating, and it has already been over 30 minutes. Well, 30minutes and still counting. I looked again at the info Box out of agitation, but
Activation in progress 30%...31%.... 32%...
I couldn¡¯t help but complain to Minie about this useless waste of time. ¡°Minie, this is taking too long. Will it always take this much time to open?¡±(Rock) ¡°No, don¡¯t worry. Because it¡¯s opening for the first time, it needs to register your data into its database. So, this process of creating a new account is what¡¯s taking so much time.¡± (Minie) But what do I need a new account? My status window didn¡¯t take any time to calibrate anything. ¡°Can¡¯t I just use the interface with an open source?¡± I thought she would take some time to think about it before answering me, but no she already had a question prepared for me. ¡°Tell me, what do you think would happen if anyone and everyone who enters in here could see and control the dungeon interface?¡± She had her arms crossed in front of her chest and the question she asked me was asked in leisure. She didn¡¯t even look toward me. ¡°They would be able to control the dungeon¡­¡± Shit, I didn¡¯t even think about it. If they really took control over it, then it will create a catastrophe for me. There would be nothing left for me to do. No, I wouldn¡¯t even be able to do anything, to stop them from simply destroying everything. Controlling my monsters and they would even be able to kill me without even lifting a finger. ¡°So, this is what this account system is for¡± ¡°Huh, did you say anything.¡± ¡°Ah! No, I was thinking that maybe this account works as an anti theft system against everyone other than the masters of the dungeon.¡± I don¡¯t know why but I got the illusion that when she heard my answer her eyes started shinning and drool came out of her mouth. Well, me and my fantasies. ¡°Yes, it is because of this database. You see only you can control the dungeon through this control panel. Fu, humans don¡¯t even know about such a thing. Now, why would anyone especially look and try to hack something that they don¡¯t know about?¡± (Minie) ¡°So, that¡¯s why you said¡­ but why do you always have to wait for me to reply first? Can¡¯t you just say everything in one go? I mean, it takes a lot of it¡­¡± I had a lot of problems with her teacher like behavior, but I didn¡¯t get the opportunity to voice them out. *Ding!*
Account created.
Welcome, Dungeon Master!
Am I excited? Yes I am. Why would I not be? Now, I can say goodbye to my old cave and create something amazing. ¡°Now what are you waiting for open the interface and let¡¯s see what it can do,¡± ¡°Okay.¡± I thought about opening it and it did.
Dungeon Interface
StatusFloors/Monsters/Store
Name---Type---
Floors0Total no of Monsters0
Rooms/floor0Total no of invaders0
---
Mana Usage by:
Dungeon0Monsters0
Resources0upgrades
---
Dungeon Currency1040ReputationNeutral
Whoa! What is this! It has such an amazing contrast comparing to my normal status, yet it feels the same. Dungeon name, floors, rooms, monsters, even no of invaders, what the actual hell! ¡°Minie can you see this? This is amazing now we can know everything that happens inside our dungeon moreover in real time. Oh shit! I forgot, you can¡¯t see this window. I¡¯m ¡­¡± ¡°Haaha. Don¡¯t worry Rocky, I can see it too. Though I can only see and not interfere much with it, but its okay. At least I have enough permission¡¯s to look at all the panels, and buy things. You don¡¯t mind me interfering with your dungeon, right; or do you?¡± (Minie) ¡°No way, why would I say anything? This dungeon is going to be as much yours as it is mine?¡± ¡°Going to be??¡± ¡°Yeah, it¡¯s still a cave you know. So hurry up, I wanna change it and remodel it to make it look like a real and amazing dungeon.¡± ¡°Okay, okay. Fine, let¡¯s do this. What we need to do first is to choose a dungeon type.¡± ¡°Type? What do you mean by type? Don¡¯t I just need to grow monsters, create floors and voila new dungeon experience for the adventurers.¡± ¡°No silly, first we need to select the type of monsters which we can create, like goblins, slime, animals etc.¡± ¡°And what¡¯s after that? I mean there are thing that need to be done before we could start remodeling right?¡± ¡°Yeah, first choose a dungeon type, then buy monsters according to it and then create a space for those monsters to roam around in. That is all we can do for now.¡± Ah! this is a headache. Why can¡¯t I create all types of monsters? Why is there such a limitation on my growth? Well, let¡¯s get over this first. ¡°So, what kinds of dungeons are there?¡± ¡°There are undead dungeons, slime dungeons¡­ well, its better if we see what options are available to us.¡± (Minie)
TypeMonstersThreat Rank(without evolution)Evolution Path
Undead dungeonSkeletons, Ghosts, Ghouls,etc.4Varied, Defined
Slime dungeonSlimes, Elemental slimes, Rainbow slimes,etc0Uncertain
Fire dungeonFire slime, lava kilin, Magma Horse, fire kobold, Human Torch, Burning dead, Fire Dragon,etc6Varied and defined
Dark dungeonShadow Rats, Ghosts, Undead monsters, monsters, Dark wolves, Blind lizard,Death Spider, Venemous Snake, Dark Dragon, Etc6Low
Desert dungeonWheel Spiders, All Snakes, Infesting insects, Fire Lizards, etc3-5Defined
Insect dungeonAnts, Mosquitoes, Bees, Spiders, Giant Hornets, Killer Bees, Wasps, Fleas, Kissing bugs, Assassin Bug, Scorpion Fly, Spiny Flower Mantis, Tailed Emperor Butterfly Caterpillar Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.Giant Prickly Stick Insect, Hickory Horned Devil, Antlion, etc3Uncertain
Goblin DungeonGoblins2Defined
Money DungeonAny monster can be selected as the starting race.Monsters cant evolve or reproduce.0-10Can''t evolve
¡°So what do you thing? Which option are you going to pick?¡± (Minie) ¡°I didn¡¯t know there would be so many options to choose from, this table doesn¡¯t really tell much and I don¡¯t know much. Why don¡¯t you explain their traits and strengths, then we¡¯ll compare them and choose that we both like. What do you say?¡± ¡°Huh, okay. Why not? It will be great help to the both of us.¡± ¡°Cool.¡± ¡°Okay, let¡¯s start with Undead. Well, undead are the dead people who came back to the living after dying.¡± ¡°What? This is blasphemy. How is this possible? But are they strong these undead?¡± ¡°Aha, they are very strong but also dangerous, dangerous for both humans and us. Though there are many types of undead, mostly evolved forms of skeleton and ghosts, but we can¡¯t choose them.¡± ¡°Why? Aren¡¯t they strong?¡± ¡°They are strong but living beings hate undead. Believe me you don¡¯t want those humans to find you out housing undead. They will turn maniac and send parties after parties of adventurers to destroy us.¡± ¡°Okay, so no undead. So, what¡¯s next?¡± ¡°Next is slime type dungeon. Slimes they are the weakest of all the monster, but they have tendencies to evolve into very unusual beings, but we can¡¯t choose this.¡± ¡°Why? Just because they start weak doesn¡¯t mean that they would remain weak.¡± ¡°No, that is not the reason you see you have affinity with fire, Dark and life element, so the slimes would only be able to evolve into monsters with those elements. So ,with them turning into just small fire bombs or stealth type monsters, I don''t think out fire power will increase much.¡± (Minie) ¡°Oh, okay. I forgot about that a little.¡± ¡°Next are dungeons with your elements fire and dark. It¡¯s like what¡¯s written on the display. Only fire and dark element monsters are allowed and nothing else and that leaves us with very little choice with our hunters.¡± ¡°Then there are goblins. They are humanoid beings that only know how to breed. They kidnap Human girls, and use them as their reproduction bank. Although their birth rate is very fast; I don¡¯t think we can use them either, as human kill them whenever their population increases. They will destroy us on the very first day, if they found out that we are housing goblins.¡± Nothings good huh, why are all the choices given to me so unreliable. Can¡¯t choose the dead, slimes are weak and these goblins are, well, this only leave me with the option to sigh and nothing more. ¡°It¡¯s a bit heart breaking having so many options, but most of them being useless. It¡¯s such a waste. Carry on; tell me about the next one.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know why we have desert dungeon as a option, maybe its related to your dark element. You see monsters in a desert are usually camouflaged and use stealth technique for hunting.¡± ¡°Another useless one huh, I don¡¯t know why all of my choices are so, garbage. I mean can¡¯t I have a dungeon where monster starts of weak, but gets stronger and stronger as they evolve. Am I asking for too much?¡± ¡°Next is a Money dungeon. Haha, this one is funny. It wants us to spend money to gain our protectors.¡± Huh, sounds interesting, but ¡°What does it mean?¡± ¡°It means that we could buy any and all the different types and kinds of monster, but there is a cache here. We will need money and we¡¯ll need a lot¡¯s of it.¡± ¡°Money! What is this Money? Where can I get it from?¡± ¡°Ah! I am such an idiot. How could I forget to tell you about money! You know from monsters to upgrades and even buying of floors need money¡­ No, Dungeon Currency (Dc). All the changes and resources, monsters almost everything need this Dc.¡± (Minie) ¡°Then it must be very difficult to gain this thing, right?¡± ¡°Well, it¡¯s easy actually.¡± My excitement reached another level when I heard her say it¡¯s easy, but then she spoke the rest of the sentence and my soul left my body. ¡°We gain Dungeon credits according to the number of life forms that die inside our dungeon.¡± Minie¡¯s face contorted and her expression became stiff, after she completed her sentence. It confused me, so I had to clear my confusion with her. ¡°So we have to kill humans.¡± ¡°Yes.¡± ¡°And if we don¡¯t have any money, we can¡¯t do shit with our dungeon and then we¡¯ll not get strong.¡± ¡°Yes¡± *¡­¡­¡­* *_____* We are fucked, we are so fucked. Here we are trying to create an image, to show other beings that we are not dangerous, please use us and don¡¯t kill us. But on the other hand we need to kill them for advancing. This is truly OUTRAGEOUS. ¡°Well, there are also other ways to gain Dc you know, if we don¡¯t want to kill everyone who enters.¡± (Minie) ¡°And such methods don¡¯t involve any killing of humans and such?¡± ¡°NO, absolutely no killing.¡± ¡°Ah! My shining hope, my goddess, please tell me what kind of a way provide such exquisite profits without the drawback?¡± ¡°Well, we could either make them stay in our dungeon for a relatively long period of time and make them use their mana or we could always capture some, torture them and harvest credits out of them for a constant supply of Dungeon currency.¡± (Minie) ¡°Minie, are you sure you are not a spy sent by the humans?¡± ¡°Excuse me?¡± ¡°No, nothing. Please carry onwards with the explanations.¡± Are you fucking kidding me? How can we torture someone without getting found out? I mean how would we even capture them? And we also don¡¯t have any place to keeping them. But that other method we could use. I mean, we can at least keep them here for longer duration of time. ¡°So there is only one option left, which is to choose an Insect type dungeon. Insects are the weakest and most miserable creatures, other than the slimes. They are no danger to any one individually. But their specialty lies in raids and as a monster horde. In the real world, killing one of them makes you venerable and then their whole colony would come after you. So this is all of them. Now, tell me which one is you going to choose?¡± ¡°Which one do you think we should choose?¡± I have no idea what to do with these options. All of them were either directly rejected or were given reasons to not select them. ¡°I am against undead and goblins. Though an elemental dungeon sounds grand, but after looking at the options I guess they also have their own limitations.¡± ¡°Okay. Then I am going to choose Insect dungeon.¡± ¡°What? Why? Didn¡¯t I say they are individually weak? They are weak to their very bones and they also have an uncertain evolution path. What if they evolved into something even weaker? Moreover, they are weak to fire. Didn¡¯t you say you wanted to create the world¡¯s greatest dungeon? I don¡¯t think we can become great with an insect dungeon. Why do you think there has never been an insect dungeon before?¡± ¡°Minie, you are degrading insects a little too much. They rule over everything and as you can see 95% of the living beings are insects. And don¡¯t forget that I have affinity with fire element. So, my affinity will offset their weakness. I even have the magical life element can¡¯t I create a dungeon worthy for the insects to grow and evolve into something amazing.¡± ¡°No, no matter what. We are not choosing insets. I hate ¡®em, hate ¡®em, hate ¡®em.¡± ¡°So, you really don¡¯t want insects manifest our dungeon.¡± ¡°No, never.¡± ¡°Sigh¡­ Okay, so I won¡¯t *Cough* choose insect dungeon.¡± *Ding* ¡°Huh?¡± ¡°Huh?¡± ¡°Rocky what happened?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know. I just told you that I won¡¯t choose insect dungeon¡­ oh shit!¡±
Choice recorded.
Initializing necessary Functions.
Updating Database.
Database updated.
Dungeon Type Updated From (---) to (Insect Dungeon).
¡°Nooooooooo¡­¡±(Minie) That night howls and cries akin to the wails of ghosts reverberated inside the cave and it echoed throughout the area. It only stopped after sun rose on the next day. That night led to the cave being officially named as ¡®The cave of misery¡¯ by all of those who witnessed that phenomenon occurring. The cries were dreadful enough to create a commotion in the forest and villages near the cave. Chapter 11 - First Monster {RE} Rock¡¯s P.O.V:- We choose¡­ Sorry, accidentally choose Insect dungeon and what did we get from it? Nothing really! A bewildered me, a crying little fairy and a notification that informed me about the conversion of our ordinary cave into an official dungeon. I can at least call myself an official dungeon master now. I mean until now, I have only been the master of a hole. A hole blasted out from the underground and connected to the surface by my rage. I received the message with heart filled gratitude, but there was someone who did not have such feelings about the new wave of change. I connected with Minie¡¯s mind and noticed that it was in turmoil. There were her childhood memories playing again and again in a loop inside her mind. They all mostly had the same content, with just some little changes here and there. All of her memories were about a little girl being chased by insects. In one of the memories she was being chased by a horde of mosquitoes. 30-40 of them buzzing behind her, while she was flying with all of her strength. She was flying with her eyes watery and her nose running. Then there was this one memory where she was being chased by bees, then another one in which she was crying sitting at the top of a tree. Even though she was cowering on a branch in fear and was crying like it was the end of the world, but I found her cute and also found the situation a bit odd. There was one thing which was common in all of her memories. No matter which one it was, all of them had some other children standing at some distance and laughing at her miserable state. Even though there were adults present in her memories, but they all neglected her saying that it was just a children game and shooed her away, like it was not their place to barge in. I felt horrible watching the harassment that she had went through in her life. But I also understood that it was her childhood memories which were still haunting her and understood where her fear of insects came from. I wanted to do something to help her get over her phantoms and an idea popped in my mind. When all of her memories were done playing once, her mind and her thought process came to a standstill. Her brain stopped working and she went into a comatose state. I hurriedly adopted my idea and started projecting a bit modified version of her own memories into her mind and the result came sooner than expected. I was able to achieve so because her usual firewall which protects her mind form my indulges was not working, making it easier for me to hack into her brain. The haze over her eyes cleared and her dull sad face started shinning and a beautiful smile adorned it. The thoughts I projected into her mind were a modified version of her own memories. I didn¡¯t do anything excessive, just added myself into them. I changed a little bit of the one memory in which she as being chased by the bees. She was flying high and fast. In her original memory she was chased around by the bees for half a day and that was where her trauma came from, but to help her recover or to simply make her lively again I changed its content. The change was that when she was running away from the bees, someone came and saved her from them. It fired a fireball at the bees and then the bees ran away for their lives. I wanted to obliterate them, but I can¡¯t really show such graphic content to a child now, can I? That someone was clearly me and I was giving her the suggestion that no matter who tried to harm her I¡¯ll be there to protect her. I think she got my message and replied with her smile. I was still thinking about it all when her voice reached my mind. ¡°Did you do that?¡± ¡°Yes. Was it fine?¡± ¡°Hah, it was¡­ fun. Umm¡­¡± ¡®It¡¯s good then.¡¯ If I was able to change one of her fear inducing memories and make it fun then what could be better than that. ¡°What happened?¡± ¡°Thank you.¡± ¡°Oh don¡¯t worry about that. Now, tell me can you handle insects now or should I come rescue you in all of your memories. Well, I can do that.¡± ¡°Haha, no it¡¯s fine. I don¡¯t want all of my memories to have a comically sketched two dimensional rock to start spurting fire at everyone. And I also don¡¯t think my fear of insects will go away just with that, but I can have hope, right.¡± ¡°Haaha. Yes, hope is what keeps one living after all.¡± Well, it was the best I could do. I never said that my changes were made with perfection. At least she is back~. What more could I want? I was going to ask her to carry forward with the training, but then her not so pleasant murmuring caught my attention. ¡°Rocky I never knew you care so much for me. That you would even do such things for me, to take my mind off them? I¡¯m sorry, I¡¯m sorry, please forgive me for cursing and yelling, and for thinking about killing you and for considering you as a lowly being who knows nothing about chivalry and that you are a cra¡­¡± Her tears kept falling and she kept whispering, but a vein bulged a top my head. Her pitiful self was enough to make me want to hug her, but the content of her whispering made me think again. ¡°Okay, okay! Now you are going over the line, calling me a psycho and such. But don¡¯t worry, I didn¡¯t do this for you, but for me it¡¯s not like I care about you¡± But steam was came hissing out of my crystal when I said I don¡¯t care. I was possibly telling a lie with straight face but my body gave it away. ¡°Cho what do you want do to now*su*?¡± I don¡¯t know why, but it was the first time in my life that I felt her annoying, but because there was work to do and a safe haven to create, so I didn¡¯t voice out my complains. ¡°Now that we have taken the first step out towards our exciting future, shouldn''t we take another step and start by designing our dungeon. What do you think?¡± To my suggestion, she nodded her head and wiped her tears, and then she slapped her face and gave a shout at the top of her voice. I wanted to stop her for a second but I stopped myself when I saw light returning to her eyes and she looking back at me with her perfectly round eyes and spoke to me in an emotionally sound voice. ¡°Yes, we should do that. But first we need to buy some monsters otherwise, who will do the physical work for us?¡± ¡°Can¡¯t we just create rooms and floors with mana, why do we need monsters for physical labor?" "This really is a big misconception around the world. A dungeon is not the territory of a god. Do you feel like a god with all of yo problems and such?¡± ¡°No, I have too many things to take care of. I don¡¯t feel like a god at all!¡± ¡°Then why do you think you can make rooms and floors appear magically. Though this is a magical world and you are the master here, but even your powers have limitations and boundaries, which you can¡¯t traverse.¡± This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it. Sigh it is such an odd world. I thought I would be able to make rooms appear and disappear o my whim, but it seems like its not possible, huh. ¡°We first need to buy the permissions to extend our dungeon by a floor, before e can extend our dungeon. Then we also need to buy monsters to defend us. But the rooms don''t just appear out of nowhere, we have to dig them out. Don''t think buying a floor will make it automatically appear.¡± ¡°So what is the difference between insect and money dungeon, if We still need money to buy everything?¡± ¡°You really don¡¯t listen do you? Like I said before money dungeon has many advantageous, but it is also riddled with disadvantageous. No monster would evolve there, means there will be no special or unique monster and also the monsters bought won¡¯t be able to give birth. So that makes a money dungeon only possible for those to operate who were born with an infinite amount of money to begin with.¡± Che.. Why do I have to face such lame limitations? Even though both take money to, buy stuff but each has their own specific advantage, huh. Well, nothing can be done about it, so let¡¯s just leave the matter behind. ¡°So how do we buy a monster?¡± ¡°Let¡¯s see, open your dungeon interface and select the monster option. There we will be able to see all the monster options that are available to us, and then you can go on a shopping spree, but that is only until our resources lasts.¡±
Dungeon Interface
MonstersStatus / Floors / Store
---
NameRankMana ReservedPrice
Ant egg05Mp25Dc
Ant Worker010Mp50Dc
Ant caretaker025Mp75Dc
Ant Soldier(UQ)?????????
Ant Queen(S)3100Mp500Dc
Bee Egg015Mp75Dc
Bee Farmer120Mp100Dc
Bee Worker160Mp300Dc
Bee Queen(S)3350Mp1750Dc
---------LOCKED----------
Whoa, so many options. We can choose between ants and bees. Damm, god is really benevolent. I have so many options to choose from that I don¡¯t think I even need to think what I should to pick. With my abundant Mana reserves and endless money I would probably be able to buy thousands of them...yeah, like hell I can. This is utter bullshit what are the size of ants and bees? They are tiny~! My monster catalogue is not the only reason for my anger. After 2 days and 14 hours of pure grinding my total mana increased by 5, and here even the lowest of the lowest monster takes 5Mp and 20 Dc out of me. How will I even create an army like this? Am I being made fun of? Is this world really created by gods for their fun? ¡°What did you expect? Didn¡¯t I say you would need dungeon currency to buy monsters and would also need your mana to control them? To control them is the reason to you why they requires your mana to buy them. You won¡¯t be able to buy them without money or mana. But don''t worry unlike money you mana is only being used and not entirely eaten by your bugs. You will get it back once they die.¡± ¡°But you never told me that¡­¡± ¡°I didn¡¯t! But I¡¯m sure that I did. Well, anyways, now that you understand the knowhow, which monsters do, you think we should buy?¡± Buy? What can I buy? Everything has a sky high price. I can only pick 40 eggs or 20 workers and that¡¯s all. What kind of a dungeon has so few monsters? I mean, even though we are still creating our home, but shouldn¡¯t this still be a¡­ ah, for fuck sake. ¡°Minie help me I¡­ don¡¯t know what to do? Should I choose the bee soldiers or something? I mean even though we will only be able to buy10 of them, but they are still better than 20 Rank 0 ant workers, right. Ah! Minie also explain to me the difference between a rank and a level? I mean, if I remember correctly then I am also level 2 but my rank is 0. What is the difference?¡± ¡°NO, not bees, we are going to pick ants moreover an ant queen and some workers. As for the difference between a rank and a level; levels increase by hunting monsters and when and when a person¡¯s level increases to 100, he goes through a Rank up and becomes it becomes 1 while his level returns to 0. A rank level holds a very significant role, as every rank up also brings a choice of selecting a different class or leveling their current one.¡± ¡°What? What? And What? Forget about the queen being costly. What the hell¡¯s wrong with this leveling system? NO, actually there is nothing wrong with it, but what does it, if I am only level two?¡± ¡°It means, you have to a long way to go and that¡¯s all. Forget about the levels and ranks, just buy the queen already~.¡± ¡°Can¡¯t you see her price tag; it¡¯s over 500Dc¡¯s. How are we going to choose anything else if we pick her?¡± ¡°Hah, don¡¯t worry. A queen as her name says is the queen of a whole colony and what does a queen do?¡± ¡°It breeds and gives birth!¡± Oh, yes it gives birth and creates more monsters. But what good would that be. ¡°Oh, my handsome idiot partner, there are many benefits that monsters with natural birth give over bought ones.¡± ¡°Like??¡± But why do I feel like I am getting swallowed by her pace? I think maybe it was not such a good idea to unleash ~the Beast~ ¡°Like; Birthed monsters can evolve faster and are sometimes born with special abilities that system bought monsters can never have. Second, we won¡¯t need to spend any money on them. Third, because they can use mana from the dungeon you won¡¯t have to reserve your own, and then you will be able to use it somewhere else. Now tell me, is this not enough?¡± ¡°Okay, let¡¯s buy an ant queen. Because our first floor unlocked and ready, we don¡¯t need to buy it. Now, that is some timely relief, right there. With this we have spent 500 Dc from our deposits and my 200 mana is now reserved. What else?¡± Chapter 12 - Queen {RE} Rocky¡¯s P.O.V:- Destiny is what we make it to be and it all depends upon the decisions that we take in our life, nothing more. What happened? Why I¡¯m suddenly being dramatic? Nothing, I¡¯m just suffering from post- I bought a useless queen-stress. Yes, Minie¡¯s swollen face and red eyes are all the result of the new addition in our small family, The Ant queen. I understand if others think that it was a good decision on our part to buy a queen, that it was a very sensible and productive decision. I also understand that a queen who can lay eggs and increase our forces is nothing more than having a goose which gives gold egg, but the thing is there is a cache. This queen of ours is actually a trap. It¡¯s not that I didn¡¯t receive a queen after buying her or that she was a fake. Everything went well. Minie and I, we were both very happy after looking at her and I was even left dumbfounded after watching her size. The problem actually lies somewhere else. Is her size the problem that is making me cry tears? No, it¡¯s not. For an insect moreover an ant she is HUGE. There is a reason for me to dramatize the word huge. I don¡¯t say thing like gigantic and huge very often, but this queen is GIGANTIC. Firstly, like a normal human I thought that the queen we bought would be tiny, small, and incompetent to do anything and that after some evolutions she would become a great asset to my dungeon, but the reality is entirely different. The thing is our ¡®Ant Queen¡¯ is a; two stories tall, 15 meter wide and a full 50 meters long monster that is truly inconceivable and feels more like a dream than reality. Forget me, even Minie couldn¡¯t help but scream after our queen appeared right in front of us after a show of blinding Lights. She is truly horrendous. I don¡¯t think that the world humongous or something like a disaster really suits her, but that is what she really is. If anyone asked me questions like; how could she fit in your tiny little; rage empowered, mana blasted, surface connecting tunnel of a cave? I only have one answer for him. She didn¡¯t come alone; she bought her own room with her. I at first felt like the system was giving us the room as her dowry, but now I think the room is actually the bribe. Well, the room at least the room is big, big enough to hold five queens of her size. For the first time after being born I felt how wonderful and amazing magic really is .Magic is truly an amazing thing; it can do wonders if used correctly. Well, moving onto her description. Minie looked amazed after observing her. She looks like an ant on steroids I know ants don¡¯t have any muscles but her body seems truly like a mess of contours and curves giving her a felling of obnoxiousness. Her bulged body makes her look extremely vicious and ruthless. Her mandibles looks more like a scythe, ready to remove a head from its soul mate, neck. I think with their size and sharpness, she will have no difficulty cutting a 3 meter wide tree in half. Her legs, which give her one third of her height, are like sharp pointed spears. How sharp are they? Well, the holes that she left on the floor when she tried to move somewhat made me to not ask any questions regarding their penetrating power. She has sharp steel like hairs all over her body. Now, if I was a human, I wouldn¡¯t like to get near her at all. Well, leaving aside her physical appearance the thing which gave a very hard shock was the information I received after buying her. It said¡­
Ant Queen(S)
Ant queen is a special monster, with a very small chance of being born in a colony. Queens specializes in laying eggs, but can also defend themselves, if needed.
Rank3Level5
Abilities: 3 Eggs/Day Moderate Fire resistance Lesser Fireball
Egg Facts: 99/100chance of the born being a worker 1/100 chance of the born being a warrior 1/1000 chance of the born being a variant 1/100 chance of the variant being unique 1/10chance of that unique being a queen 1/10 chance of the uniquequeen being a variant unique queen 1/1000 chance of that unique variant queen being an Primordial Giant Dinosaur Ant Queen Chance to evolve????
Now that is something horrendous, not for the seller, but for me her buyer. I wanted her with the intentions to convert her into a monster breeding machine, but my dreams were smashed without giving them even a little hope. Her contract says she can only give birth to 3 eggs per day? Both Minie and me had thought that she would give birth to millions of eggs in the matters of days, and that is why we choose a queen and not 10¡¯s of warriors, but to my great luck our queen can only lay 3eggs/ day. She is the reason for my broken heart. I don¡¯t know how we will be able to take care of those who are come to test our hospitality. Not dying seems like mission impossible now. To say more in her praise, she is massive and has no fighting capabilities. No, sorry about that. I am wrong about this. She IS equipped with various deadly weapons and even though she can¡¯t move much, she can protect herself, with her fire resistance and lesser fireball attack. At least she will be able to kill some low rankers before dying. The problems don¡¯t just end there. Because she can¡¯t work and we don¡¯t have anyone to physical dig out our second floor, we now need to spend even more credits and buy some monsters. We both knew what kind of a mistake we had made by wasting our time and resources, by our recklessly spending on a week queen. But in the end we still had to buy 4 more ant workers for 100 Dc. And they ended up reserving most of my mana. I would have liked to buy another queen, but I didn¡¯t have sufficient funds. Well, no matter how bad a single queen seems, the prospect of 2 or 3 or even more queens laying eggs is very enticing. Yes, I¡¯m being greedy here, but my wildly speeding thoughts were stopped in the middle, when I was greeted with a not possible message.
*Not possible Limit reached.*
What does this means it means that we could only house one queen in our dungeon. Now, whether it¡¯s only for now or something else we don¡¯t know. So, the situation as it is, our dwindling resources and incompetent forces have led me to believe, that no matter what happen we wouldn¡¯t get another shock from anything, but then our queen laid her first egg. Minie and I we both very happy started jumping with happiness and looking at the size of it, it was going to be another giant insect, but then a message popped up.
Ant egg Lv 0 Time left till birth: 8 hours
. Yeah, that broke all of the tension. When despair starts running its full course, then there is no way that any tension and fear would show its might. I saw Minie looking at me with panda eyes and we both sighed to our current situation. I wanted to do something productive, so I pinned the queen to some corner of my mind and thought of creating more space. Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere. And to do that, I ordered my newly bought ants to start expending our ground floor. I had a question regarding the space inside a dungeon, so I clarified it with Minie. And she also swiftly replied back, as if she was waiting for me to ask her something. ¡°Yes, a dungeon is a magical place, but it is not present in any special plane or anything. It is formed from the master and created and shaped by its monsters. Both parties coorpotation is needed for it to work.¡± ¡°So you recovered. Can we forget about the past and work for to improve our dimming future?¡± She who was continuously looking at my crystal heart sighed and took a deep breath before answering, ¡°Looks like that¡¯s what we need to do now, but still you...¡± ¡°Minie you are not as cute as I thought you were.¡± ¡°*------*¡± ¡°Well, what¡¯s done is done so let¡¯s try again to create something amazing.¡± She coughed before saying her heart out and then she blinked at me¡­ trying to act cute I guess?? ¡®Like that would work on me now¡¯ I secretly thought the thought inside my thoughtless mind, but ¡°I heard that you know...¡± ¡°So I am creating rooms for now for monsters to have a place to move around in.¡± ¡°Yeah try creating rooms of different sizes I think that would be perfect for now and als¡­¡± ¡°No, I¡¯m going to create an ant mound, replica of a real one. But instead of going into the earth, I am creating it dungeon style.¡± ¡°Umm¡­ Do we really need try something so reckless? Don¡¯t feel bad okay, but our condition is not good enough to experiment with this.¡± ¡±No. I¡¯m creating a custom ant mound for our ants to feel at home, and please don¡¯t say anything. Because, nothing you say can make me change my decision.¡± ¡°But what if it leads to our downfall¡± ¡°Then help me perfect it and make my design flourish.¡± ¡°O-okay then why don¡¯t you tell me what kind of an architectural design, are you going to produce in here?¡± ¡°Well, nothing much I just ordered those workers to make the entrance look like a deep dark pit into the depth and then there will be a narrow but long tunnel from where adventurers would have to crawl to move forward. After the tunnel will be a wide room but only wide enough for 2 ants and 1 human to fight together and nothing more. Then again tunnels, but this time there¡¯ll be two tunnels connecting with two different rooms which will be double the size of the first room with enough space for a small group to fight together. Then again tunnels but not narrow ones and then three rooms of different sizes and then a tunnel leading to a last room, this one. So what do you think?¡± ¡°WHAT!¡± ¡°What you didn¡¯t like it think this is a good idea.¡± ¡°What? No, sorry, I was a bit¡­.well, you really have some talents. I never thought that you would be able to fish out such a good idea with that brain of yours, but here you are. They really say, not to judge a book by its cover.¡± ¡°WHAT? What was that? Are you trying to praise me or what? I don¡¯t understand!¡± ¡°Haha, Don¡¯t worry, such things don¡¯t matter. All which matters is that your idea is really good. Now to improve this idea even more, we can put some pits between the tunnels. Some traps here, some traps there, and it will provide a good experience to our guests.¡± ¡°Wait? What are traps? Can we trust them?¡± ¡°To tell you what a trap is I¡¯ll have to explain from the basics.¡± ¡°Please take care of me.¡± ¡°Hah¡­ well, a trap is a devices or contraptions, used to gain us some edge over the invaders. You see why fight with them and get our monsters killed when we could always lure them into a trap. A trap is a mechanism which can be used to catch an inattentive prey. A trap could be deadly or just powerful enough to buy us some time. A traps is very useful and powerful, but only if it is used carefully and decisively.¡± ¡°So, how can we use these traps? Can we make them?¡± ¡°Small traps like; deep pits and the like are easy to make, just instruct you workers to dig a deep pit somewhere in the tunnel and then cover it with a thin layer of ground, that¡¯s it. Other than that, we could use monster traps or ceiling traps and the like, but I think we¡¯ll have to buy trap upgrade, to use more deadly ones.¡± *Gulp* traps! Yes, traps, with them it can be done. Let¡¯s create a pitfall trap in one of the tunnels leading to the three rooms and one monster ceiling trap leading to this room. That will give us some leverage over those pesky little INS¡­ no humans. After all we are the insects here. I can¡¯t stop smiling; this I think is going to be great. Now, all we need to do is to wait for our workers to finish their work, and then to position them. ¡°How about the entrance, are you not going to change it?¡± ¡°What about it? Is it not fine? I mean, it fits well with our ant theme. An ant hill as our entry, a deep dark drop straight into a pond of water, followed by narrow tunnels, exciting fight with monsters and then more fighting.¡± ¡°About monsters, Minie, what happen to them when they are killed?¡± ¡°Let¡¯s see¡­ for now nothing happens to them other than your reserved mana being released from their bodies and returning to yourself.¡± ¡°So that is why you said that I would get my reserves back once my monsters die, but what happens to the monsters that are born from the egg. I mean they are not reserving any of my mana¡± ¡°Umm¡­They also turn into pure mana, but instead of entering your body they increases the mana concentration in the dungeon, which help with the birth of natural monsters. You will also be able to increase you mana capacity more easily cause of that. Denser is the mana inside a dungeon, stronger becomes its monsters. They live by eating mana after all.¡± ¡°Is that all? Are you not forgetting something?¡± ¡°What? From what I remember, this is the best that we can do, for now that is.¡± I sighed. She really doesn¡¯t remember about this does she or maybe it slipped from her mind? ¡°So you want them to decide that we are of no use to them other then providing them with strong monsters and death to their kin.¡± ¡°Ah, Damn. I completely forgot about the problem of human¡¯s greedy nature. We need to give them some kind of reward, something special. Add to that our friendly nature; I am sure they will understand that we are no threat to them.¡± ¡°So, Minie what kind of a reward do you think they would like to have?¡± ¡°You know, why not make it so that a killed ant would drop one of its body part, like its mandibles or shell. They are quite precious I think. ¡° ¡°Yeah we could do that, but let¡¯s make so that only those monsters that take birth from an egg drop something after they die and let¡¯s make their drop chance dependable on luck.¡± ¡°Why luck? Why not based on the amount of effort they put in hunting?¡± ¡°Well, I was born cause of luck too, right.¡± ¡°Yeah, there is also that.¡± ¡°Anything else, Minie.¡± She shrugged her shoulders and said, ¡°Nah, let¡¯s just live through our current predicament first.¡± Chapter 13 - Turning Point People don¡¯t sleep because they want to, but they sleep because they need to. Why I am blabbering so much about sleeping today? The thing is, Minie is sleeping¡­again. Why does she need to sleep? I don¡¯t know. I don¡¯t need something like it. Why is she sleeping ¡­ because she hasn¡¯t taken her beauty sleep in quite a while now? Oops! Now, I just hope that she is really sleeping and didn¡¯t hear what I just said, she gets really stingy after hearing my comments. She really has nothing left to do anyways, all that she could teach me for now has been taught, and everything that we needed to discuss has been discussed. All that is left is for; our great, powerful, mystical, bigger than most, stronger than least, out of the mundane, bizarre, sweet, childish, zombie like, work minded horrible workers to finish with all of the digging and complete the first floor of this dungeon. ¡°Heehee¡± (Minie) ¡­forgetting that, it is really taking a lot of time, third day is about to end, but even the first big tunnel corresponding to queen room is not ready yet. Why is even the first big tunnel not ready yet? Because I moved my room to the very back, as far as I could with my power. Well, why would I want to endanger my precious queen by making first room of the dungeon ¡®the boss room¡¯. That would definitely scare most people, but will also provide opportunities to some. How long is the first floor? Well, if I stretch my mana to the utmost then it covers a diameter of 800 meters around me; quite badass I¡¯d say. But because a diameter of 800 m means that after traveling for some 400 m¡¯s anyone could reach me, I don¡¯t think it is such a great range. I was a bit emotionally upset, thinking that after all the plans to create this and, that they would all be left hanging or will have to be constructed in a very tight space. I consulted with Minie about this and she looked at me strangely. She said that I really am genius; controlling mana to a Dia. of 800m is not an easy feat for a newbie master. Its well good and all, but it¡¯s nothing great either. She said great, but only for a newbie and am nothing in front of old monsters. She told me that, there have been cases of really overpowered dungeons, there each floor covered millions of miles of area and some even ruled over whole Empires. I was so shocked hearing that I could not help but feel something leaking from my body again, just what is it this thing, and why does it always make my situation so embarrassing, I have no idea. I couldn¡¯t help but ask Minie, where such dungeons are? And the answer left me dumbfounded. She said,¡±oh! Those, they are just some fairy tales written by our fairy ancestors, nothing more¡± What! I mean, just what! So what, if I am not a heaven compassing, terror of overpowerness, bringer of shame, persona of talent, child of god, super saiy¡­ ¡°Oh, shut up now!¡± (Minie) *coughs* I¡¯m being a little too presumptuous I¡¯d say, but who¡¯s there to stop me from sugar coating my¡­ I had to stop because I felt a very acute and sweet¡­ stare of death checking me out, thinking on whether to burry itself deep within my body or not. What it was? It was my very own queen, my master, my light in the darkness, my¡­ ¡°LET ME SLEEEEP!¡± Minie shouted, while her voice changed to one with a little deeper tone. ¡°OKAY!¡± Some may think, that my voice was a little too loud than it should have been, responding to her in a way that I shouldn¡¯t have. But she didn¡¯t reply or got angry at me. Why she uttered no word after hearing my reply? It¡¯s nothing special, because we talk through telepathy no one can hear what we talk about and no one could hear how timid and scared my voice really sounded. So no one needs to know. Because no one could hear, therefore there is also no need for any shame. Now, my workers are working, tunnel is being dug, our dungeon is taking shape. Slowly but surely my and Minie¡¯s dream, well mostly her, is taking its step. Now where these steps would take us? Only time will tell. Adventurers Guild, Town-Ragnarock:- ¡°This is taking too long my dear. Don¡¯t you think I should go myself and get to the bottom of whatever is the reason for such an anomaly?¡± (Guild Master) ¡°No! Never. Just keep your ass on this chair, and don¡¯t get up. You are not needed. Humph.¡± ¡°Now, now my child, are you not being a little too insensitive towards your grandpa? If you are not forgetting then I am still, the only ¡®SS¡¯ rank adventurer present here. So shoul¡­¡± (Guild Master) ¡°Humph, ¡®SS¡¯ rank my ass. You were an adventurer almost 50 years ago, but you still basking on your past glory. Don¡¯t you think it¡¯s time for you to forget it, just rest and let the youth of today handle, all that danger their life¡¯s and the life¡¯s of their families.¡± ¡°But¡­¡± (Guild Master) ¡°No buts, you are not going anywhere. Don¡¯t think I forgot what happened at the fort of ¡®Einstantbull¡¯.¡± ¡°¡­..¡± (Guild Master) ¡°Yeah why don¡¯t you speak now huh? Didn¡¯t you also say at that time that you can hold the enemy at the gate and ordered the rest to move? What happened afterwards? Do I have to remind you of the carnage that those beasts unfolded because¡­because. Shh, I don¡¯t even want to think about that incident. ¡°But¡­¡± (Guild Master) ¡°What but? At that time the attacking team had to come back to save your sorry ass, and that gave those bastards a way to escape. Don¡¯t tell me you want to create such a disaster again.¡± ¡°But it was my back. It started acting at the wrong ti¡­¡± (Guild Master) ¡°You really don¡¯t listen to me. I am going to tell mom if you don¡¯t do what I tell you to¡± ¡°¡­¡­¡±(Guild Master) ¡°Nono! Not her. I¡¯ll do anything; we¡¯ll leave this mission to the young and brave warriors of now, whose glory and bravery rings thro¡­¡±(Guild Master) ¡°Okay, okay! No need to bad mouth them. I know you are strong, but right now what our guild needs the most are not hot headed warriors, but a mentor. A figure that others could look upto, and work hard to become like. So please, just keep on doing your work as our guild master, because that is we need from you.¡± ¡°So, such are your reason for not letting me go to the battle field. I never knew my dear loves me so much. I am hono¡­¡± (Guild Master) ¡°Yeah, I don¡¯t want our honorable, strong mentor to die getting ambushed by ants. I don¡¯t think anybody will look up to you then.¡± ¡°¡­you are just like your mother. Always says things that hurt the most.¡± (Guild Master) ¡°And you are just a gorilla. Oh, I¡¯m sorry for badmouthing such a holy being.¡± ¡°Oh! Don¡¯t worry my dea..¡± (Guild Master) ¡°I¡¯m talking about the gorilla here not you.¡± ¡°¡­..¡± ¡°Okay! Forget it. Do you want to go outside, and meet some people?¡± ¡°Yes, yes. Why not, why not¡± (Guild Master) ¡°Then get up, the B rankers who applied for the hunt have all gathered and are right now waiting for you in the meeting room. They are waiting for you to give them a speech, let them look at your persona, give them courage etc, etc. so get up, and go do your work¡± ¡°¡­¡±(Guild Master) ¡°What are you waiting for? Want me to ask you this in a loli voice with a ¡®nya¡¯ at the end, like you like it?¡± ¡°*Shudders* No, No madam; I am going, I am gone, no I¡¯m already thereee.¡± (Guild Master) ¡°Haha, it always works. This weakness of his is a bit lewd but which strong person doesn¡¯t have such habits. But such a shame, I also want to see him fighting¡­no obliterating monster, but then mom would get angry at me and she is scary.¡± Guild Masters P.O.V:- Oh, how difficult it is to take care of her, and how much I want that daughter of my, to stop being such an insensitive prick and at least come to meet her! She really don¡¯t know how a little child feels, when every other kid of their age is having fun with their friends, hunting monsters, killing bandits, and there is also dungeon exploring, but they have to look out for their¡­grandpa. Okay, I have decided. I am going to talk to her about Eva, when that incompetent daughter of mine turns her ass back home. Yosha..I can do it. But, will my reprimanding her bring any change to her eccentric, swollen and cold attitude? It¡¯s not like it has until now. Maybe I should try emotionally blackmailing her using Eva. Joshua...I can do it yo. But, still what if she gets mad at me for asking her t take Eva with her? What if she decides, that I am not need as a guardian anymore? She will take my Dear away from me. I can¡¯t let that happen. Noooo...not possible, I can''t live without my little darling Eva. No one can take my leisure life away from me. What will I do without her? Who will bring me things to eat? Who will wash my clothes? Who will tell me to not do anything and just keep on sitting? I can¡¯t let that disaster of a mother to take her away! If she really takes her away, then who would I even brag to! So it''s decided, no matter what happens, no matter how much of a devil she is, even if she hurts me enough to make by body ache, I WILL NOT TELL HER ANYTHING. I just hope, she won¡¯t come back home anytime soon. Yosha....it''s been decided. I am going to keep playing with my dear, until she is a bit more mature and then...and then¡­let¡¯s go back to the empire. That is all, Ok! But what am I doing here? I know my dear little precious sent me out of my heaven to do something, but what is it! Should I go back and ask her? No, No, she already sees me as nothing more than an old man, I don''t want give to her anymore ideas than she already has or else m safe heaven might get ruined. Well, she also loves her grandpa, so she won''t do much. Maybe she will stop talking to me, won''t let me get out of the house, chain me to bed. What if she tried to enchant me again? Ah, why do I keep forgetting about my control resistance? Sheesh! On one side it''s her, and on other side it''s her. Who is who and who is who? What am I and what are you? This is really profound, so profound that even I don''t understand what I just said. Well, where was I? No, the question should be, what am I doing here? At least I know I''m in the guild right no... "Sir! Arnold-san, please come this way the party has been waiting for you for quite a while now."(???) "Party, What party?! Simply tell me what I am here for." (Guild Master) ''Looks like its getting worse by the second I should inform miss about this'' (???) "Sir, the job posted for ant subjugation/elimination has been accepted, and the B Frank party that accepted it, is waiting floor you right now inside the meeting room." (???) "It¡¯s okay, but why are you saying everything so slowly? I never knew you were dyslexic." (Guild Master) ''Why, Sir, why? Please, don¡¯t tell me you even forgot about your illness.'' (???) "Sir please, don''t say such things. There are such people in the world and only they know how they are living their life." "What shifty way of saying things. Come on, be a man and say to my face what you really want to say." (Guild Master) "But if I did such a thing in front of my esteem, great master, then you will start beating me up¡± (???) "I promise you no matter what you say, everything depends on... my mood *smiles*" (Guild Master) "Sir, look it''s miss Eva!" (???) "Huh, where is my dear. I''m just goi..." (Guild Master) Nothing. That little one, he made fun of me ...Rufus. Great, just great! This is what I want; this is just what I want. An excuse to make them understand, who is the actual boss around here...don''t worry it''s not me; I am talking about the devil that¡¯s on ¡®tour de destructo¡¯ right now¡­ Then after my thoughts ended I went inside the room. Even though, I have been here many times before, but every time feels a bit different. Is this cause of my inapt memory? Atmosphere of this room or because of all my memories, I don¡¯t know. All I know is that, I feel nostalgic, remembering all the missions that we accepted, all the praises that we received, the gifts, money, fame, reputation, that me and my friends gained and lost with the passage of time. *Sigh!* This room is not suitable for an old man like me. Huh, I think I really am old now. There¡¯s nothing left for others to say, maybe it¡¯s time for the young to show their talents. I looked around the room, it still looks the same. Same paint, it is still bright red like someone had a slaughter party here. Even the scenery outside the room looks the same, still no window. The curtains are same too, their holes are still intact, and the hole in the floor that I made is even bigger, heck! I can even see the ground now. So nothing inside this room changed, huh. Well, forget about change, I think this is the first time that it is being used after me and my party last came here. The floor creaks from some places, water is leaking in *sigh* even this building has gotten old. It was already quite old at the time when I was young; it¡¯s even older now that I am also old. I looked around after the flashing of my memories and feeling of D¨¦j¨¤ vu stopped. only then could I fathom the presence of another five individuals with me here. What should I say¡­Ah, ¡°So, you are the excellent individuals, who decided to risk their lives against the horrible and disastrous Dragon race...¡± (Guild Master) ¡°¡­..¡± ¡°¡­..¡± ¡°Wh-what?¡± ¡°DRA-DRAGONSS??¡± ¡°KILLL?¡± What! What sort of reactions are these young men and women giving me? Why does it seem like the job I am here to advice them about is something else? ¡°Why are you all so surprised? Don¡¯t tell me your courage is disappearing and your resolve is wavering, after listening about dragons. I don¡¯t know what kind of information you have, that you are attempting Dragons subjugation at such young age, but let me tell you that they are not enemies that you lot can face. Well, not with your kind of determination.¡± (Guild Master) This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience. ¡°But¡­¡± (Party Leader) ¡°What but? You think I¡¯m joking with you? You lot of pesky little insects, you really think that you¡¯re your levels and weak little power you can hunt DRAGONS? HUH! Tell me!¡± (Guild Master) ¡°But, we are n¡­¡± (Party Leader) ¡°*Sigh* if you really don¡¯t want to die than go back to your dungeon hunting and the like there is no place for cowards in this group.¡± (Guild Master) ¡°Senior, please stop. In the name of god, please stop. It¡¯s not what you are thinking.¡± (???) Who dared to interrupt me? I wanted to yell out loud to put some pressure, but my mood changed after looking at him. It¡¯s Russ, the one who came to bring me to this room and then escap¡­*coughs*. He came running towards me. I wanted to rebuke him for his lack of etiquettes, but the way he was sweating made me change my decision. I don¡¯t know what kind of heavy activity or actions he performed after he ran away from me, but even his shirt was completely drenched with sweat. He came and whispered something in my ear, and after saying what he had to say, he quickly went outside the room. Quite some professional he is for thinking so deeply and even going out of the room to make some space for me to think what to do. But, which idiot posted a job for Ant subjugation as a ¡®B Rank¡¯ threat. Why in the world would anybody do such a thing? It is like giving free money to anyone who chooses the job. But opportunities only present themselves to those who are brave, have courage with balls of steel or those with profound luck. Well, what¡¯s done is done. There is no need to dig up the dead over such small matters, and if someone thinks that I¡¯m deliberately changing subjects, by not talking about the dragon quest, then let me clearly tell you that, it was my mistake. ¡°Ah, no, sorry, my bad, I thought you people were going to eliminate a rampaging dragon near the boundary of ¡®Dragon¡¯s feet¡¯. Don¡¯t take it to heart; it will only do you bad and also me. Well, let¡¯s not get stressed over small matters. Let me say my sorry and once again, please don¡¯t take what I said to heart, but if....¡± (Guild Master) ¡°Don¡¯t worry teacher its ok it¡¯s, please don¡¯t do that. Wit¡­.¡± (Leader) ¡°But if you do take it by heart then, you might become someone great in the future.¡± (Guild Master) ¡°Kill???¡± ¡°oKay..¡± ¡°yes¡± ¡°Teacher please, could you tell us what we need to do in this mission and how we could get that extra in reward?¡± (Leader) This white knight he¡¯s¡­not bad I guess. If he could still retain his composure, even when some was reprimanding him, then he might have a chance to grow a bit stronger. ¡°You Knight! Are you the leader of this party?¡± (Leader) After looking at his companions he nodded and with a firm and resolute voice he said ¡°Yes I am.¡±(Knight) ¡°Good, then their life is in your hand. Whether they live or die will be decided by how you see the situation you are in. well, we could do all the informalities and teachings at some other time, right now let¡¯s concentrate on the job at hand.¡± (Guild Master) ¡°HAI!¡± they shouted collectively. ¡°Okay then, as all of you know this job is simple ant subjugation with a minor intricacy to it. But the thing is, we don¡¯t know how many ants there are, they could be in the tens, hundreds, thousands or even in the millions.¡± (Guild Master) ¡°How could this be? How can five B rankers possibly fight with a million monsters on their own?¡± ¡°yes, yes. This is not possible why was there no information regarding lack of information o the job description.¡± ¡°KIILL! KILL!! Kill.¡± ¡°Like he said we don¡¯t want this assignment anymore.¡±(Knight) ¡°Oh, don¡¯t worry, don¡¯t worry. There is nothing to be afraid of although this is a high risk job, but the reward is also good. Think about it; if there are only 10 or so ants inside then you will get instantly rich, but if there are more than you could handle then¡­¡± (Guild Master) ¡°Then what! Don¡¯t tell me we will have to fight till death. Just because we accepted this assignment doesn¡¯t mean that you have any right...¡± (Knight) ¡°Then you could always come back and you would get rewards, according to the information you bring back.¡± (Guild Master) ¡°¡­..¡± ¡°¡­..¡± ¡°Killl?¡± ¡°Haha, young chicks are always impulsive. No matter how much time passes they don¡¯t learn to have patience and never listen. Good, good, just about the right mindset to...¡± (Guild Master) ¡°Really he said it¡¯s the right mindset¡± ¡°yeah I was like really afraid right there¡± ¡°Kill.¡± ¡°Phew atleast we won¡¯t be considered green horns after teacher pra¡­¡± (Knight) ¡°Ha-ha, Just the right mindset¡­to get killed. Like I said, they never listen.¡± (Guild Master) ¡°This much is enough for now let get down to business. All that you lot need to do is to go inside the cave, defeat any and everything that comes out, get to the very last end of it, salvage every bit of information that you could from the cave, come back and receive your reward.¡± (Guild Master) ¡°So, should we also kill the queen? Won¡¯t it be a great asset to nurture f-d rank adventures?¡±(Knight) ¡°Oh! good, good. You lot are not bad. Especially you white knight. Yeah, if the place is not too dangerous then let the queen live, but if you think that there is no other way than to destroy the infection from its roots, then..¡± (Guild Master) *Silence* This time no one spoke anything, all of them waited for the old man to finish his sentence. Seeing this Guild master couldn¡¯t help but smile and that smile slowly turned into a laugh. Now like all the other times, Arnolds¡¯ laugh shook the whole building. Things broke, people got injured, and all of those who were trying to create commotion in the guild¡­ they died. This laugh is not old man Arnold¡¯s innate skill or anything else, but a curse called ¡®Demons Laugh¡¯. It has no his life but greatly influence the lives of al around him. You could call it a divine misfortune or twist of fate, but after he was cursed his laughter changed into this abomination, now whenever he laughs the laugh ends up haunting even the Emperor and the passerby alike. ¡°That is all and well, but I have something I want to ask you.¡± (Guild Master) ¡°Yes, sir?¡± ¡°Well, before you go tell me...¡± (Guild Master) *Silence* ¡°What were your names again?¡± Rock¡¯s P.O.V:- Something interesting happened while I was waiting for the ant workers to finish remodeling the dungeon, the egg hatched. What came out from it was not some common monster, but a very big ant, bigger than even the queen. It had white skin, 100m long mandibles, wings bigger than the room itself, multiples of its legs were fully engulfed in fire, it came out breathing fire, its antennae-more like cannons, its hair-more like spikes. You think I am joking¡­then listen well, because actually, I am joking. What really came out of the egg was not a worker ant, but a fucking larva. Lowest of the low, the ones who can do nothing; forget about working, the only thing they are good at is wriggling. I was disgusted by it, this slimy little piece pus filled demon prodigy, yuck. While I was thinking of how bad this larva is I completely forgot about Minie. I have no fear of insects and I am behaving in a detestable way, but Minie literally has a phobia of insects. I just hope she is not unconscious right now. When I looked at the place where she was standing before, I saw no one. Did she run away? It was the first thought that came to my mind. While I was searching for Minie, the larva started screaming at something, but all of my attention then now was at finding Minie. so I had no two thoughts about my priority. I looked around every corner of the cave, but I found nothing. After looking about everywhere, just when I was going to do a mana burst, I found her¡­ poking our newest defenseless member to death with a stick. Did I do anything to stop her? No, I was too dumbfounded to do anything at that moment. I don¡¯t know how she got over her insect fear but she was happily poking at the larva. How happy? Well, she had a smile on her face while her torture continued. I had no thoughts to stop her at all. Why? Because I still had to think, what I needed to do with that. I mean, how am I supposed to make do with a larva? I was going mad, thinking about the time that these maggots need to grow up. Why I am saying Maggots because our queen laid another egg after the first one hatched. So queen lays another egg only after the first one hatches. Well, not bad actually, but now we can¡¯t amass them. Here I was rubbing salt on my own wounds and there Minie was laughing out loud. Hearing her laughter I was first mad at her, but then I though why would she be happy for my bad luck, when it was going to affect us both. So I asked her¡­ ¡°Minie why are you so happy when we can¡¯t even use this slimy think at all. Can¡¯t use it for construction, can¡¯t use it for fighting, so tell me, why are you so happy?¡± ¡°Haha, you don¡¯t understand. If you remember then tell me, what did the egg facts said the odds were for an ant warrior or soldier to be born?¡± (Minie) ¡°Umm¡± (Rock) ¡°Let me answer, it¡­doesn¡¯t¡­matter. Why? Because after taking birth these workers are going to turn special, and even without evolution they will be much stronger than their normal counterparts.¡± (Minie) ¡°Special! How so?¡± (Rock) ¡°Remember monsters eat mana to grow. Now these ant larvae are going to eat the special characteristic mana that you release and are going to grow because of it.¡± (Minie) ¡°???¡±(Rock) ¡°Idiot! think about ant workers with fire element attack and other skills. This is going to make new evolution in the road of insect monsters.¡± (Minie) ¡°But, didn¡¯t we already know this?¡± (Rock) ¡°Yes I know, I know, but at that time I said that, only the evolved monsters would have some chance of gaining your elemental powers, but now with a stage between of transition between an ant egg and worker, there will be much more chances for the worker to have your affinities.¡± (Minie) ¡°This is super news, now we would have no fear of a fire mage burning all of my ants or a massive surge of invader coming to kill my minions, because we would be able to fight back.¡± (Rock) ¡°But there is still something that we need to buy from the store before our workers could start evolving. Do you know what that thing is?¡± (Minie) ¡°Evolution pack?¡± (Rock) ¡°Yes, you really do remember everything. Anyways, without using evolution pack and upgrading our dungeon to a stronger version, your minions won¡¯t evolve.¡± (Minie) ¡°So let¡¯s buy that evolution pack and upgrade our dungeon¡± (Rock) ¡°Hah, you are forgetting something and that just after I said that don¡¯t forget anything.¡± (Minie) ¡°What is it now?¡± rocky said it with a depressed mood. ¡°Well, nothing much but I think we are short on money to buy it.¡± (Minie) ¡°Oh yes, Money! We need to buy everything from the store first. So, how much does it cost? Can we buy it with the amount that we have?¡± (Rock) ¡°I think we are short some¡­¡± (Minie) ¡°How much are we short? Tell me now!¡± (Rock) ¡°I think it¡¯s near about 9 or 10 something.¡± ¡°90?¡± Minie bobs her head left to right, responding in denial. ¡°900??¡± She repeats the same motion again. *Gulps* ¡°90-9000???¡± Nods head. *crash* *thud**break* ¡°Heehee..Haahaa¡± Those sounds were not of other things exploding and breaking, but of my heart. I just experienced my first heart skipping beat. I unconsciously stopped breathing after hearing that. Can I really experience such thing of course I¡­can¡¯t. Just to tell how big a setback I just felt. I am not going to think about it, and am also not going to yell or get angry at Minie. It doesn¡¯t matter. One day or another I would have opened the store to buy upgrades and the shock at that time probably would have killed me. ¡°Don¡¯t worry unless the adventurers who will invade our home turn out to be too strong we would probably be able to survive this crisis and if we do then there will be nobody who would dare contend against us. So, for now, there is no need to think about the upgrades and such, because we don¡¯t need them right now, and by the time we really do, we¡¯ll have enough money to buy them.¡± (Minie) Well, the matter of the story is that; Eggs are hatching, moods are forming, dungeon is changing, and workers are working. Ah, from workers I remembered¡­ ¡®How long are my brave warriors going to take to complete initial changes to the first floor.¡¯ I thought. I wanted to gloat but all of my anticipations were flooded with head deep water. Why? Because of this message¡­
Dungeon Construction
Construction in progress1st Floor
Manpower4
Work Completed22.04%
Time Taken8 hours
Estimated Time Left30h: 25Min
¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­ Author¡¯s Note:- Please accept my apologies for this haphazardly written chapter. It took me quite a while to write this one as it has almost no story progression¡­almost. Now, I was going to release this on Monday, but one way or another, it is releasing today. At first it was going to be a short chapter of about 1000 words, but¡­ Then it turned in a regular chapter of 2300 words. Then just as I was going to release it on Tuesday I remembered something and its length grew to 3500 words. But, because it was already such a big chapter, I decided to not release it just yet and made a double chapter out of it. So this is a very long chapter, almost nearing 5000 words. Now without wasting more of your time please read away. Ah, one more thing¡­everything above is a lie. I was just binge reading ¡®IARS¡¯. Chapter 14 - work, work, work Rocky''s P.O.V:- After giving orders to the ants, I had nothing much left to do, so I looked up for some answers. Yes, supervising and keeping an eye on them is one thing, but other than that I am stoned and liberal. There is also Minie. I don¡¯t know what she is doing right now, but from the looks of it, seems like she is also meditating. *sigh* now days, even she trains hard eager to increase her strength. I don¡¯t think she has any reason to increase her personal strength. I mean, she said that I am as powerful as are my monsters and without monsters, a dungeon is nothing. So I don¡¯t find there to be any reason for her to put such much effort into something that would end up becoming useless. Meditating? It gets boring after two or three days. I am not power hungry at all¡­ ¡­ yeah it felt like saying that I am not a dungeon master. Although I can train quietly and efficiently for half or day in one sitting, but such patience and state of mind, to continue doing the same thing for an unprecedented time span is something that I don¡¯t have. What I gained after my pain stricken hard and time consuming meditation? A very big increase in my mana capacity, It increased by so much that I couldn¡¯t even look at the Number without laughing a little. How much did it increase? Well it increased to a whole another level by the value of 2. Until now it has increased by a total amount of 7¡­ after 4 days of heart boring, pants tearing, hair falling, wood breaking, future destroying, OMG training; it increased by a fucking value 7. Technically, it didn¡¯t even increase at the rate of 2 per day. I have never neglected my training, I never got lazy, always worked with the proper mindset, but the results didn¡¯t really provide the amount of satisfaction that it should have. Moving on to more important discussions like, ¡®how to pass time when you are stuck in a cave?¡¯ Is it answerable? Well, even if it is not like anyone¡¯s going to waste their time reading my thoughts and commenting about it. Now that I thing about how boring the life of a dungeon master s then¡­ Minie is in a much better state than me. At least she has her sleep, which helps her pass the time. And also support from her family and friends from her homeland. Ah! Whatever, not like getting jealous over something that others have will give me the pleasure of enjoying it too. So let¡¯s do something creative¡­again. ¡°No stop! No more songs. Please, spare me from the torture.¡± Was she not sleeping? When did she wake up? But¡­ ¡­torture? ¡°What torture, its creativity at the highest level. The magnitude of its level is so high that even I am not sure what I write about. So, how can you call my talent torture?¡± ¡°Talent? You call that talent! Creativity my ass, to me it felt like a frog¡¯s cry, a ghost¡¯s wail, like a donkey talking, li¡­¡± ¡°But I¡¯m sure what I wrote was lyrically and rhythmically perfect with no mist¡­¡± Rocky said in a timid and an almost cracking voice. ¡°Haha. So you mean to say even a rock can write and sing songs now. Don¡¯t tell me the dirt I¡¯m standing on is actually a god, the water that flows in the rivers are actually tears, the forests are actually hair and the peak¡­¡± ¡°Okay, okay. No need to chew me out, I understand. I won¡¯t write anything ofr no¡­ okay, I¡¯ll never again write another song about killing anyone again.¡± ¡°Whatever, but why are you trying to become a bard? Is being a dungeon master so easy that you could not hold your curiosity over getting another job?¡± ¡°No, nothing like that, I ju¡­¡± ¡°Oh! So it¡¯s like that. Being the first dungeon to have three elemental affinities was not enough, so now you are trying to become the first singing dungeon ever to grace our souls with its presence. This is the way that you are going to get powerful and become this world¡¯s greatest dungeon¡­¡± ¡°No you ac¡­¡± ¡°If you are, then I think you are on the right way. Yeah, definitely, if it¡¯s this then your way is straight.¡± ¡°Really!¡± ¡°Yeah, it¡¯s a road taking you straight¡­ to¡­ your¡­ Death.¡± ¡°¡­..¡± ¡°What happened? Are you not going to right another song? Please, do write it, but this time instead of writing about killing others, let it be about...¡± ¡°You want me to write about our dungeon?¡± ¡°No no, this dungeon doesn¡¯t deserve such extravagance. Why don¡¯t you write about, how your hobbies and laziness let to your death. Oh! Also, please don¡¯t mention me in it, for I also don¡¯t deserve such kindness.*smiles*¡± ¡°You¡­you¡­you are ruthless. You¡¯re a devil in disguise. I don¡¯t know any other fairy, who is also as coldhearted as you are. How could you say suc¡± ¡°Ahem. Excuse me, if you don¡¯t remember this anymore cause of maybe being brain dead, then let me remind you that, forget about other fairies, you don¡¯t know anyone else other than me. Ah, I don¡¯t know about your imaginary friends or anything else but..¡± ¡°WHO ARE YOU CALLING A PSYCHO, YOU ARE THE PSYCHO, YOUR Masters a psycho, you¡¯re¡­¡± No, that not right. Didn¡¯t I just call myself a psycho! ¡°Heehee¡­that right, you really are a bit crack in the head. No need to get mad over your own faults¡­heehee¡± ¡°Shut up, Shut up¡­Shut up! *heavy breathing*¡± ¡°Okay, okay. No need to get hyper over something so small; steady your breaths, because I just remembered that I have something to teach you.¡± ¡°What *hah* are *hah* you *hah *saying¡­fuuu. Did...you * hah* not teach me everything *haaah* already?¡± ¡°Yeah the thing is, all of the exciting stuff that I had to teach you is long over. There only some rudimentary things left like; your vision problem, reward discussion and stuff.¡± ¡°What VISION! ARE YOU MAD OR WHAT? HOW CAN YOU CONSIDER SOMETHING RELATED TO VISION, RUDAMENTARY? ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR MIND?¡± ¡°Chill out! It¡¯s not like our super genius can¡¯t develop abilities after cramming the logic. It¡¯s so easy, that you¡¯ll probably just snort it away, so there is no need to rush it. You can take all the time in the world that you want¡­¡± ¡°You are defiance to nature. You can¡¯t do this! What if something happens while I am learning it? What if people came in? what if¡­¡± ¡°Oh, come on! what are you so scared of? Don¡¯t you have your ant workers? Isn¡¯t this dungeon devolving nicely? Is our queen not going to lay another egg in a while? The first larva that was born is already twice its size and is getting stronger. So what are you afraid of¡­just relax.¡± ¡°You¡­you, I¡¯m not talking to you anymore. Always makes fun of me, do you hate me or something? why do you always have to wait till the last moment before remembering something so important?¡± ¡°So you don¡¯t want to talk to me!¡± ¡°No¡± ¡°So don¡¯t want to learn omnivision¡± ¡°No¡­ ¡­wait, what?¡± ¡°Yeah, the skill is called ¡®omnivision¡¯. With this; anyone and any entity can see all and everything happening around him, at once.¡± ¡°Really? Tell me, why such a godly skill is considered run of the mill skill that anyone could learn, and has such low status?¡­well, in your dictionary at least.¡± ¡°The thing is, this skill is not; achievable, gain able, learnable¡­¡± ¡°What? What are you saying now! Then ho¡­¡± ¡°Yes, this skill is not available for everyone, but only for a dungeon master. This is a skill tailor made, just for you. Moreover, its not like every dungeon master can learn it. Only those with the capacity to think and the ability to perform actions fasr and precisely, performing actions after careful calculations can get it.¡± ¡°Please explain in a language that I could atleast understand, and please don¡¯t go overboard with all the technicalities and stuff.¡± ¡°Really now, I mean, only those with intelligence have a chance to obtain it.¡± ¡°So, you mean to say that only intelligent master can get it.¡± ¡°Yes¡± ¡°So, you find me cute and handsome and are attracted towards my intelligence.¡± ¡°Huh, keep on dreaming.¡± She snorted, completely and utterly looking down on him. ¡°Anyways, what was all that about? Calculating and capacities, please, always use layman terms to explain things from now onwards.¡± ¡°It is important but you don¡¯t need to know.¡± She said while looking at the roof, but her gaze felt looking at something far away. ¡°So, What should I do now? Tell me.¡± ¡°Okay, you know how to use mana particles to get something like a vision, but its usage gets pretty rough, as the distance increases, and¡­¡± ¡°Yes, yes I know all about this. If you are really going to say something, then tell me about omnivision, and not things that I already know.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t rush me! Shut up and keep on listening, otherwise I¡¯ll keep the secret to myself.¡± ¡°Okay, But please, keep all the highly classified information to the minimum, and¡­¡± without letting him complete his sentence Minie started explaining. ¡°Right now your temporary vision is because of you using mana particles to react with the surrounding. Now, that gives you a somewhat clear picture of everything around you but it is still not good enough to be called a skill. Even though you can see, but this is still just the most basic way to use it. It is not a skill that let you see clearly. Until now, you have been using your body as the vessel and your mana as the medium to see. All that you need to do is, to use the dungeon walls as your vessel and ¡­.¡± If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it. ¡°¡­, and the mana circulating inside as the medium to see. If I can do this, then I¡¯ll get ¡®Omnivision¡¯.¡± ¡°See didn¡¯t I tell you that its really simple, though the matter of getting the skill is a bit more difficult than that, but if you keep on performing this action continuously, then the rest of the path for you wiil be smooth sailing.¡± ¡°Yeah, in theory it sounds nice, but we both know how cruel reality can get.¡± Shhh¡­I started meditating to calm my excited self, and to stop thinking about unnecessary stuff. Yeah, meditation not only increases my mana, but it also helps me calm down. The result? Just like expected, all my thoughts of anger and deceit, of joy and sorrow were washed away, and what remained was my calm and composed emotionless state and an empty mind, devoid of worldly uselessness. The first thing I felt, was that all of the energy particles in my surrounding were rushing towards me; Entering my body and replenishing myself, rejuvenating my soul. This myriad of lights have become a common thing for me, after experiencing them for such a long time¡­ actually its has only been three¡­no four days, but after meditating for 15 hours a day, anyone would feel that in this world them majestic dots of lights were nothing luxurious, but as common as dirt. Moving on, Like Minie said I need to use the walls of my dungeon as my body. Now as it really is my body so I had absolutely no difficulty doing it¡­other than a slight feeling of disorientation. Now to use the mana circulating inside as the medium to see, Let me tell you that it brought a great headache to me, Why? Because when both of the conditions were fulfilled all the visions from all around the cave started rushing inside my mind. This flood of information gave me a scare, and I could not help but scream out loud. ¡°What happened?!¡± Minie asked, looking a bit bewildered. ¡°Nothing, I just succeeded in doing it.¡± ¡°But why did you scream? You know, my head is still ringing after you untimely and sudden attack. Still, tell me what happened?¡± ¡°Yeah after I connected the two together, visions from the entire dungeon exploded my mind. Information from millions of perspectives¡¯ and angles bombarded my head. I think, if I had not stopped it at the right time, then I might have gotten brain wrecked!¡± ¡°Ah! Yes, I forgot to tell you to only look at one scene at a time, otherwise you would get¡­ well, you have experienced it already. Heehee¡± she smiled shamefully and turned the opposite way. ¡°Really, you what wrong did I ever do to be treated in such a way? What di¡­¡± ¡°Oh come on! Stop you¡¯re whining and practice doing it until you get a skill out of it.¡± ¡°Hah¡­okay so I¡¯m going to have fu¡­practice this way of seeing till I get the skill ¡®Omnivision¡¯. So before I dive into my ultimate, painful, divine method of meditation do you have anything that you want to tell me?¡± ¡°Ha-ha, like I can¡¯t just talk to you, while you look at your ants working.¡± ¡°How do you¡­¡± ¡°Just remember, don¡¯t keep looking at the same thing from the same place, but try to change your viewing angle or move around and get a feel of the whole place. Also try to look at different scenes at the same time. If you somehow succeed in doing it without any backlash or problem, then keep on increasing the no of scenes that you consecutively look at. If you could do that then you might get a nice surprise at the end of it all.¡± ¡°What? What? What surprise? Are you not going to tell me?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t have any need to tell you because you are eventually going to get it anyways, if you don¡¯t slack of that is. So just do what you need to do, and leave the rest to¡­ luck *giggles*¡± She doesn¡¯t change. *smiles* Well, it¡¯s not like I am in any kind of rush, at least not for now. So, what I need to do is to look at the same scene but from different angles and places. This is surely going to get boring very quickly. You see using mana to see stuff is not bad but it has its limitations, what I have been doing until now can be considered the most basic of the basic types of vision. Although I could see stuff around me very clearly, I mean I could even see the expressions that Minie makes from time to time, but to say that I could see everything, is just giving respect to the blind. But with this everything will change I will get a proper vision and the ability see things with texture and detailing, x-ray vision, heat sensing and the godly prophetic visions and much more¡­ Just kidding like a simple skill could do such a thing. After calming down and entering my ¡®mediation mode¡¯, I took my presence to the place where ants were working at. A bit of interaction with mana and I started seeing the scene of ants working now using their mandibles to dig through rock and dirt giving shape to my exquisite imagination. Are they slow? Yes, they are. Actually it¡¯s not that they are slow but the area that they working in is so big that it seems like they will never finish on time. Forget about finish it will be quite an achievement if they are somehow able to complete all the tunnels before humans invade. How much time is left till the humans invade my territory? That, I don¡¯t know, and neither does Minie. How would we know when they will attack? I mean, we don¡¯t even know, if they will even come or not. Ah, forget it, no need to think about the future. Seeing how difficult it will be for my workers to complete the full design, I ordered them to first complete the tunnels. We would be able to completely dig all the rooms after the initial trouble pass away, but we need to at least make then travel some distance before reaching our queen. Ah, I remembered that I also need to plug the long tunnel that my mana burst created. How I will do that? Being a dungeon master is very convenient. I can simply use the stones and dirt dug out to create walls. The thing is that until I have some open space and materials to use, I can¡¯t do shit. But with all the raw materials present, I can create almost everything inanimate inside the dungeon. After completing the plugging, came a long chain of hard and continuous order of practicing my skill. That included; looking at the ants from the side, then from the ground, from the roof, from far away, from the material that they were digging. And then I got bored and lost interest in the simple stalki¡­observation of ants. I wanted to observe Minie but there is no way in hell that I could have done it without her finding out. So instead of getting rebuked for doing something like that, I decide to do the multitasking thing. Looking at one scene at a time is as simple as breathing, but things changed as I moved up from that. At first observing two different scenes provided a fairly big challenge with an overly big headache, but after some time of patiently enduring, it got easy to do. Well, not as easy as a simple task, but still easier than my first try. After practicing the same thing for an unknown amount of time, when my current task provided no more challenge to me, I decided to add one more scene to it, and I still regret doing it. As to why I regret doing it, not because of the difficulty, but because I noticed that other than looking at ants digging or empty walls I had no other thing to look at, and it felt horrible. How could I not fell horrible, thinking that no matter how powerful I get, I would never be able to go outside the confines of these walls, that I would never get to experience the wonders which the world outside the periphery of my dungeon holds. Should I ask Minie if it is possible to go outside? Let¡¯s not ask her¡­ well, at least not for now. I still have a lot of things to do, other than wasting time on things that are currently out of my reach. So after the sorrow of being detained inside the darkness of my own body faded away, I returned to practicing my skill again... But before doing so, I used some of the materials dug by the ants to plug the hole that led straight to the queen. Well, I this case the tunnel that I created at my birth. What followed it was creation of more walls and patches till the whole dungeon at least acquired a tunnel system that I wanted, instead of the straight route to my room, that it had before. And then I returned to my never ending struggle. When I got lost inside my own world, the ants completed the digging of tunnels and returned to expanding the rooms. During my pain stricken, slumber like practice session, I was woken up by my favorite sound in the world. I got happy, listening to the sweet music that was ringing in my head. The voice sounded a bit crude then it usually does, but the feeling of excitement made up for it. At the apex of my excitement the usual ding of information box started echoing inside my head. But when I returned back to my real self out of the muddled state I was in, what I saw left me flabbergasted. Why? because I was welcomed by a bewildered Minie who as looking at the dungeon interface in front of her. At first, I felt awkward seeing her interacting with the panel, but all of my jealously and curosity was hammered to dust, when I saw a Bright red Information box at the corner of my vision. It was not the contrast or its color that made me shocked, but it¡¯s content. [table=red]WARNING! INTRUDERS ALERT![/table] Chapter 15 - White Knight? Knights P.O.V:- That old man is really something. Huh. Even though he is so old, but the aura he unleashes even while simply talking, made me cover. Man, I can still feel something thick and round shaped covering me from head to toe, making my whole body numb with just a touch. It is still making it difficult for me to breathe. Who would have thought that our guild master was not simply here because of his life experience, but because of his never-ending vitality! He really is a monster, through and through. If someday he got angry at me or something, then I don''t think I''ll even be able to do anything to him. My power is not enough to even touch his shadow. His power, his ideas, his knowledge¡­ *Sigh* If only I had the strength to not bend and choke right in front of him and had left some kind of an impression on him, then I might have had some chance to ask him to become my master, but now *Shee* Well, Past is already behind me and now, I need to think about the future. Though my first meeting with him didn¡¯t really go the way that I wanted it to, but I¡¯ll get more chances in the future. I¡¯ll use everything I have to prove, how worthy I am to be taught by him. What happened to my cool guy attitude? Well, tell me, who said I am a calm and composed person? It''s not that I was acting undertone, but he gave me no leeway at all. He left me no room to bargain, no room to act, and kept on attacking me without stopping. The only thing that I could do, while standing in front of him, was to answer all of his questions like a child. *Grinds teeth* I need to achieve much-much more, to show my worth to him. *Sigh!* Well, it¡¯s something to be done in the future. For now, let¡¯s talk about my team. This team¡­it¡¯s not good at all. Why do I think so? It¡¯s easy, let me introduce everyone. Firstly, there is our fire mage. It''s a she, a species relatively different from normal humans, but still, looks the same. Well, who am I joking with; she is a human with a very high attitude towards fire affinity. Though she is just a human, but its best not to take her lightly, she is more like a creature devoid of any and almost all emotions. In most parts of the world, she also knows with a much darker and sinister name...''FLUFFY''. Coming onto her looks, her face is very dreadful. Her cheeks are covered in blood, her eyes are very deep, but inside they only contain a circle of blue and ghostly white stuff covering it. Her hairs so dark and long that even the branches of a thousand-year-old tree look nothing in front of them. Her voice is so crispy and sharp that even birds start gossiping about it with their chirps, and a height that is even taller than the shortest woman in the world. Her figure is the most dreadful thing about her. It¡¯s like a snake, curvy to the extreme. My whole body shudders, just thinking about it. She is so poor that she could not even buy full clothes, and had to cover her meat and important parts with bundles of self-woven sparkling rags, which she must have found somewhere at the corner of some road. Even those rags look quite tight on her body, making her breast full and leaving her legs and belly uncovered. *Sigh* life must have been hard on her, to make her look so undernourished and ghostly. (A princess) Next one is even more ruthless, she is an earth mage. She is someone who shouldn''t be present here at all, but here she is. A hunter famed for her bloody and notorious past. Once she killed an entire colony of black venomous rats. Though there was no job posted for rat extermination, but she acted deliberately and without mercy destroyed their entire colony. From what the guild reported, to calm her blood lust, she had killed nineteen hundred thousand of them without flinching. When she was asked about the reason for such cruel and ruthless behavior, her answer left everyone dumbfounded. She said, ¡°I did what I had to do.¡± From guilds investigation of the crime scene, they found that all of the tunnels that rats used to move around in were first destroyed and when they had no way to run away she killed them all. All of them were spanked to death by her. No one knows her real name, but she is unofficially called ¡®Stermon¡¯. The assassin is the only one who seems like a nice person. He is very down to earth and shy, other than saying some words, he doesn¡¯t talk much. He keeps his self-covered from head to toe. Now some people might think he has done so to keep his identity covered, but I know the real reason. Well, it¡¯s simple; he is a shy person with a bit of speech problem. But these entities of darkness still didn''t leave him alone. They torture and make fun of him because of his lacking ability. Whenever he talks someone interprets it according to their desire and objectively spurts nonsense to destroy his image. But no matter how much they try to make his character seem bad, their magic will never work on me. All these villains are nothing, the one I am going to talk about now is the really deal. He is the king of villains. From the job, he is a swordsman, but from work, he is the devil. He is no normal swordsman; he is the bringer of dawn, the killer of millions, one and only son of the devil. Well, for the sake of explaining his personality at least. His Nickname? He doesn''t have a Nickname, but a title and the title tells how grave a sin he must have committed to getting it. His title is ''the virgin killer.'' Yes, you heard right, ¡®the virgin killer¡¯. Who knows how many fresh and young flowers were plucked from the roots by him? Who knows how many beauties he has killed, and how many families he has destroyed? Though his face is average, a bit masculine with strong jaw line, smooth skin and with no visible wrinkles or the like; he looks like a common man. Even if his attire and composure is not normal and a bit gaudy, but his smile and squinted eyes give away his intentions very easily. His visage is much crueler than a boar or a pig. His shiny red hair feels like they are ready to burn the whole world. He is ¡®The apocalypse¡¯ itself walking in human skin. An Owl bringing news of destruction and waiting for the right time to rain it''s terror on us humans. His name I don¡¯t know its meaning, for me it is nothing more than a coalition of alphabets designed to give meaning to meaningless jumble, but people call him ¡® THEH - ERO¡¯. What this word signifies? I don¡¯t know, but I think that they have the power to hypnotize common people. *sigh!* But no matter how cruel or vicious they sound it doesn''t matter, cause I don''t care. No matter how powerful or extravagant skills they possess, it had nothing to do with me, so I never cared; until now that is. What is really going to happen, now that we are together in a team is something that only time can tell. If they don¡¯t show their cruel nature to me and also don¡¯t try to give me any kind of pain, then it¡¯ll be okay, but otherwise¡­ I can only run. There is no way in hell that I can face such monsters, moreover alone. Going against them will only lead to tragedy for me, and nothing more. But now that I am the leader of this expedition team, I think I should at least introduce myself to them. I still don¡¯t understand how they let me become the leader? Maybe they don¡¯t want to get recognized or something, but it¡¯ll be news to them if they knew that I already know who they are. So let¡¯s do this. *Gulp* *Ahem* ¡°Pleased to meet you all, I am ¡®D¡¯sue¡¯ and I am a ¡®White knight¡¯. I usually work alone, but it''s my utmost pleasure that I am getting an opportunity to work with all of you. I think none of you mind if I become the leader of this team well, for the time being at least. Now my introductions are over we will talk about more integrating things afterward, but why don¡¯t all of you also introduce yourselves. That way, we¡¯ll at least have an idea of how to arrange our strategy and minding everyone¡¯s skills.¡± Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road. I¡¯m sweating bullets here please somebody says something. Don¡¯t tell me are they angry or something? But I only asked them to introduce themselves. Ah! Idiot, I¡¯m such an idiot! Even though I know what kind of personalities and abilities they have, how could I not understand their mutual feelings to stay as a side character? I just hope they don¡¯t tr¡­ ¡°Hello, every one! My name is Martha I am a fire mage, though my rank or level might not be as high as every one of you, but I can assure you all that my control and skills are first class.¡± She said with a smiling. ¡°Thank you for telling us about yourself Miss Martha. Well, now anyone else who would like to grace us by introducing themselves.¡± ¡°Name - Dust. Affinity ¨C earth, I am a Rank 2, level 89, Mage. I specialize in Earth attack and defense skills. Most of my skills are at master lv-3. So, if you think I can be of any usage to you all then don¡¯t be shy and do tell me. Thank you.¡± *Twitch* what kind of an introduction was that though she really is powerful, moreover she seems quite skilled. If what she said is really true then she is a strong comrade to have. Well, I¡¯ll also have to be careful of him, who knows when she might get impulsive and try to poke me with a spike or something. ¡°Anyone else?¡± ¡°Kill- KILL, KILL KILLLL KILL. KIL LIKK KILL¡­LLL! Kill, killll kill lick?¡± ¡°Ah! Okay, that will do. So what about you Mr. swordsman?¡± ¡°What?¡± ¡°HUH?¡± Don¡¯t tell me he is goi¡­ ¡°Don¡¯t tell me! Don''t you know who I am? How could it be? I¡¯m famous you know. How could a lowly knight not know who I am? It''s already a hassle giving you the position of the leader, but what the hell yo? Do you live in a cave or something? How the actual fuck could you ask me who I am! I am¡­¡± ¡°Sir!! It''s not that I don¡¯t know who you are, but I thought that there might be some who don¡¯t. So, I trie¡­¡± ¡°Shuuu! Don¡¯t talk when I am talking. I thought you had some balls to not ask me to become the leader, but looks like you are an eunuch too.¡± ¡°whaaa!¡± ¡°Shut up and listen. I was going to let you play house for this time, but with such an attitude you can¡¯t be the leader of this team. So, I am going to lead now and YOU ALL WILL FOLLOW. Hey You! You are a Master Archer right?¡± ¡°how do you¡­¡± ¡°No need for such useless questions, we are already late. Everyone go on and start your preparations and meet me at the front gate in one hour. GO! MOVE! WHAT ARE YOU ALL WAITING FOR? And you; archer, it''s your duty to scout ahead with your Eagle eyes. Our objective is very far, so might have to move without any break to get there.¡± ¡°But..¡± ¡°No buts and also no ifs. Listen to me and my every order. You lot do what I say and I¡¯ll protect you all from any and all danger, otherwise, you¡¯ll be on your own. Let''s finish this mission as soon as we can, cause I have people waiting for me. Understood?¡± ¡°¡­¡­.¡± ¡°*Twitch* I SAID ¡®UNDERSTOOD¡¯?¡± ¡°Yes, sir¡± they all shouted at the same time. ¡°Then go for now and come back to the front gate in one hour. MOVE, MOVE, MOVE.¡± ¡°Yes sir.¡± Just like I thought; he Is selfish, unrestrained, control freak and don¡¯t forget, he is also a MASS MURDERER. People don¡¯t just call him the ¡®THAT¡¯ for nothing. *sigh* And here I thought that I would get to lead a team of my own, but there is nothing that can be done about ¡®HIM¡¯. So, let¡¯s just complete the mission and come back after killing him¡­ or not. Then after we packed all the stuff necessary to travel the distance without any disturbance, we started our long journey to an easy quest, at least I think that it¡¯ll be easy. Well, how difficult can a bunch of ants be, for us? Even though our leader is a bad character, but there is no one who can say anything about his choices and decisions. They were all perfect. He made earth mage Dust to create a fortress¡­ yeah, a fortress to sleep during the night, fire mage was given the duty to get the fire burning, I was made the cook and the assassin had to go catch animals to eat. What did he do? Nothing he just ordered us around, but on the premises to act as a security guard while we all slept. The road was unusually long and winding. Town ¡®Ragnarok¡¯ is at one day distance from the Mountain range. Tough I said one day, but one day is for those who use beasts or something like them to travel and not us who had to walk and run to there. Arrow really is a great archer. All the bandits and monsters that we met on the road were nicely spotted by him and were cleanly and peacefully executed by our assassin. He really is a great guy, though he doesn¡¯t speak much, but he also doesn¡¯t need to be given any order. He always acted first and killed all and everything that came our way. There is a road that leads straight to ¡®Devils beard¡¯, which is a forest just before the ¡®Devil Pass¡¯ mountain range. The numbers of monsters that we had to face while traveling in the forest were a lot, but all of them were still simply and effectively manhandled by the assassin alone. He is very powerful and trust able. I tried to talk to him, but he always ran away or tried to pick me with his dagger. I think he is just a bit shy. The forest was really scary. Even I got scared of the pitch black darkness that surrounded everyone at night. Because of big and wide trees, with very dense canopies, almost no light reached the ground after sundown. Our leader wanted to continue moving even during the night, but his intentions were broken by the attack from night wolves. Night wolves are not very dangerous monsters, individually that is, but the thing is they move in a group. They are pack monsters and their hunting party always contains thirty to fifty wolves at a time. Because of their affinity with the dark element, they can become a pain to fight with during the night.It gets very difficult to spot them in the darkness of this forest because of their jet black hide and non-luminescent eyes. They are like shadows at night. So we had to come to the decision to stop traveling at night and to camp over the trees. The night passed without any difficulty because of our tree fortresses and we started our journey again during the day to the ant hill. We encountered no wolves during the daytime, but were attacked by a group of golden snakes. A golden snake is a rank 1 monster, not especially high leveled, but their evolved forms are much more dangerous than they are and we were very fortunate enough to not encounter them. About the snakes, they were killed without mercy, again by our one and only assassin. We arrived at our destination at around 1: 30 pm, but because we were a bit tired from the journey, we decided to rest a bit before opening our treasure chest. Because we were already resting I decided to create some snake soup from the snakes that our assassin killed. The soup I made was very delicious. Everyone was looking towards me like I was some kind of a deity. The leader even advised me to not sell the recipe to any store or inn to keep it authentic. Everyone laughed a bit before leader stood up¡­ ¡°So are you all ready?¡± (Leader) ¡°Yes¡± (Everyone) ¡°Then let¡¯s go.¡± (Leader) ¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­ Authors note:- Now, this might be the last chapter of this month, but to everyone who is enduring my work; I¡¯ll be back. I¡¯ll be back with a bang, and we¡¯ll continue the story with a hardcore fight. So, until then¡­Goodbye and don¡¯t forget me. P.S ¨C Please keep on enduring, cause it hasn¡¯t even started yet. Chapter 16.1 - Reverse Massacre: The storm arrives Author''s note:- This is one half of the chapter. The other half will come in about, i don''t know, maybe when i actually finish it. *Ahem* Enjoy. .......................................................................................................................................................... ¡°They are here! They are here!¡± ¡°Yes, yes. They are! What should we do! What should we do?¡± ¡°Baka! Get your ants stationed. You think they can fight evenly with humans who carry weapons and powerful spells?¡± ¡°I know but. Alright, Ants carry on with the formation A, cover the whole palace and don¡¯t let even a single drop of water drain.¡± ¡°What? WHAT ARE YOU SAYING! What formation? And what fucking palace?¡± ¡°HAhaa. I just wanted to have a little fun saying these words. So, don¡¯t worry, nothing¡¯s wrong. I¡¯m just letting my imagination run wild here and nothing more.¡± ¡°QUICKLY! Order the ants and send them to their respective stations.¡± ¡°Yes. ANTS!... GO,GO,GO. RUN; run to you caves and¡­ Minie we both know they are going to die, but what should I order them to do. I mean, I can¡¯t let them die for nothing.¡± ¡°Yes, you are right. Tell them to cover the caves like we first planed. One ant in first roo¡­ oh, we haven¡¯t made any rooms yet. So, let them stay in caves; one in the first narrow tunnel and then, two in the long caves, and two in the widest tunnel that connect the second intersection with our room.¡± ¡°Okay, let¡¯s do like we planned.¡± Then I gave the ants my order. We only have five ants but they should be enough to atleast kill one of them. I mean after they battle with ants at every cross-section, they are bound to get tired. Moreover, it¡¯s not like they are sending a battalion or something. Are they? ¡®Oh! How many of them are there? Actually I don¡¯t know. Yes, I forgot to check their number. If there are more than ten of them then, forget about killing anyone, I think this will be a massacre.¡¯ So I started doing what I am good at. No! Not powering up my mana for another explosion. I became one with the walls. I am talking about the omnivision skill that Is still out of my reach. I shifted my presence to the first room. Sorry, the giant hole that leds straight from surface to a puddle. Well, there was no rain; so there is no puddle, but there I saw them, looking here and there. ¡®huh¡­What are they doing! Are they trying to find the tunnel? but its right in front of them.¡¯ I know what happened, the ants dug a little too deep for the water puddle and it became more like a lake. Well, a dried out lake and the are trying to find the way from the bottom of it. When they were trying to find the way from deep down there one of them pointed up at something and then everyone started climbing up towards the tunnel. ¡®huh, did they somehow feel me? I don¡¯t think that is possible.¡¯ I think this is what minie meant by the traps, a deep pit that traps everyone inside. This is a bit too ingenious, to jump down inside the entrance, but straight into a trap. ¡®So, this is how humans look.¡¯ It was the first thought that came to my mind. I forgot my original intentions and kept on observing them. Then just when they started walking towards the tunnel, I came about. ¡®Idiot! I¡¯m such an idiot! I am here to gather information about them and not to look at them like a fan.¡¯ I saw a man carrying a long blade, a something fully covered in black from his head to toe, a walking steel man, a pointy hat with red cape and another one with a yellow cape but without a hat, walking slowly inside. Ah! There was another one, but let¡¯s forget about him. ¡®Are they walking in some kind of a formation?¡¯ The one carrying the blade was at the last, following behind everyone. ¡®Must be the least powerful one of them all¡¯ was what I thought, but I knew, the monsters that had gone through so much¡­boredom with me would be killed and we were going to be left on their mercy, but there was one thing to be happy about cause we still had a chance. There were only five of them and we had nine on our side. This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source. Well, six to be exact if I remove me, Minie and the larvae from the equation. The man in black was walking at the front, leading them all. He was followed by the iron man. The two capes were behind them carrying something like sticks in their hands. ¡®Well, enough of watching them.¡¯ I travelled back to my crystal clear, dirt proof, shiny body. *sigh* ¡®It still feels the best to be in this body. I feel uncomfortable while my presence is shifted to some other place.¡¯ So I got back to my room and saw Minie shaking with excitement. After watching how excited she looked, how could I have stooped myself from exaggerating everything. So, I happily started blabbering in front of her. ¡°Haha. Minie there is no need to worry. I don¡¯t think they will be able to completely destroy us. Forget about destroying, I think that they won¡¯t even be able to reach us at all. Well, not with their little strength that is. There are only five of them. What did their leader think they can accomplish by sending only five people? Forget about protecting ourselves, I think they will have to run for their lives after meeting our queen. Right?¡± ¡°¡­..¡± ¡°Minie?¡± ¡°¡­.¡± ¡°MINIE!¡± he shouted in her mind. ¡°yesh *sob*¡± ¡®She is crying! Why is she crying? What happened?¡¯ ¡°Minie, what happened? Why are you crying? Did something happen when I was not looking?¡± Ah! It was at that moment that I noticed, she was looking at the dungeon interface. Her small little face was glowing under the blue light from the interface, at that moment she looked so beautiful that I couldn¡¯t stop myself from gawking at her. With her watery eyes and twitching lips, her shaking legs and snout covered face, she looked at me, and with her trembling fingers pointed at the screen, looking exactly like a fairy. *Ahem* I thought she saw something that I didn¡¯t, when I was observing them. So I opened my dungeon interface and clicked at the status panel. What I saw on it left me numb.
Dungeon Interface
StatusFloors, Monsters, Store
NameThe cave of MiseryTypeInsect
Floors1Total no of Monsters6
Rooms/floor1Total no of invaders5
---
Reserved Mana: (250/400)
Dungeon(Floors/Rooms)100Monsters150
Resources0upgrades0
---
Invading Forces
NameClassRank/LevelDanger
D''sueWhite Knight2/89Extreme
Enco D CroceaAssassin2/99Extreme
DustEarth Mage1/97Very High
MarthaFire Mage1/64Very High
RobyMaster Archer1/99High
---
Dungeon Currency358ReputationNeutral
DC Inc.303/dayMana Reg.20/hr
I think I was a bit wrong about something. Yes, humans did only send five personals and there were no invasion force waiting outside, but they did so because these people were enough; enough to handle us. What we feared really happened. I never thought that they would send ¡®B Rankers¡¯ to take care of our beginner dungeon. Chapter 16.2 - Reverse Massacre: Mana Burn Author''s Note:- *Sigh* You all know what, this chapter is still not complete. It''s still going on. i don''t know how long its next part will be, but this one already contains solid 3000 words. I think by the time I end this, chapter 16 alone will have 6000 words or more. Well, what can i say. Enjoy. ........................................................................................................................................................................... Third person P.O.V:- The ¡®B rank¡¯ human party started walking toward the ant mound. They carefully inspected everything near the area surrounding it. Instead of brazenly walking inside, they choose to be attentive and covered the distance without leaving any marks behind. Moving while hiding behind all the debris present, they walked silently towards the hole in the ground. After walking half the distance, when their leader ¡®a swordsman¡¯ noticed that there was no danger present near the vicinity of the hole, he waved his hand in the air to signal everyone to group up. ¡°So, did anyone find anything out of ordinary?¡± the swordsman asked looking here and there, trying to find anything out of ordinary. ¡°No sir. There is absolutely nothing around here.¡± Replied a small petite girl with a orange cape tied to her neck. ¡°Yes, I didn¡¯t even see any animals here.¡± another girl answered, with stern expression and stiff attitude. ¡°Mr. Assassin did you find anything.¡± That swordsman asked while looking straight into the eyes of a overly covered shadow like person. ¡°Kill.¡± He said, looking back into his eyes. ¡°Hey Archer, what do you think made that hole?¡± ¡°It¡¯s not my job, but I am confident to say that whatever made this is still present inside. So, if you want to get your answers, then just go inside.¡± ¡°Aren¡¯t you behaving a little too atrociously, little pest.¡± Just after saying this, the swordsman vanished into thin air from the place that he was standing at. The ground quacked a little, and with the noise of sound barrier breaking, he moved. The next moment before anyone could even blink their eyes; he had already covered a distance to 30 meters, and was now standing in front of the archer. Everyone eyes bulged out because they knew, it was no magic skill, but pure physical power. Without giving anyone even a sec to react, he was already gone from his place. After reaching the archer he wasted no time in putting any act of fear or waited for others to try and stop him, but kicked the archer directly on his face. The kick was so powerful that it created shockwaves while travelling towards the now dumbfounded archer. The motion of him lifting his leg and impacting that face was so fast that others could not even see it; they only saw a line of black travelling and impacting empty air. What they saw was nothing more than an afterimage, I reality his leg had already cracked on the archers face, and he was now flying towards the hole in the ground. Everyone¡¯s eyes were still bulged and hadn¡¯t returned to normal, because it took some time to explain, but in reality not even three sec¡¯s had passed yet. The swordsman moved yet again. Everyone thought he was going to follow the archer inside the ant mound, but their expectations were broken when he flashed once more and came back to his previous position. They looked toward the hole, where the archer had flown into, and the person who was now already standing back at his previous position; a chill ran down their spine. Some of them were thinking of stopping him at first, but now they were happy that he moved faster than them, and ended the fight without giving them any time to react. Otherwise they could also imagine them flowing inside the hole, after being kicked or punched by their brute leader. They heaved a breath of relief to their thoughts and looked toward the leader, to know what his orders were. Just when everyone else moved their necks to look at their current leader he spoke, ¡°Someone once told me, ¡®to hold the reins of a wild horse, you need to show him how wild you can be.¡¯ Now that the wild horse has been tamed, let¡¯s continue with our mission.¡± He knew if he hadn¡¯t taken care of the first person who objected or neglected his order, then his whole team would have started acting freely one by one, and that would have led to chaos one way or another. ¡°We are going to move inside now. No matter how many monsters there are inside, we are going to kill them all. If there really are ant inside, then this is going to be a very easy mission, but do not slack off. Who knows what kind of a foe we will have to face inside? So, any questions?¡± To his question Martha nervously asked, ¡°Yes. What if that something which made the hole is something that we couldn¡¯t hold our own against?¡± ¡°Then you know what to do.¡± He replied seriously. ¡°So, you mean, we can run away if such a situation does arise?¡± ¡°If we weren¡¯t able to hold our own against a monster then I don¡¯t think we will get any time to run away. Forget about running away, just hope that whatever it is that is inside, doesn¡¯t start firing laser beams at us, just as we enter.¡± ¡°What¡­about..that. Archer. can I at least save him if he is not dead yet?¡± D¡¯sue, who looked like he had wanted to ask this question for a long time, nervously voiced out. When the swordsman heard the knight saying that, his eyebrows flinched and his lips twitched for a sec, before his expressions returned to normal. He looked at him and said¡­ ¡°Let¡¯s go. Assassin, move to the front. If there really are ants inside, then just kill them all. With your speed they¡¯ll hold no problem for you at all. Don¡¯t let even a single one get away and if you find any traps or such on the way, then do inform us. D¡¯sue, you also move to the front, and try to stop anything and everything that slips past our assassin. And both of you Mages, well, you know the deal, but don¡¯t start hurling magic attacks without thinking. I don¡¯t think there is anything or anyone here who can stop the advance of this party. Understood.¡± ¡°yes¡± ¡°I SAID, UNDERSTOOD!¡± ¡°YES SIR.¡± In the valley a shout rang out and it echoed, causing the death of tens of small birds. Then after taking some precautions and completing some final preparations, they moved towards the hole. The ant mound like its name implied really was a hole into the ground. There was no slope or stairs that connected the surface and the deep dark pit underneath it. There was a drop of about 30 meters, which they needed to jump to reach the end of the pit. But the drop provided no difficulty to them. What 30 meters? Even jumping down 50 or 60 meters would have been like a child play to them. After jumping down from above, the first thing they noticed was that there was no actual way to go anywhere. They were in a pit with no path leading outside. They panicked a bit; cause who knew what kind of monster would come to attack them when they had nowhere to run. While they were trying to find something like a clue or a door, D¡¯sue heard a voice calling them from up above. He looked above and what he saw left him dumbfounded. He saw that the master archer who was kicked to death by their leader was standing high up above outside the pit, waving and calling out to them. ¡®A Ghost! No, No, not possible. Then...¡¯. he looked toward their leader who was doing nothing other than standing with his eyes closed. After thinking for some time he decided to tell them about what he just saw. Hey, everyone! Listen to me.¡± He spoke in a low but audible voice, strong enough for others to hear him. ¡°I saw the archer who was¡­.*ahem* I just saw him standing above somewhere, waving at me.¡± Hearing him everyone felt cold sweat running down their spine. They still remember how cruelly that person was beaten before being flung inside the hole moreover; the perpetrator was still standing beside them. But instead of saying or doing anything, they all looked at their leader. After being given attention like this the swordsman opened his eyes and looked in the direction that D¡¯sue was pointing toward. What they saw left them asphyxiated; they forgot to breathe for a sec and kept looking upwards with their mouth open. Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author. They really saw the archer waving and shouting at them. Everyone were a bit confused, thinking how could someone who had his ass kicked so ferociously be happily waving at them, but what happened next made them think again. Some even had thoughts like, ¡®maybe what happened outside was an illusion.¡¯ The swordsman spoke to the archer, ¡°Is there any way to go deeper inside? Or we¡¯ll have to dig our own tunnel to get out of here?¡± ¡°No, no. come above there is a tunnel here. It must lead to somewhere.¡± Hearing such words coming from the archer everyone¡¯s confusion got even stronger. Now, they really believed that all that happened outside was nothing, but an illusion. ¡°Okay. Everyone, let¡¯s move.¡± The swordsman said while looking upwards. Just as his voice rang out, all of them started jumping and running towards the top, like someone had made a bet to see who would get there first. They got to the top and saw a healthy male smiling and welcoming everyone by hugging them. Their confusion had now broken the normal limit. The mages were even thinking of ignoring everything, but then D¡¯sue moved with confidence and he asked the archer. ¡°Why are you not hurt? No sorry about that, I didn¡¯t mean it that way. What I wanted to ask is, how are you not hurt, even after¡­that?¡±He asked while looking between the archer and their leader. ¡°Oh! That, actually the kick that you all saw hitting me¡­actually never touched my face.¡± ¡°Huh¡­What do you mean? We all clearly saw you getting brutally kicked on the fac,e and the kick was so powerful that you was flung away into the hole, were you not?¡± he questioned him, but still a bit stunned from his answer. ¡°The thing is what really hit me was not the kick, but the wind pressure created by it. The pressure was so strong that it threw me into the hole. Because it was only the wind that made the impact me, I wasn¡¯t really hurt much from it. Actually, the stone that my head collided with injured me more, than the kick itself.¡± Hearing him say that D¡¯sue was left with no words to say, Just when D¡¯sue was going to ask him, whether what he said was truth or not, everyone standing behind him started laughing. They laughed and their voices echoed inside the cave. ¡°Okay, play time is over now. Tell me did you go inside to scout or anything?¡± Mr. Swordsman seriously asked him with a smile and Roby (The archer) seriously answered him while looking at the ground, ¡°No, I was too scared to go inside on my own.¡± ¡°Ha-ha. Good, your cowardly nature just saved your life. Remember everyone; while in an unknown territory, never ever move alone. Who knows what kind of monsters and enemies you might have to face. So, until you are not strong enough, always move with a party that is strong enough to handle said threats. Understand.¡± ¡°Yes sir.¡± ¡°*Sigh* keep in formation and move forward. Let¡¯s not waste any more time and get going. We have some ants to kill.¡± While their leader was giving those suggestions and such, D¡¯sue was lost inside his own mind. ¡®This leader, he must have some kind of an ulterior motive to not kill the archer. His behavior recently has been very unlike his nature. He must be planning something or have something that requires the cooperation of everyone, and because of that he can¡¯t kill anyone. Until the right time comes that is.¡¯ They had just started walking, when they were presented with an obstacle. The tunnel that they had to go through was in front of them, but the problem was that it was too narrow. ¡°Hey Roby, is this the tunnel that you was talking about?¡± ¡°Umm¡­yes.¡± ¡°So you want all of us to go through THIS tunnel to the other side, while fighting the monsters inside it?¡± ¡°Yes?¡± automatically escaped his lips, but when the question really hit him he shivered and hurriedly replied, ¡°Ah! No, I didn¡¯t mean it like that. It¡¯s not like I want all of you to die or anything, but from what you can see, this is the only tunnel present. Behind us is that pit and in front of us is this tunnel.¡± ¡°You are not describing the tunnel properly my friend. It¡¯s not just a tunnel, its narrow, dark and who knows how long. You can¡¯t just call it a tunnel, it¡¯s like a narrow highway to hell, and who ever named this cave ¡®the cave of misery¡¯ should be prized with 100 gold¡¯s, cause his naming sense is out of this world. Legendary I¡¯d say.¡± Martha said, staring daggers at the archer. ¡°Yeah, you are right. While other places have something like a stair or slope for entering, this place needs everyone to jump, and the drop is not a short one either. And only after jumping down does one realize that he is jumping to the entrance of the cave, but straight into a pit; a trap. How clever is this. Moreover because of low light¡­ Ah! Sorry, let me rephrase it, because the only light inside is the light coming from the hole on the surface, the visibility is also very low and it only adds to the cleverness of the pit even more.¡± ¡°Yeah, and then after crawling back up 20 some meters, you find that the entrance to the deeper parts of the cave is a narrow dark tunnel. *sigh* misery, really misery. This cave really is ¡®The cave of misery¡¯.¡± Dust said while moving her head left and right in astonishment. Their conversations and descriptions were going on and on when their leader interjected between them and stopped their untimely girls talk. ¡°Stop wasting time. We get it, the pit is frustrating, and the tunnel is scary, but we need to move now. We have already wasted a lot of our time. The more time we waste the lesser become the value of our reward, and also who knows when something might come to attack us. I don¡¯t want anything to attack me while I¡¯m crawling inside this shitty hole.¡± ¡°Yes sir you are right. Let¡¯s move now, while our surroundings are still calm.¡±D¡¯sue pointed towards the cave, while suggesting everyone to hurry. ¡°KILLL, KILll lk ill ki?¡± the assassin said. Hearing the assassin talk, the archer couldn¡¯t help but blurt out, ¡°Oh my god, he is right!¡± ¡°What! What did he say?¡± ¡°Why do we have to crawl inside this narrow tunnel? Can¡¯t we just destroy or dig these walls to make it wide enough for all of us to travel comfortably.¡± He replied with confidence, thinking that this suggestion really was a great one. He wasted no time in refusing his suggestion saying, ¡°No time. Anyone else? No, then Knight get in the front and start crawling, I¡¯ll follow you. The archer and assassin will crawl behind me, followed by the mages. No questions allowed, it¡¯s is for the safety of, everyone else¡¯s and also mine. I also don¡¯t want to be attacked inside the tunnel.¡± ¡°But if we are attacked then¡­¡± D¡¯sue couldn¡¯t help but ask him that. Because he knew that the one at the front would have to bear the attack of all the monsters on his own and that was his position. ¡°Then you¡¯ll use your shield to block the attack and buy us some time to turn back. It will be considered as a brave attempt from you to save the lives of your party members, and your family will be given some reward in case you die.¡± He said, smiling at him. ¡®This bastard! He really thinks I will do whatever he wants me to do, and if he thinks that I¡¯ll buy him time by giving my life, then he must be dreaming. But what can I do, not like I can face against him. He is much more powerful than me. *Haah* can¡¯t be done, let¡¯s just hope nothing attacks us in the tunnel. After finishing their talking they got back to work. Because the tunnel leading deeper inside the cave was too narrow, they decided to alter their formation a bit and the best way to move was by making the most tankiest of their member crawl in front of them while others followed. It was done so that he could at least buy them sometime, in case of an enemy attack. He was followed by their leader, who had the responsibility to make the right decision of whether to move forward or to go back during any mishap. Like this they decided to crawl inside the tunnel while keeping most members of their party safe and protected. Chapter 16.3 - Reverse Massacre: The tunnel Author''s note:- Ah man, I''m sorry but i couldn''t complete the chapter. it''s still unfinished, but I''m going to sleep now. So, I''ll have to complete it tomorrow. But for now... Enjoy. ............................................................................................................................................................................ Third person P.O.V:- They crawled and crawled and crawled, but nothing happened. The Knight crawling at front had his shield up in front of him while the others behind him had their faces down. The knight was really stressed, he had been crawling expecting one or more monsters to jump come out of blue to attack them, but so far everything had remained calm. His eyes were now bright red, after giving it his all to look ahead in this pitch black darkness. Even though no monsters attacked them but he noticed one thing, they had not even traveled 30 meters, yet they were already sweating like crazy. He had sweat flowing out of his body like water from a waterfall. His heavy equipment and shield that he was very proud of, today become a source of his agitation and misery. While crawling forward, their leader ¡®the swordsman¡¯ was keeping his eyes in front and beyond the knight. He had a duty to fulfill and in this pitch blackness, he needed to depend on his vision to complete it, but in the darkness where he couldn¡¯t even see face of the knight, who was crawling in front of him, he was also frowning. He looked back and saw a tinge of light entering from the surface hole and lightening the mouth of this horrible tunnel. The tunnel wasn¡¯t really so bad, but the vision problem really was. In the tunnel, they had enough space to walk on their knees and wiggle about somewhat, but the space was not enough to stand up. Even though they had enough space to walk comfortably, they still decided to stay low to the ground and crawl. The most dangerous situation that they could get into had nothing to do with their comfort, but it related to them being discovered and attacked by the whole colony of ants. So, after the constant nagging and nitpicking form some members of their team ended, they decided to stay low and crawl. While the leader was straining his eyes to look ahead he heard a voice calling out to him. ¡°Ummm¡­leader, this tunnel is too dark, can I light a fire or something to help us see?¡± ¡°Now are you an idiot or something, tell me where are we right now.¡± He whispered, his voice almost breaking before reaching the fire mage. ¡°I know, I know we are in a tunnel, moreover underground, but this is too eerie. I am scared.¡± she replied with tears in her puppy eyes, but the swordsman couldn¡¯t see the spectacle. His eyes were also red and tired by looking ahead trying to watch out for any kind of movement, but now he was provided with another massive headache by the mage. He couldn¡¯t hold his building anger and almost yelled at her; shouting, ¡°you, who made you a mage? Don¡¯t you know we need oxygen to live and fire also needs oxygen to burn? Right now we are underground, and here the oxygen level is already very low. So tell me what will happen to us if your fire spell burned all of the remaining oxygen from our surrounding? Huh?¡± His reasoning and knowledge left everyone questioning. The thing was that, all of them were tired of crawling inside the narrow and dark tunnel. Because they couldn¡¯t change the width of the tunnel without wasting time, they wanted to atleast get rid of the darkness, but all of them who wanted to support the mages decision closed their mouths tightly with their hands, after hearing their leader refuting and getting angry at her. They didn¡¯t want to accidently spit out something undesirable. The memory of Roby ¡®The Archer¡¯ getting his ass kicked was still fresh in their minds. ¡°But I can create fire without using oxygen.¡± Martha groaned; not out of pain, but frustration from not being trusted. ¡®Huh¡­¡¯ it was not something that one of them uttered, but it was their collective reaction. well, at least they behaved like a party for one moment. After hearing her say that James ¡¯the swordsman¡¯ couldn¡¯t help but look back, he was going to ask her the reason behind her answer, but the archer couldn¡¯t control his excitement. He opened his mouth and said, ¡°How is this possible. Like leader said, fire needs oxygen to burn. Why can you create fire without using it? Is it a secret art or something?¡± ¡°It¡¯s not a secret or anything. Like I said when we were introducing each other, although my level is not that great, but my skill mastery and elemental control is top notch.¡± She explained while crawling through the tunnel. The archer was again going to ask her ¡®so?¡¯ but somehow or another James eyes connected with his and the look in them was not pleasing at all. They were already red from staring without blinking into the darkness, but now it looked like his eyes demanded blood. So this time instead of asking her the question, he backed away and the swordsman asked her, ¡°So, what kind of a relation does it have with oxygen less fire?¡± She didn¡¯t answer his question straight away, but looked at the ground and pondered on whether to tell him the reason or not, but maybe the dread of darkness won over her and she finally answered saying, ¡°It¡¯s because I can directly use mana as the fuel and create fire burning mana. So, I don¡¯t think it will affect the oxygen level at all.¡± ¡°Nice so there are also such skills in the mages skill list. But it must be a very consuming skill, considering you a directly using your mana, Right? Moreover it will create a lot of light and I don¡¯t want unwanted attention on us right now. So, we don¡¯t need it, for now. Save it, conserve your mana, we¡¯ll need it very soon, but the time is still not ripe. You and your fire magic will play a very large role in killing the ants because they are weak to fire.¡± with a smile on his face and slanted brows he said. ¡°No, no. actually, the mana consumption is not very high and I can also control the light it emits so that it emits only enough light for us to see and¡­¡± She was still continuing her explanations, when the earth mage crawling behind her called her an ¡®Idiot¡¯. Her voice stopped and she couldn¡¯t speak anything after that. She wanted to refute her, but her chance was stolen by the assassin, who started speaking in his language, ¡°Kill llik kil l lick, killll ll iill.¡± Hearing him say that an ¡®AH!¡¯ rang out inside the tunnel. Their leader stopped and motioned for others to stop as well. He looked towards the archer who could understand those words and he asked him, ¡°What happened? What did he say?¡± The archer who was already very frightened of the leader now couldn¡¯t even lift his eyes from the ground to look at him. When they were still outside the tunnel and he was kicked by the leader, he had thought he was going to die, but instead of dying he only felt air blowing him away and out of luck or maybe cause of luck he was flung inside the hole, but instead of falling into the pit he landed outside it, near the tunnel. This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. He felt an impact on his head after landing and felt large amount of pain from the back of his head. He almost lost conscious due to pain. Even though the pain came only for a moment, but he felt his soul leaving from his body. He was sure that it was the first time that he had felt such an excruciating pain, but he was also sure that if he didn¡¯t hold onto his life, then it surely was going to be his last one. His fight with severe pain continued for half an eternity long minute, but then it went away like it was never there. The pain had only just subsided, when the memories from the moment before he was kicked started flashing in front of his eyes without his control. The vanishing of swordsman, a lightning fast kick and a hurricane like wind blowing him away, only he knows how may time this memory looped inside his head. When the looping scenes ended, the only feeling it left inside him was the feeling of hatred. Hatred so strong, that all of his other emotions were killed by it. He wanted to get revenge, he wanted to kill him, to destroy every little speck of him, to crush him into paste was what he wanted to do, but no matter how much such feeling of hate governed his mind, it couldn¡¯t hold control of him and as time passed by, his hatred also passed by. Soon his rational mind took over his body, but the seed of hatred was already planted inside him. Now, it was going to wait for him to get angry. Because this seed of hate would someday spurt and as it grows it would keep on corrupting his mind, until he loses control over his body and soul. When his hate subsided and he came about, he noticed that he had changed somehow. Before this mission, he was a somewhat timid and shy person, but right now he was thinking about killing someone and reducing his body to a paste. But even though the thoughts of killing were gone and the hate had disappeared, he still had expectations towards meeting his leader again. He felt regret, regret that he wasn¡¯t even strong enough to take care of a single human being. He wanted to take revenge, he didn¡¯t care how, when or where, but he wanted to make him regret crossing his path. He was still thinking about taking his revenge and everything, when he heard that bastards voice again. Before when their eyes met, it wasn¡¯t because of fear that he looked away, but he knew that it was not the right time yet and that his eyes would show the hate that he has for him and it would lead to trouble. So to keep the situation normal, he answered while looking at the floor ¡°He said that the tunnel is ending and there is a room big enough for one person to stand at the end of it. Oh, there is also an ant inside it, waiting.¡± ¡°What? Really? If so then, Miss Martha.¡± ¡°Yes?¡±She asked feeling a little down, from not being of any help. James passed a smile to her before saying ¡°Why don¡¯t you show us how powerful your mana burning skill really is? Deploy a fireball or something at it and kill it. That would also create some light inside here, but please don¡¯t use too much power and end up creating a fire storm that would come bite our knight¡¯s face. Okay. Also D¡¯sue, please lower your shield and until I tell you, don¡¯t raise it no matter what happens. ¡± Martha was left a bit confused, ¡®why would he want the knight to lower his shield¡¯ is what she thought, but then she looked at the front and saw a huge shield blocking most of her vision. She understood the reason and without wasting any time she started preparing a small fireball the size of a clenched fist over their heads. Thought its size never changed but, the glow it radiated grew to frightening degrees. The light it created was enough to see how tired everyone was after crawling for 20 something minutes inside the narrow and dark tunnel. Though the light radiating from the fire ball hovering over their head was very strong but it was not strong enough to shine outside the tunnel and into the room, so they couldn¡¯t look at the Ant that was waiting for them. Maybe the Ant was blind, but even after there came a sudden light inside the tunnel, that ant didn¡¯t move. It kept on standing wherever it was standing at. James ¡®The swordsman¡¯ got impatient and he couldn¡¯t help but ask the assassin where the ant was, and according to the archers interpretation of the assassins answer, their first monster inside this supposed ant colony was standing dead in the centre of the so called room, looking towards them with its mandibles open, waiting for them to come out of the tunnel and into its mouth. Hearing that, a smile flashed on James face. He looked toward the mage who was controlling the fireball over everyone¡¯s head and nodded his head to her. Just as he nodded his head, the mage without wasting any time pointed the index finger of her left white hand toward the Ant. The fireball buzzed away, flying closely from the swordsman¡¯s face and after going straight for a while, it made impact on the monster. Everyone waited, but no explosion occurred. The all looked at Martha who pointed in front of her; and just as she did, a loud cry rang out. A cry so loud that even the wails of a ghost would seem nothing in front of it. When everyone looked in the front, they saw a monster 3 feet high and 2 feet wide covered in fire, wailing at the top of its voice. It wanted to move but before it could even move two steps, the fire burned it down to ashes and its body crumbled away, leaving behind a heap of ash. The thing is that, the fireball she created was specially made so that it wouldn¡¯t create an explosion and would only burn anything that it touches. Seeing that the Earth mage ¡®Dust¡¯ who was behind her couldn¡¯t help but utter, ¡°how is this possible? What did you do?¡± To her muttering, Martha happily replied, ¡°This skill is very useful and with high mastery, stuff like this becomes possible.¡± ¡°But why isn¡¯t the fire extinguishing? Why is it still burning? How long is it going to burn?¡± ¡°Oh! I put a lot of my mana in it you know. This skill uses mana as fuel, so the fire will keep on burning until the fuel lasts. With the amount of mana that I poured inside it, it is probably going to burn for 3-4 hours top.¡± She felt butterflies in her stomach, praising herself. So, she giggled a bit while replying to her. When their leader saw the Ant burning to ash, he could help but feel a grave shadow covering over him. Others might have not paid any attention to her skill, but how could he have done so. A fire that could keep on burning for all the eternity if enough mana was used, he could only guess what other abilities she might have if her simple fireball could already create such amazing results. He thought that he would have to chide her for her explosion, but now only words of praise left his mouth. ¡°Good job kid, Good job. Everyone let¡¯s move out and see what kind of a monster this is.¡± Chapter 16.4 - Reverse Massacre: Choice Author''s note:- This is a very long chapter. it almost equals to the last three chapters on its own. Enjoy... Third Person P.O.V:- D¡¯sue ¡¯The knight¡¯ who was at the front holding the fort, was the first one to move out of the dark, narrow and unconventionally long tunnel. After him came James ¡®The swordsman¡¯, followed by everyone else. Because of the fireball attack and those still lingering flames, there was a lot of light inside the not so big and now crowded space. Though the pocket of space they were in right now was bigger enough for all of them to stand, but after they all moved inside, it became a bit congested. They stood by creating a circle around the Ant¡¯s now obliterated body. Everyone was looking at the heap of ash with sweat running down their necks. Yes, the heat and narrow tunnel played an important role in them sweating furiously, but the thought of Martha ¡®The mage¡¯ burning the Ant down back to nothingness had a greater hand in it. The Archer ¡®Roby¡¯ was looking between the ash and Martha from time and time again, while frowning at the same time. While everyone else still just thinking about the power that Martha¡¯s spell must have contained, or about the monster that was now no more, their leader moved. Striding forward, while keeping his back straight and his long legs strong, he strolled near the ash and stopped. He moved his hand with the intentions to touch it, but just when his hand was about to touch the remains, it vanished. Though the movement of his hand was quite fast but the monsters remains flashed for a second and without giving him any time to adjust or even think, they disappeared. He was unprepared for this. Who knew, the monster remains would vanish into thin air upon touching? Though the remains vanished, but without giving anyone even the time to blink, in its place a pair of mandibles appeared out of nowhere. This left their leader a bit shocked and he went into a state of trance. Being knocked into such a situation, not only him but everyone else also felt a bit bewildered by it. Before coming inside this good for nothing cave for this hunting session, they had never heard about a monster¡¯s dead burnt body vanishing into thin air and instead being replaced by a part from its body. Such a concept was really irregular and astonishing. While everyone was think to themselves about what they had just witnessed, they heard their leader saying, ¡°so, suggestions anyone? Though at the start, I thought this expedition would be a light one, but now my opinions are changing, bit by bit. From the design of this cave, to the monsters, everything here is a bit weird and eerie. I don¡¯t know about you all, but from all the monsters that I have ever hunted, none of them disappeared in front of me and were replaced by a complete part from their body. So if any of you have experienced or heard about any occurrence like this before, then please do share. Okay.¡± Their leader was right, monsters don¡¯t just go ~puff~ when they die. No matter how strong a monster is or whatever kind of an environment it is in. A dead monster remains dead and they don¡¯t resurrect, while its body also doesn¡¯t disappear and is the reward for its hunter to harvest. So, this seemingly easy hunt now turned into a slug fest of tunnel crawling and mystery solving. While everyone was still knocking their heads into a wall to find about the reason, someone spoke in a low almost inaudible voice, ¡°But don¡¯t dungeons usually have such a system of a dead monsters remains disappearing and item drop at their death?¡± The one who spoke those words didn¡¯t speak again. He remained quiet and stood at the place where he was standing without showing any change in his expression or anything. The reason for such a change in his attitude was because his surroundings and everyone else near him had turned obnoxiously silent. He knew that he had just said something that he shouldn¡¯t have, but like to making mockery of his silence someone laughed. Then one after another everyone started laughing and suddenly laughter rang out inside that extremely quite space. His unconsciously moved lips had lightened everyone¡¯s mood. ¡°Yeah, right, a dungeon really is what this place is. A dungeon that is so tasking from the very start, that even seasoned B rankers like us are having problems completing it moreover, we are still on the first floor. I don¡¯t think there are any dungeons in the whole wide world which would provide such great obstacles right from the start. Though the monsters rank is almost nothing, but for beginners the trip to this place will turn into a trip to hell itself.¡± Martha said, while trying to suppress her laughter by closing her mouth with both of her hands. On one side Martha was trying to control her over flowing emotions and on the other side D¡¯sue was giving his opinion on the situation, ¡°Yes, her words are correct. There are no dungeons in this world that had ever tried to be so full of misery right from the start, but the vanishing of our dear Mr. ¡®Burnt to ash¡¯ Ant also can¡¯t be explained as a normal everyday occurrence. I think that we should keep on traveling deeper into the cave, and if it really is a dungeon then we are bound to fight with the dungeon lord, and if we do end up fighting with a dungeon lord at the end of this all, then we would have no need to look for answers about whether to kill or not.¡± ¡°Okay. So, everyone what do you think we should do now. We have two choices¡­¡±Expressions on their leader face got serious. Even though his face has been stiff throughout the journey, but his big eyes and hard face really looked scary at that moment. Everyone wanted to know, what kind of a situation they were in that their leader was acting so strange. After looking at all of them one by one he spoke, ¡°What do you all think? Does it matter whether this ¡®cave¡¯ is a dungeon or not? And whether we¡¯ll meet a dungeon lord at the end of this all or not? The only thing that we need to do is to kill everything that crosses our path and to determine whether the Queen sitting and waiting for us at the end is dangerous to our fellow humans¡¯ survival or not. So let¡¯s end this discussion right here, because I think, we still have a lot of distance to cover and we are already very tired. Now, I don¡¯t want to fight with a Rank 5 or rank 6 Ant queen after depleting all of my energy and everything. Or would you all like to do such a stunt?¡± What is a stunt? It is something which is deemed extremely dangerous and almost impossible to be done by normal humans, and in this case, them. Everyone nodded their heads without flinching or even thinking about the content that he spoke of. They were too busy to not be the last one to express his or her approval to his decision. Looking at them unconditionally and without any break nodding their heads to his actions, he also nodded his head once before asking, ¡°So shall we move now? I think this much rest is enough for everyone, right?¡± ¡°Yes sir.¡± Was the answer that they all shouted without showing even a shred of disapproval. ¡°Ah! Someone please pick those mandibles before coming, okay. We¡¯ll have to give these to the guild to verify our story.¡± He said while walking toward the tunnel, that lead to the inner parts of the cave. Hearing him say that instead of nitpicking on who would hold the materials, D¡¯sue bent on his knees and picked them up before keeping them inside a sack, hanging from his waist. After traveling for 30 meters on a straight path they found themselves in a dilemma. On exiting the tunnel, they were not greeted by more monsters or any astonishing scenery, but by two more tunnels, leading to somewhere even deeper, darker and also colder. Now, they had to make a choice and decide which tunnel to take. They stopped in front of the tunnels and pondered. Nah, instead of thinking whether to travel through the left tunnel or the right, they started bickering with each other. ¡°What now! Who was the architect of this dungeon imitating cave? Who decided to create such frustrating pathways instead of making a highway straight to the boss? Why! Why did he not die before creating this shithole?¡± Martha cried out when she saw the choice of multiple tunnels presented to them. ¡°Shut up! No need to waste so much energy on faceless anger. We already know you, so it won¡¯t work. The left tunnel is the wrong one I think. Left means to be left behind-meaning death! why don¡¯t we go right. The tunnel on the right side is already telling us that it is the ¡®Right¡¯ tunnels. So, why not go that way¡± Dust scolded Martha and gave her opinion while pointing towards the tunnel on the right side. And this is how the never ending bickering of two young and stubborn mages started and this small fight continued to grow until it converted into full fledged rivalry, but this story is for some other time. While the girls were fighting on which side to choose, the boys, excluding their prideful leader were holding a meeting of their own. ¡°So which way do you both think we should go? I personally think, we need to travel through te tunnel on the right side.¡±(D¡¯sue) ¡°No, it¡¯s left for me.¡±(Roby) ¡°KIllKil kkiill l liikkk kll k ik l lllll, lll , lll.¡±(Enco) ¡°Ah! This is also not a bad idea.¡±(Roby) ¡¯Why do I fell that instead of following our leader, we are actually following his every word? And weren¡¯t all of our problems solved, causes of his presented ideas?¡¯ ¡°Well, tell me what did he say?¡±(D¡¯sue) ¡°He said, we should divide our party into two teams and go both ways that would save time and we¡¯ll have to travel less distance in case of a trap or something.¡± ¡°Yeah, there is also the case of there being traps installed. Though we didn¡¯t encounter any in the narrow tunnel, but these tunnels are big enough for us to walk properly. So, I also think that they should at least have one or two traps embedded, to make travelers attentive I guess¡± ¡°Hey, all of you come here!¡± All of them were still discussing between themselves about which way to go, when they heard their captain calling them to group up. Though sparks could still be seen flying between the girls, but their overall mood had calmed down. James ¡¯The swordsman¡¯ looked at everyone once before he pointed towards the right direction and said, ¡°After listening to every one of your thoughts and ideas, I have decided that we are moving through the right tunnel.¡± ¡°Are we not going to divide and cover both of the tunnels at the same time? That would at least save us some time and what if one of the tunnels ends up being a dead end? Won¡¯t it waste a lot of our time if all of us are traveling through the same tunnel with a blocked end?¡± D¡¯sue suggested after hearing their leaders decision. ¡°What about traps then? I know myself and I can¡¯t distinguish between a trap and normal floor at all. What about you? Do you think you have the ability to find every trap that there might be and take your team to the other side of the tunnel without harming them? And what if those ants attacked one of the team in hundreds or even thousands, what will happen then? Are you going to give your life and save everyone else?¡± Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings. ¡°Yeah, but Enco ¡®The assassin¡¯ can easily find all traps. With his hel¡­¡± ¡°But I also need his ability, so I am taking him with me. Tell me, what do you think now?¡± D¡¯sue was left a bit shocked, when he really thought about a situation where he and his team members were being overrun by ants. After thinking a bit more, he sighed once and nodded his head to give his approval. Then they carried on with their previous arrangement and with Enco ¡®the assassin¡¯ and D¡¯sue ¡®the knight¡¯ at the front, they entered the right tunnel. This tunnel, though not big enough to be considered huge, was wide and large enough for two full armored knights or four full vested assassins to walk side by side. The open space that still had flames burning from Martha¡¯s attack, lightened their path, but as they continued to move forward and deeper into the tunnel, the darkness again clung onto them with an even eerier and colder attitude. After feeling the need to get the fire burning, James¡¯ the swordsman¡¯ asked Martha to produce a light source with enough radiance to increase their visibility inside that dark domain. Her face, which was clearly shrouded with fear and sulkiness, lightened up with excitement and happiness after hearing that. She quickly got to work and created a floating ball of light the size of a small head. There was clearly some difference between this light ball and the skill that she had used before to kill the ant. Her new ball of light looked more like a shining crystal than compressed fire. Its surface was smooth and even though there was light, but no one felt any heat emitting from it. Even though the ball was already formed, but because of feeling having a heavy weight removed from her chest, she didn¡¯t stop using her mana and instead let it freely flow into it. Cause of this, the radiance emitted from it became so strong that, it nearly light blinded them all, and only after being reprimanded by almost everyone except the assassin did she came back to her senses and hurriedly lessened her power input and decreased its glow. ¡°What was that? Didn¡¯t I tell you to not make it too powerful? Scratch that! Why did you suddenly increased its power? Do you want to blind us all? Huh.¡± ¡°I¡¯m sorry, I¡¯m sorry. I didn¡¯t mean to do that. It¡¯s just that, after hearing that I could get rid of this stubborn darkness, I got a bit excited and ..heehe¡­ it happened. I¡¯m sorry.¡± She bashfully said. ¡°*Twitch* are you sure you are sorry? Cause it really doesn¡¯t look like that to me at all.¡± James said with clenched fists and twitching nerves. ¡°No, No! I really am, didn¡¯t I decrease its radiance to repent!¡± she hurriedly replied back. ¡°*Sigh!* okay. Let¡¯s just carry on walking. I don¡¯t know how long this tunnel really is.¡± Roby interrupted between them to calm the situation. ¡°Kiilll.¡± ¡°The tunnels end is near.¡± Roby¡¯ the archer¡¯ spoke without letting anyone to ask him to interpret the assassin¡¯s words. ¡°The tunnel ended already? Is the boss here?¡± No one responded to that and instead continued to walk forward until the exit to the tunnel really came. They exited the tunnel, almost yelling and jumping, but what they saw afterwards, gave them a big headache. ¡°Why are there even more tunnels now. Were two tunnels not enough? What is happening here?¡± Martha yelled out loud, just after coming out from the tunnel. ¡°Yes, what is really happening here? We encountered no more ants in the tunnel. There were also no traps. Is this really an Ant colony? If so, then how come there are so few monsters inside here?¡± ¡°¡¯Few¡¯ is not the right word. There are no monsters here at all.¡± Dust spoke calmly while she still looked the same as she did before entering the tunnel. Martha couldn¡¯t hold her curiosity and spoke while looking at Dust, ¡°Is this because of it being a newly established colony?¡± Seemingly to her excitedly asked question, their leader spoke while looking at the ceiling, ¡°Hah, A new colony? Do you know how, many eggs a queen can lay in a single day? You probably don¡¯t know, so let me tell you. A queen can give birth to almost 20000 young ants in a month. So going by that, and the time that has passed between the explosions, there should be atleast 600 ants here, but till now we have experienced¡­ nothing.¡± He spoke, almost belittling himself. D¡¯sue almost cried out after hearing that. ¡°What?? 20000 ants in a month now that is more than 160 Ants per day! If what you said is really correct then, it will be a disaster! We need to find this queen as quickly as we can and kill her before she lays even more eggs and create even more obstacles for us!¡± ¡°So, is this the reason why you have been telling us to hurry up, through all the expedition and have been saying we don¡¯t have any time and such?¡± It was dust who asked that to James with a set of light shining inside her eyes. He thought about whether to tell them about it or not, but ultimately he said, ¡°Unfortunately, it¡¯s a yes. This is the reason why I have been urging you all to travel faster and not stopping much for rests. Because while we are talking here that queen might be laying eggs and giving births to more ants. *Sigh* even an Ants can be a very tough enemy to have you see.¡± ¡°So tell me, what should we do now? Because no one knew before how dangerous the situation could turn into I decided to follow the safe path but I don¡¯t think that it is possible now. In the second tunnel we only had two options to choose from. So even if we had encountered a dead end or traps we could always have entered the other tunnel but using such a crude way to do things now will only waste more time and nothing more.¡± ¡°Killl Kill llik lIk kikiklllll l ll lllil.¡±Instead of looking at the speaker, everyone turned their heads towards Roby, as if demanding an explanation to whatever he just said. And to their eager expression and looking at the tensed atmosphere; Roby explained, ¡°Yes, I think the reason we did not encounter any ants in the second tunnel was because, all the ants are right now waiting for us beside their queen and the more time we waste the better their chance will get to drive us out, or to kill us all.¡± ¡°So what do you all want to do? Do you want to move in pairs now? Do you all think that you can kill a horde of ants? Even though we encountered no ants and traps in the that tunnel, but that doesn¡¯t mean that well be able to reach the queen before and without facing any difficulty at all.¡± He was going to continue lecturing them about how troublesome it would be to travel through unknown territory with only two people and such, but when he saw every one of them looking at him with resolute eyes and determined faces, he gave up. ¡°So you all are not going to let this go are you?¡± he asked with his left brow slightly lifted. ¡°No sir, we are not.¡± Even their different pitched, loud and high tone voices joined together and turned into a single resolute cry full of determination. Their respect toward their leader turned and grew to new heights. To the questions that they had no answers to were answered, and their mind that was trying to find faults in his decisions and behavior before, also sobered up. They understood how difficult it must have been for him to not show the agitation and tension that he was feeling because of the queen. They knew if they knew about such dangers from the start of the mission, then they probably would have backed up and ran away before even joining this hunt. At this moment no one hated or complained to him for not telling them about the real risk that this job involved, because they accepted the mission with their own conscious. No one pressured or forced them to complete this mission. Even when guilds master ¡®Arnold¡¯ explained to them about ants and their colonies, they were still blinded by the hefty reward and instead of walking away at that time they decided to kick the reason away and chose to go for instant success. Looking at their resolution he sighed once, before speaking in a hard and low tone, ¡°So, let¡¯s make the pair that would enter the tunnels. Though our party was haphazardly created, but after traveling through thick and thin together we all have some idea about each others strengths and weaknesses. Though it is an exaggeration to say that I know everyone¡¯s in and out¡¯s, but believe in me about this and don¡¯t ask me to change your partners, who will accompany you through this test.¡± Everyone looked at each other once and stayed like that for a sec before nodding their heads in approval to the decision that he would take. ¡°Okay. Then D¡¯sue and Martha are together. With your defense and her attack power, there is nothing that can obstruct you. Enco you and Dust are together. Now Enco, don¡¯t run away and try to kill everything on your own like you did with the bandits. She is an earth mage, so depend on her for the defense when needed and don¡¯t rashly try to challenge everything on your own. Roby you will come with me. Between all of us you are the weakest one. So, I¡¯ll take care of you, unless the monsters attacking us becomes more than I could handle. As for the problem of this darkness, I think Martha and Enco will have no problem solving that. With Martha¡¯s Light ball and Enco¡¯s¡­ vision you all will have no problem.¡± ¡°But, Sir, what about you? We both teams have someone to the fight the darkness, but you¡­¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry about me and Roby, we¡¯ll manage. I¡¯ll just have to create one torch and that will be it.¡± He picked a stick from the ground and asked Martha to create a ¡®Mana burning fire¡¯ on the top end of it. Because this fire uses mana as fuel therefore until the mana is not completely exhausted it would keep on burning. He gave one such torch to Dust and kept one for himself and started walking towards the middle tunnel. ¡°Come on Roby we are taking this tunnel. Between the other two tunnels decide one between yourselves and start walking. We¡¯ll meet on the other side of the tunnels. Everyone, don¡¯t act recklessly and be safe. If you think it¡¯s not possible for you to carry on, then run back toward the entrance and rush back to the guild to call for backup. And if the tunnel any of you ends up with a dead end, then do rush and enter one of the other tunnels. I think to defeat the queen we¡¯ll need everyone¡¯s help.¡± When his speech ended he once looked back at everyone, smiled before turning back to face the dark pit with a torch in his hand, lighting his path. Chapter 16.5 - Reverse Massacre: K.I.A (Knight In Action) Third Person P.O.V:- Looking back at the disappearing back of their prideful but caring leader, D¡¯sue, Martha, and Enco couldn¡¯t help but feel a heavy sense of pride being embedded into their souls. From the way he behaved to even the scolding that he gave, everything had a reason. A reason that they couldn¡¯t help but feel intimidated just by thinking about, a pressure so huge that their shoulder buckled every time they thought about it. How could they have known, the mission that they all took seemingly, believing their abilities and power would turn into a mud race for time? How could they have known that the reward for the mission was not really a reward, but a trap used by the guild? After thinking about it a bit, they could clearly feel something happening in the background, that they had no recognition of. Why was their no other team to competing with them for the mission? Why was the reward that could be considered good even for an ¡®A¡¯ rank mission given for just simple Ant extermination job? When questions like these starting filling their heads, they understood that this mission was not as simple and easy as they gad thought it to be. But what could they do about it now? It was not like thinking about it could change their situation. They were already here, so no matter what they had to do, they need to complete the mission or else die trying, as there was no turning back now. Four of them were left behind by their leader, who took the middle road before anyone else could, and walked till he disappeared. They looked at each other for some time, saw how determined everyone was. They nodded their heads to each other like agreeing with expressions, before walking into the tunnels they had decided to travel through. Though the journey ahead of them might bring them more than what they had bargained for, but instead of buckling on their knees under pressure, they walked with their heads held high and entered the tunnels with determined faces. Like the tunnels that they had traveled until now, these tunnels were also going to lead them straight to an open space. In the tunnel even though they were walking step by step with an unwavering and strong force, but they were still feeling a sense of dread underneath their skin. They felt Goosebumps entering those dark horrible tunnels once again, but this time with only one person to depend on. The tunnel in which D¡¯sue and Martha were walking in had a little dull atmosphere. Though they were attentive towards their surroundings, but they were still a little to silent considering Martha¡¯s character. ¡°Sir D¡¯sue, Can I ask you something?¡± A voice echoed inside the tunnel, but no one responded to it. The knight who was walking in front of an orange caped fire mage, had all of his senses topped to the best of his ability. He was very busy trying to see if the roofs or floors had any traps installed in them. Cause of the entire information that they their leader explained to them, he knew exactly what kind of a situation they were in. Though he knew that ants aren¡¯t very strong individually but who knew how many and from where those ants might come to surprise them, so he was carefully taking note of his surroundings. Even though was not a professor on monsters, but because everyone who has wants to become strong and advance in guild ranking needed to have some basic information about every type of monsters there are, he also knew something¡¯s about them. From the information that he knew about ants there was one thing that was making his headache and keeping him vigilant. He knew an ant uses pheromones and some chemical stuff to attract their kin¡¯s towards an assailant or food. Even though he didn¡¯t know the exact term logy for it, but the result was what he really cared for anyway. When an ant finds an assailant attacking their hive they release some kind of danger pheromone that attracts all the other fighter ants towards him. Now, this may seem like the run of a mill thing, but he knew exactly how bad it would be for them if the encountered an ant out of nowhere and gave it enough time to give away their position. That would turn, extremely bad for them in seconds. Who knows, how many ants would come to surround them and start attacking them from everywhere. If someone sane heard him talking such things and saw him being so vigilant cause of ants then he would think him as someone crazy. They would say things like, ¡®how could a dignified person like him, a ¡®B rank¡¯ individual, with such a high rank be afraid of ants.¡¯ But normal people don¡¯t know how the ranking system really works. A guild is not only a place which provides crazy killers a place to act like a hero or only allow jobs that involving killing and plundering or missions that risks an individual¡¯s life, but they are also asked by common people to find personals to help them with works like; cleaning, assistant jobs, herb gathering and other small jobs. Now for jobs like these, there is no way that a guild could ask people like popular mages and the like to start sweeping or to build a house for someone. But a Guilds also need to accept such jobs, because such jobs not only increases their image in the society, but also create a friendlier atmosphere for them to work in. The adventurers who complete dangerous jobs are also praised by people everywhere, which give them more than enough reason to keep being an adventurer, and to do more and more risky missions, just for that popularity. So who does those; small time, low paying and time consuming Jobs that are posted by local workers or farmers and the like? All of such not so popular jobs are done by those individuals who have newly joined the guild. These includes all the individuals with F and E rank and it is mandatory for them to complete at least 20 such jobs before they are allowed to upgrade their rank. All the adventurers who have D and C Rank are allowed to choose jobs that are threats to normal people but are no or little threat to their lives. They handle missions like fighting small time thugs, arresting muggers and pocket pickers or doing work like acting as a detective and such.They are also sometime asked for escort jobs, traveling with merchants to nearby areas and sometime jobs like killing of normal animals or weak magical beasts like a Grey wolf or goblins are also posted under the ¡®C-D¡¯ Mission bracket.. This also means that the real dangerous jobs start from B rank. But even these ¡®B rank¡¯ parties are not allowed to go on a mission that is clearly not possible for them to complete at all. Jobs like monster extermination and small time exploration comes under their belt. There are a lot of rule placed on the individuals, and the rewards for low ranking jobs are also low, but the adventuring guild has never ever in their entire life faced a situation when there was a decrease in the number of people joining to become an adventurer. And the reason for such a boom in adventuring business is because of all the new legends that are being created one after another every day. ¡­¡­¡­¡­.. D¡¯sue ¡¯The Knight¡¯ was still stressing over the ants and their methods, when he heard a sweet voice calling out to him, ¡°Hey, Hey, HEY!¡± a flustered Martha was yelling at him from behind, while he was lost inside his own thoughts. He looked back at the source of the noise that had caught his attention and saw an agitated pretty bimbo starring daggers at him. He couldn¡¯t¡¯ help, but stop and ask her, ¡°What! What? Why are you suddenly yelling at me? What happened?¡± ¡°What happened my ass!¡± she said in a high pitch tone mocking him, ¡°You know for how long I have been yelling at you, but you were so lost inside your own mind that you gave no attention to me!¡± She said, while the light ball beside her started flickering in and out of existence, clearly showing how angry she was. But a flickering light source inside a dark tunnel really was the sight to behold. ¡°*Sigh!* so tell me what happened?¡± He asked but he saw that she was too busy trying to bring the balls radiance back to normality and couldn¡¯t pay any attention to him. He smiled looking back at her thinking, ¡®Why is she so scared of darkness? Nothing¡¯s going to come to bit¡­maybe it¡¯s that after all.¡¯ He rotated his neck from left to right, before nodding back before he started walking again. But just as his eyes turned to look the front, his lips twitched once before he frowned. What surprised him was that the end to the tunnel was already near and he could clearly see another open space behind it. He stopped walking and stood there silently in the middle of the tunnel. Martha, who was still playing with her light ball while moving, crashed head first on his back. Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions. She looked up and saw a wall blocking her view. She was going to burn it out of anger when she noticed that it was not a wall that she had crashed into, but her giant partner. Her partner is no giant in normal sense. He is just a bit bigger than most people, but with a height around 6¡¯8¡± he surely did looked like a giant in front of a 5¡¯6¡± girl like her. She yelled and cursed at him asking, why the hell did he stop suddenly, but before she could say anything more, he moved his right hand and placed it on her mouth to stop her racket. After doing so he got a little close to her bent on his knees and starting whispering to her, looking straight into her eyes, ¡°Shut up! Don¡¯t speak even a single word. Right now we are standing near the tunnel end, and we don¡¯t know how many monsters there might be waiting for us outside. So stop playing around, now is not the time for this.¡± Her eyes bulged out, but she stopped struggling. Seeing that she had calmed down a little, he removed his hand from her mouth and nodded at her. To his nod she nodded back. Her cheeks redefined a little from looking straight into his eyes. No matter how much a free spirit she seemed, she was still a girl in her teens after all. His sudden actions like that made her flustered cause of his actions and her heart started beating faster and faster looking at his back. But on the other side D''sue who looked like an adult, had no idea of what she was going through because of his seemingly natural action. She was going to say something to him, but without letting her do so, he turned back to face toward the end of the tunnel again. Her now pink face also turned normal from seeing how he was acting out of consideration. She sighed once before also moving her face away from his back to look outside the tunnel. He said there might be monsters waiting for them in the open space. To check whether this really was the case she started pouring her mana inside the light ball. The radiance from her light source was strong, but it was not strong enough to completely light all the area outside the tunnel. To this problem Martha had a very simple solution. "Close your eyes." "Wha..."he could only say this when she poured an excessive amount of her mana inside the light ball, over loading it, and fired it toward the end of the tunnel. It zoomed past them both and entered the open space, but just as it did, she snapped her finger and all her mana that she had poured inside it started rebelling and very soon most of it started going out of control. The ball of light started distorting and changing shapes and it looked like there was something inside it, trying to come out. And once it reached a point of no return, the ball exploded. Because she poured too much mana inside it, the ball of light overloaded and blasted into a frenzied flash of light. There was no blast or explosion, no shock waves were formed and there was also no damage done to the insides of the open space, but a flash of light engulfed everything. The radiance it emitted was very strong; it completely converted the inside of that completely dark tunnel, white. Just as the light spread to every corner of the tunnel and beyond, they heard a monster. It was cry so loud that their ears started ringing and they started hearing buzzing sounds all of a sudden. Turned out there really were ants hiding inside the open space and because of them having never faced light before, a simple attack like that took then out and knocked them cold. Even though both of their eyes were closed but they still heard two thugs ring inside the cave, after the awfully loud cry stopped. Slowly they opened their eyes. The sudden burst of eyes blinding light was now nowhere to be seen and the natural environment of the cave had returned back. Martha couldn¡¯t help but jumped once, when she saw that the darkness that she has been fighting from the start was back again. Her hands started shaking and she hurriedly castes another light ball to ensure her safety. D''sue saw her struggling again and couldn''t help but sigh to it. Because of Martha''s quick reaction¡¯s, light once again returned to the deprived tunnel. But what they saw left them a little confused, and to a huge degree astonished. The ants they were looking at, really were monsters. They had never watched or heard about ants so huge before. There were two of them and both were lying on the ground, motionless. D''sue moved and got closer to the ant just to get a clear look on them. The ant was jet black in Color with wide black eyes. In terms of height, this ant was almost reaching his navel. Now compare that with his almost seven foot tall reach and you get a five foot tall ant. It was almost the same height of the mage, who was staring at it with her perfect round eyes. Its legs were pointed, like spear and had small hairs on them. The most dangerous looking thing in an ant is not its legs or their Antennas, but its head and its mandible. The head looked dis proportioned according to its body size. It alone was 2 something meters long and equally wide. Their mandibles were really big and looked even more menacing cause of their size. They looked ready to snap away others necks. Even though D¡¯sue was only observing them from far but he could still guess that they were sharp enough to cut through his armor. But unlike before, where they vanished into thin air after sometime, this time instead of disappearing into thin air both of them starting shaking their heads, and before knowing when, they once again cried out loud and stood up. Looking intimidated, D''sue knew they were going to attack him. Because out of over confidence he had traveled a little too close to them, without confirming whether they were dead or not. So, he was sure that no matter what kind of luck he was born with, he would have to confront them both. Even though both of them looked a bit unfolding, but he knew no matter how powerful they both were there was no way that only two ¡®F Rank¡¯ ants attacking him could harm him at all. He put his shield in front of him and removed him sword from the scabbard with his right hand. With sword in his right and shield in his left his setup was complete. The monsters flinched. One of them took a step back, feeling intimidated by his aura, and just when he found it covering, he rushed toward it. The other ant also moved, but it was clearly much slower than him. It looked almost not moving, when comparing his speed with the knight. With the shield in his left hand he rushed and directly collided with the ant. Though it must have looked like there was no way for the ant to get hurt from just a collision, but the momentum from running and a sudden increase in speed due to the skill he used, created enough power in his charge, to not just hurt the ant but to blow it away. The now flying ant collided, head first with the wall and turned into bloody flower. It simmered the wall with its body juices and turned the ant into an artistic masterpiece. The other ant had also moved at the same time, so just when his shield collided with the scared ant, the other one had also charged upon him. During this time, forget about moving his sword and attacking or even blocking its attack, he didn¡¯t even have enough time to turn head around to look at it. He could only grit his teeth and let the ant attack him, hoping that his armor would hold on against its sword like sharp mandibles. It''s not like he had no confidence in his heavy armor, but the things that they had to face were much more cruel and sharper than the sharp fangs of the wolves that they had faced before. Like that the ant collided with his body and the impact carried him forward. He was plunged into the air and fell face first on the floor, but the momentum carried him forward, as he kept on sliding on the floor with his body before he stopped after skidding for some time. Chapter 16.6 - Reverse Massacre: Budding Flower Author''s Note:- This is the first chapter of today. Yeah, that means there is another chapter coming today. . Enjoy. ........................................................................................................................................................................ Third Person P.O.V:- D¡¯sue opened his eyes and saw that his shield, the one that he never let anyone touch, one of his most favorite had saved him this time and he was sliding on top of it. But before he could smile to this accomplishment, his body tensed because he remembered, the ant which had rammed into his back, was still there. He once again swiftly used shield bash, but this time he used it directly on the ground and the impact forced his body to fly straight into the air. He rotated twice in the air to shake the ant off his body and dropped back down on his feet, before rolling away from that place. When his vision stationed, he looked around to find where that ant was, but what his eyes saw left him a lot more astonished than frustrated. He saw only a head lying on the ground and there was no ant nearby. He panicked and tried to find it everywhere, but his efforts bore no result. When his eyes looked back at that half burnt head he saw that it was an ants head with its mandible and rest of his body missing, whilst some ash was flying around in the air. He felt a bit shocked and without thinking he looked behind his back and saw that those missing mandible were firmly embedded into his armor. He thanked god that his armor had saved him this time, but his brows creased when he saw that, actually it was his armor that was completely torn apart by those mandibles and they were still in perfect condition. Behind that half burnt-half broken Martha was standing looking at him while her face held a warm smile. He pointed towards the head and then at her, as if asking whether she was the one who killed the ant. And to that, Minnie nodded her head in confirmation, but her face never ceased to smile. "So, what happened? Tell me." he asked her, looking a bit exhausted. Martha pondered a bit, thinking how she should explain this, but then she nodded her head once and starting speaking leisurely, "When you rushed in to attack that one ant that was backing away, I saw that the other one started running toward your back. Because I didn¡¯t want to take any chance, I started preparing a fireball, just in case if I really needed to use it. When you collided with that ant the other one took the opportunity and attacked, to cut your neck in half with its mandibles.¡± ¡°And then what happened next.¡± He asked. ¡°While moving towards you, it completely forgot about me, and when it showed its back to me, I saw the chance and took it. But because the time was too tight to prepare a really strong attack, I fired the fireball I had been preparing. So when it collided with its back, all of its body got burn down and only his head was left unscathed.¡± D¡¯sue sighed and said, ¡°It¡¯s a good thing that you didn¡¯t have enough time to prepare the attack, otherwise forget about the ant, even my body would have turned into ash alongside it.¡± He moved his head from left to right, then again asked he, ¡°what happened next?¡± The smile on her face vanished, but she continued explaining whilst her eyes became teary, ¡°Because my fireball attack couldn¡¯t burn its head, it continued to travel with the momentum that its body was running at, and with its open mouth it struck your back.¡± She stopped after saying this much, bowed her head to him and asked him for forgiveness, ¡°I''m sorry I was not useful to you at all. If I had acted with you then you wouldn¡¯t have to confront both of them, but because of my incompetency, you had to fight both of them and in the end even my spell hurt you. I¡¯m sorry." He sighed looking at the smiling girl who had turned sad now and said, "Don¡¯t worry about it. It¡¯s not like that thing hurt me or anything, but this is how things happened, huh. I thought I was going to die at that time, and I think that I really would have died, if you hadn''t intervened and took the chance to kill it. So thank you for saving my life. I¡¯ll never forget about this favor, and will try my best to pay it.¡± She was thinking that he would be angry at her for not moving quick enough and would leave her behind, but all of her worries were for nothing as he thanked her for saving his life instead of accusing her for being slow. ¡°But tell me something, how confident were you that you had no two thoughts before firing that atom crusher toward me? What kind of training did you do to be so sure of your marksmanship?" he asked her curiously. She blushed and her head bowed even more, before she spoke in a very low voice, "Actually I didn''t think about anything then. I just thought, I had to at least do something. I got lucky and my spell struck the ant, not you. Hehehe." "What the?? Lucky! Please don''t start firing such dangerous skills on me again."Hearing him say that she felt her chest tighten and her mood saddened. She didn''t know why, but she was very eager to hear his praise, but that didn''t happen. "But thanks for saving me. If you hadn''t taken the chance then I would be dead right now."He said while walking toward her. But instead of decreasing the distance between them and reaching her, he stopped before the ant head and picked it up. At this time instead of vanishing the head got engulfed in a fervent flash of light and once the light retracted, D¡¯sue saw that a pair of eye lenses had taken its place. They resembled the eyes of the ant that he had killed. Unlike the eyes of a regular ant, these were not compound eyes, but were like pieces of glass, grey in color. Though they looked a bit creepy, but he still wore them on his eyes, but nothing happened. While the ant head gave him the eye pieces the other ant vanished into thin air and their bodies were instead replaced by two small antennas. He didn¡¯t know why, but with the eye pieces over his eyes he picked them up. He held them in his left and right hand and brought it closer to his eyes over his head, to see them a bit clearly. But unexpectedly those antennas started vibrating; amazingly and suddenly they extended and got attached to his head. He felt surprised and a bit worried to the sudden situation that he found himself in. He was going to try removing those unwanted objects from his head, when the glass pieces over his eyes started reacting and his vision started changing. The darkness, that had been challenging them from the starting vanished, what took its place was bright dots of light, covering everything and everywhere. He could clearly see the walls and the floor even the tunnel before him became clear as day. He couldn¡¯t help but feel a bit surprised by it. He traced his eyes back to look at Martha, and he understood that even though it was helping him to see everything around him clearly, even in this dark and bad atmosphere, but it couldn¡¯t capture details at all. When he looked at Martha he didn¡¯t see her face, but instead a slightly bright ball of orange light. ¡®Well, that¡¯s understandable. So, it looks like even though those ants can¡¯t clearly see us, but if they have this kind of vision, then it is enough for them. They could still see us a ball of light travelling towards them, where we were travelling blind in this darkness.¡¯ he thought. When he was playing with his new found toy, Minie was watching him. She saw the ant head being replaced with some kind of lenses and the other ant dropped its antennas after vanishing. If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. She thought that he would keep them in his sack, but to her surprise, he wore them and started looking everywhere. It was okay until that, but then slowly, a creepy smile formed on his face. ¡®What! What happened after he wore them? Are those ¡­x-ray¡¯ her nonsensical thoughts were still going on, but then he turned to look back at her. He kept on looking at her for some time, but then his smiling face slowly returned to normal and he sighed once, before moving his head in denial as if he didn¡¯t like what he saw. She didn¡¯t move for a sec, but got angry and started striding towards him, but before she had even taken five steps forward, her thoughts hit and she looked down before she sat down, curled into a ball and started screaming¡± No, no don¡¯t look don¡¯t look. Please I¡¯m still a virgin don¡¯t look at meee!¡± D¡¯sue felt a bit bewildered, ¡®what happened?¡¯ he thought. But no matter how great his brain was, how could he have come to the reason for which she was screaming about. ¡°Remove those! Please remove those!¡± she cried out without even looking at him. ¡®Huh! Do these have other powers than simple mana vision? Is she in pain?¡¯ he thought when he saw her screaming. He hurriedly removed those spectacles and yelled out, ¡°I have removed them! I have removed them! Tell me what happened?!¡± If he had said those words without running to her and holding her hands then it would have been good. No, it would have been much-much better, but there is cure for being a muscle head. When Martha saw him holding her hands and saw how worried he looked, she melted. Yes, she literally melted. Well, at least she felt so. Then she heard him asking her what happened and her face turned beet red at that moment. D¡¯sue saw that until now she had only been acting weirdly, but now even her face was turning red. ¡®Does she have a fever or something¡¯ he thought. So to check whether his speculations were right or not he placed his hands on her head and found out that she really was burning. Her body temperature was so high that even his hand had started to warm up. When she saw him touching her head she could help but shiver and her body started heating up gradually. She was still lost in her own thoughts like when he yelled, ¡°Holy shit! You are burning up. When did you catch fever? Or is it cause if those goggles? Can these even apply status degrading effects on others?¡± She couldn¡¯t understand what he was babbling on about, but she knew what her condition was. It was no fever, but because she had absorbed high amount of fire elemental energies from the world. Because of this a few changes had occurred inside her body overtime and this high body temperature was one of them. This temperature that he was thinking as fever was actually her normal body temperature. This was one of the benefits or for some people a curse, for trying to find strength by means not derived to be practiced by humans. Though she knew she was alright and nothing was wrong with her at all, but looking at the worried Knight in shining armor taking care of her a flower budded inside her heart. She looked at the lenses in his hands and asked him,¡± What did you see through them.¡± She spoke in a way that would not give him any ideas to what she was thinking. He looked into her eyes and saw that there was no mischief or greed in them. So, he told her the truth, ¡°These lenses are amazing. Though they don¡¯t work without the antennas, but with the help of these we will have no problem, traversing through these dark tunnels.¡± ¡°What? Why? How?¡± she completely forgot her worries. She suddenly stood up and with a shocked expression she questioned him. She even forgot for a second that these might hold the possibly harmful skill ¡®x-ray¡¯. ¡°I don¡¯t know, I think these ants developed mana reception or something and used that to create artificial vision to see inside this dark cave. Though the view is very basic and not very detailed, but if someone uses it to see during night or in a complete dark place then these could become a completely necessary existence for him, like it is for us right now. But to think that ants could evolve to make best of their habitat, is quite amazing, isn¡¯t it?¡± ¡°Hah, evolving? Don¡¯t tell me you already forgot how crazy big that ant was, and how those mandibles¡­¡±Even the thought of those ants evolving to become even fiercer, made her shiver. ¡°Let¡¯s forget it for now. We need to travel and meet with the other teams on the other side of the tunnel. So, we should start moving now.¡± ¡°Umm¡­ can I also try it once, Please?¡± She looked at him with her big wide green eyes and spoke in a really lewd voice. She surprised him a bit with that ¡®please, but he still didn¡¯t lose his head over her cuteness. ¡°Yeah¡­ sure, why not!¡± He spoke a bit awkwardly. She still had her doubts and wanted to remove each and every inch of this doubt that had planted itself inside her heart. So, to do just that she then put on the lenses. But clearly it was not enough and she really had to put on those antennas. So she brought the antennas near her head and just like D¡¯sue had told her, they extended and got attached on her head. She was scared at first and definitely was not going to put them on thinking that there might be some side effect of using them, but like he had told her, nothing happened. She looked through the lenses and what she saw really was more than she had imagined. Just like D¡¯sue said she could see the walls, floor, roof almost every lightened with white color and dots of different colored lights everywhere. She looked at him and saw that, other than of seeing a ball of light standing some distance away from her, she really could not see anything else. There were no details to his figure. ¡®So he wasn¡¯t lying to me, huh.¡¯ She thought. ¡°Here these are good, but they put quite some strain on the mind. So, I don¡¯t think I can use them.¡± ¡®What?! So, if she could use them properly, then was she thinking of not returning them back to me?¡¯ He thought while his lips twitched, but then he got his mind straight and spoke in a low voice, ¡°yes you are right. I think there is a need to create an artifact out of them to increase their potential and to make them usable without such limitations. Or at least decrease the mental strain it put on its user.¡± ¡°Well, that¡¯s that and this is this. We can¡¯t really create anything out of them right now, so they would probably have to sit inside my sack till we get out of here. For now come here, I¡¯ll give you a piggy back ride.¡± he said, being considerate about her fever. She wanted to refuse cause she knew she had no fever or anything, but she couldn¡¯t make her exited heart to calm down and silently nodded in approval to his suggestion. ....................................................................................................................................................................... I have to something to inform everyone. I am going to hold a Q&A discussion thread at the end of this mini arc (9 chapters are enough for a mini arc i think) And this arc will end tomorrow. Well, don''t really except much happening there, but if any of you have any question that you want an answer for, then come and read it. If you have any other questions to ask other than the ones that I will cover inside it, then don''t behave like a shy kid and do ask me. well, you can ask anything and everything that you want to... . . but that doesn''t mean that I''ll answer every one of them. Chapter 16.7 - Reverse Massacre: K.I.A (Killed In Action) Author''s note:- Things you need to know: 1. D''sue Personality. 2. Dust''s character. 3.------- ability. There is one more thing, but let''s see if any one could figure it out. (This is an unedited version.) .......................................................................................................................................................................... Third Person P.O.V:- She got on his back and he carried her out of the open space into another long and winding tunnel. Who knew how many more tunnels there were but the thought of having to pass even more of them was a scary one for them. They just wanted to kill the boss and go back home now. This cave was too tiring and eerie. Though the monsters were nothing special but most of their exhaustion came from the geography and topology of this cave system. Martha clung to his back like a koala and didn¡¯t let go. Because he was using his hands to support her weight, the feeling of getting touched though indirectly and not do properly was making her blush over and over again. If her face was red before then it was going deeper shades for ever second that she rode on her back. She knew it was the one and only time that they were together but she didn¡¯t wanted to let this moment go, so even though she felt a bit embarrassed by the situation that she was willingly submitting herself into she still didn¡¯t let go. ¡®How great it would be if the time stopped here right now with me on his back and him carrying me. How great it could be if the tunnel never ended and I could walk beside him forever.¡¯ she thought. But like every other dream, her dream also broke and after they crossed a slight but long slope leading them to the next level, in that seemingly hot tunnel. After getting out of the tunnel, they were greeted by Enco ¡®The Assassin¡¯ and Dust ¡®Earth mage¡¯ who were standing in front an insanely huge tunnel. The entrance to the next tunnel which was in front of them was massive. It was greater and bigger than all and every other tunnel and open space combined. Martha saw that she had to lift her head straight upwards in order to see the roof. She guessed that if she tried to measure it, then it will probably come out to be between 30 to 40 meters of height. Then her eyes traveled back from the roof to look back at their fellow part members and cause of luck or something, but her eyes meet with dusts, who was also looking at her. Whilst Martha¡¯s eyes turned big and round from their unusual eye contact but comparing to her opponent had no change in her expressions or her stature. Where Martha¡¯s eyes had a traces of confusion in them on the other side Dust¡¯s eyes were like a hunter they had a murderous aura and a sharp glint in them. But the confusion in Martha¡¯s eyes slowly turned into mockery and then a smile slowly crept on her face. Now it was Dust¡¯s turn to get confused, ¡®why is she making such face? And, what is she looking down on me for?¡¯ There were no such thoughts in Dust¡¯s mind, but a single expression on her face that showed everything that she was thinking, ¡®I don¡¯t care¡¯ was what was clearly written on her face and actually she really didn¡¯t care about her at all. Martha was confused because she couldn¡¯t determine how they had gotten here earlier than them; While Dusts was confused because she saw her riding on the knights back. Even though she didn¡¯t want to say anything or react anyway to her but unexpected to her, he uttered an ¡®Oh!¡¯ subconsciously. Martha shuddered once when she heard that. She didn¡¯t want to refute her or anything but she still turned and jumped down from his back. She coughed once before she started walking on her own feet again. Dust found it amusing to see her acting like a child that she was. But the knight couldn¡¯t help but be surprised when she suddenly jumped of his back and started walking again. ¡°What happened why ar¡­¡± his speech was interrupted in the middle when he saw that her always smiling face was right now devoid of any expressions and she was literally staring at the mage on the other side of the room. He sighed and looked away from her. He was happy that she had jumped down from his back on her own accord. It was okay to help people, knights are there to help others but he knew that all of these peoples were criminals, backstabbers and corrupt. But no matter how cruel, blood thirsty, or arrogant someone was he couldn¡¯t take his attention away from someone who sick and almost burning up because he is a knight. For him Knights are heroes, knights are the Light that destroys the darkness. Knights are the support of the needy and are destroyer of evil. So, he helped her because she needed him, but if didn¡¯t have fever in the first place then he would have killed her if the opportunity provided. So instead of asking her the reason for her sudden action he thought of decreasing the amount of sparks that were flying between them and greeted the other team saying, ¡°How was your travel? Did you encounter any monsters or traps inside?¡± he could only hope for the other person to reply to him. He wasn¡¯t acting out of consideration for them both but because he knew they would need the help of everyone to land a land slide victory against the cave queen. Dust shifted her eyes from Martha and looked at D¡¯sue and then she went back to play her staring game with her. The knight looked between them both before he sighed once and said, ¡°We didn¡¯t encounter any traps though there were two ants waiting for us in the open space and with each others help we killed both of them. As for what they dropped, one of the deformed ants dropped a pair of normal size eye pieces and the other dropped a pair of antennae before disappearing into the void.¡± When Martha heard him say ¡®we¡¯ she blushed, and a lovely smile blossomed on her face. Dust watched her expressions changing and found it amusing. She saw how Martha was blushing at the knight¡¯s praise, but found no such reaction or abnormal reaction from the knights behavior. It was as if he was unaware of everything that was occurring around him and he was playing house inside his own territory or he was another one of those muscles heads. She looked between them and squinted. She understood that both of them were strange. Both stranger and weirder than the each other, but she couldn¡¯t put her finger on what was so strange about them. Even if she figured out what really happened, she still wouldn¡¯t have given a dam about it. For her all of the conflicts and turn of events that she was facing were of no importance to her. And everything that has been happening from the start till now has been nothing but amusement for her, a moment of escape from the creepy atmosphere of the cave. And in response to the knight¡¯s questions she replied, ¡°We encountered no traps, but one ant in the tunnel.¡± Then she looked towards the fire mage and spoke, ¡± The light from your torch wasn¡¯t effective enough so I couldn¡¯t see anything but before it even got near us it was killed.¡± The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement. To her straight and without detailed answer he got flustered and words automatically came out of his mouth, ¡°what! How?¡± She pointed towards the assassin and said, ¡°Even though I couldn¡¯t see them coming towards us, but he could. So when it came a little too near us, he disappeared for some time and then reappeared back again, but this time with a head in his hand.¡± *Gulp* D¡¯sue looked toward the assassin and swallowed a mouthful of saliva that had formed when he heard the tale of Enco encountering the ant. But the story was not over yet as Dust again relayed the situation and continued on speaking, ¡°After that when we got near the exit of the tunnel he saw another ant which was sitting in the middle of the tunnel without moving. Once again I couldn¡¯t see anything other than the space around me, cause the torch had just too little radiance. He looked back at me once, and then dissolved into inky shadow, disappearing into nothingness in front of me. I was stunned thinking what really happened, and when I was about to yell out to him, I saw slight movement in the area behind that ant. He came out of the ground and once again beheaded the ant with his dagger and came back.¡± D¡¯sue eyes had almost dropped out of his eye socket by the time she finished telling them everything. He knew Enco was powerful, his display of skill in the jungle had already showed that, but it looked like he became even powerful after entering this dark and life devoid place. But he was happy, happy that those bad and evil guys were not the only powerful guys inside here, but someone like him, someone who worked to protect others and has a noble character was also here to help him fight if those other villains tried to do anything suspicious. He hurriedly asked her if the ants dropped anything, but to her questioning she only moved her head left to right in denial. ¡®So not all monsters drop something huh¡¯ he thought. They were all present there and the only ones absent were the people who should have arrived here the fastest of them all. He was curious to know where their captain was, so he couldn¡¯t help but ask the mage whether James had come out of the Tunnel or not. But to his question the mage only answered with a no. she said when they arrived here no one was present here at that moment, but they also didn¡¯t know whether he had traveled ahead of them and was going to fight with the queen alone or not. They waited for some time thinking that the middle tunnel must have been a dead end and they remaining members must be traveling through one of the other tunnels to reach here and that was what taking them so long. They kept on waiting for him and after about fifteen minutes they saw a shadow stumbling out from the middle cave. They all moved at once when and hurriedly closed the gap between them and the shadow. But when they got closer to it, what they saw left them horrified. Their captain who they thought to be the most powerful of them, was stumbling around everywhere like a drunk, but the difference was that he wasn¡¯t exactly drenched in alcohol, but in blood completely. His clothes were ripped apart and his upper torso armor was almost nonexistent. His sword that he kept beside him all the time was cracked from everywhere. When he entered the open space he saw them running towards him, he smiled looking at them before he fell down on the ground with a thud. Sir! Leader! Their cries, which were enough to engulf the whole cave, rang out inside the room. James who was still conscious, even after all that he had gone through, shoved his head up and saw his team mates worrying for him. He couldn¡¯t help but willed his body to move, which after some struggle did. Martha, who was already near him moved even more fiercely, she swiftly got behind his back and helped him sit down. He thanked her and looked toward everyone who were standing beside him. ¡°What happened to you? Why are there so many scars all over your body? What the hell happened inside that tunnel?¡± D¡¯sue couldn¡¯t suppress his fear and he spoke as he panicked and his voice started trembling. He removed his sack from his waist and pulled a red bottle out of it before he simmered most of its content on James body and gave him another to drink which he unconditionally accepted and drank. ¡°We were ambushed.¡± He said while drinking the content of the bottle. ¡°When we entered the tunnel, we saw that it was completely empty. Because we knew that the torch would only hold out for so long therefore we rushed toward the exit to the tunnel.¡± After saying that he moved his sight to look at the roof, ¡°But who knew that they would be waiting for us in the open space. Because we were too careless, we left the tunnel and entered the cave without checking for monsters and just as we did we saw how big a mistake we had made.¡± He gritted his teeth after saying that and willingly clenched his fists tightly. ¡°There were ants inside, so many of them that they were almost everywhere. They surrounded us from every side and blocked the way in and out of the tunnel. We knew that to survive we had to fight, it was now or never, and we just did that.¡± His eyes turned bloodshot thinking about all that he had to endure to keep his life. Others were sure instead of tears blood would start flowing from his eyes if he didn¡¯t calm down, but they couldn¡¯t stop him from expressing his grief, ¡°I killed some while protecting Roby and he killed some, while I was protecting him. Like that we continued to kill the ants and when only five were left something happened. And only after fighting them for a long time, could I defeat them all.¡± he said while looking he still looked at the ceiling, feeling his energy draining away while he gradually became more and more exhausted. Every single one of them was left flabbergasted. What happened in the tunnel that he went inside? They didn¡¯t know. They only knew that two people entered the tunnel and only one of them came out from it.. Ah! Said someone before everyone eyes go fixated on him. D¡¯sue remembered that he didn¡¯t go alone in the tunnel, Roby ¡®the archer¡¯ was also with him. He looked back toward the tunnel that he came out of, but he saw nothing else inside it other than some drops of blood making a trail, from inside the tunnel till here. He looked back at their leader and asked, ¡°Where is Roby?¡± when others heard him say that, they also remembered that he wasn¡¯t alone in the tunnel and there was also an archer who went inside with him. James who was still looking at the ceiling, didn¡¯t even turn his head to look at the Knight. With his face devoid of expressions, but with eyes full of grief he said, ¡°There was one ant which never came down from the roof when other did to start the hunt. It waited for the perfect opportunity and just when I left Roby alone in a proper and secure place, to deal with the remaining ants¡­. He got his neck snapped in two by it, and there he died fighting with the ants.¡± Chapter 16.8 - Reverse Massacre: Who?? Author''s note:- Sir Neruz, please accept my gratitude for your comment. It opened the door and i was able to have another break through relating to the plot. I really had no idea how to make two different points connect, but after reading your comment and thinking deeply on it, it happened. An ideas came to me and i worked on it. Thank you once again. Cause of it, the ending to this arc has changed somewhat. I think that almost everyone will curse me for doing it, but believe me, it thickens the water and makes it a soup worth drinking. About the chapter:- You can skip everything, but don''t skip D''sue pov, ITS IMPORTANT. . Enjoy ....................................................................................................................................................................... Third person P.O.V:- Huh? It was not one of them who had his eyes wide opened, but everyone looked like he just told them about a coming apocalypse. It would have been a different story if the archer wasn''t dead, but the only thing that they hadn¡¯t even thought of when they accepted this seemingly easy mission actually happened and someone had died. Now, even if they completed the job, this mission would still be considered, a failure. One of their team members had died and all hell went loose on their leader. Once this news traveled to the guild then it would not only question their power but it would also decrease their and their guilds reputation. Once they went back and announced that one of them was killed fighting ants, it would not only make other people laugh at them but also lead to commoners belittling B ranker''s. Adventurers thrive on reputation. It is this reputation and fame for which most of them put their life on the line. This job was thus a bust. James their leader was still looking at the ceiling. His face was expressionless and his eyes red with blood. The other members were also sitting beside him, silently waiting like the fallen snow. They waited for their leader to get his thoughts collected. Just like falling slow, they also didn¡¯t utter even a single word and stayed sitting silently beside him. But the silence broke when Dust leaked a sigh and stood up. She looked toward James once and spoke after gritting her teeth, "we need you. We know it must be hard, letting someone die when you promised to protect them, but please get up we need you right now." Seeing what Dust was doing, Martha also stood up, "Yes although I don''t want to admit it, but she is right. This place is dangerous and your fight must have already proved to you how dangerous this place really is. We have a mission to accomplish and if the queen could send 30 some ants just to take care of you and...him, then she must have a large amount of ants near her waiting for us.¡± She said calmly, but her voice gave her away. Her voice was quaking and Martha''s eyes were a bit wet, but she didn''t let the shock of losing a member, get to her head. Their actions were clearly telling James that they were ready, ready to face the final obstacle and were just waiting for him to get hold of himself. ¡°Yes, we don¡¯t know how many of them there really are. We don¡¯t know if there are actually more powerful ones inside the room or not. We don¡¯t know how deep this hive really is. We actually don¡¯t know anything, so it is a bit scary, but we still have to complete our mission. We can¡¯t back out now. No matter how many of these ants there are, we are going kill them all.¡± Martha was trembling, and her legs were shaking out of her control while saying that. Others might think that the shock of hearing some die on you must have gotten to her too, but no, it was not the case. She was angry, really angry. She was shaking from anger and blood lust. She had decided, no matter how many or what came in her way, she would burn them all. She had her hands clenched so tight that they were now devoid of blood and had gone pale white. While both the girls were trying to increase the morale of their leader, D¡¯sue had his mind occupied by something else. His eyes were squinted and he was concentrating hard on James face. He had his doubts and they were not simple ones either. ¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­ D¡¯sue¡¯ P.O.V:- ¡®Attacked by a ton of ants? Who is he trying to make fool of? Like hell I would believe him and his rubbish talk.¡¯ He was really trying hard to find faults in his acting and behavior, to find out whether he was really telling the truth or not. But in reality, his method provided no help to him. ¡®Why was he ambushed like that, when mine and Enco¡¯s team only had to fight with two ants?¡¯ Questionable thoughts and doubts without any answer kept filling his head. But no matter how many of such ideas were giving him a headache, his facial expressions never changed, it remained same the entire time. He kept looking at the leader to find faults, but James also kept on staring at the roof without any kind of movement. His mind was going out of order and he was going to accuse him of being a traitor, but out of nowhere the usually quiet and a bit arrogant Dust started attacking him with words. ¡°We haven¡¯t forgotten your kindness. We haven¡¯t forgotten your ability and we haven¡¯t forgotten your burden. We know how heavy your shoulders were at the start of this expedition, but we are not the same now, we have matured. After going through all of this in these two days, I already feel a connection forming with all of you. I believe in you, so you also need to believe in us too. If you were alone handling all the weight before then let us help you in crossing this cave of misery. We¡¯ll all work together, together to move forward. So don¡¯t lose hope because we are here for you.¡± Unlike the other girl who starts blushing when someone holds her hands, she was calm. She didn¡¯t shout but her voice was loud. She wasn¡¯t crying but D¡¯sue and other could still feel the emotions that she spoke with. Hearing Dust who has been acting like a pacifist from the start of the mission giving a speech about hope and sharing burdens, D¡¯sue snorted. He knew that there was something wrong with the situation, but he couldn¡¯t point his finger at it. It was something that they couldn¡¯t see, but his guts were telling him that there was definitely something mischievous happening in the background. He knew their leader was a hypocrite. He always said something but did its opposite. While the girls were trying to wake their leader from his slumber, D¡¯sue was going through a series of questionable thoughts. ¡®I still clearly remember when it was the time to face that old monster, who was the one that came forward. It wasn¡¯t Martha or Dust or Enco or even their current dictator; it was him. James didn¡¯t come forward to accept the leader position like he was trying to lay low. But that coward then reprehended me, called me useless, incompetent to be their leader and took away my place.¡¯ ¡®Well, it was one thing to become the leader but he never did anything. And all the work and fights were done by others.¡¯ ¡®Then to make us obey his commands and to show his power, he specifically targeted the weakest of their team and attacked him. He attacked the archer to show his prowess and to put a feeling of dread in everyone¡¯s mind.¡¯ ¡®Moreover, if I think clearly then, the ideas, decisions and skills, which those girls have been crying about, were all provided by Enco and this demon just nodded his head in approval to all of them. This really is the severe case of someone profiting from others work.¡¯ ¡®And the last one, but the most major one of them all; It was him, who divided the party members into different teams giving reasons like, the ants will attack, the queen is laying eggs not enough time and their numbers will increase.¡¯ I don¡¯t know about other queens but I don¡¯t think that this one really has the capacity to give birth to the number that he claims her have. The ants here are really dangerous and even their weapons are even more dangerous. If the ant could really give birth to more than a hundred ants per hour, then why is she not sending any to take care of us? I am sure no matter how powerful or egoistic we are, there is now way that we could ever be the match of a marching army. Even if we killed hundreds of them but the time taken to do so the queen would have already laid enough eggs to make this lair our grave, but nothing of that sort is really happening here.¡¯ ¡®Forgetting about that, he atleast could have arranged the teams differently to improve everyone¡¯s coordination taking note of their compatibility, but instead of doing so he created mismatched teams.¡¯ ¡®And instead of sending the archer and assassin together, because he was the only one who could understand his language he divided them. Why did he do that? I don¡¯t know.¡¯ ¡®With the unskilled Martha and him together things might have turned differently. With Enco and Roby together their combination would have proved to be quite amazing. An assassin doing close combat and the archer supporting him from the behind sure would have created the golden party, not forgetting that he was the only one who could understand the assassin.¡¯ ¡®So from all of this, it surely stinks. Not only him everyone else also stinks. Why is no one talking about him being guilty for killing the archer? It looks like they believe him so much that such thoughts didn¡¯t even enter their minds. And no one is saying anything about going back to take a look at his dead body. I want to do that, but I¡¯m sure even if I did suggest that, he would probably say something like, his body was eaten by the ants or one of them took him away.¡¯ Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator. His running thoughts and frowning face was still continuing when he saw James standing up. ¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­ Third person P.O.V:- James wasn¡¯t looking at the ceiling anymore. His eyes were back to normal and were not bloodshot anymore; he was looking straight behind the mage standing in front of him, behind the darkness and into the unknown. He seemed to be looking at something, something that was waiting for them behind the curtains of darkness and the creepy air, which was currently surrounding them. He lifted his arms and tore away his already nonexistent armor. Then used the torn parts to clear all of the blood form is body. His ripped muscles and shredded skin suspended a feeling of slight discomfort around them. They saw that most of his wounds had recovered and those wounds left no marks to taint his perfect body and those which had not recovered completely yet, had also stopped bleeding. He used the same cloth armor drenched in his? Blood to tightly wrap and cover his recovering injuries. Everyone looked at D¡¯sue once and thanked him for spending his precious medicine to save their leaders life. But to their thanks D¡¯sue remained motionless. He looked to be in deep thought about something so everyone stopped paying attention to him. After taking care of his injuries, he looked at everyone and bowed. ¡°Everyone I¡¯m sorry. Because of me you all weren¡¯t able to continue the mission and had to waste your precious time to take care of someone incompetent like me. I¡¯m sorry that I couldn¡¯t protect all of you. I¡¯m sorry for degrading your motivation and I¡¯m sorry for¡­ letting your friend die.¡± He bowed and sincerely apologized to them. We wasn¡¯t asking for their forgiveness, but asking them to cooperate with him until they complete this job and be on their way. But unlike what he expected both Martha and dust walked some steps forward and yelled at him, ¡°what are you sorry for? Did you not give it your all? Did you not let us enjoy our time in this cave and help us in all the means possible?¡± To her questions he didn¡¯t move or said anything to retort her, but stood there, calmly watching them. ¡°If you did all of that then what are you still being sorry for? You being sorry won¡¯t change anything, so stop indulging yourself in this self pity and move your ass. We don¡¯t have time for this shit. Now, isn¡¯t this one of your favorite lines?¡± She ended up smiling after saying that, but in her heart she was really worried, not for him, but she knew that to defeat the final boss they would need everyone¡¯s help. So, how could she leave someone powerful like him behind, when their enemy was just a tunnel away? When he heard the last line, his already bowing head almost dropped to the ground in shame, but a smile surfaced on his not so elegant but dependable face. If others had seen it then they probably would have felt it to be somewhat odd, but thankfully, because of his bowed head no one saw it He moved his hand over his face and wiped all of the sweat and tears from it. Then after shaking his head once he slapped his cheeks vigorously and shouted on the top of his voice. The girls jumped in fright when they saw him behaving like that. Martha thought that maybe he had finally lost his mind. But to her and Dust¡¯s doubts his eyes shined once more with blinding light and they knew then, their leader was back. James looked at them, his eyes now containing the same fierceness that it had before. ¡°I¡¯m sorry¡­ for keeping you all waiting. You are right even though I¡¯m your leader, but I still drowned myself in the sadness for him and forgot about all of you. So, I¡¯m sorry for neglecting my duties. Well, it¡¯s funny how hard I was trying not to waste any time, but ended up wasting it the most.¡± They saw that he was earnestly apologizing for his mistakes and was really back. Their smiles returned, though a member of their party was dead, but they were still alive and in the world that they lived, living was already very difficult. While it was alright feel sad for the dead, but to not let go, only leads to an early retirement. ¡°We are late. You know, I know, we all know, so let¡¯s go and end this madness. It¡¯s time to see what that queen can do.¡± And he moved his legs in the direction of the huge tunnel. Hearing him say that all the energy that had left their bodies returned they yelled once to get the blood pumping and started walking towards their final battle. Martha created another light ball to help them see in the darkness, but because the cave was too wide and the roof was too high, it couldn¡¯t light the ceiling. And from experience, they all knew how the ants love to travel using the tunnels and do surprise attacks from the roof. So, because of her vigilant nature and dark phobia, she created one more light ball, then another and then one more. Like this she created ten of them and after pouring some of her mana inside each and every one, she evenly spread them across the tunnel. She created three high radiance balls, which she made to float near the ceiling, keeping them fifteen meters apart from each other. And after keeping one ball at the center she created a hexagonal perimeter of light around them using the left ones and the radiance from them created 90 meter zone full of light. When they moved the balls also moved with them, from away it looked like a fierce dome of light taking a walk. With this their sight increased from a depth of 5 meters to 45 meters in front of them. D¡¯sue and dust were left flabbergasted when they saw her creating a spectacular show of light orange light inside the dark tunnel. But when they looked at her, sweat was flowing down her face like a river. Her face had also started to become pale and paler by the minute. They understood that she must be having a hard time controlling the light balls and her mana also must be decreasing by the second. The assassin gave no attention and kept on looking straight and walking behind them, James looked at the sources of light, his eyes became round, but when he looked at the tired but trying Martha, he only spoke one word¡¯ Endure¡¯ and kept on moving forward. They knew even if he wanted to stop her from wasting her mana like that they wouldn¡¯t be able to stop her. And in the tunnel where who knows from where the monsters would attack this light was really needed timely help. So instead of stopping her he told her to ¡®endure¡¯. While everyone was walking toward the next chapter to their ongoing play, D¡¯sue noticed that he was being watched. He felt a little worried; a sensation of being watched inside darkness ruled tunnel is not a great one. So, to check for the source of his uneasiness, without losing his composure he looked around, but even after double and triple checking he found nothing. He felt a bit bewildered, but because he didn¡¯t want to be left behind he started moving again walking and increased his pace a little. He had only walked two three steps when the uneasiness returned and he got Goosebumps all over his body. He looked to his left and right but saw nothing, then to remove his suspicion he looked behind once, but just as he did something moved near his feet. He hurriedly turned his head around to look at what it was, but again he saw nothing. He wanted to yell out loud out of frustration, but because he didn¡¯t want others to label him as a freak for yelling at the walls, he continued to move forward.. His face was devoid of any expressions, if other looked at him at the moment, then they would think of him as someone calm and collected, but he knew it was not right. The only time his face becomes like that is when he is thinking, thinking harder than in normal situations. Why was this not a normal situation, well, not because of being toyed by something that he didn¡¯t knew about, but because when he had looked at his feet to find the culprit, instead of finding something creeping around, laying low to the floor, he found something written on it. The word could mean anything considering different situations, but he knew exactly where it fitted in this play. The word that was written on the floor near his feet was ¡®Illusion¡¯. He felt surprised when he saw that. ¡®What could have written it in time when I wasn¡¯t looking?¡¯ But his questions were left unanswered because in this darkness there was no way that he would find anything. He had stopped walking to ponder about its meaning, so, the distance between him had grown somewhat. Martha noticed that D¡¯sue wasn¡¯t walking with them. She looked back and saw that he wasn¡¯t moving, so she called him out. When her voice reached him, he awoke back from his trance and looked at her. He smiled at her and nodded his head. After doing that, he once again looked at the floor, to see if there was anything else written there or not, but when he didn¡¯t find anything other than ¡®illusion¡¯ written there he exhaled once before rubbing his foot on the word, erasing it. After doing that he looked back at his teammates and then started walking near them. When the light dome had moved some distance away, two small lights shined near the walls where D¡¯sue had found that note. It looked at the floor and then at the moving people once, before disappearing into the darkness. Chapter 16.9 - Reverse Massacre: Boss Fight AN: Please make do with this. I am having difficulties writing the fight scene and ideas that i talked about. Oh! If you think the style of writing is getting better, then please tell me. I need to know. . Enjoy. ........................................................................................................................................................................ Third Person P.O.V:- D¡¯sue looked up and saw them walking away and away from him, with every second wasted he was being left behind so after erasing the words on the floor by rubbing his foot on them he walked to them. After running with his clanking and clinging armor that now had a piece of metal torn from its back, he reached his team. The assassin was walking at the front followed by everyone else. Their leader, who was injured after a presumed ant attack, was walking just in front of Martha who was precipitating like crazy from handling all of those light balls floating around them. The tunnel was very long, not really very long, but it was longer than the other tunnels that they had to travel through. They knew that that the end of the tunnel the queen will be waiting for them. How did they know that this tunnel really was the last one? Because, it was special. It was special in the sense that unlike other tunnels which looked to be made for the ants to travel through, this one was probably made for something bigger than them. But they were also confused because no matter how different this ant queen might be from the ones in other places, but it still wouldn¡¯t need such big and wide tunnel. From their experience they knew that this tunnel was also dug out by the ants because of the casual and normal marks that were everywhere. ¡°Is this some kind of a mass deployment tunnel? Was it created for the ease in deployment of a large number of ants?¡± Martha spoke in a very low voice, but because of the quiet and still atmosphere of the tunnel everyone heard it and lines of sweat started falling down from their heads. ¡®So does it mean that we were right about their being a huge army waiting for us in the boss room?¡¯ It was not one or two who was having such thoughts, but all of them. ¡°Do you think we¡¯ll really have to face a huge swarm of ants the end of this tunnel? If so then can I still return back?¡± It was Martha, who was trying to lower the heaviness in their mood that her big mouth had created, and to her comment Dust and D¡¯sue grew a small smile. The light of the dome showed that, after walking for some 200metres they were final near the end of the tunnel. The light domes that Martha had created really did wonders, and they could now see the wonders of the tunnel, but even when they got so near to the exit, they still didn¡¯t encounter any ant coming to ambush or battle them head on. Marta¡¯s lips twitched a little when she thought about the amount of power that she had to expend just to lighten the area around them, but it seemed like her preparation was wasted, because no one came to attack them. The light exited the tunnels and entered the room, but unlike their expectations there was nothing inside. The room was empty and there was nothing on the ceiling either, even though this room or open space was even bigger than the tunnel that they were travelling through. Dust estimated that the ceiling was probably 60-70 meters high and width of the room was even more than that. They continued to move forward, and the radiance from the balls also continued to reveal the room more and more. Then after walking some more steps they officially exited the tunnel and entered the room. The light balls were currently giving them a view of next 45 meters in front of them, but really unlike their thoughts it was empty. It was as empty as it could be, and there was nothing indicating about any army of ants being there. ¡°Is this really the boss room?¡± ¡°Why is it so empty? Where are all the ants and the army that you were talking about?¡± ¡°Do you think we are in the wrong place or there is no queen here?¡± These questions were asked by Dust, D¡¯sue and Martha consecutively to their leader James, while the assassin remained silent. To their questions James said nothing and continued to walk and to his silence, other could do nothing but to follow him silently. After walking some 50 meters they started to see some shallow pits in the ground near the 100 meter line. They continued to walk and after walking 30 more meters they stopped because they were now upon those holes. ¡°Why are there holes in the ground?¡± Martha was naturally curious. For there to be holes in the ground in the dull, dark and straight room where other tunnels had no such abnormalities¡¯, this was the first time that the floor didn¡¯t look natural. But, to her spoken out loud thoughts, no one answered. No one answered her, not because they didn¡¯t care, but because at this time they heard a low grumble coming from the front. To the sound everyone became vigilant even Martha who was looking at the ground fixated her eye in front of her. She also didn¡¯t want to get caught by a stealth shot from the ants. But nothing happened. The low grumble sound continued, but no thing came to attack them. This time D¡¯sue got on his knees and inspected at the holes in the ground. ¡°They look like someone used a spear to create them. The triangle pointing downwards really is the clear indication of this.¡± Even though he was inspecting them, but because of the darkness he couldn¡¯t see that all of the said hole, were at an equal distance from each other and they were forming an arc from one point of the room to the other. Like something was telling them to not enter inside it. D¡¯sue stood up and they continued to walk forward, but then light fell on some steel poles embedded in the ground some 55 meters away from them. You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author. They could not clearly see them, but from their width and their circular shape they surely looked like poles from their distance. But as they continued to walk the balls also continued to lighten the area in front of them. Then the radiance captured the origin of the poles, and what they saw left them dumbfounded. They were now 115 meters away from the entrance of the room and they finally saw their nemesis, who they were so eagerly trying to find. Yeah, the queen was in front of them. This time not only their eyes bulged out and dropped on the floor, but their jaws were also wide open and touching the ground. D¡¯sue had already started to move backwards step by step. He didn¡¯t really care about these avatars of devils, and to him it didn¡¯t matter whether they lived or not. So he retreated. Why did he retreat? because he finally understood what made those holes in the ground, and why the ants were so different and difficult to deal with. ¡°This is no ant! How can an ant be so fucking huge? Is this a trick? What the hell is going on?¡± To Martha¡¯s blabber no one gave any answer they were too mesmerized looking at the ant in front of them that they even forgot the others beside them. ¡°Why is she so big? Was this place not where there was an army of ants waiting for us? Then, why is there such a monster in front of me?¡± But again no answer came to her questions. She also wasn¡¯t looking at other to find the answers. she was asking herself, but even the answers that came to her mind didn¡¯t make any sense. When all of them were still trying to figure out what the hell they were looking at their leader spoke. ¡°D¡¯sue where the fuck are you running to? Come here to the front and don¡¯t you fucking retreat again!¡± D¡¯sue wanted to run away and he really had almost gotten away, but he also knew that there was no way he would be able to escape the fight and leave them behind to save his life. Because he still would have to report to the guild, and he knew that none of his lies would matter. So he did, what was asked of him and went to the front with his shield held in front of him and stood there. ¡°Dust! Create a curved wall in front of us, and make some viewpoints in it to look through. You can do that right?¡± To his question she woke up from her dazed state and nodded furiously. This was the first time in this cave system that Dust was having difficulties accepting the reality, and was getting cornered from a good for nothing ant. She got to work and created a nice 10 meter high wall right in front of where D¡¯sue was standing. The distance between them and the Monster was less than 60 meters, and cause of her height, to them, it looked even more less. ¡°Everyone else move back. Move as back as you can, but do go out our reach. We don¡¯t know what kind of attacks it can do. So, please get ready, it may start anytime.¡± The assassin, he and Martha moved to the back of the line, but they still remained inside the safety circle of the built wall. ¡°Ummm. Martha. Leave two of your light balls and dissolve the rest of them. Conserve the rest of your mana and regenerate as much as you can. You are going to be our main weapon in defeating her.¡± She did as he said and dissolved all of her light balls besides the two brightest ones. Her action was hurried and her expressions clearly showed her emotions, and they were not tranquil at all. She then made both of them to fly near the queen. Though they got shrouded in darkness once she sent the balls away, but the queen was lightened from the radiance of the light balls and was clear as day to them. James looked back at Martha and passed a smile onto her for her tactics, but she had already gone into a passive meditation state and couldn¡¯t react to him. This was not much of a tactic but even a little help could do wonders at the right time. They knew that ants in this cave had evolved vision. So, they could still see without light. So instead of making the room dark she brought a new element inside the damp and dark room, which the queen had never witnessed before, light The orders were given swiftly and accurately. In less than one minute everyone was already at their allotted positions and was busy in doing the task provided and then the queen moved. *Kyaungg* The mage had only just started creating the wall, to stop one of the attacks from the queen, when the queen roared and the ground shook with it. And before anyone of them could get ready, and prepare, the queen started running. The speed she moved at wasn¡¯t very fast, but she only had to cover the distance between them and her. She was not an agility type monster, so, it didn¡¯t matter how fast she could run. Because to fight with outsiders inside her own home, she was fast enough. Though she was not very fast, but the distance was still covered in an instant, her eight legs were not for show after all. When the distance between them reduced form 60 to 10 meters the queen attacked. Dust saw a huge and thick pole like spear moving towards her at a speed that a mage would never be able to react too. It ripped apart the sand wall that she had only just started to create, and was just about to get her, when D¡¯sue ran and got in front of her. If someone is thinking it was enough to stop the spear, then he is nothing but a dumb fool. The spear struck his shield and the moment it collided D¡¯sue flew. The spear stuck his shied, his shield got pressed on to his body, his body struck Dust and both of them became birds and flew 50Meters in the air, before they fell and collided with the ground. The impact must have been a vicious one, because the sound from when their body collided with the ground traveled the distance, and even the others heard it. ¡°GOD DAMMIT! Retreat! Retreat! Retreat!¡± James was going to retreat after giving the order, but the queen had some other plans. Chapter 16.9.2 - Reverse Massacre: Boss fight (Part 2) Author''s note:- Yeah, here comes the big sho... Please expect the last chapter of this arc to come tomorrow, which will be followed by my explanations to some stuff like characters, their behaviors and everything that i could think of. Especially about Minie. Oh yes, also a poll about various things that i want to know about. well, for now, . Enjoy. ............................................................................................................................................................. Third Persons P.O.V:- The queen moved it walked and ran on her legs till she left an after image behind her. Then without stopping and slowing, she used her momentum to create a heavy amount of force, and pounded on the assassin and Martha who were just behind D¡¯sue and Dust who were easily blown away by the queen. James backed up some what and stood there and kept on looking at the raging queen. The queen used her legs to stab all over Enco¡¯s body, but it didn¡¯t work. The assassin fared well against the coming attacks. He was easily able to evade all of them because of his high speed, but Martha was having a lot of difficulties. The queen attacked with her front legs and its speed and size really made it difficult for her to take control of the situation. Because she was not a fighter type and was a mage, therefore no matter how much she tried, she wasn¡¯t able to invade the attacks like the assassin. She was using fire to reflect the attacks. She condensed the fire to create a fire shield all around herself. Enco looked at her and the first thought that came to his mind was, ¡®Is that a barrier?¡¯ Yes, the skill that she used was a barrier skill that all mages after reaching rank 1 could use, but her barrier was a bit different. He carefully looked at it and thought, ¡®No it does look like a barrier, but something¡¯s different about it.¡¯ Yes, it was the difference between an assassin and a mage. One side had the leisure to think about others, while the other one didn¡¯t even had the time to breathe. No matter where the attacks came from, Martha¡¯s shied block all of them successfully, but she had to pay a great price for it. The explosion like impacts were still making her fly from left to right. The queen used her spear like legs to penetrate her fire shield, but because couldn¡¯t get through it so she started to attack it like a bat and ball. With her leg being the bat and Martha¡¯s shield being the ball. Like this instead of attacking her with her legs pointed ends, she started slapping the fire shield from the left and right. When queens attack from left made Martha and her shield airborne, she would suddenly attack from the right and like this the damage kept on increasing the shield started cracking. It not only did damage but also kept Martha inside her range. This left-right combo made her look like a caged bird who wanted to fly out, but couldn¡¯t. Moreover her injuries increased every time that pole attacked her and the cracks on her barrier were getting more and more. The series of being slapped and being flung was a torturous method that the queen was using to play with her. Martha couldn¡¯t even use any attacking spells because of the pressure and the consumption of using the over the top barrier. The attack was going to be endless until she had died, but it was stopped in the mid when a slab of earth rose from the ground and viciously struck the pole like leg that had some heavy burn marks on it. Being attacked by the slab that came out of nowhere the leg was flung upwards. The attacks momentum was interrupted, and Martha fell down. It not only destroyed the queen¡¯s momentum toward Martha, but also toward Enco; who has been evading everything that was thrown at him. Seeing the chance the assassin moved and vanished into the darkness. when he reappeared he was already upon Martha. The fire spell that she was covering herself like a shield had already cooled down, Enco looked at her once her condition was already very bad but this series of torments had degraded her health even more. He acted quickly and before the queen could get a hold of her and continue her onslaught of attacks, he got hold of Martha¡¯s arm and moved. He didn¡¯t just move, but created afterimages behind him. He moved faster than lightning and backed far away from the queen and stopped only when he got near the mage and knight who had saved them this time. When they saw each other looking so beat down just after the initial barrage of attacks, they couldn¡¯t help but smile to each other. ¡°It is more difficult than we thought it would be.¡± To D¡¯sue words Martha and dust nodded their head once and the assassin stood their silently. They thought that the queen would follow them to attack and that really happened, but instead of attacking them it suddenly attacked their leader. To her attack he shook and vanished. Everyone knew it was his high speed movement, but they still got shocked from seeing it, because shocking things remain shocking no matter how many times you watch them. He moved and with his dagger attacked the moving pole, yeah the sword that he had before was nowhere to be seen and instead its place he held a dagger in his hand. But it was not what entirely shocked them but the thing that had been attacking them from the start. He attacked her from all the different angles, from up and down, from side to side but no matter how many times he attacked and tried to cut her legs, he wasn¡¯t able to. Every time the dagger touched one of queens attacking legs it always ended with sparks being created and then with them parting after a few bouts. After sometime the leg attacks increased in ferocity and James was left with no other choice then to parry them with his dagger, but how could he have parried such heavy attacks with only a small dagger. Their exchange continued for five bouts, when James became sure that his dagger was of no use here, so he put it back and disappeared into the darkness. The others who were watching their fight from far had their hearts in their throats. Martha who had recovered from queen¡¯s onslaught was shaking looking at the spectacle that their leader had shown them. ¡°What kind of a queen is this? How the fuck, are we going to defeat her, when James attack didn¡¯t even scratch her? And were the fuck is he now?¡± No one had the liberty to take part in D¡¯sue debate about the ant, and about their not so capable leader because, she was coming. Instead of fighting with their running leader, she moved fast and faster till she was just 20 meters away from them. Martha got tensed and started firing numerous fireballs at her without even taking a aiming. D¡¯sue reacted and started charging his sword with mana and get ready to fire his skill at her. But ¡®Dust¡¯ left them behind in dust and before anyone¡¯s attack landed on the queen a very heavy and thick pointed spear of sand zoomed past everyone, leaving a gust of wind in its wake, and landed heavily on the queen¡¯s body. *Roar* The queen roared and the room shook the spear of dust carried the queen backwards with its momentum. When they both finally stopped the queen was still standing, but she was dragged 30 meters back by the spear, and it was embedded deep in the front of its chest. D¡¯sue starting laughing when he saw the queen roaring in pain because of the spear that was still embedded deep in her chest. He looked back to see how Dust was fairing, but her condition was not good. ¡°What happened? Did you use too much of your mana?¡± ¡°Yeah, it took too much time to create and depleted a lot of my mana, but it worked right?¡± she replied by tilting her neck to look behind D¡¯sue at the queen, but as she did he eyes bulged out. D¡¯sue found it weird seeing the kind of face that she was making so he followed her eye sight and also looked toward the queen. He saw that the queen had stopped her roaring and was getting ready to attack again, but when he looked closely he then exactly knew why she was making that face. One could say that it was strategy and was put in action after taking everything in consideration, or one could leave it as luck, and just enjoy the spectacle. Because at this moment the fireballs that Martha had fired without taking aim were about to fall on the queen¡¯s body and one second later they exploded on her body. *BBooooMMnn* The explosion it created shook everything. The explosion created from more than twenty consecutive fireballs was not something to look down at. Those fireballs exploded and the room became a sea of fire. The floor crumbled and the place where the queen was standing at a deep pit was formed. Though the fire from the explosion never reached the others a little distance away from the queen, The explosion had not only created a mushroom of fire, but it also lead to a shock wave of sound, debris and air pressure; that came after the initial explosion. The travelling wave created destruction at the scale that even the explosion didn¡¯t. The walls fumbled and the roof tumbled, huge rocks dropped from the roof and the wave dug out the floor and the room started vibrating. Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site. The wave travelled and was just going to hit Dust and party, when D¡¯sue moved and shouted ¡®shield cage¡¯ while keeping his shield in front of his body. His shield shined in blinding light and in a second created a cage of blue light all around them. The shockwave collided with the cage and it vibrated ferociously. However no matter how long the waves made impact on it, and no matter how man rocks and stone collided with the cage, it didn¡¯t break and they somehow endured through it. The girls wanted to thank him for saving their life and were also curious about the skill, but their curiosity and happiness from being alive was broken when they saw a silhouette emerging from the firestorm, which the huge amount of fireballs had created. The earthen spear that Dust had fired at the queen had crumbled from the onslaught of Martha¡¯s fireballs. The hole that the spear had left behind was still there, but it was closing, though slowly. When they saw that they couldn¡¯t believe their eyes, and it made them again look at her. D¡¯sue even thought that it was an illusion, but the reality was really far from anything that they had imagined. The queen was unharmed. Other than the hole created from Dusts Earthen spear, it had suffered no other injuries. The fireballs, they didn¡¯t even leave any mark on her body, forget about killing her. D¡¯sue thought that it really was an impregnable monster. ¡°Does it have Magical nullification or some kind of high mana resistance?¡± Now, it had almost become Martha¡¯s habit to talk out loud, but her words this time also made other curious. This was the first time after they had started fighting the queen that they understood, why there was no other ant waiting to ambush them. Because the queen was simply enough to handle them all, and still remain in the condition to fight even more. They were still shocked from the emergence of the unharmed queen, but then their brows creased because it looked like she was not going to give them any time to rest. Yeah, it was again ready to attack them. It had started to gather mana inside its mouth so they quickly understood that it was going to use some kind of mana attack. Now if she had suddenly attacked them then it would have been impossible to move against it, but fortunately she was charging her skill, so they had enough time to act. Dust looked back at the ant once and then she hurriedly spoke, ¡°The only option we have is to interrupt her before she finishes charging mana, but it is already too late for that.¡± Looking at everyone¡¯s serious face she continued, ¡°One she is too far away and also we don¡¯t know what kind of an attack she would use and second the fire that was Martha¡¯s fireballs had created is all there. So, there is no way for us to get near her without burning in the fire and then fighting with her to stop her charge.¡± So seeing how dangerous it would be to take up that attack without any knowledge she gave her opinion to defend against it, as defense was her strong part. ¡°Let¡¯s scatter. I don¡¯t know what kind of an attack it would use, but if we scatter, then she won¡¯t have a target to focus on.¡± It was Martha who spoke while shrinking down due to the fear of dying inside a dark, and humid tunnel. ¡°No what if it¡¯s an Area of Effect attack then everyone will suffer and it will only end with all of us dying. So let¡¯s not do it.¡± After saying that, Dust quickly used her leftover mana and created an earthen wall in front of them hoping that whatever that monster was going to through at them, it would be able to stop it. But to her surprise she found that, she had already expended too much of her mana and the wall that she created using her left over mana was of even a lesser quality than the one that was broken away from one leg attack by the queen. She bit her lips and was going to cry to tell everyone to run away when D¡¯sue moved. He slammed his shield on the wall and embedded it deep inside it. When Dust saw him doing such a thing she could not help but scream at him. ¡°Hey! What are you doing? Why are you slamming on the wall?¡± And even though she was yelling at him he only smiled and nodded his head. Dust wanted to retort but before she could say do anything her spell started changing. D¡¯sue started pouring his mana inside his shield and slowly the whole wall started shining with a blue colored light. The girls were being mesmerized by the scene when he slammed his feet and burrowed them deep into the ground. Then he used his right hand to burrow his sword into the ground too. The girls were still had no idea of what he was trying to do when then he spoke in a low and deep voice, ¡°Fusion series, Shield Magic ¨C Earthen shield.¡± The wall glowing with the blue light started pulsating and in front of everyone the spell that dust had used to manifest a wall started changing. The wall changed and turned into a gigantic earth colored kite shield with blue hue to it. D¡¯sue both hands were deeply burrowed inside his own shield which acted as a medium and it looked like the shield had become a part of his body. The girls who had never seen such a thing before were left with their mouth open. It really was a thing to be excited about after all. Fusion magic, everyone knew about it, but they also knew that it was very difficult to use and not many people knew how to use it either. They wanted to ask him about it, but the chance never came, the queen had finished charging and the attack came. Unlike what they had expected, it wasn¡¯t an area of effect magic, but single target attack. A beam of fire travelled and struck the fusion shied that was standing in front of D¡¯sue and the others. The impact made blood rush to his mouth and his knees bent forward they heavily struck the ground and two pits formed where they fell. He swallowed the blood that was rushing to his mouth, and furiously poured his mana inside the shield, to at least hold off the queen¡¯s attack and not just get blown off cause of it. The beam of fire continued to fall on the fusion shield and the shield also continued to defend against it. *Uwack* *gwaa* ¡°Ahhhhh¡± D¡¯sue cried out because the impact was putting a huge amount of strain on his body and his arms that were embedded in the shield were being put through a terrifying amount of pain that was like being burned continuously. Martha couldn¡¯t take it anymore and rushed out from behind the shield. She started attacking the queen with more fireballs, but it didn¡¯t work and only expend her already dwindling mana pool. Martha was standing behind the knight and pushing him from the back while mumbling, ¡®Hold on, please, Hold on.¡¯ The beam of fire continued for half a minute before it finally ended. D¡¯sue who was holding the shield, snorted once before his own shield fell out with him on the ground. With this the earthen shield that was a different level magic also crumbled into dots of lights, before scattering onto the ground. This was the first time during fighting that they felt the feeling of despair. D¡¯sue was almost unconscious, Dust had expended all of her mana and Martha was crying from fear. The only one who had not done anything in the fight the assassin was still sitting behind them without moving. When D¡¯sue lifted his head to see why the queen not continuing with her attack they saw her guzzling fireballs on an empty space. He squinted his eyes and looked carefully and saw that their leader who they couldn¡¯t find was running toward the other end of the room and the queen had become senile. Looking at this spectacle Dust who was recovering her mana couldn¡¯t help but say, ¡°Did she use so much of her mana that it weakened her mentally. They knew that overusing mana could lead to such symptoms. But her voice didn¡¯t reach him; he was too busy trying to figure out what was really going on. Because he couldn¡¯t clearly see anything, he decide to use the ant vision lenses that he had acquired some time before. So, he quickly put on the lenses and attached the antennas on his head but when he lifted his head to look in front of him, what he saw left him dumbfounded. ¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­.. Chapter Summary:- 1. Captain is a runaway. 2. Martha is inexperienced in fighting. 3. Queen can only use basic fire attacks. 4. Queen¡¯s fire resistance worked because the fireballs that exploded on her body were not the mana burn version ones. 5. The knight is a lot cooler than you thought him to be. 6. The rest are for you all to find. 7. This chapter has clue to who killed the archer. Chapter 16.10 - Reverse Massacre: Broken Illusion Author''s note:- These final chapters are being very naughty and difficult to write. Writing about illusions is very mind boggling. Change in the previous chapter:- So their leader never ran away and just stood somewhere in the darkness. . Please give suggestions, if you think there are line which should have be written a bit differently. . Enjoy. ....................................................................................................................................................................... Third person P.O.V:- He saw that just as he wore those lenses, his world changed. Everything became bright and full of colors and people changed from detailed artistic fleshly bodies to balls of light. But when he looked toward their leader who was running towards the darkness, he noticed that there was no ball of light. It was like he had disappeared, vanished into the darkness of the big black room. He couldn''t believe what just happened. ''Did he just go supersonic?'' he thought. Consider it his hardheadedness or something even more chronic, but he thought that the lenses finally broke under pressure. They were still unprocessed materials after all. He looked at the girls beside him to check whether the lenses were still working or not, but he could clearly see them there. On the other hand James had really disappeared and was nowhere to be found. He removed the lenses and looked with his naked eyes to conform his doubts, but just as he did, James come back in the world and D¡¯sue saw him again running in the same direction, towards the darkness. But after he put them on, again, there was no ball of light indicating James position. He thought that maybe the lenses had a range after which they stopped working, but even this theory of his was proven wrong. When he concentrated in the direction that James was running he saw that even though there was nothing indicating about James, but he could see two more balls of light ahead. But without the lenses he couldn¡¯t see anything far away in that direction cause of the darkness and distance between them. Without his lenses on he looked at the side and noticed that the queen was still guzzling fireballs at empty space some distance away. ''Has it finally gone senile after depleting a large quantity of its mana?'' He thought. Oh! he had a hunch that he should look at that with the lenses on and that is what he did. As he did that, he saw a light ball moving at hyper speeds and evading other much smaller, but concentrated balls of energy. His brows creased and his lips moved, "What the fuck is going on?" He was only talking to himself, but unknown to her Martha had been looking at him from the time when he wore the lenses. She heard him say that and suddenly asked him in curiosity, "What! What happened?" He looked at her and instead of saying anything, he pointed at the still running James and the senile queen, before giving her the lenses and the antennas to wear. She wore them both and first looked at the running James and then at the mad queen. She tilted her head in confusion and looked at D¡¯sue. She looked at D''sue and saw him looking back. When he saw her expressions, he understood what she wanted to ask. So, without giving her any time to say anything he spoke, "Don''t ask me anything, I also don''t know what is going on. But I have an idea; I think I know what is happening here. But I can''t tell you right know. I need clues." Dust was also intrigued by their talk. So she also asked them to let her use the lenses, and after looking through them her reactions were the same like Martha¡¯s and to confused soul, D¡¯sue replied in the same manner. He was going to ask her to return them, but then she started screaming, ¡®It¡¯s coming! It¡¯s coming!¡¯ The ball of light, which was fighting with the queen had turned around, and was now running towards them. To her reaction D''sue also turned his head to look in that direction and saw a mad queen running toward them. "Oh my Fucking god, oh my Fucking god" His crying was not fictitious and was real. Well, it was understandable. They were all expended and there was no way for them to hurt the queen and even less was the chance of them killing her. To dust the room was clear as day and she also knew the reason why the queen was running towards them. Dust was looking at the queen through the eyepiece and she noticed the ball of light running in front of her vanishing directly into the ground. With the glasses on she clearly saw him vanishing into the queen¡¯s shadow formed from the light balls, which were following from behind it. Well, the vanishing of the ball of light didn¡¯t feel odd to her, because she had seen many people use different types of short distance travelling skills like that before. What really felt odd to her was that she had seen the specific skill being used before and the one who used in their party was sitting just behind her. But when she moved her head to look behind her, she saw nothing. Just like with James, Enco was also not physically present there. She knew that he wasn''t physically present behind her. Because after she removed the eyepiece she could still see him sitting there. She wanted to tell the others about this oddity, but before she could do so, she saw a dark hole opening just where he was sitting, and a ball of energy came out of it. It emerged out of the hole and fused with the one sitting behind her. She understood. She understood everything. The one sitting behind her moved. He unleashed a deadly attack directly onto D''sue neck, who was lying on the ground just beside Dust. The others were still looking at the rampaging giant moving towards them, and had no idea about everything that was happening behind them. D''sue who was still looking at the queen sudden felt a huge amount of killing intent bombarding his neck from behind him, but before he could see anything or even move his neck to see what was attacking him, something struck his left Side and his body rolled on the ground. The force of the push was so strong that his stone body rolled 10 meters before abruptly stopping. When he looked back to see what actually happened, he saw that the place that he was laying at had a dagger stabbed deep into the ground. Right next to that place, there was a curved stone pillar that dust had erected to push him away. ¡®Huh? What happened?¡¯ It was normal for him to have such thoughts. Who would believe in their eyes if they suddenly see their most trusted person to have attacked them and that they were saved by a wrench! But time is of the essence, no matter where or what one is doing because without giving anyone even a second to think, another attack to his life came again, but this time it was not Enco who had acted. Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings. He saw Dust acting like a mania and a line of spikes forming on the ground coming directly towards him. Cold sweat started flowing all over his body, Fear ran rampart in his mind. ¡°WHAT ARE YOU DOING? STOOOP!¡± He cried out, because he had no power to even move a muscle, and the attack that was coming for him really was a fatal one. ¡°So, she really is trying to poke me with a spike. Huh.¡± He remembered, how when they had first met, this thought of him dying from being spiked by her had formed inside his head. He understood that his time had come. No matter how much he plead or begged, she was not going to change her decision, so he relaxed his body. He didn¡¯t knew why she was trying to kill him, but it was OK, he thought. Though he had lived his life on the spur of the moment, but he never regretted any of his decisions. He remembered the sword that his dad gave him as a present on his coming of age ceremony, the girl that he had one side love with, his mother whose tender and warm smile he could never forget and his dead friend, whose shield he was still holding in the same arm, in which he had left it, to save his life. Emotions and feelings of having lived a short but warm life started rushing to his heart and filled his eyes with tears. He sobbed once before he remembered the promise that he had made on his friends sacrifice. The reason why his friend gave his life and his beloved shield to him, he remembered them all. His feelings erupted, and all the ideas of having lived a fulfilling life died. His mind that was reassuring him that it was okay to die wavered and life came back to his eyes. He looked at the servant of death who was coming to take his life and shouted. He shouted and tried to move his exhausted body, but nothing happened. He put even more effort and again tried to move his disabled body, but other than vibrating somewhat, it didn¡¯t move even an inch, and just as all of his hope broke, hundreds of spikes poked holes all over his body, and he died. Well, that¡¯s what he had thought would happen, but even though there were spike digging from one side and coming out of the other side of his body, he didn¡¯t feel any pain. His body was full of spikes and holes. One of them even came poked his heart out, but he was still alive. ¡°What the fuck? Why am I not dead yet? Wait, is this heaven? But it surely doesn¡¯t look like it!¡± How would one feel, if they experienced a life threatening attack, but actually live through it. He had so much to say and even more to ask, but his train of thoughts was interrupted by a series of explosions and debris that kept on creating noises near him. *Boom* Bom* BBoomm* Heavy explosions were occurring again and again. And when he moved his neck to look behind him to see what actually was happening, he noticed something. All of the spikes that had poked the hell out of his body were gone, and his body had returned to its original state. But it was only an edge of the madness that was happening inside the cave, because behind him he saw the actual cluster fuck. Minie was firing fireballs after fireballs at some wall trying to dig the hell out of it. Dust was making spike attacks on the assassin, who was actually attacking her martyr style. There were many of him who were trying to directly collide with Dust, and whenever one of those ¡®assassins¡¯(clones) collided with the obstacles that Dust created to stop their charge, they would always end up exploding and then turn into shadow, disappearing into the void. And to summarize it all, there was one senile fire Martha, one porcupine Dust and five running assassins trying to turn ¡®Dust¡¯ into dust, who was rooting out spike after spike from the ground. Ah! And a giant ant queen who was watching them from the distance without moving. Then his sight fell on Dust¡¯s face and his expressions changed. ¡°Is she wearing my ant vision lenses? But why is she attac...¡± He was going to continue saying that, ¡®why was she attacking Enco?¡¯ but then he remembered everything that had happene, when he had worn the glasses and looked around. And then he remembered the word, which he had found written on the floor, when they were walking through the tunnel to enter the boss room. ¡®Illusion? AH! ILLUSION! MOTHER FUCKER! SO WAS EVERYTHING, JUST AN ILLUSION?¡¯ Why would he not be angry? He had just connected everything that occurred inside this cave, and found out that everything was a lie. ¡®But where did James go? Wasn¡¯t he here with us from the beginning? Why can¡¯t I see him anymore? Did he die? But why are they fighting with each other? Unless¡¯ His expressions changed and his eyes turned fearful. The thoughts that had just come to his mind were too impossible to have. ¡®But there is no way that is possible. I don¡¯t believe that he could have done that.¡¯ His face became really scary. How could he believe that in his group of killers, the only one he believed to be a good kid, was the one who ended up being the biggest villain of them all. How could he believe that? There was no way that anyone could change his view point about someone and make him believe that he was a killer. ¡°How could he ¡­ be the killer?¡±He talked to himself in a very low almost non audible and trembling voice. He always had doubts about the death of ¡®Roby The Archer¡¯ and thought that he hadn¡¯t died from the hands of an ant but that their leader James had killed him out of frustration or something, but it looked like things were not quite like what he had imagined them to be. Here his thoughts ended and on the other side their fight. Martha was unconscious from having used too much of her mana, and Dust was sitting on the ground resting her weight on a stone. He had cuts and slashes all over her body, but she wasn¡¯t dead, yet. Her face had lost all of its color, her hair disheveled but her eyes were still fierce. If until now she had been playing with a cool attitude, then her personality had taken a full 180 degree turn and she was really angry. D¡¯sue was also out of his trance and was quietly looking at them while trying to open his sack and get a regeneration potion that would at least make him able to move. ¡°Why you fucking piece of shit? Why? Why did you do all of this? Why? Tell me why?¡± The lying ¡®Dust¡¯ couldn¡¯t help, but curse him. Because she had found out that, the assassin who did nothing, but laze around when they were fighting with queen, was now trying to kill them. ¡°Ahaha. You little kids.¡± He Spoke. Chapter 16.11 - Reverse Massacre: Truth (Part-1) Author''s note:- i don''t know about the quality of this chapter, i have my doubts. I need help with this chapter, so do comment and share your views if anyone thinks that i should change a line, someone reaction or interchange paragraphs or anything to improve the chapter. I''ll be thankful to you. If there is anyone who is a fan of dust in this story, then please accept my apologies. . Enjoy. ........................................................................................................................................................................ Continuing from the last chapter. Third person P.O.V:- ¡°Ha haahaa¡­ You little kids, what were you trying to achieve by interrupting me from killing that good for nothing Muscle headed brute?¡± ¡®He can speak normally!¡¯ Dust couldn¡¯t believe her ears when she suddenly heard him speaking normally. ¡®A dream, yes, it must be a dream. Maybe I lost conscious after the queen attacked,¡­ shesh, who am I trying to make fool of here.¡¯ She looked at him, biting her already cut and torn lips she yelled again, ¡°Why! Why can you speak? Can¡¯t you only talk in killer language of the assassins? ¡°She glared at him without blinking till her eyes turned red. And to her anger filled questions he laughed again and touching his temple he spoke, ¡°You all are nothing just children. It was a plan, all that happened here was all a plan constructed by me.¡± ¡°How could it be?¡± her eyes showed exactly, how much that one line from him had shook her. ¡°Don¡¯t believe me? Why do you think there were no other teams to participate in this mission? Why do you think you all were the only ones present there to accept the mission?¡± His eyes squinted and he asked her, while casually locking his finger behind his head. Even though Dust couldn¡¯t see his face, because of him being covered from head to toe in his black leather outfit, but his eyes were clearly showing that he was laughing, laughing at them. Dust really couldn¡¯t believe what she just heard. She wanted to ask him, but ¡°So does this mean that the guild planned to get us killed in this place? Are these words that you were thinking right now?¡± He took the words right out of her mouth. The assassin was really enjoying the moment. He had no worries anymore, after all; she was a dud, and the other mage was in dreamland and the knight¡­ he smirked, thinking about him. To his ¡®don¡¯t care¡¯ attitude, she gritted her teeth and endured it. But she still spoke glaring at him with her bloody eyes, ¡°Is that not so? But why would the guild want us dead? What did we do wrong?¡± Hate; her head was really full of rage at the moment, to think that the organization they believed in, felt their lives in whose hands, was the one that wanted them dead, disgraceful; She thought. *tchu*tchu*tchu* He lifted his right hand and moved his index finger from left to right, denying her statement, while making irritating sounds, showing that she was wrong. ¡°You are wrong my love, it¡¯s not the guild. why would they want to kill their most prized assistants?¡± ¡°Then why?¡± she was enduring her anger because she needed to know the reason, but her body was not doing what she wanted it to, and was violently trembling. ¡°Because you all were too greedy this time, little one. Who asked you to choose the mission? Who asked you to come here? Who asked you to form party with strangers? It¡¯s your own fault and you will die cause of your own mistakes.¡± ¡°What? What are you even saying? WHAT THE FUCK DOES THAT EVEN MEAN?¡± ¡°Anger, yes, get as angry as you can, cause this is the last time that you have to get angry.¡± ¡°Then tell me who asked you to kill us all and why do you have to kill us?¡± If she was controlling her anger before, then, now she was straight yelling at him on the top of her voice. ¡°Are you trying to buy time? For who? Her?¡± he spoke while pointing at the unconscious Martha. He then smiled and pointed toward the ruble and slowly spoke, ¡°Or him?¡± A cold sweat ran down her back. Because of the ant vision lenses she could see a ball of light wiggling under the ruble, trying to do something and she was sure that it was D¡¯sue. She thought of buying some time for him, so that he could atleast accomplish whatever it was that he wanted to achieve. Maybe he could provide them a last chance to kill this devil spawn, but it looked like it really was over now. While she was having suicidal thoughts, and was thinking that it was over, he spoke again, ¡°Well, forget about the sleeping bimbo, there is no chance for her to wake up after all, but about him, he¡¯s¡± and he smirked. ¡®Why is he making that face¡¯ she thought and he told her. ¡°Dead¡± and he started laughing. She looked at the ruble through the Lenses and could still see a ball of light wiggling, waggling and to her confusion she thought, ¡®What is he saying? He is clearly not dead. Wait, does he¡¯ ¡°How? WHO KILLED HIM? DID YOU??¡± to fake her anger, she shouted while glaring at him, and the power drunk assassin who was already flying high in the sky cause he had emerged successful in his mission didn¡¯t notice it, and laughingly said, ¡°Me? NO,NO, it was you. Your spikes poked the shit out of him and make him look like a porcupine. So, don¡¯t blame me.¡± He was still laughing his ass of. ¡°Me?¡± She asked. To her it didn¡¯t matter what this ¡®bad egg¡¯ was going to say, because she just wanted to check whether he could see him moving or not, and the answer was clear from his behavior. He really thought that D¡¯sue was dead. ¡°Yes, you. Well, not really you, but his brain died in my illusion cause of your spike attack. So, yeah, it was you actually.¡± ¡°Illusion? What illusion?¡± she found it intriguing so she asked him about it. The more information they could get from him the better it would be for them. ¡°You don¡¯t know anything that is happening here, huh. But you are dead already, so what are you going to do with knowing such stuff.¡± He said that his eyes became dead serious and he attacked. His hands shook and he flew towards her neck to slice it off, but a sudden yell from Dust stopped him. ¡°Wait!¡± She shouted desperately, to stop his attack and it worked. ¡°What now?¡± he suddenly stopped in the middle of his attack, but he clearly looked upset. ¡°You are going to kill me right¡± He nodded to her question without any delay. ¡°So, won¡¯t you at least fulfill one of my wishes?¡± ¡°Don¡¯t wanna.¡± He rejected and again went through the motions of his attack. ¡°Please. Please. Listen to me atleast tell me what I am dying for! Or how you executed your plan? Don¡¯t you want to torture me by telling me step by step what your golden plan was, that ended up in your victory or do you want to live without telling anyone?¡± she was desperately trying to use his overconfidence to buy some time for D¡¯sue. ¡°Ah! Now that I think about it, yes, I do want others to listen to my plan, How fine it was and how much preparations I had to do to make it fool proof, but my master won¡¯t listen. she only want results and nothing more.¡± He sighed once after saying that and looked at the ceiling. When Dust heard him say ¡®Master¡¯ she couldn¡¯t help but feel a tinge of hope. So, she tried again, ¡°Your master, who is she? Why does she want us dead?¡± Enco creased his brows and looked at her by tilting his neck downwards, then he snorted once before saying, ¡°She is my mother, my god, my everything and you don¡¯t need to know who she is, but if you want to know why I was asked to do this then look in that direction and strain your eyes, you might see something.¡± He pointed in the direction where the James lookalike had run into. If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. Dust followed his finger and looked through the lenses. ¡®Strain my eyes! I don¡¯t need to; I can already see everything clearly.¡¯ She thought to herself. But she saw, what she wasn¡¯t expecting to see. There were three balls of light in that direction. One small and the same colored as the ant, one very small and grey colored and one ball was brighter than the others, and had four colors intertwined inside it. Her expressions were clearly showing how confused she was, because Enco had started giving explanations to her, after looking at her face once. ¡°If you can see it then well, you already know what it is. If you can¡¯t, then let me tell you it¡¯s a¡­ well before that let me give you a surprise.¡± His eyes became sharp and he ran at super speed with a dagger in both of his hands and rushed towards her. She knew something bad was going to happen to her. So, she yelled out, ¡°Don¡¯t kil¡­¡± but the answer to it came before she could complete her sentence. ¡°Don¡¯t worry I am not going to kill, you just taking precautions.¡± he said that and his daggers moved followed by a sprout of blood from both of her arms and a loud cry. *thud*thud* ¡°AHhhhhh¡± Her arms fell on the ground and her cry rang out in the empty room. He cut her arms from the shoulder as a precaution. ¡°Well, now that this is done, let¡¯s continue.¡± He said looking at her with eyes that looked like he was enjoying this. She screamed, and screamed, and screamed. What ever happened after that she had no conscious about it? The pain, the anger and frustration was too deep and too horrible to make her loose conscious. She kept on wailing and he kept on speaking, she couldn¡¯t hear what he was speaking because the pain was unbearable. She wanted to die, but she wanted to kill him too. So she held on. Her soul that wanted to leave her body and get away from the devil, the pain and her suffering, it held on. He was getting irritated from her crying and shit, so when she didn¡¯t stop being noisy even after some time passed; he finally lost it and started kicking her. He kicked her in the gut once, then twice, then again and again and again, until her voice couldn¡¯t leave her throat and she stopped breathing. ¡®What died already? I even gave you a hand to stop your crying. Are you not going to wake up now? What should I do? Let¡¯s just kill her.¡± He said while looking at her, while his eyes were still smiling. When he cut off Dusts arms, D¡¯sue was looking. When she cried in pain, he was still looking with wet eyes. When Enco kicked her ruthlessly and almost killed her, he was still watching with bloodshot eyes. His eyes were mad with fury, his hairs stood straight up from rage, he wanted to snap his neck and drink Enco¡¯s blood. He kept looking and looking at her, till blood started flowing from his eyes, it was madness. He was going to yell out loud and curse the living shit out of him and his whole fucking family, when he saw Dust turning her head and his eyes meet her eyes. He saw; no tears in her eyes, her face showed not even a tinge of pain, her mouth was sealed shut and no sounds of crying or wailing were coming from it, but he knew it was not that she was waiting to die, no; she had not lost her soul yet. It was not anger or hate or retribution, but vengeance. She wanted him dead. Yes, but eyes her were clearly telling him to wait, wait for the right moment, to wait till Enco tells them everything. How he knew all of this? Well, call it his intuition or his ability to read faces, but he just knew. He was happy not for Enco, for him he was just a dead man walking, but for Dust. Her eyes still contained hope and they were burning with desire and waiting for a chance to return her pain, back to its owner. He knew they could still be saved; just getting the regeneration potion was not enough. They needed something more, something that could handle that piece of shit; and he remembered about the queen. Bu why was she not moving anymore? He knew that only one person could give them the answer to this question, and the way he was acting, there was a simple method to get it out of him. He looked into Dusts eye and then looked at the queen. He gestured her to look at the queen. Once this task was over, his eyes travelled to find Martha. She moved her tired self, and encouraged herself to look at the queen. When Enco saw her looking at the queen, he felt a bit surprised to see that she was still alive. His surprise doubled when he noticed that she was using her earth ability to stop her bleeding. Well, though it sure as hell looked creepy, but it was working out great for her. ¡°No need to look at her, she cant see us.¡± To that bastards chant both D¡¯sue and Dusts ears perked straight up, to capture everything that he was going to say. ¡°Forget about see us, I think it¡¯s already sleeping.¡± ¡°Wh..y?¡± She was putting her everything to speak, but even simple words were taking too much out of her. ¡°Oh! You still have the energy to speak! Quite stubborn aren¡¯t you. Well, not like you can use your magic anymore so there is no need for me to put you through any more pain. You are already dead, so let me fulfill your wish that you had.¡± He looked at her but saw her looking at him as if waiting for an answer. ¡°Ah! Yes, why? Huh. Because currently it is captured in my illusion and in the illusion this room no longer have anybody and is empty. That means it has no one to attack, so I think that its s.l.e.e.p.i.n.g.¡± He looked back at her and saw that she was still looking at him; he felt that something was odd, something was odd with her eyes. But his vigilance went away as soon as it came, when he saw her struggling to increase her life by another second. He noticed that even though she was using her mana to stop her bleeding, but her blood was still flowing out and her mana was also almost exhausted. So, to him she was just a guest of a few more minutes, nothing troublesome at all. As he was thinking that, Dust voice once again sounded in his ears, ¡°Why?¡± Again the same question, but he understood the difference between the two, so he answered, ¡°Like I said, my master ordered me to kill everyone that would enter this dungeon.¡± ¡°Dungeon?¡± she spoke, her voice almost not reaching him. Her face was becoming paler and paler b the second because of blood loss, but he didn¡¯t care. ¡°Hah. I forgot you people don¡¯t even know that this is not an ant cave or anything else, but a dungeon. Well, who was the one that gave the suggestion about it being a dungeon... let me think.¡± ¡°Roby?¡± A tear fell down from her eye, when she thought about him. ¡°Ah! Yes you are right it was him I even forgot him when he was the first one I killed.¡± ¡°YOU!¡± ¡°Hahaa. Yes cry cry more. Let me see you beg. Haahaa.¡± ¡°*snif* Captain¡­*snif* James?¡± the tear became a stream, and she started crying. When she asked him about James, his laughing stopped. He looked at her with his eyes squinted and he questioned her back, ¡°Who?¡± Chapter 16.11.2 - Reverse Massacre: Truth (Part-2) Author''s note:- why am i late? because this is a double chapter, with a lot of thoughts put into it. i tried my best to not spoil the fun, but if someone finds it faulty then do P.M me you version. If i think that it is better than this than i''ll rename the chapter to your name and upload it. Well, every comment counts. They help a lot. want to know why? Then do read my blabber at the end. . Enjoy. .................................................................................................................................................................. Continuing story from the previous chapter. Third person P.O.V:- He looked at her, while she kept her eyes at him, but a feeling of anxiety washed over her cause of his words. ¡°What do you mean who, I am talking about our captain James, where is he? Did you¡­kill him too?¡± But he did not answer her straight away and laughed for a while, and with his eyes slanted backwards he slowly said, ¡°Illusion.¡± ¡°Huh?¡± was her reaction. ¡°Ahaha. He was nothing but an illusion. What, you thought he was a real?¡± He said mockingly. ¡°What¡¯s with those eyes? You don¡¯t believe me?¡± he got angry at her for looking at him doubtingly. He didn¡¯t hit her for that but still answered her instead, just like he promised, ¡°You don¡¯t believe me huh. Then tell me, what do you think a hero was doing here alone without his party? It¡¯s not like you don¡¯t know where he is. Right?¡± When she heard that her eyes trembled, cause she suddenly remembered a news that she had heard some months ago. ¡®The hero and his party is travelling with a legendary figure from the empire on a mission to the other side of the continent¡¯ it said and the most important part, they would not be back for some more months.. She hated herself; she hated herself for neglecting such a small opportunity what their enemy had provided them moreover intentionally. ¡®How could I have forgotten about such a news¡¯ but she knew that there was no profit in regretting about her past mistakes. So, after getting her mind straight, she looked back at him. ¡°What! Not satisfied with my answer? This worm still doesn¡¯t believe me, Huh. Then wait a second.¡± What happened next really put a dent on D¡¯sue and Dust¡¯s faces. Air around the assassin shook slightly and he got covered in a black smoke, his visage completely covered. It situation remained like that for some seconds, but then a change happened. The assassin simply took even less than ten seconds and then the shadows around him started disappearing. A foot came out of the smoke and so did the rest of his body. The assassin was nowhere and instead of him James was standing in front of them. He cunningly spoke, imitating James heavy voice, ¡°So, what do you think now? Still don¡¯t believe me then tell me, why didn¡¯t your captain use any of his sword skills and only ever used his speed? Why were all the decisions taken by me, but they were all still accepted. Huh.¡± He looked at them, but then began shaking his head left to right, sighing once. ¡°I mean, come on! I know that knight had a hard head but even you, I didn¡¯t know you were an idiot too.¡± On one side he was laughing his ass off and on the other side D¡¯sue was deep in thoughts. He was still numb from hearing that their captain was an illusion too. ¡®How is this possible? Just how much has he practiced his skill, to so skillfully pull wool over everyone eyes and we didn¡¯t doubt even a single thing? Was everything really a lie?¡¯ he was having the most difficult discussion of his life in his mind. ¡°Ho¡­w?¡± Dust was putting her everything to ask him the reason, before her flowing blood could make her a cold body. ¡°Well, you see, my shadow displacement skill is not an ¡®S¡¯ ranked skill for nothing. It becomes very easy to move large distances with it. Anything else? Ask me quickly! At least ask me why my master asked me to do it!¡± His conceited self had started to show its true nature, and he was losing himself slowly. She gritted her teeth and the sound echoed inside the room. Even though she had no energy left, but when she heard him talk about his master an unimaginable amount of hate entered her mind and she grinded her teeth in anger. When Enco heard that sound his mouth curved into a crescent shape and he said, ¡°Seems like you hate my master more than you hate me. Well, at least you¡¯ll die hating someone truly powerful.¡± She was waiting for him to tell her the reason for his actions, because the time had come. ¡°You see the real target is not you guys. You guys are all just preparations, raw materials for a big boom. The real target is this dungeon.¡± She spoke in a very soft and low voice. She was extremely exhausted and was suffering from ¡®Mental Strain¡¯ ¡®Physical Strain¡¯ ¡®Anemia¡¯ ¡°Infection¡¯ like effects. But she still asked him in a breaking voice, ¡°Why? If this really is a dungeon then was do you have to destroy it. But even if what you want to destroy is the dungeon then why kill us?¡± ¡°This one is no good, it needs to be destroyed. As for the reason to kill all of you, think what would happen if you all die here and no one returned back to the guild.¡± He asked her. ¡°If we die here then the guild would send more adventurers to investigate. Ah!¡± and then the thought suddenly hit her. ¡®But if they investigate then, won¡¯t they also just destroy this dungeon. Because who would want to let a killer prosper in its own backyard, a monster spawn that could kill ¡°B rankers¡¯ Even though it was clearly a new born.¡¯ When the thoughts hit her she felt a bit heartbroken. ¡°But, why does your master wants to involve our guild in this mess?¡± It was getting out of hand. She really believed him. They really were just preparations; the real mission was something much more sinister and evil than she could even think about. She knew that whatever the reason to their supposed deaths was, Enco didn¡¯t know it, but she still asked him and he also gave her the expected answer. ¡°That I don¡¯t know. Well, everything has its cause and effect. The world doesn¡¯t work on fairness and pride, but on money and politics. So, how would this weak me know about my masters genius. This is just one of the works that goes behind in the background, while others continue to live their lives, strangers to all of these.¡± You all are dying for a greater cause, so don¡¯t feel sad.¡± ¡°Why can¡¯t you..¡± What she saw asking him was that why can¡¯t he destroy the core. This was not a question to him, but a cue to D¡¯sue who was waiting for the right moment to attack. ¡°You see though the queen can¡¯t see through my illusions, but the dungeon master can and if he starts controlling the queen, then won¡¯t he be able to kill me. Huh¡­ wait a minute!¡± His smile vanished and he shivered in fear and he saw a change occurring in Dust¡¯s eyes. Her eyes and his surroundings were quickly turning and were being colored in an orange glow. Why had the time come for Dust? Because Enco had made some very fatal mistakes in his calculations. One, He didn¡¯t knew that she could see through his illusions with the help of glasses that she was wearing. Two, unlike he thought, D¡¯sue was not dead. Three, he didn¡¯t know about her ant vision lenses and he also didn¡¯t know that the queen could see through all the illusions. So, his so called illusions were not the reason why she was not attacking them. And if what he said was really true and this cave really was a dungeon, then the core was also waiting for him to finish his explanations. This means that their entire plan was based on whether the queen would attack him or not. So, she was waiting, waiting for the queen to act and just as she did, D¡¯sue gestured her about it and she nailed the question on Enco¡¯s cowardly soul. She had to prepare a lot for the plan to work and just to make sure that he wouldn¡¯t be able to see the attack coming, she let him kick her to move her position on his own. They were now positioned in a straight line. Dust was on the ground, Enco was in front of her. He was looking at her, but his back was facing the queen and the big rage monster was just some distance behind him, staring straight at his back. Though she could not lift her head high enough to look at the queen but neither could Enco see her actions, because he had his eyes fixated on her. But she was not alone. Why would she need to look at the queen herself when she had D¡¯sue to do the part! Her job that was to buy time was over. Now it was others time to act. Why was the question needed to be asked? It was asked to confuse him, to make a slight difference in his ability to think. It is a proved truth that, a second of delay in making a decision and taking action could prove fatal in a life or death battle and to make his thought process slow was her intention. When he moved his neck to look back, one of the light balls behind the queen exploded in a flash of light. It created radiance so frightening that everything got covered in a white light. It suddenly became so bright that Enco almost became blind cause of it, but the queen wasn¡¯t affected like him and then her fireball finally reached him. *Boooom* It exploded and created a sea of fire just like the one that Martha¡¯s poorly aimed attacked had created thought the effect of this single fire ball weren¡¯t so drastic and dramatic. The impact created no pressure waves just some vibrations, but it lightened the room dimming room exponentially. But Enco was already gone from the place, by the time that fireball exploded on the ground. What happened was that, though Martha¡¯s flash bomb had created a brilliantly bright light inside the closed room, but it was only for a sec or two. By the time the flash ended and the fireball reached Enco, he had already moved from his initial position. His levels and Rank wasn¡¯t for show after all. When his body noticed that he was in danger, it moved at the top speed that it could muster without any command from his brain and escaped the danger. Human mind and muscle are more complicated than it is thought of them to be. Sometime no matter how much one wants their body to move it doesn¡¯t listen and refuses to do so, but sometimes, it moves on its own. The thing is D¡¯sue and dust both knew that Enco would be able to evade queen¡¯s attack, and would use his fast movement speed to escape the fireball. Though the fireball was all very powerful, but it had nowhere near enough speed to hit him. Enco moved, the light ball flash was already over, the reaction from queens attack was still going on so after moving at his top available speed he finally got out of its rang and got near the debris. The plan to kill him was not ended yet, it was now in its second and final stage. Now everything was in D¡¯sue hands. He ran In D¡¯sue direction because there was no other place to run for him. The destruction that Martha¡¯s fireballs had created was not on a small scale. It had nearly destroyed the whole room. There were big wide stones everywhere and some places even had part of the roof fallen down and where they were, was the only safe haven in the whole room. Moreover it was so because D¡¯sue had used his skill to save them. If he had started running without looking back then he could have run to the other side but he didn¡¯t do that. Instead he looked back and so to save his life he had to move straight and it brought him in front of the debris where D¡¯sue was waiting for him. ¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­. After Gesturing Dust to look at the queen, D¡¯sue got busy. He vigorously looked everywhere to find Martha and when he found her she was already awake, but silently looking at Dust with her eyes swollen and red. He somehow got her attention without Enco and was barely able to explain his plan to her. Then he wiggled and waggled until his sack was set loose from his waist. Then he used his teeth to open it and drink one of the regeneration potions to improve his overall condition. The potion worked and his extremely sorry state turned into at least bearable for him to move. He then drank four more of the same potions to get at least 40% of his power back, but left enough of them for Dust. The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation. Then after drinking some mana and stamina potions he was ready. ¡®Though I¡¯m only at 40% of my normal condition but I think that it is enough to kill that son of bitch, after all it will be head on collision, moreover a surprise attack.¡¯ He thought while looking at his once broken arms, which had already healed and only had some superficial wounds on it. Then he looked at his sword that was still there right where he had buried it. He removed it from there and saw that the mana that he had inserted into it was still there. When the queen was getting ready to move, he quickly gestured Dust, then he looked towards Martha and nodded. When Enco looked back at the queen Martha wasted no time exploded one of the light balls. The lights exploded Enco got blinded, but like he had thought, he ran away, and like they had prepared, he ran straight towards him. ¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­ When the fireball exploded on the floor, he had started charging his sword with his mana. He had tried to use the same skill before but he couldn¡¯t use it at that time and his mana charged sword was left buried in the ground. So now he made his already charged sword into an overly charged bomb. He emptied all of his mana inside it and waited for Enco to get close enough to him. And just when Enco got near the debris area where he was, he unleashed his skill, ¡®cross-slash¡¯. His sword broke and turned into dust. Well, it was bound to happen because he had not slightly, but massively over charged it with mana. But he didn¡¯t care; the skill had already left the sword and was it was moving extremely fast, faster than the fireballs and even faster than the assassin. Enco who was running away from the fire, suddenly saw a blue colored cross slash coming towards him, but because of his movement and its speed, he couldn¡¯t stop himself at time, neither could he evade it and directly collided with the beam like attack. The ¡®Cross-Slash¡¯ touched him, cut him, and moved on. It didn¡¯t stop even after passing through his body and after travelling some distance at hyper speed, it exploded after colliding with the wall behind him. When D¡¯sue saw that he knew that it was finally over the villain was dead and they could leave if the queen let them. He was going to move his body and walk toward Dust, but his feet stopped in the air in the middle of stepping forward. He saw that the Enco¡¯s body that was cut in four pieces by his skill was not falling down, but floating. It floated in air, slowly turning translucent and then completely vanished. Sometime luck plays very important role in a life and death battle. Just when the cross was about to collide with Enco¡¯s body, his foot touched a shadow which was created from the fallen roof and queen¡¯s fireball. Enco then went with the flow, used shadow movement and he vanished from his place. The cross cut his after image, passed him by and made a huge impact on the wall. D¡¯sue mouth hanged, he had failed. He had expended all of his energy, his sword was broken, Martha was already unconscious because of high mana usage and Dust¡­ Enco was really scared; the one after another coordinated attack had given him heart attack after heart attack, but he had also become aware of his mistake, which was to not just kill everyone and be done with it. ¡®Why did I not just kill her? Why did I not just kill that monkey? Why did I not check on that bimbo?¡¯ He was regretting his decision of playing with them. He wasn¡¯t scared of the queen, he wasn¡¯t scared of Martha¡¯s mana burn, he wasn¡¯t even cared of that brute and he definitely wasn¡¯t scared of that no arm girl, but their team effort had almost ended his light. Though he had just exited a death sentence, but he was again thinking of playing with them. Like they say old habits die hard. He knew that, it was safe now because there was no one left to attack him anymore. He had decided to make all of them pay for their crimes and had already decided their punishment, ¡®I¡¯m going to cut all of their limbs and then skin then alive slowly. Just you all wait and see.¡¯ He felt safe, so he exited the shadow and¡­ *guck* ¡°Huh?¡± He looked behind him and saw no one, he looked to his left and right still no one, then He looked down and saw a spike joined to the ground, extended straight to his chest, entering his heart and leaving from his back. He lifted his head and saw a girl without any arms lying on the ground, but looking at him with a crazy smile on her face, clearly laughing at him. He couldn¡¯t speak properly because of blood that was climbing his throat and entering his mouth. ¡°I see¡± he said. His eyes turned red and veins bulged on his forehead. How could he have thought that the girl who was nothing more than dead meat to him would end up taking his life, moreover using a simple spike? A spell that he could evade even with his eyes closed. He kept on looking at her, and her smile slowly turned into laughter. It looked like they were having completion of who would die first, which he lost. The light in his eyes dimmed and he died while looking at her smiling face, which was clearly mocking him. ¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­ D¡¯sue saw it happen with his own two eyes, but he still couldn¡¯t believe it. Enco had clearly gotten away, their plan had also clearly failed, but what happened next was excitement from out of the world. He didn¡¯t know how she pinpointed from where he would come out, but she did the impossible and the villain who didn¡¯t die even from the collaborated effort of the queen and his super spell, died from a mere spike. He moved, no he rushed, no he ran and ran until he got near Dust. He couldn¡¯t stop and crashed on the floor, but his excitement was too high for him to care about such small stuff. He lifted the girl who had lost conscious, smiling while looking in devils eyes. He lifted her head with his left hand, and placed it on his lap for support. He opened her mouth and started pouring health regeneration potion in her mouth, but she didn¡¯t swallow and it soon flowed out. He knew that the situation was dire and he need to take some drastic measures, if he wanted to save her. So he chugged some of the regeneration potion, placed it in his mouth, and made her swallow it by giving her mouth to mouth. He repeated the same procedure until he had poured two flasks worth of medicine into her body. Then he placed her head back on the floor took, out two more such flasks and directly poured them over her cut arms. He knew that just lesser regeneration potions won¡¯t be enough. She needed immediate help from a cleric or a healer. The regeneration Potions did make her bleeding stop and her face also regained a bit of redness, but it didn¡¯t mean that she was out of danger. She was still unconscious after all. Even though he was doing all of this but he was still wary of the queen who was looking at him from where she was standing at. He didn¡¯t knew whether she would attack them or not, but he didn¡¯t care and after finishing helping her he ran straight towards Martha, who was lying on the ground, unconscious. He knew that she was not injured in any way. She and had only exhausted her mana reserves. So, he lifter her from the ground and started shaking her to wake her up, and after feeling some earthquake like vibrations she woke up and started screaming. But then she saw D¡¯sue and her screaming stopped, but instead tears started falling down from her eyes. She hugged him tightly and started crying. After some time, when she finally stopped crying opened and her eyes, D¡¯sue explained everything that happened after she exploded the light ball and had lost conscious. Then he gave her a health and mana regeneration potion to help her regain some strength and looked back at Dust. Then both of them returned to dust who was still unconscious, they lifted her up and were going to go out of the room, when the queen started moving again. They were petrified, Martha really turned to stone and stopped breathing. But unlike what they expected, she didn¡¯t attack and instead returned to the dark corner of the room from where the dungeon core was. Martha, who had stopped her breathing, finally breathed a sigh of relief. D¡¯sue lifted Dust up in a princess carry and carried her out of the room. When they reached the room exit, they looked back once. Feelings of excitement and eagerness flooded their bloodstream, but D¡¯sue shakes his head once, before he started walking again. He didn¡¯t notice that when he had looked back inside the room from outside the cave, a small little friend of him was also looking at him from inside. Then after walking in the darkness and travelling back on the same but a bit unknown path, they finally exited the dungeon. After getting healthy again, the three of them formed a party and then started their journey to the future which they had yet to behold. ¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­.. Author''s note, again:- How the story changed after Neruz¡¯s and blazingfrost¡¯s comment:- Before their comment; James aka. ¡®The Swordsman¡¯ aka ¡®The Leader¡¯ was setup to kill Roby aka ¡®The wretched Archer¡¯. Well, not because of his hate toward him but because of the evil seed that had bud inside of him. Then they would have one sided wrecked the queen and he would have wanted to destroy the dungeon. Then D¡¯sue would have come and acted righteous and stopped him. Then them going back giving news about the dungeon being a insect type with a weak ass boss. Then they live happily ever after. No, tension, no immediate villains, and no need for or Mc to get stronger in a hurry. The characters would have never returned and our Mc would have remained poor. What changed:- (Spoiler¡¯s ahead tread with caution.) The villain changed. Hero became an illusion. People died and made our dungeon rich. We saw a great fight with the queen. (I think so atleast.) The queen became op which I wanted to avoid, but I was able to bind her powers. I made our hardheaded, muscled, brute knight, intelligent. Now these characters will be back in no time.(I hope so.) We have a New Great Mystery villain, who is against the whole world (sorry I exaggerated, a lot.) And for me it has become a lot easier to keep the story going. Now Rocky needs to get stronger and has a time limit to get there. So you all will go through a roller coaster ride with rocky. New friends coming soon. Clues that were given regarding the James and Enco:- The table of ch-16.1 (I know, I know. No need to tell me again and again.) James using speed to attack Roby, when swordsman are not know for speed. Enco giving suggestions for all the decisions and James accepting them, all. Their turn by turn talking. Like when James spoke Enco didn¡¯t and vice-versa. Enco was silent the entire time James talked about how Roby died. James using a dagger to attack the queen. James not using any skill of a swordsman¡¯s. And I forgot the rest of them If anyone could figure out who Enco¡¯s boss is, then comment about it. ¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­ Next I¡¯ll upload a question answer session and a poll. So do read it if you have any doubts about the characters and their behavior. And please do vote on the poll, but only after reading the thread. Cause it might change your opinion. Thank you everyone. Now, this arc is officially finished. I think so. Just an Q&A sesssion + Poll Read this post before voting on the poll. (This post has not been checked for grammar or any other kind of errors. The information is not anything new and just about what I think.) So let¡¯s get on with this, I have a chapter to write. I am an amateur not a writer, so please be lenient with me. This is my first story. No, this is the only thing with which I got to the 5000 word line. I have written so many words in the past few days that if I had written so much in my paper then things could have developed a bit differently. Ahead are the answers to all of the questions that I could think of. 1Q. why are you writing this story? A. Because I wanted to write a story after reading hell a lot of other popular light novels. Now who don¡¯t want to create life to a fictional character that would go on and live till the server¡¯s crashes down? 2Q. what is your inspiration for writing it? A. I was going to write a typical story about immortals and stuff, but one night it changed and just when I was about to go into the deep black world of dreams a idea came to me. And I wrote it on the paper. The first chapter was the idea that I ¡®prophesied¡¯ about and I started working on it. 3Q. Do you have everything about your story planned? A. It¡¯s a yes and also a no. I have a frame for the story. Like this will happen then this and then that, but I don¡¯t know what kind of characters I will be writing about until I start writing. I have the middle and the end planned out. The villains are now all connected to each other and are going to be great but I still haven¡¯t planned about what to write inside this frame. 4Q. SO, why is you grammar so bad? A. Now, this is a very nice question. The thing is I in my whole life have never conversed with anyone in English. Other than using one word or crammed lines, I have never held a conversation in English with anyone. Moreover the only punctuation mark that I have been using until I started writing this fiction was the ¡®full stop¡¯, no commas or anything else. I think this much is enough to explain about my great language skill. 5Q.So let¡¯s talk about the story now. Firstly tell us why is the story so slow paced? You took 16 chapters just to write about ¡®Rocks¡¯ skills and stuff. Why is that? A. This is actually out of my control, I think. Because no matter how much I try to increase the pace of the story, new things and ideas keeps on coming to my mind and if I don¡¯t write them then I start to feel hollow like it is not my story anymore. Let me give you an example: ¡¤ At first the chapters were going to be like this, 1. Introduction, 2. Titles and abilities 3.dungeon control and monsters, 4.bandits 5.wolves 6.internal fight. 7. Queen 8. Adventurers arrive. ¡¤ But things happen and now I am just a slave to this story. I feel sad if I don¡¯t write a chapter a day. I feel sad when I miss something in it. I feel sad when new ideas come and I can¡¯t go back to fully edit the thread. 6Q. why are your chapter updates so slow? A. Like I said I am an amateur writer. This is the first time I am writing anything. When I had first started writing this story then it used to take me 8-10 hours to finish a chapter and I am not joking. But now it is much better if I really try then I can finish a chapter in 6-7 hours top. So yeah I waste a lot of my time. The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. 6Q. why don¡¯t you tell us about the characters? A. All of my characters are created from one of my personalities, they are my alter egos. All of them have one flaw and that flaw is what defines their character. Rocky: His flaw is that he¡¯s a coward. Now, because he¡¯s a coward he can¡¯t fight with Minie and has to wait till she comes around to tell him everything that he needs to know as a dungeon master. He is not powerful but is stubborn but also gets bored easily. But no matter how hard it gets he likes to keep trying and trying until he sees the end. After getting the title a born killer became knowledgeably, sensible, and his character changed. As people know everyone who is intelligent becomes arrogant one way or another and that is what happened with him. He became smart and intelligent but with the heart of a kid. He has knowledge of an adult but wisdom of a child and he uses it to the best of his ability. Minie: Her personality trait is anger. She is vengeance in fairy form. Now people say she is mean, arrogant and that they don¡¯t like her but who said a fairy can¡¯t be mean. I want to ask them all have they not heard about the tooth fairy or the Halloween fairy or dark fairies for an instance. When did I say she was a normal fairy? Even though she has not gotten around to fully accepting herself yet but there have been instances where her inner devil had almost burst out of herself. Has anyone ever thought why someone, she calls her ¡®Mistress¡¯ talk to her like so normally and without any haughtiness? She was even there at the time her dungeon was being allotted to her. .Well fairies are small, small are kids and kids are annoying Old man Arnold: - (Guild master) I have memory problems a because he is old and not so great anymore so I gave him this gift. He can¡¯t remember anything most of the things that happens around him or maybe he just acts like that I don¡¯t know yet. During his younger days he was a superhero an ¡®SS¡¯ rank weapon master but all of his gory went inside the drain when his granddaughter came to live with him. Eve or Eva: - (Arnold''s granddaughter) All the women I have ever met in my life were control freaks. MY cousin¡¯s girlfriend a control freak my sisters are control freaks too. So I have this image of women as freaks who like to control everything. So like this Eva is also a control freak. She is Arnold¡¯s granddaughter but give no shit to him. According to her he should stop acting like a brute that he used to be and become a pillar to support their guild. Cause every organization need a strong person as its leader. The rest are all like not so know so ill save myself from the torture of writing about them. These are all the questions that I could think about, if someone has something else to add or ask then please comment. (I read my chapters and even I found Minie annoying but Rocky is not cowardly enough.) The polls choice will only be accepted if there is a difference of twenty or more votes between them. Chapter 17.1 - Rocks P.O.V - They killed my Ant Author''s note:- Please don''t get mad OK ,but next in line are a series of chapters from our MC''s p.o.v and yes they are needed. Don''t you want to know how the archer died or how our MC fought them back. These chapters are about that and all the repeated information will be skipped. This is a continuation to chapter-16.1. And do comment on our new and improved hell-per. . Enjoy. ..................................................................................................................................................................... Rock''s P.O.V:- The adventurers are finally here, but there is a slight, a very little, a teeny tiny problem. They are a lot more powerful than we expected them to be. I look at the fairy beside me, her little body is shivering, and with her fists clenched she is intensely staring at the screen that is displaying the names of all those who are invading our home. I was going to wake her up from her trance and passive aggressive state. But then she does something with it and the dungeon interface¡¯s panel changes and a video screen emerges on it. It displayed the room those individuals were standing at, moreover the picture is vivid, colorful and exceptionally detailed. She continued to staring at the screen, but then I started intensely staring at her. Why? Because the display on the screen was beautifully detailed, much more than my mana vision that I trained like crazy to get efficient in. So the question exploded in my mind. ¡®Why did I have to try to learn that Omni vision thing, if she could so easily manipulate the interface to give a live video feed back of the invaders from anywhere inside the dungeon?¡¯ I didn¡¯t know so I asked her, politely. ¡°MINIE!¡± NO worries, I am just politely shouting in her head to make her understand her mistake. ¡°Huh! What happened?¡± oblivious to the predicament she was in, she spoke leisurely. ¡°What is this?¡± I tried to point at the screen, but stones can¡¯t point. She looked at me, and then at the screen. After repeating this for two more times she smirked, scratched her head a little and went back to her business. She understood what I was talking about, but instead of ¡®confessing¡¯ she deliberately evaded me. I was going to get really mad at her, but without letting me get angry at her she answered my question on her own, instead of enraging me even more. ¡°This is not how you think it is.¡± She said. ¡°This is one of the abilities that only a helper has.¡± She said. ¡°There was no need to teach you how to make this happen because you can¡¯t control the interface to see a view like this.¡± She said. Did I get angry at her, of course¡­ I didn¡¯t. Why would I? I had no reason to do so. Instead of doing so, I calmly asked her about it. ¡°Why do ¡®You¡¯ a ¡®Helper¡¯ have such convenience and ability, whereas ¡®I¡¯ your ¡®Master¡¯ has to perform every action physically?¡± Yes there was slight aggression in my tone that made me a bit nervous. ¡°This is not how you think it is. For I am just a tool for your use and you are the one who hold all of the authorities and power.¡± But instead of getting angry at my attitude, she replied with puppy eyes and soft voice. Hearing such I was like ¡®What the hell is that.¡¯ ¡°But why cant¡­¡± Was there really such a reason? I needed to get to the depth of it. ¡°This is one of the jobs that a helper has. I am just a spotter, your servant, whose job is to help you spot the invaders and you are the gunner, who fires and reign hell at them. The judge, that decides, who live or die.¡± ¡®Is she all right?¡¯ Is what I thought when my very own little demon of wrath suddenly became poetic. ¡°But I can simply use the interface and know where the enemies are! What is your role in all of this?¡± I think I lost my cool for a second there and my voice got a bit louder than it normally is, but to my astonishment, instead of becoming an ¡®Asura¡¯ she dusted it of like nothing happened, and kept on explaining everything to me like a cute little fairy. ¡°So tell me how you would control your forces, when you have to divide your conscious between battle at hand and spotting them all? That is why this is my job, as a spotter to help you.¡± ¡°Huh! I can even control the ants individually?¡± I swear I really didn¡¯t know that before her loose mouth suddenly opened and the words left her mouth. I don¡¯t know why, but when Minie heard me saying that her body shuddered a little. ¡°Oh! So, I even forgot to tell you about that. Haaha¡­ how forgetful I am.¡± ¡®Something¡¯s wrong here, something¡¯s very wrong here!¡¯ It was the first thought that came to my mind. Although she said that like she usually does with a smile on her little face and a calm attitude, but I could see that her clenched hands had gotten even tighter and blood drained from them, making them even paler. ¡°So, I can control all of them¡­ Individually?¡± ¡°Why of course you can. What do you think they are? They are your monster, your pets. If you couldn¡¯t even control them, then what would the difference be between them and common wild monsters?¡± Even her eyes had started trembling bit by bit. I needed to find the reason, but ¡®let¡¯s focus on the task at hand first¡¯ was the action I took. SO instead of again using my presence shifting skill that I still haven¡¯t acquired I looked at the scene with Minie on the interface screen. My screen with their information was also hovering in front of me when I noticed something strange. My interface showed the names of only five of them, but I clearly remember there being six of them, when I had looked at them with my vision. ¡°Minie tell me how many people can you see on the screen?¡± I asked her with a frown on my face that she couldn¡¯t see, but the emergency of the situation was clearly transferred to her cause she suddenly replied, ¡°Huh! There are 5 of them. Why do you ask?¡± My worry had now become her worry and it wasn¡¯t a good thing in our situation. ¡°Are you sure there are only five of them and not another one, somewhere not visible in the frame of the screen?¡± ¡°Huh?¡± Her confusion was clearly showing on her face, but she didn¡¯t ask me again. She started looking carefully and after investigating the ¡®Crime Scene¡¯ with her ¡®Detective¡¯ like ability through a two dimensional screen, she looked towards me and nodded. ¡°Yes, I am sure. There are only five of them.¡± ¡°You know, I clearly six of them when I had looked before, but one of them is not showing on the screen. What does this mean?¡± If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. She looked surprised, heck even I am surprised and find it odd. How could such a thing happen? No matter how it did it surely is out of my mental capacity to come to an answer. I can¡¯t think, so I am going to let Minie come out with a reason for it. ¡°Did you use omni vision to look or simple watching?¡± She asked me, but her eyes continue to stare at the screen. Sometimes frowning and sometimes panicking. ¡°I still haven¡¯t gotten the Omni vision skill. So how could I have used it?¡± Ah! It¡¯s here again. It¡¯s like she has reached her boiling point, but instead of letting out the steam, she is channeling and trying to get a suppress it. Why is she suppressing it? Not like I don¡¯t know how evil and devilries she is? I just hope she won¡¯t explode on me at once and release all of her ¡®pressurized¡¯ anger and create holes in myself centered soul. ¡°So, tell me did you use your mana perception skill to look at them or just the simple observation technique?¡± She asked me while she was trying hard to control her anger, but her menacing look and the sound of her grinding her teeth was enough to tell me the situation. ¡°No I was just watching them and it was only six of them, so I did not use the mana perception.¡± I also quietly answered her back, taking in account the place and time. ¡°Okay.¡± She said that and again immersed herself in watching ¡®¡¯Them¡¯ from the screen. Seeing that she wasn¡¯t going to ask me anything else I also started watching that was happening on the other side of the screen. ¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­.. Those, five- six invaders were standing in front of the first narrow tunnel. They bickered a little with each other, but afterwards they nodded their heads and started entering the tunnel one by one. I was still looking at the screen, but then Minie started giggling. It was not the sweet laugh that she has been entertaining me with, but a creepy giggle. I looked at her and she looked at me, but she didn¡¯t say anything and again shifted her whole focus on the screen and I was like ¡®WhAat?¡¯ Well, there is nothing that I can do; it¡¯s Minie after all. The invader party soon entered the tunnel, but because the tunnel was narrow they crawled inside it. Then after crawling inside for some time they finally reached the end of it. The narrow tunnel was made intentionally, but it worked a lot better than I thought it would. They were huffing and puffing and sweating like crazy by the time they got to the end. It¡¯s going to get difficult from now onward. The enemies are the elites and our protectors are mere ants. I just hope, the ants would at least be able to injure one of them before they get to the queen. The one in full black overalls spoke something and everyone looked at him, then after talking about something that I could not hear the nodded their heads again. ¡°Hey Minie, why can¡¯t I hear what they are saying?¡± She sighed once before speaking with a little sadness in her voice. ¡°This is the limitation of what I can do with my permissions. Until you or one of your monsters with the capacity to hear is physically present there, we won¡¯t be able to hear them.¡± Monsters what hearing ability, huh. I don¡¯t think my ants can hear. So this also becomes a problem to be solved later. We are getting more problems and fewer solutions nowadays. ¡®Life is difficult huh, even living as a dungeon master is difficult.¡¯ I thought. I was going to check up on them when a beautiful girl with blue eyes and crystal embedded clothes nodded her head once and lifter her hand. It was questionable indeed. I questioned it too. Not to anyone but myself, and to the answer of my-self asked question, she replied with a light radiating ball of fire. On her lifted hand a ball of fire suddenly formed and started floating like a dandy line in warm air current. It was unlike normal fire and was overly dark in color. It looked more like a light porcelain orange ball than a destruction creating fireball. I was still observing her spell when she nodded her head once again in front of her, but I couldn¡¯t see her talking to anyone and as she did her arm moved, her index finger pointed in front of her and the fireball floated away. It flew like a comet with the speed of thunder and collided with my ant who was waiting for them in the middle of the room. The impact created no explosion like I expected it to and instead, it stuck to her like a bee to honey and started furiously burning her. My baby cried out in pain and started rampaging inside the room to get the fire out and god listened to her, not my ant but the girl and in just a couple of seconds my ant that emptied my wallet by 50 DC, turned into ash. My reaction? Nothing, I was so devastated for the loss of my ant that I couldn¡¯t even react to it. I was feeling too intimidated by that thing, that godly skill, to be able to give out any kind of a reaction. I felt heartbroken. Maybe because it was my monster or maybe because it was expensive, I don¡¯t know. What I really understood was that they were powerful, and immensely more than us at that. Even a single person from their party was enough to destroy, kill, harm, and give mercy¡­ *Ahem* Looks like my plan is going to drown us both in the deep pit full of sorrow and misery, and I won¡¯t be able to get out of it on my own. Minie took a deep breath, but gave no other indication that she was going to interact with me or do anything and continued to stare at the screen. Her eyes were turning red little by little, but she kept on staring at the people in the screen with enough determination and attention that made it seem like I was just lazing around. The loss of the precious ant was big, but even bigger than that was the thought that even more of them were going to die from their hands and we would not be able to retaliate against them at all. I mean what we even have to retaliate with five no four more ants, one dead after all and a queen who is too big to be able to evade their attacks. Then one by one they came out of the tunnel and walked toward the now burnt to ash ant. They made a circle around it, but left one space beside them for one more person to stand there. And after everyone discussed something and laughed they all moved their heads to look at the open space where no one was standing at. I felt odd, Minie creased her brows and we both stared at the screen. Then what happened literally shocked me and Minie forgot to breathe. Chapter 17.2 - Rocks P.O.V - The killer in making Author''s note:- I had a lot of fun writing this chapter. I think this is the best chapter I have ever written. I used a ton of words like (Chameleon, magician, founder, octopus etc etc) just to explain about one single person. You might fell a little headache reading this but please take it easy and have fun. We''ll return to our dungeon upgrading on the day after tomorrow. . Enjoy. ....................................................................................................................................................................... Rock''s P.O.V:- The one who was completely clad In a black outfit got enshrouded in a shadow and after some seconds the shadows dissipated in smoke and the assassin was nowhere to be seen. The person who out of the smoke checked his outfit, shock his head for a bit and walked to the open space in their circle and stood there. But everyone continued on as nothing happened. No one gave a second look at him and started talking to him like he was standing at that place from the start. They talked then the black fitted dangerous looking individual who had mysteriously changed into A handsome tall and very powerful and charming looking person, took a step forward. He stopped in front of my expensive, but now charcoal black ant and moved his hand to grasp hold of some of its remains, but the situation changed suddenly. The hand that had just touched the ash got covered in brilliant and bright light. Then a part of my soul returned to me and my child turned from its deformed physique to a pair of mandibles, similar to the ones that all of my ants have. ¡°Huh¡± it escaped my mind and ringed inside Minnie¡¯s head that in turn understood its meaning and replied, ¡°This is the reward system acting. The ant¡¯s body vanished and left behind a gift for killing the monster and like you devised they got Lucky enough to earn a prize, according to their luck." She replied without looking at me, without even turning her head, without flinching even a little, without even addressing me. She is becoming a stranger by the minute. I did the only thing that I could at this point, given that my attracting her attention to ask her about her changes was not the important thing here. So, I sighed once in my heart and like Minie, turned my face to look at the screen. I noticed that those individuals were arguing about something. I don¡¯t know what really is happening between them and why they behave like there are six people and not five, but their expressions clearly showed that they were confused. They were confused about something that I had no way to know until I was there to hear their talk. This won¡¯t do I thought. So I told Minie that I was going to shift my presence from out of the room to them and she nodded to me, again without looking or getting angry at me like she used to. I am missing the angry Minie, but what can I do. Maybe she is having her first¡­ I then moved and shifted my presence to the walls of the small room they were in. I got inside just in time to eavesdr¡­ to hear what they were talking about. ¡°Yeah, right, a dungeon really is what this place is. A dungeon that is so tasking from the very start, that even seasoned B ranker''s like us are having problems completing it. Moreover, we are still on the first floor.¡± That beautiful snow white girl with blue eyes said those words, but her voice contained a hint of mockery not flattery in it. They were debating and discussing between them, about whether this cave was a dungeon or not. Well, their talk had more hints of aggression and pressure, than the loftiness of not knowing and the excitement of finding out something new. I felt surprised hearing that. Didn¡¯t they already know that this place was a dungeon and not some normal monsters cave? I think I assumed things a little too much on my own this time. I should stop putting theories above reason, as it is proving to be nothing more than an overly though reason for an untimely headache and nothing more. I explained the situation to Minie and she replied with an ¡°okay.¡± A simple word and that¡¯s all. I think the situation is direr than I thought; otherwise she wouldn¡¯t be acting like someone was going to die no matter what happened. What really happened, what made such changes to occur in her? Well, it is not something that I can figure out on my own, she a girl after all. After their discussion finished, they started walking and after reaching the edge of the room they saw the two tunnels leading into the inner parts of this supposed cave system and discussed between them to take a decision. The girls were fighting and the boys were debating, and only that chameleon was standing in the side looking toward the tunnels without moving even an inch. Then their fake leader suddenly spoke and they started talking about their problems and the hidden danger that this cave might hold etc, etc. They talked about traps that we didn¡¯t have. I honestly wanted to at least build some pitfalls in the narrow tunnel, but they came too suddenly and we had no time to do anything after that. Should I make and prepare them now? Nah it won¡¯t work they are moving pretty fast to cover the distance easily. Then after their heated discussion ended, they decided to move together to escape any traps with the help of the black clothed individual who could detect them. Yeah, I can see him too when I use my normal vision to see instead of my mana perception, but when I use mana perception, there is no light ball in his place indicting that he isn¡¯t physically present and is only present in our minds. Well, whatever I have a little devil at my side to take care of small matters like these. I don¡¯t need to get a headache over such things. So I recited my new found clue to Minie who in turn said well done to me. ¡®What the actual fuck is going on here¡¯ yeah, those were my thoughts on when I heard her praise me out of the blue. ¡®She is ill I guess.¡¯ is another one of my crazy hypothesis, but let¡¯s not get overly excited over it. What I need to do is pretty clear to me. I need to make sure that all of them don¡¯t end up dying out of nowhere and for no explainable cause. I have to make sure that no one from their party dies and hope that after killing the queen they would decide to show mercy and not kill me too. What will happen if they somehow died inside of my home? Nothing, I just don¡¯t want my home to stink of blood because they will send even more powerful guys here to take revenge. Well, not like I can make even these guys bleed. No, I had no idea or knowledge about such a controversial thing. All my wisdom about the world is the courtesy of our new and improved Minie-Sama. This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source. The heavy armored guy and the fake swordsman bickered with one another for some time, but after that chameleon¡¯s inspirational speech of sort, they decided to move together cause of the traps that the queen, who can¡¯t come out of her room might have installed inside the tunnels. Because they were moving together I decided to move the ants in the last intersected tunnels just before the one that leads to our room, in hope that they would d something interesting with the next intersection of tunnels. I think I really need to purchase that upgrade that puts the number of individuals that a tunnel can enter. I told Minie and she said, ¡°It¡¯s possible, but we¡¯ll have to kill one or two of them.¡± You heard it right, the sound of my heart breaking. Well, I didn¡¯t, because it didn¡¯t break in the first place. They entered from one side and exited from the other. Their confused faces and itching hands were enough clues to tell me what they were really thinking. Now there was the option to choose one from three tunnels and to my good luck unlike before instead of moving together again and take care of everything. Their so called leader made decision and they decided to split and travel through all the tunnels in small teams. That bad person he really must have one or more than one reasons for splitting, but whatever I don¡¯t care. But I find it funny. Not their discussions or thoughtless decisions, but the octopuses¡¯ reason for not letting them rest for even a single minute and for separating their forces. He said and let me quote ¡°Hah, A new colony? Do you know how, many eggs a queen can lay in a single day? You probably don¡¯t know, so let me tell you. A queen can give birth to almost 20000 young ants in a month. So going by that, and the time that has passed between the explosions, there should be at least 600 ants here¡±. *Puff* Yeah, I laughed and laughed my ass off, until I heard a sweet gentle voice in my head telling me to stop it. I felt surprised first and then bewildered, ¡®what happened to my Minie?¡¯ this question rang in my mind like an echo. Man what made her character change from a devil to an angel, what happened that made her so sweet and nice? Well, it¡¯s not like I don¡¯t like it, but yeah, she feels like a stranger to me without her anger. But, I think they would have felt disappointed if they knew, we only had five ants and one queen at our disposal out of which one had already died by their hands. So, should I go and tell them my queen can only lay 3 eggs a day and the eggs take 8 hours to hatch, and the hatched egg releases larvae into the world that takes even more time and now even want resources to mature. Nah, I don¡¯t want them to pity me or my poor queen. Well the ¡®changeling¡¯ used the excuse of traps, dead ends and the possibility of a queen laying millions of eggs to divide the team''s love through the tunnels. The main villain entered the middle tunnel and took the one. While I noticed activating and deactivating my mana vision that the girl they called dust was going alone. Well, not really alone. She had the phantom of that chameleon with her; I just hope she can take care of one or two ants, because they are waiting for her in there. Am I having the hots for her? No! There is only one for me, my precious ¡®Ant¡¯. ¡°huh.¡± That was Minie. She still invades my brain to eavesdrop on my thoughts. Well, at least she hasn¡¯t completely changed into the stranger, which she is becoming. The ¡®magician¡¯ (those who trick other people) moved inside the middle tunnel with the one that he''d has been harnessing on the way. The rest also moved into their selected tunnels. This person is a dungeon level threat. He is trouble and great one at that. I wanted to make him fight with all of the ants to possibly kill him, but I rejected the idea as soon as it came and instead of suicide bombing all of my ants on his face, I decided to also divided my ants into a two team and sent them to the tunnels in the left and right. I myself went after that traitor in disguise and followed him in the middle tunnel. I wasn''t feeling very good from his decision and my intuition was telling me to go after him to find what was really going on, so I followed him. And like I thought his intentions really weren''t any good. Both of them walked inside the tunnel for some time and when the entrance looked nothing other than a dot, that ¡®founder¡¯ stopped dead in his track. His hateful partner who was following from behind him saw him stopping so he also stopped. He opened his mouth to speak, but instead of letting him do so ¡®The Squid¡¯ in human skin turned around and then he looked straight into the eyes of that green clothed individual with a bow. ¡°What happened?¡± His voice was shaking and so were his legs. He knew something was wrong, but also knew that the wrong won¡¯t be made right, even if he protested. He wasn¡¯t angry but scared. How do I know? Because even though I have no eyes, I could still see his shaking legs and hear his thumping chest. On the other side our copycat was calm as the sky, but raging as an ocean. The thing is, my mana perception is a little more precious and has a lot more abilities than I thought it to be. Not only help me see through the useable, but it also helps me to identify emotions. It¡¯s very sophisticated and scientific, so believe me you won¡¯t understand even if I tell you that his ball of light was now quivering and wavering like a candle flame in high wind. It¡¯s not just quivering like its feeling cold but also getting smaller and its brightness is also decreasing. So, this is what Minie meant when she said, ¡°ones power not only depends on their mana and abilities, but also their emotions and state of mind. Because our Robin Hood was too scared, and had forgotten his balls at home before coming here, his light ball had shriveled and had shrunk to half of its original size. Well, size does matters after all. Well, what happened afterwards was a¡­ what¡¯s the word that is used to explain the situation when squealing pigs are cut alive or when a chicken head is cut from its neck in one chop or when a deer is killed with one arrow straight to the heart or when a crying and pleading human is lifted by his hair, slapped miserably, his foot attached to the floor with a dagger and then one-sidedly punched to death. Ah! Yes, now I remember. It¡¯s called slaughtering; he was painfully, mercilessly, and in the most gruesome way slaughtered by our villain of the day. How did it happen? The story will continue but let me first take a mind call from Minie, ¡°Yes, what happened?¡± ¡°I think, I now understand the reason for you seeing six people instead of five.¡± Is what she said. Chapter 18 - Demonification Author''s note:- This and next chapter is about how the archer died. Now, i wanted to kill him and be done with him, but i decided to give him the power to retaliate. Me doing this caused a change in the setting of this world but when i thought on it, actually this little fight explains a lot and improves the story gradually. . Enjoy. ............................................................................................................................................................... Rocky¡¯s P.O.V:- Yeah, the archer was slaughtered, but he did retaliate. It¡¯s not like he was killed in a single sword strike or by a dagger straight to his heart. No, he fought back and in between, the fight took an amusing turn. It was amusing for me and Minie, but got dangerous for them both and by the end it looked like the other one was going to win, but the upset didn¡¯t happen. ¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­. When the prey saw the hunter looking at him with no emotions in his eyes and no smile on his face, he instinctively knew that his time had come. So, instead of pleading or begging, he moved his straight but pointed and thick fingers to shoot a volley of arrows at the chameleon. His long life as an adventurer wasn¡¯t lived for nothing, as all of his attacks were made with pinpoint accuracy and explosive power. The arrows flew in a straight line and made impact on our octopuses still body, but instead of making or turning him into a puffer fish, all of the arrows simply and completely passed through his phantom. The archer was left dumbfounded, shocked and dismayed. He looked at his arrows travelling away from him, sailing on the still air of the room and burrowing straight into the wall behind the now disappearing phantom image. The shock of a swordsman using such speed and disappearing was something unforgettable. It was now embedded deep into his soul, impacting his conscious every time he thought about it. But then an expression of remembrance suddenly changed his facial expressions from a cowardly spook to an angry bull. (He remembered all that had happened outside the cave.) But while the archer¡¯s eyes were staring daggers at the place where the attacker once stood, the hunter was getting himself busy. The hunter who had silently disappeared using his speed was now moved closer and closer to the prey, while the prey was busy trying to figure out how a swordsman vanished into thin air. The thing is the assassin used his high speed motion which naturally created afterimages and tricked the archer. Then taking advantage of his not so attentive vision and disturbed mindset, the trickster climbed up a wall and started crawling on the ceiling, till he got above his head. How do I know? Well, it¡¯s a secret. It¡¯s not like I could see a ball of light crawling on the ceiling like a lizard. The archer, who couldn¡¯t find his leader after he calmed down, decided to do what any other person in this situation would do. He ran away. He ran away. No, actually he had just turned around and was just getting in the position to start his running motion, when a dagger fell from the ceiling, cut through the centre of his foot and fixed it to the ground like a nail. ¡°Ahhhhh¡± the archer screamed while turning his face to look at the menacing face of his attacker, who still did not have any smile on his face. ¡°Why? Why? Why? Just what the hell did I do wrong to you? Why the fuck are you after my throat from the very beginning?¡± He yelled, shouted and screamed the words out of his throat. It felt like he was saving those words for some other time, but was pressured to say them. The force behind his words was enough of an indication to explain, his rage and anger that was only growing more and more and not subsiding. Anger; it not only leads to the demise of the one being in control of it, but also creates destruction for those around. Listening to the prey condemning him, that black spider hanging from the roof jumped down. He jumped down without any sound being created or dust flying. The roof was just 10 foot above the ground level anyway. He was spooked and shocked; when he saw his enemy not coming out some corner far away, but jumping down from the ceiling just above his head. So why didn¡¯t he saw him crawling on the roof and looking at him like a viper which that assassin is? I guess his leg was hurting and he had to close his eyes for the time being. (Being sarcastic) Nah, actually the darkness inside the cave played a very vital role in that. No matter how keen and excellent the eye sight of an archer is, how could he have any use for it inside the dark tunnel? A figure dropped from the roof and stood straight in front of the archer who was now kneeling on the floor, trying to get that dagger out of his foot. ¡°Why you ask? Do I need a reason to kill you? You make it sound like I can¡¯t kill you without a reason.¡± Hearing the voice he was left surprised and astonished. The voice that he heard didn¡¯t belong to the face that he was looking at. It was a bit harsh and heavy and contained a dialect that he had never heard before. ¡°Who are you?¡± the voice almost didn¡¯t come out of his mouth, but when it did, all of his anger and tension went away and confusion had taken their place instead. ¡°Don¡¯t tell me, you don¡¯t even remember how your captain looks like?¡± The voice contained a hint of surprise, but its laughing tone was enough to clear any confusion indicating that the speaker might be feeling surprised. ¡°No, you are not him. How can I not remember that mother fucker¡¯s voice! Tell who the fuck you actually are and why do you want to kill me?¡± He wasn¡¯t talking anymore, just shouting and screaming. I don¡¯t know who he was trying to intimidate, with his wet eyes and that snot running down his face. Well, his actions at least made me laugh. But to his question, the good for nothing back stabber started laughed, just like me and maybe because of the same reason too. ¡°Ahahah. Yes you are right I am not him. Want to know who I really am? Then see with your open eyes and don¡¯t forget. Okay.¡± He said that and his whole body again got covered with shadows. It took some time and when the shadow dissipated, that black clothed octopus was standing in place of the swordsman. Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere. The archer wanted to say more, but the only words which left his mouth were, ¡°You!¡±, ¡°Why¡±, ¡°how¡±. Maybe, the shock was too great for him to work his mind around, and that had happened inside the room. The chameleon changed his colors, and became somebody else in mere seconds. The whole process felt like he was just breathing, but the shock it gave was too great for the archer and me as well. Though I already knew he was going to do that from the start, but something¡¯s remain thrilling no matter how many times you see them. ¡°Like I said before, I have no reason to not kill you and also don¡¯t have any reason to not kill you, but no matter what happens, you are going to die here and that won¡¯t change. Not only you, but everyone else will also be killed by my hands and there is no one who can stop me.¡± ¡°But how did you¡­where is the captain?¡± To his answer I was also curious and just as he was going to tell the reason, Minie also spoke and I heard them both saying the same thing at the same time, ¡°Illusion¡±. ¡°He was an illusion and nothing more. Well don¡¯t ask me anymore, you are not qualified enough to know anything.¡± He said that and moved his arms to slice his neck. His speed reached a frightening level and his arms almost disappeared, creating a black line reaching from his waist to archers shoulder height in a single second. But just when he moved the sword that he was still holding to attack the archer who was looking at the ground with his eyes closed something happened, something changed inside the archer. All the hate that he had buried inside his heart and had turned into a seed came out and started growing. When this happened the sword hadn¡¯t even started moving yet. I, who could see his mana as a ball of dwindling light, saw a change occurring inside of him. It was small at the beginning but it started growing. From a speck at the centre of the ball, the change started and spread like a wildfire. It didn¡¯t stop and grew until it fully engulfed his ball of light, turning it into a shade of purple which instead of glowing brighter started turning darker and darker. It took not even a fraction of second for the change to take place and the same time it happened, the Sword that had now picked up speed and was travelling at a frightening speed, fell on his neck. But instead of doing any damage to his neck, the sword chipped and the assassin¡¯s eyes grew serious. And then I heard Minie bringing a bad news to me. ¡°KEEP A CLOSE EYE ON HIM! HE IS TURNING.¡± This was the first time in my life that I heard her talking seriously, and it brought a sense of uneasiness to me. ¡°What? Turning into what? You are not making any sense.¡± ¡°You know I told you once about how there are different elements in the world. And each person has affinity with one of the elements.¡± ¡°Yeah, I do remember, but what has that got to do with this situation?¡± ¡°Do you remember about the chaos element?¡± ¡°Yes I remember you saying that humans kill everyone with the chaos element and whoever has it will bring destruction and terror to the world or something like that.¡± ¡°Yeah, the thing is no one is really born with the chaos element. It grows from emotions, strong emotions. Emotions like hate and extreme sadness are what leads to one grow its seed inside their body.¡± She sighed once after saying that. ¡°So?¡± I was confused. Why would she bring this now? I mean, it¡¯s not like the changes happening inside the archer has any relat¡­ ¡°You know what the color of Chaos element is? It¡¯s purple and do you know what is happening to your friend down there?¡± ¡°No I actually don¡¯t.¡± Yeah I don¡¯t know so I said that I don¡¯t, but why is she asking me so many questions? No I am not confused about the questions but her behavior where did her intense, fuming and mocking behavior go. ¡°It¡¯s called Demonification. His natural element is converting into the chaos element corrupting him and turning him into a Demon.¡± She stopped for a second, took a deep breath before continuing; ¡°A Demon, same as the ones who lives on the other side of the mountain.¡± Then came silence. No, the silence was between me and Minie only. The archer who was turning into a Demon was not doing so well. He was screaming in pain and sweating like crazy, his frustrated and terror filled voice was turning hard and becoming like a mix of many. While this was happening instead of acting and finishing the devil reincarnated, the assassin was staring daggers at his sword and I was having an intense question answer session with Minie. ¡°What? How did this happen. Isn¡¯t he a normal human being? Then why is he turning into a demon? And what do you mean an element converting, can elements even convert?¡± While my voice was getting louder and louder after each of her answer, she was getting calmer and calmer and answering without any hurry. Moreover, she was polite. ¡°Yes, elements can be converted. But it¡¯s the wrong word to use here. Elements can¡¯t actually be converted, but they can evolve. Didn¡¯t I tell you, there are many variations of an element and different people might have affinities with rare and strong elements? Those variations are actually evolution that happened as the time passed and bloodlines were distributed. We¡¯ll talk about this later because I think a good show is going to start now.¡± Here she completed her sentence and there our archer completed his transformation and our two faced friend broke his sword. Well, his transformations weren¡¯t complete, but from the look of it most of the important changes were over. The archer who was bent on his knees stood up. He lifted his right leg and as he did the dagger that was keeping his right foot stationed on the ground couldn¡¯t keep up and came out of the floor with the lifted leg. He looked at the dagger once before using his right hand to slowly draw it out of his foot, and then he threw it away like it was nothing more than a piece of metal. When the metal sound of dagger hitting the ground rang out, the assassin who was looking at his sword looked up, faced toward the archer and just as he did so his brows creased. Chapter 18.2 - He killed the Archer Author''s note:- This chapter was written with shaking hands and a crazy headache. I have a fever so don''t expect another chapter today. I had to write the fight scenes thrice and understood that I''m not good at writing a face to face fight. . Enjoy. ..................................................................................................................................................................................................... Rocky¡¯s P.O.V:- The archer went through a series of transformations but his overall physique still looked the same. Though some dramatic changes that occurred everywhere on his body. Firstly, his color turned from a healthy wheat brown with a tinge of redness on his glowing face, to a darker brownish shade and his veins bulged out. The veins on his face and body were now squirming and pulsating and were bulging out like they were going to burst out from the pressure. His eyes, which were once blue in color turned crimson and the white part of his eyes tuned into pitch black. They looked like a red moon hanging in a pitch black sky with no stars near it. His nails grew bigger and even a simple look of those steel bound 2 inch long nail, completely convinced me of their danger and sharpness. His hair also grew from being short to waist length, but instead of being silky and smooth, they became more like spikes and thrones. His transformations were still continuing and from the look of it they weren¡¯t going to stop any time soon. There were multiple things happening all over his body like; the growth of two small horns from his forehead, his skin turning more like the bark of a tree, his teeth getting sharper and his muscles growing and gaining weight. To say that he was human who looked like a monster was nothing but a censored version of the fact that he had no humanity left in him anymore. Minie was screaming something in my head, but I who was too immersed in the view didn¡¯t listen to her. But then she started nagging and I had to listen to what she wanted to say, ¡°Don¡¯t worry, okay even if he turns into a monster there are people here who can kill him. Well, from the way he is changing looks like his hate was too much, so he is probably going to go insane.¡± ¡°That can happen?¡± ¡°Yeah too much of anything can only be dangerous to one¡¯s body and instead of provide any benefit it would only lead to its degradation. And also, because the chaos element is going to make him senile, he probably won¡¯t be able to use his skills and the like. So even if he turns into a demon and get more powerful; I don¡¯t think he¡¯ll be able to leave our dungeon alive.¡± ¡°Is this alright?¡± Yeah my replies turned into one liner¡¯s because she was finally acting like a helper and not a helper. I don¡¯t know why, but I still miss the old her. ¡°Well, it¡¯s good for us isn¡¯t it? We can sit back relax and enjoy a good fight while getting some credits at the same time. Ah! Just for comparison why don¡¯t you open and see his status?¡± ¡°I can do that?¡± ¡°Yes you can. Open the dungeon interface and concentrate on his name, that should do the trick.¡± I thought for a minute and did as she said and it appeared in front of me. I got happy for a second, but then I actually saw his status.
Status Window
NameNoneSpeciesDemon
Level99AffinityChaos
Rank1Job-
NatureEvilClassNone
TitlesCorrupted, Soul shackled,
Health805Health reg.11/min
Mana5Mana Reg..03/min
Vitality80Knowledge1
Resistance10Intelligence1
Strength105(^)Dexterity94
Agility130(^)Luck-25
¡°How is it? You can see it right?¡± ¡°Yes, I can, but what the hell is wrong with this? How come he has so many points distributed into each of his stats?¡± ¡°It is because of him turning into a demon. If it wasn¡¯t so then he would have a pretty normal status. Well, it doesn¡¯t matter let¡¯s see how your friend their copes with him.¡± Well, whatever. Let¡¯s just enjoy the show. And just as our conversation ended, the Assassin who was only looking at the transforming demon suddenly rushed out and attacked. His body, moved and his hands faded away. The assassin moved and slashed the sword in his hand towards the devils neck. The sword fell and made contact with his neck, but unlike he expected instead of cutting his neck, it got chipped instead. His eyes bulged out, but he knew that this was not the time to get surprised, so he hurriedly moved his sword to his front and got ready to face the counter attack from him. The devils red eyes moved he looked up and those bright eyes which were demanding blood got locked onto the assassin. He stared at him for some time in silence and then he roared. *Roar* Though the roar wasn¡¯t powerful and didn¡¯t create any shock wave of its own, but it still shook the whole room. Just as the roar exploded in the room the devil moved. He ran toward the assassin like a raging bull, trying to pierce him with his horns. His horns that were still growing were now at least 4 inch long and sharp as a spear. But to his attack, the assassin snorted once before evading it by side stepping. The demon passed through one of his afterimages that were left after he displayed his high speed movement. The demon turned around and came back again for one more round. His leg muscles swelled to twice their size and his arms became bulkier and unlike before when he ran only using his legs, this time he crouched and started running on all his four. The assassin saw him doing that and snorted again in disdain, but he couldn¡¯t keep his lofty attitude because of the difference in speed that the demon displayed once his hands touched the ground. He flashed once before appearing right in front of Enco. Enco got startled because at that moment the demons speed had exceeded his own. ¡°Oreyaa¡± His loud yell couldn¡¯t stop the horns from piercing through his leather armor like a paper and dividing him into two, but from his looks the demon turned archer wasn¡¯t happy. There was no blood on his horns and even the body vanished after he had torn it apart. No blood means the attack was evaded. Actually, just as Enco was about to get pierced by the Rage monster he had jumped upward. His speed was enough to leave behind afterimages, and it was also his fading shadow which got pierced by the demon. The demon looked back and saw him clinging to the ceiling like a gecko. His anger reached another level, as his long nail grew even longer. He stood up and ran toward the assassin who was falling from the ceiling towards the ground. Keeping his nails in front of him he slashed at the assassin like some ferocious animal, but Enco used his speed, side stepped using his right foot and moved. Because the demon was only running on his foot, so Enco¡¯s speed was enough to evade his attack. He evaded the attack moved behind the demon¡¯s back. The demon noticed him evading behind him, so he hurriedly stopped his acceleration and rotated his waist before powerfully to put more weight behind his attack before slashing his nails from up to down thinking of cleaving the assassin in half. Enco had just moved behind the Demon, when the sword like nails came to take his life away. He knew about the power behind the attack and his own strength, so instead of blocking the attack head on. He parried one hand full of nails to the side using both of his daggers. The nails sliding on the daggers created sparks, but there was no room for Enco to take a breath of relief because the other hand was right in front of his chest. Those nails put a dent in his defense, when his leather armor got cut and a claw mark got engraved on it. But Enco quick thinking saved him otherwise he would have died already. After parrying the hand full of sword like nails, he saw another one coming towards his chest. He quickly kicked the ground and jumped backwards to evade, but those nails still reached him and cut the upper layer of his skin through his leather armor. He jumped back and just as his foot touched the ground his body got shrouded in shadows and he disappeared. The demon, whose momentum from running was still carrying him forward suddenly, felt a presence behind him. He cracked his neck to look back, to see what was happening, but what he saw enraged him even more. He saw a dagger coming straight towards his neck from behind him. The demon cranked his neck to the left and putting pressure on his leg, he rotated his body using his left leg as the pivot point and evaded the attack. If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. Enco improvised and moved the trajectory of his dagger, but the devils rotation to get out of its path was much faster than his adjustments and in the end it only left a red line on his black neck before parting away. The red line created a contrast on his black body, but the demon didn¡¯t give a single look to his injury as he moved to attack Enco. His rotating body created enough momentum for him to do a kick. He lifted his right leg and gave a powerful spin kick on the assassin¡¯s stomach. The kick landed, but only on thin air as Enco had already started retreating when his dagger missed. So before the kick could land on him he jumped backward while the dagger coming back attacked the same position that it had before and made the bloody line on Roby¡¯s neck thicker and deeper. That angered the devil whose roars and wails shook the room like it was made of paper. His legs expanded once more and he moved, no he ran and his speed was absolutely identical to the assassin. The assassin who saw his muscles expanding was left a bit confused but his attention and vigilance didn¡¯t reduce even a little bit. When the devil moved to attack him, he also did the same and ran straight toward him. The distance that was created between them was again reduced to some meters, but before they could meet each other in the center and do a head on battle in the center, Enco disappeared into the shadows and came out from behind the devil. But his attack wasn¡¯t successful, as the keen vision and extraordinary senses of the devil sensed his presence from his back and he made a backwards kick which fell right on Enco¡¯s chest. This time He wasn¡¯t able to do anything, as the kick landed squarely on his chest and he flew. Enco flew; the kick was so powerful that he vomited blood as he was sent flying toward the wall. The evil smirked and he started running towards Enco keeping his hands straight in front of him with the idea to directly impale him with his 4 inch long nails. But instead of impacting on the wall and getting embedded into it Enco got engulfed into a shadowy hole and disappeared. The devil that was fighting quite skillfully was also losing his mental fortitude slowly. The chaos element that was forcefully converting the archer into a devil was not only corrupting his body and mind, but also his soul. The assassin who had disappeared into shadows came out again, but his time the shadow hole opened on the ceiling directly above the Demon. Enco pushed the ceiling with his foot and fell toward the demon with great force. He had kept his dagger straight in front of him to stab it directly into his head, but the attack failed as the running demon suddenly cranked his head to the right and evaded the attack. Enco moved his dagger to cut his face but as it touched instead of leaving another red line from his head to his neck it did nothing else. Even though the demon evaded getting stabbed in to his head, but the dagger still stuck his shoulder and dug deep into it. The demon roared and shook his head crazily, but it did not make any impact on Enco. Enco used the struck dagger as a pivot and rotated his body mid air to jump backwards, but he was a bit late, as the demon launched his fist in anger and it punched him directly on his face. His backward momentum from the jump reduced some power of the punch, but it still hurt him badly. That punch broke his nose, while blood started rushing to his mouth. His feet touched the ground and he again went to attack on the raging bull His arms moved so fast that others could only see black lines moving. The devil that had by now become wild was bombarded with dagger attacks that made bloody cuts on his body again and again. But all his attacks were met with attacks from the demon. He attacked on the left and evaded on the right. He crouched to dodge and attacked with his dagger. Hacking, slashing, parrying, and piercing and attacked him from all the angles and directions, but most of his attacks only left red lines on the demons body and nothing more. Both of them crazily attacked each other. If the demon was getting bloody lines everywhere on his body then Enco was also getting scratched and cut. ¡°The hell are you?¡± he yelled and jumped backward to end their onslaught, but he was followed by the demon. When the demons foot touched the ground, instead of continuing the motion and launching him forward, he got slanted to his right side. When he looked down he was his foot not touching the ground, but going inside a dark shadow hole. He roared and tried to get his leg out of it, but before he could do so; the hole closed and his leg from knee downward to his foot vanished. The hole closed and his leg got cut. *Roar* The devil couldn¡¯t understand what just happened, but then the pain kicked in and he roared. ¡°We should finish this now.¡± The assassin said and he disappeared into the shadows. His face that was full of grief, pain and terror was once again smiling; his eyes were glowing because he could see the end to the fight coming near. Another shadow hole opened near the demon and a dagger came out flying from inside and the hole disappeared. The dagger made a cut on the demons face and went on flying, but then Enco appeared and caught the dagger and attacked using the same strategy. He caught the dagger and slashed on the demon with other dagger. Holding both the daggers in his hands he started spinning and the spinning tornado rained hell on the demon. The demon retaliated and punched toward the spinning tornado but before his fist made contact, it disappeared into the shadows again. Another hole opened from the ceiling and Enco came out of it. He fell from the ceiling cut the demons ear and went into a shadowy hole on the ground. The demon tried to punch him while his body was going into the hole, but instead on hitting him, his arm got swallowed by the darkness and it disappeared as the hole on the ground closed. Now, the demon was in an awkward position with both is right arm and leg cut. He roared and yelled, but his limbs didn¡¯t grow back again. Enco again appeared from behind him, his daggers shrouded in a dark red fog. He moved, he ran and stabbed one of his daggers into his back and passed him by. The demon didn¡¯t die, instead he stood up on his left leg and started thumping his chest with his left arm like a gorilla. Enco didn¡¯t lose his wining momentum and he ran toward him from the front. The demon attacked him using his only arm and a fist came bulldozing toward Enco, but he crouched down and dogged the attack. While the fist moved away creating howling sounds, he ferociously slashed his dagger with his left arm on the demons only leg while sliding away. The demon leg which was strong like a strong pillar was cut like a paper. The demon that could still stay standing up anymore fell down with his back facing the ground. The dagger that was stabbed into his back got pushed inside, but instead of killing him it made him roar in pain. Enco, who had been over taxing himself by using shadow movement skill again and again, appeared in front of the now limbless demon who was coughing out blood like a waterfall. He looked at him with craziness in his eyes and said, ¡°You fucking pussy. Who the fuck told you to turn into a demon? Why the fuck did you even hate me so much? The only thing I did was to kick your butt once and nothing more. You couldn¡¯t even bare that much shame.¡± He said that and stabbed his other dagger straight into the demons heart. The demon cried out in pain, blood came gushing out of mouth. The assassin removed both of daggers from the demons body and attacked his neck from the right side, but the demon roared and fired a concentrated ball of mana at the assassin. Enco got scared and hurriedly used another shadow displacement skill, but before he could completely close the hole the blast happened and he got engulfed in it. But unfortunately for the demon, Enco was too fast to get harmed by something like that. Another hole opened behind his back and the death god came out of it. The demon was still alive, but had only a head attached to his chest. His roaring never stopped and the red eyes kept on menacingly looking at Enco. If staring could kill, then the assassin would have died hundreds of time by now from the demons stares. ¡°So what the hell are you huh? What is this? I didn¡¯t know pesky archers could turn into monsters? Well, whatever. See you in hell.¡± To his questions the demon replied with a roar. He shrugged his shoulders, looked at him with crazy eyes and his dagger cut the demons neck in two. The head flew and disappeared into the darkness. *Ding* *Ding* *Ding* Then I heard the amusing sound of notifications. I was going to check what I got, but he started walking again and I followed behind him. Chapter 18.3 - Skill Book Author''s note:- I''m sorry for not posting any chapter for so many days. its just that i had no motivation to write anything and it stagnated the whole progress. Well, I''m back and there are more chapters coming today. . Enjoy. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Rocky¡¯s P.O.V:- I followed behind him. From my memories of his cruelty, I thought he would definitely stop and enjoy the marvel that he has created, but really unlike my discretion, he didn¡¯t even look back. He stood up and started walking toward the exit of the tunnel. Was he walking slowly and with a limp from the injuries that he suffered while fighting with the demon? No, he was running at his top speed. I even thought that maybe everything was an illusion, but his bloody body and torn attire were enough of an indication to make me consider my thoughts again. I asked Minie to confirm my doubts to her, but, ¡°No, it was true not an illusion.¡± Was what she said. Well, we exited the tunnel, but unlike what I had thought that he would do, instead of going straight to ¡®The Queen¡¯ or ¡®My¡¯ room that is just in front after crossing the ¡®queen size¡¯ tunnel, he turned and entered one of the adjacent tunnels. Exactly the one in which the Earth mage and one of his illusions were travelling in. My artificial face contorted to describe my confusion, but everything became clear when I followed him, sneakily. He entered the tunnel taking advantage of the natural darkness of the dungeon and sneaked behind my Ants. Just as he got near my ants his illusion which was walking with that girl faded under an extravagant show of dark shadows. The girl must have thought that he was using one of his skills to travel behind the ants. And after vanishing into twilights, he magically appeared behind the monsters. He then sneaked behind my Ants, and killed them both by cutting their heads. Then he took the heads and used his shadow movement technique to directly appear in front of the girl. He waited while holding the heads in his hands, waited for them to give some kind of a reward for the kill, but I cancelled the reward for him. Why would I want to give this bullshit troll anything, moreover, for killing my own troops sneakily? Her eyebrows flinched once when she saw him holding two ant heads. Then they waited for the ant to give them some kind of a reward, but the ants disappeared into lights without dropping anything. They walked out of the tunnel and waited for their other team members to come out of the tunnels too. While they were waiting for their party to team up, I decided to ask Minie about things that we had no time to talk about before. Illusions, what are they? These are quite powerful and we wouldn¡¯t have been able to do anything if I didn¡¯t have my mana perception. So I asked her about it and after some time her response came. ¡°So you have the time to talk to me now?¡± Her voice had a tinge of sadness, like telling me how lonely she was feeling without me. Feeling giddy from her behavior, I replied, ¡°Yeah, sorry they were too, how should I say, interesting to be distracted. Well, then go on, tell me then what are illusions?¡± ¡°Illusions are the distortions in one''s senses. They are not physically present, but are something that an illusionist conjures for deception, like used in the tunnel by your assassin friend down there.¡± Her explanation was right on but I had my doubts so I asked, ¡°What do you mean by saying ¡®they are not physically present¡¯? I could see them properly?¡± ¡°Yes, that''s why I said its deception. An illusionist uses mana and provides extra or more information than there really is in the surroundings. There are many ways to create illusions, like sound illusions, light illusions, then mind illusions etc. The rate and factor all depend on the trickster and their level and mastery of the said art.¡± ¡®What is she getting all excited for¡¯ I thought, but I didn¡¯t give the thought any more room to prevail and asked her the question, which was banging in my mind like crazy. ¡°Then aren¡¯t illusionists the most powerful people in this world.¡± Think about it, if people can¡¯t even see their attacker, then how they would even face off against them? But her answer opened my eyes or was she praising me? ¡°Well, didn¡¯t you see right through them?¡± Hearing her answer my soul stared floating and I felt relieved. Why? Because this is how she praises. ¡°Yes, you are right. But can all the people use illusions.¡± ¡°No, only those who have a dark affinity have the ability to use them and most assassins and the like have a dark affinity, so yeah. But to answer your real question, yes, you can use illusions. Why can¡¯t you?¡± I could feel her smirking while she said that. Well, yeah I wanted to ask her whether I could use illusions or not, but whatever. ¡°Ahem¡­tell me about the archer. What happened to him? Why did he suddenly change from a fully fledged, na?ve crybaby to a fight loving and rampaging bloody monster?¡± ¡°Umm¡­ I don¡¯t know how demons came to be. Forget me, no one actually knows how the first demon was born or should I say who the first demon was? Demons are the creatures of sin. Extremely strong emotions, well negative emotion like hate, anger, fear make one susceptible to becoming a demon. Well, according to most people and old tales, Demons are the creatures who once lived a life full of misery and then sold their soul for power, but some say that when that when a human get possessed by an evil soul, then it becomes a demon. If we see it that way, then evil taking possession could be the Chaos element. So the possession story might not actually be false, we have seen a real human turning after all.¡± ¡°What role do emotions play in all of this? I didn¡¯t suspect anyone like him would go crazy with anger or something.¡± ¡°Did you see a purple dot or seed appearing inside his soul ball?¡± ¡°Yes.¡± ¡°Then the ¡®seed¡¯ grew and took over his element and forcibly changed his element of affinity from wind to Chaos.¡± ¡°Yes.¡± ¡°That was the role which his emotions played in his¡­Turning. I don¡¯t know when or how, but a seed of chaos or evil took root inside his soul and when the assassin showed, no way for him to leave alive and when all of his hopes broke, the seed grew until it completely converted him." "Then does that mean the demons are much powerful than humans, but they lose their humanity when they turn?" "Powerful? Actually, he wasn''t powerfully at all. That was just the replica of a demon at best. A real demon not those that are born as a demon, but those who turn are only formed when the seed of evil slowly corrupts their soul and slowly turns their nature from one of a human into a bloodthirsty beast. Such demons are rare, but a single such demon could easily destroy more than dozen humans on the same level...alone." "Damm. Then we are actually fortunate." ¡°Yeah. Well, forget about that. Did you see how many credits we got from him getting killed here.¡± ¡°No, how much?" She is again acting very excited I don¡¯t know why, but even though I sometimes miss that evil and arrogant Minie, but this character of her is not bad either and neither was her answer. Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author''s preferred platform and support their work! ¡°Almost two thousand! We got almost two thousand and we can still collect more profit from him.¡± ¡°How 2 thous¡­ how is this possible are you sure? Let me check.¡± ¡°Check it afterward, firstly eat that body.¡± ¡°Do what?¡± ¡°That body you need to eat it. If you do, we¡¯ll get even more credits.¡± ¡°But¡­¡± ¡°No buts Just do it.¡± Just do it. What am I: a cannibal, a beast, I can''t eat that body. I am hoping that I would not need to eat that, but who am I kidding, I know she will never listen to me and will probably reprimand me for not doing it like she said. I just hope she won''t ask me to go and chew every part of him, not like I can. ¡°How should I¡­ eat it? Won''t it be very hard for me to chew, when even the assassin''s daggers were only leaving behind sparks?¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry, you won¡¯t have to personally go and chomp down every bit of it. Just will it and the room he is in will slowly but surely sort his body along with all of the items that he is carrying and absorb it. Then everything in and on him will get absorbed and provide ¡®nutrition¡¯ to your dungeon.¡± ¡°Absorb it?¡± ¡°Yes, absorb it.¡± ¡°To get stronger?¡± ¡°Yes, to get stronger.¡± You know what I did after I heard her saying, ¡®it was to get stronger¡¯. I shrugged my shoulders did what she said, and his body started decomposing right in front of me. No, it wasn¡¯t actually decomposing, but the same like how my Ants vanish into nothingness; He was also disappearing into lights right in front of me, the same way just slowly. After it completely vanished and disappeared into the void, I heard the sweet music again. *Ding*
+500 Dc
+19 Mp
+Items
+Skill Book: Rapid Fire
Whoa. I never thought I would get so many things, moreover, from a dead body. It sure felt fantastic. ¡°So, how was it? What did you get?¡± I told her everything and she was even happier than me. I asked her what that skill book thing was all about and her expressions changed. From happy to confuse, then her voice cracked and I heard the weirdest laughter in my life. ¡°Fufefufeefuu..¡± She laughed. ¡°Learn it, learn it, and learn it! Don¡¯t throw it away, once you learn it our dungeon will become a gold mine, which those humans will never be able to destroy, no matter how much or who wanted to destroy us.¡± ¡°What do you mean learn it? Can I learn a skill from this book? Don¡¯t I need to practice like really hard to master a skill?¡± I asked her feeling a bit confused and puzzled. ¡°A skill book is just for that. It helps reduce your burden and the time one needs to learn a skill.¡± ¡°So, how should I do it? I mean, where is the book? I don¡¯t see it anywhere.¡± ¡°The book is in your dungeon inventory. An inventory is a like a holding space, which help one to carry or simply hold their belongings with them. Now you have two different types of inventories, one is your simple inventory that will hold all and every important object like this skill book etc. and resources that you would buy from the dungeon. The other is an item well or sack or junk yard. It is the place where all and everything that the room absorbs goes to.¡± ¡°Even the bodies?¡± ¡°No. you already absorbed the body, and they got converted into Dungeon credits.¡± I sighed once before asking her, ¡°So, what should I do to get the book out of my inventory?¡± ¡°No need to get into that right now, just think of the skill book and it will appear in front of you and then open it and a notification should appear asking whether you want to learn the skill or not. You press yes to conform it and that¡¯s all.¡± I repeated what she said and did it in the same order as she asked me to do. I thought of the book to appear, and it appeared. I ordered it to open and it did open and just like she said, a notification appeared in front of me.¡±
Skill : Rapid FireRank : B
It is a Bow skill. Helps the caster to fire mana arrows at rapid speed without any break.
Restrictions: Class: Archer Weapon: Bow Cool down: 10min This skill won¡¯t stop midway without firing all 20 arrows.
Mana consumed: 20Arrows conjured: 10
Would you like to learn: Yes/No
¡°Minie it has class and weapon limitation. Can I really learn it? I don¡¯t think that I can use it.¡± ¡°Just say yes and see the result. You¡¯ll be surprised.¡± She hurriedly replied back. Maybe she was more eager than me to learn the skill. I thought, yes and the skill book vanished under a bustle of shining lights. Just as the skill book vanished from my view, information related to the skill directly entered my mind. I got excited; the light show of rainbow colored lights ended and a notification entered my field of view.
Rapid Arrow Skill learned
Level : 0Exp : 0%
My happiness from learning a new skill without doing any kind of practice or hard work hadn¡¯t even blossomed, when all of my expectations and desires broke, cause of this other information box that had appeared in front of me out of nowhere. [table=Red]SKILL SEALED You don¡¯t meet the required conditions to use the skill.[/table] Chapter 18.4 - They killed him. Authors note:- I wanted to finish these p.o.v but i am going to sleep now. . Enjoy ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Rocky''s P.O.V:- The Information box brought the worst news. ¡°Noooo!¡± I cried out, but no one heard my voice, my sorrow that increased after getting my hopes broken. I confirmed with Minie regarding the issue but, ¡°Minie, it said I can¡¯t use the skill.¡± ¡°Well, I never said that you would be able to directly use the skill with class, weapon or any other kind of restriction, but we still have a use for it.¡± ¡°What?!¡± ¡®Did I get another way to use the skill even though I can¡¯t directly take advantage of it?¡¯ I thought that, but my expectations which were again trying to fly, were once again shot down. ¡°Creation. Once you get your creation skills and laboratory, then with the materials and knowledge we would be able to create our own skill books to give as a reward. Now, isn¡¯t that something great.¡± ¡°But I thought that I would be able to use this skill!¡± Yeah, yeah, answer me! Why can¡¯t I use the skill? ¡°Ah! No, sorry if I gave you that impression. There is no way for anyone to even learn any skill out of their class, but you still learned it didn¡¯t you. So what if you can¡¯t use it directly! You still have a use for it, right!¡± ¡°But¡± Somehow I uttered that word and my whole world started shaking. I thought she would get angry and start guzzling out fireballs at me, but instead she politely explained it to me. ¡°What can¡¯t be done; can¡¯t be done. There is no way for you to use that skill. You either need to practice hard and gather skills slowly or you don¡¯t get any. This is life partner, though being a dungeon master and having a sentience is a great thing, but there are downfalls to it too.¡± I sighed once, then twice and then thrice. What I needed to do, I had no idea. All my ideas and dreams broke with her one sentence. Can¡¯t use the learned skills, then what am I even learning them for, gifting them to others? Why do I have to play Santa for all the children of this world? ¡°This is not fair!¡± ¡°What! You are talking about being fair? So, you mean to say, having three elemental affinities is not fair, being born with a sentience is not fair, and having me is not fair! If this is not fair, then what is fair?¡± ¡®Did she just say that¡¯ I thought when I heard that. ¡°Your learning everything, becoming overpowered and playing god, would that be fair to you. People dying, and you learning their skills; Is this what you call fair? We don¡¯t have time for this, our remaining two ants just died, so snap out of it.¡± ¡°Ah! I completely forgot about them. I wanted to try harming at least one of them with the ants, but looks like our plan of dividing the ants failed, huh.¡± ¡°Why do you worry so much? It¡¯s a good thing that we didn¡¯t hurt any other member of their team or that would have been counterproductive for us.¡± I couldn¡¯t help but remind her of this when I heard her being so optimistic and happy go lucky. ¡°But someone did die inside our dungeon.¡± When she heard that, I¡¯m sure her cheeks twitched a little. Although I couldn¡¯t see it happening, but the small pause between her answers was enough to give that away. ¡°But he was a demon. You can¡¯t say a human died in our dungeon. It was a demon, demon. Death of a human and death of a demon are two entirely different matters from each other. You won¡¯t have to worry about that.¡± Yeah, it was a demon that died inside the dungeon, and not a human. Maybe that would help us make peace with the humans, but both of us knew that this all was just our wishful thinking and nothing more. What our ¡®friend¡¯ had in mind was something entirely different. The two adventurers who had killed our ants came out of the tunnels and went directly towards the villain and the earth mage. They told each other their tale and decided to wait for their captain and the now dead archer to come out of the tunnel too, so they could discuss about their next plan. But something that they didn¡¯t know was that their leader, whom they were eagerly waiting for was sitting beside them or should I have said that they had no leader. The reward which that the iron covered man and the pretty bimbo got were one of the rarest of the ones that were designed to be dropped by the ants on their deaths. How I know that, I asked Minie and she conveyed this information to me and also told me their usage. So, she said, ¡°you see, our dungeon is very dark and there is also the danger following the oxygen content inside the tunnels, so a normal fire torch can¡¯t be used. So, to make it easier for them to survive and have a happy journey here I decided to add a vision reward, but don¡¯t worry I have made it''s drop rated ridiculously high, moreover, there are four different pieces that are required to use it. The lenses and the antennas are both required at the same time and they drop only for every 100 Ants killed. It means, if one wants to obtain them, then they will have to kill 400 Ant''s for it.¡± ¡°So, how did they obtain them after killing only two of them?¡± Yeah, my virtual brows were twitching like crazy while I asked her that. ¡°That, I think happened cause of luck. I don¡¯t know how ''Luck'' stat works, maybe they have ridiculously strong luck or maybe it¡¯s because of their nature. I don¡¯t know, they just killed two ants and they dropped.¡± I was going to get angry at her for doing something without asking or even telling me, but I was stopped dead in my track when I saw the assassin moving. For his team members he was still sitting there dazed off, but to me there was no way his magic could have worked. He conjured another illusion and trapped everyone¡¯s mind within it. Inside the illusion he was still sitting at his place and calmly looking towards the tunnel entrance in front of him, but in reality he was walking toward the entrance to the middle tunnel where he had killed the Demon. He got there and tried to find something, but even after trying for like 10 minutes when he could find anything a frown appeared on his face. ¡°Where did the body go? Was he still alive? No, no, not possible or did the ants take him away? Whatever, let¡¯s move on to the next scenario.¡± He said that, used his skill and changed his appearance from a not so interesting costume freak to a handsome and charming, but the bloody swordsman with deep and long cuts all over his body. After changing to his not so new appearance, he started walking towards the exit. When he got near the exit he started limping and heavily breathing, a simple look at him and anybody would run out to help him. He looked to be on the verge of losing consciousness, when others saw him walking out of the tunnel. They ran to give him support and help him. While the red caped girl sat, his head on her lap, the heavily armored knight recovered some vial from his waist bag and poured a large quantity of its content in his mouth and poured some of it directly over his injuries. When I saw his injuries recovering at a visible speed I felt bewildered and uttered to myself: ¡°What is that?¡± And like always my stalking friend, who always taps into my mind to listen to my thoughts spoke without considering any of my feelings. Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. ¡°Those are health regeneration potions. They can remove light and even some deep injuries in the matter of minutes. They are a commodity that every responsible and professional adventurer carries with them.¡± ¡°Then aren¡¯t those things a bit disadvantageous to us?¡± I couldn¡¯t help but ask when I heard her say that. How would we injure any of these adventurers, if all they could recover from everything just with a sip of some potion thingy? ¡°When did we even hold the advantage to suddenly get disadvantaged? And even these potions have their limits. They can¡¯t recover one from everything, moreover, they are very expensive.¡± ¡°Yeah, you are right. The conditions still remain the same and the things which we had to do have also not changed one bit.¡± But it still hurts to see that dual faced chameleons ¡®deteriorating¡¯ condition improving in the matter of minutes and when he was bombarded with questions like what happened and where the other one go. His reply made my blood boil even more, ¡°I killed some while protecting Roby and he killed some, while I was protecting him. Like that we continued to kill the ants and when only five of them were left, something happened. And only after fighting them for a long time, could I defeat them all¡± I had thought that he would create a story of some kind to bullshit his way around his team members, but it didn¡¯t even occur to me that he would suddenly place all the blame on us. When I heard him say Ants attacked them, I wanted to appear in front of them and shout, ¡®Where did the ants come from! We only had five ants bro, and all of them are dead now. So, whose fucking ants attacked you, you back stabber.¡¯ But I couldn¡¯t. And when they asked him what happened to the archer, I suddenly felt that whatever he had to say was not going to good for us and like he was trying to prove me right, the answer which he gave not only eliminated all of the doubts about him, but at the same time made us look guilty. He said, ¡°There was one ant which never came down from the roof when other did to start the hunt. It waited for the perfect opportunity and just when I left Roby alone in a proper and secure place, to deal with the remaining ants¡­. He got his neck snapped in two by it and there he died fighting with the ants.¡± I got late with my reactions because I was still thinking that how could someone be so shameless, but Minie was not slow with her cursing. ¡°Fuck, what do you think we are? Are we a hole for assholes like him to come and shit their mistakes on? What kind of shit is his brain made of? What does he think if his human partners didn¡¯t doubt him the he would be safe?¡± ¡°He has total faith in illusions after all. They are living an illusion, but they still don¡¯t get it.¡± ¡°SO, he is an overconfident one, huh. Then we will use that against him. No matter what, I will not let him leave my home after playing with us like that.¡± ¡°Minie, stop being reckless! We don¡¯t have time for this shit! We can¡¯t kill anyone or we¡¯ll risk our future!¡± ¡°Ugh, do you think we¡¯ll have any future if we don¡¯t kill him? Didn¡¯t he say everyone will die, that he would kill everyone? Now tell me, if he could kill members of his own race, then we are just some liabilities, monsters, who would care even if we did die or not?¡± Shit, she really is right. If we don¡¯t kill him, then there is high possibility that after he kills his team members; whom he easily can with his illusions, his next target would certainly be us. ¡°But Minie, we can¡¯t directly kill him. We need to find a way for his team to kill him. That would certainly help us survive and even take the blame away from our heads.¡± She heard me say that and her spirit jumped slightly with excitement. I don¡¯t know what kind of an idea formed in her head, but without even talking, telling or consulting with me, she moved. She moved and flew out from our room. While she did that, the adventurers stood up and started walking towards the tunnel. She flew and waited for an opportunity to do something. ¡°What are you going to do?¡± I asked her. But instead of answering, she pointed toward the knight whose armor was not so shining anymore. The fire mage used a spell and created a dome of light surrounding all of them inside it, creating a light room that was enough to provide ninety meters of ¡®No Attack Zone¡¯. Well, not like we had anything to attack them with. Then I saw the knight daydreaming and getting left behind, giving an excellent opportunity to Minie, to do whatever that she wanted to do. I just hoped that she wouldn¡¯t end up killing him in order to release her stress. Not like she could, but unlike what I expected she played with him a little. Frightened him by flying close and then moving away, trying to make his vigilance slip. And then she created an opportunity and wrote something on the ground. ¡°Illusion¡± is what she wrote. Do I need to ask her why she wrote that? No, I already understand what she wanted to achieve by doing that. She planted a seed of doubt in his heart by giving him information that he didn¡¯t have. ¡°Will it work?¡± I asked her while I kept on looking at them. ¡°Maybe it will, maybe it won¡¯t. We¡¯ll see when the time comes.¡± Then she looked at them walking into the queen room that is also our room and disappearing into the darkness. Well, not for me, I could still see tiny balls of different colored lights, walking away. Minie went past them to the core crystal and because I had no more scouting to do, I also shifted my presence and went back to my own crystal body. We waited for them to come and they did, though their arrival was very stressing for us. They entered the room and slowly walked towards us. They were getting closer and closer to us as they kept on stepping forward. Then something funny happened. They finally saw our Queen. Their faces contorted and their mouths gaped open and even their eyes bulged out. Well, I wanted to laugh out loud, but our condition and the time was not so great that I could leisurely laugh at the face of¡­ death. Well, there is one more reason for why I couldn¡¯t laugh. Though our queen looks like a heavy, all encompassing monster, but we know the truth. She is more like our mascot than our keeper. I and Minie, we both knew that she had no means to harm these ¡®B Rankers¡¯. How would she harm them, with her pole like legs or her steel like hair? It was impossible for her to save us and I also gave no pressure to her. So when they finally got near us, I let the queen to go and rampage. The thing is I really didn¡¯t expect anything from her. I thought she would at most attacks with some fireballs and if they got near her, she would retaliate with her spear like legs, but what happened surpassed all of mine and Minie¡¯s expectations. She exploded all of our hopes; No, not our hope to survive this mess, but to let them leave with their bodies intact and unharmed. When she attacked it felt like she was trying to playing catch with children who hadn¡¯t even learned to walk yet. She moved at a blinding speed, that we didn¡¯t even know she could run in and bitch slapped the knight and the Earth mage who were trying to create some kind of a defensive shell to protect themselves from the queens attack. What happened to them, I didn¡¯t care because her onslaught had just started. Chapter 18.5 - Fusion Author''s note:- You all will notice him doing a very simple mistake of not taking note of his powers, but don''t forget, its his first fight. . Enjoy ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rocky''s P.O.V:- Then my queen faced the trickster, the liar and illusionist our one and only Mr. Assassin and the fire girl with her long fine and spear shaped legs. Yes, her legs. If her movement speed was really outrageous, then her attacking speed was so great that I could only see some black line moving whenever she attacked them and her legs would just vanish from my sight. She attacked at a really fast speed, her legs were almost blurring out of existence, though the assassin easily coped with the attack, jumping and moving at a speed even faster than my queens. I don¡¯t remember when but the assassin had again used his illusions and changed from being the swordsman to his original self. Though the assassin was not having any kind of problem facing the attacks, but the fire mage was not so lucky and was getting beat down by the spear attacks. But unlike a fighter type who would use his sword or weapon to parry the attacks, she used something that made my non-existent eyes shine in the dark room. ¡°What is that?!¡± I was almost yelling in Minie¡¯s mind, after I saw the fire girl¡¯s way of protecting herself. ¡°Huh, That! That is a barrier. Oh! She I quite skilled, huh.¡± When her eyes focused on the fire mage using a barrier to protect her from the queens rampaging legs, they almost popped out of their sockets. Maybe, she was also feeling envious of someone, for the first time in her life. ¡°A barrier, what is a barrier? How can I get one?¡± But how could my gree¡­ahem, I mean, my eagerness to learn new skills be lesser than hers. ¡°Get one. If you want to get a barrier, then the easy way is to kill her and if you are lucky enough its skill book might drop and you just might be able to use it too, if the restrictions are not too hard, that is.¡± There was no way, I was going to kill her for a skill that might not even drop and endanger our already thin necks. ¡°No can do. What is the difficult method?¡± If I was going to get it, then the way had to be safe enough to keep our lives intact and not put us into hell again. ¡°Practice, Just practice and increase your understanding of fire laws to such a degree that you became naturally able to use a fire barrier and not just a barrier, but a Domain.¡± ¡°IS it possible?¡± ¡°Sure, why not.¡± I was going to continue our small talk about my big ambitions, when something happened that left both of us asphyxiated. A slab of earth rose from the ground and stopped the queens attacking leg. The assassin used the moment to save the girl and travelled to the rest of his team. When our queen tried to attack them all, the fire mage got scared and fired a huge amount of fireballs at her and the explosion destroyed my room. I mean, I couldn¡¯t understand how some hesky pesky fireballs could create destruction at such a large scale. The explosion never got to us, but on the other side, the knight used one of his shield skills to create a mana barrier and protect all of them inside it from the shock and heat wave generated by the explosion. The explosion was much more intriguing and dangerous than it sounds. Though the different colors of light flying everywhere looked extremely pleasant to the eyes, but their effects was even more extravagant than an exploding nova. But all of this was just an appetizer. The main course started when the queen came out of the pit created by the explosion, unharmed and started charging mana to fire one of her skills. ¡°Stop her! Stop her before she ends up killing everyone.¡± The situation demanded me to react faster than I did, and to stop her from firing the skill at them, but my awkwardness and slow mindedness almost took their life. I said almost because the knight and earth mage did something amazing that saved their lives. Actually, they weren¡¯t just amazing, but they opened a new door to get strong for my useless self. The skill that our queen was charging mana for is called ¡®Obliteration Beam¡¯. I didn¡¯t know she had an attack like that, but she did and I was informed by the notification box just before she fired it. Obliteration Beam: A beam of super compressed mana that when discharged creates a laser that although can only fire in a single direction, but can create destruction encompassing skill levels and breaking defenses. And before I could shift my presence to the queen, she fired the skill and it was also one of those skills which couldn¡¯t be stopped, once fired. It was going to be a one-sided landslide if the attack had landed and a bringer of doom too, but we were actually saved by a skill from the knight that made me gasp. Their Earth mage created a wall of earth in front of their group to somehow stop the beam, trying to make ends meet, but then the knight walked to the front and did something truly atrocious. He slammed his shield into the wall and poured his mana into it. He was faced with the yelling and opposition of the earth mage for trying to damage the only thing between them and the upcoming attack, but after he started pouring his mana into the shield of his, the wall changed shape, size and composition and slowly transformed into a humongous Kite shield, which glowed with a bluish light and had a metallic luster. My mouth gaped open because this skill was too exotic to be true. Minie¡¯s was also gasping, but for some other reasons. ¡°How is this possible? How the heck can he use such a high tier fusion skill?¡± And how was it possible that my greedy soul could hear the word skill and not react. ¡°Skill, what is a fusion skill? Why are you behaving like you saw a ghost?¡± ¡°Fusion skill¡­ Ah! Fusion skills are at the apex of difficulty, they are the representation of talent, the myths of this world. How could I not be excited after watching someone using a fusion skill?¡± ¡°How, how do they work, Can I learn them?¡± Yes, all of my expectations which were broken by the rapid fire skill, once again got green and I started flying high in the sky. I just hoped that I wouldn¡¯t be shot down again. ¡°Learn them? Are you an id¡­ Ahem, they can¡¯t be learnt. There is no skill book that would teach you a fusion skill. They can only be used by those who have extreme control on their skills and have encompassed knowledge about nature and its forces. It is not something that anyone could learn just because they wanted to. It needs practice, perfection, control and ambitions to learn to use fusion skills.¡± ¡°But he is clearly using one right. SO how do ¡®I¡¯ learn to use them? At least tell me how they actually work!¡± ¡°I, Ahem, like its name says, Fusion skills are literally about the fusion of different skills. Now how many skills one fuses depend on the skill itself and the person¡¯s talent. Not every skill is fusible; like earth and lighting skills can¡¯t fuse they are the bane of each other. There are two types of these skills external and internal. External are those in when a caster fuses his skill with some other person¡¯s skill or when multiple of casters try to cast one single high powered skill. Internal fusion skills are those in which a caster fuses one or more of his skills to create something different and more powerful or situation dependant.¡± The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement. ¡°So how powerful are these fusion skills? Can they create destruction on the world level?¡± ¡°Why? Do you want to destroy this world and its civilization? Even if you wanted to achieve something outrageous like that, it is not possible. But about how powerful a fusion skill can be; let me give you an example, what do you think would happen if someone fuses one two ''F'' rank fusible skills.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know, maybe it would get more powerful.¡± I couldn¡¯t help but utter the words which were trying to give me a headache, but her attitude while answering clearly showed her disdain towards my nature and untimely pestering. ¡°Yes, the skills would fuse and turn into an E rank one.¡± ¡°What? Really?¡± And just as I heard her saying ¡®turning powerful¡¯ I stopped caring about all of the ideas that were forming in her head about me. ¡°Not only that, but its power increases as the number of skills fused increases, but also increases the danger of it going out of control.¡± Who cares about the danger it involves when the door towards getting stronger opens right in front of you. Why would I not travel the distance when I know that these few steps taken would make my future great. ¡°So are there no Normal people who can use these fusion skills.¡± ¡°Who said that? I said it is very difficult to use the fusion skills, but never said that they have gone extinct or something. Where do you think skills like Geyser and Marsh came from? They are low level fusion skills that almost every expert with relative affinities could use. Though there is no skill book to learn a fusion skill, there are still hands written notes that help today¡¯s mages to learn, create and use fusion skills.¡± I really wanted to hear what she was talking about, but one shouldn¡¯t let inspiration to leave them and should work on it just as it comes to them. Just like that an inspiration came to my mind and I worked on it. These fusion skills were very cool and I also wanted to have one of such a skill. So in order to create, at least start my journey towards getting stronger, I decided to make do with what I had and thought of creating a fusion skill using the Archers Rapid fire and queens fireball skill. I didn¡¯t really believe that I would succeed in creating a skill of my own with this fusion trick, but the reality or maybe luck proved me wrong. I thought about the formula and laws of rapid fire skill and thought of applying it to the fireball skill. Firstly, I tried to make the fireballs turn into arrows and attack. It resulted in failure as I didn¡¯t have enough control over my fire magic; neither did I have enough knowledge about the rapid fire skill. Then I tried to make the arrows, like I create fireballs, but again, my experiments ended in failure. Then after trying for two more times, when my heart was almost going to break, I used the only idea which I was left with. I tried to do so that the fireballs that one could only fire once or twice in a minute would be rapidly fired without any break. Just as I thought of creating the skill using both the ideas, the sound of god¡¯s information boxes startled me. Minie who looked at me from the side, when felt my soul shaking and she hurriedly asked me what happened, but instead of answering and decreasing her worries I reacted with a creepy laugh, because I had finally succeeded. *Ding!*
You are trying to reach out of your boundaries.
Limit reached.
Limit broken.
Skills fused
Skill ¡°Rapid Fireballs¡± created.
Title ¡°Skill creator¡± Gained
I still had not gotten over the wall of notifications which flooded my vision, when the best of them appeared in front of me.
Fusion Skill : Rapid BallsFusion : Rapid Fire + Fireballs
Level : 0Exp : 0/100
Creates and fires low power, high speed fireballs at the target. The skill cannot be stopped once started. Will improve with more experience and usage.
Applications: Fire rate: 20 ball /min Cool down: 20 min Mana used: 150Mp
I got so excited with the skill that I completely forgot about the beam of fire which was hovering over the adventurer¡¯s necks like a scythe. When I came out of my ¡®Zone¡¯ and focused on the battlefield I noticed that the attack had stopped and the knight was laying on the ground beaten and exhausted half to death. I noticed one more thing, the assassin who was sitting behind them was nothing but an illusion and the real one was standing at the side. While another illusion of their captain was running towards the core crystal. I snorted once and hurriedly fired my newly acquired skill the Rapid ball and the result was truly magnificent. Tens of fireballs fell from the mouth of our Queen and travelled towards the assassin like a downpour. It created devastation on a scale that far surpassed normal fireball attack. But to my bad luck, he dodged all of them with his speed, and when I watched such a scene, an imaginary drop of sweat ran down my forehead and the assassin ran towards his team members. Maybe he was expecting our queen to rampage and get her sight of him and onto his party members, but what did he knew. He escaped using his shadow movement skill, and entered quickly changed places with his illusionary self. Just as he did that, I noticed the drawback from using this fusion skill. It drained too much mana from the queen and now she was running on fumes. As all of the queens mana was drained, so I had to stop her movements and wait for her to regenerate her mana. ¡°What are you doing? Why are you stopping? Now is the time to do it, kill him!¡± Chapter 18.6 - Falling Rain Authors note:- So every one this is the last chapter for the Mc p.o.v on this whole battle. So, from tomorrow there will only be a chapter a day cause i am going to start editing the first some chapters. All the edited chapters will be uploaded at once, but don''t worry there will be no plot change, nothing new added and probably no one new will be introduced. It will just be a quick edit to shape somethings, to smooth en main characters conversation and to make them likable. Why? Case i am also hungry. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Rocky''s P.O.V:- ¡°What are you doing? Why are you stopping? Now is the time to do it, kill him!¡± I looked at mine and saw her shouting at me with her fist clenched tight and her eyes red. I had to tell her the reason, so I did just that, but her reaction after hearing my response was a bit comical. ¡°No mana.¡± I said that and her clenched fists abruptly opened, her brows furrowed and she tilted her head before saying, ¡°What do you mean no mana.¡± ¡°She has been attacking them until now with her mana consuming attacks, so, the last attack drained everything out of her. Forget about attacking him, She can¡¯t even move a muscle.¡± ¡°Ha-Haah-Ha¡± She laughed comically, but I could feel the despair in her voice and the eyes which were staring at the assassin. I stopped and looked towards the adventurer¡¯s to see what was happening and noticed that the Earth mage using the ant vision lenses. So my troubles decreased a little. Minie had already told me that those lenses worked on the same conditions as my mana perception worked. Actually the ants grew with such eyes, because I had learned to use mana to see. I who got angry at Minie for giving them the lenses was now praising her, because with the lenses it was possible for her to distinguish between reality and illusions. And just like I expected when that rat came out of his hole to attack the exhausted and powerless knight she saved him using the same method that she used to save the fire girl. Then a fight between them broke out. I was hoping that she would somehow win the fight, but the difference between their levels proved to be too much and the assassin ended up winning the fight. I wanted to do something at least save her, but that Rapid ball skill really is the bane of a Good Samaritan. It not only used all of my queen¡¯s mana, but also stopped her movements. I and Minie had to see him cutting her arms and kicking her like a worn down rug. Minie was shaking with anger, watching him showing no remorse or feeling and doing something like that to a girl, his own team member. I also felt a bit angry at him for doing something that didn¡¯t really need to do. I thought that she would lose her mind from the pain, but she was able to hold on with her life. It was shocking, really shocking for us both, but what the assassin said afterwards; his reason for killing everyone shocked my soul to the very core. ¡°You see the real target is not you guys. You guys are all just preparations, raw materials for a big boom. The real target is this dungeon.¡± (Assassin) Huh¡­ what did he say? The one he wants to kill is us? Why? What did we do? I looked at Minie and she was even more shocked to hear that than me. ¡°Minie, Minie!¡± I called her, but she gave me no response. When I tried to read her mind it was blank too. My confusions started growing, but instead of taking a decision or making my own mindset I decided to listen to what he really had planned. ¡°Why? If this really is a dungeon, then was do you have to destroy it. But even if what you want to destroy is the dungeon, then why kill us?¡± (Earth Mage) ¡°This one is no good, it needs to be destroyed. As for the reason to kill all of you, think what would happen if you all die here and no one returned back to the guild.¡± (Assassin) I also thought hard to find the reason, but nothing came to my mind. I kept on pressuring my retarded brain and it gave me one sentence, ¡®Humans are very greedy.¡¯ ¡°But, why does your master want to involve our guild in this mess?¡± (Fire mage) Yes, he said something about his master. That it¡¯s not him, but his master who wants to destroy us. ¡°That I don¡¯t know. Well, everything has its cause and effect. The world doesn¡¯t work on fairness and pride, but on money and politics. So, how would this weak me know about my master''s genius. This is just one of the works that goes behind the background, while others continue to live their lives, strangers to all of these. Don¡¯t worry you all are dying for a greater cause, so don¡¯t feel sad.¡± (Assassin) When I heard him say that something clicked inside my head. How does he know about this cave being a dungeon when his partners had no such information? But reason went and sat in the corner of my brain and rage took over. I wanted to burn him alive and make him pay his dues. The waiting for queen¡¯s mana to regenerate became a game and the more I waited, the more I wanted to rampage. But with the passing time my rage subsided and reasoning came back. Yes, it was anguishing and a bit painful, but I endured and waited for queen¡¯s mana to regenerate. I opened the skill creation panel and added my Obliterator and fireball to fuse.
FUSION SPEll CREATOR
SPELL A: FireballSPELL B : Obliterator
SPECIFY CONDITIONS:
Take fireballs shapeTo create obliterator''s destruction
Have it''s mana consumptionbut the consumed mana is highly converted and compressed
Increase in size with the amount of mana providedContained explosion
Would you like to fuse the spells with the provided condition : YES/NO
I wasn¡¯t thinking about the result, but I still wanted it to succeed and was like lady luck had her hands over my head, god answered my prayer, the skills fused and I got another skill.
Skill: Fire Bomb Created.
Fusion Skill : Fire BombFusion : Obliterator + Fireballs
Level : 0Exp : 0/100
It is a fireball skill, but instead of simply firing a fireball you can create a fire bomb by adding more mana into the ball. Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author''s preferred platform and support their work! The speed will vary according to the amount of mana used to create the bomb.
Applications: Mana Consumption will depend on the amount of mana used. Cool down: 1/hour. Mana consumption: 50/100/150....
After I read the notification regarding the bomb, I noticed that queen¡¯s mana had regenerated by one fourth of her mana capacity. I didn¡¯t wait for it to regenerate any further and without wasting any time I fired a fire bomb with all of her remaining mana. The information was right and though the bomb was too powerful for its own good, but its speed was nowhere near enough to catch that assassin. Just before it could touch him and burn him to smithereens, he moved and vanished away from his place. The fireball exploded and created a wave of force and destruction on the level similar to the one, which that fire girls fireballs had created but he still escaped. I thought that it was over. I looked at Minie and saw her shivering, not from anger, but from fear. She was constantly murmuring ¡°I¡¯m sorry I¡¯m sorry¡± like an idiot. I didn¡¯t know who she was apologizing to, but when I saw her worn out and scared face, I felt a deep pain coming from directly inside my soul. I wanted to erase her worries, but I needed to defeat that asshole for that. This was the last attack that I could do with the queen and one again her mana reached the rock bottom. He survived and I knew that he would probably not let anyone leave alive, including me. ¡®I shouldn¡¯t have used all of my mana.¡¯ My own thoughts started haunting me, as regret and the burden of mine and Minie¡¯s life forced my shoulders down. But things didn¡¯t develop like I expected them to. The place that the assassin ran to was where that knight was laying at. When I noticed the knight, who was lying exhausted on the ground and saw the assassin running towards him; I thought that he would be the first one to die, but the situation turned from there. The knight stood up and slashed his sword. The sword was charged with mana and contained one of his skills, which who knows when he had prepared, and fired it at the devil that was running towards him. The cross light zoomed toward the assassin at a speed even faster than him. When I thought he would finally die, he vanished. I saw another one of his shadowy holes opening in the ground and he disappeared from his place. The knight¡¯s face was openly showing the fear and frustration that he was feeling at that time. He had no other means to attack the runaway assassin because his last resort broke his sword and converted it into fine metal dust. The assassin travelled toward the earth mage whom he had previously dismembered with his own hands. I knew that it was the end, at least for her. I knew that he would go and shell out all of his anger and rage at her and won¡¯t stop until she breaks. It was too tiring; this waiting game was too tiring and unreasonable. I wanted it to end, but then something happened, something good. He came out of his hole and just as he did, instead of going and slaughtering the earth mage, he was welcomed by a spike; which entered his chest, pierced his heart, and came out of his back and all of this happened without giving the assassin, me or even the others anytime to react. When I thought that she would die, moreover, in the most painful way, she took revenge and killed the assassin, who died looking at her smiling face. A laugh escaped Minie¡¯s mouth. She used her hands to wipe all the sweat and tears from her face. She looked at me, I mean the queen and smiled and I smiled back at her. Minie is changing and I need to change too. I don¡¯t know what her motivation or her reason is but if she is trying so hard to control her anger and change herself than I need to change too. I looked at the girl who was resting on the ground and her face still held the smile. Even when I thought she would lose her spirit, motivation and would beg to be killed, after experiencing the excruciating pain of losing her arms, she proved me wrong. Instead of succumbing to the pain she held her emotions in check took revenge and ultimately killed him. These humans are very different than I thought of them to be. They are much more dangerous and stubborn. Who would have thought that in the last moments, even while being exhausted and under pain, they would be able to create a plan, which was good enough to trap and extinguish the rotten tree from his roots! I sighed and looked at the knight who was giving medical treatment to our savior. He looked at me and got ready to fight, even when his eyes were clearly showing his dread and fear, he was still ready to fight. If I had arms, then I really would have saluted to them and their bravery. I think if I need to change, then I should try to become like them. Their courage and bravery was enough to completely change the result, which otherwise would have been disastrous for¡­ all of us. I sighed once again and walked back to my core and my partner. He must have felt bewildered to be left alive by such a monster, but I also had no way to kill him with my depleted mana and tired mind, not that I wanted to kill them. While I was walking towards my core I was again greeted with happy sounds of the information panels, straight from the god, but I neglected all of them and stared at Minie who was also looking at me. The adventurers exited the tunnel safely without encountering any other monsters. Minie nodded her head to me and went to sleep on top of the queen and because I was also feeling tired after all that had perspired, I also decided to try sleeping for the first time. That night, the sky got covered with auspicious black clouds and it poured. The rain fell and drenched everything in cold water. The Barren lands, which had not encountered the chill of the water and were longing with thirst, covered with sand and dust all around, had their thirst quenched and a new wave of life came to greet them. I would have liked to see my first pouring rain, but I was too busy sleeping. And like that our first fight ended. Chapter 19 - Yeah, I work out. Author''s note:- Sorry, i got so engrossed in writing new chapters yesterday that i forgot the time and by the time i came to, it was already too late. (I hope it fools somebody.) Well, actually i really was writing and forgot to edit, so i couldn''t upload any new chapter. From today starts the Upgrading of our little dungeon. It starts really slow, almost Snail paced, but don''t worry, every new chapter there will atleast be one new upgrade and a lot of information. Hope that would keep most of you readers happy and there will be another massacre coming soon. Ah... one more thing, I added date and time to the chapters to keep you all focused. . Enjoy. ............................................................................................................................................. Rocky''s P.O.V:- (D-M-Y) 6-01-01: Morning "Hey" Huh, did someone just call me? Nah, nonsense! Who would call me in this darkness? I can''t see anything here, so, how would anyone see me back? Ah! Even my mana perception is not working here. No matter how much I try to see, the mana flowing in the surroundings; I felt nothing, absolutely nothing. I noted something strange, it''s not that I forgot how to use the skill, it¡¯s like there is no mana in the atmosphere. Like I am trapped inside something which blocks all the mana, or someplace which had no mana to boot from the start! "Wak...up" Ah! It¡¯s here again. This voice, I heard it again. I don''t know why, but the voice seems, No, it feels kind of familiar to me and I am sure that I am not hearing it in my ears. Well, huh, everyone knows by now. It feels like someone is directly speaking in my mind. "Hey, Are you going to wake up now or do you want me to wake you up?" And drum roll please, because she is back again, I hope not. I hope this is just a dream, no, not the darkness and everything; I don¡¯t care about it, but her anger. I don''t want to wake up to meet with an angry and fawning Minie. If it is the really her, then it¡¯s best if I keep on sleeping here. "Are you sure you are not going to wake up?" her voice had a soothing feeling. Now that I think carefully, I don¡¯t feel any anger or dark sentiments from her tone and I also can¡¯t hear any grunting sounds. So does this mean she still has control over her anger, well, I hope so. "No." I answered to her cause this sleep thing is really miraculous. It¡¯s so relaxing and is making me mushy. I just don¡¯t want to wake up anytime soon. But her answer to my reaction was how I should say, mysterious. Instead of ranting and rumbling like a kid, she tried to get my attention by giving me ¡®candy¡¯, a reward to wake me up and it worked. "So you don''t want to see this." See, she clearly understands at this point that, her anger won¡¯t get the work done. So, instead, she is trying to make me think and frown, but it¡¯s working. "This! Wh-What are you talking about?" I am eager and waiting. She has my attention now, but I just hope whatever it is which she is cooking won¡¯t end up leaving a bad taste in my mouth. "¡¯This¡¯, this is something which you will never be able to forget¡­ after looking at it once." Well, I should wake up now before she loses her loose temper. It¡¯s not the danger of her going berserk, but that I am really interested, interested in whatever it is that she wants to show. It seems like something happened while I was sleeping. "Ah... ugh... hah. So, what is it?" I woke up feeling a bit jittery and worn down. I don¡¯t know whether the effect of sleep is to erase tiredness or to make one feel drowsy and fatigued. She looked at me, I mean queen and after moving her head a full circle around her neck, she cranked her head to the left and said, "Come with me, let¡¯s go." She said that and then she started flying towards the exit. She looked beautiful. I don¡¯t know what sleep is and how it works, but if sleeping made me feel drowsy and out of energy then it surely made her even more beautiful. Her radiating skin and glowing eyes are really enough of a clue to the benefits that sleeping brought to her. She looked beautiful while flying away and moving towards the exit. Wait a minute; don¡¯t I need to follow her? "Ah, wait! Let me change, I mean shift out of the queen." As I looked at myself, I found that I was still inside the queen, and all the talk between us happened while I was looking at her red, small, but cute face and she was looking at a ¡­ Sorry queen, but you really are a monster. "Hurry up." Her haste was enough to indicate that whatever it was, it was enough to make her behave like a child and to drag me with her too. But whatever it was, it was still in our own home and it wasn¡¯t going to go away or leave anytime soon. So, I couldn¡¯t help but complain to her. "What¡¯s the rush? What is so important that is making you so eager, to make me move my ass so early in the morning?" Well, now that I see her, she looks different. No, she didn''t grow taller while I was sleeping not has she become a babe, instead of a quantitative change there is more like she had a qualitative change. Moreover, it''s not a single one. It feels like she is going through more than one of such change. Her face, which was full of fear and terror stricken just till yesterday, has blossomed like a flower. It feels good to wake up and see such a beautiful... Ahem, I mean a happy face. Her body language changed too. If all her movements felt stiff and mechanical yesterday, then today it seems like she is finally... Free. Yeah, what am I even crying so much in the morning for, I have her, she has me, and we have our queen and don''t forget about the little one. Actually, now that I see the room clearly there are no little ones here. ¡°Minie, where is the little larva? He should be big enough now, right?¡± She stopped and looked back at me. Her glowing eyes turned a bit darker as if trying to say, ''we could talk about him afterwards, and we need to be somewhere else right now.'' But she sighed once before reluctantly answering. ¡°Oh, him, he is alright! He never got between the crossfire, so after the fight ended, he came out from one of the corners unscathed. He¡¯s fine, but the experience and terror changed him and he grew, a lot.¡± Why do I feel some tension here? Is he really alright? The thing is I completely forgot about the larva while we were fighting. Well, let¡¯s see what became of him. ¡°Oh really, so where is he?¡± ¡°He is working in the tunnel outside the queen room. I gave him the respective information and the plan that you had devised to shape our dungeon. So, he is currently converting the small narrow tunnels into big and wide rooms, but because he is working alone, therefore finishing everything is probably going to take him a long time.¡± The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement. Her answers felt like she was in pain, not from any injury or anything, but emotionally. Like she had something really important to attend, but because I am acing like her stuck up boss and am not letting her leave, she is feeling mentally fatigued and is in return sulking. ¡°You know, you shouldn¡¯t do child labor. What if someone righteous came to our dungeon and asked compensation from us or tried to blackmail us for it! What will you do then?¡± A little joke, just a little one to make her mood get a bit better. Actually, I firstly want to go see him. After hearing her say that, ¡®he has grown a lot¡¯. Why wouldn¡¯t I be tempted to go watch his growth? ¡°Ha-ha, yeah, right! I suppose we should go to see him first thing. Then you would know who is a child and who need protection!¡± Huh, the way she looked at me. Is she implying that I am the kid here who needs protection?! Preposterous! But she is right though. What can I even achieve with a crystal body and limited movement? ¡°Not a body, just spiritual presence. You don¡¯t have a body yet. Your crystal is just a shell and nothing more.¡± ¡°Y-You have no respect for my privacy do you? I never try to read your mind. Well, not always, but you!¡± Yeah, she never leaves my thoughts alone, while I can¡¯t even hear a squeak, if she doesn¡¯t allow me to. I am not even able to block her out of my head or even restrict her movements. Though I also try to read her mind sometime and it¡¯s a different thing that I am not even able to penetrate her outer layers of defense, but she is just too much. Are you listening! I am going to file a report against you! ¡°Alright, alright. I¡¯m sorry; I won¡¯t try to invade your mind and read your thoughts, but please keep them in check. Be calm. I understand that you are excited to see the larva, but keep your thoughts under control, they are spilling out everywhere, like water from a broken fountain.¡± ¡°You!¡± *sigh* she¡¯ll never stop. I think it¡¯s her nature to spy and read other people''s minds. I don¡¯t know what kind of an education her academy or organization provided her, but she has obviously branched from its essence and has taken a different route from it. I also think that she is taking her job a little too seriously and though she is trying to provide help to me by mind reading but it annoys me more, than doing any good. But it is a good thing that she is changing. Even though her nature will take a long time to change, but even if only her character changed from an angry Berserker to a lovely angel then I think I¡¯ll be able to handle her. ¡°Hahaa, come lets go.¡± And she who again heard my thoughts, laughed at my innocence and dim-mindedness. It is a continuous cycle, and I don¡¯t see it stopping any time soon. I was hovering in the air and felt my presence thinning and fading, So I shifted my presence to the walls, to follow behind Minie, my queen slowly and quietly regained her control over her body and went back to do what she was good at. Well, when we came back, we both had another surprise waiting for us in our room, but I knew nothing and followed behind Minie and exited the room. I followed behind Minie and she took me to see my now employed cute little larv¡­ Nah, not possible! I hurriedly checked my dungeon interface status panel to see whether we were invaded by some monster or anything, but no. I thought that my cute little larva evolved ant was eaten by the monster that I was looking at, but no. The interface clearly showed no invaders, so that was a relief, but I still couldn¡¯t understand what that was. And to increase my confusion, Minie called the monster and it came running towards us. ¡°Here, meet your new ant. Though it looks a bit bulged from here and there like it has cancer or something, but it still a worker ant. Here you have taken a look, so, let¡¯s go now. Hurry up!¡± I couldn¡¯t understand what was happening. This was our monster? Something which evolved from that larva? How was this possible? I shouted at the running fairy and called her back. ¡°Wait a minute, just wait a minute! What the heck I going over here? When did my cute little larva gain so much muscle and what the heck are those sharp metal things hanging from his head? Just what happened here while I was sleeping?¡± Hearing me call it cute and little, the monster¡­ I mean the ant snorted and started shaking his head in denial like an angry bull. Okay, I take my words back. It¡¯s not cute at all. No, it¡¯s not horrendous either, but mature. He has turned into a monster in a good way, and he looks exactly like her mother. No, not like Minie! I¡¯m saying he looks exactly like the queen but smaller, much smaller in size and also some small differences, but otherwise, if one doesn¡¯t look at him clearly, then he would look like a miniature version of her. If queens 50 meters height and overall package are enough to make anyone cover in fear, then his height is enough to make my expectations up and enemy¡¯s hopes down. He is about 5 feet tall, while standing on all its legs. He has sharp antennas, not regular ones and they look to be made of iron or some metal, instead of normal flesh and mana, but no matter what, they look really sharp. Then his shell looks even harder than his predecessors, though I don¡¯t think they will still be able to stop that knight¡¯s sword or that chameleon¡¯s dagger, but I guess it will be enough to stop the forward movement of most 0 rank adventurers. Its body is also more, much more buffed and bulkier than his predecessors, it¡¯s like he is on a drug or something. His one foot taller height is all thanks to his bulges. I don¡¯t know whether ants have muscles or not, but he sure looks like some who workout regularly. Am I happy, yes I am! I am so happy that I think that I would probably not be able to sleep for some days now. I hurriedly opened the floor option in the dungeon interface to check his status, and it surely didn¡¯t disappoint me.
Buff Ant Worker(U)
It is the same species of normal worker ants, but because of abnormal conditions in which it evolved from being a larva. His genetics changed and his overall strength improved to make him able to live in the chaotic environment. Though his strength has doubled to other normal worker ants, but it comes with a decrease in his overall speed/agility. His doubled strength does help him deal a heavy hand to the opponents, but his halved speed enables them to dodge him.
Rank1Level0
Abilities: Antennae shot (Retractable) Mandible shovel Power Throw
¡°It¡¯s a unique ant! But how did the ant evolve, don¡¯t we need upgrades for that?¡± Chapter 20 - Its Blue Author''s note:- Well, sir, you deserve it. It was your idea after all. . Enjoy. ........................................................................................................................................ (D-M-Y) 6-01-01: Morning. Rocky''s P.O.V:- Yes, no matter how or how much I think about it, I am bound to return to the starting line over and over again. So, I asked her, my world and random specialist and this was her answer. ¡°This is not evolution. I had also at first thought the same thing that it was an evolution, but no, it¡¯s not.¡± No, no matter how you look at it, it''s a completely changed monster from his predecessors or is this the result of having an ant born from an egg, instead of directly buying them as workers from the system. I needed to find out the reason, as this information could prove to be really important. ¡°Then what is it? It clearly says it¡¯s a unique monster.¡± ¡°You read its status too and the information provided clearly stated, that because of the chaotic atmosphere where it lived as a larva its genetics changed to help him survive.¡± Oh! Yeah, I guess I¡¯ll have to keep in check every small thing from now onward. But which chaotic environment was it telling about? ¡°Yeah, so does the environment, it states, is our dungeon? No, it can''t be. Otherwise, humans would have also sensed something wrong with it, but they obviously didn''t. So...¡± A glowing light ball ignited my mental fortitude and ideas started emerging. Then things connected and everything became clear, but before I could say anything, Minie spoke. ¡°So, the energy released by the spells used by both you and the humans changed the atmosphere of the room and made it chaotic. Then that environment changed and influenced his growth leading him to get changes which you are observing.¡± ¡°So, even things like this are possible, huh. But if this is not evolution, then what is?¡± Yeah, isn¡¯t that what is called Evolution. Isn¡¯t it the changes that one species or a single life form goes through to better accentuate themselves to cope with the changing environment. To my aching head my helper came as a relief who took my questions and worries away, like fleeting clouds. Minie looked at me and when she felt my mind giving distressed and confused waves, she sighed and explained about evolution to me in a more depth and detail, which left me thinking. ¡°Evolution is more like the unlocking of one¡¯s suppressed or lost genes, which comes with a change in their structure and abilities. It is more of a qualitative change, which happens from inside a person at microscopic levels. While what happened to him was nothing, but the influence of environment! So, that is why it¡¯s forced evolution at most or half evolution at the best and not a case of proper evolution.¡± Yeah, this kind of information was not something which a novice with no former information or knowledge could understand. So, too, a little frustrated, but eager Minie I said, ¡°Yes, I understand. Though most of it went over my head, but I understood something¡¯s, like he is unique, not normal and he can fight, but he is born to be a worker.¡± But when she heard me say he was born to be a worker, her brows rose. Though I also understood that the phenomenon had more to do with intuition control and will, but I still explained my reason to her. I don¡¯t know why I did that. Maybe, I fear her. Fear that she would understand me wrongly and that would affect our relation in the long term. ¡°I mean, look at his body, his dense muscles, if the huge bulges around its joints really can be called muscles that is. And his skill-mandible shovel, it¡¯s clearly telling what his real use is. He might be a fighter, but he is more of a worker than his name suggests.¡± Her eyes wavered as if thinking not about my reason, but why did I explain my thoughts to her. Then, as if she remembered something, she released her folded arms and stood in the air silently while her small paper wings kept on fluttering behind her. Then her lips parted and a smile grew on her face and she said in a light girly tone. ¡°Right, so let¡¯s go, if only this surprised you, then what I am going to show you will probably take your soul to heaven.¡± I wanted to lighten the mood that for some unknown reason had gotten heavier. So I made a joke. ¡°Then let¡¯s go back. I don¡¯t want to die yet.¡± And like I thought she would do; she laughed, though just a little. ¡° Fufee, Don¡¯t worry, It¡¯s just a figure of speech, anyways, follow me.¡± SO, I followed her to wherever she was going. Well, I was having a jittery feeling, like my expectations had raised a lot from the way she conducted and her eagerness to take me that place also added some charm to it. So I followed her with both drive and desire and hoped that she won¡¯t take me to a corner and say, just kidding. But then I noticed that we both were flying towards the entrance and not only that we were already nearing the second intersection. ¡°Is the surprise that you are flaunting about, waiting for me at the entrance of our dungeon?¡± To my question she behaved¡­ questionably. Instead of answering me she increased her speed and continued to fly towards the outer corners of our dungeon. It felt really fishy to me, but what could I do, now that I was already following her. ¡°Hey, come on and tell me.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t be like that!¡± ¡°Hey, At least give me a clue!¡± But to all of my persuasion and rumble, she answered with a simple sentence. ¡°Just see it with your own eyes.¡± Though it was risky and I had really thought that she would flair if I continued to ask her the same thing, but she handled it quite well. That proves it. She had forsaken her anger and changed to a fun loving pixie. I just hope she won¡¯t turn back, but some part of me miss being talked down by her. Then after some seconds of travelling through those familiar, yet unfamiliar tunnels we arrived at our destination. The first look explained everything. ¡°Woah¡± my response came directly from the soul and why would it not, the view was beautiful. I now, understand why she was so eagerly trying to bring me here. It was an ocean. Blue, light colored and truly marvelous. The entrance to our dungeon which once looked like the aftermath of a hard fight; changed to look like a soul cleansing, mood soothing, mind relaxing, tourist spot. ¡°How? How did it change so much?¡± ¡°Rain, while we were sleeping it rained. The clouds that covered thousands of miles of sky quenched the thirst of these barren lands. The rain ha not only changed the look inside our dungeon, but the rest of lands near our home which were once barren and had nothing to boot are now once again living and life is also slowly returning to them.¡± So, it was actually not the result of any sudden mysterious or spiritual occurrence but a natural phenomenon. *sigh* ¡°I never knew a simple rain could change a completely devastated area into something encouraging.¡± ¡°Yeah, this could very well turn into a heaven for adventurers to relax at.¡± Her eyes were shining and I am sure if I had eyes, then they would be shining too. She was holding her hands in front of her chest and staring at nature which was at full bloom, amazing us both. ¡°Yeah, we need to make sure that no monsters emerge from this pond or any ants come to attack here from the deeper parts of our dungeon.¡± It was decided that this place really needed to be converted into an attractive spot. We both knew that if a meta-monster and a fairy liked it this much, then normal humans with their sensitive and run the mill emotions would surely love it. And that would also help us with our money/credit problem, though not by much, but every single credit is useful to us. Why were we both so frowning at a water filled pit? It was simple, because it was not just a water filled pit, but much more than that. The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. Just after arriving at the entrance, I had understood that this water filled hole was not what she wanted to show me. Yes, surely, its presence was making the picture complete, but there was actually something much, much more beautiful than just that. If the falling light on a still water surface could make it look mystic and enchanting, then those ovate things which were radiating that blue light really were out of this world. The pit from inside to the out, the walls, floor almost everything is covered by blue glowing patches of some kind of a plant. There was a big ovate shape head stuck on a slim pole made of the same organic stuff which it was made of. The head was blue in color and was covered in shining white dots unnaturally by equally spread on it. It¡¯s not that they are glowing because of sunlight, which is falling from above and lighting the entrance, but because they are literally radiating and giving out light. They are light blue and radiating a somewhat bright radiance which has covered the whole cave entrance in a beautiful blue color. I got so engrossed in looking at them that words came running out of my mouth on own, as if, even my inner self wanted to know what in the world could be so eye opening. ¡°What is this!?¡± And because the reaction was sudden and my voice held a questionable tone, Minie flinched when she heard that and she hurriedly asked me. ¡°What don¡¯t you like it?¡± ¡°Like¡­ I love it. But what are these? There is no mention of these things in my borrowed memories.¡± ¡°These are mushrooms. They grow in dark and humid places. But I don¡¯t know what kind these are. I ran back to wake you up just as fast as I saw them, so I didn¡¯t even use the interface to look at their aspects. I was so mesmerized by them that I completely forgot about that and when I came back to my senses, I ran towards you.¡± ¡°Really? Don¡¯t become a devotee of them, okay. If the humans really liked it and decided to camp here, then I don¡¯t think you would be able to visit this place much. Then you will have nothing other than me to look at.¡± ¡°Ha-ha, yeah, you are right about me being a devotee, but you are forgetting something. If you decide some of your mana to reserve for them, then they would be able to grow as much as you want them to and they will be able to cover our entire dungeon.¡± I saw a strange light pass between her eyes. I am sure they are of no harm to her, but they will probably harm me. Girls are really like that, if they want something then they will find reasons to get it and if reason doesn¡¯t work they would try to go with emotions and that always works. ¡°So come on now, let¡¯s see what these are.¡± There was no need for her to say that, because I was also thinking of looking at the information which my interface would provide about them. So, I answered her with an ¡°Okay¡± and then opened the dungeon interface to see what kinds of a name something so beautiful would have.
Blazing Frost Mushroom
Blazing frost mushroom are a rare variant of light mushrooms. They grow in a dark and humid space, but the most important thing needed for them to grow is abundant mana.
Ingredient Rank : A
Species : FungiGrade : RareGrowth Area : 25mPrice : 1Dc/Mushroom
I was checking their information when Minie at my side started laughing. ¡°HAha, Yes, they are exactly like what their name implies.¡± ¡°What do you mean?¡± I asked. ¡°I am talking about its name. The word blazing can also be interpreted as light or bright light and frost as its color which is blue. Together, these words form Blazing frost meaning bright blue and that is the color of these mushrooms and the light which they radiate.¡± Ah, that. Good catch, I do say good catch. If it was me alone, then I wouldn¡¯t have given much thought to their name, but it¡¯s the first name which I am hearing that make sense. ¡°Well, you are right. Looks like whoever named it as such, went with the simplicity rather than to try and name it with complexity.¡± She nodded her head, in conformation to my thoughts. Everything was alright, but I couldn¡¯t agree with her plan to cover the whole dungeon with these light sources. I have my own plans and I don¡¯t want them to go haywire and blow up on my face just because of some material happiness. So I couldn¡¯t help but convey my thoughts out loud to Minie. ¡°But there will be a problem, if they kept on growing and covered all the inside of our dungeon.¡± I thought she would refute me and would try to use emotions over reason, but actually all the reasons which she gave were enough to make me think hard. She said, ¡°Won¡¯t it be okay. The adventurers will feel at peace walking in our dark, but dimly lightened tunnels and would not have to bring their torches that would threaten their lives. Then they would be able to enjoy themselves in our dungeon. Other than being surrounded by the danger of the darkness they would be able to have fun fighting and then dying from their own carelessness. Like this our dungeon will become popular and we will be able to enjoy a constant increase in dungeon currency and happiness brought by dungeon improvements.¡± ¡°You are right. Though I was thinking of making our dungeon a descent into the dark kind, but what you are saying is also not bad. At least that would give us enough time to deploy and enhance our dungeon.¡± ¡°So what¡¯s next? This surprise was really beautiful and relaxing, but we are not out of danger yet. Do you have anything planned to do now that we have some calm after the storm.¡± Ah! I shouldn¡¯t have said that. I understand that Minie¡¯s small character change started after those humans invaded. I don¡¯t know what happened to her that she became so vulnerable and weak, but whatever the reason, is it related to them? After she heard me say that her body shook once and then she clenched her small hands into fists. Even though I couldn¡¯t see her face because of it being in the opposite direction and couldn¡¯t read her mind because she always keeps it locked from outside interference, but I was easily able to feel her trembling soul and fluctuating emotions, which were spilling out of her locked mind like a tidal wave. I hoped that she wouldn¡¯t get too sad over something which has no relation to her. I was just thinking about her deteriorating mental condition, when her trembling stopped. She took control over her fluctuating emotions and looked at me. She smiled at me before saying, ¡°Let''s first go to our room, we have a lot of things to upgrade¡± and then she went flying past and away towards our room. I followed behind Minie who was hurriedly making a bee line, straight to our room. While going back, I saw our ~Buff Ant~ diligently working out¡­ I mean, digging the room, but the scene of him digging was nothing less than a beast running wild. It was surely out of this world, but for some other reasons. He was working like a raging bull. If I compare him with his now dead predecessors, then if the humans were in awe after looking at them, then he would probably leave them scared witless. They would give the same reaction like when they saw the queen. I stopped for a minute and went passed him thinking that Minie would be eagerly waiting for me and I shouldn¡¯t let her wait, not after our little scene that happened at the entrance. I was just thinking that maybe she would open her heart and would tell me all, which is depressing her that we would have a long and maybe depressing talk after entering the room, but who knew that there would be another surprise waiting for me there. Call it a surprise or a stomach churning scene, but what I saw left me light minded. Chapter 21 - I love Eggs!! Author''s note:- Have fun with Minie. You all will finally know, why she is so sweet. Comment if you like the reason, actually her story is much deeper than just this. . Enjoy. ........................................................................................................................................... Rocky''s P.O.V:- I came running towards the room, and the first thing I entered in; my eyes met with queen''s. I saw our queen who had recovered from her injuries, squatting down with her face turned towards me and something round coming out of her bottom. NO, it was not anything lewd, but a bit disgusting. There was a lot of mucus like stuff sticking out of it. And just as I entered the room it came gushing out of her bottom and spilled on the ground. It covered a large area of the room with that mushy-gushy stuff. I would have liked to help her out, but its grayish yellow color and the ¡°Splush¡± ¡±Splush¡± sound that it made when it came in contacting with the ground, converted this brave soul into a runaway. I shouldn¡¯t say this, but I was really welcomed by the queen by shitting something slimy and disgusting from her behind. Moreover, her translucent yellow colored back was of no help in covering the movement of liquid which was taking place inside it. It was possible to see that slimy mucus squirming inside her, while she was pushing the round thing out of her bottom. I looked around and saw Minie with her face and neck turning beet red with each passing moment. Watching her changing colors made me remember that chameleon, but I shook my head before asking her what happened. ¡°What happened? Why are you so red?¡± I didn¡¯t know what happened, but when I said red, she let out a ¡®kya-Kya¡¯ sound and the redness of her face increased to a new height. But to my question she also haphazardly replied saying, ¡°It¡¯s stuck and is not coming out.¡± I don¡¯t know why, but I felt my illusionary heart go *Thump* Thump* when I heard her say it¡¯s stuck. Maybe the memories of the first person who died by my hands had something to do with it, but well, no time to think about the cause and effect of something that was out of my hand. I once again turned around to look at the queen and carefully saw that something which was stuck in her bottom. I don¡¯t know if I should have felt happy or not, but when I saw that the thing which was stuck inside her behind was nothing other than an egg, my soul went straight to heaven with bliss. And just at that moment, when my tension lightened, like she was tickled by something, the queen gave a low pitched roar and lifted her bottom and started trying to push the egg out of there, even harder. But the egg also stood its ground and resisted the force which was trying to push it out, but then I saw the liquid inside her back drawing back. I thought that it had ended and the egg also went back inside, but then the liquid came back down like a rushing tide and it pushed the egg out, which came out flying like a missile. I heard two notification sounds in my head and their respective message boxes appeared. I quickly glanced at them before turning my sight at the queen again.
Ant egg Lv(0) Time left till birth: 8 hours.
Queen learned "Slime Spit (F)"
The egg came flying out from the queen¡¯s bottom and it crashed on the ground with so much force that it pulverized the broken down ground and created a crater in it. I felt my body loosing energy when I saw that much destruction happening in front of me. I feared the egg might have smashed because the impact was anything but soft. But when the dust settled and I got a clear view of the situation, I saw the egg safe and not cracked lying inside the crater. When I saw that its condition was fine, I finally took a breath of relief. It turned out that, because of all the spells used in the room the ground had already started giving in and when the egg made contact with it at high speed, it finally gave in and caved. It provided a cushion for the egg to land safely on the ground. At the same time when the egg came out unscathed and safe, I felt Minies mind getting calm again. But the tension broke for just a single second, because now our not so fine queen was again gushing something out of her bottom. Sweat came tinkling down from Minie¡¯s forehead and her breathing got tensed, but unlike what I feared, this time the egg came out without any complications. Though because of the slippery and slime filled floor it slide a bit before stopping right in front of Minie. Other than that everything was all right. *Grwan* *Grouu* Unlike the previous one its delivery was very, very refined. To me it felt like she was not able to convey the pushing force to the previous egg properly and that¡¯s why she had so much difficulty getting it out of her body. I was going to go check on the two eggs when the tired looking and groaning queen, pushed another egg out. This one took no time and simply slipped out of her bottom. ¡®Maybe, the slime helped it come out so easily.¡¯ I thought. My thoughts stopped, Minie breathing stopped, and the sound also stopped. Even though the silence occurred for just a moment, but the atmosphere turned heavy and the situation changed. ¡°Didn¡¯t the information box say that she could only lay 3 eggs/day and they even have a cool down of 8 hours between too? Then why is she shitting them out like she is suffering from constipation?¡± My murmur was heard by Minie and I felt her staring daggers at me. Well, not for the content of my not so proper speech, but cause of my choice of words and its execution. *Ahem* Well, I needed to do something so I asked her the question which I had no idea about. It was asked to kill two birds with one stone, but it didn¡¯t go so well. ¡°So, this time, why has she given birth to three of them simultaneously?¡± I asked Minie who was murmuring something and chewing her nails like a rat, while her bloody red eyes were stars¡­ Looking towards me. She foolishly smiled, before nodding her head and I kindled myself for thinking that she was mad at me. Then she straightened her back and took a deep breath, and when her mind calmed, she answered to my question, while I was getting restless from the wait. ¡°I think it happened because of you possessing her body. Though you couldn¡¯t completely control her and could only commend her, but because she had no real control over her own body and its functions, she couldn¡¯t give birth to the eggs at their specified time and...¡± ¡®Oh shit!¡¯ I thought. I understood what she wanted to say. So, I helped her complete her sentence. ¡°And because she couldn¡¯t lay those eggs at their predestined time, they kept on getting stored inside her body and that is the reason why she just gave birth to three of them, one after another. It is also the reason why she had so much difficulty getting the first one out of her system. The difficulty decreased as the number of eggs inside her reduced.¡± I was smiling at Minie while talking as if asking her to praise me for figuring it out, but then a thought came and it left me flabbergasted. ¡°Yes, you are right.¡± She said as if telling me the reason, why she couldn¡¯t praise me. ¡°This really happened because you had taken control over her for a long period of time and she couldn¡¯t do anything and you are right about her dying too. It is possible. If someday you lost consciousness while being inside her, then not only would the extending period of no control over her body kill her, but it would also kill you because then you wouldn¡¯t have a source of mana to sustain your spirit and it would also vanish.¡± I couldn¡¯t look back into her eyes after she explained the reason. All of my happiness over getting a body to stroll and scroll around was washed away, and the tension that I had over queen¡¯s health came back. ¡°I understand, I¡¯ll never use or take possession of queen for longer duration''s of time, ever again. But you also told me nothing about this problem, you said nothing about it. If I knew something like this would happen with me sleeping inside her, then I never ever would have done it.¡± I said that and I waited for her to talk balk and get hot and angry, but instead the redness of her face that had reduced to being normal, trickled back again. While her unnatural glowing face was making me confused, she reacted unlike her character and for the first time in my lifetime, she apologized. ¡°I¡¯m sorry. I didn¡¯t know something like this would happen if you take possession of her body for longer durations. I thought, because they are your monsters, therefore nothing would happen to them, no matter what you did.¡± Her voice was shaking, her body was shaking and she kept her head down while giving me her reason. Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more. ¡°So, does this mean even your school or organization don¡¯t teach you everything.¡± What happened after that? Her mood changed, the depressing atmosphere went away like it was never there. Those eyes which just a minute ago were full of tears and looking down on earth were once again back in glow. Her face, which was full of fear and tension, once again adorned her same sweet smile. Her shaking voice became cheerful and she replied vibrantly; making me think that maybe the apologizing Minie was just a dream. ¡°No, they do teach us. They teach us a lot of things, but all the information they give is about how to take care of a wild master and¡­¡± ¡°What do you mean wild? I¡¯m not wild. You are wild, your¡­¡± I went into a little frenzy there when I heard her calling me wild, but her swift response held me back and helped me come back from the land of the crazies. ¡°NO, you are not. From wild I mean, those normal dungeon masters who are not born with a sentience, but just a simple will. I meant those newborn masters who have no knowledge or wisdom and have only the will to kill, eat and then going back to dream world and slumber off.¡± Ha-ha, and here I was getting mad over nothing. She continued, ¡°What I mean to say is, they don¡¯t teach us anything regarding a sentinel master. Most of such cases are handled by much mature fairies, usually those who have already experienced training three or four normal dungeon masters. You know the skills and things, which I have already taught you; a normal master would have taken centuries, if not decades to learn.¡± I didn¡¯t hear what she said at the end. Actually, I didn¡¯t follow her at all. There was only one line playing again and again in my head ¡®Don¡¯t know what to teach you.¡¯ and it was giving me a headache. ¡°So, what the hell do they even teach you all in your organization?¡± My mood had gotten a bit¡­ No, a lot depressing after learning that my helper was an incompetent one, someone who was an illiterate in my subjects. Moreover, she had no prior experience to boost. ¡°They teach us students to have the spirit to talk back to angry and wild dungeon master. To refuse their requests most of the time and to accept when needed. Because if we listen to their every request and let them do whatever they want to do, then those wild masters would create destruction everywhere and would go berserk. Now, we don¡¯t want that to happen, right?¡± She is right, I think. If I remember correctly, I had also done something like that before gaining wisdom and knowledge thanks to my precious title. ¡°They don¡¯t usually listen, therefore we are taught to give them the stick before giving the carrot and here the carrot or reward for taking orders is information about skills and the world. Actually, it is easy to control a slightly older normal dungeon master because they understand what danger is and that we fairies could help them survive. So it¡¯s possible to put a leash on them.¡± *Gulp* ¡®Put a leash on them? I don¡¯t understand who the master is and who is the servant here? From the way she is explaining it¡¯s more like normal dungeons are the pets of these fairies. Whom they feed, help to grow and survive; while they enjoy the show?¡¯ I thought ¡°SO, you mean, your organization teaches you to be a Tyrant, a brainwashing, heart breaking hypocrites?¡± ¡°Heeehehhe!¡± She laughed! She laughed at my seriously asked the question! What kind of an organization is this? Do they even care about us dungeons or not? Are normal dungeons just a play for them, a game for their enjoyment? Maybe my worst decision was not taken after we became partners, but right after getting born. Maybe I shouldn¡¯t have accepted the help of their race and become partners with a fairy. Ah! I don¡¯t know. Even though she is a real handful and a mind-boggier, but she is also really helpful. Though her organization has brainwashed her and all of her other little friends to believe that all the problems has only one solution and that is violence. That they shouldn¡¯t waste any energy on fighting us master''s requests with reason, and simply do whatever they want and control us, as they see fit. I don¡¯t know what really goes inside their organization, but I just hope that things won¡¯t take a bad turn and they start pressuring her to put a collar on my neck. I believe in her. I can see that she is fighting with something and her behavior and character is changing with that. I can only hope that she won¡¯t turn her back on me, but I still need to get rid of this frustration. ¡°You dictators! You all have been giving hell to my brother and sister cores. How do you even live with yourself after behaving with such atrocity? Do you have no humanity? No, sorry, how could you, you are a fairy after all!¡± ¡°Come on, it¡¯s not so bad. It¡¯s what is best for everyone. Now you wouldn¡¯t want there to be any myth about destroying dungeons as soon as one finds them because of some older or dungeon of the past that had at some time not listened to their partners advice and had corrupted lands and polluted the environment, and killed cities upon cities and villages upon villages, Right.¡± Now, if I think about her reason calmly, then what she said holds a lot of meaning than it should and matter how absurd and bad this talk sounds, I have no way to counter her with. ¡°Okay, forget it, we have got nothing to do with others, we have a dungeon of our own to take care of. Let me tell you about some of the competitions that I had won, while I was still studying.¡± ¡°Okay, let¡¯s hear them.¡± Yeah, nothing bad with getting my mood up by seeing her smiles, while she tells me about her past glory. I thought she would say something like, I won the prettiest fairy competition or the all knowing or something else like that, but no it was the worst kind of competitions. I guess, I should have expected this much, keeping in mind the place she studied at, and her initial attitude. It started with something which was kind of dubious, so I didn¡¯t understand where she was going with it, as she said, ¡°The first competition I won was called ¡®The Controller¡¯¡± see, its dubious and no matter how you look at it sounds fishy, but as she continued her tale, all of my expectations of her were blown away. ¡°Then I won the Filthy mouth, then the fighter and then the shameless, crocked weaver, most bashful, trouble maker, badass girl¡­¡± and her list went on and on and on. It wasn¡¯t a list of her won prizes, but her character certificate and all her won competitions suggested only one thing about her, that she was a bad girl. No, even devil is better than her in character I think. I also have an inkling that maybe they were not actual competitions, but were more like titles and stars given to her because of her horrible character. I just hope her changing character is true, otherwise¡­Rip me. I think I understand now, why she is like that. I mean, That. Is this also why I was allotted to her, even though I am a super dungeon master? Maybe those titles of her were real and because she was such an excellent student, her organization decided to give her a chance, to test the waters? *Gulp* This shit is scary. Not her, she used to be like that, but I hope, hope that other dungeon masters are saved from helpers like her otherwise, even if they didn¡¯t want to, they would probably go crazy from these little monkeys mental attacks. ¡°Well, let¡¯s forget about that. What are we going to do, now, that we have ¡®endured¡¯ our first test?¡± Again, it happened again. Whenever I talk or somehow our talks end up going around our fight, she always starts shaking. I understand that it was dangerous and we could have died, if not for that Earth mage and her partners help, but it¡¯s over now. This is what I don¡¯t understand, why does she behave like that when it has already become a thing of the past. Let¡¯s just hope whatever it is she will be able to get over it, or hopefully talk to me about it. Otherwise I¡¯ll have to lay the cards in front of her and that is what I don¡¯t want to do. ¡°Firstly, let¡¯s check our gains¡­ From our recent Endeavor.¡± She said, while visibly shaking, but she had enough control over herself to answer me back. Though I wanted to really ask her know what she was sulking about, but I couldn¡¯t do so after watching how hard she was trying to not let her mindset affect her duty. I opened the dungeon interface and what I saw left me flabbergasted and mad. No, nothing bad, it was bliss all over again. Chapter 22 - Dwindling Resources Authors note:- This chapter felt a lot longer than it really is, i don''t know why? . I hope you all Somehow enjoy it. ........................................................................................................................ Rocky''s P.O.V:- Yeah, the people who died and the time that they were inside must have provided quite a nice amount of credits to us. We, who had not opened the status panel on the interface yet, didn¡¯t knew what our total score really was. So, when we finally saw it, I don¡¯t know about Minie, but I suddenly felt rich. Forget rich. I felt like I was in heaven and everything was made of gold.
Dungeon Interface
StatusFloors, Monsters, Store,Creation,Quests
NameThe cave of MiseryTypeInsect
Floors1Total no of Monsters2(5)
Rooms/floor2(7)Total no of invaders0
---
Reserved Mana: (290/425)
Dungeon(Floors/Rooms)100+50+40Monsters100
Resources0upgrades0
---
Dungeon Currency3916ReputationGood (+138)
DC Inc.0/dayMana Reg.20/hr
My vision traced all of the options, but it didn¡¯t stop at the room, floor or any other panel, but travelled all the way down and stopped on the Credits panel and I felt bliss. ¡°Minie, we are rich. Almost 4000 Dc we are rich, we are so rich. Now we can buy everything. Now we can..¡± Yeah, truly happy, I was too happy, but like they say, ¡®happiness is a moment¡¯s thing, you have to catch the right moment to enjoy it¡¯, but I was trying to catch it at the wrong time. All of my delusions about being rich faded away when Minie moved her tongue to cleave my neck.. ¡°Yeah, now we can at least extend our dungeon to the second floor is what you should be saying. What rich! Even buying the rights to the second floor needs full 2000 Dc, and then we also need to buy some workers to dig out the rooms and also some ants to protect, then some resources to be mined, we also nee¡­¡± ¡°It¡¯s okay, I understand. We are not rich, heck we don¡¯t even have enough to get by, but still we got more than we should have. I don¡¯t want to act like a punk, but we really did nothing and are eating grub of someone else¡¯s hard work. I mean we did nothing and¡­ okay, I¡¯ll stop. Don¡¯t glare at me like that. Stop I feel like a laser is cutting me from the outside! Somebody save me!¡± Yeah, that was my cute fairy trying to kill me with her glare. Well, jokes aside, it¡¯s confirmed now. Whatever it is which is troubling her is related to the fight. *Argh* Its depressing. I am going to ask her and end this, once all of these pending things are taken care of. But, but, but¡­ what the heck is wrong with this system! The heck, even after going through such a pain inducing, full of tension and trauma providing fight with illusions and big bosses and shit; we still only have enough to buy just a simple extension to our dungeon and some workers. This is bad, really bad. Won''t it take me a long time to get over powered like this. *Sigh* nothing can be done about that, not with our loose pockets anyways. Let¡¯s just focus on things and plans that we can work on, for now. ¡°So, where are we? What do you want to do first?¡± ¡°Buying land and monsters, we need to invest in both of them to sustain our lives. Buy a floor first. Then we¡¯ll buy some workers to work on the second floor. Let¡¯s do these things first.¡± Yeah, she is right. Let¡¯s first take care of more time consuming and labor needing jobs, then we¡¯ll be able to work around everything else. So, I opened the Store in my dungeon interface to buy permissions to buy the second floor. I don¡¯t know what kind of permissions these are or who we are asking permissions from? I remember asking Minie the same question and she replied with one word ¡®God¡¯. What I want to say is, if we need someone to dig the rooms, then what reason is there to ever get permissions. I mean, we are only just digging downwards. Well, whatever. So, I opened the dungeon interface and opened the store panel to check out everything.
Dungeon Interface
StoreStatus/Floor/Monster/Creation/Quest
FloorsPrice + ConditionsResourcesPrice + Conditions
3rd3000DC + 100MPLOCKED (Unspecified)
Floor Locked
SpecialsConditionsPriceLocked
LOCKED (available after unlocking 10th floor)
I saw the price listed and just like Minie said, our credits really were not enough to get things done. Even buying floor rights cost so much that I don¡¯t even want to know what kind of things the locked portions of it would show. No, I am not scared that there might not be enough items or things in the list, but that they might be too costly for us beggars. I checked whether I had enough Mana to buy the floor or not and I felt happy. Looked like all my practice with the meditation helped out and as a result, I had enough mana to reserve for the floor and also to buy some monsters over it. So, with that after expending 2000Dc I was able to buy the rights or permissions as Minie say it, to extend our dungeon by a floor. But there was no happiness from doing that. I only had questions, no facts which proved the most difficult, which we would face in the future. No, not future, I should say, difficulties that I¡¯ll be facing in the coming days. ¡°Minie, I have a very serious question to ask of you!¡± ¡°Go on. Ask anything.¡± I tried to calm my mind, but when I failed to do so, I entered the troubled water with anguished, wavering and conflicting determination. ¡°If you remember then, we got our first floor for free so, at that time we didn¡¯t care about our expenditure and stuff, but as you can see this floor has almost bankrupted us. And even though it was not able to completely empty our pockets, but buying monsters would do just that. What I mean to say is that we can¡¯t spend our entire wealth on not needed merchandise and we also can¡¯t buy too many monsters.¡± This is a really big problem and I know, I just understand that if we don¡¯t start taking care of it from now, then it will lead to our downfall and even if it didn¡¯t entirely become the reason, it will at least play a very vital role in it. This money is a parasite that will leach on my soul for all eternity. ¡°Yeah, you are right. It is true, but what is your real question? What is it that is really making you so tense?¡± I see, she was able to catch the slight fluctuations in my voice. Though there is no real reason for my tension, nothing which concerns our present, but everything is related to tomorrow, tomorrow which is yet to come. This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it. ¡°You see only the second floor took 2000Dc to buy, like this I think the third would take 3000Dc. Like this, if we continued to improve and extend our dungeon, and then won¡¯t the 10th floor eat 10,000Dc, 20th one 20,000Dc, so on and so forth?¡± ¡°Yes, you are right. The expenses are going to keep increasing and the difficulties which we¡¯ll face in the days to come will also increase, but this much is to be expected. What? Did you think having triple elemental affinity, a title that improves your skill gaining speed are enough for you to get strong?¡± She even caught that, but don''t they help. I mean, I am able to get faster skills and stronger abilities, aren''t I? ¡°Yeah, you mind waves tells exactly what you are thinking. Don¡¯t forget you are a dungeon master, not a human or demon or Elf or any other kind of life form. You have a body that is the core of this dungeon and no matter how powerful you individually become, you will never have any way to deploy that power to protect yourself. What you really need are powerful subordinates, a strong bunker to protect your soul and also a lot of luck to get by unforeseen and unfavorable conditions.¡± She is right. Though I have affinities and what not, but what use have they been to me? We fought with the humans, but all that happened was my monsters getting swallowed whole by them and nothing more. We came out alive because of their internal fights. The thing is, we were just lucky and nothing more. Though I am able to get skills faster and gain abilities to get stronger, but what do they even do to make me stronger? I know I have the latest fusion skills, but they are also not easy to create and not all my monsters can use them. So, what do I need to do? What should I do? If I had teeth, then Minie would have starteed hearing a grinding sound by now, but the reality is that I don¡¯t have any way to get stronger or to make my monsters powerful enough to take care of any and all the nuisances entering my home. So, what should I do? ¡°You need to change your mindset. You need to work even harder to get even more abilities. Not for yourself, but for your monsters. You need to get familiar with your elements, so that all of your monsters get a chance to enjoy natural evolution. You see, even if you got individually stronger your core is still here so what will you even be able to do if a dozen or hundreds of humans and demons came to attack you? So get stronger. Not for yourself, but for the monsters in your dungeon and for me. My life is tied to you after all.¡± Electricity started running inside my core. A new hope started shining its light over my soul and my life and mind which was knee deep in tension and stress, came out of the mud called depression and the extinguishing lamp called life started burning back again. She is right, I won¡¯t be able to help it if the whole world one day came to destroy me, but if I have monsters which are strong enough to keep them in check, then won''t it become a wonderful life to life. I would love to dream even more, but the problem in real life can''t be solved by imagination after all. ¡°So, how are we going to even pay for such extravagant prices? We are not rich, I don¡¯t even know how we got so many credits with just two people dying. You see I¡¯m really afraid, afraid that we wouldn¡¯t be able to keep up with our expenses and it will be our downfall.¡± She looked at me, but didn¡¯t say anything. She looked at the ceiling for a minute before looking back at me and said, ¡°We will do it! No matter what happens, we will get stronger! No matter how costly our upgrades become or how many restrictions this system puts on us to stop our advance, but we will solve each and every problem when the time comes. But no matter what, don¡¯t lose your confidence. Tell me, don¡¯t you want to be like them. Then follow their footsteps and don¡¯t lose hope. It¡¯s only the sixth day anyways; we still have a lot of time. Just concentrate on your training, and leave the management and other stuff to me; I¡¯ll take care of it.¡± I wanted to doubt her, but I couldn¡¯t, I wanted to refute her, but I couldn¡¯t, I wanted to say you won¡¯t be able to, but I couldn¡¯t say that to her and her resolute eyes, her confident demeanor and to her sparkling soul. I couldn¡¯t say anything. Turns out the fairy who I thought had a small heart and wavering determination, is the one who was resolved the most between us two. Even though nowadays she is sulking in the corner most of the time, but she says she can do it, then I believe in her! If she says, we will get stronger, then I believe in her. Yes and just like she said, though a lot of things happened, but instead of thinking about the bad stuff, I need to hold on to every moment like them. ¡°I believe you.¡± I said and the depressing atmosphere turned normal again. So, after thinking deeply about it for a moment, I bought the floor right and our dungeon credits decreased from 3916 to 1916. But even though she said she would take care of it when the time comes, but I still couldn¡¯t understand how we even got so much credit in the first place. Maybe if I knew the way to calculate them or something, then it would help us somewhat. So, to take care of my illusions, I started a questionnaire session with Minie. ¡°Minie, how had our credits even become 4000? Though the adventurers were powerful, but there were only five of them and couldn¡¯t have blessed us with so much right.¡± ¡°Ah, that, well, most of those came from the demon which they killed. If he had died as a human, then I don¡¯t think we would have had enough to even buy the second floor. ¡° ¡°Really, there is such a thing.¡± ¡°Yeah, let me start from simple humans. A human gives credit equal to half of their level if they stay for one day inside the dungeon.¡± ¡°What? Doesn¡¯t it mean if a 100 level human stays inside our dungeon for a day, then he would be gifting us 50Dc for free?¡± ¡°It¡¯s not for free. Do you think they would come inside our dungeon to sleep? No, most people will come to kill ants and in our case each ant worker costs 50Dc. Now, think how many of such workers can a single 1 rank human kill in a day? Now would it turn into profit or loss? Think about it.¡± Damm! She is right. What profits would we get from them if they could so kill a 10 or 20 workers in a day? And not only that, but we¡¯ll also need to provide them with rewards. I don¡¯t know for how long simple Ant body parts will remain in fashion, but one day or another we¡¯ll have to start giving money and weapons. Now, I don¡¯t know how that will work, but I am sure it won¡¯t be cheap. ¡°Ahem¡­ So¡­ how¡­ about... Capturing-one.¡± Yeah, then can¡¯t we capture a human. It will be easy, efficient and would work greatly for us. It was what I thought, but Minie snorted at my opinion. ¡°Think about it, is it easy to capture someone alive or kill them? Now, there are many ways to kill someone like sneak attack and stuff, but to capture someone we¡¯ll have to beat them until they become unconscious and then we¡¯ll have to feed them and everything, to sustain their life. Let me tell you it is not easy to capture anyone. Moreover¡­¡± ¡°Moreover, what?¡± Chapter 23 - Unfair God Author''s note:- Ah! sorry, i got to tired while writing this chapter so i didn''t add any reactions to their conversation. I know if did do it then this chapter would come in three parts over three days and their is nothing much special going in it to make it so long. Also, I have started editing old chapters. Read them if you would like to tell me what you think about minie''s character, otherwise their is no need. Their is nothing new added, or emitted, nothing has been changed and nothing will be changed. I just decreased Minie''s screen time by a little and removed some really annoying and useless parts. Edited chapters will have {RE} written behind their name. . Enjoy. .................................................................................................................. Rocky''s P.O.V:- She has been looking at me from the start and though she can only see a crystal staring back at her, I am sure she must have some kind of image of mine to help her imagine and talk to me. I don¡¯t know what kind of person she sees me as. No, not emotionally, I mean, what kind of a shape she imagine me to have or am I just a rock to her? Hey! Minie, I know you are hearing me so, won''t you tell me what kind of an image do I have in your mind? No, so you are not going to tell me. Ah! Here, she again goes to continue with her lecture on risk of kidnapping people. I mean, who in their right mind would not kidnap such juicy appetizers anyways. ¡°Moreover, the adventurer''s guild provides a gold pass to every one of their members and each such pass has the ability to tell whether the adventurer is dead or not. Now, what would happen if someone enters our dungeon and they didn¡¯t return for a week or two?¡± She said while taking apart her fingers to give me an idea about the size of the pass that she is talking about, but I was too busy to figure out what would happen if they didn¡¯t return, then I remembered the fight. The assassins plot also included to make it impossible for others to return! When that thought hit me my mind went¡­ Skadoosh! ¡°Damm, then they would then send adventurers in to investigate and if out of some curse or bad luck they find the human that we have captured, then there will only be one way out of a tortured death and that is sudden death.¡± ¡°Yeah, you haven¡¯t forgotten what I taught you about the world, huh.¡± Heck, like I could forget about something that had just happened yesterday, but I don¡¯t remember anything that she told me about the danger of ¡®housing¡¯ a human as a guest. ¡°But if they do find it out, then can¡¯t we just simply say we are taking guests and keep the new ones here too?¡± ¡°Ha-ha, yeah right, guests. Haaha.¡± ¡°I am great. But now that I think about it, we only have to keep them here for a longer period of time, right. It¡¯ll be okay if we don¡¯t actually kidnap them, but keep them here, right.¡± ¡°What are you saying? What do you have in mind? Share it with me or should I just check it?¡± Ah! This girl is the bane of righteousness and humanity. ¡°No, no, I am telling, I am telling! When did I ever say that I won¡¯t tell you? Why won¡¯t I keep you out of my genius plan? You are my partner after all.¡± ¡°Then please, let me in.¡± Huh, A vampire are you?! ¡°Hehe, I don¡¯t know if it will work or not, but I think it will be okay. We only just need to delay them after all. So, the plan is to delay them by increasing the distance that they need to traverse by making traps or winding roads, which would end up again at the start.¡± Her eyes opened wide, her lips parted and formed a beautiful smile. ¡°It¡¯s a very good idea actually, though we can¡¯t use the trap idea right now, but the winding, unwinding road one can be used. Heck, we even have a whole floor to settle it on.¡± ¡°But why can¡¯t we use the traps, we have enough credits to buy one or are the trap upgrades are so costly that our current saving can¡¯t handle them?¡± ¡°No, the reason is much simpler than that.¡± ¡°What?¡± ¡°They are locked?¡± she said. ¡°Whaa¡­¡± She clearly and slowly spoke, while forming an X with her arms. ¡°We need to unlock ten floors before we could get the locked store options to unlock.¡± My mind went black and I angrily yelled. ¡°Isn¡¯t this going overboard? Hey god, aren¡¯t you making my dungeon progress a little too slow and impossible?¡± ¡°I think you are right this time.¡± ¡°Huh, about what?¡± ¡®What is she talking about?¡¯ I thought. But she replied without giving any thought to my confused voice. ¡°About, yelling at god for making our progress so slow and difficult.¡± ¡°Huh, what do you mean? What has God got to do with our dungeon progress?¡± ¡°I¡¯ll tell you, but don¡¯t lose hope, okay. Maybe this is for the best of us, that we progress slowly.¡± ¡°What? Why did you say lose hope? What kind of a heavy hand was dealt to me that you are talking about losing hope and stuff?¡± ¡°The thing ~is~!¡± ¡°The thing is?¡± ¡°It was taught in our organization that in a normal dungeon, all the prices are very low...¡± ¡°What does that mean very low? Ahem, how low are you talking about?¡± ¡°About¡­¡± ¡°Yes?¡± ¡°About one tenth low¡­¡± ¡°Huh, what? Say that again? Please.¡± Please say you are joking! Please say you are joking! Because if you are not, then I don¡¯t think that I can take this kind of shock with a straight face that is. ¡°Actually a normal wild core or a master, only need to pay 100Dc for every floor and it¡¯s fixed. Even other sentience cores also only needs to pay a price of 100Dc. Though their rate also increases with the floor that they are buying, but clearly it is not as extravagant as yours.¡± ¡°Right-¡± ¡°Are you okay?¡± No, actually I am not. I¡¯m tripping. This whole thing feels like a severe case of discrimination to me. Now, why would there be such a high obstacle put in front of me and my journey to get stronger? I don¡¯t know. No need thinking about it, let''s hear what she has to say. ¡°Yeah, I think so. But what did you say; other masters with memory like me only pay 100Dc for a floor?¡± ¡°Yeah, oh also they only have to reserve 10 mana every floor, but¡­¡± ¡°I understand. Please, don¡¯t say anything else.¡± ¡°Actually, there should be a table about it somewhere in the interface?¡± ¡°Really, there are also such things in there?¡± ¡°Who knows, what kind of information it can really provide us! Every now and then other fairies find new stuff on it to do.¡± ¡°So, go on try to find that catalogue. Let¡¯s see how or what kind of prices it offers?¡± She fiddled with her interface and even after some time nothing came in sight. But just when I was going to tell her to stop, that there was no need to find it anyways, a black glowing information box came into my view. [table=Black]Cost of buying a FloorElemental AffinityWild coresSentience cores0100Dc100Dc * Floor number + 10Mana1200300Dc * Floor number + 25Mana2400600Dc * Floor number + 50Mana38001000Dc * Floor number + 100ManaAll(6)100Dc * Floor number + 10Mana10000Dc * Floor number + 1000Mana---------Evolved ElementsSentience Cores (Fixed)1 pair4000Dc2 pairs2000DcHarmony0Dc[/table] The box was black. I don¡¯t know there was a black box, but I didn¡¯t care about that at the moment. My whole attention was eaten by the information written on it. I don¡¯t know if I should be happy or sad about it. Whether I should be happy that I don¡¯t have all six affinities or I should be sad that I have at least three of them. I think I would have been much happier if I had no affinity with any element, but does anyone even have affinity with 6 elements? Here even I am considered as a genius, if I had affinities with 6 elements then I would have been considered a monster. Well, a monster that couldn¡¯t expand his territory that is. ¡°Don¡¯t say that.¡± ¡°What¡± What is she talking about? ¡°Don¡¯t say that you would have been better with no affinities!¡± ¡°Why can¡¯t you see how easy it would have been for me, for us to get stronger then?¡± ¡°No you are wrong here!¡± ¡°What am I wrong with? If I was just a simple core with a sentience then with the amount of credits that we had we could have already bought permission to dig ten floors and would have opened our restricted options, Wouldn¡¯t we?¡± This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.¡°Yes, we would have been able to do that, but...¡± ¡°What but! Don¡¯t tell me, otherwise.¡± ¡°No, you do not understand the things correctly! The strength of a dungeon is not how many floors it has!¡± she screamed at me. ¡°Huh¡­ what?¡± and I felt confused. I don¡¯t understand? How could I not understand when everything was open and right on my face! ¡°Dungeons strength lies with the amount and strength of its monsters.¡± ¡°¡­.¡± Yes, it¡¯s me. ¡°Tell me, why do you think your queen is so powerful and even our normal born ants are so strong? Why is that?¡± ¡°¡­..¡± ¡°Why are you easily able to use skills as easy as breathing? Do you think these skills and spells are easy to learn?¡± No, actually I don¡¯t, but, ¡°¡­.¡± ¡°Tell me don¡¯t you feel your meditation skill rising every time that you use it. Don¡¯t you feel like you will get the notification informing you that you have learned the mediation skill, one of these days?¡± ¡°Yes?¡± ¡°Do you know, it is impossible for a normal person to learn the meditation skill under a year? It requires around three to four years to simply learning it and that is the fastest record made by a fire mage. Who learned it in two years? Did you know that?¡± ¡°Umm¡­ Actually¡­ No.¡± ¡°Huh. And here you are talking about it being unfair. What do you know about unfair. You, some who were born a genius, a genius with three different colored spoons in his mouth. What the hell do you know about fair and unfair?¡± ¡°So- Sorry¡­¡± ¡°You better be.¡± ¡°You are right. I shouldn¡¯t lose my heart over such small things. So, what if our strength comes at a price! We¡¯ll take care of it.¡± ¡°Humph¡± ¡°Ahem, could you tell me why there is such diversity over the prices between a wild core and a sentinel one?¡± I mean, I understand if there is a reason for it to be so, but what if it was done at random? What if it was made so just to make fun of me? Am I right¡­ God!? She heard me, but she didn¡¯t answer. That temper of hers is really bad, but I guess this time it was my mistake for losing my heart over some superficial comparison. ¡°Please~¡± I requested. ¡°Promise me, you are not going to turn into a loser every time something gets a little tough or you find someone having greater benefits than you! Promise me!¡± ¡°Yes, yes I promise. So, now, tell me.¡± ¡°Ah! It¡¯s¡­¡± ¡°Hai, Hai!¡± ¡°It is mostly likely related to having control over the elements I think. Who do you think will turn out more powerful between single element affinity wild core and a normal but intelligent one?¡± ¡°The intelligent one obviously!¡± I said without thinking even for a moment. ¡°Yeah, no matter how easy is for a wild master to buy floors, but he¡¯ll never be able to compete with someone intelligent; unless the difference between their powers is humongous, there is no chance for a wild core to win over the other one.¡± *sigh* ¡°Life is difficult isn¡¯t it?¡± ¡°Sure it is.¡± ¡°Then where were we, before we started talking and discussing about this topic? What were we talking about?¡± I asked her. ¡°I was telling you about the credit system.¡± ¡°Yes, so let¡¯s continue that again, we might get some clues to solve our little big problems form it.¡± ¡°Okay.¡± ¡°Okay¡± ¡°So I was telling you about¡­¡± ¡°Most of our credits being a gift from Demon-san!¡± will she laugh? ¡°Haha. Yeah, right. So unlike humans who only give the same number of credits as their level, demons ~payment~ differs. They pay us with ten times their level.¡± ¡°So much¡­ How? Why? Really?¡± ¡°Yeah your reaction is justified. But the amount I told you is just for entry level or new demons, not old and strong ones.¡± ¡°WHAT? What are you saying, is it not enough? Is ten times not enough?¡± ¡°The thing is, you are taking the method of calculations lightly. Do you know what it is based on? Or the principle as to why we get payment when someone dies inside our dungeon.¡± ¡°I remember you told me the amount is heavily based on the emotions, negative emotions of the person dying. If he is angry and full of hate and al that then our gains would increase to the amount by the degree of hate he had. I only remember this, but I don¡¯t know anything about its principle or why do we even receive credits in the first place.¡± ¡°You remember things, huh. I thought you would forget it after a day or two, but you still remember it. Good, good. But this also half wrong.¡± ¡°What¡± you couldn¡¯t have been feeding me wrong information, are you? ¡°No, I should have said it¡¯s incomplete not wrong, well; nonetheless, there is more to it than just that.¡± ¡°Okay¡± ¡°You see negative emotions and someone hates directly correlates to the danger that they hold towards us and our survival. Now, the greater is the danger that they have towards us the greater becomes our payment for getting rid of that danger.¡± ¡°What there is such a thing?¡± ¡°Yes.¡± ¡°Then what happens to those who die without hating us. I mean, there probably are many who would come here for overnight success and die without holding anything against us.¡± ¡°No matter whom it is, if he is not considered as an ally by the system then he is an enemy. Now, whether he comes inside our dungeon with good intentions, bad intentions or whatever, he is an enemy. So killing someone like him gives us the payment according to the danger that their level provides.¡± ¡°Oh! There is such a thing. Ah! Wait a minute, does that means the archer was a danger to us that are why we received such a high amount from him?¡± ¡°Actually, no. you know what happens to a body when it die, well, inside our dungeon that is?¡± ¡°Huh¡­Umm, it dies, its soul flies away and we eat its body??¡± ¡°Hehee, Not entirely wrong, but absolutely not right either.¡± ¡°Okay, okay. I get it, I don¡¯t know anything. So, tell me miss know it all what happens to someone when it dies?¡± ¡°Know it all, huh. I don¡¯t actually know anything at all, but¡­ Well, forget it. What was the question? Ah! Yes¡­¡± ¡°NO, No, No. NO. Tell me what do you mean you don¡¯t know anything? If you don¡¯t know anything, then what am I, Ignorant?¡± ¡°Ha-ha. Okay, okay. I¡¯ll tell you about it someday else but for now, let¡¯s talk about death, shall we?¡± ¡°Gulp¡± ¡°So, when a person dies inside the dungeon their soul and energy leaves their body. The soul enters the great river of life, but what happens to the mana that left its body? We absorb it.¡± ¡°All of it.¡± ¡°No, there is a limit and the number is strictly limited to their level, but there is a cache.¡± ¡°Emotions, are you talking about emotions?¡± ¡°You are a genius.¡± ¡°Huh¡­¡± ¡°You are right the cache here is their emotions or the state of their heart and condition of their mind when they die. When the soul leaves their body over dungeon absorbs a portion of its energy, while the rest of it helps the soul to cover the distance to the great river of life, but things change a little when their emotions burn. When someone dies with a heavy heart, our dungeon gets to absorb more energy from the soul than the limit and that is why we get more credits from such a person.¡± ¡°Well, you talked about the energy leaving body, but what happens to the body? I mean, why do we get the same amount from its dead body too?¡± ¡°That is simple, because the mana which has been circulated inside his body has also been strengthening it. Now, people don¡¯t get lv 100 in a day and they get skill points to make their body stronger. They are not like you who only have two or three categories to distribute their points! Most of them have eight of such categories and all of these categories are basically related to their body. Do you remember which category increases your mana?¡± ¡°It was knowledge I guess or was it wisdom. Sorry, I haven¡¯t opened my status panel for a lot of days now, so I forgot.¡± ¡°It¡¯s the knowledge stat which increases mana and mana attack power, while wisdom improves your reaction speed and you spell speed. Knowledge also increases your mana regeneration, while wisdom lowers the cool down for your skills.¡± Wait a minute, am I not forgetting something. She clearly used a word that I didn¡¯t know about. What was it what was it? Ah! Yes, ¡°Minie, what are Skill points?¡± ¡°Ah! You don¡¯t know?¡± she got surprised when she heard that. ¡°No, you never told me.¡± To my answer she hurriedly said, ¡°Ah! This shitty, forgetful me! Quickly open your status panel and let¡¯s see your improvement.¡± Chapter 24 - Skill point Author''s P.O.V:- I''m sorry for the delay, but I am back after suffering a mild depression, writers block, a sad interview, my pups diarrhea, and broken internet connection. Yes, i am finally back. But from these the wort was the awkwardness that i felt while writing. I don''t know why but one day it suddenly got difficult for me to write anything. but its okay now and the character editing is also almost done. Go and check it out if anybody got the time. . Enjoy. ................................................................................................................................. Day 6th: Noon. Rocky¡¯s P.O.V:- Even though this system and her god in not really benevolent, but like Minie said I also don¡¯t think there is any need to dwell on this matter. SO what if I am being mocked and being led by the system to pay hefty prices for chide abilities and monsters, but my day will still come. It may take some time, some days, months maybe even years, but there will come a day when no one will be able to put the harm on me and I will be the one to decide the rules. ¡°There, there, no need for so much hate! Like you thought there really is no need to dwell on it. Just live and our day will come. You just need to stay alive until that day.¡± Yes, I know and understand all of it, but, ¡°Please restrict yourself sometimes, and even if you are reading my mind, please, don¡¯t tell me that you are doing it. I feel uncomfortable.¡± ¡°Ah! Hee¡­ sorry~¡± *Sigh!* she is getting better, there is no doubt about it, but her unnatural and unhealthy hobbies really are a headache. Well, they are unhealthy for me. ¡°So you want me see my growth, right?¡± ¡°Yes, please open your status. Let¡¯s see how much you grew after their insolent and shameful dive into our home.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know about me but your comments sure have leveled up.¡± ¡°Oh please no need for the compliment. Compliments make me shy.¡± Like hell you do. But I am also very excited to finally know my own growth. No, I know that I probably experienced no increase in my levels. What I am more excited about is my newly gained skills and titles. ¡°Okay, then here we go ~Status Open~¡± ¡°You know there is no need to be so dramatic, right.¡± *Ding*
Status Window
NameNoneRaceCrystal core
Level3AffinityFire, Dark, Life
Rank0JobDungeon core
NatureNeutral(5)ClassNone
TitlesBorn Killer, Named Helper, Creator
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Health85Health reg.1.1/min
Mana425Mana Reg.1.4/min
Vitality8Knowledge32
Resistance10Wisdom18
----
Skills (Passive) :Mana Control lv(3), Mana Regeneration Lv(2)
Skills (Active) :Outburst(Special), *Locked*, *Locked*
Fusion Skills:Rapid Ball, Fire Bomb
Monster Skills:Obliterator Beam(A), Fireball(B), Antennae Strike(D), Mandible Shovel(D).
----
Skill Points9
¡°Whoa! Your level increased by one.¡± ¡°Are you being sarcastic?¡± ¡°No, I mean thought you surely didn¡¯t kill anyone nor did your monsters, but you still leveled up. Isn¡¯t it amazing?¡± ¡°Now that you say that, it is noteworthy thing.¡± So, did I level up because I also played an important role in defeating those mongrels or it happened because they were killed inside my own dungeon? This needs to be investigated properly, who knows I might find a new way to level up. ¡°Forget about it Rocky and concentrate.¡± ¡°Okay. So what do you plan to do?¡± I felt a bit awkward when she starred daggers at my status screen. It feels like she was seriously considering about something and was pondering about how she should take care of me. But what did I do now. ¡°Well, I see a lot of new things added on you status, but where should we begin~. Ah, let¡¯s start with the fusion skills. When did you get them?¡± Oops! Looks like I forgot to tell her about them. It will work out, somehow. I am sure that it will. ¡°Oh that, if you still remember those rapid fireballs that I attacked the assassin with; those were because of this rapid fireball skill and the huge ball at the end was this fire bomb skill.¡± I knew it was better to keep my explanations short and clean, so that is what I did. ¡°No, I am saying when did you create two fusion skills? I mean, it¡¯s not like you created them after hearing their detail once from me, right?¡± ¡°Actually that is how I got them. Do you remember the skill that the archer dropped?¡± ¡°The rapid fire one!! Don¡¯t tell me?¡± ¡°Yes, after you explained to me the working of fusion skills an idea came to my mind and I worked on it and someway and somehow queens fireball and my rapid fire skill combined to create this rapid fireball skill.¡± ¡°Monster.¡± ¡°Hey, hey, there is no need to call me names. But let me tell you they, I mean these fusion skills are nothing amazing to create. Actually, this internal fusion of skills is like mixing two different substances. It took me sometime to experiment with the rapid fireball skill, but the second one was automatically created by the spell creation panel.¡± ¡°Spell creation? When did you get something like that?¡± ¡®Now how should I explain this to her?¡¯ I thought. She who was standing while looking at me with her arms crossed and her mouth slightly opened really was not going to let me go without explaining everything to her. So, ¡°You see that creation title?¡± ¡°Whoa! You gained another title?¡± ¡°Haha, am I not great. The thing is, after I successfully conjured my fist fusion skill I was rewarded by this title. Though I didn¡¯t receive any achievement for it, but I guess the title alone is sufficient.¡± ¡°So what does it say? What does it say?¡± ¡°Just look at the title¡¯s information, well talk after that.¡±
Title: Creator
Given to those who achieve creation of a spell, weapon, artifact, etc without any outside influence.
Rewards:- Skill Fusion unlocked. - Skill manipulator unlocked. Panel workshop added to the dungeon interface.
Panel addedWorkshop > Creation > Fusion skill creator
¡°You really were lucky; no, we were both lucky to have survived that ordeal of a first invasion. But now that we see the results, though the conditions and the situation was clearly unfavorable to us and our preparations were also lacking¡­ cause of me¡­ but we were still able to live and also get quite a great haul out of it. I mean, we got credits, your mana increased, they dropped skill books, your received another title. the list is really long isn¡¯t it?¡± Though she spoke amusingly, but it couldn¡¯t hide her trembling from me. Though she was smiling, but her body was shaking, though she was laughing but sorrowful. Her eyes were clearly wide open with excitement and joy, but they were also wet with tears. And Even though I am not able to pinpoint the reason, but I think her unusual behavior is related to us getting thrashed in our fight with the humans. ¡®Is she blaming herself for not being much help to me or something? Does she think we were almost killed because she didn¡¯t properly help me prepare the dungeon and increase its defense?¡¯ Sigh¡­ a girls state of mind is really difficult to understand, but ¡°Don¡¯t worry.¡± ¡°Huh? About what?¡± ¡°It wasn¡¯t your fault.¡± Her body trembled when I said it wasn¡¯t her fault, but she tilted her head as if showing her confused and saying she didn¡¯t understand what I meant by that. Well, if she wants to remain oblivious to it then I can only let her be. She will eventually come around on her own. Moving on to the main point of our current situation and the reason I opened my status for; This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. ¡°Okay, now that we seen everything worth seeing, quickly tell me~ about the skill points~!¡± But instead of getting straight to the point, she dropped a bomb at me and her bomb actually made me excited. ¡°Yes! But before that, I need to tell you some good news.¡± ¡°What, what? Please do. Tell me the good news.¡± She kidded and shook her head from left to right before saying, ¡°Okay, stop behaving like a child. But it really is a great news for you.¡± ¡°Okay, I¡¯m cool tell me now.¡± ¡°It¡¯s about your skill points. You can see that you have 9 unused points in you status, right?¡± ¡°Yes, right there at the bottom. I can see it, but so what?¡± I was getting too excited for no reason, but it was the first time that she was telling me a good news after all, so she also didn¡¯t stop me. ¡°That means you are getting 3 points per level while everyone else only gains a single point per level. Now is that not a good news or not?¡± ¡°What? This is fucking great!¡± Its good and all, gaining more points than anyone else is great but I couldn¡¯t help but ask her. ¡°But what is so special about me? I don¡¯t think that the system is being benevolent and giving me a little relief here or is it?¡± ¡°Haha, surely it isn¡¯t. The system doesn¡¯t care about you or me. For it, we are just pests and nothing more.¡± ¡°Then, why? No, I am happy about it. It means, it really makes me over powered, but we still need to know the reason.¡± ¡°I think, now, listen carefully this is only just a hypothesis and not real, just a theory okay, so don¡¯t take it seriously. I think the increase in ones power is directly related to their talent and talent is measured by ones skill compression ability, his wisdom and lastly their affinity to an element.¡± Her answer gave me Goosebumps. I never thought that the one element which I was scolding and getting mad at just some hour sago would not bear any grudge but help me in the end. ¡°So you mean to say It is because I have triple elemental affinity that I am getting this reward.¡± ¡°Yes.¡± ¡°So after all, it really is a help sent by the system to balance our expenditure problem.¡± ¡°Yeah, well, you at least won¡¯t have to care about reserving your mana.¡± ¡°Okay, forget it this is just consuming time for nothing. Tell me about their usage already. WE still have a lot to do after all.¡± ¡°Okay, so skill points are the reward given by god to the associated when a person level up. These skills points are then used by the individuals to power up themselves and to increase their fighting abilities. You see your mana regeneration and mana control also leveled up didn¡¯t they?¡± ¡°Now that you mention it.¡± Their level really did rise. I don¡¯t remember receiving any notification for their level increase. Is it also related to, ¡°Yes, level up also increases your skills. Well, not all your skills would rise at the same time, but it is still something isn¡¯t it. Your skill levels would continue to rise even if you don¡¯t practice.¡± ¡°But There must be a catch, right? Otherwise won¡¯t skills just keep on leveling up and reach their highest point.¡± ¡°Yes, there is. Only those abilities has a chance to rise which are used frequently or are on the verge of increasing. And also only passive skills can be leveled this way. It has no effect on active skills.¡± ¡°Aha, well, it¡¯s still better than nothing. So?¡± ¡°SO? ¡°What should I do with these skill points?¡± ¡°It¡¯s simple. Do you see your stats and a value associate with them?¡± ¡°Yes, there is knowledge, wisdom, resistance, and vitality and they all range from 10- 40. With the highest value being 38 of knowledge. Oh! It seems I am quite intelligent, won¡¯t you say? But what do they signify?¡± I don¡¯t know but she politely and quietly sorted when she heard me praise my own self. Am I not? ¡°Well, Vitality increases your health and health regeneration, knowledge for mana and mana regeneration. Resistance is for your overall magical and physical resistance and the best of them all wisdom. Wisdom directly affects your ability to think and react. It also increases your thought processing speed and skill gaining ability.¡± ¡°What? Isn¡¯t wisdom stat quite broke then? Do you mean someone with an unparalleled amount of wisdom would be able to learn skills like drinking water!?¡± ¡°No, he will be able to learn a skill just by hearing its description.¡± ¡°What~? Isn¡¯t that overpowered? So should I also put all of my skill points in my wisdom stat?¡± ¡°Please do it¡± Yes, yes I felt like my only had been fulfilled and I had become a superman, but her sentence wasn¡¯t complete and the rest of it broke of heart and my dream. ¡°if you are an idiot.¡± ¡°Please do it if you are an idiot she said.¡± And I heard the sound of a glass falling on the ground and shattering into a thousand pieces. Actually, it was my heart. ¡°Who are you calling an idiot!?¡± ¡°What else should I call you? You very well know how important it is for you to have large mana capacity, but you are still saying bull stuff like that! Now, tell me what are you if not an idiot!¡± ¡°Ouch~ that hurts~ please, be lenient to my petty little soul.¡± Her eyebrows twitched and she sighed before saying, ¡°Just, Put all of the skill points in your knowledge stat and let¡¯s see how much your mana increases by. Okay?¡± So I did as she said and increased my knowledge by 9 points and I felt a great surge of power directly coming from somewhere inside me and expending my mana. Firstly, I felt shocked from the feeling of getting sudden and instant power up, but then my shock became displeasure when I noticed my total mana increase.
Skill points distribution
Knowledge : 47¡ü(9)Increase in mana capacity : 90Total mana : 515
It left me dumbfounded. How the fuck would I have thought that some simple gestures and usage of some numerical components would lead to an increase of 90 of my mana. ¡°This is bullshit Minie, Bullshit. Why did it increase by so much? This is crazy~¡± ¡°What are you saying? Oh! I see. So one point in knowledge increases your mana by ten points. Not bad. But why are you mad?¡± ¡°What should I do if not being mad? Tell me, if these points can so easily increase my strength and everything then why do I have to go through that infuriating and lonely mediation? Why did I have to go through that long and hard route to get only a pitiful, a minuscule increase in my mana capacity? Why? Why?¡± ¡°Umm¡­ please cool your mind first and about you doing meditation. The mana gain from doing meditation is only secondary, a bonus if I should say. The real reason I asked you to meditate was to help you gain better control at your mana. Didn¡¯t you say that most of the time when you use a spell most of your mana leaks into the surrounding and not even ten percent of it is used in the actual spell?¡± Because she was right so I did the only thing that I could do at that time. I nodded my head saying yes. ¡°Meditation is to help you with that and didn¡¯t the level of you mana control and mana regeneration passive skill rose to level 3? Well, it happened because they were already on the verge of leveling up.¡± Ah! So there is such a reason. I- I didn¡¯t know. But how would I have known about it if she never clearly told me about it. And here I thought¡­ sigh ¡°I¡¯m sorry. I don¡¯t know what to say.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry about it. But isn¡¯t a free source of to increase your mana capacity a great thing.¡± ¡°Huh, what do you mean?¡± ¡°I mean, at first your total mana was 385 and now after constant meditation it is increasing at the rate of 2 per days. Isn¡¯t it great! Won¡¯t you gain the ability to summon six more ant workers every month like this? An increase of 60 mana per month and for free is not a bad deal I think.¡± ¡°Yeah, you are right. But let me apologize again. It happened because of my slow witted and light mindedness. I promise it won¡¯t happen again.¡± ¡°Oh! Don¡¯t mind, don¡¯t mind. SO shall we buy some monsters now?¡± ¡±Huh, okay.¡± Chapter 25 - Connecting Chain Enjoy. ................................................................................................................................................. Third person¡¯s P.O.V:- Beyond the prepossessing lake named jade and beyond the undying jungles of life lies a flourishing city where stands a magnificent and humbly beautiful palace of the biggest empire of the world. For the last million years the palace has received the change of rulers without any problem. And even after the passage of such a long time there is still not any change that came to its position or to its ego that could denounce its beauty. This palace, though is the oldest monument to date and it spans and covers 250 acres of land; making it the biggest yet the sturdiest palace of this world, According to written glyph stored in the palace treasury, though the palace is big, but it only took one month for the workers to complete it at that time. It is also written in the documents that its construction which looks staggering to be completed in a single month was also done only by one single person who later became its first occupant. And later when people started rushing towards it from everywhere and started building buildings near its vicinity, it turned that lone palace standing in the middle of nowhere into humanities first kingdom. Then the population kept on increasing and the authority of the palace and its masters also increased until it swallowed the whole world. While at first all the humans were joined under a single banner, but with the passage of time generations and times when the dispositions and struggles of kingdoms started disturbing the lives of some non working, sturdy but vicious humans, they decided to take control over the palace and kill the king. Their revolution was mercilessly defeated, but because of their king¡¯s kind nature instead of destroying the weed from its roots, the strugglers and bringer of chaos were only banished from the empire, and were banned from entering any of its kingdoms and villages. These people travelled far and left the area under the rule of The Aryan empire, which to their astonishment had already covered the whole continent by that time. In only one thousand years, countless new kingdoms came into existence and even more villages came to be and the count of people living under the banner of this empire became uncountable. Though the passage of tens of millenniums was enough to dwindle the faith of people and the prowess of the once world renowned power. Now the power and authority of Aryan Empire is nowhere near to what it once used to be, but it is still standing. Though some of its land was forcibly reclaimed by the descendants of those weeds who had left the empire at the start of it all, but it still remains the biggest empire yet to date. But with changing times the situation surrounding the empire and its power also changed and even the empire, which used to have no enemy started losing its bearing and footing to the greed of humans. The king whose forefathers once used to rule upon the whole world now has authority over just 30% of the total population of the world. & Right now in the same luxurious but sturdy castle, created from the purest of the marbles and marveled with sculptures and Petro glyph which seems to be crafted by gods sits the current king Herman de Seiza, on a rocking chair in his personal room which is being dimly light from sunlight coming directly from the curtained, which are covering the whole kingdom from his view. The king has a build large enough for him to be accidentally considered a brawler, but the aura and magnificence of a king can be easily felt from a gaze through his red eyes. Though he might not look like it, but behind his youthful appearance he holds the experience of forty years of adventuring and battles at the front line. Though it seems uncanny for a king to greet danger face to face on his own, but he and his friend Arnold has done things what others might consider as having one foot in hell from the start of their adventuring years. But after a long and fulfilling life consisting taking care of unruly bandits, horrible monsters, master plots and wars at the stage of empires and meetings with death itself; both of them finally settled. While one became the king to rule over the whole world, the other became his general of wartime, who is currently on a vacation. But those times of endless fighting and continuous motion can be only mentioned as past glory as they hold no meaning to changing times and new generation. Right now he is currently waiting for his personal aide to bring him the object which he was promised, while his red hair spike hairs are strongly holding the a beautifully crafted crown which is also glorifying his head in return. He is anxious, because the holograph that he is holding states that once the blood line of the first ruler thins to the extremes, a change would come. And according to his knowledge he knows that if this continues then in only a generation or two the change and it would undoubtedly bring a disaster along with its, which might ruin their hundreds of years of prosperity and advancement. So he is anxious and waiting, waiting for his aide to bring him the good news. But his anxiousness lessened a little when like always at the corner of the room a shadow solidified and took the shape of a person. A man covered in black outfit from his head to toe walking out of the shadows, advanced towards him and bowed before the king in respect. ¡°Good morning, my liege. How are you today?¡± ¡°Everything is fine Meredith. Everything is fine, for now that is.¡± ¡°My liege, I have brought you news.¡± Herman¡¯s eyes opened wide with amazement and he hurriedly stood up while the script fell on the ground and the drink in his hand spilled on it. But due his excitement he didn¡¯t give it a second look and spoke to Meredith. ¡°It¡¯s finally here. Let me take a look at that artifact, that bracelet. Oh gods really are merciful~!¡± He was blowing the beguiles of his happiness when he noticed his servant standing still without taking out the thing which was meant to be given to him and his face turned pale as his shouts of joys rang in the room. He also noticed that he was behaving unusual for a king, so he controlled his ragged breathing and cheerful demeanor, but he also lost his temper and ended up speaking in a heavy voice. ¡°What happened? Give me the bracelet Meredith.¡± With every word his voice got heavier and louder and by the end of his sentence he was almost shouting at his aide. But instead of bringing something or anything out and presenting it to his majesty, Meredith looked at the ground, his eyes full of shame as he said, ¡°I¡¯m sorry my liege, but something happened and we lost the artifact.¡± He had lost the artifact, but his king lost his temper. ¡°Preposterous.¡± And the metal chalice which the king was holding was crushed and deformed out of shape. ¡°What happened? Tell me or I am going to hang you and all of your subordinates.¡± When the guards standing outside the room heard such commotion coming from their king¡¯s room they all hurriedly entered inside and when they saw a man in black outfit standing in front of their liege, they readied their weapons to strike him down, thinking that he was an enemy assassin. But the king shouted at them in rage, ¡°Get out! Who told you all imbeciles to come inside! Get out NOW!¡± They couldn¡¯t understand what really was happening, but seeing their benevolent and kind king showing such rage and anger they couldn¡¯t help but have doubts about the situation and hesitated to move out of the room, but then the king whose red eyes had literally started burning with anger couldn¡¯t control himself. ¡°You all really want to neglect your orders, My Orders?! Get out before I decide to kill you all!¡± The soldiers stiffened from the pressure coming from their king as they all hurriedly left, leaving the men in black alone in the room with their king. ¡°I¡¯m sorry my liege. It¡­¡± The time it took for the soldiers to move out of the room was enough to calm the king down. He sighed, looking at the closing door and then stared at Meredith, who was still standing at the position. ¡°What happened? Tell me the whole story and don¡¯t leave anything. We¡¯ll decide what to do with you after hearing about the situation.¡± ¡°My liege, according to my subordinates, the person who was bringing the bracelet here while travelling via the barren and inhabited parts of devil Pass Mountains never arrived at the next checkpoint. He went MIA somewhere in the mountain ranges.¡± ¡°Do you mean to say he was abducted by our enemies or was he killed?¡± ¡°We are currently investigating the matter, but we still haven¡¯t gotten any information or clue regarding his situation or position.¡± ¡°Find the reason, find him if he is alive or find the culprit for his death, but don¡¯t come back before finding something that hints towards his or the package''s whereabouts. Understood?¡± ¡°Yes, my liege.¡± Meredith said that and bowed once again before he started walking towards the dark corner. He moved and the corner and he become one with the wall, as he vanished once again into the shadows. The king didn¡¯t give another look towards him, but looked out of his room; his sight travelling behind the curtains, beyond the balcony and towards the ominous mountains. * * * * * Meanwhile, back in the dungeon:- Rocky¡¯s P.O.V:- ¡°So, shall we start Minie?¡± ¡°Yes, please do.¡± ¡°But what are we going to buy? Have you thought about it?¡± ¡°I think with the amount of mana and credits we have, we should buy four or five ant workers for the digging of the second floor and then we¡¯ll see what to do next. Does that sound Okay?¡± ¡°It sounds like a plan to me.¡± That was me and Minie, and we were talking about what we should buy and how much we should spend on the workers. Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there. I was going to open my dungeon interface to see if we had any new addition into our monsters now that I have leveled up, but I was stopped in the middle by a sudden red box which appeared out of nowhere. [table=red]Warning!! Intruders alert.[/table] When I saw the box coming out of nowhere my reaction was explainable at best, and boring at the least. ¡°What again?¡± ¡°What kind of a reaction is that? What are we going to do?¡± Minie panicked a little, but I spoke leisurely. ¡°Um¡­ let¡¯s first check what is here, I hope it¡¯s not a human and if it is; I hope it is not a powerful one.¡± ¡°Yes, let¡¯s check it out.¡± Then she opened her side of the dungeon interface and fiddled with it until a video of some humans entering through the hole started playing in front of us. One of them was already waiting at the starting tunnel and the others were currently hanging from a rope climbing down from the surface. Though just till a day ago the entrance to the tunnel looked like the hole going straight to hell, but today it was glowing with blue light. The mushrooms glowing near and surrounding everywhere around the pond were completely lighting the entrance in a beautiful, magnificent light, which actually made them look friendly. ¡°Hmm, aren¡¯t they quite venerable if we attack them now?¡± ¡°Huh, actually, yes, they are. From the quality of their armor and the way they are getting down hanging from ropes and everything, oblivious to the danger that might be lurking inside; I think they are either complete amateurs or they just don¡¯t know about this entrance being an entrance to a dungeon.¡± Yes, she is right. If they knew that it was a dungeon moreover one which gave a ¡®B rank¡¯ party run for their money¡­ ¡°Really, we did that?¡± ¡°Ahem¡­ I think they know that this is a dungeon or do they? Should I go and stalk them. I mean, eavesdrop on their conversation. No, I mean¡­¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry, there are only two of us here and we both know each other very well, don¡¯t we. So just go and do the stalking to your heart''s content, but do come back before they completely traverse through the narrow tunnel, Okay.¡± ¡°Yeah, okay.¡± So I shifted my presence and travelled through the walls till I was at the entrance of our dungeon, standing just over their heads. While coming here I noticed that our buff ant had already finished the work on the first floor and it was now ready and waiting. Because I had not given it any other orders, it was waiting standstill at the second diversion of our cave. I shook my head and attentively looked at the humans invading our home. There were roughly five of them, no, four and a half? ¡°Haha~ What half? How can you count something living as a half? That right there is a dwarf, a dwarf~¡± ¡°Whoa, is he also a human? I didn¡¯t know humans could be so small?¡± ¡°Well, that is what happens if you don¡¯t eat your vegetables.¡± ¡°Huh, really?¡± ¡°Ha0ha, actually, no.¡± ¡°Okay, Now stop being funny, I am going to check their information.¡± ¡°Okay.¡±
Dungeon Interface
StatusFloors, Monsters, Store,Creation,Quests
NameThe cave of MiseryTypeInsect
Floors1Total no of Monsters2
Rooms/floor7Total no of invaders5
---
Reserved Mana: (390/515)
Dungeon(Floors/Rooms)200+50Monsters100
Resources0upgrades0
---
Dungeon Currency1916ReputationGood (+138)
DC Inc.0/dayMana Reg.20/hr
-----
FloorStatus/Monsters/store/creation/quest
Floor : 1
InvadersHighest Rank/levelLowest Rank/levelClass
50/590/24Bandits and Thieves
¡°Huh, small fry, moreover, thieves.¡± ¡°Minie, don¡¯t say that. Well, actually, they are small fry.¡± ¡°Okay, so what should we do with them?¡± ¡°Um¡­ let¡¯s give them a chance. I think we should let them leave if they don¡¯t have any malice towards us.¡± By time we stopped our chatting they all had come down from the surface and were now standing in front of the narrow, long and now, not so dark tunnel. ¡°This place looks nice.¡± (Vice captain) ¡°Yes vice captain, boss will be happy with this.¡± (Underling A) ¡°We actually found such an amazing place to create our hidden headquarters at, moreover, this place is also completely away from the city and secluded. No we will ever be able to find us here.¡± (underling B) ¡°Yes, even these mushrooms look so beautiful and the pond water is also so clear.¡± (Underling C) ¡°I think it will be okay to make this hole as our territory.¡± (Vice captain) ¡°Should we inform boss, sir?¡±(underling B) ¡°Nah, let¡¯s go deep before doing that. He was the one who sent us, so he knows we are here. He is coming in a day or two.¡± (VIcecaptain) ¡°Don¡¯t tell me you lot don¡¯t know what we are sent here for?¡±(Vice captain) ¡°T- To clean the hole, sir?¡± (Underling A) ¡°Yes, kill all the monsters before the boss comes here.¡± (Vice captain) While they were talking the one in shorts who liked the mushrooms picked a handful of him and placed them in his pockets. Making his pockets glow beautifully. But I didn¡¯t notice. When I heard them say making my home as their headquarters my heart bumped and when their vice captain or whatever said to kill everything here I lost it. Okay, let¡¯s do it.¡± ¡°Vice captain shall I pluck some mushrooms too? Won¡¯t they help us see in the darkness?¡± (Underling D) Their vice captain, a tall but skinny man looked astonished by the intelligence of one of his men, even he hadn¡¯t thought about such a great idea after all. He nodded his head in confirmation and all of them ferociously plucking the mushrooms, but no matter how many they pocketed it didn¡¯t put any dent in the light or their cluster as there was already a lot of them to even count. After doing the hard work of manually plucking mushrooms when he saw that everyone''s pockets were glowning radiating blue light he stopped them and spoke, ¡°oh! Stop now! This cave is already ours. What are you rats being so greedy for? Hurry up lets go.¡± ¡°~Osu~¡± they all collectively and enthusiastically shouted. But to their bad luck, I had already made up my mind to not let them leave alive. ¡°Minie, send the buff worker and kill them all.¡± ¡°They want to take over our home! So let¡¯s send them to hell!¡± I went back to my room and slowly not hurriedly opened my monster chart to see if I had another option to swiftly take them out. I was also worried that our bodybuilder wouldn¡¯t be enough to handle them all, as I didn¡¯t want him to die. By the time I had opened the chart, they were already exiting the narrow tunnel and were entering the small open room where normally an ant would have been waiting for them, but at that time we only had one worker and he was also not in that room. The monster chart opened with a ding
Dungeon Interface
MonstersStatus / Floors / Store/Creation/Quests
---
NameRankMana ReservedPrice
Ant egg05Mp25Dc
Ant Worker010Mp50Dc
Ant caretaker025Mp75Dc
Buff Ant Worker(U)175Mp175Dc
Ant Soldier(UQ)?????????
Ant Queen(S)3100Mp500Dc
Bee Egg015Mp75Dc
Bee Farmer020Mp100Dc
Bee Worker160Mp300Dc
Bee Queen(S)3350Mp1750Dc
Nameless Soul10Mp, {Needs Greater Mana Stone} + ???0Dc
---------LOCKED----------
My sight traveled till I saw that it was possible to buy the buff worker now, but after looking at his price I didn¡¯t gave it much thought and hurriedly bought four ant workers for 200 Dc reserving 40 of my mana in the process. The numbers balanced and I grinned happily thinking about the onslaught which they would bring to those pesky humans. Then I noticed something unusual on chart, but before I could clearly take a look at new information I was called by Minie who was ordering our buff worker to go demolish the humans, like it did with the rooms. I also closed the interface and ordered the workers to go and show them the might of our dungeon. The thing is though the workers bought from the system couldn¡¯t evolve and everything, but they were still powerful enough to blow them low ranker''s to smithereens. Because I saw that even the system bought workers had a minimum level of 50 while the best of them topped at 65, for now. Chapter 26 - Tyrranical Buff Ant Third Persons P.O.V:- As soon as the workers were bought, the crystal spirit, the master of the dungeon ordered them to go and create chaos midst the ranks of those amateurs entering their home, but from the way things happened and situations perspired he thought maybe there was actually no need to buy them yet His dungeon helper Minie ordered their only capable fighter of their dungeon in the skin of a worker to stop those invading humans from advancing, but she also ordered it to not die and retreat at the time it felt crisis in its life. No, it wasn¡¯t him who got brutally and crushingly defeated in a single strike or anything, but the humans, who could not do anything in front of it. After hearing his orders, the buff ant worker, who was resting in a room a bit further inside the dungeon stood up and started running at its top speed and travelled past the puzzling corridors of is masters evil genius, until it encountered the humans lazily walking towards him, without any vigilance towards their surroundings or any attention to the danger that might be lurking just above their heads. Opposite to it, the humans saw a bulldozer madly rushing towards them. They could help but start shouting, as they froze in their places. ¡°What is that?¡± ¡°How would I know, what that is?¡± ¡°Is that an ant?¡± ¡°How can an ant be s- so monster-ish?¡± When his friends heard him say a gibberish word like that they couldn¡¯t help, but look back at his idiot face and they collectively snorted in disdain to his ash filled brain, but they had clearly forgotten about something. Their captain was the first one to come back to his senses and just as he did, he saw that the wannabe dragon ant was already too close to them to run away, so he gave a specific order to his underlings. ¡°Disperse, Disperse, Disperse. Create space and don¡¯t stick together. MOVE!¡± A drop of sweat trickled down from his temple, to his face as it fell on the ground, but in the time it took for it to make contact with the floor, the ant which was like the Messiah of destruction and death to them struck in the middle of their party like a bowling ball, as almost all of them scattered away from it. But someone was not as lucky, as it directly collided with him. While four of them scattered to the left and right, the one in the middle, who had given the suggestion to pluck those mushrooms for lightening the dark tunnels made a head on collision with the truck coming running from the front. Truck- sama struck him and he flew. His life flashed in front of his eyes, as scenes of his evil nature and waste of a life unfolded scene by scene in front of him. When the flash back ended, he noticed that he was actually dying without achieving or even doing anything in his life. Tears of regret and the wails of remorse started rushing out of his eyes and mouth as he flew away from his friends in name, his bitch of a boss and the heavenly calamity like monster which had bestowed upon him the gift of flying. As he thought such a ¡®NO¡¯ shout escaped his mouth showing his tenacity and strength and his desire to live but his life soon came to an end. *Puck* *GWAh* He flew through the air like a cannon ball and directly struck the wall behind him, head first, as his head exploded into a shower of red and white like a watermelon. His brain matter and blood plastered the wall in a very deadly graffiti as the eyes of his companion¡¯s bulged out seeing the horror of the strength, which their dear ant must have used to create something so spectacular. Actually, because the buff worker is very slow, so even the man wouldn¡¯t have flown through the air like that if he had been struck normally, but his destiny changed and his fate got sealed when his slow reaction was coupled with a skill ¡®Power Throw¡¯ by the ant. Just as it was going to collide with him, it used one of its three offensive skills and the as the skill''s name say, the power it used to throw the human as an object was enough to take his life. His companions looked back to see how the condition of their companion had turned out to be, and their already bulged eyes fell out of their sockets and their mood turned grim. They again collectively turned their heads to look at the perpetrator of the mess and they what they saw horrified them even more. It was not standing away like they had thought it to be, but was now facing the two people standing on the left, as its steal spear shaped antennae¡¯s were flying towards them. If the attack had just only started or if they were not being attacked so out of the blue, then even though they would still have needed to sacrificing an arm or leg, but they could have at least held onto their lives, but the spear antennas had already covered the little gap between them and the ant and those spears were already only just a foot away from them. The spears flew towards them, creating *woosh* *Woosh* sounds and touched their chests, penetrated their hearts, tore through their back and flew away creating a spurt of blood and organs. The impact force was so great that the spear not only tore their hearts out, but it also brought their lungs and other organs in tow. The spear flew through the air and fell as it made impact with the ground. *Doon*(Sfx: spear striking ground.) Their lifeless bodies fell, as the leaking blood and broken, torn down organs created a scene straight out of hell. The vice captain and one of his only companion who was left alive shuddered, looking at the scene and one of them vomited his stomach out and the other stained his pants, but oblivious to their rapidly falling motivation and paling faces the ant used the strength of its legs and moved towards them. The vice captain who came inside the cave thinking they had finally struck jackpot, started crying and shouting, as he ran towards the entrance from where they had come inside. ¡°Why? Why is this happening? What the fuck is this?¡± But to his bad luck, his sudden and rapid movements caught the eyes of his dream monster and it started running after him without giving any thought to its decision and it left the other one alive. *EEeee* the ant screamed in a high pitched voice as it madly rushed behind him. He looked aback, but blood drained from his face when he saw blood dripping from the spears connected to the ants head and its mandibles shining with a strange light. He thought of it as the grim reaper that was running behind him to forcibly abduct his soul and quickened his pace. Though he was only a low leveled ordinary man wanted to live his life passionately, but because of low income and childhood bullies, he ended up becoming a low life thug, a gangster, a bully himself. His thoughts of living a honest life dimmed away as he advanced through the ranks of his joined gang, and as he kept on creating mayhem and pillaging small villages; he himself turned into one of those bullies who once used to bully him, but even after living his life on the edge, as he thought he was living, he had never thought that one day he would actually end up meeting a real bully. The ant opened its mandibles and the growing light coming from them sharpened and increased in intensity. He also understood that it was going to use a skill, as his fears increased and reached a new height he suddenly remembered his, ¡°Mommy¡­¡± *roar* The ant got irritated as it closed its open mandibles. It created a *snap* sound and a wall of energy travelled towards the human running away in panic as he stumbled and rolled on the ground the skill hit him. Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.
Skill: Mandible shovel
The skill has the power to break down composites, compound particles and skills and converts them back to their natural or simple state.
Mana used : 50Cooldown : 5 min
The wall of light struck him and the area around him. It didn¡¯t create an explosion, neither did it show any signs of destruction. It just simply created a flash of light and that¡¯s all. When Minie and Rocky looked at the place where the running human was tumbling around, they saw that he was nowhere to be seen. Eventually, after looking closely they found that in his place there was only a stash of ash, which also crumbled away and blended with the dust on the ground. Minie¡¯s eyes were already bulging out from the time that it had helped the first human fly, but by this time her surprised expression and slightly red face became exponentially and greatly influenced, as she started shouting in joy watching it completely destroy four humans on its own. But then her forehead creased as she remembered that there were five of them and not four. She checked the battlefield to see if the one uncounted for was there or not, but to her surprise the room was devoid of any presence, other than her cute little grown up larvae. ¡°Where did the fifth one go?¡± She murmured to herself, but her astonishment and surprise quickly faded away when she heard Rock tell her about him. ¡°The fifth is being taken care of. Um¡­ See, he¡¯s there.¡± She looked at the screen which was floating in front of her master and friend Rocky and saw four ants circling around a cowardly human sitting on the ground while he was covering and shaking in fear, as he mumbled. ¡°Save me, somebody. Please, save me!¡± She felt a bit awkward and confused looking at the scene as she couldn¡¯t understand how he had gotten there. So, she decided to ask Rocky. ¡°He... How did he get here? Wasn¡¯t he together with the other humans?¡± ¡°Oh! When their vice captain started running towards the entrance and our bodybuilder decide to go after him, he took the chance and an away, but he made a mistake as he had started running even deeper inside the dungeon instead of running towards the entrance, and his wrong decision. Though he made a fine decision, but unfortunately for him my newly bought workers were also running towards him, so he got caught.¡± ¡°But why are you not killing him?¡± She asked him, as if it was the most natural reaction to kill a human, but Rocky also answered with something which could only be considered as a blasphemy to gods order or an atrocious crime towards a sentinel being. ¡°Let¡¯s milk, some credits out of him. He is the biggest coward out of them, won''t his fear and degraded mental state help us get a lot of dungeon credits? We can always kill him anyways, and then I can digest his body leaving no clue behind. Won¡¯t it, then be okay?¡± Her lips twitched a little when she heard him say that, because he had suddenly found a solution to their biggest problem, money and also using one of their rejected methods. ¡°No need to keep the human trapped for too long, kill him after milking some credits out of him.¡± ¡°Huh, okay. Let¡¯s create a sturdy cage for him and make sure that he doesn¡¯t run away.¡± ¡°Yeah, sure.¡± He answered as his sight traveled from his helper to his dungeon monsters. Then he controlled the ants to carry the human to towards the entrance to the second floor. Because the monsters were going to be sent there for digging the floor, he thought that it would be the best place to keep him. ¡°Okay, right so what should we do now, Minie?¡± He said looking at Minie, who was busy playing with her hair. ¡°Eat their bodies and open your waste item bag. It¡¯s finally time to check our harvest.¡± He remembered the process of eating the bodies as he completed the process and message box informing about their total haul came in front of him.
+ 412Dc
It was the total amount of credits which they had gained after killing and absorbing their bodies and he understood the difference between the amount of credits that a seasoned adventurer and some low key bozos give. He then noticed that he couldn¡¯t absorb the ash scattered around. It told him that a little amount of money was wasted because his Ant couldn¡¯t control itself. He reluctantly looked at the buff Ant¡¯s back, who was carrying the human to towards the entrance to the second floor and an expression of regret formed on his face. So after eating all the bodies and drinking all of the spilled blood and organs he looked towards Minie, who also nodded at him and opened her side of the dungeon interface. She fiddled with it somewhat and then after sometime an expression of pure joy and excitement flashed on her face as she looked at Rocky with her sparkling bright eyes. A bit of droll also travelled down from her lips and towards her chin, but she didn¡¯t pay any attention to it, while Rocky¡¯s crystal got heated up cause of it. ¡°You got it.¡± He asked her whether she was successful in opening the Item Bag. ¡°Hai! Here.¡± She replied. As she said that a blue colored normal window screen opened in front of him listing various items and the like.
Waste Bag
Armor''sDark attributed clothes, Wind armor, Boots of haste, Low quality Leather Chest Armor(3), Daggers(2), crude iron short sword(1),
AccessoriesNameless Bracelet, Eye of the bewitcher, Earrings of tenacity
Skill BooksIllusion, Sneak
PotionsGreater Health Potions(5), lesser mana potion(2), lesser health potion(1)
HerbsBlazing Frost Mushrooms(128)
Would you like to melt them all: YES/NO
He looked at all the options half heartedly because what did he knew about the difference between a low quality and a high quality sword, the difference between leather and steel armor. To him they held no importance because he wasn¡¯t going to wear them anyways, but his laziness abruptly came to an end and all his senses opened to the profound when his eyes fell on the skill book section. He remembered that it was possible to remove stuff from this waste bag, so he hurriedly asked Minie to get him the skill books. ¡°Minie get the skill books out of there and let me have them?¡± He cried out in joy when he saw the skill book section had two skills in them. ¡°What skill b¡­ oh! Looks like our assassin friend dropped something nice before dying. It¡¯s okay, but why are you getting so excited over two skills?¡± ¡°Ha-ha, it¡¯s not about the skills themselves, I think I just found a way to make our second floor confusing and a trap in itself. Hahaha.¡± Chapter 27 - Who are you Ghost?? Author''s Note:- From now onward all the chapters will be in Third person. . Enjoy. ................................................................................................................................ Third person''s P.O.V:- Minie followed his command and transferred the skill books from the waste bag to his inventory. But then she saw him and noticed that instead of learning the skills, he was more concerned with the layout and design of the second floor of their dungeon and she felt a warm current coursing through her body. For her Rocky was like a kid, a kid who was very eager to learn new things, but had the tendency to forget important topics and older information, but now that she saw him doing his duty so passionately and dedication, she truly and really felt happy. Her happiness would have continued and maybe even increased, if she hadn¡¯t thought about this. ¡®Did he not level up? Even after killing 5 humans, he still didn¡¯t level up? Why is that? Don¡¯t tell me, the experience he requires to level up is actually much- much greater than in normal cases!¡¯ she thought, as her face cramped and her eyebrows crumpled. She couldn¡¯t help but ask rocky about it. ¡°Rock did you level up or not?¡± ¡°Huh, that¡­ I don¡¯t think so? I didn¡¯t hear any notification regarding level up.¡± ¡°But how is this possible? Don¡¯t tell me; he will have to kill them with his own hands to get the reward!¡± She was seriously spending her brain to learn about the reason, when Rocky suddenly said something funny. ¡°Maybe the system forgot about it?¡± They were just casually talking about leveling up and all, when the sweet rhyme of gods music started ringing in their dungeon *Ding*
Dungeon master Level Up x 5
Buff ant worker level up x 2
¡°Oh! Looks like¡­ they system was calculating the rewards.¡± *¡­¡­.* ¡°I am sure it was.¡± Minie stared at the ceiling after saying that, but her eyes were clearly cursing and firing daggers at whoever was controlling the system. *Hah¡­* Anyways, they called the buff ant to see its progress and saw that its newly gained 2 points had been automatic, but equally added to its strength and resistance stat. Mine shrugged her shoulders, as if she knew that its points would be automatically distributed, but Rocky was fascinated by the idea of automatic distribution of skill points according to an individual''s potential. ¡°This is good, but manual distribution of points is still the best. Who knows if I also had this system of automatic distribution of points, then hoe they would have been distributed?!¡± ¡°Forget about it, its useless worry. Just do as I tell you and we¡¯ll make it.¡± ¡°Sigh¡­ so what should I do now?¡± ¡°Firstly, add all of your newly acquired skill points in your knowledge stat and then melt all the items inside your waste bag and reclaim materials.¡± The first task was easy and rocky also knew about it, but he didn¡¯t know anything about melting the items inside his waste item bag and it confused him a little. ¡°Melting the items? For what?¡± ¡°You know, we can melt all the useless items and reclaim raw material from them.¡± She excitedly said, and when she saw that she had gotten his attention, she added, ¡°Like, if you melted an iron sword, then you¡¯ll get crude iron or iron ore from it. The main advantage is that it saves us from spending dungeon credits to buy raw materials, as we could easily get them by melting the useless items.¡± She thought he would get happy hearing this information, but then she understood what exactly had taken his attention. ¡°So, if I want to reward the humans with items and weapons, then first I¡¯ll have to buy the raw material from the system? Can we even buy that kind of stuff?¡± But for her it was good too, because him figuring things on his own meant that she would have less things to teach him. ¡°Yes, yes. The resource corner, which is still locked; I don¡¯t know why it is locked? That is the place where we can buy anything and the best part is that once it got unlocked, then all the restrictions will be removed and we¡¯ll be able to buy anything, anything that we wanted!¡± she emphasized everything because what she said really was true and she was waiting for the day it would get completely unlocked. ¡°You mean, buy all and anything till our money lasts?!¡± ¡°Yes, yes! Won¡¯t that be just great!?¡± Her face was glowing with expectations and excitements, as it gave an amusing feeling, a kind of assurance to Rocky. ¡®She is not only small but her heart is pure like kids too.¡¯ Rocky thought thinking about her tendency to easily get frustrated and then even quickly getting excited. *Sigh* He sighed and controlled his dungeon interface to take a look at his newly acquired skill books. He felt lucky, when he remembered the time when Minie had told him that the chance and the possibility of a skill book to drop from a dead human inside the dungeon was extremely low, but for him, those skill books were dropping left and right. Every one that died presented him with a skill book, as if they were thanking him for killing them and then giving him their skills as a present. Even he got excited. While Minie was excited about melting the items, which he felt was unnecessary; He was excited about his future and when he couldn¡¯t control his excitement anymore, he opened both of the skill books at the same time. And they also opened in front of him midst a shower of rainbow colored light. *Ding*
Skill : IllusionRank : D
When the skill is used the users environment will distort and change according to need.
Restrictions: Can only affect one sense at the rank.
Affinity: DarknessMana Consumption : 20/HourCool down : 0secIllusion : Visionary
Would you like to learn: Yes/No
Skill : SneakRank : D
Provides a limited time of stealth allowing the user to go undetected by hiding in the shadows. Decreases the amount of vigilance of enemies around you.
Restrictions: Doesn¡¯t work on equal and higher ranking individuals.
Class: Bandits, ThievesMana Consumption : 50MpCool down : 10 minDistance : 100metres.
Would you like to learn: Yes/No
¡°Yes, Yes, Yes.¡± He shouted like a maniac. He couldn¡¯t control his happiness because he was learning so many skills, even though he was only a small time low ranking individual. But there was also a bit of sadness because he couldn¡¯t directly use them, but that bi tof sadness was only for a moment because it was not like he had to personally go for the kill. What he really wanted the illusion skill was not for some petty magic show, but to enhance his dungeon.
Skill "Illusions" Learned.
Skill ¡°Sneak" Learned.
¡°Hahaa, I am a genius, a genius, haaha.¡± ¡°Now, now, come out, out of your delusional and illusionary world. We still have a lot of work to do after all. ¡°AH! Yes, Sorry, my bad. I got a little too excited, Heehe.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry, carry on. Complete your tasks for now and then we¡¯ll see what to do next.¡± ¡°Okay, but¡­ what was the next task again.¡± And he trembled as she shuddered. ¡®She fired a stone missile at him and his crystal was blasted to smithereens¡¯ is what came into Rocky¡¯s mind when the truth about him having forgotten his task ran out of his mouth, but unlike his co called fake ¡®Premonition¡¯ she turned back and again politely told him his next task, but not without a cramped smile and twitching eyebrows. ¡°Hur hur.¡± Rocky nodded his head vigorously, as he hurried to get back to work. Firstly, he distributed his newly acquired skill points into his knowledge stat. Knowledge - 63(15), Mana increase-150, Total mana - 666. Watching the result of his endlessly increasing levels and mana pool, a clown like smile unknowingly formed on his face. Then he again opened his waste item bag.
Waste Bag
Armor''sDark attributed clothes, Wind armor, Boots of haste, Low quality Leather Chest Armor(3), Daggers(2), crude iron short sword(1),
AccessoriesNameless Bracelet, Eye of the bewitcher, Earrings of tenacity
Skill Books
PotionsGreater Health Potions(5), lesser mana potion(2), lesser health potion(1)
HerbsBlazing Frost Mushrooms(128)
Would you like to melt them all: YES/NO
He looked at them for a minute before he directly gave the command to melt all the items inside the bag. He didn¡¯t give them another look before giving his command because he had no knowledge, information or experience regarding grading items and said weapons. This was also the first time that he thought about the limitations of his dungeon interface. This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. Though his dungeon interface was able to provide him most of the information about the targeted object, but the information provided never went deeper than giving surface knowledge. As it never told him the attack power of his spells, neither did it give an in depth view into the stats and skills of his enemies and acted more like unskilled probing and nothing more. But, his thoughts got interrupted when the system asked him a question. *Do you want to melt all the items inside your waste item bag? ¡°Yes, melt them.¡± His impotency/Ability for not being able to use his or any kind of weapon also played an important role in him being so lackluster and patient regarding melting, which might be a potentially important item. He gave the order and the system accepted his command as it started processing the data. *Ding*
Process in progression... 0%... ... 1%... ... 1.1%... ...
¡®Looks like it is going to take some¡­ No, not some, but a lot of time!¡¯ He thought when he saw the progression bar increasing at the pace of a snail. ¡°Minie~, Minie~,¡­ Now, what should we do?¡± He sang to tell her that he had completed his mission. ¡°Did you do what was asked of you?¡± ¡°Sir, yes, sir.¡± He said in a stern and solid voice, imitating a soldier¡¯s response to his commander. ¡°Hahaa.¡± Minie laughed hearing him speaking like that. ¡°Okay, then¡­ Haha¡­¡± She shook her head to get her thoughts straight and said, ¡°You should give the design plan to your chief engineer, so that he wouldn¡¯t bicker with you at the end.¡± ¡°Chief engineer? Who?¡± He tilted his head as he asked her, but then he understood who she was talking and replied back, ¡°Oh! Are you talking about little larva¡­ No Buff worker? Ha-ha, well, actually you are right. His ability is suitable enough for him to be called our dungeon engineer. Well, at least until an even more powerful worker comes along.¡± ¡°So Rocky, how exactly do you have in plan for the second floor? I mean what do you have in mind? Surely we could repeat the layout of our first floor with it, but I am sure you don¡¯t want to do that.¡± She asked him, while playing with a petal of her green flowery dress. ¡°Um¡­ about that, It wasn¡¯t sure to me, what I wanted to do with it, but not that I have gained the illusion skill; I think I can implement what I really had thought about it.¡± ¡°But you can¡¯t use the skills, they have class restrictions right/ Moreover, what use could your personal skills have in a dungeon?¡± ¡°Yeah, you are right. I can¡¯t use the skills normally, but the thing is; I¡¯m not going to use them normally. I can use fusion skills after all and what I really right now to complete my plan is a fusion skill, which can adapt itself to the surroundings.¡± ¡°Adapt, there are no such skills which can adapt? Also, What do you mean by adapt?¡± ¡°There might really be no such skill which can adapt according to their surroundings, but don¡¯t forget, I am a dungeon master and this skill creation panel is actually an ability related to the dungeon and not my personal skill. Just watch.¡± He said that and opened his dungeon interface. He went directly to the fusion skill creator under the workshop panel and used two skills to fuse.
Dungeon Interface
CreationStatus/Floor/Store/Monsters/Quest
Workshop : Fusion Spell Creator
SPELL A: IllusionSPELL B : Creation
Would you like to fuse the spells with the provided condition : YES/NO
And he said, ¡°Yes.¡± Unlike before, the result came almost instantaneously and he received the notification for his newly gained skill.
Skill Fusion complete.
Skills creation and Illusion combined to create "Illusion Craft."
Fusion Skill : Illusion Craft (Lesser)Fusion : Illusion + Creation
Level : 0Rank : D
Can create Arrays, which block and mold sensory data. Possible to Implement and project illusion over a very large area.
Restrictions: Can only mold one of the senses.
Illusion¡¯s area: 5 meterMana rate: 60Mp/hour.No of illusions: 5Sense: Vision
¡°Its, aliv¡­ No, it¡¯s a miracle.¡± When she saw the skills successfully fusing without any problem, her mouth gaped and eyes opened wide in astonishment, because according to the known information; creating or fusing skills an extremely dangerous and difficult process it was impossible to create them like him. ¡°Yo-you, how did you fuse those skills so easily? Don¡¯t tell me this is also a function of the dungeon interface? I didn¡¯t know this skill creator was so godly? It¡¯s a good thing that you are a dungeon master and not a human; otherwise no normal human could have had the ability to compete with you.¡± ¡°Well, it is how it is. Forget it, let¡¯s just start with the dungeon construction.¡± ¡°But¡­¡± ¡°No, if and no but, only¡­ me!¡± ¡°Minie, can I buy a buff ant worker? And while we are at it, I think we should also buy some eggs. What do you say?¡± ¡°Yeah, let¡¯s buy¡­ a What? We can buy him from the system? Really?¡± ¡°Yes, we can. Although he is a bit costly, but I think if we do get him, then our second floor will get ready in a day. His work efficiency had already been great, but now that we have seen his attacking power, I am in awe. So let¡¯s just buy one or two, maybe three of them. We have enough to sustain ourselves after this much expenditure after all, I think.¡± ¡°Wait, wait! If we can buy him from the system, then doesn¡¯t this mean that whenever one of our ants naturally evolved, then we would be able to buy others like him directly from the system?¡± ¡°Huh, I didn¡¯t think so deeply about it¡­heehe. But now that I think about it, then yeah, looks like you are right.¡± She had already stopped her breathing when she had uttered her hypothesis, but when Rocky also confirmed it, at that time she completely forgot to breathe for a minute. Her dam of emotions and restraints finally broke, as she came back to her original avatar. ¡°Fuck the humans. Now, we¡¯ll see who drop the bomb on whom.¡± ¡°Ah, Minie??¡± ¡°Now, we¡¯ll lay the rules and draw the boundaries and then they will have to follow.¡± ¡°Look minie¡­?¡± ¡°No, there is no need to be afraid. Until we have enough credits on hand we¡¯ll be able to¡­¡± ¡°MINIE!!¡± She got so engrossed in her own little monologue that she completely disregarded him and continued on releasing her pent p anger on the walls and his mind, But she was also soon brought back to the land of calm minded people by Rocky. ¡°Huh, what happened? Why are you shouting?¡± ¡°You were scaring me¡­ No, actually though you were a bit scary there, but I already know how you really are, so it didn¡¯t scare me, but¡­ forget it, just look here. Where do you think this came from?¡± ¡°Hum, what are you talking about?¡± ¡°No, not on the ground, on the monster store, Minie. There Minie, there, You see?¡±
Dungeon Interface
MonstersStatus / Floors / Store/Creation/Quests
---
NameRankMana ReservedPrice
Ant egg05Mp25Dc
Ant Worker010Mp50Dc
Buff Ant Worker(U)175Mp175Dc
Ant Soldier(UQ)?????????
Ant Queen(S)3100Mp500Dc
I
Bee Worker160Mp300Dc
Bee Queen(S)3350Mp1750Dc
Nameless Soul10Mp, {Needs Greater Mana Stone} + ???0Dc
---------LOCKED----------
¡°Oh, yes! You were right we can really buy the buff ant worker now. He is bit expensive though. So, what about him¡­¡± ¡°No, not him at the end; the last option!¡± ¡°HUH, what last op¡­¡± But when she looked at it, her eyes cramped and she squinted her eyes, as she cursed, ¡°What the hell. What is this?¡± ¡°That is what I am saying. From where did the option to buy a soul come in our insect type dungeon? Chapter 28 - I believe i can fly. Author''s note:- Sorry for the small chapter. . Enjoy. ............................................................................................................................... Third Persons P.O.V:- Minie and Rock they both looked closely at the newest addition to their monster options. Though they hadn¡¯t bought it yet, but getting to see something so spectacular and miraculous happening was a sight in itself for them. Rocky wanted to directly buy it, but mine urged him to first read its specifications, as the conditions required to be fulfilled weren¡¯t anything good. After all, IT needed a high grade mana stone and a ¡®???¡¯ for its condition. They both looked at each other and nodded as Rocky asked the interface to provide more information about the soul and it did just that.
Nameless Soul(S)
when a person dies its magical powers, help it to cover the distance between the mortal world and the spiritual realm, but when sometimes due to unprecedented reasons a human is not able to cover the distance, it don¡¯t et to leave the mortal world and losing its morality and memories in the process. This loss results in its adaptation to a new kind of life, a spiritual life called ghosts.
Rank1Level10
Restrictions: Need a greater mana crystal Can¡¯t buy more than one soul at a time. Won¡¯t listen to the master''s commands. Will kill every living thing in its sight. Can''t regenerate mana.
They felt good to have another option to spend their resources on, but the limitations of this monster proved to have a fatal flaw in its use. ¡°But why can we only buy one? Isn¡¯t this kind of cruel to us?¡± ¡°No Rocky, I think, I understand why the system is restricting us from buying more than one of these souls.¡± She wanted to prove her brilliance and be praised so she directly gave the answer to her- self laid question, but her preparations failed in front of Rocky. ¡°Because this soul belongs to someone who died in our dungeon and one soul can only bring create one monster.¡± Both said the same thing, moreover, at the same time, which was very astonishing. Minie couldn¡¯t understand how they both came at the same decision at the same time, but she still smiled thinking that there is truth in unity. ¡°So you knew the reason?¡± Minie asked in confusion. After all, even if it was a wild guess, it was still impossible for anyone to think of such an answer without holding any prior information about the topic. But Rocky¡¯s reply shattered her confusion like a hammer shattering glass. ¡°OH! Actually, No, I didn¡¯t come to the answer on my own. It¡¯s just that you got too excited and your mental wave reached and leaked your thought to me and I just repeated after them, which in time made our answers to sync and created boundless timing between them.¡± Minie¡¯s face turned deep red when she heard him say ¡®you leaked something¡¯, but before Rock could catch any disturbance in her nature, her complexion she turned normal and she exhaled a breath of relief. ¡°So is it someone who died In our dungeon?¡± ¡°Seems like it.¡± He looked back at her annoyed. Because he was only thinking about the reason in his own mind which was clearly hacked and read by the small petite fairy flying in front of him on her discretion. But he didn¡¯t curse or asked her to stop and only sighed before sharing his doubts with her. ¡°But who does this soul belong to? I don¡¯t understand. Why did only one of the souls stayed behind, why didn¡¯t all of them? Why?¡± ¡°Oh! It¡¯s simple.¡± She said. ¡°I think there is only one such person who died inside our dungeon.¡± Her voice contained a hint of melancholy, which in turn bewildered Rocky but he still followed suite and asked her, ¡°Huh, who is it?¡± But then his memories flashed in his mind and he understands that there was only one such human whose soul couldn¡¯t have covered the distance to the spiritual world. ¡°Correct. And the winner is..¡± He didn¡¯t get swayed into her pace and calmly replied back. ¡°Is it The archer who turned into a demon.¡± ¡°Yes, yes, I think so too. I think, his conversion from a human to a demon forcibly used all of his energy and whatever was left.¡± She then shrugged her shoulders and continued, ¡°We absorbed the rest. And because his soul couldn¡¯t leave the dungeon, the system confused him with a monster and added the option for us to buy him again.¡± ¡°Damn, we are getting gains from him even after his death,¡± ¡°Yeah.¡± She shook her head left to right when she heard him say that. Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation. ¡°Forget it.¡± He said and continued by saying, ¡°Forget about the buying and other restrictions as our monsters are not living creatures relatively speaking and him not being under my control is also not a problem, but I am still concerned, concerned about him needing a Mana stone. Why would it need a Mana stone and a great one at that?¡± To his seriously asked question Minie replied in a lackluster way, pointing at the last line of its restrictions. ¡°Because it can¡¯t regenerate mana and it needs a source of mana to conjure its presence, to make its form. Otherwise, it would just dissipate into the surroundings without any energy.¡± He nodded his head as if saying that he understood everything, but then his nodding stopped. He abruptly looked at mine, which obviously startled her and started a rapid fire question round with her. His excitement and joy could be clearly understood from his aura and his voice. ¡°SO, so you mean, it will be able to keep its form intact and move about if it uses a greater mana stone?¡± ¡°Yes, that is right. But what are you getting so excited for? It is a normal thing for monsters to have a mana stone embedded in their bodies.¡± ¡°Just keep listening and keep on telling me whether I am right or not.¡± ¡°Okay, no worries. It¡¯s my duty after all. Answering your questions, that is.¡± ¡°Now, tell me, can a greater mana stone regenerate its mana on its own?¡± She felt tired listening to such simple question. SO her lackluster behavior continued, as she replied while scratching her head. ¡°No, it can¡¯t. Only a mana crystal, like your heart has the ability to do so.¡± ¡°Then, won¡¯t the soul be able to regenerate its mana and fill its mana stone, it if it learnt the mana regeneration skill?¡± ¡°Huh?¡± She felt bewildered? She actually hadn¡¯t considered anything about that. At first, she had thought that though the ghost was unique and everything, but it wasn¡¯t of any use to them, they had their buff ant worker after all, but his question made her rethink the situation. ¡°I think, yes? Maybe he will be able to do that, once he learns mana regeneration. After all, it¡¯s a mana stone after all. It should have the ability to get refilled. But why are you asking me this. Surely you don¡¯t want to buy empty mana stones and refill them.¡± ¡°Haaha. He almost didn¡¯t hear her reply after hearing her say ¡®Sure¡¯, but the stone Reuse idea made him intrigued. But he followed with, ¡°Great, it is great. Now my last question to you; we both know that I can¡¯t leave this dungeon right. Now tell me is it me who can¡¯t leave this dungeon or is it my Mana crystal, which is the heart of my dungeon.¡± ¡°Yes, you are right. Your mana crystal can¡¯t leave this dungeon. But why are you ask¡­¡± She spoke up to that and then her eyes bulged out. She finally understood, why he was asking her so many questions. She finally understood, what was making him so excited. She looked at him and the strong and sickening positive aura which he was emitting confirmed her doubts even more, as she cried out. ¡°NO WAY! Don¡¯t tell me you just found a way to leave the dungeon!¡± She spoke so loudly that her thin and crisp voice echoed inside the furniture less room and to her question Rocky answered with a creepy laugh. ¡°Ha-ha, absolutely marvelous, isn¡¯t it. Who would have thought that a simple monster from the system would give me the information and a way to face and experience the outside world?¡± ¡°But, but you can¡¯t leave the dungeon! How will you leave the dungeon when you can¡¯t even posess¡­¡± She was talking about how he would posses or shifts his presence to a mana stone, when she remembered that he had been doing the presence shifting from the start. He has been shifting in and out between the walls and his crystal for a long time after all. ¡°Right, but we still have to wait for the resource option to unlock. I want to know how costly a greater mana stone really is or we could also try to buy some empty mana stone and like you said try to refill them.¡± They continued their bickering with excitement unknown to the danger which was coming towards them from the dark corners of the human establishment. Walking together were 25 humans in leather armors and they were holding a Variety of weapons like; short swords, axes, daggers and the likes. They all followed behind a one eyed fat pimp who was clearly their leader. It was easy to distinguish him from the others because of his menacing looking black armor and the red sword dangling from his waist. ................................................................................................... Author''s Bragging:- So this is the reason why the archer needed to die. Next chapter explains why the bandits needed to die. Chapter 29 - This is why shes Hot. 5-01-01: Night. Third persons P.O.V:- Running came two people out of a hole in the ground. One was a girl in minimum clothing and a red cape flying freely behind her and the other; a tall man covered in metallic armor, which was equally rugged and scratched. The man was holding another girl in a princess carry and his expressions didn¡¯t have a single clue of menace. His eyes were glowing with fervor and had a glint in them. ¡°We are out! We are finally out of the hell hole!¡± The girl wearing the red cape made a ¡®Y¡¯ pose by holding her hands high up above her head as she shouted at the top of her voice. A smile also formed on that man¡¯s face, who was calmly standing beside her. The night sky and the twinkling stars held a new kind of beauty for him on that night. The girl he was carrying had no arms and from the flowing blood and her torn clothes it was clear that she had been badly mutilated by someone and her condition also wasn¡¯t great. These were the trio who had survived the ordeal and the betrayal of their own team member and escaped from the mouth of death of the newly discovered den of ants. They escaped, but not without paying a huge price for it. D¡¯sue was carrying Dust ¡®The earth mage¡¯ while ¡®The fire mage¡¯ Martha walked beside him. He looked at dust who was still unconscious and a hint of pain and feelings emerged in his heart, when he thought what she had to go through on their seemingly easy, but an atrociously difficult job. He remembered how she had swallowed the pain of having her arms cut without letting even a little sound out, and how his and Martha¡¯s life was saved by that same girl who seemingly on the verge of death didn¡¯t forget to take her revenge. After running and crawling for an hour in the monster less monster tunnels, the remaining members of the B Rank party sent to look at the dungeons authenticity came out of the hole which had become a new experience of trust, cruel realities and dangerous plans to them. D¡¯sue looked at Martha, who was still standing straight looking at the normal but bright sky with her hands held up high, but he noticed that even though her smile wasn¡¯t fading and she was holding herself quite well, her watery eyes and flowing tears were enough to state her state of mind. Her shivering legs were also enough of an indication telling him that all which they went through was as real as life could get and that they were really lucky this time to have survived the perfectly spewed traps and plan of a true mastermind. ¡°We were luck huh.¡± She didn¡¯t mind his mumbling and nodded instead, pointing that he was true about that. He also sighed as he started walking towards their home. ¡°Let¡¯s go, we have a lot of distance to cover and very little time for that.¡± ¡°How is she?¡± She didn¡¯t question his decision as she could also see that Dust¡¯s condition, though looked fine, but her pale and face and lifeless body was enough to tell that she was going through anemia because of high blood loss. He looked at the near death girl in his arms as he said, ¡°Though her bleeding has stopped, but she is still unconscious. I won¡¯t say she is out of danger because she has already lost a lot of her blood. I have nourished and trying to preserve her life by giving her my mana, but I don¡¯t think she will be able to hold on for more than a day like this. We really need to get back to the town and get a high cleric or someone of the same status to help her. I don¡¯t want her to die, not after all of that she went through, through with us.¡± His voice got heavier and heavier as the words got difficult for him to speak, but then Martha slapped his shoulders as she started walking forward. ¡°So let¡¯s run.¡± The sudden nudge on his shoulder brought him back, as he started following her. ¡°Yeah, let¡¯s run.¡± Then they started running away from the cave of misery and towards their establishment of life. The night was dark, darker than usual. There was no moon in the sky, so they had no natural light around them to see. D¡¯sue had to slow his speed because Martha was too slow for him to run at his full capacity. She was a mage after all. A mage¡¯s strength is directly equal to their mana and spells, it has nothing to do with their physical abilities, so almost no mage try to increase their physical abilities, because in reality there is no need for a mage to go through physically straining activities like other professions. They are known for their destructive power and it is also a reason that a mage is an easy target. It sounds stupid at first, but a mages fire power or ability to cause destruction is on a completely different scale and level than any other class. This increase in power in turn also makes them fragile and vulnerable to an all sided attack and because of their low physical abilities, mages account for the most amount of deaths when the situation calls for a retreat. SO, They both ran from the ant hill and travelled down the hill to their home while the things, which the assassin said to them, kept on rampaging inside their minds. They left the barren lands behind and entered the Devils Beard forest, but unlike before, this time they didn¡¯t stop and decided to run without stopping, because it would almost take a whole day for them to run back and time was what Dust didn¡¯t have. ¡°Martha we are going to travel through the jungle. I am sure our journey back won¡¯t be easy an here will be a lot of monsters coming to take a bit of us, but we don¡¯t have time to afford to waste for the sun to rise, so you¡¯ll have to preserve and make it through with me, I don¡¯t want to lose anyone else.¡± ¡°Ah! I- I can do this, I am sure, but¡­¡± ¡°Then it is good I am leaving the battle to you cause I can¡¯t fight while holding her, right.¡± ¡°Bat- Battle? Ah! Right, you can¡¯t fight while holding her, but won¡¯t my fire burn everything and lit the jungle ablaze?¡± D¡¯sue looked at her as if he was looking at a criminal, an arsonist. But he waved his hand conveying to her that she needed to lay low, talk slow and to follow him. Martha nodded her head when she understood the meaning and followed behind him. They walked and even though it was night and it was time of the jungle and its inhabitants, Strangely there was no sound. Everything was just too quiet and calm. The calm felt like a bad omen to them and that sickening feeling was enough to make their souls tremble. But instead of stopping, they gritted their teeth and continued their advance. The calm and silent jungle retained its serene state till they reached the center. Because they were vigilant and attentive they had decided to move slowly to keep note of their surrounding and not to get trapped inside an ambush, but things changed when they reached the center of the jungle. The calmness and silence of the jungle got turned upside down, as the sound inside the whole area around them got taken over by the howls of wolves. Their hearts jumped when they heard the call of wolves and they both became attentive. ¡°What the fuck? Did we somehow enter the shadow wolf¡¯s territory?¡± Martha hurriedly looked everywhere to understand the situation and said, ¡°It doesn¡¯t look like it, I am sure we are following the right path. But then,¡± She was interrupted by D¡¯sue who was listening to the cries of wolves. ¡°Looks like, we¡¯ve been had. This is why the jungle was so quiet.¡± ¡°What did you find out? Tell me.¡± ¡°Just get ready, those wolves are coming. I think the jungle was quite because these damn wolves were following us from the start and now that we are in their territory, in the middle of this darned dark and lightless jungle, they have finally decided to attack us.¡± ¡°What? Is that true then~ then what should we do?¡± He looked at her, smiled and he said with a laugh, ¡°Let¡¯s run.¡± And then he started running at his full speed. His sudden actions bewildered Martha as sweat trickled down her open back and she hurriedly followed him and ran behind him. Because D¡¯sue was carrying Dust in his arms, his speed wasn¡¯t that great and Martha who was a mage was able to follow him though she had to put some effort in her actions. This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. But just as they had started running, the calm jungle suddenly gained back its liveliness. From their left, their right and definitely from directly behind them, sounds of grass and branches breaking and twitching suddenly broke the serenity and their hearts which were already pumping blood at a heightened speed, became crazy and as its beating got faster and excited became the howls and cries of the wolves following behind them. ¡°Martha fire, fire; don¡¯t leave any corner. Burn them alive.¡± ¡°But won¡¯t it burn the jungle itself.¡± ¡°Huh, are you an idiot? Why are you thinking about the jungle? Don¡¯t you want to live? Do you want to die? If not, then blast those wolf bastards to hell; burn the fucking jungle.¡± Carrying a girl, no matter how light she was, and then running. This was already tiring the hell out of him physically, but then being followed and chased for life also quickly drained him mentally and he lost his temper. Martha gritted her teeth, as for her burning a whole jungle wasn¡¯t what she had signed for when she had become an adventurer. She really didn¡¯t want to do it, but being chased and hunted by those monster wolves was enough to make her forget about her ambitions and whatnot. She readied herself mentally to do everything in her hands to leave the darned jungle with her life intact. So she opened her arms and faced her palms to the left and right direction and started firing fireballs like a machine. Most of those aimless fireballs did nothing other than burning trees and grass, which in turn burned even more trees near them, but some of them made loud impacts and killed the monsters. Though the wolves were getting killed by her over the top fireballs, but she didn¡¯t receive any level up notification, indicating that the wolves getting killed were too low leveled and the higher leveled and stronger ones were not there yet. The wolf¡¯s cried in pain and their partners howled in anger, but none came out of the fire to pounce on them. But the hundreds of sounds coming from near the wall of fire were enough to solidify their belief that, if she hadn¡¯t made up her mind to spew out fire on both the side at the same time, then the wolves would have started attacking them in the hundreds. While fire covered and blocked the path for the wolves to come from the left and right, but those of them following from behind were quickly decreasing the distance between them and their number wasn¡¯t low either. They ran while Martha kept on firing the fire balls and after some time the intensity of her attacks deceased. From the looks of it, she had almost reached her limits and was just preserving through share will power. D¡¯sue noticed her pace getting slow and then saw her ghastly pale face devoid of blood, it startled him. He hurriedly ordered her to stop using her mana and to preserve it. ¡°You can stop firing fireballs now. Preserve your mana, a fight is coming. Charge all of your mana into your biggest spell and fire at my command. Okay.¡± She looked at him with her slightly aged face and tired eyes and she stopped spewing out fireballs left and right and acknowledged his command. They ran like that for another three or so minutes when a horde of wolves, about fifty of them, suddenly came running towards them from the front. These were the high ranking ones who hadn¡¯t joined the fight and were clearly waiting for the right time to ambush them. The pressure on them both increased even more when they remembered that there was an equally strong horde of wolves following behind them. D¡¯sue turned his head around to look at Martha and saw that she was getting ready to do or die. ¡°Is your spell ready?¡± ¡°Yes, it is, but¡­¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry about the power and fire it at the front. If you can control its power, then make sure that its impact travels in a straight line and doesn¡¯t disperse.¡± ¡°Huh, I can do that.¡± D¡¯sue didn¡¯t know what to expect of her power. Because she, no, the fight and troubles had already expended most of their powers, therefore they were not at their full power. Otherwise, even a single spell of hers would have been enough to wipe the wolves to dust. So he really didn¡¯t expect much from her this time and as he also didn¡¯t see any concentrated fire balls near her, neither did he see any spell formations raging, so he thought that maybe her mana was too low to use the any of her powerful spells, but boy how wrong was he. Just as he told her to fire, a magical wave travelled through her body and everywhere it touched lit up in fire. The fire burned and burned all the trees around them to charcoal black in a second. It was like the wave had quickly lit up some kind of fuel and created havoc. Left, right, front, back every side around them turned into a burning inferno. D¡¯sue s eyes bulged out when he saw the scene of carnage unfolding in front of him. He quickly used his shield skill ¡®Iron wall¡¯ and created a defensive barrier to stop the fire from reaching them, but to his surprise a road opened in the inferno leading straight outside while everything else around them burned. *Ayoo* *Ayoo* *ooooooo* The cries of wolves flooded the whole area as the fire touched and burned everything, but he noticed that though fire looked menacing, it wasn¡¯t strong. Sure, some 0 rank wolves were burned to death by it, but it had no almost effect on those higher ranking monsters. Martha continued to run after D¡¯sue after she fired her spell, but then her steps dwindled as her she also lost conscious while running. Though she had created a massive blazing inferno of 200 meters, but it also emptied her mana pool, which in turn made her forcibly lose consciousness. D¡¯sue saw her falling, but he couldn¡¯t leave her behind. So he gritted his teeth and gave a low shout as he changed Dust¡¯s position and placed her on his left shoulder and picked Martha before she could fall onto the ground and hurriedly placed her over his right shoulder and carried them both. He ran on the road and left the domain of fire behind, but the fire instigated by Martha quickly expanded and spread through the whole forest. And slowly cries of monkeys, birds and all the other inhabitants echoed throughout the jungle. The whole Forest was in turmoil. All the monsters residing the forest started running to save their lives, they ran to save their lives and slowly the situation turned grave. D¡¯sue hadn¡¯t thought that she would have the power to burn down the whole forest, but she displayed power much greater than anyone at her level could and the results of it were obvious too. He ran out of the fire covered area, but unlike what he had expected would happen, they didn¡¯t get ambushed by the wolves. He got surprised at first, but quickly understood what had happened. The fire spreading through the forest became a danger to their cubs, so they ran back to save them. So her unreasonable carnage had in turn saved their lives. ¡°Haha, so her fire actually saved us all. That¡¯s fine, but I hope this fire won¡¯t make those running monsters to come chasing us towards the town.¡± He kept on running forward as the once lively and green forest burned to smithereens. He ran and ran for another two hours and finally got out of the forest, but there was still a lot of distance that he needed to cover and from the looks of it even Martha was not going to wake up any time soon. It took him another three hours of walking to finally reach a road connecting to the town, but his tired self finally gave in when he saw a carriage coming towards him. His legs staggered and he fell on the ground. His fading conscious and closing eyes saw a wheel stopping as two people jumped from the carriage and picked the girls up. They placed them inside the carriage and then came to help him, but by the time they picked him up he was already out of conscious. The fire kept on burning the forest and it was really going to burn the whole forest down, if the smoke rising hadn¡¯t given birth to black rain clouds. Chapter 29.1 - Now you see her. Author''s complaint:- It''s 3:46 am here and I am posting a chapter. Sigh... what has life come to. On a more serious note: For everyone who wants to know more about the bracelet and its truth? go read, CH -4 (Kings P.o.v) & CH -1 (Kings P.o.v). . Enjoy. .................................................................................................................................... Town: Ragnarok Location: Adventurers guild. Last night, a mercenary caravan brought three brutally and badly injured adventurers back to the guild. According to the mercenary, he found the adventurers brutally mangled on the side of the road just outside the periphery of the Great Forest. The adventurers were lucky enough to have fallen unconscious outside the forest, and if they hadn¡¯t encountered them, then there was a high probability that the three of them would probably would have been chewed out by the monsters of the forest. Talking about the forest, it became a huge topic of discussion when the smoke from the fire reached the sky above the town and the night sky suddenly lit up by the forest fire. The fire which suddenly engulfed the whole entirety of it made many monsters of the forest to run out and run towards nearby human establishments to save their lives, which endangered the lives of poor people living in the areas near the disaster zone. Two of the injured adventurers were just tired and suffering from inflation and tiredness, but the third one of them, a girl, had both of her arms cut and was suffering from high blood loss, probably anemia. The three were obviously the B Rank party who had been given the job to investigate the newly found Ants colony at the edge of the Devil beard forest. The news went viral and almost everywhere and everyone talked about it. When the guild master heard about it, the shock he felt was real and equally real was his expressions. Both were priceless. His assistant or granddaughter stood up from her chair and the drink she was drinking spilled on the floor while the cup in her hand slipped and smashed on the ground. But like an Ojo- Chan would do, she didn¡¯t care about her broken cup and ran behind the receptionist who had brought them the news and likely the guild master also followed behind her. But the broken shards of her fallen cup, was left alone in the room. The Guild master didn¡¯t actually care whether they were alive or not. He just wanted to know the reason for their loss, as he mumbled on the way. ¡°How the hell did they lose to some damn ants or was there another reason for it? Fuck it.¡± He was mumbling to himself, but Eva probably heard him say that because her attitude changed as she looked back at him with her cold and lifeless eyes. She didn¡¯t speak but her eyes were enough to explain her thoughts. ¡®You can¡¯t say that to them! I definitely won¡¯t let you speak like that to them!¡¯ Though they had come running to look at the party and do an intensive question answer session with them, but they could only stare absent-mindedly at the two of them who were tirelessly sleeping. ¡°Where are the others? If I remember correctly, then didn¡¯t I send five of them to on the mission? There are only two of them here. Where are the rest of them?¡± ¡°Um¡­ Guild master, we- we don¡¯t know. They never came back. The caravan only brought the three of them, i-I don¡¯t know about where the rest of them are.¡± ¡°So¡­ they are dead?¡± ¡°I¡¯m sorry.¡± ¡°Did you check the system for the status on their guild card?¡± ¡°I¡¯m sorry. I hurriedly ran to inform you so I dint check.¡± ¡°Sigh¡­ Then where¡¯s the third one?¡± When the Arnold ¡®The guild master¡¯ asked the receptionist about the third member, she told him that her condition was a lot more serious than the others. That girl had both her arms cut, so it wasn¡¯t appropriate to keep her there and she directly sent her to their guilds cleric for treatment. And he informed her that even though growing limbs and regenerating her arms was out of his league, but he would be able to save her life. Both The leaders couldn¡¯t speak anything after they heard how bad her condition was. But he still couldn¡¯t understand why and how could such powerful individuals die from mere ants. They were ranked players after all, not some newb who didn¡¯t know the truth about adventuring and measures to be taken. ¡°So they died¡­ Ants~ killed them?¡± The guild master couldn¡¯t believe what he just heard and so couldn¡¯t Eva, who had already started planning to send an ¡®A rank¡¯ Party to completely obliterate those monsters wearing the skin of an ant. She ordered Julie to come and inform them when their conscious returns as she walked back to her¡­ no, the guild master''s room. The news of a ¡®B Rank¡¯ party getting annihilated by ants spread through the town like wildfire in the forest and it burnt every ones heart and caused uproar in a single night. But the news about the light in the night sky being the result of an unexpected fire in the devils beard forest was even more shocking and the dread it caused was even greater than the news of ants destroying B rankers. What would a fire in the forest mean? It meant the monster would start running away from the fire, from the forest to save their lives and that would lead to them running towards nearby human establishments. The guild was informed and a notice was quickly placed. All the adventurers were called and a massive protection net was designed to protect the town and the surrounding villages from the monster horde, which was assumed to come and strike them in a few hours. Everyone was made to run and get to their designated areas without any wait. Fortunately the monster horde never came and all of their preparations came to a naught, but unexpectedly, Rain fell and washed away their grievances. The fire spun, smoke rose and after a flash of light from somewhere deep in the forest, dark black clouds covered the sky above the town, forest, all of the nearby areas and beyond. Then it rained. The Burning forest wailing, taking the last of its breaths and blowing drums of its destruction; became calm and serene again, as the rain drops falling on burning timber. The fire which was getting carried away was slowly put to sleep. Though the fire was really great and could have been a real threat, but the part which got burnt didn¡¯t even reach ten percent of the forests total area. The fire couldn¡¯t even burn a small edge off, when the rain stopped its advance. The monsters had really started running out from the forest and towards the town, but they unexpectedly stopped in the mid and returned back, though some places had an increase in monster sighting, but it wasn¡¯t to a point that the adventurers positioned there couldn¡¯t handle them. & The night passed away. The guild master and his assistant, who couldn¡¯t sleep through the night both had red, swollen eyes and were looking¡­ No, staring towards the door, waiting for someone to come. ¡°Grandpa, don¡¯t you feel it¡¯s obvious, who lit the forest on fire? ¡°Ho! I am not thinking about that, my child. I am thinking about what really could have happened inside the cave that killed such a high ranking party. Surely they weren¡¯t originally a party to begin with, but teamwork isn¡¯t something which those individuals couldn¡¯t have been able to handle.¡± ¡°Yes, I also think that something unordinary must have happened to hurt them so bad. So, what should we do with the prize money?¡± ¡°Ho! Do you really have no emotions? Of course we will give them their reward. Even if they are not able to provide us any useful information, we¡¯ll still at least take care of their hospital bills.¡± ¡°Sheh, it¡¯ll be such a waste then.¡± They were going to continue their petty talk about saving money, when they heard someone running towards them while shouting, ¡°Hi~me~ SA~ MA~¡± ¡°She is here.¡± They both stood up from their chairs and started intensely at the already open door. And after the shout that same beautiful girl, with her green curled hair entered the room, while a drop of her sweat glistened and shined in sunlight, as it travelled down from her head, caressed her face and fell, sharing its experience with the floor. Arnold¡¯s cheeks twitched when he saw her giving Eva more importance than him- The Guild Master. ¡°Speak what happened.¡± She saw the bear looking at her with his wide open blue eyes and trembled, but then her head moved and a beautiful coyote came into her vision and her same sunken scared eyes started shining. ¡°They are awake! ¡­ No, sorry, only the knight is awake, but¡­¡± They didn¡¯t let her finish her sentence before they both started walking towards her. ¡°Okay, kid, let¡¯s go.¡± Arnold¡¯s excitement was enough to shame even the newest and youngest adventurer. His charismatic smile was enough to put girls in daze and even though age took away his charm in the eyes of girls and young ladies, but for the men he was still their idol. And who wouldn¡¯t get excited watching at their idol walking next to them, looking so fresh and full of vigor. They both followed the receptionist, as they left their private room and guild hall behind and entered the room where the knight was recuperating in. D¡¯sue was sitting on the bed looking at the wall in a daze when his guild master and the goddess of every one¡¯s dreams entered the room. He haphazardly and unconsciously tried to stand up in respect, but the pain his body was in was enough to make him rethink. He thought he was disrespecting the legend standing in front of him, but then Arnold calmed his mind. ¡°Don¡¯t worry keep sitting and tell me what happened?¡± ¡®Really, right now?¡¯ he thought when he heard his idol getting straight to the point. ¡°Grandpa! Please don¡¯t mind him D-D-D¡­¡± ¡°It¡¯s D¡¯sue.¡± He said as he clenched his fist and cried in his heart, ¡®Please at least remember my name~¡¯ Though after the incident with the assassin, he wanted and tried to change his nature which doubted everyone and twisted the reality, but his change lead to another problem. ¡°Yes D¡¯sue. Please don¡¯t mind our Guild master, he is just excited and happy that you are awake and doing well, nothing more.¡± ¡®No, he isn¡¯t happy because of that. He clearly just wants to hear my story and know about what we encountered in the dungeon.¡¯ But he didn¡¯t give voice to his thoughts and buried them deep inside just as they came. ¡°Do you think it is the right time to speak now or do you want us to come back after you recover completely?¡± ¡°Oh! Eva what are you saying! Do you want to come back after some time? Can you remain calm for even a second more? Because I can¡¯t!¡± Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere. ¡®She is just saying that to give me some face old man. Why do you not want to remain as my idol anymore? Just let her speak. Shesh.¡¯ He knew how atrocious his thoughts were, so he promised himself that no matter what happened he won¡¯t ever spill the beans. ¡°Yes, leader, I¡¯m fine. Thank you for your concern. It is alright, I think we can talk.¡± ¡°I am glad to hear that. So, tell us what really happened inside that cave? How did that girl receive such horrifying wounds? Ah! I''m sorry for my unethical and thoughtless words, but don¡¯t worry about her, she is alright. Our guilds cleric saved her life, though¡­¡± ¡°Yes, I know. Thank you. I was already informed about her condition and I glad that she is alright.¡± ¡°So,¡­¡± ¡°Yes, let¡¯s talk. But firstly, there was a very big problem with the initial information provided. That place is no cave, it¡¯s a dungeon.¡± ¡°A WHAT?¡± Both of them cried out at the same time when they heard him say that it was a dungeon and not an ants burrow. ¡°Yes, I understand your reactions, but it is how it is. That place is a dungeon, moreover, a never before seen one. It¡¯s an insect dungeon at that.¡± ¡°An insect dungeon? Grandpa has there ever been an insect dungeon in the history? I haven¡¯t heard about their being or had been an insect dungeon before.¡± ¡°Hmm, Hmm, I think, no. I haven¡¯t been to an insect dungeon before. Well, so what. Tell me about the monsters, I mean ants. Were they the one who almost killed all of you or was there some external factor involved?¡± When D¡¯sue heard his guild master talking about there being an external factor he subconsciously gritted his teeth and spoke sarcastically. ¡°An External factor, you should call it an internal one not external.¡± Watching the polite knight turning violent in a second, Arnold didn¡¯t even flinch and asked in the same tone of voice. ¡°Elaborate.¡± D¡¯sue shook his head to calm his mind and sighed when he remembered where he was. ¡°I¡¯m sorry for my behavior, but it is true. But Before telling you what really happened inside the cave, let me show you something.¡± He then looked here and there and found his item bag lying nearby, which he picked up and opened to recover the monster drops which they had acquired in the dungeon. ¡°This is what dropped after the monster died. One of the ants dropped these mandibles while another two dropped those pairs of antennas and lenses.¡± They weren¡¯t intrigued when he told them that he was going to show them the monster drops, but when they actually saw the items their eyes opened wide in astonishment. ¡°You mean to say this was dropped by an ant? This humongous mandible is from one of the ants that you fought in there? What kind of an ant was it to have such magnificently sharp and large mandibles? This explains why your party got destroyed and you returned with such heavy losses, being attacked by hundreds of monsters being led by someone who had such a powerful weapon. It¡¯s already an accomplishment that all of you didn¡¯t die in there.¡± D¡¯sue snorted when he heard his gild master say something like that and spoke as his voice got heavy and his mood darkened. ¡°You might think this is something from an overly evolved king or male dominant ant, right? But let me tell you it is not. It is from one of the normal worker ants patrolling the rooms and tunnels of the dungeon. Though we didn¡¯t experience any other variant of the ants in the dungeon, but it was still mind boggling to see a five foot tall Ant running towards me at extraordinary speeds and attacking like something had possessed them with a weapon sharp enough to cut through steel like it was cutting through butter.¡± Eva, who was already feeling light headed seeing the mandible, which was long enough to cut a big tree in two, got scared and felt bewildered when she heard about the monsters capabilities. ¡°How could this be? Grandpa, aren¡¯t ants actually really small about one- two feet in height?¡± ¡°Yes, normal ants are not even the size of a dog and their mandibles are not even sharp enough to cut through twigs, but if what he is saying are true then¡­¡± ¡°Then, even though the dungeon is a rare one with never before seen monsters, but we can¡¯t take the risk and let it develop any further. I think they didn¡¯t encounter only one variant of ants in the dungeon because the monsters hadn¡¯t gone through their evolution, yet, so it means the dungeon is fairly new. We need to destroy it before it without giving it the time to grow. After all, who knows how many ants and protectors and floors it would end up having if we don¡¯t act now and hesitate. Then should I send a ¡°S Rank party¡¯ no, let¡¯s make it an open subjugation job.¡± ¡°It won¡¯t come to that¡± D¡¯sue sudden words made the beautiful coyote to stop walking and return back. ¡°What do you mean? We surely need to destroy the dungeon. If we let it grow then it will only return our kindness with corruption and death, nothing more.¡± But her reason didn¡¯t flatter him as he said, looking straight into her eyes. ¡°You don¡¯t understand. I don¡¯t think the birth rate of the ants in the dungeon is as great as normal ants. If it was, then we wouldn¡¯t be alive right now.¡± ¡°Huh.¡± ¡°To tell you the truth we only encountered 5 normal worker ants in the dungeon and one queen. Even our injuries were not inflicted by the monsters, but¡­ our own party member.¡± ¡°¡­¡­.¡± ¡°WHAT?¡± This news came as a shock to all of them present in the room. Being injured by members of the same party! What could be more abnormal and torturing than that? ¡°Huh, what are you saying? Did you mean your party members fought each other for some monster drops?¡± ¡°No, actually¡­ we were back stabbed.¡± Then he told them the whole tale. He started by describing having the hero in the party, which obliviously made Arnolds and Eva¡¯s to furrow their brows. He continued with the hero¡¯s fight with the archer and then being illusioned to believe that the archer was killed in action by the ants, who was actually killed by the assassin in disguise. Then he explained how the assassin used illusions to deceive them all and showed them the lenses and ant antennas and told them that if they didn¡¯t have them, then the assassin could have possibly succeeded in his plan. He didn¡¯t forget to tell them the words he said, how the assassin admitted killing the archer and then mutilated Dusts arms. Then told them the reason for their deaths was not because of his own choice, but because he was ordered by someone, his master to kill them all and that it was all to destroy the dungeon; that they had to die because the dungeon needed to be destroyed. When his story ended the normal atmosphere of the room had long ago turned serious. Eva was too in shock to talk with him, but Arnold still spoke normally. ¡°So you mean to say that you he used illusions to make you see the hero- Ramses the third travelling with you?¡± ¡°Yes.¡± ¡°And then he used the illusions, his natural abilities and spells to kill the archer and cut your Earth Mage¡¯s arms and when he was going to kill you all, you all coordinated an attack with the queen and killed him?¡± ¡°Yes.¡± ¡°Sigh, this is absurd, but at least not hopeless and I couldn¡¯t even see through his illusions; Seems like being away from the action has made my skill rusty.¡± ¡°I¡¯m sorry.¡± ¡°No, we are sorry. You had to go through all of that because of my lacking ability. But according to you the queen let you go after she killed the assassin?¡± ¡°Yes, she did. I still don¡¯t understand why she did that, but I am grateful to her for her kindness none the less.¡± ¡°If what you are saying is true, then there won¡¯t be any need to destroy the dungeon, at least not for now. If she that much restraint, then I don¡¯t think there is any need to destroy her.¡± ¡°But grandpa..¡± ¡°No, this dungeon will make our town prosper, but we¡¯ll still need to be vigilant and also try to find who this master behind the curtains really is.¡± When Eva saw her grandpa giving his opinion with such confidence, she couldn¡¯t do anything to stop him and that resulted in the dungeon having gained some more days to live. SO she did what she could and sighed. ¡°So what should we do?¡± ¡°Firstly, make it an official dungeon and give a warning to everyone that anyone who went far with his actions and destroyed the dungeon will be punished with death.¡± She felt that he was going a bit too far and making the punishment too hard. ¡°Is there really a need to go so far for a dungeon?¡± ¡°You will understand. Give it some time to grow and you¡¯ll understand, but don¡¯t give it a B rank. If the queen really could handle them all without any problem, moreover, on her own, then her threat is equal to an A rank monster. Don¡¯t send the adventurers to die, but still give the dungeon a C rank difficulty at the minimum. If the adventurers didn¡¯t try to fight with the queen, then a c rank party will probably be able to handle the normal ants I think.¡± ¡°Are you sure grandpa?¡± ¡°Yes, yes.¡± ¡°Okay, then.¡± They left the room and D¡¯sue on his bed and went back to their room to discuss more about the dungeon. Meanwhile, Some place far away. In a very dark room, a black gowned person was sitting on a crazily, but satisfyingly lavishing throne and reading a parchment. They read through it and then burned it. ¡°So he failed huh. Though I didn¡¯t have high hope from him, but he was strong enough to take care of such an easy task. He was strong, but he still failed. He still failed even though I bestowed upon him the grace of being personally trained by me in the art of illusions.¡± That person clenched their fist and the burned parchment got crushed to ash. ¡°Human really are such incompetent and useless fellows. No matter how much you take care of them, they never return anything in return. Looks like I¡¯ll have to go to the extremes to take care of him.¡± They stood up and floated towards one of the bodyguards standing behind them and said in an unusually lack luster way. ¡°You, listen up. Send one of your subordinated and tell the king that the thing which he is trying to find is in the possession of the dungeon. It¡¯ll be a nice change of pace to see the empire whole heartedly going against a dungeon. Let¡¯s see them killing each other¡­ Fufufuu.¡± ¡°Yes, master.¡± They looked at his determined face and nodded as they went back to sit on their throne. ¡°It¡¯s only an artifact after all. I already have enough of them, but he can¡¯t be allowed to live and grow, or he will probably become a great threat to him in the future.¡± Chapter 30 - Dragon Ant?? Day 6: Evening. So, their heated discussion about Rocky gaining a body and going on a world tour ended when their train of thoughts stopped at a junction named problems. The first problem they faced was that they didn¡¯t have any Mana stone to test out his theory about presence shifting and form synthesizing like a ghost. Second, even if he could somehow get such a body, even then he wouldn¡¯t have got to travel outside, because humans would have hunted him down, calling him a monster and so. Third, if he left the dungeon, then who would control it? The first name that came to his mind was Minie¡¯s, but how could he leave her behind and go sightseeing alone. Obliviously, she would go with him. So, they stopped their bickering and dug a hole to bury this discussion, for the future. After their discussion stopped, they looked at each other and laughed, then shook their heads and carried on with their other duties. ¡°So, Minie, what now?¡± ¡°Let¡¯s go shopping.¡± ¡°Sigh¡­ you and your shopping.¡± They weren¡¯t talking about buying weapons and armors, but monsters. Though their dungeon was growing slowly and steadily, but they had a large deficit of monsters. They had a total of six monsters in their entire dungeon. Other than a buff ant worker, a queen and their newly bought worker ants their arsenal was empty, so they decided to invest in the option that would provide them with the options to strengthen their defenses a little more. So they bought eggs and because a single egg only took 50Dc and reserved only 10 of Rocky¡¯s mana, they were able to buy 30 of them. Moreover, the three eggs given by the queen also gave birth to three beautiful but cringe worthy larvae¡¯s. Though they all were normal and didn¡¯t get any mutation, but They both were still happy. ¡°Minie can¡¯t we forcibly, mutate the eggs. You also know that system bought monsters can''t evolve on their own, so if we somehow created an atmosphere like before, then won''t we get even more rare and unique ants to ourselves?¡± Rocky¡¯s suggestion was good and she felt happy hearing that he was really doing his all and coming up with groundbreaking ideas, but this time they reached their limit. ¡°I would also like to do that, but we can¡¯t do that. Not with your leftover mana and also not with our spells, they are powerful enough.¡± ¡°Sigh¡­ only if we could create such a room with chaotic environment, then what could be better than that.¡± ¡°Yeah.¡± Like this from there amassed 2000Dc they ended up spending 925 on it. Though it looks like they were being considerate of their credits, but no, they wanted to spend it all, but buying so many eggs of them reserved 580/666 of Rocky¡¯s mana and he was left with just enough of it to move around and flow about in his dungeon. The best thing about buying eggs was that it didn¡¯t even take one fifth of the amount needed by a worker or any other monster to buy, but the disadvantage was that they would have to wait 16 hours for proper monsters to take birth. All of the eggs popped out from nowhere midst a show of blinding lights and they circled around the queen like they were given birth by her and she also looked quite happy seeing so many of them around her at the same time. Well, after all of that, they moved on to the second floor to take care of its structure and create their thoughts in reality. ¡°Okay, so Buffy you go and create three straight tunnels, but don¡¯t go any deeper than 100 meters, we only have so much space to work around in after all, and you four workers, you all go and create a winding tunnel which would circle around the whole floor and arrive back at the entrance.¡± He gave simple instructions, which the ants directly followed and got to work. Minie couldn¡¯t understand what he really wanted to do, so she asked him about it. ¡°What kind of a master design do you have in mind this time?¡± He gave a light laugh to her compliment in disguise and explained. ¡°This floor will be dependent on using illusions. We are going to create five tunnels at the start of the floor, which the adventurers would have to choose from, but there will only be one right tunnel from them and the others are going to be riddled with traps and monsters. The right tunnel won¡¯t have any trap installed in it, but the room which it will connect to will have a mass of ants waiting for the intruders. Then there will be one straight tunnel which will only be wide enough for only a single person to go through and then he will face our Buff worker inside.¡± She tilted her head in confusion on the words ¡®Mass of ants¡¯ and asked him, ¡°How many ant''s are you exactly going to use?¡± ¡°Maybe ten or fifteen, we¡¯ll see.¡± ¡°Huh, then what about the leftover ants? Did you just buy them for safekeeping?¡± ¡°Sigh¡­ you are forgetting about the first floor. We need monsters there too.¡± She winked and pulled out her tongue to show that she forgot about that and Rocky smiled to show that he understands. ¡°Well, I understand that the first floor is designed to make the humans fear darkness, but what about this floor? Are you creating it with something I mind?¡± ¡°This floor¡­¡± he giggled thinking about it as he said, ¡°Is just a big time waste. I am going to do everything in my hand to make sure that everyone who enters this floor will have to waste at least half a day to reach the queen¡¯s room. And we are going to achieve this by placing pits and spike traps everywhere. We¡¯ll riddle the floor bare and full of holes to make them attentive and cautious enough to take every step with fear, fear of falling down the endless abyss of holes in the ground. Ah! This is going to be so good~!¡± Minie felt happy, seeing him acting so out of character, as she giggled thinking about the future where they would watch poor humans attentively taking steps to cover the distance, while looking here and there for traps and deep holes in the ground and just as they would lose their vigilance ~BAMM~ an ant would attack them out of blue, but then she remembered. ¡°Huh, then what part does your illusions play? You were so excited about them, are you not going to use them?¡± ¡°The illusion part comes after they tunnels get finished.¡± Hearing his confident voice she decided to ask him his plan and he answered with, ¡°Simple you see these five tunnels, because I only have the ability to distort vision and create visionary illusion so I have decided to make it so that these five tunnels look like there are 25 of them. I do want to do a lot more than that, but I don¡¯t think I have the capacity or the ability to make it any more puzzling.¡± ¡°What?¡± was the only word she could utter when she heard him say that, but Rocky continued explaining the details. ¡°So after dropping down from the first floor, the humans will be directly presented the option to choose to enter one tunnel from the 25 of them. This should be enough to make them waste an hour or two of their time, but skilled adventurers won¡¯t get caught in it, that is why I ordered to create five tunnels.¡± ¡°So, what now?¡± ¡°Nothing, we are going to wait for the adventurers to come. With the number of ants we¡¯ll have in the next 24 hours there is no way they would be able to reach the second floor without losing some people and even if they did Buffy is still here isn¡¯t he!¡± ¡°Yeah.¡± ¡°They will give their lives to help me level up and increase my mana.¡± ¡°Then tunnels and dead ends are fine, but aren¡¯t, we lacking in something, something important?¡± Rocky nodded his head in affirmation. ¡°To improve our dungeon we are going to lay traps, but I don¡¯t know anything about them. Can I leave them to you?¡± Her confident smile and demeanor was enough to make rocky believe her. He didn¡¯t even dare to think about how the traps would come to be, after all she was taking care of them. He just hoped that they would end up killing everyone. ¡°Osu.¡± ¡°Then, install traps in all of the alternate tunnels only leave the correct tunnel alive. Riddle all the rest of the tunnels with traps, but don¡¯t go overboard. Make sure that the traps are strong and invincible, but not great enough to stop everyone. I don¡¯t wasn¡¯t to be called the bane of adventurers, but also not become too easy for any and everyone to reach the queen.¡± ¡°Now that it is over on my part, shall we test how the illusions will look like? Though I can¡¯t leave it be for the time being, as it uses a lot of mana, but we can take them for a try. What do you say?¡± ¡°Heehe¡­ Let''s do it. I also want to see how they are going to look like!¡± She pumped her hand high up in the air and gave a low shout. Rocky shook his head to her childish behavior and opened his skill illusion craft to see the restrictions and area, it could cover and found that the conditions were just right for him to give it try. The width and height of the newly created tunnel were just right to use the skill.
Fusion Skill : Illusion Craft (Lesser)Fusion : Illusion + Creation
Level : 0Rank : D
Can create Arrays, which block and molds Visionary data. Possible to Implement and project illusion over a very large area.
Restrictions: Can only mold one type of sense.
Illusion area: 5x5x5 metre^3Mana rate: 60Mp/hour.No of illusions: 5Sense: Vision
He used the skill and four balls of light started floating in front of him. New information about using the skill entered his mind and he acted upon it. ¡°So I have to place these balls in the four corners and then give them the instructions as to what kind of an illusion I want to show. Huh, it sounds¡­ intriguing.¡± Then he fiddled with them to distort the room and to make it look like there were twenty five tunnels and then he placed the balls at four corners of the room. He placed the balls and the room started distorting and changing and started growing. It continued to grow until it became large enough to cover150 meters of area from left to right. And 25 open dark mouths entered their vision. Like he wanted the five tunnels warped and changed into 25 of their counterparts and the best thing about it was that everything looked natural. Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.Of course he could see right through the illusion because of his mana perception and he also came to know a bitter truth about the illusions. They weren¡¯t that great, no his idea wasn¡¯t great at all. ¡°Minie, what do you see?¡± Holding her hands and with shining eyes she answered him. ¡°It¡¯s true. The room really changed and grew bigger than ever and like you said 25 tunnels really have been formed out of now where. This illusion is amazing.¡± ¡°Sigh¡­¡± ¡°What happened?¡± ¡°Nothing, just fly toward the last of them tunnels. You will find out.¡± And like he said she flew towards the end of the room abut unlike she expected, her head banged with the wall and she fell down. She had gone with high anticipation, but came back with a bump on her head, as she started shouting with tears in her eyes. ¡°You knew this was going to happen then why didn¡¯t you tell me before? If you had, then I wouldn¡¯t have crashed into the wall like that!¡± ¡°Sigh¡­ You see, this is the limitation of having the ability to distort only one type of sense and create illusions with it. I knew Just as the illusion started that it won¡¯t work and it really didn¡¯t.¡± ¡°Ah! Yeah, this really won¡¯t work. At most, humans would feel intimidated at first but after finding out the truth, they will not even look at the other tunnels and travel straight through the real one.¡± ¡°This won¡¯t work. We need to do something, something great that would make everyone crawl in fear and run for their lives.¡± Then they both started racking their brains to find a plausible solution. Some time passed by when Minie opened her mouth and slapped her head in contempt after all, as if the answer was in front of them from the start. ¡°The hell, are we trying to spend our brains when the answer was already provided by someone else.¡± ¡°What? What did you get? Tell me~ tell me~¡± He was excited, she was excited, they were both excited, and she could hold herself anymore and started explaining. ¡°All we really need to do is use the method used by the assassin to deceive everyone. We could dig deep pits and hide them with illusions or make our ants invisible with illusions like the assassin. If we can really create and produce any and all types and forms of visions, then, why not make one of our ants a dragon and other a phoenix. The ideas and opportunities are endless. If we do this then killing and scaring the shit out of those humans will become as easy as breathing. What do you say, isn¡¯t this the greatest way to use illusions?¡± Rocky heard her suggestion and his mind exploded. Countless new ideas started filling his mind and a cry of joy came hurling out of his mind. ¡°Minie, Minie, Minie, if I could, then I would have kissed you right now. Though we can¡¯t actually have a dragon in our dungeon, but so what! Ha-ha, you are a genius Minie, a genius!¡± But he didn¡¯t stop there and added. ¡°Though we can¡¯t kill too many humans intentionally, but what if someone from a party disappeared right in front of his friends? What will be more shocking than that! Such a story will then become a great mystery in itself and will increase our popularity even more~!¡± Minie snorted when she heard him say popularity, and rebuked him saying, ¡°Notoriety, not popularity. Such incidents will increase our notoriety, but the humans will love it, after all they are challenging our dungeon for excitement and that is what our illusions will provide them.¡± She laughed with her mouth open wide as her bright white teeth made Rocky mentally gulp down his saliva. ¡°Hah, I can already see humans bragging about killing dragons in our dungeon, a dragon which dropped a mandible that is¡­ heehe.¡± *Puff* ¡°Haaha,¡­ a dragon dropping antenna''s, now that is going to be fucking hilarious to see.¡± They both shared their ideas and laughed till they couldn¡¯t breathe anymore. Minie laughed so hard that she choked, but she still couldn¡¯t stop her laughter. They laughed together for a whole hour before they stopped. ¡°Yes, let¡¯s do that, but not now. I need to increase my level by 20 of something first. Otherwise, I won¡¯t be able to handle the load from high mana consumption and go back to my slumber and I don¡¯t want that to happen. Who knows what kind of a dream I will see this time!¡± Then he was moved to remove the illusion spell, but suddenly the sound of gods notice rang in the dungeon and even Minie heard it. *Ding*
Hidden Quest complete.
Rewards granted. Please check the Quest panel on the interface to see further information.
They both looked at each other to see whether the other knew about what has just happened, but their blank minds were enough to tell that they didn¡¯t. ¡°Mine, what is a hidden quest?¡± Rocky asked her in a very soft voice as if he scared of someone hearing him and spilling some great secret to their enemies. One must have thought that Minie must have called him an idiot, but no, she also replied in the same manner. ¡°That I don¡¯t know. This is the first time I am hearing about something like this.¡± *Ahem* ¡°Then what should we do?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know? Let¡¯s check the dungeon interface and see what the hell this hidden quest thingy really is!¡± Her crisp, but soft voice sounded in his mind as he nodded his head; mentally. ¡°Yes, let¡¯s do that.¡± Then Rocky hurriedly opened the dungeon interface to see if there was anything indicating about the quest and what not and they saw the option to a Quest panel right beside the other options.
Dungeon Interface
StatusFloors/ Monsters/ Store/ Creation/Quests
NameThe cave of MiseryTypeInsect
Floors2Total no of Monsters6(36)
Rooms/floor7/2Total no of invaders0
---
Reserved Mana: (540/666)
Dungeon(Floors/Rooms)200+50+40Monsters250
Resources0upgrades0
---
Dungeon Currency1075ReputationGood (+145)
DC Inc.95/dayMana Reg.20/hr
¡®What the¡¯ he thought as he saw a whole panel dedicated to the quests. ¡°There Minie, there. There is a whole panel dedicated to the quests and we didn¡¯t even know about it.¡± ¡°Huh, what can I say! These past days have been so heretic that I didn''t even have the chance to carefully look at the interface. How would I have known about this?¡± This time He snorted to her child like reply which was clearly blaming him. ¡®Huh, if you didn¡¯t have the time to even check that then everyone else must be working to their deaths.¡¯ But he didn¡¯t say that and locked his thoughts away in some corner of his heart. ¡°Yeah, these days surely has been quite heretic.¡± Though he wanted to be sarcastic there, but they really had gone through a lot in these days. Therefore the words which came out were a lot more serious than he intended. ¡°Okay~ then Rocky~ let¡¯s see what kind of a thing these hidden quests really are?¡± ¡°Sure, let¡¯s do it~!¡± And they opened the quest panel. There wasn¡¯t much info on it, but they felt that each and every word written there was priceless. It not only amazed them, but it also opened a new door for rocky to get stronger.
Hidden Quests
1.Kill a living intelligent life form in the first ten minutes of being born. Reward- Achievement (Born Killer)
2.Indirectly kill a human on their first official invasion. Reward - 500Dc
3.Use an evolved master trap without buying it from the system. Reward - Restriction on traps lifted, Illusion Traps unlock
Their bulging eyes and opened jaws were enough to show their excitement. Because the number of quests they had unknowingly completed wasn¡¯t one or two, but three. And each of them was even more absurd and weirder than the preceding one. Rocky cried out when he saw that his greatest achievement was also the result of completing a quest. ¡°What the hell is this Minie? What the actual fucking hell?!¡± ¡°I- I don¡¯t know. I have never heard anything about quests before. Forget me, I think even my mist¡­ they probably haven¡¯t heard anything about quests before or maybe she didn¡¯t tell us about them. Yeah, if it¡¯s her then it is very possible for her to keep such important information to herself.¡± Rocky didn¡¯t catch her voice getting low and her quivering lips because all of his attention was fixed on the reward from his newest completed quest. Just as he saw the reward given by it, he started shouting loudly in Minie¡¯s mind. ¡°Minie, it¡¯s a miracle. It¡¯s a miracle. We can finally buy traps. We can finally buy some traps!¡± Hearing him suddenly get so excited and shouting loudly in her mind, her trance broke as she looked towards him and questioned him with a straight face, but confused voice. ¡°What happened?¡± ¡°See there the last option. This time we really hit the jackpot. Ah! God is so benevolent.¡± She wasn¡¯t in the mood to cry and jump with joy like him, as she clicked her tongue in annoyance and looked at the reward, but then even she started jumping around and crying in joy. ¡°We struck it rich, we struck it rich.¡± But before they could see what kind of a treasure they had really gotten their hands on, a red information box came and blocked their sight.
WARNING INTRUDERS ALERT!!
Rocky¡¯s eyes bulged out as he cried. ¡°Again?!¡± Chapter 31 - Plan Authors apology:- Sorry for the delay. And try to imagine Pepsicus speaking with British accent. . Enjoy. ................................................................................................................. Third Persons P.O.V:- Minie noticed the warning sign, Rocky noticed the warning sigh, they both noticed the warning sign and Rocky even screamed out a little for the utter savageness of those damn humans to come and invade their dungeon time after time without giving them time to breathe. ¡°Hey, I want those pesky humans to come to our home as a guest and never leave again, but I would have liked for them to come atleast give us time to finish constructing the second floor!¡± But it looked like¡­ They were too eager to forfeit their lives and they couldn¡¯t hold on any longer and came to the loins den wanted to help the predator with the prey. ¡°What are you crying out loud for? Isn¡¯t this a good thing? At least you will be able to increase your levels. What don¡¯t look at me like that! No matter what happens I am not going to let them go away.¡± ¡°UM¡­ Yeah, good thing you told me about that, but how many are coming this time? I hope it¡¯s a small party and not some exaggerated mumbo jumbo of highly qualified personals!¡± Minie opened the screen window to play a direct video of their ongoing situation and when they saw humans coming down from the surface one after another, they chocked. Minie hatefully looked at Rocky for blurting out nonsense, because his silver tongue had increased the difficult that they were going to face this time to another level and from the looks of it; his words were really coming back to bite, not just him, but them both. ¡°Haha-haa.¡± Rocky awkwardly laughed as he had found something intriguing in the band of humans invading their home. ¡°Minie, don¡¯t they look kind of same?¡± ¡°What do you¡­ Oh! Now that you have mentioned it; don¡¯t they look the same like those thieves we cached, beat and mutilated a little while ago?¡± ¡°But they didn¡¯t talk about anyone coming after them?¡± ¡°No, didn¡¯t they say they were here to clean the cave on someone¡¯s orders?¡± ¡°Ah! now that I remember it¡­¡± Their discussion continued, while a black armored pimp with a red sword dangling on his waist skillfully came down from the surface and started questioning his fellow party members. ¡°Where are them lot? Why have they not arrived here to great us, aye?¡± ¡°Great sir Pepsicus, maybe, they are too deep inside the cave to know that we have arrived.¡± One of his lackeys came forward to lay his thoughts out, but to his surprise his great sir wasn¡¯t happy from his sudden barging, as he slapped the man and spoke in great fury. ¡°You dare to speak to me like my equal and give me suggestions!! You imbecile, I¡¯ll cut ya head off, aye!¡± And he held the man from his arm, removed his sword from the scabbard and slashed on the man¡¯s face. ¡°ARRGhh¡± The man cried out in pain from being cut on the face as blood sprouted out and he fell. He started rolling on the ground as dirt and dust floated up and simmered in the light coming from the surface. His blood sadly dripped to the floor, as he started rolling on the ground, wailing and crying in pain. The other humans, a total 24 more of them were shocked seeing their leader behaving like a maniac, and gasped. Some of them started trembling from fear, while some laughed at the man¡¯s bad luck, but no one came forward to help the down man. Rocky who had already shifted his presence and was now looking at them from above their heads was also shocked seeing a human, moreover, a leader behaving to his fellow humans like a monster and cutting his face for simply answering to his question. He felt bewildered, as hate started taking over his mind, clouding his judgment, but it stopped when Minie interfered with his thoughts. ¡°Don¡¯t get shocked from just that. These humans are not as united and as you might think of them to be. Moreover, these people you are looking at are the scum of their society, left outs, delinquents, you can name them whatever, but they are mere criminals and nothing more. Nobody even looks towards them, forget about care and love. You have already seen the dark side of humans. Humans who turn their back on their own kind, humans who fight and kill for valueless pride, humans who have fun torturing normal and not so strong beings and this kind.¡± ¡°Bu- But¡­ I am shocked, shocked thinking about the amount we will be able to receive from torturing them all and the constant increase supply of dungeon credits which they will give us. Not because of his behavior to his fellows. They could just kill each other in front of me and I wouldn¡¯t flinch a bit.¡± Minie felt awkward, her eyebrows twitched, as she confronted him talking without any emotions towards those little pests. ¡°So, why are your brain waves such a mess, if you are not feeling shocked?¡± He mentally shook his head and explained to her. ¡°You see, even if we capture them we won¡¯t be able to keep them all as a prisoner after all, we don¡¯t have the man power to keep them from revolting and harming us in the process. So I am confused about what to do with them, but if what you said is true, then the being criminals means that they don¡¯t have the guild card which tells about their condition and location, so killing them is just a waste of precious batteries and nothing else.¡± She chuckled for a sec at his response and smilingly replied. ¡°Its simple actually, very simple. All we need to do it to kill them all and then eat their bodies. We could keep the most powerful of them alive but¡­¡± They checked their levels and saw that their looks and their levels, they were both pathetic. Most of them were real lackeys, not only in name and looks, but in their power too. Most of them had levels lower than hell itself. From Minie¡¯s point of view those humans were just bunch of amateurs who had banded together to play with the weak and nothing more. From the bunch of them, only five individuals and their leader was someone of a catch, the rest weren¡¯t even enough for them to gain nutrition¡¯s. 10 had level below 30, 5 were between 30 and 4o while four had exact the same level of 45. The rest were much high leveled and stood between 70-75. While their leader was a ranker with rank 1 and level 35. He was the most powerful of the lot, but even then their group was nothing other than a bunch of pathetic losers who had bonded together cause of their greed and maybe their leader¡¯s money or threat. This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it. Rocky sighed as he looked at their information. ¡°Sigh¡­ there is no benefit in keeping them alive, is there?¡± ¡°No we could keep the leader alive and¡­ just him. The rest are pathetic. We can cash some extra Credits from him if we slowly tortured him, by keeping him in fear and maybe after a healthy dose of daily torture his level 135 body would start giving us 300 credits daily?¡± ¡°Sigh¡­ there is nothing else to do. It would have been a lot better if at least some of them were somewhat capable, but it¡¯s okay. Firstly¡­¡± He then commanded his buff ant to kill their slave prisoner whom they had captured in their last skirmish and come to the front lines afterwards. He also brought the four newly bought workers to the front and waited, while the rest of them were left to dig the floor. According to him there was no need to call all of them out. Four of them were enough to handle them all. ¡°What are you going to do? Do you want them to charge directly into their middle and start hacking them apart?¡± Rocky squinted and looked at Minie, as if he was looking at a murderer, a psycho. ¡°Were you a grave digger in your past life?¡± ¡°What?¡± ¡°Nothing, as for the plan, this time we are not going to charge madly at them, but test something¡¯s.¡± When Minie heard him say test, moreover, say that while laughing like a mad scientist she subconsciously flinched, but a single thought struck her and she started shouting with happiness. ¡°Illusions, are we testing the illusions!?¡± ¡°Yes, won¡¯t it be fun? Let¡¯s see what we can do with them.¡± ¡°Okay, let¡¯s do this, yo!¡± Their excitement was already on the seventh floor and ready to burst out, but what was excitement to them was nothing more than bad news for the humans, because once again they were going to go through a bashing so bad that they would curse themselves even after their deaths. The ants came running from the construction site and stood near Minie. She looked at them and nodded, as she started thinking about what to do with them. ¡°Now where should I send them to?¡± Rocky helped her out of her deep contemplation. ¡°Send them to the first room. Only that room is small enough for me to completely display the full power of my illusion without making them look like some old parlor trick. Looks like lady luck is giving us a hand here.¡± He went ahead and left the humans behind to look at their surroundings and having fun gazing at the beautifully glowing Blazing Frost mushrooms, as it was going to be the last thing they would be looking at; totally clueless to what they were going to go through in mere minutes. Pepsicus looked at his men who were all star gazing and frowned. ¡°What the fuck yo all looking at, huh? Huddle up and listen ya all fucking maggots. I don¡¯t know where those sons of bitches are, but we ain¡¯t gonna wait for them. We gonna dive in and see what this place holds for us and anybody who finds those bloody rascals, do tell me, I¡¯ll fucking shove my sword in their arse for forgetting to greeting us, ya hear me all?¡± ¡°Yes, sir.¡± They shouted collectively. The thing is, if they knew that this cave was not some ordinary cave, but a dungeon, then they wouldn¡¯t even have gone near it, but because of their low mental fortitude and knowledge about current affairs, they dived and dived directly to their deaths. The guild hadn¡¯t yet posted the information regarding there being a newly found dungeon yet, so no one knew about it. Neither did their associates, nor did them. If they had thought of leaving the town a day later, then maybe they could have picked the clues from rapidly advancing humans who would also be moving towards the cave and maybe then they would have decided to not play with fire, but the there was no time to grieve anymore, the ship had sailed and they had already entered the den of the ants and though they didn¡¯t know it, but there was already no turning back now. Rocky went ahead of the human crowd and quickly used his skill to set up the illusion in that really small first room. Though at first their intentions were not to intentionally kill humans, but they were no idiots to let go a fat sheep with no guardian. Though Rocky¡¯s illusion skill takes 60mp/ hour, but he knew it was enough. No, not his mana, but the time. He knew that one hour was enough to make those humans bleed and turn those perfect bodied of meat into a healthy, yet fulfilling meal. He distributed the light balls on the four corners and the skill covered the whole room. The skill started and his ants entered the room. Firstly, there was the narrow tunnel in which the humans were crawling in and then there was the darkness. Both factors were enough to make it easy for Rocky to move his ants into the room without being detected. The ants entered and he instigated Fog inside the room. The fog which appeared was so dense that forget about a meter away, even looking at one¡¯s own hand in front of their faces was became very difficult. They waited for some time and then the first human reached the exit of the tunnel. ¡°Boss there is fog inside the room.¡± The voice travelled from the very front to the last where his boss pepsicus was crawling. ¡°Huh, you fucking maggots its fog not some deadly poison, just crawl through. Do you need me to tell you everything huh, you rascals?¡± Though the darkness was profound and deep, but the radiance coming from those mushrooms was still enough to at least light the first room somewhat. Their party or team originally had 31 members. The party was divided evenly into five groups all under the command of Mr. Pig face Pepsicus. Everyone was afraid of him because unlike them, he was a noble person; an advanced ranker. The five groups all had their own duties to complete; mainly attack, defense, scout, skirmish and thieving. Each group consisted of five members and each such group had a vice captain, mainly one of the higher ranking individuals controlling them. These groups were created under the influence of real battle force of the empire which was also divided into such groups, but unlike these pathetic losers, every soldier of the empire was at a nightmarish level. The one group which had first entered the cave and was done in by Buffy was the scout team and right now, the other teams were travelling down the tunnels to hell to get done by the ants too. Chapter 32 - Scared Shitless!! Authors note:- I''ll try to post two more chapters today. . Enjoy. ...................................................................................................................................... Third Person¡¯s P.O.V:- The person who was crawling at the front in the narrow tunnel nodded his head and unwillingly followed his captain¡¯s orders and entered the room. The others beside him didn¡¯t follow and waited for a response of some kind to come from him so that they could be sure about their safety. Though they had the skin and their race registered as humans they were in no way different from backstabbing, greedy, savages like Goblins. They waited for a minute after which the much awaited voice came. ¡°Come out everyone, it¡¯s just fog, nothing else. Moreover, the fog is also only five meters thick, gwah.¡± Though the idea of encountering fog inside a cave was enough to define craziness and brings fear of the unknown to anyone¡¯s heart, but a simple shout for that person was enough to make the hearts of his fellow brothers lighter and give them the courage to follow behind him. The defense team was holding the flag and crawling at the front. They were followed by the attack team and then the rest followed behind them and at the end were the five vice captains and their leader. Though figuratively speaking they are real teams and they act the way and complete their part too, but none of the so called members of the teams actually had the jobs given to them. Neither was there anyone in the attack team who held an attack based job, nor was there anyone on the defense team who had any defense related job. They were just lowlife villagers, commoners and people without any jobs and ambitions, who had bonded together with only a single intention of looting other people and get rich. The second guy followed the first and entered the room and vanished. He entered midst the thick fog and disappeared from the vision of the rest of them. The next guy was going to follow but then he stopped and waited for him to shout back and only after a couple of seconds another shout came, telling them that it was okay to move that everything was alright. Like this the whole defense team moved inside the room and died. What really happened? Simple, the ants were clinging to the roof and Buffy was waiting at the end. Everyone who responded back had his head snapped and his place was taken by an illusion. Then next person to come after hearing the shout would see his party members standing at the end of the room in a line and he shouts back to inform that it was alright. It worked for the first five people, but then this strategy of theirs failed, when one of the humans from the attack team went inside the fog, but somehow evaded the attack and ran back towards his team mates, crying and shouting out loud. ¡°Monsters, There are monsters inside the fog!¡± His cry sounded like rubbish to most people of his team as they looked at him in disgust for freaking out because of the fog. ¡°What, what the hell are you saying? If there are monsters, then why are others shouting about it being safe and all? If you want to die then die alone don¡¯t take me along with you and now move.¡± ¡°Please believe me. They are dead, they are all dead!¡± The person talking to him frowned, when he saw the hands holding his shoulders shivering. His natural acting was enough to put doubt in his heart, but before he could do anything a shout from his captain came from all the way back and took him by surprise. ¡°Why the fuck are you lot not moving. Do you want me to come a t the front and drag you all out of the cave?¡± The voice was enough to indicate how annoyed his captain was. No, how annoyed their leader was to make his captain deliberately shout out to them. ¡°Sir, he is saying there are monsters inside the fog.¡± One of the bootlickers pointed his finger at the totally scared person and answered back. Vice captain nodded his head, but didn¡¯t get flustered hearing there were monsters inside the fog. Though when he heard the description his heat became uneasy and broke out in cold sweat. ¡°Okay, no need to fret. Tell me what happened?¡± The scared one looked all the way back and answered while stuttering. ¡°I- I wen- went inside the fo- fog and I after taking some steps I sw- I saw,¡± ¡°What did you see? Don¡¯t make me lose patience and hurriedly explain everything!¡± ¡°Heee, there was blood, a lot of blood. I bent forward to see it clearly, when something above me snapped. I- I hurriedly looked above to see what it was an- and, and there it was, a giant ant. A very big ant. I ran back just as I saw that, and- and¡± His chief heard his every word with full concentration, but when he heard the word ant, all of his vigilance flew away as he snorted looking at him as said. ¡°So you mean there are big ants inside the fog? How big are they? Was its bigger than your¡¯s?¡± The others behind him started laughing at that. They clearly understood what their vice captain was implying there, but just under toned insults were enough for him, as he started bashing him verbally. ¡°Just look at this fucker! Crying and sobbing because of a little ant. Pathetic!¡± While the behavior of their vice captain couldn¡¯t have been any clearer, one man shouted back with full poise and reverence in his voice. ¡°Don¡¯t worry sir, I will go and investigate the matter and see..¡± He glanced at the cowering old man disdainfully and completed his sentence, ¡°What kind of a monster lurks inside the fog!¡± The others behind him started laughing again, as he waved his hand and went inside the fog. Everything would have been alright if he had come back, but the thing is, he didn¡¯t. Though he himself didn¡¯t come back, but a sound of metal clanging and a horse voice of someone chocking did. *Clunch* *Thud* *krush* *-rsh* *-rsh* And after that came a very light sound of some falling on the ground and something getting dragged on the ground. Those sounds horrified the old man even more, as he started shouting and crying with his snot covered face. ¡°They are here, they are here!!¡± He couldn¡¯t have been any clearer with his words, but before he could say anything else, something wrapped around his leg. ¡°Huh?!¡± Was the only thing he said after that because that something lifted his leg, lifted him along with it and dragged him back into the fog midst his long scream, which eventually stopped just seconds later. The person at the front couldn¡¯t understand at first what had just happened, but when the sound of metal clanging, a soft thud and something getting dragged came again, blood drained from his face and he started backing away. Consider his bad luck or wrong choice to join the gang of thugs, but there was no room behind him. They were crawling in a narrow w tunnel after all. ¡°Back, back, go back! There is something inside the fog. Go back! Go back!¡± He was screaming at the top of his voice trying to hurry up and return back, but his sudden movements only made him face yelling and pushing of angry and frustrated men behind him. ¡°Huh, what¡­ What are you suddenly saying? Just hurry up and go out of the tunnel already!¡± ¡°Get the hell out already! DO you think we want to stay inside this narrow tunnel, huh? Fucking move your ass and make way for us to come out, you bitch!¡± ¡°Who the fuck is stopping the line, huh? Move on you fucker.¡± All kind of curses started flying his way and the people behind him started pushing him towards the exit of the narrow tunnel. Though the men behind him didn¡¯t see, but how could he have already forgotten about someone getting dragged into the fog. ¡°Believe me there is something in the cave! LISTEN TO ME!!¡± His shout had no real effect and instead it angered the mass even more. All the people were going to curse him to death when something happened. He, who was trying to convince the people to not send him out of the tunnel and to his death and noticed everyone getting quite in an instant. He saw the men directly in front of his eyes trembling and understood that something bad had happened. He wanted to look back to see what was going on, but in the end he didn¡¯t need to completely turn around. He moved his head to see back and saw that there were two giant mandibles¡¯ hanging around his neck, trapping his life between them and he was sure that if he moved even just a little, then the scissors of death would close and take his life with away. But the thing is he was wrong. They weren¡¯t waiting for him to move, but their orders and *Snap* Before he could move out and away from the clutches of the reaper, death clutched its grip on his neck and his head flew in arc, collided with the ceiling and fell in front of the person behind him. Silence plagued the tunnel. No one said anything in that moment, but then one man shrieked and the, the explosion of girly screams in manly voices flooded the tunnel in no time. Everyone started crawling back to save their lives, but how could the ants have let them do that, moreover, after getting the kill order from their master. The chest of the now headless man bursted into small pieces as two spears came out and flew towards the rest of them. The spears came fast and came from a blind spot created by the deceased fellow, so no one even saw them coming. By the time the first person noticed the headless body getting torn to pieces one of the spears had already neared him. One of the metal spears entered the mouth of the person behind the headless man. It entered his mouth, came out from his neck and entered the eye of the person directly behind him. It continued on its path and continued the massacre, and entered the eyes and mouths of three people before stopping just in front of a bewildered black spike haired young man in his twenties. He first couldn¡¯t understand what just happened, but the calamity wasn¡¯t over yet. Miraculously he didn¡¯t die from the attack of that spear and neither did the other spear even touch him, as it passed over his head and struck the man behind him. The second spear formed an arc and heavily nailed two people to the ground, as its power made paste out of them. If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement. He took a long deep breath of relief when he saw that he had somehow escaped the calamity, but he didn¡¯t knew one very important thing. The spears were a skill of the cruelest ant currently on the hunt and his spears had the option to auto return. He sighed and the spear in front returned and took with it the three persons in which it was stuck in, but then a thought hit him. ¡®Then wont the second spear also return?!¡¯ His thought was right, but his reaction speed wasn¡¯t good enough to take any action. The second spear came out of the ground entered his behind and came out of his mouth, it flew into the fog and took his lifeless body away with it. Why would the ants suddenly attack the humans, when Rocky was just testing his illusions? Because Minie had gotten bored of waiting for them to come out and die one by one. NO, actually it was too tiring to wait like that, so they decided to act. Just as the humans started clamoring, the fog started dissipating. They at first thought that maybe the danger had subsided and they were safe now, but they were wrong. The fog subsided and the real face of terror came in front of them. Four monster ants. Yes Four, because the fifth one didn¡¯t even look like an ant at all. It was too¡­ monsterish. ¡°AHH!!¡± ¡°Monsters!!¡± ¡°Run!¡± ¡°GO BACK, GO BACK!¡± All possible sounds that can be made when one is scared to death were coming out of their mouths. Their leader was already very annoyed of crawling in the tunnel, but when his underlings started yelling and started pushing back, he got really irritated ad started cursing. ¡°The fuck are you all running back for? Move forwards you damn imbeciles.¡± But who was scarier, an angry human or five monster Ants? Damm right, they started cursing back at him when he tried to slander them. ¡°You are fucking impotent.¡± ¡°You enunch¡± ¡°Die on your own, don¡¯t fucking drag us along with you.¡± His underlings flared and cursed the hell out of him, while pressuring him to move back. Pepsicus had big dreams for his small, but organized little party. He knew that even though his men weren¡¯t powerful enough, but they were daring enough to kill others when needed. Though it was not easy to take control of them, but he still did. They followed his orders and he provided them with enough to live by and he thought that they were loyal to him, but he was wrong about their loyalty. They followed him because he was powerful and they didn¡¯t leave him because he killed everyone who tried to leave. The word to be used isn¡¯t loyal, but afraid; they were afraid of him. Afraid that he would kill them too if they didn¡¯t answers his questions politely, afraid that if anyone who talked back would also be taken care of politely, so they endured and to endure his deviant self became like a second nature to them. But every dam has a limit after which it breaks and that is what happened to them, their dam of patience broke in the face of death and flooded on his face ¡®Why are they suddenly rebelling?¡¯ he thought, but his question were automatically answered when he looked past them to see monsters waiting for them to come out of the tunnel and noticed the pool of blood and mangled pieces of flesh and organs at the exit of the cave. He wasn¡¯t a daring man to start with. He was a coward. His entire life he had leeched from others and gotten stronger, but his nature was easily found out by his original party and he was kicked out because of it. After that started his month full of solo play in which he could only increase his level by 5 and became bankrupt. He hated them, he hated his old party members, but he didn¡¯t think of taking revenge. Instead of that he collected, thugs, mugger, petty humans, killer¡¯s and started his own organization. Though the members weren¡¯t strong, but he was satisfied, satisfied that he was able to push around other people, get his work done and earn money without moving a finger. His life flashed in front of his eyes as he screamed. ¡°Heeeeeee¡± And started crawling backwards. Because there was no one behind him he thought that the others would be able to buy him enough time to leave the tunnel and go out of the cursed cave, but no. He turned around and before he could started crawling he noticed a huge pole standing just outside the tunnel. His brows furrowed because he didn¡¯t remember anything like that while entering inside, but then his whole body shivered and he started trembling because the pole had suddenly moved. The pole moved and a Gi-fucking-Gantic eyes took its place and looked inside the tunnel. He saw the eye reflecting back his visage like a mirror and blood drained from his face. The eye was so huge that the entrance was completely covered by it, but then it moved and an even bigger open mouth took its place. That mouth was so deep that he couldn¡¯t even see its end. He saw fire dancing inside the opened mouth and his soul left his body. No, he didn¡¯t actually die, but his face became pale enough to scare ghosts away. No scream came out of his throat, no roar come from the devil waiting outside the tunnel, but it was enough. The fear of such a monster waiting outside to greet and play with him was enough to make him subconsciously retreat backwards He didn¡¯t even give another look behind at the open mouth because he knew that there was only death waiting for him there. ¡®At least I can somehow handle the ants waiting inside the room, but how would I handle that?¡¯ He thought and his mouth started firing profanities out of dread of getting eaten alive by that monster. ¡°Move forward, move forwards. You fuckers move, let me go! Let me go!¡± When his vice captains saw him behaving like that, at first they thought that their leader wanted to fight with the monsters to save them, but when they turned around to look at his heroic face¡­ They forget about his bravery in a second and started crawling towards the exit too. ¡°Oh! Leader y¡­. Move, move you fuckers, step aside let us pass, you fuckers.¡± It wasn¡¯t one or two, but all and every one of them was saying the same thing and repeating the same lines. After all, who isn¡¯t afraid of being chewed alive, who isn¡¯t afraid of being pierced to death from their behind¡­ Ahem¡­ they were simply taking action for their survival, but On the other hand, someone was having fun watching them act like clowns. ¡°Haaha¡­ that is cruel, so cruel. At first I thought you were going to finish them in one go when you removed the illusion, but then, Haaha¡­ you are so cruel, but it is benefiting us too, so it¡¯s all good.¡± ¡°Yeah, I just acted on whim, but the results it is showing are too good to be true. Who said low leveled people can¡¯t help me getting loaded? These fishes are all superbly playing their roles.¡± This is what really happened. After Rocky saw that his plan to silently kill all of them failed, he removed the illusion and hurriedly went towards the entrance and seeing that no was looking he cleverly set upped another illusion there. Yes, the gigantic queen at the front was nothing other than an illusion created by him on a whim to stop the humans from running back, but the profit which that whim made for them was too great to be true. After the humans had entered the dungeon Rocky started receiving a constant influx of 100 Dc per hour, but the situation changed when the people near the exit saw their associates getting killed. At that time the influx of credits per hour increased to 300Dc. Just scarring them increased the total worth of those worthless humans by that much, but that wasn¡¯t the end. The profits increased from hundreds to thousands when the queen appeared and by the time first person ran out of the tunnel and toward the ants; Rocky and Minie had already gained a total of 890 Dc. Was the amount huge? It was even greater than that. If they had just killed each and every single one of them, then at most they would have gotten somewhere near 1000Dc out of them, but now they were getting loaded. The cat and mouse game of them humans going back and forth in the tunnel continued for two hours. While a lot of them were still alive by that time, but each time someone got pushed outside the tunnel only death waited for him and when others thought that the ants only killed those who went outside, the ants would enter the tunnel and drag one of them outside to instill fear in their hearts. By the time two more hours passed, only eight of them were alive inside the tunnel. The rest got throw or dragged out of the tunnel and obliviously the strongest of them their leader was alive and kicking and so were his vice captains. By this time Rocky¡¯s mana was running on fumes, so it was time to end it once and for all. An addition of 3280Dc to their total amount was enough after all. ¡°You were right Minie, you were right. It is so easy to earn money illegally, I mean by doing wrong to the society. But I can¡¯t go on anymore so let¡¯s end this.¡± ¡°Sure, I was just waiting for you to say that.¡± And the ants entered the tunnel. Four of them entered and midst the crying and screams of eight grown men, they dragged out four men and killed two and obviously the leader was also dragged out by them. Rocky had already killed the man whom they had captured before, and this leader was going to replace him and become their prisoner. No fight took place, no battle happened. Everything was handled smoothly and Buffy didn¡¯t even have to lift his antennae though he used his antennas at the start to instill fear in their hearts, but nothing entertaining happened. The ants dragged them out and Buffy beheaded or pierced them, while the ones left in the tunnel were also dragged and killed by the worker ants. ¡°Sigh... now what?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know. Let¡¯s torture our first captive.¡± ¡°Okay.¡± They were going to use some of their techniques on him, but then the god¡¯s musical rhapsody rang inside the dungeon and took their attention away. *Ding*
Melting of items complete.
Chapter 33 - We Farmers. Third Persons P.O.V:- Melting of items complete. The fight with humans was inevitable, but the rewards they provided were enough to sugar coat every and all the grievances that Rocky and Minie might have harbored against their untimely invasion. Though the numbers were with the humans this time, but the quality of Rocky¡¯s forces were enough to subdue them all and this once again proved that quality prevails over quantity, with conditions applied. The effect of drug named free credits from the beaten up humans was still heavy on their heads and still in effect, when another good news intoxicated them and blew their minds to Hawaii. The process of melting of items in the waste bag was finally over. They took 4 hours to completely drain the humans, plaguing them with fears of unprecedented levels which in fact gave them credits to be happy for some weeks, but that wasn¡¯t all. Killing all those humans increased Rocky¡¯s level from 7 to 31, but not only that. Buff workers level increased to 14 But when he saw his levels increasing he thought about something and grunted. ¡°AHH! we should have called the ants which took birth from eggs and not these system bought ants, then they could have also gotten an increase in their levels too!¡± ¡°But then you would have needed to share your levels with them. So it¡¯s still a win-win situation.¡± ¡°Yeah, you are right I guess.¡± ¡°Of course I am. Now that you have such a drastic increase in your levels, then won¡¯t we be able to buy another floor with the money that we have already acquired?¡± ¡°Now, that I think about it, you are right!¡± ¡°Hee, of course I am.¡± ¡°But don¡¯t forget about the resources which we have acquired after melting the items.¡± ¡°Heehe, let¡¯s check them out.¡± Then he willed and opened the log to see their gains. Though most of the things went according to what they had planned or thought of, but some items and their respective resources gave them a pleasant surprise. {+ 25 iron Ingots (From melting Iron Weapons) + 1 horse leather (From melting leather clothes) + Nameless Bracelet (Couldn¡¯t Melt) + 128Dc (From melting 128 Shrubs of Blazing frost Mushrooms.) + Skill Book- Persuasion (From eye of the bewitcher necklace.) Resources like iron ingots were alright, but too many things were really out of order in the list. ¡°Minie, why didn¡¯t the Bracelet melt? Why did we gain credits from the mushrooms and where did that skill come from!?¡± His questions were genuine and his mind was confused, but he was not confused alone, Minie was also staggering and stuttering to get to an answer, but even after doing hundreds of calculations only one word sentence came out of her mouth, ¡°I- I don¡¯t know.¡± ¡°What do you mean you don¡¯t know? You obviously know something. You are the persona of virtue itself and wisdom flow throws your veins, how could you not know about something like this?!¡± Had Rocky finally grown balls and doing something that he should have done n the first day? Was he really finally trying to man up and forcing himself on her? Nah, He was just having fun for the first time because the mountain which was standing strongly and not letting anyone traverse through it was finally shaking and bending its neck. Even though the mountain would still remain a mountain after this incident, but surely its arrogant peak would have to drop down in shame in front of him. ¡°I really don¡¯t know anything. The Melting process is related to the system and it is supposed to melt anything defined under the system, so I don¡¯t know why the bracelet didn¡¯t melt.¡± ¡°But¡­¡± ¡°Okay, let¡¯s check it. Call out its information, let¡¯s see what it has to say for itself¡± ¡°Okay.¡± So he followed her suggestion and did what she asked him to do, but their action did nothing other than increasing the mystery and also¡­ wasting their precious time. Item : Nameless Bracelet Rank: ??? Info: ??? Seeing the normal, no, junk looking bracelet giving them question marks instead of releasing its information, Minie exploded. ¡°Huh, the F is this? This is Utter bullshit. What the holy Jesus are we going to do with it?¡± ¡°How could this be? Forget about melting, we can¡¯t even see through it! What kind of a broken item is this? Or is this so ordinary that the system didn¡¯t find anything in it to melt?¡± ¡°No, that is not possible? How could the system not know the value of an item? The system written by gods know about all the materials used to create an artifact, so how would it not know about something that was created under its own eyes and given name by!... Unless¡­¡± ¡°Unless what?¡± ¡°Unless the system doesn¡¯t know what materials were used to create this.¡± ¡°But didn¡¯t you say; all of the materials in this world grow under the supervision of god, then how could he not know about something that he himself created?¡± They both got anxious and stared at the Bracelet as if two hungry wolves were looking at a rabbit. ¡°That I don¡¯t know. This only means that either this bracelet is so powerful that even our dungeon interface can¡¯t read its information or it a dud!¡± ¡°But if it was useless then wouldn¡¯t its rank and info be clearly provided as the item being useless or something?¡± ¡°Well, haaha¡­ I don¡¯t know. Even though we can¡¯t use it, but we can easily find out its usage.¡± ¡°Really? Then why did you take so much time to say that? Hurry up and tell me!¡± ¡°Just wear it.¡± ¡°Wear it?¡± And she closed her eyes and nodded her head, while er eyes shined as if she was asking him to praise her for her wonderful suggestion, but ¡°Okay, then tell me, where should I wear it?¡± And her face turned stiff. ¡°That¡­¡± ¡°So,¡± His loud voice was enough to give her the idea about how stupid her idea really was. ¡°Let¡¯s just keep it in the inventory for now. You can wear it after you get yourself a new body.¡± And Rocky sighed to her suggestion. ¡°Looks like we don¡¯t have any other choice, now do we?¡± But the gloomy atmosphere only remained for a split second after which it turned bright again. They both happily looked at each other, their smiling faces and shallow giggling was enough to indicate that they were cooking something mischievous. Moreover, they were cooking it together. Actually they were thinking about their newly found, cheap and sustainable way of gaining credits, which also included the offer of having no need to kill anyone. ¡°Mine are you also thinking what I am thinking.¡± ¡°Sir, yes sir.¡± ¡°Haaha¡­ I never thought that one of our biggest problem would be solved by something like that.¡± ¡°Yeah, who would have thought that we would one day turn from dungeon master and become¡­ farmers. Heehe.¡± ¡°Heck yeah, Farmers we are now.¡± ¡°But why did only the mushrooms turn into credits? Why didn¡¯t everything including the materials also turn into money? I would have loved it, if it had happened that way.¡± They discussed together and when their discussion gave them no answer they decided to once again see its information and find out the reason for the irregularity and they saw that it had no change, but that they had just missed a tine-tiny clause at the end of the paper.
Blazing Frost Shrooms
Blazing frost mushroom are a rare variant of light mushrooms. They grow in a dark and humid space, but the most important thing needed for them to grow is abundant mana.
Ingredient Rank : A
Species : FungiGrade : RareGrowth Area : 25m/5MpPrice : 1Dc/head
¡°Ah so it had already listed the price and we just didn¡¯t see it.¡± The author''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.¡°Looks like we should really start paying attention to stuff, huh. If those bandits hadn¡¯t picked some mushrooms, then with our personalities we wouldn¡¯t have gotten to even know about this.¡± ¡°Yes, you are right. But the question is, can we sell everything to the system?¡± ¡°That, we need to find out, but before that.¡± Though the atmosphere was gloomy, but their spirits were shining, as they both started grinning like a maniac. Their sights fixed on the wall, behind the wall, beneath the surface and directly upon the mushrooms as they collectively said. ¡°Let¡¯s put some mana into the mushrooms and cover the whole dungeon with them.¡± But there delusional assault was stopped right in track when another message box clad in blue suddenly appeared in front of them.
Calculations complete.
Hidden quest ¨C "Do a transaction with the Resource corner" complete.
Resource corner is now unlocked.
If the not melting of that bracelet was a shock and the news about them being able to sell the mushrooms was excellent, then the unlocking of Resource corner was just godly. They had waited and waited for it to unlock n its own, but it didn¡¯t. They had thoughts and contemplated about ways to unlock it, but they couldn¡¯t. They had tried numerous times, in countless ways to unlock it, but they had failed every single time. Now, call it god¡¯s gift or a devils blessing, but it had finally unlocked. They were eager, they were surprised, they were melancholic, but they didn¡¯t directly move on to check their recent haul, but took it slowly. Minie took a slow deep breath and suggested that they should first do everything necessary and Rocky replied in a tired voice, sighing midway. ¡°We have quite a few things to do now, huh.¡± ¡°But isn¡¯t this fun?¡± He found her question stupid. ¡®Of course it is fun!¡¯ he thought. ¡°Yes, fun it is. Who would have thought that those sidekicks would help us in such a way.¡± ¡°So should we release the last one, their captain?¡± They looked and saw the same glint in each others eyes. The same shine which was a pure nark of a true psycho. They laughed manically for a little while, before Minie clapped her hands. ¡°You are right, let¡¯s do this.¡± She said that and connected with one of the ants waiting near the limbless captain of those lowlife humans, taking care of him and not letting him die. The ant suddenly stood up and started walking towards him and he got scared of its sudden movement. ¡°Wha- What ar-are you do- do- doing? Stay away, stay away from me!!¡± But the ant kept on walking towards him and his yelling clearly had no effect on it. The worker ant walked till it was standing right upon it and then stopped and looked at his scared stiff body. He kept on staring at the reason of his destruction, but his gaze held no hate. He was too scared and his condition was too pathetic to even think about harming it. ¡®Please go away, please go away, please g¡­¡¯ He prayed for it to just pass by him, but his heart stopped beating when the ant stopped right upon him. It stopped and he forgot to breathe because of fear. He just knew what was going to happen, as he subconsciously screamed and invaded the quite dark room. ¡°Noooooooo¡± *Chank* *Gwaah* The ant lifted its sickle like leg and nailed it deep inside his opened mouth, killing him on the spot. But, His death had no effect on Rocky or Minie. Rocky absorbed his body normally and reviewed the new message box informing them about the increase of another385Dc which he gained from killing him. He smiled and forgot about him as they had already figured out a better way to make credits which would also help them make their dungeon a picnic spot of a kind for the humans, which would help them grow rich. Firstly, he distributed his newly acquired skill points to his Knowledge stat, which in turn increased his mana by an unprecedented amount of 720 and his mana pool deepened and his total mana overturned everything reaching a staggering number of 1375. His spirit and crystal started shaking with joy when he saw his long awaited dream finally getting complete. That much increase in his mana was not a play after all it was as real as it could get. For a normal mage would have needed to reach the last stages of rank zero in order to gain such a great mana pool, but rocky achieved it by reaching level 21. This also shows that though his leveling speed wasn¡¯t anywhere near as good as a normal humans and though he had to face a lot of difficulties and his path wasn¡¯t straight, but he was still getting stronger and at a very astonishing pace at that. After that he ordered the ants to go back to work and help the others to dig out the second floor, but when the dust settled and calm returned to the shore, that juvenile, naughty question again knocked on his door. ¡°Now what should we do?¡± ¡°Are you being sarcastic or what?¡± Though he wasn¡¯t being sarcastic and the question was also natural, but Minie took it as a joke. ¡°Oh, no, no, no, I am not being anything. Just thinking about what we should do now.¡± ¡°And what is that?¡± ¡°If I remember correctly then didn¡¯t you say I can reserve some of my mana to directly influence the growth of herbs, minerals and other resources growing in the dungeon?¡± ¡°That¡¯s right, Hu-hu, you can do that. And because you have life affinity, the herds and vegetation which will grow to have commendable amount of strength and vigor.¡± She looked and saw him dozing off listening to her offer and her brows furrowed. ¡°Oh come-on, not like you are not eager to reserve mana for the mushrooms and see them flourish and entangle our whole dungeon. So that we could eat an endless supply of credits.¡± But this time his reply came out of the blue; like he was just waiting for her to say those lines. ¡°Okay, but firstly there were some restrictions to it right. Like it needed to reserve 5 mp for every 25 meters.¡± ¡°Yes, its information did say something like that.¡± ¡°So the question is how much you want to invest in them? I don¡¯t recommend you to use all of your newly gained mana. We also need to buy something¡¯s from the resource corner.¡± ¡°You know, I don¡¯t think that the entrance is any greater than 2 meters and it is already growing hundreds of mushrooms there and 5 mp for 25 meters in nothing. Why don¡¯t we make the whole first floor a green house and completely cover it with those glowing mushrooms?¡± ¡°But the first floor is 1100 meters long! Won¡¯t it take a lot of your mana.¡± ¡°Nah, its okay. Just need to reserve 220Mp.Though the amount is not low, but it is not too great either. After all, every day we will be able to harvest more than 1000Dc from them. It isn¡¯t shabby at all.¡± ¡°Okay then do that.¡± He did as they discussed and reserved 220 of his mana for the mushrooms as a prompt glowed on his face.
First floor''s environment is changing.
All monsters with dark affinity will gain a boost of 5% to their skills and abilities.
This floor can¡¯t hold the queen any longer, please move her to the next floor.
Chapter 34 - That Trap. Authors disclaimer:- Sorry guys for the dry week, but I wasn''t in the right mood to write anything, so i didn''t. As for the release from now days, I''m going to apply a schedule. Chapter update will be on- Mon, Tue, Thur, Fri. The rest of the days are for me to get my mind straight. Like this I will be able to amass some chapters for the rainy days an also might start giving out happiness in bulk. A small change in the last chapter. Thanks for the suggestions reading the bonuses with level ups and stuff but its alright, there is no need to give out something like that so early I the game, after all not like the levels holds any importance for him right now. So, the level increase changed from 21 to 31. I did the math... this time i used a calculator so don''t worry, I''m 100% sure about the calculations. level increase = mean of sum of the levels of everyone killed/ 3(No of his affinities) +n(monster which can evolve who are taking part in the kill) all the enemies contributed four more levels. . Enjoy. ............................................................................................................................................ Third Persons P.O.V:- ¡®30 eggs waiting to hatch into healthy little larvae, 7 worker ants, 1 buff worker and one ultimate warrior, their queen and two, no, three floors. Seems nice and cheesy doesn¡¯t it?¡¯ Rocky¡¯s expectations grew more, as he remembered and counted his forces and his and his dungeons growth and potential made a smile grow on his face. ¡®About resources, though the mushrooms have a large area to grow, their growing speed isn¡¯t too great and even though the whole first floor can grow about nine thousand mushrooms but they also take three days to mature, so it¡¯s kind of disappointing. No, I shouldn¡¯t think like that doesn¡¯t this mean we can harvest three thousand Dc¡¯s just from mushrooms every single day? It¡¯s already enough. Atleast we won¡¯t have to forcefully make the humans stay inside our home as a guest.¡¯ He was thinking about their situation and their future to be and his smile grew tender. He dazed and looked towards Minie and saw her handling the Ants and commanding them to complete the digging of their second floor. Time passed and by the time night came the ants had already dug three fourth of the floor. It was all thanks to the courtesy of little Buffy, of course. After they dealt with the humans and planted the mushrooms, Minie and rocky decided to wait for their second floor to complete and move the queen to it before dealing with, no, before moving onwards towards checking their newly opened option, the resource corner. Though they were really excited, especially Minie, but they decided to control their urges and finish their work before getting together to play. Rocky glanced and mentally messaged Minie to ask about the clothes and items which he had collected from the humans from their latest skirmish. ¡°Minie, what should I do with them? Should I melt these too?¡± ¡°Huh, oh, yeah, see if there is any important or useful artifact, otherwise melt them all. Okay.¡± ¡°Okay.¡± He wanted to just get done with it already as the melting process was too slow and more slower something gets the more bizarre and boring their results turns out to be, but he still opened the waste item bag to see what kind of haul they had gotten this time, but it only disappointed him and nothing more.
Waste Bag
Weapons/Armor''sJaptem(25), leather Jackets(4), Poor Iron Armor(5), Poor Iron Shields(5), Red Berserk sword, Fleming''s Black Armor Set.
AccessoriesN
Skill BooksPickpocket(15)
Potionslesser health potion(5)
HerbsN
Money5Gold 24Silver 96Copper
Would you like to melt them all: YES/NO
¡°Oh! The sword and Armor¡­ They seem nice, but the skills¡­ they are a bust this time, huh.¡± Though there were skills dropped by the humans, moreover it seemed to him like all the thieves had loose pockets and droped their skills before getting killed. The drops were huge, but the quality of the drop wasn¡¯t. He didn¡¯t know about other but at least for him It was useless. He didn¡¯t give them a second look and directly saved them all. ¡®Sigh¡­ though they are of no use to me, but we can at least reward them to some lucky fellow for an occasion or something.¡¯ He thought, as the newly acquired skill didn¡¯t meet his requirement, but even though he was nagging about it being useless, he still learned it.
Skill : PickpocketRank : F
Gives 20% surety of successful pocket picking. Happy thieving.
Restrictions: Class: Bandits, Thieves Reputation: Bad
Mana Consumption : 5MpCool down : 1 min
Would you like to learn: Yes/No
¡°Yes.¡± He learned the skill, but he was once again informed by a glaring red window about the skill being useless because of him not meeting the class, and only sighs came out of his mouth. ¡°Sigh. Well, whatever.¡± Though the skill according to him had no meaning and use, but he still felt a little hurt when the prompt about it getting locked appeared in front of him, but he shrugged the worry and pain away and looked at the information of the Red Sword and the black armor, which gave him some comfort before he stacked them inside his inventory.
Red Berserk Sword
Rank: UncommonCreator: Unknown
Reputation: Very BadClass: Swordsman
Created using red chaotic crystals containing chaotic energy. Though the sword provides excellent ability and turns a cat into a lion, but excessive usage leads to the person losing their minds and going Berserk.
Effects: + 10 strength +5 Agility -4 Intelligence -2 Wisdom
He also checked the Black armor, but it turned out to be a simple common iron Armor. After he looked through everything which gained his attention, he melted the rest of the confiscated goods. He was going to wait for them to melt and had thoughts to try meditating this time because according to his memory melting items takes a long time, but to his surprise this time even though there were a lot more items than before, the melting ended in less than ten minutes. The astonishment was written all over his face, as the speed shown by the system this time was too great to compare to anything before. But unlike before there were also no upsets or surprises this time around. From the melting he got: [+ 15 Poor Quality Leather + 54 Crude iron ingots] And this was enough to show how poor those humans really were. Though all of them were wearing armors and had swords and daggers dangling on their waists but their items, their items were worth nothing more than crap. The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. ¡®Looks like the shields gave most of the iron ingots, but do they really have any use for me? Well, whatever, she will tell me once I get ready anyways. Therefore let¡¯s not waste time on such a useless discussion.¡¯ His thoughts were abstract and his condition was great and because the second floor was also almost finished he decided to move the queen onto the second floor. She also followed the request easily and agreed to leave her first home to travel down to new lands and opportunities. First they had to create another room of the same size to accompany her big size. And the room took just two hours to complete and by the time mid night hit them they were ready to move the queen on to the second floor. But then a problem occurred. ¡°So Minie, how should we do this? Isn¡¯t she actually too big to move through the tunnels?¡± His worry was valid and his question was important, but Minie didn¡¯t fret over something like that and happily answered him back. ¡°Umm, yeah, she is, but there is no need to fret about it, as there are other ways to do something so simple like moving a monster in a dungeon.¡± ¡°Huh, really? Then what are those seemingly different ways you are talking about?¡± ¡°We can just teleport her.¡± ¡°What? You mean we can move her directly to the second floor?!¡± He got more excited than depressed when he heard that. Though this meant that there were still things about a dungeon that he didn¡¯t knew, but he didn¡¯t care about such at the moment. ¡°Yes.¡± ¡°It would be amazing if we could, but how?¡± ¡°It¡¯s simple; everything which can¡¯t be explained naturally can be explained by saying¡­¡± He smirked, shook his head and said. ¡°That it is a function of the dungeon itself?¡± ¡°Correcto. Yes it¡¯s a simple function of the dungeon and not only can we teleport or move monsters like this, but we can also shift floors.¡± ¡°WHAT!?¡± who wouldn¡¯t get surprised hearing that the floors of their home could be easily shifted and Rock wasn¡¯t much different from normal humans either, so he exclaimed. ¡°YES.¡± ¡°AH! Sorry, it was too much information for my small heart to take care of.¡± ¡°Oh don¡¯t worry~¡± ¡°Hah, so shall we do this?¡± ¡°Okay.¡± Then she play¡­ operated the dungeon interface and gave it the command and coordinates to move the queen from the first floor to the newly constructed room on the second floor and in front of them, midst a shower of brilliant lights, she vanished. ¡°WAH, it¡¯s so beautiful. No matter how many times I see it, it always remains so other worldly to look at. but doesn¡¯t this mean we will be able to completely circle and trap all the invaders if we teleported our ants behind the them or something.¡± It was a valid suggestion and a thoughtful idea, but it didn¡¯t see the light of the day. ¡°No, though your idea is a mean and disturbing one, and also good, but we still can¡¯t do that.¡± ¡°And why is that?¡± Confusion got the best of Rock because according to rocky it should have been easy to do. ¡°Because we can only teleport, move or bring changes to our dungeon, if there are no intruders or enemies present inside the premises of our dungeon. Suppose the humans are present on the first floor then though we will be able to bring change to the second floor, but we won¡¯t be able to change the setting of the first floor.¡± A slight gloom took over him, when he heard that his perfectly perfect idea got trashed because it was simply going against the rules of the dungeon itself. ¡°But what if we are somehow able to teleport our monster where ever we want to? Wouldn¡¯t that be a spectacle to see?¡± ¡°Hah, that will become hilarious. Imagine you are walking down the pitch dark tunnels of our dungeon, alone and shivering with cold and fear. You lift your torch to see the path ahead, but in turn get greeted by the black dirt road and nothing else. You sigh once and drop your torch down to move forward, but then you look ahead and your eyes meet with the visage of an ant standing right in front of you at some distance. You hurriedly lift your torch to shine light at the perceived monster, but when you do, you are once again hit by the black dirt road. You shake your head, and think ¡°Oh it was just my imagination¡± but then you drop your torch and there you see the monster standing right in front of you. You try to move backwards and run towards the entrance, but before you could do anything it starts running towards you, screeching and screaming. Now wouldn¡¯t that be a frightening experience.¡± ¡°SIGH¡­ Now, that is something to look out for.¡± ¡°Yeah, it surely is.¡± ¡°Forget about that and tell me, what¡¯s next?¡± ¡°What do you mean what¡¯s next?¡± she said, ¡°Obliviously you are going implement the illusions on the second floor and create some amazing traps or something. Squash your brain, juice out your brain fluids and make, the floor, impregnable~¡± ¡°Now, you are going too far.¡± ¡°Yes I am, but you know, so what? Chill out a little. Have fun, go out and meet some girls or something, enjoy your life, don¡¯t just keep sitting on your hot seat the whole day.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know what you¡¯re saying, but let¡¯s start with the unlocked traps.¡± ¡°Yeah, let¡¯s roll.¡± ¡®Sigh¡­ she and her mood swings.¡¯ Moving on from their not so interesting daily life chattering, the option of buying illusion traps from the system got unlocked when planting a medium grade trap had led them to full fill the condition to complete a hidden quest and it rewarded them with the unlocking of illusion traps. Rocky wasn¡¯t in any kind of hurry to see what options it was going to bring to them because he hadn¡¯t forgotten the shocks which the other such products had brought. But the sighs which weren¡¯t stopping again came and after sighing for the nth time in a single day he finally assembled the guts together to open it.
Dungeon Interface
StoreStatus/Floor/Monster/Creation/Quest
FloorsPrice
4th4000DC + 100Mp
RESOURCES
CommonRareMagicalSpirit
MetalsSeedsSpellsElemental
CrystalsFurnitureSpell BooksVoid
TreesMana BatteriesMana stonesChaos
HerbsClothFungusForbidden Spells
PlantsAnimalsWeaponsSoul Secrets
ReptilesEatablesArmorsCOMPLETE GRIMOIRE
Human CurrencyMagic ResearchOther worldly MetalsLOCKED
SPECIALS
TRAPSTypesNamePrice
Illusion TrapsWall (For one wall of the room) Floor/Array (For one room) Monster (Creates the illusion of a monster) Biome (Illusion for the whole floor) Pit (Simple fake pit.) Sense Block (Remove 8 senses)200DC 800DC + 4 lesser mana stones 200DC + one Rank 1 monster 25000DC + 3levels + 4 normal mana stones 100DC 10000Dc + 1 great mana stone.
LOCKED (Unlocks after activating 10th floor.)
*PUfff* That was Minie¡¯s reaction, as for Rocky¡­ Silence. Chapter 35 - Shell Shocked Third Persons P.O.V:- The store changed, options increased, but that wasn¡¯t all. The changes which occurred this time were not just qualitative, but also quantitative. The store which once only had the function to show them property price, unlocked, and became a genuine wide range branded shop which held all the materials and items to fulfill anyone¡¯s desires. Now, to even call it something entirely different instead of just a simple upgrade or feature wouldn¡¯t be an exaggerating at all. The newly added features included the completely indexed options of all and everything that could be needed with the DLC addition of a new and complete Illusion Trap pack. ¡°WTF Minie! What the actual fuck!¡± ¡°Yeah, it totally got insane in the time we didn¡¯t take a look at it.¡± ¡°Insane? You call this insane? Where should I start my yammering from?¡± She snorted hearing him act like a chunni, and reprimanded him for trying to gather attention of all the people present. ¡°Just quickly get over your emotions. We have got work to do.¡± ¡°Fuck, this is amazing! This is too fucking Amazing! Who could have known¡­¡± Veins in the shape of a cross bulged over her forehead when his awareness didn¡¯t come back to reality, and he continued to exaggerate things like a year old kid. But he had also gotten quite sensible living with her and knew when to stop. ¡°Okay stop.¡± ¡°FUUU, alright. I am stopping, I have stopped, no I haven¡¯t actually, but I am trying though.¡± And sighed to her and asked him in a heavy tone of voice. Her mood was explicitly defined by that alone, so Rocky actually got serious. ¡°So what first.¡± ¡°Firstly, what the hell kind of a store is this? Why are there no prices and items listed on it?¡± She deeply looked at the crystal quivering in excitement, before she answered respectfully. ¡°MY idiot master; how long do you think the list would have been, if all the items and products weren¡¯t indexed like this?¡± ¡°Oh! So they all are indexed? Mean if I click on one of the options, then all of the items under it pop out in front of me, right?¡± ¡°Yes.¡± ¡°Alright then.¡± He said excitedly and she asked hurriedly, losing her calm collected demeanor in the process. ¡°Wh- What are you going to do?¡± But before she could complete her sentence, Rocky had already clicked on the one option which he eagerly wanted to look upon. Damn right, it was the Mana Stones, no, not the skills. Actually his vision got so clouded by the mana stones that he didn¡¯t even see anything else. The reason was simple. Firstly, there was a ghost warrior sitting stiff in his monster store, waiting to get bought, but his impudence to ask a mana stone in exchange wasn¡¯t a trifling matter at all. Moreover, even the newly added illusions traps were hungry for mana stones and refused to work before getting their stomach filled. So, because something simple thing like that had so many uses, waiting to be provide entertainment, then how could his attention not get grabbed by the charm of a multi colored, disco light wannabe stone. Though his eagerness was completely shown in his actions, and the ¡°Fu, Fu¡± sounds which he was continuously making wee also trouble, but his yell of rage and the stiff laugh from Minie which came after they saw the prices was also nothing short of a Perfectly timed tsukkomi by the Dungeon system. It was like the system was saying, ¡°Your time to laugh is over, it now my time. IT¡¯S SHOW TIME¡±
Dungeon Interface
StoreStatus/Floor/Monster/Creation/Quest
ObjectTypePriceAmount of Mana Stored
Mana stonelesser100DC10Mp
normal1000DC100Mp
GreatFive thousand Dc500 Mp
GreaterThirty Thousand Dc1500Mp
TopOne hundred thousand Dc10000 Mp
Extreme10 Million DC1 million Mp
Mana CrystalsLesser5 Million DCMana Reg (1000/hr)
High50 Million DcMana Reg (1000/hr)
Extreme10 Billion DcMana Reg (10/sec)
Mana stone dust???1Dc/kgAccelerate Mana stone formation.
Mana Crystal Dust???1000DC/GramIncidentally creates a Cluster of Lesser mana stones.
Mana stone shells???1DcUse Mana dust to accelerate mana regeneration.
¡°Oh boy.¡± ¡°Just that?¡± ¡°What more do you want me to say?¡± ¡°Nah, it¡¯s okay This much is okay. It¡¯s not like I¡¯m faring any better than you.¡± ¡°Alright then, what should we do now?¡± ¡°Well Minie, how much do we in our savings?¡± She pondered a little and then checked the amount on the interface before answering him. ¡°A little over 5000Dc, but Why are you asking?¡± And she tilted her little head in confusion, as her glossy green hair waved in the air scattering an aesthetic charm and indulging notion into the surrounding. Rocky kept on staring at her beautiful small oval face, which quite frankly bewildered Minie a little. ¡°Wha- what happened? Why are you staring at me like that?¡± ¡°No, nothing. Ahem¡­ I was just thinking of reviving the spirit monster. It needs a great mana stone right?¡± The conversation changed and so did the awkward mood, but new worries crept over their present. ¡°Yeah, it does, but¡­¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry I m not going to directly buy the stone form the system?¡± ¡°Then what? It¡¯s not like you can create them¡­?¡± ¡°¡­¡­¡± ¡°Don¡¯t tell me!¡± Her hands moved own their own and expressed her surprise with their fast and denying movements. But Rocky agreed with her and confirmed what she was trying to say. ¡°Yeah, we can¡¯t make them, as they take a lot of time to create, but what about refilling the used empty shells? That would work right?¡± ¡°Refilling them? Are you crazy?¡± she massaged her temple with her hands and whispered to herself, ¡°Though if it works, will save us a lot of hassle and credits, but still¡­?¡± And as if a ghost had suddenly appeared directly in front of her, Rocky spoke trying to assure her that they was nothing to lose in the first place, as atmost they could consider it a fail experiment and be done with the idea of artificially creating Mana stones. ¡°We won¡¯t gain anything without taking risks right? So let¡¯s just do it. All we need to do is to buy some empty mana stones, some fairy dust, put them in a mana rich environment and voila, our experiment will conduct itself on its own and we¡¯ll only have to check for results and if we somehow got lucky ten we¡¯ll get our own mana stone cave.¡± This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience. ¡°BUT¡­¡± ¡°Yes I understand that we¡¯ll have to preserve and hide it from the hungry humans, but other than that we won¡¯t have any other problem regarding that, right.¡± She literally stared at him for a minute when his reason finally broke the wall called fear in her heart and she lost the war of words. ¡°Sigh¡­ so you are not going to change your decision?¡± ¡°NOPE!¡± His happy playful voice was clearly telling how happy he was of his decision and his partner. ¡°Then do it. Just dig a deep hole somewhere and do whatever you want to do. But make sure you hide it like you are hiding your stash of por¡­ well, you probably understand what I want to say.¡± ¡°Yes, Madam. Cadet will fulfill and take all the necessary precautions to keep the secret safe.¡± ¡°Yare yare.¡± ¡°But how many mana stones should I buy?¡± ¡°It¡¯s only costs 1Dc for a single piece, so go loose and buy a hundred or two. We should take the experiment seriously right.¡± ¡°Okay.¡± Then he got to work and bought 300 Empty mana stone shells and ordered his ants to dig a deep hole in the corner of the second floor. But because the hole dug by the ants got too big and easy to notice, he abandoned it and instead ordered the ants to dig a hole in the ceiling. The ants climbed the walls and chomped down the ceiling like it was made of butter. They hallowed it and created a secret attic of sorts. Though the mana stones were also a type of stone, but there was a huge difference between both of them. Unlike most stones, all of the mana stones were smooth as a fine piece of jade and shimmering and giving out very faint light. They were slightly cold to touch, but had toughness exceeding even diamond. Rocky reluctantly placed his recently bought shells in the newly created treasure vault and then he sprinkled a Kg of mana dust over them and stuffed the dugout dirt and stones back into the hole. ¡°Minie, should I also reserve some of my mana for them?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know? Well, you can do that if you want after all mana stones need fresh supply of mana to grow~¡± ¡°Okay~ as you say then.¡± The question was generic and its answer was also easy so he quickly did his part and reserved his mana for a constant supply to the stones. Well, he would have been in quite a bind if his level hadn¡¯t grown after the recent human skirmish, but because it had, that is why he faced no problem and had enough mana to reserve 1-2 hundred for the stones. But he dint get impulsive and only reserved about 150 Mp for them and then they waited. Both of them had already accomplished a lot in a single day, killed a lot of people and wanted to rest, but before they could even get a snore out cry of the queen rang out in the cave. The cave shook and started vibrating and swaying like an earthquake had come to disperse its rage on them. ¡°Huh, what happened?¡± ¡°An intruder?¡± ¡°No, doesn¡¯t seem like it. Let¡¯s just go and check it out.¡± ¡°Okay.¡± Though her roar meant that something unusual had happened, but they didn¡¯t stress over it. After all it was the queen they were talking about, their ultimate defense mechanism who could take on Five B rankers aloe and make them submissive. So, they travelled hurriedly, but calmly to where the queen and the eggs were resting at. Yes, the eggs also got teleported to the new room with the queen like they were a part of her. They hurried there and got to her sooner than they thought they would, but surely what greeted them was a surprise in the least and definitely called for some celebrations. Yes, it impressed them. It was not a single thing though. No, it wasn¡¯t even a thing at all. There was a huge pile of broken egg and shells scattered everywhere, while a group of larvae were wriggling on the ground. Some were even trying to climb over the queen. Time had slowly but surely trickled through the gaps and before they knew a total of 8 hours had passed after they had bought their first batch of eggs from the system. When they saw that all of the eggs had hatched and all the larvae¡¯s were healthy, a beautiful smile transformed Minie¡¯s face into a flower garden full honey candies and mushy feelings. Their hearts got filled with love and a pink heart definitely formed behind the pair and sparkling dust shimmered around them, but ¡°No, mutation?¡± *CRACK* Yes, that was the sound of their floating pink heart cracking RIGHT in the middle when the larvae¡¯s roaming around showed no mutation or even a slight change of behavior. They all acted like a well trained circus party and wiggled around doing the Sha- Sha. ¡°Yeah, like I said there won¡¯t be any mutation or evolution until we by the evolution pack, which is a hope of the distant future. But if we really want to get there one day then we should buy the third now that we have the money. After all one more floor bought today leads to one less floor to buy tomorrow.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t mind, Minie, Don¡¯t mind. The money problem has already been taken care of. The mushrooms are enough to give us a high amount of Credits on their own. Though they take three days to grow, but isn¡¯t 10000Dc / 3 days an highly exaggerated amount of return they are giving. Moreover, think about it, every time we will harvest the mushrooms our dungeon will decent the dark abyss and al the sources of light will vanish. A dungeon which change its difficulty and setting every two days! Doesn¡¯t this hold a very nice ring to it?! Isn¡¯t this a great idea?¡± Rocky was systematically talking and was mostly talking to himself, but the stars in Minie¡¯s eye and her shiver of excitement plus the excited moans coming from her cherry soft lips were¡­ were¡­ ¡°GULP!¡± ¡°HAI, HAI. This is so~ great~ Ann~¡± *Shiver!* But ero atmosphere was like a flash of lightening which struck Rocky, but after that the clouds clouding over his sense other than his manliness dissipated and the same old Devil greeted him again. ¡°Yes it is, but you also know, money is not everything for a dungeon, especially you. You also need to grow strong and expand your mana pool.¡± ¡°Yes, yes. Kill humans and grow levels. I know, but when will they the adventurers come?¡± Silence prevailed over the universe before the occurrence of Big Bang and the same silence was now engulfing them both, as they reminisced and longed for the day when their life would start and the action packed drama of relations and emotions would unfold in front of them. Chapter 36 - 2nd Floor This is one of those chapters, which comes in one of those days. I hope you all understand. . Enjoy. ...................................................................................................................................... Third Persons P.O.V:- ¡°The humans that escaped our dungeon should have already gone home right? Then they must have told their supervisors or whatever about our dungeon, and then they should be coming, right?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t care if they come or not. I just hope that they won¡¯t come before these larvae grow up. Then we¡¯ll at least have the means to fill our rooms, defend our home and also welcome those pests and entertain them with some monsters.¡± ¡°Yeah, so it will be great if they don¡¯t come for another day or two.¡± Minie and rocky continued to talk about what to do and how to keep their lives safe and after an intense discussion they came to the decision to modify their floors with some traps. ¡°Well, whatever, let¡¯s at least create some pitfalls and spike traps on the second floor.¡± Though they came to the decision of adding traps, but according to Minie, they actually had no need to do it. ¡°Oh! That! Actually the thing is, me and the ants have already completed the traps beforehand. SO there is no need to do anything about them.¡± ¡°Wait What?! What do you mean?¡± ¡°Remember I said I have ordered the workers to Dig the floor, according to your design?¡± ¡°Yes?¡± ¡°At that time I had already ordered the workers to dig at specific places and created the pits, so the traps are already ready and roaring.¡± ¡°What? Really? Then explain what did you do?¡± ¡°Well, nothing much~ we just created deep pits in the tunnels, decreased the visibility, and we are just waiting for you to talk about it, so that we could install spikes inside those pits.¡± ¡°Okay then lets go.¡± Then Rocy followed behind her to see how many and what kind of traps she had installed. But she didn¡¯t create the floor user friendly. All the tunnels had a pit at the entrance. All the pits had spikes and all the spikes were sharper than swords. Though rocky Fulfilled her wishes and created spikes inside those holes in the floor, but he was already sweating. Why? Because he didn¡¯t even want to think about the kind of crap she might have pulled inside the tunnel when even the entrances were riddled with traps. ¡°Okay. Firstly, let¡¯s change the tunnels on the left side.¡± ¡°Huh, what should I do?¡± It was a simple question and the answer she gave was also simple, but was it actually so? ¡°Create spikes?¡± Sweetly she said. ¡°Okay, but where are the pits?¡± ¡°OH! No, no. Not in the pits, but everywhere.¡± ¡°Where?¡± ¡°Everywhere, create extremely sharp spikes coming out of all the walls, the roofs and even on the floors. Just don¡¯t overdo it okay.¡± ¡°You- aren¡¯t you going a little, no, too overboard here? I mean, it is still the second floor right? What are the humans going to think if they saw something like this on the second floor?¡± She gave a hollow laugh and said, ¡°Oh don¡¯t worry. It just fits best with the new design that¡¯s all.¡± ¡°New design? What new design?¡± ¡°I mean now that we have secured a way to gain a lot of credits without making the humans stay inside for longer duration or by torturing them. I mean that is just chump change in front of our real source of income. SO I changed the idea little.¡± ¡°You¡­!!¡± ¡°NO, no listen first, then get hard on me¡­ NO, no just listen first and don¡¯t fire that thing here. I said don¡¯t, no That will¡­ AH! Thank you for not obliterating me, now..¡± ¡°Just explain and I also understand that the idea about confusing the humans would only lead to harsh reviews from the humans and nothing more, SO what does your change bring to our dungeon. And our reputation.¡± ¡°See, firstly, I turned all of the dead ends into possible corridors that connects with the main tunnel.¡± She stopped to see his reactions, but Rocky didn¡¯t find this much a headache. ¡°GO ON¡­ Ahem, Go on I¡¯m listening.¡± ¡°Phew, Okay, next all the tunnels are designed to have a set difficulty which we¡¯ll tell the invaders about before they enters the tunnels.¡± ¡°Minie, what are you saying it¡¯s going over my head.¡± ¡°NO, no, just listen. What I mean to say is that all the invaders will have Five routes to choose from. First is the Longest Route with the lowest difficulty.¡± ¡°Now, What does that even mean?¡± ¡°It means, this route will be long, but as you know we still haven¡¯t unlocked the extra options therefore it¡¯s still difficult to create a separate world inside our dungeon, but¡­¡± ¡°Wait, wait, wait, what did you say? A separate world?¡± ¡°Oh! Forget about that for now. That is too out of our reach for now. This floor you could call it a Beta version of the real deal. Because the real deal is too awesome.¡± ¡°Too weird I¡¯d say, too weird. Oka what then?¡± ¡°You see the last tunnel which you said is just a circle around the dungeon to waste the invaders time, well I changed it a bit. He nodded his head to tell her to carry on with the explanations and that¡¯s what she did. ¡°I am thinking of using it to create the long but easy route. All we have to do is to completely pack it with Spikes and that¡¯s al. The 5Km length of the tunnel and the spike will make anyone going through it to waste a lot of their time. Moreover, because the walls of a dungeon are not breakable, therefore the spikes will become unbreakable too. Then the tunnel will converge and connect with the original tunnel which was supposed to be a straight and the only path to our room.¡± ¡°You are playing with fire here you know.¡± ¡°Relax~ This plan of mine will work great. Those humans love adventure after all. We could like start giving them rewards for covering the distance in a record time or something. Not only will that increase our reputation, but will also make them reckless and they will probably die in there because of their recklessness.¡± ¡°Okay, I understand. Then what¡¯s next?¡± ¡°Next is the short but hard route. This will also have the Spikes covering its from everywhere, but we¡¯ll also put some pits and illusory monsters as well as real monsters inside to make the route extremely dangerous, but also short, about a Km long.¡± ¡°But that was the length of the original¡­¡± ¡°But the humans don¡¯t know that, do they?¡± ¡°Haha, you mischievous little devil. Now, you are again showing your colors aren¡¯t you?¡± ¡°I am doing WHAT?¡± ¡°I mean you are again giving it your all to protect me,¡­ haha.¡± ¡°Yeah, right. Well, next is the Long but Hard tunnel.¡± A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. ¡°But we don¡¯t have another long tunnel?¡± ¡°But the humans don¡¯t know that. All we need to do is to use some kind of an illusion and make the first spike terrain tunnel look a bit different from the other one. We could always make some kind of a Trap mechanism which would only work if one entered from that route and the monsters and whatnots will be given as an extra to spice things up for those who think they can Go against our dungeon.¡± ¡°Next.¡± ¡°Next is the short but easy path.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t tell me there is a short but difficult path too!¡± ¡°Oh, how did you know?¡± *Sigh* ¡°Just let it be. So what¡¯s so great about this route? Should I create spikes in it too? ¡°No, there is no need for that. This one won¡¯t have any spikes.¡± ¡°Thank god, otherwise the humans would have started calling us a porcupine dungeon.¡± ¡°Haaha, very funny. Though this route will not have any Spike, but will contain a 500 meter deep and 1km long pit. A trench I suppose..¡± ¡°And?¡± ¡°What? It will have just that and noting else. Just a pit and it will be upto the humans how they choose to cover the distance.¡± ¡°But won¡¯t they just jump down or use ropes or something to jump down into the pit and then climb up from the other side?¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry didn¡¯t the resource corner just open?¡± ¡°Yes? Then buy some lava wont you?¡± ¡°What we can buy that kind of things there?¡± ¡°Yes, although we can, but it will cool down after some time.¡± ¡°Then what use would that be to us?¡± ¡°That is why I want to quickly unlock the 10th floor, then we¡¯ll be able to buy elemental floors and what not¡¯s and those will be a lot better.¡± ¡°Whatever, so what do you want to do until then. I mean we can¡¯t use lava after all.¡± ¡°Until then lither them with spikes?¡± ¡°Huh, here comes the spike. Why do you love the spikes so much?¡± ¡°You! Do you have any problem with that?¡± ¡°NO~pe.¡± ¡°Then just do what I tell you too.¡± ¡°Okay, okay, my queen so tell me what do you have in mind for the last tunnel in your hell series. Oh, there is also the one in center.¡± ¡°What about it?¡± ¡°What do your mean what about it? Do something about it too?¡± ¡°SO you liked my idea~¡± She looked at him with starry eyes an clapped hands. A true heroic spirit, she showed. ¡°Well, yeah~¡± ¡°Then do whatever you want to do with it. I am done here. Just don¡¯t forget to complete your side of the work alright.¡± ¡°Hey, where are you going? Hey Minie? Don¡¯t fly away? And what¡¯s with that cheesy smile. I said stop~!¡± Like anyone could have guessed she flew away, waving her hands and giggling in a cute voice, she flew away and left him with a ton of work on his hands. ¡°Sigh¡­ whatever lets just complete the work.¡± He started doing what she had told him and went over the plan. First, he completed the long and easiest tunnel and made it full of spikes just like she wanted. Though he left some places for the humans to place their steps, but most of the route was completely packed with the spikes. A completely incomprehensible route it became. Though he wasn¡¯t aiming for such, but his curiosity won over him and he created something that only the most flexible of persons would be able to traverse through. Then to complete the long but hard route he used some ¡®floor illusions¡¯ and completely made the spikes go invisible and sacrificed one of the larvae¡¯s to create an Illusory Queen there. At the time he didn¡¯t know, but the future of his dungeon changed right there. Then he re-mapped the short but difficult path and after growing spikes from the walls and the ceiling, he ordered some ants to take place inside. He once again used the illusion trap, but this time a normal wall illusion was used and instead of doing something exaggerated, he just changed the Ants shape to look like the spikes. He re-used his idea of using fog and created his personal favorite head snapper inside that route. The short and easy route as the easiest to make as he only had to order the Ants to dig a pit, but he knew that if he had left the work to normal ants then it would have taken him a considerable amount of time to complete, therefore he bought two more buff workers from the system. One of them turned out to be a level 45 rank 1 powerhouse while the other was only a level 10 one, but he knew how powerful a single one of them really was, so he was quite happy with his decision. He went with the flow and bought another 30 eggs to increase the monster count of their dungeon, while the queen gave birth to another egg. He counted and came to know that now he was now controlling, 3Buff workers, 7 workers, 29 larvae and 31 eggs, giving him 70 monsters to order around. ¡°Oh I forgot bout the queen. 71 monsters it is.¡± He then opened his dungeon status panel to check his status and felt quite happy with it. Though it took very little time to know about his progress, but it took him 6 hours to complete the work and the larvae were getting ready to jump up and turn into a fully fledged fighting force. Buying 2 Buff workers, 31 Eggs took 1100Dc and reserved 300of his Mana, then using the illusions, which included one wall and one floor illusion costed him about 1200Dc + 4 lesser mana stones which amounted to about 400Dc more. And when the total came out he again felt like a beggar.
Dungeon Interface
StatusFloors, Monsters, Store,Creation,Quests
NameThe cave of MiseryTypeInsect
Floors2Total no of Monsters40(71)
Rooms/floor2(7)Total no of invaders0
---
Reserved Mana: (1280/1324)
Dungeon(Floors/Rooms)200+50+40Monsters590
Resources250+150upgrades0
---
Dungeon Currency2496ReputationGood (+138)
DC Inc.0/dayMana Reg.20/hr
Though he was being pessimistic about the values shown on the screen, while nodding his head his vision fell on something and his head furiously stopped in the middle of nodding and he yelled. ¡°Minie! Who the hell named us the cave of misery?¡± Chapter 37 - Beauty and the Beast 2/4 Chapters done for the week. Meet you on Thursday. . Enjoy. ......................................................................................................................................... Thirds Person''s P.O.V:- ¡°Minie! Who the hell named us the cave of misery?¡± ¡°HUH! What?¡± ¡°I am asking you who the hell named us The cave of misery?¡± ¡°WHAT?! WHEN, HOW, WHERE IS IT?¡± ¡°How would I know where it is? Just think, no, just tell me who or how is a dungeon¡¯s name decided?¡± ¡°IT is¡­¡± ¡°Yes!!¡± ¡°It is decided by the invaders, or should I say¡­ some kind of the characteristic of the dungeon which sticks in everyone¡¯s mind and it¡­ automatically changes.¡± ¡°You mean, we don¡¯t select it?¡± ¡°I¡¯m sorry, but we don¡¯t?¡± ¡°Sigh¡­ Damn.¡± ¡°But it is alright, isn¡¯t it. If you think about it, the first human party also talked about how difficult your design of the first floor was and now the second floor that you have constructed and went overboard on¡­¡± ¡°I went overboard? It was your changes which went overboard, not me following your orders.¡± ¡°Hah, dear, you did. You know, who told you to create such dreadful traps and what is with those invisible ants inside the tunnel full of spikes and deep pits. And why were the sharpest spike created inside the pit of the short and easiest route and don¡¯t forget you placed two, not one, but two of the newly bought buff workers as the guardian at the converging point of the tunnels. Just tell me are you trying to kill any and everyone who enters the dungeon?¡± *Guck* ¡°Now what kind of a sound is that?¡± ¡°You know when something gets stuck in your throat and¡­¡± ¡°Just¡­ sigh¡­¡± ¡°I understand.¡± ¡°Yes, we have a lot of work to do.¡± The same line and the same attitude, but the words spoken by Minie still felt a little disoriented to Rocky. ¡°What else do owe have to do now?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know, let¡¯s see; Mana stones?¡± ¡°Check.¡± ¡°Monsters?¡± ¡°Check~¡± ¡°Mushrooms, second floor, illusions?¡± ¡°C.H.E.C.K~¡± ¡°Third floor?¡± ¡°¡­..silence¡­..¡± ¡®Oh shit.¡¯ Yes, even though Minie wanted to get one step closer to their goal of locking and popping THE STORE, but he didn¡¯t do it and instead bought some monsters. Though they needed them very much. ¡°I said third floor?¡± *~Wistles~* ¡°You¡­ what happened?!¡± Though she wasn¡¯t furious and was also not breathing fire out, he still did what any sane man would have done in the same situation. No, he didn¡¯t lie to her and instead told her the truth, of course he applied some butter to his words before serving them. ¡°I sent all of the money on buying eggs and the buff workers.¡± ¡°Again?¡± ¡°I mean, who knows how many humans will come to attack us this time? It¡¯s just for the insurance afterall in another half an hour the first batch of larvae¡¯s will turn into ant workers and the newly bought eggs will hatch too. Then at that time we¡¯ll at least have a horde of monsters to defend ourselves.¡± She looked at him and sighed before speaking, holding her neck, while shaking her head left to right. ¡°I just hope that more humans like those impulsive thieves will come.¡± ¡°Yeah, we can hope so.¡± It was 2 past midnight and there were fifteen more minutes left before the eggs would have hatched. Both Minie and Rocky were waiting for the them to hit 8 hours, but before they could celebrate their birth with something from the store and before the eggs could hatch, another warning message rang out in the room. [table=red]~WARNING~ INTRUDERS ALERT!![/table] They both chocked when suddenly the red message box covered their sights and the warning alarm rang out in the cave. ¡°What now, who is attacking us so late in the night? Just let us sleep, damn it.¡± ¡°AH! Like you sleep, you insomniac!¡± ¡°Talk about yourself, you little devil!¡± ¡°Okay, okay, let¡¯s just see who had the balls to attack us so dead in the night.¡± Then Minie fiddled with her side of the dungeon interface and a clear image of the scenes happening at the entrance played on it. Surprisingly, they were even able to hear the voice this time. ¡°Minie, how¡­¡± ¡°Shh, this is because one of the ants was patrolling in the area near the entrance, so we are able to hear what he hears, that¡¯s all.¡± The scene played and they saw five huge white light Wolves playing with a shadow wolf. No, they weren¡¯t actually playing, what they were doing could only be described as bullying him. The wolves were pure white, and their silvery hairs were shining in the moonshine. They were muscular like an ox, and their colored eyes had nothing but contempt for their plaything. Their countenance under the moonlight looked mesmerizing, while the Shadow wolf cub whom they were playing with was slowly backing toward the hole on the surface. Though they still hadn¡¯t entered the dungeon, but maybe because the entrance could be called a part of the dungeon, therefore the warning signal rang in and Minie and Rocky were informed about the intrusion, even though the wolves were still outside the gate. The light wolves barked at the cub and it covered and backed away a little more toward the hole, as fear took over him and he started crying. ¡°WOFF¡± ¡°WOFF¡± *Howl* And one of them sliced his sharp nails at the cub. As the rank one wolf¡¯s paw touched the cub, it flew into the air and cried out in pain. ¡°YELP, YELP.¡± The momentum and inertia from the hit lifted him from the ground and took him, as he fell into the hole. The wolves brows flinched when they saw their toy falling into the glowing blue hole. Though there was some pressure coming from inside the hole, which they felt cause of their animal instincts, but it wasn¡¯t anywhere enough to scare them. They looked at each other and though the pressure wasn¡¯t anything strong enough to scare them, but they decided to not dive down into the seemingly unknown and the menacing looking hole just for a little brat. Though they felt that it was a loss to lose such a cute little toy suddenly, but they still decided against their urges and started backing up. They walked 10 steps backwards while keeping their eyes on the ole, but as two of them turned one of the wolves ran towards the hole wanting to jump inside and eat the little thing. His greedy eyes and hungry look was enough to show his displeasure by the way his brother had acted, but he wanted to taste that cubs blood once before going back home for some love making. This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there. *Warf* He ran and ran faster than ever, but just before he could jump into the hole his big brother barked at him. The bark had enough strength to bind him and his feet from moving. It wasn¡¯t a simple bark after all, the wolf he called his big brother was the commander of their forces and as one of the ten commanders under the Alpha male he had the skill ¡°Commandment¡± which could easily kill one of the soldiers working under him, much less stopping their movements. He felt extremely gracious that the power used in the skill wasn¡¯t strong enough to kill and only to paralyze him for a second. But it was enough, the second was enough to show his Brother¡¯s intent. As saliva dripped out of his mouth, the two wolves a size bigger than his Ox size body, started walking back and even though he wanted to jump inside the hole, he controlled and controlled his urges and ran back to them, with his head held low. Rocky looked at their behavior and sighed. ¡®If only they had entered.¡¯ He thought. ¡®Then I could have increased my level to 60 at the least. Well, whatever.¡¯ He reminisced about the delicious prey which had run away just before getting into his mandibles. ¡°Okay then Minie, tell the ant to kill the cub and hurry up; the larvae are going to evolve soon.¡± But no reply came. He thought maybe she didn¡¯t hear and repeated the same lines again, but again, nothing. His nonexistent brows flinched as he thought about the unusual behavior from a chatterbox like her. She didn¡¯t reply to him. He wanted to see what happened and When he did turn around to look at her, what he saw frightened him to his very core. His soul shook and he felt like the blob from his dream had come out to haunt him. The face, which Minie was making was enough to create a new kind of dread in his heart. No, the face she was making wasn¡¯t scary at all, it was the opposite of it. It was too cute and he got scared that he may never get to see that kind of an expression on her face again. Those puppy eyes, those shivering lips and her tightly clenched fists were first of its kind and were the first time that she was showing such pure emotion for something, no someone. But he was sad too because those expressions weren¡¯t being given to him. Because he didn¡¯t want to break the mood and turn her against himself, he didn¡¯t stop her, but he couldn¡¯t refrain himself from asking her. ¡°Minie, what happened?¡± The voice he asked in was so low that it was almost like he was whispering to her, but Minie¡¯s small and petite body shook like he had screamed into her ears. She turned her head towards him and while glaring at him with those glittery, shiny eyes, she pointed at the cub on the screen and spoke in a crying voice. ¡°Sa-ve..*sniff* hi¡­m.¡± And rocky felt like an explosion had happened in his mind as he hurriedly shifted his presence to the entrance and looked for the ant who was spying on the wolves. He quickly controlled the ant and made it run faster than lightning. The ant surely followed the command and ran like it was running away from something and quickly flew through the narrow tunnel like a bullet, as it dived into the pool of water and dived deep to fetch the cub out. It looked to the left and then to the right, but it couldn¡¯t find the cub. The tension that Rocky felt at that time was a few folds more than what he had felt at the time of his first invasion. He vigorously searched for the cub and thanks to God, the blue light from the mushrooms was overpowering at the bottom as it glowed like magic down there, he finally found him. Rocky found the cub lying unconsciously near a cluster of mushrooms. He roared and made the ant move and hurriedly brought the cub out of water. He made the ant place it on the ground, but because of his tensed mind, the ant threw it out onto the floor. The cub flew and struck the ground and boy did he struck hard. AT first he couldn¡¯t understand what had happened, but then a shriek came out of his mouth and he cried out. Because clearly he shouldn¡¯t have done that. But the ant¡¯s crude movements plus his anxiety had made the ant to throw it out directly onto the floor. The cub flew and collided stomach first with the floor. And rocky could promise that he heard the wails of a ghost cry coming from deep inside the dungeon and one of the mysteries regarding their dungeon was solved right there. ¡®So that is why our dungeon was named as the cave of misery.¡¯ he thought, but didn¡¯t voice it out. But the situation wasn¡¯t over yet. He felt Minie coming towards him, flying through the corridors with a never before seen speed and not just him even the ant trembled. The ant surely felt the aura of danger coming directly from inside the tunnel as it shook away Rocky''s control and dived deep into the pool of water. Rocky wasn¡¯t faring good himself, he also tried to find a good spot to hide, but then he thought. ¡®Let¡¯s just see what happens. It was the result of his incompetence after all.¡¯ Minie came crying out of the tunnel, screaming ¡°NOOOOO!¡± as she dropped out of her flight and directly fell on the cub. She skidded on the ground after her little impact, but without caring for her well being, scrapped knee and elbows, she looked back and saw the cub unconscious and sleeping on the hard floor with his tongue out of his mouth and he surely wasn¡¯t breathing. Her crying became even louder as she started walking towards him on her knees saying, ¡°Why, did you die, why, why?¡± Rocky who was looking at the drama couldn¡¯t get his thoughts straight and the only thoughts that came to his mind were. ¡°What the fuck is happening down there.¡± Minie, walked on her knees to the cub and started hammering her small hands on his chest, while screaming, ¡±why, why?¡± She hammered the hell out of his chest for about four seconds and the cub couldn¡¯t take her beating anymore, as on the fifth second before she could hit his chest again, it vomited out the water that it had Engulfed. He didn¡¯t just vomit the water out, but it poured it directly on Minie, drenching her with his gastric juices and all the shit that he had eaten. ...................................................................................................................................... Question to the readers. 1. Are wolves kids called cubs? 2. Is using the word Wolves right? 3. Do wolves bark? Chapter 38 - That cub got scammed. A sick authors note:- sorry for the news but the next chapter might come on Saturday and not tomorrow. well, anyways . Enjoy ............................................................................................................................. Third Persons P.O.V:- There that cub vomited all the shit out of his stomach and here Rocky started backing up, afraid to see the carnage that Minie would bring upon that cute little pup. But unlike what he thought, he didn¡¯t actually have to move or go anywhere as the proof of that cub being alive was enough to bring tears to Minie¡¯s eyes. She didn¡¯t care about that pups fading conscious and tightly hugged him. Though her body was already small and her arms were even smaller, but the neck she was hugging started emitting pop sounds, as if his bones had started breaking under pressure. But her crying didn¡¯t stop and neither did she remove her neck hold. ¡°Oh! You are fine, you are fine. I thought you were dead and I was going to kill that ant and that useless master for his incompetence.¡± *Sniff* *Tuck* *Tick* Tuck* ¡°AHH¡­ I am so happy~ Don¡¯t die on me. Okay, don¡¯t you ever leave me alone!¡± She was going to continue her happy song while strangling the poor cub to death, when Rocky barged into her open mind. ¡°You should stop now. I don¡¯t care about your thoughts about wanting to kill me, just let go of his neck before He dies. Oh! He is foaming already, just let go of him~¡± She flinched when she heard that her actions were killing the cub faster than him drowning in that beautiful blue pool. She subconsciously tightened her hold, but before the cub could really go to heaven, she removed her chock hold and looked at the foaming puppy with her glittering puppy eyes, while drops of tears strained her green little skirt. ¡°Oh sorry, I- I dint mean to hur- hurt you!¡± But the cub didn¡¯t show any indication of being angry at her, nor did he open his mouth to show her how white his teeth were. He acted like the cute little fellow he was and bit her hand. Yes, the same hand which she used to strangle him with. He nibbled at her hand, but unlike the scared Dungeon master who was furiously trying to connect with Minie to cool her mind down, scared that she would somehow end up rocking the cub out of life, his source of tension Minie, remained calm and collected, moreover, instead of crying and cursing at him, the words which she spoke weren¡¯t lesser than words any mother would have said at such a time to her scared child. She smiled meekly and said, ¡°Are you okay my child? Ah! Does it hurt any where?¡± The amount of worry in her eye and care in her words were something that even Rocky never got from her and surely jealousy did follow from his side, but it wasn¡¯t anything competitive. The other side was a wolf after all, not even an adult at that. ¡°Can you speak? Please tell us what happened why were you dragged, no, was it pushed?...¡± ¡°Idiot fairy. I was hit not pushed yo.¡± *Painful Howl* ¡°¡­¡­..¡± ¡®The fuck.¡¯ It was the first time in the life of Dungeon master Rock that he attained the Realm of one with his face. His face was clearly projecting his thoughts out like there was no need for him to speak anything. Everything was understandable from his expressions alone. ¡°Rocky give me a greater regeneration potion; I think he is hurt.¡± But like expected no response came from his side. ¡°Cough out the potion already or do you want to see him die?¡± ¡°But how did he¡­¡± ¡°Speak?¡± ¡°Yes.¡± ¡°That he didn¡¯t. Our dungeon system just translated his barks into understandable language. Just for us though, if there was anyone else here, then he would only be hearing his barks and angry howls, but forget about that and give me a potion now, would you? Can¡¯t you see he is in pain?¡± ¡®Oh fuck me, he is in pain!¡¯ The headache which Rocky was anticipating didn¡¯t come and instead a self induced worry took over his heart. ¡®Just how many functions does the dungeon system have? No, the question should be; do I even know about the system at all?¡¯ It really wasn¡¯t a joke. Minie wasn¡¯t making it clear the kind of functions The system really had, though some of them, like this translation system weren¡¯t of any use to him anyways. ¡®All I want is not to get chocked every time something new is bought out. I mean why am I the only one who has to face the suspense every time? She is taking wrong profits of the authorities provided to her. Damn I have to think of some way to surprise her, or she will get conceited of her victories. If she has the knowhow of the system, then I have my skills. I will choke her and blast her mind using them.¡± ¡°Okay, I acknowledge your sacrifice and thoughts and I¡¯ll wait for the time when you will harass me with your tricks, but right now is not the time. Now, are you giving me the potion or should I buy it from the store?¡± Steam hissed from his crystal heart. Shame filled the cracks inside his heart. He knew that she was always listening to him, but he forgot about it and he also understood that she would probably tease him using the bullet that he had himself gift wrapped and presented to her on a silver platter. With his mood lifted and him flying at elevated heights there was no way he was going to come back to the ground anytime soon, but there was a devil waiting for him right underneath him, a devil whose duty was to burst his dreams and to stop him from flying away from her clutches. ¡°Ah! Sorry let me open the inventor and get the potion; a greater healing potion is it? Here it is, please take it, please.¡± ¡°FUUFuu. Give it here, haaha.¡± ¡°Yes, yes, my princess, here catch.¡± Here Minie was laughing at Rocky from him suddenly turning obedient and there the wolf kid tilted his head in confusion thinking, ¡®what the hell are yo laughing at yo?¡¯ Well, he didn¡¯t know that there were two monsters- people- child eate¡­ Ahem, not one but two of such rascals who had their eyes on him. So it was actually good that he was confused and didn¡¯t know the truths. That cub looked at the little fairy and she was caring like his mother, cuter than the best girl in his tribe. Though he didn¡¯t know who saved him, but looking at the angel standing in front of him was there even any need to know the answer to such a stupid question. It was at that moment that he forgot everything, his mind blanked and he did what his tribe named as the biggest honor which a shadow wolf could give to anyone. He imprinted on her. It was just a moment of lapse in his memory and when he came to be, his sight travelled towards the ceiling and he saw something shiny dropping from absolutely nowhere. He first thought that his angel didn¡¯t know about that something dropping from right above her head, but then he she her looking right at it and his thoughts were disregarded. He then thought of catching whatever that was in order to thank her for saving him. ¡®Gosh, I am an idiot, yo. How the hell did I forget to thank her, when she was the one who saved my life, yo? I am such an idiot yo.¡¯ His face which was covered behind a think pile of wet hairs started burning like he was in love. Maybe he actually was. *AYOO* He got up, but staggered as his front legs were badly mangled and bent out of shape. He didn¡¯t notice it before, but now that he did, pain coursed through his body and a hopeless cry with shivers of embarrassment came out of his throat in the form of a jiggered, hoarse voice. Minie caught the flask with both of her hands. It was heavier than her body after all, and she flew towards him, balancing the flask by working against gravity, it took her a full minute to get to him and by the time she did, the cub had already cried the shit out of his tear glands. He was still a cub; therefore he couldn¡¯t handle the pain like a mature adult would have. He didn¡¯t know, but other than his broken legs he also had three deep gashes on his face. The wounds were deep and long and they covered most of his face and extended up to his chest. Though the nails scratches were deep, but they were not deep enough to endanger his life. The cub was lucky that he got pushed and fell into the hole otherwise; even he could understand the risk involved. Minie opened the flask and poured some of it on his scratch marks and then went forward to pour the rest into his mouth, but he didn¡¯t obey and tried to bite his way out, but she didn¡¯t let him. Note: No amount of force was used to tame that cub. ¡°This will help you, don¡¯t worry. See the wounds on your face and chest are already healing; just drink this it will help you get through the pain.¡± She spoke with a smile and for the cub who was recently played by the elders of his own race, her smile was godly. He forgot his pain, but he couldn¡¯t stay standing anymore and dropped onto the floor. He didn¡¯t cry in pain, but his tears were enough to tell how his state of mind was. The rest was simple, Minie made him drink that whole flask of glittery, slimy unusually red potion which the cub could only drink, even though he chocked two times on it and when he thought the worst was over; Minie got him a lesser regeneration potion and made him drink that too. He had too many questions; like, where he was, who that cute little fairy was, where did those big bad wolves go? He also wanted to thank her for saving his life, but his shy nature and that natural coltish look from Minie only made him embarrassed and nothing more. ¡°Hey, little wolf, how are you feeling now? I think those two potions should have been enough to take care of your broken legs, if not then we still have more potions for you, so don¡¯t¡­¡± When he heard that there were more potions waiting in line to depress his mood, he hurriedly stood up on his all fours and started running around her showing that he was fit and fine. This narrative has been purloined without the author''s approval. Report any appearances on Amazon. ¡°Woo woo.¡± She looked at him trying to impress her with his performance, and she couldn¡¯t help but tear up at his actions and praised him for his ability to recover so rapidly. ¡°Oh! You are so strong eh~ I thought you would take a long time to recover, but my eyes were right, you are a great wolf after all.¡± *Howl* But the thing was, she could clearly see the pain which he was trying to cover and the tears which were welling up in his eyes, but his actions really won her heart and she couldn¡¯t help herself. The cub stopped and pounced on her, but she didn¡¯t move. She fell on the ground and he started licking her from the top. One swipe of his tongue and she got covered in a think dose of saliva, second swipe and she was almost got taken inside his mouth. Here they were playing with each other, licking and whatnot, and there steam was rising from Rocky¡¯s crystal heart. Jealous he was of the liberties which that unknown life form was taking with his Minie. He wanted to directly go there and snatch her away from his clutches, but watching that she wasn¡¯t getting offended from him getting so touchy with her sure made him hate that puny dog like thing a little. Even though there gathered some hate for him, but how could he have taken that smile away from her, when it was the first time when he was seeing her laugh so naturally. But his heart did get burn in the end, because she was laughing crazily, but with someone else and not with him. Because she was having fun with someone else, moreover, he was made to see that. He was going to shriek in Minie¡¯s mind but before he could Minie got serious and their play time was over. ¡°This much is enough I think. Now tell me, what the hell happened to you?¡± ¡°Huh??¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry; we can understand you so tell us from the start. Why were those Light wolves following, no, playing with you?¡± ¡°You can understand me?¡± The cub ¡®woofed¡¯ and ¡®howled¡¯ but his unusual chatter got instantly translated for Minie and Rocky to understand. ¡°Yes, we can understand you. Wait a minute, do you even know where you are?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know, after my home got burnt in fire¡­¡± *Sniff* *Howl* ¡°AOOO~ Aoooo~ Aoooooooooo~¡± Thick blood tears rolled down from his eyes as he thought about what had perspired. He cried for whole ten minutes before Minie went over, hugged him and started patting his head to calm him down. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, don¡¯t worry, we are here for you. It¡¯s okay if you don¡¯t want to talk about it, but please don¡¯t cry~!¡± The cub snuggled around her arms before he barked to say that he was alright. ¡°Are you okay now?¡± ¡°Yes. Let¡¯s continue yo.¡± ¡°Hah, It¡¯s okay if you don¡¯t want to though.¡± Their mother, son like behavior annoyed Rocky, but he didn¡¯t interfere between them, after all it was the first time someone had come inside their dungeon from the outside world. He was also excited to expand his horizons. ¡°The thing is some nights ago our shadow family found two humans alone trespassing through our territory carrying another injured human.¡± And Rocky chocked. Though Minie didn¡¯t flinch at all at his one liner, but she got scared too because it was easy, the turns of his story. When The cub saw that even after calling her, his bride to be didn¡¯t respond back to him, he shook her head with his paw and she woke up. ¡°Yes?¡± ¡°Are you alright yo?¡± ¡°Ah~ No, are you alright?¡± His big black eyes became glittery but he still spoke though his mood got low to say anything anymore, but he continued. ¡°When my elders saw such a delicious looking meal walking through the forest in the dead of night, they couldn¡¯t stop themselves yo, and they followed them yo.¡± ¡°They followed the meal till they arrived at the absolute centre of the forest yo, and then attacked them from all of the side yo, but who knew that those humans were vigilant all along yo, and one of them started burning down the forest yo, our home yo, to leave alive that human burned the forest...¡± *Sniff* ¡°But my elders didn¡¯t get disheartened cause of that yo, though many of my brothers and sisters got burnt by that hot fire, my parents and elders collaborated to tank them from the front and the back yo, but , but,¡­¡± ¡°Your whole family couldn¡¯t kill three no two puny injured humans?¡± The cub looked at her with his red hate filled eyes, but he easily controlled his emotions because he understood that she wasn¡¯t the one who had killed his whole tribe. As his rising temper calmed, the story also came to an end. ¡°No, they, we couldn¡¯t kill them yo. The fire human did something and the whole forest around her caught fire. Though the fire wasn¡¯t strong enough to kill the really strong member of my family yo, but, but everyone else yo, everyone else burnt to death and those humans ran away yo. My elders tried to save some of my younger brothers from the fire but those damned Light Wolves chanced upon the moment and killed the rest of them and I , I ¡­¡± She hugged him again and even tighter this time to calm him down. She could feel his pain. She knew how it feels to lose someone. She also knew how it feels to be left all alone. Her hug got tighter and tighter, as her pearl like tears drowned her face and both of them took care of each other while crying. ¡°Shh¡­ don¡¯t worry, no one can harm you here, if you stay with us forget about those light wolves even humans wouldn¡¯t be able to harm you. Say would you like to stay here with me?¡± Rocky could only wiggle out his desperation because he knew that there was no way she would listen to him. ¡®Just what¡¯s up with her? Being scared of insects and saying that she loves this hair ball.¡¯ He was thinking to himself, but once again the fake Mary Stuart of fairy world hacked into his mind and started reasoning with him. She was righ. Because of his mistake Insects was chosen as their dungeon type, but she sacrificed her sleep to get accustomed to them, now it was his time to sacrifice. No, he didn¡¯t actually need to sacrifice anything for her. It was not like he was scared of wolves or anything, he was just jealous of him. When their talk ended the wolf who was still looking stunned at Minie thinking about the offer presented to him, thinking about his dead tribe, thinking about the danger outside, thinking about his future, thinking about his imprint, uttered the words which Minie desperately wanted to hear and the same words made Rocky complain like an old hag. He confirmed his decision by saying, ¡°Thank you for your kindness Master. Yes, I would love to stay with yo.¡± ¡°Really? You are not joking right? I promise that I¡¯ll take good care of you.¡± ¡°It¡¯s okay yo. Not like I have anywhere to go in the outside world yo.¡± ¡°I¡¯m sorry.¡± ¡°Please don¡¯t be sorry master. But master we should run away from this cave yo ,run away before the beast horde strikes here yo.¡± ¡°Beast Horde? What Beast Horde?¡± ¡°Master don¡¯t know yo? The fire burned the forest down and scared all of the beasts living inside yo. Then one of the elder souls living in the forest used their power to create rain yo¡­¡± ¡®RAIN!! Just how powerful is that elder that he could summon rain in the blink of an eye?¡¯ *Gulp* ¡°That elder saved a lot of lives, but the scared monsters didn¡¯t calm down and started running amok inside the forest yo. Now, I don¡¯t know what is happening outside but that beast horde will surely come here because the elder said this was where the calamity originated from yo.¡± ¡°What the?¡± ¡°Say I am ready to stay with you, but I think we should leave this cave before the attack happens, otherwise I won¡¯t be able to protect you, Woof¡± He continued to speak after that but Minie didn¡¯t reply back to him. By the time he stopped talking Minie and Rocky were already having a heated discussion about the shock which their new tenant had brought to them. ¡°What should we do Rocky, what should we do? If what he said is correct then¡­¡± ¡°Yeah, and those humans are also going to start coming in a day or two. This is trouble, real trouble. Looks like buying eggs and investing in Buff workers was the right choice after all.¡± ¡°No, shit, but wait a minute wasn¡¯t it time for the larvae to evolve into workers and for the newly bought eggs to hatch?¡± ¡°There were fifteen minutes left before his tragedy, now¡­¡± *Ding*
A mass evolution is taking place. Rate of unique evolution in the participants is 0%
*Ding*
Batch ¨C 2 eggs are hatching.
*Roar* The messages popped, the queen roared, Minie and Rocky scored, but the cub, his black hide turned white, as his howl rang out in the dungeon. Notice!! Notice!! Notice!! I''m sorry, I wasn''t there when you needed me the most. I''m sorry, I stoppped the story without saying anything or telling anyne. I know what i did was wrong, and it haunts me to see my brainchild dead without reaching its adulthood. So, not only to apologize to all of you readers, but also to make the story reach a perfect end, I am going to do a rewrite. Now, I know many will leave saying what bullshit and that will hurt, but I understand. I left you all stranded alone, after bringing you all along. Just know that every valuable reder leaving or none reading, will be a leasson which I deserve to be taught.Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. The decision to rewrite has already been made, and I will start uploading chapters again from first of july. I only ask of you all to give me, and the ants another chance to dig a tunnel and reach your heart. Please don''t forget to vote. \ ____ _l___l__ (¡­OOO¡­) ( ) THE CHANGE IS HERE!!! To every reader who once liked the fic, give it a chance. You will love it. The previous problems about slow pace and less tension, no world building, everything has been adressed. So, give it a chance. Atleast 2 chapters Thank you.The author''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
Name - Insect Dungeon vs The World. https://royalroadl.com/fiction/12679/insect-dungeon-vs-the-world Just completing the characters now. Ah theses characters thwey are too damn ferocious to be asking me to write atlease 500. I mean why do they do that although i know thot it is how it is and will be bettwer kill bee but ithe ilsing that cant eat ginsing cant be stopped.